DATE:     06/08/02

TIME:      3:00 A.M.

LOCATION:  Hartman, Arkansas, Johnson County
 

TERRAIN:     Extremely dense wooded area
 

OBSERVED:  Two days ago, myself and three of my friends decided to go bowfishing.  We decided to travel to Hartman, which is about 15 miles from our home town.  The area we decided to fish is called the Hartman Bottoms.  What it amounts to is backwater off of the Arkansas river that weaves through a remote forest like a big maze.  I had bass fished this area a few times previously, during the day.  I never liked going out there, however, because of it's remote location.  We launched our boat at about 10:00 p.m. Around 12:30 or so, I suddenly had a terrible headache so I decided to sit down and rest.  I guess I had fallen asleep because I woke up to the noise of my friends making a lot of commotion.  I realized that they had shot a rather large carp, so I awoke to watch the fight.  I also noticed that our spot lights were going dim and our trolling motor was getting slower.  Obviously our batteries were going dead.  I thought, my god, how long have we been out here.  I looked at my watch and it was 3 in the morning.  I told my friends that we better start heading back before our batteries completely ran out.  All three of them kind of looked at me with worried looks and proceeded to explain to me that they had been trying to get back for the past hour and that we were as good as lost.  We had gone much farther into the bottoms that any of us had ever been.  We all put our heads together and decided about what direction we needed to go and off we went. Not long after we took off our trolling motor went completely dead.  Fortunately we had a backup, but it was only charged half way.  Now we had power but the going was slow.  We knew that we had about 2 hours, at least, of trolling ahead of us, so we all started talking to pass the time.  All of a sudden, my friend Andrew silenced everyone.  "Did you guys hear that" he said.  My other friend Dustin said "Yeah, I've been hearing it for a while, I just didn't want to say anything."  This got me interested because I hadn't heard anything.  I took their word for it because both Andrew and Dustin have been hunting all of their lives and they always seem to be listening for stuff like that.  I listened hard, but there was nothing.

As soon as we switched the trolling moter on, however, I did hear somthing moving along the wooded island to our left.  We made a right turn, leaving the island behind, and entering the main chanel.  About 2 minutes later we began to hear the same sound again.  We came to the grim conclusion that somthing was definetly followning us.  Whatever it was had to of swam aross the channel without making a sound, because we had heard no splashing.  I began to offer suggestions as to what it could be.  First I suggested it was a curious deer.  My three friends quickly shot that suggestion down as they all have much experience with deer.  I then suggested a bear.  Andrew spoke up, as he has hunted an killed bear, saying that whatever it was, it was much to stealthy to be a bear.  He also said that it was to smart to be a bear as it would stop everytime we stopped the trolling motor, which only made a soft humming noise.  And continue as soon as we started moving, only messing up a few times as it would take an extra step or two after we cut the motor off.  I then decided that it was a mountain lion, as they are known to stalk their prey for miles.  Dustin spoke up this time, saying that it wasn't walking like a mountain lion, Andrew quickly agreed.  This peaked my interest because as I said earlier, they are both accomplished hunters that have seen and heard it all.  I was out of suggestions so I asked them what they thought and they just sat there with this puzzled look on their faces.  After about 5 minutes of silence, Andrew spoke up and said, " I didn't want to say anything until I was sure, but after listening to it for the past 40 minutes, I'm sorry to say, whatever it is, it's walking on two legs."  Dustin reluctently agreed, saying that he thought so too but didn't want to say anything because he was afraid that we'd think he was crazy or something.

The name Big Foot came up and I laughed, I totally blew that idea off.  I came to the conclusion that it was a man, but as I continued to listen, I started having my doubts.  No man could have traversed that terrain with such ease in the middle of the night, bottom line.  And its steps were far to heavy to be a man.  Andrew and Dustin both cut the lines on thier bows in order to make them effective from long distances.  We finally made it back right as our backup battery died.  We looked like a nascar pit crew when we loaded the boat.  We still weren't believers but Dustin came to me yesterday and said that he had been researching big foot encounters in Arkansas on the internet and that after what happened to us, that he believed without a doubt.  I had to check it out for myself, and after reading other peoples encounters, I too believe.  There are so many likenesses in other peoples stories that it's eerie.  1. Swam across a channel very quickley. 2. It stopped every single time we did.  3. It wasn't afraid, as we all yelled at the top of our lungs to try to scare it, which would have most certainly frightened any animal.  5. It followed us, with great skill, for 4 to 5 miles.  Needless to say, we are all very interested in Big Foot now, and plan to make a second trip.  (This time with plenty of extra batteries and cameras.)

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESSES:   bowfishing

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE:  Very heavy footsteps, walked on two legs.

OTHER NOTES:   We would all catch glimpses of a pair of eyes in or spotlights.  Our lights were so weak, however, that we never accutaly got to see the creature.
 

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA: