DATE:  1979
 

TIME:  5:30 pm
 

LOCATION:  Wapello, Iowa,   Louisa County.  Lake Odessa
 

TERRAIN:  Heavily Wooded, Hilly, Farmland, Lake
 

OBSERVED:    This was told to me by my friend/neighbor that I've known for a
little over 9yrs. We live in Texas. My friend I will call XXXXX (she doesn't
want her name mentioned). She's originally from Iowa and this is where
she has had 3 encounters while living in Iowa that she will never forget.
First off let me explain how the subject was brought up. I invited her over
for coffee one morning a few months back and asked her while she was living
in Iowa did she hear or ever experience anything unusual. Well she asked
me why do you ask? So I told her that I'm a member of an organization that
researchers Bigfoot and that i was curious. Well this surprised her and she
said finally there is someone that I can tell my story to. I asked her if
it would be ok for me to interview her and she said sure. First she
explained to me the area. Her parents owns a few cabins. Where they stayed
during the summers. There are other cabins in the area also.
The area where some of the cabins are is highly protected private
property. There is a lake called Lake Odessa. One side of the Lake is
government owned and the other side is where the cabins are. The side where
the cabins are located is heavily wooded, hilly and farm land. The lake is
not even a mile away.
Here is the 1st encounter: XXXXX was 12yrs old (1979 summertime 5:30pm)
when she first noticed something unusual while walking in the woods. She was
walking along a thin trail to meet her brother. She explained that there
were several trails in the area that was already there and that all the kids
would walk along these trails.
XXXXX was meeting her brother in an area where the local kids would hang
out and were building a log cabin. While she was walking along one of the
thin trails she was taking in the scenery and just enjoying her walk to
where she was to meet her brother and work on the cabin. Suddenly she felt
like she was being watched and followed.
She would walk and would hear something to her side in the woods walking.
She would stop and whatever it was would stop. She thought it might have
been her brother playing tricks on her so she called out and got no answer.
She walked a little farther and kept having that feeling. She was really
getting scared and she thought she saw something out of the corner of her
eye in the bushes. Whatever it was she said she had the feeling that whatever
it was knew she was alone. She did feel like it was something big. Well she
continued to have that scared feeling so she decided to run back to where
she came from. When she got close to her parent's summer cabin that feeling
went away like whatever it was had stopped following her. Later after her brother
got back she asked him was you at our play area where the cabin we are building
and he said yeah I waited for you but you never showed up.

2nd Encounter: Happened 3yrs later which she was 15 yrs old This was in
the same area and was in early spring. XXXXX and a friend left her parents
cabin to sneak off to smoke cigs. Well as they were walking along one of the
trails they both felt something following them. They got really spooked to a
point where they decided to go back to the cabin and not go smoke cigs.
XXXXX did say it was the same feeling that she had 3yrs before.

3rd Encounter: happened in 1997 XXXXX and her husband were having problems
to where they separated and she took the kids and went to Iowa to stay at
one of her parents cabins. Her and the kids stayed there for 8 months. Her
and her husband worked out their problems and she moved back home to Texas.
She remembers this one incident late at night while the kids were in bed.
She was watching TV in the family room. The only light in the room was from the
TV. She heard something outside on the side of the cabin which is where the
family room is at. The sound was like a thumping sound. Her first thought
was that it sounded like someone maybe moving a ladder. She was sitting on
the couch watching TV and she felt like she was being watched then she
looked at the window and saw eyes which she decribed to be big, greenish in
color and were far apart. She thought maybe the neigboring kids were peeking in
to see if her kids were awake or it could've been one of her friends named
XXXXX. She described the window as being a picture window that was set up
high. So she called out and got no answer. That's when she got up to walk
towards the window. When she got to the window whatever that was looking in
was gone. She stepped out onto the porch and didn't see anything or hear anything. The next morning her friend XXXXX came by and she asked him what were you doing looking in the window last night and his answer was I just got back from out of town.
Then she told him what had happened and he said things like that happen all
the time out here. He told her that he noticed strange things happen over
the years around this area. Later she checked with the neighbors that has
kids and they weren't home. She found out later that they
were out of town on vacation.
 

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESS(ES):  1st encounter- walking along thin trail to meet her brother so they can work on a log cabin that they and some other kids had been making.

2nd encounter- snuck out with a friend to smoke cigs and was walking along
one of the thin trails.

3rd encounter- sitting in family room watching tv late at night.
 

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE:  N/A
 

OTHER NOTES:  XXXXX has heard her friend XXXXX say that strange things that has
happened in the area over the years.  XXXXX kids would be walking in the woods and come home and tell their mom that they felt like they were watched and followed by something.
She also mentioned that the people that stayed there or use to stay there in the cabins felt that there was something out there even though they've never seen it but has felt it.
 

OTHER OTHER NOTES:  XXXXX and her family is planning a summer trip out there at the cabins this summer (2001) and she is going to talk to some people that she's
known for a long time and see if they can give her more details of the strange things that has happened in that area over the years.

I have showed her my pictures that I've taken on my field researches of the different limp formations. So she can see if there is anything like that out there. I had asked her and she never really noticed. But she will when she goes out there this summer.

She did tell me that looking at my pictures and listening to me and reading the reports on the GCBRO website and remembering some people talking about strange things happening and what she's encountered is Bigfoot related. I asked her to keep me posted and she said she will.
 

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA?: