From the ALABAMA BIGFOOT site...w/thanx to Mike
The RFP Research Project (RFPRP) - Report of Encounter
Date Report Submitted to the RFPRP: October 22, 2006 (See Investigator's comments at the end of this report.)
Dates of Encounter: October 6th through October 14th, 2006
Time of Incident: Various times, day and night.
Weather Conditions: Generally clear and warm.
State: Alabama
County: Cullman
Nearest City or Town: Crane Hill
Location: A privately owned public campground on the south side of the Crooked Creek prong of the Lewis Smith Lake. (Reportedly, that property has since been purchased for another use.)
Nearest highway or road: County Road 941.
General Land Use Description: The area had been undeveloped timberlands until the Lewis Smith Lake was constructed in 1961. Those undeveloped lands are now being bought, platted and sold extensively as lakeshore or weekend retreat properties.
General Terrain Description: Timbered hills adjoining the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River basin impounded by Alabama Power Company to form the Lewis Smith Lake.
Nearest Lakes or Streams: The site of these encounters borders the Lake in the Crooked Creek embayment.
Witness Profile: There were several witnesses to these events. All were part of a church group that camped at the site as part of a religious observance.
Activities of Witness Prior to Encounter/Incidents: The number of people at the campsite during the events varied as explained in the report.
Preface: The primary reporting witness contacted Mike (the webmaster of this internet site) on Oct. 10, 2006 to request assistance in the investigation of enigmatic animals that had repeatedly encroached on the group's campsite on Smith Lake, Mike sent this investigator e-mail and cell phone messages requesting that I contact the primary witness as soon as possible. At the time the writer was investigating other reports of such animals in another location in which there was no cell telephone service.
When arriving back within cell phone reception areas, the writer received the messages and immediately contacted Mike and the primary witness. After receiving the information, the writer returned home, restocked a field surveillance trailer and drove to the site in Alabama. It was not until October 22nd that the writer arrived at the campsite which was still being maintained by the witnesses.
The following is the primary witness's account of the events that transpired before the writer's arrival. The account has not been altered except for the correction of obvious typographical errors.
Details of Encounter / Incident:
Friday October 6, 2006
At 4 pm my wife and I went to our campsite where we had planned to spend our Feast of Tabernacles week. When we arrived our son and his friend were chopping wood for the camp fire. They had the tents set up so all we had to do was get supper ready. Which we did and man we had a fine meal that evening. This was the first time that we were observing Tabernacles week and to be honest we didn't really know how to go about it. So as while enjoying a nice warm camp fire on a very chilly October evening we all were coming up with different ideas on how to celebrate this fall time feast week. We were going to do the best that we could. Time went by fast that night and before we knew it was 11 pm. As I was getting ready for sleep I couldn't find the power inverter for my c-pap, so because of this, I had to leave at about 12:30 AM to go and get some sleep without waking up gasping for air. My wife stayed with the boys through the night and I returned the next morning. I arrived back to the camp at 8 am and they had breakfast ready so we ate. While we were eating my wife told us that she had seen a dark figure when she awoke at about 4:30 AM. (This was only 20 feet from her) She thought one of our boys was standing beside the tent for whatever reason. Then she tried to warm herself by the fire. The figure she thought was a camper turned around and retreated behind the tent. She got up and called out to the person she thought it was and he answered from inside the tent. This frightened her because she realized that the person she saw was not someone in our camping group. We didn't think much of the incident and my wife just kind of pushed it aside. Little did we know that was the beginning of a week long experience that our whole group will never forget! The tent that my wife was in had one of those screened roofs. We didn't put the rain covering over it that evening and she slept with it uncovered all night. She feels that the being was watching through the screening and that's why she awoke so early.
