WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.560 Now one you're putting. I got a string going on here. 2 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:07.280 Something just killing my dog. Something killed your dog, my dog. 3 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:09.279 We're flying through the or over the tree. I don't 4 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:14.359 know how it did it, Okay, damn, and I'm really confused. 5 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:16.440 All I saw was my dog coming over the fence, 6 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.160 and he was dead once you hit the ground. Like. 7 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:20.079 I didn't see any cars. All I saw was my 8 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:38.880 dog coming over the fence. Say, what are you putting? 9 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:43.679 We got some wonder or something crawling around out here? 10 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:51.520 Did you see what it was? 11 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:51.880 It was? 12 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:54.159 It was seeing enough. I'm out here looking through the 13 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:56.039 window now and I don't see anything. I don't want 14 00:00:56.039 --> 00:01:03.960 to go outside. Jesus quiet, you better Hello, get the 15 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:06.439 Boddy out here, quin, I'm out there. I thought of 16 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:09.480 a mention about Tech forty nine. I don't know. Easy 17 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:11.519 ann out there. Yeah, I'm walking right heady. 18 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.480 Hey everybody today, I've got a bonus episode for you. 19 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:18.439 But before we get into the story, I want to 20 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.840 take just a minute and talk about something that I've 21 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:24.480 honestly just been taking for granted. So I've got another show. 22 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:28.560 It's called Backwoods Bigfoot Stories. Now. I know I've mentioned 23 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:30.400 it here before, and I just kind of assumed that 24 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:32.879 all of you knew about it, But over the last 25 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:35.040 few weeks, I've had several of you reach out to 26 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:38.280 me through email and messages on social media saying that 27 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:41.879 you just found Backwoods Bigfoot Stories and that you absolutely 28 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.439 love it. And every time I get one of those messages, 29 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:47.599 I think to myself, Man, how many other folks in 30 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:50.519 this audience don't even know it exists. So that's why 31 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.760 I decided to put this bonus episode together. What you're 32 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:55.760 about to hear is a story that I'll also be 33 00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:59.480 sharing over on Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, and it's a really 34 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:01.680 good examp sample of the kind of content you're going 35 00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:04.640 to find over there. These aren't the same stories I 36 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:08.319 share here on Sasquatch Odyssey. Now, I have shared some 37 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:11.719 of the Bigfoot Country episodes in both places, but the 38 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:15.280 vast majority of what's on Backwoods Bigfoot Stories can't be 39 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:18.560 heard anywhere else. We're talking over one hundred and eighty 40 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:21.800 episodes that are exclusive to that show. That's a lot 41 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:24.000 of stories you're missing out on if you haven't checked 42 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:24.560 it out yet. 43 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:26.599 So here's what I want you to do. 44 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:29.520 Click the link right here in the show notes, or 45 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:31.680 just go to wherever you're listening to me right now 46 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:35.840 and search Backwoods Bigfoot stories. When you find it, hit 47 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:39.520 that follow or subscribe button, turn on your auto downloads, 48 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:42.520 and just let all those amazing stories start rolling in. 49 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.000 I promise you you're not going to be disappointed. All right, now, 50 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:50.400 let's get into this one, Dear Brian. I've gone back 51 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:52.360 and forth about writing this for a long time. 52 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:53.360 Years. 53 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:56.759 Actually, I've started this email more times than I can count, 54 00:02:57.360 --> 00:02:59.759 got a paragraph or two in, and then deleted the 55 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:03.560 whole thing every single time, because how do you tell 56 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:06.159 someone a story like this without sounding like you've completely 57 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:10.639 lost your mind? But I heard your podcast Sasquatch Odyssey, 58 00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:13.479 and something about the way you talk about these creatures 59 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:17.280 told me you'd understand. You wouldn't laugh, you wouldn't try 60 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:19.560 to explain it away, You just listen. 61 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:21.039 So here it is. 62 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:24.759 My name is Thomas. I'm fifty three years old. I 63 00:03:24.840 --> 00:03:27.159 live on one hundred and sixty acres in the Appalachian 64 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:30.759 Foothills of eastern Tennessee, not far from the Smoky Mountains, 65 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.439 and I've spent the better part of my life sharing 66 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:37.039 this land with a family of sasquatch, not just seeing them, 67 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:39.800 not just hearing them howl in the distance on some 68 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:45.560 cold November night, living alongside them, watching them grow, watching 69 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:50.240 them raise their young, and being watched right back. I 70 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.639 want to be real with you, Brian. I'm not some 71 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.199 guy who caught a glimpse of something dark moving through 72 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.159 the trees and let his imagination run wild for the 73 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:01.759 next four decades. This isn't a story about a shadow. 