Recommended Modern Projects
Small Town Monsters
Small Town Monsters is a documentary film series that began in 2015 when Ohio filmmaker and director Seth Breedlove and his small independent team made their inaugural “Minerva Monster” documentary about a local wave of Bigfoot-like creature reports. Since then the team has made over 20 feature documentary films about regional monster legends and folklore such as “The Mothman of Point Pleasant (2017),” “The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear (2018),” and “Invasion of Chestnut Ridge (2017).” The STM series featured interviews with witnesses and locals as well as poetic narration focusing on how the stories had effected their small towns and rural tight knit communities. These quality films were crowd funded by a yearly Kickstarter then released on DVD/Blu-ray and streaming. They have also made many episodic and investigative “On The Trail of…” projects. Several of which have been posted to their YouTube channel.
Website: https://www.smalltownmonsters.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownMonsters/videos
Appalachian Oddity
Appalachian Oddity is a Fortean video channel focused on reported anomalous phenomena, folklore, and all things considered strange, bizarre, or odd. The project began in 2016 as a West Virginia travel vlog of sorts under the former name “Mothman Historian” and then evolved into its current “Appalachian Oddity” name in 2021. There you can find interviews with purported witnesses and Fortean researchers or investigators, as well as vlogs and even guest speaker presentation footage from festivals and events. The creator of this YouTube project also happens to be the creator of ForteanArchives.org. Mountaineers are always free!
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AppalachianOddity/videos
Spooky Appalachia
Spooky Appalachia is a website and YouTube project by Jimmy of Virginia which began circa 2022. Jimmy worked as a technical advisor for West Virginia’s Mothman Museum, helping them with their websites and setting up the YouTube live-streaming “MothCam” video-feed of the famous Mothman Statue. Jimmy then began working on his own project, a blog-site and YouTube page, where he accepted and collected purported witness reports of strange local stories. Jimmy states that his mission is to “document the chilling tales that make these ancient mountains so mysterious and unique” and to “give a voice to local legends and the people who experience them.”
Website: https://www.spookyappalachia.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SpookyAppalachia/videos
Theresa’s Haunted History of The Tri-State
Theresa’s Haunted History of The Tri-State blog was started in 2011 by paranormal investigator Theresa of West Virginia. The tri-state area she focuses on is West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. Her blog has excellent archival and historical information, such as newspaper clippings on various anomalous subjects. Theresa began as mainly interested in haunting cases and ghost stories but over time her perspectives broadened and she became a self-described Fortean fascinated by overall anomalous phenomena material including UFOs and monster cases as well. Her blog has book reviews and of course many articles on a variety of topics from classic hauntings to UFOs, Bigfoot/Sasquatch, Wild Men, and other Fortean topics.
Website: https://theresashauntedhistoryofthetri-state.blogspot.com/
Les O’Dell – WV C.A.S.E.
West Virginia Cryptids And Strange Encounters (WV C.A.S.E.) is a project by West Virginia sasquatch researcher and author Les O’Dell. In 2019, he began posting videos of his sasquatch field-research to YouTube. He collected user-submitted sightings, interviewed witnesses in-person and traveled to supposed monster hotspots and sighting locations. In 2020, he was featured in the Small Town Monsters “The Mothman Legacy” documentary film and has since been in various other Small Town Monster projects. In 2023, he put out a book entitled “Old Man of the Mountain: The West Virginia Bigfoot” compiling various purported Bigfoot sightings.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wvcryptidsandstrangeencoun542/videos