Saturday October 7th
Was a very peaceful day and we just enjoyed it. Sitting around in warm weather watching a beautiful sky and the green trees and relaxing, it was very nice. About 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon one of our members came with her sons. They pitched a tent and helped us get supper ready. It was great sitting by the fire we got to talk about scripture, about things in our group, about family etc. Saturday night the boys got me a battery to run my machine so I was able to sleep in our tent with my wife. Nothing unusual happened that I heard but in a couple days we found out that we had another visitor in the camp that was seen by one of the young men attending. He said it was at 2 am Sunday morning. This camper's dog was pitching a fit and the young man saw a figure walk between his tent and ours. He didn't worry too much about it he just thought that one of us was going to the bathhouse. We found out later that no one had.
Sunday October 8th
The four young men camping with us wanted to do some fishing so they went on a hike to find a fishing spot. They were gone for several hours, when they got back they told us that they had seen multiple bare footed tracks in the sand walking along the creek. The tracks appeared to be chasing a bobcat which was running as fast as it could. There were two sets of tracks trying to intercept the cat and a third set of tracks came from an opposite direction. Where the footprints and the cat's paw marks met you could see that there had been a fight at that spot. This is where it is apparent that something happened to the cat because there were no cat marks continuing away from the area just the bare footed creatures were the only marks that left the area.
Upon hearing this my wife, one of the ladies, and I went down to see the tracks. We found them but did not find the area with the fight. I was passing off the tracks as being human and saying that they must be the neighborhood kids. But it was hard to say that because all the tracks that we saw were flatfooted individuals. How many families have more than one person in them that is flatfooted? Not many to my knowledge. And also these individuals are running over acres of cockleburs. No human in their right mind would ever do that. I don't think any human could do that.
About 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon one of our members came by. We told him about the footprints. He wanted to see them so he took the young men and they showed him. On their way back they found more footprints and these were beside the camp. These ones were 15"long and had a stride of 5'. OK now things are getting a little weird it's hard to discount finding the footprints of 4 individuals and all of them being flat footed let alone one of them having a 15" flat foot with a five foot stride.
We decided we needed to make castings of the footprints but we weren't able to until Tuesday afternoon. My wife decided she would go home to sleep because she had work the next day and things were beginning to get freaky anyways. I also went home so that I could get a good night's sleep for the next day.
Monday October 9th
Monday morning when the boys got to work they told me of all the noises that they heard the night before which was Sunday night. I could hardly believe some of the things they were saying. Because of what they told me we decided to set up cameras and get some recording equipment to see if we can capture the sounds and images that they were talking about.
The sounds the boys said they heard were whooping sounds and they said it sounded like someone was hitting sticks together, and they also heard some whistling. We put up two hunting cameras that had motion detection and infrared but were unable to get any pictures I set out my digital camera to see if I'd get some video and audio. I did get some audio but the video was too dark. The audio that I got was not until the very next Sunday one week from the day that this all started.
Tuesday October 10th
It was Tuesday evening when the most frightening things took place. The boys stayed at the camp site by themselves. It seemed like the creatures had figured out our routine. The last of us would leave at about 10 pm and it was then that the noises, whooping, whistles, sticks, and footsteps would be heard. So that Tuesday night we left at our usual time and the boys started back to the camp site. They thought they saw something close to a tent so they went and sat on a picnic table about 50 yards away. There were some lanterns burning in the camp so they had a little bit of light and they saw four shadows reflected on the truck that was sitting there as if someone was walking by them. Just before that shadow was spotted an 80 lb full grown boxer dog was frightened out of her wits. She'd been tied to a chair and something scared her so bad that she drug the chair about 150 yards to the bathhouse and ran inside the woman's restroom. The boys were far enough away that they didn't realize it was her that went into the bathhouse. They thought it was one of these creatures and they heard the door banging and thought that it couldn't get out. But they still wouldn't move off the tables because a creature was sitting in the dried lake bed outside the camp site. It stayed stationary for sometime and when it ran off they estimated its height was about10'. They kept seeing shadows moving in and around the campsite. For 5 hours they sat on the picnic table and would not move. They told me that they finally got enough nerve up to try to checkout the noise in the bath. When they got up there and opened the door they just found a dog. In addition to the shadows and seeing three of these creatures run off there were many footsteps heard and a world of racket coming from the creature beside the bathhouse. They think it was mad about the dog.
