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Gray's Harbor Sighting
August 7, 1969
In Spotlight At Close Range
Deputy Gives Detailed Description of Sasquatch (July 26, 1969)
A statement issued
last week by the sheriff of Gray's Harbor County, Washington, that one
of is deputies had admitted seeing a female bear, not a sasquatch, is
completely contradicted by this interview with the deputy recorded by
John Green last Thursday.
Mr. Green interviewed
the deputy in company with two physical anthropologists from the University
of Washington.
Q. To begin
with, could we get your name on the tape?
A. My name is Verlin Herrington.
Q. Where do you live?
A. I live at Copalis Beach, Washington.
Q. How old are you?
A. Thirty years old.
Q. What is your occupation?
A. I am a Deputy Sheriff for Gray's Harbor County.
Q. Now, the incident we've been discussing, could you give us
the date when that took place?
A. Yes, It was July 26, it was on a Sunday.
Q. And the year?
A. 1969.
Q. And what time?
A. It was 2:35 a.m.
Q. What were you doing at that time?
A. I had been on an incident at Humptulips and I was en route by way
of Deekay Road, by Grass Creek Road, to the beach and into my residence.
Q. You were working at that time?
A. Right !
Q. What was it that happened while you were making that trip?
A. As I was going down Deekay Road I rounded a corner, and my first
impression was of a large bear standing in the middle of the road. I
either had to stop for the bear or hit him so I decided to stop, put
on the brakes, came to a screeching halt, and coasted up the slight
grade as far as I could without startling the animal as I was looking
at it as I was going towards it. This animal in my opinion was not a
bear, because you could see by the way it was standing that it had no
snout, it had a face on it. Its eyes reflected, and when I came to a
complete stop I could see in the headlights of my car that it had feet
on it instead of paws, and it had breasts. When I centered my spotlight
on the patrol car on it, it walked to the edge of the road, it didn't
fall down on all fours like a bear would, it walked upright as a person
would. It walked to the edge of the roadway and stopped; turned, still
looking at me. I re-adjusted the spotlight on my car so I could look
at it better. Its feet had hair down to the soles but you could see
tile outline of the foot, it did have toes. Its hand was in a position
where it was spread out, and it did have fingers. After I'd re-adjusted
the spotlight, I rolled tile window down, pulled my revolver and crawled
out of the door. I aimed my revolver at it and as I cocked the hammer
on it the animal went into the brush. I got back in my car and drove
off. Reported the next morning back to the scene and went through the
area, found where the animal had gone into the bush and where it had
come back out on to the roadway.
Q. Did you find any tracks at all?
A. Yes, I found one indention in the ground. I did take a photograph
of it, it wasn't such a print that you could pour a cast of.
Q. How big was it?
A. I measured the track, it was 18 1/2 inches. The animal itself was
around seven to seven and a half feet tall, weighing approximately 300
to 325 pounds.
Q. How far away were you when you were looking at it?
A. 75 to 80 feet.
Q. How long would you say you were able to observe it before
it left the road?
A. Approximately a minute or a minute and a quarter, maybe a minute
and a half. This was from the time that I came to a complete stop. I
was observing it as I coasted towards it. So maybe overall - 2 minutes.
Q. And in that time it was standing erect on its hind legs?
A. Yes it was. As it went off into the brush it was still on its hind
legs.
Q. Where it went into the brush, that's down quite' a steep little
bank isn't it?
A. Yes it is.
Q. And could you see that it remained erect as it went down the
bank?
A. Until it went out of the spotlight, yes.
Q. Had it started to descend the bank in the spotlight or was
it gone from the spotlight?
A. It went down the bank and approximately half way down it went out
of the spotlight, still in an erect position.
Q. Just to sort of go over it from top to bottom - can you tell
us anything about the shape of tile head? For instance, your first impression
was a bear. Did it have a snout?
A. No it didn't have a snout. I couldn't say that it has a nose like
a person would have. I believe that there was no hair on its face. It
had a dark leathery look.
Q. Did you get any impression of the length of hair on the head
or on the rest of it?
A. I would say about 3 to 4 inches on the head.
Q. It didn't have long hanging hair at all?
A. Longer on the head than on the body, yes.
Q. What sort of a neck did it have?
A. No neck.
Q. You mentioned, I think, that it had breasts.
A. Yes.
Q. Where on the body were they located?
A. Like a human person's. They were also covered with hair except for
the nipples and they were skin.
Q. Did you mention the color of the hair?
A. No, I didn't. It was brownish black, dark colored.
Q. You say you saw a hand with the fingers extended.
A. Yes.
Q. Could you tell how long the arms were?
A. I would have to guess at how long they were. The arm that I was looking
at was in a bent position like you catch someone startled.
Q. You couldn't at anytime see how far down the body the arm
would come?
A. No
Q. Comparing it to a human, would you say that it had long legs
or short legs?
A. Long legs I would say long muscular legs.
Q. Did it take long strides? A. No, it seemed like it took small
steps as it walked. It was watching me as it walked to the edge of the
road. They would be large steps for a normal human but for this animal
they were short steps. About three steps from the center of the road
to the edge:
Q. Did you notice any difference in the way it walked and the
way a human would walk?
A. Same type of position and same type of walk as a human being.
Q. Any other details that you can recall that you noticed about
it?
A. Really, that pretty well covers it.
Q. You didn't see the teeth I guess?
A. No.
Q. Did it taper at the waist? Did it have h narrow waist?
A. It was a big body - a big stout body - that's the best I remember
it was - It could have been thinner at the waist - I don't remember.
Q. It was pretty heavily built?
A. Yes.
- ---
© John
Green, THE ADVANCE, Agassiz, British Columbia Canada
August 7, 1969
The corresponding Grays Harbor news article is Here
- ---
This interview should not be confused with the Gray's Harbor casts
made by the Sheriff's Department in 1982.
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