By Teresa Black Bradway
A dramatic face-to-face Bigfoot sighting in LeFlore County will be described by one of the featured speakers at the Honobia Bigfoot Conference Oct. 5 and 6.
Late one night in June, 2015, Jerry Hestand, retired Texas science teacher turned Bigfoot hunter, looked in the eyes of a seven-foot ape-like creature in the woods near Octavia in eastern LeFlore County.
Hestand will speak both days at the Honobia Bigfoot conference, part of the 2018 Honobia Bigfoot Festival at the Kiamichi Mountains Christian Mission (Christ 40 acres), Highway 144 and Indian Highway, Honobia, Ok. The event raises funds for scholarships for high school seniors.
“My sighting was near Octavia.” Hestand reported. “I was on a logging road late one night with two other researchers. I saw a large animal move into the brush as the headlights of my Jeep hit it as I came around a corner.”
With Hestand was Marvin Leeper, Murray State College English instructor, who teaches Introduction to Folklore and specializes in the Bigfoot myths and legends.
“Marvin Leeper and I went into a large opening in the brush and we observed it [the animal] through a FLIR monocular,” Hestand continued. “The animal began to move up the hill through small saplings and thick brush.” Hestand said he was in what may be the creature’s “bedding-type structure” in the woods.
“I walked 20 or so yards up the road and was met with two huge green eyes staring at me from the thick brush. The reflection from my head-mounted light caused it to reflect,” Hestand said. “The eyes were silver dollar size about six inches apart. The animal was standing in the brush three feet below me and we were eye to eye, which would make it over seven feet tall. It disappeared and we didn’t see it again.”
He has been to Oklahoma several times with other Bigfoot researchers, and believes they found an area in the Ouachita Mountains where the animals live.
Hestand is the author of “Hunting Apes in America: My Life as a Bigfoot Hunter,” and has appeared on the television show “Monsterquest” which airs on the Travel and History channels. A Bigfoot investigator since 2001, his research has crossed the four-state area of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. His book and other reports are available on his website at www.jerryhestand.com
The “Southern Bigfoot” or wood ape has also been researched by other conference speakers, Lyle Blackburn, M.K. Davis and Ken Gerhard.
Conference ticket prices and camping, festival and 5K race information is at honobiabigfoot.com
There is no fee to get into the festival, though visitors may make voluntary donations to the Mission.
The Honobia Bigfoot Organization is a non-profit group which partnered with the Chahta Foundation and the local Masons to bring scholarships to deserving students in the Honobia area.
Sketch by Marvin Leeper of what he saw thru a scope in woods near Octavia.
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