Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy two, I was running beaver traps on
Speaker 1: a small creek located in Blunt County, Alabama. I worked days,
Speaker 1: so I had to run the trap line after work,
Speaker 1: which meant at twilight or in the dark. On one
Speaker 1: particular evening, I had completed running the line and was
Speaker 1: working my way back to the car along a very
Speaker 1: steep creek bank above me and several yards to my right,
Speaker 1: I heard what I thought was an owl. The hooting
Speaker 1: sound continued moving parallel to me as I walked, but
Speaker 1: it was walking and making heavy footfalls. I was unarmed
Speaker 1: except for my trapping hatchet, and since it usually didn't
Speaker 1: take very long to run the line, I wasn't even
Speaker 1: carrying a flashlight. The trail out was broken up with
Speaker 1: small openings in the timber, so I figured I could
Speaker 1: get a look at whatever this thing was. So when
Speaker 1: I reached the first opening, I turned around to face
Speaker 1: the creature, and I walked backwards across the opening, peering
Speaker 1: through the trees trying to see what it was. I
Speaker 1: couldn't see anything, but the hooting continued as it moved
Speaker 1: around the perimeter of the opening and reached the other
Speaker 1: side about the same time. That I did. Trying hard
Speaker 1: not to panic. I continued to walk backwards to the
Speaker 1: next opening, which was much larger. Actually it was a
Speaker 1: hay field, Knowing it could not get closer to me
Speaker 1: without coming out into view, I was confident I was
Speaker 1: about to find out what this thing was. No such luck.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was came to the edge of the field
Speaker 1: and continued its vocalizations until I was out of range
Speaker 1: of hearing it. Knowing I had to return there the
Speaker 1: next evening. I got a large flashlight and an old
Speaker 1: military rifle, a Swedish Schmidt Ruben in seven point five millimeter,
Speaker 1: but I never saw or heard it again. Story is
Speaker 1: one hundred percent true and is only one of several
Speaker 1: encounters I've had over the years. The next encounter was
Speaker 1: in the summer of nineteen seventy four in Blunt County, Alabama.
Speaker 1: My cousin and I worked the night shift at different
Speaker 1: companies and had plans for a weekend camp out. We
Speaker 1: chose the creek that I had been trapping beaver on
Speaker 1: the previous winter because of the abundance of beaver that
Speaker 1: we had planned to hunt. We got a late start
Speaker 1: that Friday night, and it was way after dark. Getting
Speaker 1: into the woods, we had to push through the cane
Speaker 1: break to get up to the spot where we planned
Speaker 1: to camp and get set up, and we got there
Speaker 1: about eleven PM. Everything was great except for the mosquitoes
Speaker 1: that's an Alabama staple until about two am. Something was
Speaker 1: throwing rocks into the creek just out of the glow
Speaker 1: of the campfire. We both had twenty two rifles, but
Speaker 1: my cousin had tried to get me to bring my
Speaker 1: forty four magnum carban I had declined because it was heavy.
Speaker 1: We decided that we wanted to find out what was
Speaker 1: stowing these rocks. So with only the flashlight and we
Speaker 1: started moving towards the spot near where the splash of
Speaker 1: rocks had come from. We came up on an old
Speaker 1: brush pile when a very deep, menacing growl directed at
Speaker 1: us came from just the other side of the brush pile.
Speaker 1: I stopped and turned to say something to my cousin,
Speaker 1: but he was already halfway back to the campfire with
Speaker 1: the only light we had, leaving me alone in the
Speaker 1: dark with whatever it was there. Well, I made it
Speaker 1: back to the fire as quickly as I could. Now
Speaker 1: I asked my cousin why he left me in the dark.
Speaker 1: And all he would say is, we should have brought
Speaker 1: a forty four. I told you, we should have brought
Speaker 1: the forty four. The remainder of that very long night
Speaker 1: was uneventful, but we decided not to press our luck,
Speaker 1: and we packed up and we left at first light.
