It Screamed at Us from the Ridge – Oregon Trooper's Bigfoot Showdown

0:00 You're listening in Big for Society, and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Tonight's account is from a man who spent years wearing a badge patrolling some of the most remote roads in Oregon. But one summer night, deep in the Central Oregon forest, what started as a routine bear hunt became something much more primal, A strange communication echoing between two unseen figures, pistols drawn in the dark, and a silence that felt watched. This is a story of Ethan, the Oregon State Trooper who found something out there that training could explain. To stay with us, all right, Big the Society. I got the privilege of talking to Ethan today. Ethan is a former Oregon State Trooper who is patrolling mainly the areas of eastern and central Oregon. It's a privileged to have him on the show today. How's it going, Ethan, It's going good.

0:49 I'm excited for this. Absolutely. I believe we were introduced over on the TikTok platform. Correct, Yeah, absolutely, you had an interesting thing that I asked if you wanted to come on the show to share today. So I'm going to make sure that you know you have the time to do that. So I'll go ahead of passing is right over to you. It feel free to take us back to this incident that happened where you had some interesting things happen. Yeah. So, so just to start, I was born and raised in john Day, went to high school there. My three older siblings went high school there and all as well born and raised. And I lived in john Day and my family still has. I had a ranch that was homesteaded that is outside of the Prairie City area, just near the southern Blue Mountains. And I was in a hunting family. We had a wood stove, so my dad, being a logger, we always went out for firewood several times every summer as a family and hunted the same areas that kind of surround my family's ranch. So I mean, I wouldn't say that I lived in the woods, but I was very often out there. And the summer of twenty eleven, I was on the Prairie City US four Service and Crew where we also patrolled and fought fires mainly in that area, and it took us to other

2:21 states as well, but that was our most frequent area of patrol and response. And anyway, Yeah, I met my ex wife in twenty twelve, and she grew up here in central Oregon where I currently live, and her dad hunted an area that is a little bit northwest of Sisters, Oregon. And I saw your post on TikTok about Subtle Lake and I was like, shoot, that's that's like really near where I hunt. It would probably be about thirty miles north north east of Subtle Lake where I bear hunt, and I'm actually going to be l hunting there this year in addition to bear hunting. But anyway, yeah, I saw your video and I'm big into bigfoot and a really good friend of mine, who I call a brother, we actually have planned to get an entire leg sleeve together that is all sorts of different Bigfoot themed things and I want to have like Barry from Harry and the Hendersons as part of it, and like a Bigfoot crossing sign and like your typical Bigfoot in the trees photo.

3:38 And now when I came across your page, I'm like, man, this is cool. But anyway, yeah, I saw your post about Subtle Lake, and I want to say this was like twenty twenty when I was bear hunting out in that area with my brother and who he I would say lived in the woods like this guy lives and breeze hunting always out in the woods. I call myself a hillbilly, but if there was a picture of a hillbilly, that would be LEVI. And so he hadn't been out to this bear hunting spot yet, and I had I believe three trail cameras set up out there, and it would have been in August of that year, and I asked him if he wanted to join me for an evening.

4:25 We were going to go out near sundown grab the trail camera photos. And he had a tablet that we could plug the memory cards into, and so our plan was to go out to this spot, grab the memory cards, go back to a little camping spot that's not even a quarter mile away from where we hunt, right off the side of the road, and we would check the photos and make a plan for the following morning. And this bear hunting spot is like one hundred and fifty yards off the commonly traveled road. I won't name the road, but it's kind of encompassed within a switchback of the road. So I would say like probably two thirds of like if you were to make a triangle around this spot with that hunting spot at the center the little water hole that we sit on. Two sides of that triangle would be roadway that are within one hundred and fifty yards, so it's like not very far off the beaten path at all. And it's a really easy walk to this spot too, And so we got out there a little later than planned. It was pretty dark, just dark enough we could see with the naked eye, and we walk about one hundred yards across this little open grassy area that's almost high level with the roadway, and we get to the edge where there's a little probably like thirty foot rock cliff that's all encompassed with pine trees, and we walk around the side of that cliff down into the water hole, and this is how we usually get in there. And Levi and I get probably like fifty

6:00 yards from the edge of that the top of that rock cliff, and we hear this animal noise and it's like like a who noise, but it's nothing that I've heard of bear do. It's definitely not an owl hoot or like a dove hoot. We both freeze there on our necks go up. He looks at me, and this is where like I say, LEVI grew up in the woods and even more of an avid hunter than I've ever been, And he looks at me with bug eyes and he's like, I've never heard that before. But the crazy thing was, so we could tell this sound was like at the top of this rock edge that drops off behind wherever this thing was, and it was just back in the trees where we couldn't see, but it was so it was dark enough that we couldn't see that far anyway. We could just see like the silhouettes of trees. But the same noise responded to that noise down in the bowl where this water hole was. So these two things, whatever they were, I'm convinced it was big food. They were communicating back and forth and we kind of froze. We're like, we don't want to run, we don't want to get closer because we don't know what this thing is. It's obviously close and at about the same elevation that we are, and every few seconds this thing would make the noise, and whatever it was

