Redding man claims spotting Bigfoot

HAYFORK, Calif. (AP) -- A 9-foot-tall, yellow-eyed beast making bloodcurdling screams turned a group of campers as shaky as the marshmallows they were roasting when they decided the creature must be the legendary Bigfoot. Tim Ford, 22, told California Department of Fish and Game officials Thursday that he's convinced he saw the elusive man-beast, who he claims left tracks 6 inches wide and 20 inches long in remote Hayfork, about 200 miles north of San Francisco.

"You could see his arms hanging way past his knees," Harmon told the Redding Record Searchlight. "It was scary."

The Redding man said he was on a camping and hunting trip near Mud Springs, south of Hayfork on Saturday when his friend, 28-year-old James Harmon of Reno, Nev., heard a loud rustling in the bushes as they roasted marshmallows.

When he got his flashlight to investigate the noise, Ford said he spotted an enormous, furry creature standing about 50 yards away on the other side of a creek.

Ford and Harmon, who were traveling with five others, said none of them had been drinking or taking drugs. They're convinced the creature was not a bear.

They said the creature stayed a distance from the campsite most of the night, but was near enough that they could hear its screams.

Eerie screams are often reported along with sightings of Bigfoot. Reports of the creature, also known as Yeti, Yayoo, Skunk Ape or Sasquatch, trickle in from the forests of the Northwest, the foothills of Ohio and the swamplands of Florida.

Paul Wertz, a Fish and Game spokesman in Redding, said that Bigfoot sightings are not unheard of in Trinity County but that the agency probably wouldn't investigate Saturday's sighting.

"We don't have a management plan for Bigfoot," Wertz said.
 

Bear? Gorilla? Um... Bigfoot?

Redding Man Says He's Seen The Elusive Man-Beast

HAYFORK, Calif., Posted 7:45 a.m. October 2, 1998
(AP)

By whatever name you use, we've all heard the legend of the elusive man-beast that roams in the wilderness.

Well, a Northern California man says there's a lot of truth to rumors of Bigfoot.

Tim Ford, 22, told California Department of Fish and Game officials Thursday that he's convinced he saw Bigfoot, which he described as a 9-foot-tall, yellow-eyed beast, reported The Associated Press.

Ford said the creature left tracks 6 inches wide and 20 inches long in remote Hayfork, about 200 miles north of San Francisco, said AP.

"You could see his arms hanging way past his knees," Harmon told the Redding Record Searchlight. "It was scary."

The Redding man said he was on a camping and hunting trip near Mud Springs, south of Hayfork on Saturday when his friend heard a loud rustling in the bushes as they roasted marshmallows.

When he got his flashlight to investigate the noise, Ford said he spotted an enormous, furry creature standing about 50 yards away on the other side of a creek, said the wire service.

Ford said he had not been drinking and is convinced the creature was not a bear. He said the alleged Bigfoot stayed a distance from the campsite most of the night, but was near enough that they could hear its screams.

Eerie screams are often reported along with sightings of Bigfoot, said AP. Reports of the creature trickle in from the forests of the Northwest, the foothills of Ohio and the swamplands of Florida. There's even an alleged film of a Bigfoot creature (pictured, above) taken by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin in 1967.

Paul Wertz, a Fish and Game spokesman in Redding, said that Bigfoot sightings are not unheard of in Trinity County but that the agency probably wouldn't investigate Saturday's sighting, reported AP.

"We don't have a management plan for Bigfoot," Wertz said.

Tennessee bigfoot a disagreeable fellow

By E. Randall Floyd Special Columnist

There's a bigfoot attacking cars and trying to snatch little children in the Tennessee foothills.

Exactly what the Flintville monster is or where it came from remains a mystery, but more than two decades of sightings and terrifying encounters have left many people convinced that the creature is not only real but dangerous as well.}More than two decades of sightings and terrifying encounters with a massive, hairy monster have left the folks of Flintville, Tenn., about 70 miles west of Chattanooga, convinced that the creature is not only real, but dangerous.

``That thing's so big it could easily hurt somebody,'' complained Ned Sinclair, a farmer. ``Who knows how many head of our livestock have gone missing because of it?''

So far no one has been hurt by the Flintville monster, which often leaves behind 16-inch footprints and a foul, skunk-like odor. But there are those who claim to have had close calls.

One man said a ``7-foot-tall hairy monster'' chased him through the woods, howling and screeching at him like an ape. A woman said she hid on the floorboard when a similar creature attacked her car.

On at least one occasion, a child was nearly kidnapped by a thing with long, hairy arms.

The trouble began in 1976 when a woman told police that a ``giant, hairy monster'' broke her automobile antenna and then jumped onto the roof of her car and began bouncing up and down. When the woman's story made news, other citizens stepped forth to describe similar encounters.

Several attacks were reported in the early 1980s, including one by a plumber who said his truck's windshield was smashed by the monster and another by a housewife who said a ``black, hairy creature'' chased her inside her house and beat on the door.

In 1989 a church pastor complained that ``something'' had destroyed the windshield and antenna on his car. That same week a group of teens reported a ``large, manlike ape'' loping across a field at the edge of town.

Of all the stories, however, none can match the nearly tragic drama related by Jennie Robertson.

On April 26, 1976, Mrs. Robertson's 4-year-old son, Gary, was playing in the yard when his mother heard him scream. When she ran outside to investigate, she became conscious of a foul odor that reminded her of a skunk or ``dead rats.''

Then she saw a huge, apelike figure bounding across the yard toward the house.

``It was 7 or 8 feet tall,'' she told investigators, ``and seemed to be all covered with hair. It reached out its long, hairy arms toward Gary and came within a few inches of him.''

Seconds before the shaggy beast could grab the child, his terrified mother snatched him up, darted inside the house and locked the doors. When she got up enough courage to look out the window, she saw a ``big, black shape disappearing into the woods.''

Minutes after she reported the incident to police, swarms of lawmen and hunters descended on her property, armed with shotguns and rifles. They resolved to track down and kill the creature.

Throughout the night, they combed the woods on the outskirts of town. They never found anything, but on at least two occasions the creature screamed at them and pelted them with rocks.

The next day the hunters found more 16-inch footprints, as well as hair, blood and mucus. The hair was scientifically analyzed but could not be identified.

No sightings have been reported since 1993. Does that mean the creature has gone away?

``I doubt it,'' said Mrs. Robertson. ``It's probably just gone into hiding for a while.''

Throughout the South, from Arkansas to Virginia, reports of monsters resembling bigfoot continue to reach the desks of law enforcement officers and park rangers. Most sightings can be dismissed as hoaxes or illusions triggered by poor visibility or unsteady imaginations.

But a few - like the Flintville monster - cannot be explained away.

Credit: Loren Coleman

The Times and Democrat; Neese, South Carolina; Friday, July 18, 1997

Bigfoot Reported in South Carolina

By Gene Crider and Andrew M. Haworth, T & D Staff Writers

NEESES, S.C. -- A claim that "bigfoot" was eyeing dogs as a noontime snack has some local residents frightened and upset that The Times and Democrat carried the story.

Jackie Hutto of Neeses called the Times & Democrat Tuesday to say he spotted an 8-foot-tall, hairy bigfoot tugging on his dog pen.

Hutto has now identified himself as a teen-aged boy -- but he is sticking to his story that a bigfoot visited his yard, and his older brother David has backed his story up.

He said he did not report the sighting to authorities because he was afraid of looking crazy.

His 16-year-old brother -- who originally said Jackie was a 23-year-old woman -- backed up his story, but said, "I haven't told nobody I seen it because I was afraid they'd say I was crazy.

While some in town are celebrating bigfoot's arrival, others in the Neeses area have called the newspaper to complain that its Wednesday story has frightened their children and that The T & D should have investigated the story fully before printing such claims.

"I think it's a bunch of baloney," Darlene Riley of Neeses said. "I have about 10 kids in this house who are scared to go out and play," she said.

"It was real slack of you to print something like that without getting into the details and something behind it," Riley said. "That was real slack," she said.

Riley said The T & D did not take into account that children read the paper and in the summertime children want to play outside.

"My kids have not been out of the house all day long because they were scared when they saw this," Riley said.

She is also worried that people would be out roaming the woods, looking for a bigfoot to shoot.

"You got a bunch of people out there shooting everything that's brown, including me -- I'm black," Riley said.

"I think it shouldn't have been printed," she said.

Lynda Baltzegar said her children were frightened by the report, too.

