Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode, we're talking about a North Dakota Bigfoot
Roundup. That's correct, a North Dakota
Bigfoot roundup. Now this sighting happened back
in 2005, August 27th. The night of August 26th it says
around 2:20 to 2:30 AM MY2 cousins were driving back from
Minot. They took the back roads to get
home faster and were about two to three miles from home on
County Road 7 when they noticed something.
While driving in the northbound lane.
They saw a large brown hairy figure about 7 to 8 feet tall
standing on the left side of the road.
They were going about 50 to 55 mile an hour and slowed down a
bit. As they passed it they tapped
the brakes and in the brake lights they saw it clearly.
Terrified, they speed up and drove home at around 90 mile per
hour. Once they got to one of my
cousin's houses they woke up my uncle and told him they had seen
Bigfoot. Then they drove back to my house
and woke me up. I joked yeah right, like you saw
Bigfoot around here. But they were both visibly
scared and shaking and that's when I realized they must have
seen something. I grabbed 2 spotlights, one with
a 5 million candle power and another with a three and a half
million. My uncle had a one main candle
power light. After they calmed down a bit
they agreed to show us a spot. We left their car and took my
aunt's fan. They showed us the location and
I marked it by throwing out a full water bottle.
I asked them which direction it might have been going and if
they had seen more. One of my cousins said it might
have been moving W. We headed West on County Road 6
just north of White Shield about one to two miles from County
Road 7. We turned N on County Road 5 and
began spotlighting the cut wheat fields.
I was on the passenger side and my uncle was driving.
As we scanned the area with our lights, I noticed a bright red
reflection of ice. I told my uncle to stop.
I saw something on all fours moving W toward us.
It then stopped and appeared to sit down.
It looked like a gorilla from the movies.
We watched it for about 3 to 5 minutes.
It seemed unreal to me at first, but then I realized we don't
have gorillas in North Dakota. That's when my uncle noticed two
more sets of eyes behind the one we had been watching.
My cousin started screaming and cussing, urging us to leave and
call the cops and Game and Fish. As we turned around to leave, I
saw it stand up and I told them to hurry up and get Game and
Fish out here. When we got back to my house, my
cousin called the BIA, that's the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
and they said they would contact the game warden.
My uncle and I decided to head back to wait for the game
warden. My cousin's husband wanted to
come with us. As we turned on to County Road
5, we noticed a strange smell like urine, old sweat, and a
swampy odor. It wasn't coming from inside the
van, which smelled better than the outside.
We stopped, got out and listened.
That's when we saw truck lights on County Road 6.
It was the game warden. We flighted him down, explained
what we saw, and he said he would check the field out.
We drove E spotlighting as he went.
As we talked, my uncle suggested we try to call it, so my
cousin's husband made a howling sound and sure enough, another
faint Bella responded from the southwest, about a half a mile
to a mile away. There were no cattle in the
area, so we headed in that direction.
When we stopped where we thought the sound came from, we rolled
the windows down and listened, but there was no noise, not even
crickets or grasshoppers. We turned it around, found the
game warden and continued searching until 7:00 AM.
We noticed there were many slows and deep weeds providing good
hiding spots. The next day we looked for
footprints and found some impressions in the cut wheat
field and ditch. The prints were about 15 1/2
inches long and five and a half to 6 inches wide.
We stopped Abia officer who came out, took some pictures and
confirmed the prints pointed E. As we followed the tracks, we
found three other sets zigzagging around.
After about 30 minutes of tracking, we reached a tree row
where we found piles of cut hay and snapped pine tree branches
with saps still oozing from the brakes.
The area had tall weed stems, though no tall weeds were
nearby. About 200 yards away at the end
of the tree row, we found a Slough with the same stems.
On August 31st, my uncle and I theorized that the creature was
following sloughs and ponds, possibly for water.
The tracks seemed to lead toward Lake Secawea as we tested this
theory. We were West of White Shield
when we heard a low scream. A dog at a nearby farmhouse
began barking from where we saw the creature to where we heard
the scream. Our theory seemed correct.
On September 4th, after leaving the area alone for a few days,
we returned to the spot but found nothing.
On September 9th, 6 kids saw a black tall figure running on two
legs heading West on BIA One, just half a mile north of White
Shield. I spoke to the kids and they
said the figure was black and running on two legs as it
crossed the road. It took three steps to get to
the other side. This happened around 9:00 PM at
sunset. By the time the kids told us it
was dark. My uncle and I drove back there
but found nothing. The next day on September 10th,
we tried to find a path where this thing or Bigfoot had
crossed, but we're still looking for signs or even better
footprints. That's it for now, I'll update
later. Wow, that's a pretty wild story.
