1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,759
Speaker 1: They went down to Salt Fork State Park here in

2
00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:06,120
Ohio and tried to recreate it, and they couldn't come

3
00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:09,439
close to it. And these guys were PhDs. We literally

4
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:11,320
grew up with this thing. I mean, I've got so

5
00:00:11,359 --> 00:00:15,160
many different stories. Some things happened back there, and then

6
00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,640
the city completely redid that whole area land the area

7
00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:22,559
that all this happened when I was growing up. Literally

8
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:26,239
took them two years to put the concrete towpath down

9
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,160
because things were happening. So a lot of my friends

10
00:00:29,199 --> 00:00:31,879
that were police officers, and even the chief and police

11
00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,039
at the time was telling me what was going on

12
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:36,479
down there, asking me if I knew how to handle it,

13
00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,159
and I'm like, just ignore it. I mean, it's not

14
00:00:39,359 --> 00:00:42,799
going to hurt you. It never did us. But I

15
00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:44,719
kind of looked at it and look back now, it's

16
00:00:44,759 --> 00:00:46,759
like it played with us, you know, like we were

17
00:00:46,759 --> 00:00:47,520
as entertainment.

18
00:01:21,239 --> 00:01:23,239
Speaker 2: Let's just go ahead and get into it. Take us

19
00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,480
back to where it all started. How did this whole

20
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:27,239
journey get started for you personally?

21
00:01:29,439 --> 00:01:32,799
Speaker 1: Well, I have to say that I got into it

22
00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:37,840
by stories. This is before the whole in search of

23
00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:40,400
Leonard Niemway with the Big Pot in the Patty film.

24
00:01:40,879 --> 00:01:44,359
You know, obviously not before the Patty film, but before

25
00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,680
it aired and became national news and all that. Where

26
00:01:48,719 --> 00:01:53,879
I grew up, I spent every summer with my grandfather

27
00:01:53,959 --> 00:01:58,680
in this area that this happened. And he had about

28
00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,799
an acre and a half of a backyre, just a long,

29
00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:05,319
narrow strip that went, you know, a good three four

30
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,680
hundred feet from his house to a back alley, and

31
00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:12,520
beyond that was a farmer's field. To the left of

32
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:20,000
his house was nothing but wilderness and woods. Now, mind you,

33
00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,199
this is in the city limits. So when I say

34
00:02:22,199 --> 00:02:25,400
wilderness and woods, I don't mean deep forest. But you

35
00:02:25,439 --> 00:02:27,400
could definitely spend a week down there and not be

36
00:02:27,439 --> 00:02:31,719
seen by anybody. Yeah, but my parents, you know, my dad,

37
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,680
my uncles would tell us, you know, hey, don't go

38
00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:38,360
down there after dark. They'd tell us stories that they had,

39
00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:40,560
you know, that they grew up with a grassman. And

40
00:02:40,599 --> 00:02:43,960
I'm thinking, yeah, okay, the grassman, you know whatever. And

41
00:02:44,759 --> 00:02:48,039
I mean some of their stories were pretty intense, and

42
00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:51,400
I wanted to believe it because I didn't think my

43
00:02:51,879 --> 00:02:54,319
dad my uncle would mess with us the way that

44
00:02:54,400 --> 00:03:00,960
you know, that way, sure, But the biggest thing that

45
00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:03,280
happened is me and my cousin. Like I said, we

46
00:03:03,319 --> 00:03:06,560
spent every summer over there, and my uncle was a

47
00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:10,080
Vietnam vet, so he showed us how to make lean

48
00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:15,159
two's and cover our tracks, and you know, when we're

49
00:03:15,199 --> 00:03:17,840
done camping down there, make it look like we weren't

50
00:03:17,879 --> 00:03:20,120
down there at all. You know. We learned all that stuff,

51
00:03:20,159 --> 00:03:24,560
and I loved it, and we went ahead and was

52
00:03:24,599 --> 00:03:27,599
doing this for probably three years from the age of ten,

53
00:03:29,479 --> 00:03:32,240
so I was thirteen. We spent every summer down there,

54
00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,000
a week at a time, down in these woods, just

55
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,680
camping and fishing in the ear Canal and just being kids,

56
00:03:38,719 --> 00:03:43,039
you know. And one day me and my cousin were

57
00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:47,280
walking through a sand pit area and there was a

58
00:03:47,319 --> 00:03:52,639
footprint that at quick guests, I would say eighteen to

59
00:03:52,719 --> 00:04:00,400
nineteen inches long and at least six inches deep. Now

60
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,159
it was soft ground, but me and my cousin, you'd

61
00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,080
leave your shoe print, you know what I mean, it

62
00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:09,199
wouldn't be a deep pot. Well, this was a barefoot

63
00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:14,319
and we seen one, and then we about five four

64
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:16,680
or five feet further up we seemed like the heel

65
00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,360
of another inprint, but it was going up rock at

66
00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,399
that time, So just the heel was into the earth,

67
00:04:23,319 --> 00:04:26,160
and we went to get back, got my uncle and

68
00:04:26,199 --> 00:04:27,920
he came down there and looked at it and said,

69
00:04:28,519 --> 00:04:31,399
I don't want you guys coming down here tonight. So

70
00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:34,720
you know, we himed in the hall and you know, okay,

71
00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,879
you know, well they went to bed and me and

72
00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:42,040
my cousin are like, let's go catfishing. Now. It was

73
00:04:42,079 --> 00:04:44,319
about it was it was about a forty Now, we

74
00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,000
really weren't thinking about the footprint at that time. It

75
00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:49,560
was about a forty five minute walk from my grandfather's

76
00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:54,480
house down the path to the canal, and we're walking

77
00:04:54,519 --> 00:04:58,079
down there and just you know, bsing and kicking rocks,

78
00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:04,279
and about fifteen feet up in front of us, we

79
00:05:04,399 --> 00:05:11,079
heard a like a grunt, but a deep, full of bass,

80
00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,879
shake your bones style grunt. Now, mind you, we've been

81
00:05:14,879 --> 00:05:18,360
growing up back here, so we knew noises back here.

