Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center

Report #1

Date Submitted: March 8, 2009

Date of Encounter: Late Spring, 2004

Time of Encounter: 7:00 to 7:30 p.m.

Weather and Temperature: Warm with clear skies. The sun was setting on the horizon.

County and State: Brevard County, Florida

Nearest Town: Melbourne

Location: South of Hwy 192 and west of I-95

Land Use and Terrain: Private, family owned ranch. The western boundary of this property borders a major river system. Across the river is another privately owned ranch. The area consists of pine, oak, and palmettos with numerous small waterways, ponds, and lakes. There are two retention ponds very close to the encounter site.

Witness: At the time of the encounter the witness was 12 years old; he is now 17. I found the young man to be intelligent, reliable, honest and sincere. He and his father have hunted together since he was very young and is familiar with the woods in the vicinity. He has not gone back to the area of the sighting since the day it occurred, even though the trees have been cleared immediately west of the residence for approximately 400 yards.

Preface: At the beginning of December 2008, a fellow researcher, Darren Bishop, contacted me about a story he had found, from local newspaper archives, about a young man who had an encounter four years ago. My friend asked if I would go with him to the young man’s home and conduct the interview with the witness and his parents. I agreed and the results of that interview are as follows:

Encounter: At the time of the encounter, the young man’s family was finalizing the construction of their new home. The home was located at the end of a cul-de-sac which bordered a wooded tract of private land to the west. Every time the family came to the location to work on the house, the witness would go exploring in the woods to look for deer antlers, turtle shells, or whatever interesting treasures he could find. On the day of his sighting he was again exploring the woods, approximately ½ a mile southwest of the family home. He was walking west, into the setting sun, with his head down looking at the ground when his attention was caught by a strong, musky, skunk smell. The young man looked up and saw the creature, just standing there watching him, approximately 60 feet in front of him. It was standing among the palmettos and flanked on both sides by larger clumps of palmettos. There were no trees close by and the palmettos that the creature was standing in were approximately 4 feet high. They looked at each other for about three seconds, then the creature took one step toward the witness; the terrified young man turned around and ran as fast as he could, screaming and yelling, back to the house. When the young man got home, he told his parents what had happened. His parents were understandably worried because they had heard him screaming from the woods and he was white as a sheet and scared to death. The young man had absolutely no idea what he had seen, it was just a big, scary thing. An interesting note - after relating the incident to his parents, the witness’s father looked at him and said, “It was a Skunk Ape.” It seems the father had had his own encounter 27 years before (See Report #2).

Description of the Creature: Based on the height of the palmettos the creature was standing in, the witness estimated that it stood 7 to 7 ½ feet tall. Because the light from the setting sun was behind the creature, the witness could not make out any facial features and could not determine its sex. However, he did give a very clear description of the creature’s hair due to the fact that the light from the setting sun was shinning through it. This is the part I personally find fascinating. When asked what the hair looked like, the witness looked straight at me and said, “Ma’am, it looked just like yours, but darker.” This means that the creature’s hair was long, fuzzy, and curly. The hair on its arms was the same, but shorter.

Sounds: None

Smells: A strong, musky, skunk smell.

Photos and Drawings: None

Historical Notes: This particular area has a long history of Skunk Ape stories; it’s common knowledge among the locals that these creatures are there.

Donna Stocking Cohrs
Darren Bishop

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Report #2

Date Submitted: March 8, 2009

Date of Encounter: Summer, 1977

Time of Encounter: 9:00 to 9:30 p.m.

Weather and Temperature: Hot and very dark. No moon, only starlight.

County and State: Brevard County, Florida

Nearest Town: Melbourne

Location: South of Ellis Road and west of I-95

Land Use and Terrain: Public land, mostly yellow pine and palmettos.

Witness: At the time of the encounter the witness was 16 years old. He had lived in the area all his life and went into these woods on a regular basis. The witness related to me that this particular area has a long history of Skunk Ape stories; it’s common knowledge among the locals that these creatures are there. The witness in this report is the father of the witness from Report #1.