Speaker 1: And here's my third encounter that I had with an
Speaker 1: unknown creature. In the fall of nineteen seventy four, I
Speaker 1: had just bought a brand new Remington seven hundred bolt
Speaker 1: rifle in thirty six caliber. The deer season had just
Speaker 1: opened in Blunt County, and I was anxious to try
Speaker 1: out my new deer rifle. I got an old high
Speaker 1: school chum to go hunting with me, but he wasn't
Speaker 1: interested in deer. He carried a twenty two automatic rifle.
Speaker 1: Arriving at our hunting area, we split up. He sat
Speaker 1: down on the top of a ridge to watch for
Speaker 1: squirrels while I took to a shallow haller known to
Speaker 1: be a betting area for deer. I found a few
Speaker 1: beds in tree rubs by bucks, so I knew I
Speaker 1: was in the right spot. Just as in the previous encounter,
Speaker 1: I heard walking up on the other side of the
Speaker 1: ridge that my friend was on with me in between.
Speaker 1: I listened a bit until it started hooting or whooping.
Speaker 1: I headed back to where my friend was seated, and
Speaker 1: it kept pace with me, very reminiscent of a previous encounter.
Speaker 1: I joined my friend and we sat there silently, and
Speaker 1: then whatever it was started down into the haller and
Speaker 1: coming straight towards us without acknowledging the critter. I asked
Speaker 1: my friend if he was ready to go, and he
Speaker 1: nodded in the affirmative. We headed for his car that
Speaker 1: was parked across the old dirt road as the critter
Speaker 1: began closing the distance faster than we were comfortable with.
Speaker 1: We still had not said anything to each other about
Speaker 1: being followed until we got into his car, and then
Speaker 1: I said, did you hear that? All he said was yep.
Speaker 1: We never spoke of it again, and since that time
Speaker 1: we have camped in the same area without incident, at
Speaker 1: least not from any wild animal. There was this car
Speaker 1: load of drunks one night. Though I have been trying
Speaker 1: to hold back lafing about that forty four coment should
Speaker 1: have brought the forty four. We should have brought the
Speaker 1: forty four, because that's what I would have been saying,
Speaker 1: why didn't you bring your damn big hand cannon, boy?
Speaker 1: But these are great encounters, you know. I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of bigfoot activity in Alabama, especially North Alabama
Speaker 1: up in those hills in the in the mountains. It's
Speaker 1: a beautiful part of the state. They have great fishing
Speaker 1: and deer hunting. Man Alabama's an awesome place to deer
Speaker 1: hunt and really hunt anything. You got lake wise and
Speaker 1: you got gunners will in the Tennessee River and big bass.
Speaker 1: I know several guys that live in that area and
Speaker 1: that's all they do. They crappie fish and they bass fish,
Speaker 1: and they deer hunt and they work as a sideline.
Speaker 1: You know, that's where them Alabama boys are. But this
Speaker 1: was a great story, Jimmy, Jimmy Ray, I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you sending it, and I know everyone enjoyed it. Thanks buddy.
Speaker 1: It was around September or October nineteen seventy. My battalion
Speaker 1: had been activated to go to Vietnam and we were
Speaker 1: doing some intense training to get ready. The training was
Speaker 1: taking place in heavily forested areas of Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: It was dark that night, and my platoon was on
Speaker 1: the left flank of the main body, and we were
Speaker 1: moving to attack and capture the aggressor force opposing us.
Speaker 1: I was a PFC at the time, and I was
Speaker 1: a squad leader. Orders came down from my squad to
Speaker 1: move up and scout ahead of the main body. We
Speaker 1: were moving from tree to tree slowly and as quietly
Speaker 1: as possible. I moved ahead to this really large tree
Speaker 1: and I got down to a prone position and I listened.
Speaker 1: All I could hear was silence. There were no bugs,
Speaker 1: no frogs, nothing. I put my hand down to push
Speaker 1: up to my feet, and all hell broke loose. What
Speaker 1: I had put my hand down on was a bogger's foot.
