The Horseshoe Bend area of Bear Creek, Alabama, has had it's share of reported sightings and encounters with bigfoot. 

There are campgrounds there now where people go to stay and to fish and hike. The area is also now a battleground National Park. But sometimes bigfoot doesn't seem to be happy when he finds people in his favorite fishing spot. In June, 1987,  a father and son were fishing from their boat when they heard something splash into the water.  When they looked around, they found standing on the bank about 500 feet away, a bigfoot. They stared at each other for a bit, then the bigfoot turned and walked back into the trees. When they returned to the boat launch area, they were told that others had had similar experiences. They described it as being "tall" and "hairy", but made no mention of color.

In late December, 1999, another man was getting his boat ready to put in the water when he got the feeling of being watched. He looked around but saw no one. It was now 7 am so he got his boat in the water and started fishing. He was disturbed by a strange sound. It sounded as if someone were hitting two pieces of wood together. This went on for around 15 minutes. He couldn't determine from where the sound came. He again heard the sounds on New Year's Day when he returned. He never witnessed anything or anybody making the noises. It is a possibility that it was a bigfoot.

Although none of these witnesses mention seeing a white bigfoot, it does demonstrate that bigfoot are still in the area. Our "white bigfoot" sighting goes quite far into the past.

The witness was a Mr. Jade Davis who had his experience back in the late 1880's. A letter written by Fred Collum about this sighting was published in the May 6, 1976 edition of the Alabama News.

I have put the story together using both Mr. Collum's letter from the newspaper article and John Green's "Sasquatch: the Apes Among Us".

Mr. Collum wrote the letter hoping that people from the area might be interested in the event told to him by Davis when Collum was a child. He later talked with Davis's son Arthur and had the story confirmed. 

In the 1880's the area of Red Bay consisted of families living on small farms who supplemented their food supply by hunting, fishing, and trapping. It was a remote area.

"One morning Mr. Davis went fishing and carried his gun along in case some game showed up. He was fishing at the lower or west end of the big bluff near where the Haithcock branch runs into Bear Creek. While fishing he became aware that he was being watched. He turned and looked behind him. About thirty feet away stood a hairy creature that looked like a man, his body was covered with reddish brown hair and  his head and shoulders had turned grey. It seemed to be very old."

He also said that the eyes were reddish and reminded him of how an old person's eyes look. Not being sure what the creature would do, Davis started to reach for his gun. As soon as he moved, the bigfoot jumped into the creek and disappeared under the rocky banks. Davis told Collum that he thought it was a man who had "gone wild". He never went back to the area again.

Area outside of Red Bay

A few winters later, some other people were hunting on the bluffs. In an area where snow had collected in drifts, they came across what looked like barefoot tracks of a man. They looked freshly made so they decided to follow them. At one point they came across marks that showed whoever it was had stopped and turned and looked back towards them. If they had been looking up instead of only at the tracks and their footing, they might have seen who it was. They followed the tracks to the creek, ending up in the same location where Davis had had his sighting. It was said that there was an underwater cave there that went back under the mountain. 

No one in the area knew anything about bigfoot. But it appears that this is what was in the area back then. No one knows if there were more than the older turning grey/white bigfoot. Or if there were several. 

Mr. Collum finished his letter on a hopeful note. "From what we have heard later, these creatures are very shy and seem to be harmless. Maybe some day, someone may find their remains."

Well, no one has produced any "remains" of a bigfoot in Red Bay. But they are still reporting their encounters and experiences with him.

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