Montana Bigfoot Lore

[Wooly Booger]

Greetings,

 

I recently finished reading John Green's Sasquatch the Apes Among Us, and was particularly intrigued by a vague account he mentioned that very few researchers seem to have taken notice of. He mentioned interviewing an old woman in Montana during the late 1960s who grew up in a family of cattle ranchers. According to the interview the old woman mentioned how when she was a young child everyone knew not to leave their cattle at higher elevation during the spring or they would be eaten by the hairy giants who lived in the mountains. 

 

Although the account provided by Mr. Green was somewhat vague, it would seem that the settlers in Montana cattle country during the late 19th and early 20th centuries had at least some local knowledge and more concerning Sasquatch-like creatures indigenous to the area. If this is the case, then there are likely some very old reports or at the very least oral stories from the region going back well over a century ago. 

 

I would be interested to find these old accounts. And if the old woman's story was true, and it should be noted Mr. Green had no reason to doubt her truthfulness, then I would be interested to find out if there was some sort of conflict between early western cattle ranchers and Bigfoot. It would seem plausible since the account mentioned predation by Bigfoot on cattle. And a similar scenario resulted in conflict with brown bears and wolves leading to their extirpation in the region. 

[hiflier]

Not a bad opening, WB. So....may as well get to it. How does one kill a cow within a bunch of cows with one's bare hands? And how did the ranchers determine the slaying was done by a Bigfoot?

[Wooly Booger]

16 minutes ago, hiflier said:

Not a bad opening, WB. So....may as well get to it. How does one kill a cow within a bunch of cows with one's bare hands? And how did the ranchers determine the slaying was done by a Bigfoot?

Good question. I would think the Bigfoot would prey upon an old, sick, young, or isolated animal and the remaining animals in the herd would stampede to avoid the predator. 

 

As far as the ranchers, they must have seen these hairy giants on occasion for there to have been knowledge. Perhaps someone witnessed the predation or found tracks near a kill site? Very interesting questions my friend. 

[hiflier]

Actually ranchers, as the story went, which I assume were the woman's father and another man in the report, did see a tall bipedal creature. And another creature had taken off when an uncle reached for his rifle. It wasn't clear if these things happened at the time or at different times, though

Edited June 21, 2021 by hiflier

[Wooly Booger]

7 minutes ago, hiflier said:

Actually ranchers, as the story went, which I assume were the woman's father and another man in the report, did see a tall bipedal creature. And another creature had taken off when an uncle reached for his rifle. It wasn't clear if these things happened at the time or at different times, though

It would be interesting to dig up old newspapers from the region or to conduct oral history research. I would be curious to see if a similar situation could have occurred with Bigfoot as it with brown bears and wolves. 

Edited June 21, 2021 by Wooly Booger

[hiflier]

Rust Wilson from Washington has sort of a campfire stories type book about Montana Bigfoots that has gotten some high marks. He's actually written a bunch from different regions in the same style. Kinda raises the bar on the look-over-your-shoulder-while-the-smores-are over-the-fire thing.

[Wooly Booger]

7 minutes ago, hiflier said:

Rust Wilson from Washington has sort of a campfire stories type book about Montana Bigfoots that has gotten some high marks. He's actually written a bunch from different regions in the same style. Kinda raises the bar on the look-over-your-shoulder-while-the-smores-are over-the-fire thing.

I looked at the reviews on Amazon. They always struck me as fictional tales. Correct me if I'm wrong...

[hiflier]

You are not. But there's no question the stories are good ones. On topic, if you had a Premium membership you could search the Forum's SSR database. The huge free section of old historical newspaper articles collated by Tirademan (Scott McClean), who is no longer with us, is a good place to look,too.

Edited June 21, 2021 by hiflier

[Wooly Booger]

30 minutes ago, hiflier said:

You are not. But there's no question the stories are good ones. On topic, if you had a Premium membership you could search the Forum's SSR database. The huge free section of old historical newspaper articles collated by Tirademan (Scott McClean), who is no longer with us, is a good place to look,too.

Thank you. I've been planning to purchase premium membership for some time now. 

[hiflier]

I checked the Tirademan Board, nothing for Montana.

[Wooly Booger]

3 minutes ago, hiflier said:

I checked the Tirademan Board, nothing for Montana.

Is there a way to track down John Green's source for this report? I am sure the old woman has since passed away. But she may have relatives. 

[norseman]

Around 11:00 mark

[hiflier]

1 hour ago, Wooly Booger said:

Is there a way to track down John Green's source for this report? I am sure the old woman has since passed away. But she may have relatives. 

 

His database gives pretty much the same report: an unidentified woman called into a radio program. The database does have this though, the location is about 20 miles South of Lewiston which puts things right in the middle of the Lewis an Clark NF. Google Earth shows a couple of isolated farms around the northern edge of the NF kind of toward the West but it's hard to say if they are cattle farms. In any case none of them look close to the snowy mountain peaks that are more in the southern central part of the NF. Maybe use the timeline feature and go back in time to '85 or'86 which I think is the earliest the Sat Imagery goes back to. Certainly the early 1900's would be a difficult to research given the info. And FYI, there are 98 Montana reports in the database so maybe there are other more recent similar events?

Edited June 21, 2021 by hiflier

[Arvedis]

3 hours ago, Wooly Booger said:

Is there a way to track down John Green's source for this report? I am sure the old woman has since passed away. But she may have relatives. 

 

As long as we have an available channel to René, maybe John W. Green is accessible as well.  I'll find out and add this to the list of questions for John on the next episode. 

[hiflier]

Maybe you mean a psychic channel? Mr. Green passed away in May of 2016 at age 88.

Edited June 21, 2021 by hiflier