Geographical Index > United States > Washington > Kittitas County > Article # 140
Media Article # 140
Article submitted by Richard Noll
Wednesday, November 25, 1970
Tracks of Sasquatch make near-believers of couple
East Side Journal, Kirland Wash.
Ask Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Rowell if they believe in the existence of the Sasquatch, giant mountain creature, and they will answer, "Yes," with reservations.
A recent hunting trip out of Ellensburg made near-believers out of Mr. and Mrs. Rowell.
Mrs. Rowell is the former Esther McGregor, a longtime Kirkland resident and manager of Sears Roebuck store here. The Rowells now live in Westport.
They were elk hunting 26 miles up the Canyon Road out of Ellensburg at a height of about 6,000 feet when they saw what they think were tracks of the Sasquatch. The immense track in the snow resembled a human footprint with claws on the front, according to Rowell. His description matched descriptions of others who have seen tracks.
The people in the camp below them had tracked the alleged Sasquatch for miles, Mrs. Rowell said.
"If there had been just a few tracks, I would of thought it a hoax, but the fact that the tracks went on for miles, led me to believe they couldn't be manmade," Mrs. Rowell said.
An anthropologist from Yakima arrived in the area Sunday and looked at the tracks, also took pictures and made casts of the huge believed-to-be footprints in the snow, Mrs. Rowell reported.
Friends of the Rowells had hunted in the Ellensburg area for six years and had always found elk, according to Mrs. Rowell. But myth would have it when the Sasquatch comes, all wild life disappears from fright. Mrs. Rowell said she could confirm that they saw nary a sign of wild life, except for one blue jay and maybe a ground squirrel, certainly not any elk. That helped make believers out of them.
Although the Sasquatch has never been captured, there have been many reports of sightings of the ape-like creature from northern California through the Northwest. This is the first time the creature was reportedly in the Cascades in the Ellensburg area, according to Mrs. Rowell.
A movie film shot by Ivan Marx near the community of Bossburg in Stevens County on Oct 7 supposedly confirms that the animal exists. The film shows a brownish, apelike creature crawling through the underbrush on all fours and an animal taking giant steps through a clearing.
Marx has said the animal would be about 10 feet tall and weighs from 700 to 800 pounds.