January 6, 2025 • 54 mins
ScaryCast presents paranormal author Mark Muncy with EerieTravels on the Moon Eyed People
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good evening in line for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the
sun and fun capital of the world. But it's cold tonight,
but we still love Myrtle Beach anyway. You got a
lot of great people here. Great people come here, great
people live here. I've got a ton of friends. I'm
working on a brand new book, believe it or not,
(00:22):
about shoeless Joe Jackson. Yes, there is some new there
are some new discoveries about Shoeless Joe, greatest baseball player
in history. And tonight we've got one of the premier
and I mean premier authors of the paranormal and of
course a good friend of mine and somebody that I
(00:43):
really like I like to interview and I like to
hang out with him, the One and only Mark from
Erie Travels. How are you doing tonight, Mark from Eerie
Travels in Franklin, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
We are doing pretty well out here in the Smokies.
It's a little chilly out here too. Make a nice
word and fire over there. I'm in my cozy den,
so I'm good, so well good.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I mean, I mean I'm in here and it's seventy
six degrees and I cranked it up from seventy one
when I got home. I'll tell you what, it's cold
out there. And I didn't come to Myrtle Beach to
be cold. Now, I'm gonna be honest with you. I
came down here to be warm. But I love it.
And I've got a lot of warm hearted, great friends
(01:26):
down here, and we're so glad to have you here.
Just it's always a privilege to have you at one
of my conferences or because I think the last time
you were at a conference was Georgia Bigfoot.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Is that correct, I believe, so, yeah, that was a
lot of fun. My epilepsy that I have keeps me
from traveling as much as i'd like so I but
I love doing, you know, events with you and your team,
and that was a great That was great fun in Dillar, Georgia,
just a little south.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Of me, right, And we're going to be back, well
a little farther south the Georgia Bigfoot Conference this coming
year or this year in twenty twenty five. I've got
to get used to staying. This year in twenty twenty
five is going to be in Demorest, Georgia, which is
(02:18):
the northernmost outpost of Atlanta and I'm just so excited,
excited to be there. That's at Piedmont University Mark, as
far as I know, and Lord Willing and the Creek
don't rise. Mark Munsey will be there. He's also going
to be at the North Georgia UFO Conference, which is
(02:40):
going to be the eleventh of January at the Fannin
County Food Bank right south of it's just right inside
the Georgia line, YEP from Chattanooga, and it's going to
be a lot of fun. I can't wait to have
you there. And we always we always have fun. We
always get to talk about stuff, so it's always good
(03:03):
to have you there. And I just called you about
this a while back because I said, you know, Mark,
we just haven't talked, so I'd rather us talk on
the radio. And now that we're on Bigfoot radionetwork dot Com,
we're going to be out all over the country. And
(03:24):
I'm so excited that we were picked as one of
the flagship flagship shows for Bigfoot for Bigfoot National Radio.
It's just wonderful and we're glad to have you here.
And tonight we're going to talk about a topic that
I am pretty familiar with. It was two and a
(03:48):
half years ago that I was on Unexplained, starring William Shatner.
That was a real honor to have been selected. There
was a selection process, yep. And don't think they just
put people on there. I mean, I thought it was
so funny. I got a phone call and the lady said, well,
we've decided not to put you on the show. And
(04:11):
the next day I got a phone call from a
fella and she said she wasn't supposed to call you
about that. She was supposed to call you with an
invitation to be on Unexplained. I said, wow, that's great.
That's even better than being told I wasn't selected.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So those are always fun. When I did the Robert
the Dall documentary, I had the producer call me and
said you're not coming on because we've decided to go
with the local. And I was like, good because he's
the guy. And then about twenty minutes later, I got
a call from another producer on the show who said, hey,
(04:47):
we're flying you down and we need you down here
in two weeks. And I'm like, wait a minute. I
thought I wasn't going, and they're like, oh no, no,
he's still doing it. But we're moving you into a
narrator position. I'm like, oh, okay, that's that's that's great.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So anyway, yes, we both had some experiences with international
television shows. But it's all fun. It's all part of
what we do in this paranormal world. We we we
really have a good time. We don't, don't.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
You think more right, It's just it's sharing the stories.
That's the key, it really is.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And tonight we are talking about one of my favorite topics,
the Moon Eyed People of the Appalachian Mountain area. And
I say area because it seems as though they spread
from Alabama to Kentucky. I mean, you know, lots lots
(05:41):
of stories about the Moon Eyed people. Am I correct?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, No, they're they're I mean they're they're primarily they
primarily interacted with the Creek and the Cherokee peoples, but
they their stories go all over and we're we're learning more,
I know, historical it's always nice to say, oh, they
were you know, primitive tribes. They didn't move around. They
(06:08):
moved around with the game and all that, but they
didn't stray too far from their territories and all that.
But now as we've archaeology has progressed, and as sociology
has progressed and anthropologies progressed, we're starting to realize, Okay,
that's stuff we thought about in the thirties and the
fifties and the seventies, even early two thousands, was we
(06:28):
were kind of not looking at it. Right. They had vast,
intricate trading systems and traveled very, very far, and so
their legends and their stories traveled far. But also they
were probably a little more advanced than we gave them
credit for. So and that's you know, but that's that's
the white man mentality.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And I agree with you. There are a lot of
these older tribes and older civilizations that had a lot
more advances in culture and in technology then we originally
gave them credit for.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Certainly quite a bit, quite a bit, And that's part
of this is you know, and that that's that's one
of those things why we're like, okay, wait a minute,
they couldn't have done this stuff. Yeah, yeah, they could have.
And and that's just the way it is with us.
We we we've got to stop stop looking at things
like that. And history isn't fixed as much as we
like to say, Okay, well, we know how this happened,
(07:26):
this happened, this happened. Now we're starting to realize, Hey,
some of that stuff we were taught all our lives
was wrong. And uh so that's where these fun stories
that we're getting talking about the moon eyed people, they
fell into cracks, right, they were literally in the cracks
of history. So, yes, they're a myth, they're a legend. No,
Now we're starting to realize maybe there was more to
(07:49):
these and they did possibly exist.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So they did possibly exist, and they might still exist,
ye from some of the things that I hear, Because
we just need to get down because a lot of
times the moon eyed people are characterized by living in
the caves because they couldn't stand the sunlight.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Right, that's without thus the moon eyed people, you know,
the the the fact that they can't stand bright light,
and they can only in a bright light of a
full moon, was too much for him, so that they
were super.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Sensitive, right they were. And so without any further ado,
I would like for you to you've got a story
in your upcoming book which I cannot wait to get
a copy of that, and tell us the name of
that book, and tell us some of the stories in there,
(08:47):
and then I'm going to tell everybody, you've got a
story about the moon Eyed people, and I think it's
I've read it, it's fantastic. So tell us a little
bit about the upcoming book.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Uh. Well, I do a podcast called Eerie Travels. It's
twice a week on wherever you get your podcasts from,
or on iHeart or on iTunes or on all of them.
But I do that with my co host, Erica Lance,
and our producer Bolake, and and my lovely wife Carrie,
(09:17):
who's been the illustrator on all my books, and she's
become the primary driver since I can't drive anymore. We
decided we wanted to do a book from the podcast,
and we found so much when we moved up here
to the Smokies. There were so many stories and legends
and all that that we decided we had to focus
(09:38):
on it. I had already done Erie Appalachia, which was
already a best seller, so I wanted to dial in
more and hey, I know that book, and so we
dialed in more and that's what became our new book,
which is Erie Travels presents the Dark Side of the
Smoky Mountains and it is a travel guide that goes
(09:58):
from Chattanooga, which is kind of the edge of the
Appalachian Smoky Range. And then you it's a road trip guide,
so you can go all the way through up through
Gatlinburg and goes as far as Asheville and then comes
back around the underside underside of the Smokies. So you
get as much as you can of all the weird, spooky, creepy,
haunted locations, bigfoot, everything you can imagine, all the critters,
(10:24):
all the cryptids. But what we found was a lot,
and I mean tons of epic Cherokee history. And I
don't like to call it a Cherokee lore. I don't
like to call it Cherokee mythology. It is Cherokee history
to them. We spoke to several Cherokee storytellers, and that's
how they kept their history as oral tradition, and to them,
(10:47):
this is the way of the world. This is what
it is. This is not beliefs, this is not anything.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
This is just fact.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And we started delving into that, and of course the
moon eyed people come up quite a bit, and if
you go follow this journey, you'll hit them pretty early
on in the book. And then we tie them back
in again towards the end of the book.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Okay, so tell us, tell us the when, where, and
what about the moon eyed people? Because I want to
hear your story because I know the story that I
told on Unexplained with William Shatner, and I believe that
was June twenty twenty two. It was a marvelous experience
out there, and I found the moon eyed people to
be fascinating. And then we started talking. You said, well,
(11:34):
I've got a chatter about the moon eight people. Ought,
Oh my god, We've got to talk about them, because
I think they are important. They're important part of folklore
and myth I have to call it, yeah, what you
have to call it. No, I understand that I have
to call it the academic term, which is folklore and mythology.
(11:55):
But the moon eyed people are as real as you
and I.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
No one believe this is a true historic thing because
we have They've left things we have. You know. It's
it's like people saying, well, these don't exist because we
didn't have Well no, they did leave ruins, they did
leave history. They they but we just didn't attribute it
(12:20):
to them. Now I think we are. But anyway, let's
describe him. So basically, the Cherokee talk about this race
of people that predated their own people in the Smoky Mountains, right,
and they were, uh, these were not of the other world,
which they do have. They had names for things of
(12:42):
the other world, they like the which are kind of
the higher beings. They had some other supernatural type beings.
