YEAR: 1978

SEASON: Summer

DATE: Unknown - Early August

STATE: Minnesota

COUNTY: Isanti County

LOCATION DETAILS: I was at a family reunion on my aunt's 80 acre farm right outside of Oglivie.

NEAREST TOWN: Olgive/Cambridge

NEAREST ROAD: 23

OBSERVED: 24 years ago my sister and I had an encounter with 'bigfoot." We had been playing tag in the corn on my aunts farm with some cousins when my sister and I both burst out of the corn by the edge of the swamp at the same time. Immediately after we came out of the corn we noticed a large animal approxiamately 20 feet in front of us. My sister moved close to me and we looked at the "animal" as it looked at us. My first idea was naturally that it was a black bear which are relatively common in that part of Minnesota. However, the more closely I examined it the more I realized that it stood like a man, was shaped like a very large man and had the mannerisms of a man. We stood there for what seemed like forever but was probably only 1+ minutes looking at this "animal" realizing that we were looking at bigfoot. The "creature" was approxiamately 7 foot tall, it was covered in course-looking blackish brown fur that looked matted and dirty, it was standing in the swamp up to what I would assume was his ankles. It had a very distinctive smell that I can only describe as sulfer-like. The one thing that was very noticable was that it's eyes reflected light (such as diurnal animals do) so that they seemed electric blue in color. The creature at one point made a noise in it's throat and we startled at that. Our movement at that point must have startled it as well because it took a step forward in our direction. It was that step and the throat noise that cause us to turn into the corn and hightail it back to where our our family reunion was taking place. We found our mother and an uncle and talked them into going back to where we saw the "creature" to see if it was still there, of course it was not and to this day my whole family thinks we made up the story. It was dusk when this occured, early in the evening with enough light to make our sighting very clear. I wanted to share this experience with your organization because I know "bigfoot" is out there, I've seen him, heard him and smelled him.

ALSO NOTICED: The "creature" did emit a very strange sound that seemed to reverbrate deep within it's throat. The sound was not threatening but was very high in pitch and startled us.

OTHER WITNESSES: There was one other witness, my younger sister. She was 8 years old at the time and I was 13 years old.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was around 6:30 PM. It was dusk so the lighting was muted with the pinks, yellows and light blues in the sky. It was a mild, warm night with a slight breeze.

ENVIRONMENT: The incident occured in a swampy area located right outside a 5 acre area of mature corn. This area is approxiamately 3/4 - 1 mile away from the home and is not visible from the home or any out buildings.

Follow-up investigation report:

Northwestern Isanti County, where this sighting occurred, is part of the southern margin of Minnesota's north woods. Black bears are common there, and occasionally wolves are seen.

The person who submitted this report, "S," was 13 years old and her sister was 8 in 1978, the time of the sighting. The girls were playing on their aunt's 80 acre farm, which is near Dalbo, Minnesota, during a family picnic. S and her sister ran out of the south end of the corn field they were playing in with their cousins, and found themselves face to face with an "extremely big" furry animal, which was standing in 6 to 12 inches of swamp water. It was very close, only about 20 feet away, and S said her immediate thought was, "bear," but then she saw that it wasn't a bear at all, that it was "man shaped."

The girls were stopped in their tracks and so was the animal, and the two parties stood facing one another. The stunned girls clasped hands, and the animal seemed to show a stunned expression too. After 30 seconds to a minute of staring, the animal "raised its hand to navel level" and emitted a grunt/growl sound from its throat. That broke the spell and the girls wheeled and tore off into the corn for the house. The search party of adults they convinced to follow them back to the place found nothing. But 24 years later the sisters remain convinced that they had a stare down with a bigfoot.

Here is how S described the animal: "He" was huge and powerful looking, had a big chest (she could see its pectoral muscles), long arms, and it stood on strong looking legs. It was lean but not thin, had good muscle tone, and wide shoulders that sloped down into its arms. She said her uncle was 6'4" and the animal was taller than that. It had dark, coarse black/brown fur about 2 inches long covering its entire body, except the face, which was framed by fur. The head was "anvil shaped," she didn't see ears and it had no neck. The forehead was high and the face was like a man's, with a wide nose and deep nostrils, and the chin was somewhat receding. She said the eyes were blue, but that didn't seem to quite fit the quality she wanted to convey, and she added, they kind of glowed… the low light gave them a shining quality.

When I asked how old she thought the animal was she said she didn't know, and when I said, well, did it seem young, old, or in the prime of its life? She said it was probably in the prime of its life. She also said that when the animal moved its hand up to its navel she saw the hand well and it had an opposable thumb. In addition she saw testicles, a penis - "The genitalia were not large, as I remember, but they were present and visible," she later wrote me. S also said the animal smelled bad, like sulfur, rancid…

The witness has an MS degree in Roman Archeology and is a manager/director in an investment firm. She said she prides herself in her observational abilities and believes she and her sister saw a bigfoot.

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