Are these haunting sounds really Bigfoot screams? Animals make bizarre sounds in the night. Often the origin is clear. But sometimes the shrieking is just too incredibly unsettling to ignore. Read on for our best audio evidence of Sasquatch screams.
‘Night Scream’ by Scott Davis
Note, it’s difficult to determine the authenticity of a true ‘Bigfoot Scream’, since there are an infinite amount of other animals out in the wilderness screeching, cawing, wailing, howling, and braying together in a moonlit chorus. The potential for hoaxing is also very high. Even though we have very compelling Bigfoot sound evidence, we can’t forget that technology allows us to blend, enhance, deepen, and overlay intricate audio collages. Even back in the mid-20th century sound recording technology was advanced enough to allow for granular manipulation. That being said, let’s have an honest listen to the best pieces of ‘screaming’ evidence.
Bigfoot Screams on the Umatilla Indian Reservation
In 2012, several residents of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendelton Oregon (Washington/Oregon border) reported loud, bizarre screams and shrieks coming from a spread of dense swampland over the course of several nights. At times, the sounds were so unsettling and intense that residents woke up suddenly and couldn’t get back to sleep. Even their dogs refused to go outside. The sounds ranged from bass-heavy roars to blood-curdling shrieks.
A tribal housing authority employee, Colleen Change, recorded this intriguing audio:
The Umatilla Reservation spans 178,000 acres. The utter strangeness of the sounds made it all the more unsettling. Most of the 1,500 people on the reservation practically grew up in the wilderness. They experienced the full spectrum of animal sounds throughout their lives, but these screams, according to many, are sounds that have simply never been heard before. Some even heard the sounds bellow from two different directions, as if a conversation took place.
A History of Odd Activity
Could these truly be Sasquatch screams? The confederated tribes of the Umatilla Reservation— the Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla- all tell stories of a form of Sasquatch, or wild man of the woods. The region is rich in supposed Bigfoot activity. In 1976 18″ tracks were discovered by a Walla Walla man just north of the reservation in the Blue Hills. Oregon, generally is a hotspot for Bigfoot activity. The state reported at least 243 encounters decade after decade. Fifteen of these reports took place in Umatilla County, including a 1992 ‘Class A’ encounter, where two brothers observed a “large hairy man” watching them 100 yards away across a gorge. And in 2002, a man reported another ‘Class A’ encounter, claiming that a Sasquatch-like creature stared at him through a window of his rural home. The creature fled into the treeline when it was acknowledged by the man. He investigated the land immediately after, discovering 16″ long, 6/7″ wide footprints.
Could the local fauna be to blame for the Umatilla screams? One local wildlife manager on the reservation explained that when cougars breed, the sounds they make are “absolutely hair-raising.” And the neighboring swampland is “a perfect place to have an echoing call sound eerie.” Additionally, wolves, coyote, and fox (listen to examples below) can produce wailing bellows and the same type of maniacal cackle the residents heard. The swamp may have enhanced the eerie nature of these already strange animal calls.¹
The Bigfoot Scream You Have Probably Heard
“The sound you hear is what some experts claim to be a Bigfoot scream. Recorded in the state of Washington by a group of campers in 1971. It is regarded as the highest quality audio of the creature ever captured.” -Leonard Nimoy, Ancient Mysteries (1992)
This is probably the most well known of all Bigfoot screams. I first heard this clip featured in Ancient Mysteries: Bigfoot (1994) back in the day. I assumed it was authentic, no doubt thanks to Leonard Nimoy’s wise timbre. Unfortunately, about a year ago I watched Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot (1976) and was upset to hear that this very scream was used prominently in the film! The sense of awe and terrified wonderment I always had for the hauntingly beautiful audio was lost.
At that point when I watched the movie, I accepted that the audio was made for the project and year after year the origin became hazier and hazier into oblivion. The film is 40-odd years old and highly obscure. I assumed the producers of Ancient Mysteries and these other Sasquatch documentaries of recent years completely overlooked the source or chose to move forward with the segment believing no one would notice.
Unfortunately, It’s Probably Fake
As I continued research, I stumbled into ParaBreakdown’s corner of Youtube, and he provided evidence that this scream was utilized in an EARLIER Bigfoot movie, called Big Foot: Man or Beast (1972). In this pseudo-documentary, a couple from British Columbia were interviewed about an anguished ‘screaming cry’ heard in the swamps behind their home at dusk. The film then provides an “approximation” of the recorded sound, which of course turns out to be the Bigfoot scream in question. This form of it, though, is much clearer and even seems to have some echo and reverberation, somewhat indicating recording-studio acoustics. No!!!!
