I received the following email from Vidor, Texas in reference a cryptid sighting in or near Rose City, Texas approximately 10 years ago. After reading this email, it reminded me of sightings I had read about in the same general area. I decided to see what I could find:
"I do not know about all the things you talk about, but my recently deceased Uncle Albert once told me of his grandfather having seen a big foot in Arkansas. A local man shot what he thought was a bear. They hung it in the town square until it started to stink up the place. The county is to the east of the county they made the big foot movie about. I do not have any verification."
"About 10 years ago in Rose City, Texas, I drove around the curve on highway 90 just before the railroad crossing to IH-10. Standing in the grass next to the ditch/slew between the two railroads I saw a creature I have never seen in any book or anywhere else. It was upright like a man. It was as tall as a buck dear, but had a shape & stance more like a rooster. It's eyes were very expressive. It's expression was like 'oh no, you aren't suppose to see me', but not afraid. It had a ridge that was variegated and reminded me of a child's hoola-hoop in shape/design. That ridge went up it's chest, face, over the head and down it's back like a horses mane. It's skin was light tan like deer fur, but had a soft scaled appearance. It moved very fast. I assume it went into the stagnant water behind him because it was gone before I got to the curve where it had been standing. I did not get out or stop since I was by myself."
Vidor, TX resident
NOTE: That's an excellent description and one that I have never heard before. Any ideas? Sounds like a creature that would definitely be from the 'other side'...Lon
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The following is a BFRO Class A report from a sighting just east of Rose City, TX in Orange, TX:
Report # 21438 (Class A)
Submitted by witness on Sunday, September 02, 2007. Late Night Sighting by Motorist near I-10
YEAR: 2007
SEASON: Summer
MONTH: August
DATE: 13
STATE: Texas
COUNTY: Orange County
NEAREST TOWN: Orange
NEAREST ROAD: Womack rd
OBSERVED: my mom and I where driving home from a friends house and we noticed a very large man crouched on the side of the road so we turned the car around to see if he needed help by the time we had returned he was gone so we continued on are way and about a quarter of a mile down the road we saw a very large thing cross the road in two steps it walked upright had very dark brown red shaggy fur and it had to have been 7.5-8 foot in height after we witnessed this we where pretty spooked so we didn't stick around
ALSO NOTICED: I noticed that it had pulled up some wild onions
OTHER WITNESSES: one other witness
OTHER STORIES: yes a close family friend said that he had seen it at the same location about 20 years ago
TIME AND CONDITIONS: 9:01pm fairly light hot and dry
ENVIRONMENT: farmland with swampy woods about a mile east of sighting location
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator D.A. Brake:
The witness was interviewed in detail by phone. The witness was a passenger in the car driven by her mother and was traveling approximately 40 mph when it passed the crouched animal with its back to the road approximately 10-20 ft off the passenger side of the road. They continued approximately ¼ mile down the road, turned around and started back to the area of the sighting moving at a slower speed of 25-30 mph. Their car continued past the point of the first sighting at which point another car was noticed approaching from the other direction.
In the headlights of both cars, the witness described seeing a bi-pedal animal cross the road approximately 150 feet in front of their car, moving from left to right. She described the creature as moving at a fast walk, slightly hunched forward and having a pointed head, unusually long arms with hair on its back, chest and upper thighs. She also described the animal as having an athletic build and weighing at least 400 lbs. The animal did not turn its head toward either car while crossing and appeared to be carrying root-like objects in its left hand. When the creature reached the other side of the road, it briefly stopped and looked left and right and then disappeared into the tall bushes. The animal was not observed by the time the car passed the point where the animal had entered the bushes. They continued up the road and then turned around and started back in the original direction they were headed and do not see anything further.
The next morning the witness and mother returned to the point of the sighting where the creature was first spotted crouching by the road. The witness looked around the area and noticed that the ground had been dug up and described it as looking similar to what a wild pig may do when feeding on plants and roots. She also noticed several broken branches about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter about 4-5’ off the ground. No footprints were observed and the witness commented that it had rained late the previous night and into that morning.
The witness lives approximately 10 miles from the area of the sighting and travels this same road 3-4 times a week. A Union Pacific railroad line runs parallel to the road. The area of the sighting is fairly rural with forested hardwoods and pines with sporadic swamps and farmland on both sides of the road. The witness spends a lot of time outdoors hunting and fishing and is familiar with the indigenous animals of the area.
BFRO Investigator D.A. Brake
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The following account is from a sighting in an area by the Neches River near Beaumont, TX...not far from the sightings posted above:
"Two friends and I were fishing in South Texas on the bank of the Neches River about three in the afternoon. We had been there about four hours when my friend said something about hearing something in the woods behind us. We all had been hearing it but were not concerned and did not think it was important."
"Anyway, my friend Tim turned around and almost had a heart attack. He just kind of whimpered because he was too scared to talk. It is funny now but was rather serious then. Anyway, we all turned around to see a very large animal standing just outside of the treeline looking at us as if he wanted something. Well needless to say we did not stick around to see what it wanted. We all backed into the water about ten or fifteen feet and then walked down the river until we were at least fifty feet downriver from it."
