I was leaving my driveway to drive one mile to town. There were woods and few houses along the way. I had just pulled out and there was a thick fog rolling in. Very creepy at night. I had only gone a half a block at most very slowly when I saw a very bright light through the fog. This was very strange since there was nothing near my house.
As I drove closer, I saw a Phillips 66 gas station. It wasn't there the day before. I pulled into it in shock and a man came out. I asked him how a gas station could have been built so fast and he looked at me strangely. He said it had been there for eight years.
I asked him where I was and when he told me I began to shake uncontrollaby. I was 300 miles from home! I looked at the clock and I had left my driveway only two minutes before. It took all night to drive home and I shook most of the way.
Bt Cher
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Slip Back in Time
It all started back in 1999 when I was 19, I had an experience that I can't explain that freaks me out to this day.
My girlfriend and I went up to Poughkeepsie, New York on a trip to visit her sick uncle, a man nick-named Floyd due to his profession as a barber (Mayberry reference) although he also was an avid biker. He had lupus and about a thousand other ailments, it seemed.
He lived on a large tract of land that included nature trails that seemed to go back for miles on up into the woods. One morning after breakfast, Cindi (my ex now) and I decided after breakfast to head out to a location that she remembered going to when she was a kid visiting. She called it the big Indian rock, which she said looked like a profile of an Indian chief.
So at around 10:30 or 11:00 or so, we headed up there. It was a long way up into the woods, but Cindi, after getting some directions, seemed really confident, having not been there in years. But after a while, I was almost sure she was lost, but she saw something that she recognized and headed off into that direction. It was this large white rock with a fort into the side of it like a kids' fort or something. Her exact words were, "Oh my god, I remember this place..." and then began to tell me how she and her friends, a bunch of boys who lived nearby, had built this one afternoon and was totally surprised to see it after all this time.
This was at least 10 years later and this poorly constructed fort was still there, which I thought fascinating too at the time. The fort consisted of a low lean-to almost like a box made of rotted plywood scraps. It sat to the side of the huge white rock and had a bundle of dirty camping gear inside of it, sleeping bags and other dirty junk and leaves, cobwebs, etc. Cindi went up to the entrance of the low-to-the-ground fort and looked in at it as I jumped up on the top of the white rock to have a seat.
I looked over to where Cindi was and she had disappeared from view. At first I thought she maybe crawled inside, but on more careful observation, this wasn't the case at all. I turned to see whether perhaps she had gone around the other side of the huge rock and when I turned I saw two little freckle-faced boys, one taller than the other and staring at me. One wore a ball cap on backward and the other in a dirty flannel jacket. They just stared at me eerily and then suddenly It just seemed like time slipped and suddenly I was walking up a wooded path towards a clearing, and there was Cindi telling me to hurry up and come on.
I stepped into the clearing and there was a side of a big rock with, yes a profile of a face or something, really quite unimpressive, but I suppose it had sentimental value with her. I was still in a daze but I just snapped to and met up with her.
My first question to her was who were those two boys and no doubt she responded, "What are you talking about? What boys?" I said "At the rock..." she just punched me in the arm and began to point out the face in the rocks and then told me how she was a tom-boy and used to ride BMX bikes back there and other such memory lane kinds of stuff.
After a few minutes we headed back to Floyd's place and we were greeted by Cindi's mother who had just arrived. I met her mother and she seemed nice and hung out at Floyd's and had a few beers with him, even though he complained that it didn't mix well with his medication.
So after a while, Cindi came in and we all got to talking and the fort came up and she asked about some kids she knew in the area and if they were still around or whatever happened to, yada, yada kind of thing. Floyd got real dark when Cindi mentioned the "Moriarty" kids and went into a morose story and got rather quiet.
He said to Cindi, "The two boys and their mother were killed by their father before he took his own life." (Having something to do with a divorce.)
When I heard this, my hair on the nape of my neck stood up as my spine tingled as I was not going to spend another night out there at Floyd's place. He went on to comfort her, telling her that they were in a better place, etc. I couldn't dare recount what happened to me at the fort. I just wanted to split out of there; this was too freaky.
I made up a story after calling my roommate back in Bayonne, telling them that I had to get back there and asked Cindi if she wanted to stay but she decided to come with me. While driving back, Cindi kept the two boys as a topic and said that they both had a crush on her. And once even fought over her, and man, that just made me drive faster. We made record time back to Jersey.
By Mr. torrence
My girlfriend and I went up to Poughkeepsie, New York on a trip to visit her sick uncle, a man nick-named Floyd due to his profession as a barber (Mayberry reference) although he also was an avid biker. He had lupus and about a thousand other ailments, it seemed.
He lived on a large tract of land that included nature trails that seemed to go back for miles on up into the woods. One morning after breakfast, Cindi (my ex now) and I decided after breakfast to head out to a location that she remembered going to when she was a kid visiting. She called it the big Indian rock, which she said looked like a profile of an Indian chief.
So at around 10:30 or 11:00 or so, we headed up there. It was a long way up into the woods, but Cindi, after getting some directions, seemed really confident, having not been there in years. But after a while, I was almost sure she was lost, but she saw something that she recognized and headed off into that direction. It was this large white rock with a fort into the side of it like a kids' fort or something. Her exact words were, "Oh my god, I remember this place..." and then began to tell me how she and her friends, a bunch of boys who lived nearby, had built this one afternoon and was totally surprised to see it after all this time.
This was at least 10 years later and this poorly constructed fort was still there, which I thought fascinating too at the time. The fort consisted of a low lean-to almost like a box made of rotted plywood scraps. It sat to the side of the huge white rock and had a bundle of dirty camping gear inside of it, sleeping bags and other dirty junk and leaves, cobwebs, etc. Cindi went up to the entrance of the low-to-the-ground fort and looked in at it as I jumped up on the top of the white rock to have a seat.
I looked over to where Cindi was and she had disappeared from view. At first I thought she maybe crawled inside, but on more careful observation, this wasn't the case at all. I turned to see whether perhaps she had gone around the other side of the huge rock and when I turned I saw two little freckle-faced boys, one taller than the other and staring at me. One wore a ball cap on backward and the other in a dirty flannel jacket. They just stared at me eerily and then suddenly It just seemed like time slipped and suddenly I was walking up a wooded path towards a clearing, and there was Cindi telling me to hurry up and come on.
I stepped into the clearing and there was a side of a big rock with, yes a profile of a face or something, really quite unimpressive, but I suppose it had sentimental value with her. I was still in a daze but I just snapped to and met up with her.
My first question to her was who were those two boys and no doubt she responded, "What are you talking about? What boys?" I said "At the rock..." she just punched me in the arm and began to point out the face in the rocks and then told me how she was a tom-boy and used to ride BMX bikes back there and other such memory lane kinds of stuff.
After a few minutes we headed back to Floyd's place and we were greeted by Cindi's mother who had just arrived. I met her mother and she seemed nice and hung out at Floyd's and had a few beers with him, even though he complained that it didn't mix well with his medication.
So after a while, Cindi came in and we all got to talking and the fort came up and she asked about some kids she knew in the area and if they were still around or whatever happened to, yada, yada kind of thing. Floyd got real dark when Cindi mentioned the "Moriarty" kids and went into a morose story and got rather quiet.
He said to Cindi, "The two boys and their mother were killed by their father before he took his own life." (Having something to do with a divorce.)
When I heard this, my hair on the nape of my neck stood up as my spine tingled as I was not going to spend another night out there at Floyd's place. He went on to comfort her, telling her that they were in a better place, etc. I couldn't dare recount what happened to me at the fort. I just wanted to split out of there; this was too freaky.
I made up a story after calling my roommate back in Bayonne, telling them that I had to get back there and asked Cindi if she wanted to stay but she decided to come with me. While driving back, Cindi kept the two boys as a topic and said that they both had a crush on her. And once even fought over her, and man, that just made me drive faster. We made record time back to Jersey.
By Mr. torrence
Little People of Olympic Mountains
I realize that this story will not carry much weight as it is only third hand. I only come to know of it from a friend who is now deceased. Having read a few other similar accounts, however, I feel that this little story should be recorded for whatever it's worth.
My friend was raised in a small town called Clallam Bay, about as far northwest as you can get in the continental U.S., on the northwestern-most tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. His father was involved in work with the local Native American tribes there. Even today, this area is quite remote and only sparsely populated. There are still vast areas of the Olympic Mountains that rarely see humans. Mark, my friend, was an avid outdoorsman and loved camping and hiking. He grew up roaming the rain forests of the Olympics and was kind enough to take me on numerous camping trips.
I have always been intrigued by the legend of the Sasquatch and could not pass up asking Mark if he had ever had any encounters with one and what his thoughts were on the matter. He told me that he believed that they existed. He had never seen one, but he did recount one occasion when he was a short distance from his home, he heard long drawn-out sort of bellowing call that he could not attribute to any animal he knew of. He said that the sound was so loud that it seemed that the whole forest reverberated with it. It froze him in his tracks. He was familiar with the sounds of all of the known wildlife, including the elk, deer, cougars, etc. But this was something entirely different. He never did see what made the noise.
But, he said, Sasquatch may not be the only strange thing you might encounter in the Olympic forests. When I asked what he meant, he told me this story.
Mark said that his grandfather, a man with virtually no sense of humor, had told him of a strange experience he had had in the woods many years prior. Apparently, his grandfather was on an outing into the rain forest with his young wife and some other friends. The intent was to cut and gather wood for the fireplaces. A picnic lunch was planned as the work would take most of the day. While the women were setting out the food and before the actual wood cutting began, Mark's grandfather had wandered some little distance from the rest of the group when he encountered a group of little people darting around in the ferns. He guessed that there were at least five or six of them and that they were about 12 to 18 inches tall with rather dark skin. No sooner had he seen them though, than they were gone.
His grandfather was dumbfounded. He said that he didn't even tell the rest of the people, including his wife, what he had seen because he knew they would not believe him. He had wondered about it many times since, but there was never anything else to support what he was sure he had seen, so he just kept it to himself. He told Mark that that was the first time he had ever told anyone about it. Now, as I say, I am recounting this story third hand. It is only something that I have heard. But since neither Mark nor his grandfather are around any longer to tell the tale, I am passing it on for them. If nothing else, maybe it will reassure someone else that they are not crazy.
By Glenn
My friend was raised in a small town called Clallam Bay, about as far northwest as you can get in the continental U.S., on the northwestern-most tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. His father was involved in work with the local Native American tribes there. Even today, this area is quite remote and only sparsely populated. There are still vast areas of the Olympic Mountains that rarely see humans. Mark, my friend, was an avid outdoorsman and loved camping and hiking. He grew up roaming the rain forests of the Olympics and was kind enough to take me on numerous camping trips.
I have always been intrigued by the legend of the Sasquatch and could not pass up asking Mark if he had ever had any encounters with one and what his thoughts were on the matter. He told me that he believed that they existed. He had never seen one, but he did recount one occasion when he was a short distance from his home, he heard long drawn-out sort of bellowing call that he could not attribute to any animal he knew of. He said that the sound was so loud that it seemed that the whole forest reverberated with it. It froze him in his tracks. He was familiar with the sounds of all of the known wildlife, including the elk, deer, cougars, etc. But this was something entirely different. He never did see what made the noise.
But, he said, Sasquatch may not be the only strange thing you might encounter in the Olympic forests. When I asked what he meant, he told me this story.
Mark said that his grandfather, a man with virtually no sense of humor, had told him of a strange experience he had had in the woods many years prior. Apparently, his grandfather was on an outing into the rain forest with his young wife and some other friends. The intent was to cut and gather wood for the fireplaces. A picnic lunch was planned as the work would take most of the day. While the women were setting out the food and before the actual wood cutting began, Mark's grandfather had wandered some little distance from the rest of the group when he encountered a group of little people darting around in the ferns. He guessed that there were at least five or six of them and that they were about 12 to 18 inches tall with rather dark skin. No sooner had he seen them though, than they were gone.
His grandfather was dumbfounded. He said that he didn't even tell the rest of the people, including his wife, what he had seen because he knew they would not believe him. He had wondered about it many times since, but there was never anything else to support what he was sure he had seen, so he just kept it to himself. He told Mark that that was the first time he had ever told anyone about it. Now, as I say, I am recounting this story third hand. It is only something that I have heard. But since neither Mark nor his grandfather are around any longer to tell the tale, I am passing it on for them. If nothing else, maybe it will reassure someone else that they are not crazy.
By Glenn
Saturday, June 13, 2009
In Search of the Elusive Summerwind: Investigating Wisconsin's Most Haunted House
Who: My husband and I
When: Summer of 2004
Where: Land O Lakes, WI (on the WI / MI border)
Why: To hopefully locate and visit the ruins of Summerwind.
The (Brief) Background Information
I have been interested in visiting Summerwind for years. Ever since I read a story of the events that occurred there in I believe it was Haunted Heartland. So, when I found out I'd be in the area of Summerwind I jumped at the chance to try to locate and investigate
there.
Summerwind has quite the reputation for the haunted Wisconsin area, it's said to have made a family go insane, to have made a man fire a gun at a ghost (the bullet holes would remain in the door for years afterward, until it was eventually stolen from the home). It also was said to be built over a deed that the ghost of a man named Carver is said to still look for in the afterlife. How much of this is fact and how much is legend is about anyone's guess. There's been theories that Carver never even ventured to that area of Wisconsin. And others yet say there were searches carried out for this deed and nothing was turned up.
Summerwind sat abandoned for years. It's reputation most likely the reasoning for it. Back in the day, it was a sprawling mansion and home to the secretary to president Hoover. Years after standing abandoned someone bought it. They had plans to fix it up and make it into a business. Apparently the spirits had other intentions. In 1988 Summerwind was struck by lighting in a storm and it burned to the ground. All that is left is a couple staircases, a foundation and a couple chimneys for the most part... and the spirits.
Finding Summerwind
Summerwind was incredibly difficult to find. It hides down a dirt road in the country wooded area of Land O Lakes on what is now private property. You pretty much need to know exactly where it is to locate it and even then it doesn't look like anything at all from the road. We, however got really lucky and managed to have someone guide us to it. If it wasn't for her, we would have come back without having found it like so many before us have done.
We stopped to a few places in town (the town is pretty bare - not too many places around to even ask at). We really didn't get too terribly far. We did get a bit of info to get us in the area of it, and then we were referred to stop at a camp for more information there.
We did exactly as instructed watching as the woods grew thicker around us. We knew we were in for an ordeal to locate it from the get go, but I don't think either of us knew just how hard it really would be to find. Well, we stopped at the camp and got out of the car. It was a quaint camp
at the edge of the lake with a small bar and restaurant onsite. My husband, Clint immediately recognized the camp from before. He said he'd dreamed of it before, but he had never been there or even in that area before then. He proceeded to say he thought Summerwind was behind us and to the left; you know, he was right about that.
We went inside and asked where Summerwind was. We figured the folks in there must have heard of it being so close to it and all. Well the one bartender didn't know it by name but once we said it was the haunted place she knew exactly where it was. She told us how to get there, and said if we have any trouble some back there. Well, we set off where she told us to go - or at least how we thought she told us to go. We were lost before we started. We also were afraid of getting so lost we would not find our way back out again. The woods were fairly thick and getting thicker. So, we drove back to the bar and informed her we were totally lost as to how to find it. She offered to take us there if we'd be willing to wait for her shift to end. We agreed.
Getting to Summerwind
We got to Summerwind easily with her, but I'm telling you we kept track of every turn so we knew how to get back out. It was much harder than we even imagined it'd be to find, but we found it. Even she had to check to make sure it was the right place once she stopped.
Summerwind is fairly large. It's in ultimate ruins and there's really not much left, as you can see in the photos. Even still I had vibes while there. My husband, who had vibes where it was and had a case of déjà vu at the camp felt nothing at all at Summerwind itself. I, however felt nothing at the camp but perhaps some anxiety if we'd even locate the place or not, but I had vibes at Summerwind itself.
The hot spots - or at least according to my vibes were under the arches which led out to the back yard which was a ledge that overlooked a river, and the staircase to the second floor. Not so coincidentally, I got some odd photos in each of those places. (I concentrate and take photos
where any odd vibes are felt).We weren't at Summerwind long. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes or so. I came back with a camera full of 40 photos and so I thought nothing at all supernatural on any of them. Boy was I wrong.
Looking at the Photos
I have been interested in visiting Summerwind for years. Ever since I read a story of the events that occurred there in I believe it was Haunted Heartland. So, when I found out I'd be in the area of Summerwind I jumped at the chance to try to locate and investigate
there.
Summerwind has quite the reputation for the haunted Wisconsin area, it's said to have made a family go insane, to have made a man fire a gun at a ghost (the bullet holes would remain in the door for years afterward, until it was eventually stolen from the home). It also was said to be built over a deed that the ghost of a man named Carver is said to still look for in the afterlife. How much of this is fact and how much is legend is about anyone's guess. There's been theories that Carver never even ventured to that area of Wisconsin. And others yet say there were searches carried out for this deed and nothing was turned up.
Summerwind sat abandoned for years. It's reputation most likely the reasoning for it. Back in the day, it was a sprawling mansion and home to the secretary to president Hoover. Years after standing abandoned someone bought it. They had plans to fix it up and make it into a business. Apparently the spirits had other intentions. In 1988 Summerwind was struck by lighting in a storm and it burned to the ground. All that is left is a couple staircases, a foundation and a couple chimneys for the most part... and the spirits.
Finding Summerwind
Summerwind was incredibly difficult to find. It hides down a dirt road in the country wooded area of Land O Lakes on what is now private property. You pretty much need to know exactly where it is to locate it and even then it doesn't look like anything at all from the road. We, however got really lucky and managed to have someone guide us to it. If it wasn't for her, we would have come back without having found it like so many before us have done.
We stopped to a few places in town (the town is pretty bare - not too many places around to even ask at). We really didn't get too terribly far. We did get a bit of info to get us in the area of it, and then we were referred to stop at a camp for more information there.
We did exactly as instructed watching as the woods grew thicker around us. We knew we were in for an ordeal to locate it from the get go, but I don't think either of us knew just how hard it really would be to find. Well, we stopped at the camp and got out of the car. It was a quaint camp
at the edge of the lake with a small bar and restaurant onsite. My husband, Clint immediately recognized the camp from before. He said he'd dreamed of it before, but he had never been there or even in that area before then. He proceeded to say he thought Summerwind was behind us and to the left; you know, he was right about that.
We went inside and asked where Summerwind was. We figured the folks in there must have heard of it being so close to it and all. Well the one bartender didn't know it by name but once we said it was the haunted place she knew exactly where it was. She told us how to get there, and said if we have any trouble some back there. Well, we set off where she told us to go - or at least how we thought she told us to go. We were lost before we started. We also were afraid of getting so lost we would not find our way back out again. The woods were fairly thick and getting thicker. So, we drove back to the bar and informed her we were totally lost as to how to find it. She offered to take us there if we'd be willing to wait for her shift to end. We agreed.
Getting to Summerwind
We got to Summerwind easily with her, but I'm telling you we kept track of every turn so we knew how to get back out. It was much harder than we even imagined it'd be to find, but we found it. Even she had to check to make sure it was the right place once she stopped.
Summerwind is fairly large. It's in ultimate ruins and there's really not much left, as you can see in the photos. Even still I had vibes while there. My husband, who had vibes where it was and had a case of déjà vu at the camp felt nothing at all at Summerwind itself. I, however felt nothing at the camp but perhaps some anxiety if we'd even locate the place or not, but I had vibes at Summerwind itself.
The hot spots - or at least according to my vibes were under the arches which led out to the back yard which was a ledge that overlooked a river, and the staircase to the second floor. Not so coincidentally, I got some odd photos in each of those places. (I concentrate and take photos
where any odd vibes are felt).We weren't at Summerwind long. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes or so. I came back with a camera full of 40 photos and so I thought nothing at all supernatural on any of them. Boy was I wrong.
Looking at the Photos
We went back to the cabin we were staying at and looked over the photos. We both looked over each one on the tiny LCD screen my camera was equipped with and found nothing. It was a bit disappointing what with all the vibes we got, but it's a chance you take when you investigate a place. More times than not you get ordinary photos. It's just the way it is.
