BIGFOOT IN TENNESSEE

By Brent Raynes
Missing Link Magazine

Most everyone associates this hairy bogeyman with the familiar legends of the yeti beast of the Himalayan mountains or the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest. But Tennesseans claim to have seen just such a critter too!

Not that far away, up in Benton Country, at Big Sandy, two men, back in 1980 stated that they saw such a beast. "I was coming from Paris, which is about thirty miles from here," Larry Ross told me in an interview shortly after his experience.

"I was coming up through this little hollow and my lights shined up on top of the hill and we seen something standing right over on the left hand side of the road, and it kind of had its head hung down, and it kind of looked over towards me, and as soon as the lights hit it it acted like the lights might have hurt its eyes or something. It took off kindy in a fast trot and went over in the bushes beside the road, and I didn't know what to think so I kept on going and went on down the road about quarter of a a mile and decided I would turn around and come back and see if I could see anything of it again. It looked to be about seven foot tall. The best I could tell its shoulders were about three foot wide and its chest was maybe 16-18 inches thick, and it kindy had its shoulders stuck up high and its head was hanging low. It looked like it was real coarse hair. It was kindy a dark brown, and maybe a black, the best that I could tell. It looked like it had long arms."

Ross is a carpenter, and was then 20 years old, with a wife and little girl. His experience happened at about 10:30 p.m., Saturday, October 11, 1980. Then a few days later, also around 10:30 p.m., on Sunday, October 19, Bobby Jackson, 26, a TVA employee, also of Sulphur Creek Road, allegedly encountered the creature about a mile from the spot where Ross had seen it.

"This thing was standing in the middle of the road." Jackson told me. "It had its back turned to me and it just turned around and looked at me, and his eyes looked like a ball of fire, just as red as they could be. I started to stop my Jeep and I started to get out, and when I did the thing ran out of the road. It was anywhere between 6 or 7 feet tall. It looked like it weight anywhere from 300 to 400 pounds. The shoulders looked like they might have been a least three feet apart. The head was down around his shoulders. Black looking from what I could tell under the lights.

Back in 1976 I investigated some Bigfoot type reports in Lincoln County, and I also have heard such stories over in Giles County. But so far none from Wayne County (alas, I can imagine many readers are sighing a sigh of relief to hear that!). But there is a bit of odd folklore that is interesting in this regard, and it seems to have its roots down Rayburn Hollow way. Apparently old timers talked about monkey-like critters!

But fear not. Bigfoots are described as extremely shy. They are usually seen on the run. So don't worry. There are only a few reports of where they have kidnapped people!.... Have a nice day...
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That Brent! He is such a jokester!