Tennessee

1Bigfoot in Tennessee Investigated report

Ape-like · Statewide; dense in Southeast Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau · first reported 1980s (BFRO database)

Tennessee's upright ape reports belong to the main Bigfoot dossier. The BFRO database lists about 111 Tennessee reports, with Sevier, Lincoln and Wilson counties near the top. The accounts below are investigated reports from the southeast of the state, between Chattanooga, the Plateau and the Cherokee National Forest. A recurring local detail is whistling heard after a sighting.

Full story: Bigfoot →

• March 2004Investigated report A camper at Laurel-Snow State Natural Area near Dayton woke around 3 a.m. and saw a figure about seven feet tall watching camp from forty yards. A second one stepped out and moved off to the side, as if circling. The investigator described the witness as a credible state employee. Source: bfro.net
• September 2011Investigated report A couple on a rainy ridge road above Possum Creek near Sale Creek found something standing in the road. The wife said its soaked, matted brownish-grey hair looked like a long-haired dog after a bath. It crossed in a single stride and went into the brush. The investigator estimated seven feet. Source: bfro.net
• July 21, 2003Investigated report Two men in separate trucks on I-75 at the Hiwassee River, just after midnight, saw a hunched figure over what looked like a dead deer in the median. It had long, coarse, brown-to-black hair matted like a rat's nest. It lifted its head and watched them pass. Source: bfro.net
• Summer 2005Investigated report East of Crossville a woman on an early walk watched an ape-like animal leave the treeline, drop onto something in the grass and stand up holding a snake by the head. It carried the snake into the woods. The investigator put it near six feet tall with short, muddy-looking hair. Source: bfro.net
• 1981 and 1987Investigated report McMinn County has two reports six years apart. A young witness on a farm at Chestua made the first in 1981. In 1987 a teenage boy reported a large blond or tan creature at his own door, followed by whistling calls from the dark. Source: bfro.net
• September 5, 2025Investigated report A mother and her adult daughter crossing old railroad tracks south of Cleveland in mid-afternoon saw a tall, thin figure step out of the tree shadows onto the tracks. It stood and looked at them for several seconds, then walked into the trees. The daughter stressed how long its limbs were. BFRO rated it Class A. Source: bfro.net
• June 19, 2012Investigated report A mother and her young son on Route 61 near Harriman saw a dark figure they put at eight or nine feet cross in daylight. Both noticed a sulfur smell. It paused, looked at the car and walked off. A week later they found pressed-down grass and what looked like a bed. Source: bfro.net
• October 1986Investigated report On Forest Road 77 past the Chilhowee campground a driver heard a grunt and saw a figure by a creek. He remembered a large round greying head, heavy brow, flat nose and brown eyes, and a musty, sulfur-tinged smell. It held his gaze for a minute or more before walking off. Source: bfro.net
• October 26, 2024Investigated report Near Tellico Plains a man noticed a face watching him from a ravine about fifty yards away: round eyes under a heavy brow, a flat nose, dark brown hair. It turned its head away and back again over several minutes. He heard whistling afterward. The investigator visited the site. Source: bfro.net
• August 2000Investigated report Two men dredging Coker Creek for gold saw a large dark figure about a hundred feet off snap a thick limb, hold eye contact for up to twenty seconds, and walk away. Over the next two weeks they smelled it repeatedly and their dog kept alerting on the treeline. Source: bfro.net
• December 2009 and August 2017Investigated report Morgan County has two reports on file: a daylight sighting of a large upright animal near Sunbright in December 2009, and a footprint found by a hiker on a trail inside Frozen Head State Park in August 2017. Neither came with a photograph. Source: bfro.net
• Spring 2000 or 2001Investigated report Hikers on the Fiery Gizzard Trail near Tracy City reported calls they could not identify. Nobody saw anything, so the BFRO files it as a sound-only report. It is the only report on file for Grundy County, on one of the busiest trails on the Plateau. Source: bfro.net

Visiting: Smoky Mountain Bigfoot Festival (Townsend, early May) and the Smoky Mountain Bigfoot Conference (Gatlinburg).

2Tennessee Wildman On the record

Humanoid · McNairy County and the hills of East and Middle Tennessee · first reported 1871 · also called Wild Man of the Woods

Before anyone said Bigfoot, Tennesseans talked about a wild man. The oldest account found so far ran in May 1871. It placed a seven-foot, hair-covered figure on Piney, between Sobby and Crainsville in McNairy County. Witnesses gave it fiery red eyes, matted hair past the waist and a long beard. The report said it fled from men but screamed at women who were alone. Later stories follow the same pattern: a big, bearded, wild figure rather than an ape. A New York Times brief in 1889 described a similar giant just over the Georgia line. Today the name is used almost as another word for Bigfoot east of Nashville. Nineteenth-century papers reprinted such items widely, which makes the original source hard to pin down.

