I talk about the strange and the unexplained of the US state of Tennessee including a serpent that may herald death and the haunting of the Bell family.

1. June 29, 2020
Mysterious Tennessee – Death Omen Serpent & Unfriendly
Cryptids
theweeklyrambler.com/mysterious-tennessee-death-omen-serpent-unfriendly-cryptids/
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.
1/9

2. 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.
2/9

3. 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.
3/9

4. 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.
4/9

5. Could there have been a death-bringing monster in the Tennessee River? Photo by M from
Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.
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
5/9

6. 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!
What was responsible for bringing terror to Flintville? Photo by Shannon McGee from Flickr.
CC BY-SA 2.0. Source.
6/9

7. 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.
7/9

8. 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.
Thank you for reading this post, if you have any queries please Email me, you can find
my Email in the Contacts & Community section. Please also follow The Weekly Rambler
on Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest and Facebook which you can access through the buttons at
the bottom of this website. You can also use the social media buttons under each
blogpost to share with your family, friends and associates. You can also subscribe to
Email notifications at the right-side of this website to know whenever a new post goes
up (you can easily unsubscribe from this at any time through a button in each Email
notification), or alternatively you can use an RSS Feed Reader. Please also join my FB
Group The Weekly Ramblers Readers Group where readers can more easily talk with
8/9

9. each other and also with me whenever I am on, you can also find it in Community.
9/9