"YES, VIRGINIA, THERE ARE SASQUATCH IN IOWA"

I was checking out some of the bigfoot groups that I am a member of and saw someone's post asking if there were any bigfoot in Iowa. Well, the answer to that is : Yes, dear doubter.

The BFRO data base currently has 62 reports publicly listed with probably countless others still waiting to be added. One of the "busiest" counties appears to be Humboldt County. So let me take you on a trip to 1978 when bigfoot seems to have stirred up a small town in that county. (report #1268)

The start of the "flap" seems to have been around July when Humboldt County Sheriff Marvin Andersen was sent to discover what had three boys, ages 10 to 12 running home terrified after seeing something on the edge of town.

"We heard this scratching noise come from the buildings, like something rubbing up against something," explained one  of the boys. "We tossed a rock into the building."

When the rock landed inside, a face appeared in a window and then quickly disappeared. The boys saw enough to frighten them : a big, square head with black hair and a flat nose on top of broad shoulders. As the boys took off running for home, the creature fled into a nearby cornfield.

While investigating the boys report, Andersen was told that this was not the first time this creature had been sighted. Days earlier, one of Jan Henkins's daughters had gone to her grandmother's house about a block away mid morning. Hearing a noise she stepped out to see what it was and came face to face with the creature. She screamed and fled back inside to tell her uncles what had just happened.

About a half hour later, another of her daughters joined two other girls in riding their bikes to town. They quickly returned home when they saw a strange figure at least 5 foot tall standing in front of a vacant lumber building.

Henkins and her friend Pat Young headed for the town to see what had frightened the girls. When they reached the area, they saw a hairy head peeking around one of the buildings. They quickly returned home and sent Henkins' brother and one of his friends to town to check it out. They took along one of their dogs. As they neared the building, they got a quick glimpse of something large around the building. The dog yelped and ran for home.

Henkins saw it again the next night when she and Young left Young's house to find out why the dogs were barking. They saw the creature about one block away from them. When it took a step towards them, they turned and ran for the nearest house.

After all this, Henkins sent her daughters to stay with her sister in another town for a few days because they were so frightened.

From July onwards, the town began to file reports of eerie night screams, broken fences, stampeded cattle, deaths of farm animals, and sightings of strange bipedal creatures.

Oregonbigfoot.com

Anna Dodrill had her experience on September 11. She looked up from doing the dishes to see a "big-nosed, black-faced, hairy creature" with "burning red eyes" staring in the window at her. The window was only a few feet away from her. She stood, terrorized, staring into its eyes until she was finally able to scream. The creature turned and ran off.

"It was the first time in my life I couldn't move," Dodrill explained.

Her brother Jennings Dodrill had seen what he described as a  large, hairy arm reach out from behind a cattle shed earlier that evening.

September 12, Robert Newell IV was getting dressed when he heard a deep whining sound coming from the backyard. He looked out of the bedroom window towards the barn, which was about 35 feet from the house. He saw a tall, hairy hunchbacked figure go into the barn. It first jumped sideways into a manure spreader. It then got out and after standing for a moment, climbed into a grain spreader. Newell felt it was looking for food. It then stood up in front of the barn for a moment, then walked around a grain silo and walked sout into a recently harvested cornfield.

He watched the creature for around three and a half minutes. It appeared to be about 6 to 7 feet tall, had black hair and walked only on its hind legs.

Both the Humboldt and the Kossuth Sheriff's offices received numerous complaints and reports on the sightings of the large, hairy creature or of being disturbed in the middle of the night by strange screams and eerie, high-pitched whistles.

Some made the claim that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax or just the figments of imagination. But that didn't stop the residents from gathering in places in town and talking about being awakened by the screams in the night; or of seeing the strange footprints two hands wide by three hands long; or of the unusual feces found in Marilyn Schmacher's lean to; or of how the children were so frightened by the things they had seen that they couldn't sleep and wouldn't walk down the streets alone day or night.

Sheriff Andersen : "I'll tell you, if you're a non-believer, after you talk to a few of these people, you have to believe there's something there. I think those people have seen something, but I don't know if its this Bigfoot connection they are talking about."

The town became filled with thrill seekers and those who were looking for the creature. The Sheriff's department sent many of them back home.

"People are afraid to say anything any more," said Henkins. She indicated that the ridicule from others who hadn't seen the creature was the reason.

"I'm not a nut and I know what I saw," stated Dodrill.

"They'll ridicule about it until they're unlucky enough to see it themselves," said Newell.

Reports continued to come into the Sheriff's offices. In addition to the sightings and sounds, reports of farm dogs refusing to leave their yard and other strange and unusual animal noises were reported.

Postmaster Edna Kampen summed it up : "At first they thought it was a hoax, I think. But now there's been so many classes of people -- farmers, townspeople, etc, -- who saw it, that they're taking it more seriously."

Nancy

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