Speaker 1: This is an email from a woman named Shelley, and
Speaker 1: she's from the Pacific Northwest. And this is a really
Speaker 1: interesting kind of violent story. It's pretty scary. She begins
Speaker 1: the email. She tells me she's a seventy year old
Speaker 1: retired nurse. She's a twenty seven year veteran of the
Speaker 1: Navy and the Army. She was in from nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: seven to nineteen ninety four. She's been to Japan and
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, and she deals with veterans who suffer from PTSD.
Speaker 1: She's also a disabled combat veteran due to exposures to
Speaker 1: environmental contaminants in the area that her unit was in
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one. Gustin, that was kuwait. But here's
Speaker 1: what she writes. I grew up in Oregon and frequently
Speaker 1: went hunting and fishing with my father every year since
Speaker 1: I could hold a fishing pole or legally hunt with him.
Speaker 1: I guess you might say that I knew most of
Speaker 1: the animals that are normally found in the area near
Speaker 1: where I lived and hunted during these expeditions into the wilds.
Speaker 1: I've never seen, heard, or smelled anything that might be
Speaker 1: evidence of a sasquatch that lived in the areas where
Speaker 1: we hunted. I've also been skeptical that such a creature
Speaker 1: existed even after the Patterson film was released. While I
Speaker 1: was on active duty, I came home on leave for
Speaker 1: hunting season, which occurs around my dad and my own
Speaker 1: birthday every year. The last hunting seasons that I went
Speaker 1: with my father before he could no longer hunt. This
Speaker 1: last hunt trip was near the area where my encounter
Speaker 1: would occur, and we've seen bears and big cats and
Speaker 1: elk and deer in that area. I have three cats,
Speaker 1: and I've always kept three since I left active duty.
Speaker 1: My cat's age and pass on, and I take them
Speaker 1: and bury them in the same area that all of
Speaker 1: our pets have been buried over the years. Since there
Speaker 1: are bears in the area of our little pet cemetery,
Speaker 1: I carry a side arm when I'm up there. I
Speaker 1: also remain alert to the sounds around me because of
Speaker 1: bearing big cats. My big time cat, I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to pronounce his name, Shot in Yeger. Shot in Yeger.
Speaker 1: It's a German name. I'd spell it for you, but
Speaker 1: just suffice it to say Shot in Yeger passed away
Speaker 1: the day before the encounter. On June eighteenth of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: the afternoon of the nineteenth, I took him up to
Speaker 1: the little pet Cemetery below Harness Mountain, which is located
Speaker 1: in Douglas County in Oregon. I was digging the small
Speaker 1: grave and was nearly done when I heard what I
Speaker 1: thought was a bear moving through their brush on the
Speaker 1: small hill above the pond. The breeze shifted and I
Speaker 1: got a whiff of a strong musky smell, and I
Speaker 1: thought I had a bear, either stalking me or passing
Speaker 1: close by. I drew my pistol and I chambered around,
Speaker 1: and what happened next caught me totally by surprise. There
Speaker 1: was a loud grunt and something started to stomp through
Speaker 1: the trees, and it was snapping branches as it went.
Speaker 1: The dry ground made the stomping sound like hollow drum beats. Well,
Speaker 1: I finished digging the grave while the creature circled me,
Speaker 1: stomping and grunning, And when it was the opposite of
Speaker 1: me across the pond, it picked up a big rock
Speaker 1: about the size of a medium Hermiston watermelon and threw
Speaker 1: it across the pine toward me. It landed a short
Speaker 1: distance from the bank, and it splashed water up to
Speaker 1: where I was digging. Well. This was disconcerting, so I
Speaker 1: finished the burial without any ceremony, and I stacked some
Speaker 1: large rocks on the grave that I had hauled up
Speaker 1: with me to protect it, and then I I got
Speaker 1: ready to leave. While I was still there, I heard
Speaker 1: branches being snapped, and at one point I saw a
Speaker 1: large snag maybe twenty feet tall and a good eighteen
Speaker 1: inches thick get pushed over. I finished up, and then
Speaker 1: I loaded my tools back into the pickup and I
Speaker 1: got ready to drive off, and I heard another loud
Speaker 1: grunt from the hill behind me. I got in and
Speaker 1: pulled out onto the main road and started to drive away.