And if this is the original version… then the Ancient Mysteries: Bigfoot clip just completely made up the 1971 Washington Campers story. Why wouldn’t they have played this original audio then, you know?
I am holding out. I like this audio too much. It’s real damnit! It has to be!
So I’ve decided to subject myself to the suggestive powers of unsourced Wikipedia pages and down-the-rabbit-hole Youtube Comments. The Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot Wikipedia page says the audio is authentic and recorded before the film. As I waded deeper into the shitty blackness of the Youtube comment feed I found a handful of users defending the source, claiming it was truly legitimate:
“There’s not a bit of actual proof that this is a construct. In fact, though he doesn’t take credit for it, it’s most likely a capture made by the same gentleman who’s responsible for the “Sierra sounds” recordings.” – Youtube user ‘Pattysreal’
You read that right. I’m sourcing Youtube comments and unverified Wikipedia text. I consciously elect to put my head in the sand. Roar on, lonely Sasquatch.
More Notable Sasquatch Screams
Even though the Ancient Mysteries wail is likely fabricated, there are plenty of compelling Sasquatch scream recorded throughout the years. Many possess that same kind of anguished, exasperated cry. Others, on the other hand, feel malevolent and sound just plain terrifying.
The Puyallup Screamer
In the spring of 1973 a young boy and girl were riding their bikes on an old pipeline road outside of Puyallup Washington. As they rode near a large gravel pit, a hulking, bipedal ‘thing’ walked across the road, approximately 150 yards in front of them. It paused halfway, looked at them, and continued its stride into the dense bush. The kids pedaled home frantically. No one believed their story even though something strange had been haunting the town of Pullyup for weeks: horrible screaming in the night.²
The children had experienced it, and many of the townsfolk felt the terror. The screams continued after the children’s encounter. And finally on May 12, 1973 a man named Marlin Ayers collected proof. One night he recorded this frightening audio of the chilling screamer:
The Clipper Mills Screams
In the Summer of 2012, a couple traveling with their two dogs through the Sierras near Clipper Mills CA pulled off-road to fix transmission issues in their truck. The vehicle was beyond repair that night, and they decided it was best to wait until morning to seek help. At approximately 10:00 pm, a chorus of powerful, distant howls began. The unsettling cries lasted exactly twenty minutes before fading away. Per the video uploader, “This is as it happened, it changed us, we will never forget that night as long as we live. I am so glad I caught this to prove our sanity and to remind us that this actually happened.”
¹ The Oregonian, Richard Cockle. “Bigfoot or Animals? Strange Sounds Coming from Swamp on Umatilla Indian Reservation (listen).” OregonLive.com. N.p., 20 Jan. 2013.
² Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. “BFRO Reports by State: Pierce County, WA.” BFRO.net
I’ve heard some hair raising screams come out of cute little foxes as I watched. It’s hard to believe that kind of sound comes out of such a diminutive body.
In the border frontier of Arizona and old Mexico east of Nogales there’s a modest range called the Patagonia Mountains. There’s a string of ghost towns along the rough dirt road that runs along the range. Anyone that wants that “being watched” feeling just drive that road, pause and gaze at the beauty of the San Rafael valley. There could be dozens of hidden eyes and probably several robotic devices all focused on you from the oak woodland’s 5000 ft transition zone grassland and oak thickets.
There’s a small owl species that inhabit those mountains that to some folks sound like “laughing smurfs” and will puzzle most visitors. But, between the wildly varying coyote vocalizations, the screaming foxes and the laughing smurf owls a person gets an earful on most spring and summer nights.
Many 16-18 inch tracks are found in that area – almost all belonging to smugglers wearing burlap covered shoes, shuffling to obscure detection of their passing.
Bear, mountain lion, foxes, owls and even jaguars are seen in the border mountain frontier and they add a lot to the nighttime sonic ambience.
I lived in Mi-Wuk Village, CA in the early 80s, when I was about 15 years old. One night I heard what sounded like a woman being tortured (or worse). I will never forget it and it haunts me to this very day.
Sounds like the screams of the damned.
I just heard that out side my house then my dog started to b a rack 10 minutes later
If it was really Bigfoot, i would think it would have the same consistent sounds for every scream. The screams shown here do not seem to be consistent with each other 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
There could be different types or subspecies for different areas. Also people’s voice’s sure don’t sound the same. Which could be why they sound different as in the clipper mills incident.
We have heard that loud howl/scream. It was the loudest sound we’ve ever heard!
I heard the Washington scream too come towards me in some woods in North Carolina. I was a teenager then and now I am turning 48. It still chills my to the bone.
