Two Youngsters Encounter (Justin Smeja Sketch-Like) Bigfoot Near a Logging Road in Lebanon, TN

Image Credit: Sybilla Irwin

Editor’s Note: This is a post by Bigfoot Evidence contributor Vicki W.

This image is artist Sybilla Irwin's sketch produced from the description of a strange and frighteningly large creature sighted by a couple of 12 year olds in rural Wilson County, TN. According to BFRO report 28005, the young boy and his friend had accompanied the boy's father to the family farm to assist with routine chores. No one could have predicted that this ordinary July day in 2010 would become a day they would never forget. The young boy and his friend decided to take a walk down an old logging road to scout for deer or turkeys in the area while the boy's father and grandfather were doing some heavy work on the farm. The following is the account filed to the BFRO database by the young man's father.

Yesterday,I ,my dad,my son,and his Friend, went up to our farm in Wilson County to do some bush hogging and prepare our deer stands for the up coming season..The kids asked if they could walk the logging road to see if they could see any deer or turkeys while me and my dad bush hogged the fields.

About 20 minutes went by and I see my son and his friend running towards the tractor out of breath.."Dad,i don't care if you believe me or not but what we just saw...I never want to see again!"..His friend said she saw it first. This is the story they have repeatedly told me all afternoon yesterday and this morning- They were walking the logging Rd,and my son started hearing these loud crashes in front of them to the right coming towards them,He said he stopped and felt "Very uneasy" about going any further,to which he told his friend "he wasn't going any farther and she could if she wanted"..She walked around the bend of the road,come walking fast back to him and says "There was this thing looking at me behind a tree,swaying left to right,as if to see what she was..It leaned as if to be curious..So, She,not wanting to show it any harm by running or sudden movement,afraid it would chase her,just turned and walked fast back to my son,and told him "There is something huge and black standing around the corner"...My son started walking with her and turned back to see if he could see anything and it had came around the corner and was staring at them..He said it was between 7-8ft tall,had blackish/brown,almost like a turkeys feather color when the sun is not shining on its feathers, and had HUGE muscles showing through the fur,he especially notice how broad the shoulders were and how muscular the arms were.At that time they started running as fast as they could until they got to the field i was cutting..

I eventually got in my truck and drove to the spot/area they said this all happened..The woods were a "dead quiet"..No Tracks were found,i did not smell any foul odor,as i have heard this animal has, plus a storm was approaching so i had to get back and put the tractor up.

My son,who is sitting beside me as i type this,says "I just don't feel it meant any harm,it was puzzled as why we were there." There were men cutting hay on the next farm over which had not been done in quite a while.There is no hunting,no more cattle,that place is not disturbed at all,so maybe it came from there?? What makes me believe even more is that my son LOVES hunting and that farm,but now says he is not coming up unless he has protection(Gun)and will not walk the place alone.Whatever this was or whatever happened to them has changed them.The friend,which said she doesn't believe in Bigfoot,now is a firm believer.
My son's words-"It wasn't scared of us,but we sure were of it!"

The man recalls that he noticed something odd in the area about 2 years prior to the children's encounter. He found that much of the bamboo that had grown around one of his tree stands had been removed. Later he found it stacked against an old Civil war era rock wall in a teepee formation. Though the man had hunted the area for nearly 15 years, this is the first time anything out of the ordinary had occurred. He noted that a lot of clearing and building had recently been going on in the area. The sightings also made it into some local media articles.

The follow-up investigation of the report was carried out by BFRO investigator Ronie Powell. Here is his thorough report, containing a detailed description of the creature. Notice that the witnesses were quite insistent that the subject was covered with hair, not fur.

I first spoke with the gentleman who filed the report on Monday, July 19th, 3 days after the sighting. He is the father of the male witness. I found him to be an avid outdoorsman, with a very down-to-earth and no nonsense manner. He was completely convinced of what his son and his son's friend saw and experienced, and after speaking with both of the eyewitnesses in depth, I have to concur. They were both excellent witnesses who noticed a great amount of detail.

I spoke with both witnesses at length on the evening of Tuesday, July 20th and was very impressed with their recollection of the event (this made a profound impact on them), as well as their studious and thoughtful replies to my questions when I asked them for details.

The witnesses are only 12 years old, a boy and a girl, but both of them are hunters, and have spent large amounts of time in the outdoors. I found both of them to be very mature for their age, intelligent, and very cautious with their answers. I spoke to the witnesses separately and their responses matched exactly with no deviation.

I spoke with the young lady first as she was the first to see the creature. She recounted that they were walking along a logging road that transects the property. It was between 11:30 and 11:45 in the morning - broad daylight.

While they were walking along they became aware of very heavy and loud bi-pedal footsteps in the heavy brush to their right coming toward them. They were approaching a place where the road makes an extreme u-turn, and the young man became quite concerned at what they were hearing and did not want to go around the bend in the road so he stopped at the start of the u-turn.

The young lady continued on around the turn and immediately noticed a very large (approximately 8 feet as determined later by measurement on the tree) upright creature on two legs, standing beside a tree, with one arm around the tree. He was leaning out away from the tree to look at her, and she could see the majority of his body. The creature was approximately 20 yards away from her at this point.

Details that she noticed include:

• The hair (and she stressed it was hair and not fur) was black and glossy with hints of dark brown. The creature was completely covered with hair except for portions of the face.
• The skin on the face was lighter in color than the hair.
• The eyes were very large, very dark, and wide set, but she could not make out a lot of detail about them.
• The nose was 'normal' sized for the face.
• She talked at length about how muscular the arms and shoulders were and that the creature was so muscled it looked as though he was 'shrugging' his shoulders.
• The chest was very flat and muscular.
• There was an obvious oddity of the lower jaw on the right side of its face. She described the jaw as noticeably appearing to be 'dropped' on that side - almost in a 'dropped jaw' expression of surprise. This portion of the jaw being dropped allowed the teeth on the right side to be seen. (One can only speculate why the jaw appeared that way, possibly an old injury, deformity, maybe the creature was chewing on something.)
• Due to the musculature and flatness of the chest she felt this was a male.
• She described his expression as 'curious' and unafraid.

Her encounter lasted approximately 20 seconds, and then keeping great presence of mind, she turned and quickly walked back to her friend and told him what she had seen.

At this point they both turned and started to walk back to where the young man's father was bush-hogging. After proceeding a short distance they both felt compelled to look back, and found to their dismay that the creature had followed the young lady around the bend and was now only 10 yards away from them standing near a cedar tree watching them.

The young man's portion of the story picked up at this point and he confirmed everything that the young lady had seen. He estimated that the hair was approximately 6" long, and predominantly black. He also reaffirmed that it was hair and not fur. He spoke about how huge the shoulders and arms were, and that it was the size of this creature that was most frightening to him. Although this portion of the encounter only lasted a few seconds the young man had enough time to observe that this creature was not afraid of them, but instead seemed curious.

At this point with the creature so close to them, they turned and ran back to where the young man's father was bush-hogging.

I am personally familiar with the farm where this sighting took place, and the surrounding area. There is a plentiful supply of deer in the area as well as old orchards, berry patches, and lots of fresh water. Adjoining farms have been idle for some time.

Artist Sybilla Irwin worked with both the boy and the girl resulting in the following sketch that reflects a very human looking face with an almost fearful expression.

Image Credit: Sybilla Irwin

Maybe it's just me, but the sketch above looks eerily similar to the adult Bigfoot sketch that Justin Smeja allegedly shot in the Sierras. No?

A full body drawing of the adult Bigfoot from the Justin Smeja Sierra Kills incident.

[via www.bfro.net]