Kentucky is a US state located in the Southern United States and is bordered with the US states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee. The capital city is Frankfort and the largest city is Louisville.
The state is divided up into five areas, including the Cumberland Plateau in the East of the state made up of deeply dissected plateau with outcropping sandstone and bluffs, cliffs, gorges, rockhouses, natural bridges as well as waterfalls. The Bluegrass region is found in the north-central area of the state and this region is often split into the inner and outer Bluegrass Regions, which includes rolling hills and highly fertile soil and the area has been used for livestock breeding, the region has also been developed for residential and commercial property. Much of the Outer Bluegrass lies in the Eden Shale Hills known for its short, steep and narrow hills.
In the south-central and western part of the state is the Pennyroyal or Mississippi Plateau, featuring rolling hills as well as rugged hills, caves and karst and Mammoth Cave National Park found here is the world’s longest known cave system. Also, in the West-Central and northwestern area of the state are the Western Coal Fields which is known for its Pennsylvanian age sandstone, shale and coal. Finally, in the far-west of the state is the Jackson Purchase.
Generally, the state experiences hot, humid as well as rainy Summers and moderately cold and rainy Winters.
Agriculture plays a large part in the state’s economy including horse breeding, goat farming, beef cattle production and corn. Tobacco business and farming also plays a large role in the economy. Other important as well as growing sectors are auto manufacturing, energy fuel production, and medical facilities. Coal production was once also a big part of the economy but is on the decline, although it still contributes to a degree in US energy consumption, as well as the enrichment of uranium rods from Kentucky’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. 95% of the world’s supply of Bourbon Whiskey comes from Kentucky.
Now we have had a little introduction into the state of Kentucky, it’s time as always to move on to the weird and the unexplained and as I have been doing lately – putting a focus on cryptids. And so first up is a very scary encounter with some kind of humanoid monster…
In 1975 in Western Kentucky on a farm in Spotsville the Nunnelly family begun to see a strange creature around their farm, perhaps even not just being one creature but multiple. The creature/s were humanoid in appearance, hairy and very tall. The encounters begun soon after the family had moved to the farm in 1975.
They had been warned by the previous occupant about an odd creature he had seen staring at him through the back door of the house and that he fired at it with his rifle. The family had interestingly dealt with similar sounding creature in their previous home and a shotgun had helped to scare it off, so they thought that would do the trick.
But what would follow would be terrifying for the family, and it included animals inexplicably vanishing as well as dogs and some livestock turning up strangely mutilated with organs, eyes and tongues removed and they would begin hearing ungodly noises during the nights around their home that would also even terrify the guard dogs into hiding under the house.
The spectacle would lead to numerous sightings of a very tall bipedal and hairy ape-like creature and of which seemed to be very aggressive and dangerous. The creature also seemed to be supernatural in nature and invulnerable and eventually after some crazy encounters and events the family would decide to move out of there and to the safety of a city.
It is something that honestly deserves its own blogpost and, in the future, I will be doing just that, but I thought I’d give it a quick mention here. This is the part where I am revealing the title of an up and coming project – The Mystery Files. More will be revealed on this upcoming series closer to the time.
Perhaps one of Kentucky’s most famous legends is that of the Pope Lick Monster, said to be a half-man half-goat humanoid creature that lives under a railway trestle that runs over Pope Lick creek in the neighborhood of Fisherville in Louisville.
There are numerous urban legends on the creature’s origin on how it behaves and/or takes out its victims. Some say the monster is a former mistreated circus-freak out for revenge, or an escaped monster from a train derailment while other residents claim the monster has satanic origins related to a farmer who was turned into the monster who sacrificed goats in exchange for the powers.
Some say the monster lures its victims by hypnosis or by faking a voice of distress and shouting out for help from under the train trestle, both of which are said to be used for causing the victim to fall from the trestle and die or to lure them in-front of an oncoming train, in other versions the monster is so terrible to look upon that the victim is compelled to jump off the trestle.
