YEAR: 1978

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: Late August

STATE: Pennsylvania

COUNTY: Clearfield County

LOCATION DETAILS: If you take Glen Ritchie HWY. out past Clearfield to about 3 miles before dimeling bridge on the right . A very steep driveway will take you down to where we used to live.

NEAREST TOWN: Clearfield ,PA

NEAREST ROAD: Glen Ritchie HWY.

OBSERVED: I was about 9 years old in the summer of 1978 and was sitting on an upper deck area of our house when several things happened at about the same time. I was sitting with my dog when he started growling and going down the steps towards the lower field area of our property. Our horses were running and winneying up towards thier barn. After seeing them running , out of the corner of my eye I noticed something large and black or very dark brown in the lower field . I only caught a glimpse of it but noticed that it was running and had a massive chest. I screamed and my parents and older sister came running out . I remember being so scared that I couldn't talk and was trying to hide behind my Dad while pointing down in the field. It was on two legs and dissapeared right after I screamed. After I calmed down enough to talk I told my parents what I had seen and my Dad wanted me to go with him to look where I had seen this thing. He was going to take a 16 guage shotgun and even then I didn't think that would be enough if this thing decided to attack us.It was probably 100 to 200 yds. away but it was still very big to me at the time. On talking with my Mom and Dad recently about it they had other strange incidents to add. One was something I also remember happening. We would swim in a stream about 1/2 miles from our house and on several occasions there would be sevier crashing and thrashing of brush directly across from where we were fishing or swimming. My Mom was with us on most occasions and remembered that as well. It was one of the most terrifying sounds I've heard since. Very large limbs/small trees being broken and brush being thrashed . Something that got our attention in a hurry! It scared us and we always left never wanting to find out what it was that was making all that racket. My Dad has other stories as well. Thank you.

ALSO NOTICED: My Dad had a strange occurance on the hill side opposite our house. One of our dogs he belived had downed a deer or got stuck in a ground hog hole and he went to get him back home. When he finally caught up to him, he noticed the dog was not stuck nore chasing anything. What the dog was doing was looking in a direction that lead deeper into the forest with his ears up and very focused on something. This dog wasn't afraid of anything and would rome these hills looking for anything to get into. On more than one occasion he would come back with porcupine quills stuck in him and various cuts and gashes after getting into fights with various other animals. He would also hunt ground hogs until he came up with one and killed it. He went about 85 lbs or so , so he wasn't exactly a small dog. Lab/German Shepard mix if I'm not mistaken.Anyway, here he was NOT chasing after what ever it was that got him excited in the first place. My Dad has other details I do not know about.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just myself in this incedint.Watching T.V. , I believe

OTHER STORIES: Just these occurances. We were the only people on that side of the highway for about 5 miles or so. We had nieghbors about a mile or so on the other side but we didn't talk to them about this.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Late afternoon.Still light out but not as late as dusk.Not raining, pretty clear.

ENVIRONMENT: Very heavily wooded/forest area. Many square miles of wilderness. Dimeling Bridge is about 3 miles from our house.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Paul J. Mateja:

I spoke with the witness on 3/18/05 by telephone.

Three things occurred in rapid succession:
1. The horses ran up to the barn; they were very agitated, as if something had spooked them.
2. The family dog was facing the field where the horses had been and was growling intently at something.
3. The witness saw a creature running in the field. It was:
- Approximately 200 yards away (the witness is far from certain of the exact distance)
- The creature had a massive chest, muscular shoulders; this made the most impression on the witness.
- It was dark brown to black in color. The head seemed darker than the rest of the body.
- It was running toward the house. In retrospect, the witness believes it was chasing the horses

The sighting lasted about 3 seconds before the creature veered off to the left. The witness pointed out that the area it ran to was toward a creek where other odd incidents had occurred as noted in the submitted report.

I later spoke with the witness' mother. She shared the following:

She does remember the incident well. She said that her son was so scared his lips had turned blue and he could not speak. After he calmed down, he said that he had seen something running in the field. Her husband went down to check out the area but found nothing. She said that she and her husband did not realize at the time that their son had seen something running on two legs. They had assumed it was a four legged animal and could not understand why it had frightened him so. It was much later as the family discussed the incident that they realized it was a two legged creature.

She also conveyed an incident of her own that occurred the winter after her son's sighting. At the time she did not realize what she had seen. It was snowing hard and she was heading to work at approximately 3:00 p.m. She got her car stuck at the end of their long driveway. A logging service road intersected their driveway very near where the car got stuck. As she was digging herself out a "man" came into view down on the service road approximately 50 yards away. She did not give it too much attention because she was late for work and needed to get her car unstuck. She did think it odd that this "man" was walking around during the heavy snow. The "man" walked a short distance then sat down in the snow and appeared to be digging for something. This too she thought was very odd. The "man" appeared to be wearing a dark, heavy overcoat. It walked in an odd sort of manner, not quite like a human. Only many years later did she give consideration to the idea that she may have seen a Bigfoot.

About BFRO Investigator Paul J. Mateja:

Paul is a network administrator and systems analyst/programmer for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, NY. In addition, Paul and his wife Teresa own and operate a small organic farm in western New York State. He has attended and organized expeditions including New Mexico (Jicarilla), New York (Adirondacks), Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

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