YEAR: 1981

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: February

DATE: 4

STATE: Iowa

COUNTY: Scott County

LOCATION DETAILS: Eldridge Iowa is 10 miles north of Davenport,Iowa.
found tracks at the corner of 5th st and donahue ave. hear the scream on the street directly behind and west of North Scott Jr High School.

NEAREST TOWN: In the city of Eldridge

NEAREST ROAD: corner of 5th st and Donahue Ave

OBSERVED: My first of two encounters with a Bigfoot occurred in Eldridge Iowa during the first two weeks of February 1981. I was a paperboy for the Des Moines Register. I would usually start my rout at about 5:00 am in the morning. About week prior to this incidence I started having this feeling that I was being watched and even followed though I never saw or heard anything up to this point. On this particular morning about half way through my rout I came around the corner of 5th St and Donahue Ave. riding my bike loaded with newspapers when I looked down and saw this trail of very large footprints in the snow. I got off of my bike and knelt down and took a closer look thinking that this was some kind of prank. I even counted the number of toes, 5 on each foot and it look just like a human footprint only much larger! The prints were about 6 to 8 inches wide and about 18 to 24 inches long. I remember I slowly stood up and looked around and noticed the tracks came in from the northeast side of Eldridge and cut through people’s back yards and exited the southwest side of town. I remember feeling very alone and scared out of my mind! The worst was yet to come later in the week when I had to deliver the Sunday paper. After school that day I went back and followed the track northeast to southwest all the way though Eldridge and across a small park called Elmer Green park. It was here that the reality of what I had just discovered really started to sink in. when the tracks came to a four-foot high fence on the other side of the park you could see that the creature just stepped over it like it wasn’t ever there! I followed the tracks all the way back to the City of Eldridge sewer treatment ponds were I usually hunted rabbits. The tracks followed Hickory creek around behind the sewer treatment ponds and it was here that I stopped following the tracks out of fear because I was alone.

That night I went out collecting money for my paper rout and I made it a point to go to the location were I had originally found the tracks that morning. I remembered it all like it happened yesterday; I looked I my watch and noted that it was 10:30 pm then I went home to bed. The next morning I arrived back at the same location at about 5:30 am and to my shocking surprise there was a new set of tracks in the snow following the original set in reverse! Now I was really scared, my first thought was I have to get the heck out of here; my second thought was this thing is following!!! You see the path that this Bigfoot took paralleled my newspaper rout and I lived across the street from the park were it stepped over the fence. To say the least I was scared out of my 8th grader mind!

I remember that this had happened on a Wednesday and the return tracks had to have happened between 10:30 Wednesday night and 5:30 am Thursday morning. Needless to say this creature remained nearby in the area. I remember the rest of the week was uneventful with no more new track sightings but I did feel like I was being watched and followed.

Then that Sunday my father helped me deliver the Sunday papers because they were so much bigger that I couldn’t carry them all on my bike so Dad drove the care while I ran them up to the door. Everything went just fine that morning and I was feeling pretty secure because I had my dad with me, until we got to the last house on my paper rout on the south side of Eldridge behind North Scott Jr. High School. I remember running the paper up to the front door and tossing it just a little to hard, it hit the front door with a bang, as soon as it hit the door the noise must have startled the Bigfoot because it let out a horrifying scream! It was just around the corner of the house, between the house I just delivered to and the house next door and behind it just were I couldn’t see it. I knew it was that close because of the Horrifying Scream it let out!!!! I have never been so scared in all of my life!!! I ran as hard as I could back to the car slipping and sliding on the snow and ice and I hit the car so hard I shook it! Me running into and hitting the car scared my dad but when I screamed did you hear it screaming dad? He said he didn’t because he had the heater blower going full blast and the radio turned up, so he didn’t hear it at all, I couldn’t believe it? I did decided right then and there that morning I would get out of the news paper delivery business. I turned the rout over to another kid a couple of months later in April of 1981. I’ll never forget the look of those tracks or of that scream from hell that it makes! It all seems like it just happened yesterday. I never saw it during this encounter and for the next week or two I felt like I was still being watched and followed.

The weather conditions during the week were bitter cold. I remember it was between 0 and –15 degrees the entire week. There was little to no wind that week and we had about 8 to 12 inches of snow on the ground. There was no moon that week as well but we did have crystal clear starry skies the entire week at night.

I did not see the creature during this encounter, I only saw the tracks in the snow and I did hear it scream. I did not notice any pungent smells from the creature, which would make sense being that it was wintertime and the air was cold and dry. It would not be until the fall of 1986 when I had my second encounter with a Bigfoot that ran across the road in front of my car one night while driving down a gravel road in the southern Rocky Mountains in southern New Mexico. During that encounter I had a girl friend with me that saw it too!