7:33 down in this bowl near the water hole, every time it responded it was farther away. So it's like whatever this was in front of us was communicating to whatever it was down in the bowl to go away. And this happened for it seems like forever, but it was probably like ten minutes, where every ten to thirty seconds it would haul down into the bowl and that thing would respond, and you could tell by the lowered volume that it was getting farther and farther away. And after this, we'll just say it was ten minutes that they were communicating. It just stopped. I didn't hear any rush being displaced, and he sticks cracking and he leaves, and it was pretty dry. This was a pretty dry summer, so the grass was dry and yellow, and there's pine needles everywhere, and but we heard nothing as far as physical movement, which, like I mean, elk moves through the trees like ghosts, and it always surprises me how elk and deer can move and all of a sudden they're right in front of you. But this was like a different level of silence as they and we stayed in that spot for like ten minutes, like trying to look. We didn't want to shine flashlights, which we had. I carried a three fifty seven revolver on my hip, and that's actually what I bear hunted with because I shot a bear in

9:04 twenty fifteen with a revolver and killed it in its tracks and I shot it clean, shot between the eyes from twenty yards away. And Levi I carried a forty five semi auto pistol nineteen eleven on his hip, and he had that pistol out so fast when we heard those noises and not like I'm going to kill whatever this is. It was it like in defense. And most avid hunters appreciate nature and it's a way of conservation for them, and so like we're not out to kill everything, and we're out to fill our freezer and to make memories. And yeah, Leeve I pulled this pistol out and I saw that, and I'm like, we'll shoot. I better pull my pistol out. And and as you mentioned, I'm a former state trooper. I left the state police in early twenty twenty or sorry, early twenty twenty two, and so at that time I was still employed. And I like to think that that makes me a little more credible because a lot of people hear bigfoot stories and they're like, oh, this guy's just a kook, you know, he's crazy. And I about several other third hand stories from credible people that I hope to get into while we talk that are also from very level headed, credible people. And so anyway, we stood there for probably another ten minutes after we stopped hearing these noises, and we were kind of debating,

10:35 like do we go down there and risk whatever that was, like crossing paths with it, or do we just go back to our camping spot or do we just get the heck out of here like this was. We were both on edge and Levi he's like, you know what, we came to get the camera, memory cards, whatever that was might actually be in these pictures, and we decided to walk down in there, guns drawn. And so we walked down there, walking really slow on edge, like looking all around kind of frivolously, and went down there, grabbed the memory for memory cards, and the whole time we felt like we were being watched. And for anyone who's ever had the feeling that they're being watched, like almost every time, like if you're in a crowded space and you get that feeling, you will find somebody looking at you.

11:25 So I think it's a I would say, like the sixth sense that you know, I've dove into like these gut feelings and this stuff and a lot of the research in it. And there's a lot of people that think like that sixth sense was like a natural thing that humans had that it's just been dumped down because of technology and the way we live now, Like you don't need that, and you think back to like I want to say, like organ trail days and before, like when there were Native Americans and it was all living off the land. I feel like that sense was a lot more into And the whole time we were down there to grab the cameras, which was a really short period of time because we were still kind of in a panic mode. We felt like we were being watched, and so we grabbed the memory cards. I tailed it out of there and got back to the truck and drove back like the quarter mile to where a little camp in spot was, which was we just pulled like the pen feet off the road. There was a little all out there, and we hadn't set up a tent yet, so we're doing all this in the dark, the whole time being like, man, that was crazy. I've never heard that before, you know, completely different than anything we've either one of us has ever experienced. And so we set up the tent. We make like some hot bobs or something on a little propane cook top, and we get in the tent to go to sleep. And I've I

12:58 struggle with insomnia anyways. But we got in the tent at like nine pm. Leave I fell asleep by probably like ten thirty, and I was awake till probably three am, just laying there listening, and at some point to the night and it was I want to say it was near a full moon, because I remember seeing the moon. I don't think it was like a fold full moon, but I remember the moonlight kind of lighting up around us. And I had all these ZIPPERD screens shut so that I couldn't see outside or that something couldn't see in, but I could see through the top where we didn't put the rain guard on. And I want to say it was around one thirty in the morning. I'm laying there and I hear this knocking noise that didn't sound like it was very far away probably I mean in the woods it's all dece evening, but I would guess like seventy eighty yards away. And what really my attention with this was it was three knocks, three times, spaced perfectly apart, so like this to me, can't be like a bird, like a woodpecker. It was knock knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, and I only heard it the one time, and again the hair on my neck went up at and I remember my mind wandering back into like I had watched some of these big foot hunting shows when I was

14:29 younger and they talked about tree knocking. I'm like, holy crap. Like the fact that it was three knocks, it was evenly spaced, Like I'm a big music guy and like timing, and you know, I was in band in middle school and I played guitar for a long time, so like timing and space and pace and spacing and stuff that was I'm pretty in tune with that. And the fact that it was so evenly spaced, so perfectly spaced. The tone or note was like the same like when I'm driving down the road on the steering wheel, there's different spots on the steering wheel that sound different, you know, And I'm like this this was intentional, and boy, it took me a while to fall asleep that night, but we didn't see anything on the memory cards. We didn't get an animal the next day. And like we sat there and so ided for several hours. We just sat.

15:24 We have a little spot that we sat at and we watched the watering hole like elk waller that they roll around in and it's a spring fed little like eight foot circle full of water. And I mean we sat there for probably seven or eight hours. Nothing came but on the trail on the memory card. When I say nothing was picked up on the memory card. And there was no bigfoot. But there was a lot of bear, There's a lot of deer, a lot of elk. There was an howl that came in regularly, a lot of really cool nature photos. But it was daily that we had coyotes, bears, deer, elk coming into this this bring fed water hole. And I would when when I hunt, when I'm leading up to that hunting season, for the few weeks leading into it, I'll wear like one of my trashy white T shirts for a full day and then I'll bring it out there and kind of hang it on a tree in that area so that my scent is out there regularly. And I tried to make that set like something that's normal or common for them to smell in that area, so that when I'm actually there in person, hopefully that would make it not be out of the ordinary. And I probably had three shirts that I had brought out and you know, brought the previous one back with me, and and but anyway, it was really strange to me that that day there was nothing in there, like, no animals came in. There was a few birds flying around, but it was almost eerily silent.

