DATE:      November 1996

TIME:       Predawn

LOCATION:    Tennessee, Union County
                    Chuck Swann State Forest (Wildlife Management Area)

TERRAIN:      Southeastern portion of the area, Rocky Terrain

OBSERVED:     I am an avid outdoorsman and hunter. I am originally from the East
Tennessee area. I have recently moved to Colorado after a 2-year stay in
Louisiana. In the last issue of the Louisiana Sportsman that I received
there was an article outlining mysterious animal sightings from around the
country and information on the GCBRO website.

After logging on I became intrigued with the numerous sightings in
Tennessee and was reminded of a sighting that was related to me by a
trusted hunting partner. The sighting was very close in geography to the
other reports from the Cumberland Plateau region of Upper Mid Tennessee. I
thought the information might be useful to researchers in the area.

First off I want to explain that I spent a lot of time in the remote
mountains of upper East Tennessee. (This information is FYI and not related
to my friends sighting.). One of my favorite haunts was a Wilderness area
in the Cherokee National Forest just north of the shores of Watauga Lake.
It was a two-mile hike into the area and I very rarely saw other hunters.
It was just too far back and too rough for most hunters.

I have seen numerous signs in this area as outlined in other reports such
as stacked rocks, limb formations, and broken trees. I never once
attributed these signs to anything other than other hunters. I have also
heard some animal sounds that I could not identify. One time in particular
I told my family that I thought I heard a Mountain Lion which I believe can
live undetected in such a remote area. Now I am not so sure what I heard.
Over the last 27 years of being in the outdoors I have, on several
occasions, had that impending feeling of doom as if I was being followed or
watched. Once again, I dismissed these feelings as paranoia.

After reading some of the reports of encounters and weighing my friend's
story I am quite sure we are not alone in the woods. The account of the
phone conversation with my friend is as follows:

My son had just been drawn to participate in a youth deer hunt at the Chuck
Swann State Forest (Wildlife Management Area). The property includes over
25,000 acres of rocky, rolling hills mixed in with bottomlands and crop
fields. The entire property is a peninsula surrounded on three sides by a
lake.

Due to the vast size of the property I called a friend whom I knew had
hunted the property to get an insight on good places to hunt. My friend
offered the information that I needed and was enthusiastic about the
possibilities of success on the area. I thanked him and asked him to join
me later in the season on the property for an open bow hunt. He hesitated
and then told me that he didn't hunt Chuck Swann any more. I asked him why
and he once again hesitated and told me I was going to laugh at him and
think he was crazy. He told me, "I saw a Bigfoot the last time I hunted
there. I had gotten into my tree stand well before first light and was
settled in when dawn began to break. When you could just begin to make out
outlines I heard what I thought was another hunter coming up the exact
route I took to my stand. It became apparent that the creature was much too
large to be a man and it walked right up to my tree stand and looked up at
me. I could tell it was a Bigfoot. I don't hunt there anymore."

I didn't laugh at my friend and we remained in contact for several years.
The date of his encounter was in November of 1996. He had absolutely no
reason to lie to me. I believe the encounter was real.

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESS(ES):    Walked into the pre dawn darkness and installed his
climbing tree stand.

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE:

OTHER NOTES:   Few details were related to me. My friend seemed to be
embarrassed about the incident

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA: