Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. What does that cheers me and Haley? It means it's been five years.
It's our anniversary! It's our anniversary to us! Happy anniversary to us! Happy anniversary to us!
Happy anniversary! Holly and Haley! Happy anniversary to us! That's a lot of energy for a 10-15 pm.
You're welcome. Thank you. I'm bringing it to you. I got my fisherman in my mouth and I'm good to go.
Things are ready. I'm ready. Oh my gosh. Guys, five years.
So today is October 2nd. We actually went on the air October 1st 2020. That is very hard to believe because it kind of makes a link of an eye. It happened very quickly.
Yeah, I mean we've done this every week. We have almost 300 episodes. We have like 260s somewhere there. Yeah, we've pretty much done this once a week for five years.
Yeah, we have. We've missed very few weeks. Yeah, like that's... And it's usually Haley's fault.
Usually. That is true. It is very true. Yeah, actually that one week was my fault and that one time that someone filled in for me because I had...
Oh yeah, you had the vid. Yeah. So yeah, wow. Any good memories?
Your favorite memory? I don't know. I mean it's all just been such a whirlwind. So pretty bad, huh?
Pretty bad. No. I'm curious for our listeners. What are some of your favorite memories of the five years?
Do you have those quotes? It was Fitzgerald, that bastard. That rap bastard. That's right.
Or you know, get in that hay. That's still a good one. That is a good one. I know my favorite episode.
I still love that episode. If you haven't listened, you should. Our discussions of the afterlife and what we're going to do. Our plans for what to do with our bodies, how do we pass?
Yeah, we've probably won our funerals. A lot of things. I think we've just got a deep dive in, you know, just into our own. Yeah.
And you have hypothesized a lot about what you would do with dead bodies. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that is so happens. Yeah, that is so happens.
And Haley has taught us some information about what it takes to burn a body, which not a lot of people know. I mean, I'm glad to help. That was helpful. Thank you.
Thank you for that. Oh, God. So yeah, let us know some of your favorite stories along the way, some of the favorite Holly and Haley moments. Yeah, because we have had some moments.
We've had some moments that have been good and maybe not so good. But no, all good. I'm holding you here. They've been good.
They've been so good. All of them. No, it's true. I think that, you know, we all have our ups and downs, but we enjoy doing this.
Sounds really fun. We actually have another episode right after this one. Yes. With some exciting news.
Yeah, some updates. Either of us are pregnant. No, neither of us are pregnant. We are both healthy and good.
Not with children. Not with child. So we definitely want to share some exciting news from us and maybe talk about a new adventure that we are hoping to go on and hope you come with us. But first, I want to talk to you about the lizard man.
Well, it was kind of not, it got very serious. Yeah. It kind of took me a long time to talk to you. And I was waiting for like, are we talking about toxic shock syndrome or tampons?
We were talking about the lizard man. Is this a man who looks like a lizard? You know, it's up to interpretation. He's got a long tongue.
Maybe he's got a pretty wife. Maybe. I better just put my fisherman's friend. Yeah, put that back in your mouth.
Please. If you didn't hear a couple episodes ago, please go back and listen. Just circle back. Just love it.
Yeah. Sorry. Okay. So we're going to go to Lee County, South Carolina.
Where's Lee County? You know, I don't know. Damn it, Haley. Somewhere south Carolina.
Directionally. I know. I know. This actually though was courtesy.
This episode is courtesy of Marquess. Your boyfriend? Yes. He I was talking about like, I got to figure out what I'm going to do for my stories.
And he said, I he's like, well, what do you want to talk about? And I said, well, I've already got a murder case that I'm going to talk about. And I said, I kind of want something like fun, like a haunting or a man of a creature. And he was like, what about the lizard man?
And I was like, do tell. So he was telling me the story. And I found what he was talking about and did smart research. So Lee County.
And if you'll remember the last episode that I did, I was talking about the year 1988. This is a great year. We going back to it. Really?
Yeah. I was four years old. Oh, I was living my best life. It's not even a thought.
