Mountain Monsters

***Mountain Monsters*** is an American cryptozoology-themed television series following a band of seven native West Virginian hunters and trappers as they track unidentified creatures in the Appalachian Mountains. The series originally aired for five seasons on Destination America from 2013 to 2017; after an eighteen-month hiatus, it was renewed for a sixth season, which aired on the Travel Channel in 2019. It was announced shortly after the premiere of Season 7 that new episodes would air exclusively on Discovery+ for the rest of the season.

## Premise

The Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings team (A.I.M.S.) is a self-styled cryptozoology team founded by West Virginians John "Trapper" Tice, Jeff Headlee, and Willy McQuillian. Their goal is to prove the existence of mysterious monsters such as Bigfoot, Wampus cut, Grafton Monster, Spearfinger, Werewolf, Hellhound, Lizard Man, and Mothman. Episodes normally begin with the trio discussing the specific creature they are hunting on the way to the location where the creature was spotted. They then meet with eyewitnesses who have encountered the creature, giving the team an idea of where to conduct an initial night investigation to find evidence of the creature being in the area.

After concluding their initial night hunt, Willy and Wild Bill begin work on a trap to contain the creature while the rest of the team searches for more evidence, meeting with additional eyewitnesses who normally possess photographic, video, or audio evidence of the creature. After testing the completed trap, the begins the final night hunt.

The creatures are, supposedly, occasionally caught on camera, and are also shown as digital rendering before and after commercial breaks. The team attempts to capture these creatures, and in some instances place cameras and/or infrared camcorders near the traps to capture photographic evidence of the creature in question. They have caught fleeting, blurry images of what they claim to be said creatures on camera. More recently, a recurring rogue team of has spied and sabotaged the A.I.M.S. team and their investigations; however, the Rogue Team did not have much involvement in the sixth season, which focused more on the team hunting monsters like in earlier seasons.

There is also a side series, *Mountain Monsters: By the Fire*, which features extra facts and never-before-seen footage from different episodes of the series.

## Team

* John "Trapper" Tice, Team Leader (May 24, 1947-December 16, 2019)
* Jacob "Buck" Lowe, Expert caller (formerly "Rookie")
* Joseph "Huckleberry" Lott, Security
* Jeff Headlee, Researcher
* Willy McQuillian, Trap builder
* William "Wild Bill" Neff, Expert tracker

## Episodes

Main article: *List of Mountain Monsters episodes*

## *Finding Bigfoot* "feud"

On April 5, 2015, Matt Moneymaker of *Finding Bigfoot* tweeted that *Mountain Monsters* was scripted and the A.I.M.S. team were merely actors. "Trapper" John Tice responded to the tweet, denying he was an actor and referring to Moneymaker's show as "Losing Bigfoot". The online feud has continued with *Finding Bigfoot* cast member Cliff Barackman chiming in the show was "fiction" and the official *Finding Bigfoot* Twitter account called *Mountain Monsters* a "fake-hoax" show in regard to the series' return in April 2017.