Bizarre Bigfoot

Hello! 

This blogsite is a new, informal source for Bigfoot/Sasquatch information created by myself to consolidate the stranger aspects of BF
research for the consideration of those who agree that the huge
hairy biped reports we have been reading about for years may be
more than a anthropological throwback that has somehow managed to escape scientific scrutiny.
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NOTE: You may click on the Blog Archive posts to the right of this page for the latest blog posts I've made. 

No Kill/No Capture image courtesy of Regan Lee

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You may agree with the positions I believe, you may not, and while anyone
who visits here is free to post their own comments, I only request
the civility you would give to any neophyte in such a complex and wonderfully
mysterious quest.

The anecdotes that I have included here are almost exclusively copied from
online sources. Due to the 'wild west/copyright questionable' aspect of the internet
I've chosen to simply pull the bulk of this information directly from other websites. For that reason, if someone finds something here that is their property, I will gladly remove it, paraphrase it and repost it to get around this issue. I apologize in advance if this is offensive to you.

Though I have not had an encounter with Bigfoot myself, I have hiked extensively throughout the Pacific Northwest since the 1970s.  In 1999 my wife and I hiked up above Packwood Lake in the Gifford Pinchot Nat. Forest. It was near here that the famous 'Skookum Cast' was made and there have been a number of sightings all along Hwy 12 in the valley that extends from White Pass all the way past Morton and into Centralia.  On that particular hike, we got up onto that ridge until we began to get a weird feeling of being observed. The dog even got antsy, and didn't settle down until we turned around. Later, we tried a different trail and discovered a large gutpile (deer, elk?) that had been laying in tall grass for quite some time. Though it smelled bad, it appeared to be untouched by predators. It could have been the remains of an animal killed by hunters, but the fact that there were no clear signs of predation seemed odd.  

Lastly, just a week ago (8-16-2010) the wife and I were returning from a vacation at the ocean (Ilwaco). I had just finished reading Robert Alley's 'Raincoast Sasquatch' (recommended!) Alley describes the phenomenon of 'inverted trees' put into the ground by Bigfoot as 'markers'. On the way home we came up the highway from Raymond, Wa. and made the turnoff towards Montesano. About two or three miles up that road (where the new chip sealing project begins) I looked to my left to see a large clearcut of second growth forest, and smack in the middle an inverted tree, jammed into the ground quite perfectly vertical. In the moments that we had to observe the upside down tree, I saw no obvious machine marks, but...it WAS in the very center of the clear cut, near the road, and so this too could have been the work of humans, loggers with a grappling arm on their skidder. The amount of force required to pull a twelve inch diameter, twenty foot tree out of the ground by the roots must be fairly enormous. Could the BigGuy do this? I don't know, what do you think?

UFOs, Bigfoot and Science: My own thoughts.

I'm a writer, carpenter, hiker and armchair Bigfoot researcher living in Auburn, Washington State. Though I have taken only a couple of field excursions with Sasquatch in mind, but I have been intrigued and fascinated since elementary school when I found a copy of Ivan Sanderson's 'Abominable Snowman' on the library shelf. Since then, I have  read everything I could find about Bigfoot/Sasquatch, as well as any information about UFOs and abduction scenarios, from Velikovsky and Van Daniken to Vallee and Budd Hopkins and while I am still fascinated by UFO and abduction stories, it's more interesting (and less frightening, really) than the mystery of Bigfoot, right here under our own skies, in our own backyards.

In the past year or so, I ramped up my interest and I've read as much as I can find online as well as purchasing a few more books that I did not have in my library. After much consideration, my conclusion about the phenomenon slants heavily toward a paranormal explanation. Linda Moulton Howe's 'Glimpses of Other Realities' was the first book I read that suggested a BF/UFO link and my copy of Thom Powel's 'The Locals' continues to outline the very bizarre aspects of BF anecdotes that a number of Bigfoot websites will not consider as viable.

This seems unfortunate.

It is understandable that a subject as odd as this one, with the supposition that there is an enormous hairy creature that lives in forests around the country without being clearly photographed, videotaped or fully understood, should attract a good deal of divisiveness and even infighting. And when proponents of the 'flesh and blood' camp mix with those who favor a 'magical' explanation, as evidenced by the trouble that followed individuals like Erik Bjeckford in his online posting, it can sour both sides from the real objective, which is to prove conclusively this entity's existence.

The principle of the simplest explanation usually being the correct one, as in Occam's razor is cited in Powell's book and it stands up in terms of building theories, but it should not be used as an arbiter between two opposing theories. And so we are left with the two camps.

