Historical Sasquatch Encounter Reports From New York

It is interesting to go back and read historical accounts of Sasquatch encounters. Witnesses did not have a reference point to describe what they saw so you will see in most of these these nineteenth-century accounts how witnesses and the media refer to the creature as the “wild man of the woods” the sightings from the twentieth century, reference “ape-like creatures” yet the descriptions of the creature are the same from one century to the next.

During the summer of 1869, a wild man was spotted by at least one hundred residents in the vicinity of Woodhill and Troupsville in Steuben County. It made shrieking sounds as it raced through the countryside. An eyewitness said it moved “with a springing, jerking hitch in his gait [that] gave him more the appearance of a wild animal than a human being.” One man got a close-up view: “The long, matted hair; the thick, black, uncombed beard; the wild, glaring, bloodshot eyeballs, which seemed bursting from their sockets; the swage, haggard, unearthly countenance; the wild, beastly appearance of this thing, whether man or animal, has haunted me” (Evening Gazette 1869).

Later that year, a wild man was observed eating minnows near Sucker Brook, one mile south of Ogdensburg along the Canadian border. While human in appearance, its observers said its “arms and legs were covered in long hair” (Plattsburgh Sentinel 1869).

In March 1883, a wild man was spotted in the northeastern portion of New York at Port Henry on Lake Champlain. Witnesses said the hair on the creature was so thick that it resembled an overcoat (Plattsburgh Sentinel 1883). Between August and November 1883, the tiny community of Maine in western Broome County, was the site of a spate of wild man sightings. The creature was described as “ow in stature, covered with hair, and running while bent close to the ground.” It was reported to have made frightening shrieks and piercing cries (Free Press 1883).

These nineteenth-century accounts depict a remarkably similar form: humanoid in appearance, with animal behaviour and physical characteristics. Typically hunched over as it ran through the wilderness uttering shrieks, cries, and whistles, it was covered with an extraordinary amount of hair and occasionally possessed a beard. Near the turn of the twentieth century, sightings of wild men began to dramatically shift to descriptions of monkey-like creatures that often possessed superhuman strength. On the night of July 26, 1895, in the Delaware County resort town of Margaretville, Peter Thomas was driving a team of horses on a lone road when a “wild-eyed man like creature” stood in the road ahead. Thomas said the creature had “long and hairy arms” and was “uttering a raucous, inarticulate cry.” He said the creature twisted the neck of one of his horses before dragging it into the darkness.

The creature was “seven feet high, of human shape, covered with hair.” The next day, local farmer John Cook said he shot “a ferocious man-like being,” before it grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The wild man stood “about seven feet tall, entirely nude, covered with black hair, with a long beard and with teeth which project from its mouth like fangs” (Newburg Daily Express 1895; New York Daily Herald 1895).

During the early twentieth century, sightings of ape-like creatures in the Long Island countryside and the suburbs of New York City became more common. While the escaped zoo animal or pet hypothesis was invoked, no escapes were ever confirmed, and no creature was ever captured or shot (New York Herald 1909; New York Herald Tribune 1934). Since the middle of the twentieth century, reports of large, hairy monsters have dominated the Bigfoot landscape. Under a full moon, around 11:00 p.m. on September 24, 1980, 77 year old Kinderhook grandmother Martha Hallenbeck and several relatives reported encountering a large hulking creature outside Martha’s rural home. Capital District film critic and radio personality Bruce Hallenbeck later wrote a letter detailing this incident involving his grandmother to Albany Times-Union newspaper columnist Barney Fowler. The letter stated in part: “She was terrified; it screamed, moaned, made guttural noises, and finally my nephew got his shotgun and fired into the air. It moved away, walking on TWO legs, such as a human would do.” When Fowler published the letter, it triggered a deluge of encounters among area residents.

There have been so many sightings in the Kinderhook area since the late 1970s that locals have dubbed it the “Kinderhook Creature.” One incident reportedly took place on a night in November 1980, when Barry Knights and Russell Zbierski were walking on a desolate road near Cushing’s Hill when they noticed noises coming from both sides of the road. In a 1980 interview with Bruce Hallenbeck, the pair said that five huge, hairy creatures with cone-shaped heads and no necks suddenly converged on the road ahead. The men ran in the opposite direction. At about the same time, a woman just down the road said she saw a huge hairy creature that walked on two legs remove food from trash cans by her garage. She told Knights and Zbierski that her dog was so frightened that it began to spin in circles and wet itself.

 

During February 1982, two Whitehall police officers were on routine patrol, driving along a remote stretch of Route 22 near East Bay at 4:30 a.m., when they were startled by a huge hairy humanoid standing seven-and-a-half to eight feet tall. In a 1982 interview with Paul Bartholomew, officer Dan Gordon said he looked on in disbelief as the creature crossed the road in a flash. It then climbed up a steep embankment and out of sight. Shaken, Gordon pulled out his service revolver and walked around, but it had disappeared into the night. Gordon said it was covered in mangy, dirty, dark brown fur and resembled an ape with poor posture, as its shoulders slumped. It had long arms that swung back and forth as it took massive strides. He said its speed was remarkable, noting that a “relay runner would have trouble keeping up with [it].”

On a chilly, moonlit morning in August 1998, two men were driving on North Bush Road near Caroga Lake in Fulton County at about 2:00 a.m., when they pulled their truck to the roadside to urinate. “Chris” returned to the vehicle before his companion, and when he flicked on the high beams, he saw a huge figure standing only 20 feet away. It was seven to eight feet tall—part human, part animal—and had a flat face and arms that swung in an exaggerated motion.

Covered in long, brown hair, Chris said, “It stood perfectly still for a minute and then grunted at us. Then it turned and walked away. It didn’t move like a man. It kind of swaggered back and forth, like it lunged each leg forward when it walked” (Bigfoot Research Organization 2002).

In these historical reports notice how the creatures behave as flesh-and-blood organisms. North American reports of manlike monsters, Sasquatch and Bigfoot have been going on for a long time, well before October 20, 1967 when the Patterson–Gimlin film was captured.

 

References

Evening Gazette. July 10, 1869. A Wild Man: A Hideous Monster Roaming about the Neighborhood of Woodhill and Troupsville, N.Y.

New York Herald Tribune. September 4, 1934. Man, Beast, or Demon? It’s Loose in Amityville: Mysterious Ape-like Marauder Raids Garage, Town on Guard.

Plattsburgh Sentinel. August 6, 1869. A Wild Man of the Woods:1.

http://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voic35-3-4/bigfoot.html

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. April 15, 1899. Wild Man at Large:4

Bigfoot Research Organization. 2002. Report #4286, submitted by “Chris” on May 10. Follow-up interview by an unnamed BFRO investigator.