He said he did not report the sighting to the authorities because he was afraid of looking crazy.

His sixteen-year-old brother - who originally said Jackie was a 23 year old woman - backed up his story, but said, "I haven’t told nobody I seen it because I was afraid they’d say I was crazy."

Credit: Scott McNabb

Kids See Sasquatch in Green Grass
By Pauline Webb

"Bigfoot" has reportedly been sighted near Green Grass.

Between 7:30 and 8:30am Sunday a group of youngsters spotted a large creature and two small ones on the banks of the Moreau River.  The young men, Wacey, Austin, Doyle, and Dustin Buffalo and Frances Montero, were out looking for their horses when they spotted the creatures on a cut bank near the old garbage dump.  The boys hurried back home, returning with Vivian High Elk.

"I had my doubts, but I went with them," commented Vivian.

When they reached the river no creatures were visible, but one of the boys spotted a face looking out of some brush.  They ran over to investigate, startling four of the creatures, two appearing to be adults and two young ones.

The boys chased them up the river before they headed north.

The adult creatures reportedly were dark brown with a lighter-colored fluffy fringe around the face and a white or gray patch on the stomach.

They had human or apelike faces with oval eyes.  The little ones were about the size of a ten year old child and the adults were very tall, estimated at 8 foot. They had big arms and were furry all over.

There were tracks of some kind along the river bank and a place were something had run or walked in the river itself.

The boys reported that one of the creatures had been dragging some branches and dropped them in the river.  There were some branches with green leaves in the river and evidence that they had been dragged to the water, with footprints along the path.

The footprints were wider and longer than a human print, with no arch to the foot and six widespread toes.  The footprints sunk into the soft mud along the river deeper than the human footprints the group was making next to them.

Credit: Bob Smith

San Francisco Chronicle February 3, 1993

Alaska Papers Join the Hunt For Hairy Man

Author:   Rosanne Pagano Associated Press

He's as big as Bigfoot, not so abominable as the Snowman and elusive as Sasquatch. He's Alaska's Hairy Man, and a statewide group of newspapers is on his legendary tracks.

``I think there are very few people who've actually sighted Hairy Man, but there are plenty of stories,'' said Chris Casati, editor of
 Anchorage-based Alaska Newspapers.

 The group operates seven rural weeklies from Cordova to Bethel to Kotzebue with a combined circulation of 17,000. The papers have started
 asking readers to send in stories about Hairy Man, a folk creature who inhabits the vast tundra around southwest Alaska.

``People here really do believe it and I respect that,'' said James MacPherson, editor of Bethel's weekly newspaper, the Tundra Drums.

 Three schoolteachers recently raised havoc in remote Quinhagak by tramping around in the snow with foot-shaped pieces of plywood to make
 fake Hairy Man tracks.

Worried calls poured in to police. One officer called it ``a bad joke.'' The teachers apologized and visited classrooms to show off the
 wooden feet and assure children there was nothing to fear.

Days later, some parents were still asking for a police escort when  their children went from house to house.

Bethel storyteller John Active, a Yupik Eskimo, says he knows all about Hairy Man.

``He's very tall, taller than a 9- or 10-foot-tall spruce tree. When he was standing, his hands could touch the ground next to his feet. He
 grew hair to keep warm,'' Active said.

Hairy Man is more curious than predatory but so horrendous-looking, Active says, that people run off afraid.

Active says Hairy Man's Eskimo name, ``arulataq,'' means a creature who makes a bellowing cry.

``Years ago,'' he said, ``during World War II, there was an air raid siren in the middle of town. When it would go off, the old natives would
say that is the sound the creature made.

``It was scary.''

Alaska anthropologists say the theme of the big-footed hermit is universal -- a regional equivalent of urban tales such as the vanishing
hitchhiker.

Phyllis Morrow, a Fairbanks cultural anthropologist who has studied the indigenous people of southwest Alaska for 15 years, says other
village legends deal with people who get lost and become wild. One story talks about a boy who ran away long ago and is glimpsed today, through his shaggy hair.

``These are sightings of the supernatural. That's what folklore is all about,'' Morrow said.

Active says he has never seen Hairy Man. But he knows he lives.

``He's just as alive in our legends as if he's standing right in front of me,'' Active said. ``He's out there because we talk about him.''

Credit: Kyle Mizokami

From Press Enterprise (Riverside, California), 9/30/92

"Boys See Bigfoot"

On September12, 1992, Josh Owen, 8, and a 12-year-old companion observed a "big hairy man" some 100 feet away from them in a forest in the vicinity of Klamath, California. "The smell was like rotten chicken," said Owen to The Triplicate, a Crescent City newspaper.

"It was awful. He was covered with thick dark brown hair and was shaking a branch in his hand. We could see his face real good."

Photos were taken of the huge footprints the creature allegedly left behind.

Credit: Ben Roesch

Deseret News; July 25, 1990

IS IT BIGFOOT OR AN ELK
WITH AN ODOR PROBLEM?

FORT KIPP, Mont. (UPI) - Another suspected sighting of the legendary Bigfoot has some Fort Peck Indian Reservation residents nervous.

Residents say the mysterious creature was often spotted in the Fort Kipp area, but had not been sighted for five or six
years until Theresa Buckelk saw it a week and a half ago running along U.S. Highway 2.

Buckelk saw "a big, hairy unidentified-looking thing" over 6 feet tall dart into the bush, and at the same time smelled
something "real foul" and undistinguishable smelling," authorities said.

One skeptic is Fort Kipp resident Lida Menz, who thinks Bigfoot may have been merely an elk.

"Once something gets started," she said, "it gets bigger and bigger."

Credit: John Moore

OKLAHOMA TOWNSPEOPLE WONDER IF CREATURE IS A 'BIG FOOT'

Vici, Okla. (AP) - What has reddish-brown hair, stands a stocky 4 feet to 5 feet high and smells like a sewer?

That's what some folks around here would like to know.

Billy Parry, a 15-year-old high school freshman, says he saw such a creature while scouting for coyote tracks along Trail Creek near his home south of Vici. His family says it prowled on their property and near their house for more than a month this
winter.

Hair samples found by Parry's house were sent to Hayden Hewes, director of Sasquatch Investigations of Mid-America. Was
it from a "Big Foot"?

"The hair sample looked very interesting. At this point, we cannot confirm what kind of animal it came from," Hewes said,
adding a sample was being forwarded to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation forensic lab in hopes of analysis.

"I feel it's just a matter of time before a Big Foot is captured alive," Hewes said.

Dewey County Sheriff Larry Pike, on the other hand, says he has heard only rumors about the strange animal, but nothing
official. Sightings also have been reported in nearby Roger Mills County.

In 1977, search parties were formed after similar sightings of an unidentified creature were reported in eastern Oklahoma
near Bristow and Stilwell. Nothing was found.

Cadiz and Trigg County, Kentucky
THE CADIZ RECORD
Thursday, January l5, l98l

 HAS BIGFOOT BEEN SPOTTEN IN STATE?

Cadiz, Ky. Associated Press; Folks in southeast Trigg County at the edge of Lake Barkley are waiting for the next snow to see if, 'ahem' Bigfoot shows up again. Linton residents haven't seen Bigfoot.  At least they aren't saying so if they have. But they spotted, took pictures and even trailed large human-like tracks made by somebody (or something?) walking barefoot during the recent snow. Bigfoot has been the source of endless speculation in the community near the Tennessee State line.

One person even went so far as to nail up a placard on a highway sign proclaiming: "Slow Bigfoot Xing."  The sign marks where the tracks crossed Kentucky l64 at Linton.  E.S. Lester, A Linton resident who examined the tracks and took Polaroid snapshots of them, said the tracks exhibited some of the characteristics of a human foot except they are much larger - 18 inches long and up to six inches wide.  "The only thing is, in some places it had a four and a half foot stride!  I tried to do that and it is hard to do.  I don't believe a varmint did it," Lester said.

Lester also said the tracks appeared to come down a hill to the old Ferry Landing, then around the restrooms and a parking lot and other areas near the lake's edge.  The trail went around the edge of the lake for quite a distance, then climbed to and across Kentucky 164.

Trigg County Deputy Sheriff J. R. Smith also took a look.  "I don't know, I'll be honest with you, I did see the tracks and I'd put it that way.  My personal opinion is I think it was a prank," Smith said.  However, Lester and others say the prankster put some time and thought into his endeavor.  First, the tracks appear to be made by someone heavy enough to leave impressions in the snow deeper than those of a normal person.  If a prankster, he also rambled through some briars nearly impossible for an average person to get through. Smith agreed that whoever made the tracks was a serious prankster, attentive to all the elements involved in pulling off a good hoax.

