Dahlonega Sheriff's Department¶
The Dahlonega Sheriff's Department is the small local law-enforcement agency, led by Sheriff Carter Burke, that investigates the disappearances in and around Dahlonega, Georgia and works alongside the task force in The Things in Appalachia.
| Type | Local law enforcement |
| Aliases | Dahlonega Sheriff's Office; sheriff's department |
| Leader | Sheriff Carter Burke |
| Base | Dahlonega Sheriff's Station |
| Status | Active (as of Appalachia 09) |
| First appearance | Appalachia 01 |
Overview¶
By Burke's own count the department is a secretary, two deputies and temporary staff. The station is a small building with an evidence locker, and Burke's office has animal heads and guns on the wall (Appalachia 01, Appalachia 04). The older woman at the front desk fetches Burke from the restroom, where he has IBS, on the team's first visit. The only phone line fit for a private call is in the break room, which Burke clears for the call with the missing boy's mother (Appalachia 04).
One deputy, String Bean, is absent and staying with family because of personal troubles; his spare uniform becomes Andrew's disguise (Appalachia 08). The department also leaks. The Spud Hut investigator says he has a friend at the sheriff's office who called to tell him about the truck crash, and guesses that the reporters have the same friend: "She talks to people" (Appalachia 08).
History¶
The missing persons case¶
Burke tells the team that the manhunt for Gene Cartwright found little and that he suspects coyotes, a bear or a drifter. He thinks Willow Greengrass simply left the Covenant, and he shows the only evidence, a bag of peaches, in the evidence locker (Appalachia 01). Burke admits his deputies should have looked up when they searched the field where Gene vanished, and apologizes for volunteers who trampled the scene (Appalachia 02).
When a German boy, Frederick, vanishes in the Consolidated Gold Mine, the department mobilizes deputies and volunteers. The sheriff learns Kurt has spelunking experience and puts him in charge of the team's safety underground (Appalachia 03).
Overwhelmed¶
By Appalachia 04 Burke tells the team there are five missing people in two days, and that the FBI arrived before it was clear there were even two. He has asked the Georgia State Police for two deputies plus temporary staff and asks the team to call them too. Kurt's pitch of a curfew and a "truth-adjacent" cover story about a fatal tick-borne disease gets a squint; his line "If we were a beach town, I would close the beach" sums up the problem of keeping people out of the woods (Appalachia 04).
The body on Comstock's land¶
The sheriff, not named in that episode, brings Frotter Comstock to the team's hotel to report a dead Bigfoot, and scolds Andrew that a man is dead and every death deserves gravity. He later drives Comstock away in the squad car (Appalachia 06). See Troy Cleaver.
The crash and the Spud Hut¶
The sheriff radios in the truck accident on the freeway, leads the team through the evidence, slits a bag labelled "Potatoes" to show it holds dirt, and relays gossip from a state police friend about the Clinton scandal (Appalachia 07). He then leads the team to the Spud Hut plant, swears Andrew in as a deputy to cancel the penalty for looking like a federal agent, and talks the receptionist into opening the door. During the ape-man fight he screams continuously and dives through the "break room" door when the Claymore appears (Appalachia 08).
Underground¶
Burke accompanies the team into the sub-basement, where he screams until Kurt quiets him. He believes the party are Men in Black responsible for the ape-men, the explosions and the "spying on the presidential candidates". He takes some gold "to sort out the legality later" and ends the recorded arc hugging a tree (Appalachia 09).