THE BIGFOOT FILES/Chapter Thirty: Bigfoot Horror Stories

Bigfoot Horror Stories is the first in a series of books by author Steven Armstrong, a native of Washington state.

“Having grown up in Tacoma, Washington, the subject of Sasquatch has been a somewhat familiar topic of discussion ever since I can remember,” Armstrong writes in his Foreword. “Although I have never had the presumably terrifying experience of running into a Sasquatch, the possibility continues to keep me on high alert while trekking through the desolate woods of the Pacific Northwest.”

Armstrong has released five volumes of Bigfoot Horror Stories in 2021, and they’ve garnered more than 260 reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 4.2 stars (out of 5).

“I’ve spent close to two years gathering Sasquatch sighting reports and putting them into my own words,” he writes.

The first volume, Bigfoot Horror Stories, describes six sightings throughout North America. The stories don’t read like horror tales per se but more like eyewitness reports. However, a common thread of fear ties all the Sasquatch encounters together. As an avid Bigfoot enthusiast, I enjoyed Bigfoot Horror Stories.

Told in the first-person point of view by the eyewitnesses, the stories are straightforward and unembellished, which gives them a semblance of authenticity. They range from Bigfoot snatching a boy’s backpack to killing a girl’s horse.

The first story, “The Stolen Backpack,” is set in Oregon on an October day about 20 years ago when the witness – 11 years old at the time – describes an incident where a Sasquatch stole a backpack from his friend and disappeared into the woods.

“I still can’t believe how close that creature got to town,” the witness reported.

In “Tree Knocks near the Garden,” a Massachusetts woman describes an encounter three years ago. While working in her garden, she heard three knocks, which eventually led to an actual Bigfoot sighting. It scared her so much that she hid in her bathtub until her boyfriend returned home. He joined her in the bathtub after seeing the Sasquatch. The police responded to their 9-1-1 call and told the couple to vacate the property.

“They claimed they had found signs of wolves in the area and needed to call specialists to transport them elsewhere before they could harm anyone. The story felt very odd,” the woman reported.

Adding to the oddness is that the federal government funded their stay in a hotel.

“My gut tells me that a Sasquatch was either apprehended or killed at the site,” the woman said.

“The Rooftop Creeps” is a story set during a 1998 family Christmas in Anchorage, Alaska. The witness said his terrified sister claimed she saw “a big monkey” while building a snow fort in the yard. Their father investigated and discovered strange tracks but nothing else. Later, a skirmish on their rooftop “sounded like two large people started wrestling atop the roof and sliding down one side of it.”

“Since I never saw the animals myself, I’m unable to verify whether it was a couple of Sasquatches that were on our roof that night, but my sister insists that was the case,” the witness reported. “There’s not a single doubt in her mind that it was a Sasquatch that approached her while she was building her snow fort all those years back.”

The next two stories feature Bigfoot and other animals.

In “The Turkey Snatcher,” a young boy joins his uncle on a turkey hunt during a Thanksgiving in Ohio. He witnesses what his uncle called a “wood booger” during the trip.

In “The Runaway Horse,” Sasquatch allegedly spooked and then killed a girl’s horse during a ride in Northern California. The witness reported her cousin said, “There was a wild gorilla in the woods.”

The final story, titled “The Ridge Crawler,” happened in 2004 during a camping trip about an hour inland from San Diego. The witness and three other college students heard a scream and noticed a pair of eyes in a tree.

“I thought it was some strange person who had climbed up there unnoticed,” the witness reported.

The college students followed the animal to a ridge where it appeared to issue a warning with a bluff charge. They returned to their vehicles and waited until sunrise before retrieving their tents and camping gear.

“We quickly agreed that it had to have been a Sasquatch that we encountered,” the witness said.

Click HERE to check out Armstrong’s Bigfoot Horror Stories on Amazon.

NEXT UP: Chapter Thirty-One: The Red Book. I review the 2020 short story by Jill Hedgecock.