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Speaker 1: My name is Kim, and I don't mind if you

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use my name. I don't have a Bigfoot story, but

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I do have one that is just as strange. I

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live in a small rural town in Tennessee. I have

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an experience that I've been hesitant to share since it

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happened in nineteen ninety four, when I was eighteen years old.

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Today I'm forty seven, and since this happened, I've only

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told maybe three people since the incident. I'm not sure

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if the three people I told even believe me, because

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I still have trouble believing it myself. It was after

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I had graduated high school. I had a boyfriend who

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lived on a well traveled highway between our small town

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in Perry County and the bigger town we all commuted

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to in Lewis County for shopping and eating. He used

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to always claim in high school that he had seen

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aliens in Ufo on a daily basis. Well, I thought

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he was crazy and had been smoking too much. Weaed

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on a summer evening in nineteen ninety four, I made

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a visit to his house to watch his new satellite

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dish that his parents had just installed. Well, this was

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back when the satellites were as big as a swimming pool.

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I was sitting on the couch enjoying the thousands of

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channels from all over the world when my boyfriend came

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in and calmly said, Kim, come here, I want to

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show you something. We walked out onto the porch into

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the front yard and I looked at him and I said,

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what is it. He pointed up to the top of

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one of the trees in his backyard and he said,

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just look at that. Five hundred feet away. I saw

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a large, dark, circular disk right at the top of

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the trees. There were yellowish looking lights that blinked in

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a sequence, starting from the left of the object to

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the right, and then around again. I heard any noise,

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no motor, no hum. It was absolutely silent. It was

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the size of a basketball court, and it sat in

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a perfectly still position, with just the movement of the

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sequencing lights that seemed to chase each other from left

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to right. Well, I was stunned into silence. I knew,

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deep down, whatever was controlling that object was observing us.

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I never thought I would react that way if I

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ever got lucky enough to see one of these things.

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I always pictured myself before it happened that if I

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had ever seen one, I would be ecstatic and excited,

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but I wasn't. I looked at him one more time,

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not believing my eyes, and I asked him, like a dummy,

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what is that? Even though I already knew what it was,

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thinking there might be a logical explanation. All he said

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was to UFO. I knew whatever it was, it was

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not to be there. And then, for some odd reason,

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I felt the strong urge to calmly go back in

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the house, sit down, and continue to watch TV. And

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that's exactly what I did, I guess. Fifteen minutes went

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by and my boyfriend came back in and he went

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to his room and he shut the door. Well, I

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got up from the couch and I walked outside to leave.

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I looked for the object while I walked back to

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my car, and it was gone. After that, we never

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spoke about it again, and to this day, I couldnot

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figure out why why would we not mention it to

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each other. I know what I saw was real, I

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was awake, and I was not on drugs or alcohol.

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But for some reason, I've always questioned myself as to

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why I reacted the way I did and why he

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reacted the way he did. It was just a rare experience,

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and I don't know if there was a higher power

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involved pushing me to react the way I did. Well.

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We eventually broke up and he moved to Utah. I

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heard recently of another sighting on that road about five

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years ago, while a girl I know was driving on

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that highway. I know this was a short story, but

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I thought I would share it. I thought maybe someone

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out there listening may appreciate it. It may have been

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through something similar. I enjoy listening to your podcast every

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morning while I get up and get ready for work.

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Keep doing what you do. You're doing a great job.

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And she says, thank you, Kim, Thank you Kim for

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the story. You did a great job writing this. That's

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the biggest compliment, not that I'm doing a good job,

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but you guys do a great job writing these. This

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was an interesting story. I love these UFO stories. Okay,

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fair warning. This story has a lot of places, has

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a lot of places that have spanned names and French

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names that I may get wrong, so get ready for

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a laugh. But I just can't pronounce them because I've

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never heard some of them before Nielma edited this. She goes,

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there wasn't really much to do to it because the

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person is a talented writer, and so this should be

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a good story. And I'm reading this cold, so just

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hang on to your weaves, all right. Here we go.

