This incident occurred in the dead of winter in a small Kansas town in 1984. An 8-inch blanket of snow had fallen weeks earlier, but still covered the ground, as temperatures hadn't risen above the teens.

I arrived home around 10 pm, and my 16-year-old son and his hunting buddy from across the street met me at the door, both excitedly telling me they'd found some bear tracks in the snow that afternoon, and they wanted me to drive them out to the boondocks to see them. At first I laughed and accused the boys of kicking up the snow, just to play a trick on me. However, my son was so excited, and so insistent, that I found myself grabbing a large lantern flashlight and also my camera (which had only 1 exposure left) and out the door we went.

We drove for about 10 minutes to the boondocks, then travelled some boonie roads, and when the road took a wide curve to the right, my son told me to stop, but pull the car slightly to the left, and aim my headlights across the field on the left-hand side of the road. It was extremely dark, and bitter cold, and when I did this, my headlights were shining out across a huge, flat, snow-covered field surrounded by faraway trees. I told the boys no way was I going to trudge across that dark field! My son told me not to worry, the tracks were only about 20 feet in front of the car.

The three of us got out, and as we started walking across the field, the first thing I noticed was how hard the snow was. I even stomped down hard with the heel of my shoe, unable to make even a dent in the snow, thinking to myself, well, one thing's for sure, the boys certainly hadn't kicked up the snow to make whatever tracks were there.

Sure enough, about 20 feet from the road was the first track. As I shone the flashlight on the track, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The track was round, and about 8 inches in diameter. Around one side were "lines" like claws, and I remember thinking it looked like someone had used a stick match to press perfect lines around the track. As I stared down at the track, I heard my son say, "here's another one!" I walked over to where he was and, sure enough, there was another track. The boys were dashing about, finding the tracks in the glow of the headlights. Then my son (who has always been an avid hunter, tracker, and all-round outdoorsman) said, "Whatever it was, was walking upright on 2 feet." I asked, "how can you tell," and he took my flashlight and shone it along the tracks and pointed out how the tracks were bipedal. That's when I realized how far apart the tracks were. For some reason, I wanted to always remember those tracks, and it hadn't occurred to me to take a tape measure, so I studied the tracks intently, and judged them to be about 6 feet apart. Then I even tried to leap from one track to the next, but I could only leap about 5 feet. I was a smoker back then (probably why I could leap only 5 feet... aha-ha-ha...) and I dropped my pack of Marlboro Lights inside a track (for size) and I had my son shine the flashlight on the track while I snapped a picture of it.

My son said, "If it was a bear, he was running upright on two legs, but bears don't run on two legs..." That's when it occurred to me how pristine those tracks were. I told my son if it was running, it seems like the snow would be kicked up around the tracks. But each track was perfectly pressed down into the snow, and even the claws were perfect lines around the tracks.

Suddenly I looked around me at the surrounding darkness, and I realized that something extremely large had traversed that snowy field, walking, so it seemed, and taking extremely long strides... That's when the hair literally stood up on the back of my neck, and I said, "Let's get the heck out of here!"

The end of this story is that when I had my film developed, the picture of the track was over-exposed, and turned out totally white.

By the time it occurred to me that there were no other witnesses to the tracks but me, my son, and his buddy, all the snow had melted....

Several years ago I discussed those tracks at length with the Director of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, and he was baffled..... He said it was definitely not a cat, due to the claws, since a cat walks with its claws retracted. Other than that, he had no idea what in the world it was.

My son is now 38 years old. Through the years we've discussed those tracks, and we both regret that I didn't drive directly back to town and hail down a police officer, to have a credible witness, and possibly some professional photographs of the tracks.

What made those tracks across that snowy field will always be a mystery.

Welcome to UM. Awesome story and a great read. Thanks for that. To bad about the picture. That would be an amazing find to have documented.

Claws you say? My first thought was possible Sasquatch tracks. But with claws... I've never heard of that. Maybe someone with more experience with Sasquatch tracks could answer our questions...

