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Geographical Index > United States > South Dakota > Custer County > Report # 7884
 
Report # 7884  (Class A)
Submitted by witness on Tuesday, January 27, 2004.
While driving his pickup, cowboy has night time sighting near Custer

YEAR: 2003

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 1st friday

STATE: South Dakota

COUNTY: Custer County

LOCATION DETAILS: Just past the 2.5 to horsecamp sign take 16a to BLUEBELL lodge, go past it to dirt road, go .5 mile till you get to top of hill. You are there.

NEAREST TOWN: Custer, SD

NEAREST ROAD: 16 a

OBSERVED: I went out to custer state park after the buffalo roundup to just rest and ride my horse....I rode all day friday. I came back to camp ,fed and watered my horse, I was the only one in camp. I went to town to eat as I was tired and did not feel like cooking. I went to Custer, had a burger and left for camp. As you pass BLUE BELL loge you take a dirt road about 3 miles to camp, at the 2.5 sign you go up a good size hill, just as I came to the top of the hill, to my left I saw something coming down the hill. It hit the road and took one long step and was down the hill on my right. There was a lot of dust and rocks that came down with it, but I saw it very good. It was 6 to 7 ft tall, it had brown and red hair all over, looked like a gorilla only more manlike. It was not a buffalo or a deer or elk or bear. I went back to camp fast, put the horse in the trailer and went home. I did not say anything to anyone, as they think I am nuts anyway. I know what I saw was not a man in a suit .

ALSO NOTICED: I did not get out of truck till I got back to camp, horse was uneasy hard to load. He always was no big deal to load, he was not happy. We left fast.

OTHER WITNESSES: none

OTHER STORIES: no

TIME AND CONDITIONS: about 9pm...very dark out, it was clear and cold

ENVIRONMENT: custer state park, high ridges, deep hollows, thick pine trees


Follow-up investigation report:

The witness considers himself to be a cowboy. He works with leather, makes saddles and other tack professionally, and he has participated several times in the yearly buffalo round-up (on horseback) in Custer State Park. He is an avid hunter. When I asked if it could have been a bear he’d seen he said, “No. I’ve actually raised a bear… It was no bear.”

The creature he saw came down a steep embankment on the left side of the road, landed, not on its feet, on the road just 10 to 15 yards in front of his truck. It was 9:00 PM, dark, but he could see it well in his headlights. It picked itself up and “in one step” was off the road, and headed down the very steep and high slope on the right side. It was so steep there, he said, that a person would have trouble going down it in daylight. A person wouldn’t really even try it, he said.

The witness said the creature was tall, had long legs, a thick build, and was covered with hair. It did not turn and look at him when it crossed the road. “I know what I saw” the witness repeated two or three times to me. “No way it was a man – too big,” he said.

He wasn’t interested in bigfoot at all. He’d heard of it, of course – “Yeah, I’ve heard of bigfoot, Loch Ness… monsters, all that… but I didn’t really care about any of that," and he doesn’t really care about it now. But now he’s afraid of being out in the dark, and of what he saw; the idea of it mostly. He left the round-up right after his sighting, even though he planned to stay another day or two. It really upset him. It has changed his life. He just doesn’t want to go out into the wild anymore. He didn’t tell the others at the round-up about his sighting because he has a reputation with them as a practical joker – it wasn’t worth telling them. He just wanted to leave.

This man was completely believable to me. He has no doubt that what he saw was not a man or a bear. He told me he can’t quite believe what he saw.