BWBS Ep:127 The Pope Lick Monster

Journey into the heart of Kentucky's most terrifying legend with this comprehensive exploration of the Pope Lick Monster, a cryptid that has haunted Louisville for over eight decades.

This ten-thousand-word narrative traces the evolution of a local legend that refuses to remain merely legendary, examining documented encounters, mysterious deaths, and the increasingly disturbing pattern of events surrounding the Norfolk Southern Railway trestle that spans Pope Lick Creek.

Our investigation begins in the 1940s with the first recorded sightings of a creature that defies biological explanation—a seven-foot-tall hybrid of man and goat that stalks the shadows beneath the railroad bridge. 

Through meticulous research of historical records, witness testimonies, and investigative reports, we explore how what started as whispered folklore has evolved into something far more complex and terrifying. The narrative examines multiple origin theories, from a circus train disaster in the early 1900s to the curse of a Depression-era sheep herder, each attempting to explain the impossible existence of this creature.

The story takes a dark turn as we document the deaths and disappearances associated with the trestle, including the tragic fate of teenagers who dared to cross the bridge, the mysterious three-day disappearance of university student Jennifer Walsh in 1984, and the recent vanishing of seventeen people in 2024. We analyze the disturbing pattern that emerges from these incidents, particularly the reports of victims being "called" or "invited" by the creature through dreams and visions.

Special attention is given to the scientific investigations that have attempted to understand the phenomenon, including Dr. Lawrence Kingston's 1968 expedition that recorded unexplained acoustic anomalies and hormonal markers, and the 2008 University of Kentucky study that discovered pre-Columbian cave paintings depicting the creature beneath the trestle. The narrative also explores the controversial DNA evidence collected from the caves that shows markers from both human and caprine sources, along with genetic sequences that match no known terrestrial life form.The digital age has brought new dimensions to the Pope Lick Monster phenomenon, from the 2018 mass sighting witnessed by over 300 Louisville residents to the final livestream of paranormal investigator Derek Matthews, who jumped from the trestle while fifty thousand viewers watched in horror.

 We examine how the creature appears to be adapting to modern technology, including reports of it mimicking human voices in phone calls and learning from social media content posted by its victims.Four primary theories are explored to explain the creature's existence. The interdimensional hypothesis suggests the monster is a visitor from a parallel dimension, manifesting at a weak point between worlds. The genetic experiment theory points to classified military documents referencing "Operation Chimera" and escaped specimens from caprine-human hybridization trials in the 1940s.

The tulpa theory proposes the creature is a manifestation of collective human fear and belief, while the ancient entity theory, supported by indigenous oral traditions and pre-Columbian artifacts, suggests something far older and more terrifying has dwelt in this area since before recorded history.Recent developments have attracted federal attention, with a joint task force comprising the FBI, CDC, and Department of Defense establishing operations in Louisville in 2024. Leaked documents suggest the government has been monitoring "Biological Anomaly PL-1" since 1953, with multiple failed attempts to capture or eliminate the entity.

The escalating situation, including seventeen missing persons in 2024 alone, has raised concerns about what investigators cryptically refer to as "potential multiplication events."The narrative draws from over eighty years of documented encounters, newspaper accounts, police reports, and witness testimonies to construct the most comprehensive examination of the Pope Lick Monster phenomenon ever assembled.

From the creature's evolution from local folklore to its current status as an active federal investigation, we trace how a legend has become a terrifying reality for the people of Louisville.This is not merely a collection of ghost stories or urban legends, but a serious examination of one of America's most persistent and disturbing cryptid phenomena. The Pope Lick Railroad Trestle remains an active railway bridge where multiple people have died in recent years, and the area is now under federal investigation.

Whether the Pope Lick Monster is an interdimensional being, a genetic experiment gone wrong, a manifestation of collective fear, or something beyond our current understanding, the evidence suggests that the phenomenon is real, it's escalating, and according to those who claim

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace.
Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world
refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they
know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we
share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness Bigfoot,

(00:23):
dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make
it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because
once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the
woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and
remember some things in the woods don't want to be found.
Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads,

(00:46):
and let's head off into the woods if you dare.
The rusted steel of the Norfolk Southern Railway trestle stretches
one hundred feet above Pope Lick Creek, a skeletal monument

(01:09):
against the October sky. If you stand at its base
on a foggy night, though God knows why you would,
you can hear more than just the creek's whisper. Below.
You can hear the echoes of screams that have punctuated
this place for over a century screams that end as
suddenly as they begin, cut short by the unforgiving impact

(01:30):
of bodies meeting earth from a height that offers no mercy.
But tonight, on this particular October evening in nineteen eighty seven,
sixteen year old Jack Baum doesn't know about the screams.
He doesn't know about the thing that waits in the
shadows between the railroad ties. All he knows is that
his friends have dared him to cross the trestle at midnight,

(01:51):
and his pride, that dangerous currency of teenage boys, won't
let him back down. The beam of his flashlight cuts
through the mist as he places one tentative foot on
the first railroad tie. The wood is slick with moisture,
treacherous even without the added terror of what lurks here
behind him. His friend's nervous laughter fades as he moves

(02:12):
deeper onto the bridge twenty feet thirty. The ground below
disappears into darkness. That's when he hears it, a sound
that doesn't belong to any train schedule, any natural creature
of the Kentucky Wilderness. It starts as a low, bleeding,
almost goat like, but there's something wrong with it. Something

(02:33):
that makes the primitive part of his brain, the part
that once cowered in caves from predators with glowing eyes
scream at him to run. The bleeding grows closer, accompanied
by the thunder of hoofs on wood, hooves that strike
with the weight of something far larger than any goat.
Jack's flashlight swings wildly, catching glimpses of something impossible, matted fur,

(02:56):
the color of old bones, eyes that reflect light like
a deer, but burn with an intelligence that is decidedly
horribly human. Jack bamb would survive that night, but barely.
When they found him at dawn, clinging to the underside
of the trestle with fingers worn bloody from gripping the steel,
he could only repeat one phrase over and over. Half man,

(03:18):
half goat, half demon, all monster. This is the story
of the Pope Lick Monster, Kentucky's most terrifying cryptid, a
creature that has haunted the borderlands between myth and reality
for generations, claiming victims both through supernatural terror and the
very real danger of the bridge it calls home. To
understand the Pope Lick Monster, you must first understand Pope