Oh, I was living my best life. I was living my best life. So a fun fact Lee County is in East Central South Carolina in a region known as PD region. Cool.
Yeah. I know very little more than I know. This year, Sumter Florence Kershaw, like like border County. So this isn't like moving towards the coast.
Okay. Like kind of in the middle. Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, that's because we're talking about a lizard and swamps. That does make sense. That tracks go forward. Okay.
So Lee County, South Carolina. So the legend of the lizard man has existed since 1988. The summer like it should be longer, but okay. Summer of 1988.
That was a good time. Yep. The lizard man is a seven foot tall red-eyed, scaly-skinned reptile that emerged from escape or swamp one dark and humid night in July of 1988. He's looking for air condition.
He was. Yeah. So Chris Davis, a Bishop Ville teen was on his way home after a shift ended at McDonald's. He blew a tire out on his car in the Brown town area of the county.
And he was really close to the edge of the skateboard swamp. So he got out of his car and was working to change the flat tire when he hears the sound. It sounded like someone was running on the asphalt toward him. Scary.
Yeah. Either that or like, I'll help you. Right. So it's dark.
You know, if you can imagine like you're out here and you're a swamp, there's some street lights. It's dark out there. Yeah. So.
Yeah. You don't want to lose. Yeah. You don't want to break down out there.
I mean, thankfully you knew how to change the tire, but it's still still that's a lot. Yeah. So he hears this thing or person or something running on the asphalt. It's coming closer and closer through the dark towards him.
So he's looking like towards where he can hear it coming from. And the shape slowly starts to take form. And he's like, I can't believe what he's seeing. He's like, this doesn't make any sense.
He later described the creature as being about seven feet tall with green, scaly skin, red eyes and three toes on each foot. It's my uncle. I recognize that. So this is the lizard man's first public appearance.
Well, he shouldn't do it in the dark. He should come out into the light. So he jumps back in his car. The lizard man or?
No. The young man. Yeah. The young man.
He jumps back in his car. He's changed the tire. He jumps in and he, you know, turns it on. He's starting to go.
But the creature attacks his car, rips off a side mirror and jumps on top of the 17 year old car, denting the roof. Oh my God. Yeah. So he later reports the attack to Sheriff Listan Truestale, who along with his deputies actually take the incident really seriously and investigate the claims, especially after, you know, the 17 year old, he takes and passes a polygraph test.
Oh, wow. They actually went for it. Well, because when you think teenager and dent in a car, you're like, dude, you what did you do? Yeah.
You got a dent in this car and you're trying to explain it away by saying, oh, it's a football, you know, lizard man, right? But he's a polyester. Yeah. He took a polygraph test, which is crazy.
So a few weeks later, there were several people who lived in the vicinity of the skateboard swamp report having their cars attacked by some kind of creature that ripped off and chewed on their bumpers. I hate when people I hate when I give a bumper chewed. Yeah, that's a problem. Well, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. So deputies are very busy. They are chasing down these leads. They're and they're even finding these giant footprints, these three toed footprints and the swamp left by some creature and they make plaster casts out of them.
His balance must be terrible. So they are like into it. Yeah. So it doesn't take long before like the entire world goes crazy about the lizard band.
And media starts descending on Bishopville from everywhere. So a little kind of interview and all these people do. They're like, I don't ask how many hands retold. I've done seen it.
So let the McDonald's. A little bit of backstory about kind of this area. So South Carolina is not super unique with its wealth disparity problems. There are pretty like strict economic lines between the city and the country and also between like different groups too.
Yeah. So the young man who actually first saw the legitimate is a young black teen. Gotcha. So he's living in this area.
So Bishopville is so economically depressed that in 2017, so almost 20 years later, it's a median household 30. Thanks meth. The median household income was only $21,000. Oh my god.
Yeah. Which is nearly twice as low as the median income for the rest of South Carolina and $3,000 lower than Bishopville's median income level 20 years earlier. So not a lot has changed. Not a lot has changed.
