Untitled Sighting

in 1979 a friend and I were taking a hike on TVA land in Columbia tn. At that time the area was deserted my x-father in law owned 20 acres that backed up to TVA which met Duck River on the back. We were walking and suddenly 20yds or less away out of the bush in wide open there he was. We froze and we all stared at each other If he had been violent you wouldn't hear this story. He turned made an awful growling scream and was gone. Later that day my brother and I went back and searched only to find a 4 inch tree about 6 ft up freshly took and twisted to splinters.  The farm was part of our area and since this sighting we were not scared when so many times we knew he was near, we were never attacked.  Hard for me to write disabled now.