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YEAR: 1979
SEASON: Fall
MONTH: November
STATE: Indiana
COUNTY: Monroe County
NEAREST TOWN: Harrodsburg
NEAREST ROAD: Popcorn Road
OBSERVED: After caving in a local pit off of Popcorn Road in Monroe County I decided to wait on the surface while my two fellow cavers did the next pit.
I was sitting in the back of my jeep reading. I saw a silhouette moving south just within the tree line. Thinking this was the land owner I got of my jeep and walked up to the tree line.
The jeep was parked in a small grassy clearing used for camping and the two pits were appox 50 feet east of the jeep with the fence and tree line 10 to 20 feet beyond the pits. The trees were bare of cover and it was a bit overcast.
I waited at the fence line and I kept an eye on the silhouette moving towards me. I called out once, twice with no reply. The thickness and number of trees and the overcast made it hard to see details of the silhouette.
The silhouette moved past me and the only noise I heard was the slight crunching of leaves on the ground. Still not able to make out more then a silhouette and thinking this was the land owner or local, I called out again and waved at the silhouette. It was now approx 50 to 60 from me. A bit confused and thinking that the silhouette did not hear me nor saw me, I moved down the fence line to a small opening cut in the tress for a power line. I stood at the fence waiting, and the silhouette moved into the opening. I called out again and froze. The silhouette also froze and turned its head towards me. We stared at each other for 10 seconds or so. No other interaction took place. I then was able to view the silhouette and make out some detail.
The silhouette stood appox 6-7 foot tall, was covered in long dark brown fur/hair, and stood on two legs with a bit of a bend forward. After the brief stare the witness turned its head back and continued to walk back into the trees and I returned to my jeep.
Officially I can not say for sure it was a ‘Bigfoot’, only that it was walking up right on two legs, had two arms, a chest, and torso and was covered in long dark brown fur/hair.
ALSO NOTICED: Birds calling out, no other sounds or smells
OTHER WITNESSES: none
OTHER STORIES: Later years southeast of lake Monroe. South of my sighting.
TIME AND CONDITIONS: Mid morning, early afternoon
ENVIRONMENT: Wooden area with small clearing. Hilly. Farm land.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:
The witness and I have discussed this incident on the phone a few times and I found him to be very credible.
Thinking he was seeing the property owner or a person that didn't see or hear him, he moved to a position where he would see the person eventually come out of the woods. When it came out of the trees into the clearing he was able to see that it was not a person. He was close enough to know they were making eye contact but because of the overcast day and shadows, he was not able to see additional detail of the face. He did not feel threatened and he did not get the sense that the creature was too concerned about him.
His friends were still in the pit. Still working for an organization that maps caves and their entrances, they have documented a total of 3,434 caves in the state of Indiana. The difference between a pit and a cave is a pit is vertical and a cave is horizontal.
The location was next to Clear Creek and only about five miles from Lake Monroe (actually an artificial reservoir). The lake is the largest in Indiana with 10,750 acres, including three recreational areas - Fairfax, Hardin Ridge and Paynetown. Indiana's only federally protected U.S. Wilderness Area, the 13,000 acre Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area, is located on the south shore.
About BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:
- Worked as an Assistant to a Circuit Court Judge in Florida for thirteen years
- An avid outdoorswoman, growing up in the UP of Michigan on a family-owned fishing and hunting resort
- Certified Visual Tracker, Level 1
- Attended and assisted with numerous public and private BFRO expeditions
- She and the Florida BFRO organized South Florida Expedition 2008, North Florida Expedition 2008 and Central Florida Expedition in 2009.
- She and the Michigan BFRO organized the Lower-Michigan Expedition in 2011, Michigan UP Expeditions in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and Wisconsin 2018
- BFRO Secretary for almost 20 years