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 continues on.
Speaker 1: We will begin our search. We will not use dogs
Speaker 1: to track her down, but should it become necessary in
Speaker 1: order to locate her, we will probably secure some good hounds.
Speaker 1: Some of this is real faded on the article, so
Speaker 1: I'm having a strain to read it. The search for
Speaker 1: the wild woman reported to be inhabiting the swamps near
Speaker 1: Taylor Taylorsville follows the account which PA Walker, a farmer
Speaker 1: tells of having seen such a creature and talked with
Speaker 1: her several days ago at his farm. According to mister
Speaker 1: Walker's description, the woman, who was nude except for a
Speaker 1: cloth girdle, was covered from head to foot with hair
Speaker 1: about four inches long. From mister Walker's description, she has
Speaker 1: more the appearance of an animal than a human being.
Speaker 1: Mister Walker states that he questioned the woman when she
Speaker 1: suddenly appeared near him at the edge of the swamp
Speaker 1: where he was chopping wood. She told the Smith County
Speaker 1: farmer that she was reared in Alabama about six years
Speaker 1: ago and became mentally deranged. Since that time. She has
Speaker 1: reported to have said she has lived in the Smith
Speaker 1: County swamp, where she has shot her food and eaten
Speaker 1: it raw. We have heard no definite reports of the
Speaker 1: woman since she was seen by mister Walker, Marshall Blakeney
Speaker 1: told the call, but we have reason to believe that
Speaker 1: she is still in the swamp where she was first reported.
Speaker 1: That's the first article. The second thing of the Gentleman
Speaker 1: sent me is another article says big Posse fails to
Speaker 1: find trace of wild woman. If there's a wild woman
Speaker 1: in Leaf River Swamp in Smith County, one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty citizens from that and adjoining counties failed Sunday morning
Speaker 1: to find hair nor height of her, and from all reports,
Speaker 1: she has plenty of the lighter and maybe presumed sooner
Speaker 1: or later to shed some of that hair near her lair.
Speaker 1: Gathering at the home of Pa Walker, Smith County farmer,
Speaker 1: who reported several days ago that the wild woman had
Speaker 1: visited him at his farm, a large posse led by
Speaker 1: Sheriff TJ. Tullis, Smith County, began a search for the
Speaker 1: harry Swamp Dennison. About eight o'clock, members of the posse
Speaker 1: stationed themselves fifty paces apart and proceeded up to swamp
Speaker 1: until they reached a vacated mill house, where the woman
Speaker 1: told mister Walker she spent her nights. Nowhere was there
Speaker 1: a trace of the wild woman found, and before eleven
Speaker 1: o'clock the posse decided that it might be engaged in
Speaker 1: a wild goose chase instead of one for a wallwoman,
Speaker 1: and abandoned the search. No further efforts will be made
Speaker 1: to apprehend the weird creature, officers state unless she again
Speaker 1: makes her appearance. In such a case, dogs will be
Speaker 1: secured and put on her trail. Failure of the posse
Speaker 1: to find the wall woman was the greatest disappointment in
Speaker 1: the lives of a lot of Laurel County people who
Speaker 1: have been preparing themselves for a look at the unusual lady.
Speaker 1: From all the descriptions, she is covered from head to
Speaker 1: foot with brown hair about four or five inches long.
Speaker 1: Her face is covered with hair two inches long, and
Speaker 1: for six years, as the wild Woman's story goes, she
Speaker 1: has been living in Leaf River swamp, shooting her food
Speaker 1: and eating at raw That's a second article. Here's another article,
Speaker 1: and I don't I guess it's from the same newspaper.
Speaker 1: Call offers reward for a wild woman. The Morning Call
Speaker 1: will pay one hundred dollars in cash to any person
Speaker 1: or persons delivering to the office of this newspaper a
Speaker 1: wild woman found in a Smith County swamp, whose body
Speaker 1: is naturally covered with brown hair between four and five
Speaker 1: inches long, and whose face is covered with hair one
Speaker 1: inch long, whose hair drops down over her wrist us
Speaker 1: to her knuckle joints, and that on her feet trails
Speaker 1: in the dust as she walks to and fro. Provided
Speaker 1: these conditions are carefully observed, Number one, said wild woman
Speaker 1: must be securely tied and delivered at this office. We
Speaker 1: don't propose to have our whole staff laid up in
Speaker 1: the hospital. She must be brought directly to this newspaper
Speaker 1: office after she is found. Note. If her clothing or
Speaker 1: absence of it is ultra modern, she may be taken
Speaker 1: first to a dress shop and guarbed. However, the lady's
Speaker 1: wishes shall be abided by in this case. If she
Speaker 1: doesn't care well, we aren't particular either. Number three, Any
Speaker 1: and all newspaper interviews with her must be secured by
Speaker 1: representative of the call. We may have to employ a
Speaker 1: special reporter to handle this assignment. Our regular staff is
Speaker 1: skittish of the wild woman. Number four The said l
Speaker 1: must be really wild. That is wilder, wilder than the
Speaker 1: wilder than women usually are. We don't want her if
Speaker 1: 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. I'm not interested in bigfoot research whatsoever.
Speaker 1: I'm not interested in camping out to look for them,
Speaker 1: gathering evidence of anything that has anything to do with
Speaker 1: looking for them to prove they exist. I know they exist.
Speaker 1: I've seen them. There is at least one clan that
Speaker 1: lives in this particular area, and I'm not the only
Speaker 1: one who has seen them. You could say that all
Speaker 1: the farmers who live in this area have seen it,
Speaker 1: and we all know they're here. We choose to leave
Speaker 1: them alone. I am other than a farmer, a paranormal investigator.
Speaker 1: I live on my family farm that has been in
Speaker 1: my family for over two hundred years. This particular house
Speaker 1: that I live in was built in eighteen sixty. Of course,
Speaker 1: it has gone through many updates through the years, and
Speaker 1: it also happens to be haunted, but that's not really
Speaker 1: why I'm sending this. This property borders the largest land
Speaker 1: state park in this state. There are thousands of ares
Speaker 1: of forest in this area, which a lot of people
Speaker 1: find surprising for this area of Illinois. Our fields are
Speaker 1: spread out a bit in this area, and instead of
Speaker 1: taking the highway, we would cut up over the ridge
Speaker 1: and end up on the blacktop road that ran behind
Speaker 1: the park. I've heard about Bigfoot all my life, and
Speaker 1: sometimes the other farmers in the area would mention seeing
Speaker 1: one or catching a glimpse of one from time to time.
Speaker 1: I didn't pay much attention to it because at the
Speaker 1: time I never had had an encounter. I would sit
Speaker 1: out on the back deck at night and I would
Speaker 1: hear wood knocks in an occasional wound, but I never
Speaker 1: saw one. Sometimes I would take a baseball bat and
Speaker 1: hit a tree or even the railing of the deck,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I would get an answer. In the late
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, I cut up over the ridge and I
Speaker 1: was on the blacktop. I was almost to the back
Speaker 1: entrance of the park when this huge creature jumped the
Speaker 1: fence along the park. It was on my right and
Speaker 1: it stood in the road. I had to slam on
Speaker 1: my brakes or I would have hid it. And when
Speaker 1: I stopped, I could not have been more than twenty
Speaker 1: feet away. This thing was huge, and I'm guessing it
Speaker 1: was seven and a half feet tall and three feet
Speaker 1: across at the shoulders. It had dark brown hair all
Speaker 1: over its body except on its face. It had a
Speaker 1: broad nose, wide set eyes, and a protruding forehead, and
Speaker 1: its arms almost appeared to be normal from the shoulders
Speaker 1: to the elbows, but from the elbow to the hands,
Speaker 1: the arms were long. It stood there and we made
Speaker 1: eye contact for what seemed like a full minute. I
Speaker 1: had the window down on my truck, and there was
Speaker 1: a slight breeze, and I caught a whiff of a
Speaker 1: strong odor. It was almost like a bad body odor,
Speaker 1: like someone who had not had a bath in months.
Speaker 1: It never made a move towards me. It just stood there,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly it crossed the road and went down
Speaker 1: the hill to my left. I tried to see where
Speaker 1: it was going, but the trees were so thick and
Speaker 1: I couldn't see it. It was almost like it vanished.
