Weird findings in the woods

[Guest Straight Shooter]

I was blessed by God to have been raised up on a farm a few miles outside of Fayetteville. Our 46 acres were boarded up by an endless number of other properties. I stayed in the woods daily. Anyway, for YEARS, I mean like over 35+ years, Id walk thru a little cedar thicket up on the hill next to our house to do my daily excursions. And I mustve passed these Coke bottles, half buried at the base of a little cedar, a thousand times. Its a million wonders I never used them for target practice. Anyway, about 7-8 years ago, my parents semi-retired, and sold the farm. On my last walk thru the woods, on a whim, I decided to dig out those old bottles. Oh yeah, there were always cattle on that farm,how they never stepped on em, Ill never know. Anyway, I dug them out, and looking at them now, there are 5 bottles in remarkably great shape. I keep them in my trophy case. Two are from Fayetteville Tn, my hometown, with Dec 251923 embossed in the glass. One is from Tracy City Tn,one from Thibodaux La, and one from Hunstville Al. I can just see some old farm hands taking a break, or having a sack lunch, while fencing or building an old rock wall or something.

[jonlisha]

I have found some odd things in my day, yesterday while out hiking about half a mile away from my house i found a grizzly scene of animal cruelty. Anyone know about the old abandoned TVA rail roads? One runs right behind my house, all the rails and ties have been taken up so it makes for a great place to jog. Anyway about a mile out theres a bridge over a creek that kinda empty's into a little pond, in the pond i saw two body's of something so i went down to check it out, turned out to be two dogs possibly pit bulls with wire strung around their necks and possible stab or gunshot wounds. One of them had its guts ripped out and strung through the creek, possibly by an animal but it was to decayed to identify if the wound was jagged or smooth, both dogs were bloated and i would say they had been there about a week maybe a little more. That made my girlfriend throw up, the smell was odd and not like your average decay, of course this is the reason i always carry a pistol and lots of ammo when i go out jogging or hiking, lot of creeps in the area.

I once found a power poll with about 100 foot of line attached to it out in the middle of the woods, i found this odd cause i was miles away from any houses that i know of and one end of the line was broken and hanging down off the poll, i followed the other end of the line on four wheeler to see where it went and was surprised to find a rundown house up on a grassy hill. I moved in to investigate but as i drove up the driveway i noticed to skinned deer hanging near a well and realized this wasn't an abandoned house so i turned around, just as i was heading down the driveway a man came out of the old shack with a pump shotgun and i floored it. I have not gone near that mans house every since.

Oh and i once almost got killed by a black bear, i was about 12 and walking around with my old single shot Remington .22 bolt action on the old railroad behind my house, as i was walking what appeared to be a large black husky stepped out on the railroad about 40 yards ahead of me, i followed it thinking i might have found a new pet cause we all know how kids love to bring strays home. Well i followed it for about 10 minutes without if even looking at me and i had been slowly gaining on it, i was about 15 feet away from it when i started to notice it had a very short tale for a husky and oddly short legs, just then the bear turned back and let out one of those bear roars you see on TV, it ran up a hill to the left and i fired a shot at the ground and ran right in the direction of my house, the shot was to scare it in hopes that it wouldn't come back cause my .22 was no match for a bear and i knew it, i was running home at what felt like 100 miles an hour and when i got home i grabbed my 20Ga break action and headed back out to bag that thing. Luckily it had left the area cause im not sure what effect a 20ga would have on it.

The bear was not too large, it could have been a female or possible a young male but it didn't look much larger than a full grown husky.

These are all true stories, I'm 17 now and much more mindful of my surroundings when im out walking.

[Mike.357]

our house sits in the woods. When we first bought it I spent a lot of time hauling crap out of the woods. I guess whoever owned it or lived there before us used the woods to discard stuff that would not burn. I filled the pickup truck up three or four times with just crap. Worthless garbage.

One day a few months later I had one of the quads out and went up into a corner of the property I had never really been on before and I found about 50 feet of some very thick fiber optic cable and a wooden ladder that is about 5 feet tall. I still have the ladder and use it when the need arises. Dang thing weighs a ton.

