WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.879 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness Bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.280 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:05.519 The road trip isn't over. We've still got states left 14 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:07.560 on the map and we'll get back on the highway 15 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:11.200 soon enough. But over the past several weeks stories have 16 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:14.519 been piling up. People from all over the country have 17 00:01:14.599 --> 00:01:18.079 been sending me their encounters. So this episode we're pulling 18 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:24.799 over five people, five states, Michigan, Oklahoma, California, West Virginia, 19 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:29.120 and Florida. Let's start in the snow. Wade is in 20 00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:31.560 his early fifties. Now. He grew up in the Upper 21 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:34.480 Peninsula in a family where deer camp wasn't a hobby 22 00:01:34.519 --> 00:01:37.000 so much as a fixed point on the calendar, the 23 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:40.799 same way other families treat Christmas. His grandfather built the 24 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:44.920 camp in the sixties, a trailer, a wood stove, a 25 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:47.959 hand pump for water, and about eighty acres of mixed 26 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:51.920 hardwood and cedar swamp, backing up against county forest land 27 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:56.079 that runs for miles without a paved road. In November 28 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:59.439 of twenty eleven, Wade went up alone. His dad had 29 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:02.840 passed the pre spring, his uncle's knees were shot, and 30 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:05.560 his brother couldn't get the time off, So for the 31 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:08.120 first time in his life, Wade had the camp to 32 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:11.360 himself for opening week. He told me he'd been looking 33 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:13.680 forward to it and dreading it. At the same time. 34 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:16.520 His dad's coat was still hanging on the nail by 35 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:20.000 the door. He left it there. The first two days 36 00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:23.479 were normal, cold, gray, a few inches of snow on 37 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:27.039 the ground, which is what you want. Snow tells you everything. 38 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:30.439 He saw a few young does and a small six point. 39 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:34.800 He passed on the usual squirrels and jays. He sat 40 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:36.680 a blind his father had built on the edge of 41 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:39.159 a clear cut that had grown back into thick young 42 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:43.879 poplar maybe ten years old, chest high and dense. The 43 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:46.560 blind looked out over the cut toward a hard edge 44 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:50.240 of mature timber about two hundred yards away. The third 45 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.039 morning is when it started. Wade got in the blind 46 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:57.039 before light, same as always, coffee in a steel thermous 47 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:00.199 rifle across his lap, and he told me the first 48 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:03.680 thing he noticed wasn't a sound, It was the absence 49 00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:06.800 of one. Every other morning, the woods had woken up 50 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:11.520 around him, chickadees, ravens off in the distance, red squirrels 51 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:16.240 running their mouths. That morning, nothing, he said. He actually 52 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:18.759 checked his watch because he wondered if he'd somehow gotten 53 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:22.039 out there. An hour early, around eight, a doe came 54 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:23.759 out of the timber edge on the far side of 55 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:27.800 the cut, and she was acting strange. Wade has killed 56 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.319 a lot of deer. He knows how they move when 57 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:34.879 they're feeding, when they're cruising, when they're nervous. This dough 58 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:37.759 came out of the woods at a dead run, flat out, 59 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.000 ears pinned, and she didn't stop or checked back over 60 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:43.800 her shoulder, the way a deer will when a coyotes 61 00:03:43.879 --> 00:03:47.000 pushing it. She ran the full length of the cut, 62 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:50.520 passed within forty yards of his blind, and kept going. 63 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:54.039 He never saw what she was running from. He sat 64 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:57.400 there another twenty minutes. Then, from inside the timber where 65 00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:59.960 the dough had come from, he heard a single knock. 66 00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:02.680 He described it as the sound of somebody hitting a 67 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:06.080 tree trunk with a baseball bat. His first thought was 68 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:09.400 another hunter. It was opening week, and even though his 69 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:13.039 family's land was posted guy's wander so he did what 70 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:16.800 you do. He called out, said good morning, real loud, 71 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:21.399 letting whoever it was know the blind was occupied. Nothing answered. 