Are Eastern Bigfoot Aggressive?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 10th, 2006
I was talking to Roger Knights today, about the August 13, 1965 story of Monroe, Michigan, when Christine van Acker and her mother Mrs. Ruth Owens, had an encounter with a black 7-feet tall Bigfoot. The Bigfoot reached inside their car, giving Christine a black eye. Knights reminded me that it might not have been an “unprovoked assault” from the Bigfoot’s point of view, because their car had “brushed past” the Bigfoot before coming to a stop.
Maybe I have been blaming the eastern Bigfoot for being too aggressive? Maybe not? Talking about this case certainly reminded me of other ones from the East where Bigfoot seem to be aggressive, either in response to being bumped, crowded, or harassed by people and perhaps dogs. Certainly this is how I feel, and why I detail it that way in my 2003 book, Bigfoot!
There’s, of course, Momo carrying around a dog under its arm. Not exactly the image of a gentle giant that Sasquatch in the West places in your mind. What’s going on in the East?
Then there’s the James Hughes sighting in 2000, in Wisconsin, of a Bigfoot seen allegedly carrying a goat. How about looking up some more on that one, I thought.
So here you go…the original news article, and a contribution from Richard Hendricks, the unsung hero archivist at The Anomalist Newsline and over at Weird Wisconsin. He has given permission to share, as a guest posting below, his summary of the interview he conducted with James Hughes.
Wisconsin a new home for Bigfoot?
Deliveryman says he saw huge, hairy beast carrying a goat in Clark County
By Keith Edwards
Special to the Journal Sentinel
April 4, 2000
Granton – James Hughes was minding his own business, delivering the Black River Shopper last week when he says he saw something he’ll never forget – an 8-foot-tall, two-legged, shaggy creature carrying a goat. Sasquatch? Bigfoot? Yeti? Abominable Snowman? Or just a really tall hairy guy carrying breakfast? Hughes isn’t sure, and authorities are scratching their heads over the reported sighting.
“He was all covered with hair, a real dark gray color, with some spots that looked a honey color. It was walking on two legs, and it was mighty, mighty, big,” Hughes said in a phone interview Tuesday.
“You better believe I was scared. That creature could have tipped that car upside down and thrown it in the ditch. It was that big.”
Hughes filed a report with the Clark County Sheriff’s Department, and a deputy was dispatched to the scene but couldn’t find any big footprints, said Capt. Mark Cattanach.
“We have no goats reported missing, or any other types of small animals that may meet that description,” Cattanach said Tuesday.
“I’m not sure what we could do. I don’t know that there’s ever been any indication, at least that I’ve been told, that there’s any danger to the public.”
Hughes, 57, was on his newspaper delivery route around 5:15 a.m. March 28 when he said he saw the creature at the side of the road, on County Highway H about 1 1/2 miles from his rural Granton home. At first, he thought it was a man, but as he got closer he said he realized it didn’t look human – about 8 feet tall, 500 pounds and hairy with an ape-like face. After getting a closer look at the creature, which he said appeared to be carrying a goat or small sheep in its hand, Hughes said he floored his gas pedal and quickly drove away.
“I didn’t call it in (to the Sheriff’s Department) until the next day, because people would think I’m crazy. And I don’t drink, I don’t use dope, and I was wide awake,” Hughes said.
Cattanach said Hughes gave a very detailed description, but without tracks or other evidence suggesting a creature was in the area, there’s not much the Sheriff’s Department can do. He also said the reported Bigfoot sighting is the talk of the community. “There’s been a fair amount of joking around with this,” said Cattanach.
Journal Sentinel reporter Meg Jones contributed to this report.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 5, 2000.
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Interview with Bigfoot Witness
by Richard D. Hendricks
Source: Weird Wisconsin
April 5, 2000
As a followup to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story, I talked to the original radio news reporter, Keith Edwards. He assured me that Mr. Hughes was a credible witness, and seemed genuinely frightened by his bigfoot encounter.
Later that evening about 8:00 p.m. I called to talk to James Hughes about his Bigfoot sighting of Tuesday, March 28, near Granton, Wisconsin. We talked about ten minutes.
Prior to that, Loren Coleman had been sending the story around the Internet. Coleman mentioned that the Bigfoot in the story sounded like the Marked Hominid he described in [his and Patrick Huyghe’s 1999 field guide, now entitled] The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates. Rereading this description, and the description of reported creatures that fell into this classification, I devised questions to elicit details based on these characteristics. Also, because the creature had been seen carrying a goat, Coleman had said that it reminded him of the Momo sighting of 1972. In this sighting, a shaggy haired Bigfoot was seen carrying off a dog under its arm near the town of Louisiana, Missouri. As it turns out, this was a most prescient insight.