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It's a bigfoot story. Growing up in the nineteen seventies

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in the small town of Monroe, Louisiana, we heard all

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kinds of stories about the history of the town and

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that region of northeast Louisiana. For a sleepy little town

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nestled in the curves of the Wachita River, the Bayous,

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and the swamps, you would never guess that it had

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been a place of habitation for several cultures going back

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nearly six thousand years now. I spent a lot of

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time sitting around and listening to my grandfather and one

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or two uncles as they told stories of things that

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they encountered on hunting trips, or why working around the

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family farm, or the stories of what other relatives had

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experienced in the bayou and swamp country around Monroe. As

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a kid, I enjoyed all the stories, even if I

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didn't quite believe them or thought there might have been

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a bit of leg pulling going on. This syria had

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been settled and lived in for thousands of years by

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Native Americans, with the oldest mound complex found in the

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Western Hemisphere and it dates back fifty four hundred years

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and it's found in the northwestern part of Monroe at

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the Watson Breaks site. The Poverty Point World Heritage Site,

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which is the largest known earthworks in North America, is

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only a fifty minute drive to the east. Another facet

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of the local history was the Spanish colonial past pastad

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do watchitall? That was stor I think it was. That

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means post watchitall. I think that was started in seventeen

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and renamed after the Spanish governor Estevan miro As Fort

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Mirou in seventeen ninety one when the fort was constructed.

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As the settlement expanded with French and Americans moving into

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the area, the settlement would be renamed Monroe in eighteen

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twenty after the arrival of the steamboat James Monroe. The

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town was also part of the Vicksburg Campaign as a

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supply depot and hospital during the Civil War. Some of

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the stories told to me growing up were from the

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Spanish and later American settlers and also from the earlier

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Native American people. There were stories of giant, hairy manlike

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creatures who lived in the deepest part of the swamps

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and who did not tolerate trespassers. There were beings who

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could change their shapes to look like animals, and other

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stories were about people who would disappear out in the

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swamps with never a tree to be found. Of course,

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there were plenty of ghost stories around the Old Garden district,

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and Monroe had more than its share of haunt houses.

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I experienced a few of these things in some of

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those two hundred year old homes that I can't explain.

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But those are stories for another time. By the way,

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if you ever feel like writing those stories, brother, please

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send them in because I'll get them. I'll get them

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on the podcast. Back to the story. In nineteen seventy five,

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I had my own close encounter with a bigfoot out

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along the Watchtaw River among those ancient Spanish moss draped

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trees and waterways. My mom and I had gone on

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one of the periodic camping trips our Baptist Church put

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together for our congregation in the late summer of that year.

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This particular camping trip was to Moon Lake, north of Monroe.

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This area is adjacent to the Black Bayou National Wildlife

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Refuse that has a long history of the range things

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happening and sightings of strange creatures. If you had a

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canoe or a flat bottom aluminum boat, you could go

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out on the switchbacks of the watch Taw River and

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eventually you would cross over the Black Bayou itself or

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by you Dissard, I think I pronounced that right, Disiard.

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The further up the side by us you went, the

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thicker the curtains of moss hanging from the trees would

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grow until you could see only a few yards in

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any direction. Now, back in the nineteen seventies, the area

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around Moon Lake was still fairly wild and undeveloped, and

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it was by you territory, with only a few scattered

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houses and trailers off the old State Road five point

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fifty three as the crow flies. It was only about

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five miles from my dad's house, but that short fifteen

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minute drive would take you from the civilized comforts of

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town living to another world of moss, drape, tree and dabble,

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sunlight and foggy swamps inhabited by alligators. And other creatures.

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Our church used a camp at the lake for family

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weekend getaways and for some retreats. The camp was on

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the east side of the lake, between the road and

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the main body of the lake, with the river making

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the northern boundary. It was an old camp, but it

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was well maintained, and the main camp was clear and level,

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but surrounded by old trees and bushes. On this weekend,

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families had started arriving late Friday afternoon, with the rest

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coming in early Saturday morning to set up their tents

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and personal camp sites within the larger camping area. As

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each family arrived, more of the kids I knew would

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be running around and playing tiger chase or hide and seek,

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And during one particular wild run through the camp, I

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missed seeing a tent rope that caught me right across

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my face, and I proudly wore that diagonal rope burn

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across my face for several days and enjoyed my badge

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of honor. Saturday progressed and we moved to exploring the

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area outside of the campgrounds, which included walking aways up

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the shallow river banks, skipping rocks across the slow moving current,

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and looking for arrowheads. We didn't find anything, but we

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had a grand time poking around in the soft soil,

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and we made a full day of it. At dusk,

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everyone was called in for dinner and visiting, and my

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friends and I group together for a dinner of hot

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dogs and chips and beans and potato salad. And while

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we were eating, we noticed the dogs that some of

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the families had brought with them were tracking around the

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campground and occasionally whining. And since we were among the

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trees and therefore more to the north and west, the

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setting sun made a long and broken shadow between the

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trunks and the hanging moss, it made it difficult to

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see what the dogs were reacting too. It did not

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make much of an impression on me at the time,

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and as soon as we finished eating, we ran back

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into the woods for an evening edition of hide and seek.

