A listener writes “I was born and raised in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. When I was growing up as a troubled youth about 11 years old I was sent away to a group home (that’s what they did in the 70’s when I was a kid. if you were deemed a ‘problem child’ or were in trouble with the law, or you were a runaway (that was me) your parents signed ‘incorrigible’ papers on you and let the County juvenile authorities place you where they decide, which may be in a home with someone who would take care of you for a period of time instead of a jail cell. They called it a ‘group home’ or foster care. So, I come from a large catholic family of 12 other siblings (I was #6) and because I kept running away from being sexually abused by my older brother. He threatened me to never tell and I didn’t,(I never told anyone about the abuse, I just kept acting out in other ways, like running away, staying out late, and skipping school etc.) my parents too busy to figure out what was up with me, turned me over to Ramsey Counties Juvenile justice system and they placed me in a ‘Group Home’ which was a man who owned a farm in northern Minnesota who would care for and hopefully turn troubled teens around before they got into real legal problems with the law and ended up in prison. This man took in 4 teens at a time and basically used us as free labor to run his farm. He had about 80 milking cows, some pigs, sheep, a couple hundred steers, etc. you know the deal.
On the outside, and to everyone else, like the county authorities, our parents, this guy looked like he was offering a service to help boys, what he REALLY was, was a 60 yr old ex military CO, child abuser who beat and tortured kids for fun. (can you frikkin believe that shit!?) and for whatever reason, he had a bad attitude about me and he physically beat me, tortured me and emotionally tormented me for 10 months. He did not beat any of they other boys, just ME. His name was Don, and he had a farm on if I remember correctly ‘Choke cherry road’. Its approx. 8 ½ miles west of Willow River, Minnesota, I believe in Finlayson township. Now this Don character was a real piece of work, He was so physically abusive to me, I actually thought I was going to die by his hands before my time was up there. I was to be there for 1 year. I lasted 10 months before the county got some report from a local constable and they pulled me from there and shut his place down. (that is another long story that I won’t go into) He did everything from poking me with pitchforks while he had me tied to a post, to whipping me with milking straps til I bled from the brass grommets. He would make me stand naked in the field from dawn til dusk and sunburn the shit out of me, and then in the frigid winter, he made me stand out in the driveway naked til I was frostbit. I have plenty of scars and afflictions to prove what I’m saying. He would keep me out of school until my obvious bruises and cuts were healed, and then I was allowed to return to school. (I missed A LOT OF SCHOOL THAT YEAR) He beat me and He beat his cows and horses , sheep and pigs the same way, so at 12 yrs old I felt like another of his animals. OK, so I bet your wondering, “what the hell does all this have to do with bigfoot or you? and Why am I telling you my childhood abuse stories? well this is why. His farm was located down this gravel road, about 8 miles from the highway. One other farm about ½ mile down the road, otherwise no other homes, farms, nothing for 10 miles in any direction.
After many beatings, I started running away, and when I started to run away from him, he would always catch me because I didn’t know where I was, or how to get away, so I always just ran down the road until he would find I was missing and he would come after me with his old 67 Ford LTD that smelled like a cow pie inside. I would hear his car coming down the gravel road after me and I would go off road into the ditch, and hide. But he always found me and the beatings would begin again. I would have ran off the road and into the woods but I was afraid of the swamp that was on both sides of the road between the road and the woods. I would guess there was about 100 yds of swamp, then thick woods. When I did try to go off the road I would get cold and wet, and didn’t know why but I was so afraid of the swamp, I had heard howls and strange noises that I can’t explain whenever I was walking on the road and I was always afraid. but I shrugged the noises off to the local wildlife.
On one of my ‘escapes’ I ran away and the only way ‘out’ was 8 miles down the dirt road that was the only way in or out of his farm. I would run for miles and then I would hear his car coming from a long way away but with nothing but swamps on both sides of the road I didn’t know where to go and every time he would catch me he would Tie my hands together and tie the other end of the 20 foot rope to his bumper and he would make me run behind the car as he headed back to the farm. He did this several times, and every time I would get tired and couldn’t run fast enough to keep up with the car and I would always fall sooner or later and he would not stop, he would just drag me the rest of the way back to the farm. I have many scars to this day to prove what I’m explaining to you.
Again Wes, I know your thinking “what the hell does this have to do with Bigfoot??” well it will all be understood soon: One time (the last time) I ran away and ran down the road, (BTW, NO other farms or houses on this stretch of road. very desolate, open pastures and wooded forests and a strip of swamp on both sides of the long 8 mile gravel road. I don’t know, but I believe now that this Sasquatch had watched what was happening to me, maybe only once, maybe it saw every time I was abused on that road. (I’m sure that he drug me behind the car at least 8 times over that summer) I somehow feel it (the bigfoot) understood my plight, or if it just noticed I was in trouble, or if it saw me running before and saw Don (the asshole abuser) stop and grab me smack me around and then tie me to the car and take me on another drag. Maybe it was watching the farm all summer, as my abuse was a daily thing around the farm, easy to see happening if you were watching the farm. I Don’t know. it was in approximately the same location on the same dirt road that I heard noises before in one of my escapes that this guy don would come and find me at. So it goes like this; I was running down the side of the road, I hear Don’s car coming off in the distance, so I jump off the road and down into the swamp along the road and I start heading across this swampy area, hoping to cross it to the tree line and into the forest that is beyond the swamp. It’s getting deeper and muckier every step I take and I am panicking and struggling to get through the swamp before don’s car gets to where I was. My feet are sinking, I’m struggling every step and I’m quickly realizing that it’s too deep and I am not going to be able to cross this swamp to the tree line beyond it. Don’s car comes, I duck, Don’s car goes by, but he doesn’t notice me about 75 yds out in this swampy area. So I have avoided him for the moment but I know he will turn around and come back, as always. but now I’m stuck in the swamp and struggling to keep my head afloat and to get out. (sorry, I’m not good with distances, don’t know 50 yards from 50 feet but I think my numbers are close approximations)
I’m panicking, I’m sinking, my feet are stuck in the muck up to my waist, and the water above the muck to my chest. The more I struggle, the more I sink into the swamp muck! I’m pulling at cattails and reeds, I’m screaming and crying and wishing Don had seen me, cuz a beating is better then a drowning! All of a sudden, from the tree line, I hear this big CRASH/SPLASH about 50 feet away from me on the edge of the woods/swamp. I look up expecting to see a bear or something because it sounded like a herd of buffalo was coming out of the tree line.
What do I see? It’s a MONSTER!! 8 feet tall, and massive! it’s a HUGE BIGFOOT! (back then I thought it was a MONSTER, but now I know it was a bigfoot, so I’ll just call it that) I notice right away it’s a female because of the large hairy breasts. Weird how a 12 year old in puberty will notice tits, even on a bigfoot (LOL) anyways, tits or not it’s a monster and I am screaming and struggling in this swamp and I think I’m going to drown, I stop struggling in the direction going away from the road and start struggling back towards the road but can’t get my feet loose of the muck. I was finally able to pull my feet out of my shoes and get a few more steps, as this at least 8 feet tall brown hairy monster is coming straight towards me. I am dizzy from struggling and screaming and panicking and I have swamp water in my mouth and I’m coughing, and this Bigfoot is almost on top of me now, it never made a noise, no growling, roaring, nothing, and seemed to glide effortlessly through the swamp to me. The water seemed to only come to it’s knees and as it got to within about 10 feet of me I thought for sure it was going to just beat me or kill me and eat me or something bad. it did not. I cowered down with my hands and arms over my head as I saw the shadow of this beast surround me and then I notice this terrible stench! Like a thousand skunks and rotten meat at the same time. Worst thing I have ever smelled, ever! Then everything got silent. She/it was over the top of me and I was face down in the swamp with my hands over my head and my eyes closed tightly crying. Next I hear this beast sigh, like it changed its mind and gave up scaring me or something, hard to explain the emotion, but we both just froze for what seemed like an hour but was in reality about 10 seconds. It was like this beast woman was trying to figure out what to do with me. It had the look of intelligence, not a wild animal. I feel this wet cold mucky hairy hand grab the back of my jacket and my neck and pull me up out of the swamp. I start flaying my feet and twisting around to get loose but it had me tight and effortlessly held me out in front of it. I started screaming and crying as it held me out in front of her and started moving swiftly towards the road. It seemed to take about 10 seconds and we were back at the edge of the ditch next to the road. It took me 10 minutes to get out there struggling all the way, but it moved smoothly and quickly back the way I came into the swamp from the gravel road in a matter of seconds.
