I always enjoy a good local story and try to share a few of those here on TAP as I stumble onto them. One such tale is the story of the \u201cVarmint of Burke’s Garden\u201d that dates back to the 1950s in Tazewell County, Virginia. The reason this story jumped out at me was due to the fact that I once knew a varmint from Burke’s Garden back in my (very brief, thank God) loan collecting days. The scallywag (I try to use that word whenever I get the chance, I just like the sound of it) had gone severely delinquent on his truck loan and made off with an old Chevy he had kept hidden for a good while by using a \u201cFarm Use\u201d tag. We finally tracked him down and recovered the truck after much chase and trickery. We went so far as to have a guy hide under some leaves behind a tree stump to jump in the truck and take off with it while we had his attention diverted. The plan worked to perfection and that is enough about that varmint, this story is about THE Varmint of Burke’s Garden\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Burke’s Garden Varmint was a wild creature that roamed Burke’s Garden back in the 1950s that decimated the local livestock numbers. He is said to have killed well over 400 sheep in his nearly year-long reign of terror. Local residents were at a loss to stop the predator and were unsure as to what it was that was doing so much damage (estimated at over $32,000 worth in total). Traps and other attempts to stop the killer were futile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n