1978-1982 OAKLAND COUNTY MICHIGAN, Does anyone remember Bigfoot Stories Options

[Drew]

When I was 6-10 years old, we used to go to my cousin's house in Rochester Hills Michigan, his house was in a brand new subdivision just north of Stony Creek Metro park off of Rochester Road. It was during the years just before the huge urban building started up there. The sub was cut right out of some farmer's fields and forest.

Anyway, we used to walk for miles looking for forts, and going to Hidden Lake to go fishing, and I'll never forget, my cousin who was 4 years older than me always said 'keep your eye open for bigfoot' and we would stop and scan the tree lines and the horizon for bigfoot and look for Bigfoot prints.

But my question is, how did a 12 year old hear that Bigfoot lived in the area?, did he hear rumors at school?, did he read it in the local paper?, were there TV news reports at the time?

DOES ANYONE remember anything like this in 1978 thru 1982?

Please help me! If you have similar experiences, or know of the same rumors, let me know.

[RogerKni]

Michigan had a major case in 1965, with a few associated sightings, which led to a large number of Bigfoot hunters and unofficial posses searching for it. This is described in Green's Apes Among Us, p. 201, and elsewhere in the literature. (E.g., in True magazine, 6/66.) Mrs. Ruth Owens and her daughter Christine sideswiped one on the road, as a result of which the BF slammed Christine's head against the door-upright, knocking her unconscious. This was north of Monroe.

There was also a major case in Wisconsin, next door, investigated by Sanderson and publicized in one of the adventure magazines, where six-plus hunters confrtonted one for several minutes in the open. These cases may have stirred up BF-awareness in your area.

This post has been edited by RogerKni: Oct 18 2006, 01:03 PM

[Tirademan]

Drew, check the link below to find the Historical Archives thread where I've posted old stories I've found. Several from Michigan, one from 1965 with an interesting illustration is on page 1. Then a couple more on page 5 and 7, although those are much older. I posted 14 stories in total (at least) from Michigan in that thread. A bunch were regarding the 1964-5 sightings. I compiled the reports into a book which you can find at www.mcclean.org.

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=5705

tirademan

[InMichAgain]

There were several in Ingham County, a couple in Concord Township, a couple in Evart, one in Millington, one in Mayville, one in Genessee County, and one in Battle Creek from 78-80. These sort of line up in a big half-circle around Rochester Hills. I didn't see any that were any closer. There's some open land there even still, but it's a little out of the way of any obvious migratory routes (IMO). At any rate, it seems that the time you're talking about was a busy time in Michigan for BF sightings.

[Trick]

I grew up in that area during the 70's and early 80's. My father was a farmer. Stony Creek is in Macomb County, right about 26-27 mile roads. I would say from 1976 to 1980 there were quite a few sightings in the Ray Township, Armada, and Yale areas.

My father along with other witnesses on 2 occasions saw a large bipedal creature on our land. (near Ray Center). One was at 1/4 miles away and the other sighting was at about 100 yards. The farther sighting was with our hired man (who saw it first and my dad said his face went white and he went quiet, when my father saw the man staring intently at something, he turned and watched a large figure walk across a ridge in one of our fields). They went out to investigate the intruder, and found no tracks as the ground was frozen. Then they realized by comparison to a nearby tree, the "fellow" was 9-10 feet tall.

The closer sighting was across the road from our house, the ground dropped away to a floodplain next to a small river. There were Crabapple trees and willows and shrubs growing in this marshy flood plain, but you could see some of the river in the breaks of the foliage. He watched the top of "something's" pointed brownish head move throught crabapples and brushy trees. A pickup truck traveling on the road also came to a stop (there were two local farmers in it) to also watch this "something" head northwest, following the river upstream.
There was a one-lane concete bridge on that road over the river at the time and the "something" disappeared underneath it, continuing its progress upstream. By the height of the brushy growth, my father estimated 9-10 feet in height. The two guys in the pickup drove away after the thing went out of sight. No one thought of chasing "it" any further.

