The Hollow Ridge Clan

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Southern Appalachia has a lot of supernatural folklore and superstition. It lies between Kentucky and Virginia. For over 200 years a certain lived there, the Dowhard clan. They remained on the same plot of land, never marrying outside the area, never attending nearby churches, never enrolling their children in school. They were known but not understood, tolerated but not trusted. By the 1960s it was assumed the family had died out. The main house had been abandoned, the fields had gone wild, no one had seen any smoke coming from chimneys nor lights from windows since World War II. In June of 1968 a group of hunters came across a Dowhard property while tracking a wounded deer. What they found was a barn with 17 children ages 4-19, living in horrible conditions. They had no running water, no electricity, no beds. They slept on rotted hay and wore clothes made from burlap and animal hides. Their hair was long and matted, their skin pale-- almost translucent. They murmured in an odd language and stood together in tight group. What happened after that to these children was documented in reports that were later buried under judicial seal. So many stories like this are coming to light about life in those mountains. I once was communicating with a guy who lived in Tennessee and when I asked how his mountains and camping was like he just changed the subject. I wondered about it then and wonder about it to this day. Was he aware of stories like this one?