Forest Service biologist describes Sasquatch encounter at Oregon cabin
Posted Thursday, August 13, 2026
By Squatchable.com staff
A retired wildlife biologist with 25 years of experience tracking animals through the Oregon wilderness had a face-to-face encounter with a Sasquatch right at her bedroom window — and the way it happened has researchers buzzing.
The story comes from a video posted to the Bigfoot Sasquatch Stories channel on YouTube, narrated by Victor, who shares accounts pulled together from forums, personal testimonies, and research communities. This particular tale centers on Ellen Marsh, a former Forest Service wildlife biologist who spent her career tracking bears, bobcats, elk, and wolverines across some of the most rugged terrain in the Pacific Northwest.
After losing her husband Thomas — a longtime ranger who died following a fall during a trail inspection — Ellen sold her home in town and moved into a small cabin near the Eagle Cap wilderness boundary. She kept herself busy with volunteer work, checking trail cameras and sending data to research groups. Most nights were quiet, just her, the pines, and the wind.
But one late September evening, everything changed.
Around 11 PM, Ellen heard three dry, evenly spaced knocks coming from the forest behind her cabin. She walked to the back door, looked through the glass, and saw nothing but darkness. The sound came again, farther away this time, then nothing. She told herself it was probably a bear or an elk and went to bed.
Sleep never really came. At 1:40 AM, the knocking returned — this time right against her bedroom window, more than six feet off the ground because the cabin sat on a slope. Three knocks. A pause. Three more. Slow, deliberate, and rhythmic in a way no animal Ellen had ever studied could replicate.
She pulled back the curtain and found herself staring into a pair of amber eyes positioned so high she had to tilt her head upward to meet them. Behind the glass was a heavy brow ridge, a broad nose, and breath fogging the window. Then an enormous hand rose into view — five fingers, one thumb, knuckles several times larger than any human hand.
What struck Ellen most wasn't the size of the Sasquatch standing outside her window. It was the behavior. The Sasquatch didn't charge the glass. Didn't bare teeth. Didn't shake the wall. Instead, the Sasquatch stepped back, turned toward the forest, paused, looked back at Ellen, and then knocked three times against the trunk of a small tree beside the yard — almost as if leaving a message.
For longtime researchers, this kind of detail matters. Documented Sasquatch encounters often describe deliberate, non-aggressive behavior — knocking on trees, leaving rocks arranged in patterns, or even tapping on windows or vehicles. Researchers like Dr. Jane Goodall have noted over the years that reports of Sasquatch behavior tend to mirror patterns seen in great apes, particularly in how they communicate through percussive sounds. Knocking, drumming on trees, and throwing objects are all part of the known behavioral repertoire of gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans in the wild.
Ellen had spent a quarter-century in the field. She knew what bears sounded like clawing at trees. She knew what elk antlers striking wood sounded like during the rut. She knew the difference between a bobcat track and a domestic dog print just by the depth of the impression. None of that training prepared her for what stood outside her window that night — and none of it gave her a comfortable explanation either.
The video tells the full story in detail, including Ellen's internal debate about whether to call the sheriff, call her old colleague Sam Okafor, or simply stay still and observe. It's one of those accounts that sticks with you, partly because of Ellen's professional background and partly because of how the Sasquatch chose to make itself known.
Definitely worth checking out the full video over on the Bigfoot Sasquatch Stories channel. The way Victor walks through the encounter, piece by piece, really lets the details breathe. And if you've had a similar experience — a knock in the night, eyes in the dark, something that didn't behave like anything in the field guides — drop your story in the comments. You never know whose testimony might help piece the puzzle together.