Speaker 1: He roared so loudly I couldn't hear for the next
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. I shot up and I backed up, shouting
Speaker 1: for the rest of the squad to retreat, all the
Speaker 1: while firing my M sixteen. Don't worry, they weren't live rounds,
Speaker 1: they were blanks. With all the noise in my entire
Speaker 1: platoon racing towards me, the bogger took off, crashing through
Speaker 1: the woods. After everything had quieted down, you could see
Speaker 1: the destruction it had made getting the hell out of there.
Speaker 1: Later after, a bunch of guys all dressed in black
Speaker 1: showed up, asking a lot of questions, taking some measurements,
Speaker 1: and who knows what else. I found out that the
Speaker 1: bugger was eight foot eleven inches tall, and they said
Speaker 1: it weighed around nine hundred to one thousand pounds. Looking back,
Speaker 1: I don't think it was there to hurt anyone, and
Speaker 1: it was just curious. I prefer to remain anonymous because
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people who think anyone who
Speaker 1: Club aims to believe is crazy. I believe there's something
Speaker 1: to the stories people have reported from all over the world.
Speaker 1: I am a seventy one year old native of northeast Texas.
Speaker 1: I live in a rural area where I have hunted
Speaker 1: deer and fished most of my life. My son and
Speaker 1: I fish in various lakes as often as we have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do so. In October of twenty and sixteen,
Speaker 1: we were off on one of our fishing expeditions to
Speaker 1: a lake in North Lamar County. The park called Lamar
Speaker 1: Point was located across the part of the lake just
Speaker 1: north of the boat ramp where we plan to put
Speaker 1: in to fish, and there's a community near there by
Speaker 1: the same name. We arrived that afternoon and set up
Speaker 1: our tents with the intent of doing a little fishing
Speaker 1: and having some good conversation. I was also looking forward
Speaker 1: to the cooking, because my son has become quite a
Speaker 1: good outdoor cook with both the grill and the Dutch oven.
Speaker 1: So we ate a good meal and we talked for
Speaker 1: a while and enjoyed the peace and quiet of nature
Speaker 1: and watch the sun go down before deciding to turn
Speaker 1: in for the night. There were a few people in
Speaker 1: the RVs not far from us, who I imagine we're
Speaker 1: doing the same. At three am, I was awakened by
Speaker 1: a loud sound. It was a yell of a large
Speaker 1: animal that went on for what felt like I solid
Speaker 1: three minutes or more. I thought it would never stop.
Speaker 1: The sound stirred up a pack of cootes who joined
Speaker 1: in and yipped and howled back at it. But this
Speaker 1: sound was much louder. There is some government land just
Speaker 1: east of Lamar Point, and this seemed to be where
Speaker 1: the sound was coming from. The water between where the
Speaker 1: sound was originating and us was half a mile I
Speaker 1: was thinking, if this thing stops yelling and comes this way,
Speaker 1: that water isn't nearly wide enough to keep it away
Speaker 1: from us. A lot of thoughts went through my mind
Speaker 1: during the eternity. That was a single call, but I
Speaker 1: just stayed still and silent, and my son did the same.
Speaker 1: I knew he'd heard it. It would have been impossible
Speaker 1: not to. I'm sure the people in the RV's heard
Speaker 1: it too. Anyone within a fairly large radius would have
Speaker 1: had to hear that thing. It was that loud. Since
Speaker 1: my son had apparently decided not to get up, I
Speaker 1: decided to fall suit. By six am, I hadn't slept
Speaker 1: and decided it was time for a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1: I was heating up the water when he came out
Speaker 1: of his tent and looked at me for a few
Speaker 1: seconds before saying, did you hear that last night? Yes?
Speaker 1: I answered, what the heck was it? He had never
Speaker 1: spoken on the subject before. We'd never even thought or
Speaker 1: talked about anything like this, Dad, my son said, after
Speaker 1: giving it thought for a moment, that was mister Bigfoot.
Speaker 1: I didn't doubt it. I did not see it, nor
Speaker 1: do I want to. As to the question, do they exist.
