SC EP:1030 The Ozark Visitor

Tonight I will speaking with Ryan and Doug. Doug shares an encounter that happened in 1976 in Ohio. Doug was fishing with his cousin when this encounter happened.

Ryan writes "In the Spring of 2014, I took my son turkey hunting for the youth turkey hunt. Where we camped was a designated campsite, however, it was more of a "cleared spot". There is no electric or concrete pad. Just looks like maybe a couple times a year, the campsites are "scraped" to keep them from getting overgrown. This campsite is 3-4 miles uphill from any paved road. The gravel off the pavement turns into dirt a couple miles in.

The sun had set and we were sitting around the campfire after eating dinner. I told my son (who was 12) we needed to turn in since we were getting up early in the morning.

We had not been in the tent for 5 minutes, then we both heard footsteps. They sounded like bi-pedal steps. It walks into our camp and walks non-stop around our tent and fire for almost an hour. Now, after we have heard these steps for a few minutes, my son asks what is outside. I told him it was just a deer or raccoon and he should go to sleep – which he did in no time. At this point, I was getting scared. I wanted to look out the tent, but if by some chance it was a sow black bear with cubs nearby, and she saw me or smelled me, she could be on top of us before I could do anything. Besides our shotguns, I had a .40 SW on me, but my adrenaline was going crazy at this point and I knew my shot placement would be anything but accurate. I laid down and put the pistol across my chest, should I need to use it. My heart was absolutely racing. After almost an hour, the footsteps left the camp and headed back in the direction it came from. I laid there for the next 2-3 hours before I finally fell asleep.

The next night, same thing – dinner, campfire, bed. I pulled the tent closer to the fire tonight. Just like the night before, bipedal footsteps came our way. My son was asleep in less than 10 minutes. The steps came into camp and again started walking circles non-stop around the camp. This time I was listening closely. I know it wasn't a raccoon. I know it wasn't a deer. I know it wasn't a black bear. My heart was racing, and I can say, I felt fear like I've never known. This time it left after about 30 minutes, back the way it came.

Now, just to be clear, where we were, there are no houses for at least 5 miles. No one lives there. You can hear trucks/cars coming up the road 10 minutes before they get to where you're at – it's a very winding road with steep drop offs, so, you go slow. We had driven around – we were the only ones up there.

The next week, I was telling some guys at work about it. No one made fun, but one guy motioned me back to his desk. I walked over. He asked me if I thought it might have been a sasquatch. I didn't know what to say to that. He told me there are lots of reports up there and make no mistake, they exist.

He used to live in Alaska when he was younger. Long story short, he had gone fishing with his dad and brother (who was 17) while in AK. They were going down the road and it was dark. His dad pulled over and told him brother to check on the trailer because he couldn't see the taillights. His brother got out, I'm assuming hooking the wiring back up to the truck. He said after maybe a minute, his brother came running back to the truck, screaming and crying "GO GO GO GO". His dad took off. They stopped a couple miles down the road. They finally got his brother to calm down and talk. He said when he hooked up the wires and the taillights came back on, maybe 10 ft away, it lit up a sasquatch – he said it was 9 or 10' tall. When all was said and done, he had lost all control of his bladder and bowels.

Fast forward a couple month later, my family and I were at a cookout. My wife was a teacher's assistant. The teacher and her husband were there. They were both from just north of the Buffalo, in Harrison, AR.

I started talking to her husband and asked if he ever spent much time on the Buffalo. He said he did when he was younger, but not in awhile. I asked him if he ever saw a sasquatch up there. His eyes got big and I'd swear the color left his face – he looked scared (he was in the Army at the time).

He pulled me aside and asked why? I told him my story. He asked if I was near the cemetery – the cemetery is where we turned off the paved road and it was just past a bridge that crossed the river. He said he and his brother was headed up there (basically the same area) to deer hunt. According to him they went there all the time to hunt. They were coming across the bridge around 4AM. Something totally black walked across the road in front of them. He said it was huge and made it across the road in 2 or 3 steps. He brother slammed on the brakes and was screaming "what is that". They turned around and took off. He said a couple days later, they went back in the daytime. When they got to the bridge again, he noticed the yellow/black striped signs on the guard rails to warn people the road ended and the guardrails began. He said whatever it was they say was every bit as tall as the signs. But when they got out of the truck to look around, he noticed how the signs were at least 9-10' tall. He is 6'3 and said he couldn't reach the top of the signs flat footed. After that, he and his brother never hunted the Buffalo again.

Fast forward 6 months. I was at a farm supply store. Outside, they had a big deer blind – it was made to look like a big tree stump. I was looking inside it. An older man walked up and said "those deer will never see you coming in that". I said I wasn't worried about the deer, just the sasquatches – I meant it as a joke. He gets a very serious look and said "What do you know about that?". I told him my son and I had a weird experience on the Buffalo turkey hunting a few months back. He said "I've never told anyone this" (I knew the story was gonna be good), but several years earlier he had been bear hunting on the Buffalo – he went every year – and was sitting in his tree stand. I asked where on the Buffalo he was at (the Buffalo is pretty big). He literally asked me if I know where the cemetery is off the highway. I said I did. He told me he was a few miles up the road from the cemetery (again, basically the same area my son and I were hunting). In his stand, he heard something coming his way. He could hear footsteps and limbs breaking. He wasn't sure if it was a bear or not, but the sounds got louder and closer. He said he heard whatever it was walk up to his stand – it was breathing hard and making a "huffing sound", almost like when a deer smells you and blows. He said it was right below me – he could hear it grunting – but nothing was there. He couldn't see anything. After a little while, it walked around his tree a few times, grunting. Then walked off. He said he was so scared, he wet himself, but was afraid to leave the stand, so he stayed the night in it – except he didn't sleep. He said at first light, he mustered the courage to get down and ran all the way back to his truck (he said it was a mile or so away). He quit hunting after that.

After my initial conversation with my coworker, I started doing some research/investigating on the internet. I had no idea about the sightings in Arkansas or in nearby Oklahoma/Missouri. I had seen Boggy Creek, but sasquatch was not something I was really into. I'm interested now."