Anderson County, Texas

Date: 11/28/2001

Weather: cold/cool mid 40's cloudy but not rainy very dark no wind

Time: Midnight

Nearest City: Palestine

State: Texas

Highway: Just south of highway 84 (5 miles or so)on the Neches river. On what used to be known as unit 120.

Nearby water source: Neches River

What happened: Nothing was ever seen, however much was heard. It was about midnight early in rifle season on old unit 120 and we were in the camp sight sitting around the campfire. There were 5 of us in our camp and about 40 more people spread out throughout the rest of the camp sight. What we heard was indescribeable and at least a mile off when we first heard it. Within only five minutes it was up on top of the ridge just 2 hundred yards at the most from where we stood. It made the same range of noise that it had the whole way in as it approached the hill. It was making these vocalizations and we could hear branches breaking, as you can imagine every gun and spotlight in the area was pointed up that hill. Since nothing was seen no shots were fired. We could also smell that dead musty wet dog smell that you hear of. The whole incident took place over a 10 minute span. The next morning 1/2 of all the campers got up and left. Note we are all avid outdoorsmen and accustomed to the outdoors and the normal sounds but this was very strange.

A few weeks later I was watching the Discovery Channel (bigfoot episode out of Washington state)they had a sound recorded and it was identical. The dejavu of it all made my hair stand on end.

Terrain: Vast wooded area along the Neches River bottom, the specific area of the incident is now privately owned and is no longer available for public hunting.

Activities: Sitting around the fire in base camp.

Any Prior Sightings: I have heard of others, none by me.

Any sound: Yes, repetitive loud vocals as it approached our location.

Odors: Yes, wet dog type of smell.

Any farms nearby: There are farms/ranches within a few miles.

Witness provided evidence, photos or drawings: None provided, if the witness has photos of the area they will be added below.




Investigator Report:

We have gotten to know this witness quite well, since his incident he has taken an interest in this research and has accompanied the TexLa group on field outings several times. The witness is a Minister and and enjoys hunting, fishing and getting out in the woods. The information regarding the night above is quite interesting, a camp filled with highly armed hunters was basically cleared out by this creature. Most of the hunters whom were present during the incident packed up and left at first light.

The vocalizations that are described started to be noticed when the creature was an estimated mile away and continued to approach their position until it was on a ridge looking down over their camp. The witness speculates that the creature may have been focused on their camp fire glow which led it to the hunters camp. A meeting amongst those present followed the incident where a discussion was held regarding what it could have been. A consensus was not reached but it was spooky enough to drive most of the hunters out. The property is now incorporated into a large private tract that is owned by a lumber/paper company. The paper company has built a large game fence around this tract and from what we can tell it is seldom actually accessed by anyone, we believe that this has created a perfect habitat with near zero human presence that can be entered at will by anything wishing to cross the river.