WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.839 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.280 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.200 My granddad died on a Thursday morning in March of 14 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:08.799 twenty and nineteen, and he took sixty years of silence 15 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:12.400 with him, almost all of it. Anyway. He'd cracked the 16 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.400 door open for me over the last decade of his life, 17 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:18.280 told me things he'd never told another living soul except 18 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.799 his brother Vernon. And I've been sitting on all of 19 00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:23.959 it since the funeral. I'm not sitting on it anymore. 20 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:28.120 My name's Caleb. I'm thirty four. I lived just outside 21 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:30.560 of Hazzard, Kentucky, and I need to tell you what 22 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:34.079 happened on the ridge behind my granddad's tobacco farm, because 23 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:36.840 he can't tell it himself, and it deserves to be heard. 24 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:41.640 He earned that much. His name was Harold. Everybody called 25 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:46.519 him that, Not Hal, not Harry, just Harold. He was 26 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.959 born in nineteen thirty three in Perry County, Kentucky, grew 27 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:53.000 up harder than most people today could even imagine, and 28 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.799 spent his whole life working tobacco, raising cattle, and keeping 29 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:58.640 a piece of land that had been in our family 30 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:02.280 since before the Civil War. He was about five foot ten, 31 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:05.400 built like a cinder block, and had hands that looked 32 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:08.319 like they'd been carved out of hickory root. He didn't 33 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:10.639 go past eighth grade in school, but he was one 34 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:13.560 of the sharpest people I've ever known. He could tell 35 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:15.360 you what the weather was going to do three days 36 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:17.560 out just by watching the way the crows flew in 37 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:20.000 the evening. He could look at a cow and tell 38 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.639 you within a day or two when she'd calve. He 39 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:27.159 knew that land better than anyone alive. Every hollow every spring, 40 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:31.759 every deer trail, every rock shell. That's what makes what 41 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.919 happened to him so unsettling, because whatever was on that 42 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:38.039 ridge behind his farm, it didn't belong to any world 43 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:41.960 he understood. Let me set the geography for you, because 44 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.240 it matters. Granddad's farm sat in a narrow valley along 45 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:49.159 a creek called Pigeon Roost, which fed into the North 46 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:52.439 Fork of the Kentucky River. The bottom land was maybe 47 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:57.039 sixty acres of workable ground, tobacco, corn, a little hay, 48 00:02:57.639 --> 00:02:59.879 and it was hemmed in on both sides by steep, 49 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:03.639 heavily wooded ridges. The one to the east behind the 50 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:07.159 house was the one that mattered. Locals just called it 51 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.719 Briar Ridge, though I've never found that name on any map. 52 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:13.879 It climbed up maybe seven or eight hundred feet from 53 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:17.000 the creek, bottom thick with cedar and poplar and oak, 54 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:20.159 choked with laurel thickets so dense you'd have to crawl 55 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:22.759 on your hands and knees to get through some of them. 56 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.599 There was one old logging road that switched backed up 57 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:28.159 to the top, but it hadn't been maintained since the 58 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.000 nineteen forties and was more gully than road. By the 59 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:34.360 time I was a kid, Beyond that ridge there was nothing, 60 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.680 no houses, no roads, no power lines, just miles and 61 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:41.680 miles of unbroken timber rolling all the way into Nott 62 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:45.439 County wild country, the kind of ground where a man 63 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:48.759 could walk for two days and never cross a fence line. 64 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.639 Granddad's house sat about three hundred yards from the base 65 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.759 of that ridge. Between the house and the tree line, 66 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:56.680 there was a lower pasture where he kept a few 67 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:00.319 head of cattle, a tobacco barn, a corn crib, and 68 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.800 an old board fence that had been there in one 69 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:06.400 form or another since his daddy's time. The creek ran 70 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:08.800 along the north edge of the property, and there was 71 00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:12.639 a crossing, just a shallow spot with flat rocks, where 72 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:15.000 the cattle would go to water, and where Granddad would 73 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:16.959 cross if he ever needed to get to the lower 74 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:20.079 hollow on the other side. I'm telling you all of 75 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:23.360 this because I want you to understand the layout. The 76 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:26.879 house was not remote by Appalachian standards. It was maybe 77 