Hughes had been driving on the left hand side of the road, doing about 25-30 mph, as he delivered the Black River Shopper to rural mailboxes. He saw something standing in the south ditch on the opposite side of the road, the right hand side. At first he thought it was a man, but as he drew closer, he realized it was far bigger than a man, standing some 8 feet tall, weighing (in his estimate) 500 pounds.
He described the creature as having dark gray hair “six to eight inches long,” uniform in length across its entire body. Some of the hair was “shaggy,” with “clumps, and knotted,” and definitely did not look well-groomed. Hughes saw some lighter colored patches, which he described as honey-colored. The largest, and the one he got the clearest view of, was on the creature’s left-hand side. It was about the size of a magazine. The head was “over a foot wide … all hair.” Hughes could make out two spots where its eyes should have been, but he was unable to distinguish shape, size, or color, saying only that these two spots were of a different color. He assumed these spots were eyes. He was unable to see facial features. To my question, he said the creature had no mane, and that all its hair was the same shaggy length.
Dawn was just breaking. This occurred just a few days before the Daylight Savings Time change, and Hughes said it was approximately 5:15 a.m. when he came upon the creature. Hughes didn’t get a very long look at it, because of the suddenness, and so wasn’t able to describe more than general features. But at that, he saw far more than most witnesses.
I asked about arm length, but Hughes had been unable to get a good enough look. He said only that the arms were long, but whether they hung below the knees or above he could not say.
I asked about the general physique. Was it more like a wrestler, with broad shoulders and narrow waist, or more barrel-chested, with no waist? He just laughed, saying it was big, looking more like “a miniature King Kong.”
Hughes never saw more than its back and its left side and couldn’t determine whether it had a paunchy gut. In the few seconds it took him to realize it wasn’t a man, he felt the first tingling of fear. Then the thing looked at him.
“What the hell, is the damn thing looking right at me!” He said he knew that in “two steps it would be across the road” and “could easily tip his car over.” With that, he “stepped on the carburetor” and sped away.
The creature was carrying something in its right hand, which hung at its side. Hughes said “it was about the size of a goat.” After several days of thinking about the event, he’s now unsure whether it really was a goat as the story first suggested. Whether it was a “goat, or roadkill, or something,” he couldn’t say, but only that “it was about the size of a goat.” When you think about Momo, the shaggy dog-killing terror of Louisiana, Missouri, you wonder whether it was a dog …
Hughes said the creature looked at him. I asked him to describe it. He said that he had been driving up from behind the creature. The creature’s back was to him in the opposite ditch. As he drew nearer the beast, it “turned its head real slow” to look at him, as if it were saying “Like who the hell are you?” Hughes reiterated this point. Its head didn’t snap around quickly, as if startled. It was a very slow turning to look at him, a challenge.
I asked Hughes whether he felt anything or thought the creature was trying to communicate with him in anyway. Hughes said he only felt fear, and “stepped on the carburetor” and went tearing “the hell home as fast as I could.” He repeated this too, about the fear, about speeding home as fast as he could.
He described the country as being gently rolling hills. He was vague about the land on the north (his side) of the road, but from his description, I gathered it was rolling pasture. On the south side of the road was a plowed field. When Hughes returned with a deputy, they were unable to find any tracks, nor did they find any tracks in the adjacent hard-packed field of last year’s hay cutting. The nearest woods was some 75 yards beyond the soft plowed field; Hughes said he was told a big swamp lies beyond.
A look at an atlas shows that a large oil and high tension power transmission line runs just north of the sighting area. A large radio tower is marked nearby. Two named Indian mound groups lie to the northwest and southwest. And of course, Panther Creek cuts across the road near where Hughes saw the creature.
Hughes did not have any other person or animal in his vehicle with him. He snorted when I asked whether he was afraid to return to the area.
He is weary of answering questions, as every reporter, radio and television station across the world has been calling him, and he said he’s “getting sick of telling the same story.” He only reluctantly talked to me when I told him I wasn’t a reporter, but a serious researcher.
He’s said that already, even in this short time, all kinds of people have been driving all up and down the road looking for the creature. A woman even came from Minnesota, bringing “specially trained dogs” to sniff out Bigfoot, but all they smelled were the other people who had been “pawing around” the dirt along the road.
Hughes said that no one else has come forward with other stories. He laughed when I asked about this, implying that they’d have to be crazy to tell their story now. He half intimated that he wished he hadn’t said anything due to the resulting media circus. I cut my interview short because I knew I was trying his patience.
(Edwards at the radio station said that the only reported sightings listeners had called in with were of the 1997 Bigfoot sightings near Rice Lake.)
