YEAR: 1969

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: March

DATE: 9

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Skamania County

LOCATION DETAILS: Bear Creek, about 6 miles Northwest of Carson

NEAREST TOWN: Carson

NEAREST ROAD: Bear Creek Rd

OBSERVED: On Sunday, March 9, 1969 my husband John and I had nothingto do and thought it might be interesting to drive up to our vacation property on Bear Creek, about 6 miles Northwest of Carson, WA. We called another couple who had camped there with us and asked if they and their children wanted to go along. We were primarily interested in seeing how much water was going through the creek.

We arrived at Bear Creek about noon. It was an overcast day, with a drop or two of rain. There was still snow on the road to our property, but it was slushy, and we didn't have any problems getting to the cable that was across the entrance to our camping sight. I was the first one to climb over the cable and start down the road. I had walked down to the bend in the road (snow was still deep in this road since it was well shaded). After I got around the "corner" I saw these "huge" depressions in the snow, and upon further examination decided they were footprints.

The footprints came from the direction of our camping sight, and then at the bend in the road, angled off toward the creek and just kept going into the trees lining the bank of the creek.

About that time, the rest of the party had caught up with me. I told them to "stop!" and look at what I had found. We all stood around trying to figure out how and why anybody would have been walking up the road and then over to the bank of the creek. It then dawned on all of us how big these footprints were....and the stride was enormous. My husband (6'1" tall) tried to match the stride, and was short of making it by nearly 2 feet. We stood there for quite a while discussing this strange find, and came to no conclusion until the other fellow with us said "May be Bigfoot did it".

I had heard something about Bigfoot, but never really paid any attention to what I had heard. He continued to tell us what he had heard about Bigfoot and succeeded in getting us so nervous that we got in the car and left. We talked about this all the way home. There was absolutely no reason for anyone to be in that area at that time of year, and how would they have gotten down to our camping sight without using the same route we had used? The other fellow with us said we should tell somebody about what we had found. I said I wasn't so sure, that we would probably all be locked up in the nut house. So we said nothing, at least for 10 days. I just drove me crazy. It was all I could think of, and finally I decided to write a letter to the Sheriff of Skamania County. Two or three days later, the front page of The Columbian newspaper was covered with a large picture of the "cast" the Sheriff had made and a story relating the letter I had sent the Sheriff. The prints measured 22 inches long, 7 1/2" wide, and 4 1/2" at the heel. By the time the Sheriff investigated my report, the footprints that I had found were pretty well "washed" out from melting and rain....but, the Sheriff and his boys found MORE prints beyond our campsite...2 different sets (the second set was smaller).

The Sheriff used sulfur to make the casts because he said plaster tended to melt the snow. As far as I know, these casts are still in the Skamania County Sheriff's safe. After finding the footprints, and learning all we could about Bigfoot, we were a little apprehensive about going camping at Bear Creek. We finally decided we had never seen anything or been bothered before, so we continued to camp there the following Spring and Summer. We were all much more aware of our surroundings, and kept our eyes and ears open. We did see and hear things that made the hair on the backs of our neck stand up, and never stayed up alone at the campfire.

ALSO NOTICED: One very strange thing we noted when we first started camping that Spring, was the absence of all of the small animals that used to "skitter"around. They were gone....no rabbits, no squirrels, no frogs or toads and very few birds. Where did they go....and WHY? We found strange looking droppings with animal hair, but never had the presence of mind to bring any of it home to have it analyzed. We also found strands and gobs of hairin tree branches. My husband caught a large steelhead, and we left the carcass on a stump to see if Bigfoot would take it. It was gone the next weekend, but who's to say a bear or cougar didn't take it?

OTHER STORIES: Due to the huge uproar in Skamania County regarding Bigfoot, an Ordinance was passed on April 4, 1969 prohibiting the "wanton slaying" of Bigfoot. I think it was passed to protect the humans, since there were so many of them out looking for Bigfoot they were afraid they would shoot each other!

A & G References: Pg. 24, B2