The boys had to pump Deputy Sheriff Malcom Wilkerson pretty hard to get the information on the varmint out of him. 
        Wilkerson figured nobody would believe him when he said his dogs came running back to him after seeing it.  They were plumb scared.
        Talk around is that the varmint chases rabbits and all other forms of livestock.  Farmer Joe Burr first reported seeing the weird looking critter and since then, many person have admitted they thought they were having delusions. 
        The latest rumor has it that the so-called varmint is a roaming hyena that escaped from the circus.  And so far, he's had the last laugh.

        The strange unseen Critter from Carr's Creek apparently is on the prowl again. 
        Buck Evans was feeding hogs this past week in that area when something scared the porkers (they wouldn't eat)  and sent Buck running to the telephone for help.
        He too had been hearing tales about a 'varmint' roaming around in Robertson County.  And it is strange indeed when hogs won't eat.
       "We got a report from Buck and sent out about 14 men," said Sammy Lee, a member of the Robertson County Civil Defense unit.
       "Two of the searchers who combed the creek bed and surrounding area around Carr's Creek said they heard something go by them and take to the water," Sammy said.  The men were identified as his brother Walter, and Ronnie Richer. 
       No one can boast of having seen the Critter, at least not long enough to give a description of the animal that is causing a furor in the county.
        But Sammy Lee says that track which looked like they were made by a large dog's paws, only boasting claws, were found by the searchers.  "I'd say the prints we saw were made by an animal of around 100 pounds," he said, "depending on whether it was running or walking."
       Could it have been a huge flying bird of prey?  Perhaps it's flying that keeps anyone from getting a look at the varmint.
       "I don't think it has been seen but it is supposed to have destroyed some small animals in the Carr's Creek area," Sammy said. "Several say they have heard it 'scream' like a wildcat or panther.  It might be a large bobcat."
       Dogs appear frightened by the strange "beast" which has  so far avoided description and capture.
     Sammy's Dog, a mixture of collie, and spitz, was recently found howling outside the screen door.  "He acted like he had just been whipped," Sammy said,  "and he is usually a dog of courage. 
       "I live next door to Buck and he said the dog barked just twice and then tore out for the house," Sammy said, vowing to bait a trap or two to snare the cause of the commotion.
       Theories on the identity of the "Critter from Carr's Creek" range through all kinds of varmints and cats.
      But, Forrest Hollingsworth - who hopes to photograph the Critter - says that he knows a man who heard it 'howl' or 'scream'. 
        "The fellow went to Beach Bend Park at Bowling Green and some kids were teasing a hyena," Hollingsworth said. "The animal made a noise just like the one this man had heard in Robertson County."
        Well, if it's a hyena it must be the laughing variety.
        So far he has had the last laugh on County citizens who are keeping a wary eye on the woods and hoping the Critter isn't as big as the stories beginning to be circulated.
 

The "Critter from Carr's Creek is still creeping around the countryside and the legend is growing.

But, the strange beast is more than a legend for Mr. and Mrs. Madison Farmer, who live on the old Frank Anthony Farm in the Carr's Creek area of Robertson County.

As a matter of fact nothing will ever top the unusual "carrying on" at the Farmer place last week.

On Thursday Mr. and Mrs. Farmer were sitting on their porch about 9:30 PM when a strange cry or call shrieked from the direction of Carr's Creek.

"I have never heard anything like it,"  explained Farmer, who is know as one of the county's top outdoorsmen - hunting and riding horseback in the area for years.

"It carried a high pitch but it had a lot of volume to it." Farmer explained.  "And it didn't just sound once, but about five or six times. 

Mr. Farmer, who prides himself on his ability to place the direction of sound said assuredly that the cry or call came from across the creek on the Herbert Head farm, next to Joe Burr's place."

Thus, begins another verified chapter in the growing legend of the strange creature - which many claim is a hyena - that roams the creek bed and baffles the imagination of county citizens. 

"Madison and I sat out on the porch the next night to see if we could hear it again, but it never came." Mrs. Farmer said.  "We heard a fox bark and other noises, but no sounds like we heard on Thursday.

Farmer says that neighbors in the area claim to have heard the call at the same time the Farmers heard it on Thursday night.  Additionally, one woman says she saw it on a log and it looked like a bear.

Another Farmer in the area, Bill Jarrell, says that a boy told him that two of his dogs were killed mysteriously and attributed it the "Critter".

Although the "animal" already has sparked on search by some 14 men of the Robertson County Civil Defense unit the report by the Farmers again localizes the creature.

Burr, owner of the farm next to where Farmer placed the animal, is on the few people who claim to have actually seen the Critter.

He described it as a gray colored animal with a long nose and bobbed tail.

In this same general area, other reports have offered strong evidence of the presence of an animal strange to livestock and dogs.

Buck Evans of that area was feeding his hogs when something scared them so badly they wouldn't eat.  He called the Civil Defense, which dispatched 14 unsuccessful hunter to the area.  Two of the searchers claim to have heard an animal pass them and splash across the creek.

