Episode 151: Heyburn Lake

Summary

Otherworld Podcast – Episode 151: “Heyburn Lake”

Release Date: January 12, 2026
Host: Jack Wagner
Guests/Storytellers: Jerry Jackson & Chelsea Jackson
Theme: Eyewitness encounter with an unexplainable creature near Heyburn Lake, Oklahoma

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Episode Overview

This episode of Otherworld dives into a chilling and confounding story from Oklahoma, told firsthand by Jerry Jackson and his wife, Chelsea. Experienced in the landscape and wildlife, Jerry and Chelsea describe a late-night drive near Heyburn Lake that culminated in a close encounter with a bizarre, unidentifiable creature. Their account, filled with vivid detail and emotional reactions, stands out for having two reliable witnesses who both struggled to rationalize what they saw.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background and Setting

• Jerry’s connection to Heyburn Lake
  • Grew up in the area, highly familiar with local wildlife and rural Oklahoma’s landscape.
  • Describes Eastern Oklahoma as “absolutely gorgeous… hills and mountains” (03:53).
  • Jerry and Chelsea sometimes escape their busy household for nighttime drives out to stargaze and unwind.
• Chelsea’s perspective
  • Self-described "city girl" from Tulsa, less accustomed to rural Oklahoma and its typical wildlife.
  • Married to Jerry for around 10 years, accompanies him on these drives (03:16).

2. The First Incident – Meteor Shower (About 9 Years Earlier)

• During the Perseid meteor shower, the couple stopped by the side of a secluded road to stargaze.
• A bizarrely loud rustling nearby startled Chelsea, Jerry dismissed it as an armadillo (08:26–09:15).

3. The Main Encounter – Spring 2024

• Setting:
  • Late at night, on the same stretch of back road near Heyburn Lake, surrounded by tall grass and barbed wire fencing.
• The Sighting Begins:
  • As Jerry reminisces about their previous stargazing trip, Chelsea spots a large four-legged animal crossing the road ahead (09:59).
  • Both quickly become aware it’s unlike any animal they know.

Description of the Creature:

• Size and Movement:
  • “Almost the size of a cow, but not as girthy… [moved] in more of a canine or feline fashion” (11:08 – Jerry Jackson).
  • Chelsea believes it would stand “at least like 8ft tall” if upright (10:28).
• Texture and Color:
  • “Dark, black, but it had this weird shimmery iridescence… like large static… it was shimmering before my headlights hit” (11:08 – Jerry Jackson).
  • “Body was almost self-illuminating, like it had this strange glow… gray, staticky kind of glow” (12:30 – Chelsea Jackson).
  • Jerry likens it to "an oil sheen on top of static" (12:57).
• Facial Features:
  • No discernible snout, ears, or tail.
  • At one point it swivels its head (unnaturally, “not like a dog would”) and reveals two unusually bright, self-illuminated yellow eyes—“not eyeshine, these were putting out way more light” (12:57 – Jerry Jackson).
• Departure:
  • “Slithered into the grass,” with its upper body undulating like a dragon in anime (16:23 – Jerry Jackson).
  • Jerry emphasizes that the way it moved, especially when entering the brush past a five-strand barbed wire fence (over 5 ft tall), was completely unlike any known animal.

Reactions and Aftermath:

• Both in shock and unable to rationalize what they’d seen.
• Quiet, unnerved drive continues, both processing and discussing what it could have been (21:54).
• They double back in hopes of seeing the creature again, but it’s gone (22:35).

