William Roe's 1957 Bigfoot Encounter: A Credible Witness's Close-Range Account
Posted Tuesday, July 07, 2026
By Squatchable.com staff
There's something about a sworn affidavit that hits differently than a casual campfire story. When a man puts his name on a legal document, knowing he could face criminal charges for lying, and describes an encounter with a Sasquatch in broad daylight... that carries weight. That's exactly what came across in a recent video that digs deep into one of the most compelling close-range encounters ever documented in North America.
The story centers on William Roe, a lifelong trapper and hunter from Michigan who had spent years working the wild country of northern Alberta and later British Columbia. By the fall of 1955, Roe was working on a highway crew near a tiny town called Tete Jaune Cache, about 80 miles west of Jasper. On a clear October day with nothing to do, he decided to climb Mica Mountain, where an old abandoned mine sat near the top. He brought his rifle the way any experienced woodsman would in grizzly country, but this wasn't a hunt. It was just a walk.
The encounter happened around 3:00 in the afternoon, in broad daylight. Roe had just come out of a patch of low brush into a clearing when he spotted a large dark shape in the bush about 75 yards away. His first instinct was grizzly, and for good reason. He had shot a grizzly on that very slope the year before. But instead of firing, he sat down on a small rock to observe. No point in killing something that big if he couldn't pack it out.
What happened next is what makes this case legendary. The figure stepped into the open, walking upright on two legs like a human. It moved closer, close enough that Roe could have reached out and touched it. Close enough to watch the muscle move under its hair. Close enough to watch it feed. Roe had a rifle trained on its back, his finger resting against the trigger. He had the shot. He had what every researcher on Earth would have given a fortune to possess.
He didn't fire.
The video walks through the entire affidavit moment by moment, stopping to show the actual evidence underneath each beat of the story. It's a fascinating breakdown of why this particular witness matters. Roe wasn't some city slicker looking for a thrill. He was a man who had spent his entire life telling animals apart at a distance in bad light under stress. His livelihood depended on not being fooled by shapes in the brush. If anyone could be trusted to know a bear from something else, it was him.
The encounter lasted for several minutes. Roe described seeing a female Sasquatch and what appeared to be a young one with her. The details he provided were remarkably specific, covering everything from the creature's facial features to the way it moved. When the Sasquatch finally noticed Roe, it reportedly grabbed the young one and vanished into the trees with incredible speed.
What makes this case stand out nearly 70 years later is the legal weight behind it. Roe filed a sworn affidavit in 1957, witnessed by a commissioner of oaths, with his name at the bottom and criminal penalties attached for any falsehood. The account made national news and was printed in books that are still circulating today. Researchers continue to cite it as one of the most important encounters of its kind ever recorded.
The video does an excellent job of reconstructing the events from that day, grounding every detail in the actual affidavit and the notes of investigators who sat with Roe and wrote it all down. It's worth watching for anyone who appreciates well-documented historical testimony. The pacing is deliberate, letting the weight of the evidence speak for itself rather than relying on dramatic embellishment.
For those unfamiliar with the William Roe case, this is a solid introduction. The video treats the subject with the seriousness it deserves, focusing on the credibility of the witness and the legal documentation behind his account. It's a reminder that some of the most compelling Sasquatch encounters didn't come from blurry footage or late-night stories. They came from sober, experienced woodsmen who put their names on legal documents and swore every word was true.