Because of the similarities between our current understanding of the UFO phenomenon and that of Sasquatches, ie., the fleeting visual aspect (most reports lasting less than a few seconds) the high strangeness (UFO’s and BF moving at extreme speed often with disregard to physics) and with lack of much physical evidence (some trace material like radioactive soil or some unusual hair), not to mention the seeming invulnerability of both phenoms to physical attack (no UFOs or BF downed by gunfire*) the link between Bigfoot and UFO encounters must fall into a similar category.

Paranormal, otherworldly, interdimensional, supernatural or even magical/spiritual are the typical title slots that both encounter-events end up in within human explanation.

To assume without testing that both phenomenon are inextricably linked would be a mistake, and so the work of Dr.s Grover Krantz and Jeff Meldrum is invaluable.

In reading Meldrum’s work on footprint and stride analysis, I was struck by how important verifiable, empirical data is in pinning down the parameters of any discovery science. The difficulty, however, in a scientific approach in regard to Bigfoot research comes with the sheer elusiveness of the creature. We have a lot of good data in tracks, some important work in DNA analysis of hair strands, and a bit of decent reportage of spoor/scat from the creature, but so far no real skeletal remains, no severed limbs or other body parts and in light of our understanding of all other animal taxonomy

(we know bears, deer and elk, primates, birds and fish seemingly very thoroughly)

Bigfoot reports continue to evade classification within known borders.

Why not? Should it truly be necessary to establish a new category for this cryptid organism? Or is it necessary to let it fall in to that abyss of strangeness, like ghosts, fairies, giants and gnomes?

Why, in these modern times, with so much great technology, do we not have a full accounting of everything in our animal kingdom? Some will cite the case of the Coelacanth fish as evidence of an evolutionary throwback that, due to it’s extreme habitat, was thought to be extinct until it was brought to fresh, modern speculation in a fishing net. To suggest that Bigfoot falls into this same explanation is to say that we have not really looked deeply enough into the woods. I refute this suggestion, as we have the ability to see nearly every square foot of the planet in high detail from space through satellite technology, we have a military/industrial complex that can ferret out any heat-producing organism of human size (or larger) with FLIR equipped cameras, and despite the large tracts of uninhabited land on the North American continent, humans have traipsed on so much of it that over the past fifty to one hundred years we have compiled perhaps several thousand decent eyewitness reports of weird footprints, strange sounds and sightings of the giant hairy extra-human entity, but no conclusive video or still photos, much less a body or a live creature for formal edification to the world.

There is also the aspect of ‘the message’ that ties both Bigfoot and the UFO phenomenon together. Many UFO occupant ancedotes tell of a sort of  ‘spacebrother’ type of experience with admonitions to the experiencer of the folly of humankind in regard to pollution and war. ‘Your planet will be reduced to a burning cinder’ was one such sentence that sticks in my mind, as communicated from an Alien Gray to a be-numbed abductee and revealed through hypnosis.  In Jack Lapseritis’ ‘The Psychic Sasquatch’, the author tells of an experiencer who learned that humans are being monitored by nordic-type aliens who run an underground program (the entrances of which are hidden in camoflaged mountain caves) where they are using cloned alien Grays to run some sort of machinery designed to produce a survivable refuge for humankind after the next world war and nuclear holocaust. The message was clear: humans are running out of time to make things right.

But doomsday scenarios aside, I posit that the real upshot of Bigfoot witness testimony is positive. Reports almost always include no lasting harm to the witness outside of shock, with a number of stories speaking to the benevolence of a wilderness encounter. 

For me, UFO stories have become boring. Reports of anomalous lights in the night sky are legion, and there are not nearly enough CEII and CEIII stories to keep me interested.

Bigfoot, however, is much more accessible by the average Joe. From BFRO’s database we learn that sightings have been made in nearly all fifty states (Hawaii excluded) as well as in Canada, with the majority of witness reports (488) coming from my own home state, Washington. Further, the second highest majority of Wa. state anecdotes (40) are in my own COUNTY (King). So it would seem foolish to not look into this mystery for a person like myself, and as the mystery continues, I look forward to any new developments.

SAR – July 2010

(* The Roswell UFO story, from 1947 suggests that our military may have shot down a UFO over that New Mexican military base, but as is the case with all sensitive military information, this story has never been officially acknowledged – Nor have reports of BF shootings turned up a corpse or even a tissue sample to substantiate these sparse claims). SR

THE WEIRD STUFF - Hang on to your sense of humor!

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July 1974 Yakima - A young man left a group of friends to meditate near a stream alone. During this meditative state, he claimed to receive communication from a Bigfoot. A hypnotist regressed the percipient to the time of his first encounter involving amnesia of 1-3/4 hours. He related seeing something big visible from the middle up to the top and which put a hand on his shoulder. The creature (later described as dark brown with friendly eyes and unmoving mouth) communicated with his mind that he wanted to get away from hunters, that he had a leader, and that he was willing to share fruit. The percipient saw a bunch of creatures looking down on him and he was mentally told that they were here before we were and that we are ruining their planet. The percipient declined any subsequent hypnotic regression sessions because it was "too much of a hassle".

