Hochatown and Broken Bow, Oklahoma has buzzed with legends of a Bigfoot, or maybe even several Bigfoots, in the area for years. The area was originally inhabited by the Choctaw Indian tribe and then taken over by Southerners following the Civil War. The original Hochatown grew into a stable lumber and coal town in 1900. The area thrived until the 1930's when lumber supply dwindled, and the towns people briefty turned to making and selling moonshine for money. In 1963, the last family fled the area, leaving it as a ghost town and covered in 40 feet of water, which is now know as Broken Bow Lake.
But something still lurks in the area of southeastern Oklahoma. That something is not human, but not completely an animal. It's something inbetween... a Bigfoot. The stories of Bigfoot actually goes back for generations.
Charles Benton says he knows what he saw a few miles north of Broken Bow, deep in the weeds near Hochatown. It's where he says a turkey hunt in the year 2000 turned into the scare of a lifetime.
"Behind me I could hear this moaning, this grunting. And I could feel it almost," Benton says.
"I was on my all fours there for a minute," Benton says, describing the experience. "When I got back to my knees and was getting up - see the trees that make kind of a 'V'? Right there. In between those two trees, down there in that creek."
He says the creature turned and looked right at him.
"I ran up this hill, ran past my blind, my tent and all my camping stuff. Ran to my truck and never came back," Benton says.
His equipment is still there, the colors of the collapsed tent and empty soda cans faded from years of sitting in the sun. And after chatting with people in Hochatown, it's clear Benton's story isn't unique and there's something in the woods.
Read more about Charles Benton's experience on NPR's StateImpact and on Hochatown Things To Do.
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Stay at Aiukli Creek View Cabin or Aiukli Pine View Cabin for your chance to spot Bigfoot or nature's other creatures. Visit Beavers Bend State Park for maximum sightings.
Did you know "Aiukli" means "beautiful" in the Choctaw language? It is nod to the Choctaw native indians that settled in the area. Aiukli is pronounced: eye (what you see with) - yuke (rhymes with the name Luke) - lee (like the jeans).