Oregon 1903 - Prospectors Battle 8-Foot Tall Hairy Man (and Live!)

[Trogluddite]

This information was provided by the Coos History Museum at 1210 N Front Street, in Coos Bay, Oregon.  If you're in the area, visit this museum and tell them that you heard about them at the Bigfoot Forums.  It looks interesting; their website is at https://cooshistory.org.  

 

This article was originally published in the September 24, 1903 issue of the Coquille Bulletin; this issue of that newspaper is not archived.  The story that follows may have been preserved in a book titled Pioneers and incidents of the Upper Coquille Valley, 1890-1940; this book is no longer in print.  The story is also included at page 289 in My Valley, History of the Coquille River Valley, Outlying Areas and More, a 2009 book which is no longer in print.  The story goes as follows, with some minor formatting changes (mainly changing where the paragraph breaks are).

 

"One of those stories was reported in the September 24, 1903 issue of the Coquille Bulletin. It seems two weeks earlier two men from Myrtle Point, William Page and Ed Hussey, returned from a prospecting trip on Johnson Creek on the upper south fork of the Coquille River with a story that would sound strange even in fiction.

 

Hussey claimed he and Page were returning to camp when they heard a rustling in the brush followed by fearful screams. They first thought it was a panther, then the brush parted and there stood a creature that would strike fear in any man. It was about eight feet tall with long hair covering its body. After gazing at the two men for a few seconds it started beating its breast and gnashing its teeth as it came towards them.

"I immediately raised my rifle intending to sell my life as dearly as possible," Hussey stated as he told his version of the story. "Page had disappeared and I was alone with the monster. In the excitement I missed my aim and the bullet went off its mark. The hairy monster fled before I could get off another shot."

Page's version was different. He said Hussey was overcome by the sight of the wild beast and lay for a time in an unconscious condition. He said he fired at the advancing monster until his gun was empty then engaged in hand to hand combat. He at last drove the intruder away then succeeded in restoring Hussey to his normal condition. When he failed to explain was what Hussey's normal condition was, nor did he mention his own condition. 

What set Page's story apart from all other Big Foot stories I have read is that he claimed to have engaged the eight foot monster in hand to hand combat and came out the winner. Exactly how he accomplished that he didn't say. One thing they did seem to agree on though was that they were both poor shots, which makes one wonder about what condition either one of them was in."

Edited January 17 by Trogluddite