Hughes had heard of Bigfoot or Sasquatch prior to his sighting, but had always dismissed them as stories or legends. But, he “believes in them now.”
One interesting aspect is the overall hair-covered body, with hair six to eight inches long, and the lack of distinguishing facial features. This fits the description of the Momo Bigfoot of 1972 and the 1965 creature that attacked Christine Van Acker near Monroe, Michigan. Loren Coleman says that these creatures are often referred to as the “Eastern Bigfoot,” a much different creature from the Pacific Northwest’s Sasquatch.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I have read in the past that the eastern variety were different in build and attitude, especially the skunk ape in Florida. They seem to be more agressive and less fearful of man than the NW variety squatch. Their physical features are supposed to be thinner and more lean as well, which makes me think it could be a different species.
Speculation on my part, but if this is true, they will probably be most apt to cross the wrong person hunting someday rather than the ones in the Pacific northwest.
I remember the Western Pennsylvania bigfoot summers of 1972 & 1973. One of the things that I remember about those sightings was the fact that so many of the newspaper articles included details of a bigfoot carrying a deer carcass, killing dogs, or eating chickens and such.
One sighting out on rt66 north of Greensburg detailed how the witness watched a creature pick up a recent deer roadkill and leap across the highway with its’ prize draped over a shoulder. It always stuck with me that the western Pa. bigfoot population seemed to have a carniverous leaning.
hi everyone i dont think the eastern sasquatch creatures are aggressive only to realy protect themselfs from danger or wildlife that might pose them some possible harm etc. i think the eastern sasquatch creatures are realy curious about us ie researchers becouse we study them in safe way with out harming them in their habitat. i think eastern sightings etc will pick up this maybe becouse weather will force the creatures to move to eastern states forests where there is alot food resources etc and they can feel some sort of protection. thanks bill please keep me informed ok. 🙂
I have believed for some time that the eastern bigfoots more aggressive tendencies that have been reported are caused by the nature of the territory in the east. There are far less areas in the highly populated east for bigfoot to hide (be at peace and rest) compared to the vast expanses of the pacific northwest where he can disappear into the forest more easily. perhaps this difference in human population has caused frustration or difficulty in finding or maintaining habitat? Just think of how we humans react when we are crowded. just my observation. great site, i am all eyes for bigfoot as a patrol southern illinois
I am not aware of any agressive behavior of our Florida Swamp Ape, other than one report by a group of teens, back in the 1970s.
In this case, one of the teens, who attempted to photograph the “creature”, was picked up by the animal and thrown to the ground.
However, in checking into this “sighting” I discovered that the teens had been having a beer party on state park land. Alcohol on park land isn’t legal in Florida.
The “Swamp Ape” turned out to be a rather tall and hairy (bearded too) park ranger who broke up the fun. When one of the teens became uncooperative and agressive toward the ranger, the ranger threw him up against one of the cars. The teen, too drunk to stand under the circumstances, fell to the ground.
Apparently, the “Swamp Ape” story played better in the press — and with the parents — than did the “rest of the story.”
Now I feel a bit like Paul Harvey …
It would seem to me that in this instance where BF was carrying his breakfast/lunch/supper or whatever he would be more prone to aggression by anything approaching him that he might precieve as a threat to his food source. You can watch any wildlife film and can see when feeding any animal is prone to aggressively protect his kill. And if it is the time of year that harsh wheather is about food will be a little harder to come by so that would make them even more prone to stand thier ground. And what if it was a family group close by waiting for the food. Family and food would make anyone more aggressive towards someone approaching him even with good intentions he would have no idea what a human may want. Just a random thought here.
Could it have been an infant that the Bigfoot was carrying, in both cases? Either way, food or child, you’re going to protect your stuff, that’s a basic instinct. Being from Boston I like the idea that the East Coast Bigfoot has an attitude.
How do you measure agression ? If I were protecting my food, child, or defending against a dog etc. that is not agression that is defense. Agression is when you drive up put the hibeams on the BF and it comes after you instead of running away. Eastern BF live in a different enviroment than the west I agree they have an attitude.
Well yeah!!! You would become aggressive too if you kept getting pestered by a crytomundo poster for a 8×10 autographed photo.
re #3 “i dont think the eastern sasquatch creatures are aggressive only to realy protect themselfs from danger or wildlife that might pose them some possible harm etc. i think the eastern sasquatch creatures are realy curious about us ie researchers becouse we study them in safe way with out harming them in their habitat.”
Bill, I think one must be careful before engaging in this kind of anthropomorphization of an unknown entity. While it is true that an unknown hominid may be a close genetic relative, it still is not human, and one should be cautious about ascribing human reasoning and emotion to them. Unboubtedly they are intelligent. Chimpanzees are intelligent also, but still potentially dangerous animals capable of killing a grown man. It would pay to be cautious.
re #6 “And if it is the time of year that harsh wheather is about food will be a little harder to come by so that would make them even more prone to stand thier ground.”
