30-Year Minnesota Bigfoot Mystery Solved[Original headline: Creature query answered ]
We asked and you, dear readers, have responded with memories of what really happened about 30 years ago after a young boy reported seeing a furry creature sitting in a rocking chair on top of a house. The original letter writer remembered this newspaper had printed a story the day after the boy's sighting but no follow-up.
``Who was the boy?'' the writer asked. ``Does anyone remember this?''
Two people responded to Eh's query about whether anyone remembered this.
One, June Rabold, e-mailed and said she has the story straight from the little boy, whom she described as ``a family member who prefers to remain anonymous.''
The incident that happened in the Island Lake area was a hoax, she said, but the boy didn't know it then. Wanting to scare him, the boy's older brother dressed up, covered his feet with wooden pieces to make tracks, walked across the roof of the basement house and into the woods. ``There was no rocking chair involved,'' Rabold wrote. The little boy, who remembers wearing a Viking cap in the newspaper photo, truly believed he saw ``Bigfoot'' and didn't learn until later of his brother's trick.
Then ``Bob'' from Superior e-mailed Eh? and said the incident occurred in January or February 1971 in the Twig area. He remembers that it was mentioned on ``The Tonight Show'' by Johnny Carson the next night. Also, when he passed a house in that area a few days later, he said he remembers ``keeping one eye over my shoulder the whole time!''
• Story originally published by •
Duluth News Tribune / MN - February 8 2001
