Legend of Sugar Flat Road

The mysterious is all around us....
Incidents occur that should never happen...things that aren't meant to take
place in the real world where the sun is shining brightly. And in 1987, on a
cold, crisp moonlit January night, one of those things that don't happen
happened in the hills of Lebanon, Tennessee.
On that particular night, a lover's tryst led two people closer to the unknown
than they had ever wanted to get and when the night was over they'd relive it a
thousand times.
The two had come to Sugar Flat Road (or Lover's Lane as it was often called) to
meet discreetly. And since one of the parties was married discretion seemed
like a good idea. As usually happens in meetings such as this, time seemed to
stand still for the amorous couple. Before they knew it, it was well past the
hour when they should have gone to their separate homes.
Excited (for apparent reasons) and anxious over the possibility of being caught
at their illicit games they sped away from their place on the side of the road.
As the couple rounded a curve on the bumpy, old road two figures burst directly
into the path of the truck from the line of small scrub trees and bushes that lined
their route.
The brakes and the battered old truck did little to slow the vehicle and in the
midst of crunching metal, breaking glass, and skidding tires the couple heard a
horrible groan. Thinking he had hit a deer or a small bear, the driver swung his
door wide and leaped out of the truck.
The thing (that's what we'll call it for the time being) lay toward the rear of
the truck. The driver could barely make it out despite the full moon and the
glare of his taillight. He took a flashlight from his lady friend inside the
truck and went back to get another look at the lifeless form lying in the road.
As he approached the thing, he heard an animal-type cry from the other figure
standing just outside his field of vision. Frightened by this cry, he was also
fascinated at the thing in the road. As the beam of his flashlight settled on
the thing, he forgot all about its partner in the bushes.
Whatever he had run over looked for all practical purposes like a medium-sized
man with one exception. It was covered with what looked to be hair or fur. It
was also definitely dead. As he stood over the creature, his girlfriend's voice
trickled in from the darknessand he realized that the most important thing he
could do right now was get her home before they both had too much explaining to
do.
He pulled the creature to the side of the road, disguised it as well as he
could and got back into the truck. Despite her questions, he did little talking
during the trip. After dropping her off he went home and drank the better part
of a bottle of whiskey hoping it would calm him and put him to sleep quickly
after the harrowing experience. But try as he might, sleep evaded him. The
solution to his restlessness seemed to be to return to Sugar Flat Road and find
out exactly what it was he hit.
He dressed quickly and drove off into the late night early morning sky. As he
neared the site of the accident he drove by slowly looking for the body he'd
moved to the side of the road earlier. He backed his truck into the tree line
in front of a small building that for many years had been used as a voting
place.
Now, in the quiet of the dawn he inspected the creature again. It wasn't a man.
Of that he was sure. But what was it? With a shudder he took a shovel from the
back of his truck intent on burying the thing deep in the ground and forgetting
this night had ever happened. But as he dug into the soft earth, he began to
reason that since the creature wasn't a man it was obviously an animal. And he
should have a trophy. When the hole had been dug he deftly severed the
creature's head with the point of the shovel, scooped it up and tossed it into
the bed of the pickup. He kicked the thing's body into the hole, covered it
with dirt and drove into town to a taxidermist's shop. The taxidermist shook
his head in disbelief when he saw the creature's head, but despite never having
seen anything like it before he agreed to preserve it.
For several years after the incident the head rested on the mantel. The
reactions varied: Monster, Bigfoot, Alien, genetic freak...no one knew. The
only person who had a definite opinion on the creature was the man's wife. And
that opinion was "Either it goes or I go!" So it went.
But there continue to be spottings of the creature's mate up and down Sugar
Flat Road.
Residents of the area have complained that chickens, ducks and turkeys often
come up missing and the rumor is that if a dog barks at night it will probably
never be seen again.
The creature's head now resides at Cuz's Antique Center on the Square in Lebanon,
Tennessee. It's been there for several years now. And despite the national
television and radio exposure, no one to this day can attest to the origin of
this unusual creature.