Oregonbigfoot.com file# 00465

REPORT OVERVIEW

Date: August , 2000
St Louis county, MN
Nearest town: Virginia
Nearest road: Us 169 and Hiway 53
Conditions:
Time: evening
Location: Rocheleau iron ore open pit mine

REPORT DETAIL

Description of event: I live in the northwoods of Minnesota on the edge of Minnesota's iron mines, some are still in operation and some are not. The mines that have been down for decades have regrown along the edges with evergreens, scrub brush and a few regular trees also but the further you got from the mine the thicker, deeper and more undisturbed the vegetation got. I always followed the trails to their ends which in one instance was about 6 miles into the forest. No roads, no people, just me and the woods along with a few deer, ruffed grouse, fox's and alot of bald eagles, turkey vultures and hawks. The eagles always took an interest in me by flying at times within 50 feet of me in a breath taking awe. So close that a few times some of the bald eagles had gray feathers mixed in with the yellowish white feathers. They were huge and a great sight always. At times I wonder why they were so into me but I just blow it off as they probably haven't seen too many humans being how deep into the woods I was most of the time. 1 - 6 miles. I would venture on my way and at times sit on the edges of cliffs and sift through the rocky sides looking for hematite and agates, which I did find at times. I would lookout over the land below for animals with my binoculars or anything to spark an interest in me to go too and I always did find things below that keyed me up so off I went. I would search for nests, dens or rocky crags to possibly find uneaten remains of critters left by the wolves or birds of prey hoping that there would be a few feathers or a tooth etc. Finding nests in the trees of bald eagles was a hard find but I did find a few way up high at the tops of the highest trees so I would scope them out with my binoculars for signs of life as I always did from the tops of the cliffs to the woods below. I became lost a few times having gotten so deep into the woods with barely any sky showing but I always found my way out as you can see by my writing you. Hahaha. The hikes I took were always from around 10 in the morning to dusk and never when it was looking like rain because of the terrain. Now when I would start out from the town of Virginia having nothing but my binocs, cigarettes, chisels and little picks with plastic bags to carry whatever I decided to take back with me. My journeys would become alot more interesting the closer I got to the edges of the mines because once there the feelings of erieness would start up and not go away until a few days later. Having told you about the depths of my hikes into the woods on the trails left by the critters or just plain old open places I could walk I would at times feel like someone or thing was watching me but I never saw or heard anything. I would stop and listen for minutes and sometimes feeling scared an afraid to move I would stand for what seemed like hours but would be only half hours when it was intense, which I loved, but at the same time scared the piss out of me so to speak. I would look for signs of animals in the woods meaning broken branches, scrapes and footprints. I saw alot of deer prints, grouse prints along with a few fox and wolf prints also. But the weirdest I ever saw were the prints I found coming down a cliffs side at an angle of about 20 to 30 degrees that went from the side of the cliff up a trail and into the woods to being gone. There were 8 1/2 footprints that had 6 toes and they were small like from a kid or small person, meaning about a size 6 foot and along side of those prints about two feet away going in the same direction were 3 prints that were huge and looked just like what I have seen many times in the sasquatch books and websites. I kneeled down and felt to see how fresh they were, and they were fresh. I would say from the time I found them prints what ever made them was around that spot about an hour before me. The thing that really got me was the prints were made in very sharp rocky shards and sand, if I was to walk or run as the smaller prints seemed to be doing when leaving their imprint my feet would of been cut up. I checked the underbrush and grounds for anything out of the ordinary like hairs or droppings but found nothing. This really scared me so I went up to the top of a cliff side and sat for a couple of hours looking out over the lands below for what I thought was a bigfoot and a younger bigfoot but to no avail although what happened while I was sitting up there was the loudest and mean sounding howl or screaching I had ever heard, only in the movies which I seldom watch because I don't like the tv much. I have only heard that sound one other time and that was on the Art Bell show when he had on some bigfoot people with some recorded howls or I don't know how to explain the sound but they were out of this world and they were the exact same sounds I heard. I came down from the cliff scampered up and beat feeted it out of that mine as quickly as I could walk and looking all around me for the footman as I have come too call them. The next day I brought my son who was 15 at the time to the same spot where I saw the prints and they were still there. He was amazed and became leary and wanted nothing to do with venturing further so we left and went back to my place in Virginia, having drove this time we were outta there fast. I parked the car up on a flat off of a side road by the mine but we had to go through some fencing to get to it and up and over some hills. We got back and I went to a friends and told her about it and she was taken aback and was not really into wanting to see the prints but I talked her into it. They were still there but a little for wear from the wind etc. That did not stop me from going back to the mine on the outskirts of Virginia because I went just like always but with more uneasiness than ever before. I did not mention that I also went down too the mine during the night alot to sit on the edge in the pitch black too look at the stars and whatever else I could see up in the heavens and I did see more than stars etc, but that is another story altogether.

Source: oregonbigfoot.com
record updated:2003-01-09 00:00:00