Incident #991217
Vergas, Otter Tail Cty, Minnesota
Oct 1969
Account
Ken Zitzow, 16, driving at night five miles northwest of Vergas when a creature 7 to 8 feet tall, covered with black hair, est. 300 lbsl, bounded onto the road from a ditch and stood with its arms raised as if to stop the car. Shaped like a man but the face of a gorilla. He did not slow down and it dodged aside but hit the trunk of the car with its fists, denting it. When he looked back it was gone. On later nights he and others saw it running through fields in the moonlight. It was gone in winter but was back in spring. They found a huge hole dug under an abandoned shack which they took to be its den. They burned the shack and did not see the creature again. Quast heard other, indirect reports of sightings in the area.
When
- Month
- Oct
- Year
- 1969
- Season
- fall
- Time of Day
- night
- Duration
- brief
Where
- State / province
- Minnesota
- County
- Otter Tail Cty
- Nearest Town
- Vergas
- Latitude
- 4639
- Longitude
- 9548
What was seen
- Individuals
- one large, sex unknown
- Total Individuals
- 1
- Population Status
- rural
- First Seen
- in
- Terrain Object
- road
- Near or/at
- ditch
- Multiple Sightings Y/N
- Yes
Witnesses
- No. of Witnesses
- 1
- Witness(es) Sex
- Male
Setting
- Terrain
- plain
Weather and light
- Lighting
- headlights
Source
- Source
- Ken Zitzow, Vergas Minnesota, quoted in letter from Mike Quast, also in The Sasquatch in Minnesota, 1996.
Creature description
- Hair Covered
- yes
- Height
- 7-8 ft
- Build
- heavy
- Posture
- erect
- Hair Colour
- black
- Movement
- jumping up
- Later Movement
- gesturedýhandled something
- Movement re observer
- across observer front
- Aggressive To
- vehicle
- Arms Action
- outstretchedýstriking
- Arms Used
- for hitting
- Object Handled
- vehicle
- Reaction
- ran atýfled from
- Additional Movement
- disappeared
- Position when first seen
- erect
Witness
- Witness Saw with
- naked eye
- Observer Was
- in car
- Closest horizontal distance
- contact
- Action on sighting
- kept going