Nelson County - mid 1800's

MYSTERIOUS ANIMAL AS SEEN BY HARRY SMITH ON THE SALT RIVER:

'Smith and Tom Hardman were fishing on a creek known as Dutchman Creek, twenty three miles east of Louisville,Ky. which empties into the Salt River. This fishing tour was in the night. After fishing for some time, a terrible noise was heard like distant thunder, seemed to attract their attention, rocks and pebbles could be heard tumbling down the bank. The earth trembled, and looking down the creek from the bridge, they discerned a huge animal resembling a dog. It was spotted and about eight feet in length, and four feet high; coming up to them on the bridge. The animal had no head or tail, and nothing seemed to stop it in its course. On went this mysterious animal up the creek, rocks were heard tumbling a mile away. This mysterious phenomenon was, and is to this day, a wonderful mystery to Smith. As he never could account for its appearance. He being a man of great nerve it did not frighten him as it would many others.'

Everything about this early sighting hints at a possible Bigfoot walking on all fours except the note about the apparent absence of the head.Since it was dark at the time of the sighting it is possible that the head was simply in such a position as to render it unnoticeable. Furthermore,as it was described as being 8 ft. long and 4 ft. high, the chances of any type of canine identification for this animal seems very unlikely. Smith, a runaway slave, might be forgiven for comparing this creature to one with which he was more familiar with.

(source: 50 years of Slavery in the United States by Harry Smith)

Nelson County - October 1965

The Whortlechort

The hills and hollows of Nelson County where this incident took place are normally peaceful spots where farmers nestle tobacco and corn against the ridges, and cattle graze the gentle slopes rising from the creek beds. Coon hunters pick their way through the wood and step lightly across fences here and the crisp autumn nights are usually filled with nothing more fearsome than screech owls, or an occasional fox. It was on such a night in October 1965, that two brothers saw something which they've never forgotten. One says he doesn't tell the incident to many people any more. "They just laugh and call you crazy", he says but our eyes didn't fool us, and neither of them will deny it ever happened. While their father and mother attending a school fall festival that evening, the boys had been instructed to go the their grandmother's farm and find a cow which was expected to have a calf. It was not quite dark, and we'd taken the pickup truck to the back field as far as we could drive, he remembered. The parked the truck and headed up a fence row to a clump of trees where the cattle usually bedded night "As we moved up the fence row spotted something in sort of hunched position. There were a lot of buck bushes growing around the field and we couldn't see too well. We didn't think it was a cow but we didn't know what else it could be." About 100 feet away from the object their dog started barking uncontrollably, then the animal backed off and would not follow the boys any closer. They were no more 50 feet away from it now. All of a sudden the creature raised up two legs and began running away from them . It stopped under an arch formed by two trees and for a moment faced its pursuers. The brown hair covered body stretched seven to eight feet tall. The brothers aimed their flashlights at it once and caught a glowing red reflection from its eyes. "We couldn't have watched it for more than a few seconds, than we both ran off scared to death. I turned once to see if was chasing us and I saw the creature put its hand on a fence post and just flip over into the next field." The next day wen their father went out to the field to check their wild story, he found a path through a field of uncut oats in the exact spot where the boys claimed their "monster" jumped the fence. They never saw the creature again, though once that same year, their mother and sisters heard an unusual noise in the barn. That summer another unexplained incident happened . In a certain corner of their garden something would eat the corn as fast as it came on the stalk. In 1965 few people had ever heard of "bigfoot", but several years later when one of boys was in college he accidentally ran across the account of several "bigfoot" sightings in the northwest. Ever since I've never doubted that's what we saw that night," he says "We didn't know what a bigfoot was, so we called it a "Whortlechourt'." I read everything I can about them (bigfoot) now, and almost every account that I've read seems to match up with ours." Through his reading he has also learned that bigfoot are believed to be vegetarians and very shy of people and other animals "I don't think I'm scared of it, but I never go up in that field at night without thinking an awful lot abut what I saw." I believe God created the world through evolution, and maybe what I saw is the "missing link" between man and apes."
(credit: Rick Carter)


(source: Bardstown Newspaper - 11/2/78)