Speaker 1: As I passed through a clump of brush near the
Speaker 1: swampy area, a rock came flying from the brush and
Speaker 1: hit my windshield, knocking a big round chip out of
Speaker 1: it down the road a bit. A long piece of
Speaker 1: branch hit the pickup and landed in the bed. So
Speaker 1: I sped up and I got out of there. The
Speaker 1: rock that hit the windshield had dropped down into the
Speaker 1: opening between the windshield and under the rear edge of
Speaker 1: the hood and The rock was larger than a soft ball,
Speaker 1: and the branch measured eight feet long and four inches
Speaker 1: thick along the length. It was too large and heavy
Speaker 1: to have been easily thrown by a human. After reflecting
Speaker 1: on this encounter, there must have been more than one
Speaker 1: of them, based on the distance between where the rock
Speaker 1: was thrown and where the branch was thrown. I went
Speaker 1: back up there a couple of weeks later to check
Speaker 1: on the fresh grave to be sure that it had
Speaker 1: not been dug up by a wild predator, and I
Speaker 1: planted some native iris. The new grave was untouched, but
Speaker 1: on top of the three little graves, I found that
Speaker 1: some large flat river rocks had been placed on top.
Speaker 1: The nearest source for those type of rocks was fifteen
Speaker 1: miles away. As I was leaving on this trip, another
Speaker 1: rock was thrown at my pickup. It was as I
Speaker 1: drove away, and this one landed in the bed, doing
Speaker 1: no damage. The rock was close to the same type
Speaker 1: and size as those being used on the newer logging
Speaker 1: roads in the area. In the summer of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: it was a dry year and many of the springs
Speaker 1: had dried up. In the pond was probably the only
Speaker 1: source of water near These creatures may have been trying
Speaker 1: to drive me so that they could access the water.
Speaker 1: I never saw the creatures that I encountered, but one
Speaker 1: thing is for sure. Bears don't stomp, nor can they
Speaker 1: throw rocks or sticks. I've heard later that when sisquatch
Speaker 1: throws rocks, they lobbed them underhanded. But the rocks that
Speaker 1: were thrown at me were thrown with a flat trajectory,
Speaker 1: like a baseball. I didn't take time to search for
Speaker 1: the tracks or any other evidence of what had been
Speaker 1: trying to intimidate me. I felt that I was not
Speaker 1: welcome in that area, at least when I was there.
Speaker 1: There has been elkin deer hunting since my encounter, so
Speaker 1: many of these creatures have moved on. It has now
Speaker 1: been a year since I've been up there last, but
Speaker 1: I will be going back when my elderly cat passes on.
Speaker 1: Since this encounter, I have a video camera set up
Speaker 1: in my pickup and I now explore the back roads
Speaker 1: in the area where I live, and when I record
Speaker 1: the intro to each video, I jokingly say, maybe I'll
Speaker 1: catch the big Harry Goull on this trip. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess maybe I'm looking to catch one of these creatures
Speaker 1: on video, but I enjoy the videos of wildlife, wildflowers, mountains,
Speaker 1: waterfalls and whatever I do find. And she signs off
Speaker 1: as Shelley of the PNW, and she reminds me that
Speaker 1: PNW means Pacific Northwest. I actually knew that one. Can
Speaker 1: you believe that that's one of them? I actually knew,
Speaker 1: But I thought this was a crazy story. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got a pet cemetery. I don't know. Whenever we
Speaker 1: have pets die, we just kind of we just bury
Speaker 1: them in the yard, or you know, if it's not
Speaker 1: a real close pet, or if it's a chicken or something,
Speaker 1: we just throw them out in the woods and let
Speaker 1: the predators get them or scavengers. But the pet cemetery thing,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a neat idea to find a place
Speaker 1: out in the middle of nowhere and bury your pets.
Speaker 1: I like that idea. I've never thought of that. To
Speaker 1: be there saying goodbye to a treasured pet and then
Speaker 1: be harassed by bigfoot is And I know people say, well,
Speaker 1: you're in their area, blah blah blah. If they're as
Speaker 1: smart as people think they are, then they know what
Speaker 1: this woman's doing. She's carrying a dead cat. She's digging
Speaker 1: a hole to bury the cat. She's not coming in
Speaker 1: moving in on their territory. And if they're as smart
Speaker 1: as people think they are, they should know that. And
Speaker 1: I don't. It kind of bothers me that they harass
Speaker 1: people that are just not doing much of anything but
Speaker 1: walking or whatever. I mean, I'm not really mad about it.
