Paul Bartholomew is one of the best bigfoot investigators working today. Based in Whitehall, New York, Paul has been quietly collecting and investigating reports for over 40 years. Together with brother Bob, Bruce Hallenbeck and William Brann, he co-authored ‘Monsters of the Northwoods’, a great collection of bigfoot reports from the New England region.
Paul’s home town of Whitehall has been particularly active location since the famous ‘Abair Rd’ incident of 1976. After a recent sighting, I asked Paul to provide a more detailed summary of the report for the blog. Always generous, he agreed, so over to Paul:
WITNESS NAME: Anonymous
DATE: August 7, 2018
TIME: 10:10 PM EST
PLACE: Route 4 heading from NY to Vermont, in rural Whitehall, New York USA
A man said he was driving along Route 4 in rural Whitehall, New York on Tuesday, August 7, at 10:10pm, when he spotted a creature stepping over the guardrail. The creature was described as 6 to 6-1/2-feet tall, dark black, and walking upright.
He first noticed the creature when he saw what he thought was a log in the road.
“It wasn’t a log. The front leg was there, the other leg was there…,” said the man.
“My lights went through its legs…I was shocked. I see the crotch, I see the body, I see the arms. I saw the body distinctly— big, black, with the head… but no neck.”
The man said that the sighting was quick and that the creature had one leg on the white line and the other was already stepping over the guardrail.
“It’s not a bear— it was standing straight up,” he said. When asked about any facial features, he said it never looked at me. The man said he noted which guardrail beam it stepped over by counting them.
He then contacted me (Paul Bartholomew) and we returned to the site 18-hours later. There were two impressions where he said he saw it. The impressions were cast, but showed no detail, just an outline.
The area of the sighting was very dense and there was a power-line that ran on the other side of the road and a solar array that had just been constructed about 4/5 of a mile away.
It is interesting to note that back on September 4, 2006, multiple witnesses in a car spotted a creature standing beside the same stretch of road, about 1/2-mile away.
The man wanted to remain anonymous, but talked with BFRO representative Mike Young who was in town. Other groups and investigators came to the location five days later to investigate, but found no new evidence.
ANALYSIS: The man seemed genuinely sincere and stunned by the sighting. He wants to remain anonymous, but has an interest in the topic. He was not hoping to see anything at the time and was surprised by the incident.
The sighting is actually a very common type “road crossing” sighting. The terrain is very rough, so supporting evidence was not located. No details could be drawn out from the casts. It is interesting to note that a similar sighting took place in 2006 near that location.
Could it have been a bear? It is always possible, but the man said specifically, “It’s not a bear, it was standing straight up.” The possibility of a person in a suit is highly unlikely.
To sum it up, it was a pretty basic road-crossing sighting on a road that has a history of other incidents. The date puts it in that Aug-Sept-Oct period where we have many incidents on record.