82
00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:22,319
Neither one of us ever heard that. We both stopped dead,

83
00:05:22,759 --> 00:05:27,279
didn't see anything, but just got this heavy, Oh my god,

84
00:05:27,319 --> 00:05:32,240
we're gonna die feeling well. We went back home and

85
00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:35,160
we told my uncle about it, and he's like, you know,

86
00:05:35,199 --> 00:05:36,879
I told you not to go back down here. So

87
00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,879
he had called my father and the next night my

88
00:05:39,959 --> 00:05:44,040
dad came over after work. I'll never forget this. He

89
00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:47,800
brought my younger brother with him, and then another uncle

90
00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,560
showed up. So now there's three adults and three kids.

91
00:05:52,879 --> 00:05:56,160
I'm like twelve years old at the time, my cousin's thirteen,

92
00:05:56,319 --> 00:06:00,759
and my younger brother is nine. So we go back

93
00:06:00,759 --> 00:06:04,360
there and we're thinking, this is where they're going to

94
00:06:04,439 --> 00:06:06,959
try to scare us, you know what I mean, the

95
00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,839
whole Yeah, this is where you know, Dad's going to

96
00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:12,800
mess with us. So we go down there and we

97
00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:14,759
kind of split up a little bit. You go down

98
00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:18,920
about and maybe at half mile, and there's a fork

99
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,199
in this service road down there. Now, if you go

100
00:06:22,279 --> 00:06:24,519
to the right of the fork, and twenty minutes you'll

101
00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:27,240
be on a main street. If you go to the

102
00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,839
left of the fork, you're walking the length of the canal.

103
00:06:30,959 --> 00:06:33,040
You'll go down to what we call the footbridge, and

104
00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:37,199
you know, just nothing but woods throughout. Okay, you got

105
00:06:37,199 --> 00:06:39,839
about twenty minutes before you get the canal. But during

106
00:06:39,879 --> 00:06:44,160
all that you're walking through woods and weeds and you know,

107
00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:47,759
So we kind of split up a little bit, and

108
00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:49,879
I end up with my uncle and my cousin ends

109
00:06:49,959 --> 00:06:53,800
up with my dad and we're not away from each

110
00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:59,040
other for more than maybe ten minutes, and my dad

111
00:06:59,079 --> 00:07:03,600
and cousins starts creamond bloody murder, and we, you know,

112
00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,160
go back and we find each other. We're in the weeds,

113
00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:10,079
and you know, they're saying we've seen something, we've seen something,

114
00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:12,800
and I'm looking at my cousin and he's kind of

115
00:07:12,839 --> 00:07:14,800
got this grin on his face, so I'm like, Okay,

116
00:07:14,839 --> 00:07:18,439
you didn't see nothing. This is all part of the well.

117
00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:21,199
The neighborhood dog went down there with us. Now we're

118
00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:24,120
on one side of the path and the past about

119
00:07:24,439 --> 00:07:28,199
I don't know, seven eightpeet wide. It's just a service road,

120
00:07:28,639 --> 00:07:32,240
and the dog's ruffing through the weeds on the other

121
00:07:32,279 --> 00:07:35,879
side of the path, directly across from us, and we

122
00:07:35,959 --> 00:07:40,639
hear this. This dog would yelp and bark, but always playful.

123
00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:44,680
We heard this little dog's just barking like it was

124
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,920
going to tear something up. Then we heard a yelp,

125
00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:50,800
and then we heard this dog trotting through the weeds

126
00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:55,759
as fast as it can. It got about two steps

127
00:07:55,839 --> 00:07:58,560
out of the weeds on the road, and this big

128
00:07:58,759 --> 00:08:01,439
arm came out of the weeds and swung at this thing.

129
00:08:02,279 --> 00:08:05,040
It hit the hindquarters of the dog. The dog went

130
00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:08,600
like five feet in year, spun around, hit the ground,

131
00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:11,959
and booked. I mean, it was gone. So we're all

132
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:17,160
sitting there like in amazement and shock. Well, this thing's

133
00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:19,360
in the direct path to get back to my grandfather's.

134
00:08:19,439 --> 00:08:21,839
It's on that side of the the service road. We're

135
00:08:21,879 --> 00:08:25,199
on the other. So we're sitting there for a little bit.

136
00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:28,279
We don't hear nothing. Well, we try to move through

137
00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:34,120
the weeds to stay hidden, and we get up to

138
00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,279
where about where the fork in the road's at, and

139
00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:41,240
my other uncle's missing us. We can't find us, so

140
00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:44,960
we're down to three adults or two adults and three kids.

141
00:08:45,879 --> 00:08:48,840
So my dad and my uncles say, look, stay right here,

142
00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:52,960
you see anything, you go straight down this road get

143
00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:58,159
to Grandpa's. So my cousin comes up with this idea

144
00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:02,919
that you know, how I can Africa or something animals surround,

145
00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,120
you know, getting a circle so they see all sides.

146
00:09:05,879 --> 00:09:07,480
So we do this in the fork of the road. Now,

147
00:09:07,519 --> 00:09:10,960
mind you, we're thirteen, twelve and nine, okay, you know.

148
00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:13,279
Speaker 2: Sure, well, you know.

149
00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:16,159
Speaker 1: We're thinking we're pretty intelligent, right, now like we got

150
00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:20,840
this thing planned out, you know, and the service road

151
00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:23,679
is a great, big white gravel maybe the size of

152
00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:26,919
a hardball, and you know for baseball. Yeah, so we

153
00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:29,159
grabbed these rocks and we're thinking, you know, me and

154
00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:32,559
my cousin both play baseball. We're both on traveling league,

155
00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:33,879
so you know, we knew the game, we knew how

156
00:09:33,919 --> 00:09:36,399
to throw. We're thinking we got this. You know, this

157
00:09:36,399 --> 00:09:40,200
thing shows up, we just start plastering with rocks. Now

158
00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:42,960
this is all before the story of us knowing Bigfoot

159
00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:47,279
through rocks, you know. I mean, we're completely bigfoot dumb

160
00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:52,120
at this point, you know. Yeah, And this thing comes

161
00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,000
out from the side of the weeds that we were on,

162
00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:59,639
about ten feet down the paths from this fork in

163
00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:03,720
the road. So I mean, it's close, and it takes

164
00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:06,559
two steps, and it's in the middle of the in

165
00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:10,720
the middle of the service rode, and it just turns

166
00:10:10,759 --> 00:10:14,120
its shoulders and head and looks at us. Now we're like,

167
00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:17,200
each one of us kids are facing a direction down

168
00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:21,559
the path. This thing is looking me dead in the eyes.