The story took place in the Spring, just before daylight savings time kicked in. But I agree that animals are more aggressive when feeding. I’ve seen family dogs growl at their owners when they approached their feed dish.
Something that I feel is being overlooked here in the comments, though, is the possibility that these sightings of eastern BF are of an entirely different type of creature than the north-western Sasquatch.
As Loren has already noted here both the uniform hair-length, and the (possibly) carnivorous predilection of this entity match descriptions of the Missouri Monster (Momo). As most of you know one of the most interesting aspects of the Momo phenomenon, that make it stand apart from the NW sasquatch reports, were the reporting of three fingers and three toed prints.
As Loren notes in his Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates four toed prints are sometimes reported in some marked hominids, differentiating them from the five toed Sasquatch (neo-giant).
As noted above, no tracks were collected in this Wisconsin case. But when you consider the similarities of this creature to Momo, in terms of hair length, aggressive behavior and geography, it follows that what was seen may not be in any way related to the northwest Sasquatch.
In fact, in terms of aggressive behavior, diet and the tridactyl nature of their feet, Momo seem to have more in common with creatures such as the Dodu or Kalanoro than with Sasquatch.
I wonder if it could be territorial? since I moved into this house 6 months ago my old cat who is 17 and very frail has seen off two large dogs and their owners, the man who came to read the electricity meter and every other cat in the neighbourhood.For some reason he has become very territorial. Maybe the car has the same effect on bigfoot.It’s noisy and fast and could be seen as a threat.
As for behaving differently from other bigfoot, it’s logical to think it would. You only have to look at people from differnt areas, accents change, customs vary and even birds from different areas have a different song accent.
I also wonder if people in the cars had radios on or not? Muzak annoys most of us…imagine if you are bigfoot coming from your nice quiet swamp and muzak hits you from a fast moving noisy thing on the road. If it was me I’d give them a black eye too!
Dear Loren,
I think the post’ors suggesting that Eastern Bigfoot’s “aggressive” behavior may be defensive–or a stress reaction to environmental overcrowding–may well have a point.
Here I’d also like the problem I’ve always had with Momo and a couple of the other mystery primates illustrated in _The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates_ who have hair completely covering their faces. For the life of me I can’t see (excuse my pun) how having hair covering a creature’s eyes could possibly enhance its survival. Momo’s facial hair in fact amounts to a visual handicap.
This is something I’ve often thought about since I first read the original 1999 edition of _The Field Guide to Bigfoot…_ The drawing of Momo you posted here gave me a welcome opportunity to express my thought.
Cheers,
T. Peter
Geographic pecularities could also affect vocal vernacular ~ how can we know how a left-coast S’quatch interprets a call-blasted howl from Ohio?
Maybe we are shouting “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE ~ THE HAIRLESS ARE COMING!!” or even “YOU COME HERE ~ I KILL YOU!!” into their territory at 500 Watts !
Most of the stories of aggression I’ve run across have been of the variety of where a dog gets whacked. Of course the story of the Lake Worth monster and the Buchanan guy getting dragged by his sleeping bag comes to mind along with MoMo and the Fouke Monster with their antics. On the flip side of the coin you can also point out that from the PNW, the account of Ape canyon. Also the Albert Ostman and Muchalat Harry story from BC. Don’t forget about the Bauman story. These point to aggressive behavior in the North West, so if the animal truly exist then it would be reasonable to surmise from the stories there are a few bad apples in all parts of the continent.
There’s the case of the alleged Bigfoot that “attacked” a farm in Wantage, NJ back in the late 70’s. According to an article published at the time, witnesses described a “seven feet tall” hairy, man-like creature. It broke into a barn and killed some rabbits which were kept there. The title of the article reads “Wantage Family in Terror of Odd Creature for Week.” That says something about it’s apparent disposition.
The farm owner shot at the creature at one point, driving off his property. Those interested can read the article in it’s entirety here.
Another New Jersey encounter occured in 1927, I believe, when a cab driver was fixing a blown tire on a desolate pine barrens road. His car was approached and shaken by a very large, hairy figure, forcing him to tear off into the night on the rim, leaving his jack and spare tire behind. At the time, it was attributed to the Jersey Devil, but clearly, the description is that of a Sasquatch. Perhaps, owing to the larger population of humans on the east coast and the increased chance of encountering one, the eastern Sasquatch have become more aggressive, or at least paranoid or protective of their goods. Then again, maybe their increased exposure has simply taught them just how aggressive WE are…