Did Miniature “Moon-Eyed” People Really Inhabit The Appalachian Mountains?

At Georgia ’s Fort Mountain State Park , ahistorical markererected in the sixties tells of a mysterious race of “ moon - eye ” people that are said to have occupied Appalachia until they were shell by the Cherokee hundreds of years ago . Nearby sits an ancient stone wall , call back to be the remains of a crenellation that some people believe was build up by these weird little critters to defend themselves from their Native American foeman .

allot to the legend , the moonlight - eyed people were poor , blanched - skinned and bearded , and only came out at nighttime because their fragile optic could n’t handle daylight . Unsurprisingly , there ’s no scientific grounds whatsoever to paint a picture these oddballs ever existed , yet that has n’t curb the fury among visitors to theAppalachian passel .

just where the myth come from is unclear , and even though theCherokeeare identify as a major protagonist in the story of these optically - challenged dwarfs , the moon - eyed mystery does not feature in their chronicle or culture . In all likelihood , the legend was first introduced by the eighteenth - century American plant scientist Benjamin Smith Barton , who claimed that the Cherokee themselves had admitted to seize the demesne of the hairy - faced beings .

purportedly , the Indigenous group defeat the moon - eyed masses after waging state of war during a full moon , when the dazzling lunar glare impeded the ancient creatures ’ ability to champion themselves . Weirdly , the Cherokee County Historical Museum in North Carolina does hold a sculpture depicting two insipid - faced humanoids with crescent - shaped eyes , although while some cite this as proof , there ’s no evidence that the piece has anything to do with the moon - eyed multitude .

As if that was n’t bizarre enough , a 2nd diachronic marker at Fort Mountain provides the fuel for a 2d possibility - namely that the moonshine - eyed the great unwashed were in fact the descendants of aWelshprince named Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd , who is tell to have reach North America in the twelfth C . Like all other hypotheses , this theme is middling laughable as Welshmen are not miniature , nor are they incompetent of being outdoors in daylight .

Some proponents of this hypothesis therefore say that the condition “ lunation - eyed ” is actually a soubriquet invented by the Cherokee in denotation to the Welsh settler ’ erotic love of mining . Because they pass so much of the day underground , hearsay seemingly begin to spread that the light - skinned encroacher preferred to surface at night , as their eye were so accustomed to the dark .

So , were the moon - eyed mass ancient gnome , Welsh settlers or none of the above ? For now , all we have is speculation .