16:48 And anyway, that's that's the gist of that experience that I personally had. That is extremely interesting, especially you know the part you just said where they had that extreme quiet most of the time that you were in there. It sounds like, yeah, after this, it sounds like you're you are also looking into two bigfoot things. And you know, you know the area that you were in. Have you ever looked to see if there's been any other reported activity around that that area?

17:30 You know, Honestly, I never I don't think I ever really thought about it. But I don't know if I aside from seeing your page recently, I don't know that I would know where to start looking for reports like that. And I feel like there might be like a certain, very small percentage of experiences that are actually reported. Like I've told this story to several people, because I used to be really shy and inter I guess, and I definitely moved past that. I think a lot of it had to do with law enforcement and being forced to talk to people all the time. But also, like I mentioned, I had an ex wife. I'm married again and she's amazing, you know, But like I forced myself to be more extroverted because I kept a lot of my feelings in with that marriage, and that marriage was really damaging emotionally mentally to me. And I think that has a little bit to do with why I don't care what people think anymore. And I think this stuff's cool. Like I mentioned, my brother and I I called my brother, you know, also wanting to get the matching full leg sleeve tattoo Big fifteen, and Kim and I have talked about it a lot. And I was stationed with the State Police in John Day from the beginning of twenty sixteen to September of twenty seventeen. The beginning of September was when

19:01 I transferred to Central Oregon and there was a jail deputy I won't mention his name. I don't think he would care, but I'll just say Pete. That's his We'll just say that's his first name. Beat and I talked a lot. He coached me in middle school football, he watched me in high school football. And patrolling the John Day area is extremely boring. My first station wasn't Hermiston, which is northeast Oregon by Pendleton, and it's along the freeway and there's a lot of cartel stuff up there. There's a lot of farmland I can go patrol out into up there, and the biggest city, Hermiston in my patrol area, I think at the time, was like seventeen thousand people, which sounds small to a lot of people, but I grew up in a town of two thousand people.

19:48 And it was the only stoplight in John Day. That's the only stoplight in the entire county, and that's not a small county. So patrolling in John Day was extremely compared to my first station when I was a young gung ho trooper of Hermiston, and so a lot of my time I worked night shift almost my entire career, and so in John Day after nine pm, it was absolutely dead like I remember nights where I might see two cars from nine pm till two am, which was the end of my shift. And so there were many nights when I would just go into the jail where Pete worked and several other guys that I knew from growing up in john Day, and I'd grab one or two cups of coffee and we just sit and talk.

20:40 And Pete at two stories that really stood out to me. And he had two experiences. One was personal. One was from a neighbor and hunting group that they always camped right next to. And he grew up in the Organ area and he hunted out there, and I want to say he was like eighteen years old. He told me a story about how he would walk miles into the wilderness. And when you go into the wilderness back in Prospect area, that's western Oregon, where the timber is really really dense, really thick, like you can't hardly walk five steps without having to redirect because there's a tree or a bush or something like a lot of people think Oregon, and I think, oh, Rain, But the east side of the Cascade Mountains, the east like two thirds of the state is really dry, mountainous and I mean, there's a lot of forests, but it's not as thick. It's the western side of the state. And he mentioned like he used to go miles into the woods and he was walking into this hunting area. He was probably like a mile and a half in and he came out into this little little clearing on top of this little knoll, and he said, he got that really weird sixth sense feeling, not necessarily that he was being watched, but there was just something off, and it kind of the sunlight was able to get into this area a little bit, and he said, I looked to my right and there was

22:13 this wall of branches and it was like twelve feet high, and he said he walked up to it, it looked like something that would be like meticulously man made, because you think of like a log cabin, like Lincoln logs when we were kids that you'd play with, like you stack them in the corners. There's notches where these logs lay into each other and they crossed. He said, But Ethan, all of these sticks that were like six to eight inches thick were not sawn. They were broken, whereas it had to have been something big that had broken the ends of these I would call them logs. He called them sticks because trees over in that area easily get six to eight feet in diameter. And he's like, these things were way bigger than what any man can break in half, and they were interplined and it was this just a wall that was and he's like the smell in there was god awful, which is something that I've from what I've gathered from all the Bigfoot stories. I've delved into the things stink. And I don't want to talk bad about any people because life brings challenges, but I have had homeless people in my patrol car and there's there's just an odor that is unmistakable to a human being here hasn't showered, and I've heard that correlated

23:44 with the smell of sasquatch or a bigfoot. And he mentioned the smell, and he's like, I had to get out of there because when I realized those were not and sawn or machine sawn branches, and that they very obviously were broken, like I knew no man could do that, and the fact that they were arranged and stacked as a wall, not just like a pile of lumber. He's like, I knew that there was something to that that was outside of anything that I've ever experienced or could explain. And he hunted near the same area that I hunted, and he hunted in the it would either be the Murderers Creek Hunting Unit or the Sylvie's Hunting Unit, which is just on the south side of Strawberry Mountain, the South Blues Range, and he he camped in a big camp with the same people every year. There was like twelve people that camped every year together, and there was this group that camped the next road up that was just like sixty yards above them. And because they had camped there the majority of his adult life with the same people, they met these people that camped near them, and it just so happened to be the same group of people not from our area camped in that same spot every year. And this conversation would have happened early twenty seventeen, and he mentioned it was like two years before that. So it was the end of one evening hunting.