However, Lester said a close examination of the footprint/s reveals that the shape of the foot where the toes join  - is perfectly straight.  On a human foot, Lester observed that area is rounded. He said the tracks are not the first discovered at Linton.  Local residents discovered similar tracks about three years ago. in the event of another snow, Lester added, he and the
others will be ready to trail the creature.

Credit: Bobbie Short

Virginia BIGFOOT - A SMELLY 7 - FOOTER

Chesapeake, Va. (AP) - Those 7-foot, hairy, foul-smelling creatures are the same the world over, whether they're called
Bigfoot, Yeti, a skunk ape or an abominable snowman, says Park Ranger Patrick Higgins.

The stories from campers and visitors at the Northwest River Park near Chesapeake seem to fit the general image.

"The descriptions of these things, they all match from all over the world," said Higgins, who says he's had experience
trying to spot Bigfoots in Florida.

"They're 7 to 8 feet tall, fully haired with brownish hair, with a real foul odor, and leave large footprints. And they're
harmless, very meek and timid," he said.

Sherry Davis told the Chesapeake Post recently she thought she was crazy when she spotted a Bigfoot running through the
park's campground on June 9. It was hairy and about 7 feet tall, she said. It took her a while to decide to come forward with the information.

Higgins found no evidence of a bear. he has described the creature's smell as like that of "an uncovered septic tank," but
when he checked out the one tank in the area, he saw no leaks and detected no odor.

"Now, I'm not saying it is, but I'm not ruling it out that it isn't," Higgins said. "We need more information."

Credit: John Moore

The Detroit News-Sunday, November 22, 1981

Hairy, red-eyed

A ‘BIGFOOT’ IN THUMB?

BY Ann Cohen
News Staff Writer

Cindy Barone isn’t sure she wants to call the creature, “Bigfoot.”

But something big, hairy and red -eyed has frightened her family three times since September.

Something out there roaming the farm fields of Michigan’s Thumb area is emitting high-pitched screams by night.

“It’s the unknown that scares us,” says Mrs. Barone, whose family last encountered the creature Friday night at their farm home near Yale in St. Clair County.

Tina Barone, 13, said she and her sister, Roxanne, 12, went to the barn to do chores.

“Roxanne was scared to go into the barn because she’d heard noises before,” Tina said. “I said I would go in first, so I reached in for the light.

“I felt fur.

“At first I thought it was a goat or something, so I took my glove off and I touched it again.

“It didn’t look like anything. It was tall with red eyes and big and black and furry and stood on two legs. It had a deep growl.”

Tina told Roxanne to run back to the house. “It scared me so bad I just had to run.” Roxanne said. “I just can’t put what it looked like into any kind of form.”

Tina said she turned and began to walk slowly from the barn but “it started walking out behind me and I started running.”

The creature never tried to harm her, Tina said.

“It let me touch him when I took my glove off, “ she said. “The horses were running around, they were spooked. But it was just curious, whatever it is.”

The girl’s cousin David, 18, got his 16-gauge shotgun to scare the creature away.
 

“When it stood there and looked at me, it didn’t know what to do and I didn’t either,” said Barone. “It’s unbelievable.  Its big.

“It was some kind of animal but I can’t describe what. It was about 6 feet; 6 or 7 feet 6. I didn’t shoot to kill, I just shot in the air to scare it away. It ran into the woods, making a funny noise.

“It was standing on two feet and had real long arms-between a bear and an ape, that’s what I think.  I’ve never seen a Bigfoot, so I have no idea if it was one of those.”

Mrs. Barone, 33, said their first encounter with the animal came in September, when her neighbors’ barn door was ripped off at the hinges.

“I’ve had fences torn down and grain barrels dumped over and eaten,” she said.  She said her dogs have reaced off into the dark, barking at an unknown intruder, and their farm animals have been spooked by some unknown predator many times.

Mrs. Barone said the family is frustrated by the unwillingness of many people, including the local sheriff to take her story seriously.

Mrs. Barone did file a report of the Friday incident with the sheriff’s department but the report contains no mention of her daughter actually seeing an animal.

“There was nothing in our report to indicate this,” said a department spokeswoman, who speculated that Tina actually felt a raccoon or other small, friendly creature.

But Tina is sure she did not feel a typical barnyard animal.  “From now on, I’m going to take the camera when I’m doing barn chores in case I see him again, because no one believes us,” she said.

A mysterious creature- called a Sasquatch, or Bigfoot- that walks on two legs and roams wooded areas from coast to coast has been reported many times from coast to coast.

While there is no documented proof of the existence of Bigfoot, films have been made that reportedly show the creature fleeing into a forest and footprints and other evidence have been uncovered which has led many people to believe the creatures do exist.

“I don’t know what it is but I do know it is something,” Mrs. Barone said.

BIGFOOT SIGHTING REPORTED IN NEVADA

LAS VEGAS (UPI) - Is Bigfoot vacationing in the southern Nevada desert?

The legendary creature, whose activities are normally confined to the Pacific coast, was sighted by a worker in the Nevada Test Site 95 miles north of Las Vegas recently. Department of Energy spokesman Dave Jackson said a worker saw the creature walk across a road in the forward area of the test site. It was reported heading east toward Yucca Flat, site of numerous above-and below-ground nuclear tests.

The creature was described as more than six feet tall, covered with hair and walking upright, taking long strides like a
man.

Jackson said when the unidentified worker reported the sighting, "he took quite a bit of ribbing."

Jackson said security officials stationed in Mercury investigated, but were unable to find any footprints or other
evidence.

Credit: John Moore

TWO MEN REPORT SEEING HUGE HAIRY CREATURE

Jackson- Two men reported seeing a "Big Foot-like creature" on Snow King Mountain near Jackson, Wyo., early Tuesday morning, a spokesman for the Jackson Police Department said.

Robert Goodrich and Glenn Towner, no hometown or ages listed, reported to police that they were chased off Snow King
Mountain by a "Big Foot-like creature" 12 feet tall with long, dark hair and arms, which hung almost to the ground.

The two men said that they were going to visit a friend who had built a lean-to on the mountain when they encountered the
creature, the spokesman said.

The men told police the creature breathed heavily and made a moaning growl-type noise. They described the creature as having a simian-like face as big as a stop sign and that the creature was hunchbacked, the spokesman said.

Goodrich and Towner told police that they ran when they spotted the creature, and that it followed them. The last time they saw the creature, it was standing under a street light near the Ramada Snow King Inn in Jackson, the spokesman said.

The two men said they were going back Tuesday to take pictures of any possible tracks and to see if they could find
their friend.

The police reported that the two men had not been drinking.

Credit: John Moore

Union County, Ohio
June 29, 1980
Bigfoot May Be Stalking Farmland in Central Ohio.

The creature caught Poling’s eye as it walked along the fence, Bigfoot?
© Akron Beacon Journal By Bill O’Connor, Beacon Journal Staff Writer

MARYSVILLE -- Union County sheriff's deputy William Griffith looked over some paperwork Friday while a white-hot sun beat against the window.

Griffith often buys drugs from men with watery eyes; some of these men now are -growing old in Ohio prisons. On the other side of the room, Detective Mike Powers was reading a report that told about a tall hairy fellow with 17-inch feet. “Hey Griff,” Powers said, “What do you think of Bigfoot?”

“Don’t bother me with that unless he wants to sell some drugs,” Griffith snapped.
But residents of Union and Logan counties have been both bothered and amused by accounts that the legendary monster has taken up residence here.

Those who live in the small towns and villages of these two mostly rural counties joke
about Bigfoot’s appearances.  But those who live on the farms in the area of the sightings are a bit more cautious.  They are cautious mainly because of the reputation of those who have claimed to have seen Bigfoot.

”Hey I laughed at this whole thing at first,” Powers admitted. “But now I’m not so sure, I think it should be looked into.  You talk to Pat Poling and you won’t be so sure either.”

Poling farms on the border between Logan and Union counties.  He was the first to sight the creature in the area. There are 434 square miles in Union County. There are only 28,100 people and 12,000 of them live in incorporated areas.  There are a lot of lonely places in Union County.

Logan County has 469 square miles with a population of 37,000.  About 13,000 of them live in incorporated areas. the rest of the population in each county live on farms. There are 2,598 farms, about evenly split between the counties.