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I don't know. I guess I have
Speaker 1: a bit of a heart for this woman because she's
Speaker 1: bearing a pet. We have a lot of pets, and
Speaker 1: I love them. And I don't know. I'm just rambling on,
Speaker 1: but I thought it was a great story. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously they can be dangerous. One of those rocks could
Speaker 1: have come through the windshield and hit her in the
Speaker 1: head and killed her. Come on, that stick four inches
Speaker 1: round and eight feet long. That's a dangerous weapon. That's
Speaker 1: the way it went. And she doesn't seem to be
Speaker 1: too scared, so she says she's going back out there.
Speaker 1: I think that's pretty cool. I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: So thanks Shelly for sending the story. In nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: when I was in the Air Force and stationed at
Speaker 1: Fairchild Air Force Base and spoke in Washington. I was
Speaker 1: training to be a survival instructor, so I spent a
Speaker 1: great deal of time in the Connects, Sue, I don't
Speaker 1: know Ka, n IKSU connect Sioux National Forests. I've always
Speaker 1: loved the piece I feel when I'm out in nature.
Speaker 1: I've never hunted, but did a lot of camping and fishing.
Speaker 1: While I was in training. I had to learn to
Speaker 1: set traps and field dress game and tan hides. Also
Speaker 1: learned to make jerky and smoked fish and a smoker
Speaker 1: that we made in camp. I know how to live
Speaker 1: out in the middle of nowhere. In nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: my ex husband and I drove from spoke In to
Speaker 1: the West Coast Beach outside of Seattle to spend the
Speaker 1: day and have some fun. It was off season, so
Speaker 1: we had the beach to ourselves. The drive back was
Speaker 1: long and we started late for home. We were both exhausted,
Speaker 1: so we decided to make camp. On the way back.
Speaker 1: We found a stretch of woods between the road and
Speaker 1: the river. It was pretty far back in there, but
Speaker 1: the state or county had set up a little camping
Speaker 1: area with brick grills and stone picnic tables. Because it
Speaker 1: was late in the year, it was getting chilly. No
Speaker 1: one else was around, which meant it would be quiet
Speaker 1: and peaceful. We set up our tent and we made
Speaker 1: a fire and ate dinner, and then we went to bed.
Speaker 1: And something woke me up at two am, but I
Speaker 1: didn't know what it was. I lay there listening, thinking
Speaker 1: maybe an animal of some sort was walking around the campsite.
Speaker 1: I was wide awake now, but I couldn't hear anything now.
Speaker 1: I didn't notice before we went to sleep, but now
Speaker 1: I was aware that there were no sounds of insects, birds,
Speaker 1: or any other animals. It was just too quiet. I
Speaker 1: tried to convince myself that it was because it was
Speaker 1: so cold out, and I tried to go back to sleep,
Speaker 1: and the longer I laid there, the more antsy I got.
Speaker 1: I didn't know why, but I was uncomfortable and I
Speaker 1: was scared. It got so bad that I had to
Speaker 1: get up and see if there was anything going on outside.
Speaker 1: I climbed out of the tent, doing my best not
Speaker 1: to wake my husband. He had a way of making
Speaker 1: me feel like an idiot and laughing at me about
Speaker 1: these things. Since I was already upset, I didn't feel
Speaker 1: like I needed the extra burden of him picking at me.
Speaker 1: And I sat there at the picnic table, watching and listening,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't find anything wrong. Even so, this uneasy
Speaker 1: feeling I had was getting worse. After thirty minutes with
Speaker 1: nothing going on, I kicked myself in the butt for
Speaker 1: being so silly, and I crawled back in the tent.
Speaker 1: I still couldn't go back to sleep. In fact, I
Speaker 1: was growing more and more afraid. Finally I decided to
Speaker 1: get back out. For some reason, I knew there was
Speaker 1: something out there that was dangerous and I couldn't see it.
