Mackenzie Hrubey: This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So I understand why you're abandoning me for this adventure you have. You might even call it a ghost adventure you're going to have. Field Notes From The Unknown: Hello, Casey. And I'm Mackenzie. And this is Field Notes from the Unknown, ⁓ a about your favorite local cryptid. ⁓ Casey: It is a once in a lifetime. I see what you did there. Some people won't understand. Understand. Mackenzie Hrubey: understand. You might even meet some of the biggest names. Well, paranormal researchers, demonologists. Casey: I can't wait. I'm like I low-key hope Zach makes an appearance, but if it's just Jay and Eren, I'm completely fine with that. Because I think Eren's great. Mackenzie Hrubey: Erin is so fun and you know what honestly and Zach I hope you hear this but like you always send Erin into the basement to do shit and like Erin has much bigger balls than you way bigger balls yeah Casey: Yeah. S Aaron's always going in first. Mackenzie Hrubey: But Casey, I think you should tell the podcast why you can't come to Moffman Festival this year. Casey: So I cannot go to Mothman Festival this year because I am going on a ghost adventure tour with them at Pennhurst Asylum. So yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: That is fantastic. I am very jelly. That was a great gift from Cryptid, from Cryptid Boyfriend. Casey: The crypto boyfriend did so good. Like, I was telling him about it and then I'm like, Do you wanna go? And he said, No. And I'm like, Okay, can I go? And he's like, Yeah. Like, this is what I want for Christmas. And that's what I got for Christmas. Mackenzie Hrubey: You Yeah. But they're cool. Casey: Yeah, he he did great. I was very excited. So field notes will be taking notes the whole time. And I'll keep you guys updated. It'll Mackenzie Hrubey: That's really sweet! Yeah, I can't wait. I'm so excited. And I feel like ghosts are a form of cryptid, kind of? Maybe? I don't know. We had that La Llorona episode. I feel like she's kind of a ghost. I don't know. We talk about aliens and shit. Those are ghostly. Casey: I think so. Kinda. I mean I don't know. Yeah, she's like an entity. It's Speaking of, I'm gonna touch on aliens today. Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ what topic do you have for us today? Casey: So today we're going to talk about the moon eyed people. Have you ever heard of them? Mackenzie Hrubey: Is that like, black-eyed kids, or is that different? Casey: No. Completely different. Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ cool! I've never heard of moon-eyed people. Casey: So I'm gonna set the scene for you. We are heading to the Appalachian Mountain of North Georgia. Mackenzie Hrubey: It's Bully. ⁓ home of the spoke lights. Casey: The spook lights. Just above the trails and campsites of Fort Mountain State Park, a mysterious stone wall winds along the mountainside, stretching roughly 800 and 900 feet and standing only a few feet above the ground today. The wall has puzzled many visitors, historians, and even archaeologists for generations. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah Casey: Most archaeologists believe that the wall was built by the Native Americans sometimes between five hundred and fifteen hundred CE. So it is old. Mackenzie Hrubey: That is an old ass wall that is older than the dust bunnies underneath my bed. Casey: Your house isn't even that old. So your dust buddies wouldn't be that old. Mackenzie Hrubey: I know, my house is only a few years old. Casey: But no one knows exactly why it was constructed. Some believe, yeah, there it's still a mystery to this day as to what the wall is meant for. Mackenzie Hrubey: Really? Wait, how, sorry, how long is the wall? Casey: eight hundred and nine hundred feet and it's only standing a few feet above the ground. So like it's it's long no. It's a great wall something. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's a big... That's not like the Great Wall of China, but it's a great wall of a manor. It's a great well of Appalachia. And you know, wells either keep something in or keep it out. So... Casey: Well the thing is the thing here's my thing with walls. If it's a wall, it ends somewhere. So all I have to do is go one direction in one way and I'm gonna get to the other side of the wall. At some point. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's true, but like what if it's like one of those things where the wall ends and there's like a body of water or something, you know? And like, they say that some things can't cross over water. But you're not like undead or like an alien. I don't know, can aliens cross water? Casey: I could still swim around it. True. That you know of Maybe this is just all a simulation and I'm gonna pull off my headset here soon and I'm gonna be an alien. Mackenzie Hrubey: Casey. Can you probe me? Casey: Yeah. You're first on my list. Mackenzie Hrubey: ooooh, mmm nice. Alright, alright, I consent. Absolutely. Casey: Some believe that the wall may have been used as a defence wall, while others think it marked ceremonial and tritorial like boundaries. So the National Register of Historic Places, which I didn't even know was a thing, but I guess it would make sense because historical places are all over the world. they suggest that it was simply to separate one part of the mountain summit from the other. Yeah, nope. They're just like, nah, it's just there. Like, ⁓ Mackenzie Hrubey: That makes sense. The fuck? Like that's not- no! Like... This land is your land! This land is my land! On this side of the wall! Casey: But only on one half. So According to Cherokee ch Cherokee traditions, these strange beings, which are the Moon Eyed people, who Th we'll get into why they have their name. So I'm just gonna keep on track. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay, all right, all right. Casey: These strange beings lived in the region long before the Cherokee even arrived. So we're talking the Moonite people were almost like the first settlers. Prior to the Native Americans, like they were here. So they were dis the Moonite people are described as small, pale-skinned people who avoided sunlight and only ventured out in the night. Cherokee storytellers passed down tales of these unusual people for generations, describing them as nocturnal and physically different from everybody else. Well, they were pale. And so Mackenzie Hrubey: How so? And how small were they? Like a couple feet tall? Casey: I it doesn't say how small they are. And let me let me go back to the pale thing, because I am also a pale human being and I'm not strange and unusual. But in the same moment I am. ⁓ excuse me? So Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. Well... You're strange in the way that I like like you and I are both strange and usual people like I would not consider us normal Nor are we moon faced people carry on Yeah, no one's I Know it's boring. I'm sorry. I don't care if I alienate people. You know what I'm just saying that our listeners are our ⁓ field researchers are cool unusual like we are Casey: Normal is weird. It's not weird. If you're normal, that's okay, but it's boring. and unusual. That is true. So back to the pale thing. It Go ahead. Not cruel and unusual. Yes. So they think they were actually albinoes. Mackenzie Hrubey: But, sorry, not cruel and unusual. Sorry, carry on. Yes, none of that. Casey: Like Obino people. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. ⁓ do they have red eyes? Casey: Well, I don't think he really ever saw their eyes because it they hurt at sunlight. Like they couldn't hardly see during the day. Mackenzie Hrubey: Because albinism is a ⁓ genetic thing. We're even lack of the... of the enzyme or whatever or protein that makes melanin so you have no melanin so your eyes are pink, ⁓ your skin is super pale and your hair is white and translucent because you have no melanin. Also you won't have freckles, you have a lower chance of like skin cancer which I mean is great, mean cool. Maybe we should all be albino, I don't know but yeah. Casey: That's kinda nice. There there could have been all these albino at one point on this earth. If the Moonite people are the albinos. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay, but the albino people don't have a smaller height though, so the height thing would indicate that that's not... Yeah. Casey: Well, okay, but going back in that time, people were smaller, just in general. Mackenzie Hrubey: But then, like, how small are we talking? Like, were they two feet tall? Like, you know, like the... Casey: I'm talking like maybe what was the average height for a man in the fifteen hundreds? I don't know, not probably like if it's five feet I'd be surprised. Because I think they were short back then. Mackenzie Hrubey: Let's the internet. The average height for a man in the 1500s was between 5'5 and 5'8. Casey: I don't believe the five eight. We're just gonna say they're all five five. So five five's kinda short. Now, if Mackenzie Hrubey: You I mean, a 5'5 is often a tender 6' Casey: That is true, but we're not talking about Tinder. Mackenzie Hrubey: Ha ha! Casey: I I so with the height thing, I don't know. I'm just this is what I think could have been. Okay? Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay, alright, alright, alright. Cook. I'll let you cook. Casey: So in the early 1700s, European colonists began documenting Native American traditions and became extremely fascinated with the story of the moon-eyed people. While different writers added their own theories over time, one detail remained remarkably consistent. In the Cherokees accounts, these mystery people could not see well during the day. So This was kinda like a game of telephone, but it was consistent. So like it was a really good game of telephone. I don't know. So Mackenzie Hrubey: Wait, like, the game of telephone being like them not being able to communicate with them because of them not being able to be out in the light? Casey: Telling the story. No. The game of telephone would be the Cherokee people continuously telling the story over and over again and it always staying the same. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. Okay. Okay. Casey: Are you following? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yes. Yeah, that is a game of telephone. Sorry. Casey: You look confused. We're gonna play telephone next time. I'm at your house. Same. Mackenzie Hrubey: I am confused. I'm confused by the Moon and people, generally. I'm confused how they would all have albinism. I don't... I don't... I don't know. Casey: I think they all I think well, aren't there like supposedly boo blue people in the mountain? Mackenzie Hrubey: No, those people are real though, like there are pictures. All I'm saying is the believability scale as we go on is getting lower and lower. We're ticking down the believability scale. Casey: We start every episode off at a five and it just Mackenzie Hrubey: We started at a five and now we're teetering somewhere around two. Casey: Stop. Are you gonna knock me with another one? Okay. The weakness in the daylight is said to have given Cherokee warriors the advantage, allowing them to drive the Moon Eyed people from the region. So the Cherokee Right? That's what I thought. Not in this not Not now. So yeah, they drove the Moon Eyed people out. Supposedly. Supposedly. Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Well that's shitty! Sharing is caring! I have a question. Were the moon eyed people, did they happen to have like quills down their back and like little pot bellies? Okay. Cause they sound like pakawajis. Casey: They were not puckawodies. They were not puckawoggies. Puckawodies aren't they're out all day, right? They're not just out at night. Right? Mackenzie Hrubey: I feel like it's very key we're exaggerating. Casey: Stop. Okay, so wait wait You're right, the Puckle Woodgies did build stone structures though, right? Mackenzie Hrubey: They sure did. Wait, so did the moon and people build the wall? Casey: Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Wait, we didn't get the part of the story yet, so... Casey: We didn't get to that part yet. But spoiler, they supposedly they did. Mackenzie Hrubey: Did they build the wall because they were trying to defend against the Terraki? Casey: Or Are the Moon Eyed Well, I think the wall's kinda like hieroglyphic, so I do think the wall is part of a storytelling. Because that's honestly the only image we have of the Moon Eyed people is these stone carvings and a wall. Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ wait, so there's stone, let me try to pull up these stone carvings. Casey: And ⁓ while Mackenzie's looking up the stone carvings, you can see the pictures of the stone carvings on our Instagram at Field Touch from the Unknown. Did you see them? Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay, those are creepy and I don't like them. Casey: Yeah. So The earliest printed book appeared in seventeen ninety-seven in Benjamin Smith Barton's book, New Views of the Origins of the Tribes and Nations of America. Mackenzie Hrubey: fancy. Casey: Barton c right, Barton claimed Cherokee elders told him they found the land occupied by people who could not see during the day, and eventually forced them out. Barton later speculated that they might have been albino people, although he offered no evidence to sugg support that idea. I don't know. I kinda support that idea. I think they might be albinos. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay, but did they have red eyes? Casey: It never says. Mackenzie Hrubey: Because there's a difference between having pale, super-ass pale people and people that have albinism. Because again, albinism is, let's say it together, a lack of monocytes. And that means that they have no pigment in their eyeballs, and they have no pigment in their hair, and they're all super pale. But you could be some pale. And they've got dark hair and dark eyes. Casey: A lack of Moanocytes. But the thing is, if these people can't so so I this is what I'm imagining. If I'm someone that can't go out in the sunlight, when I go out in the s you know how chickens have that like second eyelid, that really weird thing? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the ⁓ Temp and Amphibian Puppet. Casey: Yes, the temper. Yes, that. I'm imagining that's what these people had. Mackenzie Hrubey: Nictating! A nictating membrane! Casey: Yeah, that's what we said. Mackenzie Hrubey: Absolutely. Casey: That's what I think could have. They have. So you're not really seeing what the color of their eye is with that membrane covering and protecting the eye. Mackenzie Hrubey: You I mean, my thing, I think my thing is that I'm getting hung up on the word albino. Can we just say they're really fucking pale people? Can't that just be enough? Casey: No, because albino is scientifically correct. Mackenzie Hrubey: No, albino is not correct because if they were up what color was their hair? Casey: Albino color? It could be. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's not a collar! Was their hair white or was it colored? Casey: White. Well of the for the Moon Ride people? I don't know. Nobody ever mentions the color of their hair. They just say they're They just say they're really pale people. Mackenzie Hrubey: Well then, can't turn it up, I know. Well, you know what? You're really pale. You're a moon eyed person. Casey: I that is correct. That is correct, but I'm not as pale as the moon-eyed people. Do I Mackenzie Hrubey: How do we know? Do people still see them today? We don't know for sure. You could be a moon-eyed person. Casey: No, because they ran them out. Supposedly. I think they're albidos. Alright, I'm continuing with my story. In eighteen twenty three, John Haywood published the National and Al Albo Origin History of Tennessee. Mackenzie Hrubey: you Okay. Casey: Although he never he never used the term moon eyed people, he recorded traditional describings of the early race of white people who lived near the Little Tennessee River in small forts that they had built out of stone before being driven out. Mackenzie Hrubey: go click click So they build structures and shit. Casey: They built structures and shit. Around the same time but Mackenzie Hrubey: Like Do you think that the, I mean, people were responsible for any of the interesting mounds and stuff? Casey: Probably. Absolutely. Mackenzie Hrubey: That'd be cool. Casey: I mean, to me the moon eyed people are just a bunch of worker bees out at night. Mackenzie Hrubey: really pale non-albino people out at night. Casey: Around the same time, former Tennessee Governor John Seaver wrote about a conversation he claimed to have had with Cher with a Cherokee chief in seventeen eighty two. According to Seaver, the chief spoke of ancient stone forts along the An Alabama River that had supposedly been built by white people called Welsh before they were defeated. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah Casey: Later, James Mooney, another person coming into the story, spent years living among the Cherokee. During the eight during the late 1800s while collecting their yeah, collecting their traditions in Myths of the Cherokee, which is Mooney's book, Mooney recorded stories describing small white people who occupied parts of the western North Carolina. before the Cherokee arrived. However, he also noted that many many of the later European interpretations have become mixed with the origin with the original oral story, making it difficult to separate legends versus speculation. So now we're in a bad game of telephone. Cause things are getting mixed up now. Today's today historians and archaeologists remain divided over what, if anything, inspired the moon-eyed people legends. Some believe the stories preserve memories of an earlier population that once lived in the southern Appalachians. Others think the tale describes a mysterio mystical race meant to explore ancient ruins, like the Fort Mountain Wall. There are even theories that the stories were inspired by people with albino albinoism or certain eye conditions that made bright sunlight uncomfortable. Though there are no evidence to confirm this. Okay, so you're telling me albino people with albinoism and people with eye conditions are just out in the woods in the Appalachian? Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay, now I believe more. So here's why to me having to go to eye condition makes more sense to me. That's because I don't, and I could be wrong, but I didn't think that albinism is inherited. I don't think that was the thing you could pass down ⁓ from generation to generation, but I could see an eye condition that makes you both sensitive to light to be passed down. Casey: I thought it was. So Mackenzie Hrubey: The other thing that I wonder, and just pulling this out there, is like, it possible that what people saw, do you remember like how, ⁓ They say the Vikings got to North America way earlier than people thought they did. What if it was some remnant population of people from a Nordic country that had super-duper pale skin and blonde hair and just had, over time, to ⁓ adapting to be out at night? Maybe because it's easier to catch stuff that's out at night, like raccoons and whatnot that are not eternal animals. Casey: Yes. Or it's easier to kill them at night. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, I don't know. a thought. Casey: However, back to the Fort Mountain Wall itself. Was it really built by Native Americans for ceremonial or defense purposes? Could it have inspired centuries of storytelling stories about an ancient like population that just vanished? Or are the Moonite people simply one of Appalachian's oldest and most enduring legends? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. race. Yeah, something. I mean, it's That's fascinating. Honestly, I've heard of the Moon and People before. The 855 foot wall is crazy that there's no oral history of Native Americans building that. ⁓ It's frustrating. I wonder, is the wall... I don't know. I'm just thinking, could they... People do so much weird stuff now with like DNA and stuff and like eDNA and like could they pull like the mortar out and like sequence it, you know? Casey: that's a so that's the thing. Can can't they like shave some of the stone off and like actually get down to a time like an actual time frame of when this type of material was used and what potentially was used to carve these things in. I mean they know for the pyramids they have a rough estimate Mackenzie Hrubey: What? ⁓ Yeah. I have so many questions. Casey: I have so many questions too, but honestly that's it that's it. Like not a lot of my questions got answered. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, and then like after the moon people got pushed out of the region, where did they go? Casey: Where did they go? What happened to them? Or another thing, are these just quit cave dwellers? Like in the hills have eyes. But like these cave dwellers can only come out at night. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, good spray basketball. You know, there's that like lore in the Appalachian region of like the wild people and I know that like that I take it that there's some weirdness around wild people and like that that's maybe possibly people like discriminating against like people that have lived in Appalachia for a long long time, but Yeah, like I feel like there's also probably an in-between there. Yeah, so like are moon-eyed people that? Or... Casey: I believe in wild people. Feral human beings. So you're saying that they're also albino, feral, Appalachian people? I Mackenzie Hrubey: I think that they're really pale skinned for Appalachian people who are albino. Casey: I think if the blue people can exist, these people can also exist. Mackenzie Hrubey: What if the blue people are actually the moon eyed people? Casey: And they just switched? They just evolved with time. Mm. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah. What if, what if, me out here. What if after the Puckwudgies killed off, ⁓ killed off the ⁓ native god of, of, ⁓ fuck, the, of the, ⁓ area up in... Casey: The Giant? Mackenzie Hrubey: Massachusetts, yeah, the giant. I can remember the grandmother name, but not the name of the god. And then after they got thrown back into, you know, west. Casey: Yeah. I yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: They landed in the Cherokee land and then the Cherokee thought that they were Mooneye people and they drove them out and they wound up in Indiana where like Mountain State Park is and like all that shit went down. It's all connected. It's the grand invocation of the unknown. And then they became Sasquatch. Casey: No. You're lost me at the Sasquatch part. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah but the rest, you are good for. Casey: Yeah. The rest I was good for. I I don't know. I don't know. Or or did aliens create the wall? Just to throw us off something. It's always aliens. Always aliens. Mackenzie Hrubey: It's always aliens. It's always the aliens. I don't know, that carving does look kind of like a gray alien. Like it really does. Yeah. Super, super does. Casey: Right? Please take me, Sky Daddy. Mackenzie Hrubey: I need somebody to just confirm for me what color was the Moon-Eyed People hair. Listeners, if you have seen a Moon-Eyed person, I need you to write in with your field notes and tell us all of the physical details so we can lay it at rest. Well, then we'll never know, will we? We'll never know. Because they- Casey: What if they were bald? We'll never know. Alright, so what are you gonna give me? What are you giving the moon eyed people? Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm gonna give you, you know what, I'm feeling generous today, two and a half. Casey: ⁓ one and a half. Okay. I apologize. Mackenzie Hrubey: No, two and a half, two and a half. We went up a little bit during the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I still have some major questions about the exact genetic makeup of this creature, but the stories really sold me. Casey: We we went off a little bit. ⁓ that's good. Same I also have questions, but I think we might just have to go to the wall and figure it out ourselves. Field trip. Mackenzie Hrubey: So field trip? Field trip from the unknown? Casey: Field trip from the unknown. To the unknown. Field trip to the unknown. Mackenzie Hrubey: What do you... Casey, what do you give the Mooned people? Casey: I give them a three. I give ⁓ a three. I think there was a whole Mackenzie Hrubey: Why? Casey: I don't wanna call them a tribe, but like the whole population, like a whole thing. Like the l lost city of Atlantis. But it's the lost moon eyed people of the Appalachian. I think yeah. We're gonna give ⁓ a three. But thank you. Mackenzie Hrubey: Could be. Could be. Alright, I love it. That was a cool story. Listeners, please tell us how you rate the Moon-Eyed People on a scale of 1 to 5. Casey: And yeah, you can find us at FieldNotes from the Unknown on Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, Apple, YouTube. Also, I just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up. I think YouTube took down one of our videos for something, and I'm not sure what. It said we violated guidelines, so I don't know. I know Mackenzie Hrubey: Why? Who, us? Violet a guideline? Casey: So I apologize to our listeners if that has happened. When I looked I didn't notice maybe we talked about eating people too much. Mackenzie Hrubey: It might have been one that was talking about eating people. lot. Casey: Whoopsie. But yeah, I don't know. When I looked at our Facebook or Cannibal Trees? Mackenzie Hrubey: We should have a t-shirt that says, cannibal cuties. No, cannibal cuties. Casey: ⁓ I like that. Cannibal cuties. I like that. And then can we like actually have a cute orange on the shirt too? Mackenzie Hrubey: Is that cute? Yeah. Yeah, that's being peeled by another cutie orange. Casey: Ye ⁓ my gosh. Did we just make merch? Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ We can make merch? Casey: Did we just make our first T shirt? Mackenzie Hrubey: We did. We already have the sweatshirts. Coming soon. Casey: We do and I don't know how you're wearing yours. Like is it sixty degrees in your house? Because I it's so hot. Mackenzie Hrubey: Here's the secret is I'm only wearing the sweatshirt. Casey: Okay. Now this video is gonna get removed from YouTube. Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ You can edit that out. I don't know. Whatever. Casey: Alright. Well that's it for us guys. Like, share, subscribe. ⁓ I appreciate you. And that's it. Bye.