Encounter: The witness and three friends were hog hunting when this encounter occurred. The boys had set up camp ½ a mile into the woods. They left camp and headed down a game trail toward an area they had been in earlier in the day. They had traveled about 300 yards down the game trail when they detected a gamey smell coming from a very large clump of palmettos ahead of them. Thinking that there was a hog in the palmettos, two of the young men went around the left side of the clump to flank the hog. The witness and the forth young man stayed in front of the palmetto clump, approximately 15 yards away, with their guns ready, pointed down to shoot the hog as it ran out. Suddenly, they heard very loud thrashing noises coming from inside the palmettos as if something was coming through the underbrush; towards the witness and his friend. What came out of the palmettos was no hog. It was large and dark and was parting the palmettos apart as it came out. The witness immediately brought his gun up level and shot; then all four took off running. The four young men spent the night under a street light on a nearby road because they didn’t want to stay in camp that close to whatever it was they had encountered. Very early the next morning, they went back to the sight and found blood on the ground outside the perimeter of the clump of palmettos. They went back to their camp, packed up, and left.

Description of the Creature: Because of the darkness of the night, the witness could not distinguish any details about the creature he had seen. He saw only a large, dark silhouette, at least 6 feet tall and 3 to 3 ½ feet wide.

Sounds: None

Smells: Gamey smell.

Photos and Drawings: None

Historical Notes: As stated above, this particular area has a long history of Skunk Ape stories; it’s common knowledge among the locals that these creatures are there.

Donna Stocking Cohrs
Darren Bishop
ut Us
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Report #3

Date Submitted: August 15, 2009

Date of Encounter: 1973-74

Time of Encounter: 1:30 a.m.

Weather and Temperature: Warm

County and State: Volusia County, Florida

Nearest Town: DeLand

Location: Off State Road 44 West

Land Use and Terrain: Public land near the St. Johns River

Witness: At the time of the encounter the witness and her husband were living in a cottage on a section of the Zegler Dead River. She and her family had lived in the area for decades.

Encounter: The witness states that at about 1:00 a.m. she heard a scream. At first it started out very low. Then it kept getting louder and higher pitched. It was so loud, she thought the animal was standing right next to the house. Then, it sounded to her as if the animal waded across the river; the river is not too deep there and only 50 to 60 feet wide. She and her husband moved out of the cottage two weeks later.

Description of the Creature: None

Sounds: Scream and the sound of walking in the water.

Smells: None

Photos and Drawings: None

Donna Stocking Cohrs
ut Us
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Report #4

Date Submitted: August 15, 2009

Date of Encounter: 1962

Time of Encounter: 6:00 p.m.

Weather and Temperature: Warm and clear

County and State: Volusia County, Florida

Nearest Town: DeLand

Location: Off Old New York Avenue

Land Use and Terrain: Public land near the St. Johns River. In 1962, this area was very rural. Not that many people lived in the area and residences were few and far between.

Witness: The witness was the older brother of the witness in Encounter #3, now deceased.

Encounter: The young man and 6 or 7 other boys were out in this area just messing around like kids do. Two of the boys thought they saw a bear, so they all climbed into the trees (back then, it was thought that bears could not climb trees). After a while, the boys climbed down and walked over to the location the animal was seen. They found tracks of large footprints, over 12 inches long. The boys had all seen bear tracks before; there were a lot of bears in the area back then. These were not bear tracks. The boys followed the tracks until they went into the shallow water of the swamp.

Description of the Creature: Details of the animal are no longer available. However, the animal was described as large and dark.

Sounds: None

Smells: None

Photos and Drawings: None

Donna Stocking Cohrs
ut Us
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Report #5

Date Submitted: August 19, 2009

Date of Encounter: 2000

Time of Encounter: Approximately 3:30 a.m.

Weather and Temperature: Warm with a breeze. The sky was clear.

