Speaker 1: On the west edge of the small town of Five
Speaker 1: Lakes lies or Lake Road. It is a narrow, ruddy,
Speaker 1: twisted lane that runs between small and waverly roads. On
Speaker 1: one side, the land is heavily forested and rises higher
Speaker 1: than the church steeple, and on the other side, the
Speaker 1: land slopes down to or Lake, a large dank, lily
Speaker 1: covered wetland beyond. On both sides, the land is wooded, dark,
Speaker 1: and as silent as a grave. They say it always
Speaker 1: feels cold on or Lake Road, even on the hottest days.
Speaker 1: Some say the road is haunted, that a wild man,
Speaker 1: a creature, or even a witch lives in the forest.
Speaker 1: The first person to notice something strange on or Lake
Speaker 1: Road was young Master John Rumley Sky, one of the
Speaker 1: richest family in Five Lakes. One day, as Rumley later
Speaker 1: told the tale, he was riding down the road when
Speaker 1: halfway through he saw an old, withered woman sitting on
Speaker 1: a stump paring an apple. He didn't recognize her as
Speaker 1: anyone he knew, so he dismounted to address her. Once
Speaker 1: he was on the ground, the woman had vanished stumping.
Speaker 1: All after that, there were disappearances at least three known
Speaker 1: to the people in Five Lakes, people traveling alone down
Speaker 1: or Lake Road who went onto the lane and never
Speaker 1: came out. Legend, of course, added another two. On Waverley Road,
Speaker 1: there was a small country store called Miller's Market. Mister
Speaker 1: Miller owned this old time general store and had for
Speaker 1: many years. He was a respected man in Five Lakes.
Speaker 1: He didn't believe the Or Lake stories, though he did
Speaker 1: acknowledge that, yes, over the years, there had been some
Speaker 1: disappearances in the area, and that what they all seemed
Speaker 1: to have in common were people traveling on Oor Lake Road.
Speaker 1: Mister Miller had a daughter named Mary. His wife had
Speaker 1: died some years before, and Mary was very dear to
Speaker 1: her father. Like her mother, she had rich, thick hair,
Speaker 1: dark as coal, eyes a gem like blue, and lips
Speaker 1: red as summer berries. She was a lively, dutiful girl
Speaker 1: and a renowned sixteen year old beauty. Many people would
Speaker 1: stop at Miller's Market just to see Mary, maybe buy
Speaker 1: a coke or a sandwich as an excuse to pause
Speaker 1: a while and talk with her. One of the people
Speaker 1: was a big, husky young man named Daniel Martin. Dan
Speaker 1: would stop every day after work to spend time with Mary,
Speaker 1: and one day mister Miller asked Mary about the braid
Speaker 1: and her hair, and she told him it was what
Speaker 1: they called a love Not on the other end of
Speaker 1: our lake road was Small Road, and the last house
Speaker 1: on Small Road was owned by the Wilmos family. As
Speaker 1: it happened that winter, the Wilmos baby took sick. Doctor
Speaker 1: Kepler went out there to find the infant to be
Speaker 1: very sick, indeed, so he phoned in a prescription to
Speaker 1: be delivered immediately. The delivery boy from the pharmacy in
Speaker 1: Five Lakes went out on Waverley Road and stopped at
Speaker 1: Miller's market. When he learned from mister Miller that he
Speaker 1: would have to take or Lake Road to reach the
Speaker 1: Wilma's place on Small Road, he declared that he was
Speaker 1: afraid and he wouldn't do it. It's your job and
Speaker 1: your duty, mister Miller told him. But the boy said no,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't travel on or Lake Road. Had they never
Speaker 1: heard the rumors about the place. Confounded rumor boy said,
Speaker 1: mister Miller, you might be saving that child's life with
Speaker 1: this medicine, and I might be losing my own in
Speaker 1: doing so. The boy replied, and he set the package
Speaker 1: down on the counter and ran out. It happened that
Speaker 1: Dan Martin was in the store just then talking with Mary.