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:29.600 four miles from the nearest paved road, and there were 78 00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:33.120 a few other families scattered along Pigeon Roost, though nobody 79 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:36.720 was what you'd call close, but that ridge behind the farm, 80 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:40.560 that was another world entirely now. Granddad told me these 81 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:44.279 things across many conversations over many years, mostly when I 82 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:47.120 was in my late teens and twenties. He'd bring it 83 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:49.839 up on his own terms, usually late in the evening 84 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:52.000 when we were sitting on the porch or when we'd 85 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.639 be out in the truck together. He never told the 86 00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:58.160 whole thing start to finish. It came in pieces, and 87 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:03.439 sometimes he'd contradict himself on details dates exactly which year 88 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.439 something happened. But the core of it never changed, not once, 89 00:05:08.279 --> 00:05:10.120 and the look on his face when he talked about 90 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:13.040 it never changed either. It was the look of a 91 00:05:13.079 --> 00:05:16.000 man who had seen something that had rearranged his understanding 92 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:18.399 of the world, and who had never fully put it 93 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:21.199 back together. I should tell you a little more about 94 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.079 Granddad before I get into the meat of this, because 95 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:25.800 I think you need to know the kind of man 96 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:29.279 he was to understand what this cost him. He was 97 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:32.079 a man of routine and order. He ate the same 98 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:35.680 breakfast every morning, two eggs over easy, a biscuit with 99 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:39.079 butter and sorghum, and black coffee strong enough to strip paint. 100 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.600 He read his Bible every night before bed, not in 101 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:46.439 a showy way, just quietly, the same way he did everything. 102 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:49.360 He kept his tools clean and hung on pegs in 103 00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:52.639 the barn, in the exact same arrangement his father had used. 104 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:56.240 He didn't drink except for a little moonshine on Christmas Eve, 105 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:59.879 and he didn't gamble, and he didn't chase women. He 106 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:02.399 went to church every Sunday morning at the Pigeon Roost 107 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:05.800 Regular Baptist Church, wearing the same brown suit he'd bought 108 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:08.600 in nineteen fifty eight. He was a man who had 109 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:12.199 organized his life around predictability and hard work, and when 110 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:15.000 something came along that didn't fit into that system, it 111 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:17.120 shook him in ways that I don't think he ever 112 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:20.680 fully recovered from. My grandmother was the opposite in a 113 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:25.160 lot of ways. Doris was talkative, warm, superstitious in the 114 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.600 way that mountain women of her generation tended to be. 115 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.279 She'd throw salt over her shoulder, she wouldn't let you 116 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:35.319 open an umbrella indoors, and she believed absolutely in signs 117 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:38.800 and poort tents. She grew up hearing stories about hats 118 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:41.800 and jacktails and things that lived in the deep woods, 119 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:45.120 and she took them all at face value. I think 120 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.439 that's part of why Granddad didn't share more with her 121 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:50.639 in the early years. He knew she'd believe him, and 122 00:06:50.680 --> 00:06:52.680 he was afraid that her belief would make it more 123 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:55.360 real than he was ready for it to be. He 124 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:58.319 told me it started in the fall of nineteen sixty two. 125 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.959 He would have been twenty nine years old. He and 126 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.720 Doris had been married about seven years by then, and 127 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:07.560 they had three kids, my dad who was five, my 128 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:11.519 uncle Roy, who was three, and my aunt Linda, who 129 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:14.759 was still a baby. It was late October and Granddad 130 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:17.959 was finishing up the last of the tobacco harvest. If 131 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:20.639 you know anything about Burley tobacco, you know that's a 132 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:25.040 brutal stretch of work. You're cutting, spearing, hanging, and stripping 133 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:28.000 from sun up to well pass dark, and by the 134 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:30.279 end of it, your hands are black with gum and 135 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:33.199 your back feels like it's been beaten with a pipe. 136 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:36.480 Granddad was working that hard, and he was tired, and 137 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:39.480 that's important because for a long time afterward he tried 138 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:41.439 to tell himself that what he was seeing was just 139 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:44.959 exhaustion playing tricks on him. The first thing he noticed 140 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:47.839 wasn't dramatic. He came out one morning to check the 141 00:07:47.879 --> 00:07:50.639 cattle in the lower pasture and found that three fence 142 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:54.120 posts along the back line, the ones closest to the ridge, 143 00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:58.639 had been pushed loose, not broken or knocked over, pushed. 