Speaker 1: More than anything, I wanted to leave, but I was
Speaker 1: worried about waking my husband up for something that I
Speaker 1: couldn't explain. The terror built until I began to cry,
Speaker 1: even though I still didn't know why. When I couldn't
Speaker 1: take it anymore, I woke him up, and when I
Speaker 1: tried to explain what I was feeling, I was astonished
Speaker 1: to find that he didn't make fun of me or
Speaker 1: get mad. He just got up and started packing. We
Speaker 1: loaded up the car, and we left, without ever knowing
Speaker 1: the reason for my terror. Now i've thought about it
Speaker 1: often over the years, and I've tried to work out
Speaker 1: why the whole thing happened. Then, in twenty eleven, I
Speaker 1: learned about the capture of Geary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer.
Speaker 1: The river we can't buy was the Green River, and
Speaker 1: we could see the bridge where he'd dumped one of
Speaker 1: his victims from where we camp. I've often pondered what
Speaker 1: I was so afraid of that night, and could it
Speaker 1: have been something to do with him or his victims.
Speaker 1: I've never had the gift of discernment that my little
Speaker 1: sister has, nor have I ever had a supernatural experience.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I would have been so afraid
Speaker 1: of something that I couldn't see. After listening to your storytelling,
Speaker 1: I have to wonder if that uncomfortable feeling was because
Speaker 1: a sasquatch was nearby. It seems that others have felt
Speaker 1: that way when they've had their experiences. I'll never know why.
Speaker 1: Was it a serial killer, was it a sasquatch or
Speaker 1: was it just me? Gary Ridgeway was caught due in
Speaker 1: part to the assistance of Ted Bundy. Bundy offered his help,
Speaker 1: and ultimately because of his advice, they caught Ridgeway. It
Speaker 1: was nearly twelve years after Bundy died, but it was
Speaker 1: by acting on Bundy's intricate knowledge and understanding of his
Speaker 1: own kind that they were eventually able to arrest and
Speaker 1: convict Ridgeway. Here's a story about a bigfoot in Virginia.
Speaker 1: This is really good and it's got some interesting twists
Speaker 1: and a little bit of trivia with it. The writer
Speaker 1: gives the story a title, The Danville wild Man, and
Speaker 1: he actually writes it's a true experience by Posey Gilbert.
Speaker 1: Now I don't know if he's the author or what.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, but I'm gonna read the story
Speaker 1: he sent it. So when people send me a story,
Speaker 1: I assume they wanted on the podcast. So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm doing here. In nineteen fifty eight, my parents and
Speaker 1: my siblings and I went to visit my grandmother's parents
Speaker 1: who lived back in the mountains and rolling hills of Danville, Virginia.
Speaker 1: Whenever it started to get dark, Grannie would say, it's
Speaker 1: time for y'all to come inside now, because the wild
Speaker 1: Man would be coming out soon. How do you like
Speaker 1: that voice? I'm practicing on doing some voices. Anyway, let's
Speaker 1: move on. I was seven then and always imagined a skinny,
Speaker 1: little unshaven cartoon cave man running around in the leopard
Speaker 1: skin carrying a big club. I thought it was really
Speaker 1: just another Boogeyman story to keep kids in line. At
Speaker 1: least that's what my older brother Chuck said it was
Speaker 1: when I asked him about it the next day. As
Speaker 1: she often did, my Aunt Bella, to keep us from underfoot,
Speaker 1: told her two oldest sons, Billy and Jimmy, to take
Speaker 1: us with them into the woods when they went to
Speaker 1: gather some firewood. As we scoured the forest floor for
Speaker 1: kindling and dry broken branches, Billy and Jimmy took to
Speaker 1: showing us the various wild berries and plants and roots
Speaker 1: and mushrooms that we could eat and those that were
Speaker 1: poison us and that we should not even touch. We
Speaker 1: came on a clearing that was surrounded by tall trees,
Speaker 1: and Jimmy said it would be better if we spread
Speaker 1: out a bit and looked around. The truth is that
Speaker 1: this was an adventure for Chuck and Ie, but this
Speaker 1: was just another chore for them. Board they climbed the
Speaker 1: two giant trees in the clearing and they watched Chuck
Speaker 1: and Ie. As we did their work. I was assigned
Speaker 1: the kindling, while Chuck was told to look for the
Speaker 1: thicker branches. They knew that we wouldn't find anything in
Speaker 1: that clearing, but that way they could keep us busy
Speaker 1: in an eye on both of us at the same
Speaker 1: time time. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't find anything.