But these were basically pale skinned humanoids, sometimes with bearded
faces and large blue or gray eyes. And they were
(13:03):
described as being very very short with small round bodies.
Now this is very different. We know our Native Americans, right,
and you picture the noble the noble Indians, and it's like,
wait a minute, this is not this is not that right,
this is completely different. But they pre date the Cherokee,
(13:24):
which would have been long time, hundreds of years if
not more before Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims and all
that come over. So uh, but that we as we said,
their eyes were so sensitive that you know, full moon
was too strong for him. So they lived in low
(13:45):
lying forts of logs and wood. And they would also
have you know, stone walls, basic little stone forts along
their borders. And now their borders stretched. According to the Cherokee,
they say that the Creek tribe had encounters with them
(14:08):
far to the south. That would be possibly as far
south as Florida, because the Creek we're all the way
down there, and then but all the way up to
the Little Tennessee River in our area where I'm at
here Franklin, Silva area, uh, and then near Cherokee, and
then up to what now is Kentucky. So these forts
(14:34):
of these people have we think been found that there
are all these weird, strange rock walls that the Cherokee
don't claim that, the Creek don't claim that. And they
are in North Georgia, They're in southern North Carolina, south
southwestern North Carolina, and some are even as far up
(14:56):
as southern Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Now now I've got it. I've got stop you and
ask you a question. It's very it's very important to me.
You know that I'm a huge fan of Raven County, Okay, Yeah,
which I call the north north east east corner of Georgia.
It's just right up there. I love it. The people
have been wonderful. We've had the great greatest reception anyone
(15:20):
could ever have for the Georgia Bigfoot Conference. Are any
of these walls in the Raven County area.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, one is very much close to there. I'm trying
to remember the name of it off the top of
my head and it's escaping me. I might have to
do some clackety clock on the old Google to remind
myself of it.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, because if you would, I get up there. And
I've got a number of research partners that I go
see frequently. I just I just I make a lot
of friends.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Wherever I go, like you and you know Will Rodriguez
and you know a lot of people, and I would
love to try to find this because.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I am not I mean, I think I am very
well versed on history in the area of the North
Georgia Mountains up through Franklin and everything, but I have
never heard And that's that's one reason that way that
I love to do these podcasts is because I find
out about things that I need to go check out.
(16:28):
So Mark, could you put that on your to do list?
Please let me know where.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, one of them I was able to remember is
Uh It's called Fort Mountain, the Fort Mountain Stone Wall,
and it's pretty far North Georgia and it's just these
weird walls on top of several mountain peaks, and yeah,
it's uh Alec Mountain I think, and a couple others.
(16:57):
The problem is a couple of them were bulldozed because
they use them for road fill, like always with these things.
That's what happened with a lot of the mounds in Florida.
I got bulldozed to be used as asphalt for for roads.
Later because.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
The Fort Mountain stone.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Walls, yeah, which is probably from around four hundred a d.
We think estimated. But it's hard to estimate a stone
structure because the rocks could be you know, prehistoric. And
but it's it's north of Atlanta. It's almost right at
that corner where North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia all meet.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
So oh you talking about real, real, real near Raven County.
My favorite place role just a little east of it.
So all right, So what I'll do is I will
I will start doing some research, and I'd like to
bring you back when I do, because i'd like to
share this with everybody and with you. Would you like
(18:01):
to do that? Love to love to because I think
it's important and if we don't do our history and
our research, it will become lost. And I know you
agree with that.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Oh no, I agree one hundred percent. And that's that's
what all this is is we're trying to save the history,
these stories, because otherwise it becomes lost history like this,
where is it myth? Is it legend or did it
really happen? It's hard to tell. The first story we
have with this was actually a historian that discovered this
(18:37):
was a botanist, Benjamin Burton, and he was here in
the seventeen nineties, late seventeen nineties, and he talks to
the Cherokee and he said he when they told us
when they first arrived in the country, they were they
found it inhabited by moon eyed people who could not
(18:57):
see in the daytime. And so these the famous quote
these wretches they expelled. And that's always fun, right when
somebody says something.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Like that, these wretches, I mean, what what? What a
very interesting characterization of a group of people.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, now again that's you know, this European botanist, who's
you know, who's an early American settler, is talking to
the Cherokee. And so he may have mistranslated it. Who knows,
that's the problem. But we do know. And according to
the two Cherokee storytellers, I talked to. They said it
(19:38):
was the Creek who went to war with these moon
eyed people, right, okay.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Really because I have heard that it was the Cherokee,
So you're telling me that in your research you have
found that it was the Creeks.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Or And that's exactly it's it depends on who you
talk to, right, and that why it's so tough to pin.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
This down now right that will now, And I'll just
say this. I am doing a lot of research in
northern and central Georgia and I've got some you know.
You know, what's great to have is a very good
friend that is a librarian.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Always good, like the archives are you are your best
friends when you're.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Miss Allah at the Pike County Public Library is just
unbelievable when it comes to finding out information for me.
I mean, I swear I think she does. That is
her full time job instead of whatever. No, she's great,
miss Allah, and she is incredible. In fact, I'm gonna
probably call her tonight and let her know that I
talked about her because it's important that we have librarians
(20:51):
and if any of any of the people listening to
this want to get involved in this research, first of all,
contact me or contact Mark Munsey and we'll all because
this is really kind of what we do, isn't it. Mark?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. I get calls and emails
from people, I mean, besides people listening to my show,
and they want to know, Oh, what can you have
somebody look into this. I've had weird things happen in
my house. Can you get me a paranormal team or something.
I'm like, yeah, I can find one near you that
I know.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Now, it's real funny, and I hope you don't mind
me interrupting you again, but it's so funny. Are you
Are you having paranormal experiences in your house? Well? I
have them all the time. Because mister Mansfield died. He
rehabbed my condo. It is absolutely beautiful, and mister Mansfield died.
(21:46):
And what's funny is whenever I clean up the kitchen,
I love it. Whenever I clean up the kitchen, get
everything in the dishwasher, get that going, you know, wipe
down the counters and do everything. I go sit down
in the living room room and I hear banging around
in the kitchen and mister Mansfield lets me know that
(22:06):
mister Mansfield is here, and to be honest with you,
It makes me feel kind of safe and someone cares
enough to let me know that they're here now. I
don't know if you have You ever had a spirit
that lived in your house?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Oh yeah, several over the years and different homes. The
one here, the former the professor who used to own
the house I'm in now. He apparently likes my book
collection quite a bit. So whenever we go out for
a trip and we're gone for a couple of days,
(22:42):
I come back and my collection of books, well, some
will be laying in front of my wife's bedroom door
where she keeps all of her all the pets stay
while we're gone, and there we have snakes and reptiles
and spider so they don't need a lot of, you know,
tender love and care while we're gone. But when we
(23:04):
come back, they there's a book like laying in the hallway,
and it's always something from somewhere in here in my
den that he's picked up. And I think he was
like trying to show his wife that used to they
used to be heard art and craft room. So we
think he's like picks up one of my books and goes, oh, hey, here, honey,
look at this, but then he hits the door and
(23:25):
the book just drops. Now we've put up motion sensor
cameras and all this to try to find it. It
never is enough movement to show up on camera. It's
like the book teleports there. So that may be what's happening.
We don't know. We just may may need better cameras.
We're working on that, but it's one of those it's
kind of a fun side project. But yeah, that's fun.
(23:47):
You never know what.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
But do you keep track of the books that are
left there?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah. We take pictures of him and we have a
folder of all of them. He's a very big fan
of Robert Howard. He likes my Conan books so and
then he likes my old science fiction and pulps from
the fifties and sixties. Seems to be his favorite thing. Now,
there were no other houses here before.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
This, so, oh my goodness, So you have some science
fiction from the fifties.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Oh yeah, I've got a collection of strange books from
all over eras.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I've got ancient all right, Yes, a couple of times.
I have never visited you, but I would like for
you to ask your wife and get me permission to
come visit you and see some of those books. I
just love I just loved seeing old science fiction books.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah. I grew up as a nerd in West Virginia
in the seventies and books were hard to come science
fiction and fantasy books were hard to come by then,
especially in that area the buckle of the Bible Belt
where that was still you know, dungeons and Dragons was
evil and and all that. So science fiction, oh, we
(25:01):
don't talk about that. So my library was my escape.
Maybe that's why I am the way I am. But
that when I got older and I could afford to
buy my own books, it was okay, I am never
ever going to be without a stack of books a
science fiction fantasy near me. And then of course that
was a short step to paranormal and.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
UFOs and ghosts and all that. So yeah, that's great.
I don't even know where we were in our United people.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I forgot we had a subject. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, I don't even know where we were in that,
but it you know, it's wonderful, Mark, because you and
I don't get to talk about things like this, and
it's just wonderful. And that's what we do on Scary
Cast we just talk to people and we and we
find out things, we find out interests of people, and
I just love it. It's this is why I do it,
(25:55):
because it's just so much fun. And yes, I'm glad
to know that you you like I have. I have
a collection of I've got a bunch of Edgar Casey books.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Attack of those on my paranormal shelf. Yeah, I've got
crazy bookshelves everywhere that's got the Heineck Report and Quests
for the Past and all the all the fun UFO
and Bigfoot and ghost books. Right all my Hansholtzer books
are over here within easy reach. But that's what you
got to have when you're doing research and doing writing.
(26:26):
You've got to have these things here to pull them.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yes, you do, because I do a lot of writing.
I'm on books number seven and eight now, and it's
just like you've got to have your books, your resources.