(03:42):
Lick Creek and the imposing trestle that spans it. Located
just east of Louisville, Kentucky, in the Fisherville area, this
seemingly unremarkable waterway winds through limestone hollows and wooded valleys
that have remained largely unchanged since the days when the
Shawnee and Cherokee traveled these as. The creek takes its

(04:02):
name from an early salt lick in the area, supposedly
discovered by a surveyor named Pope, though even this origin
is shrouded in the uncertainty that seems to permeate everything
about this place. The railroad trestle itself was constructed in
the late eighteen hundreds, a marvel of engineering for its time,
stretching seven hundred seventy two feet long and rising ninety

(04:24):
feet above the creek bed below. It remains active to
this day, carrying Norfolk Southern Freight trains across the valley
with a frequency that makes crossing it a game of
Russian roulette. The bridge offers no walkways, no safety railings,
no escape routes, just the narrow gaps between railroad ties
and a straight drop to the rocky creek below. But

(04:46):
the bridge is more than just a physical structure. In
the folklore of Jefferson County, it has become a threshold,
a liminal space where the ordinary world bleeds into something
far stranger and more terrible. The historians have documented at
least a dozen deaths on the trestle since the nineteen forties.
The whispered accounts suggest the true number is far higher.

(05:08):
Some victims fell while trying to cross the bridge on
a dare. Others were struck by trains unable to outrun
the locomotives on the narrow span. But there are other deaths,
ones that don't fit neatly into categories of accident or misadventure,
deaths preceded by reports of strange bleeding sounds of being

(05:29):
chased by something that moved on hoofs but stood upright
like a man. The earliest documented encounter with what would
become known as the Pope Lick Monster dates back to
the nineteen forties, though oral traditions suggest the creature's presence
extends much further into the past. In the autumn of
nineteen forty six, returning World War II veteran Samuel Thompson

(05:51):
was walking along the creek bed hunting for squirrels in
the early morning mist. As he later told his grandson,
who would document the story in a local history journal,
I saw something that shouldn't exist, moving through the trees
on the far bank. At first I thought it was
a man, maybe a vagrant camping in the woods. But
the way it moved lord helped me. Nothing human moves

(06:14):
like that. It leaped from rock to rock across the creek,
covering distances that would challenge an Olympic athlete. When it
stood still for a moment, silhouetted against the morning sun,
I could see the outline clearly, the torso of a man,
but covered in pale, matted fur, and below the waist
the powerful haunches and legs of a goat. Thompson never

(06:37):
hunted near pope Lick Creek again. By the nineteen fifties,
encounters had become frequent enough that local teenagers began incorporating
the monster into their folklore. It became a rite of
passage to venture to the trestle at night to prove
one's courage by standing on the tracks and calling out
challenges to the creature. Most returned with nothing more than

(06:58):
stories of strange sound and the satisfaction of surviving their
own foolishness, but not all. In nineteen fifty two, Barbara Anderson,
aged seventeen, fell from the trestle under circumstances that remained
mysterious to this day. Her boyfriend, who had been waiting
at the base of the bridge, swore he heard her
screaming about eyes in the dark and hoofs on the

(07:20):
ties before she plummeted. The official report listed her death
as accidental, a result of attempting to cross the dangerous
bridge at night, but those who knew Barbara noted something
the reports didn't mention, the deep gouges on the railroad
ties near where she fell, marks that looked like they
had been made by something with cloven hoofs. One of

(07:41):
the most persistent origin stories for the Pope Lick Monster
emerged in the nineteen sixties, told by those old enough
to remember or claim to remember, a tragedy from decades before.
According to this legend, sometime in the early nineteen hundreds,
a circus train derailed while crossing the trestle during a
violent thunderstorm. The train cars plummeted into the creek below,

(08:04):
killing most of the performers and animals instantly, but one
creature survived. They say, a side show freak advertised as
the goat Man of the Carpathian Mountains, a supposed hybrid
between human and beast that the circus had acquired from
a traveling European show. Driven mad by the crash and
the depths of its keepers, this creature escaped into the

(08:26):
surrounding wilderness, making its home in the shadowy spaces beneath
the trestle, forever bound to the site of the tragedy
that freed it. Railroad records from the period show no
evidence of such a derailment, but believers point out that
circus trains often operated outside official channels, and a disaster
involving a traveling freak show might well have been covered

(08:48):
up to avoid scandal and litigation. The story gained credence
in nineteen sixty nine when construction workers renovating a section
of the trestle discovered the rusted remains of what appeared
to be curs cage bars embedded in the creek bed below,
though these artifacts mysteriously disappeared before they could be properly examined.
Another origin story favored by those with a taste for

(09:11):
the Gothic tells of a sheep herder who lived in
the area during the Great Depression. This man, known only
as Old Moses to the locals, was said to be
strange even by the standards of those hard scrabble times.
He lived alone in a shack near the creek, tending
a flock of goats rather than sheep. Despite his profession,

(09:32):
the goats, neighbors whispered, were unnaturally intelligent, responding to commands
in what sounded almost like a primitive language. When several
local children went missing in the summer of nineteen thirty two,
suspicion naturally fell on the hermit. A mob formed, liquored
up on moonshine and righteous anger. They dragged Old Moses

(09:52):
from his shack, and, in a scene that could have
been lifted from the Salem witch trials, attempted to force
a confession from him. When he refused to admit to
any wrongdoing, maintaining his innocence even under torture, the mob
decided to exact their own justice. They hanged him from
the trestle, letting his body dangle above the creek as
a warning to other would be child killers. But as

(10:14):
Old Moses died. Witnesses claimed he spoke a curse in
a language none of them recognized, calling upon his goats
to avenge him. The next morning, his body was gone,
and so were all his goats. The missing children were
never found, and neither was any evidence linking the hermit
to their disappearances. Within a year, the first reports of

(10:35):
the Pope Lick Monster began to surface. The nineteen sixties
marked a turning point in the Pope Lick Monster legend.
What had been whispered folklore became something more tangible, more terrifying.
The encounters became more frequent, more violent, and more difficult
to explain away as mere imagination or misidentification. In April

(10:57):
nineteen sixty two, Charles and Rachel Garrett were driving along
Taylorsville Road late one evening when their car suddenly stalled
near the trestle. As Charles got out to check under
the hood, Rachel remained in the vehicle. She later testified
to police. I heard Charlie scream, not yell, but screamed
like I'd never heard a grown man scream before. When

(11:18):
I looked up, I saw him backing away from something
at the edge of the road. It stood maybe seven
feet tall, covered in light colored fur that was matted
with what looked like dried blood. Its upper body was muscular,
almost human, but its legs, God, almighty, Its legs were
bent wrong, like a goat's, ending in hoofs that scraped

(11:40):
against the asphalt. But the worst part was its face.
It had the features of a man, but elongated, distorted,
with horizontal pupils like a goat's, and horns protruding from
its forehead. Charles corroborated his wife's account, adding that the
creature had made a sound like a goat's bleat mixed
with a human scream, before leaping, not running, but leaping

(12:04):
across the road and disappearing into the darkness beneath the trestle.
The Garrett's car started immediately after the creature vanished, and
they drove straight to the Jefferson County Sheriff's office. While
the deputies were skeptical, they couldn't explain the deep gouges
in the asphalt where the couple claimed the creature had stood,
marks that looked like they had been made by hoofs.