25:20 He jumped on his four wheeler and rode up there, and this whole crew of people were like in a panic, backing their stuff. And it wasn't anywhere near the end of the hunting season and he's like, guys, what's going on. Did you tag out? They're like, no, we're leaving. And he could tell that there's like a ton of fear in their voice. And he's like, what's up. And they're like, let's just say we're not alone up here. The guy he talked to you, he's like, I can't tell you what we saw, but just know we're not alone up here. And he's the guy didn't say we saw bigfoot, you know, but Pete's like, I know that's what it was. And he said, Ethan, they didn't come back last year, like every year we saw these people and they haven't been back.

26:15 And there's one other group. It's a big family. They're very well known in the John Day area and I worked for them for about three months after I hought fire in that area, and I had heard they had an experience which would be within about fifty miles of where Pete camped when he had this, you know, whatever his camping neighbors experience they had. But this family, husbands and wives all get tags. They all haunt. The wives shoot animals, the kids shoot animals like it's a big family yearly thing. They scout months of advance, like it's it's part of their life. And I talked when we were working one day. I was like, hey, I heard that you had a big food experience. He says, now, I can't say that it was bigfoot, but I can't say that it could possibly be anything else. And I was like, well, what happened? He said, Well, my wife she shot an elk and it was late at night and my brother was near where she was. So she radioed like, hey, I got an elk on the ground on top of a little clear knoll that was surrounded by trees. And on the north side of this little knoll there was a really steep, really steep hill that climbed just on. You know, you had to go through a few trees, a couple, you know, a few yards, and then that hill went almost straight up. And so

27:50 his brother went to where his wife was and I started processing the elk, you know, skinning it, gutting it, getting it ready for the rest of the crew to come help back it out. And they kept hearing noises circling them, and he said, we they would look and they would see these branches moving, but it was like whatever was there had just moved from the spot that they looked. They never actually saw it. And so it got to the point where they sat back to back with a tiny, little like warming fire next to them. They were sitting back to back with their pistols out, and this is bo seasons, so you know, you're not carrying a rifle or something that can take down a big game animal with minimal shots, you know. And and they were in a panic in fear, sitting back to back, pistol strong, radioing to their family, like there's something out here.

28:43 We need you guys here soon. And so they sat there for several minutes, never could actually get a glimpse of whatever it was that was circling them. And whatever it was, they could tell, moved to where that really really steep hill was, and all of a sudden, this like blood curdling shriek and I've heard cougar's squeal, and they've heard many cougar's squeal. It's like a really loud, hyph pitched squeal. And he's like, it wasn't that. This was like a roar like growl, and whatever it was like screamed at them from deep and then they said, we heard it. It blasted up that steep incline, and it went so fast they could hear the sticks and rocks and everything going up. It went so fast, faster than what they would think an animal could move. And then it screamed again from the top of this and then busted over the backside and it was going And that story really caught my attention has always piqued my interest.

29:52 I think about it all the time because I've heard that, you know, like sasquatch is kind of like the guardian of nature. Supposedly people think that, and I'm like, Okay, they shot an al and it's probably best off that they killed an animal out there, you know. And he tells the story and are really good detail. But like the fact that it went so fast up this incline that would take us like forever to climb up, and the scream and people who spend way more time in the woods than I do, and they were to the point where they were like shaking back the back, sitting on the ground with their pistols out. That was just pretty wild to me. And a little bit that I've built into Bigfoot stories, like the scream. I mean, people they're lucky to see it. But like I've heard so many stories about like there was something there but we couldn't explain it. And anyway, those are like the most detailed third hand stories that I can tell. It's always been wild to me that there's a lot of Bigfoot stories and experiences from in that area of the Southern Blue Mountains in eastern Organ. And the fact that those two and the few other stories that I've heard, they're all within like a fifty mile radius of that area, and it's kind of like my family's ranches right in

31:24 that area and kind of the center of that radius for that area of these stories that I've heard, And on one of your posts on TikTok, you asked about like other crazy areas in Organ that people need to check out if you're into this stuff, Like if you ever get a chance to go to Sumter Organ, you really need to deep dive into the mines in Sumter Organ because there's a lot of pretty wild haunting stories. It's very well known in that area that the mines in Sumter are haunted and Granite Organ. Like I just someone just responded today to one of my comments speaking of Granite Organ. It's like I tell people that you go like to the middle of nowhere and you go fifty more miles and you can find green. It's almost like the hills have eyes back there. And I had one call in my entire year and a half that I patrolled that area, and I had one call that was in Grantite, and it was the weirdest feeling. You drive into this town and it's only like four or five houses, and it's like as soon as you roll into town and I'm used to people, you know, like when I roll in in a patrol car, you get the eyes people stare, you know, but this was wait, this was different. It was crazy. And Granted is very close to Sumter too. And there's a lot of bigfoot stories around the area too that you know. When I came across your page, I'm like, Man, now that I'm not with state police and I have a little time on my hands, I'd love to kind of dive into some of the stuff. But you know, go investigate some

32:57 of those areas, and. Yeah, absolutely, I mean those are some some extremely interesting stories. It would be really cool to hear. So there's a there's a website you can go to that's really good. It's called Bigfoot. It's a big Foot mapping project and it's the whole map of the whole US. But there's all these bigfoot reports all over the place, and and people submit and they're from different databases, and be interesting if you're able to check out that website and you know, look at the different areas that you've been talking about, and just to see if there's especially that the hunting area, to see if there's been other things reported in that that area as well.

