The Stinky Streak

Don’t let the silly title of today’s blog post fool you! This vintage West Virginia ghost? creature? oddity? story was reported in Cooper’s Clarksburg Register on Wednesday, August 8, 1853 and sounds pretty horrifying! It appears that the original tale appeared in the Buckhannon Observer, so I would imagine that the strange events took place in that area.  However, I’m not EXACTLY sure what those strange events were!

While out riding, a group of men noticed movement in the distance. It streaked past them at remarkable speed, sounding like a buggy. It was dark brown in color, and smelled strongly of tar. The horses were spooked and a couple of men were even knocked to the ground. Upon returning to town, the men found that the THING, whatever it was, had passed through there as well, much to the puzzlement of the local citizenry. It was headed west, leading the people to surmise that this thing would show up in Weston and Parkersburg as well.

This is definitely one of the weirder articles I’ve come across, and much like the citizens of Buckhannon back in 1853, I couldn’t even fathom a guess as to what it was that was experienced by such a large number of people. It certainly doesn’t sound like a classic ghost story. Could it have been a Bigfoot? Were the sable garments actually dark brown fur? Bigfoot experiences are often reported as being accompanied by a foul odor.  However, I’ve never known such a creature to move that fast, nor sound like buggy. Perhaps it was some sort of demonic or other non-human entity.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Throwback Thursday post as much as I did!  Join me over on Theresa’s Haunted History Facebook and let me know YOUR theories!