Out on the back part of the property I found a big rubber made tub that had some tarps in it. I keep camping stuff in the tub and have used the tarps many times. there is also the beginnings of a couple of tree houses out there.

I dug out the fire pit. It is made of cinder block. I guess it was used for trash disposal. There was the remains of a box spring and mattress in it.

[Guest ADAM]

About ten years ago some friends and I went hiking from Sugarlands welcome center to Cherokee, NC. On about day 2 we had decided to camp down by this creek. After we sat up camp I decided to go take a bath in the creek to wash off some stink, as I was getting out I noticed this cable looking thing coming out from under a rock. Curiosity getting the best of me I pulled it up it had a larger sleeve looking thing on the end of it, as I rinsed it off that is when I realized that I had just found a pocket p***y, or whatever it called. When the other guys saw what I found they couldnt believe it. I guess whoever camped there before us felt lonely 14 miles back in the woods. Those idiots took the thing home and the last time I heard anything about that thing was when Bo was fired for putting it in his bosses reciever on his truck, he said it only took him 2 months to realize it was there.

Now thats a wierd find.

[JAB]

Oh and i once almost got killed by a black bear, i was about 12 and walking around with my old single shot Remington .22 bolt action on the old railroad behind my house, as i was walking what appeared to be a large black husky stepped out on the railroad about 40 yards ahead of me, i followed it thinking i might have found a new pet cause we all know how kids love to bring strays home. Well i followed it for about 10 minutes without if even looking at me and i had been slowly gaining on it, i was about 15 feet away from it when i started to notice it had a very short tale for a husky and oddly short legs, just then the bear turned back and let out one of those bear roars you see on TV, it ran up a hill to the left and i fired a shot at the ground and ran right in the direction of my house, the shot was to scare it in hopes that it wouldn't come back cause my .22 was no match for a bear and i knew it, i was running home at what felt like 100 miles an hour and when i got home i grabbed my 20Ga break action and headed back out to bag that thing. Luckily it had left the area cause im not sure what effect a 20ga would have on it.

The bear was not too large, it could have been a female or possible a young male but it didn't look much larger than a full grown husky.

The house we moved to when I was in seventh grade was in a pretty rural area near the Loudon County/Roane County line close to (but not exactly in) the area known as Paint Rock. The house (where my mom still lives) is on a ridge that sits on a bluff. At the base of the bluff is part of the Watts Bar impoundment. There are apparently several caves in the side of the bluff. Back then, there weren't many houses on our road (dirt road at the time - has since been paved) and the guy who lived up the road from us owned several different tracts of the land. He had given me permission (pretty much free reign) to include his property in my wanderings.

When I was about fourteen, I got a break-action .410 single shot for Christmas and started taking it with me on my walks. We had a few dogs and they would walk with me, too. Well, one day I was on some of the property that belonged to our neighbor, where there was no house, and walked down a trail right to the edge of the woods. The dogs went on into the woods but something told me not to go in there. A few minutes later there was an awful commotion. The dogs were barking like crazy and I could hear something chasing them. This something was obviously big and heavy as I could hear the 'thuds' of its feet hitting the ground. It was also making a loud, kind of snorting sound. My first thought was that it must be a big buck whitetail but it sounded too heavy - and bucks wouldn't have been in the rut at the time and that seemed a little agressive for a deer - so I thought it might be a bull that had gotten loose from somewhere. Whatever it was, I never saw it but could tell from the sound that it was fast and it stopped just inside the tree line. The dogs came tearing out of the woods like the Devil, himself, was after them - including our old Yellow Lab/German Shepherd mix named Red which I had seen single-handedly whip two aggressive St. Bernards that had attacked her simultaneously. That dog had never been afraid of anything and, although she stopped and wouldn't leave me, I could tell she wanted us both to get the heck out of Dodge. I considered investigating (after all, I had my shotgun - although it was only loaded with #6 shot and the shells in my pocket were also #6) but decided that maybe the dogs knew more than I did so I followed old Red's lead and went home.

A day or two later, we heard that a mother black bear and her cub had been spotted in the area. The story (don't know where the person who told us heard this) was that the bears had been 'relocated' from one area to another and had decided to un-relocate so were passing through our area on the way back home. The topography, wooded area and low number of people living there at the time must have made them feel comfortable because there were spotted by several different people over the course of about two weeks.

A few days after that, our beagle turned up badly injured on one hip. When the vet cleaned the wound up and shaved the area, it turned out that there were four distinct claw marks. These marks were as far apart as a grown man's fingers if he spread his fingers as wide apart as he could. Mom told the vet of the bear sightings and asked if it could have been a bear that swiped the dog. The vet's reply was that it either had to be a bear or a world-record bobcat - bigger than he had ever heard of (no cougars in our area.) He also said that it had likely just swatted her in passing because had it intended to kill the beagle, it could have done it in that one swipe. As it was, the wounds were bad enough that she had to have them closed up, had to have a drain and had to be kept in the house for a few weeks until she recovered.

I have no doubt that what I heard was that the dogs had stumbled on that mama bear with her cub and she chased them out of the woods. I guess it was what they call a 'bluff charge' because I can't think of any other reason she would have stopped. Whatever the case, I was one lucky kid that day - lucky the bear stopped charging and lucky to have had a good dog like old Red to convince me not to investigate. I have no doubt that Red would have stayed with me and even fought the bear to try and protect me if it came to that. She was just about the best and most protective dog we ever had but she was in her teens and past her prime by then and probably wouldn't have been able to even slow it down much. My .410 certainly wouldn't have been any more effective.

Edited April 1, 2010 by JAB

[Timberdoodle]

You guys are lucky! All I ever find are dead bodies...........

turkey, deer, wild boars, and elk.

Of course, I eat them after I shoot them! I love to hunt!! and shoot, and eat!!

[pegasusrider]

Back in my early 20's a buddy and me took a couple of ladies for a spring drive through the mountains at Paint Creek Rec area in my CJ5 on a nice Sunday afternoon. As we drove down one of the isolated 4wd drive roads I spotted a pair of panties lying in the road. We laughed as my buddy hung them in a branch about 10 feet over the middle of the road.

On Monday I go to work and one of the girls that worked with us was boasting about going to the mountains in a guy's 4WD on Sat night. I asked her if she had been to Paint Creek and she laughed when she said she might have been. I informed her that we had found her panties and hung them in a tree over the road if she wanted to go back and get them. She turned many shades of red and stalked off as everyone laughed. To this day I still think that was her panties.

That fall went deer hunting and drove down the same road before daylight but came in from opposite direction. Came around curve and the headlights shined very brightly on that pair of panties still hanging in that branch over the road. Of course had to remind the girl about that when I went back to work on Monday.

[Erik88]

this is a great thread, keep it up! The only cool thing I have found are some old shacks near the TN river close to UT campus. They are off an old trail I found. They are built into the side of the mountain and very hidden. I'm thinking an old moonshine distillery?

[Guest Steve411]

You guys are lucky! All I ever find are dead bodies...........

Same here except for some space aliens and Bigfoot.

[seez52]

I used to do a lot of metal detecting for civil war relics. Many years ago we were hunting somewhere near Murfreesboro, I was just a teenager then. Hadn't been having much luck that afternoon, but noticed a really strange shaped flat rock in the middle of a cedar thicket; it looked like an animal of some sort. I wasn't really paying much attention to my detecting for looking at the strangely shaped rock, but got a loud reading near it. I started digging but my little shovel wasn't big enough. My friends dad, who I hunted with often, brought his large shovel over to help. As it turned out there were several old oil cans buried there, the type made of cardboard but lined with aluminum foil. At first, figuring it was just junk, we punched one open with the shovel and discovered it was full of these round balls with fuses sticking out. Holy mother load, this was better than finding a mini ball, these cans were packed full of cherry bombs!

I think in all we ended up with a few over 200 of them. Of course they had been outlawed way before this, so we guessed someone decided to get rid of their's and buried them near this uniquely shaped rock.

Having been a fireworks fiend anyway, and never having anything as powerful as a cherry bomb or M80, this was an unbelievable find! Some of them had gotten damp and were no good, but the majority of them went off with a huge blast. We dived them up and made them last as long as we could. Think I still had one or two, years later.

