YEAR: 2007

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

DATE: 29

STATE: Virginia

COUNTY: Carroll County

LOCATION DETAILS: Virginia highway 94 north of Fries about 5 miles heading towards Fort Chiswell, VA

NEAREST TOWN: Fries

NEAREST ROAD: State highway 94

OBSERVED: I had the most incredible thing happen to me on the morning of September 29 2007 in Carroll County, VA. I was driving on highway 94 heading from Fries, VA to interstate 81 in fort Chiswell, VA.

I was coming down what is known as Youngblood Mountain, just above the entrance to a fishing hole called the "Cathole." it was a very warm and foggy morning. What I saw next completely caught me off guard.

As I exited the last curve, I could not believe what I was seeing. Standing on the side of the road was a thing that I had only seen in the movies or heard of through folklore. I was in awe of the thing I was seeing. It was 20 feet from what I know was bigfoot.

It, he, was crossing a three strand barbed wired fence in one stride. This thing had to be 7 and a half to 8 feet tall. It walked with kind of a lumber. It never once looked at me, as I had stopped in the middle of the road to watch it walk away.

The hair was a reddish brown and about 4 inches long. It had no neck and the smell was that of a wet dog. The arms were very long, about three inches below its knees, but in proportion with its body. I have hunted these mountains for years and had only heard of legends of a hairy beast man and I had never seen anything like I was seeing on this morning.

ALSO NOTICED: none.

OTHER WITNESSES: none

OTHER STORIES: I heard that in the early 90's, a friend of mine saw what he described as a bigfoot about 5 miles north on the same highway. My grandfather, who was a very well known outdoorsman and honest man, told me that back in the late 80s he was feeding the animals one summer evening around 7:30 pm. He watched what he said was 2 hairy beast in the open field adjacent to his property for 10 minutes. His property is only a few miles as the crow flies, from where my and my buddies sighting.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 6:30 am, daybreak but still dark in places. patchy fog and rain.

ENVIRONMENT: mountain, open field, and pine tree patches. new river just about a mile down the hill with lots of exclusive mountains and caves

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stephen Willis:

Sighting occurred near Fries, VA (pronounced "Freeze").

Witness is a 40 year-old man. The animal crossed a fence approximately 4-ft tall. The animal was around 8-ft tall. When it stepped over the fence, it put one hand on top of a fence post to steady itself and stepped over. The distance to the animal upon first sight was around 75 yards. At the closest point, the witness and animal were within 20 yards.

Our witness has hunted the very woods where the animal came from. He remembered seeing tee-pee like structures in the area. On his next trip to Carroll County, we will inspect the sighting location and surrounding woods. It appears to be within the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area boundary.

I asked the witness:

• Could you see the bottom of the feet while it walked away?
He stated the feet had no hair covering and lighter than the rest of the body.

• Can you describe it in relation to a human athlete?
The best comparison would be a tall pro football player, not stocky like a weightlifter.

He stated at no time did the animal seem worried or rushed to get away from him. It walked smoothly away, into the morning fog. The total time of visibility was a bit less than two minutes. He considered using his cell phone camera to photograph it, however by the time it was ready the creature looked like a stump in the distance, with nothing to provide a size scale around it.

About BFRO Investigator Stephen Willis:

Grew up in central West Virginia. Retired from the US Army in 2003. Small manufacturing business owner. Lived for almost 7 years in Germany and 1.5 years in the Mideast.