Evelyn Gordon, a co-founder of this website, and I were invited onto private property where an ancient race of Little People still live in Eastern Tennessee. Our host, Zander, owns the land which has been in his family for about two centuries.

Zander’s mountain home is surrounded by beautiful rolling pastures, but most of his nearly 200 acres is wild forest. That is where the Little People live.

It was a really bumpy ride in Zander’s truck to Little People territory. I literally had to brace myself on the dashboard as we followed a narrow path through the dense woods.  

Then he stopped and pointed to a shadowy area behind a tree and said the entrance to the Little People’s underworld was there. It certainly was well hidden but then I saw a sliver of a path leading to the entrance.

Next I was peering into a tiny hidden entrance that few humans have ever seen.

Offering more proof that we were in Little People territory, Zander pointed to tiny square depressions on the path to the entrance.

He explained that the elderly Little People can live to be about 200 years old and often use square-cut walking sticks to steady themselves when walking in the woods.

When we asked Zander what the Little People’s underground living conditions were like, he said, “They claim that their living conditions are primitive compared to what they once were because of intervention by people. They say some of their places have been contaminated or flooded out when people have drilled natural gas, oil and water wells.

“They really don’t value a lot of material things that people value,” he added. “They don’t really care about diamonds and gold and all that sort of stuff. They do have things that they like and from time to time they have confessed they’ve taken abandoned metal components that might be useful in their underground world.”

He believes the Little People get their food above ground. He’s often seen their small footprints around the persimmon and walnut trees along with lots of walnut hulls.  He suspects they might also fish the river that borders one side of his property.

Physical descriptions of the Little People

Zander gave us a wealth of information about the Little People who live on his land, including detailed physical descriptions. 

“They’re between 3.5 and 4 feet tall,” he began. “Their skin color is a very subtle shade of light blue, just enough to recognize the color. As for their faces, they’re rather ordinary and look like faces you’d see in town, but smaller.

“Their eyes are usually light color. I have seen blue, gray and yellowish eyes. Neither my father nor I have ever seen any Little People with dark eyes. My green eyes seem to intrigue them and they’ve commented that they have relatives or friends with green eyes.

“The teenagers are the most curious and the ones most likely to be seen,” Zander explained.  “A time or two one of them has reached out and touched me. Once there was one in a tree above the path I was walking. Suddenly, he was hanging from a limb about three inches in front of my face because he wanted to look in my eyes. For some reason, they’re very enamored with green eyes. Green eyes mean something to them.

“Normally, though, they walk like anyone else and leave footprints and bend the grass, yet they definitely have the ability to become sort of invisible, though not 100 percent. If they’re standing still, you can see them easier; so when people are around they keep moving. Most people wouldn’t see them or they’d just see a wisp go by.”

As for their clothing, Zander said, “They wear short leather pants much like German lederhosen, knee-high socks and ankle-high boots that look like hiking boots.

German boy wearing lederhosen

“Their shirts are a bit like old U.S. Cavalry bib shirts with double rows of buttons. They don’t usually wear hats, but I have seen some wear old-style ball caps like back in the time of Ty Cobb.  Some of them wear bowler hats.

“The women have very similar dress and long flowing hair – everything from totally white to blonde to light brown to red. They usually stay back and the young children stay back too.”