I was in kindergarten going to school in the cascade mountains and I actually seen one walk through a meadow. We were on the playground and the teachers aides hurried us all into the school and went on lockdown. I will never forget it as a child. I am now 56 years old. The thing walked on it’s two legs and it seemed very large but as a child everything seemed large. I have also watched videos with my friends, their home movies of them enjoying family snow day. Once they arrived home and watched the video themselves they were freaking out with what they had seen standing behind the tree line watching them. To me it looked like a Bigfoot family. It was very awesome to see and know that I am not alone in the search for Bigfoot again.
I heard sounds like that in the same woods where I took pictures of some hairy man looking thing, a different time, from far away. It sounded just like that one you say is fake. Doesnt sound fake to me. It has that eerie fullness.
The washington recording. Sounded close to what I heard while in the Sierra Nevadas in Northen California this last summer. Idk but I was 10 miles away from anything or anyone. 2017 Harry Mc
Kind of sounds like music of some kind? I have NEVER heard anything like it?
Those The Clipper Mills Screams were freaky!
The Clipper Mills sounds like what I heard in the Jemez mountains of New Mexico about 10 or 12 years ago, except we only heard one creature and from much closer. We were in our trailer and were scared to go outside. It reminded me of a bellowing werewolf monster in a movie. Angry and bellowing. Scared the bejesus out of us.
My favorite is the BFRO Ohio Howl
The scream recorded in Washingon is almost exactly to what I listened to all day and night until 1:00 am while I was on an overnight horseback hunting trip.
We ended up camping in the path of whatever was making this howl and as it got closer the howl seemed to be comprised of 3 parts. It started as a low guttural growl that rose into an extended howl, and then dropped into a lie guttural growl again.
This sound was repeated over and over from 8:30 am and we listened to it get steadily closer during the day, until it was so close to our camp that it echoed all around us. It was also accompanied with the sound of breaking branches and trees that cracked like rifle reports through the forest.
When it got within yards of our camp, it must have realized that we were camped in its path, and it went totally silent.
This was during the “Hunter’s Moon” in September, in the early 1990’s.
Though we watched to see if we could see what made these howls, we did not move in the direction they came from. Whatever made them must have been huge with gigantic lung capacity to make such a voluminous sound.
With the full moon, we did not need to use flashlights , we could clearly see in the silvery moonlight, but we didn’t see anything.
We eventually went to bed, but I slept with my rifle cocked and on safety beside me, and my hunting knife under my pillow.
Nothing happened. The horses were not bothered and we continued our trip the next day.
Don’t discount this recording as being false. It is the closest I have ever heard to what I heard that night. If you check out the original. Or the video “Scariest Howl You Will Ever Hear” on YouTube, you can hear how this actually starts out low and rises into the howl and then drops down again. What I heard were growls. It sounds a little different but close on the YouTube video.
I heard that “The Bigfoot Scream You Have Probably Heard” when I saw the Sasquatch film when it first came out in the UK (probably in 1976). At that time, I was going to see any and all films with a monster in it (even though I was a rather timid child so go figure!)
At the time it scared the living daylights out of me, and my memory of the first second of the audio or so is pretty much spot on. Even though it is artificial, I cannot relate to you how it scared the bejesus out of me when I was 8/9 years old. I have just run it twice, and it now doesn’t affect me like it did (thank god), but that was the first time for 40 years that I have heard it.
I knew the film was obscure (how I managed to see it in the UK at the time is not known … although in those days a lot of obscure B-movies went to cinemas), and up till now I wasn’t sure of the name (I kind of knew that it was called Sasquatch in my head). But to have it confirmed, and actually hear the eerie noise again is something else … man!
Anyhow, not so scary now, and I know now that it was made for the film. So that’s something from my childhood that can now rest in peace.
Thanks for the article. It has answered a few niggling questions for me, and given me closure on something that always sat at the back of my mind.
Best wishes
Harvey Price
I’m old enough that i remember hearing the “Bigfoot Scream You’ve Probably Heard” in a short subject before a movie (possibly the pseudo-documentary you mention above). I was with my dad, and that sound scared me so much I grabbed his hand, which freaked him out almost as much as the sound did me. Not surprised it’s artificial, but like you, disappointed.
Aug 2017 – Michigan – Huron National Forest – sleeping – windows open to night breeze – got up to hit the head – laid down listening to the night breeze in the trees – in the woods – a brief angry howl pause and another howl – sound of branch break in the woods – hair on back of my neck stood up – howls were a deep guttural shout unlike any person could muster – duration of shout was perhaps three seconds pause and shout – listened to all Michigan animal calls – nothing close to the shouts.