72 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:24.879 About a minute later there was a second knock from 73 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:29.480 a different spot, farther north, deeper in. He guessed the 74 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:32.160 two spots were one hundred yards apart, And he told 75 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:35.879 me the thing that bothered him was the timing. Whatever 76 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:37.720 made the first knock would have had to move that 77 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:42.439 hundred yards through frozen November woods, through blowdown and brush 78 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:45.879 in about a minute without him hearing a single step. 79 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:49.040 Wade can't cross his own yard in the snow without 80 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.439 making noise. He stayed in the blind until almost eleven, 81 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:55.160 mostly because he didn't love the idea of walking through 82 00:04:55.199 --> 00:04:58.920 those woods just then, and he admitted that plainly. When 83 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:01.600 he finally got down and started back toward camp, he 84 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:04.120 took the logging trail instead of cutting through the timber 85 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:07.600 like he usually did. Halfway down the trail, he found 86 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.680 the track pressed into the snow and the frozen mud 87 00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:13.519 underneath it, right in the middle of the trail, pointed 88 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:16.560 across it like something had crossed in one or two strides. 89 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:19.639 He put his own boot next to it. Wade wears 90 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:22.720 a size eleven. The track ran past his boot on 91 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:28.040 both ends. He guessed seventeen eighteen inches and wide with toes. 92 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:31.639 Not a bear track. He's seen a thousand bear tracks. 93 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:35.480 Bear tracks show claws and the toes sit in an arc. 94 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:39.839 These toes sat in a line like a man's and 95 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:42.720 there was no claw mark anywhere. He looked for the 96 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:45.439 next track and couldn't find it. On either side of 97 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.560 the trail. The brush was thick, and he told me 98 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:49.560 he stood there for a while doing the math on 99 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:52.560 stride length, and then he stopped doing the math because 100 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:54.639 he didn't like where it was going. He didn't have 101 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:58.000 a camera. This was twenty eleven and his phone was 102 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.720 a flip phone that lived in the truck. He thought 103 00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:03.160 about going back for it, and then he thought about 104 00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:06.120 the mile and a half round trip alone, and he 105 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:09.839 just didn't. He's kicked himself about it ever since. I 106 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:12.720 told him not to bother half the witnesses I've ever 107 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:15.560 talked to have a version of that same regret, and 108 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.759 I've got one of my own. That afternoon he drove 109 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:21.040 into town. He told me he made up a reason, 110 00:06:21.399 --> 00:06:24.720 said he needed propane. And he did need propane, but 111 00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:26.920 not badly enough to burn a half day of hunting 112 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:29.800 for it. Really, he just wanted to be around people 113 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:32.879 for a few hours. He got a burger at the diner, 114 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:35.560 talked to the guy at the hardware store about nothing, 115 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:38.120 and by the time he headed back, the light was 116 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:42.680 already dying. Mid November and the Upper Peninsula dark comes 117 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:45.879 down like a lid. The two track into Camp runs 118 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:48.360 about three quarters of a mile off the county road, 119 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:52.439 and it's tight, cedar and balsam crowding in on both sides, 120 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:57.399 branches slapping the mirrors. Wade was maybe halfway in, going 121 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.480 slow when his headlight swept across a bend and caught 122 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:04.120 eye shine off to the right Now, eye shine by 123 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:10.279 itself means nothing. Deer, coyote, owl, house cat, They all 124 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:13.240 throw light back at you. Wade has seen every kind 125 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:16.879 of eye shine those woods produce. What stopped him wasn't 126 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:20.480 the shine, It was the height. The two reflections were 127 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:23.399 side by side, well back in the trees, and he 128 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:26.240 put them at seven feet off the ground. Maybe better. 129 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:29.920 He stopped the truck and they didn't move. He sat 130 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:31.720 there with his foot on the brake and his high 131 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:36.319 beams on, and the eyes just stayed there, steady, not blinking, 132 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:38.759 that he could tell at a height where nothing in 133 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.360 Michigan should have eyes, unless it's standing in the bed 134 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:44.560 of a pickup. He told me he thought about a moose. 135 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:48.199 Moose are rare down there, but not impossible, and a 136 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:51.399 bull's eyes could sit that high. So he did something 137 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:55.160 I actually respect. He laid on the horn. A moose 138 00:07:55.160 --> 00:07:57.959 would have moved, a moose would have crashed off through 139 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:00.480 that cedar like a freight train, and you'd hear it 140 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:04.680 for one hundred yards. The eyes didn't move, and nothing crashed. 