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YEAR: 2005
SEASON: Winter
MONTH: February
DATE: 5th
STATE: Oklahoma
COUNTY: Le Flore County
NEAREST TOWN: Big Cedar
NEAREST ROAD: hwy 63
OBSERVED: I was reading some of your sighting reports of other people who have had an encounter with one of these creatures. I also have seen one back in 1986 in Bowie County, Texas while deer hunting with my Nephew late one November afternoon. Since that time I live in LeFlore County, Oklahoma.Last Spring while Turkey Hunting with my brother at Big Cedar,OK he had an encounter with one that was about 8'-9' tall this thing shook him up pretty bad. I got a call from a guy at Big Cedar Thursday Jan. 26th last week saying a Road Crew that was working on a bridge on highway 63 East of Big Cedar had found some large tracks of some kind of man or Something. My Nephew and I went there yesterday and seen the tracks they look real my nephew took some pictures, and I contacted Jerry Heston and told him about this. The last two or three years there has been a number of sightings around this area. Myself being an avid hunter and outdoorsman I have desided to hunt for one of these creatures, not to shoot or kill one, but to prove they do exist.
If I can be of any help please let me know. Alot of the people that are doing research on these things are good people, but some of them don't know the first thing about the outdoors or this creature. A few of us have started our on investigation due to it taking so long to get someone down here like when these tracks were found.
ALSO NOTICED: There were many tracks, some may have been juvenille, tracks reported were adult.
OTHER WITNESSES: Sister and nephew
OTHER STORIES: See report
TIME AND CONDITIONS: Dry winter day.
ENVIRONMENT: Ouachita National Forest. The tracks were found only a few yards from the highway on a sandy/rocky road. The surrounding landscape is rugged, mountainous, sparsly inhabited mountains.
Follow-up investigation report:
After talking to the witness by phone, Chris Buntenbah, Monica Rawlins (of the Texas Bigfoot Research Center) and I met the witness in Big Cedar on Saturday, February 5th, 2005.
On the way to our investigation that morning, we stopped at a local establishment that was selling “Bigfoot Brew.” Alton Higgins had pointed this out to me last June. The business was closed, but photographer Chris Buntenbah took these pictures.
Bigfoot in this area is part of the culture and is commonly known by local residents.
We arrived at the home of local residents at 11:00 a.m. The contact is the brother of a hunter who submitted a report which was followed up on last June during a joint investigation by the BFRO and TBRC. BFRO members were Alton Higgins, Sue Lindley, and Daryl Colyer.
Report #8543. The family was helpful in our investigation last June, and we had asked them if they heard of future bigfoot reports to let us know, which they kindly did.
The brother of the turkey hunter had contacted us on February 1st stating that large tracks had been found in the area, and that he and his family had been to the location to look at them. The tracks were reported to have been discovered by an Oklahoma bridge inspector who was working on some nearby bridges. Word got out to local residents and many people came to the area to see and photograph them. Our contact family also took pictures and gave us the negatives to be developed.
As we talked to the family at their residence, the members who had seen the tracks stated they did not believe there was a hoax involved. The men were life-long hunters and experienced in all sorts of animal and human tracks found in the local woods. They stated that the tracks had all the indicators of being real. They explained that there was “foot movement” in the tracks and separation between the toes that would not be evident in a plywood fake. The tracks were 16 1/2" long and approximately 8" across at the ball of the foot. The stride was measured at 72’’.
We followed the family to the track area and there were two badly weathered tracks. These tracks were found approximately 50 yards from the Kiamichi River. One track that pointed towards the north was complete, but not deep enough to cast. The other track was eroded to the point that ½ of the ball and five toes were all that were left. The latter was facing in a southeasterly direction. Both tracks were from the right foot and looked as though they were possibly made by the same animal. They were very much like large human tracks, but were a little broader and much longer.
The witnesses said there were more tracks when first viewed, but human traffic and erosion had destroyed them. There were also possibly juvenile tracks found. The tracks were damp when we viewed them because of recent rains. When they were first found the ground was dry. The ground was very compact, so if this was an animal, it must have had enormous weight to compress its foot into the dense soil.
Our team looked around the area with the family for more tracks, but none were found. We thanked the family for contacting us, loaning the negatives to us, and we gave them some casting material in case this situation arose again.
After the family left we cast the partial print and went to lunch. (see below cast being taken)
We returned about two and one half hours later, retrieved our cast, and headed home.
In conclusion; there is no firm evidence that these tracks are genuine since no animal or animals were observed and no dermal ridges were observable, however, the family that showed us around were very experienced hunters and said it would have taken a very long time for someone to give the tracks the detail they had when first viewed by them.
There are thousands of square miles of forest in the Kiamichi Mountains in southeast Oklahoma. It seems feasible that a breeding population of unknown animals could exist in this area with little or no human contact.
The BFRO and TBRC will keep a close watch on this area, and with the help of witnesses may someday have undeniable, physical evidence of bigfoot in LeFlore County, Oklahoma.
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