YEAR: 2002

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: 08/01/02

STATE: Tennessee

COUNTY: Carter County

LOCATION DETAILS: This was in Carter County in the NE corner of the state. It is close to the town of Elizabethton Tennessee.

NEAREST TOWN: Elizabethton

NEAREST ROAD: State Highway 91

OBSERVED: My wife was going to work around the end of july 2002 and saw something by the side of the road. It was tall and dark colored. She slowed down because she thought it was someone who might have broken down. The thing was at the edge of the road near a creek. As she stopped it crossed the road and leaped onto a dirt bank about 5 or 6 feet off the road and went into the woods. A day or two later as she was going to work she saw something standing by the edge of the road in the same area. It was tall and dark with reddish eyes. It made no effort to come into the road and went back into the woods. All of these events occured during the early morning hours on a remote section of mountanous road in the Stoney Creek section of Carter county on Highway 91.
On August 1 2002 at 0300 hours I was letting my dog out of the house because I thought he had to go to the bathroom. My female dog would not leave the house and my male dog went onto the porch and stared at a field adjacent to my house. He would not leave the porch and his ruff was up and he would growl low. I looked around and saw something in the field about 2 o'clock from my elevated position. I could not get a direct look at what it was but it was large enough to be seen bent over in a field of nearly mature untopped tobacco. When it realized it was spotted it made a chuffing noise, between a growl and a guttural throat sound. At this time I noticed another figure in the field moving off into a shadowy area between a barn and a road behind my location. This was a smaller version of what was in the field near me. The thing in the field from me stayed until the thing that had crossed the road made a similar chuffing sound. The dogs behind my location and in the area where this happened were barking. The thing in the field then began to move through the tobacco field to the tall grass and the tree line. I also heard a noise like something in pain, something small. This was follwed by two additional series of sounds (the chuffing) coming from an area near a creek across the road from us. this was answered by the things that had crossed through the field at my location.
The only look I got at the thing was a rounded back covered with a brownsih red or light brown fur. This again happened at night and the light was not bad. There was a partial moon and ambient light from property nearby.

ALSO NOTICED: I checked the area where I observed the things the following morning and found areas fo mashed grass and trails that roughly followed the sounds I had heard the previous night. What was unusual was that I got the impression that there was a young animal of some kind hurt. It was a mewling sound that was kind of scared that I heard in the area of the second thing. I did not find any footprints that could be identified. I did find depressions in the grass and trails through the still wet grass where something had moved. I also was surprised that the things seemed to communicate with each other. One of the things that was not seen seemed to be angry or upset about something. Also the things that did not cross the road but stayed in or around the creek seemed to be looking for something. They even went so far as to climb or attempt to climb a tree. My wife and I noticed a tree by the creek moving and swaying as if someone were climbing it. There was not enough wind to move the tree. There was also a strong musty odor when the breeze changed and blew in our direction.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was awake doing work on my computer. My wife was in bed getting ready to wake up to go to work and our daughter was in bed asleep.

OTHER STORIES: Something about a deer hunter in Johnson County a few years ago. I do not know the details just that he was hunting and saw something.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The weather was clear with a minimum of wind. It was around 0300 hours. There was a partial moon and ambient light from street lights at nearby homes.

ENVIRONMENT: The first area described where the sightings by my wife is where the road nears Stoney Creek, with woods and open fields close by. The area around my home location is near the creek with open fields and woods nearby. Both locations are close to National Forests on both sides. This is not a really heavily populated area.

Follow-up investigation report:

On August 8, 2002, a friend and I met with this witness and his wife around 8:00 p.m. The location is about 45 minutes from where I live and is relatively remote. We drove to the mobile home where he witnessed the creatures.

A few additions: This mobile home is one that he is renting to a couple. They have not been taking care of it, so the witness has been trying to evict them for some time. Every time he went to speak to them, they were gone. On the evening of August 1, the witness was working late on his computer. He decided to drive down to the mobile home around 3 a.m. to see if he could catch them there. He also needed to let his dogs out. They stayed at that mobile home because it had a pen outside and the renters fed them and moved them inside at night. His wife, who got up around this time to go to work at a local hospital, decided to go with him in case the tenants were there. As they pulled into the property and swung the car around, the headlights hit this creature on the edge of a tobacco field adjacent to the trailer. The witness just saw a flash of it and it didn't really register to him until he tried to let the dogs out. He then noticed movement in the field. When he first saw it, he says it was hunched over like it was trying to hide. Even hunched over, the creature was taller than the tobacco plants it was next to and they were around six feet tall. He then watched this creature move into the field slightly and make a very bizarre noise. He then heard another sound from the other side of the field but it was a different pitch. He then heard yet another one left of his position across the road near the creek. This man has hunted all his life all across the country and he stated that he has never heard anything like these vocalizations before. He is sure they were communicating with one another. He then got a real uneasy feeling that he was intruding. He felt that the larger creature was positioning itself between him and the ones across the field in a defensive posture. Not knowing what he was dealing with, he got his wife out of the mobile home, put the dogs inside, and left. As they were making their way to the car, they noticed a tree across the road by a creek shaking violently.

Now I personally have never seen or heard one, but as the three of us were standing there at the edge of the field talking, we heard a VERY odd scream/growl from way up on the mountain across from us. I must say it was unlike anything I've ever heard before. This area is in a valley between two large mountain ranges and it was getting pretty dark and the sound appeared to be pretty far off. The witness also showed us depressions that he found everywhere. There is a large round bale of hay directly across from the porch about 75 feet from the mobile home. There were two large impressions in the deep grass on the field side of the bale. They were approximately 3 1/2 feet across. It appeared to us that something large had been standing there watching the mobile home. We could also see where the creature had made a beeline through the tobacco and toward the direction of the other sounds the witness heard. He also pointed out the tree across the road near the creek that was shaking violently as if something was trying to climb it. The witness also noticed that it was unusually quiet of insects such as crickets during the whole experience... just the neighbors’ dogs barking.

I feel this couple is highly credible and they seem to really believe they witnessed something out of the ordinary. They are both professionals and are active in their community. We will be spending the night on the porch at the mobile home in the next couple of weeks. More reports to follow.

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