141 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:09.120 They just slid backward, smoothly, deeper into the trees and 142 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:12.120 dropped out of sight without one single branch breaking that 143 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.120 he could hear over the engine. Wade drove the rest 144 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:17.560 of the way in faster than that road really allows. 145 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:20.639 He got the propane hooked up with the truck, headlights 146 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:23.279 pointed at the tank, and his rifle leaned against the 147 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:26.240 trailer three feet away. That night is the part of 148 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:29.480 the story he had the hardest time telling. The camp 149 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:33.200 trailer sits in a small clearing, There's a propane light inside, 150 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:35.840 and at night the windows are the only lit thing 151 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:39.799 for probably six miles in any direction. Wade made dinner, 152 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:43.919 had a couple beers, and turned in around ten. Sometime 153 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:46.039 after midnight, he woke up to the sound of something 154 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:50.240 hitting the trailer. Not a branch falling, he knows that sound. 155 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:54.279 This was a thump against the aluminum siding, hard enough 156 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:56.919 to feel through the bunk frame. Then a few seconds 157 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:01.039 later another one on the other side. He lay there 158 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:04.320 and listened to something walk around the trailer two feet. 159 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:07.799 He was clear about that, He said, you spend enough 160 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:10.519 novembers in the woods, you know four feet from two 161 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:13.799 feet in your sleep, And this was two slow and 162 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:17.240 heavy crunching the snow with a pause between steps, like 163 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:20.600 it was standing on each foot. Then came the smell 164 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:24.080 it got in through the vents. He described it as 165 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:26.200 a dead deer that somebody had soaked in a wet 166 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:29.759 dog and left near an outhouse. It filled the trailer 167 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:32.919 and it lingered. Wade had his rifle in the bunk 168 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:36.039 with him by then. He never opened the door. He 169 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.559 never even pulled back the curtain, and he told me 170 00:09:38.600 --> 00:09:42.320 that with no shame at all. His exact words were, 171 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:45.440 whatever was out there, I didn't want it, knowing I 172 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:49.840 was awake. The steps eventually moved off. He heard one 173 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:53.240 more sound before dawn, a long, moaning howl from way 174 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:56.399 back toward the cedar swamp, a sound, he said, started 175 00:09:56.440 --> 00:09:59.000 low like a cow and climbed into something no cow 176 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:02.080 ever made. And then the wood stayed quiet until the 177 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:05.240 sky went gray. In the morning, he found tracks in 178 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:08.240 the fresh skiff of snow around the trailer, same as 179 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:10.519 the one on the trail. They came out of the 180 00:10:10.519 --> 00:10:13.600 tree line, circled the trailer twice, stopped for a long 181 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:16.320 time under the east window, judging by the mess of 182 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:19.919 prints there, and went back the way they came. Under 183 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:22.679 that east window. The snow was flattened in one spot, 184 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.919 and the sell which sits about seven feet off the ground. 185 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.879 Because the trailer's up on blocks had a smear across it, 186 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:32.159 he didn't touch it. Wade packed up and left a 187 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.159 day early. He told his brother he wasn't feeling good, 188 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:38.440 which was half true. Here's the part of Wade's story 189 00:10:38.440 --> 00:10:41.759 that convinced me it was worth including. He didn't stop 190 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:44.559 going to deer Camp. He goes every year, and he's 191 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:47.360 brought his own kids up there now. But he told 192 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:50.600 me two things changed permanently. He's never spent a night 193 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:54.200 there alone again, not once in fourteen years. And he 194 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:56.519 replaced the curtains on the east window with a piece 195 00:10:56.519 --> 00:10:59.799 of plywood screwed to the frame. And when his brother 196 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:03.360 asked why, he said the window leaked. It took him 197 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.240 nine years to tell his brother the real reason. His 198 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:09.279 brother listened to the whole thing sitting by the wood stove, 199 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:12.600 and when Wade finished, his brother got up, got two 200 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:15.480 more beers out of the cooler, sat back down, and said, 201 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:17.879 so that's why Dad never let us sleep in the 202 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:21.320 east bunk. Wade said his stomach dropped when he heard 203 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:24.200 that his father had died without ever saying a word 204 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:27.759 about it. Whatever the old man knew he took it 205 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:30.279 with him, and all he left behind was a rule 206 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:33.759 