A tale of utter horror and bafflement lies behind the truth of an ape-like semi human figure frozen in a block of ice that was exhibited all over the US at fairs and side shows. A former US Air Force Wing Commander was on his way to retirement and looking forward to it as he left his family on a hunting trip to bag a deer. The location was Whiteface Reservoir in Minnesota. A remote area marked by swamp that would freeze over solid until spring when it would begin to thaw again making carrying out a kill impossible due to the boggy terrain.

Hunting party

According to the former US Air Force officer’s story, he had set out for his deer stand which overlooked the swampy area. It was late winter and the area was still partially frozen. He was hunting with a bolt action 8 mm Mauser rifle. He had arrived early that cold morning with two USAF Lieutenants, his hunting buddies who had set up their camp further from him. He settled down and was patiently waiting about 2 hours when he saw a deer. Sitting on the hillside he watched as the large doe, staring right at him was partially obscured by a cedar. Then a shot from somewhere else in the area startled the doe and she took three great leaps as he raised his rifle and shot her. The doe fell forward onto the ground but before he could get off another shot, the deer raised up and was gone!

From a hunt to horror

It was ill-advised to go down the partially swampy trail covered in melting snow, but he wanted to recover the doe if he could. For some time he trudged down the slippery trail with mud and fallen limbs underfoot until he stopped, hearing a gurgling noise. Just around the next turn what he saw terrified him. The former air force pilot was stunned when he saw three furry creatures that he saw were human-like but still more ape than human. They were crouched over a deer carcass that was ripped open. They were reaching into the stomach scooping cupped handfuls of blood out and drinking it. He was frozen with fear, but one of them was a male and suddenly leaped into the air with arms raised and ready to pounce.

In self defense

He did not even remember pointing and firing his 88 mm Mauser, but he hit the animal in the head as blood splashed on his face and apparently fired again. The two other creatures simply disappeared. He looked down in amazement at a humanoid ape that had hands just like his but they were twice as large. The eye was completely gone from his rifle shot. The fur was about an inch or more long all over the body but around the face and hands. Suddenly, it occurred to him as have many hunters who claim to have shot a Sasquatch either thinking it was a bear, or in self-defense, that he might be criminally prosecuted for killing a human being. There was no way to pack this thing out or bury it in the semi frozen tundra 60 miles North of Duluth in the dead of winter.

Terrified

He turned and ran thinking the other two would attack him so he struggled over the slippery slush, falling a couple of times until he got to solid frozen snow and out of the swampy nook where the grisly scene had taken place. Exhausted from running he simply lay down expecting to be jumped any moment by the two other creatures, but luckily they never came. He fired three hunter emergency shots used to signal to others that he was in trouble until three acknowledging shots were fired in return giving him the proper direction to go to. After an exhaustive effort he reached his two buddies afraid to let on that he had shot an ape man creature.

Typical denial

Once getting back home he told his wife who refused to believe him like most people who have Bigfoot sightings experience, and one reason they are reluctant to share their accounts. For several weeks he grappled with what he should do. After all, he was facing retirement, and didn’t want to lose his pension over getting a medical discharge over being mentally incompetent, nor did he want to be convicted of murder if the authorities charged him with murder. There was no way for him to bury the creature in the frozen soil and especially with the threat of being discovered.

Unholy discovery

Weeks later he went back to the spot after weather forecasts for snow assured him that his footing would be good enough. He strapped a dune buggy to his pick up as an all-terrain vehicle to be able to load the carcass if he could find it. Retracing his steps though the trail with a fresh 6 inches of new fallen snow was not an easy task. He had brought along an automatic 12 gauge for protection in case he ran into anymore creatures again. He was just about to give up when he stumbled and fell right on top of the dead ape man. His beloved hunting dog “Mike” helped him dig up the body and separate it from the icy ground. He loaded it onto his dune buggy and then into the back of his pickup, strapped down, and covered.

Forbidden plans

His wife and he had purchased a huge meat freezer that was down in the basement of the on base living quarters where the family managed a living on his officer’s income, but this was risky now! His wife took one look and asked him how he planned to store the thing. They were forced to give away all the fresh meat they had just bought to their neighbors as this was much more important. Waiting until after the three children were in bed his wife helped him load the frozen dead weight of the stinking body into the meat freezer and then locked it. They then washed off several times to get rid of the stench! Over the following weeks he came up with a plan. Surely if he kept this thing frozen in a block of ice he could make a living exhibiting it at fair grounds and side shows where people would pay to see the creature.

Proof and possible legal challenges

His wife and he used fresh water to bathe the carcass and to preserve it. They had used this same procedure to keep fish they caught for as long as 2 years. They moved to a farm later on where they kept the frozen missing link secretly stored until he made plans to begin his traveling show. Famous TV celebrity, Ivan T. Sanderson and Bernard Heuvelmans personally inspected the specimen frozen in that block of ice. Ivan considered it to be authentic and would later write an article about it in 1969 as did Bernard Heuvelmans whose paper got government attention. Now the legal implications were becoming quite clear. Even after consulting his personal attorney, he was cautioned that there could always be a possible charge of murder if the ape man creature encased in that ice were determined to be human, but the question remained what was it, a prehistoric man, a mutant, or the missing link between the Darwinian evolution theory that supposedly happened between ape and modern man?  

Further twists in the tale in Part II