Geographical Index > Canada > Ontario > Report # 31992
(Class A)
Submitted by witness on Tuesday, January 10, 2012.
Man recalls his nighttime roadside sighting near Markdale
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YEAR: 1964
SEASON: Summer MONTH: June PROVINCE: Ontario COUNTRY: Canada LOCATION DETAILS: West/southwest of Markdale about 2 miles NEAREST TOWN: Markdale, Ontario NEAREST ROAD: intersection of Rt 12 and W. Backline at Barrhead OBSERVED: I was in my early teens riding in the backseat of our family car coming from my Dad's cousins farm. Both my parents were in the front seat. As we rounded a curve on the gravel road, the car headlights shown some lateral light to the sides. I was looking out the right rear window and saw standing up on the embankment at the treeline a tall fur covered creature. The roadside embankment went up about 10 feet. As our car passed, I turned around to look out the rear window and the thing was now walking down the embankment and stopped and stood at the edge of the road. I could see it clearly in the brakelights and some light coming from a lodge across the road as my Dad slowed to stop at a stop sign about 300 feet from the creature. I yelled at my parents to turn around but they just doubted my sighting and drove on. It was at the closest about 35 feet from the car. Note: I am 100% convinced that this was a Sasquatch for 2 reasons -
1. No bear walks down an embankment on its hind legs
2. Few men are 7 feet tall and if it was a man in a monkey suit why would he try to not be seen by us until we passed. A hoaxer would want to be seen. ALSO NOTICED: My dad used to swim in the pond as a child and told me some years later that he and his buddies would hear strange screams or growls in the woods where I saw it come from. OTHER WITNESSES: None saw it but my parents were in the car. OTHER STORIES: No. I never heard any of my dads relatives talk about it. TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 11 p.m. Clear night lights from car brakes and lights from a lodge across the road. ENVIRONMENT: At that time there was no structures except the Lodge. Very woodsy. Now there are some houses and some fields with a few woods at that location. I was there 4 years ago to show my wife. Ponds are nearby.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Todd Prescott:
I spoke with the witness on the telephone and he added the following to his report:
- when he was younger, his family would vacation each summer in the Markdale area to visit his aunt – witness resides in the U.S.
- one of his cousins had a turkey farm about a half mile from where the sighting took place
- the time was approximately 11pm when he and his parents were driving back from his cousin's turkey farm – they were driving in a north/west direction along W Back Line
- because they were approaching a very sharp corner (see photos), they were traveling at a speed of about 20 miles per hour as they approached the turn
- the road is now paved, but at the time it was a gravel road
- although the embankment has eroded over the years (again, see photos), at the time the witness stated that the embankment was probably between 10-15 feet high - certainly steeper than it is now
- as well, at the time, the area the figure traversed from was a completely wooded area – now much of the wooded area has been cleared and a long driveway and a house have been added (see photos below)
- the family was driving a 1962 Cadillac at the time of the sighting, and the witness noted that the side and rear windows of the vehicle were quite large
- as the vehicle approached the sharp turn, the witness saw the figure in the peripheral of the vehicle's headlights – the figure was standing at the treeline at the top of the embankment (on the south-east side of W Back Line) and the witness was in disbelief at what he was seeing
- he felt that the figure was not much more than 30 feet away from the car window and he feels that he “got a real good look at it”
- as the vehicle passed by the figure, the witness spun around and looked out the back window, and this is when he noticed the figure began to descend off the embankment on its hind legs
- the witness watched it walk down the embankment as the brake lights illuminated the area behind the vehicle – there was also light from the lodge across the road (on their left side – the west side of W Back Line)
- by the time the vehicle had reached the stop sign, the figure had come down and was standing on the edge of the road - it was just looking towards the vehicle
- witness remembered the following physical details regarding the figure:
“It was between 6 feet 5 inches and 7 feet tall. Completely
covered in hair and it had what seemed to be fairly long
arms.” (no other physical details were noted)
Although the witness told his parents then and there what he had just saw, as noted in his report, his parents doubted what he claimed to have witnessed and continued on to where they were staying for the evening
Witness did add:
“They never did turn around and all these years it frustrated
me you know. I wasn't able to sleep that night thinking about
this thing. I know it was a long time ago but my memory is
clear today as it was then and there hasn't been a month
that's gone by that I haven't thought about it.”
Before my conversation ended with the witness, he did close with the following possibly related incident:
“That same summer my cousin, who owned the turkey farm,
had complained about...where he kept his turkeys, they
were in this pen, he was the biggest supplier for turkeys for
Toronto and they were in these building and there were
these outdoor pens where the turkeys could walk out. There
was chicken wire I guess and they could stick their head
through that wire. He was mad that he was finding these
turkey bodies in the pens but the heads and necks would be
gone because they would be sticking their heads through
the fence and something was tearing their heads off.”
I, Todd Prescott, did visit the area shortly after speaking with the witness. The area as described by the witness has changed slightly as noted above, but many physical features remain, such as: the sharp bend in the road, the embankment, the lodge building which is now a restaurant, and the pond on the west side of W Back Line (see photos).
It may be important to note the date of the sighting – 1964. This pre-dates the Patterson/Gimlin film of 1967 and the subsequent media attention Bigfoot received in the U.S. and Canada.
Photos:
Approach of sharp turn in road heading same direction as witness at time of sighting:
Approach of sharp turn in road heading same direction as witness - note former lodge building on left:
Exact spot where witness saw figure is in the middle of the photo on embankment to the right:
View of landscape where figure was sighted:
View of landscape preceding sharp turn in road:
View of long driveway leading to home that was not present in 1964 - this is to demonstrate how the landscape has changed over the years - note: this driveway is before the turn as you are heading north west on W Back Line:
View of pond as mentioned in the "Also Noticed" section. This pond is on the west side of the road preceding the sharp turn:
Broader view of the pond looking south-west:
About BFRO Investigator Todd Prescott:
Todd Prescott has been researching the subject of bigfoot for well over 20 years Todd attended the 2006 and 2008 B.C. Coastal Expeditions, 2008 and 2011 Pennsylvania Expedition, 2010 Pennsylvania Mini Expeditions, the 2007 Ontario Expedition and he hosted the Ontario 2009 Expedition. His research has taken him as far as Alaska to PA, Northern Ontario to BC, including a 2-week solo expedition throughout the Bella Coola (B.C.) region. In 2012, 2013, and 2014, Todd had the honor and privilege of spending many days/nights with one of the pioneers of sasquatch research, Mr. John Green (1927-2016), in BC where he was granted permission to peruse Mr. Green's extensive files dating back to 1957. Todd also had the unique experience of researching with Mr. Green near Harrison Hot Springs one evening. Currently, Todd is working on several books pertaining to the subject of sasquatch.
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