Bigfoot Tales by Glenn Norberg
Glenn Norberg, who lives and works in Florence, Colorado, a town of 4,000, explains that if he climbed onto his roof, he could turn an imaginary compass and tell accounts of Bigfoot sightings from every direction in the vicinity. One or more stories from each direction, from every canyon, and even across the plains towards Pueblo.
“I used to dismiss local accounts of Sasquatches, still under the assumption that they try to avoid people. It seemed unbelievable because our small town is in the high desert. I thought no way. Although it is adjacent to the Arkansas River, it is ten miles from the nearest mountains, and nowhere near the Pacific Northwest where I believed Bigfoot lived – if it existed. I have since had my worldview altered radically in regard to the reality and presence of Bigfoot in and around Florence.
Before I knew how close they were to urban environments, I did not notice that there was a lot of cover for concealment. They seem rather unafraid of people, but they prefer to remain obscured. Like a mountain lion, it is probably not afraid of you, but it chooses to be behind you. I think these hominids have a similar mindset. I’ve found a number of accounts – ranging from one in the 1960s, three during the 80s, another in the 90s, and maybe a dozen more recently that describe hairy men, though some called them Bigfoot.
Most accounts center on the drainage ditch we call the “wash,” which runs directly through town, from the Wet Mountains to the Arkansas River at the northern edge. It passes under Highway 115, the main street, through a twenty-foot-deep, vegetation-lined dirt culvert. lined with vegetation.
“They might even move through larger populated areas, but at least for now, we know about several small towns. When they come into Florence, they could be observing us as they pass through. Yet, I almost think we’re incidental. This group doesn’t seem to have a problem just walking through streets the way other animals like bears, raccoons, and coyotes do, but it can be traumatizing for the poor souls who look out their windows and happen to see them under the street lamps or the light of day. Sometimes these folks will hold their story inside until someone like me comes along and asks them in a non-judgmental way what they saw.
“They are not reluctant to come into town, primarily at night, but surprisingly, even during the day. They act nonchalant during observations in public spaces where they could easily avoid us, but they don’t seem to care one way
or the other.“
“A good example was when a lady who was driving at night noticed a pair of Sasquatch casually standing beside the road, like hitchhikers a couple of hundred feet from the bridge over the Arkansas River. As she drove by, they just watched her, not attempting to hide.
“What got me started asking around and gathering Bigfoot reports was a sighting from 1987 that became the subject of a BFRO (Bigfoot Research Org.) taping in 1991. Three witnesses encountered something strange. Two employees at the donut shop saw an eight-foot-tall, hairy figure walking down the street at 3:00 a.m. About that same time, a paper delivery truck driver heard something scary behind the building where he deposited the stacks of newspapers set for distribution. A cop stopped by the shop on patrol and was told about the strange occurrence.
Reportedly, the policeman returned to the donut shop after searching behind the building and asked the boys at the shop what they had seen. The employees told him and asked what he found. He said, ‘Didn’t see nothin, nothin at all.’ They told the BFRO that the cop wouldn’t say anything; however, he was so traumatized and shaky that he spilled his coffee.
“In contrast, we have this openly descriptive account from the mid-1980s involving one of my neighbors, Shannon Proud. Usually, after Florence’s annual Pioneer Day parade in September, everyone gathered at the city park which abuts the large drainage ditch we often call the ‘wash,’ for a follow-up barbecue. However, Shannon decided to walk home just after 12:00 noon instead of attending the picnic. As he crossed over the wash, something caught his eye. Twenty feet below him, a very large, dark, hairy figure was walking up the ditch from the river and heading out of town – at midday, just three blocks from the barbecue in the park!
“Sometimes they do look back. Coal Creek is an old part of Florence, an unincorporated mining town, more like a collection of buildings. Mateo and I recently heard about a woman who was traumatized when, one dark night in November 2021, she looked out her front window and saw a Sasquatch strolling down the middle of the street, lit by a street lamp, barely thirty yards from her living room.
When she spotted the figure, it looked directly back at her as it continued walking, not running, into the darkness toward the wash. That experience really got to her. That night the lady’s position was, ‘There’s no way these hominids exist.’ But her incident validated that these beings have no fear of people.
The last thing you would expect is something like that, just brazenly walking freely through town in the middle of the night…
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