• May 5, 1871On the record The Hagerstown Mail in Maryland reprinted a Jackson, Tennessee, Whig item about a wild man between Sobby and Crainsville in McNairy County. It was seven feet tall and very strong, with red eyes, waist-length matted hair and a beard. It avoided men, screamed at lone women and leaped fences easily. Source: thecryptocrew.com
• February 8, 1889On the record A New York Times brief described a giant, hair-covered figure carrying a huge knotted stick in Walker County, Georgia, near the Tennessee line. A man who called out a greeting got a shower of stones in reply. A modern writer argues the item was a publicity plant rather than news. Source: thesmokies.com

3Wild Man of Chilhowee On the record

Humanoid · Chilhowee Mountain, Polk County, near Cleveland · first reported 1896

In early 1896 four hunters camped at the foot of Chilhowee Mountain for a deer hunt. They came home with a story about a wild man. What makes it stand out is where it was printed. Forest and Stream, the leading American outdoor magazine of the day, carried it on February 8, 1896. The magazine described the mountain as nearly roadless and empty except for the odd moonshiner. Later retellings added tusks, talons and even a capture. None of that appears in the original piece. Researchers treat it as an early sporting-press account. No later report from the same hunters has been found.

• Published February 8, 1896On the record Forest and Stream printed an account from four hunters who camped at the foot of Chilhowee Mountain and reported a wild man in rough, roadless country. The tusks, talons and capture found in modern versions are not in the original article. Source: medium.com

4Flintville Monster On the record

Ape-like · Flintville, Lincoln County · first reported April 26, 1976

On the afternoon of April 26, 1976, Jennie Robertson said she saw a huge, hairy figure crossing her yard toward her four-year-old son. She reached him first and barricaded the door. Police reportedly found sixteen-inch tracks. What followed sounds more like a siege than a sighting. One woman said it landed on her car roof. A man said it chased him through the woods howling. A plumber's windshield was smashed, and in 1989 a pastor's car was wrecked. Armed search parties found nothing. Reports faded after 1993. Lincoln County still has six investigated BFRO reports, one of the higher counts in the state. The 1976 details mostly reach us through later books rather than the original newspapers.

• April 26, 1976On the record Jennie Robertson reported a large hairy figure approaching her small son in the yard. She said it came within inches before she pulled him inside and blocked the door. Accounts say officers found sixteen-inch tracks. Neighbors later reported more encounters, damaged vehicles and night howling. Source: bfro.net

5White Bluff Screamer Told story

Beast · White Bluff, Dickson County · first reported About 1919

Around the end of the First World War, the story goes, a settler built a house southwest of what is now White Bluff. Soon his family heard screaming from the woods at night. He took a rifle and a lantern to hunt it down and got lost. When he finally found his way home, his wife and seven children were dead, and the screaming went on. Locals still describe a wail that bounces between the hills so you cannot tell where it comes from. Descriptions split two ways. Some witnesses report a woman wrapped in white mist. Others describe a white-furred beast about twice the size of a man. No body, track or recording has ever been tied to the screamer.

6Wampus Cat Told story

Beast · East Tennessee and the southern mountains · first reported Early 1900s (dialect word); in print by 1936 · also called Whistling Wampus, Gallywampus

The Wampus Cat is the big cat of mountain storytelling. Depending on the teller it runs from seven to twenty feet long, with dark fur and glowing eyes. A 1936 Knoxville paper compared its eyes to small moons. Some versions give it six legs, let it swim or turn invisible. Others describe a half-dog, half-cat that runs upright or on all fours at twilight. In the 1930s it took the blame for dead livestock and missing dogs. The one detail that never changes is the scream, somewhere between a panther and a woman. Several schools use it as a mascot. A popular tale about a Cherokee woman cursed into a cat skin is not documented Cherokee tradition; folklorists trace it to a 2003 internet post.

