YEAR: 1982

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: Don't remember

STATE: California

COUNTY: Siskiyou County

LOCATION DETAILS: From the Somes Bar Store, go south on Hwy 96. Sighting took place about five meters on the side of highway, on the side farthest from the river.

NEAREST TOWN: 3/4 of a kilometer south of Somes Bar.

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 96

OBSERVED: I was walking north on highway 96, on the riverside of the road, approximately 3/4 of a kilometer south of the Somes Bar store.

I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked across the road, I saw what appeared to be a big, hairy, extremely tall man. I froze, and we stared at each other for what seemed like many minutes, but was probably only 30 seconds or so. When I realized that whatever I’d seen wasn't going to harm me, I turned away for a few seconds (to see how close I was to my cousin's driveway), and when I looked back, it was gone.

The brush that the creature was standing in was at least two meters tall, and the creature protruded above the brush from the upper chest up, so I would estimate it's height at three meters, or maybe just a bit more.

The creature looked a lot like the Bigfoot in the movie called "Harry and the Henderson’s."

ALSO NOTICED: Nothing that I can think of at this time.

OTHER WITNESSES: No, unfortunately, there weren't any other witnesses.

OTHER STORIES: I heard Bigfoot howl once when I was hunting, on the GO Road behind Somes Bar. I was very young at the time-I think the year was 1975.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Daytime-approx. 6 p. m.

ENVIRONMENT: The area is primarily Madrone trees, Manzanita, and buckbrush(or was at the time). There is a small hill just north(and to the left)of where I was when I saw the creature, and my cousins' driveway goes behind the hill.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

I talked with Tom A. on the night of the 23rd of August 2003. Tom was nineteen when he observed this creature standing behind, or in, some buck brush that was just across the highway from him. Tom is a Native American, belonging to the Karuk Tribe, located on the Klamath River. Per Tom, Karuk means, "The people who live up the river." Tom and his people call the creature, "Motacata, meaning the people who live up the mountain." Tom's people have known about the Motacata people for many years, but stated this was his first sighting encounter of one of them. When he was younger, he heard a howling scream while with family members.

I asked Tom about what he had seen, and to describe further what he remembers. His answers are as follows:

· Tom's first reaction, at the time, was that he was startled and thought it might have been his cousin who lived close by. Tom estimated his distance from the creature to be approximately fifty to sixty feet. It was standing looking directly at him, but he never felt that the creature was menacing. The part of the creature he observed was from its mid chest up. It was covered in a dark brown to black hair. He estimated it to be nine to ten feet tall, and its weight to be eight hundred to a thousand pounds. To Tom, the creature's arms and chest appeared very large.

·When asked what he remembered of the facial features he stated the reason he first thought it might have been his cousin was because it appeared to have a bony face, and the eyes were set deep and dark, like his cousin. Tom said the bony facial structure stuck out, because the creature's hair was all around its face. The encounter lasted approximately twenty seconds.

· Tom looked toward his cousin's driveway because that was the direction he was going, but when he looked back, the brush was moving and the creature was gone. The only noise Tom heard was the noise the brush made as the animal departed.

He went back the following day to determine the height of the creature and to search for possible tracks but only found a couple of indistinct impressions in the rocky ground. He did, however, smell a musty wet dog type odor.

· Tom did not tell anyone of the incident until much later. I asked Tom what he thinks the creature was, and his comment was, "They looked more human than anything else."

In Summary: I enjoy talking about the big guy with Native American Indians, because they know these animals exist, and they usually have some very interesting stories to tell. In addition, we can usually learn something new about them and/or their activities.

In this case, Tom tells a story about his wife's people fishing with nets years ago at a river outlet area off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. While retrieving fish from the nets they sometimes experienced rocks being thrown into the water close by. When this occurred the people would stop what they were doing and leave the area. They told their descendants that the people who lived in the mountains had come down, finished pulling in the fishing nets, took the fish and then left.

Other short stories include:

Some of his people have seen clothing on the animals, pieces of clothing wrapped around them or on their upper body. Tom's grandmother told him these creatures (motacatas) would sometimes follow him around when he was little, keeping an eye on him, and that some of the old timers in Tom's community would leave tobacco out for them because they liked it.