sasquatch chronicles blog

On June 14, 1969, six year-old Dennis Martin, his two brothers, and a cousin were playing a fun game of hide-and-go-seek as his father and grandfather talked nearby in the grassy area of Spence Field, a meadow which serves as a “crossroads” for several trails in the higher elevations of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

Three boys went one way, little Dennis opted to hide behind a bush. A few minutes later, the three boys jumped from their hiding places and frightened the grown men. It was supposed to be a joke, but the pounding of the hearts would never subside.

Dennis Martin, just six days shy of his seventh birthday, was nowhere to be found. He hasn’t been seen since despite the diligent efforts of law enforcement, the National Guard, Green Berets from Fort Bragg in nearby North Carolina, and thousands of volunteers whose search lasted through mid-September 1969.

The disappearance of the young boy slowly faded from the area headlines until October 8, 1976, when sixteen year-old Trenny Gibson seemingly vanished into thin air while on a hiking trip with her Bearden High School class. Although Trenny was walking alone, there were groups reportedly behind and in front of her but no one claimed to have seen anything – especially not an abduction. During the search for Trenny, scent dogs followed her trail to the highway before it was lost.

Again thousands of volunteers as well as military personnel spent months searching the mountain terrain for the teenager but it was to no avail. Treeny was gone without a trace.

Just as it was with Dennis, the missing Treeny began to slowly fade away from the headlines when suddenly 58 year-old Polly Melton of Jacksonville, Florida, disappeared while hiking with a couple of friends on September 25, 1981.

Polly, said the friends, was a smoker, overweight and suffered high blood pressure so they found it odd she was walking at such a brisk pace several yards ahead of them. Overhearing the comments, Polly turned and laughed before she went out-of-sight as she descended a hill. Initially her hiking companions believed she had went back to their campsite but upon their return they learned such was not the case.

Like Dennis and Treeny, Polly vanished without a trace, never to be seen again.

This time when the headlines became fewer, there would not be another one to revive the stories. Over time their disappearances have become something of urban legend to visitors, and especially residents, of the Great Smoky Mountains. Not only does the failure to locate the missing leave much to the imagination but no evidence whatsoever of who, or even what, could be responsible makes the stories fantastic.

Are these three a victim of an unidentified serial killer? Although it would not be the usual modus operandi, victims of such varying ages and even gender isn’t outside the scope of possibility for a serial killer. But why were there no other victims? It’s always possible the killer moved from the area or died, I suppose.

In his book Missing 411, Paulides summarizes newspaper articles about persons missing from U.S. National Parks, including the Smoky Mountain Missing trio. Paulides calls out the lack of suspects as one of several reasons why he theorizes a Bigfoot is responsible for the missing.

Dennis Martin was a young boy fairly familiar with the area, living in nearby Knoxville. His family spent a great deal of time camping and hiking the Great Smoky Mountain park trails. He was energetic and fearless. It wouldn’t be outside the realm of reality for a six year-old to explore and become lost. Not to mention, children that age have a knack for finding the oddest places – places adults would never think of.

Trenny Gibson had walked on-and-off with friends during their field trip but the area from where she disappeared is known for its steep incline, sharp drop-offs, and dense undergrowth. Some locals also claim there are abandoned mine shafts whose openings are often covered with brush and easy to fall into. Those are definitely things to consider.

Then there is Polly Melton. She had been suffering bouts of depression following the death of her mother a few years before. Her doctor had prescribed her Valium to help ease the depression. Polly had supposedly stopped taking them by the time of her disappearance but her husband later reported his prescription for the same medication couldn’t be found. And Polly’s husband told police he suspected she was having an affair.

But Polly disappeared without her identification and, being unable to drive, she had no keys. Of course, if such were the case, Polly wouldn’t be the first person to skip out with no ID, with a paramour, from a predetermined meeting place in hopes she would be classified as a “victim” rather than a marital deserter.

Truth is, it’s been more than 40 years since little Dennis disappeared and almost 32 since Polly vanished, we’ll probably never know what happened – short of a miraculous discovery.

The Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Department tell KXRO that a 65 year old hunter is overdue following a weekend trip to Donkey Creek. Joe Calimlim was last heard from when he called his wife around 9 am on Friday, saying he had just arrived at the “Donkey Creek Area.” Joe was seen at a Hoquiam gas station earlier that morning, driving a silver 2008 Chevrolet Avalanche, WA Plate – B52448G. The pick-up is lifted and is a “No Fear” dealer package with No Fear decals. There is also an NRA decal on the back. The truck has a cover over the bed. Joe had said that he planned to spend Friday night in a Hoquiam hotel, but did not. His wife said that it is unlike him not to call daily. Joe is of Philippine descent, 5’6″, 190 pounds, with brown eyes and very short black hair (shaved bald on Thursday).

**Update**
A post mortem examination was conducted on the body of Joe Calimlim, a Seattle man in Grays Harbor to hunt near Donkey Creek. He was reported missing by his wife after he failed to check in, and his body was found by a Forest Service employee. Grays Harbor Coronor Lane Youmans says that the cause of death was due to positional asphyxia and arteriosclerotic heart disease, when a section of a nearby tree broke off and pinned him.

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Strange story, watch out for portions of nearby trees randomly breaking off and pinning you

12/4/2012

Witness Observed:

Night, dark clear, road traffic was light. I was traveling west bound, headlight on bright.

Three creatures, two were adults and a young one. I saw them traveling from left to right, the adults were near the yellow line in the hwy, the smaller one was about three steps behind the large ones.

The two large one went right over the fence to my left with very little extra effort, like a large high stride. the smaller one, use the right hand on the fence post and jumped the fence.

I was about 5 car lengths away from the smaller one.

Follow Up:

Spoke with witness twice via phone. Former military and quite precise in recollection. It was a matter of fact recounting of events. Everyone knows they are around these parts, just not spoken about in public. His feeling was that he saw a family unit. Male, female, and juvenile. The male, and lead creature, was a dirty brown color. The second or “female, less masculine” one was in the middle, and juvenile was last. Male was estimated to be no less than 6.5-7 ft. tall. Very bulky and super wide at shoulders. The second one was just smaller overall and he just felt it was “feminine” due to lack of bulk and overall size difference. Juvenile seemed to be 4-5 ft tall. They were “walking with purpose” as though they had a set destination in mind. They did not look back at him, nor hurry their gait just because he was there. The entire event was between 5-8 seconds. It was a 2 lane highway, at least 20 feet from shoulder to shoulder, and the male crossed the road easily in 4-5 steps. He went back and stepped it off at a later time and he had trouble coming close to that stride without maybe pulling a muscle. I have no reason to doubt this witness.

In the late 1970s while working for the BSA at Camp Steiner (the Mirror Lake area) I encountered what I believe was a Bigfoot.

On Monday & Friday nights at the Scout camp, there was always a Camp wide campfire held on the far side of the lake. Two large fires would be built and a program offered for entertainment, recognition, and education. The camp sits in a beautiful bowl and there is a natural Echo there …. We (the camp staff) used this echo to great advantage at the Friday night close of the campfire program, by playing “Taps” on multiple trumpets stationed around the lake.

I played a trumpet back then, and frequently got the mission of hiking to a point, distant from the campfire bowl and awaiting a flashlight signal to start the Taps Echo…. Id see the signal, play the first few bars of the tune, and across the lake another horn would join in, the echo’s would come back to us, producing what sounded like Taps in 4part harmony. It was on one of these occasion’s, that I would experience an event that dramatically changed my perception of, or at least the way I view, the unexplained….

Un known to me at the time others in the area were sighting this creature, and reporting what they saw. One report, from a Greyhound Bus Carrying 42 passengers had made the local paper at home and the clipping describing their event was already in the mail to me, & I would read it a few days later at mail call.

As the campfire program was coming to a close for the night, I gathered up my trumpet and alerted my friends on the staff that I was aware of the time, & on my way to a small rock ledge that jutted out into the lake about 200 yards from the campfire bowl. There were at the time approximately 350 scouts and adult leaders assembled there. of some note, it ought be mentioned, that the program is NOT a quiet one, there is singing, laughter, and all manner of noise at a scout campfire! it was a typical Uinta night, crisp and clear, with acceptable star light to navigate with. (we preferred to set off this echo with out giving away our movement to the scouts,) & another trumpet player had departed the fire about 20 min before me, heading the opposite direction along the shore.