4. Search for Explanations

• Jerry attempts to recall known wildlife; nothing fits (“the closer we got, it stayed unclassifiable”) (16:23 & 24:07).
• Shares story with friends, family, and posts in paranormal groups—suggestions like “skinnwalker” and “jaggerundi” are quickly dismissed as improbable (24:07 – Chelsea Jackson).
• Chelsea: “None of the wildlife that's around here at all… it just looked like this gray, glowing form crossing the road.” (24:44)

5. Personal Impact

• The event becomes a reference point for all future night drives; both continue searching for closure (24:44 – Chelsea Jackson).
• Jerry goes back to the site frequently, hoping to see it again: “Honestly, I kind of go back there going, hey, are you here? Come back out in front of me again so I can get a better look.” (26:44 – Jerry Jackson)
• Both express a feeling of validation, but also a lingering, unsettling mystery.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the creature’s illumination:
  • “It’s like its body was almost self-illuminating, like it had like this strange glow to it, like a gray, staticky kind of glow.” – Chelsea Jackson (12:30)
• On the impossible to categorize what they saw:
  • “If you see a dog in your headlights, it looks like a dog. If you see a cow… But it didn’t resolve into any creature I knew. The closer we got, it stayed unclassifiable to me.” – Jerry Jackson (16:23)
• On the shock of the moment:
  • “I'm watching this and I'm just kind of in a state of shock. Like I couldn't believe what I was seeing. …This was something I had never ever experienced before.” – Chelsea Jackson (15:30)
• On validation:
  • “You can read all the stories you want about Bigfoot… until you see a big hairy man out in the woods, they're just stories.” – Jerry Jackson (26:44)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:16] – Jerry & Chelsea’s backgrounds, introductions
• [08:26]–[09:15] – First encounter during Perseid meteor shower
• [09:38] – The night of the main encounter, description of the setting
• [10:28] – First sighting of the creature and initial reactions
• [11:08–13:00] – Detailed physical description, focus on texture, eyes, movement
• [16:23] – Creature disappears into the grass, discussion of movement
• [21:54] – Aftermath in the car, discussing what they witnessed
• [22:35]–[23:02] – Returning to the scene, hoping for a second sighting
• [24:44] – Sharing the story, struggle for answers
• [26:44] – Reflection on the impact and continuing curiosity

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Host’s Closing Thoughts

• Jack Wagner notes the singularity of the Jacksons’ account, pointing out that cases with multiple, credible witnesses seeing the same thing are especially compelling (27:44).
• Wagner recognizes similarities to other “dark static figures” and “shimmering” creatures in past Otherworld episodes, but finds no clear analogue in Oklahoma lore.
• Calls for listener input if anyone has clues about similar phenomena.

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Summary

“Heyburn Lake” stands out as a compelling, firsthand account of an inexplicable roadside encounter. Both Jerry and Chelsea—a country-raised wildlife expert and a Tulsa city girl—are shaken by the sight of an enormous, shimmering, staticky black creature with self-luminous yellow eyes. Unable to fit what they saw into any known animal category, and despite their rational, grounded backgrounds, their experience leaves them permanently curious and slightly unsettled. The tale is laced with awe, disbelief, and the hope for another chance at understanding the unknown.

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For listeners, this episode offers both eerie detail and thoughtful skepticism—embodying Otherworld’s journalistic and open-minded tone while leaving the mystery very much alive.

Transcript

[Jerry Jackson]

Foreign.

[Jack Wagner]

Welcome to Other World. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. This story takes place in Oklahoma and it comes in from a guy named Jerry Jackson and his wife Chelsea. Jerry is a full time delivery driver, so he spends a lot of time on the road. He also grew up out in the country, fairly close to where this story takes place. And I think that adds a lot to his story because not only is he familiar with the area, I'm sure he's seen a lot of strange stuff on the road while he's driving around, but nothing quite like what you're about to hear. On this night. Him and his wife Chelsea needed a break from their kids. So they drove out to an area about 25 miles away from Tulsa, Oklahoma, a spot where they used to go stargazing. And it was while they were driving around this area that they both ended up seeing something that they could not explain. This episode is not a very long one, but it's definitely a weird one. It's called Heyburn Lake and you're listening to Other World.

[Jerry Jackson]

Hello, is this Bobby?

[Corinne Vien]

Yes, it is.

[Jack Wagner]

At its core, the science you can't argue with.

[Chelsea Jackson]

I'm so worried about up in the Sky.

