Creature record / 1974
Just after midnight. January 9, 1974. Richard Lee Smith was driving on the eastern edge of the Everglades in Pembroke Pines, Florida. His car hit something. He thought it was a tall man in dark clothing. Then the figure lifted itself off the road. It stood seven or eight feet tall and was covered in hair. It roared at him and charged his car. Smith gunned the engine and fled. Over the next few hours, other drivers phoned police about a limping giant on U.S. 27. At 2:12 a.m., a Hialeah Gardens patrolman saw it too. Then it disappeared into the brush.
Between 1971 and 1975, South Florida lived with a legend. Residents of Broward County and the surrounding area reported a creature five to seven feet tall, with "dark red to black fur." Some described home intrusions. Others linked it to livestock deaths. Locals called it the skunk ape, Florida's own Bigfoot.