County and State: Marion County, Florida

Nearest Town: Salt Springs

Location: Off Highway 19N in the Ocala National Forest

Land Use and Terrain: Public lands. Mostly wetlands and oak hammocks.

Witness: The witness’s family has lived in the area for more than 90 years.

Encounter: The witness and his dog were out stargazing that night (the witness is an amateur astronomer). The witness states that he heard some sounds and felt like something was watching him. He remembers that it felt like the hair on the back of his neck stood up. His dog (a very large dog) started acting nervous and scared. He did not bark or growl, which was unusual for him. The witness had six bright fog lights on his truck; one at each corner and two in the front. He turned them on, but didn’t see anything. He felt very uncomfortable so, leaving the fog lights on, he packed up and left the area.

Description of the Creature: None

Sounds: Yes, but the witness could not identify the sounds.

Smells: None

Photos and Drawings: None

Donna Stocking Cohrs ut
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Report #6

Date Submitted: July 24-25, 2009

Date of Encounter: same

Weather and Temperature: Warm and clear

County and State: Pasco County, Florida

Nearest Town: Dade City

Location: Green Swamp - SHR Research Trip

Participants: Donna Stocking Cohrs, Carolann Solomon, Charles, Pat Rance

Encounter: July 24, 2009
Friday night, about 11:30 p.m.; I was the only one still awake at this time, I was sitting by the fire listening to the owls call back and forth. This went on for several minutes. Then, another owl joined in, but this was one of those 400 lb owls. There was a definite difference to this third owl call. I may have not noticed it except that I could compare it to the real ones immediately. It was almost funny because it was so obvious...a real owl would call, then the 400 pounder, mimicking it, would call, then the other real owl would call. That went on for about 5 minutes. Then it changed, and this is when I got a little nervous. A real owl would call, then I heard a very, very deep, drawn out, wooooooooo vocalization. This happened three times, then it stopped...and so did the real owls.

After a few minutes I started hearing whistles. Sets of three, short, soft whistles in a row. The first set of whistles came from the tree line just to the east of me. The next set came from the north east. The third set came from the north, not too far from where my tent was. Needless to say, I called it a night pretty quick. Also, on a side note, earlier that night, we heard a pig squealing and thrashing like crazy, then abrupt silence. Hmmm, dinner??

July 25, 2009
Early in the day, around 2:00 p.m., we were walking around….. just checking things out…..not too far from the camp, when we heard a very, very, very deep voice say what sounded like “hello”. Carolann returned a hello back in English and then in Cherokee, but got no response back. We also saw prints on the road. Most were bear prints, but a couple of them looked different. One in particular, found in the middle of the road, had definite toes and what looked like a heel. We could not discern any claw marks in the print. The other print was on the other side of the road, on the upward embankment, where you could see a possible heel, mid-foot, and toe slide. The direction of the second print was consistent with the direction of the first print. The prints were approximately 10” long and 5.5” wide. The distance between tracks was approximately 8’. Pat noticed rain drop marks in the footprint impressions. We concluded that this meant that the track was probably made at the hind end of a rain shower, then dried out.

That evening, we went out to one of Pat’s new sites, arriving there around 8:00 p.m. We had two vehicles and had gone through some pretty rough terrain to get to this spot; extremely muddy and at times very deep water in the road. In fact, we almost didn’t make it out of the area, because of these conditions. The grass and brush was very high and dense.

After we got to the location, we parked the vehicles off the road, about 30 feet from the main dirt track (it couldn't really even been considered a road).We exited the vehicles and started talking quietly.....just friendly casual conversation about everything and nothing. Around 9:15 p.m. (by this time there was no moonshine, the moon had already set), Carolann decided to walk to the dirt track and make a soft call. An immediate response came in the form of a large, bipedal something walking toward her from the woods right across the dirt road track. Carolann returned to the rest of us to get her night vision....at the same time, Pat had passed Carolann and walked to the dirt track to talk to someone on his cell phone. Carolann hadn’t had a chance to tell us what she had heard yet when Pat came back to let us know that a bipedal something had walked toward him from the woods, across the dirt track.

