YEAR: 1987

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: unk.

STATE: Tennessee

COUNTY: Dickson County

LOCATION DETAILS: Ruskin Cave & Jewel Cave grounds. Both up on top of the "mountain" over the cave and down underneath on the flat property.

NEAREST TOWN: Dickson, TN

NEAREST ROAD: Yellow Creek

OBSERVED: Ruskin Cave was a recreational park at the time and we were living there to work. My daughter was followed home late one night. A bigfoot came up behind her and tried to take a large bag of candy from her. It bruised her back. She came home literally in shock and could not even describe the incident for minutes. While she was trying to describe it to me, I looked out our window and it was standing outside staring in at me. I almost blacked out. It was the size of it that shook me, as well as the look, and nearness of this creature, standing there outside our window looking in at me. Several other people on the property heard its screams throughout that summer all over that property. It would make your hair stand up on your head and paralyze you for seconds when you heard it. I have seen grown men nearly cry when they heard it because they were so frightened. Animals go beserk when they hear those screams.

ALSO NOTICED: The splashing footsteps could be heard lots of nights in the creek running through Ruskin Cave and the roaring screams were heard many nights.

OTHER WITNESSES: Two who saw the creature and probably 2 doz. who heard his "roaring" sounds.

OTHER STORIES: We scouted the neighborhood asking and found that there were several people who had heard the sounds but no one else had seen it.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: visual/10:30-11:00p.m. audio/several times during summer and fall

ENVIRONMENT: Wooded area with a creek, a spring, the caves and several building structures.

Follow-up investigation report:

I visited at length with the mother by telephone and found her to be very credible. The daughter, who was 14 at the time of the incident and is now 35, did not wish to recall or talk about her encounter.

At the time of these incidents Ruskin Cave was a tourist camp and this family worked and lived there. The daughters encounter happened on a night when she was dropped off at the gate of the campground on her way home from a ball game. The gate had already been locked for the night so her ride could not drive her all the way home and she had to walk from the gate to their residence.

The road ran beside a creek and the daughter became aware that something was following her when she began hearing heavy bipedal footsteps in the water. The animal left the creek and approached the daughter. Since I did not speak with her personally I can't say what transpired, but she ended up throwing her bag of candy down and racing home.

When the daughter calmed enough to begin to describe the incident to her mother, the mother glanced outside and saw the creature standing outside the window looking in. The mother described the creature as 8 - 9 feet tall, with a flat face and round eyes. It was covered in coarse, bushy hair that was 2 to 3" in length. The mother was so shocked at the sight of this animal looking in her window that she stumbled backward and nearly fainted.

The mother also described hearing screams throughout that summer and related that there were many other people in the surrounding area that had encounters both sound and visual.
In particular, there was a woman tour guide (now deceased) who was taking a tour group through Jewel Cave which is supposed to connect to Ruskin Cave. As the tour was progressing through the cave the creature screamed extremely loudly from the back of Jewel Cave. Needless to say the tour group was shaken up and left the cave immediately.