SAULSVILLE, W.Va. — While reports of the Polk Hollow Monster haven't reached the frequency they had in the 1970s and '80s, there's no doubt in the minds of a few locals that something haunts the vicinity of the hollow in Twin Falls Resort State Park.
State officials even developed a hiking trail, the "Poke Hollow Trail," that recalls an encounter with the beast in the 1970s. The story was popularized by folklorist and West Virginia Senator David "Bugs" Stover, who often recounts it on summer evenings at the park campground.
According to Stover, the entity was said to haunt a region of forest that extends along the boundaries of Boone, Raleigh, and Wyoming counties in southern West Virginia. It encompasses as much as 60 square miles of seemingly limitless backcountry into which few people roam.
Note that the trail's name is misspelled "Poke" rather than "Polk." Poke is a common abbreviation for pokeweed, an Appalachian plant. However, the name of the monster is derived from Polk Gap, a low saddle in Polk Ridge, which was named for an early settler in the region.
The following story, borrowed from the booklet "Ghost Stories and Other Tales," recounts the origin legend as it's sometimes recited.
The Polk Hollow Monster: The Sittin' Tree
It was late fall 1942, and most of the leaves had fallen to the ground. Big Jim McMoore thought maybe he'd take his twenty-two out and shoot a box of shells one last time. He was leaving the next day to fight in the Big One, and he prayed that "one last time" meant until his return from the Pacific or Europe or wherever the army sent him.
He had shot a couple of rocks, a few stumps, and even two or three old cans as he walked from his house up the holler to near the top of Polk Gap. He had spent most of his nineteen years hiking, plinking, and hunting up this holler. His thoughts drifted back to his first squirrel, his first deer, and many a pheasant. Lordy, they were good eating!
Jim started looking to his right and up the point, trying to see his sittin' tree, a large beech with one big horizontal limb about ten feet above the ground—a perfect spot to sit and survey the whole upper section of the holler and ridge top. About 20 feet above the ground, its many other limbs formed a perfect canopy. He had spent many an hour hunting and daydreaming there despite the difficulty of getting up on his perch.
He smiled as he saw the tree about 50 yards above him, and he started to walk in that direction when he saw someone standing there. His smile faded. Something made him uneasy. He waved. Again, he waved and started to yell a greeting as a chill went up his back and made his hair stand up. He realized why he felt uneasy.
Whoever—no, whatever—was standing at his tree and was leaning on his sittin' limb. Its shoulders were above the limb, and its arms were draped over it. Couldn't be! Too far to tell. No, that's how it was standing. Lord, have mercy! That makes it at least twelve feet tall, maybe fourteen.
He stood there, staring, unable to move as the evening light faded. The creature stared back, not moving. It seemed to be covered in hair—grayish-white hair—except for its face, which looked like a man's. The woods were growing dark. The sky seemed to glow through the treetops. The creature stared, and Jim noticed that its eyes were glowing a faint red.
His nerve broke. He fired his last rounds toward the monster, aiming low, trying to scare it. He turned to walk back down the holler but found himself running as fast as he could. A quick look back—it had moved! He caught a glimpse. The Polk Gap Monster was chasing him.
He ran down the holler, terror giving him speed. He tripped and fell not once but many times, though he kept running. Darkness was almost on him, and so was the creature. The noise it made was like a whirlwind in the trees. It was even with him now, dropping lower and lower off the point. Now, it was ahead even closer to the holler. If it made the mouth ahead of him, he was trapped.
Finally, it grew lighter. He'd cleared the trees. His home was only a long dash away. The noise was overwhelming. He jumped the fence and made the porch, but the door wouldn't open. He felt and heard his heart pounding, and he heard quiet. All was quiet. No creature was tearing his fence down. Nothing! He slowly turned. There it was. Standing at the edge of the trees. They made eye contact. The creature slowly turned back into the trees. Jim stared at the holler mouth until all was dark.
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