YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

DATE: Sunday

STATE: Montana

COUNTY: Sanders County

LOCATION DETAILS: To the right of the bridge is a public boat launch on the east side of the river. The sighting took place on the west side of the river in a popular picnicing/camping area in the summer months. In the winter it is deserted.

NEAREST TOWN: St. Regis Montana

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 135

OBSERVED: I was driving from Columbia Falls to St. Regis Montana to pick up my daughter Jessica. She
had spent the weekend with her father who lives in Spokane Washington. It was a bright
sunny afternoon either the last weekend of Feburary or the first weekend in March. The time
was 3:55 PM on a Sunday. I remember the time as I had just looked at the clock on my
dash and we always exchange Jessica on Sunday. We had been following the river for some time
and I noticed the ice was breaking up from around the edges and floated down stream. My
daughters 15 year old boyfriend was traveling with me. We were traveling west on
highway 135 at aproximately 60/65 MPH towards St. Regis. As we started over the bridge that
spans the clark fork river I looked to my left as I always do. I like to look for deer and other
wild life along the river bank. There is a sand bar that reaches out into the river on the
west side and near the tip I saw a very tall (8 to 10 feet) hairy being and a much smaller
one. It looked to be right at or just taller then the knee of the larger one. The larger one was standing about 5 to 6 feet behind the small one with it's arms outstreched and taking a
step forward. The small one looked as if it was curious about the chuncks of ice that were
near the waters edge as it was leaning forward looking down. The tall one had long reddish
brown hair. I remember seeing it flow from the upper arm area, and the hair on it's head and
shoulders was also long. It looked silky and shown in the bright sun light. The small one
looked to be the same color with shorter hair. When I saw them I said to my daughters
boyfriend, "Look at that!!!" He said "WHOA!!" then we were over the bridge. We looked
at each other with our mouths open. We didnt turn around, I think we were stunned and didnt
quite believe what we had just seen, maybe a bit scared too?. We didnt talk about it on the
way back. After picking up my daughter, the two of them were excited to see each other and
talked non-stop in the back seat. I did look at the sand bar on the way back over the bridge
which was about 30-40 minutes later, but I didn't see anything.
I didnt tell my husband about this until a few weeks ago. I'd been trying to convince my
self I didnt really see what I saw. Then one night at dinner I told my family what I had
seen. My husband said, "YA RIGHT!" My daughter's boyfriend happened to be there for dinner and said, "Kelly, I
remember that, I was there with you!" He and I hadn't talked about this until that night. I
knew then I had to send our siting to the BFRO.
I totally believe that what he and I saw was a mother Bigfoot and her young child. I got
the feeling in that brief moment, that she was showing her young one something new, allowing
him or her to explore. Perhaps her baby had gone too close to the river and she was reaching
out as if to say "that is far enough!" Just as I have done with my own children.

ALSO NOTICED: no

OTHER WITNESSES: 2, myself and my daugher's boyfriend. We were driving, not really talking, just enjoying the beautiful day.

OTHER STORIES: no

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 3:55 Pm It was a bright sunny afternoon.

ENVIRONMENT: There is an access road from HW 135 that travels off to the left through a wooded area, the trees thin out near the water, then turns to sand and extends out to form the sand bar. I would say the the sand bar is roughly 150 to 200 yards from the bridge. I'm not agood judge of distance however.

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with the witness by phone just over four months after the incident occurred. The information provided during the phone interview accurately matched that of the initial report. I found the witness to be credible and sincere in her interpretation of the described events.

On Sunday, March 15, 2004, the witness and a teenager were traveling in the westbound lane of Hwy 135 in northwestern Montana on a bright and warm spring afternoon. (Note: March 2004 was the warmest month of March on record for Montana.) As they drove across the bridge that spans the Clark Fork River, the witness glanced to her left, (south), and noticed two figures standing near the shore of the river, approximately 250 yards from the bridge. She described the figures as covered with reddish-brown hair, a color similar to that of an Irish Setter, the length of which was estimated at approximately 6-8 inches. The witness described the two figures as an adult, presumably female, approximately 8 feet tall, and a juvenile, approximately 3 feet tall. The juvenile stood only to the height of the adult's knee. The witness described the body shape and build of the adult as very muscular, not fat and thick, with an upper torso very wide at the shoulders and narrow at the hips. No neck was visible, as the head seemed to just connect to shoulders. Movement observed by the witness included the adult stepping forward on its left leg, with both arms outstretched, reaching for the juvenile as if to prevent it from getting any closer to the river's edge, while the juvenile was bending forward towards the water.

The sighting lasted approximately 6-10 seconds as the witness was driving 60 mph, and upon crossing the bridge the view became blocked by the recurrence of the forest bordering the river drainage.

I personally visited the sighting location and verified approximate distances as well as the physical description of the shoreline. It is a sand and gravel shoreline that extends out into the river some 40 yards from lightly forested terrain considered higher ground, but is also completely devoid of any trees or brush. Subsequently, there is nothing to impede the view of this sandbar from the bridge.

It is the opinion of this investigator that the witness did in fact observe the figures she described in the report. Based upon the physical aspects and terrain features of the location, there is nothing that could lead me to believe this to be a misidentification of any kind.


A Second Experience:

Four months after the initial sighting, the witness returned to this location with her 8-year-old son and the teenager who was also witness to the initial sighting. After walking around and taking some photographs of the area, all three noticed a "horrible" smell, "similar to a skunk, but a much heavier, muskier stench". All three were frozen in their tracks until the witness suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to get the two boys out of the area immediately. All three quickly got into the car and locked all the doors. They observed the area for a few minutes, anticipating to see what caused the smell, but to no avail. The witness then rolled down the window and immediately noticed the smell, as well as the accompanying feeling of danger. At this point, she quickly rolled up the window and drove away from this particular location, across the bridge and to the other side of the river. They again observed, from a distance, the initial location in an effort to see the cause of the smell. After approximately ten minutes with no success, they left the area and drove home.