When television commentators talk about “the heartland” they are talking about such counties as Union and Logan. Come summer, a farmer there spends long solitary hours driving a tractor across one field or another.  He is alone. He is miles away from other humans.

On June 17, Poling had been to a baseball game. Poling is in his 30’s and has two adolescent sons. He returned from the game where he had watched one of his sons play and decided to do some cultivation in one of his cornfields before the light failed. It was about 8:30 pm.

Poling had worked for a short time when he glanced along his fence line at the edge of the woods. “Something caught my eye,” he said. “At first I thought it was a bear. But it wasn’t no bear.  It came out of the woods and had to duck under a branch hanging out over the fence. Then it stood up. It was about 7 feet tall. But maybe more. I mean, it walked with its knees bent a little.  It walked along the fence line. I t wasn’t like anything I seen before. It wasn’t a monkey or a gorilla or anything. I watch it. I was really scared at first.

“But then I figured it couldn’t hurt me as long as I was on the tractor,” he said. “So
I gassed the tractor to head it off.  “That is when it stopped and turned and looked at me. It turned around like this.” Poling crouched, held his hands at his side and turned his whole body. When facing front, his palms were out in a curious gesture almost as though in appeal for understanding.

When asked about the gesture, Poling glanced in surprise at his hands. “Yeah,” he said. “Like this, this is how he stood.” Poling said he is most upset because he could see no facial features, even though he estimated the creature was only about 30 yards away. “I just couldn’t see any face. There was just nothing there,” he said.

Poling is reluctant to talk about his experiences. He has been plagued with phone calls, he said, and goaded by radio and television people to make some controversial statement or other. One television crew came to his home while he was in the fields and took his two sons and talked the boys into taking them to where the creature was sighted.

”I’m tire of it, “ Poling said, and shook his head.  “I refused to go on television. The radio called and I said I wouldn’t go on the radio and they said OK and then they taped the telephone call. “One television station told me everybody wants to be on television. I told them I didn’t.”

Tired of the whole business, too is Donna Riegler. A legal secretary, she is the wife of a Union County game protector. She was on her way home Tuesday. It was about 5:30 pm. It had been a hot muggy day. The sky darkened, electricity crackled and when the rain came it fell in large drops. “I was in a good mood. I just wanted to get home,” Mrs. Riegler said. “I went over the railroad tracks slow. I always do because I don’t want to knock my wheels out of line. Then I saw this thing laying on the road, hunched over.  I thought it was a big dog at first. Then it stood up and I thought it was a man. I thought he was crazy, laying on the road.  I couldn’t figure why he was out there. He had no golf clubs. No luggage. Then he turned around and looked at me.” She said the creature was about 60 yards away.

Mrs. Riegler was asked what it looked like. She stood up, bent her knees a bit and then held her hands, palms out in the same gesture of appeal that Poling had taken. When that was pointed out to her, she glanced down at her hands, surprised. “Well, yes, that’s how he stood,” she said.

Mrs. Riegler said she could see no facial features. “I was scared,” she said. “I was afraid he was coming after me. Maybe he didn’t really come toward me, I was just scared.
Mrs. Riegler said she backed the car over the railroad tracks and onto another road. She said she stopped at a stranger’s house, was admitted and broken down sobbing. When she collected herself, she said she called her husband.

Both Poling and Mrs. Riegler are believable witnesses. Each reacts with suspicion when asked about the creature. Believable too is Larry Ramey, 27. Ramey sighted the creature Thursday night. He was on a tractor in Logan County, just across the border from Union County. He said the creature came out of the woods saw the 13-foot, 270-horsepower tractor and come toward it.

“At first I took it was Al or Billy,” Ramey said, meaning two other men working with him. “But then I saw it wasn’t them. It was big.” Hw said the creature went back into the woods when another tractor approached.

”Five have sighted a big, hairy creature” 

Within the last two weeks, five people claimed to have been Bigfoot.  The sightings were within a five-mile radius. Each witness gave basically the same description, although Donna Riegler said that a driving rain prevented her from see some details.

The sightings:

June 17: Patrick Poling, a farmer, while cultivating a cornfield saw the creature come out of the woods.

June 19:  Ray Quay said he came around his barn and saw the creature, yelled and it walked off into some heavy undergrowth. Quay’s son, Thomas, 17 said he saw the same creature a little later.

June 24:  Mrs. Riegler, a legal secretary saw the creature lying on the road while she was on her way home from work.

June 26:  Larry Ramey saw the creature at the edge of the woods while Ramey was driving a farm tractor.

Each witness told of a man-like creature more than seven feet tall, with long hair, broad shoulders, and a well proportioned body. The creature they said was not exceptionally long legged or long-armed but built like a very large man. Each said the creature moved stiffly and turned its whole body rather than just the upper portion.

Donald Mathys, a neighbor of Poling, made a plaster cast of a footprint found near where Poling sighted the creature. The footprint is about 17 inches long and 7 inches wide and has four toes.

Union county Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Powers took a team into the area Friday night. The group spent the night there. Powers told the Beacon Journal Saturday “We found definite signs that indicate something is there. We have to look into is.”

Powers said hundred of people already have driven around looking for the creature. The county detective said he is concerned that gawkers could pose a threat. Some of them, he said, are armed and he is afraid an overeager sightseer might shoot someone.

Powers said there is no indication the creature is dangerous.  But he added, he wants no one taking chances and he wants no one shot.

Credit: Mike Frizzell

Gastonia, North Carolina; Gazette Wednesday, January 17, 1979

BEAR OR BIGFOOT, KNOBBY'S GOT 'EM BUZZIN'

By JENNIE PALMER
Gazette Lifestyle Editor

TOLUCA - Lewis Barts declares it's a bear. Jim Hollingsworth says not, it sounds like Big Foot. And folks around this upper
Cleveland County village say whatever it is, it's striking fear in their hearts as it roams the back roads and branch banks,
"wailing in the night like a woman in pain."

"All I can tell you is what I think, and I think that its a bear. There's been a bear in that area for close to a year," said
Barts, a wildlife protector who lives in Shelby, the county seat.

Two weeks ago and again last week, Barts searched the woodlands around Toluca for signs of "Knobby," the mysterious and
yet unidentified creature local residents have reported seeing around Carpenter's Knob since late December.

"The first time I saw bear tracks," he said. "Last week I looked again, but I didn't see anything fresh."

Hollingsworth, a park developer for the state, didn't see anything the day he drove up from Pikeville in Wayne County near
Goldsboro. He did, however, talk to people who claimed to have heard strange cries in the night. And their stories were enough to convince him that the possibility of being on Big Foot's track is "good."

"I interviewed two people who heard something - not this Saturday but the Saturday before (Jan. 6)," he said. "Their
descriptions surprised me."

"They describe it as a sound that varies in pitch from a low growl to a high scream, as being like a bull bellowing, but with
its own sound. They also say that after it screams for a few seconds it has a yodeling type sound."

Hollingsworth has been tracking Big Foot, the supposed gigantic, hairy link between ape and man, for six years. As an
investigator for the North American Research Association, based in Eugene, Ore., he has spent most of his search time in the
Green Swamp south of Wilmington, where this time last year he followed "big foot" tracks along a five-mile stretch.

"Sounds from "Knobby", Hollingsworth said, are akin to "sounds made by a type of creature out west."

When he came to Cleveland County to check out recent sightings, he brought along a tape recording of sounds made in
the High Sierras. After listening to descriptions of "Knobby" sounds, he said, he played the tape for Toluca residents who
claim the growls were similar.

 Even so, Barts says he's sticking to his theory that "Knobby" is a bear who wandered into the Smoky Mountain foothills
in search of food. And he thinks area hunters may be taking advantage of "Knobby" reports to reap their own rewards,
particularly since search parties have been organized to find and capture the creature.

"It could be an excuse to hunt bear out of season," he said, "or it could be folks spotlighting deer. Either way, hunting any
game animal at night is illegal, and if this keeps up I may have to bring some of them in. My fear is that these hunters will get
out and shoot at anything that moves. Someone could get hurt."

There's at least one other theory floating around. D.H. Canipe, whose wife claims to have seen the mysterious creature,
believes "Knobby" is a mountain panther which has wandered out if its mountain habitat.

He said earlier this month he based his theory on physical and vocal descriptions. The sound, he said, "is like a woman in
pain."

