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Eight-Foot-Tall Hairy Human Monster (Bannock County, Idaho; 1902)

EnolaGaia

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This brief newspaper article addresses a hairy humanoid "monster" that's four-toed and uses a club.
Algona Advance, Algona, Iowa 31 January 1902

WILD MAN IN IDAHO

Hairy Monster Eight Feet Tall Terrifies Bannock County

Salt Lake, Utah, Jan. 30.–According to the Pocatello, Idaho, correspondent of the Deseret News, residents of the little town of Chesterfield, located in an isolated portion of Bannock county, Idaho, are greatly excited over the appearance in that vicinity of an eight foot hair-covered human monster. He was first seen January 14, when he appeared among a party of young people who were skating on the river near John Gooch’s ranch. The creature showed fight. Flourishing a large club and uttering a series of yells he started to attack the skaters, who managed to reach their wagons and got away in safety. Measurements of his tracks showed the creature’s feet to be 22 inches long and seven inches broad, with the imprint of only four toes. Stockmen report having seen the tracks along the range west of the river. People of the neighborhood are feeling unsafe while the creature is at large, and have sent out twenty men to effect its capture.
SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/2011053...010/09/hair-covered-human-monster-idaho-1902/
 
Really bizarre.
You'd think such an occurrence would have entered popular consciousness.
Unless it remained one story in a regional newspaper?
Or it was made up to sell said paper?
 
According to the author at this paranormal website, the story ran in multiple newspapers across the USA.
Below is the report that went out to papers all across the country, describing a group of people’s encounter with a tall, hairy, club-wielding monster. I’ve found multiple copies of it in the newspaper archives including this one from the January 31, 1902 Algona Advance.
SOURCE: https://www.pararational.com/1902-north-idaho-wild-man/
 
This Bigfoot website hosts a guest article quoting the story as it was published in Montana 2 days prior to its appearance in the Algona, Iowa, newspaper.
The Anaconda Standard
Anaconda, Montana, Wednesday Morning, January 29, 1902.

Idaho's Wild Man

Eight feet tall, covered with hair, possessing the semblance of humanity and fierce with the fierceness of a wild beast - that is the description of Idaho's newest wild man, according to the veracious Deseret News. An associated press dispatch from Salt Lake yesterday gave the tale in full. There is a familiar note in the story as it comes, an intangible something that recalls to mind those always thrilling and delightful little yarns the New York Sun used to print from New Jersey about wild men. But, of course, since the Deseret News is a church paper and filled with piety, the slightest insinuation that the thrilling item from Idaho is not founded on fact is entirely out of place.

The Idaho wild man, according to those who have seen him, is a regular old fashioned bogy man, the materialization of that awful, hideous, soul thrilling thing that formed the subject of a little ditty in "Sindbad." When the party of skaters on the Port Neuf river saw him approaching perhaps they were minded of the words of that ditty, for certainly he tried to catch them. That he failed was due to the fact that they beat him to the wagons. No one can blame them for their fright. Even an Idaho man is not wittingly going against a eight foot monster which leaves a footprint twenty-two inches long and six inches wide. one well directed blow from a foot like that can put a man out more completely than several drinks of Calena street whiskey.

A peculiar feature of the Idaho wild man's track is that it shows only four toes, the number now affected by Carrie Nation since her distressing accident of several days ago when her new tomahawk amputated a pink one from her right foot. Four toes, according to a scientific gentleman who has been gazing into the future, is the number that will be fashionable on each human foot several centuries hence. It cannot be that the creature is the new man, a human placed upon earth in advance of his proper era. Idaho is a progressive state, but that she has leaped ahead several ages without the rest of the world being aware of it is hardly probable. The four toes do not prove the existence of a new man. More likely a closer examination of the track would reveal that what appears to be the mark of four toes is the imprint of a cloven hoof. If in the snow behind a faint line is traced, as if a forked tail had been dragged along, the identity of the monster is established. The twenty men from Chesterfield who are in pursuit would best beware, else all that is left of them on earth will be a smell of brimstone and a fond remembrance.
SOURCE: http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2012/11/eight-foot-tall-idaho-wild-man-bigfoot.html
 
This Bigfoot website cites the 1902 story, claiming it was published on 5 February. The description matches the story already cited above. I cannot locate any archive of a newspaper story published on 5 February.
D.L. Soucy tells us about two historic Idaho Bigfoot sighting news articles – the first from from Camas (1883), and another one from Pocatello (1902). Mr. Soucy shows a map in the video. The Wild Man of Camas news article was published on March 22, 1883 in the Crawfordsville Star. The second news article, Hairy Monster Eight Feet Tall Terrifies Bannock County, comes from a Deseret News correspondent and was published February 5, 1902. This concerns an attack on January 14 by a Bigfoot near John Gooch’s ranch, near Chesterfield, Idaho. Because it was aggressive, they sent a hundred men out to try to capture the creature. There is no update to let us know if the hunters were successful.
SOURCE: https://bigfootsightings.org/idaho-bigfoot-sightings/

The reference to Soucy is a reference to Soucy's video:

 
This family history webpage provides more details on John Gooch (the landowner on whose farm the sighting occurred) and states he was a witness from start to finish. It also claims the story ran in the Ogden Stand Examiner on 28 January.
On May 22, 1900, John, who was listed on this deed as living in Preston, Idaho at the time, purchased 320 acres of land plus water rights from William O. Smith of Kaysville, Utah for $6000.00 located in Chesterfield, Idaho on the Portneuf River nine miles north of Bancroft, Idaho.* The Idaho State Gazetteer and Business Directory of 1901-1902 lists under FARMERS-Bannock County, page 249, John Gooch owning 320 acres valued at $3,760 in Chesterfield.* On July 14, 1902 he purchased another 160 acres from George Smith of Gentile Valley for $2500.00 and in May of 1903 purchased another 160 acres adjacent to that land from Adam Yancey.* A now rather comical story involving John appears in the January 28, 1902 Ogden Stand Examiner. It seems that on January 14th in Chesterfield, Idaho a group of young people were skating on the Portneuf River in a field owned by John Gooch. They were confronted by an eight-foot-all-hair covered human monster who flourishing a large stick and giving vent to a series of yells attacked the skaters. The young people were able to quickly get away and when some of the young men returned they saw the monster warming himself by the fire they had left. The following morning large tracks with the imprint of only four toes were seen. A group of men was on the trail to capture the monster. Interested parties are referred to John Gooch, who was on the scene from the appearance to the disappearance of the monster.* It is not known if the beast was apprehended!
SOURCE: https://www.familysearch.org/servic...2/TH-233-36121-31-8/dist.txt?ctx=ArtCtxPublic
 
I'm unable to locate any story matching the particulars noted in the specimens above published in the Deseret News during January 1902.
 
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