At this point we all (Pat, Carolann, Charles, and myself) walked to the dirt track to check it out. There was definitely something walking around in there. All of us could hear the footsteps in the underbrush. A couple of times I heard an actual footfall…not loud, but a definite thump sound. From our bipedal friend’s starting point, where Carolann and Pat had first heard it, it walked towards our left (north), parallel to the road. It sounded like it was just a few yards into the tree line from us and seemed very curious about us. We slowly walked the few yards to our left to stay with it. It didn’t seem alarmed or agitated in any way. We all saw quick snippets of red eye shine approximately 7 feet high. A few times, we could also see a vague shadowy upright figure back in the brush. This went on for 7 or 8 minutes. Then we stopped hearing any movement. We hung around the area for a while, but didn’t hear or see anything else, so we headed out.

We then drove to another one of Pat’s sites. The terrain was the same as the first site; muddy with dense underbrush. We arrived around 10:20 p.m. We parked the vehicles in a cleared area, exited the vehicles, and just hung out. Pat did a couple of calls and several minutes later, Carolann did the same. No response at that time. Pat and Charles then walked off in another direction to investigate sounds they were hearing….a possible wood knock. At about 11:00 p.m., I made a call and Carolann and I heard a response from the distance. My echo had already ended when this response was heard, so it wasn’t my echo. Charles and Pat did not hear it due to the fact that they were still off investigating the sound they had heard. We neither heard nor saw anything after that, so we decided to call it a night and return to camp.

Description of the Creature: Only eye shine.

Sounds: None

Smells: None

Photos and Drawings: None

Donna Stocking Cohrs
ut Us
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Report #7

Date Submitted: December 5, 2009

Date of Encounter: same

Weather and Temperature: Cold and dark, no moon

County and State: Brevard County, Florida

Nearest Town: Cocoa Beach

Location: St. Johns River Basin

Participants: SHR Research Trip - Donna Stocking Cohrs, Darren Bishop, and DJ Bishop

Encounter:Tonight we had a very exciting encounter. We had gone back to our research area to check things out. We arrived at approximately 7:00 p.m. As soon as we arrived at our “spot”, we heard a distinct wood knock. We were thinking, wood knock….cool. I also found a footprint in the mud approximately 13 inches long by 6 inches wide. The print included clear toe prints of all but the little toe. We were thinking, footprint….cool. The moon had not yet risen, so it was pitch black in the woods. We had brought along a battery powered lantern and a flashlight. We settled in and kept the flashlight and the lantern on.

After a few minutes, Darren decided to check out the area behind us, to the north, about 30 yards from where we were sitting. He walked toward a bend in the creek; the creek ran right next to us then meandered to the north. He came back quickly and told DJ and I that he had heard bipedal footsteps in front of him across the creek. The creek at that point is only about 10 feet wide. We were thinking, footsteps….cool.

We settled back in and just talked quietly for a while. We had brought a cantaloupe with us and around 8:00 p.m. we decided to take the cantaloupe to where Darren had walked to previously, cut it in half, and leave it there. About 15 minutes later, we heard bipedal footsteps heading in the direction of the cantaloupe, from our side of the creek. A few minutes later we heard very heavy and loud bipedal footsteps walking directly towards us from the east. The footsteps stopped approximately 20 to 25 yards from us, then turned and walked north for a few steps. This local definitely had no problem in letting us know he was there. Right after that we heard something step into the creek from our west, next to us. It didn’t make a large splash sound, just the sound of it quietly stepping into the water. We only heard one footfall into the creek. I took this to mean that its next footfall was on dry land, since the creek was so small. We were thinking, more footsteps….cool.

