It all happened in August of 1960; I was 12 years old.  I was with my mother and step-father on a vacation trip to South Florida. It was my first trip away from home. We lived in a small town, Longwood, north of Orlando, and this trip was about all we could afford for a week.

I remember we headed down the east coast through Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and on to Miami and all the way to Key West. No interstates in FL back then. Once we came back to the mainland we went to the Miami Zoo one morning and then headed west on Alligator Alley through the Everglades to Naples. 

It is VERY hot and humid in South Florida compared to the rest of FL since it is in a sub-tropic zone.  The car was not air conditioned..  I remember sitting in the back seat with my head close to the window to catch the wind.

That is when I spotted it.  It was standing, facing the highway, in front of a small hammock of knee-high grass, palmetto shrubs, and a few pine and palm trees, about 150 feet from the road. We locked eyes for the entire duration of the sighting.  I can remember flipping back in the seat and watching it through the rear window until I couldn't' see it any longer. It was not massive but not thin, tall, maybe 7 feet, medium brown (the color of a coconut), I could not see the feet or knees, no neck, I do not remember any facial feature other than dark eyes, and I did not see a profile. It turned its' upper body as it stared, not its' head.  No odor.

I did not say a word since it did not strike me as being unusual. We had just come from the Miami Zoo, this was my first trip from home and I had seen all kinds of strange animals for the first time that morning. This memory is so specific: when we arrived in Naples: I can recall swimming in the pool at the motel and thinking how hot that animal must be in all that heat with all that hair.

The words Bigfoot and Sasquatch were unknown back then.  I don't recall giving any thought to this creature until the 70's when my son and I watched a show called “In search of…..”  Then I was so busy with work, home and family, and doing things for my husband's co. I didn't find the time to go to the library and research the subject. 

It crossed my mind briefly back in the mid-80's after a TV show, but nothing seriously.  Obviously, this was all prior to easy access to any topic on an in-home computer. Then I watched a Monster Quest back in the first of 2008 and Googled Bigfoot after that show.  A whole new world opened up.

Most of the sightings of BF in Florida are in Collier County (Everglades). There is one report on another database very similar to mine concerning some college kids heading to Miami on the same road and seeing a BF watch them go by from a hammock. (Alligator Alley to native Floridians is 2 lane Sate Road 41 from Naples to Miami, NOT Interstate 75.  It was also known as the Tamiami Trail.)

Lynn Chandler
Destin, Florida
Report turned over to Diane Stocking November 2010

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