YEAR: Late 60's

SEASON: Fall

STATE: Michigan

COUNTY: Iron County

NEAREST TOWN: Iron River/Crystal Falls

NEAREST ROAD: US 2

OBSERVED: The sighting that occurred in the late 1960s was in an area which is off Hwy US 2 between Iron River and Crystal Falls. This is where my brothers and I grew up.

At the very end of the road, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 miles in, is an old farm. My brothers and I, as kids, were driving deer in mid November during hunting season. My brother was posted along the western fence line of a 40 that is 1/4 mile farther than the end of the road and then 1/4 mile or slightly more west. (I have looked for this 40 acres on google earth recently and it shows up very well. You can still see the fence line.) My step-uncle raised beef so all his 40s were well fenced with 4 or 5 strands of barbed wire and roads along all the fence lines. As we were maybe half way through our drive, two deer came running towards us and jumped the northern fence line. When we finished the drive and I talked to my brother he was excited and scared, he said he saw an abominable snowman. We didn't know about bigfoots back then. I didn't want to believe him but he wasn't the type of kid to make up a story like that. I saw tracks in the snow but I just thought it was from the deer. Now that we are adults, he is 53 now, his story is the same. He said when he was posted he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked along the fence line. The bigfoot stepped over the barbed wire fence, coming from the west, and then stepped over the fenceline on the north, the direction the deer went. He said It was huge, about 8 feet at least, and hairy, brown/black and could just step over the barbed wire fence with no problem. The area was wooded with mature aspen and evergreens with some underbrush. There are lakes in the area and springs and a railroad grade. The weather was clear and it was around mid day. There was some snow cover on the ground but not very deep. The wildlife in those days was mostly deer and bear. Now there are wild turkeys, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, deer and bear.

OTHER WITNESSES: alone on the road

OTHER STORIES: Last year, June 2010, my niece was driving home from work around 11:30 pm. She was driving east on Hwy US 2 from Iron River to Crystal Falls. About 1/4 mi. east of the Bates-Amasa Road and slightly west of the road side park, a Bigfoot crossed the highway in front of her. It was going from south to north. The area to the immediate north of the Hwy has very old mature Elm and Maple/hardwoods with little underbrush then fades to older farm lands. The area it came from has hardwoods immediately by the highway going back to brushy clearings with raspberry brush and then my aunt's backyard.

I also want to talk to my cousins who live where my niece had her sighting as they were kind of terrorized one night while sleeping in a "fort" they had made in the wooded lot next to their house. They were 4 tough boys and did not want to stay out there again. (That was when we were kids.) We are all in our 50's now.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: clear weather, some snow on the ground, mid-morning, before noon

ENVIRONMENT: Farm land, low swamp land to the north, railroad tracks

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

I spoke with the sister on the phone and thru emails. She provided her brother's phone number and I was able to discuss his sighting with him on the phone.

When he was between 12 - 14 years of age, his Mother and the neighbors hunted deer, and the children would drive the deer, slowly and quietly walking thru the woods in a straight line. He described that each 40 acre lot were brushed along the fenceline to make an 8 - 10 ft. wide road so they could drive tractors around each fence line. He was farther ahead of the rest on one of these roads and stopped at their meeting spot, a corner of the fence. He waited for the others and looked for deer. He said he was looking down one of the fence lines and he saw the "creature" step over the fence, a 1/4 mile or 1300 ft. away. He remained there until the rest of the hunting party came out of the woods from the direction that this creature came from. He did not see any deer. He knew that what he had seen was not a man. The fence it stepped over was at four ft. and he estimated the creature to be at least 8 ft. The color was a dark brown/black, darker than the deer. Due to the distance and the length of time that has passed, he doesn't remember additional detail. He does not recall looking for tracks, stating that he doesn't remember much of what occurred right after his sighting. The memory has stuck in his mind all this time. His sister is three years older and she also remembers that day well.

The terrain is a bit different on the farm since it has not been kept up. North of the sighting is a low, swampy area. There was a lot of wildlife seen on the farm while growing up, he remembers fox, deer and bear. He had several encounters with bear and was always afraid of the bear. "I've had encounters with bear, but nothing like that". The witness assured me that he knew what bear looked like and this was no bear.

Their immediate family was together because of a funeral and they were sitting outside in the evening. They mentioned the brother seeing a Bigfoot at the neighbor's up the road while doing a deer drive in the back 40 of the neighbor's farm. The niece then told them she had seen one cross the road on her way home from work one night. Until that time she did not know about their hunting story and seemed relieved to be able to talk about it with someone who could share or confirm the reality of what she had seen.

I have tried contacting the niece and hope to discuss her sighting with her one day soon.

About BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

• Worked as an Assistant to a Circuit Court Judge in Florida for thirteen years
• An avid outdoorswoman, growing up in the UP of Michigan on a family-owned fishing and hunting resort
• Certified Visual Tracker, Level 1
• Attended and assisted with numerous public and private BFRO expeditions
• She and the Florida BFRO organized South Florida Expedition 2008, North Florida Expedition 2008 and Central Florida Expedition in 2009.
  
• She and the Michigan BFRO organized the Lower-Michigan Expedition in 2011, Michigan UP Expeditions in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and Wisconsin 2018
• BFRO Secretary for 16 years

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