One of the most popular stories of mystery and lore is that of Bigfoot. Some will claim it doesn’t exist while others will swear that they have seen it or had it on their property.
Jay Barker of North Ogden has actually had two separate experiences with Sasquatch, (who says lightning doesn’t strike twice?). In 1977, Jay and a friend took their boys for one last fishing trip in the high Uintahs before school was back in session. The first lake they fished was a dud and no one was catching fish. They decided to make a trek to Fish Lake and as they crested the ridge and looked down at the lake, they saw a giant fur-covered animal down below. Thinking it was an Elk at first, they were surprised when it stood up on two legs and started walking away. Too far away to see its face, the young boys in the group started yelling, trying to get the beast’s attention. It looked around trying to determine the source of the noise and then cautiously walked into the forest and away from the group.
Once would be enough for most folks but one early morning in the spring of 1980, Jay had another experience with Bigfoot. He was feeding the fish at the Cold Springs Trout Farm in North Ogden. At one of the small ponds on the east side of the farm, Barker noticed fish lying all over the lawn. Next, to the pond, he found dozens of dead trout, some with their heads missing, but most were intact. As he was looking around the pond he noticed some very large human-like footprints pressed deep in the mud. The tracks measured 14 inches long and the toes curled down into the mud. Barker called the Utah Fish and Game and informed them about the tracks. They brought plaster with them to cast a mold of one footprint. It could also be seen where Bigfoot had jumped into the pond and walked around, disturbing the moss on the bottom. Fish and Game took the footprint cast and studied it for quite a while before returning it to Jay.
Other Sightings:
1980: In a North Ogden residential area, several strange footprints were discovered.
1991: Bigfoot sightings were reported by residents in North Ogden.
1995: A North Ogden resident reported seeing a large, dark, hairy creature in his yard one night. A large metal gate from a fence was found ripped off and hurled 30 feet away. A teenage boy said he saw Bigfoot running alongside the canal.
1996: A group of children in North Ogden’s Coldwater Canyon said they were chased away by Bigfoot. Coldwater Canyon has been a hot-spot for Utah’s Bigfoot activity. A hike up the canyon is beautiful and quiet … almost too quiet. It’s actually quite creepy and gives one a feeling of being watched.
1996: Footprints were found again at the Cold Springs Trout Farm in North Ogden and also at Nordic Valley.
I had an encounter with two Sasquatch at the Coldwater Canyon trout farm in August 2016. I recorded the whole thing on video but you can’t see the Sasquatch unfortunately. We found structures and foot prints all over the place there! You should add this encounter with the other ones referenced in this article for sure. In fact…..if you want to know more about what happened you could reach out anytime and I’d be happy to talk with you about it.
Coming from Logan in 1977 my boyfriend and I and an elderly couple seen one walk in front of us crossing the road as we were headed to Tremonton.
We were following a big white Cadillac coming from Logan. Just as we were making the turn at the mountain to head to Collinston this big white creature walked in front of us, it walked up-right and took only four steps to get from the one side of the road to the other, its stride was so wide. It then disappeared down a embankment I remember there was an old huge tree there it is not there since they widened the road.
The man driving the car in front of us slammed on his breaks cause him to slide in the gravel on the side of the road stirring up dust. ( I might add the road was a lot narrower back then than it is now.) my boyfriend slammed on his brakes almost hitting the Cadillac. We were so close to it. The elder man and my boyfriend hurriedly jumped out to look over the edge but could not see nothing. This was close to 5 or 6ish in the evening.
Then while camping up to Laplata in 2016 never seen one but have pictures of where they were making beds in the old mine cave. Over a period of July to September. On four different occasions we have invited family and friends up to camp with us we would take them for rides up to the ice caves then down to see the old mine cave, you couldn’t drive there so we would park and have to hike over to the cave. Everytime when we got there most everyone would say what is that awful smell. Like skunk and a dead mixed together. ( four different weekends this happened. It’s like they could hear us coming and I think they went into the cave. There was a cabin next to the mine where my sons took the scouts up there during the week and there was fresh bedding on the beds in the old cabin along with the bedding in the cave.
There was one night, the weekend of labor day 3:38 am, I heard the loudest most awful screeching, a sound like no animal I had ever heard before. Then I heard coyotes howl another scretch again and then the coyote sounded like it was being straggled. It then repeated the screetching then there was another howl and a howl and straggled sound. It then went silent. I was in my motorhome all by myself. I was wide awake for most of the night after that. I didn’t move. We took our friend the next day riding and ended up again at the cave they smelled the same thing. But in July we seen something laying over the rock and thought it was live, my son and I were looking in the cave at the entrance when he seen something down deeper in the cave it was a large rock that looked like a wolf or coyote was laying over the rock sleeping. My son in a Lowe voice said to me we got to get out of here now and I said what and he said we’ve got to get out of here now, back up slowly and let’s go. I told him I had pictures. It was like some animal was sleeping and we got the heck out of there. We could see once we got back to camp it was most likely dead. Next time up there in August it was like it was dried up.
A friend of mine that I knew from high school said they were probably going to stay there the winter as they migrate to Canada. He seen one just up in Idaho Utah border while panning for gold, him and his friend.