YEAR: 1973

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: Sunday

STATE: Arkansas

COUNTY: Grant County

LOCATION DETAILS: It was on a unnamed, graveled woods road near the Jenkins Ferry Battleground Historical Monument.

NEAREST TOWN: Leola

NEAREST ROAD: State Highway #46.

OBSERVED: It was during the 1973 spring squirrel season in southern Arkansas. My brother and I were hunting near the Jenkins Ferry national historic site. He is four years younger than me, I was 17 years old and my brother was 13. It was early morning before sun-up. We were squirrel hunting with my dad. When we left the truck, my dad went down in the woods by himself and me and my brother walked down this gravel road deep in the forest where there was water on both sides of the road. The sun was coming up and we were standing in the road waiting for it to get light enough to go into the woods. I was looking down the road toward the sun. On the left side of the road under a big tree was a very tall - at least 8 feet - figure covered with hair from top to bottom. It was on the side of the road in the tree line. It then stepped on the edge of the road. I noticed that he wasn't wearing any clothes or carrying a gun, and it was too big to be a human. Me and my brother squatted down in tall grass next to the road. The figure then came to the edge of the road and just stood there. It looked straight up and he looked to his left. We were on his right and by then we were in the grass and he did not see us. My brother took aim at him with his .22 caliber rifle that always jams after firing just one shot. I asked him what he was doing. He said that is not a person and if he comes this way I'm going to shoot him. I told my brother don't shoot, the gun will jam. I had a single barrel 16 gauge shotgun with squirrel shot. We just sat there in the tall grass and watched the figure walk across the gravel road. The animal took at least three steps and he was across the road. Its arms very long and I noticed that there was long hair hanging from his arms. Its foot slid when it stepped off the road and onto the right-hand shoulder. Then one foot began sliding, causing the animal to lose its balance for a second, nearly falling backwards, just before it stepped into the water. Once in the water, It started walking into the woods and he never seen me and my brother.

We got up and ran back to the truck. The truck was locked but I knew the wing window on the passenger side didn't lock. I opened up the wing window and reached in and opened the truck door and me and my brother got inside. We started honking the horn until my dad came out of the woods. We told him what we had seen. He said he did not see the creature but he heard something very large walking through the woods breaking sticks and limbs. My dad took the safety off of his shotgun and waited and listened for a little while before getting in the truck. We left the area never went back there to hunt again.

It has taken me all these years to tell the story. My brother and myself have told people in our family and they think we're crazy, but me and my brother know what we saw that day. I have been all over the world and I've hunted in a lot of different states, but I've never seen anything like this before or after that day.

ALSO NOTICED: While my brother and myself were standing on the gravel road, the sounds of all the ground frogs and crickets stopped. There was no noise, just silence. That's when I saw the very large hairy creature about 50 yards to my left under a big tree on the side of the road .

OTHER WITNESSES: My brother.

OTHER STORIES: I have never seen anything in the woods that I could not explain and also my brother witnessed the big creature. I would say that we saw Bigfoot and to this day we have never returned to hunt in this area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early Sunday morning just before full sun rise.

ENVIRONMENT: Heavy forested with very large areas of wetlands and swampland.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Tal H. Branco:

The primary witness stated he first saw the figure just before it stepped out of the dense woods and stopped under a huge oak tree growing on the left side of the old road on which they were standing. It was walking at an angle past them when it stopped, and they were seeing its back and right side. The two boys immediately squatted in the long grass growing on the edges of the old road and watched it. A slight breeze was blowing, and they were down-wind from where the animal briefly stopped. It looked up the road to its left, turning its upper body in doing that, tilted it head back as if it were sniffing the breeze, then walked across the road in a very "smooth motion". When it crossed the road, they could clearly see the animal more, as the rising sun was nearly in line with them, the road and the figure. When it stepped off the road bed onto the road's wet bank, one foot slipped, and the other foot began sliding toward the water beside the road. Both witnesses stated the animal "nearly busted his butt" before it regained its footing. It splashed upright into the water and quickly disappeared from their view in the thick timber.

In speaking with the younger brother and the primary witness, they both stated the animal was at least eight feet tall, with a massive and heavily muscled body, with the upper torso tapering noticeably to the hips. The primary witness particularly noticed the "fluid motion" as the animal walked, with its long arms, reaching nearly to its knees, swinging in long alternating arcs, and the animals head was being kept at the same elevation. (No up and down movement.) The primary witness said that the top of the animals head was slightly, but noticeably cone shaped. They stated the animals hands were huge. Neither witness saw movement of the fingers or thumbs, but did notice the hands were somewhat cupped. They both noticed there was hair, several inches long, hanging from its arm. The overall color of its hair was dark brown, but there were streaks of "cinnamon" colored hair on the body and arms.They were unable to see the animals feet because of the grass growing on the road and their squatting positions. Neither witness noticed any unusual odors during the event.

About BFRO Investigator Tal H. Branco:

Tal Branco is a lifelong resident of AR. He began hunting, fishing and tracking many years ago in south AR. Since he was a teenager, his outdoor activities have been primarily conducted in the Ouachita Mountains, although during the past forty years he has also conducted field investigations of reports of enigmatic and unclassified animals in the southeastern U.S. and in the Amazon Basin of Brazil.