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Hairy Monsters New to Midwest

August 25, 1965, Oshkosh, Wisc., USA

The Daily Northwestern

By BUD TOURTELLOTTE

Northwestern Staff Writer

NEENAH-MENASHA – Recent sightings in Michigan of a “large hairy man” have caused considerable speculation in some quarters, because the Yeti has never before been seen in the mid-west.

At last count no less than 16 presumably sober, solid Michiganers have reported either seeing or actually meeting the chap. The latest was a young lady who claimed to have been batted around somewhat during the introductions.

This last is an indication that Michigan’s Yeti is a somewhat specimen, since the North American cousin of the Abominable Snowman is usually distinguishable from his Asiatic counterpart by his congenial disposition.

Various Names

Although known variously as Big Foot in Oregon, Washington and California, and as a Sasquatch in British Columbia, a Yeti in Tibet and an Oomah in Nepal, the existence of such a creature is in little doubt. They range in size from the giant nine-footers of the Pacific Northwest and the Himalayas, to tiny three-foot natives of Louisiana's bayou country, the west coast of Mexico,and the jungles of Borneo.

The physical characteristics of the Sasquatch gleaned from thousands of sighting reports and track analysis are as follows:

The mature male stands nine feet tall or more, and weighs in at around 600 pounds. He is covered with a dark fur. that can be grey in Sasquatch senior citizens. Only the face is hairless, and the skin ranges In color from white or pink in youngsters to near black in the aged.

The general build is that of a gorilla above the waist and in the arm structure, but with much longer legs. The feet are enormous, and strangely shaped, having a long second toe and perhaps an articulated heel. Tracks have been measured and cast in plaster that went over 24 inches in length and just under 18 inches in width.

The face is small in proportion to the huge body, with a low forehead, narrow, deepset eyes, wide, flat nose and no neck or chin. A predominant feature is the high forward curling topknot.

The Yeti has been known and accepted for hundreds of years by the people of Tibet and Nepal and thought of as just another form of local wildlife, although admittedly a rather frightening one. The Indian citizens of British Columbia have long avoided large areas of the western rain forests, and before the white man's ridicule caused them clam up, were quite free with tales and descriptions of the Sasquatch. Today in Langley, B.C., there resides old Swedish prospector who was an unwilling guest of a Sasquatch family for nearly a week. His story of capture and transport over miles of mountain forest to the family's camp, and his subsequent stay with the male and female and their two seven-foot children, has stood the test of most intense investigation by experts on the subject.

One Is Captured

One young specimen was actually captured by a train load dignitaries junketing up the Fraser Valley in 1872. Among the notables who helped subdue Little Jacko. for that is what he was named, were the Reeves of Hope and Yale. B.C.. and the commanding colonel of the provincial militia. (British Columbia was at that time under British martial law.)

As the story goes, Jacko was first sighted sprawled on the railroad tracks in a narrow rock canyon near what is now Spuzzum, B.C. The conductor walked forward and prodded the figure whereupon it sprang to life and climbed up the rock face to small ledge where it (or he) became trapped.

The train crew scrambled above his perch and dropped large rock on the small shaggy head. This frontier tranquilizer rendered Jacko senseless long enough for the conductor to lasso him with the quickly detached bell rope from the locomotive. He was returned to Hope in baggage car and placed in care of the yard foreman, at which point he was caged and displayed to the amazed citizenry.

Origin Unknown

He was described variously an escaped circus ape, (though no circus had ventured within 150 miles of the point of capture, nor had such an escape been reported), a deformed outcast Indian from one of Fraser Valley tribes, and the offspring of the feared Sasquatch. Jacko was about five feet tall, covered with a coat

soft, light brown fur from head to toe, and biped by preference. He refused all forms of cooked food, preferring raw and native roots and berries.

He remained in both captivity and the public eye for some 30 days, after which he simply disappeared from recorded history and neighter (sic) hide nor hair of poor Jacko has ever been found. All that remains are the dozen-odd depositions sworn by the area’s most respected citizens who were above that holiday train that day in 1982.

Artist’s rendering

MORE MAD MONSTERS?

The Midwest has seen its share of "flying saucers," but the latest outrageous phenomenon is the hairy giant which has been reported in Michigan. It is not known, at present, whether this particular specimen plans a migration to Wisconsin.