Arriving early at the rock ledge at the waters edge, I could see the light of the two dying fires back at the bowl. surrounded by water in front of me, and tall pines and a steep glacial slope behind me, the width of the footpath separating the two elements, I began to silently blow warm air into my horn to warm it up. I watched and waited for the signal, timed to the camp directors closing challenge to the assembled scouts to, “always do a good turn daily” ( Flash flash and the trumpets would sound~ Da dat Daaaaaaaaaa….)

Have you ever been “stared at” from behind? that uncomfortable, “somebody’s watching me feeling”… the intangible sensation of another’s eyes upon your back, that becomes so powerful, that you turn to meet the persons gaze instantly? That is what happened to me, standing on that little rock ledge in the dark…. I became uncomfortable as I waited… something was out there… there had been reports of a Cougar near camp, but I dismissed that out of hand given all the noise… the possibility of another scout, lurking on the hillside above me came to mind, a would be witness to the camp staffs subterfuge, but no…. it didn’t feel like that … Something, was LOOKING at me, thru me, into me… The hair on my neck began to raise…. I turned towards the trees, a scant 8 feet behind me… And SAW it.

Standing between to widely spaced trees on the opposite side of the path, hands grasping the slender pines, stood a creature My mind could not wrap around… I felt a mixture of sheer terror and wonder… So sudden into my life, was this Omnipresent undeniable creature standing before me , I was paralyzed… I couldnt move….

The creature I saw, Towered over me. (Im 6ft1”) Id say “he” was 8ft tall…. he was dark in color, heavy in body & bulk, hairy, (so much so that I could perceive hair hanging down from his arms as he grasped the trees) and he was swaying back and forth from left to right between the tree trunks in his hands. I instinctively knew that this thing “could” toss me around and break me in half with little effort, but it made no aggressive move towards me.
I looked straight into this things eyes and he back into mine… there was a soul there in my opinion.

Then, from the corner of my view I saw the flashlight signal from the campfire,… distracted from this unfathomable thing before me by an outside light, (I really cant explain what went on in my mind at that moment) I lifted my horn to my lips, and decimated the silence, with the first loud clear resonant note that began the tune called Taps, and the creature disappeared , vanishing behind the darkness and the trees on the hillside above me.

There are those who question why I didn’t get a plaster cast of a foot print…we searched and found none. For the same reason 300 scouts a week are hard pressed to make a single cast of a deer print there… the area is a glacial carve out, and castable deep prints In the immediate area are not as available as one might suspect

I Know what I saw…. I know there are those who wont believe me… the duration of my contact with the creature lasted about as long as it did for you to read its description. The story Ive just told is true, and is my first person account of what I believe to be a genuine Bigfoot sighting in the Uintas .

Down the rabbit hole part 2 and 3 are available in the podcast section

Drones are now being used as a tool to capture video of Sasquatch. This was an interesting video to watch how this guy saves his drove. This guy’s pretty lucky. Apparently, DJI Phantom 2 ran out of battery during mid-flight. Would you risk everything to save your drone if this were to happen to you?

I will be releasing Down the rabbit hole part 2 over the weekend. I spoke to Jack who was called off to a 911 call. It was a bogus call to an abandon house. The mayor was contacted by the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) and advised that Jack was not at his post and not responding to service calls. After an hour of being yelled at the mayor contacted the chief of police and gave him and ear full. The chief of police than contacted Jack. Jack was able to provide proof he was on duty and in fact responded to the 911 call in a matter of minutes. The chief of police reviewed the logs from dispatch and Jack then contacted the mayor to find out what this is about. The mayor contacted the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) and there was no record of who originally made the complaint to the mayor or even that the mayor was contacted. Jack will come back on to tell us about it.