169
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,519
So me and my cousin are firing these rocks at

170
00:10:26,519 --> 00:10:28,360
this thing. And it had to be the most epic

171
00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:32,559
stupid maneuver I ever did. We could see these white

172
00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:38,080
rocks hitting this thing. It didn't make a grunt, it

173
00:10:38,159 --> 00:10:43,039
didn't make a an inclination. These things we're hitting it,

174
00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:47,200
but we see the rocks hitting it. So it takes

175
00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:49,440
two steps and now it's on the other side of

176
00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,519
the path, you know, the service road, and it's where

177
00:10:53,559 --> 00:10:57,519
we have to go. It hits that and there's a

178
00:10:57,559 --> 00:11:00,879
big old I don't know if it's an ochre of berth,

179
00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:03,559
but there was a big old tree right there, and

180
00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:07,960
it like stood up against the tree and then vanished.

181
00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:10,639
Now I'm not saying it disappeared, but it's almost like

182
00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:13,919
the tree and that thing became one in the dark,

183
00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:16,960
you know that you lost the silhouette of it. Yeah,

184
00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:23,600
And we're screaming, and we just take off the other way,

185
00:11:23,799 --> 00:11:25,159
like I said, you know, in a few minutes, you

186
00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,120
hit a main road and that's where we ran. It

187
00:11:28,159 --> 00:11:31,440
was the opposite direction, you know, it was to a

188
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:34,399
main road. We figured, you know, we'll get our dad's attentions.

189
00:11:34,399 --> 00:11:39,440
We're running, you know, and eventually my dad and my

190
00:11:39,519 --> 00:11:43,519
uncle come out. They can't find my uncle and they're like, okay,

191
00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:47,919
we're just gonna walk down the main road back and

192
00:11:47,919 --> 00:11:50,240
then make a few turns and get back to Grandpa's house.

193
00:11:50,279 --> 00:11:51,879
So that's what we did. We stayed out of the woods.

194
00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:54,600
We walked in the middle of a four lane road.

195
00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:57,440
You know, we ain't going nowhere.

196
00:11:57,159 --> 00:11:58,120
Speaker 2: Near the woods.

197
00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:01,240
Speaker 1: So we get back to my grandfather's house and they

198
00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:02,879
each grab a gun and they go down there and

199
00:12:02,879 --> 00:12:08,000
they start looking for my other uncles. Well we heard

200
00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,480
two gunshots. Now, remember I told you this is city limits.

201
00:12:11,919 --> 00:12:16,720
So gunshots go off, you're committing a crime. And we

202
00:12:16,759 --> 00:12:21,000
heard two gunshots go off. And we're sitting there waiting

203
00:12:21,039 --> 00:12:24,639
for our dads to come back. And my dad comes

204
00:12:24,639 --> 00:12:27,960
in with my uncle and his shirt is just shredded,

205
00:12:28,399 --> 00:12:31,200
the whole front of it. And I guess this thing

206
00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:36,200
wanted to get past my dad without killing my dad

207
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:38,639
more or less, and just kind of took his hand

208
00:12:38,799 --> 00:12:43,600
and shoved him aside and booked, you know, pasted him. Now,

209
00:12:43,639 --> 00:12:46,759
my dad's test was red, his shirt was ripped, no,

210
00:12:46,879 --> 00:12:48,440
you know a little bit of like scratches. But I

211
00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:50,159
don't know if that was for my dad following or

212
00:12:50,159 --> 00:12:54,279
the actual thing pushing him. But but you know that

213
00:12:54,519 --> 00:13:00,320
that was the very first time that I realized they

214
00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:05,559
weren't bs and us there's something back here. And I

215
00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,159
stayed out of the woods for a whole six months,

216
00:13:09,039 --> 00:13:12,000
and then after time we're back in the woods again.

217
00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:17,200
But we literally grew up with knowing this thing was there.

218
00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:21,320
We'd get pelted with rocks, you know, little rocks, nothing big,

219
00:13:21,639 --> 00:13:25,039
you know, nothing that could hurt us. We'd go down

220
00:13:25,039 --> 00:13:28,480
there to the camp like we'd hear I don't want

221
00:13:28,519 --> 00:13:31,639
to say stick snapping. It sounded like trees breaking. But

222
00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:34,720
we never seen anything for a long time after that.

223
00:13:35,919 --> 00:13:41,960
But I mean that's sort of you know, excitement was

224
00:13:42,039 --> 00:13:44,120
scarier than I'll get out when it was going on,

225
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,120
but after it was over, we kind of want to

226
00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:51,679
do it again. Yeah, And I guess that went on

227
00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:55,440
for like five years. I was twelve the first time

228
00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:58,639
I actually seen it, But we had, like I said,

229
00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:00,360
you know, we go down their caps and we get

230
00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:04,879
peedded with rocks. I never heard no whoops or howls

231
00:14:05,039 --> 00:14:09,759
or anything like that, but you get a feeling, you

232
00:14:09,759 --> 00:14:13,279
know what I mean, like like you know you're being

233
00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:18,240
watched too. There's there used to be wild dogs down there.

234
00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:23,159
We found dead wild dogs, We found deer with their

235
00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:30,480
heads written backwards. Yeah, it just I thought everyone had,

236
00:14:30,639 --> 00:14:32,480
you know, knew this was there, and I would talk

237
00:14:32,519 --> 00:14:39,720
to people about it. And the thing is, now that

238
00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:45,600
whole area that was woods has been flooded on purpose

239
00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:49,799
by the Parking Recreation Department of the State of Ohio.

240
00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:55,000
Speaker 2: So you think they did that to run these things

241
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:55,519
out of there.

