Encounter at the Old Sawmill and Revenge of the Devil Monkeys

0:01 And it and I just I just sitting there watching and looking. And when I looked down and I grabbed my sandwich and I looked back up and I've seen it. I've seen it go behind the tree. And I was like, okay, there's something up there. So I kept watching and it it had its hand and it leaned. It just leaned, kept leaning watching me. I was like painting pekaboo. I was like, okay, this that's something not normal. But I just kept watching it. And then I snagged a picture and my phone died. It was it had been on charge, and it was just it just died. And then it felt like an eternity.

0:47 That thing was just watching me. And after a few minutes it just disappearod and walked up the ridge hight. There. You're listening to the Big Society podcast and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Every week I talk to individuals who have experienced sasquats in some way or another, so you won't want to miss an episode. Make sure you're subscribed on the platform that you're listening to, and share this episode with a friend does not cost a thing, and it helps the show continue to grow. I'm heading out on a big Foot expedition soon with Horonymus and others. And I want to take a few minutes to thank those who have bought me a coffee to help me go on that expedition.

1:30 Special thank you to Cheryl Kay for buying three coffees, She says, good luck. Appreciate that, Cheryl. I'll definitely let you know how it goes. If you'd like to hear Bigfoot Society episodes early in ad free, you can do so by becoming a Patreon supporter or a YouTube channel member. Links to those are in the show notes and Bigfoot Society. I've taken far too much of your time so far, so let's get on with the show. Three two one, All right, big Faciety. We got the privilege of talking to mister Harley Owens from the great State of Tennessee, specifically East Tennessee, where all that crazy stuff happens. But how's it going today, Harley?

2:10 It's going good. How are you today? I'm having a good night. We are kind of having a little bit of a a little lull in the temperature out here in Iowa, so we're having a good one, kind of chilling out. We're out in the porch before this, but I'm just glad to talk to you. You had connected with me over Facebook a few days back, and at the more we got talking, I was like, well, man, this is kind of starting to turn into something interesting. So I was like, let's just chat about this because I want to get the community on the inside of this one as well. Because your your story sounds like it's very interesting. We've got some We've got a sound clip to play eventually, but really what I'd like you to do, Harley is let's just start. You can share what's been going on with you. It's pretty interesting. Well, it's it's happened that I said three years ago. It was September twenty second. That was the day actually seeing the creature, but going back a couple of weeks so that I was up there a couple of weeks before I had even seen it. We's going its working on auction up there for a logging company that went out of business, and I went up there and we started working around and stuff, and I just had this eerie feel and the whole time we were up there, I mean the first day

3:40 we went in there, it was early in the morning and there was deer going in and now there are turkeys and there's all normal wildlife you'd be saying around And we got talking to the owner of the place and I was like, well, there's deer and stuff in here. He's like, yeah, there's beggars and snakes and all that. He said there's far worse things than these mountains than those and that that stuck with me, you know, and I was like, there's worse things and barriers and snakes and it's just that's odd, you know. And just going going through the next week there, it was just had this feeling you were being watched and like you'd hear what sounded like bird whistles and it wasn't like any bird whistle I'd ever heard.

4:30 And just going on up through there, it's just weird. And by the time the auction was over, I stayed up there to help load people load stuff that they bought. Well, it's pretty slow because people normally had just come up there to pick up their stuff that they had bought. And this the day of the twenty second when I seen the creature. It had rained the day before, and that's when I I had found the first couple of tracks that I had sent to you in pictures from the rain. And then that next day it was it was going on one two o'clock something like that, and I just had this feeling I was being watched and there was nobody there. It was just me and I went to go grab a Coca cola out of the cooler because I just saw on lunch, I was taking me a break since there was nobody there, and I heard this. I heard a growl and I was like, well, that's that's not normal. I was looking around because I thought it was a bear. As my first innis was thought there's a bear. So I just started looking around and I kept hearing it, and I was like, that's weird. I got looking up on the ridgeline and I could hear something walking and it and I I was just sitting there watching and looking, and when I looked down and I grabbed my sandwich and I looked back up and I've seen it. I've seen it go behind the tree. And I was like, okay, there's something up

