The Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization writes “My cousin Sylvia and I went up the holler to swing on the grapevines. I was getting ready to swing out across the hollow or the little stream, and I looked across the stream and I saw what I thought was an ape. It was fuzzy, hairy and it had the face of a man.
It was up on the mountain by a tree. It was standing up like a man would stand. Then it bent over and took something off the ground, it looked to me like a stick, not a little stick, about 2 inches around and a foot long. Then it sat down and leaned up against the tree and started chewing on it. Then I ask Sylvia, “do you see it?” and she said “no.” I kept saying, “do you see it?” Finally, she seen it and said, “I see it”. When I realized she seen it too I started running.
She was hollering, “wait a minute, wait a minute.” She was heavy and I was on the skinny side. We had to climb across a fence on the way there. I jumped over it. She was crying because she couldn’t get across the fence fast enough. We went home and told her brother what we saw. He told us to come inside the house and he showed us some funny books with pictures in it of Gorilla’s, like a Tarzan book. He wanted us to pick out what we seen. We both picked out the Gorilla picture. He said, “are you sure?” and we said, “yes”, then he said, “they were no Gorillas or apes in this country.”
Then we went on down the holler to Grandma’s house and told them. All my aunts and uncles were down there and they just laughed at us. We didn’t have TV in those days, all I had to go by was what I saw in the funny book. So, all I could say was It looked like an ape. I think I was about 10 years old. So, this would have been about 1949. It had to be 7 foot tall. It was fuzzy like an animal, a dark brown or black color.
They said I could have seen a bear, but it did not have a pointed nose like a bear, but a flat face like a man. There were stories through the years about animals being torn all to pieces, cattle and dogs. There was always a strange smell around these areas. This was mainly in the Head of Red Oak, another holler, that these occurred.
That was about a mile from our house by road or directly over the mountain from our house if you went through the hills. It was summer, the trees were green. Time of day was in the afternoon. Weather was regular summertime because we were playing outside.”
Bigfoot Sighting by Miriam Watts and her cousin Sylvia Smallwood
Location: Sassafras Hollow, Sassafras KY. Knott County, Year 1949
Charles R
It stands to reason should they have particles wedged in their teeth, they would use a stick to remove such particles or even clean their teeth. Although this one just may enjoy chewing on a stick.
Stacey C
Wes, I’ve been going through and binging all of your episodes and I was wondering if you were going to have William shaeh terror in the woods back in any time soon? Thanks Wes.
Chris L
People used to chew sticks to clean their teeth. I still chew a stick of licorice root for my health sometimes and can confirm the technique is effective at cleaning your teeth. You chew the stick to loosen the fibres into something like a brush and then scrub your teeth with it. Depending on the wood you use, the resin or sap acts as an antisceptic toothpaste of sorts too.