By Kevin J. Guhl / American Strangeness

The Abominable Snowman was a hot topic in 1965. Norman Dyhrenfurth, who led the first American team to successfully summit Mount Everest in 1963, revealed in February 1965 that he intended to return to the Himalayas to search for the Yeti, despite Sir Edmund Hillary having failed to find the mysterious primate in 1961. Perhaps Dyhrenfurth should have instead focused his attention on Massachusetts, where the Abominable Snowman was reported to be stalking the woods in Foxborough (aka Foxboro)!

Chief Dennis F. Dolan, a 30-plus-year veteran of the Foxboro police force, was confronted with numerous reports of a "great white monster" from local youths late in the summer of 1965. The general description was of a huge creature that stood about 25 feet tall (!), had long arms and took giant steps through the woods.

Dolan labeled it "foolishness," with police generally dismissing the accounts as an absurdity, perhaps an early Halloween prank. The chief insisted that he would need more evidence than the kids' stories before placing stock in the reports.

To the police department's credit, one officer took the time to listen to the witnesses and assured them he would personally investigate if need be. "I interviewed them all separately and each told me the same story," said the unnamed policeman. "If it's a hoax then they are doing a good job."

About five boys and girls, ranging in age from 12 to 15, saw what they believed to be "a creature similar to an abominable snowman" at around 3 p.m. on Aug. 19. It was roaming through a wooded area near a new water tower that had been built at the Foxboro-Sharon town line. "The Thing," the children told police, had long arms that hung below its knees and walked at a rapid pace, covering 7 or 8 feet in one step.

A parent of one of the children visited the Foxboro Police Station to vouch for the group's honesty. The parent further attested that if they thought the children were kidding, they wouldn't have let them come down to the station to file a report. "I do not believe they saw a monster or anything like that but if they say they saw something in the woods then they did," said the unidentified parent. Furthermore, two other children reported seeing the same creature on Aug. 18, and the reports were consistent.

Incidentally, Sharon police were simultaneously seeking an arsonist they believed had started a fire that devastated 40 acres of dry woodland in the town between Aug. 17 and 19. There was no indication that a Yeti was involved.

Dyhrenfurth's upcoming expedition to find the Abominable Snowman was widely announced in the American press, including the Feb. 25 edition of The Patriot Ledger—the same Massachusetts newspaper that reported the Foxboro monster. Could the Massachusetts kids have read that article and still had Abominable Snowmen on the brain six months later?

Dyhrenfurth was ice-cold serious in his convictions, stating in February that he was "firmly convinced the yeti exists" and was ready to spend years proving it, if necessary. His response to doubters and hecklers? "Let them scoff." Dyhrenfurth felt that previous expeditions to Nepal, including Hillary's, had failed due to a lack of stealth. "If you come through the valleys with hundreds of porters... a shy, intelligent animal like the yeti naturally will take off," explained the mountaineer. He intended to employ ample patience and small teams of only two or three men stationed in lookouts. The teams would set up cameras equipped with tripwires to photograph the beast at night and, if possible, planned to capture a Yeti after knocking it unconscious with special guns that fired hypodermic needles.

The Swiss-American mountaineer, who previously trekked across the Himalayas in search of the Yeti in 1958, claimed to have personally seen fresh Yeti tracks and to have spoken with Nepalese who were firsthand witnesses. The Yeti was described as standing erect at about 5 1/2 feet tall and being covered in reddish-brown hair. It was said to lope across the mountain slopes at night in search of food and was known to occasionally attack humans. This is a world apart from the 25-foot white monster reported in Foxborough, which was spotted in the afternoon and, as far as we know, didn't attack anyone.

Despite his confidence in obtaining permission for the expedition—"The Nepalese government believes in the Yeti, too, you know," said Dyhrenfurth—this government permission did not come to pass, due to political tensions in the region. Nepal's foreign secretary was reluctant to have camouflaged teams of zoologists and cameramen all over the Himalayas, Dyhrenfurth (who resided in Santa Monica Canyon) told the Los Angeles Times in December 1965.

"As far as we can tell, the Yeti or Abominable Snowman is neither a man nor does it live in the snow," said the steadfast explorer. "Apparently the Yeti—we think it's an anthropoid high on the evolutionary scale—lives in the region between the highest villages and the glaciers."

But might it live amongst the trees about 20 miles outside of Boston?

"Climber to Seek 'Snowman.'" Tucson Daily Citizen [Tucson, AZ], 25 Feb. 1965, p. 11.

(Clip: https://www.newspapers.com/article/tucson-citizen-climber-to-seek-snowman/208848346/)

"New Expedition to Hunt for 'Abominable Snowman.'" Patriot Ledger [Quincy, MA], 25 Feb. 1965, p. 3.

Chan, Sewell. "Norman Dyhrenfurth, 99, Dies; Led First U.S. Team to Reach Top of Everest." New York Times, 27 Sept. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/world/europe/norman-dyhrenfurth-dead-american-led-mount-everest-climb.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

"Children Report Sighting 'Monster' in Foxboro Woods." Patriot Ledger [Quincy, MA], 20 Aug. 1965, West Edition, pp. 1, 4.

(Clips: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-patriot-ledger-foxboro-yeti-p-1/208847712/ | https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-patriot-ledger-foxboro-yeti-p-2/208847781/)

"Police Chief Dolan of Foxboro Dies." Patriot Ledger [Quincy, MA], 22 Aug. 1969, p. 1.

"Sharon: Arsonist Sought in Woods Fire." Patriot Ledger [Quincy, MA], 20 Aug. 1965, p. 1.

Terence, Mal. "Explorer Still Seeks Abominable Snowman." Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 1965, Part 9, pp. 1, 8.

Richard, Terry. "Pinnacle of Filmmaking." Oregonian, 9 Dec. 1998, p. D4.