A listener writes “I started listening a few years ago after I searched for an explanation to what was going on at our property in the ozarks. I emailed you then, but I’m thinking you didn’t get it our internet was unreliable that far out.
When covid hit they closed the school’s so we decided to travel with the kids till it was over. We figured if we had to homeschool we would let them see everything this country had to offer. We’ve been everywhere. From the ozarks to Colorado then Oregon (crater lake) to Washington state (Clellum) then to long beach Washington, from their Joshua tree, on into Texas where I grew up. Then up into Tennessee. I never saw anything as much as I kept expecting to. No hint, even in the most remote areas. Then we came here.
I think I felt it before I saw or heard it. I hated it here the moment we got here & it’s beautiful. Its exactly the kind of place I would normally be my happiest. It just immediately felt off. As soon as the sun goes down it smells like there’s a heard of wet ferrets just beyond where you can see. My dog will just stare at the tree line and refuse to pee. He’s been to the vet 3x since we’ve been here because he won’t pee or poop unless we walk him up into the part of the camp that’s more populated & he wakes up in the night and pukes all over himself. All his labs,xrays, exams say he’s perfectly healthy. Its just the dog and I freaking out. My son comments on the smell but only my dog and I seem to know they’re there.
It was my dog and I that encountered whatever the hell that was in the ozarks too. I’ve had the dog wake me up countless nights & at first I would try to take him out thinking that’s what he wanted… then he started refusing to go at all after dark. I’ve heard trees fall when there’s no storm, loud bangs like someone is hitting trees w a bat, and that smell rolls in w the dark. I haven’t seen it, but I know its there. My son says someone is in the woods watching him and won’t go outside after dark alone. I haven’t shared my suspicion w him or anyone. My daughter’s toys and the clothes line seems disturbed often & our little cargo trailer we use as a pantry had a hinge bent on it. You know the type that sitting together to attach a lock? it was closed but had no lock on it. It looked like someone very strong attempted to pull the door open without releasing the latch system first. There’s dry food in there. Then tonight I came outside and was reading in the hamock beneath a little colapsable gazebo we carry w us when that smell became overwhelming just as it got fully dark. I heard something like a nut fall from the tree but another sound at the same time that was bigger, like a giant thump bigger than anything falling from a tree would make.
I sat up in the hamock and there was a shadow in what remained of the days light moving between the travel trailer (where my children were) and the clothes line & cargo trailer. I yelled at my son thinking it was him & asked what he was doing. The shadow stopped & everything was silent. I mean suddenly everything. no crickets, nothing. my phone was in my hand so I text my teenage son and said “are you outside’ he answered back “no Hazel (my daughter) fell asleep we’re in the bedroom” I knew immediately whatever the f### that was wasn’t my kids, didn’t care I was there, and wasn’t willing to wait for dark! I quickly got into the trailer & locked the door behind me and called a friend also at the campground who immediately sent her armed husband up my way. He said, he saw a bear run from my cargo trailer to the woods but he didn’t think we had brown bears in TN. I asked why he thought it was a brown bear…. he says because its back was like 5ft off the ground when it took to all 4s to run away.
I said what do you mean “took to all 4s” he said it was standing swaying on its hindquarters trying to get into that trailer till my lights hit him then he dropped to all 4s and was gone like lightening. Admittedly, it’s dark up here. The only light comes from the string lights on campers. Whatever it was knocked my clothesline out of the ground in its retreat. that clothesline is buried 2ft under ground, in 50ftlbs of quik concrete, and has held up to all manner of storms. It’s bent over at the ground. I’m no genius but I’m betting it takes some serious weight to accomplish that. I’ll take pics in the morning but I’m not going back out there tonight. There’s something up here. We’re only a few miles away from where they hold Bonoroo just South of Nashville outside a little town called Manchester between there and Tullahoma Tn. My husband is out of town for work I’m scared to death. I do not have any of those happy apple feeding feelings about this thing… I feel like it’ll hurt anything between it and food like any other animal. I have a 357 & 9mm there is a shot gun too but my husband hasn’t taught me how to use that yet. I’m here alone w this thing stalking my campsite and there’s just this feeling if recognition. I know that sounds nuts but other people’s camps are being messed w but minor incidents every night this thing is here since we got here and it’s becoming more brazen every night.”