Half Man / Part Wolf Hybrid Beast from Kentucky & Tennessee

 

Well, it looks like we got another Legend from the books of Cryptozoology to deal with.  This one is normally addressed as the "Beast of the Land between the Lakes." It's supposedly some sort of a hybrid creature, as this type of subject has somewhat been mentioned on this blog in the past, here: Satyrs & Centaurs - Mythical Hybrids

Anyway, this legendary beast resides mostly in the state of Kentucky but part of this land between the lakes dips into Tennessee, as well.  The image used in this post is an aerial view of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. As for the origins of these big bodies of water, Barkley Lake was created by a dam on the Cumberland River and the Kentucky Lake was created by a dam on the Tennessee River. Now, between these 2 lakes lies the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Yeah, let's go visit; ha! But seriously, if you'd like to visit this place, outside of the tales about the half man, part wolf, hybrid beast that dwells there, it sounds like a really scenic place.  Their website boasts about the 170,000-acre recreation area in Western Kentucky and Tennessee with lots of shorelines and miles and miles of hiking trails, etc. You can find it online by typing "www.landbetweenthelakes.us" into your browser. They offer brochures, driving directions, passes and discounts, permits and reservations, etc. You can also sign up for alerts from the area, which keeps you informed about trail closures, event cancellations, and so on.

Wow! We are getting sidetracked here with all this vacationing talk. What was the subject of this post again? Oh, yeah... At any mythical rate, the creature feature today is starring a hybrid lifeform that is part wolf and half man. It supposed to be a rather large creature that walks upright, like us humans, and also has hands that are structurally similar to ours except for the animalistic part of the hand that features deadly claws. This creature would make for an exceptional NBA center as it is usually reported at being over 7 feet tall. I've heard some descriptions of it being more around 6 feet tall but, like humans, size varies from individual to individual. Yes, if they do exist, there has to surely be more than one of them; yikes! Other characteristics include robust, bone-crunching jaws, sharp-looking teeth, pointed ears, extremely hairy (like an animal), and demonic, glowing eyes. Some people report that it smells really foul (like the Yeti monster?) and releases deafening howls and screams. Yep, it sounds like an overall nice guy... Ha!

I've also heard it called the "Kentucky Wolfman" along with "Dogman." Then you have a lot of folks that believe it is simply a werewolf. How simple are they again? Anyway, I've read several stories about these angry animals thus far, and it almost seems to be like a super hybrid that gets traits from the Devil Monkey, Bigfoot, Jersey Devil and a Werewolf all combined. To top it off, some people think you should forget the part wolf / half man crap, as they believe it's a shape-shifting Native American shaman. Holy crap! Shamans are out killing people now? So much for cryptozoology; ha!

There are loads of stories online about this hybrid beast, but it seems that the most popular one involves an entire family that was found dead in the 1980s that was in the Land between the Lakes area.  They were found halfway consumed inside their motorhome in what appeared to be a monstrous attack by a huge animal. I never hear such bad things about a Bigfoot (don't they supposed to be vegetarians?), so that rules them out. Speaking of that, there are also reports of slaughtered and half-eaten elk and bison in that area, as well.  If you'd like to read more about the legend of this crazed hybrid that dwells in a region in Kentucky and part of Tennessee, visit: https://weirddarkness.com/archives/7266 [Link is no longer active.]

Now, since the stories can go on forever, let's dive more into the possible origins of this beast.  Of course, nobody seems to know the absolute truth, but some people think (assuming it's not a bunch of shape-shifting Shamans) that during the 1800s, a man that lived in this area claimed he had an illness he got via the blood (animal bite?) where he would become enraged and violent at night (sort of like a werewolf with Full Moon Madness?), and many stories spawned from that family for decades to come. I mean, does that mean his descendants kept passing the gene until one or more of them became full-fledged werewolves? Did they start out with Extreme Hypertrichosis, as well?

Another story of origin for this part man, half wolf thing is an old legend that involves a witch casting her wrath on a person and turning them into an unsightly beast. Is that Black Magic? To keep the creature's lineage alive, its curse would get passed on to anybody that survived an attack from it. Okay, I have two questions about that: Why would a witch turn somebody into an ultimate killing machine that could easily bring them to their demise as soon as they drop the spell book? If survivors turn into this creature, does that apply to animals as well?  I mean, going by that logic, this thing could bite a cow on the leg and then the cow would turn into???  Oh, never mind. That would be one hell of a bovine hybrid, though.

Well, I need to wrap this up.  I must say, however, that even though Tennessee is included in the title, it does seem that most of the scary tales come from the Kentucky region of the Land between the Lakes. As for Tennessee, that state is more known for its infamous Bell Witch. Either way, I know I didn't cover any scary stories on this post, but I did provide a good resource link that had several of them on their page. I just thought I'd do a blog post about this subject in case anybody knows more about this area and has some cool stories to share in the comment field.  At any rate, if you are a hunter or like to take camping trips at random places, you might want to always research the area before strutting around in the woods or else you may get your ass handed to you. Uh, literally? Ha-ha!

Image Credit: It is in the Public Domain and is not under Copyright.

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Legend of Hoia Baciu Forest - Haunted?

 

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, so I thought that this post about a forest that is supposedly haunted would be a good start since it seems to combine a bit of legend and myths to the folklore; ha! But seriously, this Hoia Baciu place seems to be really interesting in a spooky sort of way. I've even heard that many of the trees in that area are twisted and deformed in very strange ways, which would definitely help add to the haunted effect. Before anybody gets any ideas, the two photos that I'm using for this blog post did not come from Hoia Baciu. They came from my backyard and the woods behind my backyard, so they are my personal photos, with one I obviously edited in my MS Paint program (at the bottom of this article) and the one at the start of this post involved me taking a picture of a tree after I blew smoke in front of the camera.  It's a really cool effect, eh? Anyway...  

