Yeti, Sasquatch & Hairy Giants

by David Hatcher Childress

  The same white haired grassman (or could it have been a different one?) was seen the next month, November 5, 1980, also in Mason County, Kentucky. According to the BFRO report, which was taken from a police report and information given by a reporter named Doug McGill from the local radio station WFTM, an Alabama truck driver identified as “N.C.” said that he was hauling steel west on U.S. Route 68 when he saw a figure on the opposite side of the highway. He slowed his vehicle and turned on his high beams thinking that it was a hitchhiker.

  When he approached the figure, he was shocked to see a six-to- seven foot tall “ape-like” creature with white hair. After his encounter, he contacted some locals on C.B. channel 22 to see if there was a circus or zoo in the area. He thought that possibly an ape had escaped. When police were called to investigate, they took N.C.’s statement and filed a report. He stated to police that he had never been to this area before and knew nothing about alleged bigfoot reports in the area.

  The white haired bigfoot that was seen at this time seems quite kingly as he stands by the highway watching the cars and trucks go by. “What’s it all about?” he may wonder as he stares at the big rigs with their lights and honking horns. These are the real monsters that we have to worry about, I suppose.

  World Weekly News headline.

  Skunk Apes of the Southern Swamps

  Down south in “skunk ape territory,” the grassman is a lot smellier and nastier than the regal white-maned grassmen of the Ohio River Valley. The skunk apes and their kin live down south in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. You smell ‘em first, and, if yer lucky, you won’t see ‘em.

  One incident reported in the Sentinel Star of Orlando, Florida (October 5, 1977) pretty much spells it out. Entitled “Lurking Bigfoot Trick or Threat?,” the article said:

  Halloween is still three weeks away but strange creatures are already being seen around Central Florida this week.

  A 22-year-old hitchhiker reported sighting the legendary Bigfoot, saying the beast was tall, dark and stinky. It lurked in the darkness in a lightly forested area off U.S. 441 half a mile south of Belleview, he said.

  “I’ve got some information about Bigfoot,” the tremulous voice on the telephone said. “I think I just saw it.”

  Monday morning a security guard for an Apopka nursery told police a 10-foot-tall hairy animal with a chestfull of reddish-gray fur and small ears attacked him, ripping off the terrified guard’s shirt.

  Donnie Hall, 27, said he fired several gunshots at the creature in vain. The Bigfoot sighter—a Belleview welder who didn’t want his name known—said the beast was brown and black. “I’m six feet tall and it was bigger than me. It smelled horrible, like garbage.”

  Neither of the two creature sightings was substantiated.

  A Florida Game and Fresh Water Commission agent who examined tracks at John’s Nursery in Apopka said they all appeared to be man-made.

  Marion County Sheriff Don Moreland chuckled about the Bigfoot report. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 20 years here and I don’t remember any reports of monsters. Flying saucers, yes, but I don’t recall any monsters.”

  The year 1977 was a good year for skunk apes skulking about in the night in Florida. On November 15 of that year the Evening Telegram (Superior, Wisconsin) and other newspapers reported the United Press International (UPI) report from that day entitled “Creature Sighted.” The article said:

  A 67-year-old Baptist minister who says he hasn’t had a drink in 40 years tells how he stood eyeball-to-eyeball for 30 seconds with a great, hairy creature in the Ocala National Forest.

  The Rev. S. L. Whatley, pastor of the Fort McCoy Baptist Church, said he spotted the thing out of the corner of his eye while he was cutting wood with a chain saw three weeks ago.

  Whatley recalled Monday, “It was standing upright, in the middle of some palmetto bushes, and that sapsucker was at least 7½, maybe 8 feet tall.

  The minister said the creature “had dark, lighter-than-black hair on its head and chest, not much on its arms, and none on its face. It had kind of a flat face, a flat nose, its eyes were sunk in its sockets.”

  Whatley said he quickly went back to his truck to get an ax because “me and that creature was going to mix it up,” but by the time he returned from the truck the creature had disappeared.

  He hastened to add that he hasn’t had a drink in 40 years.

  Another skunk ape story from Altoona, Florida was sent out by UPI on July 2, 1980 and picked up by the Houston Chronicle and other newspapers. Said the Chronicle story headlined, “Police Think Mystery Footprints are Fakes”:

  Most investigators figure it’s a hoax, but there is enough doubt in their minds to order casts made of the size 18 foot-like prints found in a remote area of the Ocala National Forest.

  “I think it’s a hoax,” said Doug Sewell, chief investigator for the Lake County Sheriff’s department. “There was no indication that something big enough to make those prints went back through the woods.”

  Less sure, however, is Lake County Sgt. Dee Kirby, called out to make casts of the half dozen 17-inch-by-6 ½-inch footprints found near a bulldozer in the vicinity of Camp Ocala, a federal job training site.

  He said the prints showed a definite arching of the instep. | five distinct toes and even some wrinkling along the instep. “The prints had a full between each of one,” he said, speculating that if they were real the creature that made them must be 10-to-12 feet tall and weigh close to 1,000 pounds.

  A1997 photo of a Florida skunk ape.

  The prints were discovered by a private contractor doing roadwork for the U.S. Forestry Service. Forestry officials also made casts of the prints, but doubted if they would investigate further.

  Informal speculation centered on whether the creature was the infamous “skunk ape” — Florida’s own version of Bigfoot and the abominable snowman—reportedly last sighted in the Everglades.

  They are just as big, hairy and smelly in Alabama as they are in Florida. Chad Arment, in his book The Historical Bigfoot,44 reproduced the strange story from Anniston, Alabama that ran on April 15, 1938 about an apeman being sought in a swamp in the Choccolocco valley. Reported in the Oshkosh Northwestern and other newspapers (taken from the UPI press release) was entitled “Hairy Wild Man Sought in Swamp.” Said the newspaper story:

  A wild man who runs on all fours, chases dogs and frightens farmers is being sought in a dense swamp in the Choccolocco valley.

  Sheriff W. P. cotton led a posse in search of the strange beast which, farmers insisted, was accompanied by a woman and a child—both as savage in appearance and actions as the man.

  Rex Biddle, a farmer, told Sheriff Cotton that the man approached his home walking on all fours in the manner of an ape.

  “He was about five feet tall, and had hair all over his body,” Biddle said. “He was unclothed. Despite his beastlike appearance, his nose and other features indicated he was human.”

  Biddle said he reached for his gun but didn’t shoot because “I didn’t know whether that would be legal.”

  Roy Storey, another farmer, said the creature followed him for a time and then “dropped to all fours and chased my pet dog into the swamp.”

  Residents of the district petitioned the sheriff to “catch this thing or we are moving out.”44

  The Alabama skunk ape surfaced again in 2004 when a story cropped up out of the town of Clanton on July 8. The local television station NBC13 of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa ran a feature on the nightly news and then posted this story on its web site under the title “Bigfoot Legend Thrives in Chilton County: Man-Like Creature Lives in Peach Grove, According to Legend”:

  Whether you’re a believer or not, the legend of Bigfoot is alive and well in Chilton County.

  For decades people there have been talking about the strange creature that apparently has an affinity for the local peach crop.

  In the 1960s, some strange footprints were found in a Chilton County peach grove.
Now the original investigator reminisces about the time he spent tracking Bigfoot.

  “In our opinion it was definitely not a fake. It was a real track,” said James Earl Johnson, the former Chilton County investigator, whose case sparked a legend back in the 1960s.

  “We checked the peach orchard, and there was a trail leading out of the peach orchard, and it was tracks—strange looking tracks, similar to a human but bigger and wider,” said Johnson.

  With nothing but a print to go on, picking a name for the elusive creature wasn’t very hard. Since then, Bigfoot sightings have been reported across the country, and sketches of the creature vary depending on where the sighting occurred. The name varies as well. In Alabama, the creature is known as Bigfoot, while in northern areas, it’s known as a Sasquatch.

