Travelers feared the clutches of 'Hairy Bill' while passing through Burnt Corn's 'Booger Bottom'

Looking north at 'Booger Bottom' on County Road 5.

During the past week, I finally managed to pinpoint the exact location of “Booger Bottom.”

Many of you will remember reading in this space a couple of weeks ago that a woman dropped by the newspaper office to say that she’d been reading all the local Bigfoot reports with great interest. She said that all of these tales reminded her of when she was a young girl growing up around Burnt Corn and Green Street, back when older members of the community would scare children with stories about a place they called “Booger Bottom.” Supposedly, something lived in the woods there that would carry you off if you lingered too long in that area.

This woman said that the best she could remember “Booger Bottom” was located on County Road 5 in the three-mile stretch between the Old Watkins House at Burnt Corn and Ramah Church near Pine Orchard. She said she used to be so scared of this location that even when she got old enough to drive, she would drive a little faster to get through that area, especially at night.

I began to ask around about “Booger Bottom” and was surprised by how many people from the Burnt Corn area had heard of this mysterious spot in the road. Thanks to Mary McKinley and her older brother, William Cater, I was able to pinpoint the exact location of “Booger Bottom,” and I even made a field trip out there last Thursday afternoon to see it for myself. According to McKinley and Cater, “Booger Bottom” was located about 100 yards south of the Salter Monument on County Road 5.

Cater said that before County Road 5 was paved, there was a hill about where the Salter Monument is currently located between Burnt Corn and Ramah Church, and this hill went downhill a bit in the direction of Burnt Corn. Mary said she remembered her grandfather calling it “Booger Man’s Bottom.”

Last Thursday afternoon, while the internet was out all over Evergreen, I hopped in the truck and rode back out to this area to see “Booger Bottom” for myself. Based on McKinley and Cater’s directions, I determined that “Booger Bottom” is four-tenths of a mile north of the Old Watkins House on County Road 5. If you pass this house, going north, you’ll notice that you’re traveling up a small hill as the road curves slightly to the east. Where this curve begins is “Booger Bottom.”

If you travel through the curve, you’ll come upon the Salter Monument about two-tenths of a mile later. It’s on the east side of the road and if you pull over and look back toward Burnt Corn, you’ll realize that you’re looking slightly downhill. This has to be the small hill that was cut down during the paving operation years ago.

As I stood there last Thursday, I couldn’t help but think about some of the other things that people had told me about “Booger Bottom.” Many of these people mentioned an entity called “Hairy Bill,” who supposedly lived at “Booger Bottom.” Some say that “Hairy Bill” was a fictitious character created by older adults in the community to keep small children from playing in and around the logging woods.

McKinley also said that she remembered her grandmother telling a story of an unusual happening near “Booger Bottom.” Her grandmother was walking down the road close to “Booger Bottom” when she encountered a man with a small, solid white dog. This man was apparently a stranger in the community, and his presence could never be explained.

Linda Lambert also said that she remembered not wanting to travel through “Booger Bottom” at night because it used to give her “an all-over creepy feeling” when she was a little girl.

“We never heard of Bigfoot back then, and I never saw anything but a ball of fire once in a tall tree when mama, daddy and I came home late from a relative`s house,” she said. “We never knew what that was. It just sat up there in the tree.

“It was just plain creepy, traveling thru that area,” Lambert continued. “I asked a local man from that area why that stretch of road was so creepy, and he knew I was talking about Booger Bottom. My dad used to tell about going through the area back in the 1920s, and the horse spooked and would not go on down the road. He said something white crossed the road in front of them and disappeared.”

In the end, I appreciate everyone who provided me with the information needed to pinpoint the exact location of “Booger Bottom.” I think it’s important to document things like this for future generations, so that they will not be forgotten. If anyone else in the reading audience has any information they’d like to share about strange events in and around “Booger Bottom,” please let me hear from you.