242
00:14:56,759 --> 00:14:58,759
Speaker 1: I know they didn't. And they didn't run them out

243
00:14:58,799 --> 00:15:02,679
of there. That I don't. I almost I almost think

244
00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:05,600
this thing because it only happened from the months of

245
00:15:05,679 --> 00:15:09,240
June to mid September, and then we'd have nothing happening

246
00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:14,399
in the winter. Nothing would happen in the winter. But

247
00:15:16,399 --> 00:15:20,120
the thing is, I was telling you before we went

248
00:15:20,159 --> 00:15:22,120
on the air, they put a towpath in here. This

249
00:15:22,159 --> 00:15:27,159
is right along the Erik Canal, and they it's probably

250
00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:32,440
three city blocks long from the one road to the

251
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:36,120
other roads that the towpath comes out on. Now, three

252
00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:40,000
quarters of that was in I call it the Grassland's home,

253
00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,600
you know, the wooded area that we grew up in.

254
00:15:43,759 --> 00:15:46,960
It took two years for that because when they had

255
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:50,120
their equipment down there. You know, there's always a path

256
00:15:50,159 --> 00:15:52,720
there for a towpath, but they can't, you know, put

257
00:15:52,759 --> 00:16:00,159
pavement in there. They had a security company watching their

258
00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:03,559
equipment down there, you know, after hours and at night.

259
00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:08,200
A security company lasted three days and they quit. I

260
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:10,519
mean the entire company said we're not coming back taking

261
00:16:10,519 --> 00:16:15,600
this account. So they had a couple off duty Acron

262
00:16:15,639 --> 00:16:21,320
police officers go back there and do it. And I

263
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:25,759
guess the hydraulic lines of these big dozers and backos

264
00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:31,720
were being ripped apart. Wow, not cut, but being pulled apart.

265
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,200
And the tracks have been looked like someone was trying

266
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:38,559
to pull the tracks off these bulldozers. They wouldn't get

267
00:16:38,559 --> 00:16:41,080
pulled off, but they get messed up enough to wear

268
00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:43,759
hours to fix it, you know, that that sort of thing.

269
00:16:44,679 --> 00:16:48,960
And at the time, I was real good friends with

270
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:53,600
the chief of police for you know, Rakran, and he

271
00:16:53,759 --> 00:16:57,879
said that they're just going to open up the pumps

272
00:16:58,559 --> 00:17:02,399
or turn off the pumps that goes to Firestone and

273
00:17:02,519 --> 00:17:08,119
let that flood. And to this day it's still flooded.

274
00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:11,400
It took about six months for this whole thing to flood,

275
00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:17,279
and they keep it flooded because it's right. It's the

276
00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:19,960
pumps used to run the water from the canal into

277
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,480
the firestone plant to help call the machines so that

278
00:17:23,519 --> 00:17:27,480
part of the canal would never freeze. But now that

279
00:17:27,559 --> 00:17:31,480
they've done that, when they run the pumps into the canal,

280
00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:33,920
the water alls start to receive because they run it

281
00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,200
in for a couple weeks at a time and then

282
00:17:36,519 --> 00:17:39,319
open the pumps back up to fill up, you know,

283
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:42,039
the whole wooded area. But if you look it up,

284
00:17:42,079 --> 00:17:48,200
it's a blue herrings preserve for blue herrings to nest.

285
00:17:48,519 --> 00:17:52,759
Speaker 2: So they've kind of secured it state level or federally.

286
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:57,400
Speaker 1: That part is federally on because the street that my

287
00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:01,000
grandfather lived on, they have put a cup businesses up

288
00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:06,799
and all that land is federally own. One of the

289
00:18:06,799 --> 00:18:12,200
guys that run a dump truck company has his shop

290
00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:15,039
back here, and he was telling me that he has

291
00:18:15,079 --> 00:18:20,400
to rent his parking lot from the federal government, you know,

292
00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:25,839
federal parks. Yeah, and if they have a camera, security

293
00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:30,640
camera that the park Service can have access to. The

294
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:33,200
rent for his parking lots only one hundred dollars a month.

295
00:18:34,079 --> 00:18:36,839
So there's something going on back there.

296
00:18:36,839 --> 00:18:41,400
Speaker 2: Clearly, and this is this isn't the first time I've

297
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,960
heard about this type of situation occurring either. My old

298
00:18:46,079 --> 00:18:49,119
research area years ago whenever I was a boots on

299
00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,480
the ground researcher. Our main research area was inside of

300
00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:57,359
a national park here, and that park, they would go

301
00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:03,559
into very specific areas where there wasn't a lot of traffic,

302
00:19:03,759 --> 00:19:05,640
you know, not a lot of public traffic, but they

303
00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:09,000
were areas that we frequent in a lot because there

304
00:19:09,039 --> 00:19:12,720
was activity going on there, and they would shut them

305
00:19:12,759 --> 00:19:17,200
down for months on end to do these different projects

306
00:19:17,279 --> 00:19:19,920
or whatever. And they did all kinds of things. And

307
00:19:20,599 --> 00:19:23,559
one of the things that they did was shut down

308
00:19:23,599 --> 00:19:25,759
a huge trail system so they could go in and

309
00:19:25,759 --> 00:19:28,000
pave it, and it took them months and months and

310
00:19:28,039 --> 00:19:31,799
months to do. And another time they did like a

311
00:19:31,839 --> 00:19:34,000
controlled burn of the area and got rid of all

312
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,599
the cedar trees in the area, which you know, was

313
00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:40,680
kind of a big deal where we were researching that.

314
00:19:41,599 --> 00:19:45,200
And they've just done projects like that all over the place,

315
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:47,440
it seems. I was even looking at a map the

316
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:51,839
other day right outside of town to a spot that

317
00:19:52,039 --> 00:19:55,599
I was talking to a colleague about that I had

318
00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,559
visited years and years ago, and I was looking at

319
00:19:58,599 --> 00:20:01,640
it on you know, Google Maps recently to see what

320
00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,400
it looked like now. And they've done the same thing there.

321
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:06,640
They've gone in and closed it down and paved it

322
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:08,880
and clear cut it and everything else, and it's just

323
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:11,559
awfully coincidental that that happens.

324
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:15,119
Speaker 1: Well, well, okay, you actually were on the ground, you know,

325
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:17,680
boots on the ground, researcher. Let me ask you a question.

326
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,519
Have you ever heard of the Joe Ball camp site?

327
00:20:22,599 --> 00:20:23,720
I think it's in Missouri.