From where she picked me up to the gravel road was about 75 feet. She dropped me in the ditch, and just looked at me for what seemed like an hour but was a few seconds, the look was of sadness, of confusion, but firm too. It looked up the road towards the sound of Don’s car coming back about a ½ mile away and turned looked at me again and walked away quickly straight back the way we came from following the same path through the swamp. It was into the tree line and gone in about 20 seconds. What I remember the most is the look on her face when she dropped me. she stood and looked at me for a couple seconds, she looked up the road where we both heard don’s car coming in the far distance, (you know the sound a car makes on gravel when there is no other noise? You can hear it break the silence from a mile away) as I said, She looks back to me and I saw this look, one of understanding, of motherly caring almost, and of concern and of ANGER all at the same time. Then she turned and moved swiftly back through the swamp to the woods on the other side of the swamp and disappeared.
What I can tell you about the face is that it reminded me of a carnival ‘bearded lady’. I know how that sounds, but she did not look like a woman, she had long wet, dark brown hair, not fur draped in her face, a long dirty beard that seemed to start at her eyes and flow all the way off the chin. And the hair was full of pine needles and twigs and clumps of mud. Oh, and the skin, was dark gray, and her hands huge with brownish long nails that looked like an eagles claw, but dirty and chipped. Huge eyes, dark deep set and angry looking, but not angry at me. And the nose was wide and flat like a boxer or something, but not human. If I had to pick a bigfoot type that she most resembled it would be a cross between ‘Patty’ but with long messy dirty hair. Maybe Like the Florida swamp creature you have seen on the internet.
I never told Don about the Bigfoot, he pulled up and saw me lying in a puddle in the ditch “your all fuckin’ wet! Where are your fuckin shoes? And you STINK! You’re not sitting in MY car stinkin’ like that! Get in the fuckin trunk” He snarled, as he got out of his car and opened the trunk and pointed towards it. I was cold and wet and stinkin like a skunk and probably in shock, I was still sobbing. So I climbed in the trunk and he slammed the lid down and drove me back to the farm as he had done many times before. I was just happy he didn’t drag me this time. He made me throw the jacket away, we couldn’t get the smell out of it, and he blew it off that I somehow got tangled with a skunk. A dead skunk.
I never told anyone about the Bigfoot, who would believe me? I also believe that there was a bigfoot near me while I was picking raspberries out in Don’s back forty a couple months earlier. I was in the woods. I heard a grunt in the bushes near the wild berry patch we always went to and I had a sudden fear come over me and I ran back to the house about a mile through the woods down the tractor trail. There seemed to be something moving through the woods on the side of me, but I could never see it, I was just scared shitless of something, and I ran. I Never heard the grunting sound again until I was walking on the road near the swamp months later.
Until I started listening to your show, I figured I would take it to my grave. But you Wes, with your friendly voice and the way you make it sound ok and believable that someone saw a bigfoot and that the story should be told that I decided to at least put my encounter to paper.
Well that’s my Bigfoot story.”
Dan M
Am I first? Cool! What a story!! I hope this person isn’t being be abused anymore.
Paul M
Repeat offender = the weird thing about this story is I also was on a work farm in pine city mn. With 80 milk cows and down a long as dirt road. I was never keen on going outside at night at this place either. I was 14 years old. It was 1973. I wentered to pinecity school. This just sounds way to familiar… REALLY.
JON F
Well, that was different!
Mary W
There’s a lot of ” different” stories out there . People are too afraid to share them because they don’t fit the steriotypical molds of the past stories . Nobody knows what these beings will do in meetings with us. We know partly what they are cape able of . With a brain as big as they have I’m sure there are many more suprises in store for us . Hopefully people will keep sharing . Ty for your story . It would take me more courage to tell it thAn to face a bigfoot!
ERIC R
Wow What a story!!! I truly feel sorry for you buddy. That is a horrible way to remember your childhood. Thank Goodness you were rescued like that. This story parallels a lot of others that indicate the Sasquatch is NOT an all consuming animal, but shows true compassion. it was an interesting, sincere and scary story, and I certainly believe you.
James M
Great story! So sorry about your abuse .I hope your brother got his in the end .
rick b
THIS KID SHOULD WRITE A BOOK,AND I THOUGHT I HAD IT BAD.
thomas w
hmm..a head scratcher. WES what do YOU think?
Tim P
Great story..I don’t believe a word of it. But it was a good story
darren w
I have a good friend who was abused by his baseball coach when he was a kid. Nobody believed him either…not even his own patents. Until about 15 years later when that same coach was chargered with multiple counts of child molestation. Had been going on for years. This friend of mine testified in court as a material witness. Trial made national headlines.
Good dude, my friend. But to this day he struggles with addiction, anger, and depression. If only someone would have believed him…
Trent M
Yeah there are monsters in this world and some of them look just like us. Glad you made it through that part of your life. Thanks for sharing what must be very painful memories.