We late loaded them into our PC and then looked at them again larger. A friend noted the ball of light under the arch which we originally thought was a sun spot - until we realized that was much brighter than all of the other sunspots on the ruins. Not to mention a sunspot can't reach under a dark arch and usually isn't glowing like this light was. Then, my mom noticed a man staring back at her from one of the photos. He jumped right out at her. It took me a long time to see him but when I did a shiver ran the length of my spine. To see those eyes looking back at me.. it was a feeling I won't soon forget. The detail in the man is astounding. You can see the difference between the color of his skin and his shirt. You can nearly make out facial features and a vague hairstyle. Who he is, we may never know. I did try to locate photos of the previous residents of Summerwind. The best I was able to come up with was a photo of Robert Lamont in his older years. Even still the man did not match the face I saw in Lamont. After that we located the critter we originally thought to be a fox-like creature sitting by the fireplace of the left chimney. He's a bit difficult to see but if you look you can see 'em in there. (It's easier to see it from further away).
The Discovery Channel's A Haunting
A year or so after we visited Summerwind the Discovery Channel aired an episode of A Haunting that featured Summerwind. We learned a lot of information we didn't know about the house and it's history in this episode. Some very interesting information at that.
In this episode we learned that Summerwind has, or it at least had a tendency and ability to call out to people. To make them come to it and feel for it. It's possible my husband's vibes and his dreams could have been a form of this. Or perhaps it's something totally unrelated. We may never know for sure. We also learned that the father whilst in his insanity killed a pet raccoon the family had. We looked back over the photo of that critter. I sure could pass for a raccoon as well. Once again we may never know.
Speaking To Chad Lewis
Chad Lewis is one half of the team responsible for the Haunted Road Guide series of books. We've had a few chances to meet him and Terry and see him speak. He never disappoints with his appearances and each and everyone you take a little information back with you. It was at one of these lectures that we learned that others he has interviewed have had similar experiences of the house calling to them, and knowing where it is, but they'd never been there before.
For those, like myself who are wondering, no, he did not experience anything out of the ordinary at Summerwind. What we do know is that at least for us. Summerwind lived up to it's reputation as Wisconsin's most haunted house. I'd love to return there, but it's private property and, well we can't trespass on it now.
We late loaded them into our PC and then looked at them again larger. A friend noted the ball of light under the arch which we originally thought was a sun spot - until we realized that was much brighter than all of the other sunspots on the ruins. Not to mention a sunspot can't reach under a dark arch and usually isn't glowing like this light was. Then, my mom noticed a man staring back at her from one of the photos. He jumped right out at her. It took me a long time to see him but when I did a shiver ran the length of my spine. To see those eyes looking back at me.. it was a feeling I won't soon forget. The detail in the man is astounding. You can see the difference between the color of his skin and his shirt. You can nearly make out facial features and a vague hairstyle. Who he is, we may never know. I did try to locate photos of the previous residents of Summerwind. The best I was able to come up with was a photo of Robert Lamont in his older years. Even still the man did not match the face I saw in Lamont. After that we located the critter we originally thought to be a fox-like creature sitting by the fireplace of the left chimney. He's a bit difficult to see but if you look you can see 'em in there. (It's easier to see it from further away).
The Discovery Channel's A Haunting
A year or so after we visited Summerwind the Discovery Channel aired an episode of A Haunting that featured Summerwind. We learned a lot of information we didn't know about the house and it's history in this episode. Some very interesting information at that.
In this episode we learned that Summerwind has, or it at least had a tendency and ability to call out to people. To make them come to it and feel for it. It's possible my husband's vibes and his dreams could have been a form of this. Or perhaps it's something totally unrelated. We may never know for sure. We also learned that the father whilst in his insanity killed a pet raccoon the family had. We looked back over the photo of that critter. I sure could pass for a raccoon as well. Once again we may never know.
Speaking To Chad Lewis
Chad Lewis is one half of the team responsible for the Haunted Road Guide series of books. We've had a few chances to meet him and Terry and see him speak. He never disappoints with his appearances and each and everyone you take a little information back with you. It was at one of these lectures that we learned that others he has interviewed have had similar experiences of the house calling to them, and knowing where it is, but they'd never been there before.
For those, like myself who are wondering, no, he did not experience anything out of the ordinary at Summerwind. What we do know is that at least for us. Summerwind lived up to it's reputation as Wisconsin's most haunted house. I'd love to return there, but it's private property and, well we can't trespass on it now.
Report from: Jennifer N
Resource: Associated Content
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mystery Animal Roaming Iredell County NC?