(12:25):
Three months later, in July nineteen sixty two, a group
of teenagers decided to camp near the creek, about a
quarter mile from the trestle. They were experienced campers, familiar
with the woods, and unafraid of local legends. That changed
at approximately two am, when they were awakened by what
they initially thought was a wounded animal bleeding in pain.

(12:47):
Tom Morrison, one of the survivors, recounted, we grabbed our
flashlights and went to investigate, thinking maybe a deer had
been hit by a car and wandered into the woods
to die. But as we got closer to the sound,
we realized it was moving circling our camp site. Then
the bleeding changed became almost like laughter, if you can

(13:08):
imagine a goat laughing. That's when we saw the eyes
reflecting our flashlight beams from about eight feet off the ground.
The teenagers fled, leaving behind their camping equipment. When they
returned the next day with adults, they found their tents shredded,
their food supplies scattered, and hoof prints far too large
to belong to any normal goat circling the entire camp site.

(13:31):
The increasing number of reports attracted the attention of doctor
Lawrence Kingston, a professor of folklore and anthropology at the
University of Louisville. In nineteen sixty eight, he organized the
first scientific investigation of the Pope Lick monster phenomenon. His
team included a biologist, a psychologist, and a local historian,

(13:51):
and they spent three months conducting interviews, examining physical evidence,
and maintaining night watches at the trestle. Their findings, public
in the Journal of Kentucky Folklore, were inconclusive but fascinating.
The team documented seventeen first hand encounter reports with remarkable
consistency in the descriptions of the creature. They found unexplained

(14:13):
hoof prints measuring approximately six inches in length, far larger
than any native Kentucky ungulate could produce. Soil samples from
encounter sites revealed strange hormonal markers, suggesting the presence of
an unknown mammalian species. Most intriguingly, they discovered an acoustic
anomaly near the trestle, where certain sound frequencies seemed to

(14:34):
be naturally amplified, possibly explaining the creature's distinctive bleeding call
that carried for miles through the valley. Doctor Kingston himself
had an encounter during the investigation that he refused to
discuss publicly for years. Only in a private letter to
a colleague discovered after his death in nineteen eighty seven
did he describe what happened. Stay tuned for more Backwoods

(14:56):
Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages. On the
night of October thirteenth, while maintaining a solitary watch at
the northern approach to the Trestle, I observed what I
can only describe as an impossibility. The creature, for I
cannot bring myself to call it anything else, emerged from
beneath the bridge and stood upright in the moonlight. It

(15:20):
appeared to be studying me with an intelligence that was
unmistakably cognizant, aware not just of my presence but of
my purpose. For perhaps thirty seconds, we regarded each other
across a distance of no more than fifty feet. Then
it spoke, Yes, spoke in a voice that was neither
fully human nor animal. Leave this place. I complied immediately

(15:44):
and have never returned. The nineteen seventies brought a new,
darker chapter to the pope Lick monster legend. On a
humid night in August nineteen seventy two, twenty two year
old David Bryan attempted to cross the trestle on a dare.
His friends waited at both ends ends of the bridge,
expecting him to emerge victorious, or at worst to turn

(16:04):
back when his nerve failed. Instead, they heard his screams
echoing through the valley, followed by a sickening silence. When
they found David's body at dawn, he was not beneath
the bridge, where someone who had fallen would be. Instead,
he was discovered nearly a quarter mile downstream, his body
bearing injuries inconsistent with a fall. The coroner's report, obtained

(16:27):
through a Freedom of Information Act request years later, noted
compound fractures of both tibii and fibuli, suggesting impact from
a height. However, also present were deep puncture wounds on
the shoulders and upper back, consistent with being gripped by
large pointed objects. Most unusually, the victim's clothing showed evidence

(16:48):
of being torn by what appeared to be cloven hoofs,
with fabric embedded in wounds on the torso. The cause
of death was listed as traumatic injuries consistent with a fall,
though the complete circumstances remained undetermined. David's friends insisted that
they had heard more than just his screams that night.
They heard the creature's bleeding call, the thunder of hoofs

(17:11):
on railroad ties, and what sounded like a struggle before
David's final scream. The authorities dismissed their accounts as trauma
induced hallucinations, but the friends knew what they had heard.
As Louisville expanded and the area around Popelit Creek became
more developed, one might have expected the monster sightings to decrease. Instead,

(17:32):
the opposite occurred. The creature seemed to adapt to the
encroaching civilization, becoming bolder, more aggressive, and more cunning in
its interactions with humans. In March nineteen eighty three, security
guard William Tunney was patrolling a warehouse facility near the
Trestle when he encountered something that changed his life forever.

(17:52):
His official report to his employer read simply observed unknown
trespasser on property, unable to apprehend. But Tunny told a
very different story to his family and close friends. I
saw it clear as day under the security lights. It
was going through our dumpster, pulling out food waste with hands, yes,
hands that looked human except for the thick, dark nails.