Karen C
So sorry. Bigfoot wasn’t the monster here. I wish you peace.
David D
Great story this fellow tells! Northern Minnesota, in the way back areas’, is no place to mess around in. Plenty of places and things to mess a guy up; real bad! If I were to write another story-book, I already have the ending figured out. Some night, in the late summer, when the days grow shorter, and the shadows, longer, ol-Don would be heading out to one of his out buildings, probably to check and see if one of his “kid’s” latched a gate or door properly. One or two of the “kid’s” in the house, would be sharing about the miserable s.o.b ,this guy is, and are still remembering how he used to treat the writer of the above narrative. The next thing would probably be a crash of some sort, followed by a terrifying scream; the kind that lets’ you know that who ever is doing the screaming, ain’t gonna live through it! Later, much later, the two would reluctantly go out early in the morning to start their chores, all the while remarking to one another that they didn’t get screamed at by “Don”, this morning! The next scene, would be the both of them approaching a large chicken coupe, the gate wide open-then the somewhat familiar silence-drifting into black and white, with one of the boys starting to throw up. Pay back’s a bugger-Squatch style!!
Pat T
Confirmation Wes, people feel comfortable sharing their encounters with you no matter how fascinating they are. This poor kid and what he went through in his adolescence. I agree, BF was not the monster in this story. This story has a 411 flare to it in the fact that he was in a swamp, was rescued and not taken, many times victims are taken and returned to swampy type areas after being searched many times over in said areas. I don’t know, just an opinion. Maybe he’ll come on the show, could be therapeutic for him.
Tommy
This is a bunch of bullshit!!!!!!!
Dara H
Please keep your BS comments to yourself…this is why people don’t share their encounters! Monsters sure do look like us…even heartless ones! I am proud of this guy for sharing such a painful time in his life and look up to him for having the courage. Please remember somone else could read these stories and based on the comments may not feel comfortable sharing theirs. We should be giving positive feedback even if we think it’s BS! We all need to stick together on this subject for it to be taken seriously….hope you agree, but if you don’t please keep it to yourself.
Tommy
Sorry Dara, I am his other half and I happen to have lost my man to bigfoot, this is what he does day in and day out. I am sorry I may of come across non caring, but when you live with this day in and day out and that is all you have to talk about and you sleep with a ear bud listening to these stories and can not even sleep with out this, I would say it is a little over the top. I lost my man to this stuff, I am just a little upset that we use to have a life together and now we dont, you darn right I am upset and with good reason.
Joyce N
you know, this isn’t the first account I’ve heard or read about regarding a female sasquatch helping a human. there was another on youtube somewhere about a little boy getting lost on his parents and his parent’s friend’s camping trip, he wandered off, it was getting dark, parents and everyone looking for him-a female sasquatch finds him alone and crying and briskly picks him up ad drags him through the woods dropping him off near the camp site- mom remarks on him stinking like a skunk. maybe not all the sasquatch are bad-maybe like humans, some are predatory and others Samaritans. maybe some are peaceful, logically untrustworthy towards humans due to guns and being shot at, family members killed accidentally or out of humans fearing them. it’s not impossible.
Don V
Fascinating story, thank you for sharing what must have been a terrible thing to live through.
I hope that that guy got what was coming to him, he was a real scumbag.
Carol Germer
They say “what goes around, comes around”. I hope the old man and brother get theirs.
pam
Ever read the PREY series by John Sandford? It is a true depiction of MN back lands. I spent many years there raising my 2 kids. Rented too many old farm houses and drove too many gravel roads to count. Swamps like his description appear anywhere; one minute you are on a wooded path the next you are ankle deep in goo.
I recall several incidences of missing hunters / kids found later in swamp goo- trapped until death freed them.
I agree with the folks who say “If you can’t say anything nice- don’t say anything”, basically. You just turn off any victim from ever posting.
Robin B
Very true about Wes, and I am grateful
Debra L
I’m so sorry for what you lived through. Did you ever tell your parents about your brother? Dude my god what you went through! There are really sick people out there. Was that farm guy ever arrested for what he did?
Matt f
Truth is always stranger than fiction.Please respect this man and his account for what he went thru,I feel for him and so sorry he went thru this,especially the don asswipe part.If the story is bs we still should respect cuz he’s hurting to tell such a tall tale.Sure hope don got his kharma by the bearded lady.Thanks for sharing champ.
