YEAR: 2013

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

DATE: 28

STATE: Michigan

COUNTY: Kent County

LOCATION DETAILS: Withheld upon the witness' request

NEAREST TOWN: Cedar Springs

OBSERVED: (Early fall in western Michigan) Around midnight I was in bed watching TV. I heard these "howls" over the TV through closed windows. I turned down the TV and listened closer. These sounds where nothing I recall ever hearing. I have spent MUCH time in the woods night and day. NOTHING was like this. The "howls" were followed by what I can only describe as ape like grunts. My horse in the back yard was nervous as hell and I could hear dogs barking in several distant locations. I woke my wife and she heard VERY similar sounds in early spring.
These sounds where NOT Coyotes or wolves or wild hogs or an owl or a bear. Heard all those in the woods throughout my life.
We got on-line and looked up "bigfoot" recordings for Michigan and other states. Some where VERY similar to what we heard.

ALSO NOTICED: Our horse was VERY nervous. Ears and eyes pointed in direction of the sounds and fidgeting as is ready to bolt. Dogs barking all around in the distance. (unusual for here)

OTHER STORIES: My wife heard same / similar sounds the prior spring from same general area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 12:30 am. Cool still night

ENVIRONMENT: Damp heavily wooded. Bordering on neighbors' abandoned property.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jim Sherman:

This report covers a time period of over thirty years but is from a similar area and the same witness. Multiple reports were converged for the sake of clarity.

The areas that Mr. H described in his report are near the Rogue River State Game Area in the Northwest corner of Kent County and closer to Belding in the Northwest corner of Ionia County. While the Rogue River Area is only about twenty miles outside of Grand Rapids this part of the state quickly becomes heavily forested, particularly the areas along the Rouge River itself. This band of forest stretches nearly unbroken to the north until it meets the Manistee National Forest. Tributaries of the Rogue stretch out through these forest and farm lands creating a haven for animals and outdoor minded individuals. I have personally spent a great deal of time in both of these areas and it does not take too long heading north on US 131 or 37 to get that up north feeling. While discussing the incidents Mr. H described I was also told of a much earlier road crossing that he had witnessed and this will also be described later in this report. The area of Mr. H's road crossing was near the Flat River State Game Area but is also heavily forested and contains the much larger Flat River and its tributaries.

Mr. H is an avid hunter and grew up in an area where forest and yard meet. Because of this he is quite in tune with the normal animal sounds in the woods. It is true that even experienced hunters, campers and hikers can get surprised by certain sounds in the woods--Barred Owls, Foxes, Raccoon and Porcupines are the normal culprits,but eventually you get to know what is normal and what is not. Mr. H described hearing one such abnormality earlier this fall and then again on the opening day of firearm deer season. I asked Mr. H to describe the sounds that he heard and provided some samples of possible Sasquatch vocals to use as a comparison.

Here is his response (I asked for a written copy):
"The recordings you provided are very similar to what my wife and I have heard recently at my house. I have only heard it here once this fall. My wife once last spring.
The night I heard it I was in bed watching a movie. I heard it over the TV, in fact it drowned out the voice on the TV. I turned the TV off and looked and listened at the closed window. We have a light on in back so my wife can see her horse at night. I observed the horse acting in a spooky nervous manner I have not seen before. He is 20 years old and does not budge when riding along a road even when a semi drives by. His ears and eyes were stuck on the direction the sounds where coming from. He was nervously stomping around looking as if he was ready to bolt at any second.

The sounds lasted for about 2 minutes. The hair on my neck was standing up. I woke my wife after it stopped and told her I heard what she did in the spring. We got on the computer and found bigfoot sounds and we both agreed what we heard sounded very much like what was available on the web. What I heard sounded a lot like what starts at your 50 second mark on the central mich montage. But I also heard "ape like" grunting between howls. I say ape like because I have no better explanation for it."

ICMMONTAGE
https://soundcloud.com/jim-sherman/icmmontage

Mr. H further discussed an incident that happened in 1980 while he was scouting out a two-track. Here again is his written response.

