YEAR: 1994

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: December

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Palo Pinto County

LOCATION DETAILS: Chick Bend on the Brazos River.

NEAREST TOWN: Graford, TX

NEAREST ROAD: FM4

OBSERVED: I was recently discussing your web site with a friend and was directed to the sounds that were recorded and placed on your web site. Initially I laughed it off. At least until I heard the Ohio Howl. I have heard that particular sound before. The only difference was a slightly higher pitch. When I heard the sound on your site I got the same goose bumps and the same sick feeling I had the first time I heard it.

I was on an evening deer hunt in mid to late December. It was cold and clear with a light wind. I was sitting on the ground backed into a cedar tree. At one point I could hear something walking up behind me. I could tell it wasn't a hooved animal by the sound the feet made when it walked. I waited about 10 minutes looking for it to step out of the brush. That's when I heard that sound. It couldn't have been more than 20 ft away, because it was so loud I had to put my hands over my ears. I immediately clicked the safety off on my rifle and could hear it moving back deeper into the brush. When I couldn't hear it any more I got up and went to the truck without finishing my hunt. I told my grandad about it and he shrugged it off and said it was probably just a big coyote.

I have hunted my whole life. I have been calling and trapping predators for close to 20 years. My degree is in Animal Science. I know what coyotes, dogs, and wolves sound like and that isn't it.

ALSO NOTICED: No

OTHER WITNESSES: I was the only one there.

OTHER STORIES: No. The only thing I've ever heard is people joking about Bigfoot at the Boy Scout camp back in the 70's.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Evening just before sunset. Cold, light wind, clear sky.

ENVIRONMENT: Low brush and fairly thick cedars. About 1/2 mile from the barn at the DK Ranch. Within walking distance of the Brazos River.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator D.A. Brake (PhD):

The witness was interviewed by phone and provided the following additional details.

The incident took place on a track of private ranch land owned by the witness’s family. The witness had walked from the family house approximately 0.5 mile down a small dirt road and had taken up a position just off the road and was facing an open pasture located on the other side of the road. After 30-60 minutes in a sitting, stationary position and seeing no wildlife in the pasture, the witness first heard movement behind him deeper in the stand of large cedar trees and dense brush. The witness was wearing a scent killer and recalled being upwind relative to the direction in which the initial movement was first heard. He reported that as the animal approach closer it seemed to move back and forth. After approximately 5 minutes of hearing movement, the animal suddenly exerted a single deafening scream of approximately 5-6 seconds in duration. The witness described the scream as being somewhat hollow and monotone with no variation in pitch. The witness remained stationary for 10-15 minutes after the hearing the howl, then returned to the road and walked quickly several hundred yards down the road to a nearby barn where a farm truck was parked. He returned to the farmhouse in the truck.

The witness has extensive hunting experience in the region and is very familiar with the sights and sounds of the indigenous wildlife in the area, including coyote, bobcats, and red wolf. He was insistent that the sound he heard was not from any of these animals. The terrain of this general area is comprised of large rocks, boulders, cliffs, steep hills and hard clay. There are large stands of cedar breaks surrounded by dense brush as well as oaks and cottonwoods closer to the Brazos River.

This incident took place within 0. 5 mile of report #8861 and in the general vicinity of report #14376.

About BFRO Investigator D.A. Brake (PhD):

D. Brake holds a PhD in Immunology and attended the Maine 2008 expedition.

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