The Dahl Bigfoot encounter is a mysterious and chilling story from the Pacific Northwest, often cited in older Bigfoot lore as one of the strangest early disappearances connected to the creature. While not as famous as Bluff Creek or Ape Canyon, the Dahl encounter stands out for its eerie circumstances and unexplained ending.
The year was 1958, and William “Bill” Dahl was a prospector, logger, and outdoorsman who often worked in the Mount St. Helens wilderness of Washington State — a region already rich with reports of strange “hairy men” seen in the forests and canyons.
Dahl was known locally for his curiosity about such reports. According to accounts retold in cryptozoological circles, he’d been hearing rumors of large footprints found near the Lewis River, and booming screams at night echoing from the ridges. Determined to find the source, Dahl set out alone on a short solo expedition in early summer.
Dahl reportedly set up camp near the river, close to a small cabin he sometimes used for prospecting. Over several nights, he began experiencing increasingly disturbing activity:
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Unexplained Footsteps:
He wrote in notes later found among his belongings that he heard “heavy, two-footed walking” outside the cabin after dark — the sound of something circling him slowly in the night. -
Thrown Rocks and Screams:
On the second night, he described rocks being thrown at his campfire and hearing a “deep growl or moan” coming from the tree line. -
The Smell:
Dahl also mentioned a “sickening stench like dead animals and wet fur”, something long associated with Bigfoot encounters even today. -
Massive Tracks:
He followed large humanlike footprints near his camp the next morning each about 16 inches long and deeply pressed into the mud.
Then, suddenly, Dahl vanished.
When friends and coworkers noticed he hadn’t returned, a search party went out to find him. What they discovered was unsettling:
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Dahl’s rifle was found leaning against a tree near his camp.
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His boots and backpack were still inside his cabin.
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The ground showed large footprints leading away into dense forest but no return tracks.
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No body or trace of Dahl was ever found.
Even the dogs brought in by searchers were said to have refused to follow the trail, whining and backing away. The Dahl Bigfoot encounter remains a mystery without closure part of a broader pattern of disappearances and unexplained happenings in the forests around Mount St. Helens.
Researchers later connected the case with earlier incidents like the Ape Canyon attack (1924) and later theories explored in Missing 411, where wilderness vanishings occur under odd and often “impossible” circumstances.