YEAR: 1994

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: mid month

STATE: California

COUNTY: Siskiyou County

LOCATION DETAILS: The property is about 3/4 of a mile to 1 mile west of town proper. just on the city limit line.

NEAREST TOWN: Yreka

NEAREST ROAD: Greenhorn Rd.

OBSERVED: I was sitting outside on the back deck of my ex girlfriend's mobile home at, approximatly, 12:00 A.M. enjoying a smoke before going to bed for the evening. About five minutes after I went outside, I noticed a faint, but still very pungent, odor on the breeze. Kind of a cross between skunk, rotting carcass, & very dirty wet dog. I've lived in the area all of my life, and hunted around the local hills and gulches, and have not encountered a smell quite like this before or since. The smell came in on the breeze from the west of the trailer, up the hill from the property.

I am a believer in the Sasquatch, having read, watched, and listened to as much information as I could get my hands on from the time I could read.

About a week after the incident, I was working on a bicycle on the back porch, at about, 10:00 or 10:30 P.M., when I heard a low gutteral growl/hoot type noise, coming from behind me. I would say from the volume of the noise, the critter that produced it was, maybe no more than 100 to 200 feet away. That would have put the area it was in about halfway between our trailer, and the neighbor up the road. Due to spending a considerable amount of time in the woods hunting, and just hiking around, I have encountered or heard just about all of the wildlife in this area, this sounded like nothing I have heard before. The strange part of the encounter, was the fact that our German Shepherd Rottweiler cross heard nothing, nor did any of the other neighbor's dogs. I went inside to retrieve my handgun and a flashlight to check around the vicinity, but found nothing out of the ordinary. However due to the time year the ground was way too dry to accept any tracks.

ALSO NOTICED: Lack of normal nocturnal animal sounds, eerily quiet

OTHER WITNESSES: No other witnesses other than myself and the dog who slept through both incidents.

OTHER STORIES: Not firsthand, only what I have read on the BFRO website.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Late night, no moon, very little ambient light, clear, warm summer night.

ENVIRONMENT: Somewhat wooded area, Pine, Scrub Oak, and some Buck Brush, giving way to fairly heavily wooded areas West, and North.

Follow-up investigation report:

I talked with the witness by phone. The following details can be added to the report.
--The witness lived at the house for two years, which is located at about 2800 feet in elevation.
--The witness never heard anything similar during that time, except a single growl one time prior to this event.
--The witness left the property not long after this event.
--The single “growl” lasted for 5-7 seconds and was deep and throaty. The growl then rose to a higher pitch before it ended.
--The witness is very experienced with local wildlife and had heard mountain lions before. This was not similar.
--Whatever made the sound seemed very large, due to the volume and depth of the growl.
--His dog did not wake up during the event and never seemed scared to go outside or in the woods.
--The witness looked for prints around the area but found nothing but dog and deer prints.