CREATURE FROM CREX MEADOWS
By R.S. LEHNER
Smashwords Edition, copyright 2012
License Notes: All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.
Creature from Crex Meadows
R.S. Lehner
Table of Contents
MAY 1, 2011
What follows is an exact recounting of the specific details that occurred during the first week in November 2005 deep within a 30,000 plus acre game preserve, which has long been used by the locals for hunting, specifically deer. Its right next to Grantsburg, Wisconsin, a place called Crex Meadows. It is being told to me by my son, who from now on will be referred to as Tom, (not his real name). After you read this, you will understand why.
I want it to be known that I am a true skeptic who has never had an encounter with what is described here. I went with Tom about two weeks after his encounter and observed where he was and where the supposed creature was, when he had observed it. There were unmistakable signs there that seemed to bear up his story and needed some investigating. On the spot where the encounter supposedly happened, I stood where the creature had stood and made some observations. There was an old fallen birch tree about ten inches in diameter that had laid there for years and had started to rot. There I saw a clear impression of a very large humanoid footprint that had neatly crushed one-half of it. It was the only mark on the log and clearly not made by any animal that I am aware of. It was a good 18 inches long. To me it was one of those times when you would say to yourself, why didn’t I bring a camera? I also observed where Tom had thrown his plastic water bottle in his hurried attempt to get away from what he perceived to be a real threat.
Tom told me the story two weeks after it happened and didn’t say anything to anyone but his wife. As you read here, it shows how when something happens to you and you’re still scratching your head about it, you tend to think either your crazy or hallucinating. He knew what he had seen and wanted me to verify what I could about it.
At first, I laughed at him and made light of this “experience,” but when he didn’t react with his own laughing, I knew that something strange had indeed befallen him. I pushed him to the extreme to find fault in his story by making him re-tell it many times and finally not finding any satisfaction, I said that he needed to take me to the place where it happened. Again, that was two weeks after the fact and he hesitantly agreed.
Together we drove his pickup truck deep into Crex Meadows and it was after the gravel road ended and the two-lane rut path stopped, that we walked the rest of the way to the ridge he had been on that day. It overlooked a pine and birch swamp. There he pointed out where his deer stand had been in a specific tree and described how high up he was, about sixteen feet, when this thing happened.
It was then that I made the earlier described discovery Mind you, he had hunted all throughout Crex Meadows before for many years, but this was his first time at this new location up the Kolar Pete Swamp Road to Reeds Lake Road and finally to a two rut trail heading north and dead ending in the middle of nowhere.
Kolar Pete swamp is known by the locals as a place where weird things happen and it has magnetic anomalies. Compasses don’t point true north and can vary in accuracy quite a bit. Plus there are also legends of happenings out there which can’t be explained. Tom had heard some of these stories, but readily dismissed them. They were the farthest thing on his mind when he was going after his “trophy buck”.
Tom preferred to hunt alone. He’d sit patiently and silently in his deer stand completely camouflaged with scent lock gear, policing his deer baiting pile, which usually consisted of corn, and apples, which were left in position for many days before the actual hunt. Even in bait placement, he would prep-up with his scent blockers and treat this as if it were the actual hunt by leaving nothing behind except his deer stand placed high above normal viewing range. He always got his deer when he hunted this way and Crex Meadows was full of them. Every year he was successful. His wife often tells the story of how he’d don his gear and compound bow and she’d take him to a specific spot somewhere out in the Crex where he’d say,
“This is it, let me out here, and come back in two hours.”
She was born and raised in Grantsburg and knew the Crex swamp area as well as anyone. She’d return and Tom was always waiting for her with a fully dressed-out buck and a big grin. It never failed. Tom knew how to find and get the deer. He was that good and the envy of his friends who also hunted the Crex.
Although this happened back in 2005, I was able to convince my son to report it to the BFRO (Big Foot Research Organization) on-line. These people are legit and approach the phenomena with an unbiased approach, asking a series of carefully engineered questions to establish validity and witness credibility. Tom spent the next several days writing an account of the circumstances and gave it to me. I urged him to take his time in its writing so as not to omit some little thing that may be important to other investigators or the BFRO.
The really unusual thing about his experience was the fact that he claims to have held eye contact with it for more than ten minutes in the so-called standoff or as he calls it the stare down. The entire encounter was a lot longer than that. Whereas most reported sightings last only a few seconds with the creature usually in flight or deeply hidden by vegetation, Tom, though scared to death and confounded by what he was seeing, still stared at this thing for a long time making and maintaining direct eye contact. This part of his story can’t be taken lightly. Remember he was an avid bow hunter who relied on stealth rather than a high-powered hunting rifle and knew how different animals react to various circumstances and with this, he was bewildered.
For years, he had been a bow hunter and had seen every kind of native species. Bear, wolf, fox, badger, and the list goes on. This was a first and obviously very unusual confrontation. In fact how the thing knew he was up there astonishes him to this day. It just doesn’t happen unless you made a noise or movement and Tom hadn’t done either, adding,
“It’s hard to sit like a statue for hours in the dark and cold but if you want the big one, you do it.”
We reported it three days ago to the BFRO but so far, Tom hasn’t been contacted. It seems that the organization receives hundreds of reports per year and looks into the most recent first as a matter of protocol. Let’s just say that if 97% of the alleged sightings can be explained away, what about the remaining 3%. That just doesn’t cut it with me but I remain a skeptic.
I would like to see 100% explained away and just put an end to all this. That unfortunately isn’t going to happen. One could compare this to the numerous UFO sightings and alien encounters that we read about. With dozens seeing the same thing in unison and with very credible witnesses, (police, citizens, judges, pilots, both commercial and private), the media calls this mass hysteria, and they have to, as there is no other explanation. They certainly aren’t going to research this to any real valid conclusions.
In the 1970’s I read a book called Operation Trojan Horse by John Keel. I still have it somewhere. It’s out of publication and hard to find. I researched it and found that a copy, without a cover and badly worn, could be had for a measly $350.00 on e-Bay. What I remember about it was that Keel believed that there was a connection between UFO’s Poltergeists and the occult, including the Bigfoot sightings. Somehow it all was related. In fact, he warned the casual reader to not delve into this stuff unless he was “firmly grounded.” What he meant by that was anyone’s guess. I had all my friends read it and they made comments alongside the text itself, some of which were very interesting. I’ve maintained a theory on Keels’ book and his follow up work, The Mothman Prophecies, released shortly afterward. It goes something along these lines.
If you look at religion with all its mysticism and ceremony, it appears to attempt to comprehend God. Each sect is biased and claims the others are imposters with it being the only true form. Indeed how many humans have been slaughtered in the name of God? Others claim that God exists within you, making you the essence of the Creator or God. Anytime you pray to or conjure anything, you are opening the door of your subconscious. This is very scary in itself, because you are consciously unaware of the entity (if one exists), that you have aroused, but your subconscious knows all too well the ramifications of casual communication, leading to absurd behavior, nightmares and potential psychosis. Maybe it’s having a bad day and doesn’t want to be disturbed.