Sammy Lee, on of the Civil Defense searchers, also lives in the area - next door to Evans - and says his dog was discovered cowering against the screen door as if he had been beaten.

No matter how large an animal the renowned "Critter From Carr's Creek" turns out to be, he won't stand a chance against the hordes  of curious Robertson Countians who nightly descend on the Carr's Creek area.

It is estimated that this past weekend brought a nightly average of 1,000 cars to the gravel road in the Carr's Creek area where the strange animal - which many believe is a hyena - prowls and howls at night.

Although it has been described as a large animal with cat like paws the farmers of the area and Robertson County police are more concerned with the curiosity seekers than the "Critter."

Scores of hunters, some too young to be responsible are descending the creek bed and surrounding property armed to the teeth with rifles and shotguns.

And, the exasperated farmers of the area point out that getting accidentally shot may not be the only hazard of a search for the "Critter" of growing fame.  The searchers are stomping through brush that is known to be infested with snakes, many poisonous. 

Mainly turning off Highway 49 and heading up the gravel road by Carr's Creek toward Highway 431 the cars have so congested the road that one night last weekend an ambulance was blocked.

Albert Adcox, who lives in the Carr's Creek area, says that he surprised an animal Monday near the Madison Farmer property, where last week the loud howling was heard.

Adcox says that the animal was about 125 pounds and resemble a mountain lion.

His story set in motion another search by the local County Civil Defense Unit, which already has beaten the bushes once in an attempt to flush the "Critter."

The Robertson County Times has had a flood of calls from the First and Fourth Districts as well as other areas of the county of people who claim to have had contact with the "Critter."

Mrs. Beverly McConnioc, picnicking with her husband on the Fourth of July on the creek beside Old New Chapel Road on the Darden Place, returned from a walk and found muddy paw marks on a table cloth which had been left spread.

Also missing was the meat that had been left behind.  And also missing is anyone who can identity the paw marks on the cloth.

Mrs. Fred Wall of the First District reveals that she saw a thing that could be the "Critter" back in March or April. 

She said it jumped in her pond and resembled a bear, with little short ears.  She also said it was grayish-brown in color, and cut up her dogs.

So the saga of the "Critter From Carr's Creek" continues with farmers hoping for an early capture and local authorities keeping their fingers crossed that no one is accidentally shot in the meanwhile. 

Something new and modern has been added to the search for the so-called "Critter From Carr's Creek."

The hunt will go airborne Saturday when WLAC Radio of Nashville brings its helicopter to Robertson County for an aerial search of the suspected habitat of the strange 'creature.'

The copter, carrying newscaster John Lashlee, will cover the Carr's Creek area from Highway 49 to Highway 431.  This is the general area where reports of strange cries in the night have created a legend about a strange beast of some kind.

The search, co-sponsored by WLAC and the Robertson County Times will include Times Reporter Beverly McConnico who will report her finding in a story next week. 

Beverly is a converted skeptic of the tales which have been spawned by strange "goings-on" in the Carr's Creek area.  Unless it has been washed, Beverly has a tablecloth with tracks of the "Critter" showing clearly.

The tracks were made in the Carr's Creek area, during a lull in a family picnic when the cloth was left as the continued on page 6-A, Col. 5 . . .

(Sorry it seems I didn't realize the article was continued on page 6-A, Col. 5)  It will be a couple of weeks before I can go back to Robertson County and get a copy of the rest of this article.  However I have the newspaper article from July 21, 1966 and will post it soon.

Mother Nature must be on the lookout for our Carr's Creek Critter because she let loose a good-size weather front last Saturday and prevented the Nashville WLAC Radio helicopter from coming to Springfield to hunt our famous varmint. 

No one was more disappointed than I.

I as all prepared to tell the Times readers about swooping down low over the treetops in the Creek area and of a mysterious movement in the bushes and that suddenly there was a grey streak flashing across the fields  and that it rared up on its hand legs and shook its paw at us.

But I can't say all that because I never go got up. 

At any rate, there was a nice gathering out at the local airport Saturday.  On hand representing WLAC were program director Mark Prichard and announcer Jack Butler.

They kept the public telephone busy with calls to WLAC and the on-the-air announced there.  Jack interviewed several people out there and most of them said, "Sure there is a critter out there - or something."

Chances are that when our WLAC friend returned to Nashville, they took back less skepticism that they brought up here.

Some of our local officials and dignitaries were on-hand too, including Mayor Travis Price, Judge Earl Swann and family, and Attorney General Jim Porter, Judge Bob West, and two beauty queens to add to the festivites - Miss Jeanine Oliver, Dairy Princess, and Miss Betty Brown, Fairest of the Fair and Miss City Beautiful. 

Meanwhile - back to the critter reports.

News has come in that there was a peacock killed out in the area.  They are noted for loud shrill screams.  But they aren't grey and large and don't have pointed noses and a bobbed tail.

Tom Cobbs saw a large grey "critter' in the area - he lives out there too.

