In 1950, experienced mountaineer and skier Jim Carter was on a mountain climbing expedition
with 20 other people when he mysteriously disappeared.
A search of the area by volunteers would later discover Carter's out-of-control ski tracks,
which seemed to suggest the missing man had been frantically careening down steep embankments
and hurdling across crevasses as if fleeing for his life from something in the wilderness.
Welcome to a special episode of The Infographics Show’s Greatest Mysteries- Most Terrifying
Bigfoot Encounters.
Bigfoot, The Abominable Snowman, Yowie- from America to Tibet and even Australia, no matter
where you go in the world you're sure to find someone who has seen and believes in large,
hairy, man-like creatures that live in the deepest wildernesses.
Often described as intelligent, powerful, and generally shy and disinterested in humans,
Bigfoot sightings are typically brief and end with the creature lurking away back into
the wilderness.
But also described as standing well over 8' (2.4 meters) tall and able to pick up boulders
with ease, what happens when Bigfoot isn't so shy about being accidentally discovered
by human eyewitnesses?
Today we'll find out as we look into the top 3 most terrifying Bigfoot encounters ever
reported.
At Number 3 is the Jim Carter disappearance in Ape Canyon, Washington.
Jim Carter's disappearance in the winter of 1950 sparked national interest- a very experienced
mountaineer and skier both, Carter had scaled the peaks of the Rockies and on this trip
had just climbed to the top of Mt. St. Helens with his 20-man group.
As the group descended, Carter told the other climbers that he would ski around to the left
of their descent path and take a picture of the group as they made their way down to the
timberline below.
Carter never returned from that detour, and a search of the area discovered a discarded
film box where it's assumed Carter took his photo.
Next to the film box were Carter's ski tracks, described by the expert skiers of his group
as a wild, death-defying dash, and that Carter was “taking chances that no skier of his
caliber would take, unless something was terribly wrong or he was being pursued.”
Carter's tracks showed that he had in desperation jumped over several large crevasses, and when
the tracks led to the steep sides of Ape Canyon, the searchers were amazed to see that Carter
had been in such a hurry that he had descended directly down the steep sides of the canyon
walls; yet a 75-person search party combing the area for five days never discovered his
body nor a trace of equipment.
But what did Jim Carter's disappearance have to do with Bigfoot?
In the 20 years prior to the carter disappearance, 25 different groups reported attacks by hostile
ape-like creatures in the area, including a troop of boy scouts who after being chased
by a large, ape-like creature were hysterical with fear.
Locals remained convinced that Jim Carter had been attacked and pursued by a tribe of
Bigfoot long known to inhabit the area and who were extremely aggressive against interloping
humans.
Perhaps they were so convinced because the name Ape Canyon came directly from our next,
terrifying encounter, occurring just 26 years prior to Carter's disappearance.
At number 2 is the Fred Beck and Roy Smith 'night siege' of Ape Canyon, in 1924.
Prospecting for gold and looking to strike a claim, prospectors Fred Beck, Roy Smith,
and three friends were working off a branch of the Lewis River when they discovered a
set of massive, human-like footprints embedded deep in the earth.
Shortly after their discovery, the men began to see a huge, hulking, gorilla-like creature
through the trees on at least four separate occasions.
Spooked by the beast that seemed to be stalking the group's every move, one of the prospectors
took a shot at it to try and scare it off, but it seemed to only embolden the creature.
A few days later, on the morning of July 10th, Beck spotted the creature near the edge of
the canyon and took a shot at it, scoring a direct hit that sent the creature falling
over the ledge and plummeting 400 feet to the canyon below.
With the terrain too difficult to attempt a recovery of the body, the prospectors returned
to their work before settling into their cabin that night.
Later that evening, the group was awakened by violent pounding on the roof and walls
of their cabin.
Rocks were thrown against the walls and through the windows, one striking and knocking Beck
unconscious.
The terrified men fired wildly into the night, trying to drive a dozen or more large, hulking
creatures away.
