YEAR: 1976

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: December

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Cooke County

LOCATION DETAILS: Red River.

NEAREST TOWN: Gainesville

OBSERVED: I was 14 years old in 1976. It was either Nov or Dec 1976 and I had rode my dirt bike to what is known in Cooke County, Texas as the Old Toll Bridge located at the Red River. At the river stands 3 old piers that supported the bridge back in the 20's or 30's. I was standing by the edge of the river looking at the ice float by when I heard what sounded like to me as Coon dogs hot on the trail of something across the river on the Oklahoma side. As I looked across I saw a dark hairy animal, or something, running on two legs like a human. There was a dead tree log that this large animal jumped over. The coon dogs jumped across the log after it. As I watched in amazement I heard the lead dog let out a loud yelp. The 2nd dog came running back and jumped over the log back into the direction that they originally came from. The first dog never came back nor made another sound. At 14 years old it scared the hell out of me so I ran and jumped on my motorcycle and took off home. I told everyone at the house of what I saw and everyone laughed at me. I hade been back there several times after that but never seen or heard anything. The Old Toll Bridge Road is now closed off. I know what I saw and it wasn't human nor a bear. It was a Big Foot.

Next was in the late summer of 1978 and my friend and I had just returned from cruising the drag in town. We had went back to his parents house out by the Girls State School in Gainesville, TX. When we go there his parents, brothers and sister where all in the back yard not talking. We asked them what was going on and his Dad said just to listen. We said what for. He said that they had heard some kind of wild animal growl coming from creek bottom out in Mr. Leowold's pasture. We set there for a while and they went in. I was talking to my friend when we heard a load roaring growl. Like a four wheel drive truck locking up the tires on the highway. Just then it did it again. We ran inside and told his parents. They said just to leave it alone. We went and snuck out our 22 rifles and jumped in the truck to drive down to where the creek went under the bridge just east of state school. As we were listening we heard bird chirping then flying off out of their roost. Then limbs breaking and rocks being knocked around on the creek bed. We decided to get out of there and left ASAP. The next day we went back over to where we had access to get to the creek by the highway. David and myself walked the creek when we came across a barefoot foot print that was much larger than any grown man. We left and never made it back there again.

ALSO NOTICED: Dark hairy animal, or something, running on two legs like a human.

OTHER WITNESSES: 1-5 witnesses on various occasions.

OTHER STORIES: I have heard of other strange sighting in the area, but that's a different story.

ENVIRONMENT: Wooded.

Follow-up investigation report:

There seems to be a pattern of bigfoot sightings between Grayson County and Cooke County along the Red River. Also, north of the River in Love and Marshall Counties the same has been occurring for quite some time.

The pattern seems to start East of Hwy 35 and extends into the Lake Texoma region. Some of this area is remote, and near the river there has been good hunting and fishing areas for sportsmen.

The witness of this account seemed sincere in his statements. He said, “I can close my eyes and see it today as though it just happened yesterday.” There was no doubt in his mind as to what he saw. The witness claims the animal was about 150 yards or so away, and he saw it for only two or three seconds, but he was sure it was not human. He said the size could have been 10 ft. tall, it was that large. Also the footprint that was later found was reported to be at least a size 14 of 15 if compared to a human shoe size.

This old bridge was reported to be a haunt of bigfoot according to local legend. It is no longer there, and the old road does not cross the river. It does seem, however, that the woods north of Gainesville, up to Walnut Bend and Callisburg, and extending up into the woods and river bottoms in Love and Marshall Counties, Oklahoma may be a temporary, if not permanent haunt of a large, yet undiscovered primate.

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