This demented area originally got named after a shepherd. Legend has it, that the shepherd disappeared while having 200 sheep out in the forest.  Since then, there have been reports of other people coming up missing along with experiencing "time gaps" of existence.  

The 'missing in time' thing is well documented in alien abduction reports across the globe. I'm not saying that is happening there, but I've definitely heard about those stories many times down through the years. It is like they get transported into a hovering craft, totally (sometimes temporary) lose all recollection of their existence, then find their self fully functioning cognitively and wide awake with no idea what just happened, only to find out that an x-number of hours has passed, etc. 

As for the Hoia Baciu Haunted Forest, I've heard of a legend that talked about how a girl, that was only 5 years old at the time, went into this wooded area, disappeared, and nobody seen her return from the forest until five years later. What makes that even more spooky, was that she was supposedly wearing the same clothes she had on the day she came up missing when she returned. Well, I have questions about that...  I mean, did she not age any during that time? Did her clothes still fit? Did she still appear to be 5 years old, or did she come back as a 10-year-old? I'm assuming, if true, that she had a "time gap" and somehow the space-time continuum got distorted when they (aliens from UFOs, of course) returned her and accidentally sent her into the future for 5 years? I mean, if you create artificial wormholes to speed up your space travel, things can happen. I don't know, you tell me...

Good grief, I forgot to even say where this place is located... Okay, this particular boogey-boogie forest is located west of the city of Cluj-Napoca, near the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania. Yeah, move over Dracula; Transylvania has bigger fish to fry than your blood-sucking self. Okay, enough inane drivel.  Let's get back to the subject at hand...

Of course, many people that go into this wicked place often feel like someone is watching them. However, I must say, basic paranoia will accomplish that - especially if you think a place is haunted and whatnot. Speaking of that, there is plenty room to get the crap scared out of you when visiting this place, as it is about 1.16 square miles in size. The Hoia Forest is commonly known as being sort of like the land-based version of the Bermuda Triangle that is riddled with paranormal phenomena. Many urban legends and ghost stories have fueled its growing popularity over the years and has become quite the tourist attraction, to say the least.

Speaking of the paranormal, stories from this wooded area often include ghost sightings, photographic phenomena (you know, like when you take a picture and some weird entity shows up in the picture, etc.), UFOs, strange lights, glowing orbs, floating spirit heads, loud voices appearing out of thin air, eerie giggling from afar (sounds like the Bell Witch), etc. I know that those are typical phenomena for a lot of places (which is why they sell so many of those Ghost Meters / EMF Sensors), well, except for maybe the floating ghost-like heads, but that's not really the strangest part, to me.  The frequent reports about people that visit the Hoia Baciu coming back scared out of their wits, many of which complain about unexplained burns, scratches, and rashes, really gets my attention along with numerous stories of time gaps... But even the ones with "missing time" of only a couple of hours is still bizarre, when you think about it. For example, some folks claim to just go walk by a weird tree at 10 A.M., then the next thing they know it is 12 o'clock. Uh..., ya drunk much? Ha! Just kidding... 

But back to the point, if loads of people are complaining about unexplained scratches, rashes and burns from this haunted forest, you'd think somebody would quit talking about it just being a legend and go get some video proof or doctor reports, etc.  Seriously, that would be physical proof of at least something. I mean, poison oak and poisonous sumac can cause rashes; running through a forest can cause scratches, but what about the burns? What in the hell burned you?  Did you not feel it when it happened? To me, that is really strange, if true... Then again, people may be out there smoking crack trying to catch a cheap thrill (is crack cheap?) and just get burned while freebasing random drugs for all I know.

However, things are about to get even more weird... I have recently heard about more poltergeist activity at this haunted forest that involved an investigator getting thrown to the ground after being scratched by an invisible force.  The area he was at was considered the "dead zone" of the forest, which is a circular clearing where nothing seems to grow.  Hmm... I've heard stories years ago where a supposed UFO was spotted hovering at a certain place, and the ground was radiated to the point where everything died, and nothing would grow back. BUT what makes this really weird is that, if true, soil samples have been taken by specialists from this dead zone before and nothing has turned up. They claim that the soil is totally normal. Well, did they check for radiation? I'm not sure but, going by what I've read, researchers from around the world have checked this place out. Unless people are out there constantly keeping the ground dead by walking in a circle. Dang, that reminds me of when people would make artificial crop circles albeit it did distract from the possible real ones. 

On a side note, since this place supposed to have some wicked tree and plant growth within its spiritually possessed forest, it reminds me of another post I did on a Nature Blog of mine: "Eyeball Plant - Doll's Eyes"... Now that eerie plant would fit right in at that place!

Well, to end this subject, I must say that this specific area even being located close to Transylvania is enough to raise eyebrows, to say the least. Personally, whenever I do get the chance and/or free time to leisurely take a hike in the woods, I do not fantasize about a place like Hoia Baciu. Even if somebody offered me a free trip to this freakish haunted forest, I would most likely steer clear from this nefarious place. I like adventure and all of that, but screw that! Ha!

Image Credits: These are my own photos. If you would like to use them, feel free, but make sure you provide a link back to this blog for the photo credit and so on. Thanks!

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