I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about an incident that happened to me back when I was a teen-ager... I grew up near Iowa City.... and several friends and I used to go to a place a long the river to have a good time and be together... this place was located about 15 minutes south of Iowa City... I can't remember what the name of the place was.... but it was a pretty primitive area... Only an out house and no lights in the little park at all... We had several different strange happenings at different times we were there... like hearing noises coming from the woods... sounded like the scream of a woman... or once in a while looked like some kind of a glow in the wooded area... but we had one trip that I will never forget... and I vowed to never again go back to that little park in the woods. It has been nearly 20 years since that night and I have not been back. Let me tell you a little about the park area... the entrance to the park is on the top of the hill... off a gravel road...the driveway going into the park is gravel but full of ruts... deep ruts... most likely from the heavy rains or the snow thaw in the spring... The drive way is kind of curvy... And finally turns to the left past a lot of trees on both sides of the road... and turns into a circle drive near the river... I think there is a boat landing or something there... There is also a large pillar... looks like maybe at one time there could have been a bridge there...There are no lights in this park... I think there were a couple of picnic tables.... but not really much of anything in this park... Nothing that would attract a person... very rarely did we ever see anyone come into the park when we were there... and after that night I think I know why...
A group of about 6 of us decided we were going to go down there on a Friday night... usually we would just stay for a couple hours... but this particular early summer night... we decided we would take a couple tents, some food, and make it a night... We heard a few hair raising screeches through the night... but didn't think much of it... We had taken an ax with us this night to make getting some wood for the fire a little easier. We were all sitting around the campfire... it is not quite mid night... there was a heavy fog on the river... this fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife... in a manner of speaking.... The sky was very dark.... we had no moon to guide us...the stars by this time had seemed to just disappear... not lost in the clouds.... just gone in the dark... We were all quiet at this time... getting a little tired.... and enjoying a few smores by the fire... When we heard a whimper coming from the trees behind us... everyone just froze... trying to get a bearing on exactly where it was coming from and what it was... it sounded like a woman crying... but there was no one in the park but our group of 6... and we had not seen any one else come into the park the entire time we had been there... we immediately took a head count to make sure everyone was accounted for...We all agreed that we should see what or who it was... Someone could need help... One of my buddies decides it is a good idea to take the ax with us.... just incase it is a rabid animal or something... but the ax was no where to be found in the camp... He swore he left it on the log... but it wasn't there... so each of us grabbing a weapon of some kind... flash light... long stick what ever we could grab quick... we headed out to the woods... walking towards the sound in the dark.... seemed like it took us a while to get closer to the sound... we walked deeper into the woods. The deeper we got into the woods the farther away the whimpers got... We were all beginning to get a little spooked now... and decided we would be safer back at camp... When suddenly we began hearing strange noises... couldn't tell exactly where they were coming from... twigs breaking not far from us... loud screams in a distance... We all agreed that we had a feeling that someone was watching... at one point we even thought we might have seen a figure not more than a 100 yards from us... We decided to get back to camp as fast as we could...As we were on our way our flash light caught our attention to the glimmer of something in the trunk of the tree... all of us a little leery of what it might be, decided to take a closer look...and to our surprise it was our very own ax... with a small puddle of what looked to us like blood... We very quickly... very quietly... but all together in a small huddle... went back to where we had made camp... As we approached our camp, we all saw what looked to be someone standing in our camp. As we got closer the figure of a person standing in our camp disappeared. He/it didn't walk or run away. It just was gone... Extremely scared by now. We all decided that the best thing to do was to pack up our camp and get the hell out of there... So that’s what we did... But when we jumped into our vehicles we couldn't get either one to start... But instead the lights kept flickering on and off... and even the horn went off... We were so scared all we could think of to do was to pray to God for our safety... and at that moment both cars started... We slammed the vehicles in drive and very quickly headed for the only way out of this park... As we were approaching the top of the hill... We seen a very large figure.... nothing like I had ever seen in my life... this shadowy looking dark figure had to have stood 12 ft tall... it seemed to take up the entire exit... but it was shaped like a man... a man carrying a large ax... to afraid to stop we just kept our cars moving as fast as they would move, practically bumper to bumper up the steep bumpy hill...As we got closer to the figure it looked bigger than ever.... it looked like it could inhale both cars. We just kept the cars moving... and right at the moment that it looked like we were going to total our car against this huge figure......... it was gone.
