YEAR: 1967

SEASON: Fall

STATE: Michigan

COUNTY: Midland County

LOCATION DETAILS: (Removed for privacy reasons at the request of the witness.)

NEAREST TOWN: Midland

OBSERVED: This was years ago and probably not significant now, I am now 60, this happened when I was 12. Myself, sister and 4 other neighbor kids had to walk about 3/4 of a mile from where the school bus dropped us off to our homes, the road was gravel, very few houses and far apart. We had just got dropped off by the bus and were walking home, as I was walking I happened to catch something out of the corner of my eye and turned around to see what it was, as I turned around a creature, that I now know as bigfoot, came up the side of the ditch. It was on all fours until it topped the edge of the ditch. The ditches were very deep probably 6 to 7 feet, and wide. I think it was laying on the side of the slope until we walked past, when it jumped on the road on 2 feet, it took a couple steps across the road, jumped the ditch on the opposite side, took another step or 2, put one hand on a wooden fence leaped over it and ran probably 1000 to 1500 feet across an open field, on two legs, upright. The fence was designed to hold ponies and I can remember I had to grab the upper wooden rail, put my foot on the middle rail and swing my leg on the top rail and climb down the other side. I was 12 so I would say the fence was around 5 foot high. This thing scaled it with ease, we all had a clear view of this beast, it ran across that field faster than the ponies could run. At that time I never heard of a bigfoot. I went home, told my dad what had happened, he went down and looked for tracks, thinking bear. No tracks found as it was mostly sandy ground. I wondered all my life what I had seen. About 20 years ago I seen a TV show about bigfoot and it dawned on me that was what I had seen. My sister can also remember the incident, she was 9. I would like to say this was completely covered with hair, I did not see its face, but it was not 8 or 9 feet tall, my best guess would put it at between 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 feet tall, I can still to this day see this happening in my memories like it was yesterday, this is probably not important ,been far too many years ago, but I thought I would share this with you anyway.

ALSO NOTICED: nothing

OTHER WITNESSES: 5 witnesses ,walking home from bus stop

OTHER STORIES: no

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

ENVIRONMENT: forest area ,with a few swamps, happened near a field

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jim Sherman:

Even today a look at a satellite map of this area shows connected woodlands that stretch from the sighting location northwards to Sanford Lake and the Au Sable State Forest. Continuing northward following Wixom Lake and the multiple branches of the Titabawassee River you eventually end up in the Huron National Forest. Imagine what it was like more than fifty years ago when Mr. W had his sighting.

I was immediately drawn to this report because it involved a school-age child. I too have had forest experiences that were a bit inexplicable at such a young age. I had convinced myself that these were only my imagination but reports like these allow me to re-consider what might have happened all those years ago.

A further reason that I wanted to know more about this report is the detail that the figure was initially moving in the manner of a quadruped. This is not as common to hear reported and could lead to a mis-identification of a known animal.

I asked Mr. W some clarification questions understanding that this event happened quite a long time ago. Here are my questions. His answers are paraphrased.

I asked Mr. W what the weather was like because that can have an important impact on our ability to see detail.

“…the weather was clear and it was a very nice day and probably about five in the afternoon as we had just gotten off of the school bus."

What made you think that the figure was hiding from you?

“...I think it was lying on the side of the ditch, which is why I didn’t see it at first as I walked by. As soon as I passed, it popped up and used its arms to leap to its feet and onto the road. I never saw its face but it appeared to be about six feet tall and covered in dark colored hair.”

I asked Mr. W to discuss how the figure moved.

“(After it popped up)...it never went back on all fours, took a couple steps across the road, and leaped a ditch, put one hand on the top of a fence post and leaped over just as a man would over a much shorter fence. The fence was made of two wooden rails 2 X 6 with the top rail five feet tall. It then ran about 1500 to 2000 feet and it probably lasted less than ten seconds. This was much faster than the Shetland ponies [normally found in this enclosure] could run that distance. I do remember it was sort of hunched over as it ran, not like a man would be...this has never left my mind.”

As a track and field coach I analyze runners. This speed was astonishing. I decided to look into the figures. Shetland ponies can easily gallop 18 mph. So I checked the distance that could be ran in ten seconds at this speed and came up with the following answer: 264 ft in 10 seconds. An average human runs at about 12 mph so could cover about 176 ft in that time. Whatever it was out there that day was fast. Given the estimate of time and distance as well as the age of the sighting, it is safer to say that the figure appeared to move faster than a horse and that alone is quite compelling. Your teacher was correct, you will use math in the future.

Mr. W went on to describe howls that he and locals had heard in the area in the late 1960’s. “I can remember hearing the howls like a woman or possibly a child screaming.” His neighbors believed his story and searched the area of their sighting, but the prints that were found had little detail due to the sandy composition of the soil.

When and if I am able to speak to the sister, I will update this report.

Our discussion ended, Mr. W stated the following: “I will say this, Bigfoot is absolutely real, no doubt about it in my mind.”

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