6:05 there. So I kept watching and it it had its hand and it leaned. It just leaned kept leaning watching me. I was like playing pekaboo. I was like, okay, this that's something not normal. But I just kept watching it and then I snagged a picture and my phone just die. It was it had been on charge, and it was just it just died. And then it felt like an eternity. That thing was just watching me. And after a few minutes, it just disappeared and walked up the ridge hardly. I have a few few questions for you at this point, if that's okay, yes, sir, can you can you share again what you feel comfortable with the area that all this was happening in. I look region wise. I don't know how specific you can get, but it was it was kind of down in the holler, the hollow holler. It's just the country Tilne coming out of me. It's just the hollers. It was up on a mountain and this you're going down into this place. It goes down into the holler and then it comes back up on a big flat where the old sawmill was and where I was. I was standing out of the sawmill

7:35 on an asphalt there. I was looking up on the ridgeline where the where the ridge was, and that's where the creature was. That it was up on the ridge of off the cliff. It was peeking off the cliff from Maria tree watching me gotcha and the state and I don't know if you can share the town or anything specific. It was in Pound, Virginia, is it. It's probably about ten fifteen minutes from Kentucky line. So rich in bigfoot history at Appalachia, if you ask me, it's all big Foot, Oh absolutely, I mean that that part of it's it's all bets are off with You've got stuff going on Apple Appalachia, especially to do with with big Foot. But so you're you're looking up there and you see the thing by the tree, were you able to see any any details that you noticed about the creature, maybe in the face or anything like that. I it was it probably about one hundred and fifty yards away. I mean, I couldn't really make no close figure like facial pictures out But I've had I've had pictures in off and I've had it people edited it and stuff, and they've said that you can see the facial nuck, a nose and a mouth and eyes and all that stuff. But I never I never could tell from how far I was white. It was just a black mass and it was leaning from

9:07 around a tree, and it was massive. Had it wasn't a bear. I've seen bears, and just the way it was acting, it was not a bear. I'm checking right now just talking about it. It's a It wasn't a bear. I know for one hundred percent fact it wasn't a bear. Absolutely. Did you get a feel for how tall the creature was at all? I had? If I had to guess, I'd say it was. I'm six five six sixs that thing seven and a half eight foot tall. Easy. It was massive. It was just a massive four arms and it was huge as broad. It could have easily had its white with me.

9:56 M hm. Around that time? Did you hear any interesting sounds or smells, any smells anything. The smell it was it smelled like rotten flesh, but it was for the wind was blowing and it was blowing my direction in it. But I really weren't paying that much attention to the smell. I was worried about it because it was it was watching me, and I was really on guard after seeing it because you had to work in that area. What was it like working in that area after you had that sighting? I had my gun on my side after that, Okay, it was I was just always on guard. I was watching and listening and being aware of because that thing coming up on me if it's been bad and you were working by yourself in that area, right, yes, sir, I was.

10:58 Wow. It's just very weird that that picture you you showed me, you know, and I see a lot of pictures, I'll be honest, as as listeners can imagine, I get, I get a lot of stuff. But I looked at this when I was like, man, you you really can see It's almost like there's a shadow in front of that tree, to the point where I was like, I wanted to go to that area to the tree to see if, like if that shape was still there. Oh, it wasn't there. It wasn't. I promised you it wasn't. I'm promised you it wasn't. Yeah. But but I say that to say that, that's how convincing it was. I was like, man, it feels like there is something there, which I was I was trying to look around and see if I could find a way up on that ridge. But that trail away that I sent you, the video of that trailway goes around up onto that ridge, does it? M And there's an old semi trailer up there from our trailway was it went up to the trailer traild tractor trailer up there, and it veered up went up to that ridge where I saw the creature. Tell me a bit about did you find the trailway after or before

12:28 you had the sighting. I found the first two traps from in the after the rain the day before, but I found the other trailway after after I was saying the creature like it was coming down or being nosy, mm hmm. It's very interesting too, you know, watching the video that you sent over, how how far apart would you see the tracks were in the trap the trackwayer that you that's I ever been eight to ten feet. I couldn't do it because I tried stepping it off and I couldn't do it. And I'm sixty five sixty sixth time. I mean I've got a pretty good step and I could I couldn't stride that. Yeah, it is pretty wild.

