YEAR: 1975

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

STATE: Pennsylvania

COUNTY: Fayette County

LOCATION DETAILS: near Uniontown, a little town called New Salem, and Zaleski State Forest in Ohio

OBSERVED: Late at night, in or about July, 1975, I heard a large noise in the woods in front of our house. Although it was dark it was a clear night and quite warm.

I looked down into the woods and saw two very large red eyes staring back at me, at first I thought it was a deer but I realized that they were too high up, and I heard what sounded like long slow breaths.

I went in and got a flashlight and shined it down there but whatever it was had gone.

In the morning I went down to the spot and found no discernable prints but the ground had been heavily trampled.

It should be noted that there are many abandoned coke ovens within a quarter mile of here and a fresh running stream right below them.

The incident in Zaleski happened years later and involved a feeling of utter terror. I saw nothing but several days later the Columbus Dispatch reported a number of bigfoot sightings were coming from that exact area that was in 1980.

ALSO NOTICED: Not at this location but in a swamp approx. three miles down the railroad tracks a sighting occured within two weeks after the above incident.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was alone and there were no others. I didn't say anything for fear of being ridiculed.

OTHER STORIES: Reports of a very large animal in an apple orchard, standing upright, and reports of people being followed when out in the woods by something big that is very careful not to be seen.

It has been reported in the "Pittsburgh Magazine" and in many local papers of a group of these beings living on or near a farm in a little town called West Newton, PA.

Recently a story appeared in the Uniontown Herald Standard concerning a researcher in this area that I had never heard of before. If I can find it I will submit it.

ENVIRONMENT: There are railroad tracks near the ovens and many are overgrown and its possible to enter them without evidence of doing so if you are careful.

There are also reports of bums using these abandoned ovens but that does not account for the small animal skeletons that are sometimes found and the "beds" made out of brush that are sometimes in them.

At times also a smell like sulphur or rot can be detected.