YEAR: 1986

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Bowie County

NEAREST TOWN: Maud

OBSERVED: Late one afternoon in Nov. 1986, my nephew came down and wanted to go deer hunting at Maud. I grew up hunting at the old Berry Farm. I put him in one of the deer stands that my brother and I had put up and I had went on to mine. I told him I would come back by the stand that he would be hunting out of so we could come out of the woods together. That afternoon it was starting to get dark but still light enough to see I started back towards my nephews stand. I started up a creek bottom that ran in to a big swamp thicket next to the lake when I smelt something with a very foul odor. I could hear something moving in the thicket, at first I thought it might be a deer, but it was too big to be a deer, and sounded more like a man walking in the water, so then I thought my nephew had got down and started to my stand so I yelled his name so he would know I was coming his way. This thing started moving away from me fast. Down the thicket about 50 to 75 yards there was a little opening about 30 feet across, this thing crossed the opening. I could not believe what I was seeing, this thing was around 6 to 7 feet tall with dark brown hair covering its whole body. It crossed the opening in what seemed to be 5 or 6 steps! I really don't have enough room to write all this down. I'm not crazy, I know I SAW SOMETHING AND WHAT EVER THIS THING WAS IT WAS BIG.

ALSO NOTICED: It was 6 to 7 feet tall, had a very foul smell, took long steps, and walked with a slight stoop. It looked to be around 350 to 400 lbs. and had dark brown hair covering its entire body.

The thing was in water and we didn't hang around cause it was getting dark, and it was a good walk to the truck.

OTHER STORIES: My Dad had told me one time that their coondogs came back to them and wouldn't hunt at all, and something started screaming and it wasn't any panther, or big cat and it had spooked them dogs pretty bad. I had a old man tell me one time something got after them down there coon hunting and it got one of their dogs but I really thought the man was just pulling our leg, but after I saw what I did it does make me think he was telling the truth. My Dad, brother and nephew have all heard screams at different times in past years while hunting there. I live in Oklahoma and my brother and nephew also live in Oklahoma now. My dad passed away in 1982. The old man that told me about hearing it has also passed away, he was from Hooks, Texas.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 5:15 pm.

ENVIRONMENT: Not really what you call farms, some big pastures and some cows. Swampy.

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with the witness on 8/15/2003. He was a genuine man and seemed to be speaking the truth. He has hunted his whole life, and he experienced something unlike he had ever encountered in his 45 years of hunting.

Before we started discussing his encounter, we talked some about the Fouke Monster, as he grew up in Texarkana. The witness worked with Bobby Ford's brother, Preston Ford in 1983. He had asked if Bobby had really been attacked by something, as recreated in "The Legend of Boggy Creek." Preston stated that he in fact was. The witness's wife is from Fouke, and he has family still living there. His sister and her husband lived down the road from the Ford's place. They came home one night from visiting an older sister who lives on Days Creek in Fouke to find that something had torn a gate down and killed 2 hogs. One was in the driveway and the other didn't make it out of the gate. Both of the hogs weighed around 200 pounds. They both had deep gashes in them. The husband took the hogs off behind the house on the creek, but something came and got the carcasses during the night. Their German Shepherd dog was so frightened that it hid under the bed. The older sister and her husband have heard something screaming late one night behind the house on the creek, sounding like it came right up over the pine trees. They have also had something get into their traps and run off into the cane thicket. They said that it sounded as if it was as big as a cow, but that it was on 2 legs. They also had something tear a 6 inch hole in their rabbit hutches, and killed all of the rabbits. It left the carcasses behind. It also killed some chickens. 2 of his nephews were hunting in the area near a gas refinery plant and several miles back in the woods, they saw a large barefoot human-like footprint.

The witness was out deer hunting with his nephew. It was a nice afternoon, clear with no wind. They were hunting about 200 yards apart. They were not within eyesight of each other. The area was right at the edge of Wright Patman Lake which is fed by the Sulphur River. It used to be called Lake Texarkana. The area is swampy, with a large button willow thicket. It is a backwater area, with a nearby creek. The area had been previously used to graze cattle, but it had not been used for several years prior. There are nearby cattle pastures and the nearest residence was approximately 3 miles away.

The encounter occurred around 5:15 pm, just as the witness was ready to go get his nephew to end the day of hunting. He heard a low, moaning sound coming out if the nearby thicket. The witness called out, thinking it was his nephew. He was impatient and had a habit of not staying in his stand. After the witness called out, he heard movement, something was walking around. It would stop and then start back up. He heard this for 5-10 minutes. It then crossed the opening in the thicket, which was 50-75 yards away from the witness. The opening was at least 30 feet across. It was moving away from the witness. He got a rear 3/4 view of it. He watched it for approximately 30 seconds as it crossed the opening in only 5 or 6 steps. It was walking in sludgy water, almost knee deep. It didn't appear to be running, but it moved very quickly.

He described it as 6 to 7 feet tall, "taller than a man." It was covered with dark reddish-brown hair, approximately 3 inches in length. It was very broad and muscular. It was walking on 2 legs, with a slight stoop. It had a rounded head, slightly pointed. He detected a musky odor, like a dead animal was in the area, but there was none.

He immediately went to get his nephew. He met up with him and they left the area immediately. The nephew never heard or saw anything.

An old Native American acquaintance of his that was a church deacon and also trained coon dogs had an encounter with a strange creature in the same general area that the witness did. The description was similar, only that he described it as having a head like a goat. It was 7 to 8 feet tall and covered with hair. He stressed that this man was not a liar.