13:20 And so you'd shared some of your your story with me, and then I think it was at the point where you had told me that there's a track way involved, and then there were some sounds that you'd recorded. I was at that point, I was like, oh man, there is some really interesting stuff going on here. So when when did the sounds start to play into the whole story? The day after I've seen the creature, the twenty third, and the twenty fourth, two days a day after and two days after I've seen the creature? Can you can you share with Actually? Should we should? We play the sound. Let's play the sound and I'll have you talked about a little bit and then we'll play it again afterwards. So I'm going to say, cue that up, okay, and this is as loud as I can get it all while we're talking. I'll probably push it up a bit in editing. Yeah, I'm getting I'm trying to just listen to that again. Yeah, So, so kind of bring us back to

14:52 what was going on when you were hearing those sounds, because they're really really interesting. A. So that particular one was the day after I've seen a creature. I was packing up, I was getting ready to leave out of there, and there was deer up in the valley from where I was at and I was looking, I was watching them, and all of a sudden they were gone. I was like, well, that's just weird and I knew then there was something around. And right after they were gone, I started hearing the house, which it sounded like with that particular one, it was close to where I had seen that one, but it sounded like it was on further up in the ridge. We'll be back with more Bigfoot society after these words from our sponsors. And what time? What time of day?

15:52 Again? Did these the right at dusk and dark? Right at the little after dark? What was the rest of the woods like around that when those sounds were going on? Was there anything else going on at the same time? Just the crickets? Everything else was just dead quiet. Just the crickets was the only thing going. Could you hear any like any snapping of twigs or anything moving around during those howls? Or I did here, which I thought it was just something falling and it may have been a would knock respond to those howls. It sounded like it was behind me over in the holler below me, because like I said, I wasn't where going into that place where I was at. There's a road that goes down and goes into the holler below where there's a railroad track, And it sounded like that knock come from behind me down that holler, responding to that one holler up on the ridge. So I think that may well have been a response to that one. That is really interesting. I'm not I'm not sure what to think of that that howell. The first you know, we were going back and

17:25 forth in the Facebook messages and I was like, well, do you do you have any ELK and you had responded, I'll just let you respond what you had said. They had being ready introduced into Tennessee in the early two thousands, particularly where I'm from, Jacksboro, Tennessee. Uh, they had rein adduced them to Hatfield, nab Us. It's five hours away. I mean, I'm not saying that they help couldn't have traveled that far. I'm sure they have because they've They're in Kentucky now too, traveling from or they're released him where I'm from. So it wouldn't cross my mind that there's oak up there. But what made those hells, what help, what made those sounds wasn't ill. It's just really interesting because I have no idea what they are. You have no idea. I would I would say listeners, please, if you are a outdoorsman and you have any ideas put it in the comments, because we're honestly trying to figure this out, and I'm sure there'll be some people that might even say that kind of sounds more like a dog man Harley. Have you have you thought of that at all? I have, yes, And I who's to say, I mean, you know, I mean there could there could be dog man, could be Bigot, could be dot Foot in that area. Who's to site for certain? You know, I mean, we don't know. I don't know what's in these woods now. After seeing what I think was Bigfoot, maybe Doc Man might have

19:00 been Bob Man. What I say, I'm not for sure. I don't have all the answers to what I've seen, but I'm looking to find out absolutely absolutely. Did you ever have to go back to that area again after that? No, I haven't been back since. I would love to go back and get answers. The great thing about this podcast is it has quite the listener reach, so hopefully there might even be a listener in that county or that area that has also experienced something close to where you're talking about that has happened before in episodes. There's also another part that's pretty interesting that adds to this story. Do you mind sharing about how you went to the drive in and then the individuals you were talking to? Oh? Yes, sir, yes, yea. So I went to the drive in local drive in there called Robos, and I noticed there were some old timers sitting at a table talking. I was like, well, okay, I'll just go talking to them. I mean maybe they know. So I went and sat down and I just struck up conversation at first, and I started talking to him.

20:14 I was like, uh, y'all have had any strange encounters up here on these mountains, you know? I was like, I seen something up here a couple of days ago when I've heard some noises and I found tracks and I'm not quite sure what this could be. And they they were kind of quiet about it at first, and they said, well, that's the devil monkeys. I was like, so bigfoot and I was like, no, devil monkeys. I was like, mmm, okay, it's kind of struck out devil monkeys. I've never never heard a term like that before. And they was like yeah, they said, they said you're lucky. They said they're dangerous and anything to get you out of where they're at. I just stuck with me. Devil monkeys. I mean, that's something I just don't forget, like devil monkeys. That's a phrase that has stuck with me since three years ago. And I heard it. Man, that's wild.

