WashingtonReport1957

MR. HUNCH

My only "contact" with a creature which may have been a
Sasquatch

occured during the summer of 1957 along Jefferson Way in

Snohomish County Washington. This was five years prior to the

construction of highway I-5. The region between Lynnwood and

Everett along the old highway 99 corridor was sparsely populated,

especially that portion which lies between Martha Lake and Lake

Stickney, which is (or was) the location of Jefferson Way.

I was spending the night at my friend Dick's place; we were both

fifteen years of age at the time and each owned an old car but were

to young to legally drive. We were planning to wake early the next

morning and walk the mile or so to Martha Lake to fish for trout.

So as not to disturb the rest of the family by our anticipated five

o'clock wake up, we elected to sleep in Dick's '39 Chevy coupe

which was parked in a field near the house.

The old car faced Jefferson Way, which was probably seventy-five

feet distant, and directly across the road was the only other
residence

within view. It had a large bay window facing the road, the white

or light color curtains of which were drawn. The room behind the

drawn curtains was brightly lit and I presume it was the living room.

The window was probably about a hundred and twenty-five feet or
so

distant from our location.

Sometime after midnight Dick and I woke to a yipping sound of the

neighbor's little dog, followed by sound of the neighbor opening a

door yelling at the dog to shut up, then the door closing. In the

direction of the noise we saw the full silhouette of a large creature

striding along the roadway. It's arms were long and seemed to
swing

in a fluid motion reminiscent of the manner shown in the Patterson

film (which, of course, didn't exist at the time.)

The little dog ran up and yapped at the creature's heels, giving
cause

for the creature to stop and swing it's massive body around
clockwise

towards us. It swung an arm at or toward the dog, which let out a

startled or injured high pitched "yip" then fled in the direction from

which it had come.

The door opened and we heard the owner yell at the dog, "Get in

here!" then the door closed. During this time the creature stood

between us and the bay window and watched the dog retreat. After

the door closed, the creature resumed it's leisurely stride down the

center of Jefferson Way and out of our view.

The "creature" was known to us and many others in the area as

"Mr. Hunch" but we believed him to be a "someone" rather than a

"something" at the time. In those days the terms Sasquatch and

Bigfoot were not common place, and folks looked upon the hairy,

seemingly gentle giant more as a nuisance than a threat. The

moniker "Hunch" was bestowed upon him in recognition of his

characteristic stooped stance and hunched appearing slow,
ambling

like gait.

Although he stood at least seven feet and was covered in brown

hair, I know of no one who was actually afraid of "Mr. Hunch";

to my knowledge he never really bothered anyone for the many

months he was known to be in the area - he just stole fruit and

vegetables. I heard some accounts where he may have returned

or at least was seen in the area either the following or the previous

summer. Like I said, nobody seemed frightened of "Hunch". Guess

most of us considered the big guy just another beatnik weirdo--a

commom place enigma in those days.

One evening a local preacher and his family were startled by the

sound of their garbage can being tipped over near the back porch.

The preacher turned on the porch light and went out to discover

garbage dumped on the ground and "Mr. Hunch" walking through
an

adjacent strawberry patch. The preacher picked up a brick upon

which the trash can had rested and threw it at "Hunch" sticking him

in the shoulder.

"Hunch" emitted a loud animal-like scream in agony and
disappeared

on a trail behind the residence. The trail led through a densely

wooded area for a thousand feet or so before ending near Dick's

house. Back then woods in the region were honeycombed with
trails:

some animal trails, others created by us kids who, it seemed were

always looking for the shortest route between destinations and
who,

with the naive or bravado of youth, knew no fear.

I know of a couple other encounters people had with "Mr. Hunch",

but this was the only time I actually saw him.

Dick's mother and father each had separate run-ins with "Hunch",

that otherwise quiet summer of 1957, one occasion of which
prompted

an investigation by the Snohomish County Sheriff's Dept. and
resulted

in plaster casts being made of "Mr. Hunch's" extremely large, bare

footprints. They were in the soft, dry soil floor of an outbuilding, an

outbuilding used for the storage of canned fruit and preserves and

freshly smoked salmon..

Whidbey Island, Washington