Speaker 1: He heard the conversation and watched the boy leave. Mister
Speaker 1: Miller stood there, almost quivering with disgust. He started to
Speaker 1: take off his shop apron and said, Mary, I'm off
Speaker 1: to the Wilma's place. You mind the store for me,
Speaker 1: and just do as we always do and close at six.
Speaker 1: This was December and it was already dusk. The sun
Speaker 1: was a cold ragball on the splintered western horizon. Dan
Speaker 1: Martin stepped up and said, mister Miller, here, give it
Speaker 1: to me. I'll deliver the package. The Wilma's house is
Speaker 1: that blue house, right, yes, said mister Miller. It's the
Speaker 1: last house on small road, and as soon as you're
Speaker 1: off four Lake Road, it's that house. You sure you
Speaker 1: want to do this, Dan, Well, I'm not sure, said Dan.
Speaker 1: But it's better for me to go than you, with
Speaker 1: your business and all. And if I leave now, I'll
Speaker 1: be back no later than midnight. And so that's when
Speaker 1: Dan Martin left. But he didn't return at midnight, and
Speaker 1: he didn't return at dawn. In fact, he never returned
Speaker 1: at all. What we do know is that he did
Speaker 1: reach the Wilmos house sometime around ten o'clock because he
Speaker 1: delivered the medicine that saved the Wilma's boy. That baby
Speaker 1: was Ron Wilmos, and his son Ray now owns the
Speaker 1: dry cleaning shop in Five Lakes. But Dan Martin never
Speaker 1: returned from his errand that saved Ron Wilmos, and he
Speaker 1: never returned to Miller's market, and he never returned to
Speaker 1: Mary with the dark love knot in her hair. Many
Speaker 1: years passed, the water table rose, and the rising waters
Speaker 1: of or Lake nibbled away at or Lake Road, and
Speaker 1: they had to close it. No one had traveled that
Speaker 1: road for a long while. Anyway, the store worries about
Speaker 1: the creature, the wildman or the witch persisted. There was
Speaker 1: a new story about the disappearance of Dan Martin. Mister
Speaker 1: Miller took sick. A few years after this happened. He died,
Speaker 1: and dutiful Mary took over the market. She was known,
Speaker 1: like her father, for kindness and for her beauty, though
Speaker 1: they said something seemed to have gone out of her
Speaker 1: after Dan Martin disappeared. She never married, though it is
Speaker 1: said she had many offers. Some time later, Mary died
Speaker 1: when she was in her early forties and there was
Speaker 1: no one left to take over the store. Five Lakes
Speaker 1: has changed over the years, but not much. The land
Speaker 1: indoors or a lake indoors and has in fact grown.
Speaker 1: There is still a deep gnarl dark forest where Ora
Speaker 1: Lake Road once lay. Eventually, over the years, the stories
Speaker 1: about the wildman, the creature, the witch, even about Dan
Speaker 1: Martin ceased. Things change and go on what do you do?
Speaker 1: But sometimes on dark December nights, between twilight or his
Speaker 1: latest midnight, the people that still live along Waverley Road
Speaker 1: swear they can see a shadowy figure, a big man,
Speaker 1: walk out of the woods where or Lake Road once lay.
Speaker 1: He walks to the ruins of Miller's Market, which is
Speaker 1: now abandoned and boarded over, and he walks to the
Speaker 1: market and looks around as if someone is waiting for him,
Speaker 1: expecting him. If you go to or Lake Road today,
Speaker 1: you can still find a remnant of the road where
Speaker 1: John Rumley met the old woman on the small roadside.
Speaker 1: The Wilma's house is long gone, and there's an orchard
Speaker 1: and a day spa there. Now on Waverley you can
Speaker 1: see the old Miller's Market building washed gray by the
Speaker 1: years and back by a tangle of thorns. Be careful
Speaker 1: if you walk around the building the thorn you're thick
Speaker 1: and sharp as knives. But above all, don't spend much
Speaker 1: time pondering oor Lake Road. You just might wind up
Speaker 1: writing a story about it. I got a message on
Speaker 1: Facebook from someone who follows my page, or is who's
Speaker 1: liked my page, and they posted a series of articles
Speaker 1: on a some kind of creature down in Smith County, Mississippi.