21:15 That is I don't know what to think about it. When I read that in your response, I was like, I mean, if listeners have some other stories about these devil monkeys of you know, Kentucky and Virginia border, definitely let me know, send me an email or put a comment about it. But hardly it's it's such an interesting story. Did How did everything end? Was it just that you had to go back to your home in Tennessee eventually? Or yeah, yes, sir, Yeah, I wasn't needed up there anymore, and so I just left and I didn't have no closure for what I'd had witnessed and heard. It's it's been on my mind to go back and get some closure, and I've really contemplated it. Yeah, I would probably be thinking about it for three years like you have been. Yeah, and it's been hard for me to open up about it. I mean I've had nightmares ever since. I mean I just had him night a couple of nights ago about it, because I mean, it's just something I don't forget. M h. I appreciate you opening up, man, I know sometimes, well most times, it really does help to be able to finally

22:49 to share about it. Yeah, it's helped me a lot. You don't understand. It's helping me a lot. That's that's awesome. That makes me feel really good. Harley his Hopefully there hasn't been things that have also happened in Eastern Tennessee where you're at. No, sir, not recently. No, But I do have another encounter that I would like to share from my past that it was a long time ago, but I believe it may have something to do with big Foot as well. Sure it was. It's probably about probably about eight nine years old, and we had a bunch of hogs, but we had about ten or twelve of them, and they were all over three four hundred pounds, and we were getting ready to kill them.

23:38 And one night all the dogs started going crazy. And that next morning and we went down there to check the hogs and all of them were dead, ripped apart, all of them dead. Really Yeah, And like I said, that happened in my childhood and my dad he said, he said, I don't think a bear could have done this unless I had a cub and the cub was in there, and but he said, I just don't see it killing all of them. Oh man, were there any tracks around?

24:25 Not that I can remember. It was dry. I don't. I don't remember ever finding any. That was just something from the childhood that I remember, and it stuck with me since seeing what I've seen three years ago. And they're just absolutely you said they were just they're trying apart. Yeah, yeah, they were pretty rough. I don't remember it was they were torn apart and was I couldn't have imagined m eastern Tennessee. Yeah, in the eastern Tennessee. Let's do you mind sharing it? And you know, I want to be respectful of your area, maybe a county that that would have a Campbell County, Jacksboro, Tennessee, of the city. Okay, it's very very interesting, Harley. This has been one of those chats that I think is going to lead to some some other ones as well. I hope it does. And I encourage any other listener out there is your skeptic to share your story, share it because it's it'll help you get it off your mind and get others aware of Bigfoot and any other large cryptic creature. That's right on, That's absolutely right. My emails are always open. Big Society at gmail dot com is the best way to try to reach me. It is getting to the point where I get a lot of messages in the different

25:59 social media platforms. Thankfully I was able to see Harley's but the best way is email if you want to make sure that you do reach me. But Harley, I'm so glad that you that you reached out. We were able to chat. Is it all right if I share the photos and videos and the Patreon? Sorry you are you are allowed to use that? Awesome? Well, thank you so much for coming on. If there's anything else that that does occur with you in the future, which I hope there's not, feel free to reach out. And I'm sure, I'm sure. I'm I'm gonna try and get out there and all right, I find some more answers.

26:45 I'm going I'm going to I'm I'm going to get my closure. I'm gonna try and get back out in the woods and see if I can get some more answers. That's fantastic. Keep me in the the loop with what happens Man? Yes, sorry, sure will. I greatly appreciate you, Jeremat, thanks for chatting. Harley, Hi, thank you. You're a Bigfoot Society article is to provide a platform for those that have encountered Bigfoot to share their encounter in a safe and respected environment. But we need to hear your story. If you've experienced something that you just can't explain, please send me an email at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Then we can start the conversation. And I know a lot of you have not shared your encounter at all. It's been twenty years and it's time that you get this off your chest and then you can get some well deserved for rest, because I know you haven't been sleeping. I understand what you're going through, and I appreciate every one of you listening.