Periodically, we would hear soft whoop calls or a cut off owl call. We didn’t hear much after that until around 9:00 p.m. At that point, a bright light on the horizon, to the north, caught my attention. It was a rocket taking off from the Cape. It was very bright and we all just sat there and watched it. Then came the sonic boom. Not only could we hear it, we could feel it vibrate in the ground under us. We were thinking, this is so cool. As soon as the boom subsided…........we heard the growl. Then, a second growl. It sounded like it was only about 20 feet from us…..from the south. That was it – we decided it was time to leave. We got our stuff together to head out when we heard the third growl coming from the same spot. The problem was, the growl was coming from the direction of our exit route. We remained as calm as we could and started walking out. That’s when we heard the 4th and 5th growls, directly to our left. It sounded only about 10 feet away at this point. The growls were not high off the ground, but low, as if it was crouching. This local may have been on all fours when it growled at us….only my opinion.

It was a scary situation, but the funny thing is, I never got that “feeling”. I was perfectly fine – very nervous, but fine. We made it out to the truck with no problems. I don’t know if any of them followed us….couldn’t tell.

Here’s my theory on what happened. I think there were definitely 2 maybe 3 locals around us tonight. Everything was fine until the sonic boom. I think they got spooked by the boom and may have associated the boom noise and vibrations to us. That’s why the one started growling at us.

Donna Stocking Cohrs
Darren Bishop
ut Us
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Report #8

Date Submitted: January 28, 2010

Date of Encounter: May, 1984

Time of Encounter: Between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.

Location: Ft. Lewis, Washington

Encounter: (Verbatim from the witness’s e-mails except for minor corrections of spelling and grammar). I was a Military Police Sergeant, stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington. The following incident occurred between the hours of 0300 am and 0400 am. The entire incident had been deemed classified (at the time). I can not prove any of this other than the plaster foot casting (just 1 of over 40) made the following morning.

It was in the month of May (as I recall), I don't remember the exact date. Myself, a k9 sergeant, and our captain, had been dispatched to investigate a disturbance in conjunction with a reported prowler complaint within the tree line near the post stockade. The captain, having arrived first, said that he heard very odd, weird growls and noises from within the dense foliage; he wanted the area checked out. I was the MP game warden (as well as traffic NCOIC) at the time, so I knew there was an old narrow gauge railroad spur, (not too far into the trees) and used that as our rendezvous point. We each took a quadrant and began a sweep of the area; I did not see nor hear a thing. Then I heard 5 distinct pistol shots from where the k9 would have been (k9 carried .38 revolvers in those days). Then I heard something large crashing through the dense brush and a very loud guttural growling that built into an extremely high pitched screaming howl (I'd never heard any local critter make a sound like that). I was armed with my issue .45 and the 12 gauge riot gun. As I proceeded to the railroad spur, I heard an odd clicking sound that turned out to be the k9 sergeant, wide eyed and still trying to fire his weapon, though all 5 rounds had been expended. He left the area on the tail of the retreating police dog. I continued on and finally linked up with the captain. The spur was of the type with high adjacent berms. We ascended the far berm and halted at the edge of a large meadow; Mt. Rainier was southeast of our position. It was from there that I first detected movement in the tree line and dense foliage. I could plainly see a large massive dark shape, moving through the brush. It appeared to be a bear. I held the shotgun at the ready when the object entered the meadow; it was approximately 35 meters from us, moving from left to right. False dawn was in evidence; it was light enough to shoot by, but not enough to discern acute facial features. The object was clearly walking on 2 legs, all I can figure is, the wind must have shifted because the creature stopped and turned its head and whole body looking directly at us. At first it did not threaten us in any way, but then it made some deep guttural growls and screams, and looked as if it was going to charge. Its arms were in motion and its head was moving from side to side. I was more than a little scared at this point. I jacked a round into the shotgun and as the metallic sound clacked, the creature ceased all actions and just stared at us again. It did not attack nor threaten in any manner than as described, so I lowered my weapon, but kept it ready. It did not advance and neither did we. It was obvious that this creature was not too happy to see us standing there, and did appear angry - though I am not an expert on bigfoot behaviors. The entire stare down lasted about 2-3 minutes. It was covered in short dark hair, had massive arms and shoulders, the head sort of bullet shaped and the face kind of ape-like (though the poor light hampered acute facial identification). It was 7 to 8 feet tall. I stand 6’ 6” and would have had to look up at this creature. At the time, my sons liked pro wrestling. We have met Andre the Giant (now deceased). If he was really 7’ 4”, then this bigfoot was even taller.

