Summers claims he saw an ape-like creature Tuesday afternoon walking down an electric right-of-way, a short distance from Arnoldsburg along State Rt. 16.
"Everybody is laughing at me, but I saw it. I swear to God," Summers said.
Summers (shown right) was traveling south in a car, looking out a passenger side window when he claims he spotted the Big Foot or Sasquatch-like creature on a hillside across the West Fork of the Little Kanawha.
"It was tall, about nine feet, hairy and the prettiest black I've ever laid my eyes on. I could see between its' legs. Its' legs looked as big as five-gallon buckets," Summers said.
Summers said the driver of the vehicle couldn't stop because a car was "on his tail," indicating the driver and a passenger didn't see the creature, "But they believe I saw it."
"I've been in the woods all my life. I wasn't drunk," he said, again proclaiming, "God in heaven, be my witness, I saw it. I'll take it to my grave."
Summers said he had heard about other sighting in the Arnoldsburg area a few years ago.
"I know a lot of people won't believe me, but I wanted them to know anyway," he concluded.
**********
From 3/17/2008
BIGFOOT RESEARCHERS COMING TO WV - Arnoldsburg Sighting Reported To Group
hurherald - Bigfoot researchers are coming to West Virginia for a three-day exploratory in April.
Efforts by the Herald to find out if the 18 researchers might visit Calhoun County, have not proved successful.
A Calhoun sighting was posted on the organizations website, saying a Bigfoot was sighted near Arnoldsburg.
The infamous 1967 "Patterson movie" showed a tall, furry, long-limbed, human-like creature quickly looking back toward the camera before lumbering away.
Millions have been fascinated with the legend. The creature has often been reported to be about nine feet tall.
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, an Internet-based community of scientists and journalists, have compiled the world’s most extensive database of Bigfoot encounters and reports.
BFRO investigator Stephen Willis, a retired U.S. Army first sergeant and Webster County native, said, "A lot of people have this impression that Sasquatch only exists in the Northwest, but they are everywhere that you can imagine as long as there is a deer population for food and shelter to protect them from severe winter weather."
Willis said his group will not disclose the exact location of this year’s search for fear that curiosity seekers and media could mess-up the search.
**********
From 5/14/2008
"DON'T DISCOUNT BIGFOOT SIGHTINGS" SAYS FIRST-PERSON WITNESS
hurherald - A Buckhannon woman who has been living in Calhoun, says "Don't be too quick to discount Big Foot sightings," recalling her close encounter with the creature in 1978, while she was living in Iowa.
Her comments came following an alleged sighting in Calhoun County.
Anna Dodrill froze with fear when she looked up from a load of dishes into the "burning red eyes" of a big-nosed, black-faced, hairy-headed creature staring at her through a window a few feet away.
A newspaper account of the incident said "Terror tied her tongue," after seeing the creature through the window, unable to scream.
The "big foot" then fled into the darkness.
Bigfoot sightings had plagued Humboldt and Kossuth counties during the 1970s, according to the sheriffs department.
Doddrill said rumors spread that the beast was responsible for eerie night sounds, broken fences, stampeded cattle, chewed-up cats, mangled rabbits and the death of a dog.
A day after Dodrill saw the creature, 18-year-old Robert Newell was dressing for work, heard a noise and looked out his window, spotting a hunchbacked creature go into a barn.
Newell said the creature appeared to be looking for food, and eventually walked into a cornfield.
Doddrill, who is living with relatives at Arnoldsburg, is still convinced about the creature's sighting, saying "It was the first time in my life I couldn't move."
