YEAR: 1975

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: unknown

STATE: Wisconsin

COUNTY: Barron County

LOCATION DETAILS: Location is near Shady Elms Resort.

NEAREST TOWN: Mikana

NEAREST ROAD: Don't remember.

OBSERVED: I had spent the summer with my sister and her family. Prior to starting the new school year my family came from Oak Park IL. to get me and spend a few day with my sister. Myself 12 brother 10 and my 2 nieces 5 & 7 were at a swing set at the edge of the woods swinging and talking and cutting up. I don't know why but for some reason we all just stopped and turned around at the same time. Standing about 10 feet from us was a large ape like animal. In plain view nothing was near him at all. It was about 8 ft. tall covered head to toe with a medium brown hair except the face area which looked similar to a chimp face. It had a widows peak at the hairline and black eyes. Very muscular about 2 ft. thick from back to chest and long arms. At this age I had never heard of bigfoot. It was looking over its left shoulder and looking me directly in the eyes. All of us just froze and looked at it for a few seconds then at the same time we all took off in one direction as it took off in another. We ran to the house and told everyone we just saw a monster, but they just laugh at us. It was a year later that my brother found a book on bigfoot that's when we knew what we had encountered that day. Many days I have wondered how something that big could of got that close to us and what was it intending to do. Although it was not aggressive and it's reaction was the same as ours to run. We didn't go outside much after that.

OTHER WITNESSES: 3 others - my brother and 2 nieces. We were just relaxing swinging on a swing set and talking.

OTHER STORIES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early afternoon. Good weather, bright sunlight.

ENVIRONMENT: The resort sits at the edge of Red Ceder Lake, and the incident took place at the edge of the woods.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Robert Barhite:

I interviewed the witness who was 12 at the time, who decided to come forward after discussing the incident with the other witnesses.

The group was was hanging out on the swing set and with their backs towards the nearby woods. They were talking when they all stopped, turned around to face the woods, and standing in apparent mid-stride pose was a brown, muscular hairy creature with a face like a monkey with big, black eyes, like Snowflake the albino gorilla. It was looking down over its left shoulder at them and close enough that it could have taken one stride and be standing with them. He described the arms as very long; it's left arm hanging down at its side and its right arm near it's midsection. He described it as being substantially taller than his dad; maybe two feet taller. He said the hair on its head had a widow's peak, and the face was wrinkled, "Imagine a 150 year old human." Everyone was frozen. The creature was staring at him directly in the eyes. He didn't feel threatened, rather he felt that it was curious. And he knew it wasn't a bear. The day before there was was a bear on the property, and the creature he was staring at could, "... easily pick up that bear and snap its back."

Everyone was frozen in place. "Maybe it was curious hearing kids making noises." After a few seconds it turned and quickly headed back into the woods, and the kids ran back to the house.

A year later his brother, one of the witnesses, checked out a book about myths and monsters which featured stills from the Patterson/Gimlin film from Bluff Creek, California and instantly knew that the creature in the film was identical to the same one they had seen, and half a continent away.

Throughout the interview, I could hear the stress and excitement in his voice, even after all these years.

About BFRO Investigator Robert Barhite:

A native of far northeast Iowa, Robert has always had an intense interest in Bigfoot and exploring the great outdoors.

His first expedition was the 2012 BFRO Iowa Hill Country Expedition He the 2013 Iowa Big River Expedition, 2013 Oregon Cascades Expedition, 2013 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition, 2014 and 2015 Wisconsin Expeditions, 2014 Iowa Expedition, and the 2015 Iowa Spring Expedition. Since 2012 Robert has participated in several private expeditions in Iowa and in Wisconsin. In addition to expeditions, he has conducted numerous solo research trips in Iowa and Wisconsin throughout 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. And for the last two years has been a guest lecturer at the request of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Robert led the 2016 Iowa Spring Expedition and is assisting with the 2016 Iowa Fall Expedition and is scouting locations across North America for 2017 expeditions, and continues to monitor activity in a long-term study location in the Midwest.