YEAR: 1999

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

STATE: Minnesota

COUNTY: Itasca County

LOCATION DETAILS: [Investigator (MM) notes:
The general location is between Skelly Lake and Little Siseebakwet Lake, roughly 11 miles southwest of Grand Rapids, Minnesota]

NEAREST TOWN: Cohasset

NEAREST ROAD: Little sugar lake road access

OBSERVED: I saw something very tall walk through the woods I have never seen. I smelled an awful smell I never smelt. I saw a thing searching a wood pile stand up. I can give a very detailed and spot on description at site. 5 years later my brother and I tried to walk out down same trail after blizzard with his pitbull and his rottweiler. They refused to go at a certain point and we had to turn around. I went back months later to get a walking stick my brother left. My brother and I also felt uneasy at that spot. I believe whatever it is has stayed in the area.

ALSO NOTICED: I have never seen grouse unwilling to leave a roost or packed as tightly in trees since. Especially without a dog present.

OTHER STORIES: We met a guy while maple striping who lived out in that area and talked about some animal making a whooping noise a few nights in a row that he never heard before.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was about 15 to 30 minutes before dusk. The lighting conditions where great.

ENVIRONMENT: There was a pile of brush near where potlach had cleared "slashes" lanes in the woods. To the left of that there was a valley of young popple.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jim & Carol Telenko:

This is what witness could recall about the incident which happened in 1999.

He stated that while grouse hunting in a cedar swamp he had a sighting. The area is between Skelly Lake and Little Siseebakwet Lake, off of Little Sugar Lake Road. The area is south of the town of Cohasset, MN.

He stated he was walking on a trail and about 40 yards in front of him he noticed a figure crouched down behind a 4 foot high wood pile. He also noticed a foul stench, like decaying flesh, which he was sickened by. The figure, which was covered in long black or deep brown hair, stood up on two legs, looked at him, and slowly turned to the left and walked away. It walked over a small hill and into a clear cut, grown over with small poplar trees.

The witness stated that he followed the figure to the top of the hill to see it walking through the trees. He estimated the trees were approximately 6 feet tall. The trees came up almost to the figures chest, so he estimated figure to be very close to 9 feet tall, and shoulders approximately 3 1/2 feet wide. The figure kept walking and disappeared into a swamp on the other side of the clear cut. The witness didn't follow. There were no other witnesses to this sighting.

The witness also spoke of an incident, approximately 5 years later (2004), where he and his brother, and their dogs, were on the same trail when they both became very uneasy and the dogs, a Rottweiler and a Black Lab, stopped and refused to go any farther down the trail. The dogs were acting very skittish.