And may I digress for a minute, can I can
I take this off?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And we want this is fine because audience is okay
with it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Sorry, gang, Well, because here's what happened. I don't know
how many people know this. Four am in the morning
is when you get caught in great fato waves in
your brain. And every morning I normally wake up an
hour or thirty minutes before four am, and I have great,
(27:18):
great thoughts. I'm able to put things together that I
was never able to put together before. And I always
write them down because they always usually mean a project
that I can do, and it's a good thing. And
this morning at four am, I saw a story. I mean,
(27:38):
the Internet loves me. I don't know what it is,
but the Internet just loves me and it gives me
good information. Are you familiar with the movie one of
the greatest movies of all time called Oh starts up?
(28:00):
Oh Gosh, Field of Dreams? You know you know Field
of Dreams?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Did you know The Field of Dreams was actually based
on about a five page short story.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Right right?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Are you aware of that?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah? And then he wrote a great book that I love.
Ray Kinsella his name of the author he wrote, Right,
he wrote a great book called The Iowa Baseball Confederacy.
If you want a wild read, try that one sometime.
It's about a lost baseball team in Iowa. The play
(28:41):
a crazy game and this guy wakes up one day
and he has all the stats in his head. He
can't remember why, and he doesn't know why, and it
involves time travel and Babe Ruth and everything. It's it's
just as great as Field of Dreams. I think it
would have made a better movie.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So you're talking about the Eye what Baseball Confederacy? Yeah, well,
I you know. And it's so funny that you give
me that name of that book, because for some reason,
in the last twenty four hours, I am being fed
the greatest information in history. Because, as we all know,
(29:19):
Field of Dreams. What's it about. It's about shoeless Joe Jackson. Right, well,
I have two major major announcements to make. First of all,
shoeless Joe Jackson came from Greenville, South Carolina. You're aware
of that, right, right right, And the head sports writer
(29:43):
for the Greenville News was my friend Jack Thompson's father,
Jack Thompson being the dean emeritus of all the photographers
in Myrtle Beach. He did the photos when he was
fourteen years old. He did the photos of Hurricane Hazel.
(30:04):
He he was the greatestph it's still the greatest photographer
in this absolute, absolutely unbelievable paradise that we call Myrtle Beach. Well,
Jack Thompson has hundreds of photos unpublished about Shoeless Joe.
(30:28):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Did not know that?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
And it gets even better. So we've got a whole
bunch of stories. The original story that most people don't
know about Shoeless Joe Jackson travels to Iowa City is
now public domain. And so the first thing that I
did this morning, you know, I went back to sleep
(30:52):
about four thirty and about nine o'clock I called up
Jack Thompson, who is one of my dearest and best
friends here in Myrtle Beach. I said, Jack, you won't
believe what I found out. And I told him about
that story being in public domain, and I said, and
you've got all these pictures, and what we need to
do is we need to write a book. He said, Stamy,
we've got to do this. When can we meet? I said, look,
(31:14):
we'll meet Friday for lunch. Love it. Of course I
get to pay for lunch, but I don't care. I
love Jack Thompson. Jack Thompson's one of my favorite, one
of my favorite friends and all of Myrtle Beach. He's
the best in the world. So we're going to talk
about this brand new book called Shoelace Joe Memories, and
(31:36):
it's about things that people don't know about shoelas Joe.
And then comes the other big kicker. Are you ready?
If you think this is big news, can I tell
you the real big news?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I'm sitting. I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Okay. You know who? Oh? What's his name? God?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Who is who?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Was in Field of Dreams? Kevin Costner?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Kevin and Kevin Costner.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Kevin Costner was in was in Field of Dreams? He
was the star. He brought it to life. Oh, I
know Kevin Costner. Did you know that I did not.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
I know Kevin Costner very well because he and I
are in the same college fraternity. And I mean it's like, like,
how in the world could you have such a connection.
And so I've already put in a call to my
fraternities executive director to get his phone number. He has
(32:37):
instructed them if anyone calls and says I want Kevin
Costner's phone number, he wants them to give it to it.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
So I'm gonna call him and I'm gonna talk to
him about this whole thing. And I think we've got
a slam dunk home run of the greatest baseball player
in history, which is shoeless Joe Jackson. We've got this
great story that most people have never read, and it's
not very long. I mean, it's like I love short stories.
(33:04):
I love Ambrose Beard's and the Problem with Crossing a
Field just one of the greatest, one of the greatest
paranormal stories in history. Yes, I love short stories because
they get your mind going and it doesn't take hours
upon hours to get it to happen. So I just
love it. So We've got all the elements of a
(33:25):
great of a great book that I am gonna put together,
and I'm gonna be meeting with Jack Thompson, the great
photographer from Myrtle Beach this Friday, which is gonna be tomorrow,
I guess right, yep, And we're gonna have a great time.
And of course I like to let you know what's
going on. I'll let you know how it's going. But
you know, if you listen to your voice, your internal voice,
(33:49):
it will tell you what to do. It will tell
you the great things that you must go accomplish, don't
you agree.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, you may not be where you thought you needed
to be, but to be where you really needed to be.
That's always the case.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah. So anyway, it's just I didn't even know I
was going to tell that story tonight on the show.
But yeah, it's going to be grand and we'll we'll
let everybody know about it, and so you know that.
That's all I've got to say. But anyway, we've got
a great story here with the one and only Moon
Eyed people. So tell us a little bit more about
(34:25):
them and about their history.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Well, I think one of the big first times they
get mentioned John Severe of which Severeville is named after. Right,
He's one of the first governor of Tennessee. And I
think he went to some stone fort in North Georgia,
probably Fort Mountain now that I realize it, and he
(34:48):
met a ninety year old Cherokee chief named Akanasta, who
told him that he had this story about from his ancestors.
I talked about this fort being built by white men
from across the Great Water, and that they had crossed
the Great Water and landed near the mouth of the
(35:10):
Alabama River, which is probably down near Mobile, and that
that that's where they came from, and then they moved
up here, built these forts, and our people traded with
them and then they went to war, and you know, well,
it's that's the first time it's like documented, So that's
(35:30):
got to be like seventeen eighty seventeen nineties as well,
so that's probably the second time it's documented. And then
that blends in with this wonderful Welsh myth. Now this
is a myth, but again we may find out that
this may have more to it than we thought.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Well, I will say I will jump in there and
say I don't believe this is a myth. I believe
that I believe this story. So please continue listen, let
everybody know this grand story about Wales and the New World.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
And forgive my Welsh pronouncings of the words, because I
don't speak Welsh. Prince Matdic ab owayne Gwynedd, which I
may have totally butchered that. Apparently he was a Welsh
explorer and he was a prince, and so in eleven
seventy a d he was young, Prince Mattic was had
(36:31):
some there was internal conflict over in Wales, and he says,
you know what, I'm taking a bunch of people. We're
getting out of dodge and he sets sail westward and
that's the last we hear of him, right, But they're
saying that he traveled across the ocean, and his legend
(36:57):
kind of blends this Welsh ledgend and of him coming
to another land. What if it was the New World,
what if it was North America. He would predate Columbus,
he would predate leif Erickson, he would pre date predate everybody.
And then the reason that we kind of have some
truth to this that this may be true is there
(37:20):
are early settlements, early settlers from Europe coming in to
talk to the indigenous peoples and of our land. And
they're able to speak Welsh, and I will speak English
and I will speak any of this other stuff. So uh,
they they these Welsh Indians, they called them, and it
(37:44):
helped them make some of the initial communications with the tribes.
And now the Ohio Valley area of the Cherokee, which
is way far north, they speak of the Nay of
the moon eyed people, and they blink them with the Builders,
which would date them to about five hundred BC. And
(38:07):
we don't really know much about the Mound Builders, even
as much as we do know you know smoke, you know,
Serpent Mound and all that stuff. There's no idea where
these these tribes went. They just disappeared. They and that's
why the story of the Creek or the Cherokee chasing
them off or driving them into the caves or battling
(38:29):
with them is something. But that whole Prince Mattic story
is just it's interesting to me because of all those
early encounters with settlers and they were speaking with these
blue eyed natives. Which where would the blue eyes have
come from? Because the indigenous cultures don't have that, And
(38:51):
unless it was Welsh or British and they'd intermingled and intermarried,
who knows. It's It's just it's an one of those
fun little ticks when you're going down the rabbit trail
of the moon eyed people.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I mean, they have an amazing history and they have
things that I really, I really believe and what we
need to do and I will do. I can do this.
I know a couple of really good remote viewers, and
I believe the remote viewers are just as good as
(39:27):
a as a written story. I mean, they they kind
of know what's going on. So let me see if
I can get a remote viewer or two and let's
really get you know, circle back together in a couple
of months, and let's see what we can do to
get information about the moon Eyed people, about the Welsh descendants,
(39:50):
and about just history in general in this southeast. Because
I think it's fascinating, don't you.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Oh no, I love it, and I've got I've got
mention one more theory. But to go with this theory,
you gotta go to a place called Murphy, North Carolina.
It's a little west of me. It's right on that
Tennessee border, right, and if you go there, there's the chair.
It's Cherokee County, which is funny. The city of Cherokee
(40:20):
is not in Jerokee County, but you go to Cherokee
County Historical Museum and they have tons of Cherokee artifacts, right,
just huge scope of artifacts. It's even more than the
tout of Cherokee, which is saying something. But in their
basement where they have a lot of more artifacts, they
(40:43):
have probably the most famous effigy of the moon eyed people.