About 46% of Bishopville's 30,000 residents of the poverty line. The wealth disparity is crazy. I mean, it's really connected to race in that area. So 25% of the population that is white is significantly wealthier than the 70% population that's black.
Wow. So it's very, very divided. Right. So this means that Bishopville is really stuck in this cycle with no many for education.
They don't have, you know, anything really entice industry. So it's up to the lizard man to bring everybody to the planet. So there's really not anything going on in this town. And it's hard for people who have lived their whole life to get out of this town.
However, in the late 80s, when Christopher Davis starts talking about this lizard man, the town like explodes and everybody has this like collective excitement. There's something new and unique happening to this town that has been going through like a lot. When I think about who's going to bring us out of a depression? My first thought is lizard man lizard man is going to do it.
Who's going to bring us together as a town, as a society? Who's going to say white black, it doesn't matter, rich, not rich. We come together. Those nails it.
So at the center of all this is Christopher Davis. Okay. So everybody wants to talk to him. They want to.
So he is in all the local papers, reporters from as far away as Australia, we're calling him to talk about the lizard man. Because I might. You know, some of these were enthusiasts who believed wholeheartedly in the lizard man. Others were just like, this is crazy.
What a good story. Had you been alive? Would you have believed it? Like probably you wouldn't have tried to marry him.
Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah.
So yeah, this whole area is in a frenzy and they're capitalizing on this in any way that they can like mugs and t-shirts. Oh, for sure. Yeah. So immediately after the sighting, Bishop Hill saw an influx of thousands of tourists clogging the I-95.
Many that came to see Christopher as grand marshal of a festival parade. Wow. The story gained momentum. Christopher drove as far as Myrtle Beach to sign t-shirts in a mall.
For weeks, he was inundated with reporters to whom he told his story more than 100 times. Wow. Everyone around watched as, you know, the lizard man is in a ride he grew and soon locals can't be started to come forward with their own stories about the lizard man. Yeah.
Um, George Pliler said that lizard man harassed his hogs and goats, killing several of them. Frank Mitchell was about to lift off from his grassy runway when a nine foot tall creature with a loaf in his walk across in front of his small plane and made him abandon his flight. Dixie Rossin heard a terrible noise at night and woke up to see her car rippled with scratches and deep holes that looked like they were punctured by enormous claws matching, you know, the original lizard man drawing. Um, an airman at Shaw Air Force Base, Kenneth Orr claimed to have shot the lizard man and he presented the sheriff with blood and scales.
Um, the sales actually turned out to be fish scales and Kenneth was charged with filing a false report and a legal carry gun. He recanted his story and signed a statement saying, but I made the report just to keep the legend of lizard man alive and put my scales in a box. I don't know. Yeah.
Um, yeah. So yeah, Sheriff Tresail said that the lizard man had become a national celebrity and put Lee County on the map. Yes. He said they had newspapers, TV stations from all over the globe come here to go see Skateboard Swamp.
A radio station in Columbia offered $1 million reward for the capture of the lizard man, but it was never claimed to nobody ever caught him. The sheriff's office stayed busy trying to answer hundreds of calls about the creature from far as far away as Japan and New Zealand. What? Yeah, so this literally blew out.
Yeah. So, you know, of course things kind of started to die down over time. They all do. As they all do, but there has been renewed interest in lizard man around 2018.
So when that started, thanks to the work of some very diligent studies from diligent citizens lived in a city who lived in the city in 2019. The quote friends of lizard man committee was formed. I think that's amazing. I really want to be on the committee.
We are friends of the lizard. Yeah. That's the name of the committee. Right.
I love it. So just as they were getting on their feet, obviously, COVID hit and their plans had to be kind of put on hold, but the little group resumed their meetings when it was safe and they came together and decided on a motto for the organization, which was preserving the legend. Oh, so according to George Roberts, who chairs the committee, he said the vision was to integrate the legend with the local community initially. However, the outreach soon grew to a larger audience of followers.
