October 2, 2025 • 35 mins
Bigfoot might have tried to say "Hello", or it might have been saying "You're about to be dinner"
Maybe both. Who speaks bigfoot?
If you have an encountery you'd like to share, email it to: Contact@buckeyebigfoot.com
If you've enjoyed this episode, there are hundreds more on the youTube channel.
Find us on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@BuckeyeBigfoot
Maybe both. Who speaks bigfoot?
If you have an encountery you'd like to share, email it to: Contact@buckeyebigfoot.com
If you've enjoyed this episode, there are hundreds more on the youTube channel.
Find us on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@BuckeyeBigfoot
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Tonight's encounter comes to you from long ago.
(00:03):
We're pulling this one out of the vault.
I want to tell you about the night Bigfoot tried to talk to me.
Well, I think that's what he was trying to do.
Maybe he was trying to say hello.
(00:23):
Or maybe he was telling me I was about to die.
I don't know. It could have been either.
But you have a listen. And you tell me what you think.
The land this happened on was bought by my great-grandparents back in 1931.
My grandmother inherited it from them in 1969.
(00:46):
Now my grandparents were still living there in 2008,
when I went to spend a long weekend out there on the property.
You see, all of us in the family had been using that land well for as long as anyone remembered.
We would go out there to fish, hunt, or just camp out.
This is in Missouri.
The nearest town was Grandin,
(01:07):
but my grandparents weren't anywhere near any town.
One weekend I went out just to get away and spend some time alone.
There was an area there that we had all used over the years.
It was a semi-natural clearing with trees all around it.
It was about 100 feet wide east to west,
(01:27):
and about 60 to 70 feet wide north to south,
with the camp set up roughly in the center.
Now to the south of the property, it was banked by heavy woods.
To the north, there were two ponds about 20 acres apart,
but they were more than 100 yards from the camp clearing.
The house was on the northwest part of the property.
(01:49):
About 400 yards away from the clearing to the east,
while there were more woods, but they weren't as dense,
and if you walked for a couple hundred more yards, you'd hit a road.
About 20 miles north of that property is the Clearwater Conservation Area,
and further north is the Mark Twain National Forest to the west and the north of there.
(02:13):
Well, there were several more conservation areas.
This meant there were a lot of game that traveled through that area.
As it was mid-May, I was there for some peace and quiet, not hunting.
I checked in with grandma and grandpa to let them know,
and I got the A.O.K. from them.
(02:33):
I parked at the back edge of the property where their grass stopped and the woods started.
I walked in and got set up in the clearing.
The gear I use is pretty simple.
It's just a one-man tent with a sleeping bag inside.
For food that weekend, I had brought some instant oatmeal packets,
some power bars, and a couple bags of dehydrated food.
(02:56):
I have a small kettle and a small pan.
I have one set of cutlery, and well, that's about it.
I know that I always have the option of walking to my grandparents
if I need something, or if bad weather whips up in the middle of the night.
So, I really don't have to pack too much.
Other than those things, the only things I take out there are things to take care of nature's call,
(03:20):
basically toilet paper and a small shovel.
Now right out of the gate, when I walked out there, something felt off.
I couldn't say what exactly, but my neck and my face felt all prickly,
like my beard stubble was trying to stand up on end.
I never go out there unarmed anyway.
(03:42):
You're foolish if you think to do so.
I had a pistol and a 22 rifle with me.
I wasn't hunting, so I didn't bring anything heavier as far as firepower goes.
They were just for my personal protection, and the 22 rifle in particular,
well, I brought that along just to kill some time target practicing.
(04:04):
22s are cheap and plentiful for ammo, and it's really good for practicing.
Before I set up my tent, I did a sweep of the perimeter outside of the camp clearing.
I always did this.
I looked for signs of predators, and to see what, if anything, had changed since the last time I was there.
(04:25):
Now this became my extreme habit.
After one of my cousins went to go take a squat one night out there.
He walked over to the same preferred area that he always used,
and he was just about to squat after he dropped his drawers by a tree trunk
when he heard the unmistakable sound of a rattlesnake.
(04:47):
Well, he managed to get out of there okay,
but the next morning all the cousins went and checked,
and sure enough, they found a rattlesnake den at the other end of that favorite log of his.
They said it was loaded with rattlers.
If he had stepped over to the other end of that log, which he had sometimes used in the past,
(05:08):
well, he would have been stepping right into a den of rattlers under that hollowed-out section.
So yes, I always checked the perimeter, even though I think I know it well.
What I found on my search was a rather large pile of scat,
that for the life of me, and I couldn't identify.
(05:30):
I mean, even Andre the giant couldn't have possibly left a log pile that big,
even after the biggest of meals, and it was a log formation similar to a human's,
just on a giant scale.
It was dark brown in color, and when I poked it with a stick,
it lost its shape easily, but I didn't think it was fresh despite being soft.
(05:56):
To my thinking, it had to be one of my cousins that had been out there,
or they had used some brownie batter to prank me, or something.
What else could it be?
But the thing was, there was a problem with that.
The thing is I knew that no one knew I was coming, until I called my grandparents that very afternoon,
(06:19):
and while talking to my grandpa, he told me that no one had been out there for a few weeks.
I didn't have an explanation for this huge pile,
so I just filed it away, and continued to look carefully for any other signs,
but all in all I didn't see anything unusual.
For a while, that unsettled feeling did go away,
(06:43):
but it came roaring back, right at dark.
I had a fire going, and I had already had my pouch of veggie beef pasta for dinner,
and now I was getting sleepy.
From the darkness around me, I heard a screeching how like you couldn't believe.
It scared me to death, and my hair stood on end.
(07:04):
That sounds like an exaggeration, but I don't think it was.
I've heard mountain lions, bobcats, I've heard bears, moose, you name it.
I've heard it.
I've heard elk bugle from far distant hills.
I've been on expeditions to the Yukon hunting and fishing.
I've been to Kodiac Island, and I've heard bears.
(07:25):
I've been hunting in Montana and Idaho.
Now that isn't some kind of brag I'm doing.
I'm just trying to say that I think I've heard just about every animal in North America,
and I had never heard something like that.
This was different than any wild cats or lions.
