Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:979 Gorilla Man

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

Susan writes "In 1962, I was only 12 at the time of the encounter. This happened in Crandon, Wi and I have been reaching out to find others in this state who have seen a Bigfoot. I can give a very detailed description of the day, his face which I thought was so horrendous at that time and his hands, etc. something many people don't get a good look at. This event happened late afternoon just before the sunset. It was very confusing as I thought I saw a gorilla man or else a freak that escaped from a circus freak show. It was an event that made me depressed and gave me many sleepless nights/weekdays with nightmares. I am attaching an AI picture that closely resembles the facial structure of the type I saw."

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelt me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that shocked me. They don't make people that that big. The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forward.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears. 9-1-1, what are you reporting? See ya! Hello? Get somebody out here. out here. What's one on now, sir? That's son of a bitch is about six foot nine. I don't know. Do you see a now, sir?

Yes, I'm looking right in it. Uh-uh. This is Watsy from Orange County, California. And when I'm not being paced out of the Cleveland National Forest, I'm listening to West Gürmer in Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. I hope wherever you're listening, you're staying nice and cool.

God, it's warm out there. It's really warm outside. Tonight we'll be chatting with Susan. And Susan comes to us from Wisconsin. And back in 1962, she was 12 years old. And she was out with her cousin Mike on a family property and had a very, very close run in with one of these creatures. I'll kind of let Susan go into it.

If you've had an encounter and he'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Cromach, And if you get a chance to check out, Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Susan to the show. Susan, thanks for coming on. Thanks, Wes. I'm just really tickled to be speaking with you.

I'm happy to chat with you as well. Thank you again. And if you would, Susan, take me back to 1962 out there. in Wisconsin, kind of what were you doing and what happened? Okay. It was, I'm pretty sure it was 1962, and I was about 12 years old at the time. I grew up in West Dallas, which is a city part of the Milwaukee area. And I had a big family on my mother's side.

We all lived in that area. It was kind of the times when people would drop in after church, that kind of a thing. You always were with your cousins because my mom had. There were four in her family, and then everybody always had like five or six kids, and then even extended family like second cousins. And way back in about the 40s, my grandfather and grandma had purchased property on Lake Batanga. It was a big deal going up there, and my grandfather had purchased a resort up there. And so everybody was up there helping with the cabins, and then us kids would, we kids would just be running wild when the parents would be painting or helping out in the tavern, whatever, what was going on. we were supposed to kind of go our separate way.

So the older kids, I always took care of the younger kids. And this was kind of my heaven. And any chance that I could get to go up there, I'd be tickled because my dad only had vacation like in August, the first part of August. So if you had cousins that were going up there, if you were lucky, you could get a chance to ride up there and stay with them until, like, my parents would come, and then I'd come back with my parents. So I kind of wanted to mention all that because we were trusted with a lot.

And this is a big part of why I kept this story quiet for so long because back then there was nothing out there about Bigfoot. There may be rumblings in California, but I knew nothing about any of this stuff. And I had two cousins that were living with my grandma and grandpa. Their dad was divorced. And so he wanted them to be in school on a regular basis. So I loved being with them. And then when my grandfather died, my grandma sold the resort. and kept part of the property, like one cabin for income.

She gave a cabin to my uncle. My aunt had property that she built right next to her. And then even her brother and sister had a house. So like I said, there was always people coming and going up there at some point. And this was when I know I was 12 because it was about the time when my uncle remarried and the kids were going to move and go to school in a different city. And they were all excited because it was going to be in a bigger city. So Mike was up there to stay with grandma

And grandma was always crippled So everybody was kind of looking in for her Like she couldn't go shopping for groceries or anything like that And so family would always bring her food Or you know, shop for her Or it would be in a big excursion To go to a bigger town nearby They would take her shopping

Because there was just a very small store At the time in the downtown area Like a mom-paw store There was no big grocery stores So my mom had said, asked me if I'd like to go up there to stay with grandma. They always liked people with her at the time. This was before she was forced to give up the house and live down in the West Dallas area. And that Mike was going to be up there. He was going back to stay with grandma for a while. So I was

real excited. And my mom sent me up on a Greyhound bus. But I went up there. So I was without my parents probably for like one of the first times where I just went like that. And I was all alone up there with her and Mike. And we had so much fun in the world. woods on the lake. He knew all the kids from school. We go horseback riding. We were always doing whatever we wanted. There was a dam area not far from the house, which was great because back then people camped in tents. They didn't have like all the hookups with everything. And we used to like to go down there and catch minnows and all kinds of stuff. So it was a fun, fun place. Well, my uncle had come over. This was my great uncle. He came to check on his sister.

And he knew she was having her grandchildren there. He went and picked wild raspberries, and he brought them. So this must have been about in July. And I think the plan was I was going to stay there until my mom and dad came up in August with the rest of the family. I could extend my stay. So he came over with these raspberries to treat us. He knew grandma had kids there. And we were very excited because you didn't get a lot of fresh fruit back then.

It was whatever was available for the season. So this was supposed to be for our breakfast, and we were thrilled that he thought of us. I was kind of scared of the guy. He was kind of a rough guy, you know, at the time. I didn't understand it as humor. And that, so we had gobbled down the raspberries and had nothing to the next morning. So it was getting kind of late in the day. I think it was about 3.30.

And Mike said, well, let's go get some raspberries. Our uncle had told us that it was near the railroad tracks. Well, for us to go in, we would have been smart. to walk up about a half a mile or a mile to go in, but we just thought from the lake, we would just cross the road and go straight across from our grandmother's house and go into the woods, and we should hit the railroad tracks, or at least near it. So we go in, and the north woods there in Wisconsin is pretty thick. And I can remember getting all scratched up. And our uncle had told us that if we did go, watch out for bears, especially

if there'd be any sows with cubs, because they also like the berries. He said, so make a lot of noise. So we go in and we're making all this noise and we're laughing and screaming and stuff. And I can remember we were in this really low area, like low area and it was wet and I got a soaker. And I'm going, Mike, this is so stupid. He goes, well, you're wet now. Let's just keep going because I remember I probably had one pair of shoes with me and a pair of flip flops.

I probably had new pair of shoes. They were like kids. And I remember them getting all wet and dirty. I went, darn, my shoes, my shoes, you know, and we were laughing. and all of a sudden I saw this figure like a man-sized figure jumped and there was like fallen trees like old trees that had fallen down and he jumped over by these trees and went behind these trees and my heart kind of went up into my throat and I went like there's somebody over there he goes what I think there's a man over there he goes oh come on it's imagination we weren't that far in you know and already he says why would somebody be following us this is terrible in here nobody would be in here. Come on, let's keep going. And then we're trying to make it over all this crummy stuff that's all of us. And then all of us, he said, oh, I see him again. I saw like a head pop up behind, like peeking at us from behind this big log, this big tree that was laying down.

I said, no, there's somebody over there. Who would be so creepy to follow us like that? He goes, now that's your imagination. You're just seeing things. Let's keep going. So we kept trudging through. and all of a sudden we came out at a clearing. And I think this is where what they refer to us clear cutting, where they were cutting. It was like pine. I remember the bark because there was trees stacked, all stacked in big piles.

So it was like a big clear area. And there are all these raspberry bushes. And in the wild, those raspberry bushes get big. And we had brought with us buckets from his dad's cottage. His dad had a cottage, and I want to mention these buckets because they were kind of important in the story. We grabbed a great big aluminum, like something you would boil fish or corn cobs in, but it was very lightweight. It had two handles on each side. It was one of those real thin metal ones, aluminum, I think it was.

And then there was another one that was lightweight with a handle, but it was large, something you could boil potatoes in. We had those two buckets with us. and we were filling them to the top, and we were probably eating as many berries as we were putting in the buckets because they were just plentiful. They were ripe. It was beautiful. When we thought we had enough, we thought, well, we better get back because I remember when we left, my grandmother had said to us, she said, you guys just better, it was kind of late. And I even was concerned about that. That was getting late in the day. And I thought, oh, mosquitoes are going to be so bad.

And they were. And my grandma said, make sure you guys come back because I'm cooking tonight. having chicken. And when you live lake life, you don't eat all the time. I don't know if you've ever experienced that, but it's just such a laid-back atmosphere. You eat when you're hungry. You're just like on lake time. He just never worry much about time. And most likely I didn't have a watch with me. We didn't have that kind of stuff back then. But we just kind of knew the way the sun was going down and that it was getting late. I said, well, we got to get back. You know, grandma said she was making dinner for us tonight. So we started back. We had this

big buckets full of raspberry. We're real proud of ourselves. And we're trudging through all this thick stuff. And we got turned around and we got lost and we ended up back at the clearing. We just kind of made like a semi-circle or something, whatever was probably the easiest route is what brought us back. And here we are right back. I thought, this place, this is the same place. I could recognize all the logs. We never did get to the train tracks because I think the train tracks were kind of like weary. And I remember Mike said, should we look for the tracks and then follow them? And that scared me even more. I says, no, no, no, that's so dangerous. And I can even remember my uncle also said, watch out for hobos because they called them hobos back there, back then.