I’m 40 years old now and that week and that scream live with me until this very day like it happened yesterday! Every time I go hunting I keep an eye out for them because I know they are in my area. The Bigfoot sighting in Buchanan County Iowa 2006 is about 30 to 50 miles northwest from an area that I hunt just west of Maquoketa Iowa. In July of 2006 a farmer who raises cattle and rents pastureland on the farm I hunt heard a horrifying scream while out checking on his cattle. He said it gave him the ‘willy’s’ and he said, he got out of there as fast as possible! I haven’t seen any evidence of any Bigfoot activity in the area that I hunt but I have my suspicions being that it is only a short walking distance in Bigfoot terms from the Buchanan County 2006 sighting location.

Just like many of you who have seen, heard or found Bigfoot and its tracks, I too have been made fun of and laughed at when I have told friends or family members of my Bigfoot encounters. I know that I am not crazy, I have a college degree and another one on the way, I served in the U.S. military and was honorably discharged and I have never used any illegal drugs or abused any legal drugs in my life nor have I ever been drunk a day or a moment in my life! I know what I saw, heard and found and now I know that they really do exist, I need no further proof!

OTHER WITNESSES: A friend was shown the first set of tracks.

OTHER STORIES: yes

TIME AND CONDITIONS: found 1st set of tracks at 5:30am
found 2nd set of tracks at 5:30am the next morning.
four days later sunday morning at 6:00am I heard the "scream"!

ENVIRONMENT: The weather conditions during the week were bitter cold. I remember it was between 0 and –15 degrees the entire week. There was little to no wind that week and we had about 8 to 12 inches of snow on the ground. There was no moon that week as well but we did have crystal clear starry skies the entire week at night.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Steve Moon:

I spoke with the witness in a phone interview and found the clarity and detail of his memory to be quite vivid. Some new detail was added, but was primarily textural. The events of this memorable week remain the same. The witness was 13 years old at the time.

From Jan. 19, 1981 to Feb. 4, 1981 there were two weeks where it got noticeably quiet. It was like the noise was shut off. There was very little wind. Witness would stop four or five times during the route and listen because it was so unusual. An arctic blast had brought frigid temperatures to the area and he was running his route quickly each morning. On Feb. 4th, witness found a set of tracks running from NE to SW toward the sewage treatment ponds. He followed the tracks for about one mile along a creek to the sewage ponds, where the trail continued on, but when he reached the ponds he got a panicked feeling. On the way back he got an adrenalin rush and was suddenly desperate to get to Buttermilk Division Road looking over his shoulder all the way. Witness states that when he first encountered the tracks he realized right away that they were not a hoax, and so he immediately started keeping track of events as they occurred. He got down on his hands and knees and gave the prints close scrutiny. When the tracks crossed a road, a foot print on the curb conformed to the curvature of the curb and gutter. That night at 10:20 this witness took time, while collecting for the paper, to walk to where the tracks were, and saw that there was still the single set heading to the SW. He showed the tracks to a friend. I asked about this friend and he has long since lost contact with him. At 5:30 the next morning, on Thursday the 5th, he found tracks in the opposite direction perfectly following the first set. At this point he freaked. On Friday he did his route in full panic mode. There were still no sounds along the way. Saturday it was still dead quiet.

On Sunday the 8th witness did route in the car with his father, and at the end of the route he was screamed at when he bounced a rolled up Des Moines Sunday Register off a front door. The scream came from between the house where he had just delivered the paper, and the house next door. The scream sounded like it contained very high frequency and very low frequency sounds simultaneously. Witness states that his gut instinct told him that the scream was from a male. He says it sounded like a civil defense siren.

The week of Feb. 23rd the animal sounds came back. The weather warmed up as well. In the first part of April witness gave up the route. He was too scared to continue, and states that he was beyond freaked out.

Oddly, within 2 to 3 months after incident, the local Quad City Times newspaper ran an article stating that the outlying areas of the Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois) would be perfect habitat for sasquatch.

About BFRO Investigator Steve Moon:

A native of southeast Iowa, Steve has long been a cave explorer and outdoor adventurer. He became involved in bigfoot research in 2008. Steve organized BFRO IOWA Public Expeditions in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, and is currently organizing a 2017 IOWA expedition. Steve is an artist, photographer, farmer, anthropologist and professional researcher. His primary research areas are the river basins of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and all of eastern Iowa.

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