about a bunk that nobody had ever questioned. The brothers 207 00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:36.519 went through their dad's things at the camp that same weekend, 208 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.559 really went through them for the first time, and in 209 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:41.879 a coffee can on the shelf above the wood stove, 210 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:44.960 they found a plaster cast wrapped in a grocery bag. 211 00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:47.840 It was cracked and badly poured, and about half of 212 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:50.519 it had crumbled to powder in the can, but you 213 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:53.480 could see toes, five of them in a line on 214 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:56.480 a foot that had no business being that wide. There 215 00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:59.440 was no note, there was no date. There was just 216 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:02.200 the cast, sitting eight feet from where the family had 217 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:05.879 played yucre every November for forty years. That's where Wade's 218 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:10.720 story ends. No resolution like I promised, just a plywood 219 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:13.559 window and a dead man's rule that suddenly made sense. 220 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:18.320 Let's head south, way south to a chicken yard in Oklahoma. 221 00:12:19.159 --> 00:12:21.840 Carla and her husband Ray bought forty acres outside of 222 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:26.519 a little town in southeastern Oklahoma in twenty fifteen. If 223 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:29.200 you know anything about this subject, you know that corner 224 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:34.120 of the state has a reputation the Kaimichi Country, the washitaws, 225 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:37.519 all those pine ridges and river bottoms running toward Arkansas. 226 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:40.840 People have been reporting things down there for over one 227 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:43.799 hundred years. Carla and Ray didn't know any of that. 228 00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:46.720 When they bought the place. They knew the land was cheap, 229 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:49.639 the well was good, and Ray could finally have the 230 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:52.559 shop building he'd been talking about since Reagan was president. 231 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:56.440 Carla was sixty when this started. She wants that known 232 00:12:56.799 --> 00:12:59.200 because she says people hear her story and assume she's 233 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:03.399 some kid who watches too many videos. She raised three children, 234 00:13:03.799 --> 00:13:06.559 kept books for a trucking company for thirty years, and 235 00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:09.240 she told me straight out that before all this she 236 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.240 thought Bigfoot was something people in Washington State made up 237 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:17.039 to sell t shirts her words, not mine. The property 238 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:19.399 sits at the end of a gravel road, with pasture 239 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:22.600 in front and thick timber behind, and a creek cutting 240 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:26.159 the back corner. They kept chickens, two dogs, and for 241 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:29.960 a while goats. The first year was quiet. The trouble 242 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.559 started in the fall of twenty seventeen, and it started small, 243 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:37.799 the way these long term cases almost always do. The 244 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:41.159 first thing was the apples. They had four old apple 245 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:44.159 trees near the back fence. Planted by whoever owned the 246 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:49.480 place decades before that October, the apples started disappearing, not 247 00:13:49.559 --> 00:13:53.879 dropping and rotting, disappearing. And here's the detail that made 248 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:56.799 me sit up when Carla told it. The apples on 249 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.879 the low branches stayed. The ones going missing were up 250 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:04.840 ten twelve feet where you'd need a ladder. Deer strip 251 00:14:04.919 --> 00:14:06.720 a tree from the bottom up as far as they 252 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:09.080 can reach, and they leave a brows line you can 253 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:12.879 measure this was backwards. The tops of those trees got 254 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:16.080 cleaned out and the bottom stayed full until eventually the 255 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:19.600 bottoms went two. And when they went whole, branches got 256 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:24.200 pulled down and snapped, greenwood twisted off, some of it 257 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:28.720 left hanging by the bark ray blamed kids. Carla pointed 258 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:31.159 out that they were a quarter mile from the nearest neighbor, 259 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:33.159 at the end of a road that dead ends at 260 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:35.799 their gate, and that no teenager in the history of 261 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:39.039 teenagers ever climbed a fence to steal apples off the 262 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:42.159 top of a tree and left the easy ones. The 263 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:45.679 second thing was the dogs. They had two, a blue 264 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:48.879 heeler named Pete and an old lab mix named Biscuit. 265 00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:51.639 Pete was the kind of dog that ran fence lines 266 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:54.000 all day and picked fights with the neighbor's bull through 267 00:14:54.039 --> 00:14:57.840 the wire. Fearless or too dumb to be scared one 268 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:01.320 or the other. Stay tuned for more back Wood's Bigfoot stories. 