Californa 1999- In Mojave, I would stop for coffee and sometimes for gas. Edwards is a very lonely twenty miles from Mojave. If I remember correctly, I saw maybe two or three cars drive by me towards Mojave. After drinking most of my coffee, I settled down and was cruising at 65 mph. My weird feelings started acting up and I could feel that someone was looking at me. I sensed someone or something was very near and to my right.
I kept looking over towards the passenger side and into the right mirror. I saw nothing but that feeling was there. This feeling went on for about five minutes with nothing happening. At that time, I was twenty-eight years old and my eyesight was perfect. It was then that I noticed on the corner of my right eye a figure running and keeping up with me. I quickly turned to see the figure and it faded away. I did that several times and whatever it was, seemed to know the exact moment to fade away.
I was a softball catcher (fast pitch) at that time and my eyes were trained to peak at runners on first base. I had the same situation here, so I know that something was there. The best glimpse I caught was of a big figure running and not really trying hard to keep up with me. I got naturally frightened and floored the accelerator until I almost drove off the road.
I slowed down to 65 mph and this big hairy thing appeared again to my right. I hit the peddle again and I finally left it behind when I was flying at 90 mph. I suddenly got to the Edwards AFB turnoff and drove up to the front gate. The gate guard asked me if I was all right. I just shook my head and told him about my adventure. He said, "Welcome to the Mojave Desert, I get all kinds of stories like yours at night.


 
Tillamook, Or. 1989
A woman was alerted by her granddaughter to something unusual outside. She stepped out and was confronted by an object resembling an inverted toy top hovering just above the ground. It was 20 to 30 feet in diameter and had a flat bottom and a bright yellow-white light shining at both ends. The woman approached to within 30 feet of the craft and a door opened revealing a blond human-like entity of average height with fair skin and blue eyes, wearing a silvery coverall. The woman then noticed at a window next to the door a large hairy, Bigfoot type creature apparently seated and only visible from the chest up. The woman stared at the object and beings for a few minutes, and then the object suddenly vanished from plain sight. 

Mt. Hood – 1989
A farmer near this location saw a big shimmering "raindrop" shaped area, 6-7 feet in diameter apparently hovering over the ground. It looked like a shimmering drop of water…he could see clear through it. All of the sudden a Bigfoot type creature stepped out of the object and ran into the woods.

1992- Rooster Rock State Park

A couple were out camping when hey heard an awful scream from far away that was loud and mournful and then under the light of the full moon he noticed, only ten feet away, a ten foot tall Bigfoot like creature. It wasn't even looking at him, but across the river. The witness said the eyes of the creature were a silver dollar size, eight inches apart, and fire red in the moonlight. As he began to panic, he heard a message of peace and non-aggression in his head. He turned around, picked up his gear, and backed off. He packed up his stuff, land left in the boat (apparently in shock), leaving his wife, who woke later, went to get a friend to help find her husband who had been arrested, she later found out. Later they found wide tracks 17 inches long, and another set at 20 inches long.

 
Near Sisters Or. 1996
A lady was camping with her family near the area of Panther Springs Campground when all of the sudden, she smelled a god-awful smell. She walked outside her tent, and about 19 ft away, she saw a tan colored creature with its fist in the air. She said it didn't seem threatening, more like a greeting. She said it had a peaked head, and large brown eyes, and it "looked highly intelligent." She said that it "talked in her mind" and told her that they called themselves the "Meikoy" and that they were a race of benevolent creatures from a different dimension. They were here to study humans. And to find out why we were so emotional, etc. They were apparently interested on how we humans reproduced and wanted to remain hidden and not found out. As her family returned the creature ran off into the woods.  

The Dalles, Or. 2001
Bigfoot steps out of bushes, hunter raises his camera and telepathically receives the message," If you take that picture I will kill you." Hunter then lowers camera and creature "vanishes instantaneously" only to reappear on his other side. Hunter "almost wet pants" and departs the area.

