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Monday, July 16, 2018

RIVER OF NO RETURN - Salmon River, Idaho - Sightings

The Salmon River area of Idaho has a long history of sasquatch sightings. The most familar story is the one of Baumann whose tale was told in Teddy Roosevelt's book.  




But more of his story later.


The Nez Perce tell of numerous tribal sightings in the Salmon River area. Aaron Penney, a tribal member, had this to say.


"The Nez Perce describe him as the spooky man of the woods. They were a people known to have inhabited the high mountain ranges. . .  They were elusive. You just couldn't go out and track them down and find them. They stayed away from people.


"Part of Nez Perce legend is that they live in the high mountain country, way up high. They won't hurt you if you don't harm them. Some believe they have the power to call upon the weather to conceal themselves, like a fog or a rainstorm, so they can disappear or escape.


"They've just always been here. They're part of the landscape like everybody else, all the other animals."


Penney also told the story of a fisherman at the South Fork of the Salmon River. He was having a hard time catching any salmon. As he was walking along the river looking for a better place to fish from, he came upon a sasquatch carrying salmon. The sasquatch showed him an area where the salmon were congregated. The man was able to catch some fish to take home for his family.


In 1996, two elk hunters were by the Salmon River when they came upon tracks in the snow about 6000 feet up on a mountain. There were two sets of tracks; one estimated at 16 inches long, the other only 8 to 10 inches.  The tracks were seen separately, about a mile apart, but both sets were headed downhill. They had crossed paths several times on the way down (criss-crossing).  Others had reported seeing similar sets of tracks but had never reported them.






On June 16, 1968 , Frank Bond claimed to have seen a pair of humanoids, both 7 to 8 feet tall and covered with silver-gray hair. He had been out fishing alone on private property near French Creek. The owner of the property, game guide and former goverment trapper, Wayne Twitchell, checked out the location and found half a dozen light-colored hairs. The hairs were sent to Ray Pinker in Los Angeles. Pinker was a 36 year veteran in Police Crime Lab work who was then professor of police science at California State College in that city.


Pinker stated that the hairs showed both animal and human characteristics. The hairs did not match any samples he had. They resembled animal hairs in that they showed a variation of color and thickness from root to tip; whereas human hair is uniform in color and thickness. However, the scale pattern on the outside was similar to that of human hair and there was no continuous medulla, or core, visible in the center as would be the case with almost all animal hair.The sample contained both coarse outer hairs and fine hairs from an under coat. All were light in color.

The summer of 1968 had a few sightings. Two prospectors had a glimpse of a cinnamon-colored creature as big as a bear. It did not move like a bear as it ran off. A logger driving a skidder saw a sasquatch in the fall  just north of McCall.



A father and his son and three other men saw a black, heavy-set biped in the summer of 1970. It was about a half mile away and the were able to study it through field glasses until it seemed to notice them and moved off. They estimated it to be about 7 feet tall. This was during the day time.



In the fall, 1972, that same father claimed to have driven past another sasquatch while traveling down a forest road. This one was about 6 feet tall, heavy set, and light brown in color. This also was a daylight sighting.


October, 1974, two young men hunting a few miles south of Grangeville found a half dozen 15-inch tracks. The five-toed prints were in the deep dust on the edge of an jold skid road. They tried making a cast of one of the prints but got poor results because the plaster was too thick.



Salmon River




A woman in McCall told of her son and another boy who had a sighting. In December of 1974, they were about a quarter of a mile from the house playing near a pond when a "heavy animal" around 7 or 8 feet tall surprised them. It was "standing upright flopping its arms and screeching" at the boys from about 50 feet away. Frightened, they ran back to the house.


Tomorrow : The Ostmann Story




Nancy


"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."







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