"The thing we saw was a good six and a half to seven feet tall with hair all over it. It did not appear mean and I think if it was I would not be telling you about it. Anyway, we left. Only thing was we left all our gear so we went back the next day to get our stuff and found the darnedest thing. All our stuff was there except the stink bait. The can was there but the bait had been scooped out and I guess eaten. I don’t know if it had eaten it or what but I think that is what it was there for in the first place. It smelled our bait and thought maybe it could get an easy meal."
"When I think back on it now I can’t help but think that if we had not left when we saw it then it would probably just have left. It did not seem mean or aggravated at all. We were just scared anyhow. That is my story. I swear its true. My name is Thomas Vick. I won’t tell the names of my friends but can tell you they, like me, will never forget that day. But you know I feel very fortunate to be able to say that I have seen what I’ve seen and I think that it is really cool. By the way, we were fishing on the bank of the Neches River near Beaumont, Texas."
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This report was filed in reference to a sighting in Jefferson County, TX (near the area of the previous report) on October 1984 to the TBRC:
Report #01060011
Occurred October 15, 1984 -(Submitted April 7, 2006)
Witness Observation:
I was squirrel hunting out around Pine Island Bayou in the early afternoon. I was walking down a make shift trail running beside the bayou. The area was pretty open and you could see everything clearly. No high brush or dense wooded areas either. I was sitting on an old tree that had fallen and was snacking on something and petting my dog that was with me, half lab/half pit bull. We were sitting there when all of a sudden we heard this splashing noise coming from the bayou which was probably 50 feet to the side of me. The splashing was probably 200 feet away from me down the trail. My dog snapped to attention and I had my shotgun pulled and ready for whatever we saw. Up the bank came this large creature walking on 2 legs. It looked right at me and took a step toward me when my dog started growling and barking at it. It was probably 6'5" - 7'0", covered in dark brown, somewhat wet hair from head to toe. It looked right at me and it looked like the face of a man who had not shaved in many years but it was very intimidating. Well, my dog started to run toward it and it picked up an old log and threw it at him, then turned around and ran back across the bayou and back into the woods on the other side. It had made a kind of growling/yelling noise when it threw the log at him. I did shoot at it when it threw the log but I only had a single shot .410 and I do not know if any of the buckshot hit him. It scared me so bad that instead of running back up the trail I had came down, I just ran straight into the woods behind me until I came to the first house in the back part of the sub-division and never looked back until I hit the road that was there and waited for my dog to catch up to me. From that day forth I have never went back into those woods or any woods around me. I have not told anyone until recently we saw the report on the Travel Channel and I told my wife what I saw. I did not stay around or go back and look for anything. I will say this, I still have dreams/nightmares of that moment.
Physical Evidence: I did not go back and look nor did I tell anyone about it.
Sounds: It growled/yelled
Additional Observations: Large creature walking on 2 legs. It was probably 6' 5" - 7' 0", covered in dark brown, somewhat wet hair from head to toe. It looked right at me and it looked like the face of a man who had not shaved in many years but it was very intimidating. No. Too far away to notice.
This was at Pine Island Bayou, back of Bevil Oaks Subdivision, (now part of a Big Thicket National Preserve corridor)
Time and Conditions: 2:00pm - Clear and Cool. Swampy & wooded.
Investigator's Comments:
Bob Hilliard
I spoke with the witness on 25 May 2006. He gave me no reasons to dismiss his report, was very cordial and seemed very sincere about what he allegedly saw.
As stated in his report, the witness told me that he was hunting for squirrels with his dog behind the Bevil Oaks subdivision and was sitting about 50 feet from Pine Island Bayou. He reportedly heard a loud splashing sound and then sounds like something large coming through the water to his side of the bayou. Thinking maybe it was a deer, the witness stated that he crouched down so that it would not see him. The witness went on to tell me that to his surprise, "a large creature with dark brown, almost black hair, walking on two legs, came up the bank."
The witness said that it looked straight at him and its face looked very human. The witness reported that when his dog started barking, the strange subject made sort of a growling yelp, threw a small log their way, then turned and went back across the bayou and into the woods. He said the bayou is at least five feet deep but the subject had no problem at all crossing it.
The witness stated that the wind was behind him and the subject was about 50 to 75 yards away so there was no smell. He also stated that he had seen some tracks earlier but thought the reason they were so big was because the person making them was sliding in the slick mud.
After thinking about it later on, the witness said:
1. No one would be walking around out there barefoot and;
2. He didn't remember seeing any slide marks.
When asked if he had had any other experiences in the area or heard of any more sightings, the witness replied that two of his friends had supposedly heard some strange whooping and howling in the same area and that there was another alleged sighting a couple of years later further on down the bayou. The witness had not heard of anything recently.
It is my assessment that the witness seemed credible, was very forthcoming and answered all my questions as best he could. The witness told me that he just recently told his wife about his sighting because he had seen the TBRC on the Travel Channel; according to his own testimony, he has never told anyone else.
The area in which the sighting occurred is now quite developed, although much less so at the time of the alleged event. About three miles from this area to the west, the Big Thicket National Preserve Bayou corridor continues into Little Pine Island Bayou, which eventually runs through the Lance Rosier Unit, and on northward toward the Turkey Creek and Big Sandy Creek units; none of the units mentioned here are without reported "wild man" sightings, both aged and recent.
Sources:
Phantoms and Monsters archives
bigfootsightings.org
BFRO.net
www.texasbigfoot.org
southwestpaddler.com
Cryptid Sightings: Jefferson / Orange Counties - Texas Gulf Coast