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Speaker 1: I grew up at a time when there were lots

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of wild spaces, unused areas that maybe four or five

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adults would venture into over the course of a year,

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possibly local government folks or state or federal environmental professionals.

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Maybe a rancher or a farmer or fisherman or a hunter.

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But by and large these areas saw a few humans.

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If you are from that era, you know exactly what

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I mean. In many ways, at least for kids and teens,

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it was a simpler time, even though there were wars

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going on. The Civil rights movement was beginning to grow

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full steam. There were riots and the sort of mayhem

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that we still see on TV and phones today. But

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being country kids without social media permeating every aspect of

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our life, we were essentially free from much of society's

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troubles and free just to be kids. This place is

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in the far Midwest, some would call it the near West.

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I grew up here in a small town and had

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many friends whose parents owned farms or ranches. This was

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a time when, even as eight to twelve year olds,

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we would ride our bikes miles and miles from home

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to places that were interesting in our young minds. And

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we had no fear of anything bad happening to us.

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In fact, most of our parents would think we were

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sick or ill if we were hanging out inside the

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house for more than an hour or two. Even when

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the weather was bad, we were always out and about

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and we would explore, build forks, play hide and seek

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as well as fish, and eventually hunt together in these locations.

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One place in particular that was a favorite because it

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backed up against my friends Terry and Dale's ranch was

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on Blueberry Lane. Blueberry Lane was about three and a

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half miles long and teed off the local county highway.

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Blueberry Lane crossed Silver Creek at about the two mile mark,

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and it extended for another mile before dead ending in

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a mix of pine and post oak and open grassland,

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and that eventually led into another large ranch in state

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and federal land that was all forested Near the county

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highway in the first mile of Blueberry Lane. My friends

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folks would pasture cattle and had a few alfalfa fields

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on their ranch, but for the most part it was

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open grassland and large pines and oaks. Along Silver Creek

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was a gallery forest of trembling aspen, some large old

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gnarled pines. Some box elder volunteered mulberry trees, elderberry bushes,

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wild roses, occasionally wild crab apples and thorn apples. The

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brush was thick unless they would run cattle in there

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from time to time and it would get knocked down again.

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This was a place when there were still lots of

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open spaces, lonely unused areas that for kids our age

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was absolutely paradise. Where Blueberry Lane crossed Silver Creek, there

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was an old cement bridge with no side railing. We

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called it Hodges Bridge, and that spanned the forty foot creek.

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I don't know why it was called Hodge's Bridge. It

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was just part of the local laura. I guess that's

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what we called it, and all the kids knew exactly

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what we were talking about when we spoke of it.

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I think it was built during the CCC days. For

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those in your audience who actually know what that was,

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there was also an old stream gauging station in a

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twelve by fifteen foot building with a white clapboard siding

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and no windows, sitting next to the creek. It was

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on a poured concrete subwall that was exposed on the

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creek side. There was also an old outhouse with a

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four paned French window on the creek side. We always

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thought it was funny it was a loo with a view.

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The county or some agency would come out and mow

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around the small lawn there once or twice a year

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to keep the brush down, but like I said, almost

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no adults would ever be seen there. The old outhouse

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was always a haven for yellow jackets and snakes, so

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we gave that a wide berth. I don't ever remember

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using it. We would visit this place pretty regularly in

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the years between my eighth and fourteenth birthday, mostly in

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spring and summer when the creek was really rolling from

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the snow melt or the storms. We would take our

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bb and pellet guns and eventually twenty two to plink

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and target shoote and then shotguns down there in later

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years to hunt grouse in the fall. There were huge

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roosts of cliff swallows under the bridge too, and I

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swear that is where my interest in birds and my

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eventual career choice was made at a young age. There

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was also a huge sandy cut bank with a National

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Geographic Worthy Bank Swallow Colony in it. All that has

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now gone from floods, but oh what magic there was

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during those formative years. What was odd, and I didn't

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realize it until years later, was the stream gauging building.