A love of outdoor activities has led Dennis and Joan Carter across the country. They’ve seen animals of every stripe and size.
On Monday afternoon, while returning from a weekend camping jaunt at Kerr Scott Reservoir in Wilkes County, the couple was startled to the point of awe when a huge cat crossed in front their vehicle on N.C. Highway 115 in northern Iredell County.
“It was a cat, I’m sure of that,” Dennis said. “It didn’t look anything like a dog or coyote. It walked and moved like a cat, not like a dog.”
The couple said they spotted the animal on Wilkesboro Highway near Taylor Springs Road and Rupard Road. Dennis described it as being light gray in color and about 6 feet long, including “a long curled tail.”
The animal was traveling west direction with a “loping” gait until it reached the street.
“And then it took off,” Dennis said, “and jumped down into the creek.”
The question is: What did the Carters see?
Dennis swears it was a cougar or a big cat very similar to it.
But Tanya Cline, manager of the wildlife habitats at Grandfather Mountain, said such a thing “is extremely unlikely.”
As far as she knows, the only two cougars in western North Carolina — Nikata, a female, and Aspen, a male — are under her care at the habitat.
“They have been extirpated from this area,” she said, using a term synonymous with “local extinction” and meaning “no longer indigenous.”
In other words, cougars used to live in North Carolina but have moved on.
Also, Cline said, cougars (which, she said, are also known as mountain lions, panthers, pumas and upward of 100 other names) are brown or tan in color, not gray.
The Carters, who live just outside Statesville’s city limits, are firm about the color of the animal they saw.
So Cline is stumped. She said she has heard rumors of gray-colored cougars but knows of none that has ever been captured.
“One possibility,” she said, “is that this was an exotic pet someone had that the owners let go or that got away.”
Cline is not denying that the Carters saw a big cat and says there have been other sightings of cougars around the state.
“A lot of people claim to have seen them,” she said. “But the State of North Carolina says they’re not here.”
Greg Jenkins of Wildlife in North Carolina magazine agrees that if the Carters did see a cougar it is almost certainly one that had been in captivity.
“There are people in the state who have them,” he said. “And they do get away.”
Jenkins re-emphasized that the state’s official word on the matter is that there are no naturally wild cougars in the state.
“But they’re sexy,” Jenkins added. “And people want to see them. But they can also kill people.”Whatever the Carters saw, they are concerned the animal may do damage to livestock.
Dennis said he contacted the Iredell County Animal Services & Control Department, which directed him to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
“It has to eat,” Carter said. “And it’s big enough to be really dangerous.”
Source: Jim McNally, Statesville R&L, May 6, 2009
On Monday afternoon, while returning from a weekend camping jaunt at Kerr Scott Reservoir in Wilkes County, the couple was startled to the point of awe when a huge cat crossed in front their vehicle on N.C. Highway 115 in northern Iredell County.
“It was a cat, I’m sure of that,” Dennis said. “It didn’t look anything like a dog or coyote. It walked and moved like a cat, not like a dog.”
The couple said they spotted the animal on Wilkesboro Highway near Taylor Springs Road and Rupard Road. Dennis described it as being light gray in color and about 6 feet long, including “a long curled tail.”
The animal was traveling west direction with a “loping” gait until it reached the street.
“And then it took off,” Dennis said, “and jumped down into the creek.”
The question is: What did the Carters see?
Dennis swears it was a cougar or a big cat very similar to it.
But Tanya Cline, manager of the wildlife habitats at Grandfather Mountain, said such a thing “is extremely unlikely.”
As far as she knows, the only two cougars in western North Carolina — Nikata, a female, and Aspen, a male — are under her care at the habitat.
“They have been extirpated from this area,” she said, using a term synonymous with “local extinction” and meaning “no longer indigenous.”
In other words, cougars used to live in North Carolina but have moved on.
Also, Cline said, cougars (which, she said, are also known as mountain lions, panthers, pumas and upward of 100 other names) are brown or tan in color, not gray.
The Carters, who live just outside Statesville’s city limits, are firm about the color of the animal they saw.
So Cline is stumped. She said she has heard rumors of gray-colored cougars but knows of none that has ever been captured.
“One possibility,” she said, “is that this was an exotic pet someone had that the owners let go or that got away.”