[Jerry Jackson]

It's almost frustrating that it's happening. I'm literally, I'm gonna die.

[Jack Wagner]

Its limbs were just like, wrong.

[Chelsea Jackson]

Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them a min.

[Jerry Jackson]

My name is Jerry Jackson. I grew up in northeastern Oklahoma in Northern Creek County. I went to school in a town called Bristow, but, but I basically lived out in the country. Grew up in the 80s, so I didn't have a lot of distractions. I was out playing in the, in the woods a lot. As a result, I got very familiar with the wildlife in the area. Spent a lot of time out in the woods growing up and then also spent a lot of time driving the back roads. Northeastern Oklahoma is pretty hilly. There are a lot of creeks and rivers and lakes. So the back roads are kind of a spider web and you can get lost if you don't know where you're going. But I'm very familiar with them. So that's kind of, has always been a thing I've done. My, my grandpa used to take me out on back roads, just out driving all the time. So I'm really familiar with the, the territory here.

[Chelsea Jackson]

My name is Chelsea. I've lived in Oklahoma my entire life. Born and raised in Tulsa and pretty familiar with the surrounding areas. I've known Jerry for almost 10 years now. We have two kids together and have been living together for that whole time. And he lived in Bristow, which is like a much smaller town outside of Tulsa. So he's used to like back roads and stuff like that, where I've always lived like in like the suburban type area.

[Jerry Jackson]

Currently I live just outside of Tulsa. Got three kids ranging from 25 to 3, and I'm a delivery driver. I drive for a cannabis company. I deliver all over Oklahoma. I spend a lot of time just out driving, which is, is my release. So, you know, I get to, I, I have a very pleasant job. I enjoy it. I spend a lot of time not driving on the interstate. And if the only part of Oklahoma you've seen is the interstate, it's really not that cool. It's. It's not that pretty. It's. If you get off the interstate, though, especially in eastern Oklahoma, it's just absolutely gorgeous. We do have our share of mountains. When you get to southeastern Oklahoma, it's just hills and mountains. Further to the middle of Oklahoma, it gets a lot flatter. And by the time you're in western Oklahoma, you can see for 20 miles. I mean, it's just, it's so flat out there, it's not even funny. Where this story takes place is near Heyburn Lake, which is a state park. There are tons and tons and tons of lakes in Oklahoma, and Hayburn Lake, which is where this incident took place. My great grandma actually lived right across the street from the, the entrance to the swimming area. And I grew up kind of on the other side of Hayburn Lake is where my house was. Basically. I, I spent my first 18 years very close to this area. I hunted a little when I was a kid. We would even go out at night, you know, with lights on your head and that kind of thing. And so I've seen everything that you can see, at least in this neighborhood. So these back roads that go all around the lake and all around the country out here, that's where I go when I need to relax. And I've got two young kids, so, you know, we occasionally need a break. And my wife Chelsea and I, you know, we'll just hop in the car and go for a ride. Oklahoma is a very widespread place. You can't really go anywhere in Oklahoma without driving a pretty good distance. It's Nothing to drive 30 miles to go somewhere to eat. So we would frequently just hop in the car and go drive around. And I like to go visit my old haunts, so I would just go drive down the roads. I knew one day we decided to go out for A drive. And we've gone to this area many times before and one of the times, this specific road, it's just a little, maybe three quarter mile long stretch of road. And it connects two other roads that can take you lots of different places. And one night, this was probably nine years ago, the Perseid meteor shower was taking place. And I was like, hey, why don't we drive out of town and, you know, sit on the car and look up, watch the meteor shower. And she thought that was a great idea. So we, we take a drive out and if you get about 30 miles away from Tulsa, you get away from a lot of the light pollution, you can see quite a few stars, you can see the, the Milky Way when, when, you know, when it's in season and it gets pretty dark out there, especially if there's not any moon, then Chelsea is very much a city girl. She grew up in Tulsa and she grew up like right in the middle of Tulsa. So she is very much not a country girl. She is a city girl. So we take a drive out to this road and there's a good spot to pull off. I mean, really all you do is stop. It's, you know, it's not a highly traveled road. So we pull off to the side of the road and we get out of the, the van. And we're leaning up against the van, just kind of watching for maybe two or three minutes. And then there is a really loud rustle in the bushes.

