The Wampus Cat (a.k.a. Cherokee Death Cat) is a large cat similar to a mountain lion or cougar, with tan-yellow fur, six legs, and large yellow eyes.
The legend holds that a Cherokee female was cursed by tribal elders for witnessing a sacred pre-hunt ceremony. She hid under the pelt of a large cat and got turned into the half-woman, half-beast we hear about in this famous Appalachian myth.
Forever left to wander alone through the mountains, the Wampus Cat acts out in anger at being cut off from her former life. She’s known for standing on her hind legs and using her supernatural powers to drive her victims to insanity.
Despite being a story about Cherokee people, the Wampus Cat folktale did not originate with the Cherokee people. Instead, the name came from the Goldsboro News-Argus newspaper in North Carolina.
In 1964, a hairy ape-man (who sounds suspiciously like Bigfoot) was reported to be roaming around US 70. The newspaper named the mysterious creature the Wampus Cat, and the name stuck.
The name likely derives from the word “catawampus,” a mountain folklore saying that describes a boogeyman, or something that has gone badly.
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trangeways Brewing, which has locations in Richmond and Fredericksburg, Virginia brews a beer named after the Wampus Cat, the Wampus Cat Triple IPA.
The name was also used for a mythical creature in J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore story, “The History of Magic in North America.