Erie, PA. 1968

Dr. Brethold Schwartz documents the biological effects reported in the following UFO-creature case. The incident occurred shortly after dusk as four people and two infants drove to Beach Six at Presque Island Peninsula Park north of Erie. They got stuck in the sand, and 26 year old Gerald Labelle went on to Erie to ask friends for help. On a routine check of the park at 10:00 p.m.,two patrolmen noticed the mired automobile and told the occupants they would return in a short time to make sure the car had been freed. Upon their return in a short while at 10:30 p.m.,the car was still stuck and Gerald La Belle had not returned yet. The young people in the car told the officers," There's something weird going on here!" They explained that just after the patrolmen had left, a bright light shot out of the skies and landed near Beach 7,some 300 yards from their car. When it was on the ground, they could see the object was mushroomed shaped with a narrow base rising to an oval structure with three lights on the back. It made a sound like the noise in a telephone reciever,only louder, vibrating their car when it landed. Rays of light shone from the craft and illuminated the surrounding woods and ground,until"...you arrived and the lights went out," the witnesses told police. The officers, with the 18-year old Doug Tibbets,started out for the now darkened UFO,but before they could reach it, the stranded motorists auto horn began blowing frantically. They ran back to the car to find the two girls and the small children hysterically shaking and crying." We saw a dark, faceless creature," the trembling girls sobbed." It wasn't human, maybe it was an animal!" The girls told police that just before seeing the creature, they heard scratching noises on the car. After one glance at the menacing gorilla-shaped form, the mother of the two small children moved them from the seat to the floor and huddled protectively over them. When taken to the police station the mother, and her children were so disturbed that they had to be placed in a medical facility. Park Police Chief Dan Dascanio questioned the other girl, a 16-year old." I'm convinced the young people saw something," the Chief stated." She was one scared girl when I saw her. Her hands were trembling and her face was as well...and she had difficulty maintaining her composure. Her eyes were red and she kept shaking her head from side to side." Police said there was no signs of drugs or alcohol to otherwise account for the girl's terrified state. Doug Tibbets,who had accompanied the officers in their search for the landed UFO was taken to the hospital to be treated for inflammation of the throat and an elevated temperature, and the teenage girl later suffered from severe abdominal cramps. The cause of the symptoms remains unknown. 

Allentown, PA – 1993

A witness saw a 6-foot Bigfoot-type creature near Baker's Point. As he watched, the creature spread a pair of huge wings and took flight, quickly disappearing from the sight.
No other information.   

Footedale, PA – 1993

A married couple was driving home when their headlights picked up a seven-foot tall dark hairy figure standing on the road. It had shaggy reddish brown hair over its entire body. The creature seemed to glide above the ground with its head and shoulder slumped. It disappeared into a nearby ravine. Moments later the same witnesses reported a strange nocturnal light maneuvering in the area.  

Clearwater, CO – 1977

The main witness and his wife had bought a ranch in an isolated area in 1975 and for more than a year they had been experiencing strange sounds, UFO manifestations and Bigfoot sightings on the property. There were some cattle mutilations as well. One night him and the eldest son went up to the top of a hill to examine a burned spot from the previous year. As they sat in the car, a beam of yellow light shone on them from nearby woods. Walking towards the trees, they discovered a buzzing black box, clearly seen in the light of the full moon. As they approached, it changed tone, now sounding like a swarm of angry bees. The two retreated to the safety of the car. The witness told the young man to stay by the car and went back to the spot where the black box had been; it was now gone. He saw a light in the trees and, walking toward the light, came upon two individuals standing near the light source. As he approached, they spoke to him, saying "How nice of you to come." Some distance away, down a slope, was a disk, illuminated, about 50 or 60 feet away. The two beings apologized for the trouble they had caused, promising a more equitable arrangement. They told him several things he was not to repeat, but which had no special meaning for him at the time. They regretted damage done to several of the cars, but they did not acknowledge responsibility for any of the local cattle mutilations. They told him he was wise to have backed off from the black box, which was nearby. They pointed in a particular direction and the tone on the box changed; as it did, a Bigfoot type creature got up off the ground and walked toward the box. The tone changed and the creature dropped. The meeting lasted five minutes. In appearance the beings were similar, human looking about 5'6" in height, and wearing a tight fitting outfit like a flight uniform. The suits changed colors from brown to silver. Their complexions were fair and they had blond hair, not long. The most notable features were the eyes, which were very large but otherwise normal looking. They were different in subtle ways but could pass as humans in ordinary situations. Before the witness walked away from the scene he was told by the beings that he would see them again.  

COWLITZ county, WA. UNITED STATES

Fred Bradshaw report concerning dead Bigfoot bodies near Mt. St. Helens.

My father worked for Weyerhauser Co. at Green Mountain ,WA, east of Vancouver. The site has security on their roads to check on the equipment and check closed areas to keep people out.

My father was working the day Mt. St. Helens blew up. He was at a meeting in Kelso, WA, and as he was a supervisor, when Mt. St. Helens blew it's side out, all heck cut lose.

My father was sent back to Green Mountain right away but like most he wasn't allowed to go very far because of the mud slide coming down the river. He did get to the town of Toutle, WA, on highway 504 off I-5. He and his crew were placed at different spots to watch mud flow and of course help people get out of the blast zone after the major blow up. He was sent to the area of Spirit Lake to keep people out.

