DATE:     June, 1978

TIME:     Dusk

LOCATION:    Jackson, Ohio   Jackson County
 

TERRAIN:  Terrain is both, wooded and rocky.  Closest neighbors were 1/4 mile each direction... heavily wooded area.  Behind the property was 50+ secluded acres.  Property situated approximately 100 ft from a country road.  Barely visible from the road.
 

OBSERVED:     I was an elementary student at this time.  I'd finished taking my bath and found my mother and brother in the front bedroom whispering out the window to my father.  I sensed the tension right away and was told to, "Shhhh!!!"  (So, naturally I paid close attention.)

I remember my dad (was outside) reaching inside a vehicle to plug in a light that he shined up behind our house into the woods.  I heard my mom say, "did you see that"  (it was a dark shadow in the woods) and my dad came straight inside, opened his gun cabinet, loaded the gun and immediately returned outside.  He shot the gun into the air.

I later learned that my parents thought 'new' neighbors might have been snooping around while we were gone - Our schedule would have been obvious to them and there's only one way onto our property - dead end.  Because there were no cars the noise was assumed to be a person on foot.  In addition, the noise that was heard sounded just like a person taking very slow steps through the woods.  Once the gun was shot, that gait never changed.  It was then my dad returned to the house and slept beside the gun all night.  I think this may have also been one of the only times our door was ever locked at night.  (We had a guard dog and back then you could get by with this.)

During this time (much like today) you couldn't just claim you'd spotted a bigfoot.   My parents asked us to not talk about this at school or to our friends because they feared it might spark alot of chaos.  It was a tightly kept secret and very few were told - mostly family.  One of my dads siblings happened to have some sort of contact with a gentleman who had been known to track these sitings.  Once, clear to California.  With permission, he met my dad less than a week after this took place.  He began at the spot we noticed shadows and heard the footsteps.  This was approx 15 feet behind our house.  They walked the immediate area and found footprints less than 4 ft behind our house.  (This is all wooded and rocky.  A progressive incline uphill towards caves and 50+ acres of nothing.)  They walked the hillside and by the time they were done he'd shown my father where moss had been scraped off of a rock at eye level.  He claimed they're known to thrive on moss/vitamin E.  There were both large and small footprints but quite puzzling that they would lead up to a 15 ft cliff and stop - nothing heading back the other direction.  He showed where branches had been snapped at different levels and questioned other things that we later learned were also related.  What he had to say was very impressive and convincing.  So, between our own experience and the things he brought to our attention, I believe in this thing.

About 1 month before this happened my brother had noticed noises coming from his end of the house (opposite the end we noticed the shadow).  His pride kept him from mentioning this (he was 16) but myself and mother noticed his behavior change..... he was retreating to the living room every night in the middle of the night.

Once this all came out he said it sounded like his shed doors were openning and closing a various times thru the night.  (Wooden swing doors - shed made by a 16 yr old with scrap lumber.)

Also for about 1 week we'd noticed our german shepard took a queer spell of not wanting to go outside at night.  The only other times she would act like this was if there was thunder OR stormy-like noise or winds. She was timid and not like her usual self.

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESSES:

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE:

OTHER NOTES:  Of course I told my 'best' friend and she claimed that her grandpa had spotted one in the past.  In his potato patch/garden.  I have no idea where he lived or how long ago this had happened but I remember her saying there was a large distance between where her grandpa was and where the ____ was standing.    (We were in 4th grade.)

Our electric had been out for sometime before this happened, we were cooking outside on a grill and heating water.  This meant there was always a fire outside and it was VERY quiet.  We were told fire is a fascination.  Our property was very secluded.  When the man mentioned vitamin E my dad took him inside and showed him where my mother had dedicated a whole cubbard to shaklees vitamins... numerous bottles of vitamin E.  A gun that sounded like a canon echoing in the hillside didn't phase the gait of this 'thing'.  Ha!  Alot of weird stuff.
 

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA: