00:00:00Setting Out On Devil’s Backbone
00:01:29Midnight Hoofbeats And Ghost Riders
00:03:43The Predator In The Cave
00:09:28Why Folklore Sticks With Us
00:10:24Final Warning And Farewell
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Description
There’s a stretch of road between Wimberley and Blanco called the Devil’s Backbone. In daylight, it’s some of the prettiest country in Texas. After dark? Well, that’s another matter.
For generations, people have told strange stories about this limestone ridge—ghostly riders, unexplained sounds, and things seen in the canyons that nobody could quite explain.
In this special Halloween episode of The Texan Edge, Tweed turns to two stories collected by Texas folklorist Bert Wall: the mysterious riders reportedly heard and seen by more than one person, and the unsettling tale of an experienced professional hunter who went looking for a livestock predator in 1948—and came back 35 days later wanting nothing more than to leave.
Are they true? You can decide that for yourself.
But if you ever hear hoofbeats along the Devil’s Backbone after dark...
Keep driving.
Show Notes
For our Halloween episode, we head into the Texas Hill Country and down Ranch Road 32—the Devil’s Backbone.
Bert Wall spent years collecting the strange stories told by people who lived and worked along the Backbone. In this episode, we explore two of them.
First are the Mystery Riders. Wall’s ranch foreman, Lynn Gentry, reported hearing what sounded like approaching thunder before realizing it was the pounding of horses’ hooves. Gentry said he went outside and saw a group of mounted men who appeared to him to be Confederate soldiers. Other people later reported similar experiences.
Then comes The Predator, a story Wall said was told to him in 1983 by an elderly World War II veteran about events supposedly occurring in 1948. Ranchers plagued by livestock killings hired an experienced professional hunter. What he reportedly encountered included an enormous white ram with red eyes, a cave filled with rattlesnakes, what appeared to be chests of gold—and an experience frightening enough that the hunter wanted no part of any of it.
These are only two of the many stories associated with the Devil’s Backbone. There are plenty more waiting out there in those Hill Country canyons for another night.
Primary source: Bert Wall, The Devil’s Backbone: Ghost Stories from the Texas Hill Country
This isn't just a podcast, it's a Texas state of mind.
English
United States
IN THIS EPISODE
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.400
The Devil's Backbone.
00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:13.759
There's a stretch of road in the Texas Hill Country between Wimberley and Blanco called The Devil's Backbone.
00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:17.920
And if you've ever driven it, well, you know why people remember it.
00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:23.440
It runs along a limestone ridge, high above the valleys and the canyons below.
00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:27.039
In daylight, it's some of the prettiest country in Texas.
00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:30.160
But we're not going to be there in daylight.
00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:34.479
Hi there, I'm Tweed Scott, and this is the Texan Edge.
00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:40.799
And since Halloween is upon us, I thought we might take a little drive down the devil's backbone.
00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.600
Now, before we go any farther, I need to introduce you to a fellow named Bert Wall.
00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:50.799
Wall was a fifth-generation Texan who spent a lot of time in the hill country.
00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:58.000
Beginning in the 1980s, he started collecting the strange stories that people told about the backbone.
00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:04.239
Ghost, unexplained lights, animals that probably weren't animals, and writers.
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:05.760
Lots of writers.
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:12.560
Wall eventually filled books with these stories, and some of them even wound up on television.
00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:18.560
Now I've spent some time reading Wall's work, and I'm going to tell you two of his stories today.
00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.680
Now I'm not going to tell you that they happened, and I'm not going to tell you that they didn't.
00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:29.120
I'm just going to tell you what people said happened, and you can take it from there.
00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:36.400
Because one of the stories people have told for years along the devil's backbone concerns the sound of horses.
00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:37.840
Not a horse.
00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:40.480
Horses running hard.
00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:44.239
Burt Wall had a ranch foreman named Lynn Gentry.
00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:51.680
One night Gentry was lying in the bunkhouse when he heard what he first thought was thunder somewhere off in the distance.
00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.640
Except the sound kept getting closer.
00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.840
And pretty soon he realized it wasn't thunder.
00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.599
It was hoofbeats.
00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:02.159
A lot of them, coming fast.
00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:08.159
The sound became so powerful that things inside the bunkhouse reportedly began to shake.
00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:12.240
So Gentry did what I'm not entirely sure that I would have done.
00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:13.840
He went outside.
00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.800
And he said he saw somewhere around fifteen or twenty men on horseback.
00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:22.400
To Gentry, they looked like Confederate soldiers.