In Down the rabbit hole part 2 we will be also talking to Bob Garrett as well as another witness who says he had an aggressive encounter while working for the forestry department and had a run in with our “Grizzly Adams” character, not only did he have a run in but says he knows who he is. We will try to blast his name out on the air to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Picture courtesy of our listener MDEL

NEWFIELD, N.Y.– A New Yorker says he had a “Bigfoot” encounter in the western side of Tompskins County.
John Swaney, a single father of two, said he and a friend were hiking along the Vanloon Road in Connecticut Hill when they encountered the beast in Dec. 8, 2013. “It was around 8.30 a.m., about an hour till daylight, an hour or an hour and a half,” he told Leon Drew, a researcher who claims to have been investigating the paranormal for six years.
Suddenly, Swaney said, they heard some noise that grabbed their attention.
“You could hear kind of a woosh!, woosh!, as if you are going through frozen grass,” he explained.
That’s when the two noticed the purported cryptid, just at about 100 yards, getting off the road and walking under a tree branch toward a thick patch of woods. “I could see the upper body, and as it was walking, it covered a lot of ground in between, you know, something that you and I would cover in two to three minutes. This thing was enormous.”
The animal was described by the witness as having “solid charcoal black” short hair and 4-foot wide shoulders.
“I could see like a shine to it, you could see the muscle mass to it. Judging by the branches I saw it go under, and going back to that, it was at least 9-feet tall. It had to duck down a little bit to bet under that branch. The branch stood at 8 feet and 4 inches,” Swaney recalls. “I never got a good look at the face, which is the most disappointing part of it. I wanna know what the face looks like. I could see the cheek, the cheek was covered.” The two men reportedly observed the creature for about 15 seconds before vanishing into the woods.
Swaney claims he was so frightened over the alleged sighting that he left over $200 worth of hiking equipment behind.
“I was too scared. I was not about to go to look in the snow. I just wanted out of there.” And even though the event has prompted the single father to do further research about the alleged beast, he has thus far only been able to find a few tracks and hear a “set of vocalizations”.
“We screamed and then immediately, we got a response,” said Swaney. “Every chance I get to go, I go. It’s really hard to get away with two children, I don’t have much free time. I’m very familiar with the woods, specially around here.”
In 2007, a man reputedly had a similar encounter in the open field of an undisclosed location somewhere near the New York state border.

1983, 10:30 P.M.

Witness Observed:

This encounter did not happen to me personally, but was told to me by my sister-in-laws Father in 1983. Mr. XXXXX R. is a person that I consider to be of good character and a solid member of the community. He and I were working together on an Industrial Project in Lower South Carolina at the time of the occurrence. On weekends we would drive to our homes in Upstate South Carolina. One particular weekend the following encounter took place.

On a Friday night in late August of 1983, Mr. R was traveling home to Upstate South Carolina from his job in Georgetown, SC. This particular night it had been raining lightly most of the way and very few cars were on the road. He said he came up behind a slow moving car while driving along Hwy. 97 near Lake Wateree State Park. Although the road is mostly straight in this area, due to ground fog he didn’t pass and decided to take his time and give the car ahead some distance. Suddenly the car ahead without reason that he knew, swerved and went off the edge of the road. He, not sure what was going on and knowing someone could be hurt, immediately stopped his pick-up, grabbed a flashlight and ran to the car. He found two elderly aged women very shaken up, but unhurt. They were excited and asked him if he had seen what had almost hit them. He did not know at first what they were talking about. They explained to him, that as they were driving a deer ran out in front of their car and immediately behind it ran this large black creature that almost ran into their car. That’s when they swerved to miss it.

Mr. R. told them that due to the fog he didn’t see what it was they described. Due to the wet grass they were unable to back their car onto the road, so Mr. R offered to use a rope in his truck to pull them out. As he walked around to the back of his truck, he walked straight into this creature that the women had described. He told me that it was standing no more than 10 to 20 feet from his truck. With his flashlight he could tell it was large built and over six feet tall with dark blackish colored hair. He said it had reddish colored eyes and smelled like rotting meat.

He described, when he told the story, that the smell reminded him of a deer carcass that had been hanging up for a couple days. He froze when he saw this thing, not sure what it was or what it’s intentions were. Immediately, it turned and walked to the edge of the woods, made a grunting sound, then disappeared into the thick pines.

