Newspaper Bigfoot story from 1870: "The Wild Man of Crow Canyon"

 

On October 16, 1870, an anonymous correspondent for the Antioch Ledger published "The Wild Man of Crow Canyon," an account of his brush with a pair of bigfoots. According to the correspondent, he or she spotted two creatures raiding the campsite, one male and female, "in the image of man, but it could not have been human." The correspondent further described the mammals as 5 feet tall with unusually long arms, short legs, almost no neck and covered with cinnamon-brown fur. While the creature's short height strikes the modern Bigfooter as atypical of the creature, the other physical characteristics match with what is described in other sightings. The full news article after the jump.

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The Antioch Ledger
October 22, 1870

FROM STANISLAUS.
Du Chaillu Nowhere—The Wild Man of the Mountains
Grayson, October 16.

Ed. Ledger:–I saw in your paper, a short time since, an item concerning the"gorilla", which was said to have been seen in Crow Canyon and, shortly after, in the mountains at the head of Orestimba creek. You sneered at the idea of there being any such "critters" in these hills, and, were I not better informed, I should sneer, too, or else conclude that one of your recent prospecting party had got lost in the wilderness, and didn’t have sense enough to find his way back to Terry’s. I positively assure you that this gorilla, or wild man, or whatever you choose to call it, is no myth. I know that it exists, and that there are at least two of them, having seen them both at once, not a year ago.

Their existence has been reported at times for the past twenty years, and I have heard it said that, in early days, an ourang-out-ang escaped from a ship on the Southern coast; but the creature I have seen is not that animal, and if it is, where did he get his mate? —import her, as the Web-foots did their wives?

Last fall I was hunting in the mountains about twenty miles south of here, and camped five or six days in one place, as I have done every season for the past fifteen years. Several times I returned to my camp, after a hunt, and saw that the ashes and charred sticks from fire-place had been scattered about. An old hunter notices such things, and very soon gets curious to know the cause. Although my bedding and traps and little stores were not disturbed, that I could see, I was anxious to learn what or who it was that so regularly visited my camp, for clearly the half-burnt sticks and cinders could not scatter themselves about. I saw no tracks near the camp, as the hard ground, covered with dry leaves, would show none. So I started on a circle round the place, and three hundred yards off, in damp sand, I struck the tracks of a man’s feet, as I supposed--bare, and of immense size.

Now I was curious, sure, and resolved to lay for this bare-footed visitor. I accordingly took a position on a hillside, some sixty or seventy yards from the fire, and, securely hid in the brush, I waited and watched. Two hours or more I sat there, and wondered if the owner of the bare feet would come again, and whether he imagined what an interest he had created in my inquiring mind, and, finally, what possessed him to be prowling about there with no shoes on. The fire-place was on my right, and the spot where I saw the tracks was on my left, hid by bushes. It was in this direction that my attention was mostly directed, thinking the visitor would appear there, and besides, it was easier to sit and face that way.

Suddenly I was startled by a shrill whistle, such as boys produce with two fingers under their tongue, and turning quickly, I ejaculated "Good God!" as I saw the object of my solicitude standing beside my fire, erect, and looking suspiciously around. It was in the image of man, but it could not have been human. I was never so benumbed with astonishment before. The creature, whatever it was, stood fully five feet high, and disproportionately broad and square at the shoulders, with arms of great length. The legs were very short, and the body long. The head was small compared with the rest of the creature, and appeared to be set upon his shoulders without a neck. The whole was covered with dark brown and cinnamon colored hair, quite long on some parts, that on the head standing in a shock and growing down close to the eyes, like a Digger Indian’s.

As I looked, he threw his head back and whistled again, and then stooped and grasped a stick from the fire. This he swung round and round, until the fire on the end had gone out, when he repeated the maneuver. I was dumb, almost, and could only look. Fifteen minutes I sat and watched him, as he whistled and scattered my fire about. I could easily have put a bullet through his head, but why should I kill him? Having amused himself, apparently, all he desired, with my fire, he started to go, and having gone a short distance, he returned, and was joined by another–a female, unmistakably–when they both turned and walked past me, within twenty yards of where I sat, and disappeared in the brush. I could not have had a better opportunity for observing them, as they were unconscious of my presence. Their only object in visiting my camp seemed to be to amuse themselves with swinging lighted sticks around.

I have told this story many times since then, and it has often raised an incredulous smile; but I have met one person who has seen the mysterious creatures, and a dozen who have come across their tracks at various places between here and Pacheco Pass. The above is strictly correct.

Yours, etc. An Old Hunter.