When i was 20 my girlfriend (ex now) and i decided to take a week long camping trip to some property that belonged to her fathers friend with my Australian cattle dog wrangler and her German Shepard zero. about 4 thousand acre undeveloped ranch in the northeast Texas woods. the plan was to be taken by 4wheeler to a point on the property unknown by us, and then we would hike back to the main gate over the next week. i had a GPS for an emergency but we planned on doing the trip with maps and compass only. we were well equipped for the trip. had enough food for 3 days,(planned to hunt the rest) water for 3 days and water purifying systems. all the necessary camping gear. she had her bolt action .223 and a tarus judge. i had my .22 rifle and my .40cal baby eagle. we arrived at our destination and bid farewell to the friends that dropped us off on the 4wheelers. our first day we mainly wandered around exploring and figuring out our plan. there was a creek running through the property that we could follow and it would get us pretty close to the gate. we had our plan and had done enough exploring so we started setting up camp before dark. our first night was very pleasant for the most part. dinner by the fire with the dogs chit chatting all night till about midnight when we decided to turn in. i woke up around 230 with a strange feeling. i saw wrangler and zero at the door of the tent very tense but not making a sound. i knew right away something was up. both of these dogs were well trained and very loyal and protective of us. i stepped out with a light and the .40 to look around and left the dogs with my gf just in case( shes a deep sleeper). i made my rounds around camp and found nothing, but i couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching me. i passed it off as a pack of coyotes and went back to bed trusting the dogs to watch out for us. we woke up the next morning and i told her what had happened. we just blew it off and began our day. well the second night we set up camp near the creek and things got a bit hairy. while sitting around the fire we heard a very strange sound. something I've never hear b4. the dogs began to growl and snarl facing the woods north of us. we quickly drew arms and began to sweep the camp sight. found nothing but the sound persisted around camp. it was like a snarling/gargling/sniffing sound. we didn't sleep that night. no matter how much we looks and checked we could never find the source of the sound and the dogs were restless the whole night. by the third night we were very restless, when night fell we sat by the fire with arms at our sides. we were going to stay up in shifts to keep watch just in case. while i was asleep i heard the dogs go off and when i woke up i saw my gf standing with zero at her feet and her judge drawn. i quickly took arms at her back. something had apparently ran very rapidly behind the tent. she couldn't describe what it was. then it ran by again. i caught a glance under the light of the fire behind us, it was big and very fast. ran on all fours but thats all i made out. it sounded like more than 1 creature this time. they weren't coyotes. to big. and much to fast. heather spotted 1 again behind the tent and fired. we heard the nasty snarl again and wrangler broke away from me and gave chase. i love my dog but didn't dare go after him. i just called and called but he didn't return. we stood there guns drawn for an hour after she had fired. everything was quiet. then we heard rustling. we had our sights on the sound and wrangler came out of the woods. he wasn't hurt, but he had blood on his back. after this we decided to bug out at sunrise. we packed up and started hiking. we were about 2 days hike non stop from the gate and we were ready to do it. the third night we didn't camp. we broke out the headlights and kept going. whatever was in those woods was back. following us but at a greater distance this time. they followed all night. that was one of the most intense hikes ive ever had. we hiked with our guns in front and the dogs in back. whatever was following us wasn't stupid. it stuck to our sides. usually about 40 yards out into the woods always out of sight. we stopped to rest for a few minutes around 4 am. they stopped too... from what we could hear it sounded like maybe 3 things out there. they got closer when we stopped and i thought i saw somthing and fired the .223. i didnt hit anything, probably my mind playing games with me but the shot scared them back to a much greater distance. by sunrise they were gone again. we made it to the gate b4 dark and high tailed it out of there.... we returned the next day on 4wheelers and with several other people to have a look around. we went to the site of our 2nd camp and found a blood trail from whatever the hell heather had hit with the slug shot loaded in the judge. the trail ran for about 200 yards b4 we lost it. we found nothing else and headed back b4 darkness caught us again. we never found out what they were. and no one had any experience like that on the property b4. to this day i try not to talk about it too much because i even have trouble believing it sometimes. i try telling myself they were coyotes with mange or mutated or something but heather never let me believe myself. not too many creatures out there can take a 410 slug and bleed that much without going down, especially not a yote. all i know is that i wont camp on that property anytime soon. - Anonymous   Weird creatures in East Texas

Here are some Spooky stories and local legends of Athens, Tx

I live in athens, texas there are a lot of local legends around here. i'll start with the pentagram that lies under the city, a lot of people talk about it but every one i know that knows about it has never been in it so i decided to go, me and a couple of my friend went to fullers park, which is another story in its own, we went off the main drive onto a trail that leads back into the woods to one of the entrances to the pentagram. it took all night to go through the entire thing but all in all it wasn't anything all that scary. there is a coffin in the center of it but we couldn't get it opened. we found five ways to get to the pentagram for anyone who decides they want to go through it, there is one at fullers park,one behind elder dodge, one at the country club in the woods, one at monkey cemetery, and one behind oriellys auto parts.

The country club entrance is under the steps where the first owner and his wife shot and killed one another. Her haunted spirit is said to roam the place… my step-dad can confirm that. She slams doors all night.. He used to be the bar tender.

did u know that judge william wayne justice(federal judge) owned fuller park the whole time he was a judge?look it up in his biography.his father and fuller were friends. when justice retired he put fuller park up for sale. i wonder why! he never did any thing with it that i know of. just pay taxes and have control of it. why????

i know where one of the entrances is supposively at…. on bryson. an old dr. told some people that bought the house that wanted the entrances was told to be under the house….owners crawled under the house as far as they could go but couldnt get into the middle of the hous…………………
ive investigated all the sites spoken of but the hospital is the one i get a bad feelin about day or night and i dont scare easy.

