Search Party Tracks 'Big Foot'
by Bert Strand, Outdoor Editor
© Ogden Standard-Examiner, September 3, 1977

A party of "Big Foot" experts from throughout the nation is scheduled to be in the Uintah Mountains this weekend to check on Utah's reports of the creature. The group will be taken into the Cuberant Basin at the head of the Weber River drainage where such a creature was reported seen a couple of weeks ago. Leading the party will be Jerry Dahlberg, Weber County conservation officer, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Officer Dahlberg says he plans to make a plaster cast of a footprint believed made by the creature that was spotted near a small lake. Two North Ogden men and six youths reported seeing the gorilla-like creature that ambled off into the timber after seeing them. The party was about ½-mile away on a ridge and watched the creature move off for about a ½-mile before it disappeared.

Jay Barker of North Ogden said the creature had a mantel of white hair down its body. He said it was 10-feet tall. Since the report by the group, others have said they spotted a similar creature in other areas of the Uintah Mountains.

OTHERS IN AREA

Others in the Cubrent Basin area, two weeks ago, said they heard "strange" growling and howling in the area. They said the sounds were like nothing they had heard before and they were frightening. They also heard heavy crashing in the brush and timber at the same time. Mr. Barker also said on a trip back to the basin a week ago, there was a strange smell present throughout the area. Big Foot investigators from all over the nation have been calling Mr. Barker and state wildlife officials to check on the reports and add information. One expert in Colorado said the creature is nocturnal and feeds on both meats and plants. He told Officer Dahlberg the evidence of such a creature he has collected is overwhelming, although he is a disbeliever. Wildlife officers say the initial description of the animal fits that of a grizzly bear. They said, however, it would be "extremely unusual for a grizzly to be in the area.

Two couples said they saw such a creature last June in the Mt. Elizabeth area, about 20 miles from Cuberant Basin.

Credit: John Moore. Source Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles

Big Foot in Uintas of Utah: Nothing conclusive
by Gary R. Blodgett
© Davis News Journal, September 15, 1977

Whatever (or whoever) Big Foot is, he's an elusive creature. For the past three weeks, scores of persons have scoured the high Uintas looking for the human-like monster - but none has reported sighting him, let alone capturing the beast. An official search party from Weber County scoured the Cuberant area of the Uinta Mountains for the legendary Big Foot, but reported finding "nothing conclusive." Jerry Dahlberg, conservation officer for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said his party covered some ten square miles without a trace.

He said some of the area was "so primitive it looked like it had never before been penetrated by man. We covered the entire Cuberant Basin area one day and the following day searched the Bear River side of the area." Officer Dahlberg said that although they failed to turn up any concrete evidence that the ape-like creature tabbed Big Foot existed, "we are not going to just write the whole thing off. "If such a creature is in the area, he would be constantly on the move, but we should be able to find some evidence of existence, such as animal carcasses, torn tree bark, a form of shelter, etc. But we found none." Officer Dahlberg said he plans to take a look at the area later, probably in the area of Holiday Park on the Upper Weber River. "There are miles and miles of rugged terrain up there," he said. "The two areas of sightings are very primitive, very rugged. Few people have visited the areas." In fact the two areas where Big Foot was sighted are some 17 miles (direct line) apart but descriptions by the two parties, eight in one group and four in the another, bear some resemblance. The smaller group of two middle-aged couples reported sighting - and viewing clearly for more than ten minutes - not one but three beast-like creatures which they said were eight to ten feet tall with human-like features but animal-like characteristics. The group of eight persons, including two adults and six youngsters, reported seeing one such creature. All are reputable persons. Elk season, which open the latter part of September, should draw scores of hunters into all parts of the Uinta Range. But after that, snow should begin to fly and it probably will be next spring - if ever - that there will be more Big Foot sightings. Persons camping or hiking in the Uinta Mountains are urged to take their cameras, not only for the beautiful scenery but "just in case." Neither party reporting the first sightings had cameras with them.