It's about a three foot tall sculpture and if you
look closely at it, right, you just kind of look
at this sculpture, it looks like what we would call
the grays, right, Okay, it it makes you ask again,
(41:11):
what we're the moonight people? Wait a minute. They were
not spirits, they're not immortals, they're not monsters. They were people,
short bearded. Sometimes they created maybe the pre Columbian ruins here,
you know, driven away by the creek and the Cherokee
being chased into the mountains, being chased deep into the earth.
(41:37):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
And as far as we know, they may still be there.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah. Yeah, And that's one of my favorite things. I
put it in Erie, Appalachia. I got a letter from
a family that said, hey, we have some weird things
we heard you're researching this area. We have some weird
stories we'd like you to look into. This is a
let letters that were sent from My grandmother kept every
(42:04):
letter that was sent to her, and we don't have
what she sent out of course, but we have her
side of these conversations and there's some weird ones. We'd
like you to look at it. And I came over
there and the family, you know, have all these letters
and they're from this one cousin who lived in Olympia, Kentucky,
worked for the Rose Run Iron mine, and and he
(42:29):
was like, we had, you know, and the letter was,
you know, a typical family letter. Oh, you know, coming
to the reunion, can't wait to see y'all, blahlah blah
blah blah. And one of the things done the bottom
was a weird thing happened to mine. We blasted open
a new wall to get you know, a new vein,
and there was a dead bear and it was being
(42:52):
eaten by these strange people that had long, scraggly hair,
long claws, and huge eyes. And he said they looked
like toady people and and they're eating the eating the bear.
All the men are scared. We're not gonna we don't
(43:14):
we're not gonna work until they do something about it.
And then the next letter is you know, I guess
it's from a week or so later, and he's like, hey,
just wanted to write in things are good. The mine
owner bought gunmen to come in and kill the bears
and to kill the the bogey men, and uh, and
(43:36):
all is well and we're going back to work. I'll
see you at the reunion.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And it's like, what are these bogey men? What are
these things? And that's why they had me come out
to do this. So I look at the dates, I
look at the things I go. I started digging up
rosarun mine. It had a terrible disaster about a year later,
where a bunch of men died in a strange explosion,
(44:03):
probably looking for another vein. But what I did find
was in the Lexington, Kentucky Herald that week. In between
the two letters, there was an ad hiring gunmen to
kill bears in Olympia, Kentucky. Didn't say roseorn, mind, but
it was pretty dang close.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Wow. Now I am looking at the table of contents
of your book, Eerie Appalatia. Where would these letters be there?
Speaker 2 (44:34):
It's in the section on Huntington Bogeyman, because that was
they were called the Huntingdon Bogeyman, but it actually was Olympia, Kentucky.
The letters came from Huntington. Okay, it's in the mountain.
There's a whole section at the end of the book
(44:54):
called uh oh Holler Monsters. So because that's one of
my favorite things, is all these little holler stories.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, the Beljamin Olynthia, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
That's it. That's it, Okay, I will And there's a
wonderful illustration there that my wife drew based on their descriptions.
From the letters. It made him sound like a lot
like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings, right, but
this predates that by quite a bit. And maybe that's
(45:25):
the Moon Eyed people. If you get driven down into
the mines and you got big bulging eyes, maybe that's
what happened to the Moon Eyed people.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
You know, it's so funny. I actually opened this book
when I started looking. I opened this book directly to
that page. Oh nice, kind of interesting. All right, well,
I will do some research and I think that's marvelous
and thanks a.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Lot do together until I started writing a new book,
So yeah, thought about the Moon Eight People with that,
So yeah, well that's great.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
And now when is your new book coming out? Uh?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
It's uh, should be out early in the pre order
should be up shortly. We're finishing up the cover. As
soon as we have that, then we'll be able to
put the pre orders up. It's in final edits currently.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
They're working on putting all the pictures in and all,
and Carrie's finishing up final touches on some of the illustrations.
It should be up soon though. It should be up
for pre order. All our other ones have been from
History Press. This will be from Four Horsemen Publishing, so
our first one with our new publisher.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
So okay, great, well, just let let us know when
it's up and we'll certainly post it on scarycast dot com.
I want everyone to get a copy of it. I
think it's important historical research and it's fun.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yeah. I like to have fun with the stories. And
this one's kind of nice because Eric and my co
host gets to chime in like the you know, the
the average citizen. So when I get a little too
historical or a little too down a rabbit hole, she
can pull us back to the main story like she
does on our podcast, which is perfect.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Oh that's great. Yeah, well, you know, you know Mark,
this stuff is extremely extremely interesting.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Oh, and Cherokee are there. There's history and and all
their stuff, Like the Ninaway are basically kind of like
are they elves, are they fairies? Are they angels? They
are there golden people. They help them and they come
when they dance, and they protect them and they've done
(47:39):
crazy things. There's a mound in our town of Franklin
called nick Wassei and this used to be a home
of thousands of Cherokee before Rutherford. John Rutherford and the
Rutherford Trace comes through and chases them all out, which
predates Trail of Tears and all that predates our country
(48:00):
technically and all that. So, but that mound supposedly protected everybody,
and they were able to hide there when they were
actually light on defenses. Something protected them, like apparently again
magical army appeared and protected them. That would have been
(48:21):
the Ninaah. But then there's also you've got the opposites.
You've got the evils that plagued them as well, and
that's where you get the one that they all fear.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
But they killed her, but she might still be there.
And that Spearfinger, h Spearfinger. Now we had Spearfinger on
the poster of the Cherokee Comic Con that we did
about five years ago. Tell Us, can you tell us
a little bit about the legend of Spearfinger.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, Spearfinger was a either cast out of the Ninaa
or some of her basically immortal being that would eat
the livers of people. She had this She was made
of stone, so they called her the Stone Lady. And
her index finger, right index finger looked like a spear
(49:15):
was sharpened like a spear point, and that's what she
would use. She would, she could transform herself, make her
look very young and pretty, or old chrome, whatever it
takes to lure somebody close. And she's the come child,
let me, let me raise your hair, and then she'll
but she gets close, she'll stick that finger down your
neck and go all the way down to your liver,
(49:38):
and she ate your livers. And you kind of need
that to stay alive. But she did this for a
long time, and then the Cherokee finally got a smart
medicine man to figure out, all right, we need to
kill this thing, and he set a trap for her,
and according to the the storytellers, she falls right into
(49:59):
the trap. But they can't kill her. She's made of stone.
They're shooting at her with arrows, they pierced her with spears, nothing,
they can't break her skin. So a chickadee lands near
them and says, hey, you know, you know, starts making
a noise and it sounds like the heart, the heart.
So they start shooting at her heart, but it's not
working because her heart's stone. But then a cardinal lands
(50:24):
or and and it tells her, tells him it's the hand,
So it's her heart's in her hand, and so that's
when they realize she's hiding her hand, that spear finger.
She's keeping her hands clasped, so they finally are able
to strike her dead by hitting her hand. And supposedly
she's gone, but people still say her spirit is out
(50:48):
there wandering and singing her liver, reading song and trying
to find people. That's She's a crazy fun story that
is also a little terrifying when you really look in it.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Yeah, it sounds like it, And I mean, thank you
for that extra story, because we really appreciate this, all
these Cherokee legends and we know I think you and
I both know this. They have basis in fact, don't they.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Yeah, I mean that's one of the legends. Is is
that because the well stories? Is that the because the
little tit mouse told the wrong thing, they they branded
it a liar, so the gods made their tongue short
(51:39):
and that's why it has such a small tongue. And
then the cardinal because it was the truth sayer. If
you see one before you go on a trip, that's
supposed to be good luck. And we've still kept that
legend into our lives, you know, because they're the truth tellers.
They're the they're the fortune. That's why it's good luck
to see a cardinal before you go on a trip.
(52:00):
Translated that into an apple tradition. So that's that's great
part of the fun of these things.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Well, Mark, definitely keep on jenming up these stories. They're wonderful.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Oh yeah, I'm getting more and more or we've got
a second book in the works already. H This will
be more West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio area, Ohio Valley, just
because that was when I was following the moon eyed people.
I started coming up with a lot more stuff up
there than Mofman uh and uh, so we'll be doing
a lot more of that, and then I'll probably head
(52:36):
back to my home, my old home state of Florida
for a little while. And uh but well there are
more stories to tell down there.
Speaker 1 (52:43):
Too, So right, Well, that's great, and Mark, it's been
a real pleasure having you on here. It's been a
lot of fun. You have great stories, and we look
forward to you having you at the North Georgia UFO
conference on h on the eleventh of j We look
very much forward to having you at the Georgia Bigfoot Conference,
(53:06):
which is going to be the ninth and the tenth of.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
February.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
I'm in March, and we really we can't wait to
have you there there with your books. You can come
talk to Mark, you can share stories with him, and
I think it will be great. So I just wanted
to let you know we really appreciate having you on
the show and we've had a lot of fun. And
will you come back in a while when we get
(53:34):
some some more material.
Speaker 2 (53:36):
Of course, of course, And if you want to follow me,
you can follow me at Eerie Travels dot com. That
links to our podcast, that links to all my other books,
that links to everything and some of the documentaries I've
been on, some of the TV shows I've been on,
and you can you know, follow us there.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
Great. Well, look, thanks a lot, it's been absolutely wonderful.
I'll do the quick call around as soon as we're done.
And I wanted to say thank you for being here
with us on Scary Cast twenty twenty five and moving
forward and you know we're in our ninth year. Can
you believe that?
Speaker 2 (54:13):
That's awesome. I hope some day to be up there
with you. I'll definitely be here for the tenth.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Well, good, well, we definitely want you here many many
more times because it's a lot of fun. So thanks
a lot thanks to everybody who listened in tonight, and
we'll talk to you soon on the One and the
Only Scary cast. Have a good one, Mark, take care,
we'll see you on the other side.
