A GIANT STORY
"A Giant Story" first appeared in the Milledgeville (Georgia) STATESMAN and was reprinted in the Vincennes WESTERN SUN & GENERAL ADVERTISER for 6 June 1829. The story began with a Creek Indian legend about an enchanted island in the Okefenokee Swamp. The island was supposed to be inhabited by "mortals of super-human dimensions & incomparable beauty."
The meat of this story follows:
This legend we have hitherto regarded as fabulous, but Mr. John Ostean, residing on the borders of this swamp, in Ware County, and some of his neighbors over the line in Florida, have become satisfied from ocular reality, and they so aver, that it is mainly, a matter of fact! We have their statement in writing, tested by a respectable witness, who has put the paper in our hand, containing the following facts -- we beg the gentleman's pardon -- TRUTHS, we should say.
Not long ago, two men and a boy, in the vicinity of this swamp, like our friend Paul Pry, "had a curiosity to know" what could be seen by two or three weeks' pilgrimage into the accessible regions of this dismal empire. -- The season being unusually dry, they pushed their exploration far into the interior, and at the end of a little more than two weeks, found their progress suddenly arrested at the appearance of the print of a foot-step, so unearthly in its dimensions, so ominous of power, and terrible in form, that they were at once reminded of the legend we have mentioned above, and began seriously to apprehend its solemn reality. The length of the foot was eighteen, and the breadth nine inches. The Monster, from every appearance must have moved forward in any easy or hesitating gait, his stride, from heel to toe, being but a trifle over six feet. Our adventurers had seen enough! and began to think of securing a retreat, without waiting to salute his majesty, not doubting but the other part of the story might also be proven true -- of his fierceness and cruelty. They happily effected their escape, returned home, and related the history of their adventures, and what they had seen of the "Man mountain." A company of Florida hunters, half horse, half alligator nine in number determined, a few months since, to make this gentleman a visit -- to ascertain if he had a family, and his manner of living. Following for a few days, the direction of their guide, they came at length upon the track first discovered; some vestiges of which were still remaining; pursuing these traces several days longer, they came to a halt on an eminence, and determined to pitch their camp and refresh themselves for the day. The report of their rifles, as one or two of them were simultaneously discharged at an advancing and ferocious wild beast, made the still solitudes of these dismal lakes reverberate with deafening roar. Echo, beyond echo, took up & prolonged the sound, which seemed to die away and revive in successvive peals for several minutes. The report had reached and started from his lair, the genius of the swamp, and the next minute he was full in their view advancing upon them with a terrible look and a ferocious mein. -- Our little band instinctively gathered close in a body, and presented their rifles. -- The huge being, nothing daunted, bounded upon his victims, and in the same instant received the contents of seven rifles. But he did not fall alone; nor until he had glutted his wrath with the death of five of them, which he effected by wringing off the head from the body. Writhing and exhausted, at length he fell, with his hapless prey beneath his grasp. The surviving four had opportunity to examine the dreadful being as he lay extended on the earth, and sometimes wallowing and roaring. His length was thirteen feet, and his breadth and volume of just proportions. Fearing, lest the report of their rifles, and the stentorian yells of the expiring giant should bring suddenly upon them the avengers of his blood, they betook themselves to flight, having first secured the rifles of their headless comrades, and returned home with this occount [sic] of their adeventures.
The story of the report, as related above, is matter of fact, and the truth of it is accredited, we are told, by persons living on the borders of this swamp and in the neighborhood of the surviving adventurers.
The size of the dying giant puts it clearly in the category of True Giants, exceeding the heights of other types of "wildmen." -- MAH
Thanks to Mark A. Hall for the above story
From the Minnesota Weekly Record; January 23, 1869
"A GORILLA IN OHIO"
Gallipolis is excited over a wild man, who is reported to haunt the woods near that city. He goes naked, is covered with hair, is gigantic in height, and "his eyes start from their sockets." A carriage, containing a man and daughter, was attacked by him a few days ago. He is said to have bounded at the father, catch- ing him in a grip like that of a vice, hurling him to the earth, falling on him and endeavoring to bite and to scratch like a wild animal. The struggle was long and fearful, rolling and wallowing in the deep mud, have suffocated, sometimes beneath his adversary, whose burning and maniac eyes glared into his own with murderous and savage intensity. Just as he was about to become exhausted from his exertions, his daughter, taking courage at the imminent danger of her parent, snatched up a rock and hurling it at the head of her father's would be murderer, was fortunate enough to put an end to the struggle by striking him somewhere about the ear. The creature was not stunned, but feeling unequal to further exertion, slowly got up and retired into the neighboring copse that skirted the road.
