Butterfield Canyon

Just got this today. I'd never heard this story before, but Dave Carver was on an internet radio show that I was listening to, and another friend of mine, Thom Cantrall called in and briefly related an experience he had in the 1990's.

I sent him a message asking for his story. He's never published it prior to this, so I feel pretty honored to have him let me relate it here.

-----BEGIN-----

It was late summer and the antlers were hard now, if still velvet covered… The beginning of what the Indians called the Moon of the Crying Elk, though there was no evidence of them bugling yet. In fact, the bulls still seemed to be running in bachelor bands as we saw three different such bands on this day.

It was in the early 1990s and my son in law had graduated from BYU the previous spring and had taken a position with a firm in the Salt Lake Valley and was living in the Holliday, UT area. Cabin fever was hard upon us when we decided a voyage of exploration might be in order. Why we chose the west side of the valley that day, I have no idea. Perhaps those in charge (our wives) had placed a time limit on us for our excursion as our previous outing that had begun at Provo Canyon had lasted until the wee dark, single digit hours of the following morning… they were prone to do that in those times for some perverse reason. I can’t say that those restrictions ever really limited our outings to any degree although that lack of limiting discipline might have been the cause of the two of us fixing our own dinners from time to time. Today was to prove no exception.

We traveled west across the valley on one of the streets that was a direct route… 4100 S. I think, in looking at the map... we intersected the main road on the west side of the valley near a powder company (Hercules Powder, perhaps?). From there we journeyed south with the idea of finding a likely looking canyon that would allow us a hike into its bowels. Several times in this area, we saw elk in the distance, including two bachelor bands, one of which held two exceptional bulls, the larger of which would have probably been a 320 class bull or better. Since all of these appeared in direct correlation to an ample supply of “No Trespassing” signs, we assumed that Utah elk had the ability to, if not actually read, at least to recognize signs! On one occasion we spotted a band of six Mule Deer bucks feeding on some green feed very near an old farmstead. As this area was lacking those hated signs, we decided to put a stalk on them, eventually closing to within bow range of the bucks. There were two in this band that I would have happily brought home. Both were 4X4s with extremely high and wide racks though still fully in the velvet yet.

We traveled on south past the great mine at Bingham Canyon to a point just south of there. There is a road there that turns up Butterfield Canyon and we decided we had time to explore this area before curfew… well… at least not MUCH beyond curfew… How far up that canyon we were, I, at this late date, cannot recall. I guesstimate about five miles. In glassing to the south, slightly past a large pile of rock that I guessed to be tailings, we spotted another bachelor band of elk. We could not see how many or what quality these animals were, but, since there were no signs to tell us otherwise, we decided to check it out. I parked my old Bronco, Widowmaker, out of sight of the road and we headed up a small draw…

It was not far up this gulch that we came to a split and my son in law took the south arm while I took the north. About twenty minutes later as I lay glassing a clearing that lay before me and between me and my son, I saw a shape in the small trees that defined the far side of the clearing. I lay very quietly in my place and watched closely, fully expecting a muley doe to come out of that brush as the glimpse I had had been far too dark to be an elk. Very suddenly, the dark shape darted from the cover it had been in while hiding from me and entered an even thicker, darker copse beyond. It was a large being… running on its hind legs… at least seven feet tall and possibly as much as seven and a half feet. It was massively built and very dark. Its arms were long, as they had to be and it was very cautious of me. I had no problem understanding what it was, though I was mildly surprised to see it here. I wondered why it had revealed itself to me with that sudden dash when I heard brush cracking and Lynn emerged from the thick cover. He had followed his branch to where it had become too difficult to continue, since we were not really hunting, but just out curing a fever, and had decided to move in my direction.

As had happened so many times before in our years of hunting together, his move was timed impeccably and worked to our mutual benefit. I did spend a bit of time looking for tracks which were evident only as disturbances of the leaves on the ground. I also took the opportunity to unobtrusively estimate the height of the small trees he’d been standing amidst while hiding from me to better determine a height estimate.