When the second major blow up of the mountain came, my father and the other guy with him reported in, and they got out of there.

He was then placed in charge of the helicopter landing zone. It was his job to help keep people out of the landing zone and let aid crews in so they could care for injured.

Later. when all the people were out and bodies out, the National Guard was brought in to clean up. They hauled dead animals out that they placed in piles; deer in one, elk in another and so on. They were covered up with tarps and later burned.

But my father was placed in charge of one pile of dead that were covered and no one was allowed to go near. Armed U.S. National Guard personal were around this pile, and one day when they were going to move this group of bodies, and my father was very close to it and was told to keep his mouth closed. And when the tarps were removed he saw the creatures, some badly burned and some not. They placed them in a net and lifted them into a truck and covered it over. My father asked a guardsmen what will they do with them and he said study them or what ever...he didn't want to know. He said it's like other things you don't ask, and off they went . AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM. My father and the rest were debriefed and sent home.   

One of the most strange UFO sightings in history occurred late on the night of October 25, 1973 near Uniontown, Pennsylvania. What makes the case so interesting is that there were Bigfoot-like entities seen in the vicinity of a dramatic UFO sighting. Of course, this makes it one of my favorites, although I’m sure it was no fun for the people involved, particularly one witness who apparently became “possessed” while investigators were on the scene. There is plenty in the story to creep out even the most seasoned investigator.
A truncated account of the event is described by Stan Gordon, longtime PA UFO researcher who is best known for his investigation of the Kecksburg UFO crash:
Briefly, on the night of October 25, 1973, My UFO Hotline was active with UFO reports from around the state. About 10:30 P.M. that evening, I received a call from state trooper from the Uniontown barracks concerning an incident which he had just returned from investigating. One of those involved, was put on the phone for me to interview. At about 9 P.M. about 15 people observed a very large red spherical object hovering low in the sky which began to descend towards a pasture. The witness and two boys proceeded up the field and observed a white dome shaped object on the ground that illuminated the area, and was making a loud whirring sound. It was estimated at about 100 feet in diameter. They were about 250 feet from the object, and about 75 feet from a fence line. Walking along the fence line were two tall figures, 7 to 9 feet tall, covered with hair, and arms hanging down past the knees, and displaying glowing green eyes.
The creatures were fired upon, first tracers were shot overhead, then live ammo was used. The largest of the two creatures turned towards the other almost touching it, and at the same time the object in the field disappeared, and the sound stopped. The creatures slowly walked towards the woods. One boy had already ran home, the other two left the field, went to the farmhouse and moved the family members to a neighbor’s home, and called the state police. When the trooper arrived he and the main witness went to the site, and where the object had landed there was a glowing area, that according to the trooper was about 150 feet in diameter. He said he could read a newspaper from the amount of light that it was emitting. The farm animals refused to go into the area. The witness we talked with has always stated that before they left the field, the largest of the two creatures was seen in the woods about 10 feet from them, and he shot at it and it struck the fence that stood between them.
Later that night our team arrived in the area. Radiation levels normal, glowing area now gone, but animals still wouldn’t go near the spot. Strange events began to occur during the early morning hours in this dark secluded location. A farmhouse several hundred feet from us was seen by some in the party to suddenly light up like daylight for several seconds. A bull in the field and a dog seemed unconcerned about us, and were looking into the woods. The main witness, a rather large individual while being questioned, suddenly begins to growl, throwing his father and my assistant George Lutz towards the ground. The man ran into the field growling like an animal and emitting screams, one which was near inhuman. His own dog approaches him as to attack, then runs off whimpering. The man suddenly collapses onto the ground. Then two of my team members begin to complain that they are having trouble breathing. Suddenly the air is filled with a strong odor that can best be described as rotten eggs.
The man as he came out of what appeared to be an almost trance-like state, began talking about visions he saw about the end of the world, etc. Not knowing what could happen next we helped each other back to our vehicles. It was apparent that professional help was required in this case, and eminent psychiatrist Berthold E. Schwarz was contacted. Dr. Schwarz traveled to PA at his own expense and interviewed all of those involved including the eyewitnesses and state trooper. There is much more detail to this case, and I spent years following the life of the principal involved. There were many para-normal events which reportedly occurred in the years following this episode. And many years later in a follow up interview, an MIB event associated with the case was revealed.
There are more details of the case revealed in John Keel’s Strange Creatures From Time And Space 

 


Todd Neiss
As a sergeant in Charlie Company (1249th Combat Engineers), it was business as usual as we headed up into the dense temperate rain forest of the Coast Range in Northwestern Oregon.
On that particular day, our mission was to conduct training on private timberland near Saddle Mountain; just east of the coastal resort town of Seaside. We would be executing demolitions (explosives) operations at three rock quarries. Each site had a unique battle scenario to accomplish.