144 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:01.680 They were leaning inward toward the pasture at about a 145 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:04.560 forty five degree angle, and the dirt around the base 146 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:07.279 of each one was disturbed, like something had grabbed them 147 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.240 and just shoved. He figured a bear had done it. 148 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:14.000 They had black bears in that country, always had, and 149 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.399 a bear leaning on a fence post could certainly push 150 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:19.560 it over. He didn't think much of it. He tamped 151 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:22.279 the posts back in, restrung the wire, and went on 152 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:25.360 about his business. But then it happened again about two 153 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:29.959 weeks later, same section of fence, same three posts, and 154 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.279 two more Besides. This time one of the posts had 155 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:35.799 actually been pulled clean out of the ground and was 156 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:38.000 lying in the grass about ten feet from where it 157 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:41.159 had stood. Granddad told me that was the first time 158 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:43.279 he felt a little prickle at the back of his neck. 159 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:45.639 Because a bear doesn't pull a post out of the 160 00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:50.080 ground and carry it somewhere. A bear pushes leans rubs. 161 00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:54.159 It doesn't grip and yank, but again he told himself 162 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:56.759 it had to be a bear, because what else was there. 163 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:00.639 He reset the posts, this time sinking the deeper and 164 00:09:00.679 --> 00:09:03.519 tamping the dirt harder, and he started watching that back 165 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:07.360 fence line more carefully around the same time, and he 166 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:11.080 couldn't pin down exactly which came first. His mule started 167 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:15.080 acting wrong. Granddad had an old sorrow mule named Jack 168 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:17.399 that he used for plowing and hauling and just about 169 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:21.879 everything else. Jack was the most unflappable animal he'd ever owned. 170 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:24.480 He said that mule wouldn't spook if you set off 171 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.480 a stick of dynamite next to him. But that fall 172 00:09:27.720 --> 00:09:31.000 Jack started refusing to go near the tree line. Granddad 173 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:32.960 would try to ride him up to the back pasture, 174 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:35.559 and Jack would plant his feet and lock his legs 175 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.919 and would not go. His ears would lay flat, and 176 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:41.240 he'd roll his eyes until you could see the whites, 177 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:44.480 and he'd make this low groaning sound that Granddad said 178 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:48.159 he'd never heard from a mule before, or since it 179 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:52.120 wasn't a bray, it was deeper, more guttural, like the 180 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:54.519 sound was coming from somewhere in his chest rather than 181 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:57.840 his throat. Granddad said he finally gave up trying to 182 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:00.159 force the issue and would just tie Jack off off 183 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:02.360 at the tobacco barn and walked the rest of the 184 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:06.480 way on foot. Then came the Prince. The first frost 185 00:10:06.519 --> 00:10:09.720 of the season came on November third, nineteen sixty two. 186 00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:13.320 Granddad remembered the date because it was a Saturday and 187 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.000 he'd been planning to strip tobacco that morning, but decided 188 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.120 to check on a heifer that was close to calving 189 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:21.480 before he started. He walked out to the lower pasture 190 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:24.240 at first light, and there in the frost, running in 191 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:26.600 a line from the tree line to the creek crossing 192 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:30.919 and back again were footprints. They were bare, no shoe, 193 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:35.519 no boot, barefoot prints pressed deep into the frost covered ground, 194 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:38.919 and they were enormous. Granddad said. He put his own 195 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:41.360 boot down next to one, and the print was half 196 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:44.639 again as long and nearly twice as wide. He wore 197 00:10:44.679 --> 00:10:48.559 a size ten. He described the Prince as looking almost human, 198 00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:52.399 with distinct toes and a heel, but the proportions were wrong. 199 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.759 The toes were thicker and more splayed, like they were 200 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:59.480 designed for gripping uneven ground, and the stride between Prince 201 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:03.519 was annoying. Five feet or more. The prince sank deep, 202 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:07.039 too deeper than his boots did, which meant whatever left 203 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:10.440 them was far heavier than he was. He squatted there 204 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:13.120 in the cold and studied those tracks for a long time. 205 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:16.360 He told me he counted fourteen of them going down 206 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:20.399 to the creek and fourteen coming back, each one perfectly placed, 207 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:23.519 like whatever made them knew exactly where it was stepping. 