33:43 But well, something I'd like to make note of, going back to my bear hunting spot is it's right, it's like a few miles from the boundary of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Show. Okay, in my I'm sure that you can corroborate this, but in my little bit of diving into these bigfoot things, there's like a lot of Native American cave paintings of Bigfoot or of things that resemble that. Well, yeah, the Petrock clyffs. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, you are you're correct. They are there in different places in the Pacific Northwest, and some of them are not publicly known either. I interviewed an individual and he's like, yeah, he knows a sum and you're not supposed to to tell where they are. But the Warm Springs Reservation, I've heard of things happening on that reservation. I haven't been able to interview anyone yet from that area, but I mean, what is that That area's Ohlally Lake, I believe has a lot of there's some reports around there. And that's just on the edge of the reservation as well. It's a little north of Mount Jefferson. But you know when you were and yeah, I'll ask a question, and you can, of course refuse any questions if you want to. But when you were a state trooper, were there any times

35:18 where you had gotten a call where someone was like, Hey, I've got a bigfoot messing around my property. I don't know what to do. Did you guys ever get pulled into anything like that or heard of anything similar? I never did, personally, I don't you know. There's a couple game troopers that really put in a lot of proactive work out in the woods. The crazy thing about OSP is like you can kind of be as proactive as you want depending on the area work in. Like, if you work in the Portland area, you're just responding to calls all the time. A lot of times you don't really have time to go be proactive and look for stuff, whereas a lot of more remote areas like John Day, you don't get a lot of calls for service, so you're really like itching to find something, so you are a lot more proactive trying to find things anyways.

36:13 But I don't recall any stories from anyone or reports along those lines. If I saw something, I definitely wouldn't fall and report it to a state police agency, Like I would be more likely to tell my friends than I would to report it because there's a lot of I would say more people probably don't believe that Bigfit exists than there are people that do. Or maybe you won't say that you believe he exists, but you actually might believe a little bit. But I don't recall any reports, whether they were actually directed and live, or any reports that there were stories of. Like I used to train, I used to teach at the Academy for seven years of my career. I taught what's called defensive tactics. It's like hand in hand combatants and patrol tactics and a lot of scenario based stuff. And so there's a lot of different training groups where when you go to teach, you work with you know, twenty various different troopers at different times, and there's a lot of time for stories and shooting the crap and and just you know, venting or telling stories about what you had go on last week.

37:40 And and I never had any stories like that pulled in those instances, but I would bet money that there are stories along those lines. I'm actually I'm really good friends with the trooper still that works down in the cous Bay area, and he lives and breathes hunting, and he's a fishing game trooper. So he started as patrol and he lateraled over to a fish and game spot and so now he's out in the woods all the time and friends with another trooper that's down in the Burns area, and he grew up hunting the Steams Mountain areas, which I've heard there's a lot of experiences down in the Steams if you've never been to the Steams just aside from Bigville, like it's one of the most beautiful places on earth. But as far as your studies and stories and investigations, that would be a cool place to look into. But I'm going to reach out to those guys and see if you know, if they haven't experienced anything, see if they've heard of anything, or if they've got stories or reports that they can speak on.

38:46 I would imagine the individual over by Coos Bay US has some stuff. That are, oh, I'm sure bonkers. I've talked to a few few individuals in that is just is crazy for bigfoot stuff for some reason. So you've been referring to the videos on my page. A lot of listeners are going to be confused because they're not even aware of the TikTok side of Bigfoot Society. And yeah, we have a TikTok page, or I do, and that's where I put weird stuff out there. So if you're into that, if you want to hear weird stories about Oregon in addition to Bigfoot, check out. It's like Bigfoot dot Society on TikTok.

39:33 You check it out. I'll put a link in the show notes anyways. But another this is a weird question to the side. But since you're familiar with the page and you've seen the stuff I've put out, I don't even know if you have any info regarding this. But is the stuff that people report about Wolf Creek do you think that's accurate or some of that might be blown out of proportion? I mean, do you know anything about that area at all. I'm not very familiar with the Wolf Creek area. I know that I saw one or two videos on your page. I scanned through your page a couple of times, mostly looking because you've got a lot of organ stuff on there, which is really cool. Yeah, and that's kind of what sucked me into that one, because like I saw your Subtle Lake video, commented on it, and then you responded fairly quickly. I was like, oh, that's cool. Like I don't often get interaction from from other pages I comment on, you know, especially I mean especially from the person himself.

40:33 And so I dove into your page and I kind of scan past stuff that was in different states, just looking to see, like, what else is there an organ that he's that he's reported on, that you've reported on. And I'm not familiar with the Wolf Creek area though. Can you give me like a town that that's. Near It's it's it's like way it's over in the west, like it's right off I five, but it's kind of like north of Grant's. Okay, No, I mean Roseberg Grants past. I've heard that there's a lot of wild stuff, so that wouldn't surprise me at all. I know that Chiliquin, which is down ninety seven north of Klamath Falls, that's another area that is kind of like due east of what sounds like the area you're talking about that. I mean, I would think those areas would be stocked full of crazy stories.