7Barghest of the Hill Told story

Beast · The Hill near Ayres Hall, University of Tennessee, Knoxville · first reported Undated campus lore

The oldest part of the University of Tennessee campus has its own monster. Students tell of a large creature on The Hill near Ayres Hall, described in two ways. One version is a phantom wolf with coal-black eyes and long fangs. Campus writers call it a barghest, the spectral hound of English folklore that warns of death. The other version is a cat-like thing that stands on its hind legs with glowing eyes, close kin to the Wampus Cat. Both forms are treated as death omens. The university's own magazine retells the legend each Halloween. No dated sighting is attached to it; it lives in student storytelling.

Visiting: The Hill and Ayres Hall are on the public UT Knoxville campus.

8Not-Deer Told story

Beast · East Tennessee and the wider Appalachians · first reported About 2019 (internet era)

The Not-Deer is a deer that is somehow wrong. Witnesses online describe eyes set forward like a predator's instead of on the sides of the head. The legs bend the wrong way, the proportions are off, and it shows no fear of people. It stares too long. Some stories even give it a taste for meat. This is modern folklore. It has no deep historical roots and grew up in online story forums. Researchers of internet legends see it as a fresh take on older Appalachian warnings about things in the woods that only look familiar. Skeptics point out that injured, sick or diseased deer can look and move very strangely, and that explains many reports.

9Pig Man of Shelby Forest Told story

Humanoid · Shakerag Road near Millington and Meeman-Shelby Forest, Shelby County · first reported Post-1946 local legend · also called Shakerag Pig Man

North of Memphis, teenagers tell of the Pig Man. The legend ties him to the Chickasaw Ordnance Works, a World War Two plant near Millington that made smokeless powder from 1940 to 1946. In the story, a worker struck a match after handling chemicals. The flash burned away his nose, scalp and most of his ears, leaving a face like a pig's head on a man's body. Shunned, he went to live under a bridge on Shakerag Road and came out only at night. Some versions move the bridge to Epperson Mill Road. Kids dare each other to call him on full-moon nights. Researchers note similar Pig Man tales in other states, and there are no confirmed sightings.

10Beast of Sugar Flat Road Told story

Beast · Sugar Flat Road, Lebanon, Wilson County · first reported Late 1980s · also called Beast of Sugar Flats

This is one of the few cryptid legends that comes with a body part. In the late 1980s, the story goes, a couple driving Sugar Flat Road in Lebanon hit something with their car. It was about the height of a man, or a little shorter, and covered in fur. One of them buried it, then later dug up the head. A taxidermist preserved it, and it sat on display for years in an antique shop in Lebanon that has since closed. Local fans say the head has changed hands several times since. Wilson County also has six investigated BFRO reports. The head has never been examined by a scientist.

11Wolf Men of Borneo Told story

Humanoid · Burns Station, Dickson County · first reported Late 1860s · also called Werewolf of Dickson County

Dickson County has a werewolf story with a circus twist. In the late 1860s, local historian Lyle Russell tells, a circus train either made an unplanned stop or derailed just outside Burns Station. Animals got loose into the countryside. Among the escapees were two sideshow performers billed as the Wolf Men of Borneo, said to be half man and half beast. They were never caught. Locals say that is the root of Dickson County's werewolf tales. Escaped-circus origins are common in Southern cryptid lore; Mississippi and Louisiana have their own versions. No record of such a wreck at Burns Station has surfaced.

12Tall Betsy Told story

Humanoid · Cleveland, Bradley County · first reported Family folklore; public figure from 1980

Tall Betsy is Cleveland's Halloween bogeywoman, a towering figure from local family stories used to keep children home after dark. In 1980 businessman Allan Jones brought the character to life from tales told in his family, and she became the star of a Halloween block party. On May 24, 1989, the Tennessee legislature named Tall Betsy the official Halloween goblin of Bradley County. Crowds grew to about 25,000 in 1998, when she vanished without explanation, and more than 30,000 turned out for a 2005 anniversary party. In 2014 Jones's son Bailey took over the role. A 2011 documentary explored what the legend means to the town.

Visiting: Tall Betsy Halloween Block Party, downtown Cleveland, TN (check current year).

13Whirling Whimpus Told story

Ape-like · Cumberland Mountains, East Tennessee · first reported 1910 (in print)

The Whirling Whimpus is a lumberjack tall tale. William T. Cox wrote it down in his 1910 book Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. He placed it in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee. It had a gorilla-shaped head and body, huge front feet and tiny hind legs. It would plant itself at a bend in a trail and spin faster and faster until it became invisible. The only warning was a droning hum that seemed to come from the treetops. Anyone who walked into it was flattened into a smear on its paws. Woodsmen used it to explain hunters who never came home. Cox even gave it a mock Latin name. It is folklore by design, not a reported sighting.