5-6-05 - The legend of Bigfoot extends to north Texas counties as well as rural southeast Oklahoma.

Bigfoot researchers have worked extensively in Fannin, Grayson, and Cooke counties, searching for the mythical creature. A group based in Dallas has taken footprint casts from areas around LeFlore County in southern Oklahoma. Click on the video link for more of their story.

One rancher in Fannin County is a believer – because he claims to have seen Bigfoot himself. He first noticed disappearing livestock on 150 acres of woods. 5 years ago, he had a close encounter. "It was 8 feet tall, very hairy - dark black hair- it was huge. I would estimate about 700 pounds easy - that's a very big animal," says Bill. He says the creature crossed a path ahead of him, screamed and then ran away. Then two months ago, Simmons was hunting early one morning when he had his second sighting.

He says the proof is in tracks left by the creature – which he says are 14 to 16 inches long. He’s made a plaster cast of those tracks, and also points to tree breaks as proof – branches too high to be made by humans.

But Simmons' sightings aren’t the only ones in north Texas. Jay Noel is an operations manager at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, where a woman reported a sighting near a picnic area back in 1995. Noel says he doesn't care to speculate on exactly what the woman saw, but does say he’s never witnessed anything like that in his 21 years on the job.

Outside Callisburg, teenagers have reported sightings as far back as 1965.

All of these sightings have funneled in to the Texas Bigfoot Research Organization. Tomorrow night at 6 & 10, hear from those who have dedicated their lives and careers to finding this elusive creature.

Click here to go to the Texas Bigfoot Research website, or click here to check out the national research website.