Introduction
Greetings, dear reader, and welcome to this 27th article in the Appalachia—Upper East TN topic section. My story took place in the region. Yes, it is a true story. The above citation from Google Maps shows the approximate location on the knoll, identified by the red locator balloon.
The inspiration for this article came to me on Friday the 13th, 2023, as the next section explains. The life context was the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, which Hamas started on 10/7/2023. It is still ongoing. This man of peace is praying for peace. The annual Heritage Days Festival in my hometown, Rogersville, Tennessee, started on that Friday the 13th. Also, that evening, the Rogersville High School senior class of 1978 held its 45th reunion (counting the graduation year as our first reunion). The event was held at the Davidson Farm/Country Store beginning at 6 PM. Once again, the start time was too late for my wife and me to attend. Finally, thoughts came to my mind about the next-day birthday of our niece, the youngest daughter of my youngest brother and his wife. She would turn 14 years old. Interestingly, an annular solar eclipse occurred on her birthday. Source: NASA: 2023 Annular Eclipse: Where & When.
This is my true story. It begins with further elaboration on the inspiration for this story. Afterward, I present my written story in this article and then orally in the embedded podcast. The conclusion is up to you, dear reader.
Inspirations for This Article
There are three: initial, childhood, and current. This section elaborates briefly on each.
Initial Inspiration
My good friend, Jim, is mentioned favorably in the first and second articles from 10/24/2021. The subject line of Jim's 10/12/2023 email was “'Bigfoot' caught on camera in Colorado?” His email included only a link with no comments to the following article: “'Bigfoot' caught on camera during couple's romantic getaway in Colorado: Shannon and Stetson Parker shared videos and pictures that they claim prove Bigfoot's existence.” Fox News, by Chris Eberhart, 10/12/2023. About halfway into the article, it states:
The pictures and videos from a moving train are the latest blurry visuals that some people claim prove Bigfoot is real.
On Friday the 13th, I read the article, saw the photographs, and watched the videos. That was the initial inspiration for this article.
Childhood Inspirations
Childhood inspirations for this article are at least two. The one-minute Patterson film tops the list. Since childhood, I have watched it several times. Television shows about Bigfoot still feature it. Seven frames are available to view online at IMDb.com: Patterson-Gimlin Film: Original title: Bigfoot, 1967.
Additionally, grade school friends and I saw the 1972 movie “The Legend of Boggy Creek” at the Roxy Theatre in my hometown. (The theatre is gone now.) The movie frightened us, especially since we frequently camped out overnight in backwoods locations. The official trailer, just under two minutes long, is viewable online at Legend of Boggy Creek: The Legend of Boggy Creek. (The movie can be purchased or rented on YouTube.) I bought the movie on DVD several years ago. My wife and I watch it about once a year. It still bothers me.
Ongoing Inspirations
The first two ongoing inspirations are the television shows Animal Planet: Finding Bigfoot and Travel Channel: Expedition Bigfoot. Mrs. Appalachian Irishman seems to enjoy watching the shows with me. She never says, “Not another Bigfoot show!” The remote stops on those shows, whenever I catch them, while browsing through thousands of channels with nothing much to watch. The shows are somewhat intriguing and don't bother me. The evidence presented is often sketchy.
The rather personal and ongoing inspiration, of course, is my story. The written version is next. My embedded audiovisual version follows afterward. This is a true story.
My Written Story
The events took place on subsequent Fridays in the fall of 1977. I will never forget what happened.
The First Friday
It was a Friday in late September 1977, at the beginning of my senior year in high school. The location was in northeast Hawkins County, Tennessee. Bill and Randy, two friends both my age, lived a few miles away. Those two friends, Bill's younger brother, my younger brother (closest to me in age), and I camped out overnight more times than I can remember. We even camped out in tents during the winter on snow-covered ground. Those were some rather memorable cold nights and mornings!