It had an echo and a timber to it that came from a much bigger chest.
(07:49):
It had a richer, deeper tone to it, but it was ear-splitting at the same time.
It lasted for maybe six or seven seconds.
I jumped up and I grabbed the 22 from the tent.
I had my pistol on me already, but right then I was wishing for something more powerful than that 22.
(08:13):
I turned around in all directions, looking all around the clearing,
but the firelight didn't reach all the way to the trees, so I was partially blinded.
I waited and listened, and after a while I sat back down,
but I didn't like the way that prickling feeling was all over me now.
(08:33):
It wasn't just the beard stubble.
I was half a mind to go back to my grandparents and just sleep in their guest room that night,
but something made me stay put.
I had never ran from anything before.
I didn't think tonight was the time to start.
I waited such a long time sitting there by the fire that my chin was hitting my chest enough
(08:58):
that it woke me up to realize I was falling asleep,
and I finally crawled into my tent for some sleep.
I don't know how long I was asleep when I heard something moving around the tent.
I know I heard something brush the nylon outside of the tent.
I waited a second, and I heard it again.
(09:21):
I came wide awake because I heard a light grunting noise.
It was right outside of my tent.
Then I heard what sounded like something shuffling on the hard dirt outside.
This was definitely right outside the tent opening right by my head,
which thankfully was zipped up.
(09:43):
I was just pulling my rifle up along the side of my body,
intending to look out the zipper opening when I heard shuffling,
and then the sound of something moving away from the tent.
The fire was nothing but light-calls, and it was long gone outside,
so my only option was to shine a flashlight.
(10:05):
I un-zipped the tent open just a few inches, just enough to poke the flashlight through,
and for me to see.
The flashlight shined out over the cleared area, but there was nothing there.
I shrugged it off as an animal of some kind, zipped the tent up and went back to sleep,
or tried to anyway.
(10:26):
In less than a minute, the tent was filled with the most awful stink you could ever imagine.
It was everywhere!
I buried my head in the sleeping bag, trying to filter the scent,
but I could not escape it.
After a few minutes I was frustrated.
I sat up and got the flashlight and un-zipped the tent, all the way this time.
(10:49):
I shined the flashlight all over, but I didn't see anything out there.
Yet the smell was just overpowering!
I was gagging, even breathing through my shirt that I had pulled up over my nose.
Then I thought, and I shined the light straight down.
Right there in front of my tent opening was another huge pile of log-shaped scat,
(11:14):
piled up in a perfect coil.
And it was fresh.
I mean, it was literally steaming lightly in the cool morning air.
I saw the steam rising in the flashlight.
I know the many forms and shapes of different bare-scat.
I mean, the Codiacs in Alaska didn't leave piles this large.
(11:37):
And I've seen the log formations of black bears too.
I think I've seen them all.
This was coiled in a formation that told me it came from something squatting directly from above.
I mean, hear me out, okay?
Imagine one of those icing bag things for cakes.
(11:57):
Imagine that is the bear, okay?
Now, if you lay the icing bag horizontally and you squeeze the icing out from the nozzle end,
it shoots out and it will come out and clumps or logs or piles and they will fall.
What it doesn't do is coil nicely upward.
But if you put the icing bag straight up and down and squeeze,
(12:19):
well, the icing formation under it is coiled and sort of piles upward.
Now, eventually, if you push out enough icing,
it might lean or fall to one side or the other.
But it looks very different from the other one.
I mean, can you visualize it?
Are you still with me?
Do you see the difference?
(12:40):
Well, that's what I was thinking about.
That whatever it was was squatted perfectly from above
and dropped this straight up and down.
Don't ask me how or why I was thinking of the trajectory of all of this.
But I was, for some reason, I was trying to place it to an animal.
(13:02):
And that right then is when I had the brain-stumping moment
of being unable to think of any animal that could have done it.
I didn't dwell on it any further, though.
I got my hand shovel out and scooped as much dirt onto it as I could,
trying to firm it up, not that it really helped.
(13:23):
When I tried to carry it over to the woods to get it away from me,
it kept sliding off the sides of the shovel.
I'm sorry for TMI, but this was really a mess to deal with.
All the while, I was trying to balance a flashlight, keeping my pistol handy
and worrying about whatever it was that left the mess.
(13:44):
And how close it might still be to me in the darkness.
It was another good 20 minutes of shoveling and trying to move the mess
and then covering up the area by my tent to smother the smell.
But brother let me tell you, that smell was there to stay.
I even contemplated moving my tent, but it was a little bit too much to try in the darkness.
(14:08):
I checked my watch. It was close to 4am.
I decided to just wait it out for sunrise.
Then I would check things out more and then move my tent.
I went out and stoked up the fire while I nervously waited.
While I waited, I was thinking about everything,
(14:29):
and I kept getting that prickling feeling again.
I thought about the scream in the night, now this weird poop pile.
And by then, all this prickling feeling got stronger,
and I realized it had been almost constant,
so much so I was on the point of ignoring it.
The ambient light outside was getting more blue than black,
(14:52):
so we were heading toward sunrise, but we were not quite there yet.
That blue hour before sunrise, it's a strange one.
You can see, yes, but not well and not far.
It's beautiful though, and it's eerie at the same time.
(15:14):
But it was in that blue hour,
when my eyes adjusted to the dark outside the circle of the firelight.
I could see now just beyond the first tree or two into the woods to the south.
And as I looked, I saw a very dark spot,
a large dark spot.
(15:35):
And for a moment, I was sure that I was being stalked by a large bear,
a very large and very still bear.
It was just like when I was a kid,
and I just knew there was someone standing in the corner of my room.
The more I stared at that dark spot,
(15:56):
the more it became a real monster.
You know that feeling, don't you?
When you're sure there is a monster in the corner of your room,
and every hair on your body stands on end,
but you have no breath left in your lungs to scream for your mom and dad?
You know the feeling.
Well, that's exactly what was happening to me.
(16:17):
I started to see a shape now more clearly,
and it was not a four-poil walking bear shape.
No, sir.
That was a tall, two-legged, two-armed, one-headed tall man out there.
A man all wrapped up in black clothing.
A really big man.
