If you go down in the woods today, you better go in disguise. That’s right, if you go down in the woods today, you may be in for a big surprise. For according to legend there is something lurking in the woods. Something that’s waiting, stalking, and ready to grab up anybody unlucky enough to find themselves alone in the deep woods. Something rarely seen, but universally feared by even the hardest Mountain Man, the HideBehind.
The HideBehind, is just one of the many Fearsome Critters, these are a collection of mythical monsters primarily derived from oral story telling traditions in the frontier of the USA. These became an integral part of life in Lumber Camps, small mountain towns, and rural communities during the late 1800’s and up through the early 1900’s. These are closely associated with “Tall Tales” of the American West, such as Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, and so naturally these two overlap at times, we’ll get to that later.
Fearsome Critters, were, unlike Paul Bunyan, more general stories and tales, rather than one long specific tale about a particular individual. Some of these include; the Splintercat, who has a habit of running into trees and knocking off splinters, the Fur-bearing Trout, trouts with fur, and the Hodag, a fearsome man-eating beast from Wisconsin. Most of these creatures seem to be pure invention and nothing more. Others have, let’s say, shaky evidence at best. One example of this is a very famous photo of an alleged Hodag captured by a group of hunters and taken to a traveling carnival. All you have to do is Google search the name Hodag and it will be the first image that comes up. The photo is, not surprisingly, a hoax. As are the numerous Jackalope heads and Fur-Trouts mounted in countless roadside stores and tourist stops. However, there is one creature that, while surely exaggerated by stories, does seem like there might be something to the myth, the HideBehind
If you go down in the woods today, you better go in disguise. That’s right, if you go down in the woods today, you may be in for a big surprise. For according to legend there is something lurking in the woods. Something that’s waiting, stalking, and ready to grab up anybody unlucky enough to find themselves alone in the deep woods. Something rarely seen, but universally feared by even the hardest Mountain Man, the HideBehind.
The HideBehind, is just one of the many Fearsome Critters, these are a collection of mythical monsters primarily derived from oral story telling traditions in the frontier of the USA. These became an integral part of life in Lumber Camps, small mountain towns, and rural communities during the late 1800’s and up through the early 1900’s. These are closely associated with “Tall Tales” of the American West, such as Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, and so naturally these two over lap at times, we’ll get to that later.
Fearsome Critters, where, unlike Paul Bunyan, more general stories and tales, rather than one long specific tall about a particular individual. Some of these include; the Splintercat, who has a habit of running into trees and knocking off splinters, the Fur-bearing Trouts, trouts with fur, and the Hodag, a fearsome man-eating beast from Wisconsin. Most of these creatures seem to be pure invention and nothing more. Others have, let’s say, shakey evidence at best. One example of this, is a very famous photo of an alleged Hodag captured by a group of hunters and taken to a traveling carnival. All you have to do is Google search the name Hodag, and it will be the first image that comes up. The photo is, not surprisingly, a hoax. As are the numerous Jackalope heads and Fur-Trouts mounted in countless roadside stores and tourist stops. However, there is one creature that, while surely exaggerated by stories, does seem like there might be something to the myth, the HideBehind.
It is, also, a very unrealistic image of any kind of animal alive today or in the past. A creature so gaunt would, I believe, have a hard time even being alive, let alone a fit man snatching monster. The big problem is his gauntness. You see, animals don’t want to be skinny and lucid. They want to be healthy and fit. Maybe not fat, but still healthy. This image, conjures a creature that would probably have a hard time living, let alone being real.
So you have to ask, why is this image more plausible than the other? Well as I said, if you were going to design a purely fanciful Hollywood monster, then this is the perfect conceptual creation. It seems to play off our fear of other worldliness and even our fear of death and sickness. After all, this beast does look like an emaciated corpse, like someone starved to death. How ironic, that in a society with so much emphasis on being skinny and thin, the thing that might frighten us so much, is being too thin.
If the modern HideBehind appears to be a visual manifestation of our fears of death and illness, what about the Classic HideBehind? Well, as you remember, the stories offer little or no description of the beast, so that’s why it is surprising to know, for decades we had a very detailed idea of what this thing was supposed to look like.
The Classic HideBehind appears as follows; a huge seven to eight foot tall creature with a huge hulking body frame, he is covered in thick, dark hair and according to several old drawings and carvings, has a very ape or even human like face. Now, this is very interesting indeed. At first, you would have a hard time picturing a creature so bulky being able to hide behind any tree at any time. However, that is trying to apply a one to one real world literalism to the myth. What you always have to remember with myths are that, while many do have basis in reality, a lot is also pure myth. Trying to find a real world explanation to every aspect is not really that wise.
So if we accept that some aspects of the tale are indeed fiction, what to make of it? Well, based on these century old drawings and careful examination of the tall tale itself, I have come to the conclusion that, the HideBehind might be early reports of Bigfoot, and here is why. Please note, I completely understand the fallacy of trying to answer one mystery with another, but please hear me out.
These old depictions are eerily similar to historical and modern reports of creatures that have become known as Bigfoot. That might be superficial, but if we look at the supposed behavior too, it starts to make more sense. Note that the HideBehind is elusive, he mainly comes out at night and does his best not to be seen by people. These are all traits many different eyewitnesses have said about their supposed Bigfoot encounters. The creature can’t totally hide behind trees, but being stealthy and being dark colored help it to virtually disappear at night.
Well, what about the creature’s fearsome reputation? Well, if the stories are based in reality, I believe that the aggressive nature is greatly over exaggerated. Most reliable reports of Bigfoot encounters say, that while they appear curious, they are pretty harmless. What we have to remember is, people would ‘disappear’ in the woods all the time. They would move from camp to camp without telling anyone, for various reasons, they would get lost and die of exposure, perhaps being eaten by predators or even murdered by fellow Mountain Men for whatever reason. Then you add one a few quick and scary encounters with something very mysterious out late one night in the woods, and suddenly you have an explanation for Old Harry Joe not coming back from the lumber yard one day. Also, we might have to take into account that perhaps some people really were taken by something out in the woods. Remember Albert Ostman’s report of being held by a Bigfoot family?
You also have to remember that the reason you don’t see the term Bigfoot in pre-1950’s literature, is because that term was coined after the large footprints were found in 1958 in Bluff Creek, California. Despite that, there are hundreds of pre-Bluff Creek encounters with large hairy ape like creatures, they just weren’t called Bigfoot back then. It could also explain why there aren’t any new reports of the HideBehind, because now we have a new name for it, Bigfoot. After all, in this day in age, all strange and weird events that people experience in the woods gets blamed on Bigfoot, even without any actual sighting. Bigfoot is quickly becoming the Boogeyman of the woods.
In the deep dark woods of the American West something is lurking. Maybe in the vast untracked wilds of the Pacific Northwest, or maybe only in the minds of the hundreds of campers who keep his legacy alive in the tales they tell and the oral traditions they pass on. Either way, if you go out in the woods today, keep your eyes peeled and your ears perked. And if you are all alone and you hear an extra set of footsteps walking with yours, don’t be too alarmed. You may have picked up a temporary traveling companion. But don’t’ be alarmed, he might just want to see a new friend, or maybe he wants to know why there is an intruder in the woods, or maybe it’s just the wind. Who knows?
Editor's note: In the Ozarks, the term High-Behind is sometimes applied to a lizard the size of a bull.
Editor's note: In the Ozarks, the term High-Behind is sometimes applied to a lizard the size of a bull.
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