An account in Spartanburg County, South Carolina

Years ago, my brother, two cousins and I were at a creek near my father's place of business when we decided to go swimming. After 20 or thirty minutes of this, I decided to lie on the sand about 20 yards from the creek bank. All of a sudden, my three companions came running by me and told me to "get up and run!" I did this, but I looked back at the creek. All I could make out was a large, hairy figure leaning on a large tree trunk beside the creek. We ran for a couple hundred yards and up a very steep bank to get away from this creature. This bank was a support for a railroad track and was nearly straight up for about 50 feet. It was lined with pine trees about twelve feet tall. When we reached the top of the bank we thought that we were safe. Not so! We heard what sounded like a horse running towards us. Whatever it was started up the embankment at a high rate of speed. It pushed the pine trees out of the way. It had to be extremely strong to move them the way that it did. We had no option except to jump on the other side of the hill into briars and vines and "run for our lives." We told our dad, but after looking at the area, he decided not to contact the police. My brother said it was large and hairy. He said that it looked like pictures in books that we had seen. I have told this story for years. I still get chills thinking about this experience!