(16:39):
Right then, every true crime story, every cold-case file I had ever watched on TV,
ran through my head at warp speed.
I just knew I had a human killer out there looking at me.
A big one at that.
Yeah, I had guns, sure.
But I wasn't yet justified in opening fire on that person at that point.
(17:02):
Was I?
No, I wasn't.
I managed to yell out.
I see you, as I slip my pistol out of my long-side pocket on my thigh.
I saw the shape move, not retreating and not coming forward,
but a side-in-forward motion, then it went back like it was readjusting at stance
(17:27):
and settling back into its original place.
I see you there, come out, I yelled again.
But there was no movement and no answer.
I'm armed, I yelled, and I waved the pistol making it very visible.
Recently, I've heard that whole thing about who you'd rather be in the forest alone with,
(17:50):
a man or a bear.
I think it's a pretty stupid question.
Well, I did.
Then I thought about that night.
And I know back then on that night, I would have much preferred to be facing a bear.
Now, not for the same reasons as women, but a man in the middle of the forest
(18:10):
who isn't answering you when you call out, a very large man,
apparently dressed in all black, a man who took a dump literally inches away from my sleeping head,
a man who has probably spent most of the day and the evening stalking me?
Well, that's one unhinged man.
(18:34):
And that is way more scary and dangerous than any bear.
The silence and the non-reaction rattled me.
Now, any normal, sane person would know the jig was up as soon as they saw I had a gun,
but the keyword was sane.
And was he sane?
(18:56):
I was beginning to think not.
Or maybe he wasn't alone.
Maybe he had an accomplice who also had a gun, a bigger, better gun, or more guns.
And maybe they were behind me hundreds of thoughts like those were going through my mind right then.
This stalemate went on for several more minutes.
(19:19):
All the time it was creeping closer and closer to sunrise.
Every minute the blue light was just a little lighter.
And every minute I could see a little more clearly.
I did not want to preemptively shoot a man who, as of yet, hadn't done anything to merit getting shot.
(19:41):
I didn't want to fire a warning shot either and alarm my grandparents.
I didn't want to trigger any action from him at all if I could avoid it.
I had numerous scenarios vectoring of what I should not do running through my head,
but not a single one of what I should do.
(20:03):
Looking back, I have a thousand different ways and I would have handled this.
But in the middle of it all, I was still just that kid looking at the monster in the corner of his dark room,
frozen and unable to move and too breathless to yell out.
But all the while it kept getting lighter in the sky, and I could see better and better.
(20:28):
I just knew I heard something coming up from behind me.
So startled and so scared I got up and rolled around to look certain I was about to face his accomplice or accomplices.
I took a good look, but there was no one there.
I rolled back to the dark man at the wood's edge, but now he was gone.
(20:52):
I blinked and looked several times.
He was gone.
I had a few moments of wandering.
Had I imagined everything?
I was shook up, I'll write my brothers.
I will tell you that, truthfully.
Within a half hour the sun was rising and the blue light at the morning was now gone.
(21:14):
It was a beautiful morning, but I was not enjoying any of it.
It took another hour before I felt it was clear and light enough to safely check the area to make sure he was gone.
After that, and by the time I sat and ate my instant oatmeal,
I had convinced myself under the bright sun that I had just seen things out there in the darkness.
(21:40):
The monster in the corner of my bedroom, it was that scenario and nothing more.
Yes, that had to be it, I thought.
And that scat outside my tent?
Well, that was just some animal who was probably sick or something, the same with the scream in the night.
Probably, I don't know, maybe animals mating?
(22:01):
I didn't have answers, but I didn't want to question anymore.
I really convinced myself of all of those things.
And by that afternoon, well, I wasn't even thinking about it anymore.
It was like a bad nightmare from the night before, long gone.
But later that night, I had no more time to think about any of it.
(22:25):
I didn't have to wonder if it was really just shadows or some creepy human.
I had a face-to-face meeting with it.
I had gone down that afternoon to my grandparents to refill my water jug.
I plugged in my phone to charge it and stayed and chatted on the back porch with them for a while.
(22:45):
Then I headed back to the camp clearing.
I never mentioned what happened the night before to either of them.
I don't know why, it just didn't seem relevant by then.
Maybe, I think it's better to say, it didn't even seem real to me by then.
But I had stayed down there, talking longer than I had planned.
(23:07):
And I walked back to the clearing camp area and arrived not long before the sun began going behind the trees.
I had my pistol and my thigh-side pocket again, and I had the 22 slung on my shoulder.
I walked into the camp clearing.
I dropped the jug of water quickly and unslung my rifle.
(23:29):
The camp area looked like a tornado had come through and thrown everything I had all around.
Someone or something had been in the camp, and maybe it was still there.
I quickly did a 360-degree turn looking all around the perimeter, but I didn't see anyone at first.
(23:51):
As I did my second turn to sweep the area, that same large, dark-man-shaped shadow rose up to a standing height.
It must have been there when I did the first circle to look, but I missed it somehow.
I guess it was squatting down low, probably watching me.
(24:12):
But now I had a clear view of that shadow monster from the night before,
and I thought it was not. Could not be a man.
Where the shadow looked large the night before in the blue lighten shadows.
Well, now it was a labiat then a fur and muscle.
It stood less than 30 feet from me.
(24:34):
The fading sun over the west trees cast the last of its light right onto its face.
The fur was dark brown and streaked with a lighter color.
I'm not sure if it was gray or a lighter brown, but the fur was clearly too toned and it hung about a little shaggy.
(24:55):
Its eyes were large and positioned under low brows that stuck out.
The eyes were spaced far apart and they were very dark.
The jaws were wide, powerful, and squared.
It stood about seven and a half feet, maybe closer to eight feet tall.
(25:15):
The fur was everywhere that I could see on it, and I saw the front from head to toe.
I can't say for sure on its sex.
I didn't see any breasts on the chest, but I also didn't see any male items below the waist.
Not that I was looking mind you, but you get my meaning.
Some things you just see even if you don't try, but that wasn't something I saw.
(25:41):
My rifle was at the ready. Not that a bolt action 22 stood much of a chance against something like that.
My mind was going crazy because I saw it clearly.