Hello People..
I live in Athens,TX and I have lived here for quite awhile and Yes i have heard all about this and even witnesses a few myself. I have been to the place you talk about where rituals take place... it is called Fullers Park .. it use to belong to a preacher of a baptist church in the center of Athens ... he has been dead along time and no one ever bought the land... him and his wife was also buried there and there graves stones still stand with heavy log chains going around them on posts making like a fence. there is also an old well and a house on the property and some old monkey cages which are the main spot for creepy things... I have drop past late at night and see lights out there.... like candles or flashlights ... i never been inside at night but i have visited during the day many times... one such visit me and my friends found chicken heads and such.... was freaky.. There is a story about the monkey cages... many versions but all of them mainly sum up to the fact that the preacher owned monkeys and would take aggression out on them... beat them... some even say he molested them and did rituals but that is not for sure... they say that the monkeys went crazy one time when he went out there and go loose... it is even said they killed the preacher but i don't know that for sure... but there is a road called meredith that is nick named monkey road because supposedly when the monkeys got loose they ended up in the woods in this area and there were siting of the monkeys here and at night they would even through sticks and rocks at passing cars... there is also and old wood bridge on the road .... i have been done this road also at night and it is pretty creepy... And on the subject of the tunnels... ... there was a bomb shelter built under the courthouse... and they had these tunnels constructed way back that go under the city and lead to the bomb shelter under the courthouse... but after awhile the bomb shelter was sealed up and the tunnels were cut off from the courthouse... so now they say that rituals and cults hang in the tunnels... there are many entrances to the tunnels... and i have seen one of them with my own eyes.. it is in the basement of the athens country club and it is closed off... but me and a friend of mine use to work at the country club and we were helping them move some stuff around in the basement area and we moved this tall wood bookstand looking thing and there was a hole in the wall about the size of a plate... and we shined a flashlight in the hole and we seen a hall way with steps leading further downward.. and this i swear on my life... we did see this... and we asked the greens keeper about it cause he had been working there for MANY yrs and he said that is was the entrance to one of the tunnels in athens... and before i ever worked there i had heard stories about one of the entrances being at the country club... i have heard about other locations also but i never have seen an entrance besides the one at the country club... but all the entrances are at points... and they say that when the loop in finished... you can make the points on an athens map with the loop and it will make kind of a pentagram shape also... but i am not sure about that either... supposedly the courthouse in the center point... this is just some of the things i have heard about....and like i said i have witnesses some things myself so i do not doubt that something weird is going on in Athens....

BECK'S CHAPEL, TEXAS. Beck's Chapel was off Farm Road 59 eleven miles south of Athens in southern Henderson County. It was founded in the late 1840s by David A. Anding and his family and was evidently named for an early church. A local school was operating by 1906, when it had an enrollment of forty-three. In the mid-1930s the settlement had a church, a vacant school building, and a number of houses. After World War II ^qv many of the residents moved out of the area, and in the early 1990s only a church, a cemetery, and a few houses remained.

Athens Weekly Review
Historical & Homecoming Edition
May 1941
Beck's Chapel's Old Timers Went to Science Hill

Beck's Chapel
-----
The oldtimers of Beck's Chapel went to school at Science Hill, a school about
three miles from where Beck's Chapel now stands. Mrs. S. H. Riddlesperger
was among them, as well as the old Doctor Robert Hodge. Mrs. W. L. Reynolds
was among the last teachers at Science Hill. She taught in about 1892, and
Miss Willie Cotton was one of her pupils. Miss Willie Cotton was later a teacher
at Cross Roads.

There was once a Presbyterian college at Science Hill and it was from this college
that Science Hill got its name. There was also a Masonic lodge.

There was a negro man hanged at Science Hill for plotting to poison the white people.
The people being Southerners, disliked negroes at that time anyway.

Science Hill was moved to Beck's Chapel about fifty years ago because that was more
to the center of the community.

There was also a school by the name of Blossom Ridge. This was a one room
structure made of logs and having hued-log seats. There was only one teacher of this
place and her name was Miss Reilly Mitchell. This school was also moved to Beck's
Chapel.

Beck's Chapel got its name from the well-known Beck family of this community.

Mr. Stonewall Riddlesperger, now a resident of Malakoff, deeded land to the county
judge and his successors for a school and church as long as it was used for this
purpose.

There was a Methodist church organized when the school was. There was once a
camp meeting that lasted for days.

It seems unusual now but there was about forty years ago, a postoffice. The name of it
was "Bute," and a family by the name of Bravles took care of it. There was also a
telephone party line and two gins.

Uncle Henry Ward's wife was the first one to be buried at Beck's Chapel. She was
buried in 1900, and from that day to this there has been a graveyard.

W. C.. Smith, grandfather of our former principal, owned all of Doodle Bug for many
years. He moved in several families and they organized a school, which was named
Antioch. This school lased for several years. Mr. Adrian Ford came in charge of
Doodle Bug a few years ago and in a little time the children started to school at Beck's
Chapel.

Beck's Chapel was consolidated with Cross Roads in 1934. This brought about
30 more student to the Cross Roads school.

There was also a Baptist and a Holiness church organize in Doodle Bug.

Transcribed 2003 Bunny Freeman

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