YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 10/11 through 10/28

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Clallam County

LOCATION DETAILS: Covered in report.

NEAREST TOWN: Joyce, WA

NEAREST ROAD: Crescent Beach Road

OBSERVED: Upon request of Chris Bradley (BFRO investigator) I am submitting this report of what I believe to have been an encounter with a Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

I Rodney Frank Williams (Rod) DOB 12/19/42 residing at P.O. Box 140 Joyce Washington give the following account in a sequence of events leading me to believe of an encounter with a Sasquatch (Bigfoot), according to information directly given and acquired through my personal investigation. This happened in the Joyce Washington Clallam County area.

10/11/04: At 0615 my two daughters Tamar 14 and Laura 13, were up before anyone else awoke, they heard a strange, prolonged noise from Laura's bedroom on the northwest corner of the house. The bedroom window was opened but covered with plastic while the house was being painted. Both girls were visually upset. They said the noise came from the state forestland behind the chicken coup northwest of the house. Immediately after hearing the noise the two dogs became very aggressive in barking. When I questioned them as to what they heard Laura stated that it sounded like a combination of a whale and a dinosaur of which Tamar agreed. Finding the answer comical I stated that I wasn't around 2 million years ago to know what a dinosaur sounded like. "like the dinosaur on Jurassic Park, Dad". Both affirmed that they did not hear a coyote and I was able to determine that it wasn't the bugle of a bull elk. My wife Stella also heard the same noise thinking I was blowing my shofar.

10/12/04: The house painter returning from lunch, (he lives just behind the Joyce General Store) stated that two surveyors working at the corner of his property where it intersects Crescent Beach Road were spooked by loud, fierce growling where they were working. My house painter was commenting that the younger surveyor was really upset and the older was convinced that it was two bears in "one-hell-of-a-fight". The painter told me that there was a bad smell in the area. Within the hour I went up to the location to talk to the two men and found them to have left. This was about 1300. After fininshing up my business I took my Labrador (dog) and went into the forest in the general area of the reported incident. I immediatley came across what smelled like something rotten. I found no garbage or decaying carcass but did find several game trails and one main trail that leads up to the road that runs parallel to state highway 112 west of the Joyce General store.

10/13/04: At about 1100 I called the surveying company and talked to the supervisor. He told me that the two surveyors on that job had left and wouldn't be back to finish until Friday. I asked him about the bear fight and he told me that after talking to them that he believed that it was an encounter with a Sasquatch. I asked what would cause him to believe that over a bear fight, especially in that he was not present. He stated that he had encountered this type of behavior before while surveying in a remote area and once while hunting. Both times had the bad smell.

10/15/04: At 1100 I went to the area of the supposed bear fight and found the two surveyors working on the south side of the road. In questioning the older of the two he confirmed that it was two bears in a "hell-of-a-fight". I asked why two bears. He stated that two distinct noises from two distinct bears were making the noise. He stated that the fight was so furious that the bush and alder saplings were shaking, and that a fir tree was shaking like a twig from the bears banging themselves against it. He also stated that there was definitely a foul smell during the fighting. The younger of the two surveyors earlier stated to the painter that immediately after the fighting that whatever it was headed due south across the road towards the Olympic Mountains. He was not able to see it across the road from where he was but heard it going through the brush on the far side of the road. The older of the two then took me to the spot where they were surveying and pointed out the fur tree, which stood no more than 25 feet into thick brush from where they were standing. He told me that he wouldn't go into that bush unless he had a big gun for protection. At about 1400 I went into the brush to inspect the fir tree and surrounding area. In cutting sign in the the area I found that the fir tree was eight inches thick eighteen inches up from the forest floor. The base of the fir was covered with a heavy coat of moss and numerous small twigs a foot to two feet long in the lower regions of the fir. The forest floor was beat-up pretty bad yet the moss on the fir tree was not disturbed, nor were any of the prominent twigs on the lower part of the fir disturbed. At about five feet up I did find one broken twig. I find it impossible for two bears to be fighting and banging into the fir even lightly and not disturb the moss or break the lower twigs and branches. I am 6'1'', 210 pounds and in good shape. Reaching up as high as I could I was able to easily reach and grasp the fir and at much smaller circumference, but barely able to shake this fir. Because of the temperate rain forest conditions that we experience the forest floor was covered with moss, and rotten vegetation making it difficult to cut sign on an actual footprint. I did find about 12 feet from the fir tree a pad print (much like a large wide human print dressed in a moccasin). I was able to determine that it was possibly a right foot because of what apeared to be a distinctive big toe. It measured about 15 inches long and was a minimun of 4 inches wide at the heal, and 5 1/2 to 6 inches wide at the top.

The heavy brush receded as I went further into a more open environment with numerous alder saplings. Here I found what I know to be a humanoid type pad print. The toes curled into the forest floor the the big tow of the right foot breaking through the vegetation and leaving an obvious toe print in the wet dirt. The print was going from east to west in the direction of the fir tree. It measured 14 1/2 inches and otherwise the same as the other print. The half-inch difference would account for the curled toe.