Later he told us that he was quite shaken from this experience. He really isn’t or wasn’t until his encounter, a believer of Bigfoot. When he returned to work on Monday morning he recalled this story to me and asked if I had seen anything strange while passing through that area.(I traveled the same route to go home also) Due to his stature in the community he has never shared this story with more than immediate family, for fear of sounding foolish. I have had no reason to doubt his story over the years and felt it was time to pass this on to the experts who research such events.

Darrington, Washington, in the Cascade Range, 1989

On July 15th of 1989 I had intended to meet my parents near the town of Darrington, Washington for a simple day hike and some later blueberry picking. We were to meet at the corner monument of section 27, T32N, R9E, which lies on the roadway to the Squire Creek Trailhead; a remote location that isn’t the normal haunt of the weekend backpacker. I was there because of my necessity for completion of mining assessment work to two claims, which I held there for several years.

On this particular day I arrived about 10:00 with my son Rolf and his friend David. It was a typical early summer day in the mountains, light fog in the canyons and heavy shadows in the treeline; warm and enjoyable perfect weather for a brisk hike. This would occur later when my father, mother and niece arrived at about 11:30. We took a light lunch break and three of us continued up the hill while the two boys and my mother remained at the cars.

In about ten minutes we had made the first hillside above the road. It brought us about 80 feet up to a large plateau that was somewhat open but not heavily traveled as I had only found this location a short time before. Long enough to have ribboned the trail and investigated the tunnels for dangers. I had also explored the remains of an old mining cabin, collected samples and posted the site in error. My job was to remove the inaccuracies and bring the claim into compliance. This required me to part company at this plateau and venture off the trail about 200 feet. I had told my father and niece to wait at the site and I would return shortly. Ten minutes later I returned and they were gone. I called out and received no reply to my hails. Angered that they had gone ahead I returned to the bush and took a few samples. About 15 minutes later I returned to the trail and questioned where they had gone. Both were emphatic that they had not ventured from the spot but my father seemed preoccupied by voices that he claimed he had heard.

“A garbled, mumbling speech that resemble the sound of dwarfs arguing over a card hand.” I passed it off to the carry of the boy’s voices from below the bank but he insisted otherwise. With that we continued on our way and investigated the tunnels without incident. After about an hour hike to the upper tunnels my father and niece decided to return to the vehicles. Dad would have liked to continue the hike but was worried about the safety of my niece, Tina, so he accompanied her back to the cars. I said my good-bye’s and continued on my way. Onto a trail that I had been on only the week before…..

As I looked around it was difficult to determine exactly what I was seeing. The trail looked like it had been obliterated in some cataclysmic fashion. Huge rocks were out of place, trees broken over and hillside ripped loose. I couldn’t even discern the ribbons I had placed to mark my previous trip. It was as though the hand of God had slapped the hillside and jarred it beyond recognition. I couldn’t even tell if I would be able to regain the trail without rope and pitons to secure my travel. It was devastation, so much so that I abandoned the monument I was carrying so I could use both hands to pull myself up to the trail. I was standing in an area more familiar but equally as unusual. Here I could see the ribbons I had placed but they were laying on trees that were now on the ground. Large conifers were snapped off 3 and 4 feet above the ground like a child breaks stalks of grass. The broken ends and ground covered with an unusual green slime. It was like nothing I had seen before in all my many travels into the wild. It looked like it had been ejected from a toothpaste tube but the interior of the jelly contained strands of very minute vegetable matter. This was impressed in the interior like it came out of 5 separate orifices and it held its position in the mass of gelatin. Overall consistency was like thick tapioca pudding and it gave the simulation of phosphorescence in the dim light of the trail. As you might imagine from my discussion I spent some time trying to decipher the meaning of all of what I was seeing as the site reminded me of the Tunguska blast in Russia or the aftermath of St. Helens. Many of the trees were laying up the hill! A short while later I arrived at the site where I had intended to place the monument. I returned for this and made placement fast as I still had to take samples and return to the vehicles before it got too dark to pick berries. When I completed this task I turn to take a few samples and heard an unusual echo from the surrounding hill. An extended echo that wasn’t mine coming from the hill above me. Now let me tell you. In the time that I have been mining I have had several guns pointed in my face. I had no desire to be shot by some wayward hayseed in the hills so I dropped my supplies and traveled out into a rock slide that went all the way up the hill. A vantage point from which I would surely see the maker of the sound. Well, such was not the case so I cupped my hands to my face and called to the maker of the sound. Moments later the hillside exploded in a blaze of fury.

