The more you look into mythical Appalachian creatures, the more you find.
Frederick, Maryland, is where something called the Dwayyo, or Dewayo, is reported to live. The creature is said to be hairy, with a big, bushy tail and walks on two hind legs, like a human. Some describe it as being similar to a werewolf. And it gets even more interesting.
The Dwayyo is supposedly the mortal enemy of another Maryland creature, the Snallygaster, which for all intents and purposes can be described as a flying vampire dragon. The Dwayyo and the Snallygaster have been reported to have had some pretty intense encounters in the area.
The first written account of the Dwayyo was in an newspaper article in the Frederick News Post on November 27, 1965. Along about dark a man named John Becker had heard strange noises outside and had gone out into his yard to investigate. What he saw:
“was as big as a bear, had long black hair, a bushy tail, and growled like a wolf or a dog in anger.”
As he moved closer (Becker was a heck of a lot braver than I would have been), the Dwayyo reared up on its hind legs and attacked him. After a short fight, the creature took off into the woods. After that Becker filed a report with the state police.
This sighting led to a spate of news reports over the next few days. Hunters reported seeing the Dwayyo roaming the woods. A woman reported that she and her neighbors had heard something cry like a baby, then scream like a woman in the woods for several months. Another woman reported seeing a strange dog-like creature the size of a calf chasing cows on a farm near her. At one point students at the Frederick Community College actually organized a Dwayyo hunt, with between 50 and 100 students signing up to track the beast down. These students were one of the few to actually have a reasonable explanation of what the Dwayyo might be: a rabid wolfhound, or a cross between a wolf and a dog. In the end, the Dwayyo hunt fizzled, apparently because everyone was too scared to go out at night in the woods to actually find it.
In the end, the police were unable to locate anyone named “John Becker.” They also failed to confirm that the Becker incident, or any of the other incidents for that matter, had actually occurred.