YEAR: 2020

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 3

STATE: Oklahoma

COUNTY: Le Flore County

LOCATION DETAILS: [camp site near Horsethief Picnic Grounds off Talemina Scenic Drive]

NEAREST TOWN: Muse

NEAREST ROAD: Talemina scenic parkway

OBSERVED: Went camping in the Ouachita mountains near Talemina Scenic Drive. At 3:39 we all woke up due to the sound of something knocking a tree behind us. Was in the distance but close enough to make you on edge. We thought it was a woodpecker and brushed it aside. 10 minutes later we heard the noise on our right side of the tent. The knocking was in triples such as “ knock, knock, knock” then a pause and the 3 knocks again, but in every direction the knocking had a slight variation. The knocking was coming from all sides of our tent, as if there was something surrounding us communicating. Knocks has slight variations in how quick they were, but all of them had the triple knocking. The closest knock was about 50 yard uphill from us. The close one made everything stop in the woods, it was raining and it stopped along with the wind. This is weird considering it was super windy up there the whole time we stayed, except that one moment. We all agreed to not camp that spot again.

OTHER WITNESSES: 3, sleeping prior

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 3:39 am, rainy and windy.

ENVIRONMENT: Temperate Forest

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Carter Buschardt:

I spoke with the reporting witness literally just a few days after the event. It was a very fresh and informative interview. This event happened April 2020 near Muse OK -- the closest town as the crow flies. The camping spot was near Horsethief Picnic grounds in the Ouchita Mountain Range.

He and two buddies headed out to escape the situation of the virus scare. They picked this area because it is a favorite of his family. It was also close but had all the isolation one could want.

When they got there it was starting to rain so they pitched the tent quickly and began breaking downed limbs (by banging them against trees) so they could get a fire going.

They had only packed the tent, sleeping bags, matches, some food and a couple of flashlights. They ate and hung out around the fire a bit then headed to sleep when it started to rain.

Per the original report, they were awakened at 3:39AM. The specific time is noted because he looked at his phone when the knocking started. They all woke up within a couple minutes of each other. The first set of three knocks got them wide awake. At first they thought it must be woodpeckers, even though the knocks were loud enough to wake them up. They had no frame of reference for it to be anything else. As they sat there discussing it, the other sets of three knocks began. There were 5-6 sets of three knocks over a span of just under an hour. The knocks stopped around 4:45am.

Further quotes from our conversation:

“The closest knock was around 50 yards away, up a hill from us. The furthest seemed to be about a half mile away down a hill into a hollow. There were 5-6 sets of three knocks each. The knocks came from different directions and distances. The further ones were nearly as loud as the close ones, but you could tell they were further away. Each set of knocks had slight variations of spacing between the knocks and at the end of each set we could hear a grunt or great exhaling sound. It was definitely an animal sound of some type. We all had the feeling that intelligent creatures were making the knocks, trying to communicate with each other. Each grunt or huff was slightly different from the other one."

They heard all the knocks clearly, even over the rain and occasional gusts of wind. The time between each set of three knocks varied a bit, but for the nearly one hour time frame they were coming every 7-10 minutes, give or take.

They all sat huddled together in the tent, trying to rationalize what happened. After a while they decided it was time to get out since the rain had stopped and it would be light soon anyway. They weren’t going to hang around under the circumstances.

This was a great witness. All the events having happened within a week of our conversation was a great help, as everything was fresh in his mind. None of the three witnesses had any prior belief or experiences with Sasquatch other than the usual and customary “we had heard about it from time to time, but not enough curiosity to go any further”. The existence of Sasquatch one way or the other was not on any of their radar. At least not until this event.

The reporting witness hit the internet when they returned home and did enough research to convince him what he was pretty sure the source was. “It was not moose, bear, deer or any known animal as far as I was concerned”. “And even IF it were trees banging together in the random gusts of wind, the grunts at the end were just inexplicable. And the wind wasn’t always blowing. There was something intelligent out there doing this, and we won’t be going back”.

About BFRO Investigator Carter Buschardt:

Carter is originally from Texas & moved to Missouri in 1988. Professional drummer for 20 years. Improv & sketch comic and writer for 5 years. Lighting technician for major touring groups for several years. Experienced outdoorsman and was a trained investigator for MUFON. Studied Herpetology in college. Longtime special interest in Sasquatch long term habituation, burial research, infra sound, language & stick structures. He led three Missouri BFRO Public Expeditions:, 2012 & 2013 & 2014. Led public expedition for BFRO in Illinois in 2019.Participated in Iowa, 2012 Illinois. Michigan 2016. Private Expeditions: Illinois 2011, 2012, 2013. Missouri 2011, 2012 (3) 2013(2) 2014. Iowa 2012, 2014 & 2015. Consulted on two Animal Planet Finding Bigfoot TV shows. Expedition leader in Missouri 2013 (1) & 2014 (2) & Illinois Expedition 2019 (1). Led night ops on numerous BFRO expeditions. Hosted a public Town Hall meeting in Missouri in 2017.

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