Welcome to the Buck Mountain Project Page which was last updated on 10/13/2004! Before you read any of the hype, you can read the Eighth Anniversary Edition of the story. Since you are still reading, lets dive into this project. I attended Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville from September of 1987 though December, 1990 when I graduated. Over those years, I discovered many neat places to go including Burgess Falls State Park, Window Cliffs, Cummings Falls, and Buck Mountain.
Buck Mountain physically is a finger of the western Cumberland Plateau which juts out and over the eastern Highland Rim. When consulting a map of the area, the place where this story takes place is not Buck Mountain at all. College students from Cookeville see Buck Mountain Road heading eastward out of town toward the plateau. Once on top of the plateau, they would not see civilization again until the town Monterey. The assumption that the whole trip crossed Buck Mountain was incorrect. For the purpose of the Buck Mountain Project, we will consider the whole mountain to be named Buck Mountain. The other two names could be Brotherton, and Willet.
Buck Mountain Road proper starts east of Cookeville. At the Putnam County Courthouse, travel eastward on East Broad Street. This road forks to the left and right. Heading right takes you to US 70-N. Left puts you on Buck Mountain Road. Follow Buck Mountain Road eastward. You will cross over the limited access TN 111 highway. There will be a stop sign on Dry Valley Road. Continue straight on Buck Mountain Road. The road will widen to three lanes as you climb onto Buck Mountain. Once on the mountain, you will travel along for a few miles until you arrive at a stop sign at Brotherton. Turning left will take you to the town of Algood. Turning right will take you to Monterey. Turn right.
You will shortly leave civilization. At the first rail road crossing (which has been paved over) is where the cars were parked both in October and January. Eventually you will see a road turning toward the left which is Blaylock Mountain Road. At the very next road to the left is the "Witch's Cemetery". The rumor is if at midnight you go into the cemetery and touch the indention in the middle of the pentagram of the largest tombstone, a demon will be summoned.
Continuing across the mountain, on the right you will see a satalite receiving dish and a road disappearing up the hill toward the big antenna. These two communication instruments are, no doubt, used by some secret government agency doing something secret- most likely involving the United Nations, or at least a PBS station.
Next the road will widen out a little, and you will cross a ten year old concrete bridge which replaced the original wooden bridge named "Crazy George's Bridge". This bridge is named for a guy named George who by one method or another came to the end of his life. In one story, Crazy George was a builder of the bridge. One day he got drunk and fell asleep on the rail road tracks below. A train came by and decapitated him, naming the bridge forever. In the other story, Crazy George was drunk on top of the bridge, fell off, landed on the tracks, and was decapitated by a passing train. Either way, most stories involved alcohol and decapitation. The spirit of Crazy George is said to roam the mountain even until today.
At the curve, just beyond the bridge is a clearing where devil worshipers gather. In fact, any clearing near the road from here on out is a gathering place for devil worshipers. One time when I was asked if I was afraid of the weirdoes on Buck Mountain, I replied that I was the weirdoes on Buck Mountain, and as long as you were not a devil worshiper, you had nothing to fear from me.
Continuing on this road will eventually bring you out into civilization. Going further will bring you into Monterey. The road ends on TN 84. Left will take you north toward Livingston. Veering right will take you into downtown Monterey. You can follow the signs to interstate 40 from Monterey.
The mixture of isolation, decapitation, ghosts, witches, devil worshipers, and secret government communications gives Buck Mountain all the elements needed to created scary stories and even better, hit movies that came out of nowhere. I wish we had a video camera during those years. We could have shot some wild video there. For some reason, I do not believe any pictures from that time exists from up there, although several years later I did take a few pictures and some video.
As an update to all the information presented, Jennifer located me in 2004 and she is doing well in another state (that is state as in "The United", not state as in "of mind"). It is good to solve some mysteries in life.
Here are links to existing Buck Mountain Projects and proposed Buck Mountain Projects:
If you enjoyed this page, visit this other pageby the same author:
This project copyrighted © 1999 - 2004 by Christopher L. Augustus.