Saturday's icy weather forced Toluca residents to cancel their planned hunt for the creature, fist seen by 88-year-old
Minnie Cook near her house on Dec. 21.

Several carloads of searchers had planned to comb the area looking for what sighters claim is a 200 pound, six-foot-tall,
dark, hairy animal with a small head and flat face. One person who claims to have seen "Knobby" says the animal walks on four
legs; another says it walks upright.

A search party from Casar, a community near Toluca, went looking for "Knobby" Sunday and reported finding tracks and an
animal den.

Thus far, several sets of tracks have been found but none have been directly traced to the creature folks claim to have
seen.

According to one newspaper report, daniel Cooke of Fallston claims to have found tracks at the mouth of a cave in a densely
wooded area of Carpenter's Knob similar to those of an ape.

But reports of tracks are not the only things keeping upper Cleveland people on edge.

Last Sunday morning, Forest Price found his full-grown goat, Bill, dead of a broken neck.

"I didn't see it happen. I don't know how it happened. All I know is that something just killed the hell out of Bill and now
I've got to get me another goat," he said.

A few days earlier, Price said, something frightened his animals, causing a mule to beak a rope and escape. He said he has
seen tracks and heard animal screams but has not actually seen "Knobby".

But his brother, Sammy, and his wife do claim to have spotted the creature after several nights of hearing animal
screams.

"I was out in the yard and heard something," sammy Price said. "It was the awfullest scream you ever heard. I looked over
in yonder woods and saw him."

The tracks and animal den found by searchers from Casar are located about two miles from the Price houses. The searchers say they found animal hair on a log and tracks at least as large as a man's hand and similarly shaped, even with a thumb-like
protrusion.

Gastonia, North Carolina; Gazette; January 19, 1979

MYSTERY CREATURE STILL AT LARGE

YOO HOO, HERE, KNOBBY

By JENNIE PALMER
Gazette Lifestyle Editor

TOLUCA- As temperatures dropped below the freezing mark and darkness settled over the mountain tops, an anxious band of about
200 gathered at the foot of Carpenter's Knob to search for its mysterious namesake.

"Knobby", an unidentified creature that folks here say has been prowling the area since shortly before Christmas, is drawing scores of curious men, women and children to this normally quiet village near the boundaries of Cleveland, Lincoln and Burke
counties.

"Everybody's talking about 'Knobby', and everybody's looking for it," said Ruby Cook, who operates a country store near the
Knob with her husband, Elbert.

Neither of the two has seen or heard the creature that has been described as resembling an ape, bear and panther. But Elbert's 88-year-old mother, who lives near the store, does claim to have seen it and keeps a gun handy in the event "Knobby" returns to her yard said her daughter-in-law.

Creature searchers turned out by the van and pickup truck loads Thursday for an all-night search, spearheaded by a radio station crew from Shelby, the Cleveland County seat.

Broadcasters admitted the search and live broadcast from the area around Carpenter's Knob was mostly a publicity gimmick. They gathered with their entourage at several spots where "Knobby" is reported to have been seen.

They failed, however, to turn up any sign of the creature and packed up their broadcasting equipment this morning.

The Gastonia Gazette; North Carolina Sunday, January 21, 1979

KNOBBY: WHERE IS HE? WHAT IS HE?

By JENNIE PALMER
Gazette Lifestyle Editor

TOLUCA - From the back roads that wind through the Smokey Mountain foothills and from the cities that lie below, the masses are converging on this usually quiet Cleveland County community that it's fair week.

And they're all searching for "Knobby", the mysterious ape-like creature folks around here have reported seeing for almost a
month now.

Stop at any one of the country stores and many of the homes that dot the hillsides and you'll hear the latest "Knobby" tale.
If your face is strange, no one will ask why you've come. Instead, they"ll offer to direct you to Minnie Cook's house or
Sally White's for a first-hand account of the sightings.

 Minnie, an 88-year-old woman who became the first to let her story be known, is so terrified of what may be lurking outside her front door that she won't talk to a visitor unless she's been forewarned of his arrival by her son, Elbert, or daughter-in-law, Ruby. Each time Minnie goes outside the house, Ruby said, she carries a rifle.

 "People aren't just saying they saw it," Ruby said Thursday afternoon as she sat inside the store she runs with her husband.
"They have seen it."

The Cooks' store lies in the afternoon shadow of Carpenter's Knob, the foothills hill point just west of Toluca and the landmark from which the creature draws its name.

The store and nearby Mountain View Grocery are where area folks gather to swap their "Knobby" stories and where outsiders stop to track down leads to its whereabouts.

"Everybody that comes in here talks about it," Ruby said. "A lot of them are scared to death. Me? Well, I'll just tell you I'm not about to go out looking for it."

But others are.

Throughout the day Thursday a Shelby radio station crew broadcast live from a campground near the base of the knob. The crew, a smattering of newsmen and a host of curious searchers spent the night hopping from spot to spot in hopes of sighting the creature that's causing the stir.

Robert Shoup and Butch Craig cut their high school classes to sit all day by a campfire near the top of the knob. "We're just waiting and looking for it," Butch said.

And Russell Cook took a day off work to go "Knobby" hunting with Rondal Huffman. "We've been all over these woods looking for signs of it but we haven't seen a thing," Rondal said.

Their last trek of the day was through a deep gully that runs behind Sally White's house, the site of one of the most
recent "Knobby" reports.

Mrs. White claims to have seen the animal three times, the last on Tuesday about 8:30 p.m.

"I heard the dog barking and I looked out," she said. "he was barking and jumping up. When he did that I knew there was something outside that was more than another dog."

"I looked down the path and I saw it - something long and black coming up through the woods. Its the same thing I've seen
twice before, once before Christmas and once right after."

That's the best description, Mrs. white says, she can give of "knobby." But others who claim to have seen it wandering along the roadsides, snatching food from a trash dump and making his way through the woods say "Knobby" is about six feet tall, weighs about 200 pounds, has a small head, flat face and dark, hairy body.

Speculation about the creature's identity ranges from wandering mountain panther to escaped carnival baboon to misplaced bear to Big Foot, the supposed missing link between man and ape.

A state park developer drove from eastern North Carolina to Toluca to check the Big Foot possibility. Two other researchers, working on a project for a Massachusetts university, spent at least one night on Carpenter's Knob checking out their own theories about "Knobby." Area residents say they do not know whether the men have left the area.

At least 16 "Knobby" sightings have been reported since late December in the vicinity of Carpenter's Knob. Earlier this week Forest Price of Casar, a community located about 10 miles west of Toluca, reported finding his goat dead of a broken neck and speculated that "Knobby" may have been the killer. His brother said he saw the creature roaming the woods near their homes.

An animal den and tracks were found about two miles from the Price houses. Searchers said the tracks were at least as large as a man's hand and similarly shaped with a thumb-like protrusion.

But most people, both hunters and wildlife protectors, are turning up no trace of the mysterious creature as they comb spots
where sightings have been reported.

"Most of this talk is just plain old hearsay," said Clyde Price, whose relatives own a large tract of land near the top of Carpenter's Knob. "When something like this gets started it gets bigger and bigger."
 

Note: I also have these articles in pdf file which shows several photos and drawings. If anyone is interested, just drop me an email and I will send them as attachments....RS.
 

MOUNT VERNON MONSTER HAUNTS WOODS, WRECKS PEACE

by SAM HARTZ

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - George Washington once slept here, but he might find it harder nowadays. A strange something is at large, wailing or screaming nightly a mile from the ancestral home of the Father of His Country.

For nine noisy months, the mystery creature has haunted a patch of woods surrounded by $150,000 homes near Mount Vernon, wrecking the peace and defying spotting and identification.

Local teen-agers have caught its act on tape. It goes something like: "ooahkra-ah," or "eeveakgoo-ah." or even
"aaaoohauoa-ah-oo."

The Mount Vernon Monster, some call it. Others, Bigfoot. More guess: hoot owls, loud frogs, a radio with a stuck button,
wild boars, a prankster with a bull horn, or the ghost of George Washington's pigs.

"One person suggested a peacock". said George Stickman, Fairfax County game warden, who has ruled out bears, bobcats and other fauna found in the vicinity.

The peacock theory may not be too exotic. Experts at the nearby Mason Neck Wildlife Refuge said peafowl are often kept as
yard pets in the south One could have flown the coop and fluttered to Mount Vernon.

"They have a loud, penetrating cry, almost like a scream," said John Aldrich, a retired Fish and Wildlife researcher.

