STATE FILE · TN
Cryptids of Tennessee
What cryptids are in Tennessee? The best-known are Bigfoot and Bell Witch.
Tennessee runs from the misty ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains to the bluffs of the Mississippi, and its folklore is as varied as its terrain. The 19th century gave the state its “Tennessee Wildman,” a hairy giant described in newspaper items of the 1870s as roaming the woods and frightening settlers – an ancestor, in many writers’ eyes, of today’s Bigfoot reports. Modern sightings come from the Cherokee National Forest along the North Carolina line, the Cumberland Plateau and the woods of Middle Tennessee.
Cryptids reported in Tennessee
HOMINID · 1958
Bigfoot
Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America
North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.
WIDELY REPORTED
SPECTRAL · 1817
Bell Witch
Bell farm, Red River, Adams, Robertson County, Tennessee
An invisible, talking spirit said to have tormented the Bell family on their Tennessee farm from 1817 to 1821 – America’s most famous haunting legend.
FOLKLOREThe legends of Tennessee
Appalachian Tennessee also tells of the Wampus Cat, a cat-like creature of hill-country folklore whose story has many versions, some linked to Cherokee tradition. The state’s most famous supernatural tale, though, is the Bell Witch, an invisible presence said to have tormented John Bell’s family near Adams, in Robertson County, beginning around 1817. The Bell Witch Cave is now a seasonal attraction, and the legend has inspired books, songs and films.
Skeptics point to black bears, which thrive in the Smokies and the Cumberlands, and to the long tradition of tall tales and newspaper hoaxes in the 1800s. Still, the dense forests of Land Between the Lakes on the Kentucky line and the Smokies – the most-visited national park in the country – keep the legends circulating.
Hotspots
Vast, misty forests on the North Carolina line with recurring Bigfoot stories.
Long strip of Appalachian forest along Tennessee’s eastern border.
Seasonal attraction tied to Tennessee’s most famous supernatural legend.
Wooded peninsula on the Kentucky border with its own creature stories.
Sightings timeline
- 1817The first disturbances Bell Witch
The Bells reported knocking, scratching and gnawing sounds in their house and a strange animal in the fields, the start of a four-year haunting.
- December 20, 1820Death of John Bell Bell Witch
After a long illness, John Bell died. According to the legend a vial of dark liquid was found beside him and the spirit claimed to have poisoned him.
- 1821The spirit takes its leave Bell Witch
The voice reportedly told the family it was departing and would return in seven years. Betsy Bell ended her engagement to Joshua Gardner the same year.
- 1894Ingram’s <em>Authenticated History</em> Bell Witch
Newspaper editor Martin V. Ingram published the first full-length account of the haunting, the source for nearly every later retelling.
Latest from Tennessee
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Videos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:07
Patterson–Gimlin film (unedited)
Roger Patterson and Bob GimlinThe original 1967 Bluff Creek footage – the most famous and most debated minute in Bigfoot history. Marked public domain on archive.org.
ARCHIVE.ORG4:59
The Film That Made Bigfoot A Star
Oregon Public BroadcastingOPB’s short documentary on how the Patterson–Gimlin film turned a regional legend into a global icon – and the hoax claims around it.
▶ VIDEO
Sts’ailes Sasquatch Days in Harrison Hot Springs
Tourism Harrison River ValleyShows the festival celebrating the Sts’ailes people’s Sásq’ets, the being behind the word “Sasquatch” (no archive.org equivalent).