YEAR: 2012

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 30

STATE: Montana

COUNTY: Carbon County

NEAREST TOWN: Red Lodge

OBSERVED: I went to visit my brother who had gotten a firefighting job up in Montana recently and on one of his days off, I wanted to go up into the secluded woods on a hike. Since he was working with the forestry service, he knew of a place that was very secluded and was extremely thick forested. We hiked about a mile and a half up into the mountains and about half way up, we crossed a little creek about 4 to 5 feet wide. I stopped and pulled out my phone to take a picture of the upstream view. I got the picture and we continued on without realizing what he had just done. Later that night I was going through the pictures of that days hike, when I came across something in one of the pictures that was extremely startling. About 45-50 feet from where I took the picture, there was a black figure that seemed to be sitting near the bank of the creek looking right as us. Curious about what I had seen, a few days later when my father arrived to visit my brother, I took him to the place I had taken the picture. Sure enough, where there had so clearly been something sitting next to the creek, there was nothing. In fact there were even freshly broken branches off trees that were no where near the spot it was sitting. I took more photos with my father sitting in where we suspected it was and there is a clear and definite difference where there was a figure sitting, nothing sitting there, and my dad sitting in the same place.

ALSO NOTICED: i have excellent photos that i would like to personally share with researchers so that they may see there was no tampering or messing with the photos on my camera

OTHER WITNESSES: 2. me and my brother were just hiking

OTHER STORIES: no

TIME AND CONDITIONS: around 9:00 am. sunny with much shade from surrounding trees.

ENVIRONMENT: pine forest at a creek

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator R. Monteith:

The gentleman visited his brother in Red Lodge. On June 30, they went hiking around Rosebud Creek.

Google earth image of the location:



He took several photos with his iPhone, and when he reviewed them that night, he saw something he hadn’t noticed while taking a photo at the creek - a solid black object sitting near the creek.

Original photo:



Negative of the original:



When he returned the next day with his father, the large black figure was no longer there. He had his father sit in the same place (there was about one hour’s difference in the time of day) for size comparison. His father is about 6 feet tall, and the black figure sits much taller, and is much broader in size.

Photo comparison with Dad:



Cropped photo with Dad:



Cropped photo of the original:



Original photo enhanced:



A photo was also taken of where the black object was sitting before they recreated the photo, and broken tree branches were found:



Interestingly, the tree branches were taken from was over 20 feet away.

I've added a photo of a black bear sitting, to compare the posture:



Also, these are images of “Patty’s” back, stills taken from the Patterson-Gimlin film for comparison:



It is clear something large and black is in the photo. Although there are black bears in the area, what is pictured does not appear to have black bear characteristics when it sits. It seems a bear would place its arms in a different place. Also, most bears would have not remained still as the hikers approached.

About BFRO Investigator R. Monteith:

Re Monteith has had a life-long interest in Bigfoot and has an extensive background in outdoor land and ocean survival as well as mountaineering. She has tran-sailed the Atlantic, backpacked in remote places throughout the world and has climbed three of the seven summits. She studied International Relations at Florida International University, and is a Financial and Real Estate Consultant. She has participated in many private expeditions as well as the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 BFRO North Florida Expeditions and the 2013 BFRO UP Michigan & Alabama Expedition. She also organized Florida's 2017 Town Hall Meeting. She was an Executive Producer of the documentary film, "Skunk Ape Lives" and featured as a Crypto Expert on The Science Channel's television show, Strange Evidence for seasons 2 - 5.

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