OUTDOORSEvery outdoors story from around the holler
Holler Herald Desk

Outdoors

Appalachian hunting humor, fishing stories, trail-camera drama and suspicious wildlife. Original West Virginia outdoors satire from The Holler Herald.

29 stories, preserved for the permanent record.

A fictional West Virginia resident zombie hunting license from The Holler Herald.
Outdoors

West Virginia DNR Announces First Official Zombie Hunting Season

Hunters must purchase a special undead stamp, wear blaze orange and stop claiming every movement in the brush was “definitely a zombie.”

By Dale Hatfield · November 8, 2026
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The Holler Herald Holler Mimic identification card No. 012, showing the woodland creature with two arms, one waving and one extended for a handout.
Outdoors

Holler Mimic Advisory Warns That Answering “Hey, Buddy” Establishes Permanent Financial Responsibility

By Dale Hatfield · November 6, 2026
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The Holler Herald meme
Outdoors

Local Hunter Checks Trail Camera, Discovers Deer Have More Consistent Schedule Than He Does

Buck arrives at 6:12 every morning; hunter arrives whenever he finds his gloves.

By Dale Hatfield · November 5, 2026
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The Holler Herald Dam Catfish identification card No. 011, depicting a giant catfish longer than a submerged railroad car beneath a dam.
Outdoors

Giant Catfish Investigation Stalls After Every Witness Turns Out to Know the Same Unnamed Diver

By Dale Hatfield · November 5, 2026
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The Holler Herald Wampus Cat identification card No. 010, depicting a half-woman, half-wildcat creature in Appalachian woods.
Outdoors

Wampus Cat Advisory Reminds Residents That Screaming Back Establishes a Conversation

By Dale Hatfield · November 4, 2026
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The Holler Herald Snarly Yow identification card No. 009, depicting a spectral black dog with glowing red eyes on a dark mountain road.
Outdoors

Snarly Yow Advisory Warns Residents That Kissing Noises Will Not Improve Encounter With Phantom Dog

By Dale Hatfield · November 3, 2026
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The Holler Herald Ogua identification card No. 008, depicting an enormous turtlelike river monster emerging from an Appalachian river.
Outdoors

Ogua Advisory Reminds Fishermen That Losing a Hook Does Not Require a Recovery Operation

By Dale Hatfield · November 2, 2026
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The Holler Herald Sheepsquatch identification card No. 007, showing a shaggy white horned creature and a warning against approaching with shears.
Outdoors

Sheepsquatch Advisory Warns Farmers That Not Everything With Wool Needs Brought Inside the Fence

By Dale Hatfield · November 1, 2026
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The Holler Herald meme
Outdoors

West Virginia Patient Zero Contained After Stopping to Explain Which Pocket Knife Everyone Should Carry

Six-hour conversation yields no additional infections, three sharpener purchases.

By Dale Hatfield · October 31, 2026
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The Holler Herald Grafton Monster identification card No. 006, showing a pale headless creature beside an Appalachian road.
Outdoors

Grafton Monster Advisory Urges Drivers to Stop Circling Back for a Better Look

By Dale Hatfield · October 31, 2026
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The Holler Herald Appalachian Big Cats identification card No. 005, showing a black panther and mountain lion sitting together on an Appalachian overlook.
Outdoors

Appalachian Big Cat Advisory Asks Residents to Photograph Animal Before It Becomes a Family Tradition

By Dale Hatfield · October 30, 2026
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The Holler Herald Greenbrier Ghost supernatural identification card No. 004, depicting a ghostly woman beside an Appalachian farmhouse.
Outdoors

Greenbrier Ghost Advisory Warns Residents That “Case Closed” Is Not Their Decision

By Dale Hatfield · October 29, 2026
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The Holler Herald meme
Outdoors

Local Hunter Declares Woods “Completely Dead” After Alerting Everything Within Two Miles of His Arrival

“I got in there real quiet,” says man whose thermos is still rolling downhill.

By Dale Hatfield · October 28, 2026
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The Holler Herald Flatwoods Monster identification card No. 003, showing the spade-hooded creature and a warning that a flashlight does not make you the lead investigator.
Outdoors

Flatwoods Monster Advisory Reminds Residents That Owning a Flashlight Does Not Put Them in Charge

By Dale Hatfield · October 28, 2026
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The Holler Herald Mothman identification card No. 002, featuring a red-eyed winged creature and practical satirical field advice.
Outdoors

Mothman Advisory Urges Residents to Let Creature Finish Warning Before Asking for a Picture

By Dale Hatfield · October 27, 2026
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The Holler Herald Bigfoot cryptid identification card No. 001, featuring identification tips and a warning not to lend him your side-by-side.
Outdoors

Bigfoot Identification Advisory Issued After Cooler Disappearances

By Dale Hatfield · October 26, 2026
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The Holler Herald meme
Outdoors

West Virginia Hunter Photographs Bigfoot, Still Sees No Deer

“Apparently everything in these woods can walk past my blind except an eight-point.”

