Is Bigfoot in Oregon? That's what some residents of an Indian reservation are saying. At night, locals hear piercing screeches and roars coming from nearby swamp, leading some to believe that Bigfoot may be nearby.
Beginning in November, residents of the Umatilla Indian Reservation east of Pendleton hear the eerie sounds during several occasions at night.
"It's causing an uproar around here," resident Sylvia Minthorn told Oregon Live. Minthorn says the sounds are so startling that it makes grown men's hair stand on end.
Tribal housing authority employee Colleen Chance, started recording the odd noises.
"It's kind of spooky," she told Oregon Live. "Some say it's foxes, some say it's a female coyote and some say it's Sasquatch. I don't know what it is."
No one has discovered exactly where the noises are coming from, but many have noticed it. The housing authority received several calls about the screaming and the sounds are still continuing.
About 1,500 tenants live in some of the reservation's 190 rentals and 32 homes. They've admitted to being frightened by the sounds and even pets are too afraid to leave their homes.
"This guy was rather scared himself," Josh Franken, the housing authority's interim director said. Franken said that rumors started going around that the sounds were coming from "a young Bigfoot that had got separated from the rest of his clan."
The rumors may have stemmed from tribal stories about Bigfoot. The mysterious creature is part of their culture, traditions and spiritual beliefs
"We have stories about it," a resident said.
However they also understand that the sounds could be coming from animals who call out or during mating season.
Carl Sheeler, wildlife program manager for the tribes, is no stranger to the noises that animals make near the reservation.
"When they are breeding, it is absolutely hair-raising," he said about cougars.
"And the first time a person hears a fox calling in the night, kind of echoing around the canyons, it raises the hair on the back of your neck," Sheeler told The Oregonian. "That wetland is a perfect place to have an echoing call sound eerie."
Yet some say the sounds that they've heard recently aren't like those that the animals make.
Foxes do sound creepy," said Sylvia Minthorn. "But it's not the same sound, not even close."
This isn't the first time that there has been possible evidence of Bigfoot in the area. Armand Minthorn, Sylvia Minthorn's uncle and a tribal spiritual leader, has come across mysterious footprints before.
"Right in the middle of the road was this great big footprint," perhaps 16 or 18 inches long and manlike, he said. The stride of the creature was widely spread.
He doubts the mystery of the shrieks will be solved, no matter what it is.
"We probably will never know what made those sounds," he said.
To hear the sounds for yourself, listen to the video below:
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