Speaker 1: This caught my attention and it's a whole series of articles,
Speaker 1: and I thought i'd just share it with you guys.
Speaker 1: The name of the publication is The Morning Call. I
Speaker 1: don't know where that paper was based out of, but
Speaker 1: the first article was issued on September one, nineteen twenty nine,
Speaker 1: on a Sunday, and the big headline is big posse
Speaker 1: will seek wild woman this morning. So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: start at the first article, and I'm gonna read them
Speaker 1: all to you because I don't know why, but these old,
Speaker 1: older articles really interest me. But here we go. Let me.
Speaker 1: I'm just reading this off my screen, so y'all bear
Speaker 1: with me. Here a wild woman reported in the swamps
Speaker 1: in Smith County. Scores of citizens from Smith and Jones
Speaker 1: Counties are expected to gather at Taylorsville Sunday morning, when
Speaker 1: a hunt will begin at eight o'clock for a wild
Speaker 1: woman reported to be in the swamps near that town.
Speaker 1: Marshall TE. Blankney of Taylorsville informed the call Saturday night.
Speaker 1: Whether the affair will be a wild woman chase or
Speaker 1: a wild goose chase remains to be seen. At any rate,
Speaker 1: a lot of people who have never before chased wild
Speaker 1: women are expected to be on hand. Quote. We are
Speaker 1: extending a special limitation to our Laurel friends to come
Speaker 1: out and join us in this hunt. Marshall Blankney stated, quote,
Speaker 1: we intend to comb the swamp where she is reported
Speaker 1: to be until we find her. That Marshall can con
Speaker 1: tinues on we will begin our search. We will not
Speaker 1: use dogs to track her down, but should it become
Speaker 1: necessary in order to locate her, we will probably secure
Speaker 1: some good hounds. Some of this is real faded on
Speaker 1: the article, so I'm having a strain to read it.
Speaker 1: The search for the wild woman reported to be inhabiting
Speaker 1: the swamps near Taylor Taylorsville follows the account which Pa Walker,
Speaker 1: a farmer, tells of having seen such a creature and
Speaker 1: talked with her several days ago at his farm. According
Speaker 1: to mister Walker's description, the woman, who was nude except
Speaker 1: for a cloth girdle, was covered from head to foot
Speaker 1: with hair about four inches long. From mister Walker's description,
Speaker 1: she has more the appearance of an animal than a
Speaker 1: human being. Mister Walker states that he questioned the woman
Speaker 1: when she suddenly appeared near him at the edge of
Speaker 1: the swamp where he was chopping wood. She told the
Speaker 1: Smith County farmer that she was reared in Alabama about
Speaker 1: six years ago and became mentally deranged. Since that time.
Speaker 1: She has reported to have said she has lived in
Speaker 1: the Smith County swamp, where she has shot her food
Speaker 1: and eaten it raw. We have heard no definite reports
Speaker 1: of the woman since she was seen by mister Walker,
Speaker 1: Marshall Blakeney told the call, but we have reason to
Speaker 1: believe that she is still in the swamp where she
Speaker 1: was first reported. That's the first article. The second thing
Speaker 1: of the Gentleman sent me is another article says big
Speaker 1: Posse fails to find trace of wild woman. If there's
Speaker 1: a wild woman in Leaf River Swamp, in Smith County.
Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty citizens from that and adjoining counties
Speaker 1: failed Sunday morning to find hair nor height of her,
Speaker 1: and from all reports, she has plenty of the lighter
Speaker 1: and maybe presumed sooner or later to shed some of
Speaker 1: that hair near her lair. Gathering at the home of
Speaker 1: Pa Walker, Smith County farmer, who reported several days ago
Speaker 1: that the wild woman had visited him at his farm,
Speaker 1: a large posse led by Sheriff TJ. Tullis, Smith County,
Speaker 1: began a search for the harry Swamp Dennison. About eight o'clock.
Speaker 1: Members of the posse stationed themselves fifty paces apart and
Speaker 1: proceeded up to swamp until they reached a vacated mill house,
Speaker 1: where the woman told mister Walker she spent her nights.
