YEAR: 1947/48

SEASON: Summer

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Putnam County

LOCATION DETAILS: The open pine woods of north Florida.

NEAREST TOWN: Palatka, Florida

NEAREST ROAD: US 17

OBSERVED: This incident happened around 1947/48. I was about 12/13 years of age. I have held this incident in my mind's eye all these years and have tried to figure out what I had seen. After reading sightings and descriptions on your website, I beleive what I saw could well have been a sasquatch.

It was summer time and I was riding my horse, Jenny. We were going to visit a neighbor. I was on my regular path through the woods when I saw a lone, large, dark figure. At first I thought it was a man making "cat faces" on the pine trees. There were a lot of trees in that area that were being used to collect resin. It looked as if the man had on a raincoat. That seemed very strange to me as it was a clear and hot day. And then when I looked closer, it looked like a fur coat and that really made no sense because it was summer and very warm. The "person" was a distance from me and I hesitate to even try and say how far. As I was scrutinizing this "person", Jenny suddenly stopped and threw her ears forward and raised her head. She, too, had seen the "man". I urged her to go forward by kicking her in her sides, but she refused to move. I decided to turn her around and go another direction in order to make her think we were not interested in the "man". She gladly went in the oposite direction. When I saw she would go in another direction, I turned her around and again proceeded toward the "man". Because Jenny sensed a danger, I was uneasy at this point. She continued to carry me in the direction of the furry man until we approached to spot she had stopped at before. She again pointed her ears forward, raised her head, smelled the air and refused to move another step.

I watched the creature for awhile as I felt I was at a safe distance. It was at a large pine tree. It was making up and down motions (like it could have been scratching its back). The arms seemed to be raised in the air as it made these undulating motions. I sat there on Jenny trying to figure out if the creature had on a fur coat or a rain coat and if so, what for? As I mentioned, I have pondered this for years and it finally makes sense to me in the context of a sasquatch sighting.

This took place in Putnam County about 5 miles northe of US 17 in the deep pine forest near my home. Rice Creek is about 1 mile further north on US 17. The nearest town is Palatka, Florida - about 5 miles.

My mother used to tell me of hearing screams like a woman screaming. Of course, that could have been a panther. I never heard any of these sounds.

ALSO NOTICED: The "man" paid no attention to us, but then we made no noise or any other effort to
get his attention.

OTHER WITNESSES: only me

OTHER STORIES: No.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: I do not remember the time of day. It was a clear, bright, hot summer day.

ENVIRONMENT: pine forest

Follow-up investigation report:

As the witness recalls it, the " man " in question was very large, black and hairy in appearance. The raincoat reference is used as a term in regard to the hair covering it "from head to toe."

A bear or other large animal cannot be 100% ruled out due to the creature not observed dropping to all fours.

The witness also questions whether or not this was an encounter with a bigfoot or something else.

Unfortunately the amount of time that has passed has made a lot of the details hard for the witness to recall exactly, as would be expected.

I did find the witness to be very sincere and credible in recounting her story.

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