YEAR: 2000

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

STATE: Kentucky

COUNTY: Hopkins County

LOCATION DETAILS: There are other waterways that connect with the creek we were on and these bottoms run thru several counties.Head out of madisonville on hwy70 west to Beulah.Turn right on hwy109 north until you reach hwy502 which turns to the right just past a community called Rabbit Ridge.Follow it until you reach a swamp that is on both sides of the road about 4 miles or so off hwy109 on hwy502.We put in on the right side about 3/4 to a mile from the entrance to the old coal mine.

NEAREST TOWN: Madisonville,KY.

NEAREST ROAD: KY hwy 502

OBSERVED: Myself and a friend were bored one afternoon,so we decided to take his dad's small john boat and look around some creeks just a couple miles from his house.After putting in a time or two,we found one that kept going and stayed wide and deep enough to follow it for awhile.We only had paddles so we moved fairly quiet,i guess.After paddling for a few hours,and having to get out from time to time and drag the boat over beaver dams,it had became late afternoon and the sun started to go down.We had been talking and laughing the whole time,so we really weren't trying to be quiet.As we rounded a bend in the creek,we both saw a large piece of rock come flying out of the trees and land in the middle of the creek,making a big splash probably about 50 yards or so ahead of us.At the time,i was a police officer and was armed pretty much everywhere i went.That particular day we had been shooting trash like cans and bottles that we found alongside the roadway just up from where we put in at,so we were both armed.My friend immediately opened fire with warning shots in the general direction where the rocks came from, 5 or 6 shots as i was trying to turn the boat around.We normally wouldn't have freaked out like that but,it was the manner in which it occurred that scared us.The rock appeared to be bigger than anything either of us could've picked up,let alone throw like that.Another thing was,the height from which it came.Which was about 2 or 3 feet higher than i am tall from what i saw,and i am 6 foot one.Also,it was heavily wooded,flat,swampy creek bottoms so it didn't just fall from anywhere,and had the circumstances been where it could've fallen,it would'nt have landed in the middle of the creek.It would've just landed on the bank.After we got turned around and started paddling like crazy in the other back toward the truck,we didn't hear or see anything,but we still didn't waste any time.As it got darker,we started hearing footsteps up in the woods on our left.I say "footsteps" cause it didn't sound like any deer hooves that i had ever heard,it sounded like somebody large and heavy.When we'd stop paddling,it would stop walking.It would walk only when we paddled.This went on all the way to the point where we got close enough to the road to hear traffic going by,and it was all the way dark by then and had been for some time.Once we got to the road,we loaded up and got out of there in a hurry,not hearing anything else and very shaken.There were no houses for miles in either direction from where we parked other than my friend's house which was a few miles to the west and nothing to the east for roughly 5 miles.The property that the creek runs on is a 3000 acre tract of land that used to be a coal mine but had been shut down for several years.I tried to explain it away to myself but,it just didn't add up.I always figured,even if it had been some person large enough to throw a rock that size,they would've said something when my friend opened fire on em'.And,they sure wouldn't have followed us all the way back to the road for fear of being shot at again you would think.The swamp we were in runs across several counties, and is largely unpopulated in most parts so,who knows.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2.Prior to,we were talking and paddling upstream.

OTHER STORIES: I have heard a growling type yell,almost more like a roar two other times in my life not too far from where this occurred.Like i said,this swamp runs a long way through a few different counties.The noise i heard is hard to explain.It is like nothing i had ever heard before,or since.Whatever it was had to have huge lungs to make a vocalization like that.There were a few years in between the sounds and the rock incident.Also,i have another friend that lives not far from there.He told me that he and his wife were on their way home from madisonville one night and saw a large,dark,fur covered object crouched down off the right side of the road,not 1/2 mile east of where my truck was parked when my incident occurred.At first he said they thought it may have been a bear,but nobody has ever seen a bear where i am from.He said his wife was afraid and wouldn't let him turn around and go back because they had their children with them.This was a few years after my incident.Another guy i used to work for told me that a couple guys duck hunting approximately 4 or 5 miles away from where my incident occurred actually saw a large,hairy manlike creature stop and look at them as it was making it's way through the water.Supposedly,they were in a boat and the water was chest to neck deep on the hunters,and they said it was like,waist deep on them.They were telling him this as they were loading up their gear in a hurry and very upset,he said.He also told me that they said they had left a bunch of duck decoys back in the swamp but,were not going back to get them and that he could have them if he wanted to go get them.There must have been some truth to the story because,he said the next day,he went back in there and found the abandoned duck decoys.That is second hand information,although from my experiences in that area i tend to believe him.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 6:30 or 7pm.It didn't get dark that time of year until around 8 or 8:30.Light was still good,weather clear.

ENVIRONMENT: Swamp with thick brush and woods.Where i was at,was the last stretch of bottoms before the road starts up out of the low lying area.There are 2 or 3 small bridges before you reach the place i parked.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Don Adkins:

I spoke with the witness Kevin C. at length about the events he and his friend experienced. He said that he has not told many people about the experience. Although he was a sherriff's deputy at the time and armed, he was still quite frightened. He said he would not go back to the area unless "armed to the teeth". The other witness, David, recalled the events of the day, the same as Kevin. He had little else to say other than, simply put, "I won't go down there anymore".

About BFRO Investigator Don Adkins:

Don works in manufacturing for a major global consumer goods company. He attended North Carolina 2007 and Tennessee Expedition 2009. Also the 2010 Illinois and Tennessee Expeditions.

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