YEAR: 1977

SEASON: Summer

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Cass County

LOCATION DETAILS: Near Lake o' the Pines and several of its small streams and creeks.

NEAREST TOWN: Hughes Springs, Diana

OBSERVED: 1st - Myself, my older sister and a friend of ours found a 16" -20" footprint by the pond at the back of the property my sister and her husband were renting. Something was watching us. We found where something had eaten a wild duck that was always at the pond. There was a very scary feeling back there. No one ever went back there at nite. Strange noises all the time seemed to be the norm. One nite, my sister was alone at the house, when something scared the horses and cattle so bad that a horse ran right into the side of the house. It seemed like it was trying to get in! The animals were always in an uproar. My sister and her husband moved to Diana late that year. They were living in a small trailer park. They had the last trailer in a line of trailers. Once again my brother-in-law was out in the tractor trailer he drove for a living and my sister was alone. She had the uneasy feeling of being watched and would hear strange noises all the time. But one nite in particular, a super-loud scream of ungodly origin scared her so bad she peed herself and locked the doors and hid all nite. They moved again soon thereafter. My family grew-up in east Texas, and I'm certain that I've had other close encounters in the woods in Avinger Texas. But I've never actually seen a creature, but I've been "chased" out of the woods a time or two. Most of us East Texans know that there are huge animals that roam those woods. My sister and I know.

ALSO NOTICED: At Harris Chapel, we found a few smeared tracks and one perfect one. We found where a duck had been plucked and eaten close to the print. It was always deathly-quiet on the back part of that farm.

OTHER WITNESSES: Older sister and friend.

OTHER STORIES: You know...East Texas is a hotbed of activity that hardly no one wants to discuss.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 1st encounter - day, 2nd at nite, good hot Texas summer.

ENVIRONMENT: There are a lot of farms in the area. Heavily wooded mostly.

Follow-up investigation report:

On March 1st 2004, I spoke with the witness at length by phone since he now lives out of state. I found him to be a very credible person. He had many interesting stories of his experiences in the woods as he grew up in the Hughes Springs and Avinger, Texas area. While he never personally saw a Bigfoot, he had many close experiences that lead to [possible] Bigfoot behavior. He, his sister and a friend together found many questionable tracks but one very clear track that was in the 16 inch to 20 inch range that was a perfect imprint like a human except for the large size. Track had 5 very distinct toes. He was 15 years old at the time of seeing the track, had no measure with him at the time and all were afraid to return to the site. Size of track is the guess of the three witnesses. On the times that he was "chased" out of the woods by something, actually it scared him out of the woods by shadowing him just out of sight, making loud walking noise, breaking limbs and low grunting sounds. The witness also asked us to contact his sister who still lives in the area for more info.

Another investigator and I contacted the sister on March 3rd, 2004 at her business. We talked with her about the two events which took place in 1977. She confirmed all the events in her brother's report. She also was a very credible witness who further volunteered to take us to the location where she and the two youths found a very clear footprint along with several smudged prints that were not recognizable. She was 20 years old at the time and remembers very well the day of finding the footprints. She added the information on toes, stating that the toes were very large and spread apart. Holding her hands apart to show us the size of the foot print, she held her hands at about 20 inches.

She then took us to the old home site that she had not returned to since leaving in 1977. It was a neat experience as the old abandoned house is still standing. The barn was gone, the fence around the house was gone, all the trees have been cleared from around the house and it is now a large pasture. We then went to the pond that is about 200 yards east from house, over a hill in in a wooded draw. We marked GPS location for future reference and left.

Interesting to note that the draw from pond drains into Ally Creek that flows into Lake o' the Pines seven and a half miles south.

The second event took place approximately one and one half miles southeast of Diana, Texas. Her house was at the end of a trailer park about 20 yards a from thick timber line. There was no physical evidence of Bigfoot here, just the loud long scream/growl coming from right behind the house at the tree line. The sound was louder and longer than any animal she has ever heard before or since.

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