There were a lot of transient men around that would come maybe like for jobs and stuff. And he warned us about that. And I says, no. And then also I always have these fear of a train coming. And I thought, no, that would be worse. And then we get lost and we don't even know which direction these tracks. go if we go the wrong way. So we were arguing about how to get out of there. And by this time I was so hot and tired, I was so bit up. The mosquitoes are just buzzing in our ears. We're slapping ourselves all over the place. By this time, I think whatever we had sprayed ourselves, we had worn off. And we were fighting. We were arguing how to get out. And I said, Mike, we got to go this way. I was, no, no, no, no, no, that's the wrong way. I know it's the wrong way. And at that,

time of day, it was probably getting to be like 5.30 or so by the time we were, 530, maybe even six by the time we were trekking through the woods, got lost, picked all the berries, you know, it was starting to get late. And I can remember hearing that peaceful quiet on the lake and you can hear the boat motors going out where the guys are going out for the evening fishing. You can hear that distinct sound. I says, Mike, we got to go this way. I know we got to go this way. He goes, no, you're wrong. He says, that's an echo. And then he always says this. thing to me. He was very smart and I respected him because he was about two or three years older than me. And he knew the up north. He lived that. His whole, like for 10 years, he lived up there.

He says, according to my calculations, you know, he says, we have to go this way. I says, no, I'm not going that way. And I was really mad. And I folded my arms. And I remember leaning against the stack of logs. I says, I'm not moving. Until you come to your senses, I'm not going that way. It's going to be too long. I can't stand these mosquitoes. And you. more, no, I'm not going that way. So I was just fuming. I was spit mad, you know, spit nickels. And he took off and he found like a path of least resistance. He said, I'm going to see where this leads and he took off. And I'm standing there with my arms folded. All of a sudden, all these bushes start moving and there was like this snapping and cracking. And I heard all this muffling

and this like, you know, like I thought, oh my God. And I see this figure, like this dark figure. And like, just all this noise and it sounded to me like something was ripping up tree bark or tree roots or like a bear was foraging or something it just I thought and my heart went into my throat and I thought oh my god it must be a bear it's got to be a bear and I thought I couldn't find my voice all what I was told to yell and scream and make noise I couldn't make noise all I could think of was be real quiet maybe it'll just pass me up I couldn't make a noise and I just froze you know I was really scared. So all of a sudden, something start running behind those bushes. And at this point, the sand and the gravel, it's kind of like sandy and gravelly there. It was dry. I hear this crunch,

crunch, crunch, and I start yelling, if that's you, you know, I can you just picture my little bratty self at 12 years old. I'm screaming at him. I'm going, Mike, that's not funny. If you're trying to scare me, that's not funny, Mike. You know, and I'll say you're crunch, crunch, crunch, and I can kind of see like the backside of something. And I don't know what, who, you know, my thing is, he trying to scare me? Because I thought he went around the circle and was making, like moving the bushes or something, then came running to scare me. And I'm yelling at him because, you know, I just had that incident earlier where I said,

somebody's watching us, you know, and he said I was being stupid. You know, it's your imagination. And I'm screaming at him, Mike, Mike, knock it off, Mike. You know, I'm all mad at him, you know. And all of a sudden this creature, leaps like a chimp. Like I still can remember his arm was out. He looked at me

and back in those days we had those little flash cameras. His face was like a person who was caught with a flash camera because his face, his expression, his eyes were real wide and his mouth was like partial open and he leaped across to the next group of

bushes that were in front of me. I think I was up a little higher because I was leaning against those logs and he stood up. And then, oh my God, you know, I'm looking at this guy. He was not more than 10 feet away from me. Maybe even closer.

He was so close because I was afraid he could grab me. That's how close he was. It was so confusing because I'm thinking, wouldn't a regular guy say something to me? And there he was standing. I think he might have been partially covered by the, the bushes, but I saw like at least I know for sure the chest up and he was hairy all over, but I remember being embarrassed because I was so modest and so young. He was shirtless. He didn't have any clothes on. It's like, this guy is standing here and he's all hairy. And he had these

big, big arms. He was lean and kind of skinny like a, and he was tall like a basketball player. Like he had like really big muscles on his shoulders and he had big forearms and he was hairy. But I could see his skin kind of through parts on him on his chest and like his arms and like his clavicle area. I could see skin. So I didn't know. I'm looking at it's like to me, my young mind saw a man, a weird, a different man because I could see skin. his hair wasn't like a dog or anything or like a bear it was more like see-through it he reminded me of like when you were a kid and you go to the beach and see some old big old fat guy in a speedo and he needed to shave his back

you know that's kind of the image I had it's like I'm thinking I'm looking at a guy you know because he looks so human like that way but he was very muscular but his face did not match his body build. His body build was young and muscular, but his face looked more like an old man, and he was so ugly. God, he was so ugly. He had a nose like a man.