The fight lasted through the night, and it was only with day break that the creatures
broke off their attack and retreated into the wilderness, giving an opportunity for
the group to flee, leaving behind all of their expensive equipment.
After news of the attack broke, the area immediately became known as Ape Canyon, and Native Americans
living in the area suggested that the men had angered a tribe of 7 to 8 foot-tall wild
men known as the Seeahtik.
According to the natives, the tribe was generally extremely shy and rarely seen- but would exact
great vengeance on anyone who killed one of their members.
Finally, at number 1 is the terrorizing of a family at Honobia, Oklahoma.
In Mid January, 2000, the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (or BFRO) received an urgent
message from a man who said that his brother and his family desperately needed help as
they were being terrorized by what they believed were several Bigfoot.
According to the father of the family- identified only as “Mike”- shortly after buying the
property in the remote wilderness of Oklahoma, they began to hear rustling directly outside
the home late at night, and they would find large, 18-inch human-like tracks.
The area was rich with deer, and Mike and his brother would hunt the deer on the property
and store meat in an outdoor freezer.
One morning, they discovered the door to the freezer shed ripped off its hinges, and the
freezer completely emptied of three dressed deer.
Shortly after that, the family began to hear loud bangs on the front door and sides of
the house at night.
The harassment continued for months, until finally Mike and his brother started taking
turns staying up to keep guard armed with rifles.
The BFRO initially set up a series of phone interviews, only to have one interrupted by
a loud commotion from outside, barking dogs, and the sound of gunfire as Mike fired at
a suspected Bigfoot that had strayed too close.
From there the incidents only became worse, with at one point an alleged Bigfoot smashing
at the front door and tearing part of a window loose.
In subsequent nights, the family was subjected to terrible high-pitched screams and deep
roars as rocks were thrown through their windows and the door and walls were beaten on.
Mike became so worried for his family that he sent them away, warning the BFRO that he
was no longer wanting to scare the beasts away, but officially shooting to kill.
Upon dispatching an investigator, they discovered that a possible reason for the hostility from
the Bigfoots was the fact that the deer population was so massive that Mike and his brother often
hunted directly from their back porch; wounded deer would sometimes flee, and as postulated
by the BFRO investigator, the Bigfoots waiting in the woods would chase the wounded deer
down for an easy kill.
This also explained why the Bigfoots were not being scared off by the gunfire; they
had come to associate the sound of gunfire with wounded or dead deer.
Not only did the family agree with the connection, as they had on occasion seen large, blackish
figures dragging off wounded deer, but just two days before the arrival of the BFRO investigator,
a deer wounded by Mike was discovered in the brushline with its neck broken and rear legs
twisted off.
Something had clawed a hole into the neck and scooped out the organs through the hole
in order to eat them.
The BFRO investigator concluded that after Mike had stopped putting deer meat in the
outside freezer, the Bigfoots had started coming to the house, trying to get inside.
The investigator documented several pieces of physical evidence, including a bent steel
gate that showed no scratches or paint flaking, indicative of a mechanical device being used
to hoax the evidence.
Warned to stop hunting the deer on the property so as to stop providing an easy meal for the
Bigfoots, Mike took the BFRO's advice and within weeks reported that the Bigfoots had
seemed to move back into the wilderness, leaving the terrified family alone.
Bigfoot is often described as peaceful, and though eyewitnesses and investigators have
reported logs and boulders hurled at them, when investigating the site after the incident,
it's discovered that the hurled objects landed nowhere near them- as if the Bigfoot was simply
trying to scare them away and not hurt them.
Yet from the encounters listed here, it's clear that not all Bigfoots are as peaceful.
While science still doubts the existence of a large, bipedal ape in North America, thousands
of men and women across the continent have all been turned into terrified believers.
So, have you ever seen a Bigfoot?
Do you have a terrifying encounter to share?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Places that are Even More Strange Than
the Bermuda Triangle.
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!