00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:24.800
And then they were gone.
00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:31.199
Now, Confederate cavalry in this part of Texas isn't something somebody invented for a ghost story.
00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:33.759
During the Civil War, Peter C.
00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:39.520
Woods of San Marcos raised a cavalry company, largely from Hayes County.
00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.039
It became part of the 36th Texas Cavalry.
00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:52.400
So there were Confederate horsemen from this part of the country, but I haven't found any evidence telling me who Gentry's riders were.
00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:59.120
Assuming, of course, that there were riders at all, and Gentry wasn't the only person reported hearing them.
00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:04.960
Years later, a rancher named Charlie Beatty owned the property next to Walls Ranch.
00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:09.120
Beattie told a reporter that one night he heard the horses too.
00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:10.719
There are other accounts.
00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:19.919
Another hunter reportedly heard that what sounded like dozens of horses coming through the country, and he said he saw what he believed were Confederate cavalrymen.
00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.080
And that's where this particular story gets under my skin just a little bit.
00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:30.240
One man hearing horses late at night, okay, sound carries strangely through those canyons.
00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:37.680
But when different people at different times start describing something similar, well, I don't know.
00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:42.800
And apparently, neither did Bert Wall, and that's why he collected the stories.
00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:50.240
But of all the things Wall once wrote about the devil's backbone, there was another story that bothered me even more.
00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:54.800
Maybe because this one wasn't about somebody who went looking for ghosts.
00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:57.759
It was about a man who knew how to hunt.
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.240
The story was called The Predator.
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:03.919
Wall said he heard it back in August of 1983.
00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.879
He was working with some men finishing a fence on a ranch along the backbone.
00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:18.319
And one of the men was in his early eighties, a World War II veteran who had spent years working these central Texas hills and canyons.
00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:22.959
And at some point the old fellow looked out across the country and started chuckling.
00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:25.839
Well, Wall asked him what was so funny.
00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.680
And the old man told him a story about something that had happened back in nineteen forty eight.
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:34.560
Ranchers in the area were having a problem.
00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:37.600
Something was killing livestock.
00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:40.319
Cattle, sheep, goats.
00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:42.959
They tried traps, didn't work.
00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:45.920
They tried hunting dogs, didn't work.
00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.959
In fact, nobody seemed able to get a good look at whatever it was doing the killing.
00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:55.839
And finally, the ranchers decided they needed somebody who knew what he was doing.
00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.720
So they hired a professional hunter.
00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:02.720
And according to the story, he wasn't some weekend deer hunter.
00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:08.959
He was an older man who had spent most of his life hunting out in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas.
00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:14.720
He knew predators, and apparently he was pretty confident in his ability to deal with this one.
00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:18.639
Well, give me thirty days, he said, and leave me alone.
00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:24.079
I'll come back with your predator, collect my money, and head back to West Texas.
00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:25.519
So they did.
00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:26.959
They left him alone.
00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:28.720
Thirty days passed.
00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:29.680
Nothing.
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.560
Thirty five days after he'd gone out, the hunter finally came back.
00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:40.800
And according to Wall's story, he didn't look like a man coming home from a successful hunt.
00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:45.199
He was tired, haggard, and anxious to leave.
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.439
Something had happened out there.
00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:51.519
The hunter said he found a trail and started setting traps.
00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:53.519
But something strange happened.
00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:55.759
The traps were being sprung.
00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.160
The bait wasn't being eaten.
00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:02.959
It was almost as though whatever he was hunting knew exactly what the traps were.
00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:07.279
And after a while the hunter began getting an uncomfortable feeling.
00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:10.480
He wasn't sure that he was hunting the predator anymore.
00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:14.000
He began to feel like the predator was hunting him.
00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:22.879
Then one day he finally saw it, and after all that buildup, you'd probably expect me to tell you it was a mountain lion or something, maybe a wolf.
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.000
Some enormous cat nobody had seen before.
00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:26.800
No.
00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:34.160
According to the hunter, it was a goat, more precisely, an enormous white ram.
00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:39.759
He estimated it weighed at least two hundred pounds, and it had huge red eyes.
00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:41.360
The hunter followed it.
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.560
And eventually the animal went into a cave.
00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:49.519
He approached the entrance and he could see those eyes looking back at him from inside.
00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:57.519
And apparently this old professional hunter, well, he came to a conclusion that animal wasn't afraid of him, not at all.
00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:02.480
So he raised his rifle and shot it right between the eyes.
