Bronze statue of the six-legged wampus cat located at Conway High School
The wampus cat is a cat-like creature in American folklore that varies widely in appearance, ranging from frightful to comical, depending on region.
Description
Early references from the American Dialect Society described the wampus cat as "a creature heard whining about camps at night," "a spiritual green-eyed cat, having occult powers," or "an undefined imaginary animal."[1] Writing in 1951, folklorist Vance Randolph described the wampus cat as "a kind of amphibious panther which leaps into the water and swims like a colossal mink."[2]
The wampus cat was mentioned in newspaper accounts of the 1930s in the Piedmont of North Carolina, where the creature was accused of killing livestock.[3]
Margaret R. Tryon's humorous depiction of the Wampus cat catching an eagle, from the 1939 book Fearsome Critters
Henry H. Tryon's humorous 1939 book Fearsome Critters describes the wampus cat as being native to Idaho, and having an "amazing right forearm" that "works like a folding pruning hook on the pantographic principle". He gives it the binomial nomenclatureAquilamappreluendens forcipe.[4]
Use as a school mascot
The wampus cat is the mascot of the following schools:
^Randolph, Vance. We Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951.)
^Stonestreet, O. C.; Stonestreet, O. C. I. V. (March 2, 2016). Curse of the Wampus, and Other Short Spooky Stories of Piedmont North Carolina. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN978-1523237494.
^Tryon, Henry H. (1939). Fearsome Critters. Idlewild Press. p. 59.
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