74 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:05.080 It's not about a strange sound, or a blurry photograph 75 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:07.840 or a line of big footprints that could have been anything. 76 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:11.360 This is a story that spans over forty years of 77 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:15.439 my life. It involves three generations of my family, and 78 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:18.879 it started with my grandfather, a bear trap and an 79 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:23.079 act of simple human kindness that changed everything. I don't 80 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:25.360 expect you to just take my word for it. I 81 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:29.199 know how this sounds, Believe me, I know, but I'm 82 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:31.439 asking you to hear me out all the way to 83 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:34.000 the end, and then you can decide for yourself what 84 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:38.560 you think. My grandfather's name was Walter, but everybody called 85 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:42.360 him Walt. He was a quiet man, not the dramatic, 86 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:45.680 mysterious kind of quiet that you see in movies, just 87 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:47.879 a man who didn't see much point in talking when 88 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:51.199 there wasn't anything useful to say. He ran cattle and 89 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:54.319 grew tobacco on that farm from nineteen fifty two until 90 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:57.560 the day he died. Worked the land every single day, 91 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:03.199 Sundays included. He knew every hollow, every ridge, every creek 92 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:05.360 bed on that property like he knew the creases on 93 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:09.279 his own hands. My grandmother was named June, and she 94 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:12.959 was Walt's opposite in almost every way. She talked enough 95 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.600 for both of them, and Walt seemed perfectly content with 96 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:20.240 that arrangement. She was warm, funny, sharp as attack well 97 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:23.120 into her eighties, and she made the best biscuits and 98 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:26.920 gravy you've ever tasted in your life. I'm not exaggerating. 99 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:30.639 People drove from two counties over for those biscuits. I 100 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:32.959 spent every summer on that farm from the time I 101 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:36.360 was five years old. My parents lived about forty five 102 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:40.199 minutes away in Knoxville. Every June, they'd load me up 103 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:42.800 in the car, drive me out to Grandpa Walt's place, 104 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:45.600 and I wouldn't come home until the last week of August, 105 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:49.800 sometimes not even then. Those summers were everything to me, 106 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:52.279 And I'm not just saying that because of what I'm 107 00:05:52.279 --> 00:05:55.279 about to tell you. That farm was magic all on 108 00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:59.000 its own, one hundred and sixty acres of rolling pasture 109 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:03.879 backed up against thousands of acres of national forest, dense hardwood, timber, 110 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:08.600 steep terrain, rhododendron thickets so tangled you couldn't push through 111 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:11.800 them with a machete, the kind of wild country where 112 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.560 a man could walk for three days and never cross 113 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:17.319 a paved road. And as a kid, I had the 114 00:06:17.399 --> 00:06:20.839 run of it. I'd eat breakfast with Grandma June, lace 115 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:24.160 up my boots, and disappear into those hills until supper time. 116 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:30.680 Nobody worried, nobody called different time, different world entirely. But 117 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:33.759 I need to take you back before my time, back 118 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:36.680 to the spring of nineteen sixty. I wasn't born yet. 119 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.079 This part of the story comes directly from my grandfather, 120 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:44.639 and later separately from my grandmother. They both told it 121 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:47.680 to me independently over the years, and they never once 122 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:51.959 contradicted each other on a single detail, not one. It 123 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:56.879 was early April, cool mornings, warm afternoons. The dogwoods were 124 00:06:56.920 --> 00:07:00.279 just starting to pop white along the ridge lines. Trample 125 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:02.920 Walt was walking the fence line along the northern boundary 126 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:05.839 of the property. That stretch runs right up against the 127 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:10.399 National Forest. It's remote, no neighbors for miles in that direction, 128 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:14.439 nothing but timber and mountains and silence. He heard it 129 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:18.040 before he saw anything. A sound, he told me. He 130 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:21.480 couldn't place it. And my grandfather could identify every animal 131 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:25.560 in those mountains by its call, every bird, every frog. 132 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:28.839 He knew the difference between a bobcat's scream and a 133 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:31.959 fox bark at a quarter mile. But this sound didn't 134 