Unsolved Murder of Pine Mountain School Teacher Lura Parsons (Pt 2)

MOUNTAIN HAINTS Series continues
Part Two Of Pine Mountain Schoolteacher Laura Parsons' Murder Dives Into Some Of Harlan County’s Darker History
BY: JENNIFER McDANIELS
APPALACHIAN JOURNALIST

(As Published In The Tri-City News)

There is not much known about Lura Parsons, the Pine Mountain Settlement School teacher who was viciously assaulted and murdered on Laden Trail on Sept. 7, 1920. Even though she made headlines throughout the nation, her background is as shadowed as the lone, mountain trail where her body was found. Parsons was bigger in death than she was in life. Perhaps it is because her murder was shrouded in mystery and shady politics, as well as volatile social issues of the day, that her story has grown to be legendary, handed down from mountain family to mountain family. Folk Studies Professor Theresa Osborne said that is how lore and legends are born  -  because there is always more to the story than what has been officially recorded. The context of historical events is often more interesting, and that is no exception in Pine Mountain’s unsolved Lura Parsons murder case.

Yellowwood State Park - Brown County, Indiana

A weekend camping produced unusual activity for a couple while camping in Yellowwood State Park in August 2015.

The man and his wife arrived at the park and set up camp on Saturday afternoon, August 8. Afterward, they took a walk around the lake before preparing dinner. They remained sitting by the fire for a while before heading for the camper to sleep. 

This creature has a confused and troubled timeline and history. Explanations range from misidentifications  to invented stories, to regular animals with mange, to urban legend and to myth.

The first attack by a Chupacabra is said to be in March 1995 when 8 sheep were found dead in Puerto Rico. Each body had three puncture wounds in the chest area and were said to be drained of blood. More stories came from the mountain region of Morovis and Orocovis. Chickens, sheep and goats were being found dead in their pens and enclosures, drained of blood with deep puncture wounds to the neck or chest. Nightly search parties of at least 200 men went out in search of the culprit(s) and to guard the animals. Nothing was found.

Ranchita Bigfoot Photograph

The Ranchita Bigfoot photograph [or Wood Ape] was allegedly taken in September 2011 by an anonymous hiker. It was not presented to the public for almost a year.

The photographer said that he was taking photos in the Ranchito area of southern California. He took a variety of pictures around the area, including two photos of a pile of dead branches. [Some sources claim three photos were taken.]  When the ones of the branches were taken, they were thought to have been debris as a result of a flood. There is no photograph presented to show a river or even a dry river bed to support that theory.

The photographer stated that he never saw the head or the creature in the second picture until a year later, when he was going through his photos from the previous year. On September 20, 2012, Mark Anders posted his YouTube video featuring the story and photos.

Early British planchette, 1850s to 1860s

The History of the Ouija Board (Part 2)

In part one, we learned that the Ouija Board 'game' came to be after it was discovered being used in Spiritualist camps in Ohio. But where did the device come from? And who first designed it?

"Spirit Rapping" was first used in 1848. Questions were asked out loud and the spirits would answer through rapping, or tapping. It was a long and tedious process as the alphabet was recited until a rap was heard to choose a letter. Then the alphabet was begun again for the next letter. And so on.

Mediums began looking for quicker ways to communicate with the dead. Some of them began printing out the alphabet and numbers on a board or a card. They would then sweep a pencil over it while asking a question and wait for a knock to designate the letter. Some also resorted to "Table Tipping". The medium would have everyone gather around a small to medium-sized table and have them place their hands on it. Eventually, the table would start moving. Questions would be asked and the table would rap out responses to the called-out alphabet.

 Answered - Drone Catches Something Powerful Trying To Tear Down Tree

The video of what many, even popular youtubers, claim to be a bigfoot ripping trees out of the ground now has some clarity thanks to the person who was operating the drone. Hint: Its NOT bigfoot.

When I saw the video, I could see there is clear evidence that logging is going on in the area, after all I worked as a logger for a few years. It also appears the video was actually shot a couple years ago, but that is just like armchair researchers to find an innocent video and fool people into thinking it is a bigfoot.

But yet the video has caught fire thanks to social media and the uninformed. Here is a screen shot from the person who was operating the drone as to what it is.

Del Norte Bigfoot Sighting, California - 1995

In 1995 two teenage boys appear to have captured a sasquatch on film. If they ever shared the footage to the internet, it is lost in the debris of the information flood.

In November 2012, the video was shared to YouTube on two different channels.

HuntForBigfoot posted the footage with a script crediting the sighting to two teenage boys: Daniel Fearing [age 17] and Michael Troup [age 15]. It also lists the encounter as being in 2005. Most sources mention it being in 1995. It is also sometimes known as The Fering Film.


[HuntForBigfoot video]
https://youtu.be/G5XqTa6Oqdc
[Sadly since the original posting in 2019, this video appears to no longer be available.]

But Crypto Crew Founder, Thomas Marcum, did a couple of breakdowns of the video. Here is one of them.