Speaker 1: Nowhere was there a trace of the wild woman found,
Speaker 1: and before eleven o'clock the posse decided that it might
Speaker 1: be engaged in a wild goose chase instead of one
Speaker 1: for a wallwoman, and abandoned the search. No further efforts
Speaker 1: will be made to apprehend the weird creature, officers state
Speaker 1: unless she again makes her appearance. In such a case,
Speaker 1: dogs will be secured and put on her trail. Failure
Speaker 1: of the posse to find the wall woman was the
Speaker 1: greatest disappointment in the lives of a lot of Laurel
Speaker 1: County people who have been preparing themselves for a look
Speaker 1: at the unusual lady. From all the descriptions, she is
Speaker 1: covered from head to foot with brown hair about four
Speaker 1: or five inches long. Her face is covered with hair
Speaker 1: two inches long, and for six years, as the wild
Speaker 1: Woman's story goes, she has been living in Leaf River swamp,
Speaker 1: shooting her food and eating at raw That's a second article.
Speaker 1: Here's another article, and I don't I guess it's from
Speaker 1: the same newspaper. Call offers reward for a wild woman.
Speaker 1: The Morning Call will pay one hundred dollars in cash
Speaker 1: to any person or persons delivering to the office of
Speaker 1: this newspaper a wild woman found in a Smith County swamp,
Speaker 1: whose body is naturally covered with brown hair between four
Speaker 1: and five inches long, and whose face is covered with
Speaker 1: hair one inch long, whose hair drops down over her
Speaker 1: wrist us to her knuckle joints, and that on her
Speaker 1: feet trails in the dust as she walks to and fro.
Speaker 1: Provided these conditions are carefully observed. Number one, said wild
Speaker 1: woman must be securely tied and delivered at this office.
Speaker 1: We don't propose to have our whole staff laid up
Speaker 1: in the hospital. She must be brought directly to this
Speaker 1: newspaper office after she is found. Note. If her clothing
Speaker 1: or absence of it is ultra modern, she may be
Speaker 1: taken first to a dress shop and guarbed. However, the
Speaker 1: lady's wishes shall be abided by in this case. If
Speaker 1: she doesn't care well, we aren't particular either. Number three,
Speaker 1: Any and all newspaper interviews with her must be secured
Speaker 1: by representative of the call. We may have to employ
Speaker 1: a special reporter to handle this assignment. Our regular staff
Speaker 1: is skittish of the wild woman. Number four the said
Speaker 1: l must be really wild. That is wilder, wilder than
Speaker 1: the wilder than women usually are. We don't want her.
Speaker 1: If she's just crazy. A lot of people are that way. Okay,
Speaker 1: this gets better as we go. Okay, here's another one.
Speaker 1: I can't see the title of it. Let me zoom out. Okay.
Speaker 1: Smith County Man seeks wild Woman Naked in the Woods, Taylorsville,
Speaker 1: August thirty first. Apparently this was written before the first
Speaker 1: article I read you, but here we go hopes had
Speaker 1: not been abandoned Friday night in the search for a
Speaker 1: wild woman who is reported to be living in the
Speaker 1: swamps a few miles below here. The first reports were
Speaker 1: given last Wednesday, when Pink Walker, a farmer who lives
Speaker 1: below here, said that the woman approached him where he
Speaker 1: was at work in the woods. A search was made,
Speaker 1: but no trace of her was found. Rumors were spread
Speaker 1: Friday that other people living in that vicinity he had
Speaker 1: seen a wild woman. Walker is said to have stated
Speaker 1: that she had long hair, she was manlike, and wore
Speaker 1: very little clothing. Okay, that's another. Here's one more again.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming this is from the call, but it says
Speaker 1: wild woman eludes Smith County posse. All right, this is
Speaker 1: September two, the day after the first article. Smith County's
Speaker 1: wild woman is still at large, roaming the woods of
Speaker 1: that county at will and eating raw rabbits and other tidbits,
Speaker 1: unmolested by the rules of etiquette and unhampered by the
Speaker 1: criticisms of society. Efforts of a posse is said to
Speaker 1: have contained at least one hundred and fifty seekers for
Speaker 1: the wild woman. And determined to catch her, have returned
Speaker 1: to their homes solely disappointed and painfully unrewarded they didn't
Speaker 1: find her. The posse was headed by Sheriff TJ. Tullis
Speaker 1: and Town Marshall Borough Blakeney of Taylorsville in the name
Speaker 1: of the law to capture the wild Woman of Leaf
Speaker 1: River Swamp or know the reason why they now know
Speaker 1: they couldn't find her. The party formed at the home
Speaker 1: of Pa Walker, who reported seeing the demented woman who
Speaker 1: claims to have lived in the swamps the past six years,
Speaker 1: and took to the lowlands of the river at eight
Speaker 1: thirty o clock space fifty paces apart. The party moved
Speaker 1: down the river for several miles to the abandoned sawmills
Speaker 1: site where the young woman claims to have lived, without
Speaker 1: seeing any trace of her. The search was given up
Speaker 1: about ten thirty o'clock and the party made its way
Speaker 1: back to the starting point. It is likely that no
Speaker 1: further effort will be made by a posse to run
Speaker 1: the woman to earth, but that if she reappeared, it
Speaker 1: is planned to secure dogs and put on her trail.
