YEAR: 1979

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

DATE: 1st

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Red River County

LOCATION DETAILS: Several ponds in the area.

NEAREST TOWN: Detroit

NEAREST ROAD: F&M 410

OBSERVED: While fishing late one evening in the late summer of 1979 I had a brief encounter with something that I cannot readily explain. I was fishing at a pond in an open field across from some apartments that my grandparents and I were staying at until our house was ready. I had been fishing for about an hour when I got the feeling that someone or something was watching me. I wasn't in a secluded area, but there was no one else around. No activity at all from anybody. All of a sudden the birds and normal animal noises silenced like they do when a predator comes around. I could feel something watching me. I looked back to the south across the field to the fence line that divided the field. Along the fence line were several cedars ranging from 6 ft to 15 ft or so. I stared at what I thought was a small group of trees when something stepped out from them towards the fence. It was dark brown almost black with grass and debris in its hair like it had been laying down. It came up to the fence and watched me from beside a cedar tree, almost blending in with them. Frozen in fear all I could do was stare back. When it moved again I ran. I left my fish and my stuff right where it was. I ran for the fence that bordered the apts. I jumped the fence and ran home. I told my grandparents what had happened. To my surprise they sort of believed me. My Grandfather would not venture out at dusk to retrieve my gear, he said we would get it in the morning. The next morning we returned early to find that my tackle box had been knocked around like a toy, my rod was undisturbed, but my stringer of perch was gone. The only thing we found of that was a fish head between the pond and the fence line where I saw it.

OTHER WITNESSES: None.

OTHER STORIES: Years later my uncle told me of my grandparents and my dad and uncles being terrorized on a farm just east of town. Also, my cousins that lived between Detroit and Clarksville on Hwy 82 in a swampy kind of area always heard loud un-nerving screams simular to a panther screams frequently at night.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 8:00 pm.

ENVIRONMENT: This was a part time farm, open field divided by fence with some heavy woods.

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke at length with the witness about his encounter on February 21, 2004. I considered him credible.

I asked him about the possibility that what he saw that day was a human. The witness adamantly asserted that what he saw was in no way a human, and without doubt it was large, bipedal and hairy. The witness stated that the distance at which the encounter occurred was "around 60 yards." The witness could not discern any facial detail, but he did state that the size of the bigfoot (over seven feet in height) was apparent because of the cedar tree by which it stood. The witness said that the animal appeared to be "almost leaning on the tree." The witness emphasized that his stringer of fish was gone the next day when he and his grandfather returned to the site. I found it curious that the entire stringer of fish was missing. It seems to me that most, if not all known animals would have simply eaten the fish off the stringer. Circumstantially at least, it appeared that the bigfoot may have picked up the stringer and absconded with it.

In addition to reiterating his report with detail, the witness also told me that his father and grandparents had an experience with something at their home many years ago. Apparently, they heard something outside the home and none of them ventured out to determine what it was. Out of agitation perhaps, the unknown creature knocked the porch light out, and then tormented the family through the night with various knocks and sounds.

This report is but another of many that has been generated from the Red River - Sulphur River corridor in Northeast Texas. The preponderance of my investigations has been in this area.