Tommy
Don I do respect this man he is my other half, I happen to hear and have lost him to bigfoot, I say its okay to share and get support and love from others and I believe him, I would like to hear or do something else other then bigfoot…so I have decided to listen to some of the stories and see what this is all about. The abuse is true, this is the first time of me hearing this story too, so please just cut me a little slack. It is heart wrenching when you feel you have to compete with big foot…I had no idea and I was blown away. So do I have compassion yes I do, do I think this is a little over the top, yes I do. I was mad that when I found this out I had to read it on a blog and that he had never shared it with his wife. Sad but true, I was hurt, so I apologize first to him and then to anyone else that may of been offended..
Craig T
Here, here Matt! Well put my man!
Stacey H
Thank you for sharing what must have been a very difficult thing to tell.
Tommy
Tommy I am so glad that you finally got this out and have shared the whole story and not just the abuse, how is a wife to know when you said you have NEVER shared it with anyone, so you must of been pretty scared to not even share it with me. Does it hurt, sure it does, will I survive, sure I will. I hope that this brings you some relief by telling your story and moving on from it a bit, I am not saying forget about it, I am just saying feel it, talk about it and heal from it, it may not heal over night because you have gone years with this secret. So WAY TO GO AND THANKS FOR SHARING, LOVE YOU, Linda
Frank S
Wow, I hope this guy is doing much better. Very true, the monster was that sick brother n care taker. They will get theirs. With those kinds of personality, it won’t be long before they got theirs. I’m sure of it. Bad karma follows bad karma. Hope u r feeling and doing much better my brother. Amazing story. GOD Bless You.
Tommy
I am leaving this comment after I have asked Wes to take down this blog. Although I respect Wes and Sasquatch Chronicles immensely, I realize now why I did not want to share my story. All of the comments except this one were made by my girlfriend who HATES even the mention of BIGFOOT because as many of you will agree, once you enter the subject matter, if you have had an encounter, it changes you, and you find yourself searching for everything you can find on the subject to somehow make sense of what has scared you and baffled you all your life, and in an effort to not feel like your crazy, you search and search to find someone who has seen what you have seen, or experienced what you have experienced. She deals in FACTS, and I can’t prove what I have seen, only the scars from the abuse, and the stories from other people who heard about my abuse when I was a kid. SO, instead of loving compassion, and companionship, I was hit by insults, accusations and hatred. At this point, I just want to put it and the story behind me. Everything I stated was true to the best of my recollection, if anything, I left out A LOT of the abuse and some other bigfoot stories that I could not confirm with my own eyes. I just want to state that I don’t think that I could tell the encounter with the bigfoot without the background information of the abuse because I believe they are connected. I believe the bigfoot (or bigfoots) had been watching this farm for a long time, because there were many strange things that happened on this farm, farm animals and pets that came up missing, or hurt, or found dead in the field with strange injuries. Also while deer hunting in the area we had strange things happen, heard strange things, but you couldn’t put your finger on what was going on. I realize now what was probably going on, and a bigfoot would explain them ALL. Thanks again to all who understood, and if you didn’t believe me, I totally understand, and take no offense..Tommy
Diane L
I am extremely confused by the postings, but this is a great story and I see not reason NOT to believe it. Is the person who told the story using the comment names of “Ken,” or “Dara” or “Tommy” or “Linda?” I do not know, but thanks for sharing.
SHANNON D
Peace, to the man that shared this encounter, seems like the bf encounter was the high light of your life compared to the abuse you were experiencing from your fellow human beings… God Bless You, we support you!!
Linda K
Diane why does it matter to you of who it was Ken Dora Tommy or Linda. This man is a pathological liar, I have witnessed it, you can write anything or be anything you want on a computer. The same man that wrote this told me he had cancer and was dying and it was terminal last Sept and all along it was a lie, he does not have cancer and had to leave because I would of found out sooner or later because he was not dying and there would be a future, he is looking for people to feel sorry for him, and he found a bunch of people that support him. I dont know what to believe from this person anymore. To tell someone you have cancer and your dying is the cruelest thing ANY HUMAN BEING has ever done to me. So go ahead support this man he needs it, I WILL PRAY for him to get some help. I myself at this point do not believe anything that comes out of his mouth. But have him to thank for the new found love of bigfoot, I love hearing the stories and listening to them. So thanks everyone for sharing. I hope this put this whole thing to rest now. Believe what you want. I would not doubt it if he has found some women on here who is now taking care of him and believing all of his BS AND FEELING SORRY for him. Good luck to her if he found someone on here, that is what he does for a living, he lives off of women, does not work and tells stories……….
Linda K
Tim P, you are the smartest one on this page along with the head scratch-er……