Report 7971: Coon hunter and dogs experience close encounter in Sulphur River bottoms between Doddridge and Fouke.

I'm probably going to regret telling this story. Everyone I know will probably laugh me out of the country. I myself for many years would hooraw and laugh every time someone would mention these creatures. Here it goes. I live in Northeast Texas not far from Texarkana. I haved lived in the Texarkana area for quite some time. I don't coonhunt anymore my business has become more demanding. Coonhunting is a sport that really demands a lot of time. I found I didn't have the time to devote to it so I got rid of my Walker hounds. I was so into the sport at one time I had hunting Licenses in 3 states. I had several Night Champions to my credit. Several years ago on a cold night in Jan/Feb I believe it was in 2000 - don't remember the exact date. I was coonhunting in Miller County, Arkansas. I don't know exactly how far from Mercer Bayou we were but I know we were in an area the ole timers call Thornton Wells. While we were hunting in this flooded timber, our dogs split treed. I went to my dogs who had treed on the other side of the swamp.The other guys went to their dogs on the other side. I got to the tree my dogs were treeing at and looked at my coon and caught my dogs. Everthing seemed ok so I decided to amble back toward the others. I could just barely hear their dogs treeing way across the bayou. Suddenly I heard something walking in the flooded timber. (Bare in mind this whole area is 8-15 inches flooded with brackish swamp water.) I could tell by the gate that it was someone coming in the flooded woods. So I called out to them thinking it must of been one of my hunting companions. To my dismay no one answered - instead all I heard was a deep throated gurgling growl and the awfullest putrid smell. The smell was like when you kill a wild hog and grab him by the hind leg and then you give out dragging him and put your hand up to your nose and the smell knocks you over. I also heard a whining kind of a whistling sound. My dogs were on my leash and were whimpering. Now these weren't just any dogs. These were UKC Lipper bred Walkers, they probably weighed in at close to a 100lbs.They would could rip a 20lb coon apart. Yet there they were cowardly crouched behind my legs whimpering. I knew I had seen them tear coyotes to shreads that had tried to come into a tree where they were treeing. I couldn't understand it. Still in all I was not concerned about any of this and got my dogs and started back across the swamp. After a few mintues I heard this sound of someone or something walking in the water again. So I stopped and turned around and standing right behind me was a creature of immense size. He must have been at least 8 or 9 ft tall. He was covered from head to toe with a real dark hair and when my coonbuster coon light hit in the eyes his eyes glowed like a deer in a spotlight. Talking about the hair on the back of your neck standing up, I was scared. I don't ever remember being that scared. He made a hissing sound and reached down and took his hand and started scooping water and throwing it up at me and making a deep throaty noise. My dogs started chomping at the leash and growling trying to get at it, having regained their bravery. I grabbed the leash and tore out across that swamp so scared that for awhile I went in the wrong direction. I got to a big Cypress knee and caught my breath. I could hear the thing behind me sounded like it was about a 100 yards or so back. It followed me for a ways then after a while I could hear it across the bayou making a moaning sound and moving away slowly. I got my breath and my compass and my bearings and started back to the truck. When I got there I didn't say a word to my friends about what I saw and heard for fear they would laugh me down. Needless to say I never returned to Thorton Wells nor do I plan to. For a long time I kept this to myself I even had nightmares about it. The only person I ever told was an old coonhunter from Doddridge, Ark. He's dead and gone now but I do remember something he said to me that day. He said, if you're smart you'll keep that to yourself I know from experience that people will laugh at you and call you a liar. I've hunted in the Sulphur River bottoms many nights but never have I seen anything like that before or since. I'm not one for tall tales but I thought I would share this terrifying ordeal with you all because it seems we might have something in common.