YEAR: 1977

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

STATE: Utah

COUNTY: Wasatch County

LOCATION DETAILS: This is located in Timber canyon. GPS coordinateds are N40 1.680 W110 55.891. It is about 14.6 miles from Highway 6 (Spanish Fork Canyon, Soldiers Summit) and 20.2 miles from Highway 40

NEAREST TOWN: Duchesne

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 40

OBSERVED: This is a sighting reported to my by Mike(last name withheld for privacy reasons), a friend that lives in the same area as I do. We went to the sight this past Saturday and Mike showed and told us..(a group of about 20 people) what occurred on the night of the sighting. Mike went back to the sight the week before to make sure he could find it again since it had been 25 years since he had been into Timber Canyon. He and his younger brother Lynn had gone fishing. They had been in the area many times before with their father and other family memebers. They arrived at their intended camp sight, about 7:30...they both had noticed once they entered the canyon that they saw no more wildlife....deer, birds, or anything. Mike remembers having a erie feeling from the very moment they started down into Timber canyon. He recalled hearing no noises, and commented to Lynn about this and the weird feelings he had of something or someone watching them. They had forgotten worms so both went out into the willows and were digging worms...all the while feeling something was watching them.....Mike said the hair on the back of his neck was standing on end when ever he would look around to see if they could see anyone watching them. They return to the truck, lit a lantern and put on the top of the truck...and proceeded to light a fire to roast a hotdog on. His brother and he were sitting on a log and he noticed his brother had opened a beer and was not drinking it and was just staring at something and had ceased to talk to him....he looked in the direction his brother was looking and saw a sasquatch trying to sneek from off the road to a clump of willows and then to another and then proceed to peer at them by holding the willows off to one side and leaning over so he (the sasquatch) could get a good view of them. Mike was so shocked he lost his balance and fell from the log and in getting back up noticed the sasquatch creeping behind the willows moving to the west and south. Mike and his brother then lost visual sight of IT and could hear very loud thrashing noises of the sasquatch going through the creek and willows and up the canyon to the west and south of the camp site. Mike said he did not smell any thing...and figured it was because of the smoke from the fire. Mike estimated the whole sighting and noises lasted two minutes. His younger brother wanted to stay there and sleep in the camper shell...but Mike was impressed very strongly to leave and get out of there.

OTHER WITNESSES: Two Mike and his younger brother Lynn

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was dusk almost dark...moonless night....clear weather

ENVIRONMENT: It is a narrow canyon with a small stream in it, with lots of willows and beaver ponds. Timbered north slopes, and sage and juniper on south slopes.

A & G References: GPS coordinates reference datum WGS84.
T5s R9w sec 19, SE ¼, Uintah Meridian.

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with the report submitter, B. C., who is a friend of the witness and describes him as "a fellow you can trust, a church member and a family man." B. C. struck me as a rational man who has been intrigued with the bigfoot phenomenon for many years and is himself, as it turns out, something of a resource for sasquatch information. Without reservation he agreed to put me in contact with the witness.

Mike, the witness, impressed me as an able observer genuinely affected by his experience. He provided additional information and clarified some details that B. C. had reported, though B. C.'s report is essentially correct.

Mike graduated high school in 1976, about a year prior to the sighting, so he estimates that 1977 is the correct year of the encounter. Timber Canyon is, like other canyons in the area, steep, rocky, craggy and frequently impassable, particularly after a rain. It was during the big drought of the 1970's during fall bow hunting season. The stream there is a 30-foot wide meandering streambed of willows. He and his family had camped there many times before but following this encounter he did not return for 24 years.

He and his brother, Lynn, arrived at camp about 4 or 5 pm. From the moment they entered the canyon there was a pervasive feeling of being watched (even while still in the truck). Mike noted the unusual dead silence...even the normal buzzing of insects was conspicuously absent the entire time they were there. They dug worms in the willows while the sun was beginning to set.

It was breezy that evening. Around 8 or 9 pm Mike and Lynn were sitting on a log by the fire, facing the road, with smoke from the fire in their faces. There were willows between themselves and the road. He recalls that there was not much moonlight but that the lantern light and firelight lit a wide area. His brother had just opened his first beer and hadn't taken even the first drink when he dropped it and was staring toward the road. Mike later learned that for several minutes Lynn had been aware of a large animal moving just outside the edge of the light and had assumed it to be grazing cattle or deer until he actually saw it step down off the road and approach stealthily through the willows. It was at this time that Mike looked to see "a face looking at us." It was "a blank, dark face...a hairy face" at a distance of 30-40 feet. It had a nose. Its eyes were dark and somewhat shiny but not iridescent and no whites were visible. It was tall and the hair color was dark brown or black.

After only a few seconds of eye contact the animal exited right through the willows. "It plowed 'em down. It ran down through the creek and up the hill behind but didn't go far." With the animal somewhere just out of sight on the hillside, Mike and Lynn both were impressed with the feeling that they needed to leave. They did so hastily.

Mike reported this incident to the ranger station in Price. He doesn't know if this was a Forest Service or other agency office, though my investigation determined that this likely was the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Southeastern Regional Office. The ranger there explained to him that due to the drought many area streams were dry but the creek in Timber Canyon was running and that many animals were coming down to the only water. The ranger said, too, that many bowhunters had reported seeing something "interesting." Mike explained that local stories abound and his uncle knew many people in Price who wouldn't go to that canyon or the next canyon over...Sasquatch Canyon, he called it.

Below is photography of the camp spot taken by B. C. on August 18, 2001:

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