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the welcome (wavin' atcha). Yes, pretty crappy that the picture didn't turn out. My failure to take a professional to that field to document those tracks is the biggest regret of my life. What in the world was I thinking?

I thought of Sasquatch tracks, too, and I agree none (that I've heard of) have been reported that are round, with claws. And I do hope someone with tracking experience can offer a credible explanation.

*waves back*

I got to thinking about this and you might be able to find some better answers if you post Here They have much more experience than we do over in this here part of the boards,lol Good luck finding out!

If the snow was that hard it must have been heavy.

Good point!

Good piont! Maybe a MOD will move it. But be warned, I traverse that forum and there are some rather stiff (for lack of better word) skeptics.

Yeah, I have ventured there once or twice myself. They can get a little over excited in there,lol

I followed the link, and read some of The Mothman v. Bigfoot thread. Hahaha. To tell you the truth, the reason I didn't post my experience on that forum was b/c of the word "myth" in the forum title.

I'm not really looking for an answer, b/c in all honesty, I don't think there is an answer. I'm just sharing a very unbelievable experience I had.

Thanks for responding! About the animal (or whatever it was...) being heavy, my assumption, based on the appearance of the tracks, was that they had been made shortly after the snow had fallen, when it was soft and fresh. The tracks appeared to have been made in a *wet* snow, due to the perfect claw lines pressed into the snow around each track. Then the hard freeze, which had lasted for weeks on end, had preserved the tracks in their pristine state.

I certainly don't want to sacrifice myself to the skeptics (yikes!).

Aside: Here's my description of a skeptic. I offer for debate a film of a UFO hovering in my backyard, as it beams my dalmation up, then momentarily spits him out onto the roof of my house, covered in green slime, after which my dalmation can speak fluently in 7 different languages. According to the skeptic, I filmed the planet Jupiter..... (hahaha)

I think you would have better luck here. I do go to that forum, and you have to be fierce. But thank you very much for sharing.

Oh my gosh!! I just thought of an explaination to what you saw!!! It's mythical, but it fits your description. Even the part about the large cat. It's called the Wampus Cat. It is a fabled cat of Native American legends. It is supposed to be very large and is occassionally seen walking on two feet. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page about them. It doesn't exactly fit, and it's more in the realm of superstition. But hey, it's interesting.

Yeah, it's pretty friendly here on this forum, so far. And hey, that really is a pretty interesting link about the Wampus Cat. It's the first I've heard of it. However, according to the Kansas State Wildlife Director, the claws around the prints eliminate the possibility of it being a cat, since a cat walks with its claws retracted. It's frustrating not knowing what made those tracks.... And even more frustrating that I didn't immediately report them to the authorities!

Lemme see if I can dig up any more info on the Wampus Cat. And another possibility ... werewolf? (Don't call me crazy; I'm just trying to work with the evidence here.) It fits. Canines walk with thier claws out. But about cats walking with thier claws retracted; this applies to all cats except the Cheetah. But somehow, I don't think there was a bipedal Cheetah roaming your woods (and the footprints were too small anyway).

EDIT: after a little digging around I found theses ( 1 2 3 ) websites dealing with the Wampus Cat. The more I read them, the more it seems to fit all of the strange happenings around your house, WhatTha.

I'm shrugging. Since I don't have a clue what *did* make those tracks, I'm certainly in no position to say what *didn't* make them... Anything's possible (shrugging)....... I'll probably go to my grave wondering.

I agree. I'm puzzeled. Wampus Cat? Werewolf? Sasquatch? You have a real mystery. Keep your eyes open and us posted!

I'm bumping this thread to the top, because I just found Kreatorkind's thread saying his dad found the same kind of footprints in the snow that I did. I asked Kreatorkind to ask his dad if the footprints had claw marks around them, like the ones I saw.

Interesting Story. Hence, i don't even know what made these tracks!

Can you draw the tracks for us - do a little sketch and upload it?