(18:16):
When my flashlight hit it. It stood up to its
full height, maybe seven and a half feet. Its face
christ Its face was almost human, but stretched distorted. It
had a goat's eyes, those horizontal pupils, but they showed intelligence,
not animal intelligence, human intelligence maybe more. It looked at

(18:39):
me like it was memorizing my face. Then it smiled,
actually smiled, before leaping over an eight foot fence like
it was nothing. Tounny quit his job the next day
and moved his family to Indiana. He never publicly spoke
about the encounter again, but his son would later post
about it on early Internet forms dedicated to cryptid sightings,

(19:01):
adding that his father had nightmares about those horizontal pupiled
eyes for the rest of his life. The monster's behavior
seemed to be evolving. Where once it had been content
to remain near the trestle, it now ranged further afield.
Reports came in from subdivisions being built near the creek,
describing a creature that would stand at the edge of

(19:21):
backyards at dusk, watching houses with an unnerving intensity. Children
reported seeing the goat man peering through their bedroom windows
at night, though parents inevitably dismissed these as nightmares. Perhaps
no encounter from this era is more disturbing than what
happened to Jennifer Walsh in November nineteen eighty four. Jennifer,

(19:42):
a nineteen year old University of Louisville student, was conducting
research for a term paper on local folklore. She had
interviewed dozens of people about the Pope Licked monster and
decided she needed to visit the Trestle herself to complete
her project. She went alone on a clear Tuesday afternoon,
armed with a camera and a tape recorder. She was

(20:02):
supposed to meet her roommate for dinner at six pm.
She never showed up. Search parties found Jennifer three days later,
alive but in a state of severe psychological distress. She
was discovered in a small cave beneath the trestle, a
place searchers swore they had checked multiple times before. She
was physically unharmed except for minor scratches and dehydration, but

(20:25):
she could not or would not speak about what had
happened during those three missing days. Jennifer's tape recorder was
found with her, and while most of the tape was blank,
the last few minutes contained audio that investigators found deeply disturbing.
The recording begins with Jennifer describing the trestle, her voice
professional and calm. Then there's a long pause, followed by

(20:47):
Jennifer saying there's something here. Oh my god, it's real,
It's actually real. The sound of bleeding follows, growing closer,
and Jennifer's breathing becomes rapid and pains. She whispers, it
wants me to follow it. It's gesturing to me. Those eyes.

(21:08):
It knows my name. How does it know my name?
The recording ends with the sound of footsteps or hoofsteps,
and Jennifer's voice, strangely calm now saying I understand. I'll
come with you. Jennifer was institutionalized six months later. Unable
to cope with what she claimed were persistent visions of

(21:30):
the creature calling to her. In her lucid moments, she
would draw pictures, always the same image, the silhouette of
a half man, half goat, standing in a doorway made
of light, beckoning to her. She died by suicide in
nineteen eighty seven, leaving behind a note that said, only
it's waiting for me. It's always been waiting. By the

(21:52):
mid nineteen eighties, the Pope Lick Monster had attracted attention
from the broader cryptozoology community. Researchers who had cut their
teeth on Bigfoot and the loch Ness Monster began to
take interest in Kentucky's hybrid horror. What set the Pope
Lick Monster apart from other cryptids was the consistency of
the reports and the specific, localized nature of the phenomenon.

(22:15):
Doctor Margaret Blackwood, a respected cryptozoologist who had spent years
studying reported Bigfoot sidings in the Pacific Northwest, arrived in
Louisville in nineteen eighty six to conduct a comprehensive study.
Her methodology was rigorous. She interviewed witnesses using standardized questionnaires,
collected physical evidence using proper chain of custody procedures, and

(22:36):
employed then cutting edge night vision equipment in her field investigations.
Her findings, published in the journal Cryptozoology Quarterly, challenged many
assumptions about the creature. She wrote that the entity reported
at Pope Lick Creek does not conform to any known
cryptid archetype. Unlike Bigfoot or similar hominid cryptids, the Pope

(22:58):
Lick Monster appears to be a true hybrid displaying characteristics
of both Homo sapiens and Capra agagris herkus, the domestic goat.
This physiological impossibility suggested three potential explanations. The witnesses are
experiencing a shared delusion or folkloric phenomenon. The creature is
a surviving member or descendant of an unknown species, Or

(23:21):
the entity is something else entirely, perhaps interdimensional or supernatural
in nature. Doctor Blackwood had her own encounter on the
night of September fifteenth, nineteen eighty six, though she was
reluctant to discuss it publicly. According to her field notes
discovered after her death in two thousand and three, she
observed a bipedal figure through her night vision scope at

(23:43):
approximately one hundred meters distance. The figure appeared to be
watching their camp. She estimated its height at two point
two meters and noted that its lower extremities were consistent
with witness descriptions of caprin characteristics. The upper body was humanoid,
but covered in light colored fur or hair. Most disturbing,

(24:03):
she wrote, was that the entity appeared to be vocalizing
in a pattern that suggested language, though no recognizable words.
It seemed to be singing or chanting, and the sound
was affecting her equipment, causing interference patterns she had never
seen before. Her next entry, written in a shakier hand,
noted that the creature had approached to within twenty meters.

(24:26):
She made direct eye contact through the scope. It knew
she was watching it, It knew what she was what
she was doing there. She wrote, with apparent distress, that
it smiled and waved before she decided to pack up
immediately and leave the area. As the twentieth century drew
to a close, the area around Pope Lick Creek faced
unprecedented development. New subdivisions crept closer to the trestle, and

(24:51):
what had once been isolated woodland became crisscrossed with jogging
paths and mountain bike trails. The monster, it seemed, would
have nowhere left to hide. Yet the encounters not only continued,
but took on a new, more disturbing character. In nineteen
ninety three, the newly constructed Blackstone Heights subdivision, built less

(25:11):
than a mile from the trestle, became the site of
a series of encounters that would make national news. Over
the course of three months, seventeen different families reported seeing
the creature in their neighborhood. Unlike the fleeting glimpses of
the past, these sightings were prolonged, deliberate, and suggested an
intelligence that was studying human behavior. The Patterson family's experience

(25:34):
was typical yet terrifying. On the night of July fourth,
while the neighborhood celebrated with fireworks, eight year old Tommy
Patterson looked out his bedroom window to see the creature
standing in their backyard, illuminated by the bursting fireworks overhead.
His mother, Sharon Patterson, recalled, Tommy started screaming, and when

(25:54):
we ran to his room, we saw it too. It
was just standing there, maybe twenty feet from the house,
watching the fireworks like it was curious about them. When
it noticed us at the window, it didn't run. It walked,
walked on those backward bending legs to our back door
and placed one hand on the glass. Its hand was
almost human, but the fingers were too long and the

(26:17):
nails were thick and dark. It looked right at us,
and I swear to God, it was trying to turn
the doorknob. The family called nine one one, but by
the time police arrived, the creature was gone. However, officers
found handprints on the glass door that didn't match any
human proportions. The palm was too wide, the fingers too long.

