The Okeechobee Ogre
Lakeport Florida - This small town on the western edge of Lake Okeechobee has suddenly become the epicenter of a recent wave of skunk ape sightings. (Please see my earlier article on this Florida cousin of Bigfoot for a history and description of the beast.) The first sighting in the area was on November 2nd of 1997 when a young tourist couple was taking an airboat tour of the Lake. Tour guide Ronald Mosley spoke to me about the sighting.
Brian Hammock saw a skunk ape while fishing on Lake Okeechobee
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"We were cruising the shore near the Monkey Box part of the lake. They had a pair of binoculars and were passing them back and forth, looking at some cowbirds near the levee. Suddenly the woman yelled that there was somebody in an ape suit standing on top of the bank. I looked but didn't see anything. The husband grabbed the glasses and said all he saw was somebody walking into the woods."
The young woman's claim was dismissed but two months later two local men spotted something wading in the water in the same area.
"Me and Bob was trolling for bass with shiner bait early one morning before everybody else and his brother got out onto the water." stated Brian Hammock in the local paper. "Anyway, we were maybe a 100 feet out, fishing this weedbed, when I saw something come out of an alligator cooter hole on the bank. (a cooter hole is slang for the muddy depressions that alligators build into the side of the levee to lay eggs in and escape the heat.) I thought it was an alligator but just then Bob caught a lunker and yelled. Well when he did that that, thing on the levee reared up on it's two hind legs and I could tell it wasn't no alligator. It was hairy and about 6 or 7 foot tall. It ran out of the water and disappeared into the sawgrass."
Brian went on in the article to state that he and his fishing partner explored the area where he saw the monster but found only some muddy tracks. He did say that there was a "god awful" smell coming from the alligator hole.
Jim Smith's fish camp.
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By the time the summer had come, more sightings of what was being called "The Okeechobee Ogre" were being told around local bait shops and a small cottage industry had started. T-shirts with an artist rendition of the skunk ape were being sold at a local gas station and some guides even advertised a "skunk ape tour" to interested tourists. In September of 98 Jim Smith was claiming his fish camp as 'Skunk Ape Central'. He has several plaster footprint casts he claims came from the beast.
"Yea, I've seen him a coupla times" Jim told me recently. "He's hairy and stinky and about 7 foot tall. I've been leaving the fish guts out back for him for about 2 months now and he's been getting 'em almost every night. I mean if you can have a salt lick to lure deer you can have fish guts to lure a skunk ape. Nothing illegal about it."
Jim Smith, owner of the fish camp.
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Lakeport's only full time police officer, Shane Curry, concurs with Jim's assessment of the legal code. "Yeah, as long as Jim's feeding it I guess it's like a civic duty. Nothing wrong with that. Of course if somebody wanted to hunt him down or kill it I might take exception with that. The Ogre is sort of the mascot of Lakeport now. We don't want nothing to happen to him."
It seems the only thing happening to the Okeechobee Ogre is his commercialization. T-shirts, bumper stickers and of course fishing hats all have the skunk apes face plastered on them. The city council is even entertaining the idea of having a "Skunk Ape Day" in appreciation of their new found monster and the fame he has brought this small town. It's unknown if the skunk ape is happy about the matter.
Ain't fishing fun?
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SKUNK APE FREAK-CAM
This web camera is on 24 hours a day and is directly behind Jim Smith's Fishcamp and Bar in Lakeport. Occasionally you can see Jim or his wife throwing a bucket of fishguts and scraps in front of the camera. (happens mostly in the early evening) The camera refreshes with one new frame every minute. If you spot anything interesting be sure and save the image and send it to me at derek@freakylinks.com.
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Click here to see the Okeechobee Ogre Live Freak-Cam!
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March 21st 2000 - On the night of the 20th a Freakylinks reader was watching the skunkape webcam and captured the following images. Here's what happened in her own words.
"It was Monday night, wrestling was not holding my interest, so i came out to check my email. while IMing (instant messaging) my sister, i decided to download the bigfoot-cam (she was looking at the chupacabra-cam). i was flipping desultorily between screens, thinking "wouldn't it be wild if i saw something?" and suddenly there it was! so i wigged out (my exact IM was "holy shit!", called my husband in to have a look, forwarded it to my sister to confirm that i was not insane,emailed you, and kept checking back. that is when I saw the other images, and figured it must be a tape loop or some kind of joke, because the picture is exactly the same, just fainter. which is when I sent you the second email. I am attaching the 2 images I saved."
My first thought was that it's a practical joke but the owners of the fish camp swear up and down that no one is out stomping through the woods in a skunk ape suit for our viewing pleasure. I'll leave up to you to pass judgement on the photos. -Derek-
sources
Interview with Jim Smith, January 16th, 17th, 19th, 1999
Interview with Ronald Mosley, January 16th, 1999
Interview with Shane Curry, January 19th, 1999
"Lakeport's Monster of the Lake", Lakeport Banner, January 8th, 1998
photo courtesy of the Lakeport Banner
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