YEAR: 1980

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 27

STATE: Missouri

COUNTY: Douglas County

LOCATION DETAILS: second road to the right on AC highway.On the far side of a dry creek above the road to the north about 300 yards.Theres a old log cabin on the side I was on.

NEAREST TOWN: Dora

NEAREST ROAD: AC

OBSERVED: I was out early in the morning just after daylight looking for buck sign and squirrel hunting.Mainly looking for rubs and scrapes for deer hunting the upcoming season.I was on a hillside overlooking a steep canyon in rough country on the bryant creek watershed.I sit for a spell and was watching the other hillside.I was carrying a browning bottom eject 22 rifle and had planned to harvest squirrels but had passed on several in hope of not alarming deer in the area..I saw a flicker of movement on the adjecent hillside about 150 yds distance.I unlooped my Nikon binoculars from around my neck and looked over where I saw the leaves move.Even though it was late october and a cool morning it hadnt frosted yet and the leaves were mostly green.What I saw was a small sapling move.I saw black fur probably a foot sized patch through the foliage.It was standing still at this point.I thought bear or maybe a cow and was unconcerned.It finally took a few steps and I gasped when I realized it was a upright animal and covered in black fur.It was a dusky black and not shiny.It was moving parallel on the hill and angling somewhat upwards.Id say I watched it for about 10 mins and had never fuly got a look at it even through the binoculars but it finaly hit a small vehicle sized opening and It hit me I was actually watching a bigfoot.It was feeding on something on the ground I believe wild grapes that had fell out of a tree that had vines in it or maybe acorns.It would occasionally look up and listen.A car went down the highway about a half mile in the distance and it looked up and was canting its head to listen.I believe if the car had turned down the gravel road towards us it would have fled.It was only when the car went quiet a ways down the road it continued to feed.It was very large probably 7 foot plus and very broad shouldered.It elbows wasnt like humans it was pointed and stuck back like a deers front leg even when relaxed.It had a crown or slight dome on top its head.A dusky charcoal black with silver beginning at the back of the head and a ridge of fur beginning to get thicker there and widening as it came down the back.The hairs in the elbows and down the back of the leg was longer and the stripe of heavier hair down the head and back was silver tipped.It was somewhat pot bellied but not really.The upper body was absolutely massive.I wouldnt hesitate to say the animal weighed 400 lbs in the least.The nose must have been flat because it didnt make but maybe a half inch bump on its face and I couldnt see any ears at that time...The thumb on its had were more chimp like.Higher on the hand and longer.I think it had 5 fingers and there had no hair on the palms.the hairs were more tapered like claws not human fingernails.It only looked across the valley where I was one time and its eyes were brown and animal like large pupils.It hair up to its lower eyes and a wide mouth.Not much in the way or a chin and its forehead was lined deeply.I was using Nikon zoom binoculars that had 7-15x40 power and was able to see a lot of details.I kept wishing for a camera...After viewing it for Id say 15 mins I heard a vocalization very soft from higher on the hill.I never saw what made it and since I only barely caught it couldnt say how it sounded.But the bigfoot looked that way and stood up and made a return sound that almost sounded like too pieces of hard steel rod banged together.Kind of a ping sound and it walked that way.It had no tail and was very broad across the shoulders.I believe these are a unique species and are pure animal.Not in anyway related to humans.However I think their senses like smell and hearing,eyesight are very acute and they have a lot of intelligence thats why people never see them hardly.They dont want to be seen and avoid encounter with man.Never saw one before and never since.But I dont go into the woods before daylight anymore.I wait till I can see.And if mushroom hunting or looking for indian relics I carry a heavy caliber pistol.I wouldnt want the tangle with one of them period.I never told anybody about my sighting.I figured they would think I was nuts.

ALSO NOTICED: It was very watchful.It would raise its head at ever sound and birdcall

OTHER WITNESSES: myself

OTHER STORIES: None nearby

TIME AND CONDITIONS: early morning

ENVIRONMENT: heavy forest and folaige

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator G.E. Stade:

I interviewed the witness by telephone on July 23, 2011. I found the witness to be very credible in his account of his sighting. The witness has hunted since he was seven years old. He was nineteen years old at the time of this sighting. He was hunting in the early morning (8 a.m.) on private property which was owned by a relative. He was dressed in camouflage and had been sitting on a hillside, prior to his sighting. There was no wind. He was located approximately one mile from the nearest human residence. The witness was quiet and stationary for about ten minutes when from 125 yards across the valley on the opposite hillside he saw a flash of black color. He thought it might have been a dog, bear or cow. The witness employed his 15x power binoculars to better view the subject. It would move a few feet then stop, then move a bit more. Finally it moved into a clearing along a fence line, very similar to a clear cut powerline easement.