At the first site, we practiced ‘cutting charges’. This is where we would use plastic explosives (composition four or C4) to shear steel I-beams like a hot knife through butter in an effort to simulate dropping a bridge. Simultaneously, we also cut a five foot diameter Douglas Fir tree in half by wrapping a belt of C4 around it. Both charges were a resounding success! One sheared steel I-beam looking like an exploded cartoon cigar and a whole lot-o-bark dust.

The second site held a ‘complex obstacle’ consisting of a field of surface-laid anti-tank mines followed by a triple-strand concertina wire fence. We were to clear a vehicle lane through both. In addition, we were tasked to construct a field-expedient ‘claymore’ anti-personnel mine out of a #10 coffee can with improvised shrapnel. After securing the area and checking for subterranean mines, we strung a ‘ring-main’ (a circuit of detonation or DET cord) through the mine field. DET cord looks similar to fuse cord with the exception that it contains a tremendously explosive compound (PETN or Pentrite) which burns at a consistent rate of 8,000 meters per second. It is said that if you could string a line of DET cord from LA to New York, it would take approximately 14 minutes to get to the other end! It is essentially used to synchronize several explosive devices to detonate virtually simultaneously. You definitely do NOT want to confuse DET cord with fuse cord! In any event, my squad set about placing C4 charges next to each of the anti-tank mines and tying them into the ring-main while another squad began fashioning a field-expedient (read: homemade) version of a ‘Bangalore Torpedo’ to breach the razor-wire obstacle. Normally a Bangalore Torpedo is essentially a 3″ plastic pipe filed with C4. Sections of this pipe are generally fitted together to form a pipe long enough to breach the entire obstacle. In this case we had to sandwich C4 between sections of U-channel fence pickets then wrap them together with duct tape (same effect). The homemade ‘Bangalore’ was then tied into the ring-main. Lastly we constructed our field-expedient claymore mine by poking a hole in the bottom of a #10 can and inserted a blasting cap. Next we lined the bottom of the can with about 2.5lbs of C4 then covered it with three layers of cardboard for wadding. Finally, we loaded the can with rocks, bolts, nuts and anything else that would ruin the ‘enemy’s’ day. The can was then buried into a hillside (pointed towards the enemy) and angled about 12 degrees off the ground then it too was tied into the ring-main.

While I had not yet seen these creatures, there was a brief incident which, in retrospect, made me think they may have seen us. While I was directing my squad to emplace their charges next to the anti-tank mines, there was a rather loud, crescendoing ‘WHOOOOP!’ that emanated from the west end of the mine field. At that moment, I was bent over placing my own charge. Upon hearing this somewhat shrill noise, I immediately stood up and sought out the perpetrator as we were under orders to practice noise discipline during the exercise (in case the ‘enemy’ were nearby). As I glanced around the mine field, I was surprised to find all of my men still busily preparing their changes and not, as I suspected, goofing off. I shrugged my shoulders and went back to work. In hindsight, it seemed to me that the WHOOOOP sound had came from farther back in the tree line. But that made no sense as everyone was present and accounted for.

Once all of the charges were set and the area was cleared, I yelled “FIRE IN THE HOLE!,” then pulled the dual-primed M-60 fuse igniters. The fuses hissed and began snaking their way towards their primary charge while we mounted up and began to convoy down to the safety staging area to await the ‘report’ of the explosion a short eight minutes away.

At that moment, we developed radio problems. The field commander could not reach the base commander back at Camp Rilea. I was tasked to take my HMMVE (‘Humvee’) up to the top of a nearby hill, where we had a ‘two-niner-two’ radio relay station set up, to see what the problem was. Upon arrival, they had already repaired the relay, so I decided to watch the impending explosion from that vantage point. Even from two miles away, the sight of 200lbs of C4 detonating is an awesome sight. The huge flash was followed by an even bigger black cloud which began to build into a mushroom cloud. Simultaneously you could see the trees in the immediate vicinity shudder in succession as a shock wave rolled across the forest below in a perfect concentrical ring. Finally, about a two seconds later, we heard the BOOM! Another resounding success.

