Skunk ape encounter, west Florida, 1975.

I have never posted this story online, but its a true story and it happened. It was the early summer of 1975. I lived in a little town called Hudson, on the West coast of Florida, about an hour north of Tampa, its a small fishing and shrimping town, looks pretty much the same today as it did back then. Not far from Weekee Wachee, where they have an underwater mermaid show (Elvis once visited the place). When you got north of Hudson back in those days, it was pretty remote, not much in the way of towns or people for hundreds of miles. When I was in high school, everybody used to go to an old, abandoned limestone quarry called the Belcher mine, the locals called it the pits. Actually, it was a small lake, while digging the quarry, they dug into a spring and it completely flooded, I heard there was some trailers and even a dump truck or two on the bottom of the lake. Anyway, everybody used to drive out there to drink beer and smoke weed, because it was kind of remote and nobody bothered you. So some friends and I drove out there one weeknight to drink some beer and see what was up. There was a dirt trail that went all the way around the lake. One side was just brush and the highway about half a mile past that, the other was thick forest and brush that merged with a coastal marsh that went up the coast for a long way. Not many people or houses nearby, most of the time deserted. I would say it was about 1 AM in the morning, on a clear moonless night. We didn't encounter any partiers, but we did see a campfire going and nobody was present on one corner of the trail. There were no cars and no sign of anyone. I did think at the time it was weird that people would just leave and leave a fire going. Having not found anyone there, we drove around to the other side of the lake and parked on a little low cliff that led to a small beach. We were not drunk as we hadnt started drinking beers yet. My friend, whose I will call Z. was the driver, he parked with his headlights shining out over the lake towards the dark woods on the other side. My other friend, who I will refer to as J, walked down to the edge of the water to pee. I stood by the car and chucked a small rock out into the water to spook J. I saw the rock hit the water and laughed. Right after that, we heard a long, drawn-out eerie howl, a sound like nothing I have ever heard before or since. It was a fairly high pitch, lasted maybe 20 seconds or so, Sounded surreal almost ghost like. It was NOT an owl or a panther or someone pranking us, it didn't sound like any animals I had heard, and it didn't sound remotely human. We all just looked at each other, eyes as big as saucers, and simultaneously said "what was THAT?". There was a stunned silence, and then, near where the sound seemed have come from, we heard another sound. It was the sound of a lot of brush and trees shaking, the sound of something VERY large coming towards us. I have told people it sounded like a steam roller rolling over tall grass with its engine off. We just froze and continued to listen to this sound that was definitely getting closer. At that point, we all PILED into Z's 67 Impala, and hauled ASS out of there. The road to the lake was just a dirt road full of potholes, and he must have done 60 driving out of there, it's a miracle he didn't blow out his tires on the way out. We just drove home and called it a night. We discussed it occasionally over many years, and all came to the conclusion that it was NOT people playing a joke or anything like that. It was definitely something very unusual. I think that the people who had the campfire, which was on the other side of the lake, must have heard it too and been frightened enough to get the hell out of there and leave a fire burning. We are all in our 60s now, but when I talk to those guys, we all still talk about it. I found out just a few years ago, that there were a lot of bigfoot sightings in that general area, going all the way back to the 1950s. We didn't actually see the creature, but I have absolutely no doubt that is was a skunk ape. I just wanted to put this out there while i am still here to do it. All I can say is I am not sure if they are animals or supernatural, but these things are real.

Thank you for sharing. Many similar stories on this mans channel.
a reply to: openminded2011

Thanks for sharing that account.

A lot of people are amateur skeptics and will not give weight to any account not accompanied by digital photography. But the value of the first-hand account is valuable in and of itself.

I'm glad you decided to share it.

a reply to: openminded2011

I don't doubt your account. But I wonder why you are certain it was a skunk ape. Sounds like it could have been anything that was large.

Cheers

That was an awesome story . Thanks for sharing . !!

I heard something similar to your description in the low country swamp area of South Carolina a few years ago. Extremely loud and baffling.

Thanks for your story.

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2
a reply to: openminded2011

I don't doubt your account. But I wonder why you are certain it was a skunk ape. Sounds like it could have been anything that was large.

Cheers

We have brown bear in this area, foxes, occasional panthers, bobcats, I don't think there were coyotes in Florida back then, there are now. The Florida Brown bear is a fairly small animal as bears go. This thing sounded large, did not sound like a bear. There is just nothing in the revenue of Florida wildlife that can make a sound like that and is large. So its a mystery to me.

Interesting encounter. I recommend you post it to the BFRO webpage and have it checked out by a Curator. My best,

Cool story, sounds like you guys ran into something very odd if you all agreed. Have you ever checked the other online Bigfoot databases like BFRO?

Could you imagine if you found a report from the same night from the people who were at the fire earlier? That would be pretty crazy

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2
Very good observation. I live in Florida all my life, currently on a week long tent camping in the Ocala national forest. I've camped since I was 10 years old alone in many areas of Florida. Never saw or heard a sasquatch called skunk ape here. I was scared many times as this person was. Because the black bears will come through the thickets and sound like a bulldozer sometimes. So to, cows or horses. The owls screech in several pitches and ways. I once shot a feral hog about 4 times with a 10-44 because it scared me rushing through the palm frawns in the pitch black night lol. Even though I heard the 'stories' all my life, I never once guessed a skunk ape was hollering lol. I can't explain why he would think that. At night in the Florida wilderness, everything sounds 'loud and big'. I'm 60 now to and if I ever do encounter such a thing, I will take a picture of it, scared or not, I promise 👍

A 20 second long yell from an animal? That’s EXTREMELY long. Elephants don’t make sounds that long typically. Ever watch soccer? See how long you can yell GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL

a reply to: openminded2011

a reply to: Maxmars

'Amateur skeptics' new one for me lol. It's not a profession requiring a certain level of achievement haha. Use a dictionary

A lot of wilderness in Florida but I doubt a bigfoot could stay hidden this long.. Never know.