Continuing our unusual and paranormal throwbacks during the month of October, this story is about a bear at Beech Bend Amusement Park. We covered alligators found in Barren River earlier this month, and now it’s time for a bear attack.

In September 1951, according to the Bowling Green Daily News, the Western Kentucky University Music department was enjoying a faculty and student picnic at Beech Bend Park. A sophomore from Dayton, Ohio, was speaking near a professor, when the student didn’t realize a bear had escaped one of the zoo exhibits and was right behind him. Then 21-year-old Thomas Pogue had a bear on his back, literally.

Pogue had an estimated 150-pound bear on his shoulders for several minutes. He’d noticed the bear was there, but turned his back on it, not realizing the bear wa

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