WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.000 Now one of your pudding. I got a string going 2 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:06.120 on here, something just because my dog. Something killed your dog. 3 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:07.320 My dog. 4 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.599 We're flying through the air over the tree. I don't know. 5 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:14.759 How it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm really confused. All 6 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:16.600 I saw was my dog coming over the fence and 7 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:17.160 he was dead. 8 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:18.920 And once you hit the ground like, I didn't see 9 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:19.359 any cars. 10 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:21.320 All I saw was my dog coming over the fence. 11 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:38.960 Sat, what are you putting? 12 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:43.759 We got some wonder or something crawling around out here? 13 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:51.920 Did you see what it was? 14 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:52.240 Or was it was? 15 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:52.840 Standing up? 16 00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:54.799 I'm out here looking through the window now and I 17 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:57.479 don't see anything. I don't want to go outside. 18 00:00:58.240 --> 00:00:59.560 Jesus Quice, you better. 19 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:06.120 Hello, get Theboddy out here when I'm out there. I 20 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:08.480 thought of a menus about tex forty nine. 21 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.560 I don't know easy out there, Yeah, I'm walking right heady. 22 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:14.840 I don't know why I'm writing this to you. Maybe 23 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:18.280 because you're a stranger and that makes it easier. Maybe 24 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:20.719 because the doctors say I've got three months at best, 25 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:24.159 and carrying this for forty some years feels heavier than 26 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:27.920 the cancer eating away at my lungs. My name is Clyde. 27 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:31.680 I'm eighty two years old, born and raised in McDowell County, 28 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:34.680 West Virginia. I've been digging Jen Saying since I was 29 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:37.920 knee high to a grasshopper, learned from my daddy, who 30 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:40.959 learned from his But there's more to these mountains than 31 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.280 Jen Saying. And that's what I need to tell you 32 00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:46.719 about before I take this knowledge to my grave. You 33 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:50.560 grow up in these hollows, You hear things, stories that 34 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:54.760 get passed down like family recipes, each generation adding their 35 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:57.359 own flavor but keeping the meat of it the same. 36 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:00.519 My grandpa used to tell me stories when I was young, 37 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:03.719 sitting on his porch with a jar of moonshine, watching 38 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:07.040 the sun disappear behind the ridges. He'd wait until the 39 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:09.879 shadows got long and the lightning bug started their dance 40 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:14.439 before he'd begin. Boy, he'd say, his voice rough as bark, 41 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:18.599 these mountains got secrets older than coal, things that was 42 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:22.080 here before the Cherokee, before anybody with sense enough to 43 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:25.360 write it down. The first story he ever told me, 44 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.360 I was maybe seven years old. This would have been 45 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:31.360 nineteen forty nine, back when half the roads in the 46 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:34.000 county were still dirt and you could walk for days 47 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:38.360 without seeing another soul back. In nineteen o two, Grandpa began. 48 00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:41.000 My uncle Harland was running a trap line up on 49 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:44.719 black Fork Ridge. He was a hard man. Harland was 50 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:48.439 fought in Cuba with Teddy Roosevelt, came back missing two 51 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:51.560 fingers and afraid of nothing. But something happened up on 52 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:54.960 that ridge that changed him. He'd been checking his traps 53 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:58.360 for three days, working his way deeper into the mountains. 54 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:01.000 On the third night, he made camp near a grove 55 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:04.199 of hemlocks, big old trees that had probably been there 56 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:08.039 since before the Revolution, built himself a good fire, cooked 57 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.759 some rabbit he'd snared, and settled in for the night. 