“Something Is Living on Our Property… And the Nightly Signs Point to Bigfoot — The Activity Is Escalating and We’re Running Out of Explanations”

An Oregon Couple Says Something Is Living on Their Farm. Authorities Remain Skeptical.

By Staff Writer

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RURAL OREGON — For 37 years, Daryl and Jess — who asked that their last name not be published — have worked the same 240-acre farm in a sparsely populated valley in western Oregon. They raised cattle and hay, kept chickens behind the barn and measured time by calving seasons and winter storms.

They say they have endured droughts, floods and volatile commodity prices. What they had not encountered, until last fall, was something they struggle even now to describe.

“I’m writing this down because no one believes us,” Daryl, 59, said in a recent interview at the farmhouse kitchen table. “The sheriff thinks we’re crazy. Our neighbors keep their distance. Even our kids don’t want to hear it anymore.”

What began in October as a drop in egg production has, over the past year, evolved into a series of incidents the couple say have left them frightened and isolated — and convinced that something large, intelligent and persistent has taken up residence in the timber behind their home.

The First Signs

The trouble started with the chickens. The couple kept about 40 hens in a coop behind the barn. After a productive summer, the birds abruptly stopped laying at normal levels. They clustered tightly in a corner of the enclosure during daylight, reluctant to roam.

Daryl assumed a fox or raccoon was raiding feed. He reinforced fencing, added wire mesh overhead and installed a motion-activated light. Production rebounded briefly.

Then, in early November, Jess found the coop door torn from its hinges.

“It wasn’t splintered like something chewed through it,” Daryl said. “The hinges were still bolted in. The whole door was lying 15 feet away.”

All 40 chickens were gone. There were no scattered feathers, no blood, and no clear animal tracks. The ground was churned up. A sour, musky odor lingered for days.

A week later, their neighbor Bob Martinez noticed his cattle bunching along a fence line that bordered the couple’s property, refusing to graze in the adjoining pasture. Martinez’s border collie, he said, had been barking through the night.

When Daryl walked the fence line after a rain, he found large footprints pressed deep into the mud. He estimates they measured roughly 18 inches long and 8 inches wide, spaced four to five feet apart. He photographed them, though he acknowledges the images are indistinct.

Martinez declined to comment for this article. Daryl said his neighbor had reported seeing similar impressions.

Noises in the Night

In late November, the couple began hearing low, resonant sounds near the barn in the early morning hours.

“It wasn’t quite howling, not quite growling,” Jess said. “It was deeper. It felt like it was vibrating in your chest.”

Their cattle would cluster at the far end of the pasture during these episodes. Deep gouges appeared on the barn’s sliding door, beginning about seven feet off the ground. Hay bales weighing roughly 50 pounds each were found scattered across the floor.

Two weeks later, Daryl said he saw what he initially believed to be a person standing at the tree line about 200 yards away. Through binoculars, he said, he saw a tall, broad-shouldered figure covered in dark brown hair, arms hanging low.

“It stepped back into the trees,” he said. “Just gone.”

There were no photographs of that encounter.

Snow and Scratches

When winter brought snow in December, the couple say the tracks multiplied. Impressions crisscrossed their property — from woods to barn to house. Some appeared just outside their bedroom window.

Daryl installed additional motion-sensor lights. He says they triggered repeatedly at night, though he rarely saw anything illuminated.

In January, he contacted the county sheriff’s office. A deputy visited, took photographs and suggested large bear tracks can appear distorted in soft snow. The sheriff’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The incidents continued into February. Garbage cans were torn apart; metal containers bent. The barn door was forced open despite a lock. Daryl says he discovered what looked like a nest of hay and burlap in an empty stall.

In March, Jess reported her first close encounter. While feeding a new set of chickens in a reinforced coop, she said she turned and saw a tall, dark-haired figure about 20 feet away.

“It just stood there,” she said. “Watching.”

She described hearing a sound that she likened to speech — “gibberish, but with rhythm.” The figure, she said, walked upright back toward the woods.

Escalation

By spring, the damage escalated. Fence posts along the back property line were snapped. A riding mower weighing more than 400 pounds was found overturned. A utility trailer was dragged roughly 100 yards. In one instance, the mower was discovered dismantled, its engine components scattered.

The couple’s German shepherd, Rex, began hiding under the bed after dark.

In early summer, Daryl returned to a small hunting cabin he had built half a mile into the woods. He found it collapsed inward, debris scattered around large footprints. Inside, he said, were pine boughs arranged like bedding and various items missing from the farm — tools, clothing, utensils — gathered nearby.

He did not notify authorities about the cabin.

In August, Jess said the figure approached the house in daylight, walking across the pasture and pausing near the yard. On one occasion, she said, it looked through the kitchen window as she stood at the sink.

“I felt like I was being studied,” she said.

Daryl nailed plywood over the window.

Confrontation

In September, Daryl says he fired a warning shot when the figure emerged near the cattle and tore apart a section of fence after he discharged his shotgun into the air.

Three weeks ago, he says, the encounter came to their sliding glass door. He describes two large hands pressed against the glass, followed by a blow that cracked it in a spiderweb pattern. He fired again. The figure retreated.

There is no police report documenting that incident.

More recently, Daryl says he found footprints in the attic dust and discovered their front door standing open despite a deadbolt. He cannot explain how it was unlocked. Nothing was stolen.

On a recent morning, he says, a dead rabbit lay on the welcome mat.

Skepticism and Isolation

Wildlife experts note that black bears can stand upright and leave large prints, especially when front and hind paws overlap. Damage to structures and vehicles, they say, can result from bears attracted to food or from human vandalism. Deep winter snow can distort track size and shape.

“There is no verified evidence of an unknown primate species in Oregon,” said one biologist at Oregon State University, who spoke generally and not about this specific case. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Daryl acknowledges the absence of clear photographic proof. He says he has taken hundreds of pictures of tracks and damage but none that conclusively document what he believes he has seen.

The couple say they now sleep in shifts. They have considered selling the farm but fear ridicule — or worse, that whatever is behind the activity would follow.

As dusk settles over the valley, the hills surrounding the property cast long shadows across the pasture. The barn door bears visible scratches. A cracked pane in the sliding door has been boarded over.

Whether the explanation lies in wildlife behavior, human interference, misinterpretation or something less easily categorized remains unresolved. For Daryl and Jess, the uncertainty has been as destabilizing as the damage itself.

“We’ve lived here almost four decades,” Daryl said. “This land used to feel like home. Now we’re waiting every night to see what happens next.”