A listener writes “As a child I instructed by grandpa to never go out into the woods without a gun. I was probably about 8. I was always the most investigative of the grandchildren and the one most likely to investigate the deep parts of the property. Nature calls to me. This property calls to me even still today I dream of being there and traversing it. Unfortunately as my grandfather became ill they sold the property and moved into Detroit Lakes. So my family no longer owns it.
I had for sure seen black bears in their raspberry farm. Full grown I know how large they are. That raspberry farm went from the back of the home extending back 5-10 acres on very very rich deep black soil. Behind that farm was thick brush and trees he made a path with his dozer to the stream about 1/4-1/2 miles back from there. The current pushed the water to the patch and grandpa had been using it to water the berry patch.
I have absolutely have encountered a black bear at about 12 as I was picking berries. I was told they had broken into a trailer on the property that was used to process deer after hunting. As an adult I am truly not sure it was a bear because they usually leave deep scratches in stuff. Something literally pried the door open from the top corner of the door. Keep in mind there were 2-3 feet of stairs then the door extended from that so it stood easily 8 feet off the ground. Whatever this was completely bent over the top of the door on the side above the handle (seemed very smart for a bear). It bent and pulled it over until the lock broke and the place was raided for lack of a better term. Something never fit about the best break in story because it was into the cabinets that were above the refrigerator/freezer.
The next thing I saw when I was 14 I can only describe as a blind/ shelter. It looked like something could have been sleeping in there. It was near the stream where many deer and wild turkey used to be. So it looked natural from one direction where the path my grandfather had cleared with his dozer catapiller also the direction the wind came from usually. One day he and I walked over the dammed up area to remove what beavers had done so the water could flow to the farm. About 3 city blocks up stream from where this blind/shelter was where the beavers buoy it up. The reason we were crossing there was because it was a narrow area that you could get most of the way across and there was a large bolder in the center you could hop across. From one direction it looked like a large bush from behind it you could see it absolutely looked like a make shift shelter. As if it was a half off a TeePee without leather and instead had mud and brush with limbs woven in. It consisted of two trees at an angle butted up to the main part of this huge bush. What made it unique was that it was built into a large very full bush. The back side of the bush had been hollowed out and those 3-4 inch branches were triangles up to hold up brush about 4 feet off the ground. My family for sure made blinds for hunting but were always round and facing the water never away from it. We also hunted in a way more open area about .5 miles away from where we were. Usually we preferred tree stands for hunting.
This shelter was very large enough so that a brown bear could easily lay down in there. My grandfather had said to me he had no idea what it was but he seemed agitated like as though someone was hunting on his land. These 3-4 inch branches did not look cut they look like they had been broken off. Not chewed either like what a beaver would have done. It was so very unusual and I never got an answers about it. My grandfather isn’t with us any longer to ask. I am now 42 and this happened in the early 90’s. My grandfather was a huge man and I saw him worried that day. We finished up breaking up the damn so the stream could freely move. We swiftly left the area. I have never seen him express any fear when he is holding a high caliber rifle designed to take on a bear if we encountered one. That stuck with me. My grandfather was over 6 feet tall and large Native American stock. He would have been a fierce warrior if he ever needed to be.”