Report Received From: GCBRO Field Researcher, through cooperation from the RFP Research Project .
 

DATE:    Summer 2004
 

TIME:     Various
 

LOCATION:   Saline County, Arkansas
 

TERRAIN:    Wooded, Mountains
 

OBSERVED:    The researcher initiated a three month long investigation in the area after several years of fruitless searching for the
home range of an unidentified animal that he and four others had heard as the animal initiated a long, loud bellowing call from the top of a remote mountain about midnight during the month of December.

The researcher had been systematically scouting the Forest in Saline and Perry counties by playing recorded calls of the bigfoot/sasquatch and recorded sounds of other large primates through a small, high volume PA system from twilight to late at
night. Finally a response was received from two or more animals traveling together at dark one night in an area about 8 miles west of the upper end of an undisclosed lake in Saline County.  Both the lake and the area in which the animals were heard are within the boundaries of the XXXXX part of the Forest.

The responses were heard in early July of 2004. Within two days the investigator set up bait stations at two nearby locations. Various fruits, meat, dog food, pecans and fish were used as attractants. Some of the baits were left on the ground and the rest placed in
heavy duty cardboard buckets with rolled rims and suspended eight and one half feet off the ground on fine stainless steel wire
stretched between trees. The wire is small enough that raccoons cannot hold onto it to hand-walk it from the trees to the buckets. The capacity of each bucket is about one gallon. Each buckets was equipped with a bail made from the stainless steel wire and inserted
through the sides of the buckets below the rolled and crimped top edge. While dry, the rims of the buckets will withstand very hard pulls on the bails without being cut by the wire.

The only food that was routinely eaten were fruits and nuts from the ground.  Most were eaten on the spot, although a large quantity of pears (several gallons) were apparently taken from the site. There were tracks of three different size bears, deer, coyotes and raccoons seen in the forest road close to the area.

On one occasion there was a large body imprint left in the leaves beside the pears at one bait station, although no hair was found and the researcher felt it may have been left by the larger of the three bears that foraged in the area. The areas baited are very rocky, so footprints left in the leaves at the immediate bait sites were not very definitive.

In mid-July the researcher left no bait at the sites except that which was placed in the buckets. On one visit he placed cantaloupe in one of the buckets and a different type of dog food in one of the adjoining buckets. He also carried to the site a can of "drippings" and fat particles from a broiled beef brisket. A small part of the beef drippings was poured over the dog food. The rest of the open can of drippings was purposely set on the steeply inclined surface of a large rock at the site. The investigator then enclosed the perimeter of that feeding site with heavy duty green thread that was wrapped and half-hitched around trees at a precise height of seven and one half off the ground. The diameter of the enclosed area was about twenty five feet. Before he left the site about 2 hours after dark, he played
the recorded bigfoot/sasquatch calls. There was an immediate response from two different locations. The two sounds heard from both directions were identical and were loud, short bellowing noises somewhat similar to a person shouting loudly in anger. (There were no
humans in that area. The sounds came from remote mountain ridges which are rough, ragged and with no roads.)

The writer returned to the site two days later. He found that the perimeter thread had been broken alongside one of the trees to which it was attached. The thread had been stretched so tightly before it broke that the ten feet of loose thread was coiled in a small pile on the side of the other tree at a point about 2 inches below where it was wrapped around that tree. He noted that the rim of the bucket containing the dog food had been cut by the wire bail by something pulling on the bucket. The bucket had been carefully set on the ground nearly underneath its original location. None of the dog food had been spilled, and it appeared none had been eaten. The can that had contained the beef drippings was drained of every drop, not a drop had been spilled on the leaves, and the can had been set carefully upright on the ground beside the rock.

During the three month period of investigations in this area, the investigator hiked over many miles in search of tracks and other
physical evidence of unusual animals. During these hikes he carried with him a CD player containing an assortment of Bigfoot and other primate calls, along with a set of small stereo amplifiers. He also carried a set of Walker's Hunter Ears. One one occasion he played the BF calls from the stream bed in a narrow, steep sided valley. Within a few seconds he could hear something crashing through brush along the top of the ridge on the east side of the valley. The animals making the sound was coming toward him. From his concealed location he scanned the fairly open lower part of the ridge with binoculars. Nothing was seen.