Speaker 1: The woman, extremely muscular, is said to be covered in
Speaker 1: short brown hair. That's the end of that one. And
Speaker 1: here's one more. I don't see the title for it, mitral, Okay,
Speaker 1: the title is wild Woman. I'm sorry. Unmolested by the
Speaker 1: rules of etiquette and unhampered by polite society, A wild
Speaker 1: woman has been eluding all searchers in the woods of
Speaker 1: Smith County, famous now as the wild Woman of Leaf
Speaker 1: River Swamps. She dines on raw rabbits and other tidbits,
Speaker 1: wears little if any clothing, and is covered with short
Speaker 1: brown hair, and has been seen several times but never captured.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the last article. But anyway, I
Speaker 1: thought that was interesting, and you all may not think
Speaker 1: it is. But I have so many people, most of
Speaker 1: them that I know are dead now dead and gone,
Speaker 1: but uncles and aints and just people I grew grew up.
Speaker 1: This team down there around Amy and the tom Bigbee
Speaker 1: River bottoms. That's where my people lived, and I would
Speaker 1: love to have them around and ask them if they
Speaker 1: remember this, because a lot of them were live in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine. Anyway, I thought i'd take a break
Speaker 1: from working at Sunday. I'm trying to crank some workout
Speaker 1: that's due Tuesday. Missed the great camp out at Land
Speaker 1: between the Lakes with some friends because of this damn
Speaker 1: work good griefs driving me crazy. I thought i'd just
Speaker 1: put this podcast out real quick and I don't know
Speaker 1: ten fifteen minutes long. Hope you guys enjoyed it and
Speaker 1: I'll see you on the next video. Thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: not interested in bigfoot research whatsoever. I'm not interested in
Speaker 1: camping out to look for them, gathering evidence of anything
Speaker 1: that has anything to do with looking for them to
Speaker 1: prove they exist. I know they exist. I've seen them.
Speaker 1: There is at least one clan that lives in this
Speaker 1: particular area, and I'm not the only one who has
Speaker 1: seen them. You could say that all the farmers who
Speaker 1: live in this area have seen it, and we all
Speaker 1: know they're here. We choose to leave them alone. I
Speaker 1: am other than a farmer, a paranormal investigator. I live
Speaker 1: on my family farm that has been in my family
Speaker 1: for over two hundred years. This particular house that I
Speaker 1: live in was built in eighteen sixty. Of course, it
Speaker 1: has gone through many updates through the years, and it
Speaker 1: also happens to be haunted. But that's not really why
Speaker 1: I'm sending this This property borders the largest land state
Speaker 1: park in this state. There are thousands of acres of
Speaker 1: forest in this area, which a lot of people find
Speaker 1: surprising for this area of Illinois. Our fields are spread
Speaker 1: out a bit in this area, and instead of taking
Speaker 1: the highway, we would cut up over the ridge and
Speaker 1: end up on the blacktop road that ran behind the park.
