JennIfOnly
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2014
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- 21
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- 3
I'm not an outdoor type of girl but my husband is all about being outside. He regularly drags me to Cades Cove. The reason we go to Cades Cove is so he can see the deer, turkeys and bears. Cades Cove contains an 11 mile road where meadows are visible from you car and you're going to see deer. You will most likely see bears.
Animals: There's no doubt that a bear attack is possible. Wild boars could easily make an entire body disappear. Except the skull of an adult. Maybe the skull of a child but I've always been told that a boar can not open it's jaws enough to be able to crush and eat a skull. They say there are no wild cats left in the mountains around here, they're wrong. One article even mentioned panthers outright. That's an ongoing debate in this area and across the mountain in NC. I believe they're still around. Some people say panthers have never been in the area. I have no doubt that if a wild cat was involved, it would have been so swift that the boy wouldn't have had a chance to scream. If you've ever heard the horrifying scream of a wild cat, you know that could have been the scream heard after this poor little guy disappeared. Snakes are a possibility but what are the odds and where did the body go?
The river. I've never been to the location of this horrible event but I've been in the lower areas a lot. Every time I'm there, my husband and I discuss the river. He reminds me that it's the length that determines if a body of water is called a river. And I argue that it's a long creek. The Pigeon River is nothing compared to the Nolichuckey. But, with the rains described, there's a huge possibility that this boy was swept away. I can't imagine the water up there being deep enough for a body to be hidden under rocks but I could be wrong. I think he fell in, couldn't swim or walk/climb/crawl out. Maybe he hit his head or was otherwise injured and couldn't get out of the water. Then the rain came and washed his body away and trapped it or it washed up in under brush and couldn't be seen.
Stranger abduction is not out of the question. Not likely but could have happened. If you knew the area, you could pull it off, especially with a child who wasn't afraid of strangers.
The ginseng hunter. I don't think he was lying. I know several people who hunt seng. Our land boarders Cherokee National Forest. I know someone who is always in there during seng season and every time he is terrified of getting caught. It really surprises me that he does it at all because he is so scared of getting caught. I think he would report seeing something like that. Some of the other people who I know that do this, probably wouldn't report anything. They're felons looking to make money of the ginseng. They're not reporting anything to anyone. There are very strict rules on harvesting seng. The size of the root/plant is a huge deal apparently. I know people around here are very concerned with not getting caught, not doing it by the books. I also know that several hundred dollars can be made off one trip to the woods. In poor Appalachian places like this, a few hundred dollars a day can change your life if you're laid off from your factory job. Motivation to keep your mouth shut if you stumbled onto a skull? Maybe. Not for all but it would be for some. So, yes, I believe the ginseng hunter did find the child's skull and did not tell exactly for the reason he stated.
Getting lost in that area and never being seen again is very plausible to me. The sheer size of the forest, the water, the caves, the holes, the thick thick thick under brush and of course the animals...
And speaking of anomads and saying there's no way there wouldn't be some trace of him? What was the name of the little Chamberlain baby from Ayers Rock? "A dingo ate my baby." That portion of that child's clothes was recovered many years later in the den, wasn't it?
Animals: There's no doubt that a bear attack is possible. Wild boars could easily make an entire body disappear. Except the skull of an adult. Maybe the skull of a child but I've always been told that a boar can not open it's jaws enough to be able to crush and eat a skull. They say there are no wild cats left in the mountains around here, they're wrong. One article even mentioned panthers outright. That's an ongoing debate in this area and across the mountain in NC. I believe they're still around. Some people say panthers have never been in the area. I have no doubt that if a wild cat was involved, it would have been so swift that the boy wouldn't have had a chance to scream. If you've ever heard the horrifying scream of a wild cat, you know that could have been the scream heard after this poor little guy disappeared. Snakes are a possibility but what are the odds and where did the body go?
The river. I've never been to the location of this horrible event but I've been in the lower areas a lot. Every time I'm there, my husband and I discuss the river. He reminds me that it's the length that determines if a body of water is called a river. And I argue that it's a long creek. The Pigeon River is nothing compared to the Nolichuckey. But, with the rains described, there's a huge possibility that this boy was swept away. I can't imagine the water up there being deep enough for a body to be hidden under rocks but I could be wrong. I think he fell in, couldn't swim or walk/climb/crawl out. Maybe he hit his head or was otherwise injured and couldn't get out of the water. Then the rain came and washed his body away and trapped it or it washed up in under brush and couldn't be seen.
Stranger abduction is not out of the question. Not likely but could have happened. If you knew the area, you could pull it off, especially with a child who wasn't afraid of strangers.
The ginseng hunter. I don't think he was lying. I know several people who hunt seng. Our land boarders Cherokee National Forest. I know someone who is always in there during seng season and every time he is terrified of getting caught. It really surprises me that he does it at all because he is so scared of getting caught. I think he would report seeing something like that. Some of the other people who I know that do this, probably wouldn't report anything. They're felons looking to make money of the ginseng. They're not reporting anything to anyone. There are very strict rules on harvesting seng. The size of the root/plant is a huge deal apparently. I know people around here are very concerned with not getting caught, not doing it by the books. I also know that several hundred dollars can be made off one trip to the woods. In poor Appalachian places like this, a few hundred dollars a day can change your life if you're laid off from your factory job. Motivation to keep your mouth shut if you stumbled onto a skull? Maybe. Not for all but it would be for some. So, yes, I believe the ginseng hunter did find the child's skull and did not tell exactly for the reason he stated.
Getting lost in that area and never being seen again is very plausible to me. The sheer size of the forest, the water, the caves, the holes, the thick thick thick under brush and of course the animals...
And speaking of anomads and saying there's no way there wouldn't be some trace of him? What was the name of the little Chamberlain baby from Ayers Rock? "A dingo ate my baby." That portion of that child's clothes was recovered many years later in the den, wasn't it?