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles

Did Bigfoot Visit Small Davis Town? Citizens Buzz
by John Harrington, Standard-Examiner Staff
©: Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 12, 1980

SOUTH WEBER - This small community is buzzing - quietly - today about one Of those things that makes most people crinkle their browns and crack skeptical smiles: a possible visit last week by the elusive creature known to most as Bigfoot. The beast was sighted by at least two people. Its possible tracks were found by a Standard-Examiner reporter and an employee from the Standard-Examiner's composing room on Monday. I am the reporter and, though I would have been the last to believe any of this, I've never seen tracks like these before!

The sightings came a few days apart over a week ago. First, a South Weber woman, Pauline Markham, reported seeing Bigfoot on the ridge above this valley community on Sunday, Feb. 3, 1977. The creature was reportedly coming down the ridge above the brush line toward the Davis-Weber Canal about 2:30 p.m. Then, about 12:20 a.m. Feb. 4, Ronald Smith was arriving home from work. He got out of his truck and walked back to his pasture on South Weber Road and "heard something out in the field." What he heard and later saw, he now believes is Bigfoot. "I was going back to feed the horse and he wouldn't come to the fence. I started out there to feed him and I heard, crunch, crunch, it was something walking on two legs through the snow. Since only the horse is out there, I thought it might have been some kids getting into something," Smith said. "I looked out there, it was moonlit, and I saw this dark figure walking across the pasture. I thought it was a high school kid trying to get away before I saw him. I didn't think of how big it was."

Smith continued, "I saw it walk into some trees. The horse wasn't scared, but it was acting a little funny and looking over that way. Then I heard the screams. They were unlike anything I've ever heard. "They sounded like a cougar, but only with a lot of volume. They were just different. I got out of there and into the house," Smith said. "My wife was telling me to get a gun or a camera, but it only lasted seconds. It screamed four times when I was outside and three more times after I got inside. I told my wife, 'I think it's Bigfoot out there' and I was sort of kidding, but those screams were unbelievable. Smith said if the beast hadn't screamed, he would have passed off the figure in the moonlight as a "kid in the pasture." Smith went into the field the next day to look for tracks and said he found marks about six feet apart that looked like it was something with toes, but that the horse had trampled the tracks throughout the night. He also said he thought his horse was "acting funny" for several days and he feels that could have been an indication that the Bigfoot was around [sic] for some time. Pauline Markham told Standard-Examiner employee Jay Barker, who saw Bigfoot in the High Uinta Mountains along with another man and five other people in 1977, that she had a clear look at the "big, black creature" coming down the ridge in broad daylight.

Jay Barker and I spent Monday afternoon searching for tracks along the canal banks near the area of the Markham sighting. We were ready to call it a day when a line of tracks became visible in the unmelted snow along the dirt road next to the canal. The measured over 15 inches, had clear markings of toes and appeared to be human, with one exception: the bottom of the feet must have had pads. They were also made by something unusually heavy. The tracks were about four-feet apart and next to them appeared a smaller set of identical tracks. Some tracks wear clearly defined and preserved in ice. They were totally different than any of the human tracks made by boot prints. They were prints of a large, toed and padded bare foot. We tracked them until the snow ran out, but I had seen enough. In an odd footnote to this, about the time Mrs. Markham spotted the beast, a South Weber man's five-year-old horse was so frightened by something, it ran through two barbed-wire fences and dropped dead in South Weber Road.

Jay Barker, who has been pursuing the Bigfoot since his first encounter, believes it has returned to the mountains with its young, possibly to the headwaters of the Weber River, where it has been sighted before. [Accompanying this article was a photograph of a footprint in the snow, for which the caption read: The product of a hoax? Not likely]. This track, though human-like, measured over 15-inches, had toe marks and showed the padded part of what could be one footprint of the elusive Bigfoot, which eyewitnesses say paid a visit to the lower Weber River Valley last week. A man identified the tracks that have seen Bigfoot before and he asks, "Who would walk a mile in the snow barefooted"?