41:31 I've patrolled down. So I've patrolled Central Oregon from September twenty seventeen until I was actually I was placed on leave with OSP in September of twenty twenty one. I spoke out against the mandates for COVID and that's what that's the reason I left OSP. I was actually let go from OSP because I've voiced out against the mandates and the social media video and so that would be four years time that I patrolled Highway ninety seven and my first year in Central organ I was stationed. I was assigned to the Lapine office, which is an outpost of the Bend Area Command, and September of twenty eighteen, I literally just traded spots with a trooper and Bend and we traded radio numbers and but for that year, I patrolled a lot south of the Pine, and I got quite a few calls back off the beaten path.

42:37 And what's crazy to me, Like, I mean, I grew up in a small town area where I know, like Granite and Sumter and a lot of these little towns that are kind of back in the woods that I mean, you'd never know they exist if you just drove some of these main highways. But such a busy highway like Highway ninety seven, the typical person just kind of drives from point A to point B. It was cool getting to work as a trooper and even though you're patrol, like a lot of people see the Oregon State Police as highway patrol, but it's much different than I would say nine out of ten or ninety percent of the other highway patrol state agencies where OSP you have a lot of freedom to go patrol county roadways and city streets.

43:29 And I actually when I was stationed at Bend for the three years that I was stationed out of the Area Command Bend, I patrolled in town a lot because I enjoyed hunting for duise and getting drunk people off the road, and so I patrolled areas where drunk people frequented, like bars and clubs and and but I really enjoyed on a not so rare occasion, I would go south of La Pine or like when I worked in John Day, I'd venture way out near Sumter and south past Oregon down into the Sylvie's area, and I would go back several miles on dirt roads. As long as I was in radio connectivity, I'd go way off the beaten paths just to explore. And it's exciting but kind of eerie the number of houses that live off the land. And like I mean, I would love to go live off the land and be kind of a homesteader out in the middle of nowhere, But there's a lot of people that are perfectly saying and just want to be away.

44:34 But there's a lot of kind of eerie, crazy people that live out in these places. And when I think about like Chiliquin and what sounds like the Wolf Creek area is and off the path, you know, I would say between Highway ninety seven and Interstate five, between like Roseberg and Chiliquin and Grants Pass it area like where a Crater Lake is. I've heard there's a lot of wild stuff out near Crater Lake and Diamond Lake, and there's a lot of crazy stuff that you see out there. And I can't tell you how many times I would be out in the middle of nowhere and I just pull off the road and they could breather, eat a power bar, you out and stretch my legs, you know, and then all of a sudden, someone would I'm walking up from the middle from absolutely nowhere and you're and scare the crap out of you, you know. And several times even on the highway where I'm out in remote middle of nowhere on a state highway or a state route, and I always cracked my window, took my seat belt off, just kind of safety precautions, so if there was someone that walked up, I could be out of my car quickly and kind of be in a position of a little more control than being stuck in like a little fatal position kind of as I can't remember the exact terminology we used, but like being stuck in your car, you're like a magnet for bad things to happen because you can't move, you can't react very well. And so oftentimes I would either crack my window or like open my door just enough where I could stick my foot out on the ground and the door wasn't swung all the way open, but just cracked open, you know, so

46:05 I could step out if I needed to. I can tell you how many times just people would randomly walk up to you in the middle of nowhere, miles from anything, and. Yeah, would they be would they be like hikers or just just dressed up? All kinds of people. I mean, not like not like dressed up, but like, yeah, I've been and there's been times I was caught off guard, Like you let your guard down, you get kind of complacent. And I'd be sitting in the middle of nowhere and all in the middle of the night, like like I said, I worked the late shift where and all of a sudden there's a knock on my passenger window and you just about mess your pants, you know, and jump out of your car.

46:50 They're like, hey, sorry, sorry, I was just I broke down down the road, and man, it gets the heart going. It's it's a good wake up call, Like dude, I gotta like take my I was out of my phone, or like I need to be more aware now. It was all kinds of different people. There was, Yeah, I've had my heart restarted several times. I get a lot of interesting things sent to me or hey, did you hear about this? And from what it sounds like in I don't know if this is anything you ever ran into, but I mean that area.

47:32 Are there a ton of missing people that go missing in that area as well? Especially like Lane County or you know, kind of I guess if you would call that central Oregon. That's considered Western organ Okay, there's a little bit of Lane County that bleeds kind of to this side of Lane or Land County. I can't remember that kind of bleeds to this side of the Cascade Mountains. But yeah, if you look at a map of Oregon, you have I think it's I think it's Gilham County, Jefferson County to Shoots County, Klamath County north to south. The west border of those counties is basically along the Cascade Mountain range.

48:19 Anything west of that is considered Western Oregon. Anything east of that is essentially Eastern Organ and Western Oregon is wet. Eastern Organ is dry. It's the high desert. But there's a lot of forested mountainous areas that people don't know exist, Like you think a lot of people think organ's either wet or desert if you venture to kind of northeastern Northeastern too, like central eastern Oregon. There's a lot of beautiful blue mountains, greenery. It's a beautiful area. But I don't know that I would be able to say that there's more missing persons in that area and any other part of the state. Maybe people. I think people just probably hear about it more because that's a much more populated part of the state. The western side of the state is way more populated. That's where like you have Portland, you have Beavertaone, Salem, Eugene, like all the bigger cities are on the western side of the state. Gotcha.