328
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,680
Speaker 2: It doesn't ring a bell, okay.

329
00:20:29,319 --> 00:20:32,920
Speaker 1: Well, one of the other podcasts that I used to

330
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:37,319
listen to and communicate it with, I can't think of

331
00:20:37,319 --> 00:20:41,160
the guy's name, but he wrote a book actually as

332
00:20:41,319 --> 00:20:44,920
a series of books out and I started listening to

333
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,480
him and I kind of got had to chuckle to

334
00:20:48,559 --> 00:20:52,680
myself because of you know, I'm an Army ranger. Okay,

335
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,920
I was in the Army. I was with the seventy

336
00:20:55,920 --> 00:21:01,599
fourth Ranger Regiment, and we did a lot of stuff

337
00:21:01,599 --> 00:21:03,880
at Fort Lewis back when it was a military base

338
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:09,000
in Washington State. And they sat us down our third

339
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,759
night there and told us now that this came from

340
00:21:12,759 --> 00:21:16,640
my CEO, and the sergeant major was right there. And

341
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:19,400
my sergeant major had no sense of humor, so I

342
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,720
can't see this being any type of joke. And he

343
00:21:22,839 --> 00:21:26,880
was telling us that bigfoot are in the area. If

344
00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:30,079
you see one, don't try to follow it, don't try

345
00:21:30,079 --> 00:21:33,039
to engage it, don't try to harass it. It will

346
00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:35,680
leave you alone. Well, I don't know if you know

347
00:21:35,759 --> 00:21:40,000
anything about the military as far as I mean, we

348
00:21:40,319 --> 00:21:43,559
have ranges that we shoot on, but when you're out

349
00:21:43,599 --> 00:21:47,240
doing exercises inside the States, you're not given live AMMO.

350
00:21:48,599 --> 00:21:51,759
If we fire live AMMO outside of a range area,

351
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,279
it wakes a lot of people up in DC. I mean,

352
00:21:56,839 --> 00:21:59,559
it just there's no way you're going to get around it.

353
00:22:00,079 --> 00:22:04,480
They plot all told us they're here. Don't don't try

354
00:22:04,519 --> 00:22:08,319
to track them, don't try to engage them. And I mean,

355
00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:12,480
you're talking to special forses, you know, and you're you're

356
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:15,440
a lot of the guys are like, yeah, right, Well

357
00:22:15,519 --> 00:22:17,920
I've got history when I was growing up with these things,

358
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,839
you know what I mean, I ain't engaging it, you

359
00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,000
know what I mean. There's there's you know. But anyway

360
00:22:24,039 --> 00:22:28,119
back to this Joe Ball campsite or campground. Army Corps

361
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:31,319
engineers would shut it down every so often. But this

362
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,519
guy wrote a book and I can't think of his name,

363
00:22:33,599 --> 00:22:38,519
but he's an ex police officer and he's now in

364
00:22:38,599 --> 00:22:42,000
the Bigfoot and dog Man and things like that. And

365
00:22:42,039 --> 00:22:46,519
he wrote this book called the lake View Monster or

366
00:22:46,519 --> 00:22:50,480
the lake View Man or something like that. It's based

367
00:22:50,519 --> 00:22:54,519
around uh, I don't know if you know her, like

368
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,759
Doug Wee's a different form of Bigfoot, supposed to like

369
00:22:57,799 --> 00:23:02,200
a base eater, Okay, based around one of those. And

370
00:23:02,839 --> 00:23:06,680
it's killing these kids and people in this town. And

371
00:23:06,759 --> 00:23:10,960
it keeps going back to the Joe Ball campsite or campground. Well,

372
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:13,880
the Joe Ball campground is real. I looked it up,

373
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,799
and the Army Corps engineers has shut it down due

374
00:23:18,799 --> 00:23:21,680
to safety reasons, is all they would list it ass

375
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:25,279
But this guy said he was out there doing the

376
00:23:26,599 --> 00:23:30,319
shoot for the book cover with his publicists. They were

377
00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:33,599
just taking pictures of the woods, not expecting to have

378
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,599
anything happen. And on the interview I heard he said

379
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:40,519
he had a dog man standing in the woods that

380
00:23:40,559 --> 00:23:43,160
he didn't even see until they looked at the picture.

381
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,319
But he won't post that picture, so I don't know

382
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:52,839
how credible it is. Right, But in the story, this

383
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:59,119
w Sheriff is fighting this creature, you know, these creatures,

384
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:01,480
and he US military comes in.

385
00:24:03,039 --> 00:24:04,880
Speaker 2: To help him.

386
00:24:05,279 --> 00:24:11,160
Speaker 1: And it branched down into whole other stories of the

387
00:24:11,279 --> 00:24:14,759
US military has a group with all the branches of

388
00:24:14,759 --> 00:24:18,759
the military that select people to come in and take

389
00:24:18,839 --> 00:24:24,720
out cryptids that have become a nuisance. And it kind

390
00:24:24,759 --> 00:24:27,240
of made everything click. You know, my time at Fort

391
00:24:27,319 --> 00:24:31,440
lewis growing up. This sort of thing happening, you know,

392
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:36,480
with them flooding this area. And this is just my

393
00:24:36,519 --> 00:24:39,200
own opinion. I have nothing to base it on, but

394
00:24:39,319 --> 00:24:42,680
I don't think it's literally literally like the Pentagon and

395
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:47,359
stuff keeping big put a secret. I think the organization

396
00:24:47,559 --> 00:24:51,720
that has the most to lose is the forestry.

397
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,519
Speaker 2: Industry because of the dollars.

398
00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:57,200
Speaker 1: I mean, how much what do they harvest out of

399
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:01,039
the national force. I know they to pay bukou buck

400
00:25:01,079 --> 00:25:06,480
to take lumber out of there. And if these things

401
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:12,240
are proven and admitted to be real, you got to

402
00:25:12,279 --> 00:25:16,920
protect the habitat, so the forest, you know, the the

403
00:25:17,759 --> 00:25:21,400
lumber industry is going to take a hit and then

404
00:25:21,519 --> 00:25:23,240
turn the forest interest is going to take it a

405
00:25:23,319 --> 00:25:25,240
hit because they ain't gonna be paid for all that.

