Three Class A Bigfoot Encounters Reported in Brevard County, Florida
Posted Friday, July 10, 2026
By Squatchable.com staff
A YouTube channel called What's Out There recently dropped a video that dives deep into some of the most chilling Class A Bigfoot encounters ever reported out of Brevard County, Florida. If you haven't checked it out yet, you're missing out on some seriously compelling stuff pulled straight from the BFRO database.
The video walks through three separate reports, each one more intense than the last. The first comes from New Smyrna Beach in the summer of 2011, and it's a doozy. A fishing guide with over 25 years on the water was out with a Delta pilot and a lawyer when they spotted something bent over on a sandbank in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. At first, the guide thought it was a bear. But when it stood up and faced them from about 40 yards away, all bets were off. The description is wild: 6 to 7 feet tall, reddish-brown hair, built like a side-by-side refrigerator, with a face that looked more caveman than ape. The creature stared at them for about 15 seconds, took three steps sideways, glanced back over its shoulder, and then disappeared into the mangroves. The pilot reportedly blurted out, "That's an effing Sasquatch." The witness was interviewed for over an hour and found to be entirely credible. The investigator noted the wind was in their face and they were silent in their flat skiff, which probably explains why the creature didn't detect them.
Now, Merritt Island is a fascinating location for this kind of report. It's home to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which sits right next to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The area is a massive stretch of undeveloped land, mangroves, and hammocks that sees very little human traffic in certain sections. It's the kind of remote habitat where a reclusive hominid could potentially thrive, especially with the limited access and dense vegetation providing natural cover.
The second report comes from Titusville in September 2011. A driver was heading south on State Road 407 around 9 PM when something crossed the road right in front of their car. The road runs adjacent to the Canaveral marshlands, which are full of deer, hogs, and plenty of other wildlife. The witness described seeing what appeared to be a Skunk Ape running across the road in just two steps, then jumping down into the embankment. The description mentions long hair flowing as it sprinted, a cone-shaped head, very long arms, and huge feet. The overall body was described as very thick and muscular. The witness didn't stop to investigate, which is probably the smartest move when you're alone on a dark road at night.
Florida's Skunk Ape is essentially the regional name for what's reported as Bigfoot in the southeastern United States. The moniker comes from the strong odor witnesses often report, similar to a skunk. The Florida version is sometimes described as slightly smaller than its Pacific Northwest cousin, but encounters in the state's interior swamplands and wildlife refuges have been documented for decades.
The third report is probably the most terrifying of the bunch, and it comes from Cocoa, Florida, dating back to November 1990. A guy was running his airboat on the upper St. John's River, doing some late-night frog gigging near an area called the Oaks, just south of Lake Winder. He pulled up onto dry ground, poured himself a cup of coffee, and that's when things got real. He heard something moving around behind him, then a thump right next to his boat. Mud started flying, hitting his rudders and his bow. When he turned on his headlamp, he saw a face staring back at him from behind a group of palmettos about 30 feet away. A huge, dark-haired figure with Neanderthal-like features. The witness said he lost all feeling in his body and almost passed out. He was so scared he couldn't even remember starting his engine, but he somehow got the boat going so fast he swamped it and almost sank it. He drove to the middle of Lake Winder and stayed there until sunrise, too terrified to navigate the narrow parts of the river again.
The St. John's River is one of the most significant waterways in Florida, and its upper stretches wind through some incredibly remote swampland. The area around Lake Winder and Duda's property is exactly the kind of habitat where reports like this tend to cluster. Dense oak hammocks, cabbage palms, and miles of marshland create a landscape that's nearly impossible to survey thoroughly.
What's really striking about this video is how the narrator emphasizes the credibility of these witnesses. The airboat operator was reportedly overcome with emotion when retelling his story some 20 years later, and the investigator noted how passionately credible he was. That kind of long-term psychological impact is something researchers often point to when distinguishing genuine encounters from hoaxes.
If any of this piques your interest, definitely go check out the full video. The narrator does a great job reading these reports in a way that really puts you right there in the moment. Brevard County seems to be producing some genuinely fascinating reports, and this video is a solid roundup of the best ones from the area.