Other legends talk of the monster attacking cars that drive under the trestle or that it attacks victims with an axe. Whatever it is, or isn’t, the monster is clearly well-known which is why it has a wide variety of legends to its name. Its fame has also been blamed on many accidents and deaths on the trestle itself due to trespassers coming to the area for the thrill-seeking, leading to them accidentally being caught by the train (the most recent death there related to this was April 2016) – some even mistakenly believe the trestle is abandoned and not currently used by trains, which is a dangerous misunderstanding. It is strongly advised not to trespass onto the tracks, as even without such a monster existing the area is naturally dangerous.
Even if one doesn’t fall to the evident danger from exploring a trestle where there is little room to escape on oncoming train, the Norfolk Southern Railway has said it will prosecute those caught trespassing on the tracks, so really it just isn’t worth it.
A movie was made on the legend as well called The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster, which officials of Norfolk Southern Railway complained would lead to more trespassing on to the trestle and also gives false misconceptions, such as hanging on to the side of the trestle to survive the train, which would require great strength that only very few could accomplish, both the encouragement of trespassing and the misconceptions are dangerous and could lead to serious injury and death.
Next up is an interesting encounter with alleged extraterrestrial beings, known as the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter that happened in August 1955. The event took place at a farmhouse near to Kelly and Hopkinsville in Christian County. Many adults and children were at the farmhouse and it was claimed they begun seeing strange humanoid figures peeking into their door and windows and after soon which all Hell broke loose when the occupants begun shooting at whatever they were witnessing.
One can only imagine the almighty raucous that took place as was observed by authorities who arrived on the scene, the evidence of the shooting from the occupants of the farm house was clear as day, but any evidence of apparent alien beings or a ship was practically nowhere in sight. The authorities had come to the farmhouse to investigate after the occupants reported the incident of alien beings coming from a spaceship to the Hopkinsville police station. The authorities, more concerned about a possible gun battle between residents rather than anything of unnatural origin, sent four city police, five state troopers, three deputy sheriffs and four military police from the nearby Fort Campbell.
The creatures apparently returned at about 3:30 in the morning prompting the occupants to pack-up and leave, as recounted to two officers by neighbors. The creatures themselves have often been described as short, anywhere from 3-4ft in height with big pointy ears, spindly arms and legs and large luminescent eyes, they have been compared to gremlins and goblins.
Officially the incident has been declared as a hoax, including by Project Blue Book, although this remains questionable. Many who go to explain what happened do not believe it to be a hoax but to have simply been excitement and possibly intoxication of occupants as well and the misidentification of natural phenomena, with one of the most popular being that it was nothing more than a group of aggressive owls all of which lead to a bout of hysteria, there were also meteors active at the time which may have been misidentified as an alien craft.
If it were merely owls though one may question why none happened to have been shot and killed in the commotion, leading some to believe it could have been totally hallucinations triggered by other natural phenomena, such as natural gasses being released from the ground.
As is usual we’ll probably never fully know what took place on that farm, but it is scary to think that such a commotion could be caused by mere misidentification.
And to finish up we will go over a lake monster that some have claimed lives in Herrington Lake, a lake made by the construction of the Dix Dam in 1925, the largest earth-filled dam in the world at the time, for the purpose of hydroelectric power. It is the deepest lake in Kentucky. Could the construction of the dam have trapped some kind of water serpent there?
The Herrington Lake Monster is perhaps one of the most peculiar I have heard of, with it being described as having the snout of a pig and even the tail of a pig as well, which was reported by Lawrence Thompson while he was fishing in the lake in 1972, reported to The Courier-Journal paper. He also said the serpent was moving as fast as a motor boat. This sighting brought the possibility of a lake monster in Herrington Lake to the public consciousness. What made this sighting more interesting also is that Lawrence was a University of Kentucky professor.
All in all, those who have sighted it in the local area have described it as a mix between a pig and an eel, with it have the head and tail of a pig and the body of an eel.
Some have given explanations such as it possibly being an alligator or giant catfish or perhaps some kind of prank that took a life of its own.
Next up we will be looking at the strange and the unexplained of the US state of Tennessee.
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