I find historical reports of “wildmen” and “gorillas” very interesting, especially when they bear the hallmarks of contemporary Bigfoot encounters. One of the earliest accounts, circa 1825, tells of the discovery of a huge humanoid skeleton (An Historical Sketch of Deer Isle, Maine by George L. Hosmer):

Occasionally skeletons have been found, and at one time two were discovered under the roots of a large hardwood tree: it had grown to a large size and was in a state of decay when it was blown over during a storm. One was that of a person of ordinary size, the other of one who was at least eight feet in height, and between the ribs of the larger one was found the head of a dart made of copper. They lay nearly side by side and had probably been engaged in mortal conflict, the larger one mortally wounded by the smaller, and the smaller probably felled by the hands of the larger. 

This 1895 account from South Gardiner in Kennebec County has several classic, time-transcending hallmarks: “unearthly” shrieks, witnesses engaged in berry-picking, the “monster” described as an African monkey, and mention made of the creature’s footprint (“Strange Monster Seen in Maine” Boston Daily Globe, August 9, 1895):

A correspondent of the Globe writes that people living in the outskirts of that town have been startled by unearthly shrieks lately. Two women and three boys, who went into the woods for blueberries, came upon a hairy monster that walked upright on its hind legs toward them. They were badly scared, but the animal, which looked like an immense African monkey, walked past them, leaving a footprint round like a saucer. A posse will start on the hunt on Sunday. 

These next two reports took place in the autumn of 1975 in Manchester in Kennebec County, less than two months apart. They were chronicled by Harvard graduate and Canadian journalist John Green in Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us (Hancock House, 1978):

Debbie and Donna Adams were walking along the Camp Road near Cobbosseecontee Stream at 5:30 p.m. on September 22, 1975. As they neared Benson Road they saw a hair-covered, man-like creature, swaying back and forth and watching a man chopping wood. The girls screamed and the creature, which had an apelike face, turned and fled across the road and into the woods. It had a white patch on its chest area and a bushy appearance around the jawline and the top of its head. 

Manchester, Maine: November 21, before 10:00 p.m. Mrs. Paul Adams was sitting in the car waiting for her husband, who was tuning a guitar in J. Dupont’s trailer. She noticed what looked like the figure of a man 6 to 7 feet tall standing by a nearby tree. She watched for about 10 minutes as it crouched down with one arm around the tree, apparently listening to the country-western music coming from the trailer. She touched the car horn and it got up and started towards her. She leaned on the horn producing a longer blast and the creature stopped its advance. 

The following encounter took place early one morning in February 1994 on a dirt road near Coopers Mills (Northeast Sasquatch Researchers Association):

The observer had gone off the road in his pickup after encountering icy driving conditions. Being about three miles away from work the witness started to walk the rest of the way. It was still dark out (about 4:00 a.m.), but there was some moonlight. The observer approached his place of work when he saw a figure heading toward him. The man was rather curious about who it could be at that early hour. Eventually, the two walked right past each other. The observer could make out the figure’s silhouette which was much larger than he was. After their passing, the figure crossed to the observer’s side of the road and kept going right into the woods. This behavior frightened the observer who ran the last half mile to his place of work. “Whatever it was, I never saw it again.” 

This fascinating report comes from Ellsworth in Hancock County (Merchant, Michael. Bigfoot Evidence website):

In 2006, a young couple were driving home to Ellsworth on Route 1A just before Halloween, after having caught a movie in Bangor. They made Ellsworth Falls sometime after 9 p.m. where the couple glimpsed a figure standing on two legs by the side of the road. The figure moved to the center of the road where it was backlit by an orange streetlight. The couple’s initial reaction was that it could be a human possibly playing a practical joke. It was tall, very thin, and had very long arms. It glanced behind and then hunched forward put its hands on the ground (maybe its knuckles), and bounded across the road on all fours. After about four quadrupedal bounds, it was joined by an identical, smaller creature following it in a similar fashion. They likened it to a deer being followed by a fawn across a road.

The female witness said the larger creature had a look of annoyance when it turned and bounded across the road as if saying, “Come on, there’s a car coming.” Both witnesses stated the creature’s arms were way too long for a human, and the ability to run on all fours with so much power and fluidity and be so lean, lanky, and gaunt, all made it hard to imagine a human dressed up playing a prank. The interviewees believed it behaved consistently with what an animal would do: displaying a moment of supposed hesitation before deciding upon a course of action to bound across a road. 

Their bodies were covered with brown or orangutan-like hair that was uniform in length. They made a point that the streetlight backlighting the creatures had an orange hue to it and may have affected the perceived hair color. They couldn’t see any facial details or eyeshine. The weight of the adult was estimated in the high 400s. The male witness is six feet tall and weighs 275 lbs. and said the creature was much bigger than he was. The smaller creature was about four feet tall.

The incident was about seven seconds in duration, and there was no thought of getting out of the car to investigate further. One of the first things the couple uttered to each other was, “We are never talking about this.”

The female witness has degrees in marine biology and secondary science education, a point she mentioned during the interview to establish herself as a credible witness and capable of accurately describing what she saw that night. When asked about their prior thoughts on Bigfoot, they both said they were skeptics and would have attributed the phenomenon to hoaxes and general bunk. 

These last two accounts come from Freedom in Waldo County and took place a couple of years apart (Bigfoot Encounters website):

This sighting took place on February 28, 2007, at about 9 a.m. A school bus driver reported seeing a bipedal creature while on her way home in Freedom. The creature had a huge, hairy body. It was about to step over a snow bank, but suddenly turned quickly and disappeared into the woods heading uphill. The witness said it was at least eight feet tall with hair color ranging between light brown to gray. It reportedly stepped in the same tracks going back up the hill as it made when it had come out of the woods. She later returned with family members to examine the tracks. The footprints were 16 inches long and spaced about seven feet apart.

The nearest town to this sighting is Freedom on Route 137. On December 1, the witness was slowly down to look at a couple of trucks for sale. Pulling in front of the trucks, he noticed a tall, hairy creature cross the road and enter the woods. The witness proceeded to drive to the spot where he saw the creature enter the woods and got out to investigate, walking into the tree line. He could hear distant branches breaking and caught glimpses of movement but was too far in to make it out clearly. He estimated that what he had seen was seven feet tall and covered in dark hair.

I, for one, will be purchasing a dash cam since so many of these sightings are road crossings (there’s a “Why did the Bigfoot cross the road?” joke in there somewhere). And I’ll leave you with a last roadside sighting that was relayed to me by a scientist who worked at a DNA lab. It happened during a daytime snowstorm in the mountains of New Mexico. The witness was traveling over a mountain pass and very focused on driving since it was snowing. The road curved and she passed within a couple of feet of a huge, hairy creature standing stock still on two legs right at the edge of the road. Its dark hairy body was covered in snow and it just stared straight ahead. She could see the fog of its breathing. The witness was too shocked and terrified by what she had seen to stop or backtrack and just kept driving. The experience shook her to her core, upending her worldview as a scientist. She couldn’t explain what it was she had seen and never wanted to talk about it again. 

Do you have a spooky story? Maybe you grew up in a haunted house or saw a UFO? Perhaps you’ve encountered a Bigfoot on a lonely trail? If so, please contact me at lisa.f.matthews@gmail.com - I’d love to hear your story. And if you enjoy mysterious stories like the ones featured in the 13 Days of Halloween Tales of Terror, look for our Mysterious Harbor Electric Bike and Walking Tours starting in Spring 2024.