I knew what it was, but heck if I knew how to get out of this alive?
Then it talked to me or tried to.
(26:04):
There was some version of communication.
That's the best I can tell you.
It made a garbled sound. It was like a sliding vocal sound.
It lasted maybe three or four seconds.
Then it looked at me like it was waiting, maybe for a response.
I'm pretty sure I said something back, probably something about me not understanding,
(26:30):
but I don't have a clear memory of what I said.
So it took a step forward and did that garbled, weird vocal sound again.
It sounded almost exactly the same.
Though truthfully calling it garbled, well that's not a good description.
If you have ever heard a slide used on electric guitars,
(26:51):
well, that is to the sound of a guitar what that sound was to a voice.
It slid up and down without forming sounds as we know them.
Its face and stance changed.
It seemed to be getting angry.
Maybe it was losing its patience with me.
Maybe I said or did something wrong.
(27:15):
Suddenly it let loose a blowing huff through its part way open mouth and its nose.
Scared me so bad I took a step back.
I was about to turn and run.
The closest sound that I've ever heard to that blowing is a little bit like a deer when it blows and snorts.
But unlike a deer, this had an ominous sound to it like a warning.
(27:41):
I was very focused on that creature.
Its body language, if you can call it that, its eyes.
I was focused on anything and everything I could to pick up a clue on its intention.
And that's when I noticed it really wasn't looking at me anymore.
But looking past me, looking right over my shoulder.
(28:05):
It made more of that grunting blowing noise as it was turning away.
I was so surprised but it was turning away.
And as it turned, it had the strangest look to it.
It made the movements with its arms and upper body like it was swimming in water,
like it was turning in the water.
(28:26):
The wide arcing arms with cupped hands as it turned.
It was cupping air instead of water.
But if you get the visual, you'll see what I mean.
It reminded me of a swimmer.
That's all I can say.
All of a sudden I heard my gramps half-yel and half-wisper jumping jahose fat.
(28:47):
Well, okay, that is not at all what my gramps said.
He was far more verbal than that, but we're going to keep this PG.
I waited a second before I turned to my gramps.
Truth was, I couldn't have turned if I wanted to.
I was glued watching that huge shadow melt into the woods
(29:07):
and the darkness that was falling there.
I could not make myself turn around until it was gone.
And when I finally did turn, I saw my gramps wide eyes
and his face was ash and white.
That scared me almost as much because I knew my gramps had bad heart trouble.
(29:29):
I grabbed gramps, made sure he was okay, and we headed back to the house.
We went slow because I kept stopping to check in front of us
and behind us every few yards.
I just had the feeling that thing was going to flank us and come after us.
But no, we got down to the house just fine.
(29:50):
Just as dark was falling full force.
I asked gramps if he had ever seen that thing before.
He said no.
And I believed him because after that he didn't want any of us out there overnight.
He didn't want us out there at all, not to hunt, not to fish, nothing,
(30:11):
not even during the day.
Now it's true, we still talked to him into it and many of us still went.
But mostly in the big groups that were the cousins and other males in the family.
Gramps just said there were a lot of bears out there
and he didn't want anyone out there alone.
Now he did tell grandma about what we saw.
(30:33):
She just said that was a bunch of bull hockey if she'd ever heard any.
Now she didn't say bull hockey, but again we're going to keep it PG rated.
Well anyway, that's how my grandma was.
If she didn't see it by golly it did not happen.
I don't care if you had picks or video that wouldn't convince her either.
(30:54):
I'm convinced my grandma is the reason Missouri is called the show me state
but she had to be shown in person.
Now it took me days to settle down after all of that.
Me personally?
Well I never spent another night out there.
I didn't even like my grandparents staying there.
But how long had they been there?
(31:15):
And they were not about to move.
I don't know what that thing wanted to do or what it wanted from me.
If anything, I can't explain why it took a dump right outside my tent.
Was that some kind of weird marking territory?
I don't know.
I have tried to read into the behavior of apes and gorilla in regards to that kind of thing.
(31:38):
But you know it's a funny thing.
There just aren't too many books on gorilla pooping habits out there.
Can't imagine why.
I mean I know the info is out there.
But at least back then when I tried, all I found were scientific type reading on gorilla behavior.
And it was all way over my head.
I do think it was trying to talk to me in its own way.
(32:02):
I don't know what it was saying.
It could have been saying howdy there.
Where it might have been telling me I was on its turf and we were going to do battle and one of us was going to die.
And it was probably going to be me.
I don't know.
But Gramps showing up changed the outcome of whatever it had planned.
And brother, you know I'm grateful.
(32:24):
Oh, and why did Gramps come out there?
I know you're wondering.
Well, I had plugged my phone in the kitchen while we were jawing outside on the porch.
And I had forgotten to take it as simple as that.
Gramps was bringing it to me, although I got pretty much no signal out there, not even at his house.
(32:46):
But I'm glad I got distracted and left it.
I guess everything really does happen for a reason, even if we don't see it or understand it at the time.
It was just one of those little flip phones everyone had back then in the early 2000s.
But I think it saved me from a very bad night.
(33:06):
You know, I still have that phone to this day.
It doesn't work anymore, but sometimes I pull it out and I'll look at old pictures on it or play the one game I had on it.
I still keep it. I can't let it go.
Now you can say this is made up if you want to.
I don't care.
I know what happened that night, and I'm not the only one that saw it.
(33:30):
Most of the family eventually did get told all about it.
Most believed us, I think.
They sure believed Gramps.
They didn't heed Wackam upside the head.
So you learned you best believe the man.
A lot of the younger ones wanted to go sleep out there for a couple nights.
They were hoping to see it.
They thought maybe they could come up with a trap or maybe even shoot it.
(33:54):
But it was not to be.
Gramps wouldn't let them.
And then, well, Gramps Hart got him about two years after that.
And Grama, well, she didn't want to stay there alone on all that land by herself.
And I don't blame her.
One of my older cousins did buy the place.
But it isn't as open for everyone's use as it was under Grama and Grandpa.
(34:20):
Let's just say my cousin's wife.
She's a funny one.
And by funny, I mean, not funny at all.
Not friendly to any family, except hers.
It's just another one of those things I think happened for a reason.
