Encounter Location: Location: Approximately three miles east of the Oklahoma (Le Flore County) state line.

Nearest Highway or Road: Sebastian County Road 25.

General Land Use Description: Lakeside residential property surrounded by undeveloped mountainous woodlands.

General Terrain Description: The area is along the northwestern flank of Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Nearest Lakes or Streams:The sighting occurred in the woodlands adjoining the southeastern part of Sugar Loaf Lake.

Witness Profile: The witness is a male who is now in his early 30’s. At the time of the encounter he was 13 or 14 years old. Since the encounter the witness has hunted deer extensively - with bow, muzzle loader and modern guns - and fished routinely in that part of Arkansas until the present time. Even though he was a teenager at the time of the encounter, he was familiar with the known and accepted wildlife in the State.

Activities of Witnesses Prior to Encounter/Incident: Riding bicycles on trail through the woods.

Details of Encounter / Incident: The reporting witness had been visiting a friend of his who is about the same age and who lived in the vicinity of the lake. They had ridden their bicycles around the lake to the south side on a maintained road that dead-ended in a small group of lakeside residences. At that point they began riding a trail through the woods that continued toward the southern end of the lake’s dam. After they had gone about 100 yards they decided to turn around because it was late afternoon and they had a long ride back to the friend’s house.

After they turned around and had ridden a short distance they heard “a hell of a commotion” in the woods off the left (south) side of the trail. They quickly looked and saw, about 25 yards from them, the back side of a large hair covered “something” running upright on two legs through the timber. The commotion they had heard, and continued to hear, was the creature breaking small trees as it crashed through the timber. The witness stated that at times the creatures used its hands to snap trees that were two to three inches in diameter, and other trees were broken as it ran over them. The creature reportedly swung its arms in front of its body to part the foliage and limbs of larger trees. The animal was soon out of view as it ran up the side of Sugar Loaf Mountain.

The two boys, of course, left the area as fast as possible on their bikes. After they got back to the maintained road near the residences, they began discussing and questioning what they had seen and heard. At that time neither of the boys knew anything about “Bigfoot” and had no idea that such an animal existed. They were sure that what they had seen was not a human, bear or any other common animal.

Description of Animal: The animal was reportedly covered in dark brown, “almost black” hair. The hair on it head was the approximate length of “a woman’s with a short haircut“. The hair on its body appeared to be about the same length, except that the hair on the body below the upper part of the arms, and the hair on the inside of the upper arms themselves, was shorter than that on the other visible parts of the body. (When specifically asked by the writer after the witness described his sighting, he said that he did not see long hair hanging from underneath its forearms when it swung its arms to part the limbs and small trees in its path.)

The creature appeared to be about seven and one half feet in height and its body was “huge“. It had broad shoulders and an “oval shaped head, like an egg with the small end down”. The head appeared to set closely on its shoulders, as if it had no neck. Its body appeared to be slightly tapered to the waist, although the witness stated the creature was running away from them with its back “hunched over, nearly like it was hunchbacked”, so they did not have the best view of the head or profile in the waist area.)

The witness particularly remembered that the creature’s arms were noticeably longer in proportion to its height than those of a person’s. He said that it appeared to him that the upper part of the arms (between the elbows and the shoulders) were much shorter than the forearms. He restated that the creature was huge, and that the legs seem to be in proportion in size and length to the overall body size.

Other Reports From This Area? Yes. About four years prior to this witness’s encounter, a fisherman had an unusually dramatic encounter with a large and intimating female Bigfoot in the same area. That interesting report can be found at: http://www.texasbigfoot.org/reports/report/detail/368

The writer has conducted field investigations of reports from other residents of the area around Sugar Loaf Mountain. One resident (who actively gathers information about these creatures from area witnesses such as this one) photographed a series of Bigfoot tracks in the snow on one of the high points on Sugar Loaf Mountain a few years ago. The photographs and an article about them were published in a local newspaper. When he and I visited that location later, we found tracks and a well used trail in the same area. That area of the mountain is about one mile (straight line) from the sighting location described in this report.

Tal H. Branco, The RFP Research Project, August 2, 2010