As WSA probably knows, Gainestown is about 3 miles west of the Barlow Bend of the AL River. About 25 miles downriver it joins the Tombigbee river where they become the Mobile River. The basins of those rivers probably contain one of the largest populations of Bigfoot per square unit of measure in the Southeast part of this country. After spending many weeks down there "Booger Hunting" over a period of about ten years, I can truthfully say the area mentioned, and the adjoining Monroe and Washington counties, has many resident Bigfoot that are brazen around people, easily PO'ed by them and their dogs, and can can be aggressive as the devil himself when confronted.
The Sheriff's statement is BS; not only has that office received complaint reports about them, deputies from that office - maybe not during his term - have had their own personal encounters with the animals.
The newspaper editor, Jim Cox, while a young reporter for that same newspaper group, actually photographed and published a picture of a Bigfoot crossing highway 69 between Coffeeville and Jackson. It was a scenic shot he made early one morning on his way to work. Apparently most older folks that live in that area knew the figure in the photo was a Bigfoot, as the location was a known road-crossing location for the "Boogers" foraging in the Tombigbee River bottoms at night and returning to their bedding areas on the hills north of the highway. Mr. Cox just thought it was a scenic shot of a man working on the road across the creek valley from him, with the sun coming up behind the man and a layer of fog over the valley. When I heard about it I began searching the newspaper's files. Many hours later, I found the photo. When I met him and we discussed it. he conceded; (1) it was unlikely that there would be a highway worker working that early in the morning, (2) there was no sign a man at the location as he passed the spot about a minute later, (3) there were no houses even close to the spot and, (4) when the height of the figure in the photo was compared to the known width of the black top road, the "man" would have been at least 8 feet tall.
He wrote and published a column about our meeting and discussion in which he attempted to have a little fun; but did ask in THAT column for information from residents who had knowledge of Bigfoot. Later I found out it backfired on him. None of the folks that DID personally know about Bigfoot would respond because of his flippancy. (One lady did write in to tell about her mother seeing one dejectedly sitting on a dead log.)
As a side note, there are several African-Americans who live close to Gainestown. One of them had several "bad-to-the-bone" pit bulldogs that he kept tied on chains in the open pine forest behind his home. He discovered that one of the dogs deepest inside the woods would often go "nuts" after the man put out his feed at night. The dog lost weight, and at times its food container would come up missing. The man began putting food out a little earlier, and hid in his truck to watch. He saw a a huge red Bigfoot walk toward the one dog - which began barking and growling, and backing away as far as the chain would allow. The BF walked to the feed pan, scooped out most of the food, turned and walked away munching.
Not trying to derail the thread WSA, but Clarke County rung a big bell in my old gourd.