Good evening in line for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the
sun and fun capital of the world. But it's cold tonight,
but we still love Myrtle Beach anyway. You got a
lot of great people here. Great people come here, great
people live here. I've got a ton of friends. I'm
working on a brand new book, believe it or not,
(00:22):
about shoeless Joe Jackson. Yes, there is some new there
are some new discoveries about Shoeless Joe, greatest baseball player
in history. And tonight we've got one of the premier
and I mean premier authors of the paranormal and of
course a good friend of mine and somebody that I
(00:43):
really like I like to interview and I like to
hang out with him, the One and only Mark from
Erie Travels. How are you doing tonight, Mark from Eerie
Travels in Franklin, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
We are doing pretty well out here in the Smokies.
It's a little chilly out here too. Make a nice
word and fire over there. I'm in my cozy den,
so I'm good, so well good.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I mean, I mean I'm in here and it's seventy
six degrees and I cranked it up from seventy one
when I got home. I'll tell you what, it's cold
out there. And I didn't come to Myrtle Beach to
be cold. Now, I'm gonna be honest with you. I
came down here to be warm. But I love it.
And I've got a lot of warm hearted, great friends
(01:26):
down here, and we're so glad to have you here.
Just it's always a privilege to have you at one
of my conferences or because I think the last time
you were at a conference was Georgia Bigfoot.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Is that correct, I believe, so, yeah, that was a
lot of fun. My epilepsy that I have keeps me
from traveling as much as i'd like so I but
I love doing, you know, events with you and your team,
and that was a great That was great fun in Dillar, Georgia,
just a little south.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Of me, right, And we're going to be back, well
a little farther south the Georgia Bigfoot Conference this coming
year or this year in twenty twenty five. I've got
to get used to staying. This year in twenty twenty
five is going to be in Demorest, Georgia, which is
(02:18):
the northernmost outpost of Atlanta and I'm just so excited,
excited to be there. That's at Piedmont University Mark, as
far as I know, and Lord Willing and the Creek
don't rise. Mark Munsey will be there. He's also going
to be at the North Georgia UFO Conference, which is
(02:40):
going to be the eleventh of January at the Fannin
County Food Bank right south of it's just right inside
the Georgia line, YEP from Chattanooga, and it's going to
be a lot of fun. I can't wait to have
you there. And we always we always have fun. We
always get to talk about stuff, so it's always good
(03:03):
to have you there. And I just called you about
this a while back because I said, you know, Mark,
we just haven't talked, so I'd rather us talk on
the radio. And now that we're on Bigfoot radionetwork dot Com,
we're going to be out all over the country. And
(03:24):
I'm so excited that we were picked as one of
the flagship flagship shows for Bigfoot for Bigfoot National Radio.
It's just wonderful and we're glad to have you here.
And tonight we're going to talk about a topic that
I am pretty familiar with. It was two and a
(03:48):
half years ago that I was on Unexplained, starring William Shatner.
That was a real honor to have been selected. There
was a selection process, yep. And don't think they just
put people on there. I mean, I thought it was
so funny. I got a phone call and the lady said, well,
we've decided not to put you on the show. And
(04:11):
the next day I got a phone call from a
fella and she said she wasn't supposed to call you
about that. She was supposed to call you with an
invitation to be on Unexplained. I said, wow, that's great.
That's even better than being told I wasn't selected.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So those are always fun. When I did the Robert
the Dall documentary, I had the producer call me and
said you're not coming on because we've decided to go
with the local. And I was like, good because he's
the guy. And then about twenty minutes later, I got
a call from another producer on the show who said, hey,
(04:47):
we're flying you down and we need you down here
in two weeks. And I'm like, wait a minute. I
thought I wasn't going, and they're like, oh no, no,
he's still doing it. But we're moving you into a
narrator position. I'm like, oh, okay, that's that's that's great.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So anyway, yes, we both had some experiences with international
television shows. But it's all fun. It's all part of
what we do in this paranormal world. We we we
really have a good time. We don't, don't.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
You think more right, It's just it's sharing the stories.
That's the key, it really is.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And tonight we are talking about one of my favorite topics,
the Moon Eyed People of the Appalachian Mountain area. And
I say area because it seems as though they spread
from Alabama to Kentucky. I mean, you know, lots lots
(05:41):
of stories about the Moon Eyed people. Am I correct?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, No, they're they're I mean they're they're primarily they
primarily interacted with the Creek and the Cherokee peoples, but
they their stories go all over and we're we're learning more,
I know, historical it's always nice to say, oh, they
were you know, primitive tribes. They didn't move around. They
(06:08):
moved around with the game and all that, but they
didn't stray too far from their territories and all that.
But now as we've archaeology has progressed, and as sociology
has progressed and anthropologies progressed, we're starting to realize, Okay,
that's stuff we thought about in the thirties and the
fifties and the seventies, even early two thousands, was we
(06:28):
were kind of not looking at it. Right. They had vast,
intricate trading systems and traveled very, very far, and so
their legends and their stories traveled far. But also they
were probably a little more advanced than we gave them
credit for. So and that's you know, but that's that's
the white man mentality.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And I agree with you. There are a lot of
these older tribes and older civilizations that had a lot
more advances in culture and in technology then we originally
gave them credit for.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Certainly quite a bit, quite a bit, And that's part
of this is you know, and that that's that's one
of those things why we're like, okay, wait a minute,
they couldn't have done this stuff. Yeah, yeah, they could have.
And and that's just the way it is with us.
We we we've got to stop stop looking at things
like that. And history isn't fixed as much as we
like to say, Okay, well, we know how this happened,
(07:26):
this happened, this happened. Now we're starting to realize, Hey,
some of that stuff we were taught all our lives
was wrong. And uh so that's where these fun stories
that we're getting talking about the moon eyed people, they
fell into cracks, right, they were literally in the cracks
of history. So, yes, they're a myth, they're a legend. No,
Now we're starting to realize maybe there was more to
(07:49):
these and they did possibly exist.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So they did possibly exist, and they might still exist,
ye from some of the things that I hear, Because
we just need to get down because a lot of
times the moon eyed people are characterized by living in
the caves because they couldn't stand the sunlight.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Right, that's without thus the moon eyed people, you know,
the the the fact that they can't stand bright light,
and they can only in a bright light of a
full moon, was too much for him, so that they
were super.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Sensitive, right they were. And so without any further ado,
I would like for you to you've got a story
in your upcoming book which I cannot wait to get
a copy of that, and tell us the name of
that book, and tell us some of the stories in there,
(08:47):
and then I'm going to tell everybody, you've got a
story about the moon Eyed people, and I think it's
I've read it, it's fantastic. So tell us a little
bit about the upcoming book.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Uh. Well, I do a podcast called Eerie Travels. It's
twice a week on wherever you get your podcasts from,
or on iHeart or on iTunes or on all of them.
But I do that with my co host, Erica Lance,
and our producer Bolake, and and my lovely wife Carrie,
(09:17):
who's been the illustrator on all my books, and she's
become the primary driver since I can't drive anymore. We
decided we wanted to do a book from the podcast,
and we found so much when we moved up here
to the Smokies. There were so many stories and legends
and all that that we decided we had to focus
(09:38):
on it. I had already done Erie Appalachia, which was
already a best seller, so I wanted to dial in
more and hey, I know that book, and so we
dialed in more and that's what became our new book,
which is Erie Travels presents the Dark Side of the
Smoky Mountains and it is a travel guide that goes
(09:58):
from Chattanooga, which is kind of the edge of the
Appalachian Smoky Range. And then you it's a road trip guide,
so you can go all the way through up through
Gatlinburg and goes as far as Asheville and then comes
back around the underside underside of the Smokies. So you
get as much as you can of all the weird, spooky, creepy,
haunted locations, bigfoot, everything you can imagine, all the critters,
(10:24):
all the cryptids. But what we found was a lot,
and I mean tons of epic Cherokee history. And I
don't like to call it a Cherokee lore. I don't
like to call it Cherokee mythology. It is Cherokee history
to them. We spoke to several Cherokee storytellers, and that's
how they kept their history as oral tradition, and to them,
(10:47):
this is the way of the world. This is what
it is. This is not beliefs, this is not anything.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
This is just fact.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And we started delving into that, and of course the
moon eyed people come up quite a bit, and if
you go follow this journey, you'll hit them pretty early
on in the book. And then we tie them back
in again towards the end of the book.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Okay, so tell us, tell us the when, where, and
what about the moon eyed people? Because I want to
hear your story because I know the story that I
told on Unexplained with William Shatner, and I believe that
was June twenty twenty two. It was a marvelous experience
out there, and I found the moon eyed people to
be fascinating. And then we started talking. You said, well,
(11:34):
I've got a chatter about the moon eight people. Ought,
Oh my god, We've got to talk about them, because
I think they are important. They're important part of folklore
and myth I have to call it, yeah, what you
have to call it. No, I understand that I have
to call it the academic term, which is folklore and mythology.
(11:55):
But the moon eyed people are as real as you
and I.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
No one believe this is a true historic thing because
we have They've left things we have. You know. It's
it's like people saying, well, these don't exist because we
didn't have Well no, they did leave ruins, they did
leave history. They they but we just didn't attribute it
(12:20):
to them. Now I think we are. But anyway, let's
describe him. So basically, the Cherokee talk about this race
of people that predated their own people in the Smoky Mountains, right,
and they were, uh, these were not of the other world,
which they do have. They had names for things of
(12:42):
the other world, they like the which are kind of
the higher beings. They had some other supernatural type beings.
