YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Spring

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Lee County

LOCATION DETAILS: It's about 15 miles East of I-75 right off of SR. 80 e-mail for more info.

NEAREST TOWN: Ft.Myers

NEAREST ROAD: SR. 80

OBSERVED: I was helping my mother-inlaw with the begining stages of preparing her 8 acre property so that she could build a house on it. The area is mostly covered in Oak trees, Cabbage Palms, Scrub Oaks, Mullberry trees, and Brazian Pepper trees With wild Grape vines hanging out of the trees to the ground.The majority of the acreage is flat ground covered with Oaks there is a state drainage ditch that runs close to the East side of plot, that is where I was working near the road. on the other side of the ditch there is an extremely low swampy area near the North side of the land along the road in the wet season (May to October)I have seen small fish, turtles, and gators in this area. My wife's cousin lives in a in a house in the ajacent property with Oaks covering a good bit of it but cleared under the trees. On a previous Previous trip out to my mother-inlaws land I in stalled a tempory gate in the barbed wire fence. This time out I hired a friend's 15 year old son to help haul branches that I was cutting back to a clearing In the middle of the property to be burned at a later date. I cleared and he hauled for a few hours, after a while I noticed that he was getting tired and it was starting to get later in the day. around 5:00-5:30 PM so decided to stop clearing and help him carry the branches back. For a good bit of the time the cousins dog follow him back and forth as he hauled the branches. Anyway as we were walk back we came to a spot where the fence was pulled back between the two parcels and the dog came through the gap in the fence, at the moment coming out of what would be the back of the low swampy area was three whoops. The first one was long and drawn out the two that followed were short. A chill ran down my spine as my mind was trying to place a animal to the sound. It was too loud and too deep to have come from an owl. What ever it came from it came from a large chest. At this point I did think Bigfoot and looked down at the dog but she was calm and seemed happy. I then looked back at the area that the whoops came from and there was a squirrel sitting on a downed palm flicking its tail. This made me dismiss the Bigfoot idea. I immediately asked the boy if he had heard that. The thing is theres no way anyone could have missed it, it was so loud. then he said he heard it on one of his previous trips back. For days I racked my brain for what could have been I have been hiking in the woods and swamps of Florida all my life and know the sounds of the local wild life and couldn't come up with anything that fits the bill. It did sound alot like the Howler Monkeys I've heard in zoos, but the tone was way too deep to be a Howler Monkey. About a week later I was out with a cotractor to talk about putting in a drive back to where the house is to bee built. He also has been in Florida a long time, so told him of the noise I heard and asked him if he could tink of any animal that could have made that sound and he said a Whooping Crain. I said oh! yah that must be it. I went home satisfied with that answer. About week later I was poking around the internet and I looked up info on Whooping Crains and there was recordings on the site I found. When I played the track a chill ran through me not because it was the sound I heard but because it wasn't. I thought about sending a report in for months now, but because of being so unsure of what I heard I held back. Well today I was at my daughters babyshower and the cousin was there for some reason my 12 year old decided that it was a good time to blurt out I saw a Bigfoot, correcting him I said I heard a noise, and of course he said that I heard a Bigfoot I again corrected him and said that I didn't know what it was and elaberated that it was out on the property. At this point the cousin became very interested and asked what it sounded like, so I imitated whoops for her at that she said that she had been hearing strange sounds out there too. I asked if they were whooping and she said yes but there was other sounds to it also she said screaming and whooping I ask if it sounded like a woman screaming and she said kind of but not exactly. She ended it with there is some thing out there.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2, clearing land

OTHER STORIES: My wifes other cousin's at the time girlfriend said she saw a Bigfoot on that same property. No one took her very seriously because she enjoyed her alcoholic beverages too much.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Between 5:00-5:30 pm

ENVIRONMENT: The land in that area is mostly Oak trees, Cabbage Palms, Scrub Oaks, Mullberry trees, and Brazian Pepper trees. There is a porely maintained orange grove nearby about 4 acres north there is the Caloosahatchee with scattered farms around it.

Follow-up investigation report:

After speaking with the submitter I found him to be credible in recounting the report.