Year: 2006
Month: July
Day of Month (number only – e.g. 16): July 7-8
Time of Day: Friday night: about 8:45 pm & something different at about 11:05 pm. Saturday night:
9:45 pm and something different at about 12:15 am. See description.
County: Missouri Dent
Terrain Description: Ozark hills with deep gullies & ravines. Mostly oak forest with
some pine sections. We are located on private property within the Mark Twain National Forest. A lot of the ground is rocky or gravelly. We are as rural as you can get with no electricity or running water.
Lighting Conditions: Bright, half-moon shining both nights.
Nearest Town or Landmark: Salem, Missouri; Closest Road: Dent County Road 433 off of Missouri
Highway 32, There are highway bridges over some of the creeks on MO-32. We don’t know of any caves in the area as we are at an altitude of about 1300+ feet and caves usually form at around the 600-800 foot level in Missouri.
Description of Encounter Area: There are highway bridges over some of the creeks on MO-32. We
don’t know of any caves in the area as we are at an altitude of about 1300+ feet and caves usually form at around the 600-800 foot level in Missouri.
Are There Food and/or Water Sources in the Area? (if so, describe): Yes, details not given
Not given, anonymous
Number of Witnesses: 2
Length of Observation: Over 2-Day Period
Vocalizations Heard?: various
We (my wife & I and our 3 dogs, 2 Labrador Retrievers & 1 Rottweiler) went down to the cabin this
weekend of 7-9 July 2006.
Friday evening after we got all settled in and while we were sitting around the fire pit watching the fire, I started hearing some whoops and then some howls very far off in the distance (probably 1 1/2 miles away.) My wife says she didn’t hear them but I have been listening for these types of strange noises since my last “possible encounter” in March of 2005. She said that she heard what she thought were some possible coyotes. These sounds weren’t from any animal I know of in the woods of Missouri. They never came any closer than about a mile from the cabin.
We went to bed at about 10:15 after listening to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. We had the
windows open and a cool breeze was blowing in keeping us nice and cool all night long (the temp
dropped to 59 degrees at 03:30AM.) There was about a half-moon shining brightly. I was just drifting off to sleep (my wife was already asleep – heavy sleeper) and at about 11:05 pm the night sounds stopped (even the whippoorwills.) About 4-5 minutes later, I heard something heavy-footed walking in the brush maybe 45-50 yards from the cabin going down the road we use to get the tractor down to the meadow to brush-hog our trails. No smell, no other sounds, just a very heavy set of footfalls like a very big animal would make. I never saw anything, just heard the footfalls.
I got up Saturday morning at 06:45AM and after a light breakfast, got on the tractor and then brush-
hogged about 3 1/2 miles of trails all over our property. It took about 5 1/2 hrs as I make sure that the
trails are about 6′-8′ wide. We went to town for dinner Saturday evening and came back to the cabin
around 8:30 pm. We were sitting on the front porch before going to bed and at about 9:45 pm. All of a sudden my wife heard some squeaking sounds coming from the brush about 35-40 yards off to the right of the porch. Then I heard some grunting sounds a little closer. At this point I had my wife take the dogs into the cabin as I didn’t know what was out there. I sat out on the porch and listened, with the porch light off, for about 15 minutes as the grunting and what sounded like mumbling (and this wasn’t the noises a wild hog makes) and squeaking continued until it went completely away. Again there was no smell or unusual odor of any kind that I could smell. Later (about 12:15 am), after we had gone to bed, the night sounds completely stopped and about 4-5 minutes later I heard the same noises again for about 10 minutes. Again I heard the heavy footfalls, like from the night before, going down one of the newly brush-hogged trails about 30-35 yards from on the left side of the cabin. They were going away from the cabin. I was the only one who heard them because my wife was already asleep. We all got up Sunday morning and after I investigated the trails and found nothing (no footprints or anything else), we ate breakfast, packed the truck up and left to go home.
Friday night:
Whoops – like a monkey at the zoo.
Howls – low guttural howl going up to high pitched howl similar to that of a coyote but much more
guttural.
Footfalls – very heavy tramping sounds on the road like a heavy animal walking along.
Saturday:
Squeaking – Noises like a small animal being squeezed or as my wife stated, “…like a rusty gate
squeaking on its hinges…”
Grunts – like a wild pig rooting around in the brush but much deeper and guttural and we haven’t seen any.
Mumbling – like an old demented person talking to themselves under their breath but very guttural.
Footfalls – very heavy tramping sounds on the newly brush-hogged trail like a heavy animal walking
along. My wife DID NOT hear the footfalls as she was very deeply sleeping. She says the howls are
coyotes. She didn’t hear the grunting or mumbling sounds either, she says. She does not believe in
“Bigfoot or Sasquatch” and is a very conservative, straight-laced person. I don’t think she will talk about
this with anyone else. She barely will talk about it with me.
Mike Humphrey