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles

2 report Bigfoot sightings in South Weber
by Valerie Schulthies, Deseret News staff
© Deseret News, February 12, 1980

SOUTH WEBER, Davis County - Two South Weber residents have reported seeing someone or something hat looked like Bigfoot near their homes last week.

Paulene Markham, 1789 E. 76th South, said she saw whatever it was Walking along the ridge of a hill behind her house a week ago Sunday. Ron J. Smith, 174 E. South Weber Drive, said he saw it in the pasture behind his house the next night when he went to feed his horse.

Smith said he was about 150 feet from the creature when he saw it. Miss Markham said she was about a half mile from it. She was standing at her kitchen sink, getting a drink of water about 4 p.m., when she looked up and saw it on the hill.

"I looked at it and I thought, 'Well, I'm going crazy,'" she said. "Then, I walked away from the window and came back, and it was still there." Miss Markham said she was frightened and curious, but she didn't go outside to get a closer look. She said she was home alone, it would have taken a snowmobile to get up the hill, and she was late for church anyway. So she left the house and went to church, telling only one friend about it.

Sunday and Thursday she heard that Smith had seen something, too. Miss Markham, a high school student and Smith an aircraft inspector at Hill Air Force Base, are cousins. But they said they haven't talked to each other about their respective sightings - they've only heard about them hrough others. And Smith said he was not aware on Monday, when he saw whatever he saw, that Miss Markham had seen something the night before. He said he learned Wednesday what she'd seen.

Neither Smith nor Miss Markham insisted that the thing was Bigfoot. "I really don't know what it was, I just don't have the slightest idea, because I don't know if I believe in Bigfoot," Miss Markham said. Smith said that when he first heard two feet crunching in the snow behind his house, he immediately assumed it was a high school student or a prowler. When he saw the creature in the moonlight, his first thought was that it was a husky high school kid, wearing a big coat. He said it walked rapidly across the pasture into a clump of trees. Only then, Smith said, did he become alarmed, because from the trees he heard four loud, inhuman screams in rapid succession. The sounds were something like the cries of a cougar, but louder, Smith said. He said the sounds then stopped for a moment, and by this time he was inside his house. From inside, he heard another three screams, then silence. After awhile, he went back to the pasture to check on his horse, and the animal was standing close to the house, looking in the direction of the trees but without apparent alarm. Smith said he told his wife what had happened, but she hadn't heard the sounds. He checked later with neighbors and they hadn't heard anything either. Smith said he decided against calling the police, because "we couldn't produce any evidence, so I just thought, 'Well, just let it go.'" Smith said he checked the snow the next day for tracks and could find only three prints that were not horse tracks. These, he said, were not distinct, and they did not resemble the human-like prints attributed to Bigfoot in the past. He said they were about a foot and a half long and 8 to 9 feet apart. Miss Markham and Smith both said the creature walked like a human, but with a longer stride. Miss Markham said it appeared to be black or dark brown, and it was very tall - perhaps 8 to 10 feet, and said it had long arms. Ken Rosenbaum, who takes care of the apes at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, said the zoo has not lost any of its apes recently, and e doesn't know of any zoos or circuses in the South Weber area that might have lost an animal. And Cling Groll, a forester for Wasatch National Forest, said it's the wrong season for bears to be out. "They're holed up" in this cold weather, he said. But Groll said the fact that Smith's horse was not upset by the incident makes him question whether a strange creature was really in the pasture. Smith said he didn't notice his horse acting strange at all that night, although for two or three days the week before it had refused to come into the trees to get its food and would only eat in a clearing. [Accompanying this article was a comic of a large Bigfoot stepping on a man.]