58 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:16.280 Round about midnight, something woken. Wasn't a sound exactly, more 59 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:19.199 like the absence of sound. You know how the woods 60 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:22.800 are at night, always something rustling or calling. But this 61 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.159 was dead quiet, like the whole mountain was holding its breath. 62 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:30.159 Harlan sat up, reached for his rifle. That's when he 63 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:33.520 saw the eyes, not reflecting the firelight like a normal 64 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:38.080 animal's wood, but glowing on their own, pale green like foxfire. 65 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:41.599 They were high up, maybe eight feet off the ground, 66 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:44.960 just watching him from the edge of the firelight. He 67 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:48.280 called out, thinking maybe it was another trapper playing games. 68 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:52.879 The eyes didn't move, just kept staring. Then another pair 69 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:57.080 appeared next to the first, Then another three sets of eyes, 70 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:00.719 all at the same height, all that sickly green color. 71 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:03.879 Harlan fired a shot over their heads, trying to scare 72 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:07.560 them off. The eyes vanished, but not like they'd run away, 73 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:10.800 more like someone had blown out candles all at once. 74 00:04:11.639 --> 00:04:14.759 He kept that fire burning high all night, feeding at 75 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.279 every stick he could find. Come morning, he packed up 76 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:21.360 and came down off the mountain. He never ran another 77 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:24.560 trap line, took up farming in the valley. Wouldn't even 78 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:27.000 hunt deer if it meant going above the first ridge. 79 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:30.439 When people asked him what he'd seen, he'd just shake 80 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:33.399 his head and say, some things ain't meant to be trapped. 81 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.279 Grandpa took a long pull from his jar, let the 82 00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:41.160 story sink in. Even at seven, I knew better than 83 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:44.480 to ask if it was true. In the mountains, truth 84 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:47.959 and story blend together like morning fog, and trying to 85 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:51.920 separate them only makes you lose both. The second story 86 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:54.079 came a few years later, when I was old enough 87 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:57.040 to help Grandpa work his still we were up in 88 00:04:57.079 --> 00:04:59.600 a hidden holler, tending the mash when he told me 89 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.639 about the widow Thompson's encounter. This was nineteen twenty three, 90 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:06.600 he said, stirring the mash with a long wooden paddle. 91 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:10.279 The Thompson place sat way back in Laurel Holler, about 92 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:13.360 as far back as folks dared to live. She'd lost 93 00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:15.959 her husband and a mind collapse, but she was a 94 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.160 tough woman. Stayed on with her three young'uns rather than 95 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:23.040 move to town. One October evening, just as the leaves 96 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:27.040 were turning, her oldest boy, James, didn't come home. He 97 00:05:27.160 --> 00:05:29.959 was twelve, old enough to roam, but young enough to 98 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.480 know better than to stay out past dark. The widow 99 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:36.480 waited until full dark, then lit a pine not torch 100 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:39.680 and went looking. She found him about a half mile 101 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:43.120 from the house, standing in a clearing, still as a statue. 102 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:45.920 The boy was staring up at something in the trees, 103 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:49.800 his mouth hanging open, his eyes wide as dinner plates. 104 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:53.439 The widow called his name, but he didn't respond. She 105 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:55.480 had to grab him by the shoulders and shake him 106 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:59.240 before he seemed to see her. Mama, he whispered, the 107 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:02.000 tall man in the trees, he's been talking to me. 108 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.480 The widow looked up but saw nothing except branches and shadows. 