00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:03.839
Then he heard something.
00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:11.839
At first he apparently thought it sounded like rifle fire, and then he realized what he was hearing was rattlesnakes.
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.319
According to the story, there were hundreds of them inside that cave.
00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:18.959
Now, I'm going to tell you something.
00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:28.160
If I shine a flashlight into a dark hill country cave and discover hundreds of rattlesnakes, my investigation is over.
00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:32.160
But this fellow was made of much sterner stuff than I am.
00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:34.720
He shined his light into the cave.
00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:38.000
There was the ram, down on the ground.
00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:45.920
There appeared to be blood beneath its chin, but its eyes were still open, still looking toward the mouth of that cave.
00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:48.399
And then the hunter saw something else.
00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:56.560
Farther back, inside, he thought he could see wooden chests and what looked like gold coins.
00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:58.800
Now think about that for a minute.
00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:06.160
There's supposedly a fortune sitting inside that cave, and the hunter wants absolutely nothing to do with it.
00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:08.240
He doesn't go after the gold.
00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.160
He doesn't drag the ram outside as proof of what he's killed.
00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:14.319
He just flat leaves.
00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:27.040
Thirty-five days after the confidently telling those ranchers that he'd bring their predator back, this experienced professional hunter returned tired, haggard, and ready to get the hell out of Dodge.
00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:31.600
And when the ranchers asked him what he'd been hunting, he told them.
00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:34.799
Now, did that happen?
00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:36.960
I haven't the faintest idea.
00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:40.000
And neither you nor I have to decide that.
00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:52.559
What we do know is that Bert Wall said an elderly World War II veteran told him that story in 1983 about something that supposedly happened along the devil's backbone in 1948.
00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:54.799
That's what folklore is.
00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.799
A story gets told, then somebody tells it again.
00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:03.440
Years pass, people die, and the story stays.
00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:06.000
But here's what bothers me about this one.
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.840
It's not the red eyes, it's not even hundreds of rattlesnakes.
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:18.240
It's the hunter, a man who had spent most of his life in rough country hunting predators, apparently walked away from something he couldn't explain.
00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:23.120
He didn't want the animal, he didn't want the gold, he just wanted out.
00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:27.679
And for me, that's the creepiest part of the whole damn story.
00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:31.919
Now these are only two of the stories people have told about the devil's backbone.
00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:34.240
Burt Wall filled books with them.
00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:44.159
There are even stories about apparitions, strange animals, unexplained sounds, and things that people claim to have seen out there that they couldn't explain.
00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:49.440
Enough stories, I suspect, for us to come back and revisit another night.
00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:51.759
But I think two are enough for tonight.
00:09:52.080 --> 00:10:04.639
So we'll leave the devil's backbone right where we found it, out there between Wimberley and Blanco, that old limestone ridge, those deep canyons, and Ranch Road thirty two winding through the darkness.
00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:12.240
And if you ever find yourself driving that road late at night and you hear something off in the distance, listen carefully.
00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:14.159
It might be thunder.
00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:17.679
And if it isn't, keep driving.
00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.519
I'm Tweed Scott.
00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:24.080
This is the Texan Edge, and our porch light is always on.
00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:29.200
If you enjoyed this episode, tell a friend about the Texan Edge and how to find us.
00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:32.080
Our porch is big enough to handle everyone.
00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:40.559
Until we meet again, take care of your precious selves, and we'll see you soon with another episode of the Texan Edge.
00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.400
The Devil's Backbone.
00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:13.759
There's a stretch of road in the Texas Hill Country between Wimberley and Blanco called The Devil's Backbone.
00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:17.920
And if you've ever driven it, well, you know why people remember it.
00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:23.440
It runs along a limestone ridge, high above the valleys and the canyons below.
00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:27.039
In daylight, it's some of the prettiest country in Texas.
00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:30.160
But we're not going to be there in daylight.
00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:34.479
Hi there, I'm Tweed Scott, and this is the Texan Edge.
00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:40.799
And since Halloween is upon us, I thought we might take a little drive down the devil's backbone.
00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.600
Now, before we go any farther, I need to introduce you to a fellow named Bert Wall.
00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:50.799
Wall was a fifth-generation Texan who spent a lot of time in the hill country.
00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:58.000
Beginning in the 1980s, he started collecting the strange stories that people told about the backbone.
00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:04.239
Ghost, unexplained lights, animals that probably weren't animals, and writers.
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:05.760
Lots of writers.
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:12.560
Wall eventually filled books with these stories, and some of them even wound up on television.