Cline is not denying that the Carters saw a big cat and says there have been other sightings of cougars around the state.
“A lot of people claim to have seen them,” she said. “But the State of North Carolina says they’re not here.”
Greg Jenkins of Wildlife in North Carolina magazine agrees that if the Carters did see a cougar it is almost certainly one that had been in captivity.
“There are people in the state who have them,” he said. “And they do get away.”
Jenkins re-emphasized that the state’s official word on the matter is that there are no naturally wild cougars in the state.
“But they’re sexy,” Jenkins added. “And people want to see them. But they can also kill people.”Whatever the Carters saw, they are concerned the animal may do damage to livestock.
Dennis said he contacted the Iredell County Animal Services & Control Department, which directed him to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
“It has to eat,” Carter said. “And it’s big enough to be really dangerous.”
Source: Jim McNally, Statesville R&L, May 6, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The Little People of Cherokee
It is not easy to see the Little People in broad daylight. They often hide from mortal eyes by appearing in the sun's brightness, but the Little People can see through the brightness. They cannot be seen at night unless there is a bright moon. Their light has been seen in the forest at night, however, close to the ground, moving through the trees, just off the trails. One can only catch up with their lights if the Little People want them to They are most often seen at dusk and dawn. They like to be with the animals when they feed, gathering the plants with the deer, fishing with the bears, picking up their firewood with the beaver, or visiting the native people, escorted by the fox. They have co-existed with the Cherokee people for countless centuries and look like full bloods, dark skinned, black eyes, and with straight black hair that reaches to the ground. They are handsome and strong and no more than three feet tall. They have always dressed as the native Cherokee people dress at any given time of their history ,They speak in an ancient Cherokee dialect. Some of the elders today can understand this strange dialect and know what they are saying. Some say it is Elati, a Cherokee language now extinct. They have their own communities or clans throughout the mountains. Like the Cherokees, each community has its own jokers, and serious people, leaders and followers, trouble makers and thinkers, dreamers, doctors, hunters and gatherers with the exception of the Dogwood Clan.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Bigfoot of Orange County NC
Hi Yeti About latest bf acitivity I was saying something about the other day. It started sometime around last fall. Some times I would be outside at night feeding my goats or something & have my mind on doing something & not paying much attension. sevreil times I thought I heard a strange noise comming from the woods. I would stop & listen & not here it again but I wasnt sure. But on Oct 6th at 6:45 pm I was on my way home from work. Just before you get to my house there is two fields seperated by a smtll patch of woods. Just brfore I got to the small patch of woods I looked to my left & in the corner of the field from the wast up I saw the perfect bigfoot. It was gray it had a conical shaped head. I saw chest sholders & arms. There is a fence out there & the post had turned gray & I thought mabey it was the angle I was looking at the corner post. But no it was to perfect. I drove by & looked at the post & none of them from any angle looked like bigfoot. It hasnt been a single day since when I go by that I dont look. But its gone. It didnt last but a second or two but it imprented on my mind like a photograph. I think the reason I only noticed it from the wast up is because of the short time I saw it & it was big. Later in Oct I came home late & went out to feed my goats & thought I heard something. This time I stoped & listened & heard it several more times. You might it a scream or a whistle but that time I heard it for sure. Later in Nov it was after dark & I heard a noise comming from the woods. It sounded { frog like} Sort of a croking noise. I have heard Tocans in Panama make a sound like that & thats the first thing I thought about when I heard it. Every few days or so I go to your web site & BFRO site to see if there are any new reports from NC. It was around the first of Oct last year that somebody onWalnut Grove chirch Rd made a report to BFRO. Go to there site & go to Orange co. In June of this year it was the 22ed or 23rd I was at home & I was working in the garden & around the house & I kept geeting a whiff of something that smelled like a combnition of rotting garbge & a pig farm. I had let my goats out to graze & one was down close to the woods. She has a bell around her heck. I heard that bell comming my way. I looked up & she was doing a 100yd dash up to the house. She turned around & looked back towards the woods with her ears up for almost 5 min. There is also a man I know about 8 mi from me who swears he saw one about 8 years ago. He said it was dark brown to black walking slightly stooped. He watched it for a good ways. At first he thought it was a man. I saw him the other day & was asking about it. He still swears it was bigfoot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)