Shaggy Men & Strange Lights

Some researchers get really worked up about the idea of Bigfoot sightings that occur at the same time as UFO reports, but ignoring the reports because they don’t fit one’s paradigm doesn’t make them go away.  It’s important to look at these accounts and determine if an area of high weirdness offers more clues as to what we’re really dealing with.  Often some areas have a concentration of various kinds of strange activity, becoming “hotspots” only for a brief period.

It’s hard to predict where a hotspot of paranormal activity will occur, but it’s doubtful that the people of rural, northwest Wisconsin expected their area to become such a focus in the early 1970s.  In fact, most were left completely puzzled over their experiences and never felt like they received any answers.

Take the Bakers for instance.

In the fall of 1973, Mr. and Mrs. Art Baker of Trade Lake, WI, were traveling along a county road when a strange incident occurred.

According to the Inter-County Leader:

“As they drove, their car suddenly stopped for no apparent reason.  A huge ball of bluish light surrounded the vehicle for a minute or so, but there was no sound nor sight of anything other than the strange light.  The dog in the car with them became ‘stiff as a board,’ they reported.”

Before the Bakers could even recover from their surprise at the weird light, it left.  The car engine suddenly restarted itself and the vehicle continued moving down the road.  But the encounter wasn’t over.  A short distance down the road, the light suddenly returned and the events repeated themselves, with the car shutting down automatically.  Once the light departed the second time, the Bakers stopped at the next crossing and got out of the car.  They both felt very odd and their dog looked bewildered, shaking himself as if coming out of a trance.

Mrs. Baker discovered a spot that appeared to be a bruise in the middle of her forehead which remained for a week.  Furthermore, the Baker’s found that their car engine was producing a strange sound after the incidents.  Mechanics were unable to locate the source of the sound and the Baker’s soon traded the car in.

A lot of strange lights were reported in the area during this period.  A Mrs. Delbert Melin said that she observed a lighted object that landed in a field.  Being alone, she chose not to investigate further. 

Just before Christmas, Gunnard Linder of Frederic reported a large, slow-blinking red light over the treetops.  His dogs grew excited and barked up at the object.  Linder watched the object until it dipped down below the tree line and vanished.

Strange lights weren’t the only thing being reported in the region though.  Jerry Strese was driving to work one morning before sunrise when a large, hairy creature ran across the road in front of his vehicle.  Driving south from Sullivan’s Corner, Strese spotted a bipedal creature emerging from a swampy area close to highway 48.  The creature was covered in fur and ran across the road very quickly in a hunched over position.

Strese reported that the creature’s fur was light in color but that otherwise the body was manlike.

Other people in the area had reported sightings of shaggy men with long hair and long beards.  While some believed that the sightings may have just been hippies transiting through the area, others insisted that the figures were human like, but not human at all, being completely covered in fur.

Frederic seemed to be a focal point of much of the activity, with numerous reports of weird bipedal creatures and strange lights in the sky, but a lot of locations around Wisconsin have seen unexplained events.  Perhaps the whole state is a hotspot!