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I think it was the second time we had ventured

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down there. We had ridden up to the bridge on

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our bikes, intently focusing on the water and the birds,

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the frogs, fish, etc. When Dale said would you look

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at that? We hardly paid any attention, but he persisted

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and we all looked up. On the side out of

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the building facing us were huge muddy hand prints. At

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the time, we joked that they had been made by

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a giant, and they were all around the building. They

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were at least twelve inches long from the heel of

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the hand to the fingertips. We speculated that it was

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some older kids or high schoolers doing some initiation or

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playing games, and did not give it another thought. There

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was no talk, at least that I remember, about Bigfoot

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or Sosquatch in that country. To play along, we went

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down every time we were there and got muddy hands

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and put our own signature on the white clapboard siding

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and the exposed cement. We never really paid that much

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attention to it. But over the preceding six or so

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years into my adolescence, there would be fresher prints, and

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we would draw the outlines of large hands with mud,

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including continuing to place our own hand size marks on

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the building. It became a rich for us, and that

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is how the place became known as the Handhouse. I

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became a teenager and we rarely ventured there again, occasionally

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for beer parties at night, but we never saw or

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heard anything, at least nothing that we thought was scary

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or to be concerned about. We also hunted and fished

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that entire area, and I don't remember ever feeling like

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I was being watched or saw anything like many people describe,

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just thereing the occasional bear and other wildlife. But the

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last time I was there during those years, I was

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eighteen and there were new handprints on the building. Rolled

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forward forty five years and I had gone on to

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become an environmental professional and worked around the country and

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in fact around the world in my early government career

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and then consulting business. I had come full circle and

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was now working the last few years of my career

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for an agency in my home county. It was two

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thousand and three and amazingly, I had an assignment to

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go out on Blueberry Lane to the old gaging station.

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There was a request to inspect it and possibly do

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restoration on the building. It was still functional, but it

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had been retrofitted many years earlier, and they wanted some

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newer equipment installed and wanted to know if the building

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was still sound. So there I was, with a young

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novice we'll call him Brad at my side, going out

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to look at the old place. I regaled Brad with

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my childhood's stories and told him about the handhouse and

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how it got its name. He eyed me cautiously, thinking

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I was laying out a tall tail on him. I

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finally got to go inside the small building after all

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this time, and was amazed how well it had survived

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the years. The timber was still sound, and they had

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redone the roof about fifteen years earlier. But on balance,

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the old real eight quarter two by six studs were

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in great shape and there were little signs of aging.

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And to my surprise, even the old outhouse was still

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standing and still had yellow jackets and snakes, but it

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had been partially grown over with Virginia creeper, wild grapes

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and wild roses. They had put a new door on

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it at some point, and the four pane French windows

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had somehow survived our rock throwing in bb guns and

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the generations of kids that had surely come after us.

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And Brad asked, so did you ever use this, pointing

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at the outhouse, I said, hell, no, too many yellow

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jackets and snakes. He chuckled and decided to go use

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the bushes. I walked around the building and looked at it,

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trying to see if there were any remnants of recent

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handprints on the old paint, but I saw none. The

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paint on the outside of the building had started to peel,

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so we he got a local paint guy to come

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out with a small crew and strip it, treat it,

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prime it, and repaint it. In three days, it looked

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brand new for an eighty plus year old building. The

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day it had been painted, Brad decided that he'd like

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to stay out there for the night after hearing all

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the stories, and it was well, peaceful, magical in some ways.

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To my old nostalgic mind, it sort of looked the same.

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The bridge was still there, and the creek channel had

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shifted a few times at some point, taking that sand

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bank where all the bank'swallows were. The trees had changed

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a little, with some dying and falling over into the creek,

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as well as the shrubs being thicker in places. There

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were a few more houses and people out that way now,

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but my friend Dale had since taken over the ranch

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and his brother Terry had gone on to work in

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the movie industry. Their ranch was still the same. The

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area had been chained some, but was still a lie

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like it was when we were kids. There was more trash. Sadly,

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we never left stuff out there, even as young kids.