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:35.079 fit anything in his experience. It was somewhere between a 135 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:38.600 moan and a cry, low and guttural, but with a 136 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:41.480 pitch to it that carried through the timber. He said 137 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:45.279 it had a quality that he could only describe as anguish, raw, 138 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:49.399 unfiltered anguish, and it made the hair stand straight up 139 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:53.040 on his forearms. Now, my grandfather was not a man 140 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:56.720 who spooked. He served two years in Korea. He'd faced 141 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:00.319 down charging bulls, he'd killed rattlesnakes with a hoe while 142 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:03.519 barely raising his pulse. But he told me that sound 143 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:06.720 made him stop in his tracks, made him seriously consider 144 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:10.160 turning around and walking back to the house. He didn't, though, 145 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:13.480 that wasn't who he was if something was hurt on 146 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:15.959 or near his land, he was going to find out 147 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.160 what it was. He followed the sound about two hundred 148 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:22.120 yards past the fence line, into the thick timber on 149 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:25.439 the federal side, down into a little ravine where a 150 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.800 seasonal creek ran through a tangle of dead fall and laurel, 151 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:32.120 and that's where he found it. There was a bear trap, 152 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:35.679 an old one, a big steel leg holed trap with 153 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:38.080 jaws that could snap a two inch saple and clean 154 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:41.759 in half. These traps were already illegal by then, but 155 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:44.000 they still turned up in the woods from time to time. 156 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:48.720 Poachers set them, left them for weeks, sometimes forgot about 157 00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:53.360 them entirely. My grandfather despised those traps. He'd pulled them 158 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:55.679 out of the ground and destroy them whenever he found one. 159 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:59.200 Had a whole collection of rusted ones hanging on nails 160 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:02.320 in the back of his bond. But this trap wasn't empty. 161 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:06.279 Something was caught in it. When my grandfather described this 162 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:09.200 moment to me, and he described it many times over 163 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:13.159 the years, he would always get very still. His eyes 164 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:16.399 would drift somewhere far away, like he was standing back 165 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:19.639 in that ravine all over again. His voice would drop 166 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:23.039 to just above a whisper like the memory still demanded 167 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:26.960 that kind of reverence even after all those decades. It 168 00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:29.559 was a young one, that is what he always called it, 169 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:32.559 the young one for the rest of his life. That 170 00:09:32.679 --> 00:09:35.279 is how he referred to it, never anything else. 171 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:36.279 He said. 172 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:39.000 It was maybe four and a half feet tall, covered 173 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:42.399 head to foot in dark reddish brown hair, not fur. 174 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:47.120 He was very specific about that distinction, hair like the 175 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:50.840 hair on a man's arm, only thicker, longer, and covering 176 00:09:50.919 --> 00:09:54.679 the entire body. The build was lean but muscular, even 177 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:58.039 on what was clearly a juvenile. The arms hung longer 178 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:01.399 than they should have, the shoulders were abroad, the chest 179 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:03.720 was deep, and it was sitting on the ground with 180 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:06.440 its right foot clamped in a steel leg holed trap, 181 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:09.600 looking up at my grandfather with an expression he said, 182 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:15.159 was absolutely unmistakable. It was terrified, but it understood. It 183 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.919 understood that the man standing ten feet away was either 184 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.440 going to help it or hurt it, and there was 185 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:24.039 nothing it could do about either outcome. Here's the part 186 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:27.919 that always gets me. The young creature didn't lunge, It 187 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.840 didn't scream, bare its teeth or try to drag itself away. 188 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:32.519 Through the brush. 189 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:38.360 It just sat there, breathing hard, trembling, Its dark eyes 190 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.279 locked onto my grandfather's face with an intensity he said 191 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:44.840 he had never experienced from any animal in his entire life, 192 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:47.440 because it was not looking at him the way an 193 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:50.240 animal looks at a person. It was looking at him 194 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:53.720 the way a person looks at another person. My grandfather 195 00:10:53.799 --> 00:10:55.639 stood there for what he estimated. 196 00:10:55.320 --> 00:10:56.120 Was a full minute. 197 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.679 Neither of them moved, neither of them made a sound. 