Speaker 1: The sun was setting, but it was not quite dust,
Speaker 1: so there were still plenty of light. The sun that
Speaker 1: was left was behind me. I rolled up my window
Speaker 1: and I locked my doors, and I turned around and
Speaker 1: I went back home. When I got home, I told
Speaker 1: my mom what I had seen, and she never said
Speaker 1: a word. She just nodded. Her response made me think
Speaker 1: she had seen it, or at least knew of its existence.
Speaker 1: We never had problems with them coming down to the
Speaker 1: farms and bothering our livestock. But I think that's because
Speaker 1: there are so many deer around here and there's no
Speaker 1: need to come raid a farm, but listening to them
Speaker 1: you can tell there are more than one. You will
Speaker 1: hear a tree not coming from one direction, and it
Speaker 1: will be answered from another, the same with the whoops.
Speaker 1: This farm sits near the Mississippi River, and in December
Speaker 1: of twenty fifteen, we had you might call a freak
Speaker 1: of flood. We have flooding in the spring, but never
Speaker 1: in the winter. It was flooding our land, so my
Speaker 1: mother and I moved into a house in town. Three
Speaker 1: weeks later, the floodwaters receded enough that we could have
Speaker 1: moved back, but we decided to spend the rest of
Speaker 1: the winter in town. We had a hired hand and
Speaker 1: he called one day to say that he had seen
Speaker 1: a bigfoot crossing one of the pastures near the house.
Speaker 1: This was the first time he had seen one, so
Speaker 1: he was very excited and even afraid. I went down
Speaker 1: there to check things out and to assess any damage
Speaker 1: from the flood. It had snowed a couple of inches
Speaker 1: the night before, not much. My farm hand and I
Speaker 1: went to the house and there were these huge footprints
Speaker 1: that looked like it had walked around the house and
Speaker 1: had even stopped to look into four of the windows.
Speaker 1: I believe they know who belongs here, and since we
Speaker 1: were gone, it was looking for a us. I know
Speaker 1: it sounds silly, but that's my opinion. This is the
Speaker 1: only time I know of that one has come to
Speaker 1: one of our houses. We and the other farmers in
Speaker 1: this area have not been bothered by them, except for
Speaker 1: a sighting now and then, one either crossing a field
Speaker 1: or walking along the woodline or along the river. Sometimes
Speaker 1: 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 livestock. 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 t and the
Speaker 1: deer and other animals are going to get him, but
Speaker 1: I figured it was worth a look. Mike and I
Speaker 1: hopped into his truck and headed for the pawpaw 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 pawpaul. Oh crap. I heard Mike say. We looked
Speaker 1: up the hill and that stump was gone. I told
Speaker 1: Mike to quickly gather up what he had and get
Speaker 1: in the truck. He grabbed the ladder and he threw
Speaker 1: it into the bed of his truck. I stopped and
Speaker 1: started digging through a backpack. We heard a grunt just
Speaker 1: inside the tree lying thirty feet away, and we heard
Speaker 1: a big crack like something had stepped on a large stick.
Speaker 1: I was still fumbling through my backpack, and he was
Speaker 1: urging me to hurry up. I was trying to hurry up,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't find my phone. Who the hell are
Speaker 1: you gonna call? He asked, The phone has a camera
Speaker 1: on it, I said, apparently I had left the phone
Speaker 1: at home. Though I had some venison jerky with me
Speaker 1: that I had brought for the day. I pulled it
Speaker 1: out and I stopped and laid some on a stump,
Speaker 1: and then I headed for the truck and we left.
Speaker 1: Mike was in hysterics. I knew something was wrong with
Speaker 1: that stump. It had eyes, he said. He kept asking
Speaker 1: me how I could be so calm. I finally persuaded
Speaker 1: him to stop and let me dry, because I honestly
Speaker 1: thought he was going to wreck. He stopped and I
Speaker 1: drove the rest of the way to Mike's house, and
Speaker 1: then I walked home from there. It was only about
Speaker 1: a mile. The next day I drove out to the
Speaker 1: Pawpaul Pass to see if I could find anything. I
Speaker 1: had left a five gallon bucket with a few pawpoles
Speaker 1: in it. The bucket was tipped over and the paw
Speaker 1: poles were gone, along with the jerky. I looked around
Speaker 1: for footprints or anything else that I could find, but
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything. I drove out to the Presimon
Speaker 1: trees but didn't get out of the truck because some
Speaker 1: of the lower branches had been broken off. They looked
Speaker 1: almost like they had been twisted, and you can tell
Speaker 1: these were fresh breaks. We had not had any storms
Speaker 1: or high winds, so I can only guess at what
Speaker 1: broke them off. I never got out of the truck
Speaker 1: and I went home. In July, I had to have
Speaker 1: some work done on my truck. I took it to
Speaker 1: my cousin who has a shop in the next county.
Speaker 1: He's a good mechanic and when he fixes something, he
Speaker 1: does it right. He also gives me a break on
Speaker 1: the labor charges. He had my truck for a week
Speaker 1: because he had to wait on some parts to come in.
Speaker 1: And when I went to pick up the truck, he
Speaker 1: told me that he was going to the Great Smoky
Speaker 1: Mountains for vacation to stay in a cabin owned by
Speaker 1: his sister. He had seen bears and other critters on
Speaker 1: his last trip there, and so jokingly I asked him
Speaker 1: if he had ever seen a bigfoot because there are
Speaker 1: a lot of sightings down there. He went totally quiet.
Speaker 1: I had to coax him to tell me what was wrong,
Speaker 1: and he asked me if I believed in bigfoot, and
Speaker 1: when I said yes, that I had seen him, he
Speaker 1: told me about when he and his wife and his
Speaker 1: son went mushroom hunting in the hills on the back
Speaker 1: of our property just last May. The three of them
Speaker 1: had been standing on a hill when one walked across
Speaker 1: a clearing below them. He said it was dark and
Speaker 1: it was walking on two legs. He raised his binoculars,
Speaker 1: but by the time he got them out to look
Speaker 1: at the creature, all he saw was its back. He
Speaker 1: told his wife and son not to make any noise
Speaker 1: and to walk quietly back to the truck. He didn't
Speaker 1: want to draw the attention of the creature. But that
Speaker 1: wasn't the only bigfoot my cousin had seen. He was
Speaker 1: raised in this area. They lived on a farm up
Speaker 1: on the ridge. He didn't lean towards farming, so he
Speaker 1: got a job in town when he was nineteen. He
Speaker 1: worked late one night until one am. On his way home,
Speaker 1: he was about a mile from home when one came
Speaker 1: out of the woods and crossed in front of him.
Speaker 1: It stopped for a moment and then went into the
Speaker 1: woods on the other side of the road. It scared
Speaker 1: him so bad that he didn't drive on that road
Speaker 1: at night again for two years. Instead, he took a
Speaker 1: longer route home. He never told anyone about that until
Speaker 1: he and his family saw the one in May, and
Speaker 1: on the drive home he told them all about it.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing he felt better knowing he was not the
Speaker 1: only one who had seen a bigfoot. The area where
Speaker 1: these farms is are isolated. The nearest town in any
Speaker 1: direction is forty minutes away. The Mississippi, Missouri and the
Speaker 1: Illinois Rivers are not far away either. There are acres
Speaker 1: and acres of woods. It's a great area for bigfoot
Speaker 1: to live and hide and not be seen for long
Speaker 1: periods of time. There are plenty of deer berries and
Speaker 1: other sources of food for them, and this is probably
Speaker 1: why they've not rated our farms. But we also know
Speaker 1: that these things are dangerous. They have enormous strength, and
Speaker 1: at any time they could turn on us if they
Speaker 1: had a mind to live and let live only go
Speaker 1: so far when dealing with a non human creature. But
Speaker 1: we give them a wide path. Not long ago, the
Speaker 1: man down the road told me about being in his
Speaker 1: 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, been all over this area. I
Speaker 1: never saw one until I became an adult. The first encounter,
Speaker 1: although it didn't traumatize me, changed my life. It made
Speaker 1: me aware that there are things in this world that
Speaker 1: you once believed did not exist. That's a strange statement
Speaker 1: coming from someone who chases ghosts. I know that, but
Speaker 1: the ghosts seemed far more normal to me because I
Speaker 1: had been around them all my life. My dad was
Speaker 1: from Arkansas. I remember him telling me when I would
Speaker 1: be getting ready to go play in the woods, be careful,
Speaker 1: don't let them boogers get you. I never took him
Speaker 1: seriously because I always thought he meant the Boogeyman and
Speaker 1: I didn't believe in it. Little did I know that
Speaker 1: he is real and sign spooky