Speaker 1: If you had heard what we heard that night, you
Speaker 1: would never question its existence again. My son had lived
Speaker 1: in Lamar Point for a few years prior to this,
Speaker 1: though he has since moved from there. I had never
Speaker 1: heard one before, but he had. Well that's my bigfoot story,
Speaker 1: and I hope I never have another one to tell.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy nine, I went backpacking with my girlfriend,
Speaker 1: my two children, my brother and his two children. The
Speaker 1: children were all between eight and twelve years old. We
Speaker 1: hiked into Oregon's Three Sisters Wilderness Area, heading for the
Speaker 1: Mink Lake Basin. We were two thirds of the way
Speaker 1: to the main lake, walking down the Mountain Ridge pathway
Speaker 1: when I spotted movement to my left, one hundred feet away.
Speaker 1: It could have been a bear, but it looked more
Speaker 1: like a bigfoot to me. It was nine to ten
Speaker 1: feet tall, and it stood there watching us for the
Speaker 1: longest time. I tried to push the thought of big
Speaker 1: foot out of my head to keep fear from taking
Speaker 1: over and turning into panic, but it was difficult to
Speaker 1: imagine a bear standing and watching us for so long
Speaker 1: without going down on all fours at some point. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: by the time we got to Mink lake. I had
Speaker 1: buried my fears and was ready to have a good time.
Speaker 1: So we found a nice camp spot at the end
Speaker 1: of the peninsula near the lake, and for the next
Speaker 1: three days we all had the time of our lives.
Speaker 1: On the third night, we were all sitting around the
Speaker 1: camp fire roasting winters and marshmallows, when at ten point
Speaker 1: thirty we heard something that sounded by pedal walking past
Speaker 1: our campsite. It was like the giant from Jack and
Speaker 1: the Beanstalk. I bet it weighed eight hundred pounds. We
Speaker 1: could hear it pass by us, walk down the trail
Speaker 1: of good distance, turn around, and then walk back past
Speaker 1: our camp Not only could we hear it, but we
Speaker 1: could also see it moving in the trees. It was
Speaker 1: too dark to make out any detail, but we could
Speaker 1: make out its form, and it was enormous. The children
Speaker 1: started getting scared, so my brother suggested that we all
Speaker 1: go to bed. We climbed into our tents, somehow finding
Speaker 1: security and being inside. My brother, however, elected to stay outside.
Speaker 1: He's never been afraid of anything, and he wanted to
Speaker 1: sleep alone out under the stars. Well. That worried me
Speaker 1: a little bit, but what could I say. Somehow, We
Speaker 1: managed to fall asleep, and the next morning we awoke
Speaker 1: to the sound of hundreds of pigeons in the trees overhead.
Speaker 1: We'd never seen a sight like it before. We spent
Speaker 1: the morning being entertained by them and feeding them. It
Speaker 1: was a nice diversion that took our minds off the
Speaker 1: previous night. Eventually, our interest in the birds waned and
Speaker 1: we headed down to play in the water. The whole
Speaker 1: day was great. Later, my brother came over to me
Speaker 1: and said, why don't we pack up and hike out
Speaker 1: this evening and find another place to camp for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I agreed, but I couldn't help but wonder if he
Speaker 1: had seen or experienced something that he wasn't sharing with me.
Speaker 1: We all packed our bags and started walking across the
Speaker 1: mountain ridge towards our car. In my haste to get
Speaker 1: everything packed, I had put all the flashlights in the
Speaker 1: bottoms of the backpacks. Now the sun was setting and
Speaker 1: we still had thirteen miles to go. To help us
Speaker 1: move faster, my brother decided to take one of the
Speaker 1: children's packs and hike out and then come back for another.
Speaker 1: He'd be able to move faster carrying two packs than
Speaker 1: any of the kids could carry one, and without a pack,
Speaker 1: that child would be able to move faster and we'd
Speaker 1: all get back to the car sooner. With just me,
Speaker 1: my girlfriend and the four kids, we continued on our way.
Speaker 1: We were two and a half miles from the car
Speaker 1: when we started hearing noises on the trail behind us.
