by Cyn Bagley

Created on: August 18, 2007   Last Updated: December 29, 2009

We were sitting in the living room, when my father looked up from his book on Bigfoot legends.

"I believe in Sasquatch (another name for Bigfoot)," he said. I looked at him with my big blues. Yea, I believed him. Riiigghhtt.

"I saw him once." My father shivered. He was obsessed with all the Bigfoot stories. He would collect the stories and read them to his children.

In the early 1960s, My parents lived near Bella Coola, B.C., Canada. There were several stories about Bigfoot. Many of the folks living there had personal stories about bears and Bigfoot. One story I remember was about a man who went up into the mountains to hunt deer. When he was walking up one of the large hills, he fell in a crevice. Soon he became unconscious from the pain. In a dream, he could feel someone pick him up and take him to a cave. When he awoke he found himself in a cave with food. He stayed there for about a few days until he was able to walk out of the mountains. To this day, he swears that Bigfoot saved his life.

Also, my dad told me of footprints in the mountains that were too big to be human feet. When he was in the woods, cutting trees, he would feel eyes on his back. He would look and see something big running away in the trees. It could be a bear, but my dad would shake his head.

As I grew up, I was pretty cynical about Dad's stories. By that time we were living in the northeastern area of Utah. My dad would go fishing in remote areas. He would come back with stories of fishing and feeling someone behind him. Or he would see something from the corner of his eye. I just thought it was more of those bogus Bigfoot stories.

Finally we moved near Whiterocks, Utah. Whiterocks is a small town in the middle of the Ute Indian reservation. We would go to church in town and then give rides home to the Native Americans in the area. One day, in exchange for the ride, a native women told us of a huge Bigfoot that lived in the area.

"I saw him behind the truck. He was big and fast," she said. "It was so scary. He ran behind us for ages. We kept driving so he wouldn't catch us."

At first, I thought she was just trying to scare us. Sometimes they would tell us witch stories. Sometimes they would laugh at us. I know that my imagination was up to the business of seeing witches in every corner of Utah. Most of the places in this area were dark. We didn't have street lights - just house lights in the distance.

No, I never saw this beast. I shivered every night as I drove 45 minutes in the dark to get home. But, the Native American woman was so convincing, more convincing than my dad.

I still don't know if there is a Bigfoot. However, like UFOs there are so many stories out there that there has to be something out there stalking the night. I haven't been back to Whiterocks. I have a sister still living near the reservation. When she calls, she talks about Bigfoot.

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