Here is an interesting account from noted author, teacher and philosopher A.Y. Gunter. It just goes to show that the Big Thicket has always been a unique place. Stories of wild men, remnant bands of Karankawas, wood apes, black panthers, ghost lights and Ol' Mossyback continue to come out of this region. The area is truly a Texas treasure.
"The two-legged hairless ape should be mentioned in any Big Thicket inventory. Of this species, the most spectacular are those which hide in the deep woods seeking sanctuary from the outer world. The most famous of these is the Nude Man of the Big Thicket, who lived there in the 1950s. Several people had glimpsed the man. Then one fine day a Mr. Sutton encountered him on a lonely road. The hermit announced that if anyone wanted to come in after him they would have to come in shooting. He was a large man, deeply tanned and hairy, with a long beard. He had a gun in each hand, and was naked. So far as is known, no one "went in after him" though there are stories of the subsequent capture of an escaped mental patient who had lived for nine years in the Thicket on wild fruits and armadillo. Whether the two hermits are one and the same is ---- well, as usual, the facts get a little vague on that point."
- A.Y. Gunter
"The two-legged hairless ape should be mentioned in any Big Thicket inventory. Of this species, the most spectacular are those which hide in the deep woods seeking sanctuary from the outer world. The most famous of these is the Nude Man of the Big Thicket, who lived there in the 1950s. Several people had glimpsed the man. Then one fine day a Mr. Sutton encountered him on a lonely road. The hermit announced that if anyone wanted to come in after him they would have to come in shooting. He was a large man, deeply tanned and hairy, with a long beard. He had a gun in each hand, and was naked. So far as is known, no one "went in after him" though there are stories of the subsequent capture of an escaped mental patient who had lived for nine years in the Thicket on wild fruits and armadillo. Whether the two hermits are one and the same is ---- well, as usual, the facts get a little vague on that point."
- A.Y. Gunter