Texas has its own Bigfoot named Hawley Him that allegedly throws rocks at children and is seven feet tall.
Renee Miller was just 15 years old when she claims she first saw the creature in July 1977 when she went out to an area of Hawley called The Shinnery with a two boys.
The duo – Tom Roberts and Larry Suggs – had rushed to her parents’ door scared after they claimed something was throwing rocks at them.
‘They came over to the house scared to death and my mom said – well, take the gun and see what’s going on,’ Miller told KTAB.
Roberts and Suggs had been on their break when tiny rocks came flying their way. Each throw was harder than the last and the boys called out for it to stop. When it did, they heard branches breaking under a large foot and fled, according to The Pine Barren Institute.
When Sugg turned around, he saw the ape-like creature.
Armed, Miller and the boys went back to the area they claimed they had seen the monster while they were clearing some land for an electric fence to be built, she told KTAB.
But as they crept toward the area, Miller was smacked with the rancid smell of rotting eggs and soon enough, rocks came flying their way, she told the local outlet.
It was first seen by Tom Roberts and Larry Suggs in July 1977. They rushed to Renee Miller’s parents’ door scared after they claimed something was throwing rocks at them.
Pictured: A grab from the 1967 American short motion picture, created by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin, shows an unidentified subject that the filmmakers said was Bigfoot
‘I didn’t shoot at it because, well, I’m a girl! There was two boys there! They shot the gun up in the air, and that’s when we actually saw it. It turned around and took off,’ she told the outlet.
The Shinnery was too thick for a person to run through, so Miller was sure the monstrous thing she saw was what became known as the Hawley Him.
‘People have made fun of me and that’s fine. I know what I saw, just let people believe what they want to believe,’ Miller told the outlet defiantly.
One of the boys had described the creature to the Abilene Reporter as a ‘kind of an ape but still a man’ with ‘huge arms’.
Word got around quickly and a Texas oilman put up at $5,000 reward for anyone who captured the seven-foot creature.
‘Attention bounty hunters, an oilman has posted $5,000 reward for the capture of a new renegade: a big hairy monster. Unlike the dead or alive posters that covered the walls of the US Marshall’s Office, Jack Grimm said he wants the “Hawley Him” taken unharmed,’ a 1977 Abilene Reporter said.
He offered such a big reward because he said real experts wouldn’t ‘stick their necks out’ to see if there was any credibility in the sightings of mystical creatures, such as the Hawley Him, Bigfoot, and Loch Ness Monster.
‘I’m a geologist by profession. It’s a contribution to science,’ he told the paper at the time. ‘I get a great deal of pleasure from pursuing these things.
Armed, Miller and the boys went back to the area they claimed they had seen the monster. But as they crept toward the area, Miller was smacked with the rancid smell of rotting eggs and soon enough, rocks came flying their way and the monster fled
Word got around quickly and a Texas oilman put up at $5,000 reward for anyone who captured the seven-foot creature. It was never found
‘I didn’t belittle these sightings,’ he went on. ‘I think they’re worth checking out by qualified people.’
After the posting, monster hunters flooded the area.
‘Once it came out in the paper, I mean people from all over the United States come in trying to find the Hawley Him. They would come at 10-11 o’clock at night knocking on the door,’ Miller told KTAB.
‘My mom, bless her heart, she finally had to put a no trespassing sign…It was chaotic.’
The monster eventually made it to Merkel, Texas, according to The Pine Barren Institute, a folklore blog.
It hasn’t been seen since.
But for Miller, she could never go back to The Shinnery after that day as the fear still lives in her.
‘You could smell that smell every now and then, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up,’ she told KTAB.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Miller for further comment.