I got hold of some big foot researchers on Monday and Tuesday of that week. When I told them what was happening to us they told me some things to do and not to do. They also warned me that there were groups who were out to kill one of these creatures so we were very concerned about letting just anybody know what we had witnessed this week.
Wednesday October 11th
The ladies went home about 9 o'clock. We had our cameras up, our recorders out, and we were ready and waiting for another exciting evening. But 9:15 pm some one started shooting a gun. It seemed to effect these creatures because for the next 3 evenings there was very little noise or activities.
Sunday October 14
We broke camp and had things packed up and were ready to leave at 11 am. I went to the edge of our camp site and looked across that field of cockleburs one last time. It was broad daylight and I didn't expect to see anything. But I wanted to look one last time. I checked the woods on the other side of the field from my left to right. As I got finished on my right I couldn't believe it, I saw one of these creatures turn around and run away from us. It was as if he knew we were leaving. And when he saw me looking in his direction he turned tail and ran. The creature I saw was absolutely huge he had to be 8' tall. He had no neck and all you saw were muscles as he ran. He was gone so fast that I couldn't really tell if he got down on all fours so that we couldn't see him, or he had jumped into the creek that ran by there.
We set camp on October 6 and we stayed there till October 14. During that time there were 5 of us who saw the creatures. And there were about 10 of us who heard them. In addition to seeing and hearing them for 2 nights the wind was blowing from the south to the north which made it possible to smell these creatures. For most of the week the wind blew from the north to south. The only way to describe how they smelt would be to combine the smells of a sewer and a rotten egg. In addition we collected about a dozen casted foot prints, video of us casting some of them, in which we think there is video of a creature. He was so far away it is really hard to tell.
I had never believed that Bigfoot was for real. But now having heard them, seen them, and smelt them I have no doubts as to their existence. It has been one month since our feast of tabernacles week when we camped out for 8 straight days. We have been down to the campsite on two more weekends. And both times have found evidence of new tracks and heard these creatures in the woods. On one of these weekends we recorded a creatures walking and growling which is quite exciting to listen to.
Whatever these creatures are they are one thing for sure. Very elusive! So I have to ask myself, why did they treat us the way they did. Were we close to their home? What made them so curious that they kept coming to see us. Why did they leave feathers in our camp? How can they live so close to man and still not be detected? And many more questions that I need to find answers to.
(End of the witness's written account.)
Photos or Drawings Made? None made.
Description of Related Sounds: As described above by the witness .
Description of Related Scents / Odors: As described in the witness's account above.
Historical Notes: The area in which these events occurred is southeast of the lower part of Winston County and only a few miles southwest of the home in Cullman County which is the site of "The Black Thing" report detailed on this web site. Winston and Cullman Counties, have a very long history of inhabitation by the subject animals.
Investigator's Comments: The writer arrived at the encounter site on October 22, 2006, and spent three days at that location. I saw the numerous plaster-of-Paris casts the witnesses had made. During the two nights at the site the writer heard the response calls of the subject animals after amplified sound recordings from the Sierra Sounds CD were broadcast shortly after darkness. The writer is convinced the reports from the group of witnesses are truthful and valid.
The primary witness asked that I not publish his accounts to this web site until he and the group approved publication. Because of the very unusual nature of the events, they had previously considered writing a book about their experiences. The primary witness called the investigator recently and gave permission for this somewhat summarized version of the encounters to be posted to the web site. (The group may still publish a more detailed account of the events in the future.)
********************************************************************************************
Report received and recorded by: Tal H. Branco, Field Researcher/Investigator, The RFP Research Project
*****
Additional Comments from Mike (watch1)
I would like to thank all those involved with this encounter for allowing me to post it here on the Alabama Bigfoot Research website.
I had been looking forward to reading this information/report from the first moment that I had heard about it.
I would also like to point out this was a first time encounter for any of this group and for them to handle it the way they did..well .. they have my respect.