109 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:09.319 She dragged James home, and he came down with a 110 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:13.000 fever that lasted three days. When it broke, he couldn't 111 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:15.800 remember anything about that night, but he was never the 112 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:19.160 same after. Would wake up screaming about the tall man 113 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:22.959 who walked bent over, dragging something behind him. Said the 114 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.160 tall man wanted to take him to a special place 115 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:28.879 where the bones piled high. The widow moved her family 116 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:32.120 to town before the first snow. The house still stands, 117 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:36.639 or what's left of it. Nobody's lived there since. My 118 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:39.360 Daddy had his own stories, though he was less inclined 119 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.720 to tell them than Grandpa. Daddy was a practical man, 120 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:46.639 believed in what he could see and touch, but even 121 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:50.199 he couldn't explain everything that happened in these mountains. I 122 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:52.560 remember one story he told me when I was sixteen, 123 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.800 the night before my first solo, jen saying Hunt. We 124 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:59.360 were sitting at the kitchen table, him nursing a cup 125 00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:02.720 of coffee that it had gone cold hours ago. This 126 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:06.160 was nineteen fifty four. He began his voice low so 127 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:09.240 as not to wake Mama. I was working timber with 128 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:12.480 a crew up near Panther Creek. Six of us, all 129 00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:14.639 mountain boys who knew our way around, an axe and 130 00:07:14.680 --> 00:07:18.639 a crosscut saw. We'd been cutting virgin timber trees so 131 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:21.319 big it took two men with arms outstretched to reach 132 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:24.079 around them. We had a camp set up near the 133 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:28.240 cutting site, just canvas tents and a cook shelter. One night, 134 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.560 our cook, an old fellow named Earl, went to the 135 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.720 creek to fill the water buckets. Full moon that night, 136 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:38.519 brightest day almost He was gone maybe ten minutes when 137 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:41.839 we heard him scream, not a yell like he'd heard himself, 138 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:45.079 but a real scream, like a woman or a child 139 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:48.439 in mortal terror. We all grabbed lanterns and rifles and 140 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:51.720 ran toward the creek. Found Earl standing knee deep in 141 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:55.839 the water, the buckets floating away downstream. He was pointing 142 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.759 at the far bank, shaking so hard he couldn't speak. 143 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:01.720 We looked where he was pointing, but didn't see nothing 144 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:04.439 at first. Then one of the boys held his lantern 145 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:07.480 higher and we saw the tracks. They came out of 146 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:10.000 the woods to the creek edge, then followed the bank 147 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:13.360 up stream. But these weren't bear tracks or human tracks. 148 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:18.079 They were wrong too big for one thing, But it 149 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.920 was the shape that bothered me, like a man's foot, 150 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:24.000 but stretched out with toes that were too long, too 151 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:27.839 spread apart, and every other track was dragged like whatever 152 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:31.079 made them couldn't lift its left foot proper. We got 153 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:33.679 Earl back to camp, gave him some whiskey to calm 154 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.799 his nerves. When he could talk, he said he'd seen it, 155 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:39.279 said it had been crouching by the water when he 156 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:42.559 came up, drinking like an animal. When it hurt him, 157 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:47.600 it stood up and up and up, eight nine feet tall, 158 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:50.759 covered in dark hair, with arms that hung down past 159 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:54.080 its knees. But it was the face that got him. 160 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:57.200 Almost human, he said, but with eyes that reflected the 161 00:08:57.200 --> 00:09:00.320 moonlight like a cat's. And when it looked at him, 162 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:03.600 it smiled, not a friendly smile, but the way a 163 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:07.159 fox smiles at a rabbit. It walked away, he said, 164 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:10.759 dragging that left leg, following the creek upstream toward the 165 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:14.279 high country. We broke camp the next morning. The timber 166 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:17.440 company sent another crew, but they only lasted three days 167 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:21.240 before they pulled out too. Said tools went missing, said 168 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:25.000 they heard things at night, said they found more tracks. 