Teddy Roosevelt’s Tale of Bauman’s Bigfoot Encounter in the Bitterroot Mountains

By Cade Shadowlight

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In his 1893 book, The Wilderness Hunter, Theodore Roosevelt recounted a chilling tale told by an old trapper named Bauman, who claimed to have encountered a mysterious, large, hairy, bipedal creature in the Bitterroot Mountains near the Montana-Idaho border in the early to mid-1800s. Bauman’s story, shared with Roosevelt during a conversation, has since become a cornerstone of Bigfoot mythology.

According to Bauman, he and his trapping partner were stalked by a tall, foul-smelling creature that walked upright on two legs and left large, human-like footprints. The beast shadowed their movements, growing bolder until it violently attacked their camp, destroying their gear. The situation turned tragic when Bauman discovered his partner dead, his neck broken and throat bearing bite marks. Terrified, Bauman fled, convinced the creature was a “half-human, half-devil” monster.

Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman and hunter who later became the 26th President of the United States, noted Bauman’s palpable fear and appeared to take the story seriously, though he offered no definitive explanation. Neither Bauman nor Roosevelt used the terms “Sasquatch” or “Bigfoot,” as these labels were not yet common. However, the creature’s description — tall, hairy, bipedal, foul-smelling, and leaving oversized humanoid tracks — closely matches modern Sasquatch lore.

Adding intrigue, the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Bitterroot region have long shared legends of hairy, human-like beings. The Salish speak of Se’sxac (wild man), while the Kootenai describe Chiye-tanka (big elder brother), both resembling contemporary Bigfoot descriptions. These oral traditions, dating back centuries, lend cultural weight to Bauman’s account and fuel speculation about a creature yet to be fully explained.

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