Credit: Mark A. Hall and Alan Woolworth
"A WILD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS"
Two Young Vermont Hunters Terribly Scared
POWNAL, Vt., Oct. 17, 1879 - Much excitement prevails among the sportsmen of this vicinity over the story that a wild man was seen on Friday by two young men while hunting in the mountains south of Williamstown. The young men describe the creature as being about five feet high, resembling a man in form and movement, but covered all over with bright red hair, and having a long straggling beard, and with very wild eyes. When first seen, the creature sprang from behind a rocky cliff and started for the woods near by. When mistaking it for a bear or other wild animal, one of the men fired, and, it is thought, wounded it, for with fierce cries of pain and rage, it turned on its assailants, driving them before it at high speed. They lost their guns and ammunition in their flight and dared not return for fear of encountering the strange being.
There is an old story, told many years ago, of a strange animal frequently seen along the range of the Green Mountains resembling a man in appearance, but so wild that no one could approach it near enough to tell what it was or where it dwells. From time to time, hunting parties, in the early days of the town, used to go out in pursuit of it, but of late years no trace of it has been seen, and this story, told by young men who claim to have seen it, revives again the old story of the wildman of the mountains. There is talk of making up a party to go in search of the creature.
Credit: John Moore
This newspaper article appeared in The Evening Call of Woonsocket, Rhode Island on July 17, 1908.
"WILD MAN' SCARES WEBSTER PEOPLE"
Seen in a Berry Pasture on Orchard Road--Woman and Boys Sighted Queer-Looking Individual and Fled--Makes Appearance Annually
Webster, Mass., July 16 - Political, social and business circles here were stirred yesterday by the report that a wild man had been seen up in a berry pasture on the Orchard road.
It is getting to be pretty well established thing for the wild man to show up here once a year. Whether the town is merely one of many on his itinerary or whether he comes out of his hole somewhere nearby once a year is not known.
It is said, however, that every year he gets a bit wilder. This year he frightened Mrs. Paul Lanphiere of West street, her son Paul, Katie Langlois, Wilfred Langlois and Howard Steele, all of whom were picking berries, by suddenly appearing in a bunch of tall bushes and starting toward them with a whoop.
Terror evidently lent wings to their feet. Anyway, the wild man was outdistanced like a selling plater. The town is breathing easier, now that his annual visit is a thing of the past.
Credit: Masinaigan@aol.com : UFO Roundup
From the Washington Post; January 27, 1923
STRANGE CREATURES LIKE FISH AND REPTILE KILL KANSAS CATTLE
Medicine Lodge, Kansas - All Barber County is interested in the origin and nature of queer animals, half fish, half reptile, which are wreaking havoc in a pond on A.D. Shaw’s farm near here.
The creatures have heads shaped like those of mud catfish, but have four legs and feet. The tail is long and flat. The fish-reptile swims by use of its tail, but at the bottom of the pond, it has feelers much heavier than those of a catfish.
The pond is alive with the queer animals. They have been pronounced a species of salamander. Several cows have been killed by bites from the creatures.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, ALLIGATOR SHOT IN NEW JERSY MARSH
Believe it or not, Mr. Ripley, Carl Weise of No. 14 Peerless Place, North Bergen, N. J., is having stuffed a thirty-one-inch alligator that he killed with a shotgun in a creek in the Hackensack meadows, North Bergen.
Weise heard a commotion in the high brush yesterday and saw an alligator scurrying along the creek. the load of shot struck its head.
New York American; Thursday; september 19, 1929
credit; Shawn Garrett via COUD-I
From the New York Times; Wednesday, July 22, 1931
REPORT OF THE CAPTURE OF BIG 'SEA SERPENT'
Two Fisherman Crate Up "Monster" in Sandusky, Which they Say is Twenty Feet Long.
SANDUSKY, Ohio, July 21 (AP) - Inside a tightly boarded box beside the lakeshore tonight was locked what several persons said was a large marine animal having specifications that might qualify it as a serpent, claimed to have been captured by two Cincinnati fisherman in Sandusky Bay.
The fisherman, Clifford Wilson and Francis Cogenstose of Cincinnati, said that the "serpent", measuring about twenty feet long and about twelve inches through at the thickest place, arose late today out of the Lake Erie waters beside their boat.
Although frightened by the beast, they said, they hit it over the head twice with an oar and knocked it senseless, then fastened a line to its head and towed it to shore.
Their catch began to show signs of returning consciousness when they got it on the each, Wilson and Cogenstose said, so they obtained a packing box 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and about 2 feet deep and coiled Mr. Sea-Serpent into it and nailed it tightly shut.
Neither the "owners" nor any of the scores of curious who gathered about the box would take a chance on opening it to show the serpent to the scoffers, who were numerous.
Police Captain Leo Schively, E.L. Ways, managing editor of a local afternoon paper, and C.J. Irwin and Mel Harmon of a Sandusky morning paper said that they saw the serpent as it was being boxed up and joined the fisherman in describing it as a hugh, snakelike beast, colored black, dark green and white and having a hide resembling that of an alligator.
The "owners" were undecided tonight what they were going to do with it.
The reported capture came after a number of persons had reported sighting a "sea-serpent" hereabouts.
Credit: John Moore
The Vancouver Province, October 21st, 1941:
Hairy Monster Stalks
CHILLIWACK-The Sasquatch, giant monster of the Harrison lake area, is on the rampage.
