YEAR: 1979-1980

SEASON: Summer

STATE: Georgia

COUNTY: White County

LOCATION DETAILS: It was off of a Forest service road near Alt. 75

NEAREST TOWN: Cleveland

NEAREST ROAD: alt. 75

OBSERVED: I will try to explain what I saw
while returning home from a day of walking in a clear cut looking for Indian artifacts. The clear cut was located at the foot of the southeast end of the Horse range mountain near Loudesville campground In White county Georgia. I was driving on a forestry service road when I saw what at first I thought that was a Bear, about 200 yards away. But when I stopped and watched it. I saw that it was not. It walked upright with a slight stoop for about 75 yards down a hill toward a small creek that was bordered by trees and brush . The road crossed the creek so I thought if I went on down the road I could see it as it came out the other side, but it did not come out and I did not get of out of the Bronco to go looking for it.
I did not hear any sound,and to be honest I did not tell any body about it for years until I told my Son Eric. Who contacted you.

OTHER WITNESSES: no

TIME AND CONDITIONS: after noon

ENVIRONMENT: It was in a clear cut where they had cut all the trees and pushed the tree tops and stumps in to windrows to burn.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matt Pruitt:

I interviewed this witness about his sighting on two separate occasions following his son's initial report submission.

He had driven into an area northwest of Cleveland to search for Native American artifacts in an area that had been recently clear-cut, and had spent some time there. It had rained very recently in the area, and oftentimes artifacts like pottery or arrowheads will be much easier to find as they are more exposed in freshly dug dirt that has endured heavy rainfall.

As he was driving out of the area along what was (at the time) a Forest Service road, he noticed a large, dark animal moving downhill towards a creek that ran through the area. He was immediately struck by its size, and moreover by its gait. The animal moved very quickly, and remained upright for the duration of the sighting.

He described the creature as "well over six feet tall", and darkly colored; almost black. As it walked, it bent its torso forward, as if trying to reduce its profile slightly. It swung its arms considerably as it moved.

The witness watched it cross a distance of about seventy-five yards before it slipped into a tree line bordering the creek. He drove across the creek to watch the opposite side of the tree line, but the creature never emerged from the trees.

The witness was startled by what he saw, and decided not to exit his vehicle to look for the creature.

The areas immediately surrounding the location of the sighting are National Forest areas with rich landscape and several documented sightings. The exact location of this sighting has since been developed, and a small lake sits in the area that was clear-cut at the time.

About BFRO Investigator Matt Pruitt:

Matt Pruitt grew up in the mountains of Northeast Georgia, and has been conducting active sasquatch research for several years in various parts of the country.

Matt has attended/organized the following expeditions:

North Carolina - 2007
South Carolina - 2007
North Carolina - 2008
Georgia - 2008 (Expedition Organizer)
Washington (Cascades) - 2008
Washington (Olympic Peninsula) - 2008
Georgia - 2009 (Expedition Organizer)
Washington (Cascades) - 2009
Washington (Olympic Peninsula) - 2009
Oregon - 2010 (Expedition Organizer)
Washington (Olympic Peninsula) - 2010
Georgia - 2010 (Expedition Organizer)
Oklahoma - 2011 (Expedition Organizer)
North Georgia (1) - 2011 (Expedition Organizer)
North Georgia (2) - 2011 (Expedition Organizer)
Arkansas - 2012 (Expedition Organizer)
North Georgia - 2013 (Expedition Organizer)
North Carolina - 2013 (Expedition Organizer)

Matt is a trained visual tracker. During the summer of 2007, Matt co-instructed a tracking course for BFRO members in the Southeast. In 2009, he co-instructed an updated version of the same course for BFRO members in Utah. He currently lives in Northeast Georgia.

He can be contacted at Georgia@BFRO.net