South Weber, Paulene Markham's Backyard

South Weber, Paulene Markham's Backyard, Utah, 2013

Paulene Markham said she saw whatever it was walking along the ridge of a hill behind her house a week ago Sunday.

Miss Markham said she was about a half mile from it. She was standing at her kitchen sink, getting a drink of water about 4 p.m., when she looked up and saw it on the hill.

"I looked at it and I thought, 'Well, I'm going crazy,'" she said. "Then, I walked away from the window and came back, and it was still there." Miss Markham said she was frightened and curious, but she didn't go outside to get a closer look. She said she was home alone, it would have taken a snowmobile to get up the hill, and she was late for church anyway. So she left the house and went to church, telling only one friend about it.

"I really don't know what it was, I just don't have the slightest idea, because I don't know if I believe in Bigfoot," Miss Markham said.

Source: Valerie Schulthies, Deseret News, February 12, 1980

South Weber, Ronald Smith's Property

Ronald Smith's Property, South Weber, Utah, 2013

About 12:20 a.m. Feb. 4 1980, Ronald Smith was arriving home from work. He got out of his truck and walked back to his pasture on South Weber Road and heard something out in the field. What he heard and later saw, he now believes is Bigfoot. “I was going back to feed the horse and he wouldn't come to the fence. I started out there to feed him and I heard, crunch, crunch, it was something walking on two legs through the snow.  Since only the horse is out there, I thought it might have been some kids getting into something”, Smith said. “I looked out there, it was moonlit, and I saw this dark figure walking across the pasture. I thought it was a high school kid trying to get away before I saw him. I didn't think of how big it was.”

Smith continued, “I saw it walk into some trees. The horse wasn't scared, but it was acting a little funny and looking over that way. Then I heard the screams. They were unlike anything I've ever heard. They sounded like a cougar, but only with a lot of volume. They were just different. I got out of there and into the house”, Smith said. “My wife was telling me to get a gun or a camera, but it only lasted seconds. It screamed four times when I was outside and three more times after I got inside. I told my wife, 'I think it's Bigfoot out there' and I was sort of kidding, but those screams were unbelievable.”

Smith said if the beast hadn't screamed, he would have passed off the figure in the moonlight as a “kid in the pasture.” Smith went into the field the next day to look for tracks and said he found marks about six feet apart that looked like it was something with toes, but that the horse had trampled the tracks throughout the night. He also said he thought his horse was “acting funny” for several days and he feels that could have been an indication that the Bigfoot was around [sic] for some time.

Source: Ogden Standard Examiner

Source: Ogden Standard Examiner

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Ronald Smith is an interesting fellow.  I spoke with him on the telephone last fall and he didn't want anything to do with talking about Bigfoot.  In fact, he almost disavowed the entire incident.  It is interesting to me because he lost a horse in the entire ordeal.  One of his horses was found dead the next morning with no discernible injuries.  

Initially the accounts I have read attribute the horses death to being run around the field and being scared to death.  When I spoke with Mr. Smith he blamed nearby construction the day before causing his horses to be scared and run around.  I asked if I could photograph on Mr. Smith's property and he declined.  I drove around to the backside of this property and shot across his horse field back toward a line of trees where his home was located.

This incident is one of several - perhaps a dozen - that happened in South Weber during February of 1980.

Pineview Reservoir Overlook

Pineview Reservoir Overlook, Utah, 2013

I was driving home in the late evening on a weekday in September 2012 after my work.

Just before the road drops down and crosses the north fork river there is an overlook that looks to the east and views the marshy area that usually is covered up by water of the Pineview reservoir in Ogden Valley, Utah.

There is another viewing area that cars cannot pull off that is just south of this big overlook. I glanced over to my right down into the brush and tall grass and noticed a solid dark figure walking northward with an unusual gait.

He was bigger than normal walking upright with an different arm swing. Another thing I noticed was the palms of his hands traced backward that was interesting to me. I wanted to pull off but was late for an appointment and I didn't dare stop and check it out more fully as I know now I should have.

The view was only for a few seconds but What I saw was not something I recognized. I thought about it many times and wished that I had pulled over and gotten out of the car and watched it longer but it would've been nearly impossible because there were so many cars coming home behind me at the same time.

Source: witness interviewed by David Carver