The Central American Whintosser is an incredibly unusual cryptid found in the folklore of the North American lumberjacks in the late 19th century.
| Cryptid Name: | Central American Whintosser |
| Location: | Coast Ranges of California |
| Category: | Folklore Cryptid |
| Description: | Small creature with a swivel neck, a swiveling tail, triangular body, and three sets of legs. Bristly hair that slants forward at a sharp angle. Known for its mean disposition and unusual appearance. |
| Size: | Unknown. |
| Behavior/Characteristics: | Always looking for trouble, prone to making it. Resistant to earthquakes and windstorms. |
| Diet: | Unknown. |
| Habitat/Environment: | Coast Ranges of California. |
| Evidence: | None. |
| Sightings and Encounters: | Occasional mentions in local and regional legends, stories of encounters with lumberjacks. |
| Skepticism/Explanations: | Considered a creature from lumberjack folklore. |
What Does The Whintosser Look Like?
The Central American Whintosser is a very peculiar cryptid with a truly distinctive appearance. It has a small body that is long and triangular in shape with bristly hair that slants forward at a sharp angle.
It has a swivel neck that allows its head to rotate all the way around. It has three sets of legs all around its body which means that it can never lose its balance or fall over. It is therefore immune to earthquakes and it can remain stable even if the ground shifts.
Whintosser Legend
The legend of the Whintosser can be found in a book called, “Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts” by William Thomas Cox. This awesome book contains a collection of all the creatures, critters, and cryptids of lumberjack folklore.
This is the story of the Whintosser…
In the spring of 1906 there appeared suddenly in the Coast Ranges of California an uncanny animal from the region of the Isthmus. It is not a large beast, but what it lacks in size it makes up in meanness of disposition. None of the lumber jacks who have met a whintosser on trail or tote road care to have the experience repeated.
The Central American whintosser is always looking for trouble or making it. In fact, the beast seems to be constructed for the purpose of passing through unusual experiences. Its head is fastened to its body by a swivel neck; so is its short, tapering tail; and both can be spun around at the rate of a hundred revolutions a minute. The body is long and triangular, with three complete sets of legs; this is a great convenience in an earthquake country, since the animal is not disturbed by any convulsions of the earth.
If the floor suddenly becomes the ceiling it does not matter, for the whintosser is always there with the legs. Its hair is bristly, and all slants forward at a sharp angle. It has been found that a cat’s nine lives are as nothing to the one possessed by a whintosser. This animal may be shot, clubbed, or strung on a pike pole without stopping the wriggling, whirling motions or the screams of rage. The only successful way of killing the beast is to poke it into a flume pipe so that all its feet strike the surface, when it immediately starts to walk in three different directions at once and tears itself all apart.
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
Source: Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
