The Hounds of Athens
On September 26th, our team investigated an old battlefield in Athens Missouri. The area is tucked away in a remote hollow surrounded by fields, a river and lots of wooded areas. The battlefield itself and homes are kept up with great care, although they are old and worn. There is a house tucked away in a remote spot of this property called the cannonball house because during the battle a cannonball was shot through the house, going all the way through the house and exiting through the back wall. Nothing was really damaged and the two holes remain to give you an idea of what artillery was like back in 1861. It is a quaint, beautiful, peaceful area, unless you are paranormal investigators looking for paranormal activity.
The account we are now going to relay to you is exactly what happened. We can not say it’s paranormal at this point, but we can’t say we feel it was coincidence either. We just want to post the experience while it is fresh in our minds. We still have alot of audio and video to go through so at this point we have not made up our minds about what happened. We do know it was a scene straight from a scarey movie.
We had been walking for a good 2 1/2 hours around the area, which is a good 2 miles at least. The night air was crisp and there was a half moon to help light our way but believe us when we say it was still pretty dark out. There are several buildings located in the state park and one in particular has a very nasty past. One of the owners who had lived there had shot his wife in the face with the intention of killing her and then walked out of the house and across the road into a wooded area and shot himself. His wife survived and the story is verifiable through a friend of one of our members because this was his grandmother and grandfather. The real reason of why he did this is not known so if he stilled walked the area in his spirit form it was worth seeing if we could get him to talk to us.
We took a break before we started to head back down to the house and the wooded area. We could clearly see the area from where our cars were parked. While we stood and talked we noticed a mist starting to rise and cross the road from the wooded area to the house. Perfect time for our group to head out to see what we can catch. It was now 9:40 in the evening and it had cooled off considerably. As we made our way down to the area where the mist and wooded area were the mist disappeared. Many of our group didn’t really notice this until we were in the spot, that there wasn’t a hint of mist to be found. This was our first weird moment but mists are not predictable and do come and go quite briskly.
We stayed infront of the wooded area and began to call out to grandpa in the woods. It was our desire to get him to tell us why he did this, if indeed his spirit did still wander this earth. We went for a few minutes trying to be polite and asking polite questions. With no response what so ever we kicked it up a notch. Knowing that grandpa was not a pleasant man we began to provoke. Provoking can be a useful tool but you have to be prepared for what might happen. At 9:47 the audio recorder in one team members hand began to vibrate. Was this audio recorder just reacting to the cold? It was shortly after this that all the animals in the surrounding woods and farms began to react with the loudest of noises.
The owls began to hoot so loudly it sounds like there 25 of them, the coyotes began barking and yipping with such a fever that it made the hair stand up on our necks. Even the dogs from the surrounding homes began barking loud and fast. What the heck? It was as if all the animals in the area were trying to get someone’s attention. Ours?
Finally, the team member who had tried to provoke told grandpa that he was a chicken trying to use the animals to do his work. She told him that we were going to go talk to grandma now to get the real story.
At this point all cameras were pointed to the wooded area and the other six member of the team were focusing on the woods. As the one member turned around to head to grandma’s what she saw was the strangest sight she had ever seen. Two blacks dogs had been sneaking up on the group from the direction of grandpa’s house. They did not make a single noise, no growls, no barks, no ruffling of the wet grass, just sneaking up behind everyone. At this point the investigator yelled “git!” at the dogs. Perhaps this was not the correct thing to do in an investigation. She should have slowly told everyone to turn around, but these animals were not approaching with friendly wagging tails, they were sneaking up on the group. If they had slowly turned around then maybe there would have been video of these sneaking dogs but in preservation of the group the team member did what came natural and told the dogs to git. They did stop and when she told them to get out of here they turned around and left in such a way to make one think that they were fleeing on air. Very little movement could be seen and they were gone in a blink of an eye, running back in the direction of grandpa’s house.
I have to tell you this gave each and everyone one of us a start. Was this the work of grandpa sending his hounds from hell to scare us off? Were these just wild dogs running around the area who were curious in what we were doing?
The team has been thinking about this incident hard for two days. They may very well have been just dogs, but they were black dogs. When we turned around to see them it wasn’t a friendly visitor we saw but an animal sneaking up on us. They weren’t small dogs either, they were the size of dobermans with small heads, large torsos and very long, lanky back legs. When they approached us they were shoulder to shoulder in a precise movement. Their hair wasn’t long but short and they were totally noiseless. No whimper, no growl, no paw noises, totally mute. Each of us in the group are dog owners and this just wasn’t normal behaviour of regular dogs, but we will admit we haven’t been around wild dogs at night before so is this how they operate?
We have looked up the hounds of hell, devil dogs, those dogs that are guardians of the gateway to cemeteries and unsacred ground. They kind of fit the bill but we can’t let our imaginations get the best of us. We will have to go back and travel the area to see if there are a pair of black dogs running wild. This may be all they were but let me tell you they sure gave us a jolt!
To end this experience we have to end with this other amazing happening of this experience. As soon as our investigator turned around and saw the dogs the other animals stopped howling, yipping and hooting. It went dead quiet in a matter of a second. This whole experience played out as well as a scene from a scarey movie with everything little thrill timed perfectly. Is it a paranormal experience? Maybe, but it could be a natural experience related to animals in a wildlife setting and humans in a setting not used to wildlife settings. Either way we will never forget those black dogs in the night and we will forever wonder about their intentions that night. We did not see them again.
Comments
Brother Ed (Sep 29, 2009)
Great story!!!
Happy Haunts,
Brother Ed
Becky (Sep 29, 2009)
I so enjoyed this story for I have been to Athens. In 1979 or 80 we had a Hays girls reunion. All we cousins were young adults and I remember walking through the brush and trees to the canon ball house. There was nothing but a trail to follow and I remember no other houses in the area. I was amazed the house was in tact 30 years ago. Am pleased it still exists. Thank you for sparking a pleasant memory, I’ll have to go back.