YEAR: 1967

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: 15

STATE: Wisconsin

COUNTY: Menominee County

LOCATION DETAILS: The Northeast area of Menominee County.

NEAREST TOWN: Bonita

NEAREST ROAD: 55

OBSERVED: In late August of 1967, C.H. and I, E. M. a Chicago Police Officer were walking on a trail on the NE part of the Menominee Wisconsin Indian Reservation. It was late afternoon as we walked south on the trail, in front of us about 50 feet away in the woods, we heard screaming so loud we did not think ten men altogether could have duplicated the sound which did not stop for at least three minutes with no break for breathing. The scream was very high pitched unlike any noise we had ever heard. Whatever it was, it then started shaking and breaking tall birch trees. These trees were far larger than any human or group of humans would have ever been capable of breaking. We were astounded and started to run north on the trail out of the area. This thing followed us running paralel to us along a ridge. It was still screaming and shaking the trees for about 200 feet. For many years we never told anyone about this incident but with numerous reports similar to ours about bigfoot in the Wisconsin area we have started to tell people about this strange espisode. We were on the trail going South from St. Joseph and Marsh Lake Menominee Reservation. The Reservation is about 65 miles NW of our house in Door County. At the time the Indians on the reservation said they would not going into the area by the lake because they said something large and strange lived in the area.

OTHER WITNESSES: One other witness. We were looking for a small lake that we intended to fish the next morning.

OTHER STORIES: Nothing aside from the fact that the local Indians said it was an area they wouldn't go into. I never went back to that area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 6:30pm Beautiful summer day.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine and Hardwood Forest close to a cedar swamp.

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

I spoke to the witness E.M. (69 yrs old) over the phone for an hour and C.H. for 20 minutes. Both of them were clear and consistent with the facts surrounding the incident they both experienced. Both of them have 85 years combined experience in the woods. E.M. is retired and was a police officer for the Chicago Police Department for 27 years, and after that he was with the Illinois State Police for 14 years. When this incident happened, E.M. had been a police officer for over a year, he was 28 years old.

It was 6 - 7 pm and they had just driven 7 - 8 miles on a logging road and had been hiking half a mile on a barely discernable trail. They were scouting a route to a small pond in the area for the next day’s fishing outing. Something started howling that could only be described as being louder than “10 guys yelling”, they were amazed and astonished. It began its tirade in a spot that intersected their path 100ft away. At first they weren’t frightened by it, just curious. As it went along paralleling them 75 yards away, it was “snapping trees”. At least a dozen poplar trees, 20’ - 30’ tall and 4” - 6” in diameter were seen falling along a ridge slightly above them for 100 yards, and the entire time they could hear the howling. They never saw what was causing the commotion. The vocalizing and the snapping of the trees finally stopped when they turned and ran. They did not return because they were so unnerved by the experience.

E.M. remarked that the trees weren’t bent over and broken by putting them in a stressing arch; they were all broken while they were in their vertical position. He added that the trees were all green and it must have taken an amazing amount of strength to break green trees. E.M. had a snubnose .38 in his pocket and he didn’t even bother taking it out because he knew it wouldn’t do any good.

He tried to reason, what could possibly cause that much commotion? He was thinking that it was maybe 6 sumo wrestlers simultaneously shaking the same tree while someone was playing a record player louder then he’s ever heard. Even then, he said you couldn’t get that many people around a tree to “snap it”.

C.H. said he was watching the local newspaper for several days after the incident, thinking that he would see a news article about an escaped elephant from the circus that was on the run, he never saw that story.

They didn’t say anything about their experience when they met up with their friends back at the cabin that night, not knowing how to explain it. What they experienced defied all logical reasoning.

The reason both of them believe what they experienced was a Bigfoot, was what they heard on a tv program they both happened to be watching in 1990. In the television program (Ancient Mysteries) there was a re-creation of a Bigfoot howling. Both of them recognized the sound as what they had heard back in 1968. They were both on the phone to each other talking about what they had just heard on the TV program, discussing that Bigfoot could be an explanation for their experience.

This is a copy of the sound re-creation that was on the TV program. I played various sound files of Bigfoot vocalizations over the phone to them at their respective homes. They immediately identified the same sound file as the one they heard in the woods.

E.M told me the Indians used to let people go on their lands, but the indians have had a change of heart since the 60’s, and they don’t want people on their reservation lands. His point was, the area was remote back then, now its even more remote and secluded.

The original report submitted by the witness (E.M.) was written by his daughter and that’s why there are some slight inconsistencies between the original report and the investigator's report.

About BFRO Investigator B.G. Martin:

Investigator Since 2006