YEAR: 1966

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

PROVINCE: British Columbia

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: Large campground on the main highway in Penticton.

NEAREST TOWN: Penticton

NEAREST ROAD: Main highway. I dont remember the number off hand.

OBSERVED: One morning the family awoke and my mother was extremely upset; "white as a ghost" as they say. I had only seen her like this on one other occasion; when a small child fell out of a car window while making a turn in front of her as she left a parking lot.
She told us that something had been outside the tent trailer in the night. A cheap styrofoam cooler that was underneath the trailer had been broken up but not strewn about; several food items where missing from it. My father passed it off saying that it probably had just been kids or a bear.

I was 14 at the time and the oldest. Later that morning while my mother and I where alone she said to me "What ever was out there last night wasn't a bear and it wasn't a man. I don't know what it was but I could see it's shadow on the tent wall". I didn't know what to think at the time. I remember feeling like she just wanted someone to believe her as I'm fairly sure my father probably would have told her she was just imagining things. She didn't start to calm down until late in the afternoon.

She gave me no details in regard to size, smell or noises.
It wasn't until years later after reading several of John Greene's books that I realized this may have been a Bigfoot encounter.

ALSO NOTICED: No one else in the campground mentioned anything unusual.
My mother passed away a year after the incident she never talked about it again to me.

OTHER WITNESSES: None. Parents and three children in trailer only my mother woke up.

OTHER STORIES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Sometime after midnight and before dawn. There was a street light in the campground about 50 or 100 feet from the trailer. It was about 20 off the ground..

ENVIRONMENT: Semi arid valley
Flat a few trees

Penticton is bordered by Okanagan Lake on the North side of town and Skaha Lake on the South side of town. There is a river than connects the two lakes the runs through the centre of town.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :

I have spoke with the report submitter, GH, now several times. I can add the following :

The location of the sighting is much more heavily populated now than it was in 1966.

GH's mother was extremely nervous and agitated at what had occurred, for the majority of the next day.

The styrofoam cooler had been tucked under the tent trailer for security. It appearred to be crushed after it was dragged out from under the trailer. There were no bite or claw marks on the cooler that would indicate an animal like a coyote, raccoon, dog or skunk. GH remembers that there were hot dogs and some fruit missing from the cooler.

About BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :

• Retired Canadian Military (Reg Force) Safety Systems / Aviation technician with experience fighters and various SAR platforms. Author of Wood Knocks and Tossed Rocks:Searching for Sasquatch with the BFRO


• Married with two young sons. An avid camper, hunter and fisherman.


• Holds a BA in Criminology from the University of Manitoba, courses in Alternate Dispute Resolution, Anthropology and Political Science


• Attended the BFRO BC Expeditions in August of 2005, 2006, 2012 as well as Vancouver Island 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.


• Organized the 2007, 2008 Vancouver Island as well as 2009 North Vancouver Island Expeditions.


• Author of "Woodknocks and Tossed Rocks: Searching for Sasquatch with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.