"The paralleling:
I was exploring on a logging trail (two track) That ran east from Johnson road into thousands of acres of state land. The next road east is a small dirt road about two miles away. Then again it is all woods for a very long ways.
It was getting dark and I started to hear foot-steps in the leaves. It was late summer early fall. Being a hunter I could tell it was not the normal quadruped foot falls. I thought it may be a person so I shouted hello a couple of times with no reply. As it got darker, The foot-steps got closer. I also smelled a very musky stinky odor. I knew bears had an odor but I could not understand the foot falls. It seemed as if whatever animal it was purposely kept out of eye sight. I was getting frightened by that time and it was dark. I would stop to listen and the footsteps would stop. When I would start walking again they would start. I could hear breathing. I thought it may be a bear, but the footfalls sounded bipedal. I stopped once and grabbed a rock on the ground and threw it towards where I last heard the foot falls and breathing. What happened when the rock hit the woods scared me a lot. I heard shuffling of feet and louder breathing, the breathing was mixed with grunting growling like noises. They sounds however for some reason didn't sound aggressive. I'm not sure how I knew this but it more felt that way is my best explanation. At that time I was only a couple hundred yards from my car. I ran. I was 16 years old and was freaked out. When I ran I heard something picking up pace for a bit but then either It stopped or I was just too focused on reaching my car and getting out of there to notice.

The area is about 30 miles east south east of where I live now and the logging trail borders a huge creek system and swamp and very heavy woods. I lived about 1.5 miles south of this area then. It was 1980. I had heard some strange things and seen things in the forests behind my house then as well. I remember seeing an area deep in the woods. It was a small clearing surrounded by pines in a hardwood forest. The grass mixed with pine needle was flattened out not unlike where deer lay. However I knew it wasn't deer because I found remnants of several turkey. The only thing left was feathers. The feathers where in large clumps like they were ripped from the birds. I didn't see any foot prints but the area was not a place where a good print could be found as the grass and pine needles were already all pushed down. The area was about 30 feet in diameter to my best recollection. I had also seen unexplained trees bent and broken in that area. We had 25 acres and thousands of acres of state land around us with that creek system running through it."

I had also heard some 'blood curdling' screams at night from the deck at the house there. I could not explain what they where, but hearing the recent sounds and your recordings, they are very similar."

The road crossing incident occurred even earlier in 1979 closer to Belding , Michigan. During an "almost white-out snowstorm" in January, Mr. H and a friend were driving the back roads that they had traveled frequently before. Then in their headlights they witnessed something moving from right to left across the roadway directly in front of their vehicle. "We saw at that moment what we thought was a HUGE man in a fur coat and hat run across the road in front of us. It must have been at least seven feet tall and crossed the road faster than we had ever seen anyone run. I pretty much kept it to myself until recently."

I asked Mr. H how he determined the size and how the figure moved.

"The height estimate in the snowstorm was basically done by knowing the area, having walked that road many times and from how tall the figure was to the car. To my best recollection it only took two or three steps to cross the road. Now this happened very fast so I cannot be sure how accurate that is. It moved slightly hunched over, but that could be due to running in my opinion. There is a 2 to 3 foot "bank" on the east side of the road. The side from which it came from. The event lasted only a couple seconds but I will never forget it. We never got out and looked for tracks. We were quite unsettled and unsure of what we saw."

While I was in the process of interviewing Mr. H over the course of a few weeks he had another possible encounter which I will allow him to describe:

"I also wanted to tell you that on Nov 15th this year while hanging the buck I shot opening morning in my front yard at around 11:00 am I heard a sound across the road that got my attention. I stopped and listened and over a period of about 4 minutes I heard two distant but clear whoops. I told my wife and she confirmed the last one I heard. They were almost identical to the recordings. I listened for a couple more minutes and went in the house. My wife came in about 15 to 20 minutes later and she said she heard two more but much farther south than the first. Now across the street is a park, (omitted) the west side of it. People go there a lot. It makes me wonder if it is some bird or something that makes that sound, but then I thought 'it's deer season and the park is off limits to hunters' I don't know what it was but once again it was so much like the recordings I have listened to from several sources of the "whoop" It was like ... oooohhhhwhoop..."

Mr. H and I are still in communication and it seems as if his location might just warrant more investigation. On another note, some people get all the luck, possible Sasquatch activity and an opening day buck. We will keep you posted if further activity occurs.

About BFRO Investigator Jim Sherman:

Jim is a High School History teacher and Track and Cross Country coach. He attended the Michigan Northern Lower Peninsula Expedition in 2011, the Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition in 2012, co-organized the Michigan UP 2013 Expedition and attended the 2014 Wisconsin Expedition. He assisted in the production of Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot Michigan episodes (Bigfoot and Wolverines and Super Yooper). He participates in Ironman Triathlons and enjoys fishing and camping with his wife and daughter. Jim can be contacted at [email protected] and Twitter @shermanbigfoot and his YouTube account is : Lordcryptid