YEAR: 1975

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: July

STATE: Arkansas

COUNTY: Union County

LOCATION DETAILS: At the highway intersection of 167 and 82 there is a street just south of it called Sunset St. Travel down it till it ends in a dirt road at a sewage pond. Then strike westwards about half a mile and you will reach another sewage pond with a creek around it. The hill to the west of the creek was the sighting. This was back in the mid-70's.

NEAREST TOWN: El Dorado Arkansas

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 167 (this was before the Highway 82 south bypass was built

OBSERVED: In the summer of 1975 my 11-year-old neighbor and I (fifteen-years-old) were way deep in the piney woods on a motorcylce trail just south of El Dorado Arkansas in the bottoms of one of the few bayous that finger up from Louisiana, Bayou De'Loutre. We would have been in bad trouble from our parents if they found out how deep we were in the woods, about a 45 minute trip on a bicycle. We had just crossed a medium sized creek and was in the act of hopping back on our bikes when I looked westward into the sun along the trail and saw something amazing.

I saw an 8 foot black figure staring at us behind a large pine tree trunk and then jumping behind it as though it was playing hide-and-go-seek. My immediate thought was that there is no basketball player this tall in a suit playing a trick on us, screw that. All I saw was a torso, an arm and a head and then BLOOP it was behind the tree trunk, two seconds max. I was immediately startled. Through the years my memory might has fuzzed slightly, but I know without a doubt that some small detail startled me immediately when I saw the creature, something about the head. I will say with 75% certainity that I saw a head crest on the creature. But something about it screamed to me NOT HUMAN! throughout my body.

The creature was VERY thin for its stature, but not sickly. Its hair hung close to the body, so it was just three inches or less long. I could not see any ears or facial features, probably due to the sun. I wanted to be sure that this was not my imagination, so I turned to my friend. I asked him, "Did you see something?" He nodded his head in affirmation silently and then we both turned to peer up the trail again.

This time the creature was further out from the tree trunk because I saw a leg. The creature immediately ducked behind the tree trunk again, like it was playing with us.

I then asked Mike, "Would you like to leave?" He nodded yes in the same fashion.

At that point I never looked behind me again because I was near panic, but I oddly wanted to protect my smaller buddy. We crossed the creek and hopped on our bikes and peddled as fast as we could. However, since Mike was smaller than me I stayed in the rear to protect him. While we were riding our bikes away from the immediate area after we crossed the creek, I started to hear thumping noises, like the pounding of feet. Then I realized that is was the pitter-patter of this creature running after us and in the act of SLOWING DOWN as not to run us over, much like runners after a race winding down and their steps are much heavier. The last seven or so steps I could feel through my bike's handlebars. I saw a movement of black on my left side and I closed my eyes and sprinted with a bust of energy on that bike. All I remember after that was me and my friend shaking and not speaking on our long (and very spooky) journey back to home.

ALSO NOTICED: No unusual things at this encounter. However through the years as a boy exploring these piney woods I have smelled an odor that was like a wet dog that puked on human baby poop with wet hay mixed in. Sometimes when I smelled that I would see brown-green poop and know it was some kind of animal's poop. Years later I saw identical poop claimed to be bigfoot on the GCBRO website and that piked my interest. I have never seen such a distinctive "sheen" from any other animal's poop except when a human has gone in the woods.

OTHER WITNESSES: One, my neighbor who was about 11-years-old. His name is Mike Richards and I don't know where he is now.

OTHER STORIES: Yes. A man I met from Rogers Arkansas says his best freind saw a bigfoot in the swamps near Parkers Chapel in the late 80's. That must be about five miles from this sighting to the southeast. Me and the same boy, Mike Richards happened upon a HUGE!!! doo-doo pile in the summer of 1979. I will send a seperate report on that soon. Also remeberences of a foul odor and smaller splats of poop through the years in this area. This poop resembles EXACTLY the color and hue of preported poo that I once saw on the GCBFRO pics page, and it has a distinctive stink that I have smelled many times but never equated it to bigfoot. Once I heard a "chattering monkey" from the far distance and was very puzzled, but I can't recall the time. Most of this happened on the eastern hills beside Bayou De'Loutre just south of El Dorado, southwest of the Murmil Heights area. I feel that a lot of children has visited these woods through the years and an animal may have becomed accustomed to them. My opinion.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 3 to 4 pm. We were facing west toward the sun in sunny, hot conditions

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest/swamp by a sandy hill or ground uplift

Follow-up investigation report:

On 5/02/2005 at 8 p.m. I spoke with this gentleman during a telephone interview and found him to be pleasant, cooperative, and credible. He recounted the details of his sighting with ease in a relaxed manner.