  “Supposedly, the legend is that a hairy man-like creature that walks on two legs at some point inhabited the bottomland swamp regions in Chilton County in Clanton, Alabama,” said Bryan Wyatt, a Bigfoot researcher.

  “I know one thing: [Bigfoot] likes Chilton County peaches,” said Johnson.

  Things are just as bad and swampy in Mississippi. Arment reproduces a fascinating story from 1868 about a giant wild apeman that made the news that year. Seen near Meadville, Franklin County, Alabama where men with hunting dogs:

  Skunk ape near Sarasota, FL.

  .. .discovered the tracks of the game in some miry places, which appeared similar to the track of a human foot; and they observed, also, that the toes of one foot turned backward. On coming up with the dogs, who were now baying, they beheld a frightful looking creature, of about the average height of man, but with far greater muscular development, standing menacingly a few yards in front of the dogs. It had long, coarse hair flowing from its head and reaching near its knees; its entire body, also, seemed to be covered with hair of two or three inches’ length, which was of a dark brown color. From its upper jaw projected two very large tusks, several inches long. ...it fled toward the Mississippi River, and was not overtaken again until within a few yards of the bank. When the party came up with the dogs the second time, the monster was standing erect before them, none of them having yet dared to clinch with it. But when the dogs were urged by their masters, they endeavored to seize it, when it reached forward and grabbed one them them, and taking it in its hands, pressed it against its trunk, which pierced it through and killed it instantly. Becoming alarmed at this display of strength, the hunters fired several shots at the creature, which caused it to leap into the river... after sinking and rising several times, it swam to the Louisiana shore and disappeared.44

  Arment says that this story came from the Daily Herald of Dubuque, Iowa for June 27, 1868, so we see that stories of skunk apes go back well over a hundred years. One thing we might conclude from this account of the grassman—he is a good swimmer! Indeed, the other common southern term for the grassman is swamp ape, and these semi-aquatic apemen basically live in swamps and remote river valleys that contain dense forests.

  The Mississippi swamp apes surfaced in 1977 after a hundred years of keeping out of the news when the Associated Press picked up on a story that occurred near Natchez on the Mississippi River on January 20. Said the Arkansas Gazette and other newspapers on that day under the headline, ‘"Hairy Creature’ is Being Sought”:

  Skunk ape photo from the Internet. Unknown date.

  The police are investigating reports of a “huge, hairy creature” that reportedly was sighted by several Natchez residents.

  Those who reported the sighting to police Monday night said the “almost human” creature growled at a dog and fled when a patrol car approached.

  The police said they found large footprints, broken tree limbs and other evidence that something was in the area.

  Three occupants of one house said they looked out and saw “a huge, hairy creature, well over six feet tall, and dark, barefoot and naked.” They said the creature walked with a limp.

  This grassman was seen in the area of the mighty Mississippi River. That these creatures could be able to swim even very wide rivers is not surprising. In the American Midwest, at least, it is easy to conclude that the grassman is equally at home in the water as he is on land.

  Boggy Creek and the Fouke Monster

  The most famous of all the skunk and swamp apes of southern lore is the Boggy Creek Monster. Made famous by the 1972 feature film The Legend of Boggy Creek, the Boggy Creek Monster, known originally as the Fouke Monster, is one of the skunk ape version of the Amityville Horror.

  The story of the Fouke Monster and Boggy Creek made local and international news in 1971 when in May of that year, the Ford family of the Jonesville area had a frightening experience with a large, hairy apeman critter. The Arkansas Democrat (May 3, 1971) reported that the creature pushed its “claw” through the family’s screen door while Mrs. Ford was sleeping on the couch. Mrs. Ford’s husband, Bobby, and his brother Douglas, pursued the creature into the woods. The local sheriff arrived and took casts of some unusual footprints. An hour later, the creature was back at the Ford’s residence. When it was shot at, the hairy apeman disappeared from view again. On May 2, Bobby was outside when he was grabbed and pulled to the ground. After a brief struggle, he escaped his assailant. He was treated at a Texarkana hospital for scratches and shock. Another search found more footprints around the Fords’ property.

