On Saturday, January 4, 1964 the Nevada State Journal reported an “Ape-faced 10-ft. Man Sighted in Sierra Snow.” The original article is below.
Ape-faced 10-ft. Man Sighted in Sierra Snow
PINECREST, Calif. (UPI) — A pilot flying a small plane near this tiny resort community recently said he saw what appeared to be a 10-foot man with an ape-like face standing in the snow watching the plane fly over.
The pilot reported the incident, which supposedly happened in the back country near Pinecrest, to the sheriff’s office in Sonora, but deputies there would not release his name or elaborate on the report.
Huge Footprints
A broadcaster from a radio station in Sonora said Friday he had talked to a sheriff’s deputy stationed in Pinecrest, and the deputy, Albert Miller, said he had been called out to the Pinecrest city dump late last week to investigate a set of huge footprints found in level snow.
Miller said the prints were very large and about six feet apart. The deputy said they were definitely not bear tracks.
Approximately a year ago, residents of the Pinecrest area reported hearing hideous screams coming from the woods near their homes and told of seeing a “gigantic man” dressed in animal hides running through the forest in the early evenings.
Seen in Bushes
About a month after the reports of the screaming, a veteran backwoods pilot and a Pacific Gas and Electric employee on a snow survey near Pinecrest said they saw the creature standing in some bushes in the wilderness.
When they flew in at a low level to take a photograph, they said it ran into the woods. The two men estimated the creature to be about four feet taller than the foliage it was standing in, and they landed and measured them. The bushes were six feet tall.
Sheriff Miller Sardella of Sonora said Friday he has no intention of sending deputies into the backwoods to search for the supposed “monster.”
“If and when he breaks the law, we’d go after him. As long as he doesn’t do anything wrong, we’ll leave him alone,” Sardella said.
