Old but interesting thread. I've only read up to Page 3 so far but will come back later to read the rest.
I like "hearing" everyone's stories.
I've never seen Bigfoot, but lived in Fouke, AR, for a few yrs while married. My childhood "home" is also very close to Fouke. I didn't grow up in my home town, as we lived overseas most of my life with my nuclear family. We did use my "home town" as our "base" & went there pretty often for summers, in between assignments overseas, etc.
I
have seen Nessie (go ahead & laugh) and my mom saw it at the same time. She was a seasoned RN - a tough charge nurse in a rough, extremely demanding setting at a State hospital for 15 yrs - and not at all given to fancy. She was a tough old broad (like me - guess I inherited it) and not afraid of anything or anybody right up to the day she died. She died like a champ, bravely and unafraid. I sure miss that ol' gal.
There are so many wonderful mysteries in the world...and having seen Nessie with my own eyes, who am I to say Bigfoot doesn't exist?
I've seen some other cool things in my lifetime, too, that most have never seen.
1) A melanistic deer. He was lovely & I hope nobody kills him in a hunt.
2) An albino deer ~ she was young and pure white! Probably the most beautiful, otherworldly scene I'll ever have the privilege of seeing. She was crossing a little road in the woods at dusk, there was a drifting, wispy fog low to the ground, a little swamp between us as she leapt across the road into the greenest trees you can imagine. It looked like a fairy tale in a book.
3) A "black panther" ~ really just a melanistic jaguar, I realize. They cross into this area from 'down South' below Texas & come east into LA.
He crossed my back pasture behind the pond as I stood looking out of my sun room window, walking like he owns the Earth.
The muscle tone! And he was not just huge, he was
yuge.
Beautiful but terrifying, considering I roam the woods & walk the creek that's not even 25yds from where I saw him. In fact, he
had to have entered/crossed the creek because of where he entered the trees.
I always look up into the trees whilst in the creek, for whatever good that would do if he wanted to eat me haha.
Fun fact: "Black Panthers" do not officially exist in LA, but it's highly illegal to kill them here.

Many sightings, all over the state, but if anyone has shot one they've kept it to themselves. I know I'd damn sure try to shoot it if I was confronted with it. Frankly, there'd be no other choice
but to.
Also related: As a teen, around 15 or 16 yrs old, my mom & all us kids were staying with my grandmother as we prepared to go overseas to meet up with my dad who had gone ahead of us to a new assignment. There were 5 of us kids, so he'd usually go over first, get a house & car, etc, before we'd go.
My grandmother lived in my "home town" where my mom had grown up. She had woods on three sides of her house.
I was awakened in the middle of the night by the most blood-curdling scream I've ever heard. Sounded like a woman screaming but
sooo much louder than a human could ever manage to emit.
It sounded like it was literally at my bedroom window. Everyone else heard it too of course.
My little sister was sleeping with mom, and she was pretty hysterical after it woke her. I cried some, myself, after I had calmed down a bit.
They told me it was just a black panther in the woods, not to worry, etc, but I was shaken to my core. I'll never forget that sound.
4) I saw Mt. Kilauea from the sky, at night, during an eruption, as I left Oahu heading home to the Mainland. It was unexpected since I'd arrived in Honolulu during the day, a few yrs earlier.
It was magnificent!
There are other things too, that I hold dear in my memory. Every time I have to lie in an MRI machine, I run thru them all in my head & deliberately remember them. I'm a bit claustrophobic, and it helps the time pass quickly.
I won't bore you all any longer, tho.
I hope I
do get to see a Bigfoot one day. If/when I do, I'll come back here & brag about it.