Vocalization - Clatsop County, Oregon - 2021

Date of incident: August 14th, 2021

Location of incident: Clatsop County, Oregon

Description of incident:

I was camping with my 14 year old son along the [REDACTED] near Saddle Mountain in Clatsop County, Oregon. We had arrived in the late afternoon and had just laid down for bed when I awoke to the sound of a "whoooop" followed up a weird diap

hragm sound of "ratatatatat" sound almost like a stick running along a wooden fence. I couldn't tell how far away the sounds were, but I could tell they were coming from above our campsite on the ridgeline. I had never heard a noise like that before in the woods. My Son was asleep next to me, so I know it wasn't him. I peaked out of our rooftop tent but didn't see anything and decided to sit up for a while and see if anything ventured into our campsite.

About a halfhour went by before I heard a long howling scream come from the same area as before. The scream was so loud and lasted for such a long duration that I knew it wasn't from an animal I've ever experienced in this area. I've heard cougars scream, I've heard elk, I've even heard elks bellow while being attacked by cougars, this was neither of those. My Son woke up on the second howl and asked what it was, I told him the truth, I wasn't sure what was making the sounds. My Son is a boy scout and I am a Sheriff's Deputy for an agency along the Oregon Coast.

These howls and screams lasted for about 20-30 minutes, repeating itself every minute or two. About 25 minutes into these calls we both thought we heard a response call from the South of our camp at a lower elevation from camp.

We remained in the rooftop tent, my 10mm pistol was next to me and I was ready to use it if necessary. We weren't scared, but we also were not brave enough to try and get a closer look at whatever was making the sounds.

My Son says now that the scream/howl sounded like a banshee from a videogame he plays "Left for Dead"

Best way to describe the screaming howls was that it started at a high pitch, like a woman screaming, and then got deeper and more guttural becoming a low howl at the end.

We didn't see anything, but I know without a doubt that what we heard was not an animal I've ever experienced in my lifetime.