But these were basically pale skinned humanoids, sometimes with bearded
faces and large blue or gray eyes. And they were
(13:03):
described as being very very short with small round bodies.
Now this is very different. We know our Native Americans, right,
and you picture the noble the noble Indians, and it's like,
wait a minute, this is not this is not that right,
this is completely different. But they pre date the Cherokee,
(13:24):
which would have been long time, hundreds of years if
not more before Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims and all
that come over. So uh, but that we as we said,
their eyes were so sensitive that you know, full moon
was too strong for him. So they lived in low
(13:45):
lying forts of logs and wood. And they would also
have you know, stone walls, basic little stone forts along
their borders. And now their borders stretched. According to the Cherokee,
they say that the Creek tribe had encounters with them
(14:08):
far to the south. That would be possibly as far
south as Florida, because the Creek we're all the way
down there, and then but all the way up to
the Little Tennessee River in our area where I'm at
here Franklin, Silva area, uh, and then near Cherokee, and
then up to what now is Kentucky. So these forts
(14:34):
of these people have we think been found that there
are all these weird, strange rock walls that the Cherokee
don't claim that, the Creek don't claim that. And they
are in North Georgia, They're in southern North Carolina, south
southwestern North Carolina, and some are even as far up
(14:56):
as southern Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Now now I've got it. I've got stop you and
ask you a question. It's very it's very important to me.
You know that I'm a huge fan of Raven County, Okay, Yeah,
which I call the north north east east corner of Georgia.
It's just right up there. I love it. The people
have been wonderful. We've had the great greatest reception anyone
(15:20):
could ever have for the Georgia Bigfoot Conference. Are any
of these walls in the Raven County area.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, one is very much close to there. I'm trying
to remember the name of it off the top of
my head and it's escaping me. I might have to
do some clackety clock on the old Google to remind
myself of it.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, because if you would, I get up there. And
I've got a number of research partners that I go
see frequently. I just I just I make a lot
of friends.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Wherever I go, like you and you know Will Rodriguez
and you know a lot of people, and I would
love to try to find this because.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I am not I mean, I think I am very
well versed on history in the area of the North
Georgia Mountains up through Franklin and everything, but I have
never heard And that's that's one reason that way that
I love to do these podcasts is because I find
out about things that I need to go check out.
(16:28):
So Mark, could you put that on your to do list?
Please let me know where.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, one of them I was able to remember is
Uh It's called Fort Mountain, the Fort Mountain Stone Wall,
and it's pretty far North Georgia and it's just these
weird walls on top of several mountain peaks, and yeah,
it's uh Alec Mountain I think, and a couple others.
(16:57):
The problem is a couple of them were bulldozed because
they use them for road fill, like always with these things.
That's what happened with a lot of the mounds in Florida.
I got bulldozed to be used as asphalt for for roads.
Later because.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
The Fort Mountain stone.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Walls, yeah, which is probably from around four hundred a d.
We think estimated. But it's hard to estimate a stone
structure because the rocks could be you know, prehistoric. And
but it's it's north of Atlanta. It's almost right at
that corner where North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia all meet.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
So oh you talking about real, real, real near Raven County.
My favorite place role just a little east of it.
So all right, So what I'll do is I will
I will start doing some research, and I'd like to
bring you back when I do, because i'd like to
share this with everybody and with you. Would you like
(18:01):
to do that? Love to love to because I think
it's important and if we don't do our history and
our research, it will become lost. And I know you
agree with that.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Oh no, I agree one hundred percent. And that's that's
what all this is is we're trying to save the history,
these stories, because otherwise it becomes lost history like this,
where is it myth? Is it legend or did it
really happen? It's hard to tell. The first story we
have with this was actually a historian that discovered this
(18:37):
was a botanist, Benjamin Burton, and he was here in
the seventeen nineties, late seventeen nineties, and he talks to
the Cherokee and he said he when they told us
when they first arrived in the country, they were they
found it inhabited by moon eyed people who could not
(18:57):
see in the daytime. And so these the famous quote
these wretches they expelled. And that's always fun, right when
somebody says something.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Like that, these wretches, I mean, what what? What a
very interesting characterization of a group of people.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, now again that's you know, this European botanist, who's
you know, who's an early American settler, is talking to
the Cherokee. And so he may have mistranslated it. Who knows,
that's the problem. But we do know. And according to
the two Cherokee storytellers, I talked to. They said it
(19:38):
was the Creek who went to war with these moon
eyed people, right, okay.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Really because I have heard that it was the Cherokee,
So you're telling me that in your research you have
found that it was the Creeks.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Or And that's exactly it's it depends on who you
talk to, right, and that why it's so tough to pin.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
This down now right that will now, And I'll just
say this. I am doing a lot of research in
northern and central Georgia and I've got some you know.
You know, what's great to have is a very good
friend that is a librarian.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Always good, like the archives are you are your best
friends when you're.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Miss Allah at the Pike County Public Library is just
unbelievable when it comes to finding out information for me.
I mean, I swear I think she does. That is
her full time job instead of whatever. No, she's great,
miss Allah, and she is incredible. In fact, I'm gonna
probably call her tonight and let her know that I
talked about her because it's important that we have librarians
(20:51):
and if any of any of the people listening to
this want to get involved in this research, first of all,
contact me or contact Mark Munsey and we'll all because
this is really kind of what we do, isn't it. Mark?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. I get calls and emails
from people, I mean, besides people listening to my show,
and they want to know, Oh, what can you have
somebody look into this. I've had weird things happen in
my house. Can you get me a paranormal team or something.
I'm like, yeah, I can find one near you that
I know.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Now, it's real funny, and I hope you don't mind
me interrupting you again, but it's so funny. Are you
Are you having paranormal experiences in your house? Well? I
have them all the time. Because mister Mansfield died. He
rehabbed my condo. It is absolutely beautiful, and mister Mansfield died.
(21:46):
And what's funny is whenever I clean up the kitchen,
I love it. Whenever I clean up the kitchen, get
everything in the dishwasher, get that going, you know, wipe
down the counters and do everything. I go sit down
in the living room room and I hear banging around
in the kitchen and mister Mansfield lets me know that
(22:06):
mister Mansfield is here, and to be honest with you,
It makes me feel kind of safe and someone cares
enough to let me know that they're here now. I
don't know if you have You ever had a spirit
that lived in your house?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Oh yeah, several over the years and different homes. The
one here, the former the professor who used to own
the house I'm in now. He apparently likes my book
collection quite a bit. So whenever we go out for
a trip and we're gone for a couple of days,
(22:42):
I come back and my collection of books, well, some
will be laying in front of my wife's bedroom door
where she keeps all of her all the pets stay
while we're gone, and there we have snakes and reptiles
and spider so they don't need a lot of, you know,
tender love and care while we're gone. But when we
(23:04):
come back, they there's a book like laying in the hallway,
and it's always something from somewhere in here in my
den that he's picked up. And I think he was
like trying to show his wife that used to they
used to be heard art and craft room. So we
think he's like picks up one of my books and goes, oh, hey, here, honey,
look at this, but then he hits the door and
(23:25):
the book just drops. Now we've put up motion sensor
cameras and all this to try to find it. It
never is enough movement to show up on camera. It's
like the book teleports there. So that may be what's happening.
We don't know. We just may may need better cameras.
We're working on that, but it's one of those it's
kind of a fun side project. But yeah, that's fun.
(23:47):
You never know what.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
But do you keep track of the books that are
left there?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah. We take pictures of him and we have a
folder of all of them. He's a very big fan
of Robert Howard. He likes my Conan books so and
then he likes my old science fiction and pulps from
the fifties and sixties. Seems to be his favorite thing. Now,
there were no other houses here before.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
This, so, oh my goodness, So you have some science
fiction from the fifties.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Oh yeah, I've got a collection of strange books from
all over eras.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I've got ancient all right, Yes, a couple of times.
I have never visited you, but I would like for
you to ask your wife and get me permission to
come visit you and see some of those books. I
just love I just loved seeing old science fiction books.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah. I grew up as a nerd in West Virginia
in the seventies and books were hard to come science
fiction and fantasy books were hard to come by then,
especially in that area the buckle of the Bible Belt
where that was still you know, dungeons and Dragons was
evil and and all that. So science fiction, oh, we
(25:01):
don't talk about that. So my library was my escape.
Maybe that's why I am the way I am. But
that when I got older and I could afford to
buy my own books, it was okay, I am never
ever going to be without a stack of books a
science fiction fantasy near me. And then of course that
was a short step to paranormal and.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
UFOs and ghosts and all that. So yeah, that's great.
I don't even know where we were in our United people.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I forgot we had a subject. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, I don't even know where we were in that,
but it you know, it's wonderful, Mark, because you and
I don't get to talk about things like this, and
it's just wonderful. And that's what we do on Scary
Cast we just talk to people and we and we
find out things, we find out interests of people, and
I just love it. It's this is why I do it,
(25:55):
because it's just so much fun. And yes, I'm glad
to know that you you like I have. I have
a collection of I've got a bunch of Edgar Casey books.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Attack of those on my paranormal shelf. Yeah, I've got
crazy bookshelves everywhere that's got the Heineck Report and Quests
for the Past and all the all the fun UFO
and Bigfoot and ghost books. Right all my Hansholtzer books
are over here within easy reach. But that's what you
got to have when you're doing research and doing writing.
(26:26):
You've got to have these things here to pull them.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yes, you do, because I do a lot of writing.
I'm on books number seven and eight now, and it's
just like you've got to have your books, your resources.