He was shocked by what he saw and knew immediately that he was looking at a bigfoot. The witness was familiar with the concept of bigfoot due to local talk about the subject and sightings by friends and family. The witness strongly believes that the creature he witnessed was not human but purely animal due to its monkey like movements. Its arms were longer than a humans. He observed the bigfoot, in a bent over at the waist posture with knees about six inches from the ground but never touching the ground, placing its left hand, palm down, on the ground and picking up objects with its right hand to place them in its mouth. It would bite and then discard something from its mouth. It would place other things in its mouth without spitting anything out. The hillside where the creature was feeding was populated by oaks and grapevines so the witness speculates that it was feeding on acorns and possibly wild grapes.

The witness described the arms as muscular and stout but with odd elbow geometry when compared to a human. Even when the arms were fully extended the elbows protruded back a couple inches into somewhat of a point. The witness didn’t observe fingernails but instead what he described as claws extending 1/2" to 3/4" past the end of its fingers.

The witness described the creature as being covered in hair and not fur. Average length of hair was probably 3 inches except 4 inches on its elbows and down the center of its back. The hair on the backs of its thighs was longer at about 5 inches.The overall color was dusky black that had a dull sheen like a charcoal briquet. It had a contrasting silver colored cape which began at the nape of the neck (what little neck it had) and Y’ed out wider as in went down its back. The silvery color went down just past his butt. The hair was neat and clean, not as if combed because it lay differently on different spots of his body. The hair on his chest and belly swept outward while the back hair fell downward. No matting or tangles were observed, nor were there any leaves or debris in its hair. The head hair was quite a bit longer but it didn’t form an edge in the back. It actually swept down and blended in with the rest of the body hair. The facial hair was thinner but it went clear up to just under his eyes. The mustache and beard area had denser or thicker hair cover.

The facial features were gorilla-like but reminded the witness more of an aboriginal human. The mouth was human-like but wider. The skin on the forehead was visible and lined. The eyes were darkly colored, sort of a combination of brown and gold, and lacking any sclera (whites of eyes). The eye shape was not lenticular but more round. It had a pronounced brow ridge and bushy eyebrows. The trapezius muscles forming the back of the neck were so developed and wide that it almost appeared as though it didn’t possess a neck, but it did. However its neck was very thick and short, extending straight down from the side of the head. Skin was visible on the chest as the hair was thinner. He described the chest as possessing a lot more lung area than a human and recalled that the nipple placement was lower than on the typical male human. Witness was able to confirm the gender as male.

The creature was extremely vigilant as it went about its business and always listening. The witness stated that it would turn its head in response to a noise so quickly that if you blinked you’d miss it. The creature looked in the direction of the witness a couple times but it never detected the witness. At one point it stopped feeding and stood straight up. Witness then heard a car traveling on the nearest road. Once the vehicle noise ceased, the creature returned to its foraging. When the creature stood, the witness got his first real look at its size. The witness became emotional describing the size and stated “that thing was big!” He estimates its width at greater than three feet and the height between seven and eight feet. It appeared to have somewhat of a protruding belly but that may have been an illusion caused by the hair. The witness estimates its weight to be at the very least 400 and likely 500 lbs.

Something else made a sound. It sounded kind of like a bull holler and lasted a little longer than one second. The creature stood up and responded with a vocalization that had a metallic ring quality similar to the “ping” made when two metal rods are struck, one against the other. This sound carried clearly through the woods and was very plain to hear. If the witness were to interpret the meaning of the vocalization that he heard it would be something like “where are you?” or “come here.”The witness has heard this same “ping” sound years later in the woods while deer hunting. The creature walked off bipedally at that time in a direction towards the other vocalization. It had a real fluid gate to its walk and was kind of gangly or loose jointed. It swung its arms as it walked with its palms facing straight back, with the hands swinging limp wristed. The hands were about level with its knees. It made very little noise when it walked. The foot was visible to the witness and he observed the heel of the foot strike first as the foot came down to contact the ground. It stepped over a three strand barbed wire fence without even touching the top strand. It then proceeded uphill along the cleared fence line. The witness wasn’t scared but he was very excited because he knew there was another similar type of a creature in the woods and because he didn’t know where the observed creature went after it walked off.

I like to ask a witness to provide their impression of the state of health of the creature and to assign an age in comparison with an equivalent human. The witness stated that “this animal was in his prime and maybe just past whatever age that would be....maybe 40 years. The Patterson Gimlin subject most resembles the creature he observed.

The total duration of the sighting was approximately fifteen minutes, with five minutes of that time only seeing glimpses. The witness entered from the north and suspects that the creature entered the area from the south. The witness is very familiar with the area of the sighting and describes it as being abundant in deer, rabbits and squirrels. Witness has only told one other person about his sighting and that is only because that person told him first about their sighting. The area of this sighting has a very rich local history of bigfoot activity documented in locally published periodicals as well the BFRO’s own database. It is characterized by rugged topography, vast stretches of National Forest and comparatively sparse human populations.

About BFRO Investigator G.E. Stade:

An experienced outdoorsman and naturalist. Mr. Stade attended the following BFRO Expeditions: 2008 & 2009 OK; 2008, 2009 & 2010 MO.

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