(26:39):
The prints were photographed, but mysteriously disappeared from evidence before
they could be properly analyzed. With the rise of the
Internet in the mid nineteen nineties, the Pope Licked Monster
found a new avenue for fame or infamy. Early websites
dedicated to paranormal phenomena featured the creature prominently and forms
buzz with theories about its origin and nature. This digital

(27:03):
attention brought a new wave of thrill seekers to the trestle,
many ill prepared for the real dangers of the location,
let alone the possibility of encountering the creature itself. In
nineteen ninety seven, a group of college students from Ohio
State University decided to make a documentary about the Pope
Lick Monster for their film class. They arrived with professional equipment,

(27:26):
a solid plan, and a healthy skepticism about the legend.
What they captured changed their lives. The footage, which was
briefly available on early video sharing sites before being mysteriously removed,
showed the students setting up cameras around the trestle at
dusk at approximately nine pm, their audio equipment began picking

(27:47):
up low frequency sounds that weren't audible to human ears
but showed up clearly on their instruments. Then, at nine
forty seven pm, something extraordinary happened. Film student Marcus wad
Webb later described it in an interview with a paranormal podcast.
We had three cameras running, one at each end of
the trestle and one underneath pointing up. The camera underneath

(28:10):
captured it. First, this shape dropped from the trestle and
landed in a crouch on the rocks below. That's a
ninety foot drop, and it landed like it was nothing.
Then it stood up and we could see it clearly
in the infrared. It was exactly what the witnesses had described,
goat legs, human torso, those horizontal pupils that reflected the

(28:33):
ear light like mirrors. But here's the thing that really
messed us up. It looked directly at each camera in sequence,
like it knew exactly where they were. Then it spoke,
not bleeding, not screaming. It spoken English. It said your
machines won't show them the truth. Then our equipment started

(28:53):
failing one device at a time, like it was controlling them.
The students fled, leaving behind that thousands of dollars in equipment.
When they returned the next day with police escorts, all
their equipment was found neatly stacked at the base of
the trestle, completely destroyed by what appeared to be powerful
electromagnetic interference. The memory cards and tapes had been removed

(29:15):
and were never found. The increasing tourist traffic to the
trestle had tragic consequences. In April nineteen ninety nine, Ron Clay,
a nineteen year old from Indianapolis, attempted to cross the
bridge despite multiple warning signs and local ordinances prohibiting trespassing
on the railroad property. According to his girlfriend, who waited

(29:35):
at the base of the trestle, Ron was about halfway
across when they heard the distinctive bleeding sound that locals
had come to fear. Ron started running, she later told investigators.
But he wasn't running from a train. There was no train.
He was running from something behind him. I could hear
hoofs on the wooden ties getting closer to him. He

(29:55):
was screaming about eyes, glowing eyes. Then he just jumped,
or maybe he was pushed. I couldn't tell. Stay tuned
for more Backwoods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages.
But before he fell, I heard him say, it's not alone.
There's more than one. Ron's death was officially ruled accidental,

(30:19):
another victim of the dangerous trestle, but his girlfriend's testimony,
combined with the testimony of two other witnesses who had
been ghost hunting in the area, suggested something far more sinister.
For the first time, witnesses were reporting multiple creatures, suggesting
that the Pope Lick Monster might not be a solitary entity,
but part of a breeding population. As the year two

(30:41):
thousand approached, an unusual document surfaced in the special collections
of the Louisville Free Public Library, dated eighteen ninety nine
and written in German. It appeared to be the journal
of Friedrich Zimmermann, a Lutheran minister who had served the
German immigrant community near Pope Lick Creek. When translated, the
journal revealed a chilling prophecy. The creature that dwells beneath

(31:04):
the Iron Road bridge is not of this world alone.
It exists between spaces, feeding on fear and growing stronger
with each passing decade. When the century turns twice from
my writing of these words, the barrier will weaken, and
more of its kind will cross through. The goat thing
is merely a herald preparing the way for something far worse.

(31:27):
Paranormal researchers initially dismissed the document as a hoax, but
carbon dating confirmed its age and historical records verified that
Friedrich Zimmermann had indeed existed and served the local Lutheran
community before disappearing mysteriously in nineteen oh one. As midnight
on December thirty first, nineteen ninety nine approached, dozens of

(31:48):
people gathered near the trestle, some to celebrate the new millennium,
others drawn by the prophecy. What happened that night remains controversial,
with different witnesses providing wildly different accounts. However, several facts
are undisputed. At exactly midnight, every electronic device within a
half mile radius of the trestle experienced simultaneous failure. Multiple

(32:12):
witnesses reported seeing not one, but several creatures emerge from
beneath the bridge. The temperature in the area dropped nearly
twenty degrees in less than a minute, and three people
went missing that night and have never been found. Sarah Martinez,
a local journalist who was covering the Millennium celebration, provided
perhaps the most coherent account. When the clock struck midnight,

(32:35):
it was like reality hiccuped. The air became thick, almost syrupy,
and breathing was difficult. Then we saw them, at least
four creatures, maybe more, moving in ways that hurt to watch.
They didn't obey the laws of physics as we understand them.
They would be in one place then another without crossing
the space between, and the sound they made it wasn't

(32:59):
just bleeding. It was like multiple voices speaking in harmony,
but the words were in no language I've ever heard.
The proliferation of camera phones and social media in the
two thousands brought a new dimension to the pope Lick
monster phenomenon. Suddenly, encounters that once would have been dismissed
as tall tales could be documented and shared instantly with

(33:20):
the world. Between two thousand and twenty ten, over two
hundred alleged photos and videos of the creature surfaced online,
though most were quickly debunked as hoaxes or misidentifications. However,
three pieces of footage have never been adequately explained. The
Morrison footage from two thousand and three was captured by

(33:40):
a security camera at a nearby industrial facility. This video
shows a bipedal figure with clearly visible goat like legs
leap over a twelve foot fence. Enhancement of the footage
reveals horizontal pupils and what appears to be fur covered skin.
Digital forensics experts found no evidence of manipul The Chin

(34:01):
photograph from two thousand and seven was taken by a
tourist from Taiwan visiting the trestle. Despite warnings, he captured
a single photograph that shows the creature in shocking detail.
The image shows the entity midleap between the trestles support beams,
its hybrid nature clearly visible. Multiple photography experts have analyzed

(34:22):
the image and found no signs of digital alteration, though
skeptics argue it could be an elaborate costume. Perhaps most
disturbing was the Thompson live stream from two thousand and nine.
Paranormal investigator Jake Thompson conducted a live stream watched by
over three thousand people in real time at timestamp one
forty seven to twenty three, A figure matching the monster's