A buddy named Gary, my age, lived closer by in the Sunset Hills subdivision. (He passed away two years ago at the age of 61.) Gary had never been camping overnight. He was interested in a young lady, Helen, who lived farther back and near the woods in the same subdivision. Gary wanted me to take him camping on the knob, which was high above and far behind her house. Apparently, Gary wanted to prove his devotion to the young lady. I agreed to take Gary camping overnight on a Friday after school.
The knob was on land that Randy's family owned. Neither Randy nor Bill wanted to camp with Gary and me, but Randy's parents allowed the two of us to camp out overnight on their land.
The early evening weather was mostly cloudy and warm as Gary and I started hiking up north through the woods to reach the knob. We needed only tee-shirts, but we carried light jackets. The ground was dry, since it had not rained in days. We hiked up to the ridgeline, which runs west to east. Over the years, Randy's family and their cattle blazed the narrow trail up to the ridgeline. We called it the main trail. Gary and I reached a flat and fairly open spot on the ridgeline where Bill, Randy, and I had camped before.
From that location, Gary and I continued west (or left) and hiked up a short and steep distance to reach the knob. At the knob, the mountain sloped sharply down on three sides (to the south, farther west, and north). The short, steep, and narrow trail from the ridgeline to the knob had been blazed by bears, deer, wolves, foxes, and other animals. We called it the animal trail. The Dublins, as locals called the thick and hilly woods, are behind (or northeast of) the ridgeline and knob. Hunters spotted bears in the Dublins at times. Bill, Randy, and I had camped overnight in the Dublins before. One night, we thought that we saw deer eyes near our camp. The next morning, we saw bear tracks in the damp ground not far from our campsite.
Returning to that Friday evening, dusk began to fall quickly, once we reached the knob, the highest point on that mountain. We started to set up camp beside and south of a large tree. The ground was fairly flat there. Nearby and to our northeast, several large rocks protruded from the ground. A large fallen tree was about fifteen yards to the east of and below our campsite. We passed that fallen tree to reach our makeshift campsite. I unrolled my sleeping bag. Gary unrolled my brother's sleeping bag, which he had borrowed. We didn't set up my tent. Turning cooler, we put on our light jackets. I got out my cooking kit and the food and gathered fallen branches to start the fire. Dry leaves on the ground made starter kindling.
Not long after I struck the match and started the kindling, Gary and I both heard the same sound. “What was that?” we both whispered as we looked in surprise at each other. Crouching beside the slowly building fire, we remained silent, listened, and looked around. We could see trees, branches, rocks, and the fallen tree. Darkness had fallen. The moon, still mostly full, would appear at times as clouds passed by. The moon was behind clouds at the time.
We heard loud, deep, gruff, and growling sounds. It was like heavy breathing taken between steps when something large is walking. We could hear footsteps in long strides between the sounds. The steps sounded like a two-legged, not four-legged, mammal. At 17, I had hiked and camped in the woods often. I knew how a four-legged animal, such as a deer or a cow, sounds, when it is walking or running on dry and leafy ground. The sounds and two-legged steps were slowly approaching us, coming up the same trail that we had come up on to arrive at our campsite. We heard what we heard, but we could not see what was making the noise. The entity, whatever mammal it was, was still several yards below us and to our east.
The unseen mammal, still breathing gruffly, stopped behind the large fallen tree, about fifteen yards east of and below us. We could hear whatever it was shaking nearby tree branches and rustling leaves on the ground. The unknown being moved a few feet to the north, which was to our left, as we faced the fallen tree. It was now behind a large rock outcropping. Remaining there for a while, it was still breathing gruffly and shaking nearby branches and rustling leaves.
Gary asked, “What should we do?” I said, “Let's roll up the sleeping bags. I'll pack up the food.” We did. The entity was still behind the rock outcropping, making the gruff sounds, shaking tree branches, and rustling leaves. My backpack always included a small bottle of kerosene to use to help start a fire if needed. I also carried a hunting knife in a sheath on my belt. I had already added larger and longer tree limbs to build up the fire.
