YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

STATE: Oklahoma

COUNTY: Love County

LOCATION DETAILS: We were hunting in the Hog pen area of the WMA.

NEAREST TOWN: Marietta

NEAREST ROAD: Interstate 35

OBSERVED: I was in the Love Valley Wildlife Management Area hunting feral hogs. I had been sitting on my stand for about two hours when I began to smell something akin to cat urine or skunk musk, and I thought that with the prevailing winds a large boar must have just crossed the ridge above me. So after a little while when the odor did not decrease I decided to see if I could circle around the top of the ridge and get a shot at the boar. I left my stand and moved about 60 yards down the base of the ridge (away from my hunting buddies who were in two different stands further down the base of the ridge) to a well used game trail and began my ascent. I got about halfway up the slope and something came flying through the air to my right and then after another step or two something came thought the air to my left this time by the sound of its landing and crashing through the brush, something much heavier than the first object. At this time I froze and began to scan the ridge line first with my eyes and then with my rifle scope, and I began to think that one of the guys I was hunting with was playing a prank on me. So I continued to climb the hill until a large piece of rock (it looked like a piece of ruined tombstone from the abandoned cemetery on the hill top but I am not sure) landed just at my feet and rolled down the hill with some force and momentum behind it. At almost that same moment I caught just the faintest glimmer of movement and from that was able to make out the shape of what looked like a huge man. I am 6' 2" and 260 lbs but this thing was at least 9-10' tall and three or four times as broad as I am. I slowly brought my rifle and scope up to get a better look at it. Most of it was covered by brush and under growth but its head down to its upper chest were clearly visible. It had a shaggy coat (the breeze did a fair job of breaking up its silhouette) that was dark colored even with the aid of my scope all I could tell was that the beast was covered in fur and that it was of dark coloration. Its eyes seemed impossibly small for the size of its oblong head. I watched it with my scope for perhaps a minute or it could have been ten, I honestly could not tell you as I was not sure whether to be fascinated or terrified (from its size and mass I was not sure the 30-06 I had in my hands would be sufficient if I needed to be terrified). After a period of time I took one slow step back and then another after about my third slow step back down the hill the beast slowly turned as if to disregard me and my rifle and walked away in the other direction. After it was gone I found the piece of stone that had landed on the path in front of me and tumbled past and as I said before it could have been a piece of one of the crumbling tombstones from on top of the ridge or it could have been rock from some other source but I can tell you that I could not have thrown it at least not as far or with the same force as this rock had been thrown. I would estimate it to have weighed around 45-55 lbs. After that I proceeded to go back down the base of the ridge to where both of my friends were still sitting in their stands one about 80 yards down from where I was set up and the other about 90 yards from the first. I have not shared this with them or anyone but my wife for fear of ridicule, but that is my story and it is what happened to me.

ALSO NOTICED: Nope.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me.

OTHER STORIES: Nope.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was about 18:45 in the failing light of the day under a fairly heavy forest canopy.

ENVIRONMENT: It was river bottom, mud flat, swampy type land surrounded by heavily wooded ridges.

Follow-up investigation report:

In talking to the witness, I found him to have a sort of no-nonsense and serious attitude about what he experienced. Although he told me that his sense of security has not been affected, he did tell me that he purchased a 45/70 after his encounter. He said that although he is not inclined to look over his shoulder these days, and he has no plans to hunt and/or kill a sasquatch, he still wants to be sure that he has "a chance" should he encounter an aggressive one in the future.

The area in which the witness and his friends were hunting is known as "the hog pen" because of the abundance of hogs in the area. "The hog pen" is in the Love Valley Wildlife Management Area (WMA), which consists of 7,746 acres. The WMA is located just south of Hickory Creek WMA in Love County and is on the western edge of Lake Texoma. The WMA's primarily riparian habitat varies from hardwood bottomlands to sandy river bottom areas along the Red River.

In addition to the details given in his initial report, the witness further remarked that what he saw was "ape like and huge." The witness seemed more struck by the size of the animal than anything else. He was amazed that something so large could remain obscure and hidden. He felt no dread or fear, but was concerned.

After the witness's encounter, he immediately went into the typical stage of denial that so many witnesses experience after a sighting. It was only after he saw a television program about bigfoot and heard on the news about a sighting in eastern Oklahoma that he came to terms with his encounter. The witness has only talked to his wife and me about his experience.

The Red River Basin, in both Oklahoma and Texas, continues to be a geographic source of sighting reports of this enigmatic, uncatalogued animal.