406
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,680
I don't know how anybody can say that for sure,

407
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,759
they're not real. I mean I don't know about you,

408
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,240
but like I said, I've had, you know, that experience,

409
00:25:37,079 --> 00:25:40,759
you know, actually seeing one, and what I've seen it

410
00:25:40,799 --> 00:25:42,880
was about seven and a half, was tall, but hunched

411
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,920
over sort of, and its one arm was almost dragging

412
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,319
the ground. But their hands are all the way down

413
00:25:49,319 --> 00:25:53,839
to their knees at least, you know. When that thing

414
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:57,160
stood and looked at us, it just you could see

415
00:25:57,160 --> 00:25:59,759
the one hand swing, you know, and it just it

416
00:25:59,799 --> 00:26:01,359
had to be interest from the ground.

417
00:26:02,039 --> 00:26:05,440
Speaker 2: And it never made any like sounds or anything like

418
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,400
that whenever you're hitting it with the rocks.

419
00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:12,160
Speaker 1: No, none at all. I mean, not even a you know,

420
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:15,160
an inhale or a gas. But when it got to

421
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:20,880
that tree, you know that we heard it then, but

422
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,079
it was nothing like what me and my cousin heard

423
00:26:23,079 --> 00:26:26,240
and we were walking under go capfish and that scared me.

424
00:26:27,279 --> 00:26:29,440
And that was even before I seen this thing. I mean,

425
00:26:29,559 --> 00:26:33,880
it scared me to death. And I think in Fort Lewis,

426
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,440
when I was up there, if I would have heard that,

427
00:26:36,519 --> 00:26:39,920
then I've been begging to be discharged, you know. I

428
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:45,519
mean I've spent time, you know, in Iraq, and it

429
00:26:45,799 --> 00:26:50,160
just yeah, hearing that, knowing what I have, you know,

430
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:55,240
blanks at that. But the weapon that I had, I

431
00:26:55,319 --> 00:26:56,920
might as well be shooting a piece shooter at it.

432
00:26:57,480 --> 00:26:59,720
You know. I've talked to guys that say they have

433
00:26:59,759 --> 00:27:03,960
shot it but it didn't drop. And I'm like, well,

434
00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:06,880
would you have. One guy shot it here in Akron

435
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,839
with a thirty got six for about sixty yards out,

436
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,240
and I'm like, I should have at least knocked it down.

437
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,720
He goes, it's screamed and ran off, and he goes,

438
00:27:19,759 --> 00:27:22,799
I know I hit it, you know, And I'm like,

439
00:27:23,319 --> 00:27:26,680
I've seen this guy's trophy wall. He knows how to shoot,

440
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:29,559
you know. But when me and my wife had a

441
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:31,640
chance to buy a house, I literally said I want

442
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,400
to live by the canal. So I bought a house.

443
00:27:34,599 --> 00:27:40,200
I am literally five thousand feet from the canal. I'm like,

444
00:27:40,319 --> 00:27:44,160
you know, I still go down there, and you got

445
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,400
to sneak in at night because you know it's a

446
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:48,519
park now and you can't be in it after dusk.

447
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,359
But I mean I go down there and I just

448
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,799
I get the same feelings. Yeah, there's something back here.

449
00:27:54,839 --> 00:27:57,640
You know. Whether I'll see it again, I don't know.

450
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,799
Speaker 2: Now, we were talking earlier before we started recording. You know,

451
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:10,119
you were on Monster Quest years ago talking about the

452
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,599
Ohio grass Man YEP.

453
00:28:12,759 --> 00:28:16,559
Speaker 1: Season three, episode three.

454
00:28:16,559 --> 00:28:20,559
Speaker 2: How did that kind of all come about? And you know,

455
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:22,880
I want to hear about the nests man, what were

456
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:23,400
those like?

457
00:28:24,599 --> 00:28:29,880
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I've been more open with the whole big

458
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,400
put subject. My dad had a lot more encounters than

459
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,880
I did. Okay, And I don't feel right telling his

460
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,720
encounters because anyone who listens says it's hearsay, you know

461
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,039
what I mean, because I wasn't there. But I believe

462
00:28:42,079 --> 00:28:44,559
it a wholeheartedly, you know, I mean, there's not a doubt.

463
00:28:45,279 --> 00:28:49,960
But back in nineteen ninety five we were listening. I

464
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:51,960
don't know if you really used to listen to Coast

465
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:52,920
to Coast with Art Belt.

466
00:28:53,119 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 2: Oh, of course we used to.

467
00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: Listen to Artmel religiously. And they had a guy over here,

468
00:29:00,319 --> 00:29:04,400
a guy that was on the show that spent five

469
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,160
weeks in the woods that kind of connect to where

470
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:11,400
all my encounters happened. He spent five weeks back there

471
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:17,599
and seen human but never nobody ever saw him. And

472
00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:19,720
you know, come to find out, he was next Green Beret.

473
00:29:19,839 --> 00:29:21,759
He was just going back or checking the food supply.

474
00:29:22,279 --> 00:29:24,559
Seeing him something that big could live back or without

475
00:29:24,599 --> 00:29:29,119
being seen and yeah, he did it. So we went

476
00:29:29,119 --> 00:29:32,079
and had reached out to this guy and wanted to

477
00:29:32,119 --> 00:29:35,200
tell him our story. Well, he put us in contact

478
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:39,240
with a few researchers at Ohio State University, and there

479
00:29:39,319 --> 00:29:41,839
was Jody Cook was one of them, and then a

480
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:44,839
couple other guys that I won't even say their names.

481
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,839
But in nineteen ninety five they came up and we

482
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:54,119
took them back there. Now that was before all this

483
00:29:54,359 --> 00:29:56,480
was flooded. You know, it was still woods. It was

484
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:58,559
still like it was when I was growing up, you know,

485
00:29:59,559 --> 00:30:02,160
And we were telling our stories to the guys and

486
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,480
showing them where certain things happened and where we used

487
00:30:04,519 --> 00:30:09,920
to camp. And there's those big metal towers that they

488
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,160
run high tension wires along. Yeah, there's a couple of

489
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:17,960
those back there. And we were walking that path, you know,

490
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,079
the cut path that they make for all those and

491
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:27,000
we were, you know, walking through all that and showing,

492
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,359
you know, the guy's the story. Well, were walking to

493
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,720
this edge of this weed line and right there's a

494
00:30:34,759 --> 00:30:39,079
nest and they're like, well, what is that And I'm like, well,

495
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,359
I call it big puts ten And they're like, what

496
00:30:42,559 --> 00:30:44,559
I said, We see these all the time, and they're

497
00:30:44,599 --> 00:30:47,920
all they're all made like this, and they're all laid

498
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:52,160
down inside with twigs that have been carried to them.