It had like an end on it. And he, I remember the nose because his skin was dark, like leathery, like a brownish. I have to describe his coloring because I could see veins, but it wasn't like, that's how close we were. It wasn't red veins, but it was like raised skin on his nose. That's why I remember his nose so well. I sent you that picture that had like a facial structure that was similar to what I saw, but not exactly. The one that I sent you, he was actually kind of more handsome.

But I sent it because the skin was modeled. And that's what I saw because the skin wasn't all like one color. So I couldn't tell if he was dirty or sooty or if he was, that was his skin tone. And he had like a regular nose that flared out. He had very, very deep set eyes. And he had a very big browridge. And that's what really confused me because that was very much like a gorilla. but he had very sunken cheeks, like his cheeks went down, very sunken.

And then his mouth was very kind of chimp-like. But when you see the pictures, it makes it look hard, almost like a mask. But his mouth was very malleable because what he did was he made this expression with his mouth, or he mushed up his mouth like it reminded me of a man who didn't have dentures in his mouth. So I don't know if he was as an adult thinking back was he smelling me. He didn't expose his lips, but he like brought his lips up. His mouth got mushy crunched then, you know, like hi, do you know what I'm saying? Like a man who took his dentures out.

That's what his mouth looked like to me. He had whiskers on his cheeks, but they went everywhere. every which way, like a guy who hasn't shaven for a while, but he doesn't grow a good beard. You know, you see like a guy where it go one direction, the other direction. The hair on his cheeks was very disheveled, like going all different directions in the same way on his chin, like a guy who needed to shave because he didn't grow a good beard. If I remember, right, the sun was starting to set. I bet we were getting close to 7 o'clock by the time I saw this guy because the sun was starting to go down,

but it was still like real bright on us, you know, how the rays come through, when it was, we were in a clearing. So all around him, his hair kind of looked like a halo. It was kind of reddish on the ends because I could see, you know, his hair. And the hair on his back stood up like that, kind of, you know, and I could see the reddish on the ends. But he was basically brown, brownish. But I couldn't figure out if he was dirty or if he was, that was his coloring because he, he had like model coloring. And the reason I remember that is because I was standing there, I had the, I had the buckets of berries on the ground by my,

feet. They were heavy, you know, we had carried them, we got lost, and they were on the ground. And so he, like, brought his hands up in front of him, and I saw his hands because they were, like, cupped in front of him. And what scared me, it was he, like, took, like, a step forward, or he leaned forward, and it reminded me of, like, a guy's, like, trying to entice you with something in their hands to show you, like, come here, honey, you know. And that's what really scared me and that's when I saw his hands because I could see his fingernails in that, but it almost looked like a person who was sooty or dirty. So I don't know if that was his natural coloring because his hands were flesh, you know, like a dark brown, but then there was that dark

coloring all around the nails and, you know, just like he had kind of like around his face, kind of like a modeling or else dirt. I don't know what it was. But he had these really big hands. And like I said, his arms were very big. But he was sinewy. That's how I describe me. He's thin, kind of like thin, but very muscular, like a young basketball player, how they have the great arms. But then the face was very old-looking. And what was scary was that he had such deep, set eyes and they were so piercing.

And I remember, like, with the sun in that, they were very glistening. I could see, like, you know how somebody has, like, an animal or whatever or a person has, like, liquidy eye. eyes, you know, like glow me eyes or whatever you want to describe it. I remember seeing the liquid around his eyes. He just was so intense, and that's what scared me. He looked at me so intently, and he kind of like turned his body and looked at me again, and that's when he had his hands out in front. I have no idea what his gesture meant.

I remember putting my hands out, like a stop, and I'm going, no, no, no, no, no. I remember saying, I don't want anything or something to that effect. no, and I remember turning my heads because I thought if he's going to come and grab me, I'm closing my eyes. I can't look at him or I turned my head. And I thought, okay, start calling for Mike, call for a man. So I started screaming, Mike, and I was just like blood-curdling, screaming, Mike. And I had my hand out, and this guy is still standing there. And I started screaming for Mike. And I looked over my shoulder in the direction where Mike went. He came out. I remember his head came out from underneath the leaves and he looked up and I like brushed the branch way from

his face and he looked up. I remember the shock look in his face. His mouth was open and I looked back at the creature, the guy standing there and he turned and he was looking at Mike. He turned back and looked at me and then he turned around and that's when I saw the back of him. His head was all, his hair was all shaggy, like a reddish-brown. It was all shaggy all the way down his neck and down his back. And he was gone in a flash. I don't remember if he ran away or if he dipped down and took off that way. But he was gone so fast. And I remember looking at Mike and just the fact that this is real and Mike did not circle around to scare me. And this is some really weird dude. And there's Mike on, you know, behind me. I started flapping my arms and hysterically crying.

