81-Year-Old Woman Claims Half-Sasquatch Heritage from 1943 Encounter

There's a video circulating on YouTube right now that has the Sasquatch community paying close attention, and honestly, it's one of the most unusual firsthand accounts to surface in a long time. An 81-year-old woman is sharing what she says is her life story—and she's claiming to be half Sasquatch. The account comes from a woman going by the name Iris Calendarer, who says she was born Iris Spear in June of 1944 in a cabin above the Trinity River in Trinity County, California. The Trinity Alps have long been considered prime Sasquatch habitat. The rugged granite terrain, dense cedar and fir forests, and remote drainages with creeks that run cold even in August make it exactly the kind of country where a reclusive population could remain hidden for generations. Sightings in the region stretch back well over a century, with documented reports from the Gold Rush era and oral histories from local Indigenous tribes describing large, hairy wild men of the mountains. According to Iris, her mother Winona Spear first encountered Iris's father in October of 1943 on a game trail above Coffee Creek. Winona was 22 at the time, had lost her way in failing October light, and came face to face with a being close to eight feet tall, covered head to foot in coarse dark hair. Instead of running, Winona stood still. The figure watched her for what she estimated was nearly a minute before stepping back into the brush and disappearing. What happened next is what makes this account stand out. Winona went back. Weekend after weekend, she returned to the same area, eventually leaving half a sandwich on a flat rock near where she'd first seen him. The being reciprocated, leaving a fistful of late blackberries in its place. Over the better part of a year, a relationship developed between them—built not on shared language but on a gradual, mutual trust. Winona came to understand a low sound the being made in his chest, which she interpreted as meaning something close to "here" or "steady." She named him Tul. Iris was born the following June in a shelter of woven fir boughs and cedar bark, with Winona's mother present as the only human witness. To protect the family, the grandmother spread the story that Winona had fallen in with a hermit—possibly a man disfigured by some accident who couldn't live among people. That cover story held for decades. But Iris says her body tells a different story. She weighed nine pounds at birth and ran a body temperature of around 101 degrees throughout her childhood. She could hear a truck coming up the county road a mile before anyone else in the house could. She could smell rain coming a full day before it arrived—a mineral, metallic scent she says most people can't detect at all. As a girl of eight or nine, she could grip a fence rail hard enough to leave marks in the wood. These details align with what many Sasquatch researchers have described as physical markers reported by people claiming close encounters or hybrid ancestry—unusual body temperature, heightened senses, and exceptional physical strength. Claims like these are rare and difficult to verify, but they continue to surface in Sasquatch research, particularly from older witnesses who kept their stories private for most of their lives. Iris says she's speaking out now because the mountains where her father still lives are getting quieter every year, and the beings like him are running out of room to hide. She's also promoting a book called "The Bigfoot Codeex," which she describes as a compilation of her research and findings. The Trinity Alps region has a long history of Sasquatch reports, with documented encounters dating back to the 1800s. The area's remoteness, combined with the cultural memory of large, hairy wild men among local Indigenous tribes, has kept it on the radar of serious researchers for decades. Coffee Creek and the surrounding drainages have been mentioned in multiple sighting reports over the years, and the rugged terrain west of Weaverville remains one of those places where hikers and hunters still report strange encounters. Whether you find Iris's account compelling or not, it's the kind of firsthand testimony that deserves attention. The video runs long but is absolutely worth watching in full for anyone interested in Sasquatch history, hybrid claims, or the cultural landscape of Northern California.