Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener from Pennsylvania writes “I am the youngest of 6 siblings. I was born 09/1966. I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters. We lived in an old farm house that my Father slowly renovated at that time. We lived in this location for many years, at least 15.”

On our property we had multiple varieties of fruit trees. We had pears, mulberries, black cherry, sour cherry and more apple trees just over the property line in our neighbor’s yard just to the south. I have fond memories of eating fruit from the trees as they came in season. My mother however was never happy when we’d have Mulberries fights. Often ruining our clothes.

To give a brief description….Our house was almost at the top of the mountain (mountain not really…large hill country.) The house was East facing and was on the West side of Mount Zion Road. To the north of our property was a several acre self-sufficient small farm that was own by a Brother and Sister(s) family group, most likely Mennonite, (I presume looking back now.) On that farm they grew a large plot of feed corn and closer to their house they grew other garden foods. There was smaller fields scattered around the area that also grew feed corn.

We often went across the main road in that direction (down the lane) exploring. The area had multiple streams on both sides of Mount Zion that flowed down the mountain just beyond the tree lines of the forested areas. I remember I often drank from them…with on worries (different times). The lane headed East about 1/2 mile back into thickets of woods, where other homes were located. Along that lane was long sections of hand stacked stone farmers wall, along that wall there were also Apricot trees. On a large section on the north side as you’re heading eastbound there was an old crab apple orchard that was no longer farmed or picked annually… mostly it had gone back to nature. The locals and us kids often took the fruit and ate it at will with no worry of trespass.

The grass was the only thing that was cut between the rows of trees using a tractor with a mower deck. On the other side was a neighbors house. They had open grass pastures lined with electric wire fencing to control the Steers in which they raised.

My sighting happened while I was out playing like we all did back then… unsupervised. Climbing trees, catching crayfish, flipping over rocks looking for salamanders and, whatever else we could get into. On this day I was returning home for dinner. My Mother had a hand bell that she used to call us in from the outside, when dinner was just about ready. The pre-cell phone decade.

It was early evening and just before dusk. I was walking down the hill through the old crab apple orchard where I was playing or exploring…I was alone. As like most years the trees were heavy with fruit that no one was picking. The canopies of all the trees were draping toward the ground. As I walked down the hill alone through the knee deep tall grass covered cut through. I walked past row after row of apple trees. As I came up on each clearing or opening to the rows. I, (like most would do.) looked down each row of trees into the row. It was often typical that white tailed deer were out at that time and in the orchard. As I approached the row of fruit trees that was 3 to 4 rows deep from the lane that lead me to our house. I looked down that row through the open clearing between the rows of trees. What I saw about 50 to 60 yards away. The terrain of the orchard was slightly rolling… meaning the thing I saw was partially obscured by the terrain meaning the crest of a hill..that fell away. At first I didn’t know What I was looking at.

I am sure as some point I thought it was a bear or a large dog…or something along those lines. As it was a dark ball or mass of hair hunched over and facing away from me. It’s position was just outside the canopy of these large crab apple trees. I stood there transfixed watching. I could see from that distance that it was probably eating the fruit that was naturally shed from the tree canopy. As I stood there locked in, watching the large mass of dark brown/black fur undulate and move in the process of possibly eating, it seemed like 5 minutes…but in reality it was probably only 45 second event…but like most people say time seems to slow down. That may be a result of shock or confusion as the human brain attempts to categorize what you’re seeing. Then in a smooth motion it stood up slightly, not really completely erect but just enough to reach a long arm with a hand up to the top of the tree canopy to grasp and pull down a big bundle of ripe apples. At that moment my perception changed that whatever I was looking at was not a bear nor a dog. I saw it primarily from the back. I couldn’t tell you if it had a crest on its head or if was completely rounded from my view point.

I did see the large traps on either side of it head that tapered into the shoulders (trapezius muscles.). The arm was very long from elbow to wrist. There was fringes of dangling hair that came from the bottom of the forearm. At the end of that arm was a long fingered hand. When it did the motion to pick the apples it was very fluid. It was a motion with intention…meaning it actually might have thought ‘I’m going to pick that bundle next”. I watched only for a few moments longer when I my fight or flight kicked in and I ran home for dinner. I know I must have said something to my Mother about it. I always confided in her when I had questions or doubts as a young boy and, she probably….like all Mothers do calmed me down and helped move through what I saw emotionally very quickly, putting thoughts of scary things out of my mind. Mom’s are really good at sort of thing… and she had 5 other children that she honed that skill on through the years before I came along.”