YEAR: 1971

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: June 1, 1971

STATE: Missouri

COUNTY: Oregon County

LOCATION DETAILS: 14 miles east on highway 160

NEAREST TOWN: Alton

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 160

OBSERVED: This is a true story which I remember very well, even though it has been around thirty years since it happened. I owned three dogs at this time, two hounds and a squirrel dog. They turned up missing for about three days. On the night of that third day I had a wind-up alarm clock set inside of a washpan because I was so hard to wake up. Sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. my wife shook me awake saying the dogs must be back. She heard some growling noise real close to the house. When I heard the noise, I told my wife "that ain’t no dog". It was the weirdest growling sound I ever heard. I jumped out of bed so fast I hit the dishpan and it went across the floor and made a lot of racket. I looked out the window through the window screen and there was what must have been a bigfoot creature of some sort. It was not a bear. It was a very moonlit night, so I know I couldn’t mistake a bear for something else. And it was not human! It was covered in long wavy hair on its body, but much less hair around the facial area. It had a humanlike face and yet it wasn’t human. Suddenly it turned its head (not its body) just its head and just stared in my direction. I started to feel a panic coming on, but I knew I had to do something. I raced to get my shotgun, ran out the front door. I was sure I could reach the yard in time. But it was gone, even though there shouldn’t have been time for it to past the clearing of the yard. So I fired the shotgun into the air just in case it was still close by. Less than one day later our dogs returned to us.

OTHER WITNESSES: Wife heard growling, I observed the creature

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was a very clear, moonlit night.

ENVIRONMENT: Forested area 2 miles from Eleven Point River

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with the witness via telephone, and the following details can be added to the report.

The witness observed the animal from inside the bedroom at a distance of about 12 feet. It was described to me as having long, brown hair covering the entire body except for the facial area. The hair was approximately 6 inches long, wavy looking and it appeared to be matted. No footprints were found the next day, due to the hard gravel landscape.

During this same timeframe, sightings were reported in this area, one involving a man having an encounter while working on his car.

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