By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Listening to one of my podcasts last week, I was struck by a story from a man who, as a child, passed through the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma on a cross-country trip with his parents. He shared a story about a hike in the woods where they were camping that took him to the summit of a nearby peak where he spotted a pair of mountain lion or bobcat cubs playing among the rocks. Worried that a parent might be nearby, he decided it was time to head back for camp. During his return hike he said he was trailed by something – but it wasn’t a concerned mama cat. Instead, the caller claimed, it was something much more akin to a human, but bigger.
He claimed it was only later, as an adult, that he would learn of the area’s history of Bigfoot reports; giving name to the thing he thought he saw so long ago.
For the skeptically minded, there are a few red flags in the man’s story; just imagine, for instance, the kind of luck it would take to not only run into a pair of big cat cubs in the wild, but then to also see a heretofore uncatalogued creature on your hike out. As the podcast host pointed out, this kid should have bought a lottery ticket for his family.
But, as the caller noted, the Ouachita Mountains do have a history of reported Bigfoot activity. They’re a moderately rugged chain of mountains, about 300 million years old give or take, which makes them significantly older than the Rocky Mountains (which formed between 55 and 80 million years ago) and younger than the Appalachians, which first started forming more than a billion years ago, before undergoing another uplift about half a billion years ago. It’s remarkably similar to Appalachia in habitat, but because of the land’s more rugged nature, a lot more of that habitat is inaccessible to casual traffic. Or, at least, the area where I camped was.
See, the reason this particular call caught my ear is because I, too, have spent time in the Ouachitas. Not just as a casual camper, but as part of a Bigfoot research group.
During my time in Texas, I became involved with a group known as the TBRC (Texas Bigfoot Research Center) which later changed their name to the NAWAC (North American Wood Ape Conservancy), and they maintained a research area inside the Ouachita Mountains. The exact location of the research area, on private property surrounded by paper mill land and acreage set aside for wildlife conservation, is a secret. The group has allowed documentary filmmakers to visit the location, however. Seth Breedlove, from Small Town Monsters, visited the site – known as Area X – and filmed footage which was included in his On The Trail of Bigfoot series. Actor Rob Lowe and his sons also visited the location for an episode of his show, The Lowe Files.
While neither of these filmmakers saw a Bigfoot during their stay, they both experienced noises and other incidents such as having things thrown at them or their tents.
Now, I personally don’t believe in Bigfoot, but I do believe that both Breedlove and the Lowes had the experiences they described inside Area X. I believe them because I’ve experienced it too.
While sleeping in a cabin on the property, during one of the group outings to check hair snares and camera traps, we were all awakened by the sound of stones being tossed onto the tin roof. Only the men sleeping upstairs were disturbed by the noise, with the women sleeping downstairs completely unaware of the commotion. But, like clockwork, each time we’d convince ourselves the moment had passed, cease whispering among ourselves, and start to doze back off, we’d hear the “ping” of rock on metal roof.
If it had been a different time of year we might have been able to chalk it up to acorns or hickory nuts falling onto the roof – though to be honest that would have been unlikely even in season given the way the cabin was built with no such trees nearby.
So, they had to be coming from somewhere, and while I say I don’t believe in Bigfoot – because science hasn’t described them yet and I’ve never seen one myself – I do feel like there is enough intriguing evidence to warrant continued investigation. After all, hundreds of sincere witnesses have seen something, in the Ouachitas, the Appalachians, the Rockies, the Olympic Mountains, and elsewhere. And while black bears are plentiful in the Ouachita Mountains, and could be responsible for some misidentifications, bears don’t have thumbs. They can’t throw rocks.
Bears do clack their teeth when threatened, which might account for some reports of rock banging or tree knocking sounds. But that, again, isn’t the same as having a rock chucked at your tent or bouncing off the tin roof of your cabin.
Something is going on out there, and if it isn’t an unidentified giant ape, I’m just as curious as to why given a fleeting sighting of something large some folks immediately assume bear while the minds of others go elsewhere.
Because I don’t really believe in Bigfoot. But I also don’t believe all of the witnesses are lying. They experienced something. Something that was real to them. The least we can do is listen; seriously and sincerely, and hope some day to collect enough of the puzzle pieces to put together a coherent picture.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
