“Out of no where there was a scream that was unlike any I had heard (even to this day)…”
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word cryptid as “An animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the yeti.” For the following witnesses to living cryptids, there is no dispute. In this series of National Cryptid Society’s case files, you will read what the witnesses have experienced in their own words.
Keep an open mind when reading these accounts, and also remember one’s perception and memory of an event can be influenced by the emotions felt at the time of the occurrence. The contributors to this series of articles are doing the best they can to recount what are in some cases very shocking and traumatic experiences.
If you have a personal cryptid sighting story you would like to tell us, our contact information is at the bottom of this article.
NCS Case File #48: The Bigfoot of Arkansas: Screaming Sasquatch Surprises Hunters, Shots Fired
Location: Cossatot River Arkansas
Witness: “To clarify I marked Cossatot River as the closest area but obviously that is a State park and we were not hunting there. It is just the closest landmark to the area.”
Submitted by: [Anonymous]
“Here’s a little background before I share my story. I was about 8-9 (I’m 25 now) My dad, my uncle, and their friend all went out on a hunting trip. Where we were that day we call “The Bluff”.
The lay of the area is as follows: There is a ridge that runs along a river. Along the river are trees and the area is relatively flat for a few feet before the land shoots up at a steep angle, creating the ridge. The trees there are thick and it is difficult walking for a person. At the top of the ridge is a dirt trail that we walk/ride arcs on while hunting.
On this day we had dropped [ the family friend- name withheld] off at the river and my uncle, father and I were going to go up to the top of the ridge. The plan was for Henry to walk along the river and run a deer over one of us on the top of the ridge. When he reached where he was even with us he would turn and go back to the drop off and we would meet him to pick him up. My uncle left my dad and I in one spot on the road and he went up a bit farther and took his place.
Things were normal and we could hear [the family friend] coming up the river at the bottom for a while before he came into view. My dad signaled that my uncle was still a ways down the road and we waited. Out of no where there was a scream that was unlike any I had heard (even to this day). There was the sound of something huge tearing through the brush up the ridge side and my dad grabbed my arm and pulled me to him (we both assumed it was a bear).
“Whatever it was walked on 2 legs and was about 8-9 ft tall, covered in dark hair. It saw us and turned toward the direction of my uncle. Which is when I started crying, being both equally scared for our lives, confused at what I had seen, and scared for my uncle. There was a gun shot, another scream and then my uncle sprinted up the road to us.
To this day my uncle and [the family friend] refuse to go to that ridge or the river. I still am unsure of what we saw. We don’t talk about it because we don’t want to be ridiculed. But the thing I can say for sure, I’ve been in the woods my entire life and haven’t seen anything close to that since.
And just a side note: there were some “certified Bigfoot hunters” who showed up a few months back who camped in those same woods for about two weeks. Not sure what spurred that but I will always wonder if that’s really what I saw.”
- There was no recollection or additional information as to if the Sasquatch in this account was actually struck by the bullet fired or not.
- Cossatot River State Park – Nature Area, as the witness states, was the closest landmark to the area the encounter occurred. The area lies in Howard County, Arkansas. As of the date of this report, there are no documented Bigfoot sightings in the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization database.
- Almost 100 miles to the South lies the town of Fouke, Arkansas. Fouke is infamous for the sightings of a large, long-haired Bigfoot in and around that area in the 1970’s which became affectionately known as “The Fouke Monster.”
- The Cossatot River Nature Area is located Southwest of the massive Ouachita National Forest. This is an area where the North American Wood Ape Conservancy conducted a four-year study of Bigfoot activity within the forest producing some extremely compelling findings.
“The investigations, conducted over the course of four years, ranged from sixty to one hundred twenty days in duration, and produced experiences, evidence, and information thought to be significant, though not definitive to the point of validating the existence of a native North American anthropoid species. Some of the more notable thoughts and impressions recorded by scores of NAWAC team members are described and discussed in the Ouachita Project monograph…
If you have seen Bigfoot, a cryptid or strange animal, make a report with the National Cryptid Society.