Keeps us all off that land.
Well, I think I've typed myself out here.
(34:42):
That's all I remember about that weekend.
I replay it in my head a lot sometimes.
And other times, I go weeks without thinking about it.
I can't explain any of that either.
You can sign me, Dell.
[MUSIC]
(35:07):
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Tonight's encounter comes to you from long ago.
(00:03):
We're pulling this one out of the vault.
I want to tell you about the night Bigfoot tried to talk to me.
Well, I think that's what he was trying to do.
Maybe he was trying to say hello.
(00:23):
Or maybe he was telling me I was about to die.
I don't know. It could have been either.
But you have a listen. And you tell me what you think.
The land this happened on was bought by my great-grandparents back in 1931.
My grandmother inherited it from them in 1969.
(00:46):
Now my grandparents were still living there in 2008,
when I went to spend a long weekend out there on the property.
You see, all of us in the family had been using that land well for as long as anyone remembered.
We would go out there to fish, hunt, or just camp out.
This is in Missouri.
The nearest town was Grandin,
(01:07):
but my grandparents weren't anywhere near any town.
One weekend I went out just to get away and spend some time alone.
There was an area there that we had all used over the years.
It was a semi-natural clearing with trees all around it.
It was about 100 feet wide east to west,
(01:27):
and about 60 to 70 feet wide north to south,
with the camp set up roughly in the center.
Now to the south of the property, it was banked by heavy woods.
To the north, there were two ponds about 20 acres apart,
but they were more than 100 yards from the camp clearing.
The house was on the northwest part of the property.
(01:49):
About 400 yards away from the clearing to the east,
while there were more woods, but they weren't as dense,
and if you walked for a couple hundred more yards, you'd hit a road.
About 20 miles north of that property is the Clearwater Conservation Area,
and further north is the Mark Twain National Forest to the west and the north of there.
(02:13):
Well, there were several more conservation areas.
This meant there were a lot of game that traveled through that area.
As it was mid-May, I was there for some peace and quiet, not hunting.
I checked in with grandma and grandpa to let them know,
and I got the A.O.K. from them.
(02:33):
I parked at the back edge of the property where their grass stopped and the woods started.
I walked in and got set up in the clearing.
The gear I use is pretty simple.
It's just a one-man tent with a sleeping bag inside.
For food that weekend, I had brought some instant oatmeal packets,
some power bars, and a couple bags of dehydrated food.
(02:56):
I have a small kettle and a small pan.
I have one set of cutlery, and well, that's about it.
I know that I always have the option of walking to my grandparents
if I need something, or if bad weather whips up in the middle of the night.
So, I really don't have to pack too much.
Other than those things, the only things I take out there are things to take care of nature's call,
(03:20):
basically toilet paper and a small shovel.
Now right out of the gate, when I walked out there, something felt off.
I couldn't say what exactly, but my neck and my face felt all prickly,
like my beard stubble was trying to stand up on end.
I never go out there unarmed anyway.
(03:42):
You're foolish if you think to do so.
I had a pistol and a 22 rifle with me.
I wasn't hunting, so I didn't bring anything heavier as far as firepower goes.
They were just for my personal protection, and the 22 rifle in particular,
well, I brought that along just to kill some time target practicing.
(04:04):
22s are cheap and plentiful for ammo, and it's really good for practicing.
Before I set up my tent, I did a sweep of the perimeter outside of the camp clearing.
I always did this.
I looked for signs of predators, and to see what, if anything, had changed since the last time I was there.
(04:25):
Now this became my extreme habit.
After one of my cousins went to go take a squat one night out there.
He walked over to the same preferred area that he always used,
and he was just about to squat after he dropped his drawers by a tree trunk
when he heard the unmistakable sound of a rattlesnake.
(04:47):
Well, he managed to get out of there okay,
but the next morning all the cousins went and checked,
and sure enough, they found a rattlesnake den at the other end of that favorite log of his.
They said it was loaded with rattlers.
If he had stepped over to the other end of that log, which he had sometimes used in the past,
(05:08):
well, he would have been stepping right into a den of rattlers under that hollowed-out section.
So yes, I always checked the perimeter, even though I think I know it well.
What I found on my search was a rather large pile of scat,
that for the life of me, and I couldn't identify.
(05:30):
I mean, even Andre the giant couldn't have possibly left a log pile that big,
even after the biggest of meals, and it was a log formation similar to a human's,
just on a giant scale.
It was dark brown in color, and when I poked it with a stick,
it lost its shape easily, but I didn't think it was fresh despite being soft.
(05:56):
To my thinking, it had to be one of my cousins that had been out there,
or they had used some brownie batter to prank me, or something.
What else could it be?
But the thing was, there was a problem with that.
The thing is I knew that no one knew I was coming, until I called my grandparents that very afternoon,
(06:19):
and while talking to my grandpa, he told me that no one had been out there for a few weeks.
I didn't have an explanation for this huge pile,
so I just filed it away, and continued to look carefully for any other signs,
but all in all I didn't see anything unusual.
For a while, that unsettled feeling did go away,
(06:43):
but it came roaring back, right at dark.
I had a fire going, and I had already had my pouch of veggie beef pasta for dinner,
and now I was getting sleepy.
From the darkness around me, I heard a screeching how like you couldn't believe.
It scared me to death, and my hair stood on end.
(07:04):
That sounds like an exaggeration, but I don't think it was.
I've heard mountain lions, bobcats, I've heard bears, moose, you name it.
I've heard it.
I've heard elk bugle from far distant hills.
I've been on expeditions to the Yukon hunting and fishing.
I've been to Kodiac Island, and I've heard bears.
(07:25):
I've been hunting in Montana and Idaho.
Now that isn't some kind of brag I'm doing.
I'm just trying to say that I think I've heard just about every animal in North America,
and I had never heard something like that.
This was different than any wild cats or lions.
It had an echo and a timber to it that came from a much bigger chest.
(07:49):
It had a richer, deeper tone to it, but it was ear-splitting at the same time.
It lasted for maybe six or seven seconds.
I jumped up and I grabbed the 22 from the tent.
I had my pistol on me already, but right then I was wishing for something more powerful than that 22.
(08:13):
I turned around in all directions, looking all around the clearing,
but the firelight didn't reach all the way to the trees, so I was partially blinded.
I waited and listened, and after a while I sat back down,
but I didn't like the way that prickling feeling was all over me now.
(08:33):
It wasn't just the beard stubble.
I was half a mind to go back to my grandparents and just sleep in their guest room that night,
but something made me stay put.
I had never ran from anything before.
I didn't think tonight was the time to start.
I waited such a long time sitting there by the fire that my chin was hitting my chest enough
(08:58):
that it woke me up to realize I was falling asleep,
and I finally crawled into my tent for some sleep.
I don't know how long I was asleep when I heard something moving around the tent.
I know I heard something brush the nylon outside of the tent.
I waited a second, and I heard it again.
(09:21):
I came wide awake because I heard a light grunting noise.
It was right outside of my tent.
Then I heard what sounded like something shuffling on the hard dirt outside.
This was definitely right outside the tent opening right by my head,
which thankfully was zipped up.
(09:43):
I was just pulling my rifle up along the side of my body,
intending to look out the zipper opening when I heard shuffling,
and then the sound of something moving away from the tent.
The fire was nothing but light-calls, and it was long gone outside,
so my only option was to shine a flashlight.
(10:05):
I un-zipped the tent open just a few inches, just enough to poke the flashlight through,
and for me to see.
The flashlight shined out over the cleared area, but there was nothing there.
I shrugged it off as an animal of some kind, zipped the tent up and went back to sleep,
or tried to anyway.
(10:26):
In less than a minute, the tent was filled with the most awful stink you could ever imagine.
It was everywhere!
I buried my head in the sleeping bag, trying to filter the scent,
but I could not escape it.
After a few minutes I was frustrated.
I sat up and got the flashlight and un-zipped the tent, all the way this time.
(10:49):
I shined the flashlight all over, but I didn't see anything out there.
Yet the smell was just overpowering!
I was gagging, even breathing through my shirt that I had pulled up over my nose.
Then I thought, and I shined the light straight down.
Right there in front of my tent opening was another huge pile of log-shaped scat,
(11:14):
piled up in a perfect coil.
And it was fresh.
I mean, it was literally steaming lightly in the cool morning air.
I saw the steam rising in the flashlight.
I know the many forms and shapes of different bare-scat.
I mean, the Codiacs in Alaska didn't leave piles this large.
(11:37):
And I've seen the log formations of black bears too.
I think I've seen them all.
This was coiled in a formation that told me it came from something squatting directly from above.
I mean, hear me out, okay?
Imagine one of those icing bag things for cakes.
(11:57):
Imagine that is the bear, okay?
Now, if you lay the icing bag horizontally and you squeeze the icing out from the nozzle end,
it shoots out and it will come out and clumps or logs or piles and they will fall.
What it doesn't do is coil nicely upward.
But if you put the icing bag straight up and down and squeeze,
(12:19):
well, the icing formation under it is coiled and sort of piles upward.
Now, eventually, if you push out enough icing,
it might lean or fall to one side or the other.
But it looks very different from the other one.
I mean, can you visualize it?
Are you still with me?
Do you see the difference?
(12:40):
Well, that's what I was thinking about.
That whatever it was was squatted perfectly from above
and dropped this straight up and down.
Don't ask me how or why I was thinking of the trajectory of all of this.
But I was, for some reason, I was trying to place it to an animal.
(13:02):
And that right then is when I had the brain-stumping moment
of being unable to think of any animal that could have done it.
I didn't dwell on it any further, though.
I got my hand shovel out and scooped as much dirt onto it as I could,
trying to firm it up, not that it really helped.
(13:23):
When I tried to carry it over to the woods to get it away from me,
it kept sliding off the sides of the shovel.
I'm sorry for TMI, but this was really a mess to deal with.
All the while, I was trying to balance a flashlight, keeping my pistol handy
and worrying about whatever it was that left the mess.
(13:44):
And how close it might still be to me in the darkness.
It was another good 20 minutes of shoveling and trying to move the mess
and then covering up the area by my tent to smother the smell.
But brother let me tell you, that smell was there to stay.
I even contemplated moving my tent, but it was a little bit too much to try in the darkness.
(14:08):
I checked my watch. It was close to 4am.
I decided to just wait it out for sunrise.
Then I would check things out more and then move my tent.
I went out and stoked up the fire while I nervously waited.
While I waited, I was thinking about everything,
(14:29):
and I kept getting that prickling feeling again.
I thought about the scream in the night, now this weird poop pile.
And by then, all this prickling feeling got stronger,
and I realized it had been almost constant,
so much so I was on the point of ignoring it.
The ambient light outside was getting more blue than black,
(14:52):
so we were heading toward sunrise, but we were not quite there yet.
That blue hour before sunrise, it's a strange one.
You can see, yes, but not well and not far.
It's beautiful though, and it's eerie at the same time.
(15:14):
But it was in that blue hour,
when my eyes adjusted to the dark outside the circle of the firelight.
I could see now just beyond the first tree or two into the woods to the south.
And as I looked, I saw a very dark spot,
a large dark spot.
(15:35):
And for a moment, I was sure that I was being stalked by a large bear,
a very large and very still bear.
It was just like when I was a kid,
and I just knew there was someone standing in the corner of my room.
The more I stared at that dark spot,
(15:56):
the more it became a real monster.
You know that feeling, don't you?
When you're sure there is a monster in the corner of your room,
and every hair on your body stands on end,
but you have no breath left in your lungs to scream for your mom and dad?
You know the feeling.
Well, that's exactly what was happening to me.
(16:17):
I started to see a shape now more clearly,
and it was not a four-poil walking bear shape.
No, sir.
That was a tall, two-legged, two-armed, one-headed tall man out there.
A man all wrapped up in black clothing.
A really big man.
(16:39):
Right then, every true crime story, every cold-case file I had ever watched on TV,
ran through my head at warp speed.
I just knew I had a human killer out there looking at me.
A big one at that.
Yeah, I had guns, sure.
But I wasn't yet justified in opening fire on that person at that point.
(17:02):
Was I?
No, I wasn't.
I managed to yell out.
