January of 1994, a land surveyor for the North Carolina Department of Transportation parked his car at the edge of Highway 421 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. After walking just a few yards away from the side of the road, he was already swallowed up in the deep woods that stretched for miles into Watauga County. Given the cold air and snow underfoot, the surveyor was paying close attention to where he was walking, and hoping that the job would not take long and he'd be back inside his warm vehicle before his toes actually froze. That was, until the man glanced ahead at the fallen tree ahead of him, and before he saw something he just couldn't make sense of peeking out of the snow in the shadow of the upended roots. Squinting, the man took a few steps closer just to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. A moment later, he dropped the hard, plastic case that contained his surveying equipment and nearly fell backward as he scrambled to get away from the mound of snow in front of him.