169 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:29.720 Daddy paused stared into his cold coffee. I never told 170 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.120 your mama this part, but I went back up there 171 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:35.759 alone a week later. Don't know why. Maybe I didn't 172 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:38.600 believe what I'd seen. Maybe I needed to prove to 173 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:42.320 myself there was an explanation. I found our old camp site, 174 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:45.200 found the creek where Earl had his scare, and I 175 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:49.080 found something else. About one hundred yards upstream from where 176 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:51.559 we'd seen the tracks, there was a pile of bones, 177 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:56.279 deer mostly, but some bear too, all cracked open, the 178 00:09:56.320 --> 00:09:59.039 marrow sucked out, and in the middle of the pile 179 00:09:59.399 --> 00:10:02.440 a timber crew ruiser's compass. One had gone missing from 180 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.879 our equipment the night before Earl's encounter. I got out 181 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:08.559 of there fast and never went back, never told the 182 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:11.759 other boys what I'd found. Some knowledge is too heavy 183 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:16.480 to share. These stories were just the background music of 184 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:20.159 growing up in the mountains. Every family had them, every 185 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:23.159 holler had its history. But it wasn't until I had 186 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:26.080 my own encounter that I started paying real attention to 187 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:29.720 the patterns. After what happened to me in nineteen eighty three, 188 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:33.559 I became something of a collector of these stories. Not officially, 189 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:37.000 mind you, but I'd listened closer when the old timers talked, 190 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.799 buy a few extra drinks at the VFW to loosen tongues. 191 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:44.279 What I learned painted a picture I wish i'd never seen. 192 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.799 Take Luther for instance. Luther was a bear hunter, one 193 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:51.960 of the best in three counties, ran hounds that could 194 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.039 track a ghost through a thunderstorm. In November of nineteen 195 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.960 eighty one, two years before my encounter, he was running 196 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.440 a bear that his dog's jump near Elcorn Creek. The 197 00:11:02.519 --> 00:11:05.799 dogs were on a hot trail, their voices echoing through 198 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:09.840 the hollows like a church choir. Luther was following on foot, 199 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:14.399 his rifle ready, when the dog's voices changed, went from 200 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:19.720 that eager hunting cry to something else fear, pure primal fear. 201 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:23.399 Then they went silent, all six of them at once. 202 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:27.679 Luther found them huddled together in a laurel thicket, shaking 203 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:30.919 like leaves, their tails tucked so far under they were 204 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:34.240 touching their bellies. These were dogs that would face down 205 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:37.360 a five hundred pound baar without blinking, and here they 206 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:41.320 were terrified of something. He was trying to coax them 207 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:46.000 out when he heard the breathing, slow, deep rhythmic coming 208 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:49.120 from somewhere above him. He looked up and saw it 209 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:53.039 perched in a massive oak, like some nightmare bird. It 210 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:56.720 was huge, covered in dark hair, with arms wrapped around 211 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:59.159 the trunk, but it was looking down at him with 212 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:02.840 eyes that caught the light like copper pennies. Luther raised 213 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:06.039 his rifle and fired, without thinking. Hit it square in 214 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.320 the left thigh. Saw the blood spray, heard it roar, 215 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:12.759 not like a bear or a big cat, but something 216 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:17.039 almost human. It dropped from the tree, landing hard, and 217 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:20.200 took off through the laurel. But that left leg wasn't 218 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.159 working right. It dragged behind, leaving a blood trail in 219 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:29.039 those strange wrong tracks. Luther's dogs wouldn't track it, wouldn't 220 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.519 even leave the thicket until he physically carried them out 221 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:35.200 one by one. He never hunted that section again, and 222 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:38.840 his dogs were never quite the same. Would start whimpering 223 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:42.919 for no reason, refused to cross certain creeks. I know 224 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.600 I hit it good, Luther told me one night, drunk 225 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:49.200 on my whiskey and his own memories. That leg was ruined. 226 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.679 If it was a normal animal, it would have died 227 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:54.919 from blood loss or infection. But maybe it wasn't normal. 