Creatures of the Mind – Part Two

Paul Freeman was a United States Forest Service Patrolman assigned to the Umatilla National Forest in the Walla Walla area of Washington State. On the morning of June 10,1982, Freeman, then aged 39, was driving alone through the forest.

Spotting some elk on a nearby ridge, he stopped his truck and got out to see if he could observe signs of any young elk among the group. As he was walking up an old logging spur, he caught sight of something stepping off a bank about ten feet (3 metres) high, down on to the road ahead of him.

“I saw him about the same time as he saw me“, Freeman recalled. “He looked like all the pictures I’ve seen of prehistoric man. He was real hairy – reddish-brown hair. It was so thick you couldn’t see through it on his shoulders, arms and legs. But on his face and chest it was thin enough to see his skin, the colour of brown leather.

“I was about 65 yards away from him and I just stood there looking at him and he looked at me. I could hear him breathing real heavy as though he’d been running and I could see the muscles in his stomach moving.

“But that was the only noise he made. I was scared and I started backing away a few feet. He made the hair stand up on his neck and shoulders just like a dog does when it tries to frighten someone. When he saw I wasn’t coming any further he turned and walked up the road.”

Freeman described this hairy anthropoid as about eight and a half feet (2.6 metres) tall, and with a very heavy build. Later, when he was joined by several of his colleagues, he photographed and took plaster casts of the footprints left by the creature.

Its footprint measured 14 inches (36 centimetres) long by seven inches (18 centimetres) wide. The footsteps were set about six to eight feet (1.8 – 2.4 metres) apart, and were imprinted to a depth of about an inch (2.5 centimetres) in the moist ground, from which Freeman calculated its weight to be about six hundred pounds (272 kilograms).

Being thoroughly conversant with the usual denizens of the forest, Freeman was adamant that what he had seen was not a type of bear. He also discounted the possibility that he might have been duped by a man wearing a gorilla suit, as he could clearly see the creature’s muscles moving in its legs, arms and shoulders.

Recalling the incident Freeman confessed, “I’ve been working in the wilderness for years and never seen anything like it.”  1

In October 1955, William Roe came across another hairy animal while he was hiking on Mica Mountain in British Columbia. Roe watched in astonishment as this ape-like creature slowly made its way toward him, unaware of his presence. Roe estimated its size as around six feet (1.8 metres) tall, three feet (.9 metres) wide, with a weight of about 300 pounds (136 kilograms).

The animal came to within twenty feet (6 metres) of the bush in which Roe was hiding, and squatted down on its haunches. Roe was able to study its features closely. It had flexible lips, even, white teeth, a broad and flat nose, human-like ears and small, black eyes.

Although the face was covered in short hair, it was bare around the mouth, nose and ears. The neck was shorter and thicker than that of any human being he had ever seen. The creature must then have caught Roe’s scent, for it suddenly looked directly at him through an opening in the bush, backed away several paces, then straightened up to its full height, and walked rapidly away.  2

In 1973 seventeen year-old Cheryl Ray was sitting in the breezeway of her parents’ home, situated on the western edge of Murphysboro in southern Illinois. Sitting with her was her friend Randy Creath.

The dusk was deepening when Cheryl heard the sound of something moving in the bushes at the end of the yard. She immediately stepped indoors to switch on the yard light. When she came out she saw Randy at the edge of the brush facing an enormous hairy creature, seven feet (2.1 metres) tall.

Randy picked up a stone and flung it at the creature. It did not react with any sign of fear, but continued coolly to inspect them both. Then it turned on its heels and walked unhurriedly back into the undergrowth. Randy described the creature as covered with tan or dirty- white hair, with the exception of its face, which was smooth.

Its eyes glowed red in the lamplight. But what affected Randy most was its smell, which was unspeakably foul. When Sheryl later described how the beast moved she was asked if it shambled like a bear. “No, not like that”, she replied. “It walked the way a person walks, arm’s swinging at the side.”  3

In March, 1978, another hairy biped made an appearance on the other side of the world, this time in Australia. A National Parks worker was cutting timber in the Springbrook area of the Queensland Gold Coast when he heard a grunting sound. Thinking it might be a pig that was loose he went into the forest to investigate.

“Then something made me look up and there, about twelve feet in front of me, was this black hairy man thing. It looked more like a gorilla than anything. It had huge hands and one of them was wrapped around a sapling. It had a flat, black shiny face, with two big yellow eyes and a hole for a mouth.

