"Bigfoot Believers And The Curious Congregate At Salt Fork" Photo By Michael Neilson. The Daily Jeffersonian (Ohio newspaper).
Area Bigfoot authority Don Keating (center group photo )is interviewed by Leigh Hart (bald head, left), host of Mysterious Planet, a New Zealand television series dealing with strange phenomenon. The interview was during the 21st annual Bigfoot Conference/Expo Saturday at Salt Fork Resort and Conference Center. Filming is videographer Brent Spillane (with camera).
ROOTS OF CHARACTER:
"THOSE WHO PRESERVE THEIR INTEGRITY REMAIN UNSHAKEN BY THE STORMS OF DAILY LIFE. THEY DO NOT STIR LIKE LEAVES ON A TREE OR FOLLOW THE HERD WHEN IT RUNS. IN THEIR MINDS REMAINS THE IDEAL ATTITUDE AND CONDUCT OF LIVING. THIS IS NOT SOMETHING GIVEN TO THEM BY OTHERS. IT IS THEIR ROOTS...IT IS A STRENGTH WITHIN THEM."
ANONYMOUS NATIVE AMERICAN
DAN DAVIS/The Daily Jeffersonian (Ohio newspaper)
May 4, 2009

“Be careful of what you find,” Diane Stocking warned. “It may well be a rock.”
Stocking, one of three guest speakers Saturday at the 21st annual Bigfoot Conference/Expo, said that what may initially appear to be evidence of Bigfoot or Sasquatch activity must be scrutinized thoroughly before conclusions can be reached.
For example, an apparent footprint was located along a stream and a plaster cast made. Further investigation — by none other than Peter Byrne, one of the so-called “Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery” who led a three-year search for the Abominable Snowman (or Yeti) in Asia — revealed that the impression, though remarkably footprint-like in appearance, was actually made by a rock that had been dislodged from its resting place.
Stocking is president of Florida-based Stocking Hominid Research Inc. She possesses a degree in forestry, served several years as curator of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and is well known in the Bigfoot research arena.
Twisted trees can also often be mistaken for Bigfoot activity, she said. But tornados, microbursts and ice storms can cause such damage too.
So-called “stick stacks” and “weaves” must also be carefully considered, she said. Some formations can occur naturally from falling branches. Others are man-made, possibly by hikers seeking temporary shelter.
Stocking said that one weave in Oregon does not appear to be either natural or man-made, as trees were pulled inward to form a teepee-like formation. The peak was no less than 15 feet from the ground when she examined the formation about 1 1/2 years after its initial discovery by another researcher. The original peak was higher, she said, as the formation had begun to collapse in on itself.
Tree markings can be the result of elk rubs, bear clawings, buck scrapes and porcupines.
Bears walk in such a manner that they place their hind paws into the print of their front paws. This can lead to elongated prints that appear human-like. Animal prints in snow can expand due to thawing.
Bears suffering from mange can, at a distance and standing upright on their hind feet, appear Bigfoot-like. Tree stumps in photographs have given rise to some reported Bigfoot sightings.
Stocking denounced claims that Bigfoot have a mid-tarsal break in their feet giving them flexibility beyond that of humans. She said that biped movement requires a rigid arch.
Though having no personal sightings, Stocking said she does believe that Bigfoot exists. The creature is intelligent and elusive, easily able to avoid detection if it so chooses. Encounters with humans may simply be accidental.
Billy Willard also addressed the audience of several hundred. He formed Sasquatch Watch of Virginia with his son Josh in 2005.
Among the team members is John, who shared his encounter from 1982 during a hunting trip to North Carolina. His first time hunting, he was stationed in a deer stand. At about 9 a.m. he noticed an odor that sickened him. He had dry heaves, felt the hair on his head stand up as if by static shock, began to convulse and fell to the floor of the stand.
About five minutes later he sat up and began to hear noises. About 50 yards away was a figure he saw only from the waist up. The creature pulled tree branches through its mouth, stripped off the leaves. It peered from left top right periodically, turning its upper body as it did so.
“This wasn’t a person wearing a costume or playing a joke on me,” he said.
It would be more than two decades before John could bring himself to return to the forest.
Willard shared details of several incidences he and his team have investigated, including one in Salt Fork State Park in April near a public picnic area. A track, possibly that of a juvenile Bigfoot, was found and cast. Eyeshine (light reflected from eyes) was seen and members entered the woods. At one point a stick was thrown in Willard’s direction; he saw it travel end-over-end, not flatly, as if it fell from a tree.
Willard also experienced a similar feeling to that of John on an investigation. He became sick and disoriented and laid down on the ground for a few minutes before regaining his bearing.
“I’ve never had that feeling before,” he said, “and I’ve not had it since.”
One theory put forward to explain such experiences is that the creature emits “infrasound” in frequencies of less than 20 Hertz that can cause disorientation in some people. Infrasound is known to be used by some animals in the wild, including elephants and tigers, Willard said.
During a 2007 expedition to Paris, Texas, Willard and team member Tom L. were sleeping in a tent at the end of a campground. By his own admission Willard is a loud snorer. His partner later said that he heard footfalls to the tent, felt the poles being shaken, saw the silhouette of a creature and heard the creature mimic Willard’s snoring sounds.
The following morning Willard said he had what he thought initially was a dream in which something grabbed his leg through the fabric of the tent. Efforts to brush it off failed so he balled his hand into a fist and punched it and fell back asleep. After hearing of Tom L.’s experience he checked his leg and found a red mark where he believed he had been grabbed.
