Exploring American Monsters: Alabama
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on March 10th, 2015
From Mysterious Universe:
We all love monsters. Something about an unknown creature (hairy or scaly, huge or small) living amongst us, unknown to science, is unsettling at best, terrifying a worst – and it is exhilarating. This is the first in a series of articles about monsters from each state in America, but not the well-worn monsters. I won’t cover Champ, the Jersey Devil, or Mothman. I’ll also leave Missouri’s Momo alone, as well as Arkansas’ Fouke Monster, and the chupacabra. This series is about the lesser-known critters that crawl through our nights, and stalk the periphery of the human world.
Every state has reports of these less publicized, but inherently frightening monsters, most of which have something seriously wrong with them. Like this monster from our first state, Alabama – the Alabama White Thang.
The White Thang
Reports of the White Thang (yes, “Thang.” Remember, this is Alabama) date back to the 1930s, and reports of the monster vary. It has been described as everything from a dog to a Bigfoot to a ghost; but two things are constant – the monster’s long white hair, and its scream.
In the book, “Legends and Lore of Birmingham and Central Alabama,” by Beverly Crider, George Norris, an eyewitness in the 1940s, saw the monster, and “it looked like a lion … you know, bushy, betwixt a dog and a lion. It was white and slick with long hair. It had a slick tail, down on the end of the tail a big ol’ bush of hair.”
The monster, although in the 1930s was said to run on all fours – even climbing trees to wait for people to walk beneath it – in later decades has been described as upright and at least seven feet tall, although witnesses say they can’t make out any detail of the monster, like hands, or facial features.
But it’s not the beast’s appearance or behavior that causes fright (people who’ve encountered the White Thang say it’s non-threatening); the monster’s scream is what shatter’s people’s spirits. The shriek, like a woman or a baby crying, not only barks in the dark woods at night, witnesses have heard the sound come from the hulking, white haired monster as it loomed over them and screeched into their face.
Read about the other monsters from Alabama like the Wampus Cat here.
See also:
The White Thing, Or Something Like It
Face to Face with the White Thing
The White Thing – An Albino Bigfoot?
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Pretty neat reading about these creatures from my home state. I have heard of all of them and I’m only about 25 miles from where the White Thang was reportedly seen.