The third and last training area was situated in yet another gravel quarry on a hillside that overlooked the second blast site. Here our mission was to emplace a ‘cratering charge’. As the name implies, this type of operation involves the making of a rather large hole. Generally this is done to sever a road thus denying the enemy use thereof. To the uninitiated, an explosion is an explosion. To those of us who deal in the science of explosives, there are very distinct differences based upon the target, its composition, type of explosive (dynamite, C3, C4, ammonium nitrate, PETN, TNT, RDX, etc.), amount of explosive, its placement, shape of the charge, tamping, etc. Whereas C4 produces a super-hot/fast explosion, ammonium nitrate (essentially refined chicken or pig manure) soaked in diesel fuel for several hours, results in a ’slow’ concussive blast. Properly placed and tamped, it will effortlessly relocate a generous section of real estate. It should be noted that, absent a standard issue shaped charge, we had the ‘heavy junk’ (read: heavy equipment) section pre-dig a starter hole with a backhoe. After emplacing several bags of diesel-soaked ammonium nitrate into the aforementioned hole, we (read: privates) filled it in and tap danced on it to tamp (pack) the charge. Once again, the area was cleared, and I initiated the dual-primed M-60 fuse igniters. I took my place in the waiting convoy and, per S.O.P., we began the descent down to the safety staging area.

Being a squad leader, I had the privilege of having my own Hummer, complete with a driver and an A (alternate) driver. Ours was the second vehicle of a five-vehicle convoy (2 Humvees up front, 2 covered troop carriers called ‘deuce and a halfs’ and the Commander’s Humvee in the rear). I took up a position behind the driver’s seat and, as we were descending the narrow winding road down towards the staging area, I had the opportunity to enjoy the scenery. As an avid hunter, it is just second nature to me to spot for wildlife. As it was a rare sunny day in April, I had my window unzipped for a better view. Rounding a corner, I had a good view of the rock quarry where we had done our second blast at less than an hour earlier. Standing right out in the open, in the middle of the gravel pit, were three, jet-black, bipedal creatures. They stood inline (shoulder to shoulder) staring directly at our convoy as it descended the hillside across from them. Between us was a ravine populated with eight to twelve year-old Douglas Fir and hemlock ‘reprod’. At a distance of several hundred meters, I could not make out facial features or gender, but there was no doubt what I was looking at were not humans. Had these creatures been standing in front of a backdrop of trees, I most likely would not have seen them at all. But in this case, there stood three dark black figures contrasted against a light grey cliff of basalt on a bright sunny day.

In the middle stood, what I assumed to be, the alpha male of the group; as it towered a full head above the two creatures that flanked it. I would estimate it to have stood approximately nine feet high, with the flanking creatures approaching seven feet in height. Their silhouette was unique in that their heads sat directly on their shoulders with no visible neck. They all displayed broad, square shoulders and barreled chests which tapered down to a svelte waistline, unlike the creature seen in the Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967 (for the record, I am of the impression that the PG creature was either pregnant or had recently been so; accounting for her girth). The arms of these beings hung well past their knees. In the case of the two flanking creatures, they were exhibiting a swaying motion (rocking side-to-side) as the larger creature stood as still as a statue. Bear in mind that, all the while I was staring at the creatures, we were bounding down a dirt road with the occasional hedge of blackberry and Scotch bloom obscuring my view. That being said, I had approximately 25 seconds of viewing time.

At this point most people ask me, “Didn’t anybody else see them?” “Why didn’t you say something to your driver(s)? or “Why didn’t stop your vehicle?

The answer is that

1. I assumed I alone had seen them;
2. I was still in shock and disbelief;
3. my jeep didn’t have a radio to call for a stop and
4. even if it did, we had a rather large BOMB ticking off behind us!

Once the vehicle rounded a sharp corner, I knew I had seen the last of them. I fell back into my seat with a mixture of shock for what I had witnessed and an odd sense of depression. It’s a hard to explain what goes through ones mind in such a moment. Fate had somehow came together to create a once-in-a-lifetime moment that was now lost as suddenly as it had found.

My head began to swim with questions.

“Oh my God! They DO exist! And not just a solitary beast, but a group of them!

How could they exist and not be ‘discovered’?

Having extensively hunting this area, how could they exist and I not have seen them, or signs of them, before? Some hunter!

What do I do now?”

I felt the sudden urge to tell someone,but who? I had seen something scientifically, if not historically, important and SOMEONE should be notified! There must be an authority that NEEDS this information!

I began to make a mental checklist.

The US Fish & Wildlife?No.
The Forest Service? No.
The zoo? No.
The police? HELL NO!

Then WHO?!?! And better yet, who would believe me anyway?

In the final analysis, I reluctantly decided (like most people do) to keep my mouth shut. Here I was a family man, a vice-president of a shipping company, and a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Army National Guard. I had worked long and hard for my reputation. And yet, with one simple sentence, “I saw Bigfoot!”, I could throw it all away. Nope. If I knew what was good for me, I could never tell a soul.