That was my way of releasing. I'd never done that in my life. I was just like flapping my arms like I was like a two-year-old and I got hysterical. And here is Mike thinking, oh, my God, this girl's going to die, faint on me, you know. And I remember we were very, very close, very good friends. We did so much together. But we never, like, showed each other affection physically or anything like that. We were kids.

We were pals. He knew how serious this was. He came up to me and he grabbed me and he was very tall. Mike was about six foot. He was tall and thin at that time and he grabbed me. I remember he was tall enough there. He grabbed me and he put my head in his chest and he held me really tight to calm me down because I was flapping my arms like an idiot, just shaking my hands and stuff,

jumping up and down. And he held me real tight and goes, I have a way we can get out of here. We got to try it. He says, I think I have a better way. And we grabbed the buckets and he took me by the wrist. And he dragged me. And I just, at that point, I gave up all my stubbornness. And I said, just go with them.

Just go with them. And I went. We grabbed the buckets. We start running. And I said, Mike, these are so heavy. I could care less. We took the buckets and we dumped out all the berries. And by that time, they were just all mush.

I didn't know as a kid. You don't put berries in a big bucket. People put them in flat on flat. like box tops and stuff because they get all mushy. So I remember dumping the berries out. He said, are you sure after all this? And I said, just get rid of the berries and ran. And this path that he found, it was like rutted, like double rutted.

So that might have been a way that the guys came in by the logs. They might have come in with trucks or jeeps or whatever. And we start running on that. And then as we kept going, it was real narrow, but it was definitely somebody drove on it. And then even some parts they had put down some stone, you know, maybe if there was ruts or whatever. So we start banging our pots together. That's why I mentioned these pots. We were banging the pots together because I'm still scared.

And I'm thinking I'm going to scare something away. I'm going to make a lot of noise. And by this time, it was getting dark. I could hardly see anything. And I thought, oh, God, we can't be in the woods in the dark. Just the mosquitoes alone won't kill me. And I was afraid this thing would come back. This guy would come back.

And so we were running on this path as far as we could. We kept going, kept going, and I had no idea which direction we were going, but we just knew it could be a better way out. And it scared me so much because the woods starts getting really, really scary at night when it's getting dark, you know. And we had no flash light or anything like that. And here we are in shorts and stuff. So I don't know how long we ran. I remember having such a side ache.

And we came out. I was just still hysterical. we came out where we could see where the trucks came in over like grassy fields or hay or whatever. It was all beat down from the trucks going in and out. So we followed that. And back at this time, they were just starting to asphalt all the roads again. Because prior to me being 10 years old, I remember the Lakeview drive around my grandma's lake was still all stone. And it was just like a one lane highway all the way around.

And they had recently paved that. and we came out where they had a road all like prepared for asphalt, it was all pulverized or it had all stone and rock. And we kept hitting the pans on the rock making noise, because I'm thinking there's wolves, there's bears, there's bobcat. I'm just so scared. And by this time, we had light from like the stars and the moon. You know, we could kind of see and we got acclimated, and it was dark now.

So it must have been somewhere like 830, quarter to nine by this time. And we still didn't know what road we were on. And then all of a sudden, it came to a fork. It turned. And Mike goes, I know where we are now. And there was a road that was going to this, the dam. And the dam was like our play area. We knew that.

He said, this is where the dam is. We got to go this way. Finally, we get down to the dam. And the dam is probably, it's probably a half a mile or less from my grandma's because we could even roll there. And it was a shorter trip rolling into the dam. And that was where we would catch. minnows. We'd meet kids who were intense, all that kind of stuff. It was our play area. So we knew we were on the way home. So we followed that and we come to the house finally. It was like about

nine o'clock when we came in. My grandmother was just furious. She says, I made supper for you guys and I put it away. She wouldn't feed us. She's kind of a tough lady, you know. Okay, that's fair. But I could have cared less. I had such an upset stomach. And there was a garage that was attached to the house. She didn't have a car, but they had like old couches and sofas in there, and she had like old secretaries, and there's a big round oak table, things that used to be in the cabins. And she thought, well, somebody else somebody used this, she didn't get rid of it. So that's where we would play. We'd play cards and Monopoly and all that. And I remember we went out in the garage and we sat there. I couldn't go to bed. Every time I would close my eyes, I would see this ugly face, this staring face.

he was so ugly and so unnatural in my mind as far as how a guy should look and I would estimate he was probably my dad's size as far as height like he was somewhere between he could have been maybe six and a half feet maybe just because I was up a little higher and I didn't maybe realize how tall he was

but he wasn't more than seven feet he must have been in that six foot range somewhere but like I said, he was very muscular, and that's all I would see. I couldn't go to sleep. I couldn't close my eyes. We sat out on that in the garage that night, and I kept saying, Mike, what did I see? Mike, what did I see? He goes, I don't know, I don't know what I saw.

