DATE:          1985/1986

TIME:              Mid-Day

LOCATION:    Rockwood, Tennessee, Roane County

TERRAIN:       Mountains
 

OBSERVED:     This was told to me by a co-worker. He is 28 now and said he was a teenager when this happened so I would say maybe in 85. My friend never thought about bigfoot much, but I was telling him my own story one night and mentioned how in sighting reports dogs always seem to cower or run away from bigfoot sightings or smells. So when I mentioned that about the dogs reactions he remembered this story. He and some friends were up on what we call Rockwood mountain trying to cut down a tree that had mistletoe in it.

He said they had a dull axe that one of the boys grandpa owned. My friend said he remembered thinking they'd never get that tree chopped down with that old dull axe. They had a german shepard dog with them and he said that dog wasn't afraid of anything, dogs or people. So they began to chop on this tree with the dull axe and they would sit in a rock recess and rest when they got tired. While they were resting they noticed the dog kept looking uphill at something.

This mountain is steep and many cliff outcroppings on it. One of the boys went up the slope a little to see if he could spot what the dog was looking at. My friend said all of a sudden this big bad german shepard turned and bolted off the mountain as fast as he could. He said he saw small trees parting, like something was walking through them and the boy uphill saw some kind of thing, and they all took off down the mountain running all out till they got back down to town to the grandparents house. When they got there, the grandmother wanted to know what they had done to that dog, he was hiding under the porch. They told her they hadn't done anything, it just took off, something on the mountain scared it half to death, and the dog only beat them by  about 5 minutes, they ran so fast off the mountain. My friend said the other boy uphill swore he saw something, big and hairy in the trees when the dog took off. They never returned for the mistletoe needless to say.

Description of Creature:   Big and hairy

Activities of Witness:  Just school boys cutting mistletoe down. Goofing off and talking.

Other Notes: none

Other Bigfoot sightings from this area: Yes, in the seventies, my own encounter near Harriman, about 10 miles north.