A listener writes “I live in the SW corner of Missouri. Where these encounters happened was on my parents property which is just a few miles from the Mark Twain National Forest. I have two stories that I’m pretty positive was Bigfoot and one that is just a strange noise that I can’t pinpoint.
The first encounter happened when I was about 12 I’d say, so about the year 2000.
A little preface, my grandpa had bought this small camper trailer and stripped the insides to use in an old school bus he was converting to a camper. My cousin and I made it into our own little “play house” and played in it all the time. It was parked on the edge of the wood line about 125 feet from my aunt and uncle’s house. We decided to sleep in it one night along with 2 of my other cousins. So when dark came we got ourselves all set up and went to bed.
We woke up at some point in the night and had to go to the bathroom, so we walked up to the house and did our business and then headed back to the camper. I’m not sure how long we had been back and gotten ourselves settled and such but I’m gonna guess somewhere between 30 min to an hour. Well we were awoken to something hitting the door handle on the camper. Now, this camper had one of those doors with like the 3 frosted windowpanes in it so you couldn’t see a definitive shape or any kind of features, but it was hitting the door handle and all of the windows were blocked out black so it was taking up every bit of space outside of that door. That went on for I’d say 30 seconds maybe and then it stopped and we had nothing else happen and we didn’t leave that camper until daylight!
My second story happens a few years later and this was actually about 2-3 miles as the crow flies (just down the road) from where the first story happened. My dad and uncle shared the property where the first story happened and then a few years later my aunt and uncle bought some property just down the road from there. So my cousin and I decided to go camping down in the gully on the property. We basically lived in tents during the summer when we were kids, we were always camping out at the other property where my parents still live so this wasn’t a first time adventure for us. So the camping site we picked was down the hill from my cousin’s house at the bottom of the gully by the creek bed which was dry.
I’d say it’s about half a mile from the house. We had gotten our tent all set up earlier that day and then headed back up to the house for dinner and such before we headed down for the night. It’s starting to get dark so we head down to the tent and get inside and we always brought a deck of cards with us and a knife and flashlight and of course our sleeping bags and pillows and that was basically it. So we played cards for a bit before deciding to go to sleep. One of their dogs had followed us down so he was asleep outside the tent. Well we were awoken to the dog absolutely freaking out running around the tent whimpering and wining and losing it’s mind. So of course we are startled awake and on alert and then all of a sudden we here what I can only describe as a huge gorilla sound. It sounded like 3 big grunt sounds. So we get the flashlight and unzip the very top of the tent and stick the flashlight out and peek out eyes out to try and see what it was. We didn’t see anything of course. The dog finally settled down or took off I’m not sure which but what is odd is we never heard any footsteps or rustling or any sounds of an animal walking off or away from the tent after we heard those sounds. It of course took my a long time to fall back asleep as I’m laying there shaking so bad. I’ve talked to my cousin about both of these since they’ve happened and her memory is just as mine is, but she tries to rationalize it and chalk it up to something other than Bigfoot.
My third story like I said is just a strange noise that I’m not sure what to make of it and neither of my cousins can say what it was either. As kids we basically lived in the woods, I mean all day every day we were somewhere traipsing thru the woods so we were very familiar with our landscape and the sounds and the animals. One day me and two of my cousins were down by a pond we had in a small clearing before you head into the thick woods. It was late summer so the pond was dry and we were standing in the middle of it just goofing around when all of a sudden we here this noise that I can only describe as a pack of wild hogs and a bunch of growling. Needless to say we looked at each other and sprinted for dear life back up the hill. Lol I still can hear that sound in my head and have no idea what to even compare it too and what it could possibly be. I have a few quick stories of incidents that have happened to my dad and my husband as well as my kid.”
m99
OMGoodness.
That all sounds very scary for, especially kids. I grew up, for the most part, out in the country and woods, too. But I never camped out by myself or even with my brothers. We played and played though.
Once we found an old pine that had fallen down on its side (it was huge). One side was clear of debris, but when we climbed up on the fallen tree we saw on the other side what looked like a “hobos” house. It was a pile of tree limbs, and I think had a type of entrance. Then I felt something in my being, stopped and looked around. I looked at my little brother. His eyes were very big, like he felt it too. We took one look at each other, skedaddled down the tree and exited the place post haste.
A couple years ago I asked him if he remembered that time but he said he didn’t. Then he asked, what was it? I said I don’t know, but it was clearly a fearful thing. When children are used to going unchecked in the woods it’s full on play time. For something to stop me in my tracks like that, feeling that, for me it’s a spidey sense, then get a feeling to ‘ leave’. I did. and still do. If I get that weird feeling now I don’t question it, and I don’t care if others feel it either. I think everyone is capable of discernment because people are made that way. We do a good job after we grow up to rationalize and squash the feeling. I say, don’t.