208 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:29.120 There was no wandering, no scuffing, no dragging, just deliberate, 209 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:32.120 purposeful steps down to the water and then back up 210 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:35.200 toward the ridge. He followed them to the tree line 211 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:38.039 and lost them in the leaves and dead fall. He 212 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:39.919 went back to the house and didn't say a word 213 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.559 to my grandmother. He wasn't ready to say it out 214 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:45.320 loud because he didn't know what he'd be saying. That 215 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:49.120 was the beginning. Over the next few weeks, more things happened, 216 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:52.679 small things that kept piling up. He found a place 217 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:55.120 along the creek where something had turned over. Rocks in 218 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:58.840 the water, big rocks the kind you'd need both hands 219 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:01.159 and a good bit of strength to flow lip, and the 220 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.440 craw dads underneath had been scooped out. There was a 221 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:06.720 muddy handprint on one of the rocks that he said 222 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:09.559 made him go cold all over. It was a hand, 223 00:12:10.039 --> 00:12:13.679 clearly a hand with four fingers and a thumb, but 224 00:12:13.720 --> 00:12:16.080 the span of it was wider than any human hand 225 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:19.399 he'd ever seen, and the fingers were thicker, more like 226 00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:23.240 fat sausages pressed into the mud. He thought about taking 227 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:25.519 a picture of it, but he didn't own a camera, 228 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:27.679 and by the time he got back from town the 229 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:31.399 next day, rain had washed it away. The smell came 230 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:34.919 around the same time. Granddad described it as something between 231 00:12:34.919 --> 00:12:37.000 a wet dog that had rolled in a gut pile 232 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:39.799 and a skunk that had crawled into a hot compost 233 00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:44.200 heap and died. It wasn't constant. It came in waves, 234 00:12:44.759 --> 00:12:47.639 usually near the creek crossing or along the back fence line, 235 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.080 and it was strongest in the evenings. He said, you 236 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:54.440 couldn't mistake it for anything natural that belonged on that farm. 237 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:58.639 He'd dressed deer, he'd scraped hides, he'd cleaned out chicken 238 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.960 coops in August, and nothing in his experience compared to this. 239 00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:05.480 It had a thickness to it, he said, like it 240 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:08.080 coated the inside of your nose. And wouldn't let go. 241 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:11.159 He'd catch a whiff of it and his stomach would 242 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:14.399 turn and he'd know that something had been through there recently, 243 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.320 maybe within the hour. The evening he saw the figure 244 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:21.360 on the ridge was November twenty first, nineteen sixty two, 245 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:25.759 a Wednesday. He remembered it specifically because President Kennedy was 246 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:28.240 going to be in Texas later that week, and he 247 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:30.559 and my grandmother had been listening to the news about 248 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.440 the trip on the radio. That morning, he went out 249 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:35.799 around four point thirty to check on that same heifer. 250 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:39.639 She still hadn't calved, and he was getting worried, And 251 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:41.799 as he came around the side of the tobacco barn, 252 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:45.080 he happened to look up toward the ridge. The sun 253 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.080 was already behind the mountain, so the ridgeline was back 254 00:13:48.120 --> 00:13:50.679 lit with that thin orange light you get in late 255 00:13:50.759 --> 00:13:53.759 autumn when the days have gotten short, and standing right 256 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:56.519 up there at the top, maybe four hundred yards away, 257 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:00.159 was a figure. Granddad told me he stopped walking and 258 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:03.799 just stared. The figure was standing between two cedar trees, 259 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:08.000 partially screened by the branches, and it was tall, not 260 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:10.799 just tall the way a big man is tall. Tall 261 00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:13.279 in a way that was wrong. He said it had 262 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:16.679 to be over seven feet, maybe closer to eight, because 263 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:19.080 the lower branches of those seedars were well above head 264 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:22.039 height for a normal person, and this thing's shoulders were 265 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.519 up among them. It was dark in color, he couldn't 266 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.440 tell if that was hair or skin or clothing, and 267 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:33.080 it was standing absolutely perfectly still, not shifting its weight, 268 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.200 not moving its head, not swaying the way a living 269 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:39.159 thing does when it's standing in one place. It was 270 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:41.440 like it had been carved out of the ridge line itself. 