A Northern Girls Tale Of The Imagined South
By Dorraine Fisher
Before our very own Philip Spencer was suddenly laid up with a broken back and put out of commission for 12 weeks, he had invited me to travel from my happy, cool spot in Illinois to visit him and his assistant Shannon Turner as they do their work in The Great Dismal Swamp near Phil’s home in Hampton, Virginia.
Being a writer and aspiring photographer, I loved the idea of traveling…well…anywhere really. And the opportunity to visit these fine people and watch them promote conservation and hunt down monsters in the wild, protected areas of Virginia was very tempting. What an opportunity?! I’d be absolutely stupid to turn it down. Right?
But writers and photographers, if they’re smart, do extensive research before they ever travel anywhere. It’s always important to know what you’re getting yourself into before you take on such a task.
So I set out to find what would be in store for me.
First, I checked the government and travel websites. Of course they were filled with beautiful idyllic pictures that made it appear to be a wonderful, magical place. Vast, green wetlands, gnarled, ages-old cypress trees with Spanish moss clinging to their branches. Beautiful water birds cawing in the distance, and colorful insects buzzing around vibrant wildflowers. I sighed a big sigh, perhaps a little relieved.
My being from Illinois along the Illinois River, I’m no stranger to swamps and wetlands. So I was thinking this might not be a big deal at all. I try to keep a good attitude. But I’ve had enough experience to know that’s there’s always a dark underbelly to everything
So let’s be real here. It’s named the Dismal Swamp for a reason. William Drummond, who, in 1665, explored the area, gave it this illustrious name that has stuck all these years. As the story goes, he was the sole survivor of the entire expedition group that year. And he pushed his way out of the brush starved, alone, disheveled, and terrified, talking out of his head about the strange forces he encountered in the swamp. Talk about things that make you go “Hmmm!” “Dismal” Swamp indeed.
Numerous people have died there, and many ghost tales permeate the collective psyche of the local resident population. It’s a spooky, spooky place to hear some tell it. There are ghosts everywhere; supposed psychic forces, in a place steeped in folklore and perhaps some wild imaginings. Many people have been said to have walked into the swamp and never returned, leaving tales of ghostly apparitions wandering around scaring hikers and explorers out of their wits. And in the late 1800’s, escaped slaves sought seclusion and safety there where they may have lived and died for their freedom.
And while you’re busy dodging ghosts and your own imagination, there are all kinds of creepy, crawly things, and other manner of wildlife that calls the swamp home. This might include copperheads, water moccasins, rattlesnakes, alligators, black bears, bobcats, ten documented species of bats, and vicious blood-draining mosquitoes. Oh my! And that’s just the critters you might actually see. But what about the ones you don’t always see, like all the monster legends of the Swamp Ape? The supposed swamp-adapted version of Bigfoot that’s said to wander the thickest areas of the landscape. Does anyone really want to see that staring at them?
And add the blistering heat and choking humidity on top of all that and you’ve got a witches brew for a really scary place to visit.
I suddenly had more respect for Phil and Shannon. Now they seemed like the bravest people ever. Wandering around fairly often in what seemed to me to be one of the most dangerous landscapes in North America.
But, the fact of the matter is, it really is a beautiful place. And behind beauty is always some element of danger, and also some degree of unpleasantness. And all that doesn't make it a landscape any less worth saving, or exploring, or writing about, or photographing. In fact it makes it all that and much more.
But after learning all that, pondering the scary possibilities, and imagining the worst I can imagine, do I want to visit?
Hell yes, I do. *******
Dorraine Fisher
Professional Writer, a nature and wildlife enthusiast who has written for many magazines.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
The Dismal Lack Of Sasquatch In The Dismal Swamp
For the last 6+ months I have been filming a documentary on the history of The Great Dismal Swamp which covers a large area of North Carolina and Virginia with Lake Drummond being at the center of the swamp and the feeder of the swamp. As I and my assistant, Shannon Turner, have traveled the land filming I have searched for any sign or stories of Sasquatch in the area of the swamp. What I found was basically nothing. To the south the Albemarle Sound group has sightings and stories and to the west in the mountain area Bobby Woods and his group have amazing sightings and stories.
I have talked with hunters and historians and rangers that have been near the swamp all their lives and none have any stories of Sasquatch.