Speaker 1: And then I went to the edge of the clearing
Speaker 1: and I saw that it dropped off on to the
Speaker 1: lower level. I saw what I thought was a pile
Speaker 1: of twigs and branches, and I jumped down and I
Speaker 1: ran over to it. And as I neared the pile,
Speaker 1: I found myself not standing before a mound of twigs
Speaker 1: and branches, but in front of what looked like an
Speaker 1: igloo of woven branches and sticks, or a big upside
Speaker 1: down burd nest. I immediately started to call for Chuck,
Speaker 1: and in a matter of seconds, he and my two
Speaker 1: cousins were standing at the top of the bank. They
Speaker 1: were all out of breath and pale with worry as
Speaker 1: they looked down at me. What the hell are you
Speaker 1: screaming like that for, Billy asked, I thought it was
Speaker 1: a damn snake. It got a hold of you, Jimmy
Speaker 1: scolded me. They had gotten there so fast that it
Speaker 1: startled me. They must have started to run toward me
Speaker 1: when they saw me jump down off the bank. What
Speaker 1: did you come down here for, anyway, Chuck asked, between gasp.
Speaker 1: Look look what I found, I said, happily, pointing to
Speaker 1: my discovery. I ran over and started to crawl into
Speaker 1: the opening. Boy, get your ass out of there, Jimmy
Speaker 1: screamed to me. That could be a bear cave. That
Speaker 1: ain't no bear cave, I encountered. You can look right
Speaker 1: through the branches and you can see there's nothing in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the bear might be coming back. We need to go,
Speaker 1: Billy said, ending the conversation. Let's go. I think we
Speaker 1: got enough wood. Anyway. We never spoke about it again
Speaker 1: after that, but it's like anything strange that happened to me,
Speaker 1: and it never left my mind. What was that thing
Speaker 1: and who had built it? For years afterwards, it would
Speaker 1: cross my mind. And then last year on Monster Quest
Speaker 1: they did a program on what they call the grass
Speaker 1: people or the Grassman of Ohio, which was another name
Speaker 1: used for Bigfoot like creatures. I was cooking and not
Speaker 1: really watching it until they flashed a picture of the
Speaker 1: thing I found that day out in the woods with Chuck,
Speaker 1: Billy and Jimmy. There's also a documentary called Southern Fried Bigfoot,
Speaker 1: and in it they talk about the fact that Bigfoot
Speaker 1: has a lot of different names boogers, wildman, skunk apes,
Speaker 1: depending on the locality it is being seen in, but
Speaker 1: it is all the same or similar creatures. The name
Speaker 1: they commonly use for it in Virginia is the wild Man.
Speaker 1: In fact, when you enter Danville, there's a sign that says,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Danville, Home of the Bigfoot. Well, shouldn't that
Speaker 1: say home of the wild Man? If they use I
Speaker 1: don't know. He gives a link for the Monster Quest
Speaker 1: Ohio Grassman Part one video. I guess it's a YouTube video,
Speaker 1: and there's also a Monster Quest Ohio Grassman Part two,
Speaker 1: Legend of Boggie Creek. Now, how could it be The
Speaker 1: Ohio Grassman Part two? The Legend of Boggy Creek Boggy
Speaker 1: Creek in Arkansas. I don't know. There's a few things
Speaker 1: in there that just kind of confuse me. However, it
Speaker 1: was a good The meat of the whole thing was
Speaker 1: a good story. The shelter that he found that. You know,
Speaker 1: those things don't just build themselves out there in the wild.
Speaker 1: So it's either a person going out there, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe being creative, or it's some kind of animal that
Speaker 1: is able to use its hands and actually build a structure,
Speaker 1: because no other animal, save a monkey, can build those
Speaker 1: kind of things because they don't have hands and arms
Speaker 1: to manipulate things. I mean, raccoons do, but they're not
Speaker 1: strong enough to bend those type of limbs. Let's see
Speaker 1: what other animal has hands. Possums kind of do, but
Speaker 1: I don't know that they use them for manipulate them.
Speaker 1: I know raccoons do because they clean their food and
Speaker 1: they you know, they feed themselves with their hands. Bears
Speaker 1: have pauls, but they don't really use them to manipulate things.
Speaker 1: They just use them to capture and climb and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Anyway, my mind is just wondering, and I'm
Speaker 1: rambling on all that to say, this was a great
Speaker 1: story and I really appreciate the man sending it. Thank you, sir.