YEAR: 1983

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Champaign County

LOCATION DETAILS: Just SW of the barn at the rear of the south woods that was formerly owned my Mr. Paul L. Located about halfway between Davisson Road and the S-curves on Hunt-Clymer road.

NEAREST TOWN: Mechanicsburg

NEAREST ROAD: Davisson Road and Hunt-Clymer Road

OBSERVED: A couple friends and myself had gone out on a Friday night to "run" one's coondog. It was a warm night, and kinda still, fall was coming. We decided to head back to L's, a spot that had a couple small woods, and one large woods that ran north for over a mile. After letting the dog go through the middle and south woods, we were heading along the fence (on the west side of it) from the south woods to the big north woods. We came across a small area that had no corn growing in it. I happened to look down at the ground with my Nitelite, and low and behold, there they were - two (2) huge foot prints. I told the other guys to "look at this". We closely examined the prints and this "feeling" came over us (at least it did me!). All of a sudden, I felt scared for my life (it is still the most scared I've ever been in my life!), as I realized there was something gigantic out there somewhere that had made these tracks. We had no gun, as it wasn't huntnn season yet, but even if we had, I don't think it would've been any less fearful. We immediately decided the huntin trip was over and quickly made tracks for the truck. I told my dad about our discovery the next day, and he called one of the guys he worked with to come out and see the tracks. This guy had killed bears and about every other large animal in North America, and he said he'd never seen tracks like these. I took along two different cameras for photographic proof, and yes, I still have about 6 or 7 photos of the tracks. We only found 2 tracks about 6 foot apart, and slightly toed in. In one picture, I am standing straight above the most visible print, and you can plainly see the print is as big (if not bigger) than my size #13 Lacrosse boots. Now, we did not believe these "tracks" to be a hoax. The location we found the tracks was so remote, that no one would think of planting tracks here in hopes that someone would wander by and see them - no way! We later heard that a creature was spotted on this farm, and it only cemented the fact in my mind, that a Saquatch had been there. And, further supporting evidence for me was reading report #5311, which I now realize occured about 1 mile from this instance, and 6 months earlier.

OTHER WITNESSES: Yes, my 2 friends. we were "running" a coon dog for exercise.

OTHER STORIES: Maybe, afterwards we had heard that a creature had been spotted earlier that year in the exact field where we found the tracks that fall.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was at night, probably around 11:00pm or so.

ENVIRONMENT: Along a fence in a cornfield between 2 woods.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Steven P:

After a number of conversations with the witness and receipt of the referenced pictures, and given other events within miles of this location during the same period, I am very comfortable with the credibility of this report.

There were a spate of bigfoot sightings and track discoveries in this general area in the early 1980's. Consult the BFRO database for Champaign, Union and Logan County for more reports and media articles. One of the interesting aspects of this track find is that it is within less than a mile of a Class A Report #5311 and within 6 months of those events. It also occurred the same month of another encounter approximately 20 miles north of this location.

The area, at that time, was rural with a mixture of croplands and woodlots. Topographic features of the area include glacial moraines, which results in rolling terrain and steep hillsides of 100 to 200 feet in height. There are small ponds and swampy areas scattered throughout the area. The area has changed dramatically in the last 20 years with the opening of a Honda manufacturing plant in nearby Marysville, in many places road frontage of what were cornfields now hold single-family homes on 3-5 acre lots.

About BFRO Investigator Steven P:

Chief administrative officer of a unit of local government, a consultant and community faculty member.

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