Comments by "craxd1" (@craxd1) on "The Occult #357: Fake Cryptids! (Hoopsnake, Jackalope, Wampus Cat, Chupacabra, etc)" video.

The "wampus cat" was the old booger in the basement tale, used to keep young children out of basements and outbuildings, etc., by their parents and grandparents along the Appalachians and in the South. I remember hearing that when I was about five, and I'm now fifty-seven. The Jakalope became popular in the eighties, where you could buy mounted rabbit heads with horns. I believe it came from the western states, much like the hoop snake.
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@c0rnp0p80 At one time, the Appalachians and the South had big cats (Cougars) roaming the woods, but they've been gone, now, for many long years, especially over the population growth. We still have Bobcats, though, which I'm sure you know. I think that Cougars can still be found in some eastern national parks, like the Everglades. This, I believe, was the origins of the Wampus Cat, meaning "big cat," as in "gollywampus" or "galliwampus" in size. It's an old hunter's tale, which did give them an excuse to drink, much like fox hunters sitting on a ridge. Google shows the word galliwampus as originating in the northwest, because it appeared in a book in 1945 by a western author, but I believe it's much older, and started in the east, and along the coast after the nation was first settled. People much older than that author used the word, in the east, and they used it to scare kids who liked to explore.
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