He said, because he just kind of saw him look at him and saw the backside and he was gone. But for me, it was like in eternity, because this thing had a plan. He came toward me, sneaked up on me like that, and he was there. looking at me and he was like studying me and that's what scared me. I didn't like the way he was looking at me and I just couldn't sleep. He says, you got to go to bed and I said no and I remember I had nightmares for days just horrible for weeks I had nightmares. I knew nothing about Bigfoot. There wasn't anything out you know like now I would think of a kid would see something like this. It would probably be easier for them to talk about it and we made a pat not to tell anybody

because Mike was really, really concerned about his dad being really mad at him. Because Mike knew the area. He lived there as a kid. We always had to follow safety rules. We'd off the lake when the clouds came in, all kinds of stuff for safety. We knew these things. And he was so afraid that his dad would be so mad at him because he was older and should have been wiser and also experienced up there. he was more worried about the wrath of his dad

because he should have taken care of his little cousin that's what his fear was plus we were really afraid that we wouldn't be trusted anymore because we were really trusted with a lot we could take the boats out we could take the motor out we'd fish all day we'd make a lunch we would go down on the dam we went horseback riding he had friends that had horses

and if we would go and pay at the end of the day you know they would be like a riding stable If we paid at the end of the day, the mom didn't care because then at the end of when nobody came, then the kids, we could take the horses out and just run them wherever we wanted. So we just had a lot of fun up there, you know, why the parents did their thing. And there were forts down by the dam that the Boy Scouts built, and we climbed these pine trees. I'm surprised one of us didn't get killed. So that was our pack.

We couldn't tell anybody. Plus, I had a brother, an older brother who was seven years older than me, who was a horrendous tease. By today's standards, they would say he bullied us because he was such a tease. He was one of the oldest cousins, oldest boys, you know, in the family. There was no way I could have said that I saw a man that looked like a gorilla because that's all I kept saying to Mike when we were walking through the woods coming out. I said, Mike, I saw a gorilla man. What did I see?

I saw a gorilla man. That's the only way I could explain it. And I said, but gorillas aren't in Wisconsin. How could there be a gorilla man? I said, do you think there was a circus or something? And there was like a freak, a freak of a circus or some, you know, like, in my mind at that age it was a man. But I kept saying a gorilla man because he was so hairy. And then I remember we didn't want to tell grandma, we didn't want to worry her.

And she was mad enough that we were gone, but we did tell her we got lost. And that was another thing. We didn't want our parents to know we got lost because then we wouldn't be trusted. It's like you don't get lost up there. Take care of yourself and don't get lost. So this was our pact to keep it quiet and how do you describe this to anybody? So I said to Grandma, I said, Grandma, was there a circus up here? Because sometimes Cranon would have circuses or they'd have these carnities come in and I've seen them.

I've been to them. She goes, no, we haven't had a circus for a while. So I was so sullen and depressed. I didn't want to go on the lake. I didn't want to go down the dam. So looking back, I kind of wish we would have talked. told some adults because I think I suffered a lot from it that I probably know if maybe they knew of something or I could have just to talk it out. And I went back home and I did come back with

my parents in August of course, but I never went in the woods. I stayed on the lake. I suffered for a long time. I'd have nightmares. When I first went home, I had upstairs bedroom And I remember just having horrible nightmares and waking up at night because I keep seeing this intense stare, this face, this thing looking at me with this intense. He had like an old man's face, but a young man's body. It just was the weirdest thing. And I didn't know what it was. But in my mind it was a man and it was a girl, a man of some sort. So I kind of convinced myself that he was some kind of a freak of name.

nature or some kind of a rogue man that was in the woods. I didn't know that there were more of these, you know. Let me ask you, Susan. You know, when you, when you spoke to Mike, you had mentioned he came around the corner and he looked kind of surprised. Did he ever describe to you what he saw that day? He couldn't. He couldn't say, he says, I don't know what I saw, but it was Harry. I remember saying that.

He said, I don't know what I saw. He really was so. shocked. And I almost wonder if this thing took off because if that was the role that the guys used to come in for the logs, maybe he thought Mike went and got reinforcements. That's the only thing I could think of. Like all of a sudden, he, you know, because Mike was just a teen. He was a young teen, too. He was like a freshman in high school because I remember he was real excited about starting in his new high school. And I don't know. I mean, I was talking to this thing the whole time. So I was yelling and everything. I mean, I did everything wrong. So I don't know.

And that's what's so strange about this story, because this thing could have grabbed me so easily. He could have, and that was what my fear was, that he would just take a step or two and just grab me and take me. You know, that's how close he was. Yeah, you would think if he was going to grab you, he would have done it. What's fascinating, though, is you're seeing expressions from the saying, like in the face. Yes, like I said, he moved that mouth. he moved his mouth up and he crumpled up his his mouth like a like a man without dentures like he curled up his mouth his lip didn't open like i've seen animals where they'll open their lip i don't remember i don't know if he

was smelling me or what he was doing but it was creepy he was but the intensity of his eyes is what was so scary and they were dark but they were very of course very glassy very watery you know like being in the sun, you know, he just was so intense with that look. And then I convinced myself that it was a hobo because he was so dirty. That was one way of coping with it. I think that it had been a hobo and it had been a guy who was all sooty because of the way he was either dirty or matted or different coloring on his skin. And like I said, his nails and his hands had that look like somebody who was digging in a coal bin. So in my mind, when I got home to my little life in West Dallas and got back with my friends and went to the state fair this summer and whatever I did as a little kid and went off to school, I convinced myself I must have seen a hobo.

Because the only people that I knew that were those, remember those like poor boy hats or those paper boy hats, the flat hat on the top? Yeah. Old men would wear. I convinced myself, it must have been somebody with a hat like that on because his brow was so big. I thought, was that a cap? But he had no clothes on. But that was how I coped with it as a child telling myself, I must have seen a hobo. That was the only way I could get on with it.

But I'm sure it was some kind of wild man or it was a big foot because it was so creepy how he approached me. I mean, he was doing the, you know, shaking the tree, snapping bushes. It sounded like a bear foraging under roots or something. grumbling. It was all this rolling of the bushes there on the perimeter and then how he snuck up on me. And I know that you don't know

and I don't know, but what do you think the intention was? I think he knew we were there. I think we were followed in. I don't know if he was curious. Let me mention this. Now, when I was a kid, they had just built the West Dallas Zoo.

It was like touted as one of the best zoos. And we used to ride our bike up there. Like I said, I went everywhere, and we would spend the day at the zoo, and they had this one big gorilla that was really famous at the time. His name was Samson, and we would sit there for hours looking at Samson because he was very entertaining and he enjoyed looking at people, and he had a favorite attendant who would talk to him and ask him to do things and stuff. And the stare that this gorilla had was very similar to this guy that I saw in the woods.

It had that intelligence in the deep set and the very shiny eyes. I can't say it was a mean look, but it's that, that intense, scary look. And I almost wonder if I kind of surprised him because I was talking back at him. I don't know. And then here he's looking and here's this 95-pound skinny thing with braids. You know, it's like I don't know what his intent were. I do think, it almost. It almost looked like he was trying to entice me with something in his hands.

Somebody else who had heard the story, says, well, maybe he was asking for berries. I thought, no, I don't think that was it. It was almost, it was so weird how he, and then he leaned forward. I thought, oh, my God, this thing's going to grab me. And that's when I put my hand out, like, stop, no, no. And I turned my head, and I was screaming for Mike. And that's when I saw Mike come out. And then I look back, and here it was looking at Mike, and he turned around.

He looked at me and he took off. But he was so fast when he took off. And I kept saying, Mike, you think he's following us? goes, no, no, no, he went the other way. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. He kept saying all this positive stuff because he knew he had to get this hysterical girl out of the woods, you know. Yeah, it's hard to say. I mean, he could have wanted the berries. I've heard many accounts, you know, like Native Americans out picking berries, they'll have run-ins with this creature like this, kind of approaching them, kind of doing the same gesture. And I've had fishermen that have been

approached by these sayings and kind of very much how you're describing it. And, you know, as far as him taking you, it could be, you know, I mean, you kind of have to go off of your gut in those situations and how you're feeling in those moments. But I kind of think if he wanted you, you're pretty easy pickings at this point. It'd been real easy to grab you and take off running. You know what I mean? At the time, like when I listened to all the podcasts that I've been listening to, I told you I've been dinging on your stuff from chronologically from one and I'm up to like 105 right now. I haven't even listened to the current ones and I've been enjoying them and I'm listening and listening to them. I'm thinking that they are more of an ape type creature.

But as a 12-year-old, I didn't see that. I saw more of a man. And that's what creeped me out. I saw a really strange man because of his face and his hands and his muscles. I mean, but his behaviors weren't man-life as far as approaching me. And possibly the fact that we dumped out the berries, maybe he was satisfied with that. Like, oh, that's what I wanted to do all the work. Yeah, there's many eyewitness reports of these things approaching fishermen,

and the fishermen will throw fish and then take off running, and the creature will sit down and eat the fish and not really go after the person. But again, I wasn't there. I mean, I understand being 12 years old and your mindset of, you know, he's going to take me. And I think it was probably the berries, you know, it's probably what he wanted. And that's just my opinion. I'm, you know, throwing spitballs here because, again, I wasn't there. I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is?