The geographical aspects of the swamp and the land around it are flat land, however the lake does sit higher than the swamp and has some of the cleanest water in the country. The swamp itself is not conducive to mankind wandering around in it for many reasons, yet numerous man made paths weave through the swamp in a spiderweb like configuration. The swamp has been devastated by the greed of man and is still being destroyed for the "progress of man" BS.
The forest around the swamp are dense and vast and the food supply for a creature such as Sasquatch is plentiful. Deer, fish, berries, etc, all in abundance with cover to hide easy to find. Many I have spoken with tell stories of the strange sounds that come from the swamp at night, just about everyone I spoke with had a tale of strange sounds from the swamp, screams and whistles and yells. Is it possible that I have just not spoken with the right people or person? of course, but I have certainly spoken to many.
In books written on the mysteries of the swamp we did come across a story of a man who claimed to have encountered a large "Wildman" like creature in the swamp and then went back and gathered his friends and they hunted the creature down and captured it. They built an enclosure for the creature but the creature died a short time later and they stated it died from the food they fed the creature. We researched and tried with all we could to validate this story but found nothing or anyone even related to the man in the story. What we did find was this tale seemed to be shared by at least two authors. I consider this a myth from the swamp but would love to be proven wrong.
I am now in the process of filming just a few more sessions on the history of the swamp this week then my next project will be the mysteries of the swamp, perhaps I will find that right person or as I ramble through the amazing treasure , The Great Dismal Swamp, I will encounter or find some sign of the elusive Sasquatch..
The forest around the swamp are dense and vast and the food supply for a creature such as Sasquatch is plentiful. Deer, fish, berries, etc, all in abundance with cover to hide easy to find. Many I have spoken with tell stories of the strange sounds that come from the swamp at night, just about everyone I spoke with had a tale of strange sounds from the swamp, screams and whistles and yells. Is it possible that I have just not spoken with the right people or person? of course, but I have certainly spoken to many.
In books written on the mysteries of the swamp we did come across a story of a man who claimed to have encountered a large "Wildman" like creature in the swamp and then went back and gathered his friends and they hunted the creature down and captured it. They built an enclosure for the creature but the creature died a short time later and they stated it died from the food they fed the creature. We researched and tried with all we could to validate this story but found nothing or anyone even related to the man in the story. What we did find was this tale seemed to be shared by at least two authors. I consider this a myth from the swamp but would love to be proven wrong.
I am now in the process of filming just a few more sessions on the history of the swamp this week then my next project will be the mysteries of the swamp, perhaps I will find that right person or as I ramble through the amazing treasure , The Great Dismal Swamp, I will encounter or find some sign of the elusive Sasquatch..
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Waddy Werewolf, What is the "real" story?
Within the week of Nov 28th and Dec. 5/6 2012 something evil came calling on Ditto road in Central Kentucky.
Ditto Road is east of Louisville Kentucky and near the small town of Waddy Kentucky. So what happened on Ditto road that changed people forever in the area? Well, the story that was put out to the public and the story from people who were witnesses have some differences. The damage to the animals seems to be consistent from all involved, faces ripped off goats, their tongues torn out, ears ripped off of goats and calves. When I first heard of this story I went to the website below of WDRB TV:
http://www.wdrb.com/story/20332077/mysterious-creature-attacking-animals-in-shelby-county
I read the story and looked at the picture of the animal track and it seemed to me that this was a canine track due to the specifics of the physical nature of the track. By having this picture attached to the story one would logically assume that this was the track of the animal that did the horrible acts to the animals on Ditto Road. I made some calls to WDRB TV and although very nice to speak with the promises to have the reporters covering the story contact me never happened.
I then contacted a resident of Ditto road who was a witness to the aftermath of these terrible events and some specifics of the story were much different than what the public was being told. First lets discuss the picture attached to the story on WDRB's website. According to the person I was in communication with , (who asked to remain anonymous) the picture on the website was not the track of the creature who did the damage, it was a picture of his daughters dog, a farm dog. The actual tracks of what he thought might have attacked all the animals was much bigger. He had measured the tracks and the tracks were over five and three eights inches long and over four and one half inches wide. For those of us who know tracks and have studied tracks, this is a huge track for something that appears to be canine. Oddly this was never told or mentioned in any of the stories about the events. To learn about tracks please visit this website and you will soon see there is no dog that leaves a track this big.
http://www.bear-tracker.com/dog.html
A reporter took pictures of the large tracks yet they were never published anywhere I can find. The witness said it was very confusing to him that they would put his daughters dog track with the stories but not only not show the large tracks, but never mention them. He also mentioned he found it very odd no one laid something by the tracks to give a perspective of the actual size of the track. My question is why was this done? Why not tell the residents of the area that something very big was in the area and why imply with a small track picture that it was the attackers track? It was reported that a woman and her daughter were walking to their house in the dark during this time period when suddenly they heard something which was coming up behind them and making a very strange sound. The two ran to their barn and closed the door and waited till the husband came home. According to the husband his wife and daughter stated that whatever this was made a sound they had never heard before. They went online and searched for animal sounds in Kentucky and said that although it was not actually the sound they heard, what they found was close. What they found was the sound of Fox fighting. Hear this sound at the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZOyrKgDiNU
When the woman and daughter went into the garage to get away from the creature the husband told me the creature left and went down the road to a relative's home where he heard the sound also. The creature was referred to in reports as the "Waddy Werewolf". I assumed that this was a name that had been tagged to this creature on Ditto Road that did the Dec. 2012 attacks, but it turns out the Waddy Werewolf has been mentioned in this area for many years. Although I tried to get information on what had occurred in the past to bring this name into the lore of the land on Ditto Road, no one could tell me the answer other than maybe it was just something made up to scare the kids.
Reports of a large dark creature were reported in the area of the attacks, from the published information there were more than one report of this and oddly just a few weeks before this story of the animals attacks went public a man contacted me through email and told me a story that had just happened to him where he saw a large, upright dark creature walking up the lane to his property at dusk which is very near the land where the attacks happened.
The viciousness of these attacks is what could be described as pure evil. The animals were so horribly damaged that dpmre had to be put down, some survived but most did not. There was no evidence of the animals being eaten and strangely there was no damage below the heads. Town meetings were held and people were told over and over that it was a dog or dogs that has done these evil deeds upon the helpless animals. I will say this, if the tracks that were seen and measured and measured over 5 inches long were from the creature who wrecked this carnage, it was not a dog!. Some of the animals who were savaged were in locked pens yet there were no tracks or any sign of anything breaking in or tearing its way in to the pens. Numerous individuals walked the pens checking for any signs of entrance, nothing was found. So let's look at the information we have so far and some new information that has not been told to the public.
The only canine to leave a track that is over 5 inches long is, well, none. The closet canine to make a track this large is a wolf and a man who lives on Ditto Road raises wolves.
A reporter/photo journalist took pictures of the large tracks but they were never reported to the public and never mentioned in any stories about this event.
Many dogs that live on Ditto Road are now gone since this event. Six that my source told me of and possibly more.
Still today, 1/8/2013 an article in the Anderson News of Lawrenceburg Ky lays blame on a dog or a pack of dogs. Remember that the animals who were attacked were in pins, secured pins, and after multiple examinations the pins had not been damaged in any way. The gates were secure and the fences were approximately 5 ft in height according to my source. Can you imagine what a pack of dogs would do to the fence or gate of this type enclosure to get in a pin of animals to maul then? There would be signs of damage you can bet on that ..
My opinion is to keep laying the blame on dogs is wrong. Why hasn't the man who owns and raises wolves on Ditto Road been investigated? There is no mention in any article concerning this story of this person owning wolves on Ditto Road? Why not the most obvious place to check? is where the wolves are. Did a wolf do all this damage? I am not sure I rather doubt it and neither is anyone else certain. But there are numerous questions that need to be answered concerning the horror that happened to this helpless animals, but with the level of unprofessional investigating into this story the Waddy Werewolf will live on in the dark of night on Ditto Road..
Philip Spencer
Ditto Road is east of Louisville Kentucky and near the small town of Waddy Kentucky. So what happened on Ditto road that changed people forever in the area? Well, the story that was put out to the public and the story from people who were witnesses have some differences. The damage to the animals seems to be consistent from all involved, faces ripped off goats, their tongues torn out, ears ripped off of goats and calves. When I first heard of this story I went to the website below of WDRB TV:
http://www.wdrb.com/story/20332077/mysterious-creature-attacking-animals-in-shelby-county
I read the story and looked at the picture of the animal track and it seemed to me that this was a canine track due to the specifics of the physical nature of the track. By having this picture attached to the story one would logically assume that this was the track of the animal that did the horrible acts to the animals on Ditto Road. I made some calls to WDRB TV and although very nice to speak with the promises to have the reporters covering the story contact me never happened.