Speaker 1: We were heading towards the mountain switchbacks. Whatever was following
Speaker 1: us was only fifty feet back. The footfalls and the
Speaker 1: heavy breathing left no doubt in my mind a bigfoot
Speaker 1: was tracking us. What was I going to do with
Speaker 1: my girlfriend and four children hiking through the woods alone
Speaker 1: in complete darkness. We were all so scared that we
Speaker 1: didn't want to stop and unload the backpacks to find
Speaker 1: our flashlights. With every step, the fear increased to the
Speaker 1: point that it was almost tangible. Our hearts were racing
Speaker 1: and anxiety was setting in. I had to do something
Speaker 1: or we would all be lost. I was afraid that
Speaker 1: this giant being, this bigfoot, might grab one of the
Speaker 1: children and dash off into the night, and we'd never
Speaker 1: see them again. I put my daughter in front of
Speaker 1: me and one of the boys behind me, then my
Speaker 1: girlfriend with the other two boys in front of her,
Speaker 1: and we continued down the trail, and every now and
Speaker 1: then we switched the kids around, much to their dislike,
Speaker 1: and we kept going. The whole thing was very intense.
Speaker 1: To help alleviate the children's fear and keep moving, we
Speaker 1: started singing the snow white song, High Hoe, High Hoe.
Speaker 1: That beast was right behind us the whole way. Thump, thump, thump.
Speaker 1: What was I doing? I must have been out of
Speaker 1: my mind. We got to the start of the first
Speaker 1: switchback and we're headed for the second when we heard
Speaker 1: the creature run down the side of the mountain to
Speaker 1: wait on the trail ahead of us. Our hearts were
Speaker 1: pounding in our ears and we were visibly shaking as
Speaker 1: we passed by where we could see its form outlined
Speaker 1: in the darkness. We passed it and began our way
Speaker 1: down the next switchback. Just like before, it fell in
Speaker 1: right behind us. Minutes later, it ran down the mountain
Speaker 1: again to wait for us. At the next switchback, we
Speaker 1: had to pass it again. It was terrifying seeing this
Speaker 1: massive black object in the night, standing just up the
Speaker 1: bank from us, watching us as we marched along singing.
Speaker 1: There were a lot more switchbacks ahead, and that thing
Speaker 1: followed us in this manner for two and a half
Speaker 1: miles until my brother finally showed up to take another backpack.
Speaker 1: By then the children were scared out of their minds
Speaker 1: and exhausted. We finally made it to the car. We
Speaker 1: loaded up the children in the backpacks as quickly as
Speaker 1: we could. I had just finished telling my brother what
Speaker 1: had followed us when we heard it again. It was
Speaker 1: standing behind a fir tree on the edge of the
Speaker 1: trail near the clearing. It was watching us at the
Speaker 1: car again. My brother is brave and he's never afraid
Speaker 1: of anything, and he said, follow me. We're going to
Speaker 1: find out what the heck this thing really is. My
Speaker 1: brother picked up two rocks that filled his hands. He
Speaker 1: told me to grab some two and I picked up
Speaker 1: two big ones and we stood there listening for a minute.
Speaker 1: We could hear it over behind the fir tree, and
Speaker 1: my brother threw a rock at it and it let
Speaker 1: out a groan. Then he threw another one and it
Speaker 1: groaned again, and then he threw another, and another and another,
Speaker 1: and finally we ran out of rocks, and I said,
Speaker 1: what are we going to do now? He looked at
Speaker 1: me and he yelled, run. We both took off. We
Speaker 1: ran over and jumped in the car as fast as
Speaker 1: we could. Seconds later, our tires were throwing dart and
Speaker 1: gravel as we fishtailed for a good hundred feet. In
Speaker 1: my rear view mirror, I saw the outline of the
Speaker 1: creature stepping out into the parking one We never I
Speaker 1: went back to that place again. That bigfoot or sasquatch
Speaker 1: could have killed any of us at any time. Instead,
Speaker 1: it just followed us out of the woods to safety.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that was its real purpose all along.
Speaker 1: Was it protecting us as we traveled in the dark.
Speaker 1: Was there something out there that would have hurt us
Speaker 1: if it hadn't been there. Now, I'm sorry that we
Speaker 1: threw rocks, but at the time it made perfect sense.