Mike Morgan of the National zoo said the birds used to escape frequently when allowed to roam the grounds.

Whatever it may be, the creature is elusive as well as vocal. It has foiled police watches, flyovers by a U.S. Park
police helicopter, volunteer youth patrols and the determined efforts of warden Stickman.

"The thing seems to know when you leave the woods. Then it starts to holler," said Stickman, who staged a fruitless
overnight vigil to catch the interloper.

Meanwhile, residents continue to discuss the problem at get-togethers, playing tapes and advancing theories.

"Maybe it's a wounded animal or bird with damaged vocal cords," said Maggie Oyer, who thinks the sound it makes is a "low
wailing."

One resident, Thelma Crisp, says she spotted the monster. She described it as a creature about six feet tall which lumbered
into the woods after being sighted.

Could it be a Bigfoot, trying to reach headquarters of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, 15 miles away?

"If its Bigfoot, and there's proof." said a spokesman, "we'd protect it."

Portland, Tennessee Leader; September 13, 1979

HAIRY CREATURE ROAMS AREA

Big Foot - the legendary elusive creature that was thought to be killing dogs and hogs in the Caps Gapp area of Sumner
County - has apparently decided to lay low for a while.

Both the dogs and swine were reported to have no scars or evidence of being attacked and since no one actually saw them
being killed, there is now some speculation that lightning may have been the cause.

White House Police Chief Frank Eatherly told the Leader Monday that there are plenty of rumors but no facts in the case
so far. he said that the department had received numerous phone calls concerning the reputed Big Foot roaming the Capps Cap area.

Some people from this area have speculated that the creature could possibly be one of the bears that used to attract tourists
to the road side souvenir and firecracker stands that dotted Highway 31W before the interstate pulled all but local traffic
from the highway. These citizens believe that possibly an owner of one of the stands failed to report the escaping of one of the
bears, or possibly turned the animals loose rather than find them a new home when they decided to close the roadside zoos.

Spokane, Wash. - Daily Chronicle; February 11, 1978

HUGE TRACKS FOUND; "BIGFOOT" SUSPECTED

Giant tracks were spotted near Davenport yesterday by a Spokane real estate man and his client who said the footprints
suggest the presence of the legendary "bigfoot" in this area.

Sed Englund, W225 16th, and his companion from Westport, Wash. were driving along a Bonneville Power Administration road about eight miles northwest of Davenport when they found the tracks about 15 feet off the side of the road, Englund's son,
Eric said today.

The youth said his father judged the tracks to be about 18 inches long and six inches wide. He said the men discounted the
idea that they could be bear tracks because there were no claw marks in the distinct prints visible for about 50-100 feet in the
snow.

Also, the footprints appeared in pairs rather than fours and its doubtful a bear would walk upright for that distance, the younger Englund said. His father, who is part owner of Northwest Timberlands, was out showing property again this morning.

Niagara Falls Review; October 10, 1978

WAS IT A SASQUATCH

Geraldton, Ont. (CP) - Randy Corcoran says he will never return to a nearby bush where he recently saw a creature he
believes was a sasquatch.

Corcoran, 18, said Friday that he was hiking alone in the woods two weeks ago when he saw an animal about 2.2-meters tall,
covered with long, reddish-brown hair.

After walking nearly a kilometer along the trail, he heard a noise in the bush and took cover behind a rock, he said in an
interview in this community 270 kilometers west of Thunder Bay.

"At first I thought it was a bear or a moose making all that noise, so I hid," he said. "And when I saw it I sure didn't want
it to see me."

Corcoran said the human-like animal, which he said had a long face, crossed the trail about 140 meters from him.

"I stayed behind that rock an hour after it had gone, shaking all the time."

"It doesn't matter what people say, I don't care. I saw it. I don't know if it was a Sasquatch or what, but I saw it."

Source: Arkansas Gazette; Thursday, Jan. 20, 1977

'Hairy Creature' Is Being Sought'

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) ? The police are investigating reports of a "hugh, hairy creature" that reportedly was sighted by
several Natchez residents.

Those who reported the sighting to police Monday night said the "almost human" creature growled at a dog and fled when a
patrol car approached.

The police said they found large footprints, broken tree limbs and other evidence that something was in the area.

Three occupants of one house said they looked out and saw "a huge, hairy creature, well over six feet tall, and dark, barefoot
and naked." They said the creature walked with a limp.

Credit Lou Farish

WANTAGE FAMILY IN TERROR OF ODD CREATURE FOR WEEK

by DAVE SHELTON
Staff Writer

Wantage, N.J. ? The police say it probably was a hungry bear that terrorized a family last week on Wolfpit Road, but members of that family who were less than 25 feet away from it say "it was something else".

They say "it' was seven feet tall, covered with hair, had a beard and mustache and walked on its hind feet.

Barbara Sites, the mother of six children, said she heard no commotion last Tuesday night. When she went out the next morning to let the dairy herd into pasture, the cows seemed reluctant and she heard a sound in the distance that she described as "like a woman screaming while she was being killed."

As she walked around the barn, she found a solid, wooden garage door torn from its heavy hinges. Inside, she said she found six of the family's pet rabbits dead or dying of horrible wounds.

Two rabbits were missing, she said. The other's heads or legs were torn from their bodies. None appeared to have been used for food. For the amount of killing and mutilation, Richard Sites said, there was little evidence of blood.

"There were hardly any marks on two of them," Sites said. "They just looked like someone squeezed them to death."

On Thursday night, Mrs. Sites said the nervous family heard the dog barking at approximately 9:30 p.m. Looking out a window of the large old farmhouse, Mrs. Sites said she and her 16-year- old daughter saw something standing alongside the road near where
the rabbits were penned.

Sites, with several relatives and friends, ran from the house and saw at first "a big shadow ? his head was high as the eaves. When my daughter screamed, it took off," Sites pointed to an apple orchard he said bounds on a huge swamp. The nearest neighbor in that direction, he said, was more than a mile away.

On Friday night, the Sites were waiting for their strange visitor. Several members of the family positioned themselves in the farmyard, armed with shotguns and rifles.

At about the same time as the night before, "it" appeared silently at the same place under a mercury/vapor lamp whichlights up the farmyard.

"At first all I saw were these two red eyes staring at me from over there," Sites said, pointing to a decaying chicken coop. He and others with him "opened up" on the thing, firing more than 30 rounds. The weapons, he said, included a .410 shotgun, a 12?gauge shotgun and two .22 caliber rifles.

The "monster" ran into the coop, then emerged from a windo at the opposite end, Sites said. "He had his hands up in the air and I fired again. I thought he was coming at me."

The beast then escaped through the apple orchard.

The Sites' were originally reluctant to discuss the events. They said they didn't want their farm overrun with curiosity seekers.

Rumors of the episode eventually leaked among their friends. The Sites said they finally decided to talk to reporters because "the State Police aren't doing anything about it. We're scared."

Mrs. Sites said that last week she had her children stay with her mother in Sussex, but they have returned home now.

Three state troopers have filed separate reports on the Sites' incident, according to Sgt. Stanley Dutkus in Hainesville.
He said they have concluded that the incident involved a marauding bear.

An official of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU) in Columbia said he will look into the report. Marty Wolf said there have been no recent reports of "sightings" of Bigfoot in the Sussex County area.

The New Jersey Herald; Newton, N.J.; Friday, May 20, 1977

AUTHORITIES CALL WANTAGE BEAST
'AN UNIDENTIFIED WOODS ANIMAL'

By DAVE SHELTON
Staff Writer

Wantage - State Police and the N.J. Division of Fish and Game released a joint statement yesterday, saying they have concluded that whatever killed eight rabbits on a farm here last week was "an unidentified woods animal," and that it may have been a wild dog.

Bears, however now reportedly have been seen in the vicinity of the farm owned by Richard Sites on Wolfpit Road. Police originally said it probably was a bear that clawed its way into Sites' garage, killed the rabbits which had been kept in cages, and terrified the family for a week.

 Sites and three others say they fired at a tall, hairmonster with glowing, red eyes. He said his farm was not visited by a bear or smaller animal.

State Police Sgt. Ernest Seremi said yesterday that patrols have been checking the area of the Sites farm for a week, but have been unable to identify any animal capable of the attack.

"It has been tentatively determined", he said, "that the perpetrator is some type of woods animal, possibly a raccoon or wild dog, with little likelihood of it being a bear."

