Tennessee is a US state located in the South Eastern United States and is bordered with the US states of Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina. The state capital is Nashville and the largest city is Memphis.
Tennessee has a number of different geographical regions, within East Tennessee there is the Blue Ridge area bordering North Carolina, made up of high mountains and rugged terrain, the area includes the Great Smoky Mountains, Bald Mountains, Unicoi Mountains, Unaka Mountains, Roam Highlands and the Iron Mountains. The area includes several federal wilderness areas, state parks and a national forest.
Also, in the East is the Ridge and Valley region where the Tennessee River is formed and there are fertile valleys among wooded ridges here and then there is the Cumberland Plateau that includes flat-topped mountains and sharp valleys.
Then in Middle Tennessee there is the Highland Rim which is an elevated plain that surrounds the Nashville Basin, the basin includes rich and fertile farm country and diverse wildlife.
Then there is West Tennessee, where the Gulf Coastal Plain is located, the easternmost section of this plain includes hilly land along the western bank of the Tennesse River and to the west of this strip of land are rolling hills and streams moving towards the Mississippi River. Finally, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain includes lowlands, flood plains and swamp land.
Tennessee has the highest number of caves known in the United States.
The state’s major outputs are textiles, cotton, cattle, and electrical power and the automotive industry is a major hub in the state. Several major companies are headquartered in the state including FedEx. Agriculture and tourism are also big sectors.
Now let’s move on to the unexplained and the weird side of the US state of Tennessee.
First of all, we begin with an old legend in the state which talks of a Wildman in McNairy County. The earliest sightings apparently come from as far back as the 1800s and one of the most recent sightings being a couple decades back.
There is a story, which is a common motif of how a creature like this could come to exist, in that it was a freak that escaped from a circus where it had been mistreated and put on display to all those who wanted a gander at the strange thing. Obviously now it is angry and lusts for revenge against humans, or so one of the legends of its origin goes, I suspect it very much isn’t the truth of it. But it is clear that something certainly spooked the residents of McNairy County to create this creature.
The Tennessee Wildman, as it is popularly known, is described as a hairy humanoid creature, with dark grey or dark ginger hair including a prominent beard, estimated to be at least 7ft in height with a pair of piercing red eyes that would make any sane person terrified. On top of this the beast can apparently emit a ferocious and hair-raising war cry or howl and also smells rather pungent when nearby. So, if you aren’t already warned by its cry, you’ll smell its scent which alone would make you evacuate to fresher air.
You may be thinking that it sounds like a Bigfoot but those who claim to have seen it say it looks more human-like than what the Sasquatch is described as. The wildman is also said to be very aggressive unlike the Sasquatch which is often more neutral and indifferent to those observing it. Thinking you could take this thing on by yourself is also likely a mistake as it is described as very strong with great agility and speed. Considering the beast may still exist some have speculated that rather than being an escaped circus freak, that it is merely some undiscovered species and that there are more than one out there.
Some stories warn that the wildman has a specific target of women and some say that the creature will attempt to kidnap them given the chance. Some stories tell of the creature running away from men and dogs, and can easily out-run both.
The next legend is that of some kind of water serpent that could kill a man that had merely looked upon it – sounding like the Basilisk from Harry Potter – this beast had three sightings of particular interest and all of which the witness mysteriously died not long after. Some have named the serpent as Catzilla and say that it was merely an oversized catfish, although the unusual deaths remain ominous. These reports come from a Herald-Journal May 9th, 1993 column by E. Randall Floyd called Southern Mysteries that talks of the monster.
The first sighting took place in the Spring of 1822 when farmer Buck Sutton was innocently fishing in the Tennessee River on an area called Van’s Hole when he happened to gaze upon something most uncanny. Some strange creature was undulating through the water. Sutton described to his friends that it was a monstrous fish. The farmer though was not grateful on his sighting as he had heard the legend and rumors that those who see it face certain doom. A few days after this Sutton was dead.
The next sighting took place in 1827 when a man called Billy Burns was crossing the Tennessee River in a canoe coincidentally in the same area where Sutton had made his unfortunate sighting. Billy would be just as unfortunate as he claims to his friends that he saw some kind of snake-like creature charge at his canoe, almost flipping it. The creature was further described as blue and yellow and was as long as the canoe. Burns would strangely die the following Summer.