228 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:58.720 Maybe it was something else, something that don't die easy. 229 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:02.799 Was the thing I couldn't stop thinking about. The creature 230 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.440 I shot in nineteen eighty three, had a bad left leg, 231 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:08.279 dragged it just like the one Luther shot in nineteen 232 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:12.159 eighty one, same area too, just different ridges of the 233 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:15.039 same mountain system. Could it have been the same one? 234 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:20.080 Living with that injury for two years, getting hungrier, more desperate. 235 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:23.799 And then there were the missing kids. The first was 236 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:27.960 in nineteen seventy nine, before Luther's encounter, the poly twins 237 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:31.720 Bobby and Brian, age nine. They'd gone out to pick 238 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:34.720 blackberries on a July morning, just up the slope from 239 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:37.960 their family's trailer. Their mama could see the berry patch 240 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.440 from the kitchen window, but when she looked up from 241 00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:44.480 her dishes, the boys were gone. The whole community searched 242 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:48.240 for three days. Found one bucket, still half full of berries, 243 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:51.559 sitting neat as you please on a log. No sign 244 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:55.080 of struggle, no blood, no tracks except the boy's own. 245 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.759 It was like they'd just vanished into the air. Most 246 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:03.200 folks figured they'd gotten around, died of exposure somewhere, but 247 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:06.320 a few of the searchers mentioned finding other tracks, big 248 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:10.360 ones that the Sheriff's department dismissed his bear sign. Then, 249 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:13.279 in spring of nineteen eighty two, six months after Luther 250 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:17.600 shot whatever he shot, little Sarah Morrison went missing. She 251 00:14:17.799 --> 00:14:20.559 was seven, playing in her backyard while her daddy worked 252 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:24.639 on his truck. He heard her laughing talking to someone. 253 00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:26.879 When he looked up, she was walking into the woods, 254 00:14:26.919 --> 00:14:29.639 looking up at something tall, like she was following a 255 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:33.159 grown up. He called out, but she didn't turn around. 256 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.840 By the time he reached the woodline, she was gone. 257 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:39.480 They found her shoe three miles away, up near the 258 00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:43.080 ridge line, just one shoe, sitting on a rock like 259 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:47.039 it had been placed there, nothing else. Her daddy swore 260 00:14:47.159 --> 00:14:49.600 until his dying day that she'd been talking to someone. 261 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:53.320 That he'd seen a shadow moving between the trees, too 262 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.600 tall and wrong shape to be human. But the worst 263 00:14:56.639 --> 00:14:59.600 came after my encounter, which makes me wonder if I 264 00:14:59.639 --> 00:15:04.519 only wounded it made it meaner. Stay tuned for more 265 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:07.639 sasquatch ott to see We'll be right back. After these messages. 266 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:14.559 In the summer of nineteen eighty four, not even a 267 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:19.120 year after I'd shot it, the Stapleton Boy vanished. Tommy Stapleton, 268 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:23.480 age eleven experienced in the woods. He'd gone squirrel hunting 269 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.279 early on a Saturday morning, taking the trail up toward 270 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:30.600 Beartown Ridge. Yes, the same ridge where I'd had my encounter. 271 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:33.679 His daddy found his twenty two rifle at the base 272 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:37.320 of a cliff. The barrel bent nearly in half. There 273 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:40.799 were tracks in the soft earth, Tommy's boots and something else. 274 00:15:41.639 --> 00:15:46.279 Those wrong, dragging tracks, one foot normal, one sliding through 275 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:48.960 the leaves. They led up to the cliff edge and 276 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:52.960 just stopped. They never found Tommy, but hikers reported finding 277 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:56.759 strange things over the years. A child's torn shirt hung 278 00:15:56.840 --> 00:16:01.080 high in a tree, small bones arranged in patterned toys 279 00:16:01.159 --> 00:16:04.919 left on stumps like offerings. Old Mary, who lived at 280 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:06.960 the mouth of the holler and knew things about these 281 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.200 mountains that nobody else remembered. She told me something that 282 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:13.639 chilled me worse than any winter wind. This was in 283 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:16.639 nineteen eighty five, when I finally got the courage to 284 00:16:16.679 --> 00:16:20.240 ask her about what I'd seen. There's always been something 285 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:24.559 up there, she said, her voice, like dry leaves. My grannies. 286 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:28.200 Granny knew about it. Said the Cherokee wouldn't hunt those ridges, 287 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:31.519 said something walked there. That wasn't man nor beast, but 288 00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:35.039 something caught between. Said it had been there since before 289 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:39.120 the tribes, since the world was young and different. They 290 00:16:39.159 --> 00:16:42.360 live a long time, these things, maybe forever if nothing 291 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:45.840 kills them. But they get hurt like anything else, and 292 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:49.679 hurt makes them dangerous, makes them forget the old agreements, 293 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.559 the boundaries. A hurt one is a rogue one, and 294 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.879 a rogue one needs to eat. She looked at me 295 00:16:56.919 --> 00:17:00.840 with eyes clouded by cataracts, but somehow still sharp. You 296 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:04.519 shot it, didn't you? Up on Beartown Ridge. I can 297 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.400 see it on you, like mud on your shoes. I 298 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:11.200 couldn't answer, but she nodded like I had. It's still 299 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:16.319 up there, hurt, worse now, hungrier. Those children, it's trying 300 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:20.839 to heal, trying to get strong again, young blood, young bones, 301 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:25.079 the old ways, the bad ways. You opened a door 302 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:28.039 that should have stayed closed. I wanted to tell her 303 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:31.720 she was crazy, but the words wouldn't come, because deep 304 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:34.960 down I knew she was right. The thing I'd shot 305 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:38.880 wasn't dead. It was up there, dragging that ruined leg 306 00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:42.359 through the hollows, taking children to some hidden place where 307 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:45.680 bones piled high, just like the tall man in Young 308 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:49.839 James Thompson's nightmares. Let me tell you about my encounter now, 309 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:53.359 the one that connects all these threads. It was September 310 00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:57.079 of nineteen eighty three. I remember because Reagan was president 311 00:17:57.319 --> 00:18:00.319 and my youngest boy had just started high school. I 312 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:02.920 was up on Beartown Ridge, way back in the hollows 313 00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:06.319 where even the old timers don't venture much. That was 314 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:10.240 my secret spot. You understand. Five generations of my family 315 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:13.119 had worked those slopes, and I'd found patches there that 316 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.519 make your eyes water, roots thick as a man's thumb, 317 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:20.119 some older than the Civil War. I'd been up there 318 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:23.559 three days, camping rough like I always did, had my 319 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:26.920 tent pitched near a little spring, maybe four miles from 320 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:30.079 where I'd left my truck. The weather had been perfect 321 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:34.599 for digging, cool mornings, warm afternoons, the kind of September 322 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:38.119 that makes you forget winters. Coming on the third evening, 323 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:42.559 something changed. I can't say exactly what. At first, you 324 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:45.240 spend enough time in the woods, you develop a sense 325 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:49.920 for things. The jays had gone quiet, the squirrels weren't chattering. 326 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:53.599 Even the creek seemed to run softer. I was cleaning 327 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:55.920 roots by my tent when I noticed it, and the 328 00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:57.960 hair on my neck stood up like I'd touched a 329 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:02.599 live wire. I kept but my eyes were moving scanning 330 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:06.680 the tree line. Nothing, just shadows getting longer as the 331 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:10.079 sun dropped behind the ridge. I had my thirty thirty 332 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:13.680 leaning against a log nearby, always did when I was 333 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:17.400 that far back. Bears, mostly though I'd never had to 334 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:21.119 use it. That's when I saw it move, maybe seventy 335 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:24.680 yards up the slope between two big oaks, just to 336 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:28.599 shape at first dark against the darker woods. Too big 337 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:32.279 for a bear, wrong shape for a man. It stepped 338 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:34.640 out from behind one of the trees and I got 339 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:38.480 my first clear look. Lord help me. I wish I hadn't. 340 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:43.640 It was massive, eight feet tall, maybe more, covered in 341 00:19:43.720 --> 00:19:46.279 dark hair that looked almost black in the fading light. 342 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:49.079 But it was the way it moved that stuck out. 343 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:53.119 It dragged its left leg, pulling it along like dead weight. 