YEAR: 1986

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

DATE: 15

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Pierce County

NEAREST TOWN: Dupont and Fort Lewis, Wa

NEAREST ROAD: Flora Rd, Plank Rd

OBSERVED: I was working as a Military Police law enforcement command soldier at Fort Lewis, Washington from November 1985 to December 1986. My barracks were on North Fort Lewis. We commonly drove from the main post provost marshal office via the Pendleton Road route into north fort. In the early fall of 1986, I was travelling this route as I had many times before in the company of my partner and friend, also an M.P., who is from Oregon. We had often spoken and joked about various legends we had heard about Sasquatch inhabiting or existing in the Pacific Northwest, and being from Ohio, I was a thorough non-believer. We were travelling northwest along Flora Rd on north Fort Lewis between the Fort Lewis Museum and 41st Division Drive, approximately ¾ mile from San Francisco Ave, at twilight, when we observed a large fur covered animal cross the road from left (w) to right (e) in approximately four (4 ) steps. It was walking upright, had a long lumbering gait, long arms, a large head, and walked mildly stooped at the shoulders, and appeared to be at least 8 feet tall. We stopped the truck and flipped on the bright headlights. Initially thinking it was a bear, I slowly rolled closer, excited about seeing my first wild bear on post. We were approximately 50 to 80 yards away, at the time. The animal stopped on the right side of the roadway at the edge of the trees, turned and looked towards us, and with one step, disappeared into the trees. I remember trembling and thinking I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was definitely NOT a bear! My partner and I stopped in the roadway, and got out of the truck. We saw where the pine limbs were still shaking where they had been parted by the animal, as it moved through. We could hear it walking ahead of us by about 30 or so yards, and then the walking noise stopped. We walked into the trees, towards where we last heard the sound. We both had our flashlights, but it was not yet quite dark, and were still in our camouflage uniforms. My friend was about 5 yards ahead of me, and we had gone about 30 yards into the woods, when a large limb cracked in a tree just ahead of us and there was a scream unlike anything I had ever heard. My friend turned towards me and began sprinting back towards the road, past me, yelling “run”, with his eyes wide open. I turned, running, to follow him and whatever the animal was, was now behind us, wailing what resembled a scream. We got back to the truck and we both noted that the other was “white as a ghost”. We rode back to the barracks in near silence. We both agreed that we had just witnessed and heard a bigfoot! The next day, after calming down considerably, we went back to the spot and found several high tree limbs bent and broken by something very large and very tall. The ground had a covering of both fresh green and brown pine needles, but no evidence of footprints. It has always been a running joke between us, even after all these years, that we encountered a sasquatch that evening. I have been a believer since that day. Many of our friends laughed at us when we told them, but several later admitted that they had seen something similar crossing the roads during late evening patrols around Ft Lewis, especially in the more remote training areas and roads, and near Solo Point at Puget Sound or near Sequalitchew Lake on North Fort Lewis. I will never forget that day!

OTHER WITNESSES: We were both riding in my truck. Two of us.

OTHER STORIES: Noted above.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It would've been apporoxmately 30-45 minutes before sundown. It was medium light (twilight),with long shadows and objects in the road were easily visible without aid of headlights. There were large pine trees on both sides of the road and the forest was mildly dense next to the road. It was dry and warm at the time this occurred.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest, at the time, this area adjacent to the road was not heavily developed,and was not heavily traveled. there was a large lake within 1/2 to 3/4 mile to the west of where this occurred, and I-5 and a security/boundary fence line was approximately 1 mile east.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Scott Taylor:

I interviewed this witness over the phone. He no longer lives in this area. Since the sighting was in 1986, and this area is not accessible to civilians, there is no need to do an on-site investigation. However, the site can be viewed quite well using Google Earth. What we have learned from the many sightings around the area is that sasquatches are comfortable very near inhabited areas. Reports of sightings around and on what is now called Joint Base Lewis-McChord are still commonplace.

The witness described very clearly what they encountered that day in 1986. From interviewing him, there are a few more details.

Additional details. The next day they went back to the site to see what evidence they could find. He said that there were no tracks, but he did find large impressions in the forest duff. He found a limb about six inches in diameter that had been broken. He said that the creature actually chased them out of the woods.

I asked him about details of the creature. He said that the hair was several inches long, shaggy and matted (texture similar to a mountain goats hair). The color was dark brown, but that there were patches of lighter colored hair. The head looked gorilla like, but larger. The brow was more prominent than a gorilla’s and the top of the head showed a sagittal crest. There was hair above and below the ears, which he could see and were black in color. They were described as size appropriate for a head that large. The arms were very long, with the fingers coming to just above the knees. The creature moved with a natural, unhurried gait, slightly hunched forward. The stride was long, and it crossed the two-lane road in four steps.

I was given contact information of his partner and would like to hear his account of the events. If that happens I will update this report accordingly.

Based on the sighting along with details of its appearance, the limb being broken, the smell, the screaming-roar, and being chased, there is more than enough evidence to say that this witness did see a sasquatch.

About BFRO Investigator Scott Taylor:

Scott Taylor is a retired aerospace manager. He lives in Mason County, Washington. He had his first bigfoot encounter in October 2005 where he was stalked and later heard vocalizations.

Scott has attended official BFRO Expeditions in the Washington Cascades in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. He also attended 2007 Central Oregon Cascades and 2007 Utah. He now organizes BFRO expeditions in Washington and has participated in bigfoot conferences over the past 17 years.

Scott will be leading a Washington BFRO expedition in 2025 (July 17-20) which is open to non-members. For more details and registration information for that trip click here.

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