I guess the creature figured we were no threat and continued on its way, walking still on 2 legs, it turned to look back a couple of times. We watched it as it went across the meadow, and it never went down on all 4 legs. As daylight approached we observed the many foot tracks across the soggy meadow (it rains a lot in Washington). Upon filing the MP report, the incident became classified.

As I recall, to our peers we were drunk liars and crazy. My integrity was brought into question and promotions held up. I no longer care what anyone thinks, it doesn't change the facts of what I know we saw. I valued my army career more than having a few moments in the limelight. No official report was filed due to the classified ruling. Sergeants do not question the orders of their commanders. At no time while writing the report did I refer to the creature as bigfoot, sasquatch, omah, nor the Pillsbury doughboy. I described what we saw and advised MP command to contact the Seattle Zoo, to inquire if one of their primates had escaped. Prior to this encounter I considered bigfoot to be just a load of bull and eye witnesses as a bunch of wackos. Well, it is not bull. I no longer care what anyone believes. The bottom line is I know what I saw.

Donna Stocking Cohrs

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Report #9

Date Submitted: February 11, 2010

Date of Encounter: February 6, 2010

Time of Encounter: Before dawn until around 10:00 a.m.

Weather and Temperature: Extremely windy and cold.

State: Florida

Location: Green Swamp West - off a trail that leads to a field area just east of a camping site.

Participants: ISRT Research Trip

Witnesses: Two, Danny and Garret

Activity: Hog hunting

Encounter:
Saturday morning just before day break, Danny and his friend Garret, headed out to an area that they had scoped out the day before and had to go there due to hog activity. They had hiked in about a mile or two and decided to rest due to Garret having stomach issues and was just not feeling well. As they sat there they heard a couple of whistles that came from behind them toward the wooded area. They thought that they had come up on another hunter and that guy was signaling to them that he was over there .

Danny and Garret rested for about 40 minutes then started walking some more. Once again they had to stop due to Garret's stomach problems. Danny decided to walk a little further to see if he could find more hog activity and maybe head into the woods. After about 10 to 15 minutes of walking he decided to head back to Garret. Once Danny returned he told Garret that they should head off into the woods. Garret told him he had an uneasy feeling and that whoever that guy was in the woods, he was acting strange. When Danny asked why, Garret told him he heard walking, so he whistled out to let the guy know he was there. When Garret didn't get a response he spoke out and told the guy, "Hey, there are hunters over here." Still no response .

Danny and Garret decided to walk a little further and as they were walking they could hear movement in the treeline moving with them. Danny whistled out, got no response and then yelled out. The response they got was something that sounded like a huff and then a low deep growl. That's when they decided to turn around, head back out to the truck ,and try a different area.

They had asked several others throughout the day if they had been in that area that morning but everyone said no. They then assumed that it was probably one of the campers at the camp site not far from them. Later on that night, on a couple of occasions while in camp, Danny thought he heard whistling out in the woods and he said the whole thing just seemed weird to him.

Researchers comments.... The ISRT group (Independent Sasquatch Research Team) had an outing that weekend in the same general area. A few members showed up on Friday and the rest came out Saturday morning. We were told by several Game Officers to stay in camp and to not go into the woods due to a special hog hunt that was going on. No one from our group went into the woods during the daytime. In addition, we didn't do any vocalizations, whistles, or tree knocks during the day.

We didnt expect to have any BF activity going on due to hunters being in the area. We decided to research other properties close by that had known BF activity. Around 10 pm Saturday night, we started getting some activity around the camp area. Researcher, Willie Douglas, had his parabolic ears on when he heard what sounded like a noise a lion would make. A deep rumbling growl sound. This happened after I had done a call. Walking inside the treeline, we heard whistles. Later on that night we heard more whistles, and at times would get responses back from our own whistles.

