Platina, Shasta County, California
July 2000

Howling and screams, not a sighting. The reader should be aware, that "sounds" heard by informants are not necessarily from sasquatches and can usually be attributed to something else. I don't usually upload 'strange sound' reports for this reason unless the witnesses or informant actually saw a creature make the sound being reported. In this case, the reported strange sounds could have been anything. Bobbie Short

My son and I dredge for gold for a hobby. We have a claim on Cottonwood Creek about 1-1/2 miles west of Platina (Shasta County), California. My aunt has 10 acres with a house on Cottonwood Creek and our claim is on the adjacent BLM land. Section 19, Township 29 North, Range 9 West, M. D. M., County of Shasta, State of California. West 1100 feet, more or less from the Northeast Corner of Section 19, where the North line of said section intersects the Middle Fork of Cottonwood Creek, approximately 1.5 miles west of Platina.

One August night three years ago, we heard strange howling and screams. We have never been able to positively identify the source. I have heard mountain lions before. It did not sound like a lion. And I have heard a lot of different noises that bears make and I don't think it was a bear. My son and I have smelt awful "gamie" stenches at different times - day and night. The last time I smelled that odor was about midnight on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend - our last visit to the claim. That night we also heard something-large step on an occasional large branch on the ground that would snap loudly.

We were not able to locate where the noise was coming from. We were sleeping in the back of a pickup and it was breezy that night. When I would smell the animal, it would be a strong smell like it was nearby, and I would shine the flashlight all around but couldn't see anything. We have thought these "occurrences" to be bear signs. But recently I was surfing the web and listened to some of the recordings reported to be Bigfoot howls and screams. They sounded remarkably close to what we have heard, yet not exactly the same.

One recording was howls, and other screams. Both recordings had similarities to what we heard. What we heard was more like a very loud howl that started out like a cow or bull's "MOOOOO" and then escalated into a scream like that of a man scream at the top of his lungs at first then escalating further into an even wilder scream. It did it twice with in about 30 seconds. The actual howling scream lasted about 10 or 15 seconds. The howling scream un-nerved us. My son to this day does not like to go out after dark when we are up there. © Jeff Chambers

From the files of Bobbie Short