Retired Officer Recalls 9-Foot Bigfoot Encounter at State Park

Posted Saturday, June 27, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

So, I stumbled across this incredible interview over on The Boom Boom Room YouTube channel, and honestly, I had to share it with anyone who appreciates a good firsthand account from someone with serious credentials. Bruce Brown, a retired law enforcement officer with a resume that reads like a thriller novel, sits down to talk about his decades of experiences with cryptids, and let me tell you, this one is a wild ride from start to finish. Brown's background is worth noting right off the bat. We're talking about a guy who spent his career as a patrolman, deputy sheriff, sergeant of patrols, detective handling homicide cases, chief of narcotics, and even time with homeland security. When someone with that kind of training and experience starts talking about what they've seen in the woods, you tend to pay attention. He makes it clear early on that his encounters with cryptids started when he was just a kid, and his career in law enforcement actually gave him opportunities to investigate these things firsthand. One of the most fascinating parts of the interview is when Brown breaks down the different types of Sasquatch and Dog Man encounters he's had. He refers to the "ancient ones" as flesh and blood beings, the kind most researchers would recognize as the classic Sasquatch. But then he goes further, talking about hybrids and interdimensional beings. He mentions that the government prefers the term "interdimensional" over "extraterrestrial," which is a distinction that will definitely get you thinking. He even brings up bioengineered Sasquatch with mechanical eyes and Dog Man hybrids that were turned into super soldiers through genetic work in labs. Heavy stuff. There's a moment where he describes getting a call from a farmer in Clay County, Tennessee, right outside of Salena, about a bad interaction with a Dog Man. By the time he arrived on the scene, six military helicopters were flying overhead. After that, he started using codes to avoid being tracked, which gives you a sense of just how deep some of these investigations can go. But the centerpiece of the interview, and the part that had me on the edge of my seat, is a story from his earlier days. A school bus driver and the kids on his route kept seeing what they thought was a bear crossing the road every morning between 6:20 and 6:30, always in the same spot, always with what appeared to be a cub. The superintendent, Walter Shanks, called Brown because he knew Brown hunted the property. The thing is, there hadn't been bears in that part of the country in a hundred years. Brown investigated, talked to the bus driver, and connected with a park ranger named George Shanks who owned the property the creature was crossing onto. The ranger had recently moved his cows after a couple had turned up dead. What happens next is the kind of encounter that makes you wish you could have been there. Brown, the park ranger, and the ranger's 18 or 19-year-old son headed out in a brand new four-wheel-drive Ford truck borrowed from the ranger's brother-in-law who worked for Ford Motor Company. They had a Johnny Walker game caller, a spotlight, and several firearms including a .22, .243, .30-06, and a 12 gauge double barrel. They set up near a barn and started making calls, bringing in coyotes and other animals. Then something came off the side of the mountain. Brown describes a scream that sounded like a 2,000-pound bull but high-pitched, followed by trees and branches breaking. When the spotlight hit the edge of the field, they saw what Brown estimates was around nine feet tall, the biggest thing any of them had ever seen. It let out a roar that he describes as somewhere between a mountain lion and the classic deep, guttural Sasquatch vocalization. This is the kind of account that stays with you. Brown isn't some random person claiming a sighting in their backyard. He's a trained observer with decades of experience in high-stakes situations, and he talks about these encounters with the kind of matter-of-fact delivery that makes the hair on your arms stand up. He also mentions having encounters that lasted 45 minutes to over an hour, and even talks about helping Sasquatch who got tangled in fences or hit by cars, calling in the appropriate people to make sure they were dealing with the real deal and not one of the bioengineered ones. If you haven't checked out this interview yet, do yourself a favor and head over to The Boom Boom Room on YouTube. It's one of those conversations that reminds you why people keep going out into the woods looking for answers. Brown has a lot more stories than what I can cover here, and his perspective as someone who worked within the system adds a whole other layer to the whole phenomenon.