499
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,960
They're not from trees that are around this, you know,

500
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:59,279
they've been laid in there. And the nest was about

501
00:31:00,079 --> 00:31:03,920
fifteen foot long, about six and a half foot high,

502
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,599
and it was almost like a dome, but it was

503
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:11,559
completely covered all but a little hole about three foot

504
00:31:11,599 --> 00:31:14,160
in diameter. I mean you literally had to get down

505
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:19,279
and crawl into it, but you couldn't see anything. Like

506
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,720
you get in there, you can't see it. You know,

507
00:31:21,839 --> 00:31:25,519
you're completely him. And they're like, man, I would love

508
00:31:25,599 --> 00:31:27,240
to go inside that. And I'm like, there ain't no

509
00:31:27,279 --> 00:31:31,359
way I'm not going inside that. You know, that hole.

510
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:33,119
You won't be able to see me in there if

511
00:31:33,119 --> 00:31:36,720
something's in there, you know. So they kind of made

512
00:31:36,759 --> 00:31:40,640
the hole bigger and they're like, yeah, there's nothing in there,

513
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:43,359
you know they did. They had a fleer and they're

514
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:45,680
signing a fleer in there, and there's like, we got

515
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,759
no heat signature. You know, it's twelve degrees cooler in

516
00:31:48,799 --> 00:31:51,920
there that it is out here. And so I said, sorry,

517
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,599
you make the hole big enough, and all three of

518
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,279
you guys are standing right there, then I'll get in there.

519
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,480
Well I got in there and they took a picture

520
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:01,759
of me in there, and that is the picture that

521
00:32:01,839 --> 00:32:05,000
airs on the Ohiograssman episode.

522
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 2: So what was it like inside of there?

523
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:13,279
Speaker 1: Everything was There's only five inches of padding on the

524
00:32:13,319 --> 00:32:15,920
on the floor, on the on the ground. I mean

525
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:21,039
they there was sticks, there was leaves, there was I

526
00:32:21,079 --> 00:32:24,119
mean just it was like a bed literally, I mean

527
00:32:24,799 --> 00:32:27,920
five inches of padding. I mean you step in it,

528
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:28,480
you sink.

529
00:32:29,279 --> 00:32:32,079
Speaker 2: Wow, there was loss in there, but.

530
00:32:33,839 --> 00:32:35,799
Speaker 1: You're in there now. I was scared of that hanging

531
00:32:35,799 --> 00:32:38,000
a bye. I got in there and the stench was

532
00:32:38,039 --> 00:32:41,920
on god, in there just it's almost like a wet dog,

533
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:47,920
sulfur trash smell, you know, all in one. But it

534
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,000
was rank in there. So I didn't stay there very long,

535
00:32:51,559 --> 00:32:55,599
but I can literally you lose contact with the outside

536
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:59,240
when you're in there. It was so well built, and

537
00:32:59,319 --> 00:33:02,640
it just I mean I leaned on the side of

538
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,839
it and nothing. It didn't fall over, it didn't my

539
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:10,000
hand didn't go through it, you know. Yeah, but yeah,

540
00:33:10,119 --> 00:33:14,799
it just it was a weird feeling being in there.

541
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:17,079
Speaker 2: How many of these things were there?

542
00:33:19,119 --> 00:33:22,079
Speaker 1: We found two of them when we had those guys

543
00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:27,359
down there the spot. No, they were probably about a

544
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,960
thousand yards apart, like in the edge of a clearing,

545
00:33:31,519 --> 00:33:33,519
like on the weed line with the edge of a clearing.

546
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:37,319
And then the other one was on the another clearing,

547
00:33:37,319 --> 00:33:40,039
on the other side of the you know, like the

548
00:33:40,079 --> 00:33:44,559
other side of the cutpath for the towers. Yeah, like

549
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:48,200
they were opposite sides of that cuppath. Like if they're

550
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,519
in there looking, they're both looking at the cuppath. So

551
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:53,680
I don't know if it would be like an amberge spot,

552
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,480
but it was. It was kind of comical because they're like, well,

553
00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:00,279
I don't know, it could be just like tumbleweed, know,

554
00:34:00,359 --> 00:34:02,680
tuble we'd mean, but like that not that big, not

555
00:34:02,799 --> 00:34:07,000
that hollow, no patting, you know. But Jody Cook called

556
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:08,960
me and my dad about two and a half months

557
00:34:09,039 --> 00:34:10,840
later and said, look, don't talk to those guys anymore.

558
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,360
They're they're running around with your story. You know. There

559
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,679
was a write up, somebody wrote a book. One of

560
00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:19,400
the guys that did this with us wrote a book

561
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,679
Bigfoot in Ohio, and basically word for word told me

562
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,320
and my dad's story. They changed our names obviously because

563
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:30,960
I would have sued him so quick and made their headspin.

564
00:34:31,199 --> 00:34:34,639
But then the Akron Beckon Journal picked it up and

565
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:38,840
ran a story about it, and I ended up calling

566
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,360
that reporter saying, look, this is not how it went.

567
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,480
This is not this, this is not this. And she

568
00:34:44,679 --> 00:34:49,800
later on got involved with podcasting, and after I gave

569
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:53,000
my story to another podcast, she came on the air

570
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:56,000
a week later and said that I was full of crap,

571
00:34:56,159 --> 00:34:59,800
that that area was always flooded like that, that you know,

572
00:35:00,079 --> 00:35:03,760
it was more flooded than not flooded, that the pictures

573
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:07,639
that I talk about monster quests are not taken there.

