Saturday, October 3, 2009

The "Hairy Man" of Round Rock

My friend, and fellow TBRC member, Jeremy Wells alerted me to an interesting article on the Texas Tripper website. The article discusses the legend of the "Hairy Man" of Round Rock. I live in Central Texas and try hard to stay up on local legends and folklore but this is one story with which I was unfamiliar. The legend goes that the "Hairy Man" lived along Brushy Creek and harassed travelers there until being run over by a stagecoach and its team of horses as he tried to block the road one fateful night. One version of the story claims the "Hairy Man" was an old hermit who, as a child of early Texas settlers, had been separated from his parents. He grew up alone along the banks of Brushy Creek and came to view that area as his own. Locals still claim the ghost of the "Hairy Man" is seen and heard from time to time along the lonesome stretches of the road adjacent to Brushy Creek.

The "Hairy Man" was said to be covered in hair from head to toe. The locals seemed to believe this was an adaptation that became necessary as the lost child outgrew his clothing. To make the leap from hair covered hermit to the sasquatch is not too difficult. Could the early Texas settlers of the Round Rock and Brushy Creek areas have been seeing a sasquatch all those years ago? I guess we'll never know.

Apparently, this is a pretty big deal in Round Rock. There is a Hairy Man Road in Round Rock and a yearly "Hairy Man Festival" held in October. The article is really more about the festival than the legend but does give the basic background of the legend albeit in a tongue in cheek manner. You can access the story here. You can also access the "Hairy Man Festival" website here.

So, if you aren't doing anything this month and find yourself in Central Texas you might want to stop by and see what the "Hairy Man Festival" is all about. I might have to make that short drive myself.

1 comment:

  1. The Legend that High Schoolers say that it is small hairy like beast man that lives in the creek. The legend states that in the sixties, a Mexican couple ignorant of the legend parked on the road late at night for a little parking. There were thumps on the roof and then the boy went out to see what was the matter. She waited inside till dawn, then got out only see the boy hung from a tree above the car. It's known many people there. Some say the boy who harrassed the stage coach drivers was a sorcerer who used Norse runes to summon a troll to aid him in his trickery, but when the boy was killed, then the Troll went rogue and has been haunting the creek ever since.

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