Speaker 1: I've heard about bigfoot all my life, and sometimes the
Speaker 1: other farmers in the area would mention seeing one or
Speaker 1: catching a glimpse of one from time to time. I
Speaker 1: didn't pay much attention to it because at the time
Speaker 1: I never had had an encounter. I would sit out
Speaker 1: on the back deck at night, would hear wood knocks
Speaker 1: in an occasional whoop, but I never saw one. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I would take a baseball bat and hit a tree
Speaker 1: or even the railing of the deck, and sometimes I
Speaker 1: would get an answer. In the late nineteen nineties, I
Speaker 1: cut up over the ridge and I was on the
Speaker 1: black top. I was almost to the back entrance of
Speaker 1: the park when this huge creature jumped the fence along
Speaker 1: the park. It was on my right and it stood
Speaker 1: in the road. I had to slam on my brakes
Speaker 1: or I would have hit it, and when I stopped,
Speaker 1: I could not have been more than twenty feet away.
Speaker 1: This thing was huge, and I'm guessing it was seven
Speaker 1: and a half feet tall and three feet across at
Speaker 1: the shoulders. It had dark brown hair all over its
Speaker 1: body except on its face. It had a broad nose,
Speaker 1: wide set eyes, and a protruding forehead, and its arms
Speaker 1: almost appeared to be normal from the shoulders to the elbows,
Speaker 1: but from the elbow to the hands, the arms were long.
Speaker 1: Stood there and we made eye contact for what seemed
Speaker 1: like a full minute. I had the window down on
Speaker 1: my truck, and there was a slight breeze, and I
Speaker 1: caught a whiff of a strong odor. It was almost
Speaker 1: like a bad body odor, like someone who had not
Speaker 1: had a bath in months. It never made a move
Speaker 1: towards me. It just stood there, and then suddenly it
Speaker 1: crossed the road and went down the hill to my left.
Speaker 1: I tried to see where it was going, but the
Speaker 1: trees were so thick and I couldn't see it. It
Speaker 1: was almost like it vanished. The sun was setting, but
Speaker 1: it was not quite dust, so there were still plenty
Speaker 1: of light. The sun that was left was behind me.
Speaker 1: I rolled up my window, and I locked my doors,
Speaker 1: and I turned around and I went back home. When
Speaker 1: I got home, I told my mom what I had seen,
Speaker 1: and she never said a word. She just nodded. Her
Speaker 1: response made me think she had seen it, or at
Speaker 1: least knew of its existence. We never had problems with
Speaker 1: them coming down to the farms and bothering our livestock.
Speaker 1: But I think that's because there are so many deer
Speaker 1: around here and there's no need to come raid a farm.
Speaker 1: But listening to them, you can tell there are more
Speaker 1: than one. You will hear a tree knock coming from
Speaker 1: one direction and it will be answered from another. The
Speaker 1: same with the whoops. This farm sits near the Mississippi River,
Speaker 1: and in December of twenty fifteen, we had what you
Speaker 1: might call a freak of flood. We have flooding in
Speaker 1: the spring, but never in the winter. It was flooding
Speaker 1: our land, so my mother and I moved into a
Speaker 1: house in town. Three weeks later, the floodwaters receded enough
Speaker 1: that we could have moved back, but we decided to
Speaker 1: spend the rest of the winter in town. We had
Speaker 1: a hired hand and he called one day to say
Speaker 1: that he had seen a bigfoot crossing one of the
Speaker 1: pastures near the house. This was the first time he
Speaker 1: had seen one, so he was very excited and even
Speaker 1: a fresh I went down there to check things out
Speaker 1: and to assess any damage from the flood. It had
Speaker 1: snowed a couple of inches the night before, not much.
Speaker 1: My farm hand and I went to the house and
Speaker 1: there were these huge footprints that looked like it had
Speaker 1: walked around the house and had even stopped to look
Speaker 1: into four of the windows. I believe they know who
Speaker 1: belongs here, and since we were gone, it was looking
Speaker 1: for us. I know it sounds silly, but that's my opinion.
