YEAR: 2014

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: Friday, June 13th

STATE: Wisconsin

COUNTY: Polk County

LOCATION DETAILS: South Campground of Interstate State Park

NEAREST TOWN: St. Croix Falls, WI

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 8

OBSERVED: We set out to do some squatching at Interstate State Park in Wisconsin. Our party consisted of 4 adults and 2 children. We set up camp and had dinner in the South Campground. After dark we began our first night op at 10pm. We left my wife and the 2 year old in camp with the fire. Nick, his pregnant wife Jennie, their 5 year old son Atticus, and I went up a small ridge above our campsite to begin. We walked slowly working south east of camp and further from the campground. After about 5 minutes we heard something in the woods following us intermittently we stopped and waited with lights off for about 4 minutes. We continued to walk and stop with lights off until we got about a half mile from the camp. At this point Atticus, the 5 year old, was ready to go back. We started back and then stopped to do some whoops. I did two whoops spaced about 30 seconds apart, no returned noises. We continued to walk and stop. When we were halfway back we let Atticus try some whoops. He did two about 30 seconds apart. After his second whoop there was an immediate response from within a hundred yards of us. It was a slightly higher pitch whoop than I have heard before. We waited about 4 minutes before continuing to go back to camp. When we were about 100 yards from camp we stopped. Jennie and Nick remained with lights off as Atticus and I turned our flashlights on and returned to camp. As they sat by a tree they both heard something approaching them from the direction of the returned whoop. It got so close that Nick stood up. Then it took “four large, quick, heavy steps” back. When Nick turned his flashlight on nothing was seen. They then returned to camp. As we sat and debriefed in camp we heard noises around camp, but dismissed them as raccoons. I was looking to the woods beyond camp and began to see orange eye shine. I thought it was a single star, but it moved lightly and would leave and return into view. The next morning I saw that where I was seeing the glow was well below the ridge line and could not have been a star. Nick and I traded places while sitting in camp and he saw the same shine leave and return a few times as well. Nick and I returned to near where he and Jennie had sat to leave an apple in a tree. We all went to bed around 12:30 am. Nick, Atticus, and I slept in a tent while Jennie, Sara and Hagen slept in a small teardrop camper. After falling asleep Nick and I both woke up abruptly at 1:35am. We immediately looked outside the tent to see a raccoon on the picnic table. When we made noises to scare it away we heard something else moving around camp. We listened for a while before returning to sleep. At 3:10 am we were woke up again. We listened for a while, heard nothing, and went back to bed. In the morning Jennie told us what happened to them in the camper. At 1:35 am she was woke up not by the raccoon on the picnic table, but by something large walking in the woods behind camp. She heard us scare away the raccoon and whatever was in the woods walked off. At 3:10 am something started to shake the camper. She said the camper was moved back and forth 3 times. Her reaction was to laugh out loud from inside the camper. She laughed because Sara and Hagen were sleeping through the event. The shaking stopped and she heard something retreat back into the woods.

ALSO NOTICED: Multiple stick structures present in surrounding woods. Likely made by campers, yet some were very large saplings that had been twisted around other trees a full turn or more. Saw multiple large compressions, but the ground does not allow full tracks to be left.

OTHER WITNESSES: Nick (28), Jennie (26), Atticus (5), and Hagen (2) Robson. Sara (30).

OTHER STORIES: No. Picked the area to go squatching after attending the BFRO Iowa Expedition this Spring.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Full moon beginning around 10pm.

ENVIRONMENT: Mixed woodlands, high ridges, St. Croix River Valley.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Robert Barhite:

I interviewed KB, who I met at the 2014 Iowa BFRO Expedition and worked with closely. He is a very experienced outdoorsman who spent a considerable amount of time hiking the most challenging terrain where the expedition was held in search of physical evidence.

At Interstate State Park he used the knowledge he picked up at the Iowa Expedition regarding how to choose a location for a likely encounter which is why he chose the park and south camp site #68. As KB reported he conducted a night operation consisting of three adults and one child on a trail near the camp site. When they started out they heard something paralleling them in the woods. As they were returning to camp the child did a series of whoops, which provoked an immediate response. KB said the whoop had a pronounced "wh" sound at the start and ended with a clear "p" When KB asked the five year old if he was scared, the five year old said, "I'm not scare cuz it's Bigfoot that's scared of me!" KB split up the group - KB and the five year old continued on while two remained behind, and something large approached the two who remained behind.

When they returned to camp to discuss the events, KB began to see what's best described by some as eye glow - a phenomenon long associated with Sasquatch. He and another person would trade positions, and the other person also saw the same glow; which was orange, changed in intensity, moved back and forth, leave, then return. When KB examined the location the next morning, the spot was below the horizon and where there were few tree branches.

The next evening about 1:35 am they began to hear something large walk near their trailer. And about 3:10 am something significantly shook the trailer three times hard enough that it dislodged the jack. As soon as one of the campers began to laugh (because two campers were sleeping through the event) the shaking stopped.

All in all, KB did a great job recording the significant experiences of the two days.

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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