YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 9/30/01 - 10/2/01

STATE: Oklahoma

COUNTY: Le Flore County

LOCATION DETAILS: Land owners request that no directions be given.

NEAREST TOWN: Octavia

NEAREST ROAD: HW 259

OBSERVED: The BFRO sponsored an expedition to investigate a series of reports of bigfoot related activity in Le Flore County, Oklahoma. I was part of the BFRO team undertaking the investigation. While walking down a remote access road at about 9:00 PM on Sunday, 30 September 2001, all three team members present heard a loud pop against a nearby tree trunk. A rock had been thrown with considerable force and had hit high up on the tree trunk. We heard the rock fall to the ground after hitting the tree. We stood and looked intently with night vision spot lights towards a mountain just north of us, but saw nothing unusual. Although this was the only rock throwing incident I experienced, other similar occurences were experienced by different team members over the next several days. The local land owners had reported repeated incidents like this and recently had to clean a bunch of fist size rocks from the roof of one of their buildings located at the foot of that same mountain.

Nothing out of the ordinary occurred at my location during the next night’s observations. On the third night, however, I had a startling experience. We had been broadcasting bigfoot vocalizations provided by the BFRO, hoping to hear vocal responses. I was stationed about a mile away from the broadcast site, up a major creek in the area. At 7:54 PM and again at 8:20 PM, I heard sounds similar to the ones we had been broadcasting. We had heard numerous owls and coyotes, etc., and I had studied recordings of common animal vocalizations so as not to mistake them for bigfoot related vocalizations. The two sets of calls that I heard were very distant, but definitely similar to the bigfoot vocalizations the BFRO has recorded near Lake Tahoe, California.

At 9:30 PM, we began our sound broadcasting protocol for the evening. Before dark, I had deployed a primate pheromone chip supplied by BFRO curator Dr. Greg Bambenek. I was sitting about 30 or 40 yards away from that chip in an elevated observation platform about 15 feet off the ground. Suddenly, at about 11:30 PM, I heard heavy foot falls in the brush to my east. They startled me because they sounded as if they were only 20 or 30 yards away and I did not hear them approach. The animal moved slowly north and south, pacing back and forth. I strained in my night vision equipment to see something, but all I saw was brush. This behavior went on and on. It was just pacing back and forth, moving very slowly. Occasionally I heard big sticks breaking under the foot falls. My mind began to race. Maybe it was a bear, or was it a sasquatch? I turned off my radio. I did not want a radio check with the creature only yards away.

I kept sweeping the area alternately with night vision equipment and then natural vision. I watched for brush movement to indicate the location of the creature, but could see none. This was very puzzling since the animal sounded so close. Occasionally it would walk directly toward me. It sounded so close I leaned out and looked directly under my platform because I thought it might have slipped up to the base of the tree I was in. It did this 3 or 4 times over the next two hours. As 1:30 AM approached (the time the last series of broadcasts were scheduled to begin), I made up my mind that I would radio the broadcast team and ask them to walk up and escort me out when the broadcasts were finished. I realized the radios might drive the animal away, but at that point I considered it a safety issue because all I knew was that some large mammal had been intently watching me for hours.

I was still not sure if I was dealing with a bear or a bigfoot. The steps had been so slow and deliberate that no cadence could be detected to determine whether it was 2 footed or 4 footed. While I was talking to the broadcast team, the animal moved slowly south and then I did not hear it anymore. I waited through the last set of broadcasts, and after the last one, the team called and said they were on the way up. I had heard nothing for about the last hour, so I figured the animal had moved off, but I was not sure where it was. The team made a couple of radio checks on their way to my location. They were flashing a laser light in the tree tops and kept asking if I could see it.

After one of these calls, I heard a loud "Plooorp" sound about 40 yards behind me and slightly to the west. My first thought was that a bear had rolled a large rock near the water’s edge. After a few seconds, I heard a more "splashy" "plooorp" sound followed immediately by foot falls racing down the water in the creek bed about 25 yds to my west. It raced past my location and up the stream about 30 yards, and then I heard nothing. There were about 12 splashing footsteps that sounded DEFINITELY BIPEDAL over a period of about 4 or 5 seconds. Upon later investigation in the daylight with BFRO curator R. N., we discovered that the creek bed was covered with boulders from 6" to 18" in diameter. The distance from the only pool deep enough to have been the source of the original sound to the place where the standing water ends was a distance of about 70 yds. I can offer no other suitable explanation for this event other than bigfoot. It covered more rough area quicker than anything I can conceive. The area was scouted in the daylight, but no tracks or other evidence was discovered.

The next night I climbed the very same tree, but had no unusual occurrences at all except a whinnying noise we had heard before and which we had concluded during the day to be a screech owl.

My sense of the situation is that the animal that walked around me may have been drawn to the area by the sound blasting, or that it may have simply happened by. Once in the area, it probably was stopped by the pheromone scent. It may have detected me while looking for the source of the pheromone scent. I also had the zip lock bag ( that had contained the chip ) on the platform with me. It was still quite pungent. The creature was obviously able to move stealthily since I did not hear it until it was very close. Maybe it made noise for so long trying to draw me down from my perch, who knows? Having departed to the south, it took up a position straight downwind of both me and the pheromone chip.

I made a serious mistake by picking a tree directly downwind from the chip. Perhaps if I had chosen a position 50 yds cross wind, I would not have been seen or scented. I would do it differently in the future. At any rate, this animal took up a position directly behind me, placing itself in my blind spot behind the tree I was in. It was also in my back track; maybe it hoped I would leave the same way I came. I think it waited there, still watching me, until it heard the team approaching it from behind. Then, having an unknown presence in front of it and behind it, it panicked and ran straight up the rocky creek bed where it would leave no tracks.

This behavior indicates an animal that is extremely intelligent, curious, and observant. It apparently had acute night vision. It also was not afraid of me, even after hearing radio communications, a very unnatural sound. I believe it was waiting for me to come by. There is the possibility that two different animals were involved, but that would not be my first guess.

Perhaps others will be able to draw more from these events. I submit this record with the hope that it will prove helpful to future efforts.

ALSO NOTICED: Vocalizations, rock throwing, and other bigfoot related activity had been reported in the area for a long time. Immediately after we left the area, the land owners noted a marked increase in rock throwing.

OTHER WITNESSES: Two for rock throwing incident. They were walking
an access road.

No other witnesses for the footfalls.

OTHER STORIES: The property owners have experienced vocalizations, rock throwing, and other unusual incidents that are unexplained by any known possible source.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was full dark with a full moon. The weather was clear and cool.

ENVIRONMENT: Although the moon was full, I was in a densely wooded creek bed between 2 steep grades on either side. Shadows were very dark. The creek bed was broad, 100 yards or so.

Follow-up investigation report:

The investigator, an experienced hunter and outdoorsman, pastors a church in Alabama. He was part of a BFRO team assembled from six states.

Related Media Articles:

• Constant Sasquatch watch held in Honobia (8/7/2005; The Oklahoman)