We then retraced out steps to ol’ Widowmaker and headed on home… first stopping at a Burger King along the way to preclude the “punishment” we had waiting for us on arrival.

-----END-----

I will have to wait until this fall before I go up and photograph his location to go with the story. For now it is important for me to get the story on my blog so I don't forget about it.

Thom's Crypto Blog is here.

Logan Canyon

Logan Canyon at Franklin Basin Road Bridge, Utah, 2011

I am finding new reports about Logan Canyon recently. One that I heard first-hand in November from the man who had the experience. He was participating in a town-hall for Animal Planet's show called 'Finding Bigfoot'. It was pretty interesting as I had not heard it before. I will include his report that he provided to the BFRO as well as the notes I took during the meeting.

Report # 29013  (Class A) 
Submitted by witness on Thursday, March 24, 2011.

Driver sees a Bigfoot cross the road while snowplowing Logan Canyon

YEAR: 2005
SEASON: Winter
MONTH: January
DATE: 5
STATE: Utah
COUNTY: Cache County

LOCATION DETAILS: Going east out of Logan follow US 89 past Tony Grove turn off about 3 miles far east you'll see a sign for Franklin Basin. As you cross the bridge on 89 there is a turn off going north. It was in this area where the bigfoot crossed the road coming from the south . This is also the road that will take you to Cub river area in Idaho

NEAREST TOWN: logan, Utah 26 miles away

NEAREST ROAD: US 89

OBSERVED: It was early in the morning 12:30 to 1:00 A.m
It was Jan of 2005, I was plowing snow on US 89 Through Logan Canyon, I was in my truck plowing snow
I was near the Franklin Basin Road and saw something in the road. I flipped on the plow lights
(now these lights are landing lights) they are very bright and I saw something walk across the road. It was large, Tall, and hairy it stood about 7 ft tall. It looked right at me.and continued to walk across the road. I didn't stop cuz of the snowy conditions. When I stopped back in the morning all tracks were covered in new snow. What sealed the sighting for me was that morning on the radio I heard of someone reporting a sighting up cub river in Idaho. The Franklin Basin Road connects Logan canyon To Cub river in Idaho.
My family thinks I'm nuts but I know what I saw
It was not man. I hope this helps.
Source: BFRO.net
Personal notes taken from the Animal Planet 'Finding Bigfoot' town hall meeting where this story was first related:

Snow plow operator in Logan Canyon, Franklin Basin area, came across curve, creature walked in front of plow across road, saw it in his 'landing lights'. Looked at its face eye-to-eye while he was sitting in the cab of his plow. Also mentioned a report from the Cub River Canyon, seen at about 25-30 yards.

-end

This morning I went up Logan Canyon to this location to photograph. I did a few calls, got no returns and exposed two 4x10 negatives. When I got home I mapped out on Google Earth the distance from the beginning of the Franklin Basin Road to the top of the Cub River Canyon Road. That distance is 16.25 miles. I am not sure where on the Cub River Canyon Road the sighting was earlier in the morning, but at the very least it is a distance of 16.25 miles. A Bigfoot could easily cover that distance in that period of time. If we say that in January something would be 'visible' in the morning light by about 7am, then that gives said Bigfoot at least 18 hours to travel 16 miles. Even in deep snow down that road it would be completely possible. I contacted Todd Strong about my experience there this morning and he gave me the indication that he believes a Bigfoot can travel three-times as fast as a human can. I would not doubt that figure.

I am realizing that I have quite a back-log of undeveloped film from the past year. I will be taking my JOBO film processor to BYU this week and start processing my film in the mornings in an attempt to catch up and make some scans/prints.

I should start having new images within a month or so for the blog.

Thanks to those who continue to show interest! Pass the link along if you are so inclined!