YEAR: 1962

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

STATE: Michigan

COUNTY: Schoolcraft County

LOCATION DETAILS: Crossing the Rail Road Tracks from South to North.
45 degrees,58 minutes,12 seconds North X 86 degrees,
07 minutes, 03 seconds West.
The best way to get there NOW is to take US-2 East of Manistique, Mich to Duck Inn Road. About 1/2 Mi down duck Inn Rd turn right on to Michibay Dr. Just before reaching the Lake turn Left (east)on Michibay Shores Rd. Go down 2.5 mi. to Marblehead Creek. There always used to be a well beaten path along the west side of the Creek (from the kids fishing the spring fish runs). Take the path North until you reach the Rail Road tracks. That's where "it" Crossed the tracks. NOTE: When this happened Michibay Shores Rd didn't exist. There was only the RR between Duck Inn Rd and the Lake.

NEAREST TOWN: Manistique

NEAREST ROAD: Duck Inn Road

OBSERVED: We were walking facing west toward the sun. A loud guttural sound came from behind us. We had all grown up in and around the woods but this sound was louder and so unusual that we all turned around at the same time. When we first saw it, behind us, at the same spot we had just come from a few minutes before. It was walking up the hill to the top of the RR tracks. We were about 110 feet away. It had its head bent down and turned sideways toward us but never stopped walking straight across the tracks and down the other side.

There was a well used trail along the creek south of the tracks but north of the tracks is all swamp and no trail at all. The North side is wet peat bogs, thick brush, cedar, spruce and balsam and poplar trees with small tag alders.

We stood there for a minute or so and then ran back to where it went into the woods. We couldn’t find the exact spot but the smell was still there. It smelled like a wet decomposing animal mixed with rotten fish. We couldn’t find any tracks but then the swamp is so thick and wet that we didn’t look very far into it – besides we were all a little stressed out and kept looking over our shoulders for more to come from where he came. The trail south of the Tracks, where he came from, was too hard for tracks.

We all agreed to never speak of it to anyone. There were a few reasons for this;
1. We new that everyone would laugh at us.
2. This was something that only we new about and we named it “Marblehead Monster”
3. Although we didn’t own this area or creek, it felt like we did, and we didn’t want a bunch of people stumbling around and messing everything up for us.
4. This was a time BEFORE Bigfoot. There were no Bigfoot sightings and he hadn’t even been named yet. We had no information to compare with our sighting. I didn’t know what we had seen for 15 years or so, until I saw pictures that looked like him on TV.

ALSO NOTICED: Note: We had the Sun at our backs and it was looking at the Sun. It walked a little bent forward at the waist and also had his head bent forward and to the left. It never ran or slowed down. It maintained a steady walk but had a long stride as it was very tall. I was 6’ tall and it was a good 1 – 2’ taller than I was. It had long dark brown hair all over except his face & hands. He appeared to have mud stuck to his hair as it was matted in places, especially his legs and arms. His face was very dark or dirty. The hair on his chest was shorter than his back, head, arms and legs. His arms were very long and he swung them open handed, front to back as he walked.

OTHER WITNESSES: There were 6 of us including myself. Youngest was 14 and the oldest was 16. I was 15. We were walking west along the tracks from the Marblehead Creek RR Bridge. We had just left the creek after checking it for a fish run.

OTHER STORIES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Weather was clear and dry. It was early evening and the sun was behind us. Probably around 5-6PM.

ENVIRONMENT: Due North of the RR Tracks is the Marblehead Swamp. East and west on the North side of the tracks is mixed heavy woodlands. East and West of the Creek south of the Tracks is row after row of Mix Trees on old sand dunes. About a 1/4 mi. east of the creek the tracks pass an old trail (woods road) to the north that comes from the Duck Inn Rd. This was an active garbage dump (long since closed). The road or trail loops back to itself and goes no further than the tracks.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

After parking their car at the local garbage dump they went down to the creek with their nets to see if the smelt were running. Smelt are a small 7- 9" fish that were introduced to the inland waters as food for stocked salmon and soon escaped to Lake Michigan.

They named "it" the Marblehead Monster, named after the Marblehead Creek and Marblehead Swamp nearby. They had never heard of bigfoot or sasquatch - not in 1962. They had heard of the abominable snowman but he was too far away, in the Himalayas.

The witness got the impression that the guttural growl was not a threat, more like a "call". The face and hands appeared muddy but were still lighter in color and stood out from the dark brown hair. The body was very muscular, not skinny and very thick. Estimated to be 7 - 8' tall, 400 lbs. and close enough to throw a baseball and hit it.

The UP of Michigan in 1962 was absolutely full of wildlife. The amount of food, cover and options available to sustain such a creature are bountiful, to say the least.

About BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

• Worked as an Assistant to a Circuit Court Judge in Florida for thirteen years
• An avid outdoorswoman, growing up in the UP of Michigan on a family-owned fishing and hunting resort
• Certified Visual Tracker, Level 1
• Attended and assisted with numerous public and private BFRO expeditions
• She and the Florida BFRO organized South Florida Expedition 2008, North Florida Expedition 2008 and Central Florida Expedition in 2009.
  
• She and the Michigan BFRO organized the Lower-Michigan Expedition in 2011, Michigan UP Expeditions in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and Wisconsin 2018
• BFRO Secretary for almost 20 years

• Explanation of the report classification system
• Submit a report for the sightings database
• Please send any comments or inquiries to ContactUs@BFRO.net