And the thing that it crossed that road in three steps, I
mean, think about that, you know, a road, what, 20 feet wide
or something. So we're talking 6-7 foot
strides to get across that road. I mean, really a detailed
sighting. I think they just did a great
job there. It says also notice smell of pee
and Slough, grunting noise, faint screams.
I didn't mention this in the story, but the same night my
neighbor's kids said they heard knocking sounds coming from the
trees north of White Shield. Wow sounds sounds like a Bigfoot
to me. Other witnesses, my uncle and I,
my cousins which are the main witnesses, 6 kids that might
have seen Bigfoot running across the road.
Other stories I think it was last year that they saw Bigfoot
in the new town area of two years ago.
Plus I was told stories that Bigfoot at the lake.
So that's why I was kind of shocked that it was so close to
town. And then it says time and
conditions. It was night around 2:00 AM, no
moon and it was clear skies. When the kids saw it, it was
almost dark and the environment is a wheat filled on both sides
of the road. Some tree rose about 150 to 200
yards from the pavement and sloughs.
Wow. Then it goes here, says the BFRO
has received several reports describing this particular
incident. Well, that's interesting.
The investigators. Gary Christensen says I spoke
with the reporting witnesses for over an hour at his home in
White Shield, ND. In addition to the submitted
report, he also shared the following details.
The creature was about 100 yards from the witness when it was
illuminated by the spotlight. No facial features were
observed, but the torso and legs were described as long and
thick. The animal was first seen on all
fours, but when illuminated, set down after three to five
minutes, it stood up on two legs.
An additional eyeshine was observed further out in the
field. At that point, the creature
advanced toward the spotlight. This action caused panic amongst
some of the witnesses, so they departed to find the authorities
the next day. Several sets of tracks were
found in several locations. Sizes ranged from 4 to 15 inches
in length and two to seven inches in width.
The stride was as much as 5 feet and although most tracks were
aligned, some zigzag. Over the next 5 months
additional activity occurred including sightings,
vocalizations, tree knocking and footprints.
The witness maintains a computer database of Bigfoot related
activity that dates back to 1998.
He also has a color-coded map of the sightings, footprints and
sounds that he has personally observed and also includes
reports by others in his community.
The witness and I shared contact information and agreed to
contact one another if additional activity occurs.
A pretty cool sighting and I think these guys just do their
very best follow up of anybody really amazing stuff.
Now this sighting here is from February 22nd, 2004 and it's a
little different because it actually involves multiple
sightings and we're told it happened in Montreal County,
nearest town Newtown, North Dakota Highway 22.
So this would have been like what, a year or two before the
one we just talked about observed?
Please see my Not Daily News Volume 88 #63 for March 3rd,
2004. Full story.
It says now they go down here and the investigator writes a
report up. The witnesses were one adult
female and more than one child. Trailer court near trees.
It says This report is very unique as it is comp.
It is comprehensive of at least 4 purported sightings in a span
of three days, demonstrating a path of travel in a S to
southwest direction covering 35 miles.
It also illustrates the observation potential of an
animal such as this travelling such a distance across open,
thinly forested terrain. It must be noted as a preface to
this commentary, the difficulty I had in locating and or
contacting witnesses related to these events.
Albeit I was on location at the tribal headquarters and
travelled around the general area with the Public Relations
Director and a Minot Daily News reporter for an entire day.
As you will read below, the witnesses were either unwilling
to discuss the incident, did not own a telephone, were not
located, or actually died prior to my arrival.
Some of the information listed below was collected by either
the tribal headquarters officials or news reporter
Eloise Ogden, who received it directly from witnesses and
subsequently shared with me. Here is a report.
Location. Fort Berthold Reservation of the
Mandan, Hidatsa and Erika Nation Travel Headquarters is located
on the outskirts of town North Dakota, approximately 90 miles
north of Dickinson, ND. Timeline of events Sunday,
February 22nd, 2004. Sighting occurs near Trailer
Park, located on the southeast edge of Newtown, North Dakota.
In mid afternoon, a group of small children allegedly see a
large, hairy animal standing on two legs and immediately become
frightened and begin screaming, running toward their trailer.
Hearing the commotion outside the woman in the nearest
trailer, the mother of the two children, rushes outside.
She witnesses the animal walking hurriedly away from the area,
she has quoted as saying. I don't know how big it was, but
it just pushed through those trees like you're going through
bushes and it was moving fast. By the time I arrived in
Newtown, the woman would no longer speak to anyone about the
experience. She was still very upset about
it and claimed her children were afraid at night and would no
longer go outside. She wants her children to forget
the event ever happened and refused to meet with me.