  Later in the month, the Arkansas Democrat (May 25, 1971) reported that on the 23rd, several motorists reported seeing a six-to-seven foot creature running across Highway 71 near the town of Fouke. John Green, in his 1978 book Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, says that a 14–year-old named James Lynn Crabtree witnessed a seven-to-eight foot, reddish haired animal in 1965 near Fouke. Crabtree claims to have shot the creature three times in the face, but with no effect.

  Said the May 3, 1971 Arkansas Democrat news-paper article about the Ford family encounter (headlined “Hairy ‘monster’ hunted in Fouke sector”):

  Miller County Sheriff’s Department officers said early today a search of the area where a mysterious creature was spotted near Fouke early Sunday failed to reveal a clue.

  “Members of my department searched the area but didn’t find a thing. I don’t know what it could have been,” Sheriff Leslie Greer said. Bobby Ford, 25, of Rt. 1, Box 220, Texarkana, Ark, who lives approximately 10 miles south of Texarkana on U.S. Highway 71, said the unidentified creature attacked him at his home shortly before midnight Saturday.

  Ford was treated at St. Michael Hospital for minor scratches and mild shock and released.

  “After the thing grabbed me and I broke free, I was moving so fast I didn’t stop to open the door. I just ran through it,” Ford said.

  The “creature” was described by Ford as being about seven feet tall and about three feet wide across the chest. “At first I thought it was a bear but it runs upright and moves real fast,” he said.

  Ford, his brother Don, and Charles Taylor saw the creature several times shortly after midnight and shot at it seven times with a shotgun.

  “It first started Wednesday when our wives heard something walking around on the porch. Then Friday night about midnight the thing tried to break into the house again.

  “Last night it tried to get in again,” Don Ford said.

  Elizabeth Ford said she was sleeping in the front room of the frame house when, “I saw the curtain moving on the front window and a hand sticking through the window. At first I thought it was a bear’s paw but it didn’t look like that. It had heavy hair all over it and it had claws. I could see its eyes. They looked like coals of fire ...real red,” she said. “It didn’t make any noise. Except you could hear it breathing.”

  Ford said they spotted the creature in back of the house with the aid of a flashlight. “We shot several times at it then and then called Ernest Walraven, constable of Fouke. He brought us another shotgun and a stronger light. We waited on the porch and then saw the thing closer to the house. We shot again and thought we saw it fall. Bobby, Charles an
d myself started walking to where we saw it fall,” he said.

  About that time, according to Don Ford, they heard the women in the house screaming and Bobby went back.

  “I was walking the rungs of a ladder to get up on the porch when the thing grabbed me. I felt a hairy arm come over my shoulder and the next thing I knew we were on the ground. The only thing I could think about was to get out of there. The thing was breathing real hard and his eyes were about the size of a half dollar and real red.

  “I finally broke away and ran around the house and through the front door. I don’t know where he went,” Bobby Ford said.

  “We heard Bobby shouting and by the time we got there everything was over. We didn’t see a thing,” Don Ford said.

  Everyone at the house said they saw the creature moving in the fields close to the house. All said it cold move fast.

  Walraven said he was called to the scene about 12:35 a.m. (Sunday, May 2) and searched the area without finding anything. “I looked through the surrounding fields and woods for about an hour. Then, I gave them my shotgun and light. A short time later they called back and told me they had shot at it again. I went back and stayed until 5 a.m.”

  “Walraven said several years ago resident of the Jonesville Community near Fouke reported seeing a “hairy monster” in the area.

  “Several persons saw the thing and shot at it, some from close range. They said nothing seemed to stop it. They described it as being about seven feet tall and looking just like a naked man covered with brown hair,” Walraven said.