YEAR: 1978

SEASON: Summer

STATE: Rhode Island

COUNTY: Washington County

LOCATION DETAILS: In a development off RT 112 in Charlestown known as Five Seasons.

NEAREST TOWN: Charlestown

NEAREST ROAD: Rt 112

OBSERVED: I've told very few people this story for fear that they might think I'm crazy. The only reason why I'm taking the time to report this is because of a recent entry a friend of mine who knew my story told me about.

My story takes place in Charlestown, Rhode Island in the late 1970's. My mother and father and I lived in a wooded area abutting the "Indian Cedar Swamp" and property owned by United Nuclear which probably comprises several thousand acres. The property surrounding our home was mixed white Atlantic juniper swamp,scarlet, red and white oaks with old growth white pine stands mixed in, with a dense understory of briars, mountain laurel and blue berry brush.

We lived off a road with 3 houses on it. The houses were all built close to the entrance of this development. The road was part of a series of roads that were put in as the start of a development. The roads were oiled gravel and had been left to grow in after years of little or no use. It looked like the developer had started and went belly-up.

These roads were great to ride bikes on or take a evening cruise on after bringing my father dinner at his second job. My mother drove a baby blue Mustang Mach 1 and she would drive around the roads with me looking at deer before we retired to our home for the evening. As a kid I remember this being a highlight to the evening.

I was at the time maybe 8 years old and my mother and I on this particular night in the late 70's commenced our ride around the roads to see if we sould see any deer. It had been raining earlier with thunder and lightning mixed in. Now it was just raining. We were rounding a corner on one of the roads that paralleled the Indian Cedar Swamp and as we started downward, we noticed the road was obstructed by a large blown down oak tree, the tree had green leaves (this makes me think it was summer or the early fall) on it so it had recently come down, we guessed maybe in the storm earlier(possibly lightning).

The road was very narrow and the brush along the side of the road made it difficult to back the car around to turn around. The rain was falling but not heavy, the wipers were on, the headlights on the car were on as well.

As my mother turned the front end of the car the lights cast on the left side of the road where the tree had been broken off from its stump. We were maybe 1 1/2 car lengths from the stump. Beside the tall fractured stump stood what looked like a large white(yellow white) ape. It was maybe 6 to 7 feet tall, its hair was long, face flat, long massive arms, its head appeared to be without any neck, its chest was broad.

My mother and I froze momentarily (5 seconds, maybe 10) and the figure remained still, staring at us. My mother floored the car into reverse. I remember ther terror of it all. The sound of gravel hitting inside the fender wells, the sound of the brush crushing against the car and then the acceleration as she sped off.

We were clear as to what we saw and we have no question in our mind that we saw something or someone in ape like shape that night. This we are certain of. We need no one to tall us what we saw, it's crystal clear.

For years we told no one. We would talk about it in our home in privacy and even my father found this story hard to accept. We've never forgotten this and this story would have never been told if it wasn't for someone else informing me of a similar sigthing.

I'm now in my 30's an extremely active hunter, farmer and woodsman. I hunt deer 40 days a year in Maine, RI, CT and New Jersey. I use automated cameras which are triggered by heat. I've never seen a picture of a bigfoot on my film. I have seen pictures of deer on my 50 acre tract of land that I would never believe are there if I didn't see it on my film. I know every inch of my land and the surrounding property and these mystery deer show up at all hours on my cameras and frequently at that. How can they move right around our hunting parties in such a small area and never be seen, I'll never know,

Even today I find it hard to accept what we definitely saw. I'm not a fan of ghosts, UFO's or even big foot. I'm not sure to this day what I saw wasn't a man in a costume, dressed up, out in rainstorm, a half mile or more from any home, waiting for my mother and me to drive down the road to give us a scare. The only thing I can say is it was a damn' good costume and a damn' good plan. We saw what we saw and this is something I would sware to on any polygraph test as I'm sure my mother would.

ALSO NOTICED: See main entry

OTHER WITNESSES: Yes, only one

OTHER STORIES: Not until just today from a friend of mine who saw a description on your site and it reminded him of what I told him in complete confidence.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Night probably around 9pm EST

ENVIRONMENT: See e-mail