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At worst we would burn our candy and gum wrappers

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and potato chip bags or our bait curtons. We never

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left the glass pop bottles eventually beer out there. We

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always took that stuff back home. Why trash a place

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where you like to be Anyway, I went home that

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night and I told Brad i'd be out early, about

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five thirty am that next morning to pick him up,

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and I'd bring my fly rod too. We would see

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if we could put a limit of rainbows in Brookies.

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Before we got on the clock, he had brought a

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sleeping bag and some extra sandwiches and water for his

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evening meal, and I told him some good places to

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go to try fishing, as he'd also brought his fly

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rod after seeing some good sized trout the previous two days.

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And then I left and I wished him a good evening.

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I rolled out of bed at four thirty am the

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next morning. It was a half hour drive to Blueberry Lane.

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I turned down the lane in the early dim light

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and had my window down, listening to the birds sing

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their morning sonnets. I got about a half mile down

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the road, and even in the dim light, I could

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see a figure running down the road towards me. As

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I got closer, it was Brad. He was in his

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cross trainers and shorts and no shirt. He was wild

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eyed and stuttering. He kept yelling, get me out of here,

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Get me out of here. They came back, man, they

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came back. I poured him some coffee from my thermos

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and turned on the heater in the truck. He was

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a complete mess. I said, calm down, kid, what are

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you talking about? Who came back? Were there people down

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there bucking you last night? I started to get mad.

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It seemed like a symptom of our society today. People people.

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Brad said, yeah, if you want to call them people,

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I'd call them effing monsters. Man. They were huge, Harry,

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effing monsters, bigfoot, sisquatch, whatever. Man. They were huge and pissed.

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I could not understand what the kid was talking about.

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This had to be a prank. I said, are you

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okay with driving back down there? I want to see

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what happened. I've got my forty five ride here under

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the seat if we have any trouble, and he instantly

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fired back, is it loaded? I looked at him and said, yes,

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What good is a gun if it isn't loaded? And

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he said okay, But I don't want to hang there, man,

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And if you don't mind, I'm staying in the truck.

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I said okay, wondering what this kid had been smoking.

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I then proceeded to slowly drive almost creek down to

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the handhouse and let him unload whatever was eating him.

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The next five minutes, Brad relayed what had happened. He

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said he heard noises and then grunting and growling outside

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the building at about two thirty am. He just thought

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it was a bear or maybe even some cows. He

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had slept with the door closed to keep out the bugs,

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and then at about three thirty am, it all started rustling,

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heavy breathing, and chatter, and then hard slaps on the

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outside of the building. This continued periodically for an hour

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or more until he couldn't take it any longer. He

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decided to go out and confront whoever this was. He said.

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He started yelling at the people from inside the building

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and then ran outside with his flashlight. He said that

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he heard crashing in the brush and woods, and then

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saw an immense figure about twenty yards away walking across

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the bridge in the dim moonlight. He yelled again and

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it growled or yelled back at him, and then it

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threw a stone in his direction. He heard another one closer,

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and in his panic state, he said, it seemed as

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if he would get cut off from the handhouse. He

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had one option, the outhouse. He fled into the outhouse

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and slammed the door. He said within seconds he heard

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them outside and they started banging on the outhouse and

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shaking it, growling and chattering. He said that he was

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in there for maybe ten minutes and then made the

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mistake of looking up at the French paned window. There,

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he said, staring back at him was a monster. Its breath,

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briefly fogging the glass as it exhaled. He said he

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remembered things fading to black and falling, and thinks he

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passed out from fear. In his total panic, he did

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not realize the shaking had disrupted the jackets and they

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had begun to attack him and woke him up by

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stinging him. It gets cold here even in the summer,

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so they were not fully charged, but they had done

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some damage. He said. He came to and bolted out

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of the outhouse, screaming at the top of his lungs,

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and had run up Blueberry Lane in his shorts where

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I had met him. Now, in the early light, I

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could see the swollen stings on his face, in his back,

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and his legs, probably thirty or more angry red growing welts.

