It usually begins with an eerie silence, deep in the woods, punctuated by the sound of footsteps that causes your heart to race. You feel as if you're being watched and then the stench of a sickening musk thickens the air, followed by hair-raising growls and screams. You stand rooted to the spot, literally paralyzed, as your vision follows glimpses of a giant, hairy beast crashing through the brush. He stops, looming upright, and peers at you with red glowing eyes. His face appears to be half man and half ape - a wild man perhaps. Your throat tightens, your heart thumps, and then he's gone.
If this sounds like the beginning of a spooky story to be shared around a late night campfire, think again, as hundreds of folks insist this very thing has actually happened to them. The reports vary in situation but the description is always of a giant, hairy ape-man.
These creatures have been reported in all parts of the world and have various names from locale to locale including Bigfoot, Skunk-ape, Yeti, and Sasquatch, the latter of which is an Indian word meaning "wild man", according to one source and "hairy giant", according to another. Many tales come from the Louisiana swamplands and Pacific Northwest of the US, but almost all 50 states boast their share of encounters - even my own home state of Texas.
A few years ago, while driving in a north Texas county late one night, a young woman and her niece spotted a large brownish black hairy creature standing on the highway. They reported that, as they sped past it, the ape-like beast seemed to pursue them for several seconds. Having grown up in the area, they were familiar with the wildlife and couldn't identify it as anything they'd ever seen before.
In a wooded area, near Lake Tawakoni, two men claim to have happened upon a couple of very large ape-like beings and a couple of smaller ones, perhaps a family unit. Keeping a respectable distance, they followed and observed the creatures for most of an afternoon. They said the Bigfoot appeared curious about them as well, but shy.
It seems these mysterious beasts mostly inhabit densely wooded areas with a large water source. Many Texas Bigfoots have been spotted in the piney woods of northeast Texas but sightings have also occurred in the Panhandle, West Texas and Gulf Coast areas.
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