Geographical Index > United States > Virginia > Montgomery County > Report # 40362
(Class B)
Submitted by witness on Thursday, March 14, 2013.
ATV rider hears an unknown long, brassy howl outside Christiansburg
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YEAR: 2012
SEASON: Summer STATE: Virginia COUNTY: Montgomery County NEAREST TOWN: Christiansburg NEAREST ROAD: Pollard Road OBSERVED: It was in Christiansburg Virginia, just outside of town limits. We live on the edge of the wood line. There are several hundred acres back behind our house. We lease some of the property for hunting and riding our ATV's. It was mid day on a Sunday. Me and my husband were on his ATV going to check on a trail camera he had put out a couple days before. It takes a while to get to the location of the camera. The terrain is very unforgiving. We had stopped in the holler and the camera was on top of the ridge. My husband walked up to the camera to where I couldn't see or hear him anymore. I was sitting on the four wheeler in total silence. All of the sudden I heard this horn like yell. It sounded like a cross between a man yelling as loud as he could and a horn blowing. It wasn't extremely loud. I just sat there on the four wheeler. I couldn't process what I had just heard. I am constantly in the woods and have seen and heard every animal that is in these parts of the woods, and I've never heard anything like that before. When my husband got back to the four wheeler about 10 minutes later I asked him if he heard that and he said he didn't. There is a train near that area, but I work right beside train tracks and I know what sounds a train makes and this was not a train. OTHER WITNESSES: My husband was there on the ridge to my left but didn't hear anything. TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was mid day around 12-3. It was sunny and clear weather. ENVIRONMENT: Thick woods. A ridge to my left and a small mountain stream and ridge to my right. I was sitting in the holler than ran straight up ahead.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator D.K.:
After a lengthy series of conversations with the witness, the following details can be added to her report.
While she waited for her husband to return from checking a game cam, she heard a vocal that sounded like a blend between a human yell and a blowing horn. The vocal was one long call, lasting between 5 and 10 seconds. It held a steady pitch throughout, neither rising nor falling, and with no changes over the course of its execution. The call was distant enough that it did not sound exceptionally loud, but it was loud enough that she could hear it clearly. The sound originated from somewhere up ahead, and in the same hollow where she was stopped, waiting for her husband.
After searching the internet the witness found a vocal from a bigfoot research website that sounded very close to what she heard. It possesses the same pitch, tone and length that she heard. After sharing that clip with me, I sent her a number of similar vocals captured by audio researchers around the country. She indicated this clip of a "long howl" from Michigan BFRO report #32981 sounded very similar to what she heard.
The witness is an avid hunter and has spent a lot of time in the woods over the course of her life. She's very familiar with the local wildlife and has never heard a sound like this while in the forest. She's wondered extensively what the source of the vocal could have been, and she suspects that her approach on an ATV may have elicited the call from the vocalizer.
On another occasion the witness was coon hunting this area with her husband. As the pair walked to catch up to their dog they could hear something moving on the ridge above them, about 15 yards distant. As they walked it would move along with them. And when they stopped it would stop as well. This went on for 3 to 4 minutes and the witness's husband grew anxious that something was trailing them. Finally, they walked down off the ridge and did not hear any more from whatever seem to be following them.
The witness describes the area as heavily forested, with few houses, steep ridges and deep ravines. Car-sized rocks make the terrain difficult to navigate. She has seen coyote, fox raccoon, squirrel, bobcat, quail, rabbit, turkey and deer nearby. The region possesses the resources and seclusion that a sasquatch would take advantage of as it passed through the area.
The vocal this witness describes is encountered rarely, and far less often than the moan howl or whoop vocals often attributed to sasquatch. But it has been captured a number of times in locations as disparate as Texas, Maryland, Washington, Mississippi and Michigan. These captures are often in conjunction with vocals more commonly suspected of being sasquatch in origin. Some suspected sasquatch vocals can exhibit a "brassy" note that evokes the tonal quality of a horn or siren. Anecdotally, many witnesses have described hearing a "siren-like" howl, and this metallic, brassy tone may account for that description.
About BFRO Investigator D.K.:
D.K. is a business executive with an MS in Systems Engineering. Formerly a linguistic analyst, he applies his knowledge to the collection and study of sasquatch vocals and communication patterns. BFRO expeditions attended: Tennessee 2010, Pennsylvania 2011, Ohio 2012, West Virginia 2012 & West Virginia 2013
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