(34:44):
description appears in frame, approaches Thompson and appears to communicate
with him through a series of bleats and gestures. Thompson,
visibly shaken, says to the camera, it wants me to
tell you something. It says, it says, we're not ready
for what's coming. The stream then cuts off. Thompson was

(35:04):
found the next morning, alive but catatonic, and has not
spoken since. The Accumulation of evidence, both anecdotal and photographic,
finally prompted serious scientific investigation. In two thousand and eight,
a team from the University of Kentucky, funded by a
grant from a paranormal research foundation, conducted the most comprehensive

(35:25):
study of the Pope Lick monster phenomenon to date. Using
ground penetrating radar, the team discovered a series of underground
caverns beneath the trestle that had never been mapped. These
caverns showed signs of habitation, scratches on the walls consistent
with claw marks, collections of bones from various animals, and,
most disturbingly, what appeared to be crude cave paintings depicting

(35:48):
human figures bowing before a goat headed entity. Doctors Rebecca Chen,
the team's lead anthropologist, made a shocking discovery. The cave
paintings appeared to be pre Columbian, possibly dating back over
one thousand years. This suggested that whatever the Pope Lick
Monster was, it or something like it, had been in
this area far longer than European settlement. The indigenous peoples

(36:12):
knew about it, possibly even worshiped it. The team found
evidence of ritual offerings, animal bones arranged in specific patterns,
and what might be human remains, though they were still
waiting for DNA confirmation. The team's biologists, doctors James Harrison,
collected hair and tissue samples from the caves that yielded
bizarre results. The DNA showed markers from both human and

(36:36):
caprin sources, but also sequences they couldn't identify sequences that
didn't match any known terrestrial life form. Either they were
dealing with contaminated samples, an elaborate hoax, or something that
challenged their understanding of biology itself. The year twenty sixteen
marked a dark turning point in the Pope Lick Monster saga.

(36:58):
In a span of just six weeks three people died
at the trestle, under circumstances that suggested the creature had
become more aggressive, more territorial, and more dangerous than ever before.
The first victim was fifteen year old Savannah Bright, who
fell from the trestle in January while reportedly being chased
by something with glowing eyes. Her friend, who survived by

(37:21):
hanging from the bridge's underside, told police that they had
heard the creature's bleeding call just before Savannah fell. The
friend also reported seeing multiple pairs of eyes watching from
the darkness beneath the bridge. Six weeks later, twenty six
year old tourist John Harville was struck and killed by
a train while on the trestle. The train's engineer reported

(37:41):
something unusual to investigators. Just before we hit him, I
saw something else on the tracks, something that shouldn't have
been there. It looked like it was hurting him toward us,
keeping him from getting off the bridge. When I sounded
the horn, this thing just vanished, like it was never there.
The third death, that of nineteen year old Marcus Rodriguez

(38:03):
in early March, was perhaps the most disturbing. Marcus was
found not on or under the trestle, but in one
of the caves discovered by the two thousand and eight expedition.
His body showed signs of having been dragged there after death,
and the cave walls around him were covered in fresh
paintings done in what forensic analysis confirmed was human blood.

(38:24):
The paintings depicted the same goat headed figure, but now
surrounded by multiple smaller figures, as if showing a family
or tribe. In twenty seventeen, paranormal researcher Linda Kowalski proposed
a controversial theory connecting the Pope Licked Monster to other
cryptid phenomena, particularly the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

(38:46):
She noted that both creatures are associated with bridges and
tragic deaths, both appear to be interdimensional or supernatural rather
than purely biological. Both have been linked to prophecies and
warnings about future disasters, and witnesses of both creatures report
similar psychological after effects, including recurring nightmares and a sense

(39:06):
of being marked or watched. Kowalski's research revealed that several
people had encountered both creatures, including a truck driver named
William Barnes, who claimed to have seen the Mothman in
nineteen sixty seven and the Pope Lick Monster in twenty fifteen.
Barnes reported that both creatures had communicated with him telepathically,
warning of coming disasters that later came to pass. They're

(39:30):
connected somehow, Barnes insisted in an interview. Maybe they're the
same kind of thing, just taking different forms, or maybe
they're scouts for something bigger. All I know is when
one of these things looks at you, really looks at you,
you feel like it's seeing into your soul and it's
judging whether humanity is worth saving. On the night of

(39:51):
October thirty first, twenty eighteen, something unprecedented occurred during Louisville's
annual Halloween celebration. Three hundred people reported seeing the Pope
Lick Monster simultaneously in different locations throughout the city. The
sightings began at nine pm and continued until just after midnight,
with witnesses describing the creature appearing on rooftops, in parks,

(40:14):
and even inside buildings. Doctor Patricia Hawkins, a psychiatrist who
interviewed many of the witnesses, found their accounts disturbingly consistent.
This wasn't mass hysteria or suggestion. She concluded. These people,
many of whom had never heard of the Pope Lick
Monster before, provided nearly identical descriptions. More disturbing, many reported

(40:37):
that the creature seemed to be searching for something or
some one. Several witnesses said it appeared to be sniffing
the air, as if tracking ascent. Security footage from various
locations throughout Louisville captured anomaloust figures that night, though most
were too blurry or distant to provide definitive proof. However,
one piece of footage from a downtown parking garage clearly

(40:59):
shows a bipedal goat legged figure walking calmly past cars,
occasionally pausing to peer through windows as if looking for
someone specific. The mass sighting ended as suddenly as it began,
with the last reported encounter at twelve seventeen am. Since then,
researchers have proposed various theories, from interdimensional riffs to mass hallucination,

(41:22):
but none adequately explain how so many people could have
seen the same impossible creature on the same night. As
we moved into the twenty twenties, social media and live
streaming brought new attention to the Pope Lick Monster. TikTok
videos tagged hashtag Pope Lick Monster garnered millions of views,
and YouTube channels dedicated to investigating the creature proliferated. This

(41:46):
attention brought a new generation of thrill seekers to the trestle,
many unprepared for the real dangers they faced. In September
twenty twenty one, popular paranormal YouTuber Derrick Matthews conducted a
highly publicized investigation that would become his last, broadcasting live
to over fifty thousand viewers. Matthews and his team set

