by Scott Harper
A look at Kansas shows us a long
history of Sasquatch presence. That isn't surprising. The state sits smack in
the middle of the United States—surrounded by states that also have a prolonged
history of sightings reports.
Kansas also has long held a Native American presence. Native Americans all over the country have lengthy traditions of stories, and accounts of Sasquatch. Every tribe has names for them. Each tribe readily acknowledges their presence as a reality, although they don't often speak of such matters with people outside their own tribes.
In Crawford County, Kansas, in
1869, there were multiple sightings of an ugly, "human-like" creature
that broke several fences.
Lafayette, Kansas, in 1883, saw
the report from a farmer's wife of a female creature, covered in dark hair. The Sasquatch was seen eating from a sassafras bush. The woman fainted upon seeing
the creature. The farmer led a search party after the Sasquatch, trying to find
it again. According to reports, they caught sight of it a few times, but were
unable to capture it.
1886 saw the report of a family of four Sasquatch being captured. According to the report, the family consisted of an adult male, an adult female, a teenage girl, and a baby. All were dark-skinned, and covered with coarse, dark hair. No report was found as to what became of them after capture.
In Olathe, Kansas, in 1893, several reports were made of a 7-foot-tall creature, which was covered in long, brown hair, having been spotted in the woods in the area. One farmer reported having had two cows, and a calf killed. He attributed the livestock deaths to the creature.
A woman on the Pottawatomie Indian Reserve spotted a "wild man" in 1959. The creature ran into the woods from the field it had been spotted in upon realizing it had been noticed.
In 1960, a driver in Jackson County spotted a Sasquatch near the road. The sighting startled the man so badly that he drove off the road, and into someone's lawn to escape the creature.
1964 brought in a report of a bread truck driver who spotted a very hairy, 5-foot-tall being near railroad tracks. When the man stopped his truck for a better look at the creature, the thing ran off into the weeds. At some point later—reports are unclear as to just how much time passed—a farmer reported the death of sixteen hogs. Apparently, whatever had killed the hogs had bitten them in the necks to kill them. The farmer blamed the creature spotted by the bread truck driver for the deaths of his hogs. These events took place in Crawford County.
It's readily apparent that Sasquatch have been in the area of land that we now know as the state of Kansas for a long while. Further evidence that, contrary to what some people believe, the first Sasquatch sighting was not the Patterson/Gimlin footage, which was shot in 1967. These beings didn't just come out of nowhere; they have been here for a long, long time.
About the Author
Scott Harper is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 30 published short stories, and several novels. Harper grew up in Ohio, and graduated from Marysville High School in 1993, and began screenwriting in 2007, after the publication of several short stories and novels. He has worked on projects for James Tucker Productions, and 11th Dimension Films. He is currently involved with several projects, covering literature, film, and comic books. He was also a contributing writer for "Nuclear Winter Entertainment" for several months before that site shut down. Scott is very happily married to bestselling paranormal author Desirée Lee. Together, they have a wonderful little girl, and are working jointly on several projects. Those projects include multiple books, as well as the hit webcomic "MoonWraith."
More information about his work can be found on his website: www.scottharper.net
Blog Post by Dan Lindholm