00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:18.560
Now I've spent some time reading Wall's work, and I'm going to tell you two of his stories today.
00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.680
Now I'm not going to tell you that they happened, and I'm not going to tell you that they didn't.
00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:29.120
I'm just going to tell you what people said happened, and you can take it from there.
00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:36.400
Because one of the stories people have told for years along the devil's backbone concerns the sound of horses.
00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:37.840
Not a horse.
00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:40.480
Horses running hard.
00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:44.239
Burt Wall had a ranch foreman named Lynn Gentry.
00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:51.680
One night Gentry was lying in the bunkhouse when he heard what he first thought was thunder somewhere off in the distance.
00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.640
Except the sound kept getting closer.
00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.840
And pretty soon he realized it wasn't thunder.
00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.599
It was hoofbeats.
00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:02.159
A lot of them, coming fast.
00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:08.159
The sound became so powerful that things inside the bunkhouse reportedly began to shake.
00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:12.240
So Gentry did what I'm not entirely sure that I would have done.
00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:13.840
He went outside.
00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.800
And he said he saw somewhere around fifteen or twenty men on horseback.
00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:22.400
To Gentry, they looked like Confederate soldiers.
00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:24.800
And then they were gone.
00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:31.199
Now, Confederate cavalry in this part of Texas isn't something somebody invented for a ghost story.
00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:33.759
During the Civil War, Peter C.
00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:39.520
Woods of San Marcos raised a cavalry company, largely from Hayes County.
00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.039
It became part of the 36th Texas Cavalry.
00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:52.400
So there were Confederate horsemen from this part of the country, but I haven't found any evidence telling me who Gentry's riders were.
00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:59.120
Assuming, of course, that there were riders at all, and Gentry wasn't the only person reported hearing them.
00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:04.960
Years later, a rancher named Charlie Beatty owned the property next to Walls Ranch.
00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:09.120
Beattie told a reporter that one night he heard the horses too.
00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:10.719
There are other accounts.
00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:19.919
Another hunter reportedly heard that what sounded like dozens of horses coming through the country, and he said he saw what he believed were Confederate cavalrymen.
00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.080
And that's where this particular story gets under my skin just a little bit.
00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:30.240
One man hearing horses late at night, okay, sound carries strangely through those canyons.
00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:37.680
But when different people at different times start describing something similar, well, I don't know.
00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:42.800
And apparently, neither did Bert Wall, and that's why he collected the stories.
00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:50.240
But of all the things Wall once wrote about the devil's backbone, there was another story that bothered me even more.
00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:54.800
Maybe because this one wasn't about somebody who went looking for ghosts.
00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:57.759
It was about a man who knew how to hunt.
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.240
The story was called The Predator.
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:03.919
Wall said he heard it back in August of 1983.
00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.879
He was working with some men finishing a fence on a ranch along the backbone.
00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:18.319
And one of the men was in his early eighties, a World War II veteran who had spent years working these central Texas hills and canyons.
00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:22.959
And at some point the old fellow looked out across the country and started chuckling.
00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:25.839
Well, Wall asked him what was so funny.
00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.680
And the old man told him a story about something that had happened back in nineteen forty eight.
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:34.560
Ranchers in the area were having a problem.
00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:37.600
Something was killing livestock.
00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:40.319
Cattle, sheep, goats.
00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:42.959
They tried traps, didn't work.
00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:45.920
They tried hunting dogs, didn't work.
00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.959
In fact, nobody seemed able to get a good look at whatever it was doing the killing.
00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:55.839
And finally, the ranchers decided they needed somebody who knew what he was doing.
00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.720
So they hired a professional hunter.
00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:02.720
And according to the story, he wasn't some weekend deer hunter.
00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:08.959
He was an older man who had spent most of his life hunting out in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas.
00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:14.720
He knew predators, and apparently he was pretty confident in his ability to deal with this one.
00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:18.639
Well, give me thirty days, he said, and leave me alone.
00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:24.079
I'll come back with your predator, collect my money, and head back to West Texas.
00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:25.519
So they did.
00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:26.959
They left him alone.
00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:28.720
Thirty days passed.
00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:29.680
Nothing.
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.560
Thirty five days after he'd gone out, the hunter finally came back.
00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:40.800
And according to Wall's story, he didn't look like a man coming home from a successful hunt.
00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:45.199
He was tired, haggard, and anxious to leave.
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.439
Something had happened out there.
00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:51.519
The hunter said he found a trail and started setting traps.