344 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:57.839 Each step was deliberate, calculated, and it was watching me. 345 00:19:58.680 --> 00:20:00.720 Even at that distance, I could I feel its eyes 346 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:04.359 on me the left thigh. Even through the hair, I 347 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:09.599 could see it was wrong, twisted, scarred Luther's shot from 348 00:20:09.599 --> 00:20:12.880 two years before had to be. This thing had been 349 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:16.440 living with that injury, and now it was here, watching 350 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:19.400 me with eyes that held too much intelligence for an animal. 351 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:23.359 I reached for my rifle, slow as molasses, never taking 352 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.160 my eyes off the thing. My hands were shaking so 353 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:29.279 bad I could barely work the lever. The creature took 354 00:20:29.319 --> 00:20:33.400 another step down the slope, then another. That dragging leg 355 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:35.839 made a sound like somebody pulling a sack of feed 356 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:40.319 through dry leaves. It stopped, maybe forty yards out, partially 357 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:43.839 hidden behind a maple. I could see its chest rising 358 00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:46.440 and falling, see the way its head tilted as it 359 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:49.839 studied me. The light was almost gone, but I could 360 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:53.240 make out the shape of its face, almost human, but 361 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:56.440 wrong in every way that mattered. The eyes were too 362 00:20:56.519 --> 00:21:00.000 deep set, the jaw too heavy, and there was something 363 00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:05.839 in its expression not curiosity, not fear, hunger, the kind 364 00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:09.319 of desperate hunger that makes animals do things they normally wouldn't. 365 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:13.759 I stood up, real slow, rifle in my hands. Get 366 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:16.440 on out of here, I said, Surprise, my voice worked 367 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:20.160 at all. Go on now. It made a sound then, 368 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:24.039 not a roar or a howl like you'd expect, more 369 00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:26.200 like a long, low moan. That seemed to come from 370 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:30.119 somewhere deep in its chest. The sound to hurt animal makes, 371 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.279 but there was something else in it too, something that 372 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:37.160 made me take a step back toward my tent. Pain, yes, 373 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:42.440 but also rage, old rage, the kind that ferments over time. 374 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:47.000 That's when I remembered the stories, the missing kids, the 375 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:51.880 strange tracks, Luther's shot. This wasn't just some animal protecting 376 00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:55.400 its territory. This was something that had been hurt, had 377 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:58.640 been hungry for two years, had maybe taken children to 378 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:01.559 sustain itself, and now it was looking at me like 379 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:04.799 I was the next meal. It shifted its weight and 380 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:08.319 I saw its hands clearly for the first time too long, 381 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:12.359 the fingers like pale spiders against its dark fur. One 382 00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:14.960 hand gripped the maple trunk, and I watched the bark 383 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:18.519 crumble under its grasp. The other hand hung at its side, 384 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:22.000 clenching and unclenching. I know what you are, I heard 385 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.119 myself say, I know what you've done. Something changed in 386 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:29.759 its face. Then the lips pulled back, showing teeth that 387 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:34.319 were almost human but too large, too sharp. Not a smile, 388 00:22:34.759 --> 00:22:39.960 not a snarl, but something between an acknowledgment, maybe like 389 00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:43.200 it understood me, and wanted me to know it understood. 390 00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:47.160 It came at me, not charging wild like a bear, 391 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:52.119 but purposeful, deliberate. Even with that ruined leg, it moved 392 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:56.160 with terrible grace. It used the trees, swinging from trunk 393 00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:59.319 to trunk with its long arms, the bad leg dragging, 394 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:02.079 but not slow it as much as I'd hoped. I 395 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:05.119 fired when it was thirty yards out. The rifle kicked 396 00:23:05.160 --> 00:23:08.599 against my shoulder, the shot echoing off the ridges. I 397 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:11.920 saw the impact, saw it stagger, but it kept coming. 398 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:16.200 I worked the lever, fired again. This time it roared 399 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:21.799 a sound that was almost words, almost human, screaming twenty yards. 400 00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:25.640 I could see its eyes clearly now that copper reflection, 401 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:29.839