By Dale Hatfield · October 25, 2026
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The Holler Herald meme
Outdoors

Bigfoot Sightings Drop 94% After Local Man’s Facebook Account Gets Suspended

Investigators discover the creature’s migration pattern closely followed one man’s days off.

By Dale Hatfield · October 21, 2026
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A frustrated hunter checks his phone beside a nighttime trail-camera image of an eight-point buck beneath an empty stand.
Outdoors

Local Hunter Checks Trail Camera 86 Times, Concludes Deer Need to Spend Less Time on His Property at Night

“They know when I’m at work,” says man who has provided deer with his complete schedule.

By Dale Hatfield · October 21, 2026
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The Holler Herald meme
Outdoors

Local Man Fills First Tag of Season Without Ever Leaving Truck

Hunter credits years of preparation, careful scouting and one extremely unfortunate stretch of highway.

By Dale Hatfield · October 13, 2026
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A hunter arranging lucky equipment at a West Virginia deer camp
Outdoors

West Virginia Hunting Superstitions Nobody Admits They Believe

The lucky hat cannot be washed, the seat cannot be changed and mentioning the big buck before daylight is forbidden.

By Dale Hatfield · October 9, 2026
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An unmarked semi-trailer unloads coyotes on a foggy West Virginia mountain road at night beside crates labeled Definitely Not Coyotes.
Outdoors

DNR Admits Insurance Companies Paid to Have Coyotes Trucked Into West Virginia Under Cover of Darkness

Officials confirm the animals arrived in an unmarked tractor-trailer carrying 600 coyotes, two folding chairs and a handwritten invoice marked ‘deer control.’

By Dale Hatfield · October 2, 2026
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A large blurry moth close to an infrared trail-camera lens creates the illusion of a mysterious animal in a West Virginia forest
Outdoors

Dale’s Trail-Camera Evidence of the Week: Mysterious Animal Identified as 600-Pound Elk

Wildlife officials say the creature was actually a moth standing approximately six inches from the camera.

By Dale Hatfield · October 1, 2026
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Mysterious Appalachian animals in a Holler Herald wildlife graphic
Outdoors

A Complete Guide to Animals West Virginians Swear They Saw

From black panthers to coyotes the size of refrigerators, Dale reviews the wildlife that disappears whenever a camera focuses.

By Dale Hatfield · October 1, 2026
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A West Virginia hunter in a tree stand receives a breakfast delivery beside a muddy car in the autumn woods
Outdoors

West Virginia Hunter Runs Out of Snacks by 9 A.M., Has Tudor’s Delivered Directly to Tree Stand

Delivery driver reportedly followed tire tracks two miles into the woods before texting, ‘I’m beside a muddy four-wheeler and three identical oak trees.’

By Dale Hatfield · September 29, 2026
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An over-equipped hunter watches a relaxed whitetail buck eating beside a rural discount-store drainage ditch.
Outdoors

Hunter Spends $8,000 to Outsmart Deer That Regularly Crosses Road in Front of Dollar General

Dale investigates the increasingly advanced equipment required to pursue an animal routinely seen eating beside a drainage ditch.

By Dale Hatfield · September 26, 2026
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Josh Scott Outdoors holding and biting an enormous Christmas tree cake in the woods
Outdoors

Local Man Announces He Will Eat Just One Christmas Tree Cake, Accidentally Purchases 63-Pound Version

Josh Scott Outdoors founder insists the oversized snack still counts as one cake and therefore does not violate his diet.

By Dale Hatfield · September 24, 2026
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A whitetail buck seeks privacy from a hunter repeatedly checking a trail camera
Outdoors

Local Deer Files Restraining Order Against Man Who Has Checked Same Trail Camera 14 Times Today

Court documents allege the hunter also maintains 37,000 photographs of the deer and has already named him “Big Eight.”

By Dale Hatfield · September 24, 2026
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Trail-camera style Holler Herald report about Midnight, a black house cat mistaken for a panther
Outdoors

BREAKING: Black Panther Sighting Sends Rural West Virginia Community Into Full-Blown Panic

By Darlene “Scoop” McCoy · September 22, 2026
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