00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:53.519
But something strange happened.
00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:55.759
The traps were being sprung.
00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.160
The bait wasn't being eaten.
00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:02.959
It was almost as though whatever he was hunting knew exactly what the traps were.
00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:07.279
And after a while the hunter began getting an uncomfortable feeling.
00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:10.480
He wasn't sure that he was hunting the predator anymore.
00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:14.000
He began to feel like the predator was hunting him.
00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:22.879
Then one day he finally saw it, and after all that buildup, you'd probably expect me to tell you it was a mountain lion or something, maybe a wolf.
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Some enormous cat nobody had seen before.
00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:26.800
No.
00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:34.160
According to the hunter, it was a goat, more precisely, an enormous white ram.
00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:39.759
He estimated it weighed at least two hundred pounds, and it had huge red eyes.
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The hunter followed it.
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.560
And eventually the animal went into a cave.
00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:49.519
He approached the entrance and he could see those eyes looking back at him from inside.
00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:57.519
And apparently this old professional hunter, well, he came to a conclusion that animal wasn't afraid of him, not at all.
00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:02.480
So he raised his rifle and shot it right between the eyes.
00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:03.839
Then he heard something.
00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:11.839
At first he apparently thought it sounded like rifle fire, and then he realized what he was hearing was rattlesnakes.
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.319
According to the story, there were hundreds of them inside that cave.
00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:18.959
Now, I'm going to tell you something.
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If I shine a flashlight into a dark hill country cave and discover hundreds of rattlesnakes, my investigation is over.
00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:32.160
But this fellow was made of much sterner stuff than I am.
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He shined his light into the cave.
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There was the ram, down on the ground.
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There appeared to be blood beneath its chin, but its eyes were still open, still looking toward the mouth of that cave.
00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:48.399
And then the hunter saw something else.
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Farther back, inside, he thought he could see wooden chests and what looked like gold coins.
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Now think about that for a minute.
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There's supposedly a fortune sitting inside that cave, and the hunter wants absolutely nothing to do with it.
00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:08.240
He doesn't go after the gold.
00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.160
He doesn't drag the ram outside as proof of what he's killed.
00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:14.319
He just flat leaves.
00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:27.040
Thirty-five days after the confidently telling those ranchers that he'd bring their predator back, this experienced professional hunter returned tired, haggard, and ready to get the hell out of Dodge.
00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:31.600
And when the ranchers asked him what he'd been hunting, he told them.
00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:34.799
Now, did that happen?
00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:36.960
I haven't the faintest idea.
00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:40.000
And neither you nor I have to decide that.
00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:52.559
What we do know is that Bert Wall said an elderly World War II veteran told him that story in 1983 about something that supposedly happened along the devil's backbone in 1948.
00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:54.799
That's what folklore is.
00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.799
A story gets told, then somebody tells it again.
00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:03.440
Years pass, people die, and the story stays.
00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:06.000
But here's what bothers me about this one.
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.840
It's not the red eyes, it's not even hundreds of rattlesnakes.
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:18.240
It's the hunter, a man who had spent most of his life in rough country hunting predators, apparently walked away from something he couldn't explain.
00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:23.120
He didn't want the animal, he didn't want the gold, he just wanted out.
00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:27.679
And for me, that's the creepiest part of the whole damn story.
00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:31.919
Now these are only two of the stories people have told about the devil's backbone.
00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:34.240
Burt Wall filled books with them.
00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:44.159
There are even stories about apparitions, strange animals, unexplained sounds, and things that people claim to have seen out there that they couldn't explain.
00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:49.440
Enough stories, I suspect, for us to come back and revisit another night.
00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:51.759
But I think two are enough for tonight.
00:09:52.080 --> 00:10:04.639
So we'll leave the devil's backbone right where we found it, out there between Wimberley and Blanco, that old limestone ridge, those deep canyons, and Ranch Road thirty two winding through the darkness.
00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:12.240
And if you ever find yourself driving that road late at night and you hear something off in the distance, listen carefully.
00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:14.159
It might be thunder.
00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:17.679
And if it isn't, keep driving.
00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.519
I'm Tweed Scott.
00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:24.080
This is the Texan Edge, and our porch light is always on.
00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:29.200
If you enjoyed this episode, tell a friend about the Texan Edge and how to find us.
00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:32.080
Our porch is big enough to handle everyone.
00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:40.559
Until we meet again, take care of your precious selves, and we'll see you soon with another episode of the Texan Edge.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tweed Scott, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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