Ghost Cat

In 1910, a man named Isaac Thompson lived alone in a log cabin on a small stream called Cat Holler (so called because when the first settlers came to the area, they found several panthers or mountain lions living in the rock overhangs along this creek) in Owsley County. Isaac made a precarious living by farming a few acres of corn and a small garden. His other source of food was to help local farmers when they butchered hogs or cattle in the fall.

One November evening, as he was returning home from having helped a neighbor hill and dress a steer, Isaac was carrying a large piece of fresh meat in a cloth sack. Although no panthers or mountain lions had been seen in the vicinity for over fifty years, a huge cat of some kind, prowling the night in search of food, smelled the bloody prize. It followed Isaac until the right moment, then it leaped, tearing the beef from his shoulders and the life from his body. His dying screams echoed in the crisp Autumn night, where they can sometimes still be heard.

I recently visited this hollow, frequented now by only an occasional fox hunter or daylight hiker. No traces of Isaac Thompson's cabin remain, but I was told by people living a few miles away that hunters have heard the screams of a mountain lion at night as recently as 1983.

The sounds are not those of a domestic cat; they have been taped and positively identified as being that of a mountain lion or cougar. Thorough searches have been made, but no animal tracks or any other indication of a large cat have been found. No one has seen anything unusual on this stream, but several people told me they have heard the unmistakable sound of a man crying out in agony at the same time the cat's screams are heard.