IT'S HERE!

FROG MOUNTAIN MEMORIES

     "When you wish upon a star it makes no difference who you are," were magical words sang by Jiminy Cricket from a theme song of my favorite childhood TV program, Disneyland. 

     Each Sunday night I sat glued to the floor in front of our TV set and watched Tinker Bell fly across the TV screen with her magic wand bringing a shower of stars as Jiminy Cricket sang the promise that every wish would come true.  Listening to those words gave my heart wings and I believed every word.

     March 8th 2012 I had a dream come true.  I released Frog Mountain Memories for publication.  I don't remember the exact date I committed to calling the words I was writing a book, but I remember the struggle of getting there.  My self doubt and I struggled through endless battles.  By this time the world had stripped away the fantasy world of Tinker Bell and Jiminy Cricket, more importantly the belief in the words from the song, "makes no difference who you are."  I knew better.

     But, that battle was nothing compared to the one I fought of actually saying the words "I am writing a book" to others.  I had to have a whole lot of help from a higher power to do so.Trying the words out the first few times, "sure you are, and who do you think you are" I thought I saw in their eyes, and every time it gave me a reason to retreat.

      After awhile through these battles I came to realize regardless of people it was something I wanted to do.  Something I had to do.  I wanted to preserve the memory of Frog Mountain's people.  It became my dream and a dream is a wish the heart makes.

      I have many to thank for helping my wish come true.  My strongest ally was God, but family and friends helped me cross the finish line.  There are still those that think I should have stuck to the first consensus that I am not a writer, and I agree.  I am not a writer, but I am a story teller.  Just like all those dear people who filled my life with their stories I have found a joy in the retelling of them through writing.

     Since the publication of Frog Mountain Memories many have shared their memories and stories with me; thank you.  I have enjoyed them so much I would like to share them on the blog along with excerpts from Frog Mountain Memories in the coming months.  Email me a number of contact or come by the Cherokee County Historical Museum and visit.  I look forward to hearing from you.

    

     



HERE WE GO AGAIN, ANOTHER ALABAMA BIGFOOT STORY OMG!



      The fascination with some things never loses its allure.  Since the first time a report of an unknown hairy  creature was given a name, albeit depending on what part of the world you were in what that name was, we have been on a quest to satisfy our curiosity.  Does it really exist, what is it, where did it come from?

       Big Foot, that is the name Big Foot, for me as well as countless others in this little corner of Alabama was not known or heard of until the 60’s. The creature himself, or is it herself? No one has really ever said which, but since there have been so many reported in equally as many different parts of the world one would assume there would have to be both? Either way, as a child in the sense of an unexplained presence or blood curdling sounds in the woods he was a boggy man, or a booger, meaning some scary creature.
    
     Just about everyone who grew up roaming Terrapin Creek and Frog Mountain has an experience to share. We, (deemed by our parents as hair brained children, a regional expression of yesteryear used by parents meaning out of control children they could not keep up with) thought it our alienable right to look under every rock, climb every tree, and search every nook and cranny for the unknown and the secrets they held.

     From the older kids, especially the boys, in reaction to the late night scary tales about the creek or Frog Mountain that was told sitting around a campfire, or after supper before TV it was “lets go see” or today it would be “lets check it out.” Such was the case of two local teenagers with an incident that occurred in the 50’s. Today it would have been called a Big Foot sighting.

     It began with an accident that occurred on Terrapin Creek in early 1900. For the first part of the century few bridges spanned Terrapin Creek. Crossings were done either by ferry or at the shallow points along the creek called fords where buggies and wagons could drive across.
Terrapin is usually a slow meandering stream, but during periods of heavy rainfall the creek overflows its banks and the current becomes swift and dangerous. The shallow fords became deep and treacherous and most did not attempt to cross them until the water began to go down.
    
      The ability to gauge the water to know when it was once again safe was a tricky business, and a mistake could cost your life. This happen to a man and his wife attempting to cross the ford at Happy Hollow two or three miles down the road from Frog Mountain. Their wagon overturned and the woman was killed, beheaded.

     For the years thereafter it was told if you went down to the ford at midnight you could sometimes see her, and as time went on the tale grew more gruesome. The tale of the headless woman of Terrapin Creek sent many a youngster to bed with the covers pulled over their head.
Like with all haunted place there were the dares to go. “I dare you, I double dog dare you” the ultimate challenge. So the two teenage boys decided to go camp out at the ford where theoretically the next day they could report their derring-do to their less courageous friends.

     They made their camp and all was well until along about midnight. Then they heard something “big” crashing through the woods, snorting and grunting. Realizing right away this was not any of the small night creatures that was suppose to be out they started looking for somewhere to go, some means of safety. There was not much time because whatever was coming was very near.

     A wood boat that someone had left tied to a tree seemed the only choice. They quickly pulled the boat up out of the water, flipped it over and crawled under it. Just in time before the creature came stomping through the trees and down to the water. Afraid to breath the only thing they could see from under the boat was two “big” hairy feet as the creature came by. They said it never slowed down as it crossed the creek and climbed the mountain on the other side.

