YEAR: 1958

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: January

DATE: mid month

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Noble County

LOCATION DETAILS: Closest town was Harriettsville. Closest main road is State Route 145. Right on the border of Noble and Washington Counties.

NEAREST TOWN: Harriettsville

NEAREST ROAD: State Route 145

OBSERVED: While during some yard chores, we noticed a series of tracks going into the hollow on our property. Upon examination, we realized these were very large barefoot human like tracks. They were close to 13 inches long and over 6 inches wide at the toes. They were leading into some thickets so we decided not to follow. What impressed us more than anything was the stride between the tracks. The stride was at least 4 1/2 to 5 feet long. Being very familiar with bears, we knew these were not bear tracks because of the enormous size, lack of claws, and human like shape. The game warden came out the next day to view the tracks. He had no idea what could have made the tracks. Especially anything native to Ohio. To this day, we have no clue what could have made those tracks!

ALSO NOTICED: We had a very large black bear on our property the previous year. I witnessed it at close range and its tracks were visible on many occasions. These tracks were in no way similar to the tracks mentioned above. They were much smaller in size.

OTHER WITNESSES: My wife and I and the Game Warden.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was around 5 PM, there was snow on the ground and it was cold out.

ENVIRONMENT: Back side of our 190 acre farm. Heavily wooded hollow with plenty of rolling hills all around.

Follow-up investigation report:

1-26-04 The witness's made contact with me via a newspaper advertisement that I ran in a local newspaper in 2001. They no longer own the farm and are quite old in age, but still vividly remember the tracks. There were ten tracks or more that they looked at. Once the tracks entered the hollow and into the thickets they decided it wasn't a good idea to follow them. The husband stated that whatever it was looked as though it was walking a tight rope (straight line) as it placed its feet. Five toes were quite evident in all the tracks. It was very cold weather with snow on the ground at the time of the incident. They estimated the tracks were made the night before since they didn't notice them the day before while doing chores. The location of the tracks was less than five miles from Wayne National Forest. Wayne National Forest was created in 1934 and is still to this day Ohio's only national forest.

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