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles

Man Says Marks Are Yeti Tracks
© Pleasant Grove Review, March 5, 1981

Giant footprints in the snow of the High Uintas are perhaps those of "Big Foot," a Pleasant Grove man reports. Leonard Howlett and his son, Lester, first spotted the prints early in January at their logging camp in the Unita [sic] Mountains.

A professional logger long familiar with the mountainous terrain there said he could not explain the prints in any other way. He discounted any possibility of them being made by bear and mountain lion nor by moose which live in the area. Howlett said he has always scoffed at reports of "Big Foot" or "Sasquatch," as the legendary creature is often called. He explained that he has been a logger or a cowboy in the region for many years and had never seen anything that could be construed as "Big Foot." that is, until the huge prints were located recently. He said there were two sets of tracks six feet apart. The prints measured 19 inches from heel to tip of toe and were more than 11 inches across at the widest point. The stride measured 54 inches. Many of the prints showed distinct toe, instep, heel and ball of foot imprints. Snowshoes [rabbits] would not have made these types of marks either, he said. Howlett reported that during the evening before the first prints were found, there was a sound of crashing in the willows, a sound of something being beaten and a grunt or a growl. The Howletts followed the prints for some distance before returning to camp to finish logging as Lester had to get back to school. A second trip to the camp two weeks later found the first prints covered with fresh snow although some new prints were seen but filled in somewhat with drifted snow. A beaver carcass was found which had been picked cleaned much as a man would do to a chicken, Howlett said. Howlett plans to return to the area soon with hopes the creature will become accustomed to him and perhaps let themselves be seen. [Three photographs accompanied the article. The caption for them reads: Close up of one of the giant prints found in the snow of the high Uintas recently. Giant footprints in the snow of the Uinta Mountains with the comparative size of a normal man nearby. Leonard Howlett, Pleasant Grove attempts to measure the huge prints found at his logging camp in the Uintas.]

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, , April 3, 2001.

Hair From Bigfoot? Specialist Undecided
© Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 15, 1980

SOUTH WEBER - A specialist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said this morning he was still in the process of trying to identify the hair that two Ogden men think came from the mysterious "Bigfoot." Paul Woodbury said he was still looking at the strands of hair.

"Right now, it looks like it's in the horse, cattle or bear family" he said. He said he is definite that the hair is not human or from a dog or other small animal. He's sure it isn't a horse, he said, and he's still working on the bear possibility. One hair, he said, is about five inches long and is white. Another three are black hairs just under three inches long and he has some smaller, broken pieces. "If it's a known mammal to the state of Utah we can key it out," he said, saying there looks to be enough hair to make a positive identification. If he runs into any trouble, he said, he'll ask the criminologist at Weber State College to take a look. "Bigfoot" is the name given to an animal reportedly sighted in the upper northwest of the United States. he animal, said to walk upright in on two legs and be vaguely humanoid, has never been captured, positively identified or clearly photographed. The hairs Woodbury is working on were found by Michael Sanders, 1027 21st, and Steve Ukena, 434 3rd. The pair said they tracked what they thought was a pair of the "Bigfoot" animals here Tuesday, and found the hairs where it appeared what they were following had crossed a barbed wire fence. At least one South Weber resident, Darrin Cuttler, 355 W. South Weber Drive, said he's not sure of the whole thing. He's lived in the area for more than 20 years, he said, and he leans toward the theory that the "Bigfoot" sightings are really a bear. He's never seen a bear in the area, he said, but he's seen lots of deer and wouldn't discount the possibility of a bear coming down off the mountain.

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles, April 3, 2001.

That's Not Hair From 'Bigfoot' — Left by Cow
Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 16, 1980

SOUTH WEBER - Hair that two Ogden men thought might be from the mysterious "bigfoot" is really from a cow, according to an expert from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resource office in Ogden. Paul Woodbury, regional enforcement officer, said he examined several hairs two men found on a barbed wire fence in South Weber and determined that they were from "some breed of cattle". He said he didn't know what sort. The hairs were discovered Tuesday by Michael Sanders and Steve Ukena, both of Ogden, who said they found them at a spot where they thought a bigfoot" animal might have crossed a barbed wire fence. Several people have reported seeing an animal they thought was bigfoot in the South Weber area over the past week.