I see you, as I slip my pistol out of my long-side pocket on my thigh.
I saw the shape move, not retreating and not coming forward,
but a side-in-forward motion, then it went back like it was readjusting at stance
(17:27):
and settling back into its original place.
I see you there, come out, I yelled again.
But there was no movement and no answer.
I'm armed, I yelled, and I waved the pistol making it very visible.
Recently, I've heard that whole thing about who you'd rather be in the forest alone with,
(17:50):
a man or a bear.
I think it's a pretty stupid question.
Well, I did.
Then I thought about that night.
And I know back then on that night, I would have much preferred to be facing a bear.
Now, not for the same reasons as women, but a man in the middle of the forest
(18:10):
who isn't answering you when you call out, a very large man,
apparently dressed in all black, a man who took a dump literally inches away from my sleeping head,
a man who has probably spent most of the day and the evening stalking me?
Well, that's one unhinged man.
(18:34):
And that is way more scary and dangerous than any bear.
The silence and the non-reaction rattled me.
Now, any normal, sane person would know the jig was up as soon as they saw I had a gun,
but the keyword was sane.
And was he sane?
(18:56):
I was beginning to think not.
Or maybe he wasn't alone.
Maybe he had an accomplice who also had a gun, a bigger, better gun, or more guns.
And maybe they were behind me hundreds of thoughts like those were going through my mind right then.
This stalemate went on for several more minutes.
(19:19):
All the time it was creeping closer and closer to sunrise.
Every minute the blue light was just a little lighter.
And every minute I could see a little more clearly.
I did not want to preemptively shoot a man who, as of yet, hadn't done anything to merit getting shot.
(19:41):
I didn't want to fire a warning shot either and alarm my grandparents.
I didn't want to trigger any action from him at all if I could avoid it.
I had numerous scenarios vectoring of what I should not do running through my head,
but not a single one of what I should do.
(20:03):
Looking back, I have a thousand different ways and I would have handled this.
But in the middle of it all, I was still just that kid looking at the monster in the corner of his dark room,
frozen and unable to move and too breathless to yell out.
But all the while it kept getting lighter in the sky, and I could see better and better.
(20:28):
I just knew I heard something coming up from behind me.
So startled and so scared I got up and rolled around to look certain I was about to face his accomplice or accomplices.
I took a good look, but there was no one there.
I rolled back to the dark man at the wood's edge, but now he was gone.
(20:52):
I blinked and looked several times.
He was gone.
I had a few moments of wandering.
Had I imagined everything?
I was shook up, I'll write my brothers.
I will tell you that, truthfully.
Within a half hour the sun was rising and the blue light at the morning was now gone.
(21:14):
It was a beautiful morning, but I was not enjoying any of it.
It took another hour before I felt it was clear and light enough to safely check the area to make sure he was gone.
After that, and by the time I sat and ate my instant oatmeal,
I had convinced myself under the bright sun that I had just seen things out there in the darkness.
(21:40):
The monster in the corner of my bedroom, it was that scenario and nothing more.
Yes, that had to be it, I thought.
And that scat outside my tent?
Well, that was just some animal who was probably sick or something, the same with the scream in the night.
Probably, I don't know, maybe animals mating?
(22:01):
I didn't have answers, but I didn't want to question anymore.
I really convinced myself of all of those things.
And by that afternoon, well, I wasn't even thinking about it anymore.
It was like a bad nightmare from the night before, long gone.
But later that night, I had no more time to think about any of it.
(22:25):
I didn't have to wonder if it was really just shadows or some creepy human.
I had a face-to-face meeting with it.
I had gone down that afternoon to my grandparents to refill my water jug.
I plugged in my phone to charge it and stayed and chatted on the back porch with them for a while.
(22:45):
Then I headed back to the camp clearing.
I never mentioned what happened the night before to either of them.
I don't know why, it just didn't seem relevant by then.
Maybe, I think it's better to say, it didn't even seem real to me by then.
But I had stayed down there, talking longer than I had planned.
(23:07):
And I walked back to the clearing camp area and arrived not long before the sun began going behind the trees.
I had my pistol and my thigh-side pocket again, and I had the 22 slung on my shoulder.
I walked into the camp clearing.
I dropped the jug of water quickly and unslung my rifle.
(23:29):
The camp area looked like a tornado had come through and thrown everything I had all around.
Someone or something had been in the camp, and maybe it was still there.
I quickly did a 360-degree turn looking all around the perimeter, but I didn't see anyone at first.
(23:51):
As I did my second turn to sweep the area, that same large, dark-man-shaped shadow rose up to a standing height.
It must have been there when I did the first circle to look, but I missed it somehow.
I guess it was squatting down low, probably watching me.
(24:12):
But now I had a clear view of that shadow monster from the night before,
and I thought it was not. Could not be a man.
Where the shadow looked large the night before in the blue lighten shadows.
Well, now it was a labiat then a fur and muscle.
It stood less than 30 feet from me.
(24:34):
The fading sun over the west trees cast the last of its light right onto its face.
The fur was dark brown and streaked with a lighter color.
I'm not sure if it was gray or a lighter brown, but the fur was clearly too toned and it hung about a little shaggy.
(24:55):
Its eyes were large and positioned under low brows that stuck out.
The eyes were spaced far apart and they were very dark.
The jaws were wide, powerful, and squared.
It stood about seven and a half feet, maybe closer to eight feet tall.
(25:15):
The fur was everywhere that I could see on it, and I saw the front from head to toe.
I can't say for sure on its sex.
I didn't see any breasts on the chest, but I also didn't see any male items below the waist.
Not that I was looking mind you, but you get my meaning.
Some things you just see even if you don't try, but that wasn't something I saw.
(25:41):
My rifle was at the ready. Not that a bolt action 22 stood much of a chance against something like that.
My mind was going crazy because I saw it clearly.
I knew what it was, but heck if I knew how to get out of this alive?
Then it talked to me or tried to.
(26:04):
There was some version of communication.
That's the best I can tell you.
It made a garbled sound. It was like a sliding vocal sound.
It lasted maybe three or four seconds.
Then it looked at me like it was waiting, maybe for a response.