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He was a mess. As I pulled up to the handhouse,

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I rolled down my window to listen. I heard nothing.

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Brad said, please close the windows. Man, just grab my

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stuff and let's get out of here. I don't want

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to be here. Man, you got that, and then uttered

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a lengthy string of colorful metaphors. I rolled up the

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window and got out with my pistol, and then I

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walked to steps and I stopped. My mouth dropped. There

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was the hand house covered in large, twelve to fourteen

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inch muddy handprints, just as I had seen it over

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forty years earlier. I slowly walked around the building, and

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it was truly covered. There were kids, pranksters, bigfoot, whatever,

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claiming the newly painted building, like tagging it with graffiti.

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Were they mad at Brad for staying the night. I

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didn't even believe in these things, and here the evidence

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was again staring me in the face. I took Brad's

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things to the truck and he said let's go. I said,

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hang on for a second. I was curious now, and

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I walked back out onto the bridge. I had been

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in this place over two hundred times in my youth

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and only saw the handprints, and never thought for a

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second something larger than life had created them. I stood

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there for probably five minutes, and I could hear Brad

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demanding that we leave. The water was making its usual sounds,

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the birds were doing their early morning calls. It was,

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by all accounts, another gorgeous morning. Nothing seemed abnormal. I

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took one step back towards the truck and I heard

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a guttural growl over the sound of the creek on

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the far side. I stopped, I turned back, and then

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one of the most hair raising howls, screams, whatever you

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want to call it, I have ever heard in my

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life blasted from the same area. It literally shook me

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with its force. Brad went absolutely nuts. I thought he

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was going to jump out and start running again. I

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turned and I was in the truck and spinning the

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tire so fast I don't even remember running. I drove

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up Blueberry Lane without saying a word, my own mind

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spinning and trying to get my head around what had

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just happened. We returned to the office and Brad asked

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me to drive him over to his apartment. I said nothing,

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and I drove him there, and then I said, I'll

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see you back at work. He just gave me an odd,

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blank look. I drove back to work and thought about

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calling Dale. I went to the local diner and had

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a good cup of coffee and tried to logically think

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through the events of the day. That was not a prankster,

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and it was not a recording. I've done a bunch

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of playback recordings in my work, and there's always a

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fake quality and bleed to the audio. Was it a bigfoot?

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As a professional biologist, I'm not sure what to say.

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What else has a hand that size with an opposable thumb.

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It would make a noise that loud. I have never

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seen one of these creatures. I've talked to two people,

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not including Brad, who have they seem credible. One was

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another professional biologist. I drove back to the office and

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opened by email. There was an email from Brad. He

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had resigned. I guess I should not have been surprised.

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In the following two years, I made trips out there

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with Dale and we'd see new hand prints, and he

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said he always knew that they were there, even when

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we were kids. I said, why the hell didn't you

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say anything? He said his dad and his grandpa had

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told him and Terry not to say anything. If you

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don't bother them, then they won't bother you. I said,

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even with the hunting and fishing and shooting, He said

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he figured that they understood that we weren't trying to

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hurt them, and they just watched us from a distance,

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and they kind of liked kids. I guess maybe they

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thought we were funny or interesting. And every now and

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then they would leave their mark on the Handhouse. We

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never saw any tracks. I always thought that was as

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odd as the hand Prince. We saw the handprints, but

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not the other. Maybe they always used the bridge. I

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am long since retired now and still have a hard

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time wrapping the professional side of me around this event.

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Since this all came together, I've actually wanted to lay

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eyes on one of these creatures, and maybe someday before

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I'm too old, they will give me that opportunity. And

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just for your information, the Handhouse is still there.