He was approximately 50 yards away from the animal when he and his 11-year-old friend observed it peeking from behind a pine tree at them. He states it was around 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on a July afternoon in 1975 and conditions were bright and sunny. He states he did not see the facial features of the animal because he was facing west and the sun was at an angle where the facial features were in shadow. As the animal was standing underneath a pine tree and the sun was in the western sky at that time of the afternoon, I find this an acceptable possibility of the lack of facial detail. He states the animal peeked out from behind the tree three times for a duration of 2-3 seconds each time. The animal was upright, at least 7 ½ feet tall and the head, right shoulder and right leg were visible at different times during the encounter. He described the head as having a conical shape with a sagittal crest. He could not say whether it sloped back from a brow ridge or the exact structure but does remember the conical shape with the head coming to a rounded point at the sagittal region. He remembers the animal as being lean but muscular, an athletic appearance not unlike that of a basketball player. He said he observed the right arm and right leg to be very long in appearance with a hand and fingers at the end of the arm and not a paw. He saw the animal’s hand quite well as the animal rested it on the trunk of the tree. From his vantage point he was unable to observe the animal’s foot, however. He states the animal did not have visible breasts and refers to gender as “a he” when describing the animal. He states the structures of the animal he was able to see were covered with black hair approximately 1 ½ to 2 inches in length, not coarse, but smooth and lying against the animal’s body in a neat fashion. He states the hair was noticeably longer at the elbow region. He states it looked like it was playing peek-a-boo in that it would peek and then dodge back behind the tree before taking a second and third peek at them. He states at that time, although startled, he did not feel threatened but did ask his friend if he was ready to ride back. During the ride back he became aware of a recurring thumping type footfall behind him and then to his left which he described as pounding very hard like a runner after a race when they are slowing down with the feet impacting harder to slow the rate of speed. Since the boys had to cross the creek he reports hearing no splashing sounds behind them so he believes the animal must have leaped across the 7' wide creek in pursuit of them. He said he observed something black out of the corner of his eye flanking them on his left while he was traveling in an easterly direction with the animal having been to his right 50 yards out, earlier at the tree, while he was facing west. I find this significant in that the animal did not cross to the other side of the trail but stayed to the same side while running parallel to the witnesses. He said the footfalls were so heavy he could feel the vibrations in the handlebars of his bicycle. He stated he could also hear "huffing" type heavy breathing, about five huffs in all, while the animal was running parallel to them. He states at that time, he was very afraid and passed his friend, whom until that point he’d kept in front of him, and peddled as fast as he could to escape.

Four years later in 1979 the witness describes being approximately ½ to 1 mile from his previous encounter when he and a friend observed “a dark cloud.” He states upon advancing they discovered it was a swarm of large black horseflies above a very large scat pile. He described the scat as black tinged with green, with undigested green leafy or vegetable matter and bits of hair in it upon inspection. He states it was approximately 1 foot to 1 ½ feet high with a “pinched” area at the top. He said the texture was like pancake batter He stated the diameter would be as big as if “you put your arms around in an O.”

He has not had contact with the other witness to the encounter in many years. He states he will attempt to contact his boyhood friend and speak with him about the encounter in 1975. He states he believed he had the better vantage point during the encounter and possibly better recall since his friend was only 11-years-old at the time.

I found this witness pleasant and again, very relaxed while discussing his encounter, recalling details without having to pause to recollect.

Related Media Articles:

• ‘Bigfoot’ sighting brings investigators to Union County (5/31/2005; El Dorado News-Times )

• Explanation of the report classification system
• Submit a report for the sightings database
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