A very tall figure in Essex County, New Jersey

This sighting happened in mid October 1971 in Fairfield, New Jersey. It was a Saturday, sometime around noon. At the time I was 15 and my friend was 16. We were walking throught a area that is primarily brushy woods, but alot of wet land with only clumps of tall grass. We were walking in a westerly direction along a feeder stream that fed into the Passic River. The Passic River is about 1/2 mile north of where we were. The area is quite flat. The areas on the imediate left and right of the feeder stream had little brush. It was partly cloudy, and we were wearing light jackets. From a distance of aproximetly 75 yards we observed 4 creatures. The largest was standing on the south side of the stream. It appeared to be about 8 feet tall, very long arms that went almost to the knees. Very powerfully built, barrel chested, very wide shoulders. the head seemed to have a rounded "peak". The color of all 4 was black, the faces seemed somewhat lighter in color, but not white. The second one was sitting on the ground, the third was lying on the stream bank, and the last was standing in the middle of the stream. We observed them for a few minutes. They also observed us. We discussed it and decided to run. We ran back east for a bit until we came to a clear cut for power lines that ran north & south. We ran south along the clear cut for aproximetly 1/4 mile until we came to Route 80. We went home. The only people we told were our parents. At no time did we feel threatened by the creatures. We were used to being in the woods and knew the local fauna. We both agreed these were not people or bears. When I later the Patterson film, I felt that these were the same in appearence.