Doug Hajicek was scheduled to speak but was forced to cancel due to business-related obligations, said Keating. Hajicek is perhaps best known for his “Monster Quest” series airing on the History Channel. Keating was featured in one of those episodes dealing with Bigfoot in Ohio, known as the “grassman.”
Keating himself shared information regarding the first and most recent sightings to take place in Salt Fork State Park.
Shortly after the state park opened in 1972 a woman spotted a creature crossing the roadway not far from the cabins. It was the first of four separate sightings taking place over a two-week period. The last and perhaps most terrifying was that of a park ranger who peered out a ranger station window into the face of an alleged Bigfoot. Instinctively he lashed out, Keating said, shattering the glass pane with his hand. The injury required dozens of stitches to close.
On Feb. 9 a West Virginia couple driving through the park spotted a creature walking up a hill. They turned their automobile around and observed the creature “hugging” a tree. Keating said this may have been an attempt by the creature to conceal itself.
Four things are required for a sighting, Keating said: A creature to be observed, an observer, that observer willing to share his/her sighting and circulation within the community of the sighting. Though he is aware of more than two dozen alleged sightings in Salt Fork State Park, there are certainly others that go unreported, possibly from fear of ridicule.
The conference ended with a question and answer session with both speakers, Keating, John and Eric Altman of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society.
(ddavis@daily-jeff.com)
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"That Guy: Let's Hear It For Maori Sasquatch."
By Leigh Hart
New Zealand, Herald, May 10, 2009
First noted on the www.cryptomundo.com site
There is an old saying that goes: “If you can’t get laid at a Bigfoot conference/expo, you can’t get laid anywhere!”, and for the most part I would have to agree with this. However, I might add that although your chances are good, be prepared for it to be with a heavily tattooed woman who could conceivably weigh in at 130 to 180kg.
I attended, or rather gatecrashed, the annual Bigfoot conference this year, rather controversially in Ohio. Officially I was there making a documentary series called Leigh Hart’s Mysterious Planet for TV2, but rather than research the mythical upright walking hominid himself, I was far more interested in those attending the event.
To cut a long story short, I have never seen so many freak shows in one place at one time.
The conference took place at Salt Fork Lodge which is close to where many Bigfoot sightings have apparently occurred in the past, the first as far back as 2004. Coincidentally, that was also the first year they held the conference here.
More than 450 Bigfoot enthusiasts attended and for three long days my crew and I walked among them on tours of littered picnic areas; sat through tedious power point demonstrations plagued with technical difficulties; and chatted to people who felt it appropriate to walk around the complex swinging plastic bags filled with fresh faeces, all “samples” that clearly came from a large upright walking hominid.
Diane, a “tell-it-how-it-is” female Bigfoot researcher, reminded us that not every broken branch in the woods can be attributed to Bigfoot and that other known animals such as bears also make footprints on the odd occasion.
She was remarkably logical and scientific, but blew all credibility when she admitted she still believed in Bigfoot, although she had never actually seen it herself.
Her credibility was further called into question when, in the early hours, rather than being out on one of the scheduled night hunts, she chose to stay in the Wild Things bar and pashed not one, but two different camouflage-wearing Bigfoot enthusiasts.
Another speaker hadn’t actually been back in the woods since 1981.
He was clearly emotionally scarred by his “encounter” and had trouble talking about the details without crying, getting feedback from the microphone or talking in a voice that suggested his testicles were being given a powerful foot massage.
This guy was so emotional you would think that rather than just seeing a Bigfoot eating berries in the woods, he had been gang raped by five of them. He also blamed Bigfoot for his overweight condition.
The most fascinating thing about a Bigfoot conference, however, is the internal politics or infighting that goes on between various factions. There is of course the BFRO, or Bigfoot Research Organisation, the OBFRC, or Ohio Bigfoot research Centre, the WBFRO, or Wisconsin Bigfoot Research Organisation, the United Bigfoot Research Society and, of course, the BFUFOSDI, or Bigfoot, UFO and Submersible Dinosaur Institute, run by the controversial Dr Gerry Garciamansoin, to name just a few.
These organisations are battling it out for column inches, T-shirt sales, and website hits. To have the upper hand they obviously need to bad mouth each other, call into question others’ expertise and techniques, and generally promote themselves as the one true organisation. The parallels with religion are obvious, as we have many idiots believing in something they can’t actually see, yet they are prepared to fight to ensure that their particular blind faith is more dominant than someone else’s.
The keynote speaker for the evening was supposed to be the director of the documentary series Monster Quest, so you can imagine the disappointment when he decided not to show up.
I saw an opportunity, and volunteered to speak. I began by introducing myself as a director from New Zealand, then proceeded to educate the KFC-eating audience about the KFC-eating Waitakere Yeti. Borrowing from the American Indian “Sasquatch” legend I told them that our native Maori had encountered the beast more than 400 years ago and affectionately called him Ngawa Whakata Cafe, which loosely translates into “large, hairy, coffee-coloured man”. The fact that coffee had only been in the country for 150 years or so was a detail that didn’t seem to bother them.
I told them that our beast was less shy than theirs and had been known to rape campers or trampers, the most documented case been that of Travis Collins who was raped by the beast, not once but three times over a four-year period.
They also believed that back in New Zealand I currently ran the largest faeces analysis machine in the world, giving me a standing ovation when I finally left the podium.
Had I not handed out fake business cards I suspect there would be hundreds of plastic bags of humanoid shit landing on my doorstep as we speak.
So now you know why I always keep a handful of Bill Ralston’s cards in my wallet, you just never know when you might need them.
