URECAT -> Home

Cette page en français

URECAT - UFO Related Entities Catalog

JULY 20, 1955, EDISON, GEORGIA, USA, TANT KING:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

Several second hand sources indicate without great details that on July 20, 1955, amidst a flap of sighting reports of Bigfoot, "little men" and other "ghosts" in Georgia, Tant King, a farm hand of Edison, saw at the Three Springs ranch a creature which went like a man on hind legs and left traces indicating four claws curved towards outside for each foot.

The creature had white or gray hairs, depending on the one or the other source, shaggy, covering it entirely, and a small round head, and was no taller than 3.5 or 4 or 5 feet, this height changing in the different source.

A professor of agriculture, Wayne Dozier, investigated, protected the traces, and summoned from the city Doug Flowers, a sporting trainer. A tuft of silky buckled white hairs was found on barbed wire, which are said to have been subjected to an analysis - nothing is said about the result.

Only one of the sources specifies that zoologist O.K. Fletcher proposed that the creature was a kangaroo.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. jb1:] JANET AND COLIN BORD:

At the end of their book on the "Bigfoot", the authors provide a listing indicating that on July 20, 1955, at the Three Springs ranch near Edison, Georgia, USA, Tant King saw a "hairy little gray man" about 3.5 feet tall walking in the fields; tracks also found.

They specify that the report included a letter by the ranch owner; which is reproduced in Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher's "Close Encounter at Kelly and Other of 1955", Center for UFO Studies, 1978, pp 161-5, and that other sources are John Keel, "Strange Creatures from Time and Space", page 104, and Green, "Sasquatsch: the Apes Among Us" page 215.

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Edison, Georgia, on July 20, 1955, in the afternoon, Tant King, a farmhand, saw a "hairy little gray man without clothes" emerged from a nearby wood and walk along a fence. This being was visible for 25 minutes before it returned to the woods.

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Ted Bloecher, and Humcat 1955-10.

[Ref. sm1:] DWIGHT G. SMITH AND GARY S. MANGIACOPRA:

The authors indicates that a few days before the August 1, 1955 Bigfoot report, amidst a flap of Bigfoot or "ghosts" sightings in Georgia, Tant King, a hard-working Edison farmer was chased by "a creature that walked like a man on its hind legs and left tracks indicating a paw with four claws the curved outward for each foot", and further told among other details that "it had shaggy white hair all over and a little round head" and was not taller than 5 feet.

An agriculture teacher, Wayne Dozier, investigated and dragged a wooden frame over the tracks to preserve them, then brought from town Doug Flowers, an athletic coach, where [sic] they found a "wisp of silky curly white hair on a strand of barbed wire; which was later submitted for analysis."

Among the other witnesses was a share-cropper family by the name of Alberta Dunnel.

Zoologist O.K. Fletcher proposed that the "thing" was a kangaroo.

The authors indicate that they are currently re-investigating these cases.

[Ref. bf1:] "BIGFOOT FACT OR FANTASY?" WEBSITE:

This website indicates in a listing that on July 20, 1955, at the Three Springs ranch near Edison, Georgia, USA, Tant King saw a "hairy little gray man" about 3.5 feet tall walking in the fields; tracks also found.

The source is indicated as being the data from "Chronological List of Bigfoot Sightings (1818-1980)" in "The Bigfoot Casebook", by Janet and Colin Bord, 1982, New York: Granada Publishing.

[Ref. ud1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that a CE3 occurred on July 20, 1955, in the afternoon in Edison, Georgia, USA: Tant King, a farmhand, saw a 4-foot-tall naked "hairy little gray man without clothes" emerged from a nearby wood and walk along a fence. This being was visible for 25 minutes before it returned to the woods. Little men were observed, an unidentified object at close range and its occupants were observed by one experienced male witness, Tant, King, in a field for over 25 minutes.

The sources are indicated as: Webb, David, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports; Bloecher, Ted R., Ted R. Bloecher investigation files; Eberhart, George M., A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980; Rosales, Albert S., Humanoid Contact Database; Newspaper Clippings.

Points to consider:

"Alberta Dunnel" was Alberta Donnell, a woman who, with her son, saw such a creature too apparently on the same ranch but 4 days later - the case has its own file in my catalogue.

A first sight, the information is so meager that there seems to be no way to explain the event by one or another cause.

But clues are appearing in one of the sources:

• The creature left "four claws", turned outside, traces.
• The creature was some 3.5 to 4 feet tall.
• The creature was biped.
• The creature had a small head.
• It was grey, some white hair were also found.
• A sportsman was called on location.
• A zoologist explained that it was a kangaroo.

The questions are: what creature is biped, has a small head, has grey and white hair, is about 4 feet tall?

An answer is the one given by the zoologist: a kangaroo.

A kangaroo can leave foot traces of various aspect. One aspect is a "four claws" trace, this aspect shows when the animal jumped.

When the traces were found, they were protected, and a sportsman was called on location.

Why would anyone need a sportsman to go look at the traces of a mysterious being at all? At first sight, it makes absolutely no sense.

My guess is: the traces might have been wide apart, and someone wanted to know if a man can make jumps that long. Hence, a sportsman was summoned.

What animal makes long jumps?

A kangaroo.

This of course does not demonstrate that the being was a kangaroo; only that there were possible reasons to suspect that it was. More details might enforce or destroy this possibility, details that are not available to me at this time but could be in the Bloecher and Davis book.

What does appear, in any event, it that the being was very probably not a visitor from another planet or some "other dimensions" - at least, there is no shred of reason to think so.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Possible confusion, animal, kangaroo.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] ? "Strange Creatures from Time and Space", book by John Keel, Neville Spearman publishers, U-K., page 104, 1975.
• [---] ? "HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports", compiled by David F. Webb and Ted Bloecher, USA, CUFOS, circa 1977.
• [---] ? "Close Encounters at Kelly and others of 1955", book by Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), USA, pp 161-165, 1978.
• [jb1] * "The Bigfoot Casebook", book by Janet and Colin Bord, Granada publishers, USA, 1982.
• [---] ? "A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies", book by George M. Eberhart, Greenwood Press publishers, USA, 1980.
• [---] ? "Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us", book by John Willison Green, Hancock House publishers, page 215, USA, 1981.
• [ar1] * "1955 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2001, à www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1955.shtml
• [sm1] * "A Georgia 'Gorilla' From the Mid-1950s Cold War Era", article by Dr. Dwight G. Smith and Gary S. Mangiacopra, in the bulletin North American Biofortean Review, USA, Volume 7, #1, issue 16, March 2005.
• [bf1] * "Chronological List of Bigfoot Sightings 1951 - 1960,", listing by the website Bigfoot, Fact of Fantasy?, USA, circa 2007, at home.clara.net/rfthomas/cb/1951.html
• [ud1] * "20 Jul 1955 - Edison, Georgia, USA", web page on the UFOdna website, circa 2007, at www.ufodna.com/uf07/uf6/076763.htm

Document history:

Authoring

Changes history

Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home

This page was last updated on February 18, 2008