574
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:11,400
That I'm like, okay, you know. So I contacted Jody

575
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:13,639
Crook and asked him for the coordinates because he went

576
00:35:13,679 --> 00:35:17,039
back up there a couple of times, and he actually

577
00:35:17,119 --> 00:35:20,559
GPS to pin dropped the coordinates, and I sent it

578
00:35:20,599 --> 00:35:22,400
to her. I said, you say any more stuff like this,

579
00:35:22,519 --> 00:35:25,559
I'm I'm gonna put this out. You're you're lying, You're

580
00:35:25,559 --> 00:35:28,920
trying to, you know, benefit your own career, you know. Yeah,

581
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,599
I mean I had police chief involved. I had police

582
00:35:31,599 --> 00:35:34,679
officers involved because they were told don't go down there

583
00:35:35,079 --> 00:35:38,519
without three or four backup, you know, units with you

584
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,320
and carry his heavy weapons you want to carry so

585
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:44,159
they know there's something back there.

586
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, this wasn't just an area where you and your

587
00:35:48,039 --> 00:35:51,639
family were claiming stuff was happening. Other people were experiencing

588
00:35:51,679 --> 00:35:52,880
it too in the same area.

589
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,639
Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, I mean there was a guy that

590
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,920
used to drive an old German staff when I was little,

591
00:36:01,559 --> 00:36:04,280
and he used to drive down the you know, because

592
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:06,719
the road after my grandfather's turned into a dirt road,

593
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:08,920
and the only thing down at the other end of

594
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:12,360
this dirt road was a junkyard. He would go down there,

595
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:16,000
park and then drink. And we'd see him go down

596
00:36:16,039 --> 00:36:18,039
there at night and come back the next morning after

597
00:36:18,079 --> 00:36:20,519
he you know, woke up or sever it up, whichever

598
00:36:20,599 --> 00:36:24,800
the case may be. And there was a couple of

599
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,960
times that we heard him hollering and hooping and his

600
00:36:28,039 --> 00:36:30,960
car be flying up the street and we're like, yep,

601
00:36:31,079 --> 00:36:36,159
grassman got him. But one night he come running up

602
00:36:36,159 --> 00:36:40,480
the street, left his car down there, and we never

603
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,800
seen him again. We watched him run past my grandpa's house.

604
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:47,199
I was probably nineteen at the time. Watched him run

605
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:50,079
past my grandfather's house. Yeah, I was goes home on lead.

606
00:36:50,159 --> 00:36:53,360
It was not right around Christmas and he come running

607
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,360
past my grandfather's house and he never run back out

608
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:56,679
his car.

609
00:36:57,519 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 2: Wow.

610
00:36:58,079 --> 00:37:00,360
Speaker 1: A week later my grandfather said a toke and he

611
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:04,440
came down and got it. But it goes back to

612
00:37:04,599 --> 00:37:08,880
we never had anything happen after middle of September, So

613
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,440
I don't know if that's what scared him or but

614
00:37:12,639 --> 00:37:15,239
something spooked him out that you know, he took, probably

615
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,519
that old German staff guard man and he just he

616
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:19,519
something left it.

617
00:37:20,159 --> 00:37:22,079
Speaker 2: I know there's no way to really know for sure,

618
00:37:22,119 --> 00:37:25,559
but do you think something happened specifically to cause them

619
00:37:25,599 --> 00:37:28,760
to decide to go in there and tear the place

620
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:29,880
up and flood it out.

621
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:32,599
Speaker 1: Well, I think if they were going to open it

622
00:37:32,679 --> 00:37:35,039
up like they did, I mean it's it's a major

623
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:39,480
walking path, and I really think that when they went

624
00:37:39,559 --> 00:37:44,159
down there. According to the people I've spoke with, I'm

625
00:37:44,199 --> 00:37:47,599
not going to say their name, but a couple of

626
00:37:47,679 --> 00:37:50,679
our council were council members at the time, when's the mayor,

627
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:54,039
then the police chief, they were having so much happen

628
00:37:54,079 --> 00:37:59,199
to the equipment down there that they stopped that part

629
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:04,239
of the towpath skipped over and flooded that before the

630
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,800
company'd come back in and just lay the payment down. Now,

631
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,000
once that happened, it only took him two days to

632
00:38:10,039 --> 00:38:13,440
lay the payment down, but it took him two years

633
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:17,199
to get those two days in. But I honestly, I

634
00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:22,400
honestly think the wrong person got scared down there, and

635
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,639
that's when they kind of like, Okay, we got to

636
00:38:25,639 --> 00:38:28,360
figure something out. Because there's too many houses around. You

637
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,320
can't go down on a hunt, and you can't apply

638
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,480
a black helicopter in here and nobody see it, you

639
00:38:34,519 --> 00:38:37,639
know what I mean. You don't have that luxury, so

640
00:38:37,679 --> 00:38:42,559
you got to do something else. But I honestly believe that, Yeah,

641
00:38:43,519 --> 00:38:47,199
I mean all that areas, there's mines all over the

642
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,800
place around here, and there's a trustle down there that

643
00:38:51,199 --> 00:38:53,360
literally if you go on that trust so you could

644
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,760
drive a Volkswagen bug in it and come up all

645
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,239
the way out past Hakercant Airport about thirty five to

646
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:04,880
forty miles. So there's tunnel systems, there's caves, there's mines.

647
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:09,960
I think flooding it was the easiest way to deal

648
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:14,280
with the situation. Yeah, I mean it sucks because it

649
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:16,920
was beautiful back there. I mean there was weeping willows,

650
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:19,920
there was a little pond in the center about in

651
00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:24,000
the center of the swooded area. I mean it was great.

652
00:39:24,159 --> 00:39:28,760
I mean that was my childhood and the documentary film

653
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:32,280
with small Town Monsters. We went down there and filmed

654
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:35,400
it on the towpath and we're telling the guy me

655
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:37,159
and my dead both. You know, this is all woods.

656
00:39:37,199 --> 00:39:40,119
You couldn't see all this, you know now, it's just

657
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:44,800
dead trees there, you know, haven't fallen over yet, you know.

658
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:48,679
And there's no way you need a herring sanctuary. I'm sorry, no.

659
00:39:50,639 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 2: No, I mean here in Oklahoma, those things are everywhere.

660