Although there was no wind, he heard through the "electronic ears" the deafening sound of a dead tree falling in the area the other sounds had originated from. Nothing else was seen or heard. At that time a thunderstorm was approaching, and since the researcher
had no rain protection for the electronic equipment, he started back toward his truck which was about 3/4 mile from him. After
walking briskly for several minutes he judged he was close enough to the truck to beat the rain if he used the calls again. He played the calls and immediately put on the Hunter's Ears. As soon as he turned them on he heard a very loud growling/snarling sound from a
steep, rocky, brush covered slope immediately west of him. Although he carefully scanned the slope with binoculars, he saw no
movement and no animal.

Several days later the Investigator hiked toward the point where one of the sounds had originated from the first time responses were received after playing the BF calls. As he neared  the top of the ridge which led directly to the high point from which responses had originated, he heard loud, repetitive hooting sounds from the high point that were very similar to those made by howler monkeys or apes. The sounds had an aggressive tone, and since the Investigator was alone and unarmed, he chose not to try to approach the animal making the sounds.

From the first part of July to the latter part of August the researcher and three others made numerous trips to the area. All heard various responses from animals that could not be identified for certain after the BF and primate calls were broadcast. By the end of September the animals quit responding to the recorded calls. We discovered they would respond to loud prolonged shouts by men or women. On one occasion at night some large animal crashed through the brush to within twenty yards or so of the researcher and his mature granddaughter just a few minutes after she made a prolonged wavering shout. (She beat the Investigator to the security of the truck's cab only because of her age, speed and agility.)

This area is within the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's XXXXX Wildlife Management Area and firearms are only allowed during hunting seasons. On September 1 the researcher returned to the site to scout the area where the hooting sounds originated. At that time he carried a sidearm. During the expedition he found faint but clear footprints in nearly dried mud/sand below a small spring-fed pool high on the side of the mountain. Some of the mud/sand had adhered to the sole of the animal's foot and was left on the surfaces of two adjoining large rocks alongside the pool of water.
Photographs were made of both tracks, although the photos do not show the tracks as well as could be seen by the eye.

During one of the last trips to the area before the researcher left to set up arrangements for November & December investigations in the Clark County Alabama Studies Area, he played the recorded calls shortly after dark one night. After an hour and a half of sitting and listening through the Hunter's Ears, and hearing nothing but cicadas, coyotes and owls he decided to leave and began reloading his equipment. Before leaving he decided, just for the heck of it, to whistle long and loud to see what would happen.
After the whistle he waited for several seconds with no response, so he continued to load his equipment, thinking to himself the whistle was a stupid idea.  At that time he heard the same, loud identical whistling sound coming from a ridge top about 400 yards away. The response was so unexpected that it felt as if the hair was standing up on the back of his neck. After waiting with a flash camera at the ready for about another fifteen minutes, no other sounds were heard and the Investigator left the site.

There have been several sightings, and numerous reports of weird and unusual animal sounds from this area since it was settled over a hundred and fifty years ago.

During the first week of September (as squirrel opened) the Investigator spoke with five different people who had heard strange, loud and unusual animals sounds around there camp. In one case a hunter hunter saw deer fleeing in panic from an area where he and the deer had heard a loud screaming sound at daybreak.
The investigator will try to contact that witness to see if an incident report is warranted.

The area is still under investigation by this and other investigators from The RFP Research Project. Any other information of interest gathered by the group will be shared with the GCBRO.
 

Activities of Witness:   Conducting field investigations
 

Description of Creature:  Observed faint imprints of large man-feet in semi-dry mud/sand  and on large rocks at a remote and secluded spring-fed pool. Heard a variety of unusual vocal sounds from non-typical animals, including yelling/screaming, howling, roaring, snarling and loud whistles. Also heard in these remote areas the mechanical sounds of wood-on-wood, and rock-on-rock.
Saw indirect evidence of the presence of an animal that was at least seven and one half feet tall and evidence that the animal possessed the dexterity of hand as a human.

Other Notes:    The investigator observed with particular interest - and with great curiosity - that coyotes and both red and grey fox
responded to recorded bigfoot/sasquatch calls in the middle of the day and at night. It was noted these animals rushed into plain sight of the researcher on four different occasions in the middle of the afternoon and on other occasions at night. The animals disregarded the presence of the researcher and searched the immediate area with their noses to the ground as if searching for food they expected to be there.

The animals that made the variety of sounds and left the direct and indirect evidence of their presence were not seen.
 

Additional Notes and or Follow up Comments:  Upon contact the witness had no further information to add to this report.

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