[Guest jackdm3]

I dug up a rusted civil war bayonet ................ at an estate sale.

(The house was kinda in the woods.)

Edited April 2, 2010 by jackdm3

[Guest 73challenger]

Back in my early 20's a buddy and me took a couple of ladies for a spring drive through the mountains at Paint Creek Rec area in my CJ5 on a nice Sunday afternoon. As we drove down one of the isolated 4wd drive roads I spotted a pair of panties lying in the road. We laughed as my buddy hung them in a branch about 10 feet over the middle of the road.

On Monday I go to work and one of the girls that worked with us was boasting about going to the mountains in a guy's 4WD on Sat night. I asked her if she had been to Paint Creek and she laughed when she said she might have been. I informed her that we had found her panties and hung them in a tree over the road if she wanted to go back and get them. She turned many shades of red and stalked off as everyone laughed. To this day I still think that was her panties.

That fall went deer hunting and drove down the same road before daylight but came in from opposite direction. Came around curve and the headlights shined very brightly on that pair of panties still hanging in that branch over the road. Of course had to remind the girl about that when I went back to work on Monday.

Were is paint creek? I have been up horse creek quite a bit and have heard of paint creek.

[Guest BEARMAN]

We were riding 4 wheeler's down around the Cheatham WMA back in the 90's and my friend who lives down that way, took us to a spot way deep in the wood's on a trail.

We eventually came to this large hole in the ground with the greenest looking water I've ever seen boiling up out of it, and forming a small creek.

He said scuba diver's had been down in it with rope's tied to them, so they could find there way back to the opening; and they never did find the bottom of it. Just a vast, dark underwater, cavern.

He speculated that it was fed from the nearby Harpeth river.

The opening was approximately six feet in diameter, and it was never known to go dry.

It was a very interesting find, in the middle of the forest, to say the least.

[JAB]

I've never found any dead people in the woods - unless you count when Dr. Bass let us all go to the 'Body Farm' when I had one of his classes.

[kwe45919]

The coolest thing:

Walking in the woods up off of Nubert Springs, I tripped into an old civil war cemetary. 2 names were readable, Tarwater and Jones. There's a Tarwater Family cemetary a mile down the road which is what makes this find an oddity. I wonder why these/this Tarwater was burried in a different place OR did the cemetary origionally extend out that far back in the day and society or the weather play a part in the distance between the graves.

Other times, I've ran accross a few abandonded cars, found chimney stacks, dead animals and such.

The worst time was running up on a Cougar/Mountain Lion/HUGE TAN CAT out at the base of the Chimney's. I was with my dad about 5 years ago and we were eating our MRE's shootin' the breeze when a large tan cat brazenly walked up within 25yrds of us and was stareing like we were dinner. My father decided to carry his .44 that day and thank god he did. My father reached into his fanny pack, retrevied the .44 and pointed it at the cat. The cat started circling around to our left and them back to our right over and over. We decided it was time to walk away so after gathering up our stuff we started walking backwards slowly. The cat stopped circling and started a brisk pace in our direction. My dad popped off a shot into the dirt in front of the cat and thankfully it scampered away.

Ever since that day, I don't go into woods I can't carry in. It used to not bother me much but after that day, you just can't trust animals, mother nature or the government. I just found the only thing in common with all three of'em.....

Edited April 2, 2010 by kwe45919

[JR2ATN]

When I was a kid our neighborhood was adjacent to a large tract of woodlands and farmland and I explored the area often. One day I found several tufts of cotton. I thought this was neat 'cause I'd never seen cotton in its raw state before so I started grabbing it and stuffing it in my pockets. As I walked along I found more and more cotton and continued to stuff the cotton in my pockets. Eventually I came up on a large rocky pit/sinkhole and peered over the edge. There in the pit, piled in a heap were several dead sheep in varying stages of decay. After the initial shock and repulsion it quickly dawned on me that I wasn't carrying cotton after all.

A few friends and I occassionally do some off-trail / game trail exploring in the National Forests in the area. We were exploring a drainage in the Bankhead NF in northern Alabama when we came across what we guess to be the remains of an old mill. It's near the base of some falls and above the falls are some square holes chisled in the rock, I guess what is left of the foundation of a bridge. It's not marked on my USGS map and I can't find any history about it on the Web. ??

