- There have been several newspaper accounts of Bigfoot sightings in Iowa throughout the decades and by all accounts, they have been lost to time. As I find them, I will transcribe and post them here, for easy viewing. These articles paint a fascinating picture of historic Iowa Lore and the people who investigate it. -
Ape-like 'creature' scaring Ottosen
By Dave Brown
 |
| Original article in Des Moines Register |
A shaggy, ape-like creature has scared the daylights out of some residents of the tiny Humboldt County community of Ottosen in the last week.
Sheriff Marvin Andersen said a group of men looked for the creature Monday night and Tuesday night. The only trace that has been found of it, he said, are foot-prints with three toes in front and one in back.
"What it is, I don't know," Andersen said Wednesday. "I don't know what to think."
He said several Ottosen residents have reported sighting the creature. It has been described as about five feet tall, with dark and shaggy fur, piercing, deep-set eyes, long arms and thick legs.
If it is a hoax, the sheriff said, the prankster could be in danger if he returned, because he believes some Ottosen residents are keeping guns ready.
"These people are mad enough so it would be pretty dangerous now to go up there and try to pull a trick," he said.
The creature was first spotted last Thursday night by Donette Hankins, her mother, Jan, said Wednesday.
Hankins said her nine-year-old "got a real good look at it" that night, and came in the house looking "like death warmed over."
Sunday night, her oldest daughter, Dawn, 11, was riding her bike after dark when she came face-to-face with the creature, her mother said.
"She came back in screaming. She was in hysterics," Hankins said.
She said she and a relative went outside to see what had scared the girl. The two adults saw something "staring out at us" from behind a vacant building.
"It looked like an ape," she said. "I'm convinced there's something here." Asked if it could have been a person in a costume, she said, "the face was too real. There was nothing artificial about it."
Monday, shortly after noon, three Ottosen boys, aged 10 to 12, also saw the creature, according to Mrs. Gary Masters. Masters was the first resident to report the sightings to the sheriff's office. She would not identify the three boys.
She said she called the sheriff "to see if anyone had lost a monkey."
The sheriff said he has checked to see whether any circus or carnival animals have been reported missing recently, and has contacted the 165 conservation commission for advice.
He said the three boys who saw the creature Monday reported it dropped down on all four legs when it an away from them.
The sheriff said some residents "afraid to go out at night."
Hankins said her oldest daughter "still wakes up at night" because the experience.
"If it is a hoax, we'd like to stop because it just isn't funny," she added.
Des Moines Tribune - August 2, 1978
No comments:
Post a Comment