Tuesday, February 9, 2016 1:04 pm

By MIKE WEST

Got a brief "letter to the editor" recently from a relative, Georgia Gannon.

Now Georgia is quite a talker, but her letter was short and to the point:

"What ever happened to Bigfoot? Has he been replaced by Little Green Men? Just curious."

Now that is a good question from my point of view.

Looking back on the Internet, I managed to find two formal reports of Bigfoot signings in Cannon County. Naturally both of these reports were based in the Short Mountain area.

The most "recent" was taken in 1992 and reported by the folks at the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) which is featured on the Animal Planet program, "Finding Bigfoot."

BFRO.net has this report:

"As two witnesses were hunting, they became aware of something noisily making its way through some brush about 50 yards away. Thinking it too large to be a deer, both witnesses simultaneously viewed from their tree stands a large, hairy, 7 ft. tall creature walking across an old logging trail (this only totally clear area near them) before they could do anything. The creature suddenly tore through the forest away from the hunters. (The witnesses believe that it possibly smelled them and became spooked.) It was too dark by the time the witnesses got out of their tree stands to find any footprints, but they did observe damaged undergrowth."

The witness returned to the property later in the week only to be astonished when the property owner told him a woman had witnessed the Bigfoot as well.

A second report dates back to the fall of 1997 with the "reporter" being a former detention officer at the Cannon County Sheriff's Office.

"One of the dispatchers called back to my work station to tell me of a report she had received containing information about a possible Bigfoot sighting in the area of Short Mountain. After the caller hung up, we all had a good laugh, thinking the woman to be intoxicated..After reading the report posted on this sight, however, I feel this information could be of use to you. The description she gave matched the one in your Posting, especially the incredible speed it displayed when she screamed at the sight of the creature."

BFRO's website includes 91 Tennessee reports with one the most recent being in Tullahoma.

To see more of BFRO's reports, click on http://www.bfro.net/

As for Little Green Men, there have been a few UFO sightings in Cannon County in recent years.

"I was just a witness to a flash of light that started to look like a shooting star and then abruptly turned and sped off into what I believe to be just over a 45° angle. It lasted less than 2 seconds....... I am not a believer, but after this....I would like something explained!!!" reported one Woodbury resident to the National UFO Reporting Center .

As for "Little Green Men" themselves, they first gained fame back on August 21, 1955 in Kelly, Ky, near Hopkinsville. The folks of Kelly hold a "Little Green Men" festival each year to celebrate its occurrence.

Locally, the "Little Green Men" seem to be denizens of Short Mountain (naturally) where they seem content pulling pranks. Guess, the little "fellers" do seem less threatening than 8 or 9 foot tall Bigfoot critters?

Now the folks at Short Mountain Distillery blame all the Bigfoot and little alien stories on the bootleggers who were once common to the area. You can also add mountain lions and ghosts, etc. to that theory.

Back to Georgia's question ... I guess you can blame the change from Bigfoot to Little Green Men on technology. Yup!

So if anyone has a Bigfoot or Little Green Man story (or photo) to share, send it to news@cannoncourier.com