And I know from talking to you, you kind of think it's more of an ape? now I do I kind of vacillate as a kid I thought for sure it was a human a strange human but now when I hear the stuff that I hear and then sometimes I think

could they just be a species all onto their own I don't know I really don't know but I kind of lean more toward some type of an ape because of the things that I hear now and the experiences the different kinds of experiences

other people have they certainly are smart that's for sure as a kid I thought it was a man I really did I really thought it was a man because of the hands but just the face was all wrong the face was so ugly to me at that time it was just in my nightmares

he just was so intense and just it was and that photo that I sent you that was somebody made that it's an AI photo that guy is actually better looking than what I saw and his nose isn't quite right but as far as the shape of the face

and the intensity of the eyes. All the mouths on all the things look so hard, but they're very malleable. He moved his mouth around and he made a lot of expressions with his mouth. Like I said, even when he leaped, his eyes opened up wider and his mouth was partially open. I can't tell you right now if I saw teeth or not, I might have. I just thought it was a man, that's for sure, just even by his hands. but the hair like I said

that's what was so confusing his hair was not like a dog's hair it was you could kind of see through it a little bit it was it was kind of wiry

almost like and it was off the skin but like where the arm the joint of the arm was the clavicle area the chest I could see the chest muscles the shoulder I could see

skin at some parts of his body you know but then when he turned his backside was very hairy his head was it was shaggy and hairy like a couple inches long two three inches yeah and i would imagine at 12 i can understand you going hey this is some weird guy now looking back do you think it's some sort of animal that you were seeing i think so i think so because what he should have said something to me should have talked or grunted He didn't make any noise. I hear all these stories about stink.

I don't remember smell. I don't remember that. If there was, I don't remember it. I don't think there was any smell. Let me ask you, going from 60 years ago, at what point did you go, oh, I think what I ran into was a Sasquatch, not a man, not a circus freak, not, you know, was there a point in time where that kind of hit you? When 1967, when the Patterson Gimlin Field came out, now this was about five years later, and here I am like 17 years old thinking I'm all grown up, it was all over the news. You know how when you get older, you tell your parents about dumb stuff you did when you were a kid,

you know they would have killed you then, but you tell them now and they laugh about it. Well, I was 17, and my mom and I are watching the news, and they kept playing it all the time. It just kept coming on, you know, about Bigfoot, and they're showing the Gimlin film, and my mom and I are watching it and I'm going, oh my gosh, Mom. I said, heck, I don't have to go to California for that. We've got them here in Wisconsin. She goes, what do you mean? And then I told her about, remember the time I went up on the Greyhound bus by myself

to see Mike out and be with Grandma? I said, we were in the woods. I told her the whole story. I said, I saw one. He approached me, Mom. I said, it was the scariest thing ever. I said, we got lost. I said, we kept it a secret because we thought we would never be trusted again.

And who would believe me? I said, but mine was skinny. That's what I kept telling. I said, the one that I saw was tall and skinny. He wasn't like a big thick thing. He was a big, tall, skinny guy, but very muscular and very ugly. And I told my mom, like, oh, my gosh. And I think she told my dad.

And I don't know if it went anywhere from there, but it felt so good to tell her. Yeah, I think the Patterson Gimlin film did more for this topic than anything else. because a lot of people who had encounters prior to that, like yourself, Susan, and, you know, you don't know what you saw. It was some weird guy. It was some weird ape. It was a gorilla man. And then that came out. I could see how that would be very eye-opening for you to go.

You know, and I realized Patty didn't quite look like the one that you saw. And the picture you sent me, the AI drawing, I'll post up on the website if people want to check out the face. you know, as far as what you saw. But, you know, going over 60 years and kind of holding it in, and I appreciate it. I'm honored you to come on and kind of share what happened to you because I think that the more people come forward, the more we get a picture on what's going on,

what are these things. It's kind of the next best thing to, you know, having one in your garage at your studying. But I really appreciate. you coming on, Susan. I really enjoyed chatting with you. And again, I'm honored you would share it, you know, after all these years. Thank you. You know, thank you for letting me purge. I probably was talking a million miles an hour, but it's such a good feeling to talk to somebody who has experienced it and some of the listeners have experienced it. And we all kind of go through that same thing

where you're afraid to tell people. It's easier just not to tell it. And then it's easy to bury it through the years and it's good to get it out with all the interest in it right now. So thank you. I really appreciate your show. And I think you've helped a lot of people. And if you figure you've done a thousand-some podcasts, how many more have not come forward and how many Bigfoot have not been seen. So there's got to be a lot of them out there. There's got to be. So thank you so much, Wes. Thanks again, Susan. And that's it for tonight. Everyone, remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.