Bigfoot in Keetonville

I wrote and posted the story A Creature in Keetonville on the Storiesville website on December 22, 2008. After posting the story online I learned about a 2009 Adult Creative Writing Contest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I edited and rewrote the story and submitted the story to that contest.

The story is about a Bigfoot sighting in Keetonville, Oklahoma. There are two elements in that story which have fascinated me for several years: Bigfoot and the Keetonville Bridge.

My interest in Bigfoot started at an early age. I saw a picture from the Patterson-Gimlin film of a Bigfoot on a tabloid cover. I later saw a few episodes on the Six-Million Dollar Man television show which had a Bigfoot character. I also saw the movies The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) and Harry and the Hendersons (1987) which were about Bigfoot. Over the years I have viewed some other low budget films about Bigfoot.

After The Georgia Bigfoot Body Hoax in 2008 I was ready to put a story together about a Bigfoot mystery. The other element which is a critical piece to my story is the Keetonville Bridge.

Keetonville is a small town in Oklahoma between Tulsa, Owasso, Catoosa, and Claremore. There is a road called Keetonville road which is the main street in Keetonville. That road curves up, down and through the hills of Keetonville. It is the old truss bridge on this road that has fascinated me since high school.

The first time I saw this bridge was when a friend of mine had told me an urban legend about Cry Baby Bridge. I know now that almost every town throughout the United States has a story about a Cry Baby Bridge. The Keetonville Bridge was the topic of the Cry Baby Bridge urban legend in the Tulsa area. The area around the Keetonville Bridge and the Keetonville road is beautiful and peaceful. It is a country area with a few homes, a few farms and a lot of fields, trees and space. It is a perfect place for something to hide which makes a great place for a mystery.

A few years ago I had thought of a story about some campers in Keetonville encountering a Bigfoot but I could not get the story to work right. I started doing research about Bigfoot sightings in Oklahoma. I discovered Oklahoma has had only a few sightings and most of those sightings were around the Kiamichi Mountains. I, of course, wanted to write a story that took place in Keetonville which is near my home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Perhaps if I make bundles of money in the future I can afford a lengthy visit to the Kiamichi Mountains and write another Bigfoot story. Interestingly (and I hope to attend someday) Honobia, Oklahoma, which is in the Kiamichi area nicknamed ‘Bigfoot Country’, has a Bigfoot Festival each October.

So despite the fact that Keetonville has probably never had an actual Bigfoot sighting that is where my story takes place. The good news for my story, though, is that there really is a Boggy Creek that flows through Keetonville.

I will admit that Boggy is a common name for creeks and there are several Boggy Creeks throughout the United States. The most famous of all the Boggy Creeks is in Fouke, Arkansas. To learn more about Bigfoot online, read the information provided by Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot.