YEAR: 1978

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Morrow County

LOCATION DETAILS: Across from the intersection of Main Street and High Street there's an old grain elevator (it's now a thrift shop). Follow the trail and about 200 yards back you come to the old coal loader area. Towards the back of the coal loader area is where the old switch and sign were. The old railroad bed is still there but the train tracks are gone.

NEAREST TOWN: Fulton

NEAREST ROAD: Main Street( C.R. 25) & S.R. 61

OBSERVED: Me and several friends were taking turns riding a mini bike. We would take off from an alley behind the feed mill in Fulton. We would ride back towards the old train coal loading area. There was a wide path that ran alongside the railroad tracks. When it was my turn I jumped on the mini bike and rode down the alley through the coal loading area and onto the wide path that ran alongside the railroad tracks. There was an old switch and sign located just to the right of the path. When I got to the switch I tried to turn the mini bike around but there wasn't enough room. I was crosswise in the middle of the path with the mini bike facing the railroad tracks to the East. On the other side of the tracks there was an embankment that rose about three or four feet high. The embankment was maybe 20 feet from me and covered sparsely with small trees and saplings. I was getting off the mini bike to finish turning it around in the path when I saw movement on the embankment almost directly in front of me. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I froze. I was staring into the eyes of a creature like I had never seen before. I could plainly see the creature’s eyes and face. It had watery looking black eyes. They were very shiny. It was 8 or 9 feet tall and covered with a reddish brown fur. The fur was thick but not long. Its face wasn't completely covered with hair. Around the eye and nose and upper cheeks I could see its skin. Its skin looked kinda bluish to me, or maybe an off color gray. Its chest was really wide and appeared quite muscular. It just stood there with its hand on the trunk of a tree. The other hand was holding a branch back out of the way, like it had been coming down off the embankment but stopped when it saw me. It clearly had a hand that looked like ours but covered with the thick fur. I couldn't see the palms of its hands only the backs and fingers. I noticed that its arms looked extremely long and made the creature look kinda ape-like in that respect. Its lower torso and legs were covered with fur except for some areas on its thighs and knees. I couldn't tell whether it was male or female, I remember having the distinct impression that it was a he though. So there I was standing beside an idling mini bike, and there he was standing on the embankment. We were staring at each other, then it kinda wrinkled up its nose and its eyes narrowed. The spell was broken and I was scared as hell. I thought it was going to come get me. I gunned the throttle on the mini bike and tried to jump on it as it finished its turn on the path. I didn't make it on the mini bike and ran beside it all the way back to where my friends were, with the throttle wide open. When I got to where my friends were waiting I dropped the mini bike and ran all the way home. My friends came over to see what was wrong. They said I looked like I had seen a ghost and had never seen anybody run that fast before. I told them I had seen a giant monster back at the coal loader and thought it was going to try to get me. We talked about it a couple times over the years, but I had pretty much forgotten it until I came across this web site.

ALSO NOTICED: I distinctly remember having the impression that whatever it was, was intelligent. Something about its eyes was kinda weird. The whole eye was black, not just the center, there were no whites. It reminded me of a groundhogs eyes, shiny and black.

OTHER WITNESSES: There were three or four of us taking turns riding the mini bike, but nobody else mentioned seeing anything. I'll give you their names if you ask though I'm sure it would be ok.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 2:00 in the afternoon, on a bright hot summer day.

ENVIRONMENT: Scrub and small trees and saplings. Thicker forest to the North. There's an old limestone quarry about a half mile farther back that's filled with water. The whole area back there used to be quite thickly forested by a large area of woods

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with this witness by telephone for about 1/2 hour and found his encounter quite credible for a number of reasons.

While his report is fairly complete, I can add that:

The eyes left a lasting impression on the witness, he said they locked eyes for what seemed like a long time but was actually only moments.

Hair length ranged from almost ten inches around the head and shoulders to dense but short fur below the elbows and thighs.

He was the second person to ride the mini-bike. After he returned and dumped it, his friend's mother made them put it away for the day. His friends then came looking for him to get an explanation of his actions.

The rail line is currently abandoned, but at the time of the sighting there was a morning and evening train that passed through Fulton.

The mini bike was a Rupp "Low and Slow" model. The kind that a bike could beat hands down. To further confirm the possibility that a person could run alongside the mini-bike I located a person who operates an internet forum for owners of Rupp mini-bikes. His comment was that it was VERY(his emphasis) possible that someone could run beside the mini-bike.

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