Bigfoot is an animal that has been the subject of many sightings over the past decades, but no one has ever photographed one clearly, captured one or positively identified one. Mr. Woodbury said a few fragments of hair turned over to him by the two men haven't been identified yet. He said he is going to send them to a Wyoming hair specialist who has samples of hair also thought to be from bigfoot for comparison.

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles, April 3, 2001.

'Bigfoot' Sighted Now in Riverdale
By Bert Strand, Standard-Examiner Staff
Ogden Standard-Examiner_ February 27, 1980

RIVERDALE - "I didn't believe in them, but I sure do now," exclaims a Clearfield man who says "bigfoot" ran through the headlights of his vehicle early Monday morning. Lee Padilla of 143 W. 650 N. said he was driving east on Riverdale Road about one mile west of Weber River about 3:30 a.m. when the 10 to 11-foot tall creature loped across the highway about 25 feet away.

LONG LEGS

"It had long legs, a head like a gorilla with long, dark brown, furry hair that was in layers. The thing was very graceful. I would say it would weigh about 600 pounds. It crossed the road from north to south and I would estimate it was running about 35 miles an hour. I saw it for maybe four or five seconds," said Padilla.

The creature kept his face faced in the direction he was running, Padilla said. When asked if the incident frightened him, Padilla answered with a slow "No." and then added, "I was more curious than anything else. It didn't pay the least bit of attention to me or my car." A check of the area Tuesday by Padilla, Jay W. Barker of North Ogden and photographer John Shupe failed to uncover any tracks. The highway sides, however, were solid grass and weeds and fields in the area were hard or planted in alfalfa and even the footprints of the men did not show, said Barker.

ONE FIELD

"There was one plowed field on the north side, but we didn't find any tracks in it," said Barker who also reported seeing the creature together with three other men and several boys three years ago in the Uinta Mountains. Padilla said after the creature crossed out of the headlight beams, he turned down a small, dirt side road and directed the beam of his headlights across the field hoping he could follow and spot the creature again. The headlight beams didn't spot the creature, Padilla said, but they did attract the attention of a state highway trooper who drove up and asked him what was going on. When the trooper was told what had taken place, "he took off in a hurry and I got the impression he was going to also look for it," said Padilla.

The witness said the creature had long arms and was very erect as it ran across the highway. Padilla said the creature "moved gracefully" and not in the manner usually attributed to the slouch and swinging gait of a gorilla or member of the ape family. Padilla said the area where the creature crossed is farmland with open fields and little cover.

FEW MILES

The location is only a few miles from where sightings were reported and tracks of "bigfoot" found early in February in South Weber outside the mouth of Weber Canyon and near the Weber River. Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident seven years ago, Craig R. Johnson of 1111 N. 2000 W., Farr West, told of strange happenings that may have involved a "bigfoot" in the Manti-La Sal Mountains.

Johnson said he and friends had pitched camp with their horses for a elk hunt. During the night, "something very powerful" lifted off a 300-pound horse trailer door and tossed it seven to 10 feet away. An imprint in the dust on the door was checked by a local bear hunter who said it was not that of a bear, and nothing like he had ever seen before.

WAS AWAY

Johnson also said when the hunting party was away from camp the next day "something" bit down on a full beer can left standing in a wheel well. The bite split the can and the beer was dripping out when the group returned. "The thing that was funny was the fact the beer can showed teeth marks, but was not punctured, just split. Whatever bit it also replaced it in the exact spot it had been left," added Johnson. He said although the horses tied to the same trailer made a small disturbance during the night, "it was nothing like they would have done if a bear had gotten that close."