[Chelsea Jackson]

And so we were sitting on like the trunk of the car, just waiting to see little meteors shoot by. And then all of a sudden there was this loud rustling sound and the ground next to us. And it freaked me out because I don't really do like, outdoorsy stuff.

[Jerry Jackson]

You know, having grown up in, in the country, being the country boy I am, I instantly, my mind was like, well, that's an armadillo. Because armadillos are kind of oblivious. They just go do their own thing and they dig and they make a lot of noise. So I'm thinking it's no big deal. Chelsea, on the other hand, was like, nope, I am done. Let's get out of here. I'm done. Let's go.

[Chelsea Jackson]

He didn't really seem bothered by it. He was like, oh, that's definitely like an armadillo or something. And I was like, yeah, I don't care. We need to go. I don't like that.

[Jerry Jackson]

So we left and after that we go home and fast forward about eight years to March, I believe it was late March. Possibly early April of 2024, we are getting away from the kids, going out on a drive. We turned down this same road.

[Chelsea Jackson]

It was very late and it was dark, of course. And we're just driving down this gravel road. Tall grass on both sides of the road as well as barb wire fence that goes all the way down. And we get pretty far down the road. He was like, hey, so do you remember when we were here to watch the Perseids? We were probably like right around here.

[Jerry Jackson]

I reminded Chelsea, I was like, hey, you remember when we, when we came out here to watch the meteor shower and that thing scared you on the side of the road and we left and as she's saying yes to that, about 25 to 30 yards in front of us, this four legged large thing steps out into the road.

[Chelsea Jackson]

I noticed something crossing the road in front of us, like a little ways out. And its body was very, it was long and slender. It looked like a really big creature of some sort. It definitely didn't have like the body shape of like a deer or a cow or something that we would normally see in this area. If it were to have stood up on what would have been its back legs, I feel like it would have been, would have had to have been at least like 8ft tall. Like, it was, it was really big.

[Jerry Jackson]

If I was to relate it size wise to something, it would be almost the size of a cow, but not as girthy as a cow. There wasn't as much body as a, as a cow would have. It didn't move like a cow. It moved in more of a canine or feline fashion across the road. And the color of this thing is very hard to explain. It was dark, it was black, but it had this weird shimmery iridescence to it that to me almost looked like large static. It didn't feel to me that the shimmeriness was necessarily because light was hitting it. Well, I mean, it's the only way we see things. But like it was shimmering before my headlights hit, was like I was watching a static creature walk across the road, for lack of a better way to put it. And not like small static, but like low megapixel static, if that makes any sense.

[Chelsea Jackson]

And it's like its body was almost self illuminating, like it had like this strange glow to it, like a gray, staticky kind of glow. And I thought that was really, really odd because typically when headlights hit an animal, like you can definitely tell, oh, well, that's fur and, oh, that's that animal and that did not happen with this.

[Jerry Jackson]

Like maybe if you saw an animal with short hair that was wet would maybe have the same type of texture, but the color of it was completely unique. It's almost like when you see an oil puddle on the ground, there's the, the rainbow sheen to it, but it's, it's black underneath. It's like if you could put that oil sheen on top of, on top of static, the other colors would kind of flicker and fade in and out. But the overall impression was of something black. There was no discernible snout or ears even. I didn't see a tail. What I did see was about halfway across the road this, this thing stops and turns its head on a swivel and it doesn't turn like a dog would turn its head. It doesn't like swing it over. It swivels its head to the side and when it does, I see two unbelievably bright yellow eyes. And we're not talking eyeshine that you get from headlights in something's eyes. These were putting out way more light than you would see from any animal driving down the road. We're slowly creeping up on this thing as this is happening. I'm sure I had put my foot on the brake and we at least slowed down a little bit. As we edge a little bit closer, it turns its head and looks directly at us. And then in a very unbothered way it turns its head back to the front. And it was almost like it thought, well, I have to go now. And just the, the way it moved after it saw us was unnatural compared to what was standing in front of me.

