Note: This story relates to a second sighting of the unidentified beast told of in “Lonely Backroads”, as told by my brother, James.

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In the summer of 1975 I was telling the story of the unidentified animal to a group of friends where I worked. One of the listeners got this funny look on his face, leaped out of his chair and started to shout “I've seen it! I've seen it!” I asked him “What the Hell” he was talking about. I informed him that the incident I was describing happened to my parents in about 1958-59. His reply was “I don't give a Da-n when they saw it, I saw it about two years ago”.

At this point I got a funny look on my face! He proceeded to describe what he had observed one evening in 1973 as he was traversing the mountain road between Marion Va. And Tazewell Va. Here is his story.

“One evening as I was driving across the mountain from Marion to Tazewell, I was going up the mountain on the Marion side. I was driving with my window down and had my arm out the window. Somewhere about half-way up the winding mountain road a noise outside the car caught my attention. When I glanced out the window to my left I saw an 'animal', just like the one you were describing, rush at my car from the edge of the woods and make a grab at my arm . I was so scared I mashed the accelerator to the floor and never let up till I reached the town of Richlands Va.”

My friend was so obviously shaken that I had no choice but to believe him.

I have no explanation for these incidents but I do have a point to ponder. The river in the area where this creature has been seen has been found to contain toxins and heavy metal pollution from an old munitions plant (it is not considered safe to consume fish caught in this river even today). I have often thought that the animal (if that is what it truly was or is) may be a genetic mutation of something familiar resulting from pollution exposure.

J. Boyd

© Paulette Boyd