Speaker 1: This is the only time I know of that one
Speaker 1: has come to one of our houses. We and the
Speaker 1: other farmers in this area have not been bothered by them,
Speaker 1: except for a sighting now and then one either crossing
Speaker 1: a field or walking along the woodline or along the river.
Speaker 1: Sometimes while out hunting there will be reports of a sighting.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying we see them every day, but we
Speaker 1: do see them. When they decide to come out of
Speaker 1: the woods. They pretty much leave us alone and we
Speaker 1: don't bother them. We've been fortunate that they have not
Speaker 1: bothered our homes are our live stock. On October twenty third,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, my farm hand Mike, and myself went to
Speaker 1: pick up some per simmons because we had had a
Speaker 1: frost a couple of days before and that's the best
Speaker 1: time to pick them up. I also wanted to see
Speaker 1: if there were any pawpaws left, and even though it
Speaker 1: was a bit late in the year for them, any
Speaker 1: that were left will fall off the tree and the
Speaker 1: deer and other animals are going to get them. But
Speaker 1: I figured it was worth a look. Mike and I
Speaker 1: hopped into his truck and headed for the pawpall trees
Speaker 1: because they were closer. When we got there, we saw
Speaker 1: that there were some on the ground and some on
Speaker 1: the trees. Mike grabbed a ladder out of his truck,
Speaker 1: and as he was setting it up, he pointed to
Speaker 1: a tree stump about halfway up the small hill and
Speaker 1: said that he didn't remember that stump being there. I
Speaker 1: don't remember seeing it either. Mike set up the ladder
Speaker 1: and as he was picking off the tree, I was
Speaker 1: picking some up off the ground. I picked a few up.
Speaker 1: I straightened up and I was hitting the head with
Speaker 1: a paw Paul oh Crap. I heard Mike say we
Speaker 1: looked up the hill and that stump was gone. I
Speaker 1: told Mike to quickly gather up what he had and
Speaker 1: get in the truck. He grabbed the ladder and he
Speaker 1: threw it into the bed of his truck. I stopped
Speaker 1: and started digging through a backpack. We heard a grunt
Speaker 1: just inside the tree line thirty feet away, and we
Speaker 1: heard a big crack, like something had stepped on a
Speaker 1: large stick. I was still fumbling through my backpack, and
Speaker 1: he was urging me to hurry up. I was trying
Speaker 1: to hurry up, but I couldn't find my phone. Who
Speaker 1: the hell are you gonna call? He asked, The phone
Speaker 1: has a camera on it. I said, apparently I had
Speaker 1: left the phone at home. Though I had some venison
Speaker 1: jerky with me that I had brought for the day.
Speaker 1: I pulled it out and I stopped and laid some
Speaker 1: on a stump, and then I headed for the truck
Speaker 1: and we left. Mike was in his stairs. I knew
Speaker 1: something was wrong with that stump. It had eyes, he said.
Speaker 1: He kept asking me how I could be so calm.
Speaker 1: I finally persuaded him to stop and let me dry,
Speaker 1: because I honestly thought he was going to wreck. He
Speaker 1: stopped and I drove the rest of the way to
Speaker 1: Mike's house, and then I walked home from there, it
Speaker 1: was only about a mile. The next day, I drove
Speaker 1: out to the Pawpall Pass to see if I could
Speaker 1: find anything. I had left a five gallon bucket with
Speaker 1: a few pawpoles in it. The bucket was tipped over
Speaker 1: and the paw poles were gone, along with the jerky.
Speaker 1: I looked around for footprints or anything else that I
Speaker 1: could find, but I didn't see anything. I drove out
Speaker 1: to the Presimon trees but didn't get out of the
Speaker 1: truck because some of the lower branches had been broken off.