I then contacted a resident of Ditto road who was a witness to the aftermath of these terrible events and some specifics of the story were much different than what the public was being told. First lets discuss the picture attached to the story on WDRB's website. According to the person I was in communication with , (who asked to remain anonymous) the picture on the website was not the track of the creature who did the damage, it was a picture of his daughters dog, a farm dog. The actual tracks of what he thought might have attacked all the animals was much bigger. He had measured the tracks and the tracks were over five and three eights inches long and over four and one half inches wide. For those of us who know tracks and have studied tracks, this is a huge track for something that appears to be canine. Oddly this was never told or mentioned in any of the stories about the events. To learn about tracks please visit this website and you will soon see there is no dog that leaves a track this big.
http://www.bear-tracker.com/dog.html
A reporter took pictures of the large tracks yet they were never published anywhere I can find. The witness said it was very confusing to him that they would put his daughters dog track with the stories but not only not show the large tracks, but never mention them. He also mentioned he found it very odd no one laid something by the tracks to give a perspective of the actual size of the track. My question is why was this done? Why not tell the residents of the area that something very big was in the area and why imply with a small track picture that it was the attackers track? It was reported that a woman and her daughter were walking to their house in the dark during this time period when suddenly they heard something which was coming up behind them and making a very strange sound. The two ran to their barn and closed the door and waited till the husband came home. According to the husband his wife and daughter stated that whatever this was made a sound they had never heard before. They went online and searched for animal sounds in Kentucky and said that although it was not actually the sound they heard, what they found was close. What they found was the sound of Fox fighting. Hear this sound at the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZOyrKgDiNU
When the woman and daughter went into the garage to get away from the creature the husband told me the creature left and went down the road to a relative's home where he heard the sound also. The creature was referred to in reports as the "Waddy Werewolf". I assumed that this was a name that had been tagged to this creature on Ditto Road that did the Dec. 2012 attacks, but it turns out the Waddy Werewolf has been mentioned in this area for many years. Although I tried to get information on what had occurred in the past to bring this name into the lore of the land on Ditto Road, no one could tell me the answer other than maybe it was just something made up to scare the kids.
Reports of a large dark creature were reported in the area of the attacks, from the published information there were more than one report of this and oddly just a few weeks before this story of the animals attacks went public a man contacted me through email and told me a story that had just happened to him where he saw a large, upright dark creature walking up the lane to his property at dusk which is very near the land where the attacks happened.
The viciousness of these attacks is what could be described as pure evil. The animals were so horribly damaged that dpmre had to be put down, some survived but most did not. There was no evidence of the animals being eaten and strangely there was no damage below the heads. Town meetings were held and people were told over and over that it was a dog or dogs that has done these evil deeds upon the helpless animals. I will say this, if the tracks that were seen and measured and measured over 5 inches long were from the creature who wrecked this carnage, it was not a dog!. Some of the animals who were savaged were in locked pens yet there were no tracks or any sign of anything breaking in or tearing its way in to the pens. Numerous individuals walked the pens checking for any signs of entrance, nothing was found. So let's look at the information we have so far and some new information that has not been told to the public.
The only canine to leave a track that is over 5 inches long is, well, none. The closet canine to make a track this large is a wolf and a man who lives on Ditto Road raises wolves.
A reporter/photo journalist took pictures of the large tracks but they were never reported to the public and never mentioned in any stories about this event.
Many dogs that live on Ditto Road are now gone since this event. Six that my source told me of and possibly more.
Still today, 1/8/2013 an article in the Anderson News of Lawrenceburg Ky lays blame on a dog or a pack of dogs. Remember that the animals who were attacked were in pins, secured pins, and after multiple examinations the pins had not been damaged in any way. The gates were secure and the fences were approximately 5 ft in height according to my source. Can you imagine what a pack of dogs would do to the fence or gate of this type enclosure to get in a pin of animals to maul then? There would be signs of damage you can bet on that ..
My opinion is to keep laying the blame on dogs is wrong. Why hasn't the man who owns and raises wolves on Ditto Road been investigated? There is no mention in any article concerning this story of this person owning wolves on Ditto Road? Why not the most obvious place to check? is where the wolves are. Did a wolf do all this damage? I am not sure I rather doubt it and neither is anyone else certain. But there are numerous questions that need to be answered concerning the horror that happened to this helpless animals, but with the level of unprofessional investigating into this story the Waddy Werewolf will live on in the dark of night on Ditto Road..
Philip Spencer
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