New Years

Smoke Wolves are animals said to live in the Appalachian Mountains. Their story starts in the 1900s in Tygart Valley, West Virginia. As cryptid stories go, theirs is rather modern. The local belief is they first began to be seen soon after wolves were eradicated from the area. But the sightings of Smoke Wolves have spread throughout the whole Appalachian region and are most often reported near areas of spiritual significance like burial grounds and forests.

In the quiet hours just before midnight, when the world is in-between years, the residents of Appalachia listen to their elders and ancestors, and to the wisdom they passed down around coal camps and kitchen fires. Everyone in the mountains knows how you greet the new year is how the new year treats you.