Media Article # 659
Article submitted by Robert Barhite

Monday, January 14, 2013

Back to theNorth Wood column: Strange creature encountered near Marshfield

By Rhonda Whetstone
Marshfield News Herald

Like every other city and town, folklore and legends surrounding Marshfield and outlying areas tend to find their way into the media, and the stories are spread to new listeners.

Here and there, I run across specific things pertaining to northern Wood County, but there never was enough for a column — until now. Pulling them all together, I think I can bring some illumination in the form of “lighter” moments to my North Wood readers.

We have the tale of the Pink Lady who supposedly haunts 5-South at the hospital. There are many tales about the former Norwood. Many ghost stories abound in the Marshfield area, but more intriguing to me are two stories of creatures in north Wood County.

In the town of Cameron, just southeast of the intersection of highways A and 13/10 (think just south of Schalow’s Nursery) there is reputed to be a clan of pig people, half pig-half human. While this is something touched on in an episode of “The X-Files” and a couple other old TV shows, and even featured in a 2009 movie called (not surprisingly) “The Pig People,” I would tend to doubt the assertions of the existence of this mysterious clan, except for the absolute proof provided in the book “Strange Wisconsin.” It seems at least one of these creatures left hoof prints in black paint right in front of St. Vincent de Paul on Central in Marshfield. I have no idea how the hooves got covered in black paint, or what the pig person was doing in town, but I saw the photo in the book, and I am pretty certain this proves the story!

According to “Weird Wisconsin” and Wisconsinosity.com, on Highway A near Bethel, a few years ago a woman was carried to safety by Bigfoot! That’s right, a sasquatch right here in Wood County! Why, I was as shocked as you are, but I think I can solve the mystery of where that Bigfoot may have originated.

According to another legend, at the Smokey Hill Mounds in Auburndale, American Indians living there a century ago feared meeting this creature in the dark.

Although I find references to a Smokey Hill Farm and Smokey Hill Road, I can find no Smokey Hill Mounds in the Auburndale area, although it is said it was a former 60-acre island that a band of Indians frequented to trap. They would not remain after dark however, for fear of encountering the “white deer” or the “hairy man.”

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I can see them being afraid of an albino deer, thinking it perhaps a spirit, especially since it was known that the mounds were in fact burial mounds, but what was that hairy man? It could only have been Bigfoot! Why, for him to travel from Auburndale to Bethel would just be a short sprint!

The bigger question in my mind, however, is if Bigfoot has to carry you to safety, what did you encounter from which you needed to be rescued? The only thing I can figure is that maybe it was one of those pig people from Cameron. That would be truly scary.

Author’s note: This column is written with sincere apologies to any loyal readers I may have in Cameron, humans and pig people alike.

Rhonda Whetstone is a columnist for News-Herald Media, Stevens Point Journal Media and Daily Tribune Media. Rhonda’s Twitter ID is TribRendezvous if you wish to follow her musings there. You also can get previews of upcoming columns by clicking “Like” on Back to the North Wood on Facebook. If you have story ideas of a historical nature, email her at Rhonda.Whetstone@gmail.com.

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