Later the same evening of February 22nd, 2004, a second
sighting was reported approximately 8 miles South of
Newtown, just West of Muskrat Lake.
No details were obtained. Tuesday, February 24th, 2004
night sighting reported by two women who claimed to have seen
hairy man like animal through the window of their home.
The location was adjacent to Hwy. 22, approximately 5 miles
southwest of the town of Manderay, pronounced Manderay.
The location of this home is approximately 17 1/2 miles
southwest of the second sighting and 25 1/2 miles South southwest
of the initial trailer park sighting.
What is of particular interest in this instance is that to
reach this location, the animal in question had to cross Lake
Saskawea. At the time of this incident,
Lake Sacawea was covered with a thick sheet of winter ice.
It was possible to walk across the lake at this time.
However, having visited the area, I can attest to the fact
that the lake essentially stands as a river one mile across.
There is next to no tree growth or foliage along the shore of
the lake. It would be quite easy to spot a
large dark figure walking across the ice covered lake.
One would assume the lake was crossed under the cover of
darkness, but it is also worth mentioning that there are few
sections of the Lakeshore with any development existing outside
of the Newtown vicinity. Lake Sacacawea is one of five
major lakes created on the Missouri River by the federal
government in an effort to illuminate the annual flooding
of river lowlands. Lake Sacacawea is located in
West central North Dakota, stretching from the Garrison Dam
at Riverdale, ND, nearly 150 miles to the Montana border.
The lake covers over 365,000 surface acres and has an
extended shoreline of over 1500 miles.
The width of Sacagawea ranges from 1 to 14 miles wide, with
the Van Hook arm the whitest area of the lake.
The two women who reported the sighting near their homes
southwest of Mandarin to the tribal headquarters did not have
a phone and I was not able to discuss their sighting directly.
I was also not allowed to drop in on their home to discuss
their experience. Well, they just want to be left
alone that is for sure. Wednesday, February 25th, 2004
in the dark hours of the late evening, two men were driving
South from Mandaray on Hwy. 22, the elder of the two at age 49
and the younger at age 22. Just after passing the junction
of BIA 14. Upon cresting a field in the
road, the two men saw a large hair covered animal walking on
two legs down the middle of the road.
The driver stopped the vehicle quickly and after being
illuminated in the headlights, the animal walked to the right
and down into the ditch. It then walked out of sight
directly to the South, apparently another car that was
traveling close behind. These witnesses quickly veered
around them after they stopped and speed away.
It was assumed that the occupants of the second car
could not have missed seeing the creatures.
This information is taken second hand from the nephew of the
older witness. Then he says Thursday, February
26th, 2004, the elder witness invites his nephew and friend to
accompany him to the location of the sighting to look for tracks.
The two younger men invite three other friends to join them.
The names of all three witnesses and the aforementioned friends
are withheld for reasons of privacy.
Upon searching the ditch near the location of the sighting,
all six men discovered a long line of footprints in the snow
running parallel to the highway in the southerly direction.
In a later interview, the nephew estimated the line of tracks to
be nearly 300 yards long. The length of stride was
estimated between 4:00 and 5:00 feet.
This would equate approximately 150 footprints made in the snow
that night. The witnesses also indicated
that between 6 and 10 tracks were found in the with clear toe
impressions. The individual tracks were
estimated at 15 to 17 inches long and generally 4 to 5 inches
across, but definitely widening toward the toes.
Many tracks displayed evidence of a mid tarsal break or a
flexible foot and the compression of snow pile in the
middle of the track. The group ultimately followed
the line of footprints and claimed the tracks drifted back
toward the pavement and eventually stopped, indicating
the animals return to walking on the pavement of the highway.
The group then drove a mile or South or two S on the highway
searching for tracks signaling where the animal may again have
wandered off the road. No additional tracks were
located. While walking along the highway,
two more acquaintances of the nephew stopped by in their
vehicle to inquire as to what was happening.
They were also witnesses to the long line of tracks.
February 27th, 2004. Dennis Fox, Junior, Director of
the Independence Program, and Paul Danks, Administrator of the
Natural Resources Department, both of the three affiliated
tribes, drove to the sighting location to photograph the line
of tracks. With the temperatures warming
through the area, a significant melting had occurred and
consequently the detail found in the tracks had been lost.
Dennis did take photos of several tracks in their deep
impressions in the snow. He and Danks also followed the
tracks until they veered back toward a pavement and ended.