“It just stared at me and I stared back. I was so numb I couldn’t even raise the axe I had in my hand. We seemed to stand there staring at each other for about ten minutes before it suddenly gave off a foul smell that made me vomit – then it just made off sideways and disappeared.”  4

In the Broederstroom region of the Transvaal, South Africa, not far from the capital city of Pretoria, there were persistent rumours of a large ape-like creature that was known locally as a “Kowyn”. In 1977 Etienne Smith had a close encounter with this man-beast on the farm Ouplaas, where his house was being built. It was an experience that he says he will never forget.

“It was the most horrific night of my life”, Etienne recalled. “I was camping out with friends on the farm while our house was being built. The night was pitch black. There was no moon and even spookier was the total absence of night noises like buzzing insects which you always hear in the bush.

“There was a tenseness in the atmosphere that was inexplicable. I was trying to brighten things up with idle chatter when suddenly the valley below us erupted with the most bloodcurdling screams I’d ever heard. We froze. Our hair stood on end. The screams were indescribable, supernatural almost. We couldn’t understand them.

“There was no logical explanation for them. They didn’t seem to be part of this world. Though it was frightening, we decided to investigate. The further we moved into the valley, the more terrifying it became. I was walking in front and at one stage I could literally feel the stinking, hot breath of something blowing in my face.”

At that point the group was too petrified to investigate further, and they retired up the hill to their campsite. It was then that Etienne walked over to the house that was being built.

“I had only a candle with me. As I got to the doorway of a makeshift storeroom I walked slap bang into something very shaggy. I felt as though I had been kicked in the chest by a powerful horse, or hit by a car. My breath was knocked right out of my body.

“I looked up and saw an enormous man at least half a metre taller than me. He was covered from head to foot in long, matted black hair and his arms hung to below his knees. The most distinguishing thing about him was that he stank. The stench around him was disgusting.

“He smelt like putrid, rotting meat. We both jumped back from each other. I think he was just as frightened as I was because he tried to cower behind the door of the storeroom. Then I got a better look at him. His face was dog-like and sort of squashed in.”

Etienne shouted in alarm and the beast ran off into the darkness. By this time the group was thoroughly terrified and decided to head back to Johannesburg. When they reached their cars they discovered that they were covered with dusty palm-prints. The prints were the size of a man’s hand, but the fingers were short and stubby, with long claws attached to each.  5

Among the most famous of these man-apes is the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, who is reputed to inhabit the mountainous regions of Nepal. Numerous sightings of these beasts have been reported over the years, and photographs of their enormous footprints have been taken by various mountaineering expeditions, notably by Eric Shipton at Menlung Glacier on Mount Everest in 1951.

Like the ubiquitous lake monsters, the Yeti seems to be alive and well in all parts of the world, and reports of sightings have continued to surface from various regions throughout the twentieth century. In the Caucasus Mountains and the Pamirs of Russia this creature is known as the “Alma”.

In eastern Siberia it is referred to as “Chuchunaa”. It is called “Hiba-gon” in the region of Mount Hiba in Japan, and the “Yowie” in Australia. There is also the “Chemosit” in East Africa, the “Maricoxi” of Brazil, the “Ucu” of Argentina, as well as their North American cousins “Bigfoot” in America and “Sasquatch” in Canada.

In the United States, in addition to the heavily forested states of California, Oregon and Washington, sightings of Bigfoot have been reported from such unlikely places as the cities of Cleveland, Ohio; Fort Worth, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Vernon, Kansas; Madison, Indiana; Clanton, Alabama; and Monroe, Michigan.

In Florida the creature is known to be a visitor to the Sunshine State, where it sports the title of “Skunk-ape”, on account of its less than wholesome aroma.

Based on the reports which have been gathered from around the world, these hairy primates tend to be around eight feet (2.4 metres) in height, but have been reported to be as tall as sixteen feet (4.8 metres).

While plaster casts of their footprints have generally revealed a foot with five toes, tracks have also been found showing three-toed prints, as well as others with four toes, and even six toes. These creatures are invariably covered in a thick coat of hair which ranges from a dirty off-white colour to jet black.

Their eyes are frequently described as red in colour, but other reports exist of eyes coloured yellow, green, amber, white and black. Furthermore, the eyes are often said to be luminous and glowing.

