The Montana Monster

[Devious Viper]

(Source: Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, New York November 4, 1892)

It Looks Like a Man and Eats Bears and Sheep.

Some of the old time hunters and Indian fighters who are still holding out in the city should endeavor to find a wild eyed individual who came in from the mountains this morning. Whether he discovered a new brand of whisky or whether it was the loneliness of his life in the mountains that caused him to see visions and hear sounds is not known, but, whatever the cause, he had told a story that knocks Joe Klaffki's ghost story, attested to by Jack Brennan, completely in the shade.

He said that over in the range of mountains which forms a part of the Wyoming line he had seen evidence of the existence of a creature whose genus was unknown to him. He also claimed to have obtained a glimpse of the "varmint," but always when he was unarmed, and as its appearance was such as not to invite a close inspection he had never sought to get near enough to it to see just what it was. He says the animal is covered with hair, but in form it is not unlike a man, a resemblance that is increased by the creature's habit of rising on its haunches and walking on its hind legs after the manner of a gorilla.

After having seen the animal the man said he could account for the existence of the torn and partly eaten carcasses of several large bears and also of one mountain sheep that he claimed to have found in the vicinity of where the unknown animal apparently makes his headquarters. The stranger says he will return to the mountains shortly and will pilot anybody who may desire to visit the locality to the exact spot where he last saw the monster.

[Vladimir]

My guess would be bigfoot. Cliche, I know, but that does make sense, given the stature and the location.