Behind the Scenes of Finding Bigfoot: “Peeping Bigfoot” with Cliff Barackman

Northern Minnesota is a rural area of forests, farmlands, and bogs. The human population is mostly in small urban areas and farms that are separated by huge tracts of nearly impassable land. Many large animals make this area their home, including deer, moose, wolves, bear, and sasquatches.

It was Andy Pieper’s interesting recordings that brought us to this location. The spot he recorded them has had bigfoot activity on or near it for many years. Most of the sounds he recorded were clearly canines, but one or two were more ambiguous. I think it’s at least possible that those vocalizations were from a bigfoot (though it’s equally possible that they were from a wolf).

Power lines near the recording location.

One of the highlights of this trip was driving those cool amphibious swamp vehicles manufactured by Argos. They have eight wheels, can float, and can drive over most obstacles. At first I felt a little bad about plowing through thickets of plants and trees, but an interesting feature of these peat bogs is that the trees and plants, once pushed down, pop back up. Utilizing these amazing vehicles, we were able to access islands of dry land deep in the peat bogs that few people ever go to. The one we spent the most time on was called “The Nursery” by the local bigfooters because of the small human-like footprints found there over the years that they believe are from juvenile sasquatches. These islands certainly would be excellent places for young bigfoots to hunt and hide without having to worry about meddling humans.

An Argo vehicle.

The deer kill that Ranae and I found was the work of predators. It could have been from wolves, coyotes, or even a bigfoot, but we couldn’t tell. However, that we found the scattered bones right inside the tree line was interesting. It would be strategic for a predator to ambush any prey animals as they entered the forest after crossing the marsh.

The night investigation yielded mixed results. At one point Ranae and I heard loud plopping noises of something dropping into water. At the time, we were utterly unaware of the pond that was on the other side of the brush. We thought that there was no body of water other than shallow, marshy pits with reeds and grasses growing in them. After learning that the pond was there, I changed my hypothesis from rocks being thrown to a beaver slapping its tail on the surface of the water (as they often do when disturbed). Though it is likely that the noises were made by a beaver, Ranae insisted that she could hear something large walking through the woods between where we were standing and where the noises came from. I did not hear those walking noises, but Ranae was so insistent that I have to at least keep the possibility open that those noises were from something else.

The town hall meeting was amazing. The little building we used was packed with standing room only. We took the time to listen to each and every person who wanted to share their story with us. Even after the meeting, I had people come up to me to tell me about their bigfoot encounter that they didn’t feel comfortable sharing in front of everyone. There are indeed a lot of bigfoot encounters in this area, and there has been for decades.

The awesome people of Minnesota!

Bobo’s solo investigation would last three nights. I knew it would be a good one, even if the bigfoots weren’t around at that time of year. I’ve been bigfooting with Bobo on many nights over the last seven years we’ve been friends, and if there’s something I know about him, it’s that he hates bugs. There have been several hot days in the woods when Bobo would not get out of the tent because of the horse flies. He would instead lie in the tent with the screen door open and lure the horseflies inside. Once the fly was in the tent, he would quickly zip up the door and engage the insect in mortal combat. “Only one of us can come out alive,” he claimed. He dubbed the tent, “The Thunderdome,” and bug gut stains still adorn the inside walls to this day (it was my tent…). He even would go as far as mounting particularly large flies that he found to be worthy opponents on small pieces of wood to decorate his trophy wall at home.

Jenna, the young jogger, saw a large bigfoot just a short distance from her home. Interestingly, there has been other activity around their property. Once, a very large and dark figure was seen walking about 200 yards away inside the wood line on the other side of a field. An interesting fact that surfaced while spending time with Jenna is that her dog is named “Bobo.”

Bobo the Dog

The sighting at the town hall meeting that was told by Lorraine grabbed my attention. She saw a large bigfoot in broad daylight looking into an abandoned trailer only a mile or so away from where Jenna saw hers while jogging. That trailer was still there, so this was an excellent opportunity to get some decent size estimates on this big guy that was so often seen in the area.

Lorraine is a very sweet woman with a no-nonsense attitude with the charming habit of occasionally talking like a sailor. She told me that her sister didn’t believe that she saw a bigfoot, so Lorraine told her sister that she “hopes it takes a sh** on her porch!” She said that would convince her. I adored her. She was so cute and so much fun to talk to.

Lorraine and Cliff, smiling together.

On April 9, 2010, Lorraine was driving down a rural road when she found two cars stopped in the road ahead of her. Thinking that a police officer had pulled someone over, she slowed down. She saw a large dark figure next to an abandoned trailer off to her right only 90 yards away.

Including Lorraine, there were three cars stopped in the road that day with the occupants all looking at the bigfoot. Lorraine was in the third car back. The first car had two young men wearing baseball caps in it, the second had a couple from the Pacific Northwest, and then Lorraine alone in the third car.

My field notes from Lorraine’s encounter.

The bigfoot looked into the trailer window for a few moments, using its right hand to shield the glare on the window. It then started walking down the driveway towards where everyone was stopped on the road. The young men in the first car quickly drove away in fear when they saw the creature coming their direction. The other two cars were treated to a close up view of the sasquatch as it passed only 29 yards from where Lorraine was stopped. It crossed the road (24 feet wide) and went over a 46 inch tall barbed wire fence without breaking stride in only three or four steps. After clearing the fence it disappeared into the thick woods and was not seen again.

The woods where the creature disappeared.

Lorraine spoke to the couple in the car in front of her after the event was over. They had a totally unobstructed view of the creature from quite close. They noted that they saw the hair very well, and clearly saw that this creature was a male. The creature did not look at the witnesses as it passed.

Lorraine remembered seeing where its chin was compared to the window, as well as where the crown of its head reached. The top of the creature’s head measured 108 inches off the ground, which is nine feet. The chin was at about the 89 inch level, or seven foot five inches. That makes the head of the creature 19 inches from chin to crown. (It’s not just their feet that are big.)

The window that the sasquatch was looking into.

What the bigfoot saw through the window.

At one point in our investigation, a man drove by in a truck and asked what we were doing. We told him about the bigfoot sighting, and he told us that that this particular sasquatch had been seen several times by people that he knows in the area. He even told us a nick name of this particular creature given to it by the locals: “Peek-a-Lou.” It seems that many of the local humans are aware of this creature and its affinity for looking into windows.

The next sighting we were to investigate happened on public (and protected) land adjacent to the witness’ property. Dale and Kristy’s were out ATV riding and bird hunting with their children when they saw a large bigfoot get up and immediately leave the area near the trail. The ATV’s had come to a stop, and Dale seems to have stirred up the sasquatch from hiding as he walked through the thick forest in search of game birds. The creature retreated back up the road, which was away from where Dale had walked. They heard it crashing through the brush for a distance, before losing track of it.

Our last night investigation actually took place in two separate locations. The mobile call blasting part was overlooking a deep river gorge containing a state park. At one point, I heard a possible call back, but it was too distant to discern if it was a bigfoot or some sort of canine. Down below in the ravine, Bobo and Ranae had some bad luck. They found that humans were in the immediate area, thus increasing the likelihood of us hearing human noises instead of bigfoots if we continued. At that point, we quickly left the area.

Luckily, Tyler Bounds had been out bigfooting with some local Minnesota bigfooters the night before and had heard knocks. We moved the production team to this new location and started the night over again. Over the next several hours we heard several things moving around in the forest, but I do not know what they were. They could have just as easily been deer or racoons as bigfoots. Unfortunately, we never got a visual on whatever it was.