271 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:44.639 He watched it for what he guessed was about two minutes, 272 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.240 though he admitted it could have been less. Time does 273 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:52.120 strange things when you're scared. He said. The figure never moved, 274 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:55.120 not even a little, and he never saw it blink 275 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:59.679 or turn or adjust. It was just there, standing facing 276 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:04.559 down hill, facing him. Stay tuned for more Backwoods bigfoot stories. 277 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:09.320 We'll be back after these messages. He couldn't make out 278 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:12.519 features at that distance, not in that light, but he 279 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:15.879 said the shape of it was unmistakable. It was built 280 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:20.240 like a man, but heavier, thicker, with shoulders that seemed 281 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:23.440 impossibly wide, and a head that sat forward on its 282 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.960 neck like it was hunched or crouching slightly, even while 283 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:30.759 standing upright, he told me, and I'll never forget the 284 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:34.039 way he said it, Caleb. It looked like somebody had 285 00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:37.039 taken a man and just made him more, more of everything, 286 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:42.000 more height, more shoulders, more weight, like God had started 287 00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:45.440 making a person and didn't know when to stop. He 288 00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:48.039 backed up slowly until he was behind the tobacco barn, 289 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:51.360 and then he turned and walked fast back to the house. 290 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:54.840 He didn't run, because some instinct told him that running 291 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.440 would be the wrong thing to do. He locked the 292 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:00.879 doors that night, which was something he never did. My 293 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:03.480 grandmother asked him why, and he told her he'd seen 294 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:05.120 a bear on the ridge and didn't want to take 295 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:09.559 any chances. She accepted that without question. Bears were part 296 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:12.759 of life up there. Now, Brian, I want to pause 297 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:15.919 here and tell you something about my granddad's character, because 298 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.720 it matters for understanding why this story played out the 299 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:22.759 way it did. Harold was not a fearful man. He 300 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:24.840 grew up during the Depression in one of the poorest 301 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:28.279 counties in the poorest state in the country. He worked 302 00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:30.960 underground in the coal mines for two years. When he 303 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:34.159 was barely seventeen before he decided he'd rather starve on 304 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:37.600 the farm than die in a hole. He hunted alone 305 00:16:37.639 --> 00:16:40.679 in those mountains his entire life, slept on the ground 306 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:43.440 in weather that would kill most people, and once killed 307 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:45.840 a copperhead with his bare hands because he didn't have 308 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:48.720 time to find a stick. The man was hard in 309 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.799 ways that don't exist anymore. So when I tell you 310 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:56.440 that something on that ridge scared him, genuinely, deeply scared him, 311 00:16:56.759 --> 00:16:59.799 I need you to understand what that means. It means 312 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:02.759 something fundamental about the world he thought he knew had 313 00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:05.839 shifted underneath him, and he couldn't get his footing back. 314 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:09.200 He didn't see the figure again for several weeks after that, 315 00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:13.799 but the other activity continued. In early December, he started 316 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:16.960 hearing things at night. The first time was a sound 317 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:19.720 that woke him out of a dead sleep. He described 318 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:22.599 it as a single, sharp crack that echoed off the ridges. 319 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:26.920 Not a gunshot, not a tree falling, but something striking 320 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:30.559 wood against wood, like someone had taken a baseball bat 321 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:32.519 and swung it as hard as they could against the 322 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:35.160 trunk of a tree. It was loud enough that it 323 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:38.279 rattled the glass in the bedroom window. He lay there 324 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:41.559 in the dark and listened, and about thirty seconds later 325 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:45.880 it came again from the same direction up on the ridge. 326 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:49.880 Then nothing. He waited for an hour, maybe more, and 327 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.759 didn't hear it again that night, but it came back. 328 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:55.960 Over the next several weeks, he'd hear those knocks at 329 00:17:55.960 --> 00:17:59.599 irregular intervals, sometimes two or three nights in a row. 330 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:02.640 Some times nothing for a week, then a string of them. 331 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:07.359 They weren't always the same. Some were single strikes, that hard, 332 00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:11.160 flat crack of wood on wood. Others came in patterns, 333 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:15.880 two quick knocks, a pause, then a third. Sometimes they 334 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:18.640 seemed to come from directly above on the ridge, and 335 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:22.039 other times from farther away, off to the north or south, 336 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:24.920 like whatever was making them was moving along the spine 337 00:18:24.920 --> 00:18:28.440 of the mountain. Twice