YEAR: 1997

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

STATE: California

COUNTY: San Bernardino County

LOCATION DETAILS: From the Main st. exit on I-15 go east until you get to Choiceana Ave. turn left and go north to Lemon Ave. and turn right. You are now on a dirt road that will take you to the river bed infact you'll be able to see it from Choiceana. In winter the river will have water in it, but if someone is going to go out there, the river is dry in summer. You'll need a guide to find the exact spot, for there are no land marks that you'd recognize if your not from this area. To the north about two miles is a small lake, and to the south about half a day on horse back is Silverwood lake.

NEAREST TOWN: Hespreria

NEAREST ROAD: Choiceana Ave.,and Lemon

OBSERVED: Dear Sir, I am a paranormal researcher/investigator and freelance writer, with a special interest in Bigfoot. Five years ago I interviewed a group of young people regarding a sighting. The sighting took place in the Mojave rive bed in Hesperia California. The first report came from five teenage boys who were exploring down in the riverbed late in the after noon when a noise in the dense under brush that grows in places along the river startled them.

They said the noise sounded like something big moving through it. When they moved closer to get a look they said they saw a large hairy ape like creature. As this frightened them, the boys ran home and told their parents, which is when I first heard the story. The boy’s father went down into the area of the sighting with a gun to see if he could see what the boys had reported, but found nothing.

The boy’s older sister rode her horse down to the spot on two consecutive days, to try and get a look at the creature. On the second day, her efforts were rewarded. In her statement to me she said, "I was riding north in the river bed on my way home after searching for several hours, when I came to an area where there are two stands of cottonwood and pepper trees one on each side of the trail. My horse spooked and didn't want to go on. I looked around and to my right I saw a tall hairy thing standing there looking at me. It looked at me for about a minute, then I turned my horse and ran her in the opposite direction and took another trail home."

I investigated the area and though I wasn't able to see the Bigfoot itself, I did find what seemed to be a nest of sorts where the animal had been bedding down. I also found footprints that measured twenty inches by eleven inches. These prints were in very soft deep river sand so I'm sure the size is out of proportion, but maybe this will assist you in determining the animal’s size. When I asked the young woman about color she said it was a dark brown or black. I didn't think about it after making my own documentation until I read the recent article in the Mohave Daily News Archives.

After reading the article I thought my information might be useful to you. My neighbor took some pictures of the footprints, and though they are of very poor quality I might be able to acquire them for you if you want. Unfortunately my witnesses wish to remain anonymous.

ALSO NOTICED: For the rest of that summer there were times that our saddle horses would refuse to go through the area, and we would have to go way around the spot to continue on our way.

OTHER WITNESSES: There were six witnesses, nine if you count myself and my neighbors, but we didnt' actualy see the creature.

OTHER STORIES: No other incedents to report at this time.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Both incidents took place between 3 and 6 p.m.
Lighting conditions were good.
Weather conditions were clear and sunny.

ENVIRONMENT: Dry river bed with heavy brush and trees in the imeadeate area. Mostly open desert surrounding the area. Also to the north is a highway with a bridge that crosses the river bed (Bear Valley Rd.)

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

On the 9th of November 2002, I met with George S. at an overlook site that lets you view most of the area where the sightings took pace. While viewing this area, Stacy G., the young lady that made the 1997 sighting, rode by on her three-wheel ATV, and I got to meet with and interview her.

Stacy’s interview:
The reason that Stacy was looking for this creature in the first place was the fact that her brothers came running home shouting about a hairy creature that had chased them out of the river bed, and they were scared to death. On her second outing, she was coming home in the late afternoon and observed what she called a monkey man walking parallel to her at about 75 to 100 yards away, close to the tree and brush island that was located in that dry river bed. She observed that the knees were slightly bent as it walked. It then stopped, turned, and looked at her. She and it, the creature, faced each other for a little under a minute. She could not really understand what she was seeing, standing about 75 to 100 yards away. She noticed that the face was black, but she couldn’t make out any facial features except to say the face seemed round and had some hair on and around it. The height seemed to be about six feet tall and it was a dark brown in color with long hair all over its body. The arms seemed extra long, its back was very straight, the head seemed large and it had no ears showing. The creature then turned and disappeared into the underbrush, walking then crouching.

Stacy went home and tried to convince her family and friends just what she saw but all thought her a little strange and laughed it off as a joke. Stacy also stated that during that same time period her family and neighbors were losing their pets and livestock like pigs, ducks and geese, but they never put the sightings and the disappearance of their animals together. She also observed that her animals became very quiet at night and seemed frightened.

George’s interview:
George now says that his horses still refuse to get close to that area, and he also stated that people have seen and heard things in that same area during the recent past, like several months ago. He seems to think that the most active time of the year is around August through September. Per George, there are several trout ponds with ducks and other wildlife just north of this bedding area in the Mojave River.

George is the one who found the bedding area and a footprint impression down in the riverbed close to where Stacy had her sighting back in 1997. The footprint was about twenty inches in length and about eleven inches wide, so there may have been more than one creature staying in that river bed. Stacy also observed a footprint; she described it by using her hands as about fourteen inches long and about eight inches wide. George and Stacy both described the bedding area as a carved out area under the thick brush and said that it seemed like it would have been very comfortable for almost any animal to sleep on.

Review:
After interviewing both parties, George and Stacy, I believe what they told me was the truth. I think that Stacy saw a young creature, maybe like what we would call a teenager, because it was so careless with its encounters with humans and the size of the footprint she witnessed. Stacy thought the creature might have been a male, because she did not see any mammary glands on the creature’s chest. With George’s footprint being described as much larger, there is a good possibility there might have been more than one creature living in that river bed.

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