They also searched further down the highway for tracks
indicating that the animal had again left the pavement, but
they found none. Surprisingly and suddenly, on
the morning of the same day, the elder witness, age 49, died of a
brain aneurysm. Many acquaintances of the
witness described him as being highly distressed because of the
sighting the last two days before his death.
In addition, because the beliefs of many Native Americans,
several people associated the witness's death with the
sighting. There seemed to be great concern
about this coincidence among many tribal members.
This is a note about the terrain.
The West central North Dakota landscape harbors 2 distinct
types of terrain. There are the very slight
rolling hills, many covered with fields of grain, which support
very little tree and brush growth.
It is truly the flat and rolling plains of North Dakota.
Yet hidden among these numerous fields are countless ravines,
draws, and canyons that support significantly thick tree and
brush growth. The largest example of this
change in terrain is that commonly known as the Badlands.
The concept and structure of the Badlands is very similar to that
other Grand Canyon. Giant rifts have been carved out
of the landscape by both water and wind.
The subsequent erosion of these factors create uniquely rounded
and graduated pinnacle style geologic formations of the rock
and sand. Interspersed between these
geologic formations are the wooded drainages and ravines
which could provide adequate cover and shelter for an animal
such as described by the witness.
Final Notes As mentioned above, I travelled to Fort Berthold
Reservation nearly two weeks after the sightings occurred.
I spent the majority of the day in the tribal headquarters
building interviewing numerous people about all types of
Bigfoot experiences. Quite frankly, there are too
many accounts to handle in one day, it quickly became apparent.
That a significant history of activity has been occurring for
years on the reservation and truly warrants further study.
Hopefully these additional experiences will be published in
later reports, but it'll also be known that to engage in any type
of investigation or travel on the reservation, one must
acquire permission through the Travel Headquarters office prior
to arrival. The remainder of the day was
spent visiting the various sighting locations, all
potential evidence and the snow completely obliterated by two
weeks of early spring temperatures, and interviewing
the elder witnesses, nephew and friend about the footprints they
viewed along the road. It was quite apparent that
having seen the tracks truly affected each man.
They were still somewhat shook up about the incident based upon
the number of witnesses, the suggested path of travel, the
longevity of activity that was shared with me, and of course
the documented line of tracks in the snow.
It is the opinion of this investigator that this was in
fact an authentic encounter of a bipedal hair covered animal and
a Badlands in North Dakota. Man, that is really amazing, all
those sightings happening like that.
Of course this is 20 years ago. You're out there.
I guess it's the Indian Reservation out there.
Maybe things were a little bit more secluded and isolated than
what we'd imagine. Interesting that a lot of these
folks didn't even have phones on cell phones.
I can really see that it did affect these people greatly.
We'll take a look at one more here and we'll wrap this up.
This sighting right here happened April, so it's the
third week of April actually back in 1962.
State North Dakota county, Ward County location details just
outside the Minuteman Twitter park near Minot, ND, nearest
town Minot. While this incident occurred a
long time ago, it may still be of some use as I have never
heard of any similar sighting in North Dakota.
In the third week of April 1962, a friend of mine and I were
returning from a hunting trip outside of Minot, ND.
As we headed back toward the trailer park where we lived, my
father was working for the Department of the Air Force on
missile site installations. At the time, I had the distinct
feeling that someone or something was following us.
After walking a distance out on the Prairie, the feeling grew so
strong that I eventually looked over my right shoulder.
About 50 yards away I saw what I initially thought was a large
ape. I cannot fully describe the
shock I felt at that moment. The creature locked eyes with me
and upon realizing it had been seen, stood up on his hind legs.
I was only carrying a single shot 22, so shooting it was out
of the question. I got a clearer look at its long
black shiny hair that appeared oily.
It had risen from all fours to stand upright.
I am certain it had been following this for some time.
The creature was very tall with no hair on its face, above the
nose or the palm of the hands. Its arms were long and it were a
malevolent expression that I cannot overemphasize.
It then began moving in our direction.
I was with a partner and both of us ran as fast as we could.
We didn't look back after that. This is other witnesses.
We were returning from a day long trip in the countryside
hunting rabbits. Bright sunlight at around 4:00
PM in the afternoon. The sighting occurred just
outside the Minuteman Trailer Park near Minot, ND.
The area featured Cooley's small valleys that dip into the
Prairie wilderness. It was a wide open landscape
with substantial depressions filled with foliage and
underbrush. Sounds like it's just the kind
of place that would have all kinds of places for something
like this to hang out at. Overall, I think that was just
outstanding reports. Now, North Dakota does not have
a lot of Bigfoot reports, but the ones they do are
spellbinding, I'll tell you that.
Until next time, this is UFO warning over and out.