DATE:         07/00/78

TIME:          11pm appox

LOCATION:   Town of Hawley ,State of Massachusetts, County of Franklin
 

TERRAIN:     Incident happened in Hawley State Forest. Swampy  Large swamp
                 surrounded by large forest.
 

OBSERVED:
My father his friend and I were coon hunting. We were "roading" the dogs which means we would drive slow down miles of dirt roads with the dogs running in front of the jeep. Hoping to cut a fresh racoon track. We came upon this large swamp that is beside one of the roads. My father called it Hell's Kitchen. He said in his words it was a hellhole. Which means very hard to walk through. As we passed this area the dogs ran into the woods along the edge of it. A few minutes later we heard a scream come from the woods where the dogs went into. It sounded about 200 or so yards deep into the woods. Both my old man and his buddy said what the hell was that! They were in their early fifties then and had hunted dogs all their life. The next thing we know all three dogs came running out of the woods with thier tails between thier legs. Whatever it was then made sounds of breaking large branches. My father jumped out of the jeep opened the door and all three dogs pretty much flew into the jeep. My father slammed the door and we took off. The only reason I reported this was that I have never heard anything like that before. And my father and his friend both had owned coon and rabbit dogs since they were teenagers had never heard anything like that. In describing the sound I would say it was a gutteral scream that sounded somewhat like a woman only much deeper. When ever we hunted that area after that we would pick up the dogs or avoid that particular part of the forest.

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESSES:  Racoon hunting, Roading the dogs.

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE:

OTHER NOTES: It was a calm Summer night. I do remember it was dark. So there wasn't much moonlight.

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA:Only heard a scream and heard maybe a half dozen loud snaps. From what sounded like large branches breaking.,  There has been mountain lion sightings in the area but whatever made that noise was not a mountain lion. As far as a bigfoot type creature none that I know of.