Chapter 1

The Bettenau County Times Mt. Skinner, Tennessee October 31, 1943

by: Daniel Hartman

Late Saturday, October 31, the Sheriff was called out to the old Cantor place by Mrs. Louise Cantor. She told them she had seen a huge man-like creature carry off one of her calves as her five dogs cowered under her porch. The Sheriff’s deputies have yet to explain what it may have been that carried off the calf.

The Bettenau County Times Mt. Skinner, Tennessee October 31, 1948

by: Daniel Hartman

Yet another fatal, bloody incident has occurred in Bettenau County. This time it was Maybelle Washington, out on route 2, east of town. Mrs. Washington was brutally killed and her body is still missing, her head being the only evidence of a killing, other than the blood all over her barn. She appeared to have been milking her old cow, which was also killed, the head remaining.

Donald Wayne ‘Coop’ Cooper had fished with his dad and granddad on Lake Bettenau Reservoir as a kid and loved to listen to them talk about the Bettenau River Valley before the hydroelectric dam was completed in 1952.

Some of his favorite memories were of sitting on the porch at his granddad’s old hunting lodge, listening to his granddad and his best friend, Doolin, as they talked about the Indian legends and early settlers’ stories of a man-beast twice the size of a grizzly with the strength of ten men. Doolin was part Indian and his mother lived with him near Floyd Cooper’s place, back over on the mountain. He really had some tall tales to tell back then. He said his mother never left the house now, for fear the beast would come for her. Doolin said she’d lost six dogs, a husband, and two nieces to the beast, and she knew she would be next if she ever left the safety of her home.

Floyd Cooper – Coop’s granddad, told him not to pay a lot of attention to Doolin’s tall tales. He said Doolin was known far and wide as being THE storyteller of the mountain, anytime someone would sit still long enough for him to get started.

“I was six years old when Dad and I stood on the big lookout point on this side of the valley and watched through binoculars as the engineers blasted a huge hole in that massive earthen retaining dam. They’d built it to hold back the waters of the Bettenau River while the big dam was completed,” Coop’s dad, Don Cooper told him of the story.

Coop still has the old Kodak 110 camera his dad used to take a full roll of film that day.

“I took the first picture just as the initial charge was detonated, blowing dirt and water into the air as high as the tops of the pine trees along the ends of the earthen dam. I took two more pictures as the water rushed through the breech, washing away the remainder of the man-made dam and gushing down into the valley below. I took the rest of the roll as the water roared down the deep valley toward the huge concrete dam, washing up trees and rolling huge boulders along in front of that giant wall of water.” Coop’s dad had told him the story of that day many times.

“We had already taken pictures from the floor of the valley, looking upward to the top of the huge dam while it was under construction. It was over nine hundred feet up to the spillway at that point, the engineers told us.” His dad had told him.

Coop’s dad is retiring from the sawmill this fall and Coop has already made arrangements to be there for the big celebration. His dad still lives in the old homestead where he was born and raised, and where Coop grew up and lived until he left for college. Coop’s mom died of cancer during his junior year at college; she’s buried in the family cemetery nearby, where all of his dad’s ancestors are buried.

The Bettenau County Times Mt. Skinner, Tennessee October 31, 1984

by: Daniel Hartman

Once again there have been reports of a huge, man-like creature being spotted in Bettenau County. This time it was Travis Norman who called the Sheriff’s office to report an incident in which an unidentified man-like beast killed and ate most of one of his prized calves during the night. Only the head of the calf was left in the barn. There were claw marks along the exterior walls of the barn and also on the neck and face of the calf’s head. At the time this paper went to press, there has been no further explanation of the incident. This makes fifty-seven such documented incidents that have occurred in Bettenau County in the past fifty odd years that I have owned The Bettenau County Times.

When Coop left for college, his dad paid for an annual subscription to the only county newspaper, The Bettenau County Times, a bi-monthly paper. Coop had saved every issue since leaving for college back in 1992; there were hardly ever more than four pages, counting the classified section. The one thing that remained constant with each issue, was the mention of a mysterious death of an animal, sometimes domestic, sometimes a deer, dog, black bear, or other wildlife. There were always mysterious happenings back there in the rugged, mountainous region of northeastern Tennessee, and most of these little articles just fed the rumors that were always running rampant back there.

In 2003, Coop noticed the small obituary of L. C. Cunningham. He remembered Mr. L.C., a nearby neighbor of theirs, and read the obit.

L. C. Cunningham, lifelong resident of rural Bettenau County, Tennessee, was found dead outside his remote cabin on Monday, October 8. Funeral was held at Bettenau Baptist Church on November 10, 2003.