Three canoes of Indians who arrived terror-striken at Harrison Hot Springs after a flight from Port Douglas at the head of the lake are prepared to swear to that.
According to Indian officials here, a Sasquatch, probably the biggest ever seen by man, turned up at the historic village this week and sent the Indians fleeing for their lives.
The huge, hairy monster had not appeared for several years, and his sudden arrival struck terror into the hearts of the Indians.
Jimmy Douglas and his family were among those who saw the almost legendary man-beast. They report that it was almost 14 feet high, almost double the height of the average Sasquatch. The Indians fled to their canoes and paddled furiously down the lake.
J.W. Burns, one of the world's most eminent authorities on the Sasquatch, reports that it is entirely probable that the huge beast is the same one which appeared a week ago at Ruby Creek, forty miles or so away. Subsquent investigations into the Ruby Creek incident have definately established that it was a Sasquatch and not a giant bear that terrorized the Indians there.
1958:
NEW 'SASQUATCH' FOUND - IT'S CALLED BIGFOOT
EUREKA, Calif. (AP) - Jerry Crew, a hard-eyed catskinner who bulldozes logging roads for a living, came to town this weekend with a plaster cast of a footprint.
The footprint looks human, but its is 16 inches long, seven inches wide, and the great weight of the creature that made it sink the print two inches into the dirt.
Crew says an ordinary foot will penetrate that dirt only half an inch.
"I've seen hundreds of these footprints in the past few weeks," said Crew.
He added he made the cast of a print in dirt he had bulldozed Friday in a logging operation in the forests above Weitchpeg, 50 miles north and a bit east of here in the Klamath River country of Northwestern California.
Crew said he and his fellow workmen never have seen the creature, but often have had a sense of being watched as they worked in the tall timber.
BIGFOOT, as the Bluff Creek people call the creature, apparently travels only at night.
Crew said he seems fascinated by logging operations, particularly the earth moving that Crew does with his bulldozer in hacking out new logging trails.
"Every morning we find his footprints in the fresh earth we've moved the day before", Crew said.
CREW SAID Robert Titmus, a taxidermist from Redding, studied the tracks and said they were not made by any known animals.
"And they can't be made by a bear, as there are no claw marks."
"The foot has five stubby toes and the stride averages about 50 inches when he's walking and goes up to ten feet when he's running."
TWO YEARS AGO reports from this area told of logging camp equipment tumbled about, including full 50-gallon drums of gasoline scattered by some unknown agency.
Source: The Province; Monday, October 6, 1958
San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, October 26th, 1958
INCREDIBLE CREATURES UP NORTH
Big Feet Also Found in Canada
Gerald W. Crew, a mild-mannered construction man from Humboldt county's Land of the Bigfeet, arrived here last week lugging a plaster cast of the 16-inch footprints under his arm.
He also brought clippings and letters from Canada where, it seems, similar-size 22 footprints have been noted several times by otherwise reliable citizens.
In Canada, he siad, the giant footprints are attributed to the Sasquatches--a legendary tribe of giant, hairy, wild Indians. "We've heard that old Indian story in Humboldt county too, but in Humboldt we call 'em the Bigfoots," he said.
'CAN'T BE HOAX'
It was Crew, described by his friends as "sober and reliable," who first found the tracks two months ago near a Weitchpec logging road.
"I don't know what it is," he said yesterday, "but I've tracked a lot of these tracks and we've checked out every possibility anyone could think of. It can't be a hoax." Publisher John Green of the Advance, in Agassiz, B.C. sent Crew the story of "our Sasquatches", and cautioned him:
"Don't take it too seriously that everyone thinks you are a liar or crazy. They can't help it, and you will get used to it."
CREATURE SEEN
The Canadian story, as sworn to by William Roe of Cloverdale, B.C. involves Roe's "incredible experience with a wild creature" near the little town of Tete Jaune Caehe, B.C., 18 months ago.
"I saw what I thought was a grizzly bear, but when it stepped into the open I saw it was not a bear." the story related. "My first impression was that of a huge man, 6 feet tall and three feet wide, somewhere near 300 pounds, covered from head to foot with brown, silver-tipped hair.
"As it came closer, I saw by its breasts it was a female...It came close to the edge of the brush I was hiding in, within 20 feet of me, where it squatted down and began to eat leaves from the bushes...
"Finally the wild thing must have caught my scent, for it looked directly at me through an opening in the brush...I leveled my rifle as it walked away but I felt now that it was a human being and I knew that I would never forgive myself if I shot it..."
WOMAN FRIGHTENED
Roe's story explained that he had heard about the Sasquatch Indians, "which many claim are still alive to this day," and he had concluded he had seen one of that legendary tribe.
Publisher Green also sent an earlier report that Mrs. George Chapman of Ruby Creek, B.C. had sighted one of the creatures near her home in October 1941. She ran to a railway section gang, screaming for help, the report said, and several of the men later saw huge footprints near her house.
The plaster cast Crew carried displayed the shape of a vast bare foot, with no indication of claws--just humanlike toes.
Credit: Kyle Mizokami