The mysterious, two-legged mammal, still making the gruff noises, moved back onto the path near the fallen tree. We still could not see what it was. The darkness, distance, and thick tree cover blocked our view. Suddenly, we heard it start to walk slowly up and closer to us!
Instinctively, thinking this creature will either kill me or I will kill it, I poured kerosene from the small bottle onto the fire. That stoked up the flames. I took my hunting knife from the sheath with my left hand. With my right hand, I picked up the largest burning branch. As the entity, which I still could not see, continued to come up and closer, I jumped up forward into the air with my knife in one hand and the fiery branch in the other. Also, I yelled as loudly as I could! When my feet hit the ground, around ten feet away and farther down from where I had jumped, I realized that I had not died or struck anything.
A steep and deep ravine was below us and to our southeast. Gary and I heard, after my jump and hollering, the strange creature running in long strides on two legs, as it sounded to me, down into that ravine. We could hear tree branches snapping and leaves crunching as it ran. The strange entity stopped. We couldn't see it. It stayed silent and was no longer making the gruff breathing sounds or shaking anything. The forest became completely silent.
I whispered to Gary, “Let's get out of here.” Using my flashlight to help us see the trail, Gary and I hiked with our gear down and out very quietly and slowly, heading east and down to the main ridgeline. I was cupping a hand over the flashlight, so the light would not be too visible. At the main ridgeline, we turned south (to our right) and headed down to come out of the woods. The forest was still completely quiet. We could hear only our breathing and muffled footsteps, as we hiked slowly and quietly. We didn't speak to each other. The moon had been behind clouds all this time.
Gary and I reached what I call the lower camping spot. It was a small and level clearing, not too far into the woods. Bill, Randy, and I camped there often. The trail from the ridgeline, down which we had hiked, was now behind (or north) and above us. The ravine, down into which the unknown mammal had run from the knoll, was just to our west. We wondered if the entity was still there, silently near us. At that moment, the clouds parted. The nearly full moon shone brightly. We could see better by the moonlight.
I affirm—to the Lord above, before whom I will stand on judgment day, and to you, dear reader—that Gary and I both saw far behind and above us on that ridgeline, where we had been, a tall and bulky figure standing upright on two feet. It did not move. We were relieved that it wasn't near us in the ravine. Cold chills ran through me. We could make out what appeared to be two legs, a large torso, two arms, broad shoulders, and a head. What looked like two eyes appeared to glow green. It was not a tree that looked like such a figure to our frightened imagination. Trees were visible and very distinct around that figure. The entity, from that distance, seemed to be staring at us. It must have moved stealthily from the ravine up to the ridgeline.
Gary and I turned away and quickly hiked south, back to where his car was parked near Randy's house. He drove me home and then drove himself home. My parents were surprised that I had returned, since they expected me back the next morning. I told them what had happened. Believing me, they were thankful that Gary and I had not been hurt. I went to bed.
The Next Few Days
I don't think that I saw Bill, Randy, or Gary until the next week at the high school. Gary and I didn't talk much about our experience in the woods. We did share what we remembered with each other. Those memories were identical. Gary said that he would never go camping again. We lost touch after high school graduation, and he passed away a couple of years ago. I don't know if he ever camped out again.
I shared the experience with Bill and Randy. Bill believed me. Randy, however, made fun of it. I challenged them, especially Randy, to camp out at the flat and fairly open spot on the ridgeline, where we had camped before. I did not want to return to that knoll. To this day, I have never been back to it.
Bill and Randy agreed that we would camp out that coming Friday after school on the ridgeline campsite. We did.
The Next Friday
That next Friday, Bill's younger brother and my younger brother (next to me in age) joined us. There were five of us. Randy brought a loaded pistol. Chidingly, I asked him why he brought a pistol if he didn't believe what I had told him.
The temperature was still warm enough, so we didn't pitch tents. We built a fire that faced the north slope of the ridgeline. Next, we lined up our five sleeping bags in a row fairly near to and south of the fire. The knoll was up and to our west (or left) as we faced the fire. Since no one else wanted the spot closest to the knoll, I took it.