And may I digress for a minute, can I can
I take this off?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And we want this is fine because audience is okay
with it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Sorry, gang, Well, because here's what happened. I don't know
how many people know this. Four am in the morning
is when you get caught in great fato waves in
your brain. And every morning I normally wake up an
hour or thirty minutes before four am, and I have great,
(27:18):
great thoughts. I'm able to put things together that I
was never able to put together before. And I always
write them down because they always usually mean a project
that I can do, and it's a good thing. And
this morning at four am, I saw a story. I mean,
(27:38):
the Internet loves me. I don't know what it is,
but the Internet just loves me and it gives me
good information. Are you familiar with the movie one of
the greatest movies of all time called Oh starts up?
(28:00):
Oh Gosh, Field of Dreams? You know you know Field
of Dreams?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Did you know The Field of Dreams was actually based
on about a five page short story.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Right right?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Are you aware of that?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah? And then he wrote a great book that I love.
Ray Kinsella his name of the author he wrote, Right,
he wrote a great book called The Iowa Baseball Confederacy.
If you want a wild read, try that one sometime.
It's about a lost baseball team in Iowa. The play
(28:41):
a crazy game and this guy wakes up one day
and he has all the stats in his head. He
can't remember why, and he doesn't know why, and it
involves time travel and Babe Ruth and everything. It's it's
just as great as Field of Dreams. I think it
would have made a better movie.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So you're talking about the Eye what Baseball Confederacy? Yeah, well,
I you know. And it's so funny that you give
me that name of that book, because for some reason,
in the last twenty four hours, I am being fed
the greatest information in history. Because, as we all know,
(29:19):
Field of Dreams. What's it about. It's about shoeless Joe Jackson. Right, well,
I have two major major announcements to make. First of all,
shoeless Joe Jackson came from Greenville, South Carolina. You're aware
of that, right, right right, And the head sports writer
(29:43):
for the Greenville News was my friend Jack Thompson's father,
Jack Thompson being the dean emeritus of all the photographers
in Myrtle Beach. He did the photos when he was
fourteen years old. He did the photos of Hurricane Hazel.
(30:04):
He he was the greatestph it's still the greatest photographer
in this absolute, absolutely unbelievable paradise that we call Myrtle Beach. Well,
Jack Thompson has hundreds of photos unpublished about Shoeless Joe.
(30:28):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Did not know that?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
And it gets even better. So we've got a whole
bunch of stories. The original story that most people don't
know about Shoeless Joe Jackson travels to Iowa City is
now public domain. And so the first thing that I
did this morning, you know, I went back to sleep
(30:52):
about four thirty and about nine o'clock I called up
Jack Thompson, who is one of my dearest and best
friends here in Myrtle Beach. I said, Jack, you won't
believe what I found out. And I told him about
that story being in public domain, and I said, and
you've got all these pictures, and what we need to
do is we need to write a book. He said, Stamy,
we've got to do this. When can we meet? I said, look,
(31:14):
we'll meet Friday for lunch. Love it. Of course I
get to pay for lunch, but I don't care. I
love Jack Thompson. Jack Thompson's one of my favorite, one
of my favorite friends and all of Myrtle Beach. He's
the best in the world. So we're going to talk
about this brand new book called Shoelace Joe Memories, and
(31:36):
it's about things that people don't know about shoelas Joe.
And then comes the other big kicker. Are you ready?
If you think this is big news, can I tell
you the real big news?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I'm sitting. I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Okay. You know who? Oh? What's his name? God?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Who is who?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Was in Field of Dreams? Kevin Costner?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Kevin and Kevin Costner.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Kevin Costner was in was in Field of Dreams? He
was the star. He brought it to life. Oh, I
know Kevin Costner. Did you know that I did not.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
I know Kevin Costner very well because he and I
are in the same college fraternity. And I mean it's like, like,
how in the world could you have such a connection.
And so I've already put in a call to my
fraternities executive director to get his phone number. He has
(32:37):
instructed them if anyone calls and says I want Kevin
Costner's phone number, he wants them to give it to it.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
So I'm gonna call him and I'm gonna talk to
him about this whole thing. And I think we've got
a slam dunk home run of the greatest baseball player
in history, which is shoeless Joe Jackson. We've got this
great story that most people have never read, and it's
not very long. I mean, it's like I love short stories.
(33:04):
I love Ambrose Beard's and the Problem with Crossing a
Field just one of the greatest, one of the greatest
paranormal stories in history. Yes, I love short stories because
they get your mind going and it doesn't take hours
upon hours to get it to happen. So I just
love it. So We've got all the elements of a
(33:25):
great of a great book that I am gonna put together,
and I'm gonna be meeting with Jack Thompson, the great
photographer from Myrtle Beach this Friday, which is gonna be tomorrow,
I guess right, yep, And we're gonna have a great time.
And of course I like to let you know what's
going on. I'll let you know how it's going. But
you know, if you listen to your voice, your internal voice,
(33:49):
it will tell you what to do. It will tell
you the great things that you must go accomplish, don't
you agree.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, you may not be where you thought you needed
to be, but to be where you really needed to be.
That's always the case.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah. So anyway, it's just I didn't even know I
was going to tell that story tonight on the show.
But yeah, it's going to be grand and we'll we'll
let everybody know about it, and so you know that.
That's all I've got to say. But anyway, we've got
a great story here with the one and only Moon
Eyed people. So tell us a little bit more about
(34:25):
them and about their history.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Well, I think one of the big first times they
get mentioned John Severe of which Severeville is named after. Right,
He's one of the first governor of Tennessee. And I
think he went to some stone fort in North Georgia,
probably Fort Mountain now that I realize it, and he
(34:48):
met a ninety year old Cherokee chief named Akanasta, who
told him that he had this story about from his ancestors.
I talked about this fort being built by white men
from across the Great Water, and that they had crossed
the Great Water and landed near the mouth of the
(35:10):
Alabama River, which is probably down near Mobile, and that
that that's where they came from, and then they moved
up here, built these forts, and our people traded with
them and then they went to war, and you know, well,
it's that's the first time it's like documented, So that's
(35:30):
got to be like seventeen eighty seventeen nineties as well,
so that's probably the second time it's documented. And then
that blends in with this wonderful Welsh myth. Now this
is a myth, but again we may find out that
this may have more to it than we thought.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Well, I will say I will jump in there and
say I don't believe this is a myth. I believe
that I believe this story. So please continue listen, let
everybody know this grand story about Wales and the New World.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
And forgive my Welsh pronouncings of the words, because I
don't speak Welsh. Prince Matdic ab owayne Gwynedd, which I
may have totally butchered that. Apparently he was a Welsh
explorer and he was a prince, and so in eleven
seventy a d he was young, Prince Mattic was had
(36:31):
some there was internal conflict over in Wales, and he says,
you know what, I'm taking a bunch of people. We're
getting out of dodge and he sets sail westward and
that's the last we hear of him, right, But they're
saying that he traveled across the ocean, and his legend
(36:57):
kind of blends this Welsh ledgend and of him coming
to another land. What if it was the New World,
what if it was North America. He would predate Columbus,
he would predate leif Erickson, he would pre date predate everybody.
And then the reason that we kind of have some
truth to this that this may be true is there
(37:20):
are early settlements, early settlers from Europe coming in to
talk to the indigenous peoples and of our land. And
they're able to speak Welsh, and I will speak English
and I will speak any of this other stuff. So uh,
they they these Welsh Indians, they called them, and it
(37:44):
helped them make some of the initial communications with the tribes.
And now the Ohio Valley area of the Cherokee, which
is way far north, they speak of the Nay of
the moon eyed people, and they blink them with the Builders,
which would date them to about five hundred BC. And
(38:07):
we don't really know much about the Mound Builders, even
as much as we do know you know smoke, you know,
Serpent Mound and all that stuff. There's no idea where
these these tribes went. They just disappeared. They and that's
why the story of the Creek or the Cherokee chasing
them off or driving them into the caves or battling
(38:29):
with them is something. But that whole Prince Mattic story
is just it's interesting to me because of all those
early encounters with settlers and they were speaking with these
blue eyed natives. Which where would the blue eyes have
come from? Because the indigenous cultures don't have that, And
(38:51):
unless it was Welsh or British and they'd intermingled and intermarried,
who knows. It's It's just it's an one of those
fun little ticks when you're going down the rabbit trail
of the moon eyed people.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I mean, they have an amazing history and they have
things that I really, I really believe and what we
need to do and I will do. I can do this.
I know a couple of really good remote viewers, and
I believe the remote viewers are just as good as
(39:27):
a as a written story. I mean, they they kind
of know what's going on. So let me see if
I can get a remote viewer or two and let's
really get you know, circle back together in a couple
of months, and let's see what we can do to
get information about the moon Eyed people, about the Welsh descendants,
(39:50):
and about just history in general in this southeast. Because
I think it's fascinating, don't you.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Oh no, I love it, and I've got I've got
mention one more theory. But to go with this theory,
you gotta go to a place called Murphy, North Carolina.
It's a little west of me. It's right on that
Tennessee border, right, and if you go there, there's the chair.
It's Cherokee County, which is funny. The city of Cherokee
(40:20):
is not in Jerokee County, but you go to Cherokee
County Historical Museum and they have tons of Cherokee artifacts, right,
just huge scope of artifacts. It's even more than the
tout of Cherokee, which is saying something. But in their
basement where they have a lot of more artifacts, they
(40:43):
have probably the most famous effigy of the moon eyed people.
It's about a three foot tall sculpture and if you
look closely at it, right, you just kind of look
at this sculpture, it looks like what we would call
the grays, right, Okay, it it makes you ask again,
(41:11):
what we're the moonight people? Wait a minute. They were
not spirits, they're not immortals, they're not monsters. They were people,
short bearded. Sometimes they created maybe the pre Columbian ruins here,
you know, driven away by the creek and the Cherokee
being chased into the mountains, being chased deep into the earth.
