The Ochopee Skunk Ape and Vince Doerr's Photograph

Big Cypress National Preserve. Swamp, cypress and gravel roads, near Ochopee in Collier County, Florida. For years old timers had talked about the skunk ape, Florida's own Bigfoot.

The summer of 1997 was wet. Swamp water stood 6 to 12 inches above normal, and high seasonal water pushed animals onto higher ground. The mosquitoes were bad. Then the sightings began.

Wednesday, July 16, 1997. 2:00 pm. Steve Goodbread of Pelican Tours had a bus of about 30 tourists on Turner Road, near a burned-out bridge. Some 70 to 80 yards from the road stood something brownish and bipedal. About 7 feet tall. Hairy everywhere except the face. Gorilla-like. It rocked back and forth and shook the bushes. It seemed irritated. Goodbread watched for about 15 minutes. He asked a tourist with a telephoto lens to get out and photograph it. She refused.

Two days later Dow Roland of Everglades Day Safari had a half dozen tourists in his Ford van on the same road. He got three glimpses. First about 300 feet west of the road. Long brown hair, a smooth face. It ran into the brush. Minutes later it was back, about 150 feet away, and seemed nervous. Then once more, at the west edge of the road near a white convertible. His first thought was a prankster in a gorilla suit.

Monday, July 21. Just before 7:45 am. Jan Brock, a Collier County realtor, was driving south on Burns Road, about 2 miles north of U.S. 41. Roughly 1000 feet ahead, a creature crossed. About 7 feet tall. Thick dark brown hair, with what looked like an off-white patch on its chest. It walked upright the entire time. Its legs were too long for a bear. It disappeared into the brush on the east side. She noticed no smell. There were no footprints at the crossing.

About 15 minutes later Vince Doerr, Chief of the Ochopee Fire Control District, was on his Monday morning drive to the fire station in Everglades City. Something crossed ahead of him at a slow pace, upright. "At first I thought it was a bear, but bears don't stay up on two legs the way this thing was. Then I thought, who's playin' games?" He drove to the spot. It was already "400 yards off in the bush." "I grabbed my camera and I yelled at it. It turned and looked at me but it kept walkin', parallel to the road. I waited until it got between two trees and then I took a picture."

One frame. A blob of brown in the middle, which the AP read as the head and shoulders of a burly, manlike figure retreating into the thicket. On July 24 David Shealy, owner of the Florida Panther Gift Shop, found brown hair on brush and cast two footprints, 13.5 inches long. The hair was later lost. On August 17 a couple on Turner Road caught a dark figure, well over 7 feet tall, in their headlights. It kept its back to them and moved out of the light.

Ron Clark of Big Cypress National Preserve was unmoved. "If an animal like that existed for as many years as people have been studying the swamp, it would have been found." Doerr laughed at first. "I just think someone's playing games." A man in a gorilla suit became the leading theory. The tour guides pointed to the 100°F heat, the humidity and the remoteness. "It wouldn't be wise to dress up like a gorilla… because the outfit would be extremely hot," Roland said. Shealy, the story's main promoter, had baited sites with lima beans, and more sightings followed. The BFRO investigator judged the witnesses credible.

Doerr turned down the National Enquirer. The BBC, CNN and Unsolved Mysteries came calling. "Maybe this town needs a big tale," he said. He never claimed more than he saw. "It's something… I ain't never said it was the skunk ape. But it's somethin'."