YEAR: 1971

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: July

STATE: Michigan

COUNTY: Baraga County

LOCATION DETAILS: Take ptticoat lake rd.from imperial heights rd. to a drive on the right with two entrances like an inverted Y.

NEAREST TOWN: Michigamme

NEAREST ROAD: Petticoat Lake Rd.

OBSERVED: I was about 14 years old,riding a honda 100 on Petticat Lake Rd. between Fence Lake Rd. and Imperial Heights. I was exploring back roads and found an old grown over drive and followed it.(I later discovered it led to a clearing where there was an abandoned cabin back then. Today there is a camp on that road.)The road was so overgrown I had to putt in so slow I could barely keep the bike up. After clearing the thick brush the road opened up and I could see quite far under the canopy of trees. About thirty yards in front of me a bigfoot ran from left to right. He ran like a man at full speed. My first thought was that a man in a gorilla costume was running through the woods,my next thought was that no man would be running through the woods in a gorilla costume. Especially way back in the woods where I was. I immediately spun the bike around a took off at full throttle, bending foot pegs and mirrors. I can still see him clear as a bell running through the forrest at full stride. Possibly this was a young bigfoot because it was not lumbering but cruising through the woods at full stride like a bigfoot track star.It was alot of years before I went back in the woods much.

ALSO NOTICED: Just the speed at which he was moving.

OTHER WITNESSES: No other witnesses.

OTHER STORIES: My father has heard very strange wailing while back in the area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Beautiful sunny day deep in woods.

ENVIRONMENT: Hardwood forest not much under growth at that point.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator B.G. Martin:

I spoke to the witness several times on the phone. His tone was matter of fact about his experience. He was clear and credible about what happened to him on a sunny mid-day 36 years ago.

The witness moved into a clearing after traveling down an overgrown dirt road. He was in a clearing that had light undergrowth and a light canopy that created a dapple effect on the ground and undergrowth. He observed what he first thought was a person in a costume running, but upon reflection there would be no reason for a person to be running in the woods with a gorilla costume on in a remote and secluded area.

He observed it running through the undergrowth with the speed of a human track sprinter but its strides (10 feet) were longer and its leg movements weren’t as rapid. It was also pumping its arms as it ran. He feels it was already running when he made it into the clearing. It moved from west to east. “It was like it was out for a run.”

It was dark brown in color and very tall. He wasn’t sure of the weight but if it was a person it would have been 300 lbs. He felt what he was watching was a juvenile because it wasn’t bulky. “It was like a well-fit conditioned athlete.”

The runner didn’t look at the witness at any point while it was running. The witness didn’t notice any features of the runner or any odors. He watched it for five seconds and in that time it covered 100 to 150 feet. The witness didn’t bother to see it run out of view before he took off and rode the five miles back to his family’s cabin.

When he got to the cabin he told his father about what happened. He said his father could tell, because of his frantic state, that he had seen something out of the ordinary. The witness disclosed that his father had heard something screaming out in the woods but he didn’t know what it was. I was able to talk to his father on the phone about his recollection of his son coming home and what he heard out in the woods.

His father is a retired 76 year-old court reporter who remembers when his son came rushing into the cabin one summer day back in 1971. He said he remembered his son dropping the motorcycle as he came up to the cabin, running into the cabin white-faced and shaking and insisting he come with him and to bring a gun. He believed his son saw something by his son’s reaction. He didn’t feel it was a good idea to go back out there to the area his son just came from.

Later that summer in July or August around in the early afternoon, the father was out rock collecting in an area near to where his son had seen the runner, when he heard something screaming like “someone in pain”. The sound was continuous ("it went on and on, not that it never had time to breathe") for 20 – 25 minutes. It sounded like it was half a mile away. He decided to go back to the cabin and get a tape recorder, but by the time he got back the sound had ended. He had to go a mile to get to the cabin. He said he’s been hunting in the woods his whole life; he said he’s “never heard anything like it since”. He thought what he heard must have been what his son saw earlier in the summer.

I e-mailed him and asked which of the sound files on the BFRO website sounded like what he heard. His response was, "It's been a long time ago, but what sounded most familiar to me was the "1978 Whoop-Howl from Snohomish County, Washington".

He said his family is a hunting family with four sons, and said this about the son that witnessed the runner crossing his path. “He doesn’t hunt at all. He doesn’t care to go into the woods. He’ll fish or maybe go down a trail on an ATV but he has no desire to go into the woods". He speculated his son is that way because of what he saw in the woods that summer day.

About BFRO Investigator B.G. Martin:

Investigator Since 2006