The Weird History of the Pringle Tree

Pringle Tree August 2026

At the confluence of the Buckhannon River and Turkey Run sits a small park out in the middle of nowhere. Well, it seems like the middle of nowhere, but its only minutes away from Buckhannon, WV and is a neatly maintained boat launch and picnic area with gorgeous views of the Buckhannon River. Established in 1978, the park is now maintained by the Upshur County Commission.

The park is home to a giant American Sycamore tree, said to be the third-generation tree growing from the roots of the original sycamore tree known as the Pringle Tree. 

At the outbreak of the French and Indian War, two brothers, John and Samuel Pringle, volunteered with the colonial militia. The Pringles were from the South Branch of the Potomac River, which would be today's Eastern Panhandle of WV. The two were stationed at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh, PA) but quickly decided that military life was not to their liking. In 1761, the two deserted, along with Joe Linsey and William Childers. 

Pringle Tree August 2026

Linsey and Childers were captured about a year later, but the Pringles managed to stay off the military radar. For a few years, they joined John Simpson, a hunter and fur trader. However, after an argument, the brothers went off on their own, eventually finding themselves near present-day Buckhannon in 1764.

For THREE YEARS, John and Samuel Pringle lived in the hollow cavity of a giant sycamore tree. Taking shelter in such trees wasn't uncommon for hunters and other travelers, but this was usually seen as only a short-term solution. The Pringles called the sycamore, said to have at least an eight-foot-wide clearance, home for three years, making them the first European settlers in the area. 

But they couldn't stay hidden forever. Eventually, their ammunition ran low and John risked returning home to South Branch for supplies. While there, he learned that the war had been over for some time, and no one was interested in punishing them for deserting. John returned to the sycamore tree to inform Samuel of the good news. Samuel agreed to accompany John back home. 

2nd Generation Pringle Tree
Submitted by Find-a-Grave user: Becky Doan

The area must have called to Samuel, though. By 1769, he and his wife Charity had returned. They brought with them a small group of settlers who established the first permanent European settlement in the area. Samuel and Charity Pringle are buried in Hampton Cemetery in Buckhannon. It appears as if Samuel made up for his earlier desertion charges. His grave is marked by a military headstone, denoting him as 'Captain' Samuel Pringle of the Virginia Militia, serving in the Revolutionary War. 

On my epic West Virginia road trip in August of 2026, we made a stop to visit the Pringle Tree. Google Maps took us right to the small park, but there were a few times as we navigated the narrow country road that we had our doubts that we were on the right track.  The location is absolutely beautiful, and peaceful. There is a parking area, but to reach the Pringle Tree, you have to walk across a small field. 

The grass was well-maintained, and it was a flat, easy walk....until you got closer to the tree. In the photos above, what appears to be hardpacked earth was thick, quicksand-like mud! I trudged through as close as I could but eventually had to throw in the towel and get a few pictures from afar. This area of West Virginia had recently seen some major flooding, so it's not surprising that a patch of field that was once covered in lush green grass was now my biggest elementary school fear come to life. 

What's even weirder...I was about halfway through the mud when I noticed that someone else had attempted to walk through there. Footprints came out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere! I'm sure there's a logical explanation, but I was exhausted, frustrated, covered in mud, and probably not thinking straight by that point. I wish I had gotten closer, but that just gives me an excuse to go back another day!

Pringle Tree Historical Marker

Sources and Further Reading:

Find-a-Grave Entry for Capt. Samuel Pringle

Pringle Tree Park: West Virginia Explorer

Pringle Tree Park: Clio Article 

Beans Mill Monster and UFO Sighting (1976)

Eyewitness Sketch
Source: West Virginia UFO's by Bob Teets

In July of 1994, Willis 'Willie' Spence contacted West Virginia UFO researcher/author Bob Teets about an encounter he had back in 1976 while working as a night security guard. Spence worked the 6pm to 6am shift at Crown Creek Coal Company's Beans Mill mine in Upshur County. One evening, a group of local boys approached his guard shack with quite the story. They said they had just heard that a woman living nearby had called the police department because there was a gray, hairy monster on her porch!

Despite the outrageous claim, apparently the authorities did do a check. It is said that they also saw SOMETHING, which they shot and wounded as they chased it back into the woods. Two days later, Spence would have his own sighting. As he was leaving work and returning home one morning, he caught a brief glimpse of some type of creature hiding behind a tree. He didn't get a great look at it, but noticed that it had a humped back, similar to how the woman had described the creature on her property.

Things seemed pretty quiet for awhile, but two weeks later, Spence would have an experience he'd never forget. He was chilling out in his guard shack, listening to the radio and sipping on a cup of coffee. He was interrupted by what sounded like two pieces of metal slapping together. He looked out and saw what he assumed at first was a helicopter. A bright light came over the trees, and into view popped what appeared to be a spinning top-shaped craft, 40 to 50 feet in diameter and flying at a 60 degree angle. The main body of the craft was gray, but it was covered with rectangular windows in shades of red, green, orange and purple. The lighted rectangular windows would dim and brighten back up, each time making a 'va-room, va-room' sound. It was surrounded by a grated deck with a five foot high railing. A light came down, and a section of it turned orange as it stopped spinning.

Eyewitness Sketch of the
bottom of the craft
Source: WV UFOs by Bob Teets

Spence watched this craft for about three minutes, noting how beautiful it was, and how it evoked a happy feeling for him. Eventually, the craft went up and over a nearby mountain, out of sight. After this encounter, there were no additional sightings of that particular craft, nor the gray, hairy beast.  As seen in various other UFO cases (notably the Flatwoods Monster case of 1952), this case begs the question as to whether there was some sort of connection between the creature and the UFO. Was the creature an inhabitant of the UFO, either out exploring the West Virginia country-side (or perhaps even ESCAPING)? Did the occupants of the UFO send this creature down as a recon to see how it would react to our atmosphere? Or, were the UFO occupants sent to study this strange beast that happened to just be here naturally?

There could be no correlation at all between the sightings of the UFO and the sightings of the monster. It could all be a coincidence. But, after years of studying this phenomenon, I tend to believe that there is some over-arching force that links all this high strangeness together. Even today, many Bigfoot reports are accompanied by mysterious light anomalies and nearby UFO reports. I'll let you decide what to believe. Keep your eyes to the skies! 

**The information for this blog post comes entirely from Bob Teets' 1995 book, West Virginia UFOs: Close Encounters in the Mountain State.  There was a brief mention of this case in the West Virginia UFO Newsletter Volume 2, Number 11 (1996), but no additional information was given and unfortunately, I haven't found anymore substantial info on this case anywhere else.