April, 1982 in Washington State, a private citizen contacted the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office about large footprints and an obvious trail in a secluded clear-cut area locally known as Abbott Hill in eastern Grays Harbor County. Deputy sheriff personnel responded and documented the scene.
Investigators found two large, human-like footprints in a muddy area at the base of a fire trail. The prints were reported to have been made after recent rain (mud still holding detail) and the toes pointed the same direction. The prints were about 15 inches long by 6 inches wide. The prints were roughly 46 inches apart (heel-to-heel spacing reported).
Leading up to the prints was a clearly defined trail from the top of a small hill down through dense vegetation where plants were bent/broken over. That trail measured about 36 inches across and was roughly 150 feet long, ending at the roadway where the prints were observed. Personnel photographed, measured and made plaster casts of selected impressions.
The Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Department accepted custodial care of the documentation and the scene was processed with the help of local people and researchers (the BFRO transcript of the sheriff’s documentation is one of the primary published sources). Several casts were produced and copies later circulated among researchers and collectors.
Deputy Sheriff Dennis Hereford is repeatedly named in later accounts as one of the officers involved in making casts (the set of casts is frequently called the “Hereford prints” or “Abbot Hill prints”). Multiple cast reproductions (labeled A–F in some collections) exist and have been photographed and sold by collectors/replica-makers.
Observers described anatomical details in the impressions that proponents say show non-human foot morphology (e.g., indications of lateral margin features, toe impressions, a prominent heel area). The stride/trackway pattern described in catalogs of the casts notes the subject strode from forest across a logging landing then doubled its stride and left a series of half-tracks on return to the treeline, cited the casts are not easily faked.
Other large tracks were reported in the area that spring. Officers photographed and cast large tracks near the Chehalis River / Elma Gate boat launch on 27 April 1982, and researchers were called to other locations (Porter Creek / Capitol Forest area was investigated in late May) where additional large prints and casts were made. April–May 1982 saw multiple footprint reports and castings in Grays Harbor and nearby areas.
The original casts and later first-generation copies became some of the better-known cast sets from the Pacific Northwest and are often reproduced by museums and prop sellers. The event is widely cited in Bigfoot literature as one of the better-documented multi-cast events because of law-enforcement involvement and multiple investigators on site.