One winter, my school was abuzz with bigfoot rumors. Rumors of a large pig lifted out of a pen at a farm on 30 mile road. Huge barefoot footprints in the snow were reportedly found around barns and houses.

Somewhere in the timeframe, a young girl in St. Clair County reportedly touched a Bigfoot in her barn while searching for the lightswitch. St. Clair County is just NE of Macomb. The river system is shared between the counties.

I've lurked here for quite a while, but I felt I needed to add to this thread.

[listener]

Was the sighting at 30 mile, the Lett road area? Family grew up in that area, and time frame. They mentioned always hearing the reports and stories of Bigfoot.
L

[Drew]

I grew up in that area during the 70's and early 80's. My father was a farmer. Stony Creek is in Macomb County, right about 26-27 mile roads. I would say from 1976 to 1980 there were quite a few sightings in the Ray Township, Armada, and Yale areas.

My father along with other witnesses on 2 occasions saw a large bipedal creature on our land. (near Ray Center). One was at 1/4 miles away and the other sighting was at about 100 yards. The farther sighting was with our hired man (who saw it first and my dad said his face went white and he went quiet, when my father saw the man staring intently at something, he turned and watched a large figure walk across a ridge in one of our fields). They went out to investigate the intruder, and found no tracks as the ground was frozen. Then they realized by comparison to a nearby tree, the "fellow" was 9-10 feet tall.

The closer sighting was across the road from our house, the ground dropped away to a floodplain next to a small river. There were Crabapple trees and willows and shrubs growing in this marshy flood plain, but you could see some of the river in the breaks of the foliage. He watched the top of "something's" pointed brownish head move throught crabapples and brushy trees. A pickup truck traveling on the road also came to a stop (there were two local farmers in it) to also watch this "something" head northwest, following the river upstream.
There was a one-lane concete bridge on that road over the river at the time and the "something" disappeared underneath it, continuing its progress upstream. By the height of the brushy growth, my father estimated 9-10 feet in height. The two guys in the pickup drove away after the thing went out of sight. No one thought of chasing "it" any further.

One winter, my school was abuzz with bigfoot rumors. Rumors of a large pig lifted out of a pen at a farm on 30 mile road. Huge barefoot footprints in the snow were reportedly found around barns and houses.

Somewhere in the timeframe, a young girl in St. Clair County reportedly touched a Bigfoot in her barn while searching for the lightswitch. St. Clair County is just NE of Macomb. The river system is shared between the counties.

I've lurked here for quite a while, but I felt I needed to add to this thread.

This is what I'm talking about! My cousin must have heard rumors, or heard his dad talking about it. I used to hunt near 32mile and Romeo, but this wasn't until the last five years. I just wonder if the intense building in the area over the last 20 years has driven the last of them out of the area.

We used to go out to the fields and my cousin would be like 'let's look for Bigfoot prints, and you might see him across the field.' I don't know if it was his imagination, or if the area was just abuzz with BF talk.

[Trick]

My father lived entire life in a 50 mile radius of Ray Center. He claimed to have seen a panther-like large animal in one of our back fields heading toward the power line clearcut. I totally believe he saw this thing, he was a farmer and knew every mammal, bird, rodent, insect and plant on that land.

I believe the Bigfoot was using the river bed as a migration route, and the one time of year there was large fish swimming upstream (I wish I could remember what kind) and maybe that was an easy meal too. I also think the power line clearcuts were great highways for things to travel relatively unseen with ease.

I never remember seeing anything, but occasionally when we would play in the woods, a creepy feeling would come over us and we would stop right there and high tail it for home. My mother claims to have smelled very bad, strong odors from a certain copse of woods by the riverbank when she would drive by. It might have been something dead in there, but it lasted for a large part of the summer that year.

There was a Boy Scout camp just up the road from us, and I believe there were rumors of the scouts seeing/hearing/smelling something during their campouts.