YEAR: 1978

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 1/18/2004

STATE: Montana

COUNTY: Lewis And Clark County

NEAREST TOWN: Helena

NEAREST ROAD: I-15

OBSERVED: I was 11 or 12 at the time. I was at a boyscout Jamboree. My friend came to me and asked if I beleived in bigfoot. He then told me to follow him because he saw a bigfoot. We walked about a half mile to the rivers edge. Accross the river we watched what looked like a large gorilla like creature about 6 ft tall standing next to the river picking leaves off a bush and eating them. We watched for a couple minutes until it walked into the brush and disappeared. It was not a bear. It picked the leaves off the tree just as a human would. We stayed in the area as much as possible the next few days but never saw it again.

ALSO NOTICED: Nothing else noteworthy except that there were at least a hundred people in the area camping,fishing and participating in the boyscout activities.

OTHER WITNESSES: Myself and a friend

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Daylight. Sunny day.

ENVIRONMENT: Grass field next to a River

Follow-up investigation report:

The witness offered the following additional observations during a phone interview:
• The sighting occurred along the Dearborn River not far from where it joins the Missouri River.
• The animal was on the opposite bank of the river from the boys about 100 yards away.
• The animal stood with its back to the boys, apparently unaware they were watching.
• The animal stood upright.
• It was black in color.
• It used its hands, not together to gather and pull leaves to its mouth, but individually to pluck and put leaves into its mouth.
• The witness is an avid big game hunter. He was certain the animal was not a bear or a man. If it was a man he was in a bigfoot suit, the witness said. And he did not believe it was a man in a suit because he thought a hoax would have been staged much differently. No one else at the Boy Scout jamboree saw it.
• When asked what the animal was if not a bear or a man, the witness would not say “bigfoot” or “sasquatch,” though it was clear that is what he thought he saw.
• The whereabouts of the friend who first saw the creature are unknown.

There is no question in my mind that the witness was being honest. He and his friend saw an animal that stood picking and eating leaves along the Dearborn River using its hands. It is reminiscent of the Bauman story.