(41:37):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
And as far as we know, they may still be there.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah. Yeah, And that's one of my favorite things. I
put it in Erie, Appalachia. I got a letter from
a family that said, hey, we have some weird things
we heard you're researching this area. We have some weird
stories we'd like you to look into. This is a
let letters that were sent from My grandmother kept every
(42:04):
letter that was sent to her, and we don't have
what she sent out of course, but we have her
side of these conversations and there's some weird ones. We'd
like you to look at it. And I came over
there and the family, you know, have all these letters
and they're from this one cousin who lived in Olympia, Kentucky,
worked for the Rose Run Iron mine, and and he
(42:29):
was like, we had, you know, and the letter was,
you know, a typical family letter. Oh, you know, coming
to the reunion, can't wait to see y'all, blahlah blah
blah blah. And one of the things done the bottom
was a weird thing happened to mine. We blasted open
a new wall to get you know, a new vein,
and there was a dead bear and it was being
(42:52):
eaten by these strange people that had long, scraggly hair,
long claws, and huge eyes. And he said they looked
like toady people and and they're eating the eating the bear.
All the men are scared. We're not gonna we don't
(43:14):
we're not gonna work until they do something about it.
And then the next letter is you know, I guess
it's from a week or so later, and he's like, hey,
just wanted to write in things are good. The mine
owner bought gunmen to come in and kill the bears
and to kill the the bogey men, and uh, and
(43:36):
all is well and we're going back to work. I'll
see you at the reunion.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And it's like, what are these bogey men? What are
these things? And that's why they had me come out
to do this. So I look at the dates, I
look at the things I go. I started digging up
rosarun mine. It had a terrible disaster about a year later,
where a bunch of men died in a strange explosion,
(44:03):
probably looking for another vein. But what I did find
was in the Lexington, Kentucky Herald that week. In between
the two letters, there was an ad hiring gunmen to
kill bears in Olympia, Kentucky. Didn't say roseorn, mind, but
it was pretty dang close.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Wow. Now I am looking at the table of contents
of your book, Eerie Appalatia. Where would these letters be there?
Speaker 2 (44:34):
It's in the section on Huntington Bogeyman, because that was
they were called the Huntingdon Bogeyman, but it actually was Olympia, Kentucky.
The letters came from Huntington. Okay, it's in the mountain.
There's a whole section at the end of the book
(44:54):
called uh oh Holler Monsters. So because that's one of
my favorite things, is all these little holler stories.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, the Beljamin Olynthia, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
That's it. That's it, Okay, I will And there's a
wonderful illustration there that my wife drew based on their descriptions.
From the letters. It made him sound like a lot
like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings, right, but
this predates that by quite a bit. And maybe that's
(45:25):
the Moon Eyed people. If you get driven down into
the mines and you got big bulging eyes, maybe that's
what happened to the Moon Eyed people.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
You know, it's so funny. I actually opened this book
when I started looking. I opened this book directly to
that page. Oh nice, kind of interesting. All right, well,
I will do some research and I think that's marvelous
and thanks a.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Lot do together until I started writing a new book,
So yeah, thought about the Moon Eight People with that,
So yeah, well that's great.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
And now when is your new book coming out? Uh?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
It's uh, should be out early in the pre order
should be up shortly. We're finishing up the cover. As
soon as we have that, then we'll be able to
put the pre orders up. It's in final edits currently.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
They're working on putting all the pictures in and all,
and Carrie's finishing up final touches on some of the illustrations.
It should be up soon though. It should be up
for pre order. All our other ones have been from
History Press. This will be from Four Horsemen Publishing, so
our first one with our new publisher.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
So okay, great, well, just let let us know when
it's up and we'll certainly post it on scarycast dot com.
I want everyone to get a copy of it. I
think it's important historical research and it's fun.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yeah. I like to have fun with the stories. And
this one's kind of nice because Eric and my co
host gets to chime in like the you know, the
the average citizen. So when I get a little too
historical or a little too down a rabbit hole, she
can pull us back to the main story like she
does on our podcast, which is perfect.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Oh that's great. Yeah, well, you know, you know Mark,
this stuff is extremely extremely interesting.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Oh, and Cherokee are there. There's history and and all
their stuff, Like the Ninaway are basically kind of like
are they elves, are they fairies? Are they angels? They
are there golden people. They help them and they come
when they dance, and they protect them and they've done
(47:39):
crazy things. There's a mound in our town of Franklin
called nick Wassei and this used to be a home
of thousands of Cherokee before Rutherford. John Rutherford and the
Rutherford Trace comes through and chases them all out, which
predates Trail of Tears and all that predates our country
(48:00):
technically and all that. So, but that mound supposedly protected everybody,
and they were able to hide there when they were
actually light on defenses. Something protected them, like apparently again
magical army appeared and protected them. That would have been
(48:21):
the Ninaah. But then there's also you've got the opposites.
You've got the evils that plagued them as well, and
that's where you get the one that they all fear.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
But they killed her, but she might still be there.
And that Spearfinger, h Spearfinger. Now we had Spearfinger on
the poster of the Cherokee Comic Con that we did
about five years ago. Tell Us, can you tell us
a little bit about the legend of Spearfinger.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, Spearfinger was a either cast out of the Ninaa
or some of her basically immortal being that would eat
the livers of people. She had this She was made
of stone, so they called her the Stone Lady. And
her index finger, right index finger looked like a spear
(49:15):
was sharpened like a spear point, and that's what she
would use. She would, she could transform herself, make her
look very young and pretty, or old chrome, whatever it
takes to lure somebody close. And she's the come child,
let me, let me raise your hair, and then she'll
but she gets close, she'll stick that finger down your
neck and go all the way down to your liver,
(49:38):
and she ate your livers. And you kind of need
that to stay alive. But she did this for a
long time, and then the Cherokee finally got a smart
medicine man to figure out, all right, we need to
kill this thing, and he set a trap for her,
and according to the the storytellers, she falls right into
(49:59):
the trap. But they can't kill her. She's made of stone.
They're shooting at her with arrows, they pierced her with spears, nothing,
they can't break her skin. So a chickadee lands near
them and says, hey, you know, you know, starts making
a noise and it sounds like the heart, the heart.
So they start shooting at her heart, but it's not
working because her heart's stone. But then a cardinal lands
(50:24):
or and and it tells her, tells him it's the hand,
So it's her heart's in her hand, and so that's
when they realize she's hiding her hand, that spear finger.
She's keeping her hands clasped, so they finally are able
to strike her dead by hitting her hand. And supposedly
she's gone, but people still say her spirit is out
(50:48):
there wandering and singing her liver, reading song and trying
to find people. That's She's a crazy fun story that
is also a little terrifying when you really look in it.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Yeah, it sounds like it, And I mean, thank you
for that extra story, because we really appreciate this, all
these Cherokee legends and we know I think you and
I both know this. They have basis in fact, don't they.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Yeah, I mean that's one of the legends. Is is
that because the well stories? Is that the because the
little tit mouse told the wrong thing, they they branded
it a liar, so the gods made their tongue short
(51:39):
and that's why it has such a small tongue. And
then the cardinal because it was the truth sayer. If
you see one before you go on a trip, that's
supposed to be good luck. And we've still kept that
legend into our lives, you know, because they're the truth tellers.
They're the they're the fortune. That's why it's good luck
to see a cardinal before you go on a trip.
(52:00):
Translated that into an apple tradition. So that's that's great
part of the fun of these things.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Well, Mark, definitely keep on jenming up these stories. They're wonderful.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Oh yeah, I'm getting more and more or we've got
a second book in the works already. H This will
be more West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio area, Ohio Valley, just
because that was when I was following the moon eyed people.
I started coming up with a lot more stuff up
there than Mofman uh and uh, so we'll be doing
a lot more of that, and then I'll probably head
(52:36):
back to my home, my old home state of Florida
for a little while. And uh but well there are
more stories to tell down there.
Speaker 1 (52:43):
Too, So right, Well, that's great, and Mark, it's been
a real pleasure having you on here. It's been a
lot of fun. You have great stories, and we look
forward to you having you at the North Georgia UFO
conference on h on the eleventh of j We look
very much forward to having you at the Georgia Bigfoot Conference,
(53:06):
which is going to be the ninth and the tenth of.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
February.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
I'm in March, and we really we can't wait to
have you there there with your books. You can come
talk to Mark, you can share stories with him, and
I think it will be great. So I just wanted
to let you know we really appreciate having you on
the show and we've had a lot of fun. And
will you come back in a while when we get
(53:34):
some some more material.
Speaker 2 (53:36):
Of course, of course, And if you want to follow me,
you can follow me at Eerie Travels dot com. That
links to our podcast, that links to all my other books,
that links to everything and some of the documentaries I've
been on, some of the TV shows I've been on,
and you can you know, follow us there.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
Great. Well, look, thanks a lot, it's been absolutely wonderful.
I'll do the quick call around as soon as we're done.
And I wanted to say thank you for being here
with us on Scary Cast twenty twenty five and moving
forward and you know we're in our ninth year. Can
you believe that?
Speaker 2 (54:13):
That's awesome. I hope some day to be up there
with you. I'll definitely be here for the tenth.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Well, good, well, we definitely want you here many many
more times because it's a lot of fun. So thanks
a lot thanks to everybody who listened in tonight, and
we'll talk to you soon on the One and the
Only Scary cast. Have a good one, Mark, take care,
we'll see you on the other side.
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