Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy

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• Texas
• Piney Woods
• Liberty County
• Tarkington

Class 2

Squirrel hunter has encounters near Trinity River.

Report#

01050006

Occurred November 18, 1978

(Submitted February 1, 2005)

Witness Observation

As a teenager from the early seventies up until 1980, I hunted this area. Numerous times I had mentioned a smell to a friend which I described as somewhere between a skunk and a wet dog. My friend acknowledged that he had smelled it several times himself. We blew it off as being some type of plant or weed, but as I began smelling it more often I could tell it was some type of animal as opposed to a plant or weed. I began thinking that it was probably feral hogs. As I continued to get older and continued to squirrel hunt these same areas, I began to notice that every time I smelled this odor, there were no squirrels moving or any wildlife for that matter. I do not know exact dates or even the year in which these incidents occurred, but it was in the mid to late seventies. I have been reluctant to tell anyone about these incidents.

1978: The first visual experience that I had came deep in the woods from the road. I had walked about a mile down in the woods where I came upon a pinoak flat. I could see all the way through the flat to the other side which was about 150-175 yards. On the other side of the flat was a stand of reset pine all about 15 ft. tall with high dead grass underneath. Immediately I noticed something laying under a pine tree across the flat. At first it looked like the area below the tree and the trunk of the tree had been burnt out. As I eased closer it began to look like a gorilla laying under the tree. I am a pretty stealthy person in the woods and I told myself I am seeing things, but I am going to try and get closer to this thing just to prove to myself I am not seeing this. As I moved within 100 yards or so, I could see that I was not crazy. It's head was moving and at this time I could tell it's color was gray with a black gorilla face. The adrenalin kicked in, I checked my gun, put some trees between myself and this thing and proceeded to try and get closer, peering around the trees every few feet to see if it was still there. I got to within 50-75 yards and peered around the tree and it was gone. The floor of the pinoak flat was dry with a lot of crunchy leaves and twigs. I knew I was going to scare it off before I could get as close as I liked. After I noticed that it was gone I sat down in the flat for about an hour and did not see any wildlife at all. I then got up and went over to area where I had seen it and was hit with "that smell" and the grass was mashed down underneath the pine. At first I don't think that it knew I was there, because it was moving it's head and acting unconcerned. As I tried to sneak up on it though, It definitely sensed my presents or heard me crunch a twig. I know it never visually made me out, because I kept trees between myself and it the whole time.

1979: It had rained sometime between 3 am and when I had set out to go squirrel hunting. It was very foggy and misty on this morning and the woods were damp and very quiet. I came upon a large thicket and sat down against a tree at the edge of the thicket. I instantly started to smell something. As it got lighter, light enough to shoot, I could hear something in the thicket. Also I noticed there were no squirrels moving. I thought that there were some hogs in the thicket. I sat in this spot longer than I normally would sit somewhere without seeing anything, because of the sounds I heard coming from the thicket. About mid morning I was hearing something sniffing the air and making low, deep, grunting sounds. This was no hog! I decided to play a trick that I have used before on game in thickets and throw a two foot section of a dead limb over and beyond the sounds hoping to flush it out to my side. When I did this it made a deep and louder primate type grunt at me. The sniffing of the air also became more pronounced and no hog breathes like this. I then threw another stick into the thicket and received the same grunts and sniffing, only louder. About 20 min later I heard it moving through the thicket and then heard a huge, two legged splash into a body of water on the other side of the thicket, followed by grunts and heavy breathing. There is no doubt in my mind what I had encountered was a bigfoot in the thicket. Although I never saw him, this was something I had never experienced in the woods before. After the splash and the exit, I made my own hasty exit back to the road.

Physical Evidence

Mashed down grass.

Additional Observations

The Smell.

Time and Conditions

3:00 pm - 1978: The weather was clear, cool and sunny and between the hours of 2-4 pm.
1979: It was about mid-morning. Foggy, damp and misting rain. Pinoak flat pretty deep in the woods surrounded on one side with reset pines which were surrounded by thick underbrush. Pine and hardwoods. Heavy thicket with lots of weeds, briars and blackberry vine. Sporadic low areas holding rain water.