 A man who said he lives nearby the Siteses said his son spotted two bear cubs in a field near the Sites farm at
approximately 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Wildlife Manager Russell Spinks of the Division of Fish and Game, said yesterday that his department has learned that during the past few weeks residents of the Wolfpit Road area have reported a bear rummaging in a nearby garbage pit.

At the request of State Police, Preston Haney of the Division of Fish and Game has set up "live traps" in hopes of catching whatever animal is foraging near the Sites farm.

Also, Spinks said, Wantage Dog Warden Timothy Ryan has been advised that a wild German Shepherd has been seen near the Sites
farm.

Ogden, Utah; Standard-Examiner; Thursday, August 25, 1977

8 HIKERS SPOT ELUSIVE 'BIG FOOT IN HIGH UINTAHS

By BERT STRAND
Outdoor Editor

Two North Ogden men and six young companions said today they  watched a "gorilla-like" creature in the High Uintah Mountains
that matched reports of 'Big Foot.

Jay Barker of 1350 E. 2600 N., who has hunted big game   animals for years in the area, said the creature was estimated at
being 10 feet tall.

 He said it was covered with a white mantle of hair over its shoulders and half-way down its huge body.

The lower portion of the creature was dark colored, said Mr.  Barker who said after it spotted his party it ambled off on its
hind legs.

HIKES TO RIDGE

Mr. Barker and his two sons Brent, 12, and Danny, 6, had   hiked to the top of the ridge between Pass Lake and Cuberant
Basin at the head of Weber River drainage.

They reached the top of the ridge at noon Monday and made contact with Larry Beeson of 1311 E. 2600 N., and his three sons,
Scott, 14, Michael, 11, David, 5, and Paul Carling, 14, of 1284  E. 2500 N.

About that time, they looked down upon a small alpine lake about one half mile below them and saw the creature standing on
its edge.

CREATURE TURNS

At first, Mr. Barker thought he was looking at an elk. Then the creature turned to look up at the party after a couple of the
boys had knocked rocks loose that rolled.

"What are we looking at?" said an amazed Mr. Beeson as the  creature turned and walked off on its hind legs.

Mr. Barker said the distance was too far to get a good look  at the creature's face, but he said it moved through scattered
trees, turning its head back to look at them from time to time.

FOUR MINUTES

He said they watched it for some four minutes while it covered about one half mile through the scattered trees and then
disappeared into heavy timber.

Startled and almost dumbfounded, the group stared. "The thing is standing on two legs," said one member of the amazed
party as they looked.

Mr. Barker said the party went down to where they had see  the creature after it disappeared. They found "paw-like" imprints
in the earth, but the ground was too hard and dry to leave a  clear imprint.

He said the paw mark was "huge" and resembled that made by a  palm and toes. The party followed the path of the creature to the
timber and found other scruff marks on the rocks and in the dry
ground and grass.

HEAVY TIMBER

Mr. Barker said the group thought better about following the hairy creature into the heavy timber.

Excited and unable to sleep, Mr. Barker said he and his boys  were too tired after their experience to make the return trip of
over six miles back to their camper near Pass Lake.

They spent Monday night huddled about a campfire at Fish  Lake near where the creature had been seen and came out Tuesday.
Mr. Barker estimated the elevation of the small lake where   the creature was seen at about 12,000 feet. It was above the
timber line.

SHEEP SCARED

He also said a sheepherder in the Gold Hills area below, Arlo Fawcett of Roy, reported he has been unable to get his sheep
to stay in the area where the creature was seen.

Mr. Fawcett reportedly said he would take his sheep into th  area to graze, and they would beat him back to camp, apparently
filled with fear.

The herder also said its the first summer this has happened. Its also the first summer that he has failed to see or hear coyotes in the area.

Utah wildlife officials, informed of the incident, said they will ride into the area on horses to check the area.

FITS GRIZZLY

Jerry Dahlberg, conservation officer, northern region, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, when informed of the creature, said the description fits a grizzly bear "to a T," all excep walking upright for such a long distance.

Officer Dahlberg says he plans a horseback trip into the area over the Labor Day weekend.

Mr. Beeson said when they reached the area where the hairy creature was seen, they found the carcass of a rabbit that had been completely "skinned as by a human" and partially eaten.

Orlando, Florida: Sentinel Star; Wednesday, October 5, 1977

LURKING BIGFOOT TRICK OR THREAT?

Halloween is still three weeks away but strange creatures are already being seen around Central Florida this week.

A 22-year-old hitchhiker reported sighting the legendary Bigfoot, saying the beast was tall, dark and stinky. It lurked in the darkness in a lightly forested area off U.S. 441 half a mile south of Belleview, he said.

"I've got some information about Bigfoot," the tremulous voice on the telephone said. "I think I just saw it."

Monday morning a security guard for an Apopka nursery told police a 10-foot-tall hairy animal with a chestful of reddish- gray fur and small ears attacked him, ripping off the terrified guard's shirt.

Donnie Hall, 27, said he fired several gunshots at the creature in vain.

The Bigfoot sighter ? a Belleview welder who didn't want his name known ? said the beast was brown and black. "I'm six feet tall and it was bigger than me. It smelled horrible, like garbage."

Neither of the two creature sightings was substantiated.

A Florida Game and Fresh Water Commission agent who examined tracks at John's Nursery in Apopka said they all appeared to be
man-made.

Marion County Sheriff Don Moreland chuckled about the Bigfoot report. "I've been in law enforcement for 20 years here and I don't remember any reports of monsters. Flying saucers, yes, but I don't recall any monsters."

 Milwaukee Journal; september 20, 1976

CAROLINA MONSTER

Goldsboro, N.C. (UPI) - "Something" in North Carolina has been causing the most vicious of dogs to cower and the limbs of
trees to snap on a night when there was no lightning.

No one is quite sure what that "something" is, and unless someone very clever has been pulling a hoax for six years, North
Carolina may have its answer to "Bigfoot", the nebulous ape-like monster reported to roam the west.

Goldsboro mental therapist Jim Hollingsworth has been trying for six years to find out exactly what it is that has left 18
inch, three-toed footprints in the soft earth of rural Chatham County.

Acting on reports he receives from across the state, Hollingsworth has spent many lonely nights in desolate areastrying to confirm sightings of a 7 foot, ape-like creature with black hair, a slumping gait and a deathly scream.

Brody Parker, a Chatham farmer, says he saw such a creature last fall, "looking back at me."

Hollingsworth has set up some traps in the area where screams have been reported, but he won't say where because "some
fools are going to shoot each other hoping to kill themselves a monster."

DNR MAY CHASE BIGFOOT

There have been no sightings in the Cashton area over the past week of the alleged creature with an offensive odor that
resembles a prehistoric man, according to Cashton Record Editor, Martin Erickson.

Erickson added that the services of the DNR are being sought to determine the identity of the mysterious intruder.

A 28 year old farmer spotted the creature in a wooded area on his farm about six weeks ago. The farmer said that the burly
looking character he saw at a distance of 60 feet gave off a staggering odor.

"I became teary eyed and began to gasp for breath," he said.

The farmer who wishes to remain anonymous, added that his dog, who approached the "thing" became sick and totally listless
for several days.

The farmer, admitted to Herald reporter that, at first, he thought the creature was a Bigfoot. However, now he is unsure.

The farmer also admitted he had seen the motion picture, "Bigfoot", about the elusive figure of the Northwest.
 

La Crosse, Wisconsin Tribune; November 17, 1976

BIGFOOT GONE, RUMORS LINGER

By Terry Burt Of the Tribune Staff

CASHTON, Wis. - The Cashton Creature is nowhere to be found, but rumors about the demise of the Bigfoot-like animal are alive and well.

Some of the rumors have lingered longer than the stench reportedly coming from the creature.

The most persistent rumor has been that the hairy, seven-foot tall unidentified creature, seen this fall by a rural Cashton farmer, was an injured bear. And that bear was later killed by a hunter or hunters unknown.

If any bear, injured or otherwise, was killed in Cashton area this year it has been kept a secret.

Cashton police Chief Dave Schaldach said he has no report of a bear being shot.

Calvin Clark, Monroe County game warden, said as far as he knew no bear has been shot, or sighted, in the Cashton area.

Mike Lanquist, a state forester with the Department of Natural Resources also said to his knowledge no bear has been
shot or seen in the area.

To have been shot legally, the deformed critter would have to have been taken with a bow and arrow as Monroe County does not have a firearm bear season. If someone had killed a bear with a bow it is unlikely the proud hunter would keep it a secret.