I'm pretty sure I said something back, probably something about me not understanding,
(26:30):
but I don't have a clear memory of what I said.
So it took a step forward and did that garbled, weird vocal sound again.
It sounded almost exactly the same.
Though truthfully calling it garbled, well that's not a good description.
If you have ever heard a slide used on electric guitars,
(26:51):
well, that is to the sound of a guitar what that sound was to a voice.
It slid up and down without forming sounds as we know them.
Its face and stance changed.
It seemed to be getting angry.
Maybe it was losing its patience with me.
Maybe I said or did something wrong.
(27:15):
Suddenly it let loose a blowing huff through its part way open mouth and its nose.
Scared me so bad I took a step back.
I was about to turn and run.
The closest sound that I've ever heard to that blowing is a little bit like a deer when it blows and snorts.
But unlike a deer, this had an ominous sound to it like a warning.
(27:41):
I was very focused on that creature.
Its body language, if you can call it that, its eyes.
I was focused on anything and everything I could to pick up a clue on its intention.
And that's when I noticed it really wasn't looking at me anymore.
But looking past me, looking right over my shoulder.
(28:05):
It made more of that grunting blowing noise as it was turning away.
I was so surprised but it was turning away.
And as it turned, it had the strangest look to it.
It made the movements with its arms and upper body like it was swimming in water,
like it was turning in the water.
(28:26):
The wide arcing arms with cupped hands as it turned.
It was cupping air instead of water.
But if you get the visual, you'll see what I mean.
It reminded me of a swimmer.
That's all I can say.
All of a sudden I heard my gramps half-yel and half-wisper jumping jahose fat.
(28:47):
Well, okay, that is not at all what my gramps said.
He was far more verbal than that, but we're going to keep this PG.
I waited a second before I turned to my gramps.
Truth was, I couldn't have turned if I wanted to.
I was glued watching that huge shadow melt into the woods
(29:07):
and the darkness that was falling there.
I could not make myself turn around until it was gone.
And when I finally did turn, I saw my gramps wide eyes
and his face was ash and white.
That scared me almost as much because I knew my gramps had bad heart trouble.
(29:29):
I grabbed gramps, made sure he was okay, and we headed back to the house.
We went slow because I kept stopping to check in front of us
and behind us every few yards.
I just had the feeling that thing was going to flank us and come after us.
But no, we got down to the house just fine.
(29:50):
Just as dark was falling full force.
I asked gramps if he had ever seen that thing before.
He said no.
And I believed him because after that he didn't want any of us out there overnight.
He didn't want us out there at all, not to hunt, not to fish, nothing,
(30:11):
not even during the day.
Now it's true, we still talked to him into it and many of us still went.
But mostly in the big groups that were the cousins and other males in the family.
Gramps just said there were a lot of bears out there
and he didn't want anyone out there alone.
Now he did tell grandma about what we saw.
(30:33):
She just said that was a bunch of bull hockey if she'd ever heard any.
Now she didn't say bull hockey, but again we're going to keep it PG rated.
Well anyway, that's how my grandma was.
If she didn't see it by golly it did not happen.
I don't care if you had picks or video that wouldn't convince her either.
(30:54):
I'm convinced my grandma is the reason Missouri is called the show me state
but she had to be shown in person.
Now it took me days to settle down after all of that.
Me personally?
Well I never spent another night out there.
I didn't even like my grandparents staying there.
But how long had they been there?
(31:15):
And they were not about to move.
I don't know what that thing wanted to do or what it wanted from me.
If anything, I can't explain why it took a dump right outside my tent.
Was that some kind of weird marking territory?
I don't know.
I have tried to read into the behavior of apes and gorilla in regards to that kind of thing.
(31:38):
But you know it's a funny thing.
There just aren't too many books on gorilla pooping habits out there.
Can't imagine why.
I mean I know the info is out there.
But at least back then when I tried, all I found were scientific type reading on gorilla behavior.
And it was all way over my head.
I do think it was trying to talk to me in its own way.
(32:02):
I don't know what it was saying.
It could have been saying howdy there.
Where it might have been telling me I was on its turf and we were going to do battle and one of us was going to die.
And it was probably going to be me.
I don't know.
But Gramps showing up changed the outcome of whatever it had planned.
And brother, you know I'm grateful.
(32:24):
Oh, and why did Gramps come out there?
I know you're wondering.
Well, I had plugged my phone in the kitchen while we were jawing outside on the porch.
And I had forgotten to take it as simple as that.
Gramps was bringing it to me, although I got pretty much no signal out there, not even at his house.
(32:46):
But I'm glad I got distracted and left it.
I guess everything really does happen for a reason, even if we don't see it or understand it at the time.
It was just one of those little flip phones everyone had back then in the early 2000s.
But I think it saved me from a very bad night.
(33:06):
You know, I still have that phone to this day.
It doesn't work anymore, but sometimes I pull it out and I'll look at old pictures on it or play the one game I had on it.
I still keep it. I can't let it go.
Now you can say this is made up if you want to.
I don't care.
I know what happened that night, and I'm not the only one that saw it.
(33:30):
Most of the family eventually did get told all about it.
Most believed us, I think.
They sure believed Gramps.
They didn't heed Wackam upside the head.
So you learned you best believe the man.
A lot of the younger ones wanted to go sleep out there for a couple nights.
They were hoping to see it.
They thought maybe they could come up with a trap or maybe even shoot it.
(33:54):
But it was not to be.
Gramps wouldn't let them.
And then, well, Gramps Hart got him about two years after that.
And Grama, well, she didn't want to stay there alone on all that land by herself.
And I don't blame her.
One of my older cousins did buy the place.
But it isn't as open for everyone's use as it was under Grama and Grandpa.
(34:20):
Let's just say my cousin's wife.
She's a funny one.
And by funny, I mean, not funny at all.
Not friendly to any family, except hers.
It's just another one of those things I think happened for a reason.
Keeps us all off that land.
Well, I think I've typed myself out here.
(34:42):
That's all I remember about that weekend.
I replay it in my head a lot sometimes.
And other times, I go weeks without thinking about it.
I can't explain any of that either.
You can sign me, Dell.
[MUSIC]
(35:07):
[BLANK_AUDIO]
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