49:21 Yeah, that makes sense. And it's kind of like bigfoot sightings too, you know, in order to have a big foot sighting, you have to have people so that they can report what was seen, so that that makes sense. But well, and a lot there's and like growing up in John Day, we always hated we called them Portland hunters or California hunters. Like there's a lot of people from California and the western side of the state that comes to eastern Oregon. It was published in a magazine several years ago that the Grant County area was one of the most concentrated areas of elk in the nation, and hunting just blew up in that area. And there's lots of stories like there's a lot of wild horses out in that area too, and stories of people driving through town with a horse in the back of their truck, like thinking it's an elk, and people with beer in the back of their truck that they hadn't even got it or skinned, which I mean, the meat is going to be no good by the time they get back to wherever they're going. And that's that's more so why we as I say we like Eastern organ folks, like why we kind of dislike or have an edge towards the Portland hunters quote or like the California hunters because it's usually like no fault to you, Like I love that you get into it, but know what you're doing if you're going to get into hunting, like if you want to get into conservation and hunting and feed your family, like at least know what you're shooting, you know, And I mean I've seen a horse in the back of a pickup going through down because they shot a horse think it was a cow elk goods. Yeah, it's crazy.

50:54 And they shoot cows like there's been cows that the rancher will come out and be like what the heck, Oh, I've got an elk, you know and cow? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that stuff happens, and they actually think they shot an elk, which I mean, you kind of feel bad for them, but you want to just like pick them up and shake them and be like, I know what you're doing, you know. I mean there's a lot of people that get shot too, because and that's I'm not going to say that's just Portland or Valley hunters or California hunters. Like, there's a lot of people that, you know, they see movement and that's why the hunter orange thing became a thing. Like my family grew up wearing blue jeans and red and black plaid flannel shirts hunting, you know. And like my brother in law, who grew up in Prairie City and is an avid hunter, like their family always wore camo and I shot a six point bowl when I was in high school. I was wearing a red air Apostle zipperd hooty and blue jeans. And I got butin sixty yards of this elk and it didn't even know I was there, and I shot at with the rifle and and you know, it's a pretty nice ball. It's not a trophy by any means. But you know, there's a lot of people that are like, oh, you gotta have camo and this and that. But like, one thing you definitely do not do is where like brown car hearts or like a tan jacket, or there are people that will just see a color and shoot at it.

52:16 And there was a guy on a four wheeler just a few years ago. They got shot like in the ankle because someone from a distance saw something moving and they shot at it. And it was a guy riding a four wheeler through the trees. Oh wow, Oh my goodness, this is some crazy, crazy stuff, Ethan. It has been such an interesting conversation, especially from your viewpoint of your background of being law enforcement in these areas of Oregon. I just want to say thank you for coming forward and for sharing what you experienced. You know, before we do head out, if there are also other, you know, individuals that are listening that that might be some form of of law enforcement, but they also have had a Bigfoot experience. Do you have any any words for them why it might be important for them to share what they've experienced, or or any advice regarding that.

53:28 I mean, there's a lot of people that explore the forest. There's a lot of hunters, and a lot of these stories stop with either the person or like the few people that they tell about it. And I mean, I think, I think Bigfoot exists. I'm very convinced that exists, Like there wouldn't be cave paintings and sightings all over like not not just the Pacific Northwest, but like all over the nation. And I mean there's I think that yetty exists. I think it's just a version of a sasquatch, you know, like over in Malayas, Like I think there are I mean they find creatures and rainforests and in the ocean and regular forested areas that haven't been documented yet all the time. So, like you think about how smart a human being is, I think we've gotten a lot dumber over time. I mean there's a lot of geniuses out there, but I think as a whole, human beings have gotten kind of dumbed down because of technology and our reliance on different things, And I mean, I see no reason why there couldn't be something that's very brilliant, like we are just in its own way and able to avoid being sighted. But I don't see why people seeing them is such a crazy thing. And so like if you have seen them, like it's no risk to your job

54:58 to talk about it. Like I would love for other just law enforcement personnel or like military personnel in general, to reach out to you and tell their stories, because like there's obviously groups of people that go out and search for this and research Sasquatch, and there's the TV shows made on it, and like the Hairy Man in Alaska, Like I think that's just Sasquatch or in their form of or a relative or whatever. And I mean they find they find like seashells on mountaintops and like fossils of seashells on mountaintops all the time, which means there was water there at one point. And like the world's changed, and I believe that all continents were gonna look they look like puzzle pieces to me, So why wouldn't they be interconnected at some point? And or what they call what they call that where they think all the continents were connected. What was that Panga andieah, yeah, yeah, I'm like, you know, they look like puzzle pieces that broke apart at one point, so why wouldn't they yet he also be related to sasquatch from from some ancient time, you know.

56:13 And and there's an area that's really intrigued to me that's down south of jhn Tura, Oregon, where it's like super super deep canyons. I think it's one of the biggest canyon systems, second or third to the Grand Canyon, that is so remote and difficult to get to. Like if so many, if so few people have gone there, who knows what many animals are in there that we haven't documented. I've wanted to be able to find the time to go fly a drone down there at minimum and fly into the canyon and see what I can get video out of. And like they talk about these government areas of the Grand Canyon that are closed off because of supposed giants and these caves and things that are in the caves, and I mean they've found bone structures of giants, So why couldn't there be sasquad out there?

57:01 And why not talk about it if you've seen it or experience Like for me, I didn't see it, but I'm pretty dang sure it was something that was very brilliant, very smart in its own way, that survived for however long, that knew to stay back in the trees just enough and communicated in its own way to whatever it was down near the water hole that I hunted. And I mean it was very obvious they were communicating back and forth. They knew what was being communicated. You know. I kind of liked to think it was like an adult that was near us that was communicating down to something less experienced or younger or that whatever, you know, this thing up here and had to protect that. It was telling it, hey, move along, quietly, keep moving? Are you moving? Keep going?