The 3rd and so far, final known sighting connected with death would take place in 1829 when another farmer called Jim Windom was also fishing near the same luckless spot. It is here he saw something with a monstrous head rise above the river’s surface. Windom said he slowly passed him and then rolled on its side and he then observed it swimming around his boat several times and Windon then quickly paddled back to the shore, although not before getting a last look, observing a large black fin two feet high and he described the back of the serpent at 2ft across. Windon also knew of the apparent curse of seeing the creature and attempted to attend church regularly and pray each morning to ward off the curse, but it seems it was no use as he strangely died from a fever the following Autumn.
It is said the serpent originates from Native American legend about a creature in the River. Cherokee Traders would tell tales of encounters with a serpent and its attacks on canoes and fishermen. The creature was described has having a large dog-like head, a snake-like body at least 25-feet long, as well as frothing lips and a black fin that rose from its spiny back.
Sightings of the creature dramatically decreased in the 1830s, during the rise in use of steam boats and some say that these boats had driven the creature away, although some sightings did occur with such witnesses who saw it not dying. Since the 1830s though there have been no more known sightings.
Was it all coincidence? It was at a time when people would not have lived as long and dying was more common from things we could now-a-days cure or treat, so it could all well be a coincidence. But it does make you think nonetheless. Also, not everyone who saw the creature did die, so that makes coincidence more likely. Just remember that if you are ever along the shores of the Tennessee River, be careful where you glance!
In the 1970s and 1980s an ape-like creature begun to allegedly terrorize the residents of Flintville. This bigfootesque monster caused a whole raucous by vandalizing cars, chasing residents and even almost kidnapping a child on one account from a mother who just managed to grab her son and bolt it right before the creature almost did. The report on the creature and the details come from The Augusta Georgia Chronicle in a 6th April 1997 column also written by E. Randall Floyd.
People begun coming forth with their sightings after a woman told the police in 1976 that some giant hairy monster had broken the antenna of her vehicle and then begun jumping up and down on the roof of her car.
Common signs of the creature are large 16-inch footprints and as usual a foul smell in the air. In one incident a man said he was chased through the woods by some kind of creature howling and screeching like an ape, with it being described as hairy and at least 7ft tall.
The scariest incident reported took place on April 26th, 1976 when a mother claimed that the creature almost kidnapped her son who was playing out in the yard. The mother was alerted by her child’s scream and a foul smell in the air, which enabled her to see the creature bounding towards her son. Luckily the mother was able to reach her son just in time and run him back into their home, where then the creature returned to the woods.
After it was reported to police a mob of lawmen and hunters gathered together on her property armed with shotguns and rifles and were determined to hunt the creature down, as such an incident gave great insecurity now to the residents. The hunters searched through the night but did not find anything, although they claimed the creature screamed it them twice and also pelted them with rocks.
On the following day the party found a number of large footprints as well as hair, blood and mucus. Apparently, analysis of this could not conclusively identify what it was from.
Reports continued into the 1980s with a plumber claiming the windshield of his truck had been smashed by the creature and a housewife claimed that a big hairy creature had chased her into her home and then starting banging on the door.
It is apparent that no further sightings of the creature have took place since 1993 but some residents are afraid it may one day return to terrorize them again.
So just would could it have been? Was there an actual escaped primate causing havoc in and around Flintville or was it something that is yet undiscovered? Or could it have been some kind of creature we already know but was just misidentified? We’ll likely never know.
Finally, we are going on to a famous haunting that is said to have taken place in the state known as the Bell Witch haunting. It is named so as it is some kind of spirit or entity that terrorized the Bell family on their farm and also supposedly haunted some of the surrounding nearby residents as well, taking place in Northwest Robertson County from 1817 to 1821.
The haunting was – if true – a powerful one with the Spirit apparently able to effectively communicate and teleport from one place to another or even being in multiple places at the same time. The entity is even said to have killed John Bell Sr. with poison. I have already done a full length post on the subject in one of my previous series that you can read here.
The legend now lives on via the Bell Witch Cave located near to where the supposed famous haunting took place and some report strange activity happening there and that the Bell Witch may one day return.
And that is it for Tennessee, next up we will be checking out the strange and the unexplained of the US state of Mississippi.
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