In 2022, the friends of the lizard man hosted their first quote stop, so named in recognition of the lizard man making imprints in the swamp mud during his 1988 sighting. The stomp that first year was an outdoor duplication of the Lee County Arts Council's popular quote taste of Lee, which has various organizations cooking and selling lizard themed swamp bog, along with activities such as children's games, live music and dancing, a car show, and sales of t-shirts and other lizard man related merchandise. Absolutely. Which is really fun.
I'm all for it. In 2023, the stomped or even more folks to downtown Bishop Bell to celebrate the lizard man. Robert said they even added a parade, which was really enjoyed by everyone. They extended the event to include a food truck, a live band, more arts and crafts vendors, and more entertainment for kids.
There is a concrete cast of a three foot tall statue of lizard band, which sold, you know, hotcakes and can now be seen in strategic locations around town. Wow. So it's pretty wild. There's apparently an artist, an administrator of quote the lizard man lounge on Facebook, and he hasn't worked since 1988 to preserve the legend.
So lizard man lounge to me, so it's like he's got a piano and he's like, you know, singing those tunes like, you know, everybody, please, I take requests and they're like, you know, I don't know, like, what's a, like a good, try to think of a nice tune that he might play. It's a lizard man, my play. Unforgettable. That's a good one.
In every way. Oh yeah, and he comes out and he's got his three toes and he's not totally solid on his feet, but he's like, this is for you, you know, and he plays like a little elephant's general or something. Sounds good. I like that.
He's like, please remember tip. I've got a family. Well, that is the lizard man. Wow.
Do you think he's real? I mean, maybe. Who's to say? Well, you live my life by what you tell me.
So I mean, yeah, let's go with it. Sure. Okay. But they haven't seen him since that time period.
That's true. Maybe he was like, you know, it's too much attention. Too much attention. And he's like, I just wanted a peaceful swamp.
Like this is, I wanted to terrorize people. I mean, there is a part of me though that kind of hopes that this was just Christopher David's like, maybe he like hit a tree or something. And I came up with this crazy story about the lizard man. If he did, he still should be famous.
And it just took off. And I think that's incredible. I feel like this is a movie or a TV series waiting to happen. Oh, yeah.
Great. Yeah. And then at the end, he like, it mids like, yeah, I made it up. But he brought the whole town together and everybody's okay with it because he brought the whole town together.
So in the end, he's a hero. Yes. Small town hero. Unforgettable.
Hey, I'm here all week, folks. The lizard man lounge, the lizard man lounge singer. Wow. Yeah.
Yeah. Low little glowworm glimmer glimmer. Yeah. You can sing all the hits.
Yeah. Yeah. That's what I've been told blue lights. I've got you under my skin.
Oh, listen, y'all. I am so excited for this episode, obviously, and our five year anniversary, like I said, and I'm going to post about this on social media. So tell us right to us. Please tell us what are your favorite episodes?
What have you enjoyed over these past five years in hell? What habit you enjoyed? We want to know the good, the bad, the things, all the things we continue to be so grateful for your support. So feel free to send either Haley an email, you can do so at mountainistries.appallegion at gmail.com.
You can send us a message via social media. So Facebook, so mountain mysteries, tales from Appalachia, you can send us a message via Instagram at mountainistries.appalaccia. And then of course, there is this bonus content that's about to get wackier. So please feel free to join us on mountainistries.
Patreon.com slash mountain mysteries. Haley, shout out. Some Prairie, Wisconsin. Whoo.
Yeah. Like it. Happy anniversary, darling. Happy anniversary.
We made it. We made it. Why did I give you a term of endearment? And I didn't get one.
I don't know. What it would have freaked you out if you got one from me. It's true. We're very often much emotion.
Yeah. I am over here going happy anniversary. And you're like, yeah, how anniversary. But I feel it from you.
Yeah. It may not be in your tone, but I feel it in your heart. That's good. Or not.
Yeah. Well, you all stick with us. We'll have another episode coming out here in just a moment. Yes.
So a little bit. Thank you. Bye.