[Chelsea Jackson]

I'm watching this and I'm just kind of in a state of shock. Like I couldn't believe what I was seeing. After a moment I see these two big glowing yellow eyes just turn and look at the car. It wasn't like how regular animal eyes will like reflect light. Like these were self illuminating bright yellow eyes. And it stares for a moment and then turns back and it's like this thing just like slithers into the grass and because yeah, it appeared to just be kind of like walking like any four legged creature would have. And then that's the best way I can describe it is that it like slithered into the grass and just like disappeared. But this was something I had never ever experienced before.

[Jerry Jackson]

The upper portion of the, of its body was undulating through the air. The only thing I can closely relate it to visually is like in anime, if you see a dragon going through the sky undulating its way through the air. It was like that into the brush on the side of the road. If it had only just continued walking, you could probably convince me that it was something else. I'm super interested in the paranormal. Obviously, I'm a fan of this podcast, but I'm also, I would consider healthily skeptical. I always try to make sure that there's not a rational explanation for something. And the way this thing moved off of the side of the road was the thing that made Chelsea and I look at each other and go, what the was that? And, and here's the thing. There's a, there's brush in this on the side of the road, but there's also a five strand barbed wire fence in that brush. And a five strand barbed wire fence is about five and a half feet tall. This thing just went into the, just went straight into the bushes like, like into the fence. This is full on bright headlights. I had the bright beams on, the high beams on, and so I could see the road. I could see the brush on the side of the road. I could see the road beyond this thing. If you see a dog in your headlights, it looks like a dog. If you see a cow in your headlights, sometimes they can trick you because a cow with a black cow with a white face kind of looks like a floating skull for a second. But then you get a little closer and look at that. It's a cow. It, it didn't resolve into any creature. I knew the closer we got, it stayed unclassifiable to me.

[Jack Wagner]

All right, we'll be right back after this quick break.

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[Jerry Jackson]

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[Corinne Vien]

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[Jerry Jackson]

I'm a huge fan of the paranormal. I've, you know, I remember going to the library, being seven or eight years old, and checking out all the books on the Bermuda Triangle and the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot and UFOs and everything. I've always been a big fan, and I've heard a lot of people's stories. Even out of the weird stuff that has happened in my life, this takes the cake. This is the absolute tippy top of weird things that have happened to me by a long shot. I was just flabbergasted by this. Like, my mind is shuffling through, well, it's not this, it's not this, it's not this, it's not this. What is that? And so after it leaves, we kind of slowly continue on up the road. And the whole time, I'm still processing, trying to put a name on what I just saw. And it was kind of quiet in the car, but we were both like that. What do you think that was? I mean, that wasn't like a mountain lion. That wasn't a cow.

[Chelsea Jackson]

I definitely had some excitement. Like, whoa, we just saw, like, some crazy shit. And then a part of me was like, well, shit, what was that? And so we're driving, and part of my mind is just thinking about what it was we just saw. And then the other part of my mind is imagining this creature, like, running after the car. So I was kind of scared. And so we drive a little ways further, and he's like, so do you want to go back to see if we can see it again? I was like, yes, yes, I do. So we get to, like, the crossroads sort of area of this road and turn around.

[Jerry Jackson]

We drive back to that road and go back to where we saw it. And we slowed down really slow, like, just barely creeping. In hindsight, I really wish that I had gotten out and tried to find tracks or something. But also, I don't know that I necessarily would have gotten out of the car after having seen that.

