[3] According to a historical marker previously erected in Lavaca County: "A mysterious runaway Negro slave who alternately terrified and aroused pity of settlers in this region for about 15 years.
According to writer Murray Montgomery of Texas Escapes magazine, various accounts of wild people were reported by fearful residents, describing the culprits as stealthy and hair-covered.
[5] According to historian Myra Hargrave McIlvain, in 1851 residents captured a nude African man of unknown origin who was living in the wild and did not speak English.
The Texas State Gazette published a runaway slave notice from June 24 to August 12, 1854, that read "an AFRICAN well known as the Wild Woman of the Navidad, supposed to belong to Beckford, late of Virginia".
[8] In 2008, a horror film loosely based on the folklore entitled The Wild Man of the Navidad was released, written and directed by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks, and co-produced by Kim Henkel.