Geographical Index > United States > California > Los Angeles County > Article # 101
Media Article # 101
Article submitted by Richard A. Hucklebridge
Article prepared and posted by Richard Hucklebridge
Thursday, May 17, 1973
Bigfoot searchers scramble for cover as gunfire breaks up local hunt.
By Chuck Wheeler
Lancaster,Ca Daily Ledger Gazette
A safari of members of the California Bigfoot Organization tracking down sighting reports of a big hairy thing in the east Antelope Valley area, recently sought safety behind the cover of rocks as bullets from another party allegedly singed around them. Floyd Smith CBO's vice president, said that after news stories appeared of three Marines sighting the elusive bigfoot creature, and later the girl saw it, numbers of persons began a search on their own.
About 1500 yards from where Smith and his CBO party searched for footprints, which they later found, near 270th St. East and Ave J. Suddenly one night, they heard a women scream over their walkie-talkies. Then a man's voice cut in and shouted, "There is something big coming at us!" Whether it was a tail or actual, Smith doesn't know. But one thing he is sure of is that bullets then started flying around his search party as if someone meant to shoot up the entire countryside. Evidently, Smith says the people who cut in on his walkie- talky frequency started shooting at something and they weren't exactly discreet in their firing. After the firing, Smith said that jeeps and motorcycles fled across the desert. "We stayed down behind the rocks for 45 minutes," Smith said, "before we went back to town."
Smith along with Rich Grumley, president of CBO, has found large footprints much larger than any normal mans several times. The latest sighting by a woman and her son in the eastern Valley area resulted in footprints being found in an old reservoir and in a cave, Smith disclosed. The plaster casts that Smith made of the prints look very much like footprints of a large man. They measure 15 inches long, eight inches wide and 5 3/4 inches across the heel. Other footprints found near the woman's house were too difficult to make out, Smith says. The woman and her child didn't actually see a creature, but they heard a growling noise, not dogs, and then a piercing scream and then a clamorous noise from their dogs. The boy hollered, "Get out of here," and the noise suddenly ceased.
Smith said it was very disappointing that the footprints near the woman's house were not distinct. But, the prints, 3 1/2 feet apart, found in the cave were clear and distinct and the ones in the cave indicated that whatever made the footprints was just "milling around" and possibly going to start a fire, Smith disclosed. "There was a pile of sticks in the center of the footprint's but no evidence of paper or a fire being started, or anything else that would aid in starting a fire." Smith said. The footprints in the cave were eight inches across the toe, six inches across the heel, sixteen inches long and 1 1/2 inches deep.
The search was not a complete disappointment, Smith said. As Smith and Bill Darch, CBO's communications supervisor, and seven other members were leaving the area, they heard rocks falling and converged on the caves. Thatís when they found the prints and before they left they found prints in a second cave. Then it happened, the sighting. Evidently, Smith and Darch got closer to the thing than they had suspected. They sighted a dark object running through the area. Then the other seven saw it too, but they could tell nothing about it because of the darkness. Whatever it was, it was too fleeting for the searchers. So they left the area and went back home. But, they'll try again, keeping secret the area of their next search. They would like to find the bigfoot creature to capture him on film or "bring him back a live." But, they don't like being shot at.
1973 Antelope Valley Bigfoot Sightings
You might find the following old newspaper articles of some interest. They pertain to Bigfoot sightings in our Antelope Valley during the early 70's. The paper that the articles came from is now defunct, and I believe that most of the people named are long gone. I'm taking the articles off of some very poor micro-fish film, on a lousy video and copy machine at our local library.
My family and I lived in Lancaster at the time that these articles were written. Some of the articles could be plausible, but others?
In the following newspaper articles, which were written by the papers staff writer, Chuck Wheeler, who worked for the Daily Ledger Gazette during this era. I'm only going to try and give you the pertinent sighting information, because there is a lot of extraneous fluff thatís intertwined in the articles.