YEAR: 1989

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

STATE: Oregon

COUNTY: Douglas County

LOCATION DETAILS: It is very rural Mountains all around, we were located in the valley that has a creek running through it. I could give you directions to the general location if given a map of the area.

NEAREST TOWN: We were in Lookingglass, the nearest large city is Roseburg

NEAREST ROAD: not sure, I would have to see a map

OBSERVED: While growing up, my grandparents would take my brother and I up to Lookingglass, Oregon for about 2 weeks to visit with my Uncle and cousins. Over the years there are several incidents that stand out in my mind, but the one(s) that prompted me to write you occured during my stay in the summer of 1989. Two of my cousins and I were up very late watching some movies. When the movies were over, we decided to go outside and goof around. As we were running out the door, a strange sound stopped us in our tracks. It was coming from the creek bottom and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. It began to sound as if a cow was beying, a very deep gutteral sound advancing into a howl that lasted about 5-10 seconds. At first I was dismissing it as one of the neighbors cows, but my cousin said she had never heard it before and the end of the vocalization sounded more like a wolf than a cow. I yelled for my younger cousin to come back inside, she had frozen in place when the sound started, and we locked the door - something that they never do because the location is so rural. I had never been so frightened by a noise in my life. What ever it was sounded very large and I was in doubt that the locked door would stop it if it decided to investigate it's surroundings. It sounded very close, but we were located in a valley, and because of the echo it was hard for me to figure out exactly how close it really was. Two nights later I heard it again, this time I was alone on the dirt road that connects the "highway" to the properties on the Mountain. I was walking to the bridge that covers a creek that seperates the properties when I heard it again, starting low and growing to a high-pitched howl. I froze and waited, it sounded again a few minutes later, closer than before. I listened to the vocalizations on the web site, and it sounded like the Ohio sound in its pitch and duration.

ALSO NOTICED: Over the years there were several incidents that I can tell you about. I do remember that the summer before I heard these sounds, we (my cousins, brother and I) had found a large 3 toed footprint along the creek. I asked my Uncle what in the area could make a footprint that large with 3 toes, he didn't know of anything.

OTHER WITNESSES: First incident there were 3--2 cousins and myself. The second it was just me.

OTHER STORIES: Several years before some friends told us about some large footprints they had found in the back of their property, I blew the story off as imagination at the time.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The first time was late night, about 1 or 2 a.m. Clear night, full moon. The second time it was twilight, clear and mild.

ENVIRONMENT: Thick forest, Mountains on either side to the property with a creek running through. The umpqua river was not far way, the beach at River Forks was about a 10 minute drive north west from the house.

Follow-up investigation report:

Lookingglass, Oregon, is located west of Roseburg in southern Oregon and should not be confused with the town of Looking Glass, located in the northeast corner of Oregon.

The witness relayed that during another summer visit, she and her cousin made a run to the bridge near their home. On the return trip from bridge, about a quarter of a mile from home, her cousin stated she thought they were being followed. The girls heard something large walking in the same direction they were, but hidden about eight feet up into the treeline. The road was a narrow, two lane dirt road, surrounded on both sides by steep wooded hills. They noted that whatever was walking, would stop and start walking as they did. The cousin became very frightened, yelled "Bear!" and started running for home. The cousin reached home well ahead of witness and the witness heard her uncle calling for her. He was afraid she would run into the bear. The witness made it home without further incident, but feels strongly that it was not a bear following them that day. She recalls the sound of bipedal walking and some crunching of vegetation with the footsteps.

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