YEAR: 1999

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 21st

STATE: Wisconsin

COUNTY: Oneida County

LOCATION DETAILS: State Hwy 17 North to Rolling Acres Rd

NEAREST TOWN: Sugar Camp Wisconsin

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 17 and Rolling acres road

OBSERVED: I know that after 13 years it might be a little late in reporting this but I did report this but heard nothing back from anyone.
This report although old is still as vivid as the day it happened. November 1999 during the Wisconsin 9 day gun hunt for deer in Oneida County in the small rural area of Sugar Camp at the Consolidated Paper land just East of Sugar Camp.
Time of day was around 9:30, it was cold that day with temps in the lower teens, it was however sunny and quite comfortable in the sun. I was in a tree stand in some new growth pines when I spotted a Buck of considerable size through the thick underbrush. Not wanting to take a shot and missing, I saw that the buck was heading towards my son about 100 yards away. After 10 minutes or so I got down from my stand and walked over to where I saw the buck and indeed there were tracks so I followed them which led me across a logging road only 50 yards from my sons stand. When I reached the logging road I called on the radio to him to see if he saw anything run across and he stated he did not. I told him I was going to continue to track this buck and to keep his eyes open. I then entered a very dense part of the woods and even though it was sunny it was surprisingly dark in this dense area. I then looked ahead and realized it was also absent of any snow and was still mossy looking. I lost the tracks but I continued to walk deeper into this interesting area. I walked about a 100 yds down a slope to a creek bottom that still had running water which I found odd. At the bottom I found some deadfall to rest by and I lit up a smoke, as I sat there I got this strange feeling something was watching me, as I looked around a disgusting smell came over me and every hair on my body was at full attention. Before I continue you need to know that I was raised in the Northern part of Minnesota and it wasn’t uncommon to be in the woods either day or night. I have never been afraid of the woods and do not have any problem when it is dark. I have been startled in the woods but never scared to death. Scared and fearful is what I felt that day. I am not one to pull both my pistol out and unsafe my rifle but that is exactly what I did, I snuffed my smoke and I started walking back out of there when the smell became so harsh and it felt that something was so close but I could not see it. I need to also mention that I heard nothing. As I continued up the slope I found myself running instead of walking and I was ready to fire my weapons at anything that moved. When I reached the top of the hill and broke out of the thick woods onto the logging road my son saw me and was scared because he didn’t know what scared the hell out of me.
When I reached the top there was still a faint smell in the air but soon subsided. The time of day was now 10:30 AM and I was done hunting for the day. I then hooked up with my hunting buddys and we all decided to call it a day as they saw how upset I was. Arriving at the bar for some much needed beverages an older guy over heard us talking about my incident and came over to catch all the details. Upon learning where this happened his only words were I know where you were and I will never go back, he then walked away without sharing anything else.
This concludes my report, I realize it’s not much but there have been other incidents in the same general area that my buddys have talked about.
Thank you,

ALSO NOTICED: I wasn't going back in there for nothing.

OTHER WITNESSES: My son was there, he was in a tree stand about 50 yards from where this occured.

OTHER STORIES: Only rumors.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Between 0930 1030

ENVIRONMENT: New growth and old growth timber, lots of Pines and incident occured in the bottom creek area.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Robert Barhite:

I interviewed Joseph, and after thirteen years he is still shaken by his encounter. Initially he wasn't sure what to make of the incident until recently when he came across "Finding Bigfoot" and after talking to people in the area. Besides his son, Joseph was accompanied by his hunting buddies including a law enforcement officer.

Joseph explained that he's an avid outdoorsman and hunter, and has been around big cats and bears before. He has experience being in deep woods at night tracking deer. But, this time was different. This time he felt that he was the prey.

As he made his way to the bottoms the air temperature was warm enough that the water wasn't frozen. At first he noticed that there wasn't any other animals around; any sounds of birds, no squirrels, nothing at all. Then he noticed the smell, which he described as a smell so putrid that to this day he still cannot get it out of his head. It was a very intense odor which hung in the air. Joseph stated that as a former fireman he's had to remove bodies from burning buildings, and the odor he encountered in the bottoms was more overpowering and putrid. It was like rotten meat and wet dog but really overpowering.

As he started looking around for the source of the odor he had the sense that he was being hunted, which unnerved him to the point that he decided it was time to leave the area. On the way out he felt as if he was being escorted out by some thing, but all he could hear was his own heart. He raced out of the bottoms with his sidearm and rifle loaded and the safeties off. Upon returning to the road, his son told him that he looked like death warmed over. It was only about 10:30 am or so, and he was done for the day.

Located in far north central Wisconsin, Oneida County has a total area of 1,236 square miles (3,201 km²), of which 1,124 square miles (2,912 km²) is land and 111 square miles (288 km²) (9.01%) is water. As of 2010 the population was 35,998. It's heavily forested and is popular with hunters and sportsmen.

About BFRO Investigator Robert Barhite:

A native of far northeast Iowa, Robert has always had an intense interest in Bigfoot and exploring the great outdoors.

His first expedition was the 2012 BFRO Iowa Hill Country Expedition He the 2013 Iowa Big River Expedition, 2013 Oregon Cascades Expedition, 2013 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition, 2014 and 2015 Wisconsin Expeditions, 2014 Iowa Expedition, and the 2015 Iowa Spring Expedition. Since 2012 Robert has participated in several private expeditions in Iowa and in Wisconsin. In addition to expeditions, he has conducted numerous solo research trips in Iowa and Wisconsin throughout 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. And for the last two years has been a guest lecturer at the request of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Robert led the 2016 Iowa Spring Expedition and is assisting with the 2016 Iowa Fall Expedition and is scouting locations across North America for 2017 expeditions, and continues to monitor activity in a long-term study location in the Midwest.

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