YEAR: 1998

SEASON: Spring

STATE: Massachusetts

COUNTY: Hampshire County

LOCATION DETAILS: Take Route 9 through Belchertown and enter Federal street via either entrance as it is a road that turns off Rt 9, runs for about 3-4 miles then ends again at another intersection of Rt 9. It was around the street address if 722 Federal street.

NEAREST TOWN: Belchertown

NEAREST ROAD: Federal Street

OBSERVED: Hello!

This is something that happened a long time ago and to be honest I never thought it could be connected to Sasquatch/Bigfoot but recently I’ve been reading about the topic a lot and I figured I’d send it to you guys after finding your site and just checking out reports from areas where I’ve lived in the past. Anyway, I found a report from Belchertown, MA and I lived a rural part of Belchertown for several years when I was in college.

This was sometime around 1997-1998 in Belchertown. My housemates and I were out on our porch which faced a 2-3 acre meadow. This open meadow and the porch were on the east side of the house. The entire area past the meadow to the East was wooded with houses and cabins here and there for about a mile until you hit a lake. Behind the house was abput 10-20 yards of woods with a walking trail and then another 10 yards past was a train tracks running East/west then more woods.

Anyway, my housemates and I were out on the porch when we heard the sound of a tree crashing to the ground. About 19 seconds later while we all were kindve shocked there was an enormously loud and guttural growl/scream/roar. In all my life I have never heard any animal sound that could match it in intensity, volume, and it just sounded plain angry and vivacious. It is hard to describe just how loud it was and how stunned we all were that this was coming from an animal just inside the tree line. There were coyotes, owls, foxes galore back there and the sounds they made were a world away in comparison.

We all immediately looked at each other, got up and went into the house as fast as we could without saying a word.

Everyone assumed it was an animal but after reading about and hearing recordings of presumed Sasquatch scream and howls it brought the memory rushing back because it is so similar to what we heard.

Anyway, just wanted to send this in as I saw there was another report for this area.

Best regards

ALSO NOTICED: No, nothing. I do remember thinking it was weird that we’d hear trees falling in the woods a fair bit. But this could really mean not much.

OTHER WITNESSES: There were about 4-5 of us. Maybe a bit more. We were all just sitting on the porch talking. There was a light illuminating us on the porch but the meadow and woods were shrouded in darkness.

OTHER STORIES: No, I have not.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Late at night. After midnight but before dawn.

ENVIRONMENT: The property was about 7 acres. Most of it a meadow but wooded in front of the street with a small creek near the road. Woods surrounded the entire property and behind the house there was a public trail and a train track running parallel East/west behind the house. To the east of the 2-3 acre was a wooded area filled with many large Birch trees. The houses in this area are mostly in the woods.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Witness contact info available to BFRO investigators

About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.

- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.

- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.

- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.

- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.

- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.

- Current Director of the BFRO