YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 3

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Mason County

LOCATION DETAILS: Please do not contact the people at this location, or post very specific directions. I asked their permission to monitor at their house, but I do not know their names. I can tell you that I was situated just off SR 102. The prison is to the west and Highway 101 is to the east. The noises were coming from the direction of Highway 101. Looking at a topo map there are several lakes north of SR102, west of Hwy 101. I believe almost all the land is Simpson timber land with clear cuts/trees of several different heights.

NEAREST TOWN: Shelton, WA

NEAREST ROAD: SR 102

OBSERVED: On Monday night (actually early Tues. morning July 3, 2001) I was performing some nighttime noise monitoring at a residence outside of Shelton, Washington. I monitored from 2:30 am to 4:30 am. There are a few residences where I was, but the area is surrounded by Simpson timber land. The Washington State Penitentary is closeby. It was perfect noise monitoring conditions, clear night with no winds at all (extremely quiet). Right when I started my measurement I heard coyotes from the direction of the driveway, off in the distance. A few dogs in the distance barked at the howls. I then heard some different animals. I heard 2 or 3 screams from one location and a single scream in response from further north. These screams seemed to be communicating to each other. It lasted about 30 seconds or so. The dogs in the distance continued to bark, although the 2 dogs in the yard with me did not.
I was really wondering what animal it could have been. I would describe coyote howls as an owwwoooooooo noise. These screams started as a howl but ended in a scream, like ooooaaaahhhcchhh. The ending part sounded like a woman screaming, but the scream was solid-sounding and not screechy. It sounded about a half-mile away but still very loud and clear.

Now maybe you can tell me... It could have been mountain lions, but I am not sure if those animals are 'group' animals. Maybe it was a mother and her cubs trying to find each other. It just did not sound cat-like to me, although I have not heard mountain lion calls specifically.

ALSO NOTICED: After the first round of calls it became very quiet. I was measuring the hourly average Leq for a one-hour measurement. After about 35 min the Leq was 36 dBA. At 43 minutes, the 2 dogs in the yard of the house I was at went crazy barking at the trees behind me. The horse in the field to the left of me was snorting too. My heart was in my throat! At 58 minutes, another solitary howl/scream occured from the same direction as the first ones.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was the only one out there monitoring. I was sitting on the trunk of my car taking notes on the ambient noise sources.

OTHER STORIES: I am not from that area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: approx 2:40 am the first round of calls. A 2nd solitary call occured at approx. 3:30 am.
There was a large moon (not full), so light was good. It was 52 deg F (I measured), calm winds. No clouds.

ENVIRONMENT: All evergreen forest. I was told the land is designated timber land. It has been clearcut and replanted in 'tracts' so the trees are various heights. Looking at a topo map, there are lots of creeks and lakes in the general area.

A & G References: page 61, 7,C

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke to JS Sunday 7-15-01 about her job discription, the possibility of mistaken Identity (just hearing other animals) and about the location.

JS is an Environmental Engineer who's job is to measures ambient noise levels as part of an environmental impact statement. She works during the early morning hours when noise levels are at their lowest level, 2:00 to 4:00 AM.

We spoke about other animal noises and her familiarity with them as possibile canidates for what she heard. Though this investigator may have over looked an animal indiginous to this area we were able to eliminate the likely candidates.

She was very concerned that someone might bother the people of the residence where she took her recordings. She felt these animals were comunicating with each other to the north of her position and that there may have been one close enough to disturb the domestic animals near her position. She said that there were at least 3 separate individual animals calling and responding to each other.

This area has a long history of reported sasquatch activity.