Vermont’s particularly slanted cryptid

By Timothy Page

Before Bigfoot and Yeti captured the public imagination, Vermont’s Green Mountains were home to their own mysterious creature. The wampahoofus emerged during Vermont’s logging heyday, when the state was producing over 600 million board feet of lumber annually¹. This period coincided with the establishment of the Vermont timber industry, which employed over 20% of the state’s workforce.²

The wampahoofus, potentially related to the mythical rackabore and whangdoodle, was a unique mammal with an extraordinary adaptation: uneven legs. This anatomical quirk allowed it to traverse mountainsides efficiently, but only in one direction – clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on whether its longer legs were on the left or right side. According to folklore, males traveled clockwise while females moved counterclockwise. This adaptation proved fatal if the creature found itself facing the wrong direction on a slope, as it would tumble to its demise.

The wampahoofus, also known as the gyascutus or gouger, was described as a deer-boar hybrid. While Vermont’s variant had fur, other regions reported scaled versions. Its coloration ranged from dark green to brilliant orange, with varying toe configurations – some had three toes, others five, and some possessed cloven hooves. One variant reportedly even developed a tail-whistle.

The species’ social behavior was largely solitary, except during mating season. They maintained a herbivorous diet and inhabited specific elevation zones, never venturing into valleys or beyond certain heights. Only nursing females occasionally risked higher altitudes. As documented in Nature Compass by Maeve Kim, her ancestral relative once encountered “five ungainly cows, each caring for one nursing calf”.³

The creature’s history extends beyond American shores. In his 1646 work “Pseudodoxia Epidemica,” Sir Thomas Browne documented similar beliefs about British badgers with asymmetrical legs: “That a Brock or Badger hath the legs on one side shorter then of the other, though an opinion perhaps not very ancient, is yet very general”.⁴

The tale likely spawned from Vermont’s numerous lumber camps, particularly those around the Winooski River Valley and Orleans County, where the state’s largest concentration of logging operations existed ⁵. The emergence of the wampahoofus legend paralleled Vermont’s peak logging period, when the state had over 1,200 operating sawmills.⁶

Today, the creature’s legacy lives on through the Wampahoofus Trail on Mount Mansfield (elevation 4,393 feet), Vermont’s highest peak. The trail, established in 1935 by Professor Roy O. Buchanan and the Long Trail Patrol of the Green Mountain Club, intersects with the historic Long Trail – America’s oldest long-distance hiking trail ⁷. The characteristic rock formation that inspired the trail’s name can be found at coordinates 44°31’33″N, 72°49’13″W.⁸

Henry Tryon’s “Fearsome Critters” (1939) chronicles the supposed westward migration of these creatures, noting their distinctive path-wearing habits around hillsides. The folklore even includes accounts of traveling showmen who exhibited a supposed wampahoofus, though audiences only glimpsed mysterious furry feet beneath a curtain before the creature’s “planned” escapes.⁹

Today, the creature’s legacy lives on through the Wampahoofus Trail on Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak. The trail, established in 1935 by the Long Trail Patrol of the Green Mountain Club, was named after a rock formation resembling the legendary beast¹⁰. The trail remains a popular hiking route, marked on official Long Trail maps and maintained by the Green Mountain Club [].¹¹

The wampahoofus joins other American folkloric creatures like the hide-behind and the squonk in what American folklorist Richard Dorson termed “fearsome critters” – a unique subset of American logger folklore that flourished in the 19th and early 20th centuries .¹²

While modern hikers might smile at the unusual name, the wampahoofus represents a fascinating chapter in American folklore, driven particularly by the rich storytelling traditions of New England’s logging industry.

1. Vermont Historical Society Records, 1860 ↩︎
2. Vermont Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1850 ↩︎
3. Green Mountain Club, Nature Compass, 2018 ↩︎
4. Browne, T. (1646). Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book III, Chapter 5 ↩︎
5. Child’s Business Directory of Vermont, 1882 ↩︎
6. Vermont State Agricultural Report, 1870 ↩︎
7. University of Vermont Special Collections, Buchanan Papers ↩︎
8. Green Mountain Club Trail Guide, 2023 Edition ↩︎
9. Tryon, H. (1939). Fearsome Critters. Cornwall, NY: Idlewild Press ↩︎
10. Green Mountain Club History Archives ↩︎
11. Green Mountain Club Trail Guide, 2023 Edition ↩︎
12. Dorson, R. M. (1952). Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Cambridge: Harvard University Press ↩︎