Cousin Of Big Foot
Cleveland County folks aren't sure
what knobby is, but he's expected
back next month.
Ky ROBERT E.
И
1 1 J JAMS
It happens every few years: some¬
body hears a strange noise in the
woods, sees a shadowy form cross the
road on a rainy night, or spots a track
distorted by nuiddy footing, and a new
monster is born.
There was. very early, the Beast of
Hladonboro. a creature that roamed
the fields and forests and defied all
efforts to capture or identify it. There
was the Iredell Wampus Cat which
screamed at night like a woman being
slaughtered mercilessly and which left
the mutilated carcasses of dogs,
calves, and other domestic animals in
his wake.
And now Cleveland County has
Knobby, the very obvious little cousin
of Bigfoot. Named for the South
Mountain peak called Carpenter’s
Knob where he was first spotted.
Knobby is due to appear again about
early December this year, as he has
done in the past.
Knobby is. as far as anyone knows,
totally harmless, but he w ill never w in
a beauty contest: he would be more at
home on the Gong Show. About six
feet tall, perhaps slightly more, jet
black except for his eyes and nostrils.
Knobby walks on all fours at limes; at
times he travels upright. He has been
likened to a gorilla, a bear, a deformed
deer, a man in a costume, or the prod-
At Kftotbr’t tom.
ц
о
to» bo Hod .ot -ft.- o*d
о
mo... prodded, orxJ occotmti ot k.t
octi..t.ci -e«e -.del; published He«e. Elnobeth Wilbomt models one ot the tint Knobby tee th.rtt ond
holdi
о
Knobby poster, both produced by R C Nonny (oil photos by Robert L W.llioms)
W
Sommy Price ot Cosor. in the South Mountomt,
points to the patch ot -oods -here he ond hit -ite
so- Knobby on
о
poir ot occasions The terrom is too
lor trom to— n tor the creoture to ho.e been
о
mon in
о
costume, he insists.
Knobby is nomed lor Corpenter’s Knob, -here be
-os lint spotted.
net of the bottom of the bottle of white
lightning. He has even been said to be a
stray cow or large dog.
Some insist, even to the point of
iconoclasm. that Knobby was in¬
vented solely for the purpose of scar¬
ing away sight-seers who were wan¬
dering too close to the still in the
hollow near Carpenter’s Knob. At any
rate. Knobby has excited the residents
of the area w ho remain alert for a new
spotting of the 300-pound critter.
The Poacher Cured
The first sighting last autumn was
made by a deer hunter who was in¬
terested in bagging a deer before the
rush set in — in fact, he was about
three weeks prior to the opening of the
season, and for this reason he remains
nameless. The hunter was sighting
dow n the barrel of his rifle at the deer
at the edge of a grain field when he saw
something black run between him and
his intended prey.
"I don’t know what it was." he said
later, "and I don’t intend to go back to
find out. One thing is certain: it wasn’t
a deer and it wasn’t a bear. But he
cured me of poaching!”
A few days later Mrs. Minnie Cook,
a 90-year old woman who has spent
most of her days in the South Moun¬
tains. looked out the window of her
front door and saw Knobby again. She
had not heard the deer poacher’s story,
so her sighting was not induced by sug¬
gestion. She watched the animal for
several minutes while waiting for her
son Kb. who nins a service station and
THE STATE, NOVFMKR 1I7(