[Chelsea Jackson]

Of course, it doesn't show itself again, which I was kind of sad because I really wanted to know what it was. But at the same time, I was kind of relieved because I was also expecting this, like, ferocious beast to, like, come out in the road and, like, run at the car or something. Still to this day, I think about it all the time and try to find a way to reason with what I saw. Or maybe it was this or that, but it was just like nothing else I'd ever seen. And like, none of the wildlife that's around here at all. As far as, like, animals, I. I have no idea. And this is going to sound really silly, but the way it just moved and how it appeared and the eyes and like the glowing of it, I just feel like it was something else.

[Jerry Jackson]

Much like other people who have paranormal experiences. We talked about it all the way home. I told my oldest son about it when we got home, and then we went to bed. You know, I told my best friend and my dad and a few people at work about this. My dad instantly was like, well, it sounds like you saw a skinwalker. And I was like, well, I. I don't know about that, but I saw something and I can't explain it.

[Chelsea Jackson]

I've told, like, some of my co workers about it and stuff, and they were pretty weirded out by it, like, by my story. And so no one's really had, like, very many ideas. I did a post on Facebook one day in the Oklahoma Strange Sightings group, and I didn't really get a whole lot of answers that made sense with what we saw. One lady said, oh, that sounds like a jaggerundi or something. And so I looked that up and that's like a small wild cat from, like, South America and Mexico. So I was like, well, first of all, what I saw was bigger than that. And I find it hard to believe that something from South America or Mexico is in Oklahoma. Like, it's totally possible, but I felt it was very unlikely. And like, this creature that we saw had no discernible pattern on its body. Like, it didn't have spots, it didn't look like fur. It just looked like this gray, glowing form crossing the road. Every time we go on a drive and we get towards, like, the outskirts and like, the middle of nowhere area, I always look to see if I see something even remotely like it. And I. Part of me hopes that it crosses our path again because, like, I kind of would like some closure on what it was. It was like, I know I'm not crazy. Like, we both saw it. Like, we know what we saw, but it would just be nice to be able to actually pinpoint what that was. I definitely hope that one day we maybe see it again or see like, oh, well, hey, maybe it wasn't that at all. It was that creature right there. But only time will tell, I guess. You.

[Jerry Jackson]

You always hear about things you can't explain seeing the thing you can't explain experiencing the thing you can't explain. That's different. It kind of weirdly validated things. You know, you can read all the stories you want about Bigfoot until you see a big hairy man out in the woods. They're just stories. I've driven on this road since, like many times. It hasn't deterred me from going there. Honestly, I kind of go back there going, hey, are you here? Come back out in front of me again so I can get a better look.

[Jack Wagner]

Thank you to Jerry and Chelsea for sharing this story. You know, I don't think I've heard of anything that is exactly like what they saw out there, but I feel like there are some episodes of Otherworld where people have seen things that have small similarities to what they saw. I've definitely heard a lot of people seeing dark static figures. That's something that comes up a lot on the show. And I've also had somebody describe seeing a creature that was sort of shimmering and moving in a similar way. I think what makes this story extra strange for me is that two people saw it. That's not always the case. And if it is, it's not always easy to get in touch with everybody. And on top of that, they both saw exactly the same thing. I'm curious to hear what people have to say about this episode because I haven't been able to find anything online from Oklahoma that sounds remotely similar to what they saw. I wonder if anybody else has some clues on this, because I certainly don't. Thanks again to Jerry and Chelsea for both talking to us. This episode was called Heyburn Lake and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself, Jack Wagner. Our producers are Theo Schaeffer, Theo Krantz, Haley Pearson, and Nikki Kate Delgado. Our theme song is by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by North Americans and Juice Jackal. Our artwork is by Cul de Sac Studios. Please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five star review, and telling your friends about the show. If you want to hear bonus episodes of Otherworld, you can become a [e-mail] Otherworld Our social media is Otherworldpod. Thank you to the team at Odysee. Leah Rhys Dennis, Maura Curran, Josefina Francis, Eric Donnelly, Kate Rose, Colin Gaynor and Hilary Shuff. Follow and listen to Otherworld now for free on the Odysee app or wherever you get your podcasts. And finally, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural or unexplained, you can send us your [e-mail].

[Jerry Jackson]

Sa.