(42:07):
up an elaborate array of cameras, motion sensors, and audio
equipment around the trestle. At eleven forty seven PM, their
thermal cameras detected something approaching from the creek bed. What
happened next was witnessed by thousands in real time. The
thermal signature showed a large, bipedal figure moving toward the
team's position. Matthews, excited by what appeared to be genuine evidence,

(42:30):
moved closer to get a better shot. The figure stopped
approximately thirty feet from Matthews and appeared to speak, though
the audio was distorted. Matthew suddenly dropped his camera and
began walking toward the trestle, ignoring his team's calls to stop.
The last clear footage shows Matthews climbing onto the railroad
tracks and walking out onto the bridge. His team followed

(42:53):
their cameras, capturing Matthew's standing in the center of the trestle,
apparently conversing with something off camera. Then, with out warning,
Matthews jumped. His body was never found. The investigation into
Matthew's death revealed something disturbing. Analysis of the audio from
that night, when cleaned and enhanced, revealed that the creature

(43:13):
had been speaking in Matthew's own voice, using phrases from
his earlier videos. It had been mimicking him, learning from
the hundreds of hours of content he had posted online.
Among the various theories proposed to explain the Pope Lick Monster,
the inner dimensional hypothesis has gained significant traction among researchers.

(43:33):
This theory suggests that the creature is not a permanent
resident of our reality, but rather a visitor from a
parallel dimension or alternate Earth that occasionally bleeds into our
world at certain locations, thin places where the barriers between
worlds are weakest. Quantum physicist doctor Michael Thornton of MIT
became interested in the phenomenon after analyzing electromagnetic readings taken

(43:57):
near the trestle. The area around pope Lick Creek shows
persistent anomalies in the electromagnetic field that can't be explained
by any natural or man made sources. These anomalies are
consistent with theoretical models of dimensional rifts or wormholes. If
such rifts exist, they could allow entities from other dimensions
to temporarily manifest in our world. This theory would explain

(44:21):
the creature's ability to appear and disappear without a trace,
its apparent violation of physical laws like surviving impossible falls
and moving faster than should be possible, the electromagnetic interference
associated with sightings, and the variety in reported numbers of creatures,
sometimes one, sometimes many. Supporters of this theory point to

(44:43):
the caves beneath the trestle as a possible permanent dimensional
weak point, suggesting that the bridge itself, with its iron
construction and specific positioning, might act as a kind of
antenna or amplifier for interdimensional energies. Stay tuned for more
Backwoods big Foot stories. We'll be back after these messages.

(45:05):
A more terrestrial, but equally disturbing theory suggests that the
Pope Lick Monster is the result of human genetic experimentation.
Proponents of this theory point to several military and medical
research facilities in the Louisville area during the early to
mid twentieth century. Investigative journalist Robert Chen uncovered documents suggesting

(45:25):
that in the nineteen forties, a classified military project code
named Operation Chimera, was conducted at a now demolished facility
near Fort Knox, just thirty miles from Pope Lick Creek.
The project allegedly involved attempts to create hybrid soldiers by
combining human and animal DNA, inspired by Soviet experiments of

(45:46):
the same era. The documents Chen found, though heavily redacted,
reference unexpected viability in caprin human hybridization trials and mentioned
specimens escaped during transfer. The dates aligned per with the
first reported sightings of the Pope Lick Monster. If this
theory is correct, it raises disturbing questions about whether the

(46:07):
creature is capable of reproduction, whether the increasing sightings are
evidence of a growing population, and whether its apparent intelligence
is due to its partially human genetics. Some paranormal researchers
have proposed that the Pope Lick Monster is a tulpa,
a being created by collective human thought and belief. According
to this theory, the creature began as a legend but

(46:29):
has been given form and substance by the accumulated fear, belief,
and mental energy of thousands of people over decades. Doctor
Sarah Blackridge, a parapsychologist who has studied similar phenomena worldwide,
explains that when enough people believe in something strongly enough,
when they invest it with emotional energy, particularly fear, they

(46:51):
can actually manifest it into physical reality. The Pope Lick
Monster may have started as a story to keep children
away from a dangerous bridge, but over time, fed by
belief and expectation, it became real. This would explain why
encounters have increased rather than decreased over time despite urbanization.
As more people learn about and believe in the creature,

(47:13):
it becomes more solid, more real, more dangerous. Perhaps the
most unsettling theory is that the Pope Lick Monster is
exactly what the earliest legends suggest, an ancient entity that
has existed in the area since before human recorded history.
The pre Columbian cave paintings discovered in two thousand and
eight support this theory, as do Native American oral traditions

(47:37):
that speak of a goat demon that demanded sacrifices. According
to this theory, the creature could be a surviving member
of a pre human race, a demon or supernatural entity
from various religious traditions, an alien being that has been
on earth for millennia, or a nature spirit or elemental
that has been corrupted or angered by human encroachment. Cherokee

(48:00):
Joseph Stonecrow, interviewed in twenty nineteen, shared a tradition passed
down through his family. His grandmother's grandmother knew of the
thing at Pope Lick. They called it the bridge Walker
and said it was older than the Cherokee, older than
the mound builders, maybe older than humans themselves. It was
here when the world was young, and it will be

(48:20):
here when the world is old. The railroad bridge just
gave it a new home. It feeds on fear and
grows stronger with each passing season. As we approach the
present day, the Pope Lick monster phenomenon shows no signs
of abating. If anything, encounters have become more frequent and
more disturbing. The creature or creatures seem to be adapting

(48:43):
to our modern world in ways that suggest an intelligence
that goes beyond mere animal cunning. In March twenty twenty two,
a new type of encounter began being reported. Residents living
near Pope Lick Creek started receiving strange phone calls in
the middle of the night. The calls came from unknown numbers,
and when answered, the recipient would hear only the sound

(49:05):
of bleeding, gradually morphing into what sounded like attempts at
human speech. Voice. Analysis of recordings of these calls revealed
patterns consistent with non human vocal cords attempting to replicate
human language. Lisa Park, who received multiple calls, described her experience.
The first time she thought it was a prank, just

(49:26):
goat sounds, but the third time she swears it was
trying to say her name, not quite getting it right,
but close like Li Sa in a horrible, strangled voice.
The worst part was that the caller ID showed the
call was coming from inside her house, despite the fact
that she was alone at the time. The calls came
in in August twenty twenty three, a group of urban

(49:49):
explorers discovered something unprecedented in the cave system beneath the trestle.
Using drones equipped with high definition cameras, they mapped previously
unexplored sections of the caverns and found what appeared to
be a nursery. The footage, briefly available online before being removed,
showed dozens of small skeletons that appeared to be infant

(50:10):
versions of the creature human goat hybrids that had died
shortly after birth. But more disturbing were the fresh scratches
on the cave walls suggesting current activity. The drone also
captured something else, a large chamber deep in the cave system,
where the walls were covered with writing, not cave paintings,
but actual text in various languages English, Spanish, German, Cherokee

(50:35):
and others, all seeming to be pleased or prayers. One
phrase repeated in multiple languages stood out. It promises to
spare us if we bring others. The year twenty twenty
four has brought a new and terrifying development. Between January
and June seventeen people have gone missing in the Louisville area,
all last seen within a five mile radius of the trestle.