he heard what sounded like an answer, 338 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:31.359 a knock from one direction followed by one from a 339 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:35.680 different direction, entirely miles apart, as if two of whatever 340 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.200 they were were talking to each other across the dark. 341 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:42.119 One night in mid December, he heard something different. He'd 342 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:44.880 gone out to the porch to smoke before bed. He 343 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.000 was a pipe smoker. Granddad always had a bent stem 344 00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:51.440 brier going, and the night was clear and cold and 345 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:55.680 perfectly still. No wind, no crickets that time of year, 346 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:59.359 just that dense mountain silence that presses in on you. 347 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:02.839 He was standing there, looking out toward the ridge, and 348 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:05.319 from somewhere up in the timber came a sound that 349 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.000 he said made every hair on his body stand up. 350 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:12.079 It started low, almost below the range of hearing, like 351 00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:14.640 a vibration in the ground, more than a sound in 352 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:18.680 the air. Then it climbed. It rose in pitch over 353 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:22.079 the course of maybe ten seconds, into a long, sustained 354 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:24.519 whale that he said was like nothing that had ever 355 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:27.000 come out of any animal he'd encountered in his life. 356 00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:31.480 It wasn't a coyote, it wasn't a bobcat. It wasn't 357 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:33.599 an owl or a fox, or a screech of any 358 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:36.519 kind he could identify, He told me. It sounded like 359 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:39.839 a woman screaming through a drain pipe, distorted and hollow 360 00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:43.400 and impossibly loud. It held that pitch for what felt 361 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:46.119 like forever, and then it broke apart at the end, 362 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.200 kind of stuttered and warbled and dropped back down into 363 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:52.400 a series of low, grunting hoofs that faded into silence. 364 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:56.880 He said. The dogs they had, two hounds, Blue and Rascal, 365 00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:00.240 were under the porch before the sound even reached its peak. 366 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:04.519 They didn't bark, they didn't growl. They just crawled under 367 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:07.200 there and pressed themselves against the foundation of the house 368 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:10.720 and wouldn't come out until the next morning. That scared 369 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:14.359 Granddad almost more than the sound itself, because those dogs 370 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:17.240 would tree a bear or chase a bobcat without hesitation. 371 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:21.039 They were hunting dogs, bred and trained to be aggressive, 372 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:24.160 and whatever made that sound had reduced them to trembling, 373 00:20:24.359 --> 00:20:29.039 whimpering lumps. Christmas came and went, and things quieted down 374 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:32.559 for a while. January and February of sixty three were 375 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:35.920 brutally cold. Granddad said they had ice on the inside 376 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:38.599 of the windows for weeks at a time, and whatever 377 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:40.839 was on the ridge seemed to have moved on or 378 00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:44.759 hunkered down. He started to relax a little. He told 379 00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:47.440 himself he'd been letting his imagination get the better of him, 380 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:51.359 that there was a rational explanation for all of it. Bears, 381 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:55.799 maybe a mountain lion passing through weather playing tricks with sound, 382 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:01.200 He almost convinced himself. Then spring came It was late March, 383 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:04.799 maybe early April, of nineteen sixty three, and the first 384 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:08.319 warm days had started to open things up. Granddad was 385 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:10.920 out working on the fence line again, getting ready for 386 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:13.680 the season, and he noticed something that stopped him in 387 00:21:13.720 --> 00:21:16.799 his tracks. Along the edge of the tree line, just 388 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:21.319 inside the timber, several small trees, saplings maybe two or 389 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:25.680 three inches in diameter, had been twisted and broken, not chopped, 390 00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:30.200 not cut, twisted. The trunks had been grabbed and torqued 391 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:33.839 until the wood fibers separated, leaving the broken ends frayed 392 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:37.279 and spiraled like someone ringing a dish rag. He said. 393 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:39.160 A couple of them had been bent over and woven 394 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:42.559 between other trees, creating what looked almost like a marker 395 00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:45.400 or a boundary. He didn't know what to make of it, 396 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:48.079 and he didn't touch any of it. He just backed 397 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:51.400 away and went about his business. That spring and summer 398 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:55.119 were relatively quiet. He'd find odd things here and there, 399 00:21:55.559 --> 00:21:57.759 a dead rabbit left on a fence post near the 400 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:00.960 back pasture, a pile of large stone stacked in the 401 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:03.880