198 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:02.679 He said he could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, 199 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:06.519 the creek trickling through the rocks behind him, a woodpecker 200 00:11:06.600 --> 00:11:09.720 working a dead oak somewhere up the ridge. The whole 201 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:13.320 forest seemed to be holding its breath right along with them. Then, 202 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:16.120 very slowly, he set down the fence pliers he had 203 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:21.720 been carrying. He held both hands up, palms out open, empty, 204 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.879 and he said, out loud, in a calm and steady voice, Easy, now, 205 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:28.279 I ain't gonna hurt you. 206 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:29.519 Let me help. 207 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:32.559 He told me later that he felt foolish talking to 208 00:11:32.679 --> 00:11:35.559 it like that, like talking to a dog or a horse, 209 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:38.320 But something in those eyes made him feel like the 210 00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:42.279 words might actually mean something, like they might actually land. 211 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:46.519 He approached one step at a time. The creature tensed 212 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:51.600 but didn't move. It's breathing quickened its hands, and my 213 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:55.159 grandfather always emphasized the hands because they were large but 214 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:59.519 unmistakably hand shaped fingers, and all those hands were pressed 215 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:02.000 flat against the ground on either side of its body, 216 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:06.120 ready to push off, ready to bolt, But it didn't. 217 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:07.320 It waited. 218 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:11.519 My grandfather knelt beside the trap. The jaws had clamped 219 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:14.480 just above the ankle, cutting through hair and into skin. 220 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:18.519 There was blood, not a lot, but enough to tell 221 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:21.240 him the trap had been holding for a while, hours 222 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:25.000 at least, maybe longer. He knew how these traps worked. 223 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:28.240 You had to press both spring levers down simultaneously to 224 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:31.639 open the jaws. It took strength, and it took nohow 225 00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:35.279 and even then, getting a panicked animal free without making 226 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:39.120 the injury worse was tricky business. But Grandpa Walt had 227 00:12:39.159 --> 00:12:42.840 done it before, for dogs, for a young deer once, 228 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:46.039 even for a neighbor's calf that had gotten tangled in 229 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.480 a stretch of old barbed wire rigged to a spring mechanism. 230 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:53.080 He put one boot on one spring lever, the other 231 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:56.120 boot on the opposite side. He pressed down with his 232 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:59.759 full weight, and the jaws opened. The creature yanked its 233 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:03.279 foot free, and then it did something my grandfather carried 234 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:06.039 with him for the rest of his life. It didn't run, 235 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:09.799 not right away. It pulled its injured foot close to 236 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:12.919 its body and cradled it with both hands. Then it 237 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:16.000 looked up at my grandfather one more time, held his 238 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:21.279 gaze for three maybe four seconds, and it made a sound, soft, 239 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.519 almost like a hum, low and brief, like a single 240 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:30.279 note played on a cello. Then it turned and it 241 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:33.840 was gone up the slope and into the laurel thicket 242 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:36.559 so fast that my grandfather said if he'd blinked, he 243 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:39.559 would have missed it entirely for something that had been 244 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:42.679 trapped and injured. It moved through that brush like smoke 245 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:46.080 through a screen door. He stood there alone in the ravine, 246 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:49.799 the empty trap at his feet, blood on the leaves, 247 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:51.679 his heart about to beat out. 248 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:52.159 Of his chest. 249 00:13:52.919 --> 00:13:56.840 And Walter Pritchard, the quietest man in Severe County, walked 250 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:00.320 back to his farmhouse and told his wife everything. Grandma 251 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:03.480 June didn't believe him, not at first, and I don't 252 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.440 hold that against her one bit. If my husband came 253 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:08.080 in from the fence line and told me he'd just 254 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:11.240 freed a juvenile bigfoot from a bear trap. I'd probably 255 00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:14.000 check him for a fever two. But Walt wasn't the 256 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:17.200 kind of man who made things up. He wasn't a storyteller. 257 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:21.159 He wasn't a practical joker. In thirty years of marriage, 258 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:23.519 June told me she could count on one hand the 259 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:27.039 number of times he'd exaggerated anything. So while she didn't 260 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:29.279 know what to make of his account, she didn't dismiss 261 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:32.919 it entirely either. She filed it away wait and see. 262 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.799 She didn't have to wait long. About three weeks after 263 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:39.399 the trap incident, Grandpa Walt was sitting on the back 264 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:43.879 porch after supper. This was his nightly ritel every evening, 265 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:46.200 once the dishes were done and the farm was settled. 266 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:48.600 He'd sit out there in his old wooden rocker with 267 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:50.720 a cup of coffee and watch the light fade off 268 00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:55.240 the mountains. Sometimes June would join him. Most nights he 269 00:14:55.440 --> 00:14:59.320 was alone and stay tuned for more sasquatch ot to 270 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:06.759 see back after these messages. The back porch faced north, 271 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:09.879 looking out across about sixty yards of mode grass to 272 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.360 a split rail fence, then an open hayfield that sloped 273 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:16.480 gently uphill for maybe two hundred yards before hitting the 274 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:19.720 tree line. That tree line was the edge of everything 275 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.240 beyond it. The forest climbed up into the smokies and 276 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:26.799 didn't stop for a very long time. That evening, right 277 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:30.080 at dusk, Grampa Walt noticed something standing at the edge 278 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.759 of those trees, just a shape at first, a dark 279 00:15:33.960 --> 00:15:37.039 upright shape partially obscured by the trunk of a big 280 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:40.480 tulip poplar. Could have been a stump, could have been 281 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:44.399 a shadow, but stumps don't move, and shadows don't shift 282 00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:47.279 their weight from one foot to the other. He sat 283 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:50.919 perfectly still and watched the shape stepped out from behind 284 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:54.519 the tree, just one step enough to clear the trunk, 285 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:58.120 and even at two hundred yards in fading light, my 286 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:01.279 grandfather knew exactly what he was lying looking at the 287 00:16:01.399 --> 00:16:06.320 young one, same height, same reddish brown coloring, standing there 288 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:08.840 at the edge of his property, looking down the slope 289 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:12.519 toward the farmhouse, looking at him. They watched each other 290 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:13.720 for maybe five minutes. 291 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:14.919 Neither moved. 292 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.679 The light continued to fade, and then, just as the 293 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:22.039 last glow of sunset slipped behind the western ridge, the 294 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:26.200 creature turned sideways and melted back into the timber, gone, 295 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:29.960 like it had never been there at all. My grandfather 296 00:16:30.039 --> 00:16:32.679 didn't say anything to June that night. He wanted to 297 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:35.120 be sure, He wanted to know it wasn't a one 298 00:16:35.240 --> 00:16:38.360 time thing, that the creature hadn't just wandered past on 299 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:41.879 its way somewhere else. So the next evening he was 300 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:45.639 back on that porch, same chair, same cup of coffee, 301 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:50.279 same quiet patience, and right at dusk there it was again, 302 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:57.279 same spot, same tree, same careful posture, half hidden, half visible. 303 00:16:57.960 --> 00:16:58.320 Watching. 304 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:02.759 This went on for six straight evenings. Every single night, 305 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.559 right at the edge of dark, the creature appeared at 306 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:10.519 the tree line, never closer, never farther, always within maybe 307 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:15.079 thirty yards of that big tulip poplar, always watching. On 308 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:17.799 the seventh night, my grandfather did something that I believe 309 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:21.960 changed the entire trajectory of this story. Something so simple 310 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:25.160 it almost seems too small to matter, But it mattered. 311 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:29.279 It mattered enormously. He left food out. He took a 312 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:32.160 tin pie plate from the kitchen, loaded it with leftover 313 00:17:32.279 --> 00:17:35.000 corn bread, some apple slices, and a few pieces of 314 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:37.880 cooked pork from supper. He walked it out to the 315 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:41.000 split rail fence, set it on a post, and walked 316 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:44.240 back to the porch. Then he sat down and waited. 317 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:47.680 The creature appeared at the tree line right on schedule. 318 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:52.079 It stood there longer than usual that night, fifteen minutes, 319 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:55.839 maybe twenty. My grandfather could tell it was studying the 320 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:58.480 plate on the fence post. He could see the subtle 321 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:04.240 movement of its head back and forth. Plate Man, Plate Man. 322 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:05.880 It didn't come down. 323 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:09.559 When full dark settled in, it slipped away the same 324 00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:13.400 as always. But in the morning, when Grandpa walked out 325 00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:17.720 to check, the plate was empty, licked clean, and sitting 326 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:20.440 on the ground, not on the fence post where he'd 327 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.759 left it. It had been moved carefully, not knocked off 328 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:28.839 by a raccoon or a possum. Picked up, emptied, and 329 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:32.799 sat down in the grass. That was the beginning. From 330 00:18:32.839 --> 00:18:35.839 that night on, my grandfather left food out every evening. 