Media Article # 226
Article submitted by Richard Noll

Wednesday, April 21, 1982

Man, beast or Sasquatch?

By Staff Writer
Aberdeen World

Three sets of (g)igantic footprints were sighted near Elma, Brady and Matlock Wednesday, and Deputy Dennis Heryford - a local Sasqualogist - wasted no time collecting hair samples and taking plaster casts and photographs of the impressions.

A Shelton logger, Don Makoviney, showed deputies a set of large footprints he spotted in the woods northeast of the Ventron plant shortly after 2 p.m., according to Sgt. Lewis Lennich, who responded to the call.

"It was just a footprint," Lennich said. "I guess you could call it big."

Deputies later that evening responded to a call from Pat West of Elma, and discovered two different sets of tracks near Worman's Bar on the Satsop River in Brady, Heryford said.

Footprints indicate the creatures left the river via the boat launch at Worman's Bar, the deputy said. At that point the tracks diverge: one continued over the boat launch and the other climbed over the bank, he said.

One set of footprints measured 17 inches long by 7 inches wide, and the other was 15 inches long and 5 inches wide, Heryford said.

"It's hard to say" if the prints were made by the legendary "Bigfoot," Heryford said. "If it was a hoax, the person went all out to do it. We had a 260-pound deputy jump next to the footprints, and he didn't make near the impression."

Heryford said the third sighting in Matlock was reported personally to him by a friend of the family who noticed large footprints in her garden Wednesday afternoon.

Heryford compared the East County prints to those spotted in California's Bluff Creek, where many people claim to have seen the elusive biped.

"A person could get a hold of it (the print) in the library," Heryford said. "But they'd have to whittle all day" to imitate a realistic footprint, complete with flexible toes and a 10-foot stride.

"I'm impressed by the track," the deputy said, adding that a person couldn't fake a 10-foot stride without leaving his or her own footprints behind. Human tracks found at the scene didn't indicate that pattern, and were probably left by people enjoying the weather, he said.

Hair samples collected from the prints will be sent to Seattle for analysis, Heryford said. If the hair is unclassifiable, belonging to an animal that is not on record, "then we will put more emphasis on these sightings."

Montesano

From John Green's files

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