And if taken by gun, there is good reason why no one has stepped forth with the trophy. Clark and Lanquist both said that
anyone shooting a bear illegally would be subject to a fine.

Also, within a half mile of where the farmer spotted the smelly, hairy, creature there are several bee hives containing honey. These were unmolested during the time the creature was believed to have been in the area. In many minds, this discounts
the bear angle.

The rumor also said that the bear had managed to escape from a cataract forest fire this fall, suffering with burns on the
front paws and muzzle. The burns, so said the rumor, resulted in gangrene.

With the demise of this bear several unusual circumstances in the sighting could be answered.

For example:

The bear in most of the rumors had its muzzle disfigured, making it blunt and unbearlike (matching the farmer's description
of the flat face of the creature which was seen mingling with cows);

The rumor of the burned front paws would encourage the bear to walk erect (as did the creature);

And the gangrene would give off a strong odor (as did the creature).

Thus rumor mongers would have killed the Bigfoot sighting by disposing of one bear.

Another rumor is that the creature is an escaped gorilla, orangutan or chimpanzee from a circus, carnival or zoo.

The most likely source of the bear rumor was explained by one cashton man who said that a local farmer's wife  was scared
to go outside because of rumors of an unidentified creature in the area.

Thereupon the quick-thinking farmer calmed her fears by making up the story of the bear.

Apparently it worked to the satisfaction of the farmer. His wife now regularly goes to the barn and does her chores as
before.

The wife of the farmer who saw the creature in September said Monday that for the past three weeks the area has been
silent. The family has not heard the strange bellow of the creature, nor smelled its vile scent.

However, George Wuensch of Middle Ridge said his son, Paul, and an 11-year-old companion from Sparta were hiking in some nearby woods the last week in October when they came across a large footprint which was clearly visible in the soft dirt of a mole trail.

Wuensch said the print, which showed four toes, was 18 inches long and seven inches wide at the widest point. It had a four-inch heel area and what was believed to be a deep arch.

He said there were four prints in all, about 3 1/2 feet apart, and that two strands of a wire fence had been broken near
where the prints were found.

The Wuenschs attempted to make a cement cast of the print, but the cast broke and only crumbled pieces remain.

When asked what the footprint was, Wuensch said: "It looks like a regular foot."

A Bigfoot?

Police Seek Creature

JOPLIN, Mo. (UPI) – Sheriff’s deputies and volunteers searched a wooded area near Joplin Friday night for a large, hairy creature with an odor of rotten eggs.

“I’m skeptical, but we’ll keep investigating,” said sheriff Joe Abramovitz.

Steve McFall, 17, reported an ape-like creature loomed in front of the car he was driving Thursday, forcing him into a ditch.

Other residents of the area claim they have seen the “ape,” but Abramovitz said his deputies have been unable to find “any physical evidence to support the stories.”

McFall described the creature as “about seven feet tall, hairy and walking like a man and with light colored spots on the face and red glowing eyes.”
 

He said it had an odor “like rotten eggs.”

Wyoming State Journal (Lander Wyo.); August 24, 1972

IS BIGFOOT IN WYOMING?

By MINNIE WOODRING
Staff Writer

What is "IT"? That's the question out on the Reservation now.

Monday evening I received a phone call from a 13-year-old youth, Tom Hernandez, asking me what I knew about"Bigfoot". From the tone of his voice I could tell he was a little frightened and hesitant fearing ridicule.

After a few questions he told me that about 9 p.m., he and his buddy, Curt Laniger, 13, of Riverton, were on horseback and
riding to his grandmother's place, Mrs. George Abeyta, to get their jackets.

Suddenly he saw this "thing" by the haystack to his left. "I saw his head then an arm and leg. The head was awful big, Then it
came out and started for us. It was awfully big, and hairy all over. One arm was up like it was crippled or hurt and the other
was awful long and hanging down. It was covered with hair. I believe it was at least 12 feet tall."

About that time, Tom said the horse he was riding spooked and he had trouble staying in the saddle. The horse took off
towards this grandmother's place and he glanced back to see the thing cross the lane and enter the field.

Four of us went out to the Abeyta place to meet the boy, and look for footprints. Steve Rogers took his jeep because he had a
C.B. radio, and Norma and Don Vircks drove their jeep.

We went to the dan Abeyta home after we had picked up Tom there in the pasture. Mrs. Gail Abeyta showed footprints she and her husband had observed before. Two were pretty plain, but hard to photograph. They were in the swampy part of the pasture and the party waded in the cold water and mud to see the.

Mrs. Abeyta also showed an area outside the fence where the creature apparently laid down. The grass and weeds were crushed down. This was about midnight and just then a bunch of coyotes began yapping up in the hills, giving one an eerie feeling.

Tuesday morning we visited Chief of Police Bill King and told him the story. He contacted the Lander police station and asked for Chopper. Nate Adam soon arrived with Chopper and met us at the Abeyta pace. Chopper was unsuccessful in his search for a scent as by that time the Wind River police car and others drew too many to the scene. People appeared out of nowhere.

Tom Hernandez told his story gain to Chief King. King said that for the past month he had heard several rumors of the hairy
creature being sighted. He was reported seen a month ago near Riverton and as far as up North Fork and in between.

"This is the first time I have had an actual report of it being seen. I would like to see a real good footprint of the creature."

Don Vircks measured the print at the Abeyta place and said it had a larger and deeper heel than usual, and an above normal
instep. Vircks said apparently it had only two toes on that foot. He estimated the foot to be a size 16 to 18.

Chief Bill King said that all animals on the Reservation found killed the past month had been accounted for, so the
creature wasn't eating lambs, calves, or other livestock from the ranchers. According to reports the creature stays close to water and was seen either early in the morning or late evening.

According to Lew George it was spotted near the Hudson coal mines nearly a month ago and someone said there were tracks
around Ray Lake.

Tuesday, Tom Hernandez was still a little frightened and said, "No way can anyone make me believe it was my imagination. I
SAW that thing and I believe it was a big hairy manlike creature." When he was talking to Vircks he looked up at him and
said, "He was a lot bigger than you." And Don Vircks sure isn't a midget.

The JOURNAL is interested in pursuing this and if this creature is spotted again or someone finds plain footprints please notify us and Chief of Police Bill King.

For years California had such a creature and even was able to obtain a hazy photograph. This one was dubbed Bigfoot. Maybe, just maybe, Bigfoot has come to Wyoming.

Wyoming State Ledger (Lander, Wyo.); Thursday, August 31, 1972

'MONSTER' CREATES NATIONAL INTEREST

By MINNIE WOODRING
Staff Writer

Interest in Bigfoot, or the creature two boys saw last week, has extended to the west coast.

Norman C. Davis, owner of radio station KCVL at Colville, Washington, called about it and then sent a picture of Sasquatch,
the legendary creature, and information put out by the Sasquatch Research, Richmond, B. C.

Tom Hernandez, 13, one of the boys who saw this creature last week, said it sure resembled the picture.

Davis said he had contacted by Peter Byrne, head of the four year-old International Wildlife Conservation Society inWashington, D.C. and Byrne is planning to look into the story here.

There are these facts: The two boys, Tom Hernandez, 13, and Kurt Leininger, 13, did see something that scared them, the horses they were riding were also spooked and became almost unmanageable, a horse that died two nights later was
mutilated in an unexplainable fashion, and the dog at the Abeyta place, last Saturday night, set up a frenzy of barking for about two hours, for no apparent reason.

Cliff McCart, who lives at Ray Lake, said, "I paid no attention to the story and nothing is different here. Our dog hasn't made any noise and I haven't seen any tracks or anything out of the ordinary. I don't doubt something frightened the boys, though."

Mrs. Bob Laird, at Mill Creek said, "We just laughed at the story. Bigfoot has been an Indian legend on the reservation from way back. Probably the kids saw something, but we aren't afraid. I haven't heard of anyone moving because of the story." She said she would ask her son if he had heard of
anything.

George Abeyta, Tom's grandfathcr, said, "I would really doubt Tom except the fact that the horses were so spooked. Horses have no imagination. The boys saw something that scared them."

Others were skeptical but were more inclined to view it as something funny rather than a hoax.

Lanny Wagner, manager of the Grand and Diane Theatres, said he has been able to get the film, "Bigfoot" and it will be shown at the Diane next weekend. This was of the creature spotted in northern California.

At any rate, something has happened on the Reservation last week, unusual enough to merit investigation.