Falling through the trees I could make out a large black shape and my first impression was that my call had dislodged a large nest or tree limb from above. But as it continued to crash, in a Rambo fashion, I knew I was seeing a living creature; big and black. It had to be a bear, a cub perhaps and I began to look for the mother. As it rolled though I could see arms gripping for a handhold and a creature far bigger than a cub. This had to be a grizzly judging from its size and it was rolling right toward me. Not a good place to be with an injured bear! I saw every form of mauling death in those first few moments and prepared for a quick and painful death at the claws of this thing and then it was over. The behemoth laid on the trail dead…or unconsciously, couldn’t tell. Better yet I couldn’t make out head or tail on what I was seeing. It just looked like a mass of hair. I surveyed my situation in the few moments and decided to walk toward the thing and see if I could get around it and escape. Just then it began to stir and I prepared to die…

I saw first one hand and then another extending from the sides of this thing. Expecting a four-footed stance you can imagine my surprise when it stood straight up like a man and its buttocks was about eye level. I pulled my 22-caliber pistol and tried to fire a round up into the air but I was so rattled that I had forgot the safety and it wouldn’t fire. By now I was so engrossed in the magnificent size of this beast I just stood there and took in all I could. Determined that, if I survived, I had to remember all I was seeing. Its back was absolutely enormous; I marveled at its muscle bundles and definition. The hair was jet-black and about three inches long over most of its body. The hair on its head grew in a large cape about 24 inches long and in long tassels from the edges of its arms and legs. Swishing like a Spaniel dog as it walked. Its face was a ruddy brown with deep set wrinkles under the eyes sockets and eyes as dark as coal. Its nose was short and black with a beard/mustache that grew from the bridge of its nose. Lower the beard resembled some aspects of the Buffalo. I thought it quite odd because I could see various forms of mythological beasts in my own visual description to myself. Later I fired a shot over its right shoulder. It turned and looked at me and then just walked away down the trail like I didn’t matter; a living Goliath. As I stood there I was unsure of what to do. The gun was obviously little protection but I did have explosives down the trail in my rock bag. My thought was get to them and I could easily scare this thing away and make my break for it. As I walked down the trail though I spotted something crouched near my supplies. It was the creature and it was doing something, digging? Well, thinking that this was possibly a method of hiding killed prey I decided to get a closer look and make sure it wasn’t one of my party. But as I got closer it picked up a rock the size of a basketball and beat it on the ground three times. I decided this was bad and began to back up. Now it seemed like I became the hunted and it turned and ran my direction. I turned and ran for all is was worth toward the rock slide and down the hill. The creature crested the hill above me and began a longitudinal traverse of the hillside ripping out everything that stood in its way…

It looked like the scenes of a Tasmanian devil cartoon. This thing destroyed whole trees as it mowed through them, pushing them aside like I would small twigs. Rocks, branches and all forms of debris came my direction as if they were being hit with some beam of anti-gravitational force. It was so surreal that it was shocking and I stopped several times when I could run no further. Surprisingly, when I stopped, it stopped and when I ran, it ran. During the pauses it would make that banging sound again just long enough to enlist a response. I ran to within 300 feet of the road before I decided to give up and then it turned and went back into the forest. As I broke out to the road they tell me I emptied the clip of my gun. Of that I have no memory.

When I returned home I was too distraught to talk to my wife or acknowledge my friend Kevin who was visiting. I just went into the shower and scrubbed until I began to bleed. I then collapsed in the tub and began to sob. Shaking with the adrenaline still coursing through my veins. That night I recounted the story of what I had seen. A curse that led to repeated bizarre nightmares and sleep deprivation. Unusual, terrifying aspects for which I have no explanation. On that note I will leave you to digest my story.

I considered myself to be a very rational man. I have seen bears in the wild and hunted the same. What I saw wasn’t a bear. It seemed to be a living creature that was capable of being hurt.