YEAR: 2008

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 22

STATE: South Dakota

COUNTY: Lawrence County

LOCATION DETAILS: Take Hwy 14A west out of Sturgis

NEAREST TOWN: Deadwood

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 14A

OBSERVED: I travel, every year on vacation, to South Dakota to do some camping in the Black Hills and have for the past three years camped in the same location. I belong to a club of outdoor enthusiasts, we travel to certain locations to scratch a living from the earth for a few days and once you have the fever there's no such thing as a nonworking vacation. This last trip (June 2008) I had an experience I couldn't explain: I was asleep in my tent; I was the only person left in camp everyone else had packed up and left. I wasn't too concerned as I have camped by myself in this area several times and could only recall one other time when I felt like something was nearby perhaps a cougar or other predator type animal as the crickets stopped chirping and the whole area became extremely quiet. This particular night I was sleeping soundly and was then suddenly awake and aware that something was up, everthing was silent. I didn't know what had woken me at first but I reached over and checked my watch seeing that it was 3:11am I thought to myself I need to get back to sleep, then I heard it; someone or something was moving around in the stream below my camp. Not directly below, but more to the north and west of my camp following the curvature of the stream. Picture a curving "L" shape. Now rotate the "L" 1/4 turn to the right, apply that to moving stream water, my camp sits above the water 20 to 30 feet in the inside turn of the "L". I heard splashing in the stream and then, SMACK....SMACK. There was a pause of a few seconds then SMACK....SMACK....SMACK. It was two rocks being hit together in a pattern. Ok, creepy and not what I was expecting, I reached over and put a shell in the chamber of my weapon and checked the safety. I'll give it a few minutes and if nothing else happens I'll go back to sleep. Nothing else did happen except when the sun came up I packed up and left. The area around the stream is covered in rocks of every size and shape from small pebbles to boulders as big as cars and trucks. I didn't think to look for tracks. I was still the only one there and I didn't know what to think, except that if someone thought it was fun to show up at a secluded camp at that time of night to smack rocks together there must be something wrong with them and it's time to vacate the area. A few months later I saw a program on primates and how they will knock rocks and sticks together to communicate I put two and two together and realized I may have had an encounter.

ALSO NOTICED: just silence, very quiet

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me and it.

OTHER STORIES: The Bear Butte report on this site

TIME AND CONDITIONS: This happened at night, calm-no wind. There isn't any light in the area except starlight I don't recall the moon being out this night and I did use my watch light and checked the laser sight on the weapon pointing at a wall inside of the tent away from the disturbance outside.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest, mountainous terrain

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Thomas Bruns:

[Thomas Bruns is a native of South Dakota, living there for over 25 years, and has spent much time in the Black Hills]:

I discussed the events of this report at length with this witness. He is from Minnesota, and frequently goes to the Black Hills of South Dakota to camp at a private Gold Claim area. He is a member of a group with access to this private land. This area is very isolated and requires a four-wheel drive for access. He camped next to a creek about 10 feet wide. The stream bed contained many different sized rocks, but no rocks were on the shoreline. Thus, it is doubtful that an animal could have been walking on the shoreline and caused rocks to tumble, causing the “clacking” noise. Also, the sound of the clacking was very loud and distinct, in a pattern. With further thought, he remembered the clacking to be a pattern of three clacks, about a 2 second pause, then repeated two more times. This made him think some person was there who shouldn’t have been, so he loaded his weapon for protection. He also distinctly remembers how quiet it had become, with no sound whatsoever other than the rock clacking. A very interesting fact, which we discussed, was how while watching a television show he learned that primates will hit rocks and sticks together to communicate, and this is when it dawned on him that he might have been visited by a large primate. Rock clacking is often reported during sasquatch encounters and on BFRO Expeditions. Overall, this gentleman was very sincere and truthful in his description of this encounter, and most probably had a nighttime visit by a Sasquatch.
Of note: Other reports for the adjacent counties of Meade, Pennington, and Custer are found on the BFRO website. The Bear Butte Report the witness is referring to is Report #1082.

About BFRO Investigator Thomas Bruns:

Thomas Bruns resides in Southeast TN and is active in Field Research. He has a background in Biology and is a Medical Professional. He has attended numerous BFRO and private expeditions since 2009.

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