1978, Superior National Forest, Minnesota: Bigfoot Hoaxer Encounters Real Bigfoot

TODAY IN BIGFOOT HISTORY!

1978, Superior National Forest, Minnesota: Bigfoot Hoaxer Encounters Real Bigfoot

Brian “Catch” Morliss fashioned a set of oversized feet out of wood that he attached to his feet like snowshoes. Then he went leaping through the mud leaving what looked like Bigfoot prints behind him. His hoax had already been covered by the local news when a hiker photographed them.

Thrilled by his success, “Catch” set out to make more tracks. As he was tying on his fake feet, he heard something creep through the bush behind him. He spun around to see a real life breathing Bigfoot looking down at him. Morliss was so scared that he scooted away on his bottom. He claims that he heard the Bigfoot chortling after him.

1978, Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota: Boater Sees Bigfoot Carvings

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1978, Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota: Boater Sees Bigfoot Carvings

Ed Zattara was canoeing in Voyageurs National Park. He noticed a large jutting rock structure ahead so he paddled toward it, thinking it would be a nice place to eat his brown bag lunch.

When he clambered up onto the rocks, Zattara noticed some very odd markings in the stones. He took out his notepad, the one he planned to use to note all the various birds he saw on his trip. He took a few minutes to trace out the crudely carved oddities.

Later, he showed his drawings to a friend of his, Mark Slocumb who was an expert in Native American stone carvings. When Slocumb looked the Zattara’s  markings, he grew very quiet and somewhat scared. He asked again where Zattara had seen them.

Growing alarmed, Zattara demanded answers. Slocumb slowly explained that he had only ever seen markings like this once before, at a very secret and remote location where a shaman had lead him blindfolded. The shaman said that these markings were made by Bigfoot to commemorate the dead. In other words, it was a Bigfoot gravestone that Zattara had eaten his peanut butter and jelly sandwich on.

2001, Frontenac State Park, Minnesota: Church Lady Finds Tracks

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2001, Frontenac State Park, Minnesota: Church Lady Finds Tracks

Church pastor, Miss Janice Pritchett claims that she found Bigfoot tracks in the mud around the shore of Lake Pepin in Frontenac Park. She was unable to photograph them, even though she says she took several good shots of the impressions with her expensive new camera.

When she got the film developed the footprints did not come out. Those pictures were completely black. Pritchett attributes this to the demonic power she thinks Bigfoot possesses. Pritchett often preaches about the ancient evil that threatens her congregants. So no one was surprised or alarmed by her lack of photographic proof.

1962, Devil Tack Lake, Minnesota: Woman Sees Bigfoot Eyes Staring at Her

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1962, Devil Tack Lake, Minnesota: Woman Sees Bigfoot Eyes Staring at Her

Joanna Gilmore awoke around 3 AM. She left the tent she shared with her sister Joanie. She was on her way to the outhouse, when something caught her attention in the trees.

At first Joanna thought it was the wind. But then she was convinced she saw a man or monkey jump between branches. She froze where she was and stared as hard as she could into the black night sky. She scanned the inner darkness of the trees. Suddenly, two red glowing eyes blinked open. They stared right at her.

Joanna screamed a little scream and jumped back. She could not take her eyes off the glowing orbs high among the branches. The two were locked together until a small squirrel or other woodland creature made a scurrying sound and the eyes in the trees flicked to spy on the motion.

Joanna, free of the stare of the creature, turned and ran back to her tent. The next morning she returned to the trees where she saw the eyes and found Bigfoot prints all around the tree trunks. Joanna realized that the Bigfoot was not IN the trees, but just nearly as tall as them which gave that impression.

When Joanna told her parents of the encounter, they assured her it was probably an owl. Though she remained dubious of that explanation.

1988, Toomey Williams Road, Minnesota: Bigfoot Trail Found

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1988, Toomey Williams Road, Minnesota: Bigfoot Trail Found

Russell Butler visited Pine Island, Minnesota while home for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Butler walked off Toomey Williams Road to relieve himself. While standing there, he noticed that the ground a few feet away looked padded down.

Butler took a closer look at the ground to discover that it appeared to be a trail. Curious, Butler followed the trail. At one point he thought he lost it, but then saw some scratches on a nearby tree that marked the way.  The markings were crudely carved into the bark by a rock or other stone implement.

About 45 minutes later, Butler’s fears were realized. He came to a part of the trail were the ground was clearly marked with large foot prints. He immediately recognized these as Bigfoot imprints. Butler started to notice that there the trees were shaking and strange noises were all around. Gripped with fear, he high tailed it back to the road.

Butler remains convinced that he was followed out of the woods by several large Bigfoot that day. If he had continued to follow the trail, he is sure they would have attacked him.

1945, Kabetogama State Forest, Minnesota: Man Disappears Hunting Bigfoot

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1945, Kabetogama State Forest, Minnesota: Man Disappears Hunting Bigfoot

After several weeks where dogs went missing, trash bins ransacked, and other strange happenings in Kabetogama, John Simon declared that the township had been invaded by a Bigfoot. As evidence he produced several plaster casts of large apelike foot impressions, a tangle of brownish yellow hair, and photographs of powerful claw marks.

His fellow residents dismissed all this as the rantings of a crank. Simon claimed to see UFOs in the skies at least once a month, claimed to have been a spy during the war and in possessions of a serum that gave him super-health.

When Simon packed up enough camping supplies to last him several months, announced he was off to track the Bigfoot,  no one paid much attention either. Simon was gone over six months before his friends and relations started to worry. A search party was organized. They scoured the State Forest for months. The State Police even got involved for a few weeks, organizing hundreds of volunteers and even bringing in a helicopter.

No trace was ever found of John Simon. But people did notice the strange doings stopped just after he left to hunt the Bigfoot.

1974, Whitefish Bay, Minnesota, Taxidermist Gone Wild

TODAY IN BIGFOOT HISTORY! Martin Cews, amateur taxidermist and frequent letter to the editor author, goes public with his fantastic tale of derring-do. Cews self-publishes, THE EXTREMELY STRANGE CASE OF THE INDIAN WILD MAN,: THE ASTONISHING TRUE TALE OF HIS CAPTURE, EXAMINATION AND ESCAPE. In the 1025 pages of the book, Cews recounts how he captured “a near brute of eight feet tall, rippling muscle, and crude expression…covered in wild hair and messy, thick skin.” Cews keeps the creature chained in his workshed for several years, making notes and observations before the creature, in a blind fury over a missed feeding, smashes out of the shed and escapes into the woods. Cews undertakes a brief and failed national book tour, showing slides of drawings accredited to the creature, and stool samples which are too fresh to be believed.