269 00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:06.919 We'll be back after these messages. Starting that same October, 270 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:10.159 there were nights when Pete wouldn't leave the porch. Carla 271 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:12.840 would let them out before bed, and Biscuit would waddle 272 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:15.679 out to do her business, but Pete would stand at 273 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.120 the edge of the porch boards, staring at the tree 274 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:20.919 line behind the shop, hackles up from his neck to 275 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:24.200 his tail, growling in a register. Carla said she'd never 276 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:27.679 heard from him. Some nights. He'd bark himself hoarse at 277 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:31.600 that tree line. Other nights, and she said these were worse. 278 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:35.279 He wouldn't make a sound at all. He'd just stand there, shaking, 279 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:37.720 and then he'd scratch the door to get back in. 280 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:42.360 Then in November the chickens started dying. They lost four 281 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:45.840 hens over about three weeks, and Carla was careful here 282 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:50.000 because she knows what kills chickens in rural Oklahoma. They'd 283 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.320 lost birds before, to raccoons, to a bobcat once, to hawks. 284 00:15:56.080 --> 00:16:00.320 Every predator leaves a signature. Raccoons leave a mess, hawks 285 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:04.000 leave a pile of feathers. What they found those three 286 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:07.360 weeks was different. The coop has a wire run attached 287 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:10.639 and the runs covered. Something had peeled the wire up 288 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:13.440 along the bottom edge, pulled the staples clean out of 289 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:16.320 the frame boards, and folded a section of fencing back 290 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:19.399 like the lid on a sardine can. The hens that 291 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:22.639 died weren't eaten there. They were just gone with a 292 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:24.639 few feathers by the fence line at the back of 293 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:29.320 the property forty yards away. Ray being Ray put a 294 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:32.600 game camera on the coop. This is where Carla's story 295 00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:35.000 picks up a pattern I've heard so many times it's 296 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:38.559 become a joke in the research community, except nobody laughs. 297 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:42.480 The camera worked fine for two weeks and photographed possums, 298 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:46.679 a skunk, the dogs, and Ray in his bathrobe. Then 299 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:49.279 they had a night with a lot of commotion, Pete 300 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:52.200 going insane in the house. A sound from the pasture 301 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:55.279 Carla described as a scream, and I'll come back to 302 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:59.600 that scream. The next morning, the coop was fine, but 303 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:02.320 the camera was face down in the dirt, ten feet 304 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:05.000 from the tea post it had been strapped to. The 305 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.160 strap wasn't broken, it was unbuckled. The card had photos 306 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:13.440 up until eleven forty that night, then nothing. The last 307 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:16.240 usable frame showed the corner of the coop and along 308 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:19.480 the right edge, out of focus, something dark that filled 309 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:22.200 the whole side of the picture from top to bottom. 310 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:25.480 Could be a shoulder, could be a shadow, could be 311 00:17:25.480 --> 00:17:28.960 a smudge of nothing. Carla still has it, and she's 312 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:33.000 the first to admit it proves absolutely nothing, which, if 313 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:36.119 you ask me, is exactly what a real witness says 314 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:41.200 about a bad photo. Now the screen. Between that November 315 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:44.000 and the following spring, they heard it maybe a dozen times, 316 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.720 always late, between about eleven and three in the morning, 317 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:50.759 Carla said. The first time, she and Ray both sat 318 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:54.079 straight up in bed, and Ray, a man who'd worked 319 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:57.119 pipeline in four states and didn't rattle, said what in 320 00:17:57.160 --> 00:18:00.000 the hell is that? It came from the creek bottom. 321 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:03.319 She described it as a woman screaming through a bullhorn, 322 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:08.400 except it went on too long ten seconds fifteen. A 323 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:11.960 human runs out of air. This didn't. And underneath the 324 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:14.759 scream there was a low end to it, a chest 325 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:17.880 to it that she said she felt in the walls. 326 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:20.599 I've heard recordings from that part of the country that 327 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:25.039 match her description almost word for word. Mountain lion scream 328 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:29.200 and people misjudge them constantly. But a cougar's scream is thin. 329 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:33.480 It's an awful sound, but it's a trouble sound. What 330 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:36.599 Carla's describing has base in it, and the duration is 331 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:39.480 wrong for a cat. I told her that on the phone, 332 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:42.599 and she was quiet for a second, and then she said, Honey, 333 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:44.960 I didn't need you to tell me it wasn't a cougar. 