YEAR: 1992

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

STATE: Oklahoma

COUNTY: Atoka County

LOCATION DETAILS: Atoka area. The largest river in the area is the boggy river or boggy depot. The animal is called the boggy river or boggy depot monster by people living there. The animal supposedly is seen fairly often along the riverbanks and creeks in the Atoka area.

NEAREST TOWN: Can't remember

NEAREST ROAD: I was just visiting and was not familiar with the area.

OBSERVED: A friend and I were standing alongside a country road. My friend's cousin who was with us had walked up the street to a friend's to get him to join us. We also had several dogs with us in the road. I remember that one or two of the dogs were hunting/tracking dogs. As my friend and I waited in the road we started get the feeling that we were being watched. We noticed a melon patch across the road. We both remarked that it was kind of spooky looking and I made a bet for him to walk across the road and go into the melon patch by himself. He laughed and said forget it. As we stood there I noticed something that seemed to be standing behind a large tree that was by the melon field. I thought it looked like a man as it was standing up erect. I pointed at it to my friend and he saw it also. The dogs we had with us were going crazy by this point. They were barking and running around in the road. Just then I heard what was probably the scariest sound I've ever heard and will ever hear in my life. The sound came from the melon field and was enough to make my skin crawl. The sound was a very deep growl. Very similiar to a bear growl only deeper and more focused. I mean that it was a constant low pitched yet resonating growl. It seemed to be a warning growl for us to stay away I guess. As I looked at my friend we both had the look of total fear on our faces. We took off as fast as we could. We totally forgot about my friends cousin who seemed confused when he finally caught up with us. After we told him what we saw and heard he knew what we were talking about since he lived there and was familiar with the stories. We were too scared to walk all the way back to his house so we stopped off at one of their uncle's house and he took us home by car. He recounted his stories to us, he believed in the thing as well. After the event, we could hear strange sounds coming from the woods for quite a while. They sounded like whistles and howling. After a bit they died off and we finally got to sleep at about 5 or six in the morning.

ALSO NOTICED: Several howls and whistles could be heard in the woods where the animal was spotted and heard for quite some time.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2 witnesses staniding in the road. Several dogs were with us as well.

OTHER STORIES: Yes. Most people I talked to there believed our story. My friend told me that one of his uncles supposedly shot at the thing with a rifle while out hunting in those woods. That event had happened several years before. There are many tales of a bigfoot like animal roaming the Atoka area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 1:00-2:30 AM. Very dark outside. good weather. Half moon. Poor street lighting but moon light was helpful.

ENVIRONMENT: Wooded area. Animal was seen in a melon patch that was roughly 50-60 yards from the road where we were.

Follow-up investigation report:

This report had been archived due to a previous investigator's inability to reach the witness in the past. I reinstated the report to "under investigation" status and tried again to contact the witness. I was successful and found both the witness and his report to be compelling.

The witness told me that the animal appeared to be trying to hide behind the tree, perhaps to elude the dogs and the humans, whose numbers were superior. The witness said he could see what appeared to be shoulders and a head peeping from around the tree. It appeared to be seven or eight feet up the trunk of the tree.

After a short time span, the animal apparently let the humans and the dogs know that it was in no mood to be harassed as the witness heard a sound which scared him down to his core. He described the sound as being much like the BFRO's recorded "Ohio Howl," but being somewhat deeper and having a more angry or ominous sound. It was a loud, moaning, growling sound that frightened the entire party of humans and dogs. The group immediately fled.

The witness said that the people of the area thought nothing of the incident, and that these animals seem very much to be a part of the culture there. The witness told me that he had heard of one of these animals being shot by a hunter, but the weapon (30.06) used was not enough to bring the animal down. The story goes that after it was shot, the creature simply fled.

The witness had no way to contact the others involved in the incident, which is understandable given the amount of time since the report was filed, not to mention the amount of time since the actual occurrence.

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