Although reports of close encounters with these creatures often mention their particularly disgusting smell, this tends to reflect a minority of cases. Out of two thousand cases collected by Canadian researcher John Green, only about one hundred referred to an abhorrent odour.

Clearly, something remarkable is happening on the face of this planet. It appears to abound with hairy bipedal primates who appear suddenly before startled observers, and then vanish without trace into thick forest or undergrowth.

While their appearances are suggestive of some early form of man, which has somehow managed to survive until modern times in obscure regions of the earth, their repeated sightings in densely populated cities seem to defy all logic. Creatures of this size would certainly require a vast intake of food.

If they were herbivorous they would be bound to leave extensive signs of defoliation. If they were carnivorous they would require considerable quantities of flesh, which again, should leave evidence in a residue of bones, to say nothing of the rapid depletion of certain types of game.

Yet no such signs are ever found in the quantities which their continued survival would demand. When reports of Bigfoot have surfaced from residential areas in America, armed posses of men have been assembled to scour the surrounding countryside. Yet no sign of these creatures is ever brought to light. They simply vanish into thin air.

It is no surprise, therefore, that people such as B. Rigby, professor of anthropology at Queensland University, have announced: “There is no reliable recurring evidence for yowies, abominable snowmen, yetis, big foots or wild men of the woods or whatever they are called. I believe you simply won’t find a human primate of this sort in Australia.”  6  Or any other country for that matter.

The basic riddle of these mysterious primates is that one never finds any carcasses which science can evaluate. There are any number of personal anecdotal reports which are accompanied by sounds, smells and footprints, but no observer ever comes forward with a skeleton or dead body of the creature.

This is particularly surprising in view of the long tradition of recreational hunting throughout the forested regions of North America. One would have supposed that by now, at least some of these chance encounters in the wild would have led to an armed confrontation between man and beast.

Yet in spite of the thousands of hunters who annually roam the wilderness of North America armed with powerful rifles, there has never been a single case where one of these anthropoidal creatures has ever ended up as a trophy, either accidentally or by design.

Yet there are numerous reports on record, demonstrating that these creatures have indeed been shot at, but somehow or other they have always managed to escape.

Sam Frew spotted a ten-foot (3 metre) big foot-type creature prowling around the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He fired at it with a rifle. “I know I hit it”, claimed Frew, “I even heard it whimper after the shots – like it was injured. But when I went over to look, nothing was there.”  7

In April, 1979, Tim Meisner saw a nine-foot tall (2.7 metre) creature near Barriere, British Columbia. On seeing the beast his first reaction was to shoot at it with his rifle. Although Tim was convinced that he had hit it, since it dropped down on one knee, the creature got to its feet again and ran off at high speed, leaving no trace of blood or spoor.

In October, 1973, a twenty-two year-old farmer’s son was approached by two tall ape-like creatures with green, glowing eyes in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The man fired three rounds straight into the largest creature. It merely turned and walked slowly into the nearby woods and disappeared.

In May, 1977, a hairy beast appeared at a farm at Wantage, New Jersey. The owner, a man named Sites, opened fire with his .410 shotgun, hitting it three or four times. The creature growled and walked away, again showing no apparent sign of injury or discomfort.

One woman who fired a 16 gauge shotgun at the midriff of a tall ape-like creature which appeared at the front door of her home in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, received a nasty shock. As she pulled the trigger, the creature disappeared in a flash of light!  8 

(Continued in Part Three)

References:

1  Janet and Colin Bord, “The Evidence for Bigfoot and Other Man-Beasts“, Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1984, p. 21.
2  Janet and Colin Boyd, “Mysterious Man-Beasts“, in “Creatures from Elsewhere“, op.cit., p. 15.
3  C. W. Gusewelle, “Sounds in the Night“, “Star“, Kansas City, Missouri, February 5, 1984.
4  Janet and Colin Bord, “The Evidence for Bigfoot and Other Man-Beasts”, op.cit., pp. 71-72.
5  Caroline Hurry, “The Beast of Broederstroom“, “Sunday Times Magazine“, Johannesburg, April 26, 1987.
6  Quoted from “The Evidence for Bigfoot and Other Man-Beasts“, op.cit., p. 75.
7  “Press”, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 11, 1983.
8  Janet and Colin Bord, “The Evidence for Bigfoot and Other Man-Beasts“, op.cit., p. 114.

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