Thus is the curse of the Bigfoot: living with the burden of the truth. A truth so absolutely incredible that merely suggesting that you ‘might’ have seen something that ‘may’ have been a Bigfoot will cause people to question your very sanity and even destroy your reputation. Great! I have jokingly suggested that I should start a Bigfoot Support Group for those afflicted with ‘the curse’. One thing I can say, from years of interviewing other eyewitnesses, that there is something therapeutic in sharing such mutual experiences.

Arriving at the staging area, I immediately jogged back up the road in a futile effort to get one more look at these amazing creatures. Unfortunately there was a knoll which blocked my view of the gravel pit. Again an odd sense of depression swept over me. I felt a genuine sense of loss that was difficult to explain.

My activity hadn’t gone unnoticed. Suddenly I heard footsteps heading my way. Then a voice yelled out, “Hey Neiss!” I turned and saw SGT Jeff Martin heading my direction. As he approached me, he looked over his shoulder to see if he was being followed. Satisfied that we were alone, he said something that I will never forget. He took a long drag off of his cigarette, exhaled, looked me squarely in the eyes and said, “I don’t suppose you saw what I saw back at the second blast site?” It was more of a statement than a question. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he knew something. I felt overwhelmed at the possibility but decided to err on the side of caution. I replied, “I don’t know Jeff, what did YOU see?” Once again he looked left then right to make certain of our privacy and then stated rather matter-of-factly, “I saw three, huge, hair-covered, for lack of a better word ‘BIGFEET’.

Trying to contain my excitement I hissed, “Yesssss! I saw them too!”

I was overwhelmed with sense of utter relief! I wasn’t alone!! It wasn’t that I needed validation of what I had seen. Corroboration could not have altered the truth, but it sure felt good. It felt somehow liberating. At that we began to compare notes.

Fate was busy that day. What were the odds? The odds that I ever would have seen them in the first place? The odds that someone else did (independently) as well? The odds that they would have even imagined that I had shared their experience and even in so considering would have had the courage to ask me? I can only guess that observing me looking in the direction of the quarry and straining to get a glimpse of ’something’ was enough to pique his curiosity. Thank God! And finally, what were the odds that we were the only two witnesses? As I would come to later learn, we weren’t!

That evening, we had an ‘open post’ so I decided to stay the night at the home of my friend (and Platoon Sergeant) Don Braden and his wife Lena. After debating whether to tell them my story, I reluctantly opened up (few beers didn’t hurt either). Being my first ‘Bigfoot confession’, I found out the hard way that even your best friends can be hard to convert. After some initial ridicule, I had to settle for a bit of patronizing sympathy. This wasn’t to be my last bout with ridicule.

Fate wasn’t quite done yet. At the next Guard drill, Lena Braden and the other wives and girlfriends of soldiers were conducting a bake sale in the foyer of the armory at Camp Rilea as was their custom. I, on the other hand, was split-training in Portland some 100 miles east. Lena was in the middle of sharing my ‘Bigfoot confession’ with the other ladies when two soldiers entered the building. As they passed the bake sale table, they happened to overhear Lena describing my encounter, then froze in their tracks. They turned to her and asked her to repeat the story then both confessed to having seen the creatures as well!

A lot has transpired since that fateful day. It has been my personal mission to provide irrefutable evidence of these amazing creatures existence in an effort to gain their recognition and, if need be, play a role in their protection. I have spent countless days and nights conducting field research (including six major expeditions) throughout the Pacific Northwest, California and one foray into the Mazetzal Wilderness of Arizona. My quest has given me the privilege to meet and/or work with some of the top researchers in the field: Peter Byrne, the late Rene Dahinden, John Green, the late Professor Grover Krantz (a.k.a. ‘The Four Horseman’), Bob Gimlin, Loren Coleman, Don Keating, the late Richard Greenwell, Larry Lund, Dr. Jeff Meldrum, Cliff Crook, Chris Murphy, Dan Perez, Joe Beelart, Ray Crowe, Dr. Wolf Henner Farenbach, Rick Noll, Thom Powell, Cliff Olson and the late Fred Bradshaw to name just a few. I thank them all for their generous insight, advice and companionship. Over the past 14 years, I have had the honor of appearing on more than 19 television programs, several radio talk shows, and given speeches at numerous symposiums and colleges. Bigfooting will always be a part of my life and I look forward to many more adventures in the future.SGT Todd M. Neiss

Rock Creek, OH 1981

Three young men, including the previous witness, were hanging around a secluded area, hoping to see a strange creature reported lurking about. Soon they heard weird sounds and brush breaking. The creature then suddenly stuck its head out the wood line running alongside the abandoned railroad tracks. One of the boys panicked and shot at the creature. The creature fell down into the bushes, apparently as a result of the shot, got back up again, and ran into the woods, screaming as it did. There was a very strange feature observed on this creature by the witnesses. It appeared to have one eye way off to the side of its face. The other eye was normal looking, centered on its eye socket.