57:47 You know, communicating back and forth, and then dead silence. So who knows if it even moved from the from the place that it was standing when we finally decided to be brave or dumb, whatever you want to to go get our memory cards. No, I see no reason not to talk about it, because who cares what other people think? Like, you're not, especially as a law enforcement officer, You're not gonna lose your job. Talking about Bigfoot. Absolutely, I'm forgotten about other dumb stuff. But right would you ever want to have a sighting yourself one day? You think, Oh yeah, I mean I think it would be awesome to see it. You know, I have four kids, and I'm you know, starting a business right now, and so I'm extremely busy. So I would love to find time in my life to go, Like I said, you know that big canyon system near Gentura, or just as simple as the area that I've hunted growing up, or this area that I bear hunt like, I would love to have a weekend where I just grab a buddy of mine who I know can shoot well if we need to, you know, but to go spend a weekend and just back back in and listen and look and aside from it being really intriguing to me, I mean, it's really good for you just to get out and breathe and there. But I'm sure it would freak me out if I saw it. But I mean there's that

59:17 saying that's overused. I think you only let it once. So why not go try to see things? Even if you're not looking for Bickfitt. Just go try to see Elk. Try to see animals, deer or bear or whatever it is, you know, but I think it'd be awesome, you know, I think that I think people going missing could be because of sasquatch. You know, maybe they come across something or see it and like it takes you out. Maybe it doesn't, I don't know, but I see no reason not to go look for it. If I ever find time in my life, I would love to go spend weeks at a time and just explore and try to find them, you know, M or her or they them whatever. Absolutely exactly. I hope someday you're able to get that opportunity.

1:00:02 But Ethan, thank you so much for coming on the show and for sharing well. And if you ever get an itch to go explore that eastern Organ area or even this area in central Organ. I look for any excuse to get out. And I mean I've given many different friends info to my hunting areas, you know, to the point of dropping and pain on a map. Hey, this is where I want to hunt. I'm not going to get to this year. Go check it out so you can get an elk. You know, like there's a lot of hunters that are like, no, that's my spot. I'm not telling anyone, but you know, beyond that, if you ever want to go explore that area, if you I don't know if you do, but if you ever, if you do, actually go out and try to investigate and get out and camp and whatever. Dude, I'd love to take you out and grab a buddy or two and go explore and walk a few miles and have a campfire and tell stories and and make video.

1:00:55 Whatever it be. Any excuse to get out in the woods, I said, I've got four kiddos and I have a small farm with some cows that I take care of. But any excuse to get out and be in nature is awesome, And especially if it's someone that has similar interests and the fact that you travel around to get the kind of search for this stuff and hear stories. And I could probably wrote at least Pete into telling you his story firsthand. And there's another story of a guy out in that area that's pretty He's a reasonable guy. He's not a crazy dude, you know. And but I didn't tell his story because it does sound kind of goofy. But I could possibly seek if you could play Snodia.

1:01:38 He supposedly saw Bigfoot himself. But I know very little detailed about that story. I know. I just know that story is very well known over there. Okay, gotcha. So that would be cool to be able to maybe arrange I sit down with a couple of these people for you, but even just going out and exploring would be cool. Well, it's a very nice offer. I appreciate it. I'll definitely keep it in mind. You never know what will happen, but you know, yeah, Ethan has been Uh, it's been real fun chatting with you tonight about different experiences around Oregon and definitely, you know, keep in touch if anything else happens in the future, if you hear anything, you know, we'd love to hear from you again.

1:02:23 Well, do I appreciate your time. Hi. My name is Manny Guerrero from South Jersey and I just heard your latest podcast. I believe his name is Jacob the Pine Bearings and I had an encounter what I believe was shut Squats in nineteen eighty seven. I believe in pay for a township that's where I grew up at. Yeah, I had my local boy scout that was in We had a out we can't camp or a dad's place. And like I said, we lived in the woods for township and that's connected two. Well, it's like twenty miles from Mom the West Park on Arma Road, so it's real close. Yeah, give me a call.

1:03:21 Thanks. If you'd like to share a voicemail to be potentially featured on the show as well, head over to Bigfoot Society podcast dot com and hit the Share your Encounter button. So I wanted to take a minute to say thank you for listening to this episode of the Bigfoot Society Podcast. Ethan's story is one of those that stays with you, not just because of the whoops and the knox, but because of the silence that followed and what might have been watching them from the trees. So huge thanks to Ethan for service and for sharing those powerful first hand accounts from the woods of eastern Oregon. If you enjoy this conversation, please subscribe to the channel on YouTube, hit the bell icons you don't miss any new episodes, and share this one with a friend who's in the Bigfoot Oregon or just a good old fashioned forest mystery. If you're listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please hit the follow button and if you'd be willing to leave a positive five star review. It really helps more listeners find us. And now, if you or someone you know has had a big foot encounter, especially in the areas around John Day, Sisters Granite or the Warm Springs Reservation, I'd love to hear from you, so please send your story to Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. And also don't forget Sasquatch Summerfest is coming up July eleventh through the twelfth at Greenwaters Park and Oakridge, Oregon. Big for Society listeners can grab a two day pass for the price of one day admission with code BFS at checkout.

1:04:37 Tickets are at www dot Sasquatch Summerfest dot com. Thanks again for being part of the Bigfoot Society. Until next time, trust your gut, follow the trail, and never stop asking what else might be out there? And see you in the woods.