Gnome. United States

Location. Rough River State Park, Kentucky
Date: June 24 2003
Time: afternoon
The witness had gone canoeing for a weekend of rest and relaxation in an isolated area but strangely felt queasy and nervous. He was inexplicably anxious for some unknown reason. Although he could define why, he felt like he had something to fear—and he sensed death. Taking these sensations seriously, he was extremely cautious on the river. After several miles he paddled the canoe to the riverbank and tied it off to a tree. He got out to explore the area. Looking down 8 or 10 ft into the creek he spotted what looked like the top of a clay jar. He thought that he might have found some old archeological artifact. He started down the bank toward the creek. The bank was extremely slippery with mud and he stopped just short of the water and very close to the old earthenware pot. It was more like a clay crock and he soon realized that it probably wasn’t very old. He poked at it and noticed there were little handprints on it, at first he thought it could had been raccoon prints but they were more like little human handprints, about an inch wide. He tried to pry the thing loose using a stick but suddenly heard a noise. He heard what sounded like kids laughing. It was coming from down the creek several yards away. When he last managed to pull the crock jar out of the mud, something screamed. It sounded like a little girl—really high pitched and loud. Not knowing what to do he grabbed the jar and began to scramble up the muddy bank. Glancing back he saw something move down near the creek. He then sat at the top of the bank for a moment looking at the jar, trying to reason away the handprints. He then walked along the creek a bit and stopped every once in a while to peek through the bushes and see if anybody was there. Then when he looked over the bank he saw two little people standing about 10 inches tall. They had pale skins, little brown leather pants held up by suspenders, no shirts and little pointy hats made of what looked like leather. They had leather foot coverings that went up past the ankle. Their hair was reddish color and their eyes blue. Their hands were only about an inch wide. They knew he was watching but they continued their task, they were pulling some kind of wooded stump down the muddy creek bank with long leather ropes or strings. These little men were surprisingly clean, for the work they were doing. He then heard a thump back where he first had gone in the creek. He looked back and there were three more of the m—little men just like the first two—and they had pushed that crock jar back down the bank. They were all laughing—high-pitched laughter, like a bunch of kids. He then heard a loud snap and they were all gone. Their footprints were plainly visible in the mud, but they were gone along with the crock jar and the wooded stump. They had vanished in a split second.

Source: Paranormal about.com, Canoe Trip to the Unknown