An open record of things people cannot explain

Champaign County, Ohio · 1983-05-01 · from the BFRO archive

Footprints in Champaign County, Ohio

I'd loaned my pickup truck to a friend that moved. To repay in a way they offered me dinner and to prove to me that Bigfoot was actually around their property. It was a small three room building near their parents cabin. I knew from reputation that the area was good for hunting mushrooms. So I asked to go back and poke around. We walked back a muddy tractor path as my friend had to shoo a calf up towards the barn. As we returned to the house up the muddy tractor path I looked down to avoid a mud puddle, and I saw a footprint. It was twice as wide and almost twice as long as my own foot. I thought they were setting me up to play a practical joke and scare me and I told my friend that. He told me to make one if he think they had faked it. I was unable to get the same effect in the puddle, my track was much smaller and I could not get the toes to show up as well. My friend had some plaster in the cow barn so we went and mixed some and poured it in the track. We saw nobody at the little house they were living in, so we went up to the cabin. My friends in-laws were on the porch with his wife and their two kids (toddlers) also. My friends mother in law asked why were down by the rabbit pens and we told her we had found a footprint and we filled it with plaster. His mother in-law said she wanted them to stay out of the rabbit pens, his father in-law handed me some binoculars and my friend a shotgun saying just shoot to scare them off. My friends wife said she needed to feed the rabbits and headed toward the back of the property. While we were having a cup of coffee she ran in the back door in a fright. She said she had heard breathing and it was just outside the rabbit shed when she was in there putting the feed in the cages, she was clearly shaken. It was at that point that I realized this was either the best practical joke I'd ever seen perpetrated or it was real. My friend and I went down and checked out the shed. Nothing.... I was going to leave but, it had started to rain, so Neal and I were goofing with the field glasses. The woods beyond the cabin ended in a wheat field. I scanned around the area and bright sunshine flooded the field. I spotted a manlike figure appearing totally black with one hand on a large tree limb. It bobbed up and down in an ape-like manner. I had a chill go up and down my spine. I pointed toward it and asked my friend what it was. My friend said he saw it standing there bobbing up and down also, and that the tree limb it was holding onto was ten feet off the ground. He started to move toward it. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted something down the tractor path. Partially obscured by weeds I saw something move. I peered through the binoculars and saw flowing fox colored hair on a hand touching the plaster of paris in the footprint. The hair/fur didn't cover the whole hand, just the top to just over the knuckles and back to the wrist. The skin color was human like but yellowed. It pawed at the plaster. I saw no thumbs but the hand was really long. The head was obscured by weeds. I got my friends attention and we went back toward the rabbit shed, my friend carrying the shotgun. We did not find anything down there and decided to head back to the cabin. With our backs to the puddle walking up the path, we heard a rushing rustle through the weeds and the sound of bare feet slapping wet muddy ground within just a few feet of us. I ran to my truck and left. I waved as I went by. I never went back there again other than driving by.

What stood out: footprints

 

Others who described something like this

1993-09-15

In late Aug or early Sep 1993, about 1000 to 1100 pm, an unidentified large furry head (filled roughly 75% of the window measuring 20" by 30", so estimate the head size at about 12" by 18")

both described footprints · 37 km away

2009-02-06

My sighting first took place on my property in February of 2009. I had numerous contacts along with various evidence found and seen on the ten heavily wooded acres where I reside. 1st sighti

both described footprints · 42 km away

2013-03-16

It was a nice day out, so i decided to walk my dog. I took him on the bike path for a small walk. We went past a turn and then my dog started to bark. I looked in that direction and noticed

both described footprints · 46 km away

2005-01-13

My friend lives outside of Cardington. It was about 6:00 P.M. when I got to his house and we decided to build a small camp fire just for the sake of fun. He lives right next to a small woode

both described footprints · 77 km away

1978-01-01

My brother, dad and I had spent the day hunting behind our home. A ravine ran through the deep woods where we were fox hunting. The pelts brought a good price in those days. I was about 11 y

both described footprints · 80 km away

1978-09-01

Looking at your website and specifically the Ohio incidents brought back into mind a lot of strange things that happened in our area while growing up. There were some footprints, but I am su

both described footprints · 91 km away

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This account was written by a member of the public and published in the BFRO archive. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request. Location shown is approximate.