But he can identify his critter, he says because it was just a mangy stray dog and that he knows for sure say he.  Mr. Cobbs has lived out there for years and he says he's never seen or heard anything out of the ordinary, just a few baying dogs every now and then.

Whatever happens this year can long be remembered as the year that the "critter" cam to Robertson County.  Just hope it's not remembered that in years to come as the year the "critters" STARTED coming to Robertson County.

The fritter over the "Critter" this week proved a false lead.

Last Sunday, the carcass of and animal fitting the approximate size of the Carr's Creek "Critter" was found by Walter Stark of Coopertown Road.  Terrell Fisher, county rabies officer, and Charles Mink, state game warden, were summoned to the scene.  They put a few bones together and declared they had never seen such an animal as they supposed that to be.  So some of the remains were taken to the biology department of the Tennessee Game and Fish Dept. in Nashville for identification and classification. 

Meanwhile, the citizens who had heard the rumor that the critter had been found, waited with bated breath for news of what the "critter" was.  Some people, who heard that the "Critter" had been found dead, wondered what he could have died of.  Others said it was not doubt - he died of fright.

Then came the new.  Our "critter" was a premature white faced calf.

So, The true whereabouts of the Carr's Creek "Critter" remains shrouded in mystery.  No one has seen or heard him a couple of weeks.  At least if any one has they haven't reported it. 

Could the elusive critter that has been spotted from time to time in Robertson County be a variety of the ol' Canis latrans family:

The Canny Coyote of the southwest has been reported in pack numbers enough to troublesome in Lincoln County.

The coyote is said to be the smartest varmint in the world.  He's difficult to trap or hunt.

The average coyote litter is seven kits, but females have been checked with as many as 19 youngsters in the den. 

At any rate of reproductivity the area could possibly be running over with varmints soon if our critter has a mate. 

Maybe we're luck if there's only one, but if friends find this critter there could be big trouble.

When they hunt in packs coyotes are able to take a heavy toll on deer.

They're a pesky lot, no matter how you look at it.

There have been no reports on our critter lately, and let's hope it stays that way.  Maybe he wasn't a coyote - just a plain ol' critter and there's no critter like a dead one or coyote either for that matter.

A letter all the way from Burma may have shed some light on the possible origin of Robertson County's "Carr Creek Critter."

Sgt. B. J. Seay, who is the son of Mrs. Bill Seay of Springfield, is stationed at the American Embassy in Burma and received some clippings on the Times Critter stories.  Seay sent the Times a letter and a clipping from a Rangoon, Burma paper on an animal known to zoologists as a "marsupial wolf."

For 20 years scientist have believed the animal to be extinct, but on July 25 of this year, a Tasmanian farmer stumbled on a recently abandoned den of the animal and collected some hairs turning them over to Dr. Eric Guiler of the Zoology Dept. of the University of Tasmania island state of Australia who examined the hairs and confirmed that they belonged to a marsupial wolf. 

Dr. Guiler's article gives several descriptions that parallel the descriptions given by Robertson Countians of the "Carr's Creek Critter".  According to Dr. Guiler the animal has kangaroo-like hindlegs and front legs like most of the quadruped animals and is believed to progress in a sort of lopsided gait.  It may be able to execute fairly long leaps, but is not as fast a runner as say a deer or a wolf.

Its jaws are ver developed and the gape of the mouth is simple enormous.  The forefoot has five toes but the hindfoot has only four.  The body length is about 44 inches.  The color is usually light brown with the stripes, about 16, dark brown across the posterior of the body.

The early white settlers in Tasmania called it amount other things the Tasmanian hyena.  It predated on lambs, poultry and other livestock.  Its sounds are "weird cries" similar to those of a wolf.  It is a chiefly nocturnal animal. 

Now, doesn't that sound like the "Carr's Creek Critter?" 

Could the marsupial wolf be the "Carr's Creek Critter?"  In Tasmania, they have gone unsighted for years and then reliable person will report glimpses of them.  Kinda like Robertson Countians. 

Speculating on how a marsupial wolf, common to Tasmania or Australia 10,000 years ago, cross the great span of waters and wind up in Tennessee is a mind-twister indeed. 

Letting the imagination go one could invision the animal perched on a log crossing the Atlantic getting caught in the Gulf Stream waters, coming up the Mississippi into the Tennessee River, finding the entrance to Carr Creek (does it empty into the Tennessee eventually?) and floating on into our county. 

Impossible you say?  So when you think about it, was the discovery of electricity and the invention of the light bulb. 

A thought: A former Robertson Countian, Floyd Evans, Jr., is now a pilot for Trans-World Airlines and lives in Paramus, N. J.  He flies all over the world, maybe even to Tasmania sometimes, or to Australia.  Could he have picked up a marsupial wolf and deposited it on his mother's place, Mrs. Floyd Evans, Sr., near the Carr Creek vicinity?

Whatever, it's nice to know that an animal generally fitting the description of our critter does exist somewhere, and more mystery just makes a better story for the grandchildren.