Media Article # 44

Friday, November 16, 1979

By Tom Suk
Des Moines Register

Dallas County authorities were summoned to a home about six miles north of Adel late Thursday night after receiving reports of Bigfoot roaming through the area.

Sheriff Deputy Craig Hein said he received a call from Larry Wilson, of rural Minburn, who lives in a house about two miles north of Iowa 44 and in the vicinity of the Raccoon River.

Wilson told Hein his two dogs started barking about 9 p.m. and after about half an hour he went outside to investigate.

He said he stepped outside the sliding glass doors of his split-foyer home but could not see anything because of the darkness. But he did hear heavy, rhythmic breathing, Hein said.

It was kind of a raspy sound, Hein was told.

Wilson told Hein the dogs stopped barking, but he went upstairs and looked out the window. About 40 yards southwest of the house, Wilson saw "it" under a security yard light, Hein said.

"I don't believe in it, and I'm not crazy," Hein said Wilson told him.

Wilson described the creature to Hein as a "hunched over, dark thing." Hein said Wilson would "not commit himself to saying it was hairy," but he said it looked just like the pictures and drawings he has seen of Bigfoot.

Hein said he and other authorities went to the home and saw "12 - to - 13 inch" trampled prints in the frost covered grass. He said the strides were "48 inches from toe to toe."

Contacted early today, Wilson said he heard a strange sound when he went to calm his dogs. "The only way I can describe it is like a horse snorting, only real regular, a second or second and a half apart."

Wilson said it worried him because he never heard the sound before. "I went in the house, locked the door, and was looking out the living room window when I saw it. It was about 40 yards from the house when it walked under the security light.

"It looked like a man in a gorilla suit. I really couldn't estimate its height. It walked with a fairly long pace, and it had a definite arm swing. It might have had stooped shoulders."

Wilson said the creature was under the security light for only two or three seconds, so he did not get a chance to see any facial features.

Wilson, 39, who has lived near the Raccoon River for the past six years, said he asked that his report not be publicized.

"I still don't believe this myself, I'm really shook."

"I've always been a skeptic, and had it definitely not scared the living hell out of me, I wouldn't be talking to you now, my friend," Wilson said in an interview.

"I have hunted, fished and been out in the woods a lot, but I never saw or heard anything like that before. It was unnatural."

Wilson said no other members of his family were at home. "Wouldn't you know it," he said.

Reports of Bigfoot sightings were reported in Hamilton County in late October.

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