YEAR: 2008

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

DATE: 9/13/2008

STATE: Arizona

COUNTY: Graham County

LOCATION DETAILS: [Exact location removed]

NEAREST TOWN: Safford

NEAREST ROAD: Swift Trail

OBSERVED: My friends and i were camping on Mt. Graham, around the ******* [place name removed by editor] area. I was raised in that area as a child and I came back to visit with some long time friends that remain living in the safford, Az area.

We were up for the weekend doing the usual camping thing in close vicinity of *******. It was about 0100-0130 time frame, when all six of us heard some very weird sounds that sounded like no other thing I have ever heard, mind you I was a infantry soldier for 13 years, always out in the wilderness and never once have I heard something so freaky. I was kinda worried, but we all laughed it off and got back to our conversation.

Not a hour later, we heard it again, really loud and really mad sounding, whatever it was. It was very close, like right behind us breaking branches and making those crazy sounds. My buddy got into his truck and turned the headlights on. It quit. We all slept in our vehicles that night. The next morning there were broken branches behind us, big thick ones to the size of baseball bats, really weird. I don't know what it was, but my one friend said he has been on this site before and it sounded like one recording that is on this site.

ALSO NOTICED: big broken pine branches

OTHER WITNESSES: 6, shooting the breeze

OTHER STORIES: just off this sight

TIME AND CONDITIONS: night, light of a lantern,

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Lyle McKinley:

I spoke with the witness and the following details can be added:

The witness no longer lives in Arizona but was raised in the Mt. Graham area and has been on the mountain many times growing up. He stressed that what he heard that night was nothing like he'd ever heard on the mountain before.

During late summer/fall of 2008, the 36 year-old witness and 5 male friends (all former military) were hanging out near a campground on Mt. Graham. At around 12 AM they all heard a moaning type howl ("low and dog-like") off in the distance coming from North of their location. These sounds continued off and on for about an hour and were getting closer to them. At one point the sounds were much closer, seemed more menacing & aggressive and were coming from a position across from them.

This prompted them to turn on the lights of their vehicles, because they felt they might be attacked. The lights silenced the vocalizations.

The men also heard breaking branches that night behind their camp. In the morning they investigated the area where the breaking branch sounds were heard and found several branches (pine and fir trees) the girth of a human arm in size cleanly broken off from the trees at a height of 6 feet above the ground.

The witness found the BFRO site and listened to several sound clips. He said that the 1994 Ohio - Moaning Howl was very similar to what he and his friends heard that night. In fact, it was such a match that upon hearing the recording, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

The witness said he is very familiar with the normal sounds wildlife make and insists that these sounds were not normal, were aggressive in nature (it seemed "pissed off"), and were made by something really large. Large enough that he did not feel completely safe even though he was armed with a pistol and had 5 former military buddies with him as well.

The witness is a former marine and currently works as a respiratory therapist.

About BFRO Investigator Lyle McKinley:

Mr. McKinley has a college degree in biology from the University of Arizona and is a high school biology teacher. He has attended Arizona Expedition 2006, Arizona Expedition 2008 and Arizona Expedition 2009.

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