Class 3a Encounter Report in Talihina, OK, Case #02110002: wood ape, bigfoot, sasquatch

Home

Case: 02110002

Class 3a

Young Hunter Has Frightening Encounter

Report Details

Witness Account:
In the summer of 1988, while squirrel hunting along Buffalo Creek, in southern Latimer County, Oklahoma, I encountered a large animal, whose type was unknown to me.
Still hunting along the creek bottom, I hunted through the timber along the creek to an open area of approximately 1-1.5 acres. The site had been the site of wood cutters the previous fall. The clearing was fairly remote, lying enclosed within a largely undisturbed large parcel of privately owned wooded land.
Several dozen ricks of firewood were still stacked along the outer edges of the clearing. It was my intention to slip up behind one of the stacks of firewood, to use it for concealment, in order to observe the several large hardwood trees still standing throughout the clearing.
I approached the edge of the clearing from downwind, in a low crouch, from the thick brush along the creek. As I neared the stack of firewood I intended to use as concealment, I heard movement coming from my right front. The sound was of a large animal running through the leaves and scattered debris (old tree limbs, branches, new growth brush associated with an area after wood cutters pull out).
Initially thinking I had jumped a deer, I looked over the top of the stack of firewood in the direction of the noise. I observed the back of a large animal as it made its way into the brush on the opposite side of the clearing. The animal was quartering away from me at a distance I estimate to have been 25-30 yards.
The animal was large, but not as large as is commonly associated with a bigfoot. I would estimate it stood somewhere around six feet tall. Estimating accurate weight from the time and angle of my viewing would be next to impossible; however, I would describe it as very stocky, with broad shoulders. It was covered with brown hair, neither notably long nor short. As it moved through the shadows of trees into sunlight I did notice a red tint to the hair on its back, along with leaves and grass clinging to the hair.
The animal was not fleeing from me at a dead run, but it was moving fairly fast. It was moving with a somewhat long, but shuffling, stride, which, even at the time, seemed odd for the speed at which the animal was moving.
I observed the animal for approximately 5 seconds before it made it into the brush. The brush along that portion of the creek is very thick, and contains more or less a solid wall of green briars. The animal did not slow down as it went into the brush. It went right through the briars, and into the woods, without breaking stride or reducing speed.
At no time did I experience any supernatural or spiritual feelings. Nor did I experience any sense that this was a man, or manlike, in any way. My first thought then, as now, is that I had encountered some sort of huge ape.
I remained motionless behind the stack of firewood, largely in disbelief, but more than a little unnerved. No more than a minute or two later, I heard a rock roll down into the creek, which was approximately 30-40 yards to my extreme right. That time of year the creek is largely dry, with intermittent pools of standing water, so rocks rolling about are very audible.
Another minute passed before I heard another rock roll, this time sounding a little closer than before, and more to my right. Shortly thereafter, I heard another rock roll in the creek bed, this time definitely closer and to my right rear.
It became obvious to me, at the time, that whatever I had just seen was moving down along the creek bed. The logical explanation is that a movement such as that would have allowed it to circle around downwind of me, as the creek curved in around behind my location.
To a 14 year old, with nothing but a .22, it spooked me. I interpreted its action at the time as stalking me. I began to withdraw from my position at a very high rate of speed (to put it mildly). I ran across the clearing, heading for a larger meadow of 10 or so acres approximately 1/4 of a mile south, the closest really open ground.
As I moved away from the last sound I had heard, I heard several rocks smashing about in the creek, much louder than before. That definitely spurred my retreat from the area.
That was the last contact that I had with the animal.
I made my way home, approximately 2-3 miles away, on a logging road. I continually stopped to listen and observe my back trail. At no time after I left that immediate area did I feel I was being followed or watched. Nor did I ever observe or sense anything unusual after that encounter in the specific or general area that I had seen the animal.
I grew up on that parcel of land, hunting and fishing along that very creek my whole life. I had never before encountered anything like what I saw that day.
I have seen deer, turkey, mountain lions, bear, and every other animal you expect to see in a fairly remote area like that. Later I worked as a Deputy Sheriff in that very county patrolling mountain roads at all times of day and night, and never saw another one.

Map