At 1430 I woke my neighbor form his nap (a logger) and took him to the location. He admitted to the big toe part of the print but was skeptical and said it was bear tracks. In searching the immediate area around the fir tree we found fur of which I feel belongs to a bobcat, lynx, or possible cougar pressed down into the forest floor and laying loose.

10/18&19/04: Searched the web concerning Sasquatch sighting and sounds, also read John A. Bindernagel's book, The Sasquatch. Possibly made a mistake in confiding with other local residents of my feelings of this being a Sasquatch. I have now told my neighbor and others that it was possibly a big bear in a fight with a lynx or cougar and that the prints were that of a large bow hunter in that it is bow season. With this, I am no longer looked at like a nut.

10/20/04: After finding on the Internet voice sounds of a Sasquatch I had my two daughters and wife listen to the different recordings. They each agreed that what they heard sounded like the whooing sound recorded by Dave Clevlan in a 1972 encounter in Estacada, Oregon.

10/23/04: Diana after returning home from a football game at around 2130 the night before placed two large pumpkins weighing about 15 pounds apiece next to the house under the eve. The next morning 10/24/04 when leaving for work she found one of the pumpkins had been moved and seemingly placed next to the rear tire of the van which was 25 feet from the pumpkins. Thinking that possibly one of the dogs or a raccoon had rolled it to the spot I looked closer. There was no indentation in the pumpkin indicating that it had been rolled across about 10 feet of gravel driveway. There were no teeth imprints on the stem. Diana's statement: "I placed those two pumpkins next to the house, came inside, put the kids to bed, locked the doors, and nobody went out till I went to work the next morning." Our driveway is 3/4 of a mile long into temperate forest. The dogs never alerted to anyhting during the night. Their doghouses are on the backsides of the house. They would not neccessarily alert to something coming out of the forest such as deer but would to anything coming down the driveway.

10/24/04: After returnig from a trip to Seattle, I went back into the area of the fir tree and cut sign again. I took the protective cover of the one distinct footprint and again confirmed to myself that it was humanoid in its nature. I took a direct bearing to the South towards the olympics and drove over to Highway 112 in a line with my bearing. Near this location I found an embankment coming up from a creek bed. On this embankment again I found what could have been a large pad print because of time and weather unable to be certain. It was in an excellent location to view the traffic and cross the road to good forest cover on the other side. In cutting sign at this location south of HWY 112 I found the terrain to be full of game trails and a straight shot up into the security of the Olympic Mountains.

10/25/04: At 0600 woke up to a noise that I was unable to identify. My daughter Laura told me that again she heard the same loud whooing sound but this time of a higher pitch and coming from deeper in the forest behind the chicken coup. I have decided to make a report of the incidents(s).

10/26/04 The dogs were very agitated during the early morning hours. At 0630 when feeding the chickens I experienced a very horrible foul smell similar to rotten garbage. It is hard to explain the smell except that with what I had learned in my investigation it made the hair on the back of my neck, no! the hair on my complete body stand on end. I then realized why the surveyors would not venture into the forest on 10/15/04.

10/28/04: Neighbors dog dragged a deerskin out from the woods. The skin had been turned inside out as one would skin a rabbit. One front leg was still in the hide. Of interest was that the lower bone of the leg had been broke or twisted off like one would break a chicken bone. Several people saw this. Most belive that this was very possibly the work of poachers. Of interest I found no evidence of neither a bullet or arrow wound in the hide.

NOTE: Both Salt Creek and the Elwha River were experiencing a record large salmon run during this time period. The top of the estuary of the Salt Creek salmon run where the salmon bunch-up before running up-stream is in good cover with forested terrain to allow predators such as bear and sasquatch to traverse and feed without being detected. What investigation I did of the area provided no evidence of bear or sasquatch.

NOTE: During the 1970's as a Border Patrol Agent assigned to the U.S. Mexican and an Immigration Inspector on the Canadian Border I had extensive training and experience in cutting sign or "tracking" illegal aliens and smugglers crossing our borders. Also I have spent a large portion of my spare time back-packing the wilderness parts of the Pacific Northwest. At no time have I ever run across any sign of a Sasquatch until now.

ALSO NOTICED: Yes, but personal, not to be covered here.

OTHER WITNESSES: Covered in report.

OTHER STORIES: Yes, about 10 miles SW from my location and in the same time frame. You have the report, for I obtained it from your web site.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Covered in report.

ENVIRONMENT: Covered in report.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Christopher Bradley:

I met with Mr. Williams in the town of Joyce accompanied by a volunteer on Jan. 16, 2005. He showed us the areas of the reported activity, but due to the time passed and snowy conditions, the physical evidence was long since deteriorated. We interviewed Mr. Williams as well as his wife and daughters, who had very interesting descriptions of these vocalizations.

About BFRO Investigator Christopher Bradley:

Avid outdoorsman with knowledge of local terrain and animals.
Active interest in the subject for 25 years.
[email protected]