(50:59):
Unlike previous v victims, who were typically found dead, these
individuals have simply vanished without a trace. The missing persons
share certain characteristics that suggest a pattern. All were between
the ages of eighteen and thirty five, All had recently
posted on social media about the Pope Lick Monster, All
had either visited or planned to visit the trestle, and

(51:21):
all left behind cryptic final messages referencing an invitation or
being chosen. Detective Maria Santos of the Louisville Metro Police Department,
leading the investigation, made a chilling discovery. She found journals
in several of the missing person's homes. They all describe
having dreams about the creature, dreams that became more vivid

(51:42):
and frequent over time. In these dreams, the creature supposedly
told them they were selected for ascension and gave them
a specific date and time to come to the trestle.
Each person disappeared on the exact date mentioned in their journal.
More disturbing, still, security footage from various location shows the
missing persons walking calmly toward the trestle area on the

(52:04):
nights they disappeared, often passing multiple opportunities to turn back.
They appear to be in a trance like state, moving
with purpose, but showing no awareness of their surroundings. The
escalating situation has finally attracted federal attention. In July twenty
twenty four, a joint task force comprising members of the FBI, CDC,

(52:27):
and surprisingly the Department of Defense, established a temporary field
office in Louisville. Officially, they're investigating unusual disease vectors in
local wildlife, but locals have reported military vehicles near the
trestle and helicopters flying search patterns over Pope Lick Creek
at night. A leaked document allegedly from the task force

(52:48):
suggests the government has been aware of and monitoring the
Pope Lick monster phenomenon for decades. The document references biological
anomaly PL one, first documented in nine eighteen fifty three,
multiple failed attempts to capture or eliminate the entity, concerns
about potential multiplication events, and a classification level suggesting national

(53:10):
security implications. When questioned about the document, task Force spokesperson
Agent David Wheeler neither confirmed nor denied its authenticity, but
stated We encourage citizens to avoid the Pope Lick Creek area,
particularly the railroad trestle, for their own safety. Any unusual
sighting should be reported immediately to local law enforcement. As

(53:32):
I compile this narrative, the pope Lick Monster remains an
active and evolving threat. The creature that was once dismissed
as local folklore has become something far more complex and terrifying.
Whether it's an interdimensional visitor, a genetic experiment, a manifestation
of collective fear, or something beyond our current understanding, one

(53:54):
thing is certain, it's not going away. Recent development suggests
the phenomenon as escalated towards something significant. The increasing frequency
of sightings, the missing persons, the government involvement all point
to a situation that is spiraling beyond anyone's control. Local
psychics and sensitives report feeling a building tension in the

(54:16):
spiritual atmosphere around Louisville, describing it as similar to the
barometric pressure drop before a massive storm. Doctor Elizabeth Morgan,
who has studied the pope Lick Monster for over two decades,
offers this sobering assessment. We're dealing with something that defies
our understanding of reality. Every time we think we've begun

(54:36):
to understand it, it evolves, adapts, becomes something more. The
creature or creatures seem to be preparing for something. The
question is what, and perhaps more importantly, are we prepared
for whatever's coming. As our narrative draws to a close,
the Pope Lick Monster remains what it has always been,

(54:57):
a mystery wrapped in terror, a legend that refuses to
remain merely legendary. The Trestle still stands, trains still cross
its span, and people still die there, some from the
mundane danger of the bridge itself, others from something far
stranger and more terrible. If you find yourself in Louisville,

(55:17):
you might be tempted to visit the Trestle to see
for yourself if the stories are true. Locals will tell
you not to go, especially not at night. They'll tell
you about the teenagers who never came home, about the
investigators who return changed, about the sounds that echo from
beneath the bridge when the moon is dark. But if
you do go, and may God help you if you

(55:39):
do remember this, the Pope Lick Monster is more than
just a creature. It's a reminder that there are still
places in this world where the normal rules don't apply,
where ancient things wait in the shadows, where the line
between legend and reality blurs until it disappears entirely. Listen
for the bleeding call that sounds almost like laughter, Watch

(56:02):
for the horizontal pupils that reflect light like mirrors. And
if you see a figure on the trestle that moves
on legs that bend the wrong way. Run, Don't look back,
don't try to photograph it, don't try to understand it.
Just run, because the Pope Lick Monster isn't just a
story parents tell to keep children away from a dangerous bridge.

(56:24):
It's not just a local legend or a cryptid for
amateur investigators to chase. It's something older, darker, and more
dangerous than most people can imagine. It's a predator that
has adapted to the modern world while retaining its ancient hunger.
It's a mystery that doesn't want to be solved, and
according to the whispers in the caves, according to the

(56:44):
prophecies and the patterns, according to the government files that
aren't supposed to exist, it's not alone anymore, and it's
planning something the people of Louisville know the truth, even
if they don't speak it aloud. The pope Lick Monster
isn't just a part of their pass It's a part
of their present, and unless something changes, unless someone finds

(57:05):
a way to stop it, or understand it, or appease it,
it will be a part of their future, a future
that grows darker with each passing year, with each missing person,
with each new sighting of those horrible goat eyes gleaming
in the darkness. The trestle stands, the trains run, the
creek flows, and somewhere in the shadows between the railroad ties,

(57:28):
something that should not exist waits for its next victim,
bleeding a call that sounds like a promise of ancient
terrors yet to come. Some bridges should never be crossed,
some monsters should never be sought, and some stories, no
matter how compelling, should serve as warnings rather than invitations.
The poplic Monster is all of these things and more.

(57:50):
It's waiting. It's always been waiting, and according to those
who claim to know, who speak in hushed voices about
dreams and visions and messages written in blood on cave wall,
it won't have to wait much longer di