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After about an hour, we went back and picked up

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some flashlights so that we could continue our game until

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our parents would eventually call us in for the night.

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And we gathered back together and we stood talking at

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the edge of the clearing, and a small stick was

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thrown into our group from the area just outside the

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lantern light. Well, we thought it was one of the

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other kids, so we started trying to find them, but

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we never saw anyone, but every couple of minutes another

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stick would be thrown from the trees. Eventually, we started

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concentrating our flashlights in one beam and swinging them back

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and forth, and we tried throwing sticks and small rocks

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back to the trees to see if we could flush

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out whoever it was, but we didn't have any success.

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After another ten minutes of this, we still didn't see anything,

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and then another stick came flying out of the trees.

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This time it came from higher up. We swung the

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flashlight beams up about ten feet and at first we

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didn't see anything but a curt of Spanish moss hanging

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from a branch close to the tree trunk, and then

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a face pushed out of the moss. Our first thought

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was one of the kids had climbed up the trunk,

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but on closer inspection, though, we realized that the face

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was not entirely human. After a stunned a few seconds,

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a body that was fully ten to eleven feet tall,

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covered in shaggy brown hair, stepped out from the tree

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trunk and moss less than twenty feet away from us.

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We started yelling and running back to the camp, while

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whatever this was disappeared at a loping run back to

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the north. The adults who came r at our yelling

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listened to our hurried description and then took off in pursuit.

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They too, caught a few glimpses as the bigfoot ran

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through the undergrowth and then dove into the river to

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make its escape. When the adults came back to camp,

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every family packed up and left that night without another

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word being said about the events of that night, And

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for several years after that event, you would hear stories

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of strange happenings around the Moonlake area. Whoo, that's a

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There was a lot of lead up to the actual

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apex of that story, but it was all important because

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you kind of get a feel for the area and

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why they were there and what was going on in

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the mood of the kids playing, and then the this

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face pushes through Spanish moss. If you could see me,

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I've got my shoulders all scrunched up behind my head

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because it's given me the creeps. Man, what a great story.

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I love that story. I appreciate the writer and regarding

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the houses and whatever happened in the haunted houses that

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you claim was a time for another story. I would

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appreciate getting those from you. I'll be glad to put

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them on the intern. I'll be glad to put them

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on the podcast, because, dude, you know how to tell

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a story. Anyway, Thank you for sending it. I really

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do appreciate it. When I was growing up in South

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Carolina in the nineteen fifties, we never heard stories about

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encounters with Bigfoot or families of Bigfoot. When I had

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my first encounter, I didn't know what they were or

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what to call them. I think my dad must have

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known something about them, but he never talked about it.

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We lived on a farm deep in the country, somewhere

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between Honia Path and Greenwood. We kept all kinds of livestock, chickens, hogs,

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and a few cows and a couple of goats. Along

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with them, we had dogs and cats, and there was

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no grass around the house because the hogs and the

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chickens and the other animals roamed freely about eating everything

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in sight, not to mention the damage that we three

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girls could do. Now, Mom and Dad didn't have any sons,

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but my sisters and I were just as tough and

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wild as any boys could be. Dad worked our little

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farm while holding down a job at the fabric mill,

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and were shoals. They wove and printed the fabric and

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then shipped it off to various other places to be

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made into clothes and such. And at that time they

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were printing camouflage material, and that meant the deer hunters

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around there always had cheap, misprinted cameo cloth to take

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home to their wives so they could make them into

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hunting clothes. I remember one hot Saturday afternoon in the summer.

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Dad was busy with the cows and Mom asked me

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to run to the store for her to pick a

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few items up. It was a little corner store set

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on an intersection in the middle of nowhere. Normally, my

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older sister would go with me, but she wasn't feeling

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well that day, and my younger sister was still too little.

