William Westenbarger was making his regular oil haul along Route 7 in Jefferson County, Ohio on May 14, 2025, when he spotted something that would shake his understanding of the familiar route he’d driven twice daily for ten months. “Standing in the middle of the tracks was a very large bigfoot with brown hair from head to toe, with black hair or muddy hair on its chest,” he reported.
A Route He Knows Like the Back of His Hand
Westenbarger, a commercial trucker who hauls oil from well pads to Steubenville, emphasizes his familiarity with this stretch of highway. “I have been running this route 2 times a day Monday-Friday, for the past 10 months. I know this route,” he explained. The 6’6″ driver’s daily routine takes him northbound on Route 7, crossing a bridge that provides an elevated view of the area below, including an 84 Lumber yard and the railroad tracks that run behind it.
On the morning of May 14th at 10:40 AM, weather conditions were ideal for observation—clear skies and bright daylight provided unobstructed visibility of the tracks below. Westenbarger was completely sober and alert, focused on his regular haul in the middle of a routine workday.
The Sighting
As Westenbarger drove northbound at 55 mph crossing the bridge, he glanced out his driver’s side window toward the railroad tracks below. What he saw stopped him cold. “Standing in the middle of the tracks was a very large bigfoot with brown hair from head to toe, with black hair or muddy hair on its chest. The bigfoot was looking up the hill.”
The creature stood with its side facing the bridge, apparently focused on something up the steep hillside—either a tall bare tree or the top of the hill itself. Despite the brief viewing window, Westenbarger’s elevated position and the clear weather allowed him to observe specific details. “The bright sun gave the hair a light brown color and was long and shaggy,” he noted during follow-up interviews.
Westenbarger immediately attempted to get corroboration. “I called out on the CB radio to get someone else to look and confirm what I just saw. I was driving 55, so 1.5 seconds is not a lot of time.” Unfortunately, no other drivers responded in time to witness the creature.
Two physical characteristics particularly stood out during those brief seconds of observation. “The two things that stood out was its totally brown hair except the dark black on its chest. The other is the size of its shoulder cap on its arm. It was the size of a basketball,” Westenbarger reported.
Estimating the Incredible Size
After completing his delivery route that same day, Westenbarger found himself unloading at Tidewater in Steubenville, where he had an opportunity to put his observation into measurable perspective. “I was able to stand in the rail road tracks next to the oil railcars. They are very large and I was able to put my hand 8 feet up in the air next to the railcars. This bigfoot was taller.”
Standing 6’6″ himself, Westenbarger has an unusual advantage in estimating height—he’s accustomed to looking up at very few things. His conclusion was striking: “I’m 6’6 and I must put this bigfoot no smaller than 9 feet tall.” During the BFRO investigation, when the creature’s height was compared to a nearby railroad warning sign, the estimate grew even larger—approximately ten feet or more.
The witness also noted the creature’s feet, which he could see from his elevated vantage point. “The feet filled up most of the space between the tracks leaving about 8-12 inches front and rear,” suggesting an enormous foot size consistent with the creature’s overall massive proportions.
Physical Description
Westenbarger provided detailed observations despite the brief encounter. The creature’s body was covered in long, shaggy hair that appeared light brown in the bright morning sunlight. “Everything is green and it was turkey season,” he explained when describing the surrounding environment, making the brown-haired figure stand out dramatically against the spring foliage.
The chest area presented a stark contrast to the rest of the body. “From what he could see the chest area seemed to be very dark or black,” according to the investigator’s report. This dark chest patch against otherwise brown hair made the creature’s coloration distinctive and memorable.
The build was extraordinarily powerful. “The body was very thick with the legs being extremely muscular,” Westenbarger observed. The shoulder and bicep area was particularly impressive—”very bulging like a large ball,” with the shoulder cap described as being the size of a basketball. This massive upper body musculature suggested immense strength and power.
