YEAR: 1979

SEASON: Summer

DATE: Late summer of 1979

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Bosque County

LOCATION DETAILS: Bosque County near the Brazos River

OBSERVED: I am 34 now and a professional, and want to remain anonymous. I have told this story to only my immediate family. This incident occurred back in 1979 in Bosque Co., when I was in high school. Nothing like this has ever happened since this occurrence, nor have I ever heard of any other encounters in the area. Although there were stories that some old timers told of a wild man in the area. I always thought it was just a story to scare the kids.

The general area was a heavily wooded bottom area in Bosque county, that was sparsely populated at the time. I no longer live in the area and do not know of the general population now.

I grew up hunting, hiking and camping in Texas, and was very familiar with the different animals in the area. The most threatening of which were the occasional bobcat or cougar. So at this time I was somewhat seasoned to the wilderness and animals of the area and not totally green. My friend and I often hunted squirrel, raccoon or rabbit and were out this day squirrel hunting with .22 rifles. From down behind his house a dried up creek ran for miles to a point where it intersected the Brazos river. The banks of this creek were anywhere from 5 to 25 foot tall, and we often walked it when we went hunting. My friend had a Wymeraner dog at the time that we always took with us. The dog loved to run rabbits and was generally a good companion on hunting trips.

We left out at noon and spent the afternoon walking and hunting, with no particular purpose. Late in the afternoon, I say it was nearing 5 PM, we were about half way or better back to his house. Again taking the creek bed as our primary route. The sun was low and directly ahead of us, just above the rim of the creek bank which at this particular section were around 20 feet tall. We had been walking and talking and not particularly paying any attention to our surroundings. My friends dog started acting really strange. He would run back down the creek bed and then back to us and kinda whimper. This was very uncommon for the dog as it was quite big for the breed and a fearsome fighter and extremely smart.

We kept going and the dog finally ran off, something he had never done. My friend had turned around and started calling for the dog down the creek bed. I started forward and looked up on the rim of the creek bank and saw something. Approximately 80 yards from where I was standing was a bend in the creek. The sun was almost directly in front of me above that turn. Standing next to two trees on the top of the creek bank was a very tall dark figure. At first I thought it was another hunter in full cammo. I touched my friends arm and he turned and saw it too. There was nothing behind it but an open field so I had a good view of the silhouette but could not make out any features due to the sun. Going on the premise of it being another hunter I waived hoping for a response. The figure then moved behind one of the trees to its left. There was a small gap between the two trees and a large, say 10-20 yard gap between those trees and the next clump of brush. Again behind the line of trees and brush on the creek bank was nothing but field. The figure never emerged from the other side.

Worried that it was laying in wait for us, we back tracked down the creek bed and found a low spot to get out of the creek bed and into open field. We hot footed it back home and found the dog waiting for us there, under his house and not too willing to be moved.

We talked about what we saw, and what or who it could have been. The dog’s reaction was what spooked us the most, so I don’t think it was another hunter. The thing was probably 7 to 7 1/2 feet tall and weighed around 400-450 pounds. I was almost 6 foot tall then and had a pretty good judge of the distance and relative size.

Aside from this occurrence we never saw anything strange again. Although, we heard odd sounds coming from the bottom on a number of occasions. We always just chalked these up to wind in the trees or animals, or our overactive teenage imagination. Now many years later, this instance sticks out in my mind more than any other from my time before and since of being in the woods. I still hunt, hike and camp in Texas, but have not returned to that area since.

ALSO NOTICED: Some odd sounds from the bottom, but nothing notable.

OTHER WITNESSES: Hunting and hiking. Two witnesses.

OTHER STORIES: Stories that some old timers told of a wild man in the area. I always thought it was just a story to scare the kids.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 5-6 PM in Late Summer. Fair skies and warm weather.

ENVIRONMENT: Dry creek bed, in a bottom in a hilly part of Bosque county. The general area was a heavily wooded bottom area in Bosque county. The sun was low and directly ahead of us, just above the rim of the creek bank which at this particular section were around 20 feet tall.