YEAR: 1985 - '87

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: back around 1985-1987 i could check and make sure but off the top of my head that abount when it was late october as far as time of the year

STATE: Pennsylvania

COUNTY: McKean County

LOCATION DETAILS: Near town of smethport or closer to a very small town called crosby in norwich township

OBSERVED: myself and two others were leaving the woods at dark after being afield bow hunting. the three of us met in a large field on a tractor or roadway that gained access to the fields.

our meeting was by accident as we never had plans to meet. we usually just meet back at our car.

while walking out myself and the first guy met up and stood waiting for the third person in our party to meet with us only because we heard him walking in our direction thru the field.

it was dark and we could only hear not see unless close.

any how as we met we all of a sudden heard this loud scream to a gutteral sound to a load grow and heavy breathing.

this took place about 70 yds away in a very small patch of woods appx. 30 yds. oval in shape surronded by 100-200 yards of field, in fact i could never figure out why this small patch of woods were ever left standing when most has been cleared for fields.

anyhow when this thing made this sound one friend started to run my other friend just froze in his tracks with me. the guy who ran realized we did not join him he raced back to us and both at the same time ask me what was that.

i answered that i didn't have a clue except that it was an animal of some sort and was big. just due to the length of sound that came out of this beast meant he had to have a large set of lungs.

while we stood there for 30 seconds it again made this horror scream by now i pulled a small lite from my pocket and shined in that direction the light was not bright enough to do any good we decided it was bigger than all three of us and walked back to the car quickly i might add.

we later stopped at a local store and i over heard a man speak of his coon dogs acting very strange as he drove down the road with his dogs in the back of his truck.

he said that his dogs started to howl and whine as he drove past on the road we were bow hunting

i could not hear the rest of the conversation but i did hear him metion the hollw we were hunting.

all night i thought about that sound like the rest of our group. i decided to go back before daylight the next day to hunt that area more out of curiosity which out weight any fear i might have had.

i set up a tree stand in that small patch of woods, as morning came i could see that the area was all torn up, trees scrapped up as though they were buck rubs, a large area on the ground that looked similar to a buck scrape but was fresh and about the size of a small car.

any how the only animal that i felt that i could blame that sound on was that of an elk but elk in this area is not the norm although we do have elk south and slightly east of the area in pa (st.marys) they kind of stay in that area and don't wonder like elk out in the west

any how the reason i felt i should write this is due to my sister who goes by bigfoot since she has had a close encounter with one down in st. charles,MO.

ALSO NOTICED: yes that night i had made a scent trail around the perimeter of the field outside the wood line in hopes deer would be attracted to the scent the area where this beast was is where i placed the scent on and started to walk

OTHER WITNESSES: walking out of the woods

ENVIRONMENT: mountains of pa. base of the mts. have fields that slop down to creek bottoms other data i can get, as i have topo maps of the area