The woods grow silent. This silence spreads up from the roots of the trees, through the air to choke the birds and still the insects. Something gazes out from the shadows. Eyes glow a demonic red, it stands tall on two legs that end in claws. It looks like a horrid mix of man and wolf. A tortured howl tears from its maw, a sound that rings through the forest. The Beast Of The Land Between The Lakes is on the hunt.

The Land Between The Lakes, or LBL for short, is a national park located near Murray Kentucky. While many tourists will come away with stories of the picturesque landscape, the LBL is also known for much darker reasons.

The park is home to what the locals call, “The Vampire Hotel”. An abandoned building where murderer Rod Ferrell and his gang of misled youth came to drink each other’s blood. Ferrell is responsible for one of the worst home invasion murders in Florida history. While playing host to blood drinking rituals would be bad enough, something much worse than Ferrell is rumored to still stalk the park.

The Beast of LBL is said to be over six feet tall, covered in hair with pointed ears. It has the head of a wolf, with long sharp teeth. Although it walks on two legs like a man, it can move silently through the trees.

Origin Stories

The origins of the creature, which many who have seen it compare it to classic depictions of werewolves or dogman sightings, varies. One of them centers around a man who settled in the LBL sometime in the 1800s. He claimed to suffer from a nighttime sickness which would cause him to fly into rages that made him dangerous to be around. The man claimed it was passed down through the blood. Stories abound around him and his eventual descendants, all of which lived in the LBL until sometime in the 1900s.

Another possible origin for the creature comes from French traders. They spoke of legends about a loup-garou. A person cursed to change into a beast by a witch or as divine punishment for some crime. The poor soul would then be overcome with animalistic rage and a craving for raw meat. The traders feared the creature, not just because of its violent nature but because the curse could be spread to those that survived an attack.

Modern Day Sightings

There have been many sightings of the Beast Of The Land Between The Lakes throughout the years, even up to today. The most shocking of which is said to have happened in 1980. A family had decided to go camping in the LBL. What should have been an idyllic weekend, ended with the family killed and mutilated. The bodies of the parents were found torn apart, their pieces mixed together. Half of their child was found up a tree by park rangers.

To this day ranchers around the LBL who have been working with American Bison, report calves mysteriously going missing. Campers tell stories about howling and guttural screams from somewhere just beyond their campfires. One tourist, after a prolonged feeling of being followed, managed to take the above photo. Was it just a play of light and shadow on his imagination? Or was he almost another victim of the Beast Of The Land Between The Lakes?

(If you enjoyed the Beast Of The Land Between The Lakes, please feel free to check out other fascinating cryptids under the Creature Feature category.)

Sources

Cryptid Wiki

Phantoms and Monsters

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