YEAR: 1988

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 15 or 16

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Panola County

LOCATION DETAILS: On my hunting lease off County Road 430 in Panola County.

NEAREST TOWN: Carthage

NEAREST ROAD: fm 699

OBSERVED: When I was about 16 which was in 1988 my friends and I always spent our weekends and breaks from school at my hunting camp on the Sabine River in Panola County TX. We would hunt and fish and live off the land mostly. One evening we had been fishing and had caught a lot of catfish so we cleaned our catch at our camp water well. It was an old type well with a hand pump. We built a fire and began to cook our fish. We had just finished eating when we heard a noise from where we cleaned our fish. We are used to having varmints such as racoons and oposums and coyotes come in to get the guts from the fish. Well I got my flash light and my 22 rifle and went to shoot whatever was getting the guts. When I was about 50 or so yards from the well I heard a moan not a growl but a moan. I could see a large dark mass at the well. I thought it was just several racoons in a wad eating. So I raised my light [and] when I did the large mass stood erect on two feet. I thought it was someone playing a trick on me. I immediately called to the person or what i thought to be a person. I told them I had a gun and was gonna use it. The thing didn't move or answer. I called again and said this aint funny I'm scared and gonna shoot. Now I stand six foot even and weigh 250 lbs. This thing was at least six foot five or taller and bigger than me. As I got closer my light exposed more of the thing. It began to move as I got closer it was covered in what looked like mud covered hair. I cant tell you the color because it was all matted up with mud just like pigs do to get rid of biting insects. Well the closer I got the more scared I got and I fired a couple of shots in the air to see if it was a joker they would tell me not to shoot. The thing ran off but not far I could hear its foot steps in the leaves it was then I walked back to tell my buddies and get help. None of them would go back with me to the well. The next day there were large five toed footprints at the well and all the guts were gone except the heads. My buddies all said I was playing a prank and made the tracks myself but I wear a size 13 shoe and these tracks were longer and wider than my shoe. I spend lots of time in the woods of East Texas and am as close to an expert as you can get on wildlife around here and I can tell you what I saw was an as yet unclassified animal.

ALSO NOTICED: Just that I was scared and I'm not nor have I ever been scared of any animal in the woods.

OTHER WITNESSES: The others were back in camp.

OTHER STORIES: I had another incident about ten years later where my nephew and I saw something on a pipeline deerstand we both thought it was a bear. Maybe, but there are no bears in East Texas, large, hairy, dark.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 10 or 11 pm.

ENVIRONMENT: Hard wood bottom, river bottom and cutover pine timber.

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with the witness about his encounter that happened on a 1500 acre piece of land in Panola County. The land abuts the Sabine River.

The witness had no particular details to add about his sighting, but he did say that he has found, on occasion, "beaver huts" on the property. The "beaver huts," as he described them, have been on land in the woods.

In addition, the witness stated that he hears unusual vocalizations from time to time, but he has never really paid much attention to them, keeping in mind that some known, documented animals, such as foxes, nutria and barred owls have the potential to make very strange sounds.

To this day, the witness's wife is skeptical about his encounter and the sasquatch phenomenon in general.

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