Edited April 4, 2010 by JMR1138
more pics

[pegasusrider]

Were is paint creek? I have been up horse creek quite a bit and have heard of paint creek.

From Greeneville, go south on Hwy 70 past South Greene High School. Just before you start up the mountain you will see a sign on the right directing you to Hurricane Gap/Paint Creek Rec area and turn there. When you get into the park at the campground area, you can turn right and follow the creek several miles down to the French Broad River or turn left and go up into the mountains and come out not too far from Hot Springs.

[roverboy]

I love this thread. I've been rackin' my brain and can't think of anything interesting to tell about. Like some of the other posts I've found old house foundations and chimneys. Nothing really outstanding though.

[ShaunM]

I love this thread. I've been rackin' my brain and can't think of anything interesting to tell about. Like some of the other posts I've found old house foundations and chimneys. Nothing really outstanding though.

Same here I am trying to think of something. I know I have found something weird but I just can't think of it LOL!

[memphismason]

I love this thread. I've been rackin' my brain and can't think of anything interesting to tell about. Like some of the other posts I've found old house foundations and chimneys. Nothing really outstanding though.

Same here I am trying to think of something. I know I have found something weird but I just can't think of it LOL!

Same here. I will have to give my Dad a call and ask him about some of our adventures.

[brooksjr]

Once when cleaning a roadside for community service a buddy of mine and me found several garbage bags with dead animals in them.

[Guest AmericanWorkMule]

I forgot about canoeing up on some young folks skinny dipping in the Stones River. They spotted us and ran into the woods before we had a "good" look. I barely wanted to boat in that river let alone swim, or eat the fish. Who knows what Nissan pumps into that river.

We must've seen a dozen guys throwing cast nets. They'd take off for the woods as well when they'd see us coming.

We also floated by what appeared to be an abandoned tent and campsite. That is creepy. Makes you wonder what went on that someone would leave their gear. I sure wasn't wanting to poke around in it.

[Guest Straight Shooter]

Back in '98, we had a terribly bad ice storm, we were out of power for three weeks. Anyway, on the first morning, I decided to go walking out in the woods with my dog. Grabbed my shotgun, here we go. I went about a mile and a half, and decided to go into an old house I knew was there. Ill NEVER go into one in warm weather due to snakes,wasps, ect. Anyway this old house was around 100 years old,give or take. Its on a farm thats reigistered on the National Historic places. The farm dates back to Revolutionary War times. So, no roof hardly,floor nearly gone, as much snow/ice inside as out. Im poking around in there, and its a wonderment sure enough. Boxes of old books from like the 1915-1920's, a hip deep pile of the old glass insulators,100's of em, old coal oil lamps, just a lot of very cool old stuff. I carefully stepped over to the pile of old glass insulators, picked up a blue one in mint shape to look at, then all a sudden, upstairs, I hear something/somethings HEAVY, running across the floor. The dog took off first, then I did. I dont know WHAT the hell it was, and brother, I didnt care. I got aways off before I quit runnin, turned to make sure we wasnt being followed by WHATEVER, and realized I still had the old insulator in my hand. Still got it. I never went back,and the dog,who beat me home, probably never did either!

[usnbud]

Ive found burnt cars/trucks while dirtbike riding around coalmont, a couple of old strip pits that are flooded, but you can see cars in them if the angle is right! Usually we just find peoples junk and garbage. If you can haul an old bed or washer 5 miles out into the woods why cant you take it to the dump?

[Guest BEARMAN]

With all you guy's talking about finding old chimney's and such, got me thinking.

A few years ago while on a bear hunt, I found this old chimney in lake Chilhowee.

It's normally inundated when the water is up to pool, but the TVA had the lake dropped way down to work on the dam, and in so doing exposed this old homestead chimney.

So, wal lah! I break out the ol digital and snap a couple, right quick like.

Check it out...not quite in the wood's though...but, pretty close.

Kinda makes you wonder what else the lake claimed,

when they impounded it.

I love this thread too, guy's...so, keep em coming!