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The store was only a half mile away and there

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were almost never any cars on the road, but I

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was old enough to know betther than to talk to strangers.

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Even if there had been a car, it was likely

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to be someone we knew. Now. That was back when

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cochs were and nickel and snicker bars were three cents.

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I took my time getting to the store. I remember

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a turtle that needed poking with a stick, A few

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insects were begging for inspections, and I couldn't resist the

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wildflowers that were in full bloom. But I eventually got

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there and handed my list over to the storekeeper. It

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wasn't a long list, but there was enough on it

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to tell me that Mama was getting ready to bake

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us a cake. It was hot that day. I knew

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I would practically have to run back to keep the

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butter from melting. Well. I liked running before a ten

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year old, I was pretty fast, well on that day,

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I was determined to break my old record. Lucky for me,

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I thought I had wasted enough time getting there that

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the sun was beginning to sink behind the trees to

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the west. The shadows were getting longer, but that meant

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the trip home wouldn't be quite so hot as the

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walk there. I had just about reached the long dirt

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drive that led to our farmhouse when I noticed an

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awful dead smell that wasn't there earlier. It seemed to

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be coming in wiffs on the breeze from somewhere inside

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the tree line. Now, those woods are thick with pines,

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and so thick that it was almost like night once

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you got past the outer boundary. We never ventured in there. Ever.

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Dad used to tell us that there might be bears

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in there. Well, we never saw one, but if Dad

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said they were there, we believed it. We didn't need

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to play in those old woods anyway. There was more

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than enough space to play in the sunlight or under

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the big shape trees on the farm. As I turned

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to head up the drive, that smell got stronger, and

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I shifted my groceries from one arm to the other.

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The rattle of that paper bag muffled another noise that

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I was sure didn't come from me. It was a

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crackling sound like sticks breaking somewhere beyond the trees. And

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then I caught a glimpse of something moving to my right,

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just inside the tree line. I assured myself that I

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was hearing squirrels or birds and letting my imagination make

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giants out of shadows. I was making good time, but

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I couldn't seem to outrun the sun. I was sure

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it was dropping faster than usual that afternoon, and even

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though the fear was starting to creep in. I had

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to slow down. It was still pretty hot and humid,

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and I was getting tired. The house came into view,

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and so did something else. I didn't quite understand what

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I was looking at. I just knew that something tall

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and dark was st at the edge of the trees

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ahead of me. There was an embankment there that went

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up the right side of the drive, and the tall

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trees came to a point at the top of it.

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That was where the taller, slender, black, hairy figure stepped out.

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I could see its face clearly. It was almost human,

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but not quite. I had seen pictures of monkeys, but

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this thing didn't have a snout or a nose that

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protruded like one. Its ears were small, and it had

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a pronounced brow line, with deep set eyes that looked

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black or very dark brown. The hair on its body

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was kind of long, but more so on its arms

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and around its head. It didn't really have a neck,

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but its arms were long and almost to its knees.

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Or maybe they just looked that way because it was

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stooped a little. I thought it was smiling at me,

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but it was such a creepy looking grin and it

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made its wide mouth almost sinister. I don't think it

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was trying to scare me, but it sure was doing

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a good job of it. In an effort to figure

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out what I was looking at, I took a few

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steps closer to it, and in turn, it took another

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step down the embankment, and then I took another step,

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and it took another until it was all the way

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to the bottom. That's when I stopped, and I started screaming.

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My kids have a high pitched scream that runs right

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through you out there in the country. It really traveled.

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It was enough to bring Dad running with his double

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barrel shotgun. I never thought of my dad as being

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small until I compared him to the monster. It must

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have been twice my dad's height. The creature went back

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up the embankment, and it looked like it dissipated into

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the dark forest. And to this day, I'm not sure

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if my dad ever saw it. He had a confused

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look on his face, and I never heard him shoot.

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Either he didn't see it or he was afraid of

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shooting me by accident. He stood there and waited as

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I ran to him, and then we both went inside.

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I don't know what I was looking at that day,

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but I do now. I'll never know what he wanted.

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Maybe he smelled what was in the bag and he

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was hungry. I doubt anyone really knows what they are

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or how they managed to hide so well for their size.

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But what I do know now is that I do

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believe in Bigfoot.