Speaker 1: They looked almost like they had been twisted, and you
Speaker 1: could tell these were fresh breaks. We had not had
Speaker 1: any storms or high winds, so I can only guess
Speaker 1: at what broke them off. I never got out of
Speaker 1: the truck and I went home. In July, I had
Speaker 1: to have some work done on my truck. I took
Speaker 1: it to my cousin who has a shop in the
Speaker 1: next county. He's a good mechanic, and when he fixes something,
Speaker 1: he does it right. He also gives me a break
Speaker 1: on the labor charges. He had my truck for a
Speaker 1: week because he had to wait on some parts to
Speaker 1: come in, And when I went to pick up the truck,
Speaker 1: he told me that he was going to the Great
Speaker 1: Smoky Mountains for a vacation to stay in a cabin
Speaker 1: owned by his sister. He had seen bears and other
Speaker 1: critters on his last trip there, and so jokingly I
Speaker 1: asked him if he had ever seen a bigfoot, because
Speaker 1: there are a lot of sightings down there. He went
Speaker 1: totally quiet. I had to coax him to tell me
Speaker 1: what was wrong, and he asked me if I believed
Speaker 1: in bigfoot, and when I said yes, that I had
Speaker 1: seen him, he told me about when he and his
Speaker 1: wife and his son went mushroom hunting in the hills
Speaker 1: on the back of our property just last May. The
Speaker 1: three of them had been standing on a hill when
Speaker 1: one walked across the clearing below them. He said it
Speaker 1: was dark and it was walking on two legs. He
Speaker 1: raised his binoculars, but by the time he got them
Speaker 1: out to look at the creature, all he saw was
Speaker 1: its back. He told his wife and son not to
Speaker 1: make any noise and to walk quietly back to the truck.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to draw the attention of the creature.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't the only bigfoot my cousin had seen.
Speaker 1: He was raised in this area. They lived on a
Speaker 1: farm up on the ridge. He didn't lean towards farming,
Speaker 1: so he got a job in town when he was
Speaker 1: nin eighteen. He worked late one night until one am.
Speaker 1: On his way home, he was about a mile from
Speaker 1: home when one came out of the woods and crossed
Speaker 1: in front of him. It stopped for a moment and
Speaker 1: then went into the woods on the other side of
Speaker 1: the road. It scared him so bad that he didn't
Speaker 1: drive on that road at night again for two years. Instead,
Speaker 1: he took a longer route home. He never told anyone
Speaker 1: about that until he and his family saw the one
Speaker 1: in May, and on the drive home he told them
Speaker 1: all about it. I'm guessing he felt better knowing he
Speaker 1: was not the only one who had seen a bigfoot.
Speaker 1: The area where these farms is are isolated. The nearest
Speaker 1: town in any direction is forty minutes away. The Mississippi,
Speaker 1: Missouri and the Illinois rivers are not far away either.
Speaker 1: There are acres and acres of woods It's a great
Speaker 1: area for bigfoot to live and hide and not be
Speaker 1: seen for long periods of time. There are plenty of
Speaker 1: deer berries and other sources of food for them, and
Speaker 1: this is probably why they've not rated our farms. But
Speaker 1: we also know that these things are dangerous. They have
Speaker 1: enormous strength, and at any time they could turn on
Speaker 1: us if they had a mind to live and let live.
Speaker 1: Only go so far when dealing with a non human creature,
Speaker 1: but we give them a wide path. Not long ago,
Speaker 1: the man down the road told me about being in
Speaker 1: his field checking his corn when one appeared out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: He was almost face to face with it, and it
Speaker 1: shook him up pretty good. I grew up on this farm.
Speaker 1: I was born on it. I played in these woods
Speaker 1: and I hunted in them since I was fourteen. I
Speaker 1: fished in the river. I've been all over this area.
Speaker 1: I never saw one until I became an adult. The
Speaker 1: first encounter, although it didn't traumatize me, changed my life.
Speaker 1: It made me aware that there are things in this
Speaker 1: world that you once believed did not exist. That's a
Speaker 1: strange statement coming from someone who chases ghosts. I know that,
Speaker 1: but the ghosts seemed far more normal to me because
Speaker 1: I had been around them all my life. My dad
Speaker 1: was from Arkansas. I remember him telling me when I
Speaker 1: would be getting ready to go play in the woods,
Speaker 1: be careful, don't let them boogers get you. I never
Speaker 1: took him seriously because I always thought he meant the
Speaker 1: Boogeyman and I didn't believe in it. Little did I
Speaker 1: know that he is real and sign spooking