YEAR: 1960

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: mid-month

STATE: New York

COUNTY: Onondaga County

LOCATION DETAILS: On the border of a Country Club and General Crushed Stone behind hole 13 of the gold course.

NEAREST TOWN: Syracuse

NEAREST ROAD: Rock Cut Road

OBSERVED: This is a follow up to my original message as I wanted to add some significant insight to an incident that occurred to me in 1960 at age 14. As I stated previously stated I was a caddy at the time and the foursome I was with was just walking off the green of hole 13 on the private course Club in Syracuse, New York. As I was walking across the green to replace the pin I heard something falling through a tree directly across from me. You could hear it pass through the tree as the boulder made its descent to the ground. The large rock almost hitting one of the golfers. There was much consternation over this and it was automatically assumed that it came as a result of blasting at General Crushed Stone located behind the golf course on Rock Cut Road. I never heard a blast but there could be no other explanation as large rocks don't just fall out of the sky. However, the rock being hurled into the air by a dynamite blast at the quarry just doesn't hold up in many ways. First off my friend's father worked at the quarry at the time and he said blasting was not large enough to propel a single rock that far as the charges used to quarry the limestone were not that great. Plus this was a single large boulder if it was a blast there would be a shotgun type of pattern of smaller rocks with it, not just one rock sailing into the air. Secondly, the rock that I saw was not a freshly quarried rock which would be gray in color this rock was a surficial rock that was stained from the soil it did not come from a blast site. The boulder was at least 20 pounds in weight and 4" by 8" and 3" thick. It was flat on the top and bottom and stained a yellow brown color as is common of rocks on the surface in that area. However, this rock came down out of the sky vertically as you could tell by the sound of it falling through the entire tree, cutting branches and leaves as it fell it had to have been lifted quite high into the air to come down vertically like it did. It did not smash into the tree on a horizontal trajectory and bounce off the tree. As I stated previously at the end of the game I met up with my friend who lived on Rock Cut Road at the time as we were going swimming in the spring fed wash ponds at the quarry. The way to get there was to go back to hole 13 and cross the fence into General Crushed Stone property. We were trespassing which at the time we didn't acknowledge. We stopped and I showed my friend the rock that came out of the sky and both of us believed that it had to have been a blast at the quarry. We walked on down a grade on a path and that is when we heard a guttural growl off to our left. It was a fearsome growl and I for one shot off down the hill as fast as I could go. We assumed it was an animal. However, what animal growls at a human when the human is not confronting it or even knows it is there? I don't know of any and I certainly don't know what type of animal living in Central New York would or could make itself know in a threatening manner. Normally animals of all type will shun and form of human contact or confrontation. This occurred no more than 100 feet from where the rock had landed under the tree. Plus if you were to place a clock face over the tree that the rock fell through and draw a line out from where the rock had landed which was between the 3 and the 5 those two lines would encompass the vicinity of where the growl came from. As I have stated I never saw anything out of the ordinary and was certainly not aware of "Bigfoot" or anything like it being seen in New York State. I had heard of the "Abominable Snowman" but that was worlds away. I can't say this is a "Bigfoot" encounter, however, two events occurred that is very similar to what others have experienced in Bigfoot sightings. The large rock being hurled at individuals and done so to scare more than injury plus the deep growl the likes of which I had never heard before or since and couldn't to this day equate it to one particular animal. The only thing I am sure of is two events separated in time by only a couple of hours still stand out in my mind these many years later as if they occurred today.

ALSO NOTICED: No.

OTHER WITNESSES: R.M. was with me at the time we were both caddies and were on our way to go swimming.

OTHER STORIES: No.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Late afternoon

ENVIRONMENT: Scrub.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Tim Vogel:

I talked with the witness at length about his encounter in 1960 working as a caddy on a golf course at 14 years old. The area has been developed over the years and still has areas that are connected through green corridors for travel, water, food, and concealment.

About BFRO Investigator Tim Vogel:

Tim Vogel is the owner of Tekoa Mountain Outdoors, an outdoor, adventure education business. Located in Western Massachusetts.


I am a BFRO Northeast Investigator, has attended and taught tracking, casting, have provided demos on FLIRs for the following:
Co-Leading the BFRO Western MA 2018 and Connecticut 2018 Expeditions.
BFRO Western MA and Bridgewater Triangle area 2017 Expeditions.
Pennsylvania BFRO 2017, Vermont BFRO 2016, Western MA BFRO 2015, 2016.

A member of Team Squatchachusetts, and interested in Bigfoot since 1976 when something with big feet went through my family’s back yard one winter's day.