The sheriff from a small Wisconsin county was investigating a possible Sasquatch (Bigfoot) sighting earlier this month. A scared constituent called the report in, saying they saw a dark creature with fur all over standing along the ditch.

Sheriff John Spears told the local press that the report came in from one person. “The person who called it in was driving down the road, and they saw what they described as a dark-haired… Sasquatch,”  Spears told the LaCrosseTribune.com. “It looked like it was hiding in the ditch line. When they went by, it jumped.”

Spears ordered his deputy to check out the incident but he found nothing.   The witness claimed, it was a “large figure, dark in color, black-brown in color, with no clothes and it looked like it was just fur,” Spears said.

The person added,  “There’s no way it could have been a wolf,” Spears said.

The report was one of 22 suspicious activity reports in the area including some peacock problems, he said. The department only confirmed two sightings of peacocks in Christiana.

Vernon County is in southwestern Wisconsin in the Kickapoo Valley, which has over the decades been known for being a haven of old hippies, off-the-grid folks and organic fruit and vegetable growers, especially wild mushrooms.

I’ve paddled canoes on the Kickapoo River, which is known for the beautiful valley scenery and the river, called by some “the crookedest river in the country.” And beyond the scenery, there always seems to be something that’s a little off about that valley, besides the hempish type plants that have been known to grow along the river.

The river itself is considered a paddling destination in the state, mainly because it’s undammed for its 130-mile length. Several small towns along the way have camping areas for paddlers to pull off and pitch their tents. To get some semblance of solitude it pays to camp along the river. But that can lead to unintended results of the kind to report to the sheriff.

After snuffing out the stove one night after dinner, I took a walk through some fields to enjoy the stars and work off some calories. A farmhouse and barns were nearby but not exceedingly close, until the pigs started snorting. The animals seemed to have their boundary line to start fussing. A few steps either way would have the snorting stopping and starting. It was a fun test of the porkers’ ability until I heard another human.

Brief but distant shouts to the pigs came from that guy. And then the shooting started. Good thing it was dark. The farmer apparently was trigger happy to kill varmints in the fields and intermittently sprayed buckshot into the night. I hit the ground and crawled back to the river through the blackness.

Despite smarting from that reality I still refused to succumb by pitching my tent in public. They were treeless flat areas cut out by the river, more for pop-ups than tents. I chose a spot on top of the bank next to a cornfield. Shortly after dusk the field lit up with lights. It was “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” with pickups and spotlights. The locals were apparently taking part in that Wisconsin ritual of “shining.”

Shining is a year-round sport in deer country where those with spotlights get to drinking, shine and then shoot deer, albeit illegally, since everyone knows you can’t hunt at night. There might be campers in the woods after all.

But I was in a cornfield, which happens to be good fodder for feeding deer. Bullets flew through the husks in my general direction. Apparently movement of the corn meant deer and I was fair game.

Sasquatch could have a nice place to stay in the valley, though. A spillway and intake tower still stand from a 1970s failed dam project near La Farge, which happens to be in the Town of Stark.

We’re not sure of any other ethereal connections in the Sasquatch case, but the sighting was on “Jug Creek Road,” the sheriff said.

But Wisconsin? Bigfoot sightings are usually associated with the Pacific Northwest region of North America. But this sighting is not the first in the diary state. Check out the video.

Feature photo: Frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin film, alleged by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin to show a Bigfoot, and by some others to show a man in an ape suit. For more Big Foot coverage click here.

UPDATE: Bigfoot moving East

JACKSOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. Not soon after the Wisconsin incident, comes another strange Bigfoot case. Police responded to a call in late October to a motor home in Dauphin County.

A Pennsylvania State police trooper checked out the broken tail lights from a vehicle along the 400 block of Division Street in Lykens Boro on Oct. 18 around noon. A witness told the trooper his lights and windows of his 1973 Dodge Winnebago had been smashed. He blamed Bigfoot for the damage.

A police report confirms the report but not necessarily that it was indeed Bigfoot.

“Prior to these incidents, the victim related that he saw a Bigfoot in the area of his motor home,” a state police press release said. “The actor is described as very large, brown in color, and walks somewhat hunched over.”

The witness said that when he turned the light on in his motor home, the Bigfoot started throwing rocks. Police said the witness described the creature as “hairy.” – TWM

Doug Hissom

Doug Hissom writes a weekly environmental column for Baltimore Post-Examiner. He has covered local and state politics in Wisconsin for more than 20 years. Over the course of that time he was publisher, editor, news editor, managing editor and senior writer at the Shepherd Express weekly paper in Milwaukee. He also covered education and environmental issues extensively. He ran the UWM Post in the mid-1980s, winning a Society of Professional Journalists award as best non-daily college newspaper. An avid outdoors person he regularly takes extended paddling trips in the wilderness, preferring the hinterlands of northern Canada and Alaska. After a bet with a bunch of sailors, he paddled across Lake Michigan in a canoe.