Strange Sightings in Martin City

[From “Every Week News”. June 2003.]

Debi Beach and her husband Alan were driving to their home in Martin City when Debi spotted something walking down a hillside above town. “I said, ‘Look at the size of that guy, he’s huge,’” recalls Debi. At that moment, her husband looked up, then slammed on the brakes in the middle of the street. Not believing his eyes, he said, “It’s Sasquatch!”

Alan ran into the Deerlick Saloon and convinced a couple of locals to come out and have a look. They, too, gaped at the sight of a tall, dark human-like creature ambling around an open, grassy easement that leads up to a water tower. The four witnesses scurried up to the easement to have a look around. There they found patches of tall grass “all mashed down,” says Debi.

They called out for the creature, but Debi says all they could hear was the sound of barking dogs. It seemed as though the mysterious figure was moving away from them, through the woods. And as it went, it passed by Debi’s daughter’s house and her own.

“First we heard my daughter’s dogs bark, then we heard our dogs,” she says.

Back at the Deerlick—a saloon where visitors are greeted by a mounted deer head with its tongue stuck out—the group made calls to local newspapers and wildlife agencies. That was Saturday, June 7. By the following Monday, the local media and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks were onto the story. FWP reported the sighting as the first for Flathead County, but the fifteenth in Montana.

Wanting to learn more, an Independent reporter pulled up in front of the Deerlick at happy hour on Tuesday, June 10. Before entering the bar, he phoned his partner. The following is a transcript of their conversation:

“Hello?”

“Scully, this is Fox. I’m at the Deerlick. I’m going in.”

“The Deerlick, why?”

“I’m here to find Sasquatch.”

“Oh, of course.”

Outside the Deerlick on this Tuesday was a little lap dog with only three working legs. It dragged itself along the sidewalk in front of the bar. Inside, a scattering of regulars appeared to be dragging their weekend drinking binges toward mid-week. One man stood next to the bar drinking Bud from a can and talking to himself. He squinted spastically and extended his right arm as if to emphasize his mumblings.

When asked if anyone knew anything about Sasquatch, the bartender and his guests dismissed the recent sighting. “I heard it was somebody naked, running around without any clothes,” said the bartender.

Pity whomever might be mistaken for Bigfoot in the buff. But pity the two truly wasted Deerlick patrons even more. While one continued to squint and flex his arm, another wobbled over to the Indy reporter, who continued to ask unanswered questions about Sasquatch. When the reporter finally got up to leave, the wobbling drunk seized the opportunity to ask a favor, calling out, “Hey, where are you going? I need somebody to set up my computer.”

But by then, the reporter was gone.

WCSRO, 2006.