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles, April 3, 2001.

Police Capture 'Bigbag,' not Bigfoot
by Brad Remington, Standard-Examiner Staff
© Standard-Examiner 1980

RIVERDALE - There it was. Standing in the middle of a dark and lonely South Weber Drive Sunday night was no other than "Bigfoot."

Riverdale Officer Rich Dean was on routine patrol in his squad car when He rounded the curve near the Davis-Weber county line and spotted the creature in his headlights. He was aware of the alleged sightings in recent days, but could the really be happening? "I jumped out of my car and walked toward it," he related a half-hour later at the police office. "I was apprehensive." His hand was resting on his gun as he cautiously approached the 7-foot monster. Was he scared? "You bet," he admitted. As he go closer to "Bigfoot", which suspiciously stood motionless, he found out what the creature really looks like. "Bigbag." Surprisingly, it looked just like trash bags, carpet remnants and wood scraps, assembled, no doubt, but some young aspiring Dr. Frankenstein(s) in the area. Dean, feeling like "Bigfool" by this time, "captured" the creature and loaded it up in the trunk of his squad car. "You should have seen the looks I got with those big legs sticking out of the trunk," Dean said. When he arrived back at the office, he and Brian Morgan, the sergeant in charge, decided Dean shouldn't be the only one suckered into this caper. Chief Michael Daily was called and told "Bigfoot" had been caught. "He was here in 35 seconds, I think," Dean said. Lt. Mel Hackworth was called in "because he wanted to be notified of any major developments on 'Bigfoot'," Morgan said.

"I told Hackworth I had someone here to interrogate," the sergeant said.

"He couldn't get anything out of the suspect, but he talked to him for a long time."

"Yea, he was one of those hard heads," Dean quipped. Officer Pat Donehoo, after being called, grabbed his semi-automatic rifle "and I was on my way."

Several other Riverdale officers responded, as did two Washington Terrace policemen. All in all, nine officers showed up. Oh, and one newsman. Daily decided the press needed to be a part of this early night caper. He phoned a reporter and swore up and down that the city had really captured "Bigfoot." After everyone got a good laugh, police pointed out that the situation could have been dangerous."

"If I had been going 35 or 40 miles and [sic] hour, I would have run over it or run off the road trying to avoid it," Dean said. "This 'Bigfoot' deal has gotten out of hand." [A photograph of 5 police officers standing with Bigbag accompanied this article. The caption reads: STANDING IN FRONT of the Riverdale police office with, um ... "Bigfoot," are five of the officers who helped "capture" it. They are (from left) Rod George, Chief Michael Daily, Brian Morgan, Rich Dean and Pat Donehoo.]

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles, April 3, 2001.

PRINTS HUMAN-LIKE - Big Foot? Hard to Tell
© Ogden Standard-Examiner, May 4, 1980

A state wildlife biologist studying footprints thought to possibly be those of "big foot," said today it is extremely difficult to make a determination.

Officer Ralph Blotter, northern region, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said perfect plaster casts made of two footprints last week in the backyard of a North Ogden residence have human characteristics. The footprints are 13 inches long and 4½ inches wide at the toes. Officer Blotter said it appears as if whatever made the prints "slid a bit in the mud" which could account for their size.

A 13-inch foot, however, is not uncommon among humans, said Blotter. The prints are very clear, showing toenail marks, the "pads" and heel marks, and even the lines and grooves found on hands and feet. He said the prints did not appear to be those of feet with calloused, worn areas, sears or cuts. There is also no scar tissue such as that usually found on the bottoms of bare feet constantly used in walking. Blotter said he is at a loss to explain the depths of the prints that so me said indicate the owner was extremely heavy, maybe 400 to 500 pounds. Average-sized persons who made their own footprints in the same spot said their weight hardly made an imprint.

Source: John Moore and Ron Schaffner, Creature Chronicles -- April 3, 2001.

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