YEAR: 1959

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: Friday

STATE: California

COUNTY: Yuba County

LOCATION DETAILS: Beale is an active Air Force Base now and has changed a lot. The area we were in was about three miles North East of the main part of the base. There were barracks there when the army had it for training. It was called Camp Beale and had some 80,000 acres. The army abandoned the camp many years before this took place. The Air Force reopened it in 1960. Go towards the mountains on base untill you see the thick forest area. I don't know if the barracks are still there or not. Likely not.

NEAREST TOWN: Marysville and Grass Valley

NEAREST ROAD: From Marysville to Beale. About 3 miles up from the main base.

OBSERVED: In 1959 a friend and I went deer hunting in the hills above Marysville, California. At the time Beale Air Force Base was closed so we went on the base in the mountains. We camped out in the old barracks area that first night. My friend had his two retiever dogs with him. It was dark and we were in our bed rolls.
We heard a very loud yelling - almost a scream - coming from the woods about a hundred yards away. The dogs went crazy and headed towards the wooded area. My friend and I grabbed our rifles and followed them. I have never heard a sound like that before. Just as we got a short distance away from the woods, we seen something that the dogs were running around. It was on two feet. It grabbed one dog, threw it some distance and swung on the other dog. I had it in the flashlight beam but couldn't see it too well. It turned towards us and my friend said that it had a face like that of an ape. It bounded into the trees and the dogs were called off by him. We did not stay there that night. About 6 years ago they had a program on TV that had recorded the noise believed to be Bigfoot. It was the same sound completely that we heard. At the time of this, I was stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California. A year later I was stationed there at Beale.

ALSO NOTICED: After it was over and we were loading our gear we heard the scream/yell again, only further off.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just the two of us, my friend and myself. My friend has passed away.

OTHER STORIES: Yes. Time line I don't know but heard of them finding tracks and sittings a few miles north of there in the Oroville area and the Humboldt region.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 9:30 - 10:00 pm. The weather was clear and cool

ENVIRONMENT: Forested area. Where we we at was a high hill like place. Towards where we went to see what it was, was down hill slightly kinda into a small valley.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Tom Yamarone:

I spoke with the witness by phone and have the following to add:
- I am classifying this as Class B because the witness submitting the report did not actually have a clear view of the creature. His friend did, because he had run ahead of him chasing his dogs.
- Immediately after the dogs raced off, the vocalization emanated from the nearby woods again.
- The sound was very loud and unlike anything he had ever heard before.
- The witness observed one dog already down and the other being thrown through the air. His exact words: “One dog was already hurt and the other was airborne.”
- One dog suffered a large wound to its left side. He described the side as torn – “not cut”. Both dogs survived.
-There was loud crashing and breaking of brush and trees as the creature ran away.
- He described a lingering odor in the area of the confrontation with the dogs. It was as a mix of body odor, feces and skunk.
- He is adamant this was not a bear. The dog's wound was not from a claw.