YEAR: 1979

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Guernsey County

LOCATION DETAILS: Putney ridge rd. 1/2 mi. West of rosedale rd. Strange animal sounds occurred on Rosedale Rd

NEAREST TOWN: Cambridge

NEAREST ROAD: Putney ridge

OBSERVED: What myself and brother in law found was a structure built of mainly blackberry vines. We were scouting for deer on an abandoned farm in an area that had been stripped for coal 35yrs prior. Deer were plentiful, but not as much as present day. When came across it when we both were following a path that materialized and split in two directions around a spoil bank. My brother in law went one way I the other, both paths lead to the top of the spoil were we came on the structure. We were in total amazement noting it was kind of an igloo shape with an opening to enter. The briars where woven together to form the walls and the inside had been cleared like it had been mowed.

We stood amazed at what could have made it. We had never heard much about a Bigfoot at that time. Nobody in they’re right mind would have been in the area fighting thorny vegetation and biting insects to create such a thing. Than about a month later the same brother in law and his cousin were walking out of a hollow near dark when they heard the strangest animal they had ever heard. When they would try to tell the family about it they got laughed at. Neither ever forgot it or entered the property in the dark. It wasn’t until maybe 20 years later when I happened on a Bigfoot program showing such a structure that a bell went off as to what we’d saw.
Also around the time other people had reported seeing things peeking in windows around the county

ALSO NOTICED: None that I recall, though I wish I knew what to look for at the time

OTHER WITNESSES: Previously explained. Brother in law was a deputy sheriff at the time

OTHER STORIES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Sunny beautiful fall evening

ENVIRONMENT: Old strip mine

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator James Thompson:

I talked to the witness at great length to get a full understanding of what it was he found that day back in 1979.
The witness had recently been discharged from the military, his brother-in-law and him went out to check an area they planned on hunting. As they were following a path, it split and they each took a fork. The paths came back together near a strip pit wall. They both emerged from the briars into an open area only to find a structure that was 'made or woven' from the surrounding vegetation.
The vines and vegetation were not leaning against each piece, but were woven into a domed structure with an opening. The witness got down on his hands and knees and looked inside. The inside of the structure had about 4 foot height at the center and his 6 foot frame could have easily stretched out inside with plenty of room left over on the bare floor of the structure.
The purpose of the structure had baffled him and his brother-in-law for years. The witness had recently watched an old T.V. episode on the Ohio Grassman and saw a structure that reminded him of what he came across years ago. They were similar in shape and fabrication except the one they found that day was not as tall.
The area that this was found in is very remote, a scraggly terrain of old strip mining land that is in the midst of what Don Keating called in the 1980s, the Saquatch Triangle.
A month later, the brother-in-law was hunting about a mile from there and heard a sound that would keep him out of that area after dark to this day.

About BFRO Investigator James Thompson:

Jim served as a Marine Corps helicopter engine mechanic / air crewman for 24 years. He recently retired as a County Veterans Service Officer. He is a lifetime hunter and outdoorsman. Jim has attended expeditions in Ohio during 2019, 21 & 22.