It was around 2 am when I decided to leave and head home. As we went through the property gate to leave I asked my son to pull over so I could use one of the hunters' bathroom facilities. While I was waiting my turn, a guy walked up and started waiting also. We started a conversation and when he found out that I was from the other camp, he asked me if anyone of us had been out in the woods that morning. I replied no and he started telling me about the above encounter.

A few days later Danny contacted me and for approximately two hours I interviewed him over the phone. His story stayed the same. He is not sure what was out there and what they had encountered, but he says its the first time he has ever experienced something in the woods that he can't explain.

I will be going back out to the area again soon to investigate this report further. It is also an area that has had ongoing activity over the years .

Carolann Solomon
ISRT
SHR

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Report #10

Date Submitted: January 24, 2010

Date of Encounter: 1972

Time of Encounter: Early morning and night. Still dark.

Weather and Temperature: Extremely windy and cold.

State: Pennsylvania

Location: Close to Chambersburg, PA on route 81

Witnesses: Ms. Bay (not her real name)
Land Use and Terrain: Apple orchards.

Witness: Ms. Bay

Encounter: Back in the early 70’s Ms. Bay and her family would go up to the Pennsylvania, New Jersey corridor to work in the apple orchards in that area. One morning, when it was still dark, she, her husband, her sister, and her sister’s husband were driving in their van on their way to the apple orchard. They had stopped on the side of the road and parked so that the husbands could walk down the dirt road located where they had parked, to get the gentleman that lived down that road to take him with them to work. While the women were waiting in the van, something happened. Ms. Bay was sitting in the back seat driver’s side and her sister was in the driver’s seat. Ms. Bay was looking out the back seat passenger side window when she witnessed a “big black monster” (as Ms. Bay referred to the individual) come down the steep hill on the opposite side of the road, step out of the bushes on that side of the road, and walk toward the van. When the “monster” got to the van, “he” put his arms on top of the van, leaned down, and looked into the back seat passenger side window and looked straight at Ms. Bay. She said he had large red eyes. She had no idea what she was seeing, so she tried to get her sister’s attention to look at him. By the time Ms. Bay’s sister turned around to look at the “monster”, he had hunched down under the window level and moved off toward the other side of the road from where he had come from. Ms. Bay then stated that the “monster” went back up the hill and she never saw it again.

The vehicle they were in was a late 60’s, early 70’s van. After checking websites pertaining to these kinds of vans, the height of the van was approximately 7 feet high. From this measurement, Ms. Bay estimated that the “monster” was probably 8 feet tall.

Another encounter that Ms. Bay imparted to me involved an incident that happened in the camp where she and her family stayed while harvesting the apples. The apple pickers lived in camps comprised of single wide trailers where the families lived while they were picking the apples. Late one night, while Ms. Bay and her family were inside their trailer, the family started hearing noises outside. Then, “something” started violently rocking the trailer back and forth. The trailer was on a hill and Ms. Bay stated that the rocking was so bad she was afraid that the trailer was going to be knocked over, down the hill. The next morning they found 18” – 20” footprints in the mud outside the trailer. Ms. Bay stated at the time that whoever had been out there, didn't wear his shoes.

One more incident that Ms. Bay reported to me involved the “Boss Man” of the camp. Apparently, it was a normal occurrence for the workers to hear gun shots at night from the Boss Man shooting at the “monsters” while they were stealing crates of apples from the packing shed. Ms. Bay still doesn’t understand what she saw to this day.

When asked how she felt at the time of her encounter, Ms. Bay said that she wasn't really scared, but she was confused at what she was seeing.

Description of the Creature: According to Ms. Bay’s description the creature was 8’ tall, black, hairy, bi-pedal, with large red eyes.

Sounds: None

Smells: None

Donna Stocking Cohrs