334 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:50.480 I was there fair enough through all of this, understand 335 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:54.319 nobody had seen anything. Over eight months. It was apples 336 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.720 and wire and screams and a dog losing his nerve. 337 00:18:57.559 --> 00:18:59.759 Ray had half convinced himself it was a bear coming 338 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:02.400 up out of the river country, even though the pulled 339 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:05.839 staples and the unbuckled strap didn't fit, and even though 340 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:09.720 in two years they never found one bear track. The 341 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:13.119 sighting happened in June of twenty eighteen, and Carla was 342 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:17.039 alone for it. Ray was in Tulsa overnight for a funeral. 343 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:20.880 Carla stayed back for the animals. Around ten, she went 344 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:23.799 out to close up the chickens later than usual because 345 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:26.400 she'd been on the phone with her daughter. She took 346 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:28.960 a flashlight and Pete went with her, which she was 347 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:31.799 glad of right up until he stopped dead halfway to 348 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:35.359 the coop and would not take another step. She heard 349 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:38.720 the goats before she saw anything. They had six goats 350 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:41.640 then pen next to the shop, and all six were 351 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.200 bunched in the corner of the pen closest to the house, 352 00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:47.160 packed together so tight she thought at first something was 353 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.200 already in the pin with them. She swung the flashlight 354 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:53.480 along the shop wall, along the fence out toward the 355 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:57.119 burn pile. It was standing at the burn pile thirty 356 00:19:57.160 --> 00:20:01.640 five maybe forty yards away, five foot three, and she 357 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:05.160 said her first thought, her literal first thought, was that 358 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.240 somebody had parked a car out there, because her mind 359 00:20:08.359 --> 00:20:10.920 needed the dark shape to be that size in a 360 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:14.599 way that made sense. Then it straightened up. It had 361 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:17.599 been bent over doing something at the burn pile, and 362 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:20.000 it stood up to a height she measured later against 363 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:23.440 the t post beside it. The post is six feet. 364 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:26.279 She says. It had two feet on the post easy, 365 00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:30.799 maybe more. The flashlight was one of those cheap plastic jobs, 366 00:20:31.079 --> 00:20:33.640 and the beam at forty yards was weak, but she 367 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:35.720 held it on the thing for what she guesses was 368 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:39.759 four or five seconds. Dark hair, reddish, where the light 369 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.680 caught it, covering everything, shoulders she compared to the front 370 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:46.839 end of raised tractor, no neck that she could see. 371 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:50.319 It turned its upper body toward her light, the whole 372 00:20:50.359 --> 00:20:53.839 torso rotating together, and she caught the shine of two 373 00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:56.920 eyes and the flat of a face, And that's the 374 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:01.000 image she can't get rid of, not a snout, a face. 375 00:21:01.880 --> 00:21:04.240 Then it took three steps and was gone into the dark, 376 00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:06.599 toward the creek, and she said, the steps are what 377 00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:10.319 her brain still refuses to file properly. It covered the 378 00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:13.240 distance from the burn pile to the tree line, which 379 00:21:13.240 --> 00:21:15.319 she and Ray measured the next day at just over 380 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:20.920 twenty yards in those three steps, walking, not running, walking 381 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:26.799 with its arms swinging, gone in under two seconds. Karla 382 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:29.799 does not remember getting back to the house. She remembers 383 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:32.359 being inside with the door locked and Pete pressed against 384 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:35.599 her legs, and she remembers that she dropped the flashlight 385 00:21:35.720 --> 00:21:38.079 somewhere in the yard because she could see it through 386 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:41.920 the window, still on, lying in the grass, and there 387 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:44.079 was no power on this earth. That was going to 388 00:21:44.119 --> 00:21:46.640 make her go back out for it. She sat up 389 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:49.759 in the recliner until dawn with raised deer rifle across 390 00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:52.960 her lap, and she'd never fired it in her life. 391 00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:55.400 At the burn pile the next day, she and Ray 392 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.319 found what it had been doing. They'd tossed the carcass 393 00:21:58.359 --> 00:22:00.640 of a hen that had died of ordinary old age 394 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:04.039 onto the pile two days before. The carcass was gone 395 00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:06.759 and pressed into the ash and soft dirt at the 396 00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:10.440 edge of the pile. There were two partial impressions toes 397 00:22:10.519 --> 00:22:13.359 and the ball of a foot no heel, like something 398 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:15.440 had been crouched there on the balls of its feet. 399 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:18.759 Ray photographed them with his phone next to a dollar 400 00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:22.400 bill for scale. The clearer one, just the front half 401 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:24.839