Frederick County, MD Investigation

Frederick County Watershed Sound Encounter

Sound Encounter report courtesy of the Alliance of Independant Bigfoot Researchers (AIBR)

(Investigation conducted by Billy Willard and Tom L)

Witness Name: Mr. Patrick H.

State: Maryland

County: Frederick

Closest City to Area of Encounter: Frederick

Time of Encounter: 1:30 – 2:30 am

Date or Season of Encounter: Approximately July/Aug 1973

Witness Narrative: At approx 1:30 am a friend and I were sleeping in a small pup tent approx 12 ft off of the fire road in a small clearing. I was sleeping on my right side with my head to the door of the tent when something stomped me onto my face [front]. At least that is what it seemed like [I was asleep but woke up quite abruptly]. The rear tent pole was down, the line holding out my side of the tent was broken and the pegs holding my side were uprooted. I asked my friend [after waking him up] if he had kicked the tent. I couldn't think of any other logical explanation, he muttered something and went back to sleep. I did not go back to sleep because what happened to me. About 30 to 45 min later just as I was about to sleep I heard faint crunching sounds from down the side of the mountain. I listened for a while and it became clear that it was footsteps coming up the side of the mountain. The footsteps got louder and closer it became clear to me that it was something on two feet, heavy, coming our way. Maybe a person? When It was maybe 40yds?away and still coming I woke up my friend and said, “Listen!” He heard it and confirmed what I thought that it was a person. Whatever it was came steadily to within maybe 10 yards off the back of the tent and then any further footsteps stopped. I called out [Who's out there]. No answer. Then something like [Is there somebody there?]. Then [If there's somebody there you better say something]. Nothing. Then [You better say something we have a gun and you will be shot]. Then [You will know what this sound is]. I pumped a cartridge into the chamber of the shotgun very loudly. Still nothing but dead silence. We decided it was time to get out of the tent and see what it was. My friend exited first and said something like "something smells like sh*t out here”. I came out of the tent shotgun in my right hand flashlight in my left holding the pump. My friend relit and revived the fire and I looked around with flashlight and shotgun. Just standing in front of the tent turning and scanning. After about 5min the fire starts to go and I have the gun/light pointed down and across the road. At that moment in the almost exact direction of the gun/light something screamed in a way that can hardly be described. It was loud,long,started as a loud deep growl and slid into a much higher pitched long scream. When it stopped the echo could be heard off of several mountainsides. We decided it was time to get in the car. We did. We packed up the tent at daylight and left.Description of Animal(s): He had no visual sighting of the creature. This was a sound encounter only.Food Sources in Area of Encounter: The area is very populated with deer and other wildlife. Plenty of water supply, this area serves as a water supply for the City of Frederick, Maryland.Type of Terrain (be thorough): The terrain is very mountainous. Lots of large rock outcrops. Very deep cut ravines and relief in the area. Entire area is wooded with the closest homes being at least 2 miles away.

Commentary by Billy Willard:

I spoke with Mr. Patrick H. by telephone on February 2, 2008 and discussed his encounter report submitted to the AIBR. We have since communicated largely by email and he seems to be very reliable in his report. Mr. H. emailed me an attachment of the location of the encounter and a trip was planned to investigate the area. Unfortunately, this is a very old encounter, but I feel an investigation of the area was warranted.

On March 1, 2008, Tom L and I visited the location. The fire road is off of Gambrill Park Road in the Frederick Municipal Forest. The witness provided a map to locate the area. We identified two possible areas of the campsite spoken of in the report. Upon entering the area, a “possible” stick formation was identified. The formation appeared unnatural, although is not definitive proof of the creature, but interesting to say the least.

This area is very mountainous; deep cut ravines with a lot of large rock outcrops. These large rock outcrops have a lot of large, deep crevices that allow a place for hiding. I entered one of the crevices and was able to go into it 60 feet in. The area is very plentiful of food and water. The area serves as part of the drinking water supply for the City of Frederick, MD.

Several ATV trails and other fire roads, which are blocked, were observed. While there, we did encounter some folks on two ATV’s.

We identified an area piled deer kill. This pile of deer kill was obviously created by humans. This was obvious due to the noticeable saw cut marks on the heads removing the antlers.

We did not experience any strange sightings or sounds during our investigation.

In summary, I do believe this area could support a population of bipedal creatures. There is plenty of food, water and shelter in the area. There are areas extremely difficult for human travel as well to keep them out of sight of people.