That struck him as an awful long time from death to burial and he looked through the paper to see if there was a news article on the incident.

He found it in the Sheriff’s report on page two that stated: The county Coroner was able to identify Mr. Cunningham’s remains only by dental and military records.

The article briefly told of the 911 call from L.C. Cunningham himself, and the woman who took the call. They printed some of the statements of the investigating county deputies, but held back most information until further investigation was complete.

After three months of mysterious deaths among the most remote county residents in a row, the news articles made the front page. Though some issues only briefly mentioned the incidents, some had a full column after another body was discovered. The list of confirmed mysterious human deaths was now at thirteen over a period of the past six years. Five of those deaths had occurred in the past two years.

A year ago, Coop brought this to the attention of his boss, John Harrison, managing editor of Wild Country-Nature Magazine, the publication that Coop free-lanced exclusively for. John was very interested, but not enough to turn him loose long enough to go back and do some investigative reporting.

After reading the current issue of The Bettenau County Times, Coop called John at home and asked him to reserve at least an hour of his time early the next day.

Coop had taken all his back issues to the office with him this morning. He had three storage boxes packed full, and had to use a two-wheel dolly to carry them up to his boss’ office.

John had called him ‘Coop’ since the first article he paid Coop for sixteen years ago, while he was still in college. He liked it so much that he asked Coop to consider free-lancing for him exclusively at ‘Wild Country’ and the sister publication, ‘Outdoor Adventures.’ John and Coop met with the owner of the publishing company, Richard Douglas. At John’s request, he signed a contract on the spot, stating Coop was to be retained exclusively for his publishing company. Coop’s been with them fifteen years now, and they pay him handsomely, yet he’s not on their payroll. Since that day, his byline has simply been, ‘Coop’.

Coop figured he must have put a small amount of fear in John’s mind the night before when he called him. Richard Douglas, the owner of the publishing company was there with him when the custodian wheeled his back issues of newspapers into John’s office.

“Coop, John called me last night and requested I be here this morning. He tells me you may have a lead on a major feature story, if your hunches are right,” Richard Douglas said, as he greeted Coop before John could even speak.

“Yes Sir, I think you’ll see a semblance of patterns here, once you’ve read a few of the articles I’ve marked in these back issues. I’ve shown them to John before, but we’ve never talked about me going back home and doing a story on this. I’d like to take a photographer and go back there right away. It may be a wild goose chase, but if nothing else, it will sell some magazines and you’ll bump the circulation up another notch or two,” Coop replied.

“John reminded me you were born and raised back there in Bettenau County. I read the ‘History of Lake Bettenau’ article you wrote for us years ago when you were still in college. I must tell you, after the first paragraph, I was immediately enthralled with this remote, back country area. When can you leave?” Richard asked him.

“Richard, you haven’t even read any of the articles I have here, and you haven’t listened to my own opinion of what may be the biggest ‘find’, OR biggest ‘fraud’, since the fake videos of ‘Big Foot’ a few decades ago,” Coop countered.

“Coop, John has already told me about that ‘Big Foot’ story you hinted at the last time you were in his office. Go back home and do it. If nothing else, you can draw this out into a series of articles as you poke around and talk to the locals. They know you, your dad, and your granddad; they’ll talk to you before they will the law.” Richard sure was determined for some reason.

“Coop, Richard has a strong request to ask of you, as to who your photographer will be this trip,” John told him.

Coop knew right then he wasn’t going to have George Keldon with him on this trip. He and George had been all over together, and Coop preferred him to any of the others, simply because he’s a country boy and they get along well.

Coop looked at Richard and he was smiling. For a moment, he thought Richard was about to tell him he wanted to go.

“Coop, I want you to take my granddaughter, Carol. She’s fresh out of college finally, at twenty seven years old. She knows more about cameras and lighting than anyone on the staff, and it’s now time for her to have some experience. She’s my only heir, and she needs to know about this business, from investigative reporting, to editing, and printing. I hope you’ll humor me and let her get some experience.”

“Sure, Richard, but we may be gone for an extended period of time. She’ll not have the luxuries that she’s accustomed to here in St. Louis back there.”

“Coop, she needs to learn, and I trust you enough to let her loose with you. You may have to school her in the manners of the back-country mountain folk, but she’ll take you some pictures that will tell your story right along with your own words. I’m telling you she’s good, and I wouldn’t risk my publishing company on her if she wasn’t.”

“Richard, I live in a sixteen foot tag-along camper when I’m on the road. Are you sure about this?” Coop was already wishing he hadn’t pushed for this story right now. He should have waited and caught John alone; he could have waited until George was free, then gone back home for this story.

“For me, Coop. Please? I’ll make it up to you.”

