Childhood Witness Recalls Strange Encounter at Clark Ranch

There's something genuinely fascinating that surfaced recently on the Creek Devil YouTube channel, and it's the kind of content that makes you sit up and pay attention. Host William Jevning, a two-time witness and field researcher with over four decades of experience in the field, sits down with a guest named Dwayne for what turns out to be a deeply personal conversation about a childhood encounter that connects directly to one of the most talked-about incidents in Sasquatch research history. For anyone familiar with Jevning's work, you probably know about the Clark Ranch incident from 1976. After meeting John Green and Rene Dahinden, Jevning and three friends set out to investigate reports of strange screams coming from a property in Roy, Washington. What they experienced that night — being surrounded by at least four creatures, with one friend seeing one and another being pulled partway out of a tent — became a defining moment in his life and was documented in his book *In Search of the Unknown*. What makes this particular episode so compelling is that Dwayne's encounter happened at the very same location, years before Jevning and his crew ever showed up. Dwayne was just a kid, somewhere between 8 and 10 years old, visiting his friend Darby who had moved to a house on Muck Creek — the same creek that feeds into Muck Lake in Roy. The area is exactly as described: a tiny town with a speed trap sign, the Roy Tavern, Judge Roy Beans, and gravel roads stretching out for miles in every direction. Dwayne paints a vivid picture of that day. He was playing on a giant boulder at the edge of a swampy pond across from the house, catching what he thought were water snakes — Northwest garter snakes that kept swimming right up to him. Within 15 to 20 minutes, he'd caught 15 to 20 of them and filled up an old Folgers coffee can. His friend Darby, though, insisted there were no water snakes in that area. The kids threw them all in the gravel and went on with their day, doing what kids do — sword fighting with sticks, playing around, just being kids. Then night fell. And that's where things take a turn. Dwayne mentions Darby's sister had a horse named Tonto, and Darby's horse was ironically named Sasquatch — a gray-colored horse that, according to Dwayne, was "a bastard." The discussion cuts off right as Dwayne is about to describe what happened next, but the setup is unmistakable. This is a firsthand account from someone who was in that exact area as a child, years before Jevning's famous 1976 investigation, and the details align with the kind of activity that drew Jevning and his friends to the property in the first place. The Roy, Washington area has a long history of reports. Muck Creek and the surrounding swampy lowlands have been associated with unusual activity for decades, and the Clark Ranch incident remains one of the more credible multi-witness encounters on record. Having a second witness come forward — someone who was there as a child and didn't even know about Jevning's later investigation — adds another layer to the story. Dwayne is clear that he doesn't like using the word "story" because, for him, it implies something fake. He calls it his reality, and you can hear the weight of it in how he talks. There's something raw about a childhood encounter, especially one from an area with such a strong history of reports. The Creek Devil channel is worth checking out for anyone interested in long-format, in-depth conversations with witnesses and researchers. Jevning's approach is conversational and respectful, and this particular episode has the feel of two people sharing something meaningful — a connection across time to the same patch of woods in Roy, Washington. Definitely worth a watch if you're into firsthand accounts and the history of Sasquatch research in the Pacific Northwest.