March, 2003

[Telahnay's g'son]

The “Cookout”
March, 2003

The following is an account of a series of incidents involving myself along with Todd, BM and his stepson (Bart) during a “cookout” on BM’s 80 acres of bottomland.

With several BF* encounter reports consisting of incidents involving campers with no prior intent of seeking BF, it was suggested we try a “cookout” to see what would happen.

Todd & I arrived ~ one hour before sundown and began to get things set up by gathering up kindling for the firewood we’d brought and setting up the Weber kettle for the steaks, etc.  The rib eyes had been marinating in my special “Cajun” concoction for a couple of days.  A fluorescent bulb type lantern was placed on the cab of my truck situated facing to the south a few feet from the campfire.  BM & Bart showed up in his Kawasaki Mule just as the sun was setting below the tree line.

Weather conditions were evening temps in the low fifties, with a slight breeze out of the NNE and clear skies with a full moon.

Other than the usual “signal howls” announcing our respective arrivals things were relatively quiet until ~20 HRS when we had the steaks on the grill and the smoke/flavor was drifting slowly across the “hidden bean field” (HBF) in a SSW direction.  Bart was the first to hear something coming up from the east side of the field across the creek (the creek runs parallel to the ~7 acre field ~20-60 yards away on the east side and then loops to it’s north and west side(s) before heading westward toward the lake proper)  on the opposite bank headed straight at our location.  He observed (w/BM’s GEN III NV binoculars) a large, dark object ~75 yards away before it reversed course back to the south.  A few minutes later Todd heard and briefly observed something moving rapidly across the SE corner of the HBF w/his GEN III NV goggles but couldn’t make out a definite target for ID purposes as he only saw it for a couple of seconds.

After we’d stuffed down the steak, corn, potatoes and pie at ~22:30 HRS, BM & Bart decided to crank up the Mule and ease around the HBF perimeter lane to the opposite (SW) corner from the campfire and climb up into #7 stand to see what they could observe.  This stand is ~12’ (floor) off the ground with fully enclosed sides/top.  Most of BM’s stands on his property are made with construction materials consisting of 6X6 legs and 2X4 framing w/2X6 flooring.  They look much like an old wooden oil derrick and weigh ~1200-1600# each.

They slowly headed south and then west around the HBF w/o turning on the Mule’s headlights as the moon was so bright they really weren’t necessary.  ~70 yards from reaching the SW corner of the HBF where #7 stand is located BM observed a figure (~6-7’ in height) standing in the tree line bordering the south side of HBF.  Bart felt it was a man standing there (he was a total nonbeliever in anything BF related up to that point) and didn’t want to risk taking a shot at it/him.  

They eased up to #7 and quickly ascended up to the platform where BM gave Bart the NV binoculars while he fumbled around to ready his Marlin .444 rifle (they had been relaying everything to Todd and I via out 2-way radios) when Bart let out an exclamation that he saw the BF headed out across the HBF in a NNE direction straight at the campfire where Todd & I were sitting.  At that point Todd jumped up and hurried over to the truck tailgate to get his NV goggles whereupon, BM radioed the BF had stopped (apparently when he saw we were still at the camp) and changed course to the east at a high rate of speed.  Both Bart and Todd observed it in quad mode rushing across the field into the SE corner tree line.

Within a few minutes of this action Todd began to scan up the creek (in a southerly direction) and along the HBF tree line with his NV goggles to see if anything more could be observed.  He was leaning against the right front fender of my truck and suddenly turned around to me (with his face illuminated by the lantern) and began to try and speak but no words would come out.  From his facial expression I knew exactly what he meant and jumped to the truck and grabbed the shotgun stoked w/HeviShot OO buckshot. Meanwhile, Todd had taken off at a dead run east out across the creek headed into the adjacent meadow.  I caught up ~100 yards away and reminded him that we weren’t going to run this thing down but might well run slam into an ambush or other tricky situation.  We headed back to the camp site in hopes the BF would return a third time and we’d be better prepared.

Todd’s description (I’d only caught a fleeting glimpse as it bailed out of the creek area) of the BF’s facial expression (almost the same as mine, to follow in a separate incident report) was that of anger, hatred and disgust probably for being busted out by a human.  There were two trees that framed it’s outline (was on all fours) just as Todd got the final look before the BF took off running which measured out to ~6’ apart from it’s head to rump with estimated height when standing erect at ~9-10’.

Unfortunately, nothing else happened so at ~24:00 BM & Bart returned from #7 in the Mule and announced they were calling it a night.  Todd and I waited around for another 30-45 minutes with the woods in an absolute dead silence as even the wind had died down to nothing by then.  We decided to pack it up and were just about done when a loud crack and then crashing sound was heard ~75-100 yards NNE of our location.  We were totally puzzled as to exactly what made the noise as I commented that it must have been an awfully big tree that hit the ground.

We drove up to BM’s house on the hill top and were discussing the evening’s events with him out in the front yard when BM’s beagle’s & Brittany’s in the kennels situated ~30 yards north off his front porch suddenly went ballistic barking and howling.  About that time we heard the sound of something flying up through the timber (out of rattlesnake canyon) cutting limbs and leaves as it sailed through the air and landed with a resounding thud just short of the kennels.  It later turned out to be a grapefruit sized rock.  The pups immediately shut up and bailed into their dog houses and didn’t make another sound.

The next day D.G., Todd & BM went down into the bottoms to investigate the source of the noise we’d heard the night before.  There, they found #9 stand had been ripped out from the tree (it had been nailed to with landscape nails for support) and picked up, pirouetted on one leg and slammed to the ground.  There was no evidence of human activity involved in this feat as with the stand weighing ~1200# it would have taken several men straining and huffing to first break the tree (which was the cracking sound we heard) from the nails and then topple the stand in the fashion D.G. and the guys found.  The only disturbance they noted around the immediate spot of the stand was a partial heel print where the leaves were thinnest as most of the area still had a layer 3-4” deep of last fall’s leaf litter.

We surmised this (and the rock being thrown) was the work of the alpha male BF that Todd had observed at ~23:30 HRS the evening before.  This was the first incident of serious belligerent behavior we had observed in the general area aside from a couple of times we’d been growled at or had saplings violently shaken near our proximity.

Unfortunately, this was the last time we’ve had any decent encounters on BM’s place as shortly thereafter residential development began to occur in an intensive fashion in this general area.  We just learned last week that a ~4,000 SF house was built on the SE corner of what had previously been a sanctuary (inaccessible by humans) to the east of BM’s place which would tend to account for a large portion of the decreased BF activity.  Both Wagoner and Rogers counties were recently mentioned in the news as the fastest growing (10% annual rate) areas in population for Oklahoma.  We believe these events account for the BF population apparently moving off to more remote locations in the general vicinity.

*BF is the term used to describe an entity currently unidentifed via modern forensic science.