YEAR: 1978

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Hopkins County

LOCATION DETAILS: From Sulphur Springs hw 19 to hw 71 turn right go to hw 1536 turn left aprox. 4 miles on right.

NEAREST TOWN: Tira

NEAREST ROAD: 1536

OBSERVED: I was about 3 miles from the Sulphur River on family land. I walked down a creek bed to a pool on the other side. When I came back down the hill I stopped to relieve myself. Just as I started to step away I heard a high-pitched scream that startled me. A few seconds later it made the scream again. 25 yards in the thick woods I saw a slight movement. By a tree I saw a patch of dark brownish fur. Not sure what I was looking at, I held my ground and felt no fear. I was waiting for something normal to appear. I scanned the area but nothing else was moving. When I looked back to the patch of fur it was gone. Just when I was gonna shrug it off, I heard the scream again. This time it was behind me! As before, it screamed a second time. I spun around just in time to see it crouch behind a bush 20 yards from me. All I could see was the outline of a large head. It was moving around the bush trying to get a better look at me. About that time it occured to me - I didn't know what the hell this was. Now in fear for my life, I turned and walked quickly up the hill to my car. I never looked back until the car was moving. I didn't see it again.

OTHER STORIES: My fathers friend heard something run off while walking to his deer stand. At first light he went to check for deer tracks. To his surprise there were none.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 1:00 pm
partly cloudy
pleasantly warm

ENVIRONMENT: this was a deep creek that ran parallel to the Sulphur River. Mostly woods around the creek, small pastures.

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with the witness at length about his encounter. I found him to be very credible.

The witness described the vocalizations as being similar to the unidentified vocalization analyzed on the documentary entitled, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science. Bio-acoustics expert Dr. Robert Benson of Texas A & M, Corpus Christi, was featured on the documentary performing an analysis of the vocalization. Dr. Benson could not link the sound to any documented animal. The witness told me that when he saw the documentary, he knew what it was because he had heard something very similar long ago.

By the witness’s own admission, he never actually, clearly saw an animal that he could definitively state was a bigfoot. That being said, the witness obviously felt compelled to make the link because he could in no way attribute the details (sounds, “blackish-brown” fur or hair, outline of a head, etc.) of his encounter to anything else. Immediately after the incident, the witness had no idea what he had encountered. After a day or so had passed and the witness had time to evaluate what had happened to him, he became convinced without a doubt that he had encountered a bigfoot. The witness told few about the encounter for fear of ridicule, and out of concern for the creature’s existence. In the witness’s opinion, had he “gone public” with the sighting contemporaneously, the animal may have been adversely affected. The witness stated that he wanted it left alone, and now that sufficient time has passed, he felt it was right to report the encounter.

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