Bigfoot Encounters
An Old Bob Titmus Story
Robert Merle Titmus
December 24, 1918 - November 15, 1997 age 79
by Larry Battson
In the last years of Bob Titmus' life I occasionally talked to him on the phone when he was up to it. One day he told me about being up in the Bluff Creek area tracking Bigfoot, collecting hair samples, looking for footprints or whatever he could find.
He related this incident, which occurred about a year or two before the Patterson-Gimlin footage had been filmed. Titmus was sure his memory was starting to fail him, but this event he remembered perfectly.
He was deep in the backcountry of Bluff Creek by himself one afternoon; at the time he was certain there was a sasquatch or sasquatches very close by the evidence he was finding. He was so involved and so focused that he lost track of the time and the sun was starting to go down.
The density of the forest overcame him; he suddenly realized the day was getting too dark to find his way back to his main campsite. Titmus realized that he was going to have to stay put until morning because trying to find his way out in the darkness would be dangerous and foolish.
The night’s can be quite cold and he really was not wearing enough clothing to just lie in the woods and try to sleep. So he began to dig a pit for him to sleep in. After he finished digging his bed he laid in it and started covering himself with a thick layer of leaves, branches and pine needles. After he finished the only part of him that was exposed was a small area around his face. He was quite comfortable, sufficiently warm enough and had no problem going to sleep.
Titmus guessed the time was probably about 1:00 a.m., when he was startled awake by the sound of something moving through the forest nearby and it seemed from the sounds to be heading in his direction. He could hear the sound of heavy footsteps crashing methodically through the forest brush, breaking limbs and so forth. At first he thought that it was a bear but it wasn’t long before he realized it was to noisy for a bear. It came closer and closer… then it stopped.
Titmus could hear the thing breathing, not just breathing but also sniffing the air like it was trying to pick up a scent and now he realized that it had indeed picked up his scent but could not figure out where he was. With just his face exposed Titmus was very well concealed from what he came to understand had to be a sasquatch.
All of a sudden it started screaming, breaking branches and throwing rocks in his direction. Titmus held very still, very quiet. The sasquatch started moving around, pacing back and forth through the forest continuing to scream, bellow and throw debris. Titmus related that this behavior continued on until about an hour before daybreak. Then, as the sun began to rise and light trickled through the forest canopy, the creature went away and the forest fell silent again.
He pulled himself out of his make-shift bed in the ground and started to look around investigating the entire area. He walked in the direction of where the ruckus had come from and he could not believe his eyes.
It looked like a bulldozer had gone through the forest. Saplings had been pulled out of the ground, larger trees pushed over, broken or snapped in two. There were branches covered with hair samples and the ground was littered with footprints. It was no bear.
In later years, Titmus went back to Bluff Creek shortly after the Patterson footage had been filmed in October of 1967, - he saw the footprints on the sand bar the film subject had left and he was certain that this was the same sasquatch that he encountered the night he slept in the pit in the wilds of Bluff Creek.
A key figure in Sasquatch/Bigfoot investigation for nearly 40 years, Titmus died in Chilliwack, British Columbia, July 1, 1997 following a heart attack suffered a few days before at his home in Harrison Hot Springs British Columbia. He was 78.
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He related this incident, which occurred about a year or two before the Patterson-Gimlin footage had been filmed. Titmus was sure his memory was starting to fail him, but this event he remembered perfectly.
He was deep in the backcountry of Bluff Creek by himself one afternoon; at the time he was certain there was a sasquatch or sasquatches very close by the evidence he was finding. He was so involved and so focused that he lost track of the time and the sun was starting to go down.
The density of the forest overcame him; he suddenly realized the day was getting too dark to find his way back to his main campsite. Titmus realized that he was going to have to stay put until morning because trying to find his way out in the darkness would be dangerous and foolish.
The night’s can be quite cold and he really was not wearing enough clothing to just lie in the woods and try to sleep. So he began to dig a pit for him to sleep in. After he finished digging his bed he laid in it and started covering himself with a thick layer of leaves, branches and pine needles. After he finished the only part of him that was exposed was a small area around his face. He was quite comfortable, sufficiently warm enough and had no problem going to sleep. Titmus guessed the time was probably about 1:00 a.m., when he was startled awake by the sound of something moving through the forest nearby and it seemed from the sounds to be heading in his direction. He could hear the sound of heavy footsteps crashing methodically through the forest brush, breaking limbs and so forth. At first he thought that it was a bear but it wasn’t long before he realized it was to noisy for a bear. It came closer and closer… then it stopped.
Titmus could hear the thing breathing, not just breathing but also sniffing the air like it was trying to pick up a scent and now he realized that it had indeed picked up his scent but could not figure out where he was. With just his face exposed Titmus was very well concealed from what he came to understand had to be a sasquatch.
All of a sudden it started screaming, breaking branches and throwing rocks in his direction. Titmus held very still, very quiet. The sasquatch started moving around, pacing back and forth through the forest continuing to scream, bellow and throw debris. Titmus related that this behavior continued on until about an hour before daybreak. Then, as the sun began to rise and light trickled through the forest canopy, the creature went away and the forest fell silent again.
He pulled himself out of his make-shift bed in the ground and started to look around investigating the entire area. He walked in the direction of where the ruckus had come from and he could not believe his eyes.
It looked like a bulldozer had gone through the forest. Saplings had been pulled out of the ground, larger trees pushed over, broken or snapped in two. There were branches covered with hair samples and the ground was littered with footprints. It was no bear.
In later years, Titmus went back to Bluff Creek shortly after the Patterson footage had been filmed in October of 1967, - he saw the footprints on the sand bar the film subject had left and he was certain that this was the same sasquatch that he encountered the night he slept in the pit in the wilds of Bluff Creek.
A key figure in Sasquatch/Bigfoot investigation for nearly 40 years, Titmus died in Chilliwack, British Columbia, July 1, 1997 following a heart attack suffered a few days before at his home in Harrison Hot Springs British Columbia. He was 78.
Send us your Bob Titmus Story......
Back to Bigfoot Encounters Main page
Back to Newspaper & Magazine Articles
Back to Bigfoot Encounters "What's New" page
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