331 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:40.759 He varied what he put on the plate, corn bread, biscuits, fruit, 332 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:46.319 leftover meat, beans, sweet potatoes. He was testing, he told me, 333 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:49.640 trying to figure out what it preferred. Turns out it 334 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:54.079 liked everything, but it especially liked fruit. Apples, pears, and 335 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:59.039 peaches would disappear first every single time. After about two 336 00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.400 weeks of this routine, the creature started coming closer, not 337 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:04.559 all the way to the fence, but down the hayfield, 338 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.640 maybe halfway. It had emerged from the tree line, walked 339 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:11.480 down the slope with a cautious loping gait, and stop, 340 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:16.720 squat down on its haunches. Wait, watch the porch, Watch 341 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:20.759 my grandfather. And eventually, once it seemed satisfied that no 342 00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:23.759 threat was coming, it had continued down to the fence, 343 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:28.079 take the food, and retreat back up the hill. Grandpa 344 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:31.000 Walt told June about the return visits after that first week. 345 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:35.279 This time she didn't question them because by then she'd 346 00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:38.680 seen something herself. She'd been hanging laundry on the line 347 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:42.200 one afternoon. The clothes line ran along the east side 348 00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:44.960 of the house, facing a different section of tree line 349 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.759 than what Walt watched from the porch. She had a 350 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:49.759 wet bed sheet in her hands, and she looked up 351 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:52.519 and there was something standing in the shadows about one 352 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:56.680 hundred yards out, taller than the young one, much taller, 353 00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:01.440 she estimated six and a half maybe seven feet, and darker, 354 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:05.359 almost black, brought across the shoulders like a barrel. 355 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:06.880 It was watching her. 356 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:09.480 She said, she froze with that wet sheet in her 357 00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:13.480 hands and just stared. The thing stared back, and then 358 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:15.799 it simply turned and walked into the forest with a 359 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:18.759 stride so long and so quiet that she said it 360 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:21.839 covered thirty feet in about four steps and made less 361 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.400 noise than a cat crossing a carpet. June told Walt 362 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:28.960 that evening, and his response was immediate, that ain't the 363 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:32.920 young one. That's a different one entirely. That's when they 364 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:36.200 both understood there wasn't just one creature on their land. 365 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:40.680 There were at least two, probably more, moving through the 366 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:43.799 forests around the property, using the Pritchard Farm as part 367 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:47.519 of a larger territory, a safe harbor, a place where 368 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:50.799 food appeared on fence posts and the humans kept their distance, 369 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:54.039 And somehow, because of what Walt had done with that 370 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:58.440 bear trap, they decided this place could be trusted. The 371 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:01.359 year was nineteen eighty six. I was five years old, 372 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:03.839 and it was my first real summer on the farm. 373 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:09.039 I'd visited before quick weekend trips holidays, but that was 374 00:21:09.079 --> 00:21:11.079 the first year my parents dropped me off for the 375 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:15.880 full stretch late June to late August. An eternity when 376 00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:19.880 you're five, a whole universe of time. I remember the 377 00:21:19.960 --> 00:21:23.200 drive out the highway giving way to two lane blacktop, 378 00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:27.400 the blacktop giving way to gravel, the gravel winding up 379 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:30.119 through the hollow to the farmhouse, which sat on a 380 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:33.000 gentle rise with the barn behind it, and the mountains 381 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:36.759 stacked up like blue gray waves in every direction. Grandma 382 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:38.559 June met me on the porch with a glass of 383 00:21:38.599 --> 00:21:41.920 sweet tea and a hug that smelled like flour and lavender. 384 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:44.960 Grandpa Walt was in the barn, and when he came 385 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:47.240 in for dinner, he put his big rough hand on 386 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:51.000 top of my head and said, boys, getting tall. That 387 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:53.920 was Walt's version of a welcome speech. I didn't know 388 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:57.319 about the creatures yet, not that first week, maybe not 389 00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:00.400 even the second. I was too busy being five years 390 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.200 old on a farm. There were barn cats to chase, cows, 391 00:22:04.279 --> 00:22:07.839 to stare at a creek, to splash through a tire 392 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.039 swing hanging from an oak tree that I could ride 393 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:13.920 for hours without getting bored. But I noticed things. I 394 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.640 noticed that every evening Grandpa Walt would fix a plate 395 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:18.880 of food and carry it out past the fence line. 396 00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:22.839 I asked Grandma June about it once, and she hesitated 397 00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:26.839 just for a second, then smiled and said, your grandpa 398 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:30.119 likes to feed the wildlife, honey. I noticed that some 399 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:33.240 mornings there were big indentations in the soft ground near 400 00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:37.000 the barn, like footprints, but bigger than any boot I'd 401 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:40.200