The evening camping routine started. Using our cooking kits, we make supper from food we brought with us. It was a delicious beef and bean stew. We ate well.
In the darkness, we talked and kidded with each other as teenage boys do. The sky was fairly clear. The moonlight was better than the Friday before. We were enjoying another overnight camping trip. At times, Randy kidded me by asking, “Where's the creature?”
All of a sudden, while we were talking, all five of us heard the same loud, deep, gruff, and growling sounds, like heavy breathing, that Gary and I had heard the Friday evening before on the knoll. The vocalizations were from far below and north of us. Whatever was making the sounds was at the bottom of the ravine, down around the steep north side of the ridgeline. We also heard sounds of tree branches shaking and leaves rustling.
We already had a good-sized fire going. We added on more wood. I poured kerosene from my small bottle onto the fire. We now had what looked like a bonfire. In a clear area, we knew that we would not start a forest fire.
The five of us remained silent, listening to the growling and branch shaking. Eventually, the noise stopped. I don't recall how long we heard all that. It must have been several minutes. We never did hear anything walking as Gary and I had. I did not hear a howl on either Friday evening.
The five of us determined that it was safe to spend the night on the ridgeline. Each of us in turn, however, took a turn watching while the others slept. None of us heard the disturbing sounds again. It was gone. Randy, however, did turn from skeptic to believer. Finally, he believed the story about the experience on the knoll that Gary and I had on the previous Friday.
Early the next morning, we fixed our breakfast, packed up our gear, and hiked back down and out to Randy's house. Our camping group never did camp on the ridgeline again.
As the years went by, I lost contact with Randy. Bill and I keep in touch. At times, he still asks me if I remember the experience that the five of us had camping on the ridgeline. My younger brother and I rarely talk about the experience. When we do, we both remember the same details.
My Verbal Story
Over the decades, I have shared both sequential Friday encounters with family members and several friends. I do not seek opportunities to share it. It comes up in conversations. For a week each summer from 1982 to 1984, I served as a counselor at Hillbrook Christian Camp near Knoxville, Tennessee. Occasions arose to tell my story to many of the campers and other counselors.
After Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I were married, we served as counselors at Bootheel Youth Camp near Bloomfield, Missouri. We served for a week each summer from about 1986 to 1993. Again, as others told their campfire stories, I told my story. From year to year, boys who had heard my story the previous year asked me to tell it again.
I don't seek opportunities to tell my story. It still bothers me and gives me cold chills to tell it. While writing about the experience in this article, I have felt cold chills.
The verbal sharing of my story on Appalachian Irishman – Podcasts (YouTube) is titled, “My Bigfoot Story: Yes, It's True (published 10-18-2023; episode 21).” Verbally, I tell it in a more natural style than I have in these written words. The episode is just over 30 minutes long.
The verbal recording was from my home office. I had wanted to hike House Mountain and record it from the middle bluff. The weather was seasonably warm and clear with a crisp and blue sky. Molly, our eight-year-old “puppy,” however, was favoring her left front leg. I decided to stay at home to tend to her. Later on, Molly seemed to be better! She was back to running around as usual.
Conclusion
Thanks, Jim. Your 10/12/2023 email inspired this article and the embedded audiovisual episode! I will respond by email to your email once this article is published so you can know.
This has been my true story. I call it my Bigfoot story, since I don't know what else the creature could have been. I have thought that it could have been a bear, but a bear doesn't run upright on two legs. Of course, a bear can stand upright on two legs for a while. Further, I have thought that it could have been a large man in the woods trying to scare us on both Friday evenings. The loud, deep, gruff, and growling sounds could have sounded like a bear, but they did not sound like any man I have ever heard.
My mind remains open. Sufficient evidence appears to indicate that Bigfoot (Sasquatch, Yeti) may exist. I may have heard one in a close encounter and seen it from a distance back in September 1977.
The conclusion is up to you, dear reader. What do you think the creature was?
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