     They listened until they could barely hear it before they came out of hiding, and when they did they too hit the ground running in the opposite direction to home. From the wife of one of the teenagers many years later as she was telling about the incident she said, “he vowed he would never go back there again at night,” and as far as she knew he never did. Big Foot? Who knows, maybe.

BIGFOOT IN FROG MOUNTAIN?

Strange occurrences in Frog Mountain were nothing new to the earlier settlers there.  According to stories handed down one would think they had landed in the twilight zone with everything from headless men who grew and shrank at will to floating lights.

In the 1970's a new epidemic of strange and unexplained sightings began.  Strange lights were being reported seen in and around the area.  These were not the lights that were seen in earlier years, but what people and news media was questioning as ufo's.  Radio stations as far as 50 miles away were reporting these in other rural areas as well.

   Then, there was the giant foot prints,  Bigfoot prints, found on Frog Mountain.  Were they Bigfoot prints?  It was reported, all the way down one side of the mountain a series of prints were tracked with numerous broken branches and small trees broken along the way.

Twenty miles away near the Talladega National Forest a man reported a big hairy creature, Bigfoot, crossing the road in front of him early one morning a few months before.  Some laughed, while others were skeptical, but in every one's mind, is there Bigfoot creatures, and do we possibly really have one or more living in our area.

In every area of the world whether it is bizarre happenings or--Sasquach, Himalayan Beast, Great Bear, Kikomba, Raksha, Meh-teh, Yowie, Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman, there are yet unsolved mysteries.  Because of recent questions and findings in our area along with the  regular happenings we will be posting some local stories of these occurrence and our findings in the coming weeks.

Also to be published in the coming weeks, for those who are curious about this place called Frog Mountain, Frog Mountain Memories, a memoir of yesteryear in Frog Mountain, and what it was like growing up in this rural community.

NATURES FURY

Spring time in the South is a magnificent sight.  It is akin to an ever changing

kaleidoscope of colors and designs as new life and the reemerging of the sleeping changes the landscape from the blandness of winter to an ocean of greens bedazzled with a rainbow of wildflowers.

If you have never experienced this time of year in the South land you have missed a spectacular event, but along with all the beauty, Mother Nature has a violent side.  This year we have seen far too much of it.

On  April 27th numerous tornado's cut through Alabama, news media calling it the worst outbreak on a single day ever in our state.  It is rivaled only by the 1994 tornado's that claimed over twenty lives in our immediate area of Cherokee County.  Thankfully, although there was mass destruction to some area homes, this time we had no loss of lives.  Others in our state were not so lucky.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to them.

 While our first priorities are the people and their homes, the loss of wildlife habitat and the possible loss of wildlife it's self along with home pets are a concern.  Each time the news media reported a story of a pet being reunited with its human family we rejoiced right along with them.

Terrapin Creek flows behind our farm.  About three weeks before the storm while kayaking down it I stopped to watch two cranes in the top of a tall tree beside their nests.  After the storm I stood on a hillside where the storm crossed the roadway that runs parallel to the creek, and looking back I searched for where the tree would have been .  I say would have been because now there was only twisted broken trees as far as you could see .

I have posted two pictures.  One is of a beautiful field of flowers about 1/2 mile down the road from the farm that I took one morning on my way to work a week before the storm.  The second is looking back on the path the storm came about 1/2 mile further down from the field of flowers as it crossed the creek and the road.

As I stood looking at the tangle of trees it made me sad knowing there was no way the baby cranes in the nest could have survived.  Hopefully the adult cranes did and there will be other babies.  It will be a long time, if ever, before the land will heal.

It is because of loses such as this and others, man made, to wildlife habitat that we need to be mindful of, and whenever possible set aside space to our wildlife.  It is our hope, even if only in some small way, to make a difference by delegating our acreage to a wildlife habitat.     

WHATS ALL THE EXCITEMENT ABOUT!

             He clasps the crag with hooked hands,

             Close to the sun in lonely lands,

             Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

                    

                    Alfred Lord Tennyson                   

                       

                                            

                                                        

A few years ago our community was honored by two revered sojourners electing to adopt us for their home, two bald eagles.  Although they have been around long enough to hatch off at leat one eaglet there are some who are just now discovering their presence.

Reactions to a first encounter has been at first disbelief, since it has been a long time, if ever, of their presence here.  The second reaction, of being given an audience with a king, and the feeling of being incredibly lucky to be living in a place where taking a drive or a morning walk you can experience such a wonder.  The third reaction........ Wow!  You want to go door to door, or pick up the phone and call ever one you ever knew and tell them.

For those lucky enough for a sighting they have been described as, magnificent, breathtaking, beautiful, spellbinding, and on and on, bringing the question to mind, does Webster have enough words to paint the picture the eyes see or the heart feels.

Check out our web page http://www.froggmountainwildlifehabitat/ for more.



JANUARY IN DIXIE

http://www.froggmountain.com/