Anita Johnson
Southern Oregon, 1975
I was 15 in 1975 when I saw this creature. I had never heard of Bigfoot as we had recently moved here from the East coast. I was home alone and it was early evening as both channels had the news on. I was laying on a couch alongside a sliding glass door bored and glancing occasionally up into our back pasture. We had a huge Madrone tree in the pasture. The first thing I noticed was that our big Madrone tree looked different and then I saw it in my peripheral vision to my left. It was walking at a good pace, long arms swinging. It traversed the top fence line, cut up into the forest and was gone.
It had reddish brown hair and the tips shimmered silvery in the bits of light in the forest. I only saw it in profile so I can’t tell you what the face looked like. It did not have a visible neck, a more rounded head and its fur was not super long or unkempt. I also can’t tell you the height until I go do a reenactment. It was barrel-chested and the legs almost seemed too small to carry its weight. It looked both awkward and agile at the same time.
I stood mouth agape, almost hypnotized until it was out of sight. I snapped out of it and immediately became terrified as we had 5 entrances into our home, 3 being sliding glass doors. I ran around and closed all the curtains and locked the doors. I called my folks and begged them to come home, that I had seen something in our pasture. After a bit of ridiculing by my mom they agreed to come home. I sat in the hallway, the only place I couldn’t be seen from outside, even though the curtains were drawn I didn’t feel safe at all.
The next day my father showed me where the bears had been digging in a log for grubs. He said it was most likely a bear. I wanted to believe him so badly (not that a bear is any better that close to our house). I put it aside until I found the Patterson film and realized what I had seen. That started my endless research of this being.
I still hike, sometimes alone, but always with my head on a swivel. I am still both terrified and deeply curious. In hindsight I think it was tree peeking until it thought I had seen it, which I hadn’t -yet. It may have been a curious juvenile. I won’t know until I put a person in the pasture walking the path that it did.
My friend had an aggressive encounter and my next door neighbor saw one while hunting when he was 18. Both those encounters were here in Southern Oregon as well. My encounter occurred between Phoenix and Medford Oregon. We had the second to the last house on a short dirt road. The last house was a summer home. I will be doing some expeditions this year to return to my old house, and to go to the other 2 areas I heard about.
Note: Here’s a few photo’s from Anita’s current study area