“For you, Richard. Only for you, would I do this,” Coop said, giving in to his boss’ request.

“Thanks, Coop. I called her last night as soon as I got off the phone with John. I told her to pack for at least a month long camping trip. She’s a good girl, Coop, and she’s eager to learn from the best, you’ll see.”

“I’ll get her address from John and go by and pick her up. I’m already packed and pulling my camper. I was going to take a leave of absence if John had told me he couldn’t send me back there at this time.”

“She’s downstairs, Coop. She’s already packed and she’s packed every camera she owns, too. I’ll go tell her to get her bags out front,” Richard said, and all but ran from the office.

“John, I’ll keep in touch. I’m not sure about cell phone service back there; it wasn’t that good the last time I was home. We’ll just have to see how that works out. I’ll call you collect from the store, like always, as soon as we get there. I’ll set up at Dad’s first, then call you again from there before we go up to Granddad’s,” Coop explained.

“Coop, thanks for letting Carol go with you. It means a lot to Richard.”

“I know, John. I almost told him no. I couldn’t tell him no when I saw that smile on his face.”

“If you’ll let me, I’ll have the editing department sort through these back issues of the newspapers and copy all the articles about the deaths of animals and humans that are unexplained and fit this story.”

“Sure, it’ll make for some good copy, if and when we get a good story to back it all up. Be sure to tell them to look in the obits, the police reports, and Sheriff’s news.”

“Whether you find the legendary creature of Indian lore or not, we can plant the seed of imagination and doubt in the minds of the readers with all this.”

“You’re the editor, John. I just write the stories,” Coop said, as they shook hands.

“Coop, this is my granddaughter, Carol Morehead,” Richard told Coop as he walked out the door.

Carol Morehead wasn’t fat, and she wasn’t skinny. She wasn’t tall and she wasn’t short. She sure wasn’t pretty, but then, she wasn’t ugly either. Coop decided he would describe her as being plain. ‘Maybe I’m being unfair to her; maybe I was just dreading having a woman photographer along for the first time in my career.’ Coop thought it over.

“Carol, this is the best free-lance writer you could possibly be assigned to for your first gig. I hope you’ll listen to him, see his story as he sees it, and take pictures to back up his writing.”

“Hi, Coop. I’ve heard a lot about you and I’ve read all your articles and feature stories. I hope you don’t hold it against me because I’m not as good as George, YET.” She added that ‘yet’ with emphasis, not mentioning she was a woman.

“Hi, Carol. We’ll be just fine; though I’m sure we’ll have some adjustments to make. This is a story I’ve had in my head for a lot of years, and I’m happy to be finally heading back home to write it. I have pages and pages of notes I’ve written over the years, some even dating back to my own memories of tales my granddad and his friends told me. You can read them to get an idea of what we’re looking for in this story, if you’d like.”

“Thanks again, Coop. I’ll be as good as George one day; if you’ll just give me a little time and a little help, you’ll see.”

“Forget about George, this is about you and your first assignment. You can’t be looking over your shoulder now; this is life or death in the magazine world.”

“You sound like Gramps,” she said, as she turned to shake her gramp’s hand after he reached out to hug her.

“Richard, we’ll keep in touch with John when we can. As soon as we have enough for one edition, we’ll send it to him. I’d like the opportunity to approve it myself before it’s published, as usual,” Coop told Richard his plans.

“You’ll get it. I want this to be the best, Coop. Carol’s career as a magazine magnate rests on this one story,” he said, as he turned to Carol once more.

“Carol, I’ve waited a long time for this day. Go get ‘em, Girl,” Richard told her, as she piled her last bag in the backseat of Coop’s Cherokee.

“Gramps, I told Mother after you called last night, that I was going to do this or die trying. I appreciate this opportunity and I hope I can live up to your expectations.”

“You will, I have no doubt.”

“Coop, I’ll be waiting for John to call me with your first submission from Bettenau County.”

“Carol, I always stop at Kroger to buy my non-perishable food on my way out. If there’s anything special you think you may want, you better get it before we get up to Bettenau County. There’s only one small grocery store and your choices there are limited,” he told her. He wasn’t used to having a woman along. He felt like he needed to try and be courteous.

“I’m not a picky eater, Coop. Just get whatever you usually get and buy enough for me. I do eat a lot of chips and dip, and I drink water.”

“We’ll buy enough bottled water to last, but when we get there, we’ll drink spring water that’s a lot better than bottled.”

They stocked up on canned goods; chicken and dumplings, canned chili, soup, pork and beans, along with hotdogs, bread, and crackers. He got plenty of bottled water. He remembered the time he was in Arizona and ran short of water. Never again!