Ruling Out Alternative Explanations
As a practical, experienced trucker, Westenbarger’s first instinct was to find a conventional explanation. “At first I was thinking it was a dude in a suit or hunting outfit. But no, it couldn’t be,” he concluded after considering the context.
The timing and location made a human explanation unlikely. “Everything is green and it was turkey season. You don’t wear all brown and a long hair suit to hunt turkeys,” he reasoned. Turkey hunters typically wear camouflage patterns designed to blend with spring foliage, not solid brown covering, and certainly not anything resembling the long, shaggy hair he observed. Additionally, the creature’s estimated height of nine to ten feet would be impossible for a human to achieve, even with platform shoes or stilts on uneven railroad tracks.
Professional Investigation Confirms Details
This account is based on William Westenbarger’s detailed report to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, with extensive follow-up investigation conducted by BFRO Investigator James Thompson. The complete original report can be found at https://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=78751.
Thompson contacted Westenbarger the same afternoon the report was posted and conducted an extended phone interview. The following morning, Thompson visited the location to verify the witness’s observations and search for any physical evidence.
Thompson’s investigation revealed compelling details about the location. “As I drove over the bridge that he viewed the creature from, looking in the same direction, I made notes of what to look for when I got to ground level,” Thompson reported. When he reached the railroad tracks on foot, he discovered the witness’s descriptions were accurate—including a railroad warning sign that stood slightly taller than Thompson’s 5’10” height, located 150 yards from the roadway.
The investigator found intriguing evidence near the sighting location. “I noticed two openings in the overgrowth. One was a circle about 12 feet around, created by tamping those weeds down flat. About fifteen feet later there was a path on the same side of the tracks as the circle,” Thompson documented. The path led to a draw or crevice ascending the steep hill away from the tracks—potentially explaining what the creature had been looking at when Westenbarger spotted it.
Thompson also experienced firsthand the elevated perspective Westenbarger had from the bridge. During one of the witness’s regular runs, Westenbarger spotted Thompson walking the tracks and called him. “He asked if I was on the tracks and I told him yes. He said ‘Man, you look tiny!'” This exchange confirmed the dramatic height advantage the bridge provided for observing the area below.
The investigator’s assessment was unequivocal: “I sat down with the witness recently because we couldn’t schedule a time sooner. His story did not falter from the report and our earlier conversations. I was able to update him on what I found on the ground that day. I found him to be a very credible witness.”
A History of Sightings Along the Ohio River
The Jefferson County area has a documented history of Bigfoot encounters. Thompson noted that Westenbarger’s report “is not the first report of a bigfoot standing near Route 7 near the Ohio River.” The region’s combination of steep, wooded hillsides, water access from the Ohio River, and relatively remote areas despite proximity to human activity creates conditions that researchers consider conducive to Sasquatch movement and habitat.
The railroad tracks where the creature was spotted run through terrain that provides natural corridors for wildlife movement, with thick vegetation providing cover and the nearby hillsides offering retreat into less accessible areas. The draw or crevice that Thompson discovered leading up the steep hill represents exactly the type of route a large, intelligent creature might use to move between the river valley and higher elevation habitats.
A Memory That Won’t Fade
The encounter has left a lasting impression on Westenbarger, who continues to run the same route twice daily. “What I saw that day is still in my mind,” he stated simply. As someone who has driven this stretch of highway hundreds of times and will continue to do so, he now approaches each crossing of that bridge with a different awareness.
For a man of Westenbarger’s considerable height—6’6″—to describe a creature as towering over him by three to four feet represents a rare perspective. Most witnesses must estimate heights based on comparison to objects or their own average stature, but Westenbarger’s exceptional height provides a more reliable reference point for his nine-to-ten-foot estimate.
His conclusion remains firm: the creature he observed for those brief seconds on the railroad tracks was no person, no bear, and no known animal. It was something else entirely—something massive, powerful, and undeniably real standing in broad daylight on a spring morning in Ohio.
