Browington and the Wampus Cat

My dad’s side of the family has long been settled in the community known as Browington Tennessee. In fact, if you drive through, you’ll notice the Parks name on lots of roads. Several legends and stories come from this area. One of which is the Marble Plains Baptist Church. The Church, which is only yards from the entrance to the Tim’s Ford State Park, is the source to one of the most horrific stories I’ve heard, and it’s true.

In the early 1900s, during a Sunday service, a man named Dwight Denkins decided he had had enough of being the community outcast. He barricaded the front doors and boarded up the back doors. He then proceeded to see the church on fire. Due to the fact that the widows were too high off of the ground, and the doors were sealed shut, everyone burned alive.

Now of course, this is a terrible story. However, that’s not the end of it. The church was rebuilt exactly as it had been; on the exact same spot it was located before the fire.

If that weren’t enough, years later, the church was remodeled. A new entrance was added and a large kitchen was constructed on the back of the church. The only problem, there was nowhere to add these additions as the cemetery was too close to the church. So, in a move worthy of the movie Poltergeist, the additions were built on top of the graves. Supposedly some of the graves were moved, however, you can clearly see old headstone built into the foundation of the kitchen attached to the back of the church.

The Browington area is also the location for the story my grandfather told me about the time he, his brother, and a man named Carol Lewis were in the woods Raccoon hunting. Avid hunters, the men had been on this same hunt dozens of times. Of course like all of these hunting trips, at some point in the night, there is a lull of sorts when the dogs are off doing their thing. It’s at this point that my grandfather and his cohorts decide to sit, and have a drink. On this particular night, they didn’t get the chance. No sooner than they sat down, they heard the dogs barking wildly, and then they heard the dogs running toward them. As the dogs sped past without stopping, they heard something else. It was much louder and bigger than a dog, and was moving through the trees and the brush very fast, much faster than the dogs. Suddenly a terrible odor filled the air as whatever has coming toward them let out what has been described to me as a “very unnatural growl.” Without another thought, the three men were off running back toward their truck. Behind them, whatever it was was getting closer. Finally, they got to the truck, climbed inside and locked the doors. Minutes later, the creature arrived and began climbing on the truck shaking and clawing it violently. After a while, whatever it was gave up, and went on its way. The men stayed in the truck till sun up.

The next morning, they climbed out of the truck to find the vehicle covered in deep claw marks. The terrible smell lingered also. Around the truck were tracks left by the animal. It appeared from the tracks that whatever it was, it stood upright, and only had three toes or claws. The claw marks on the truck also showed only three claws. Under the truck, the men found there dogs, too scared to come out, but otherwise unharmed. To this day, ask my grandfather what attacked them that night, the only words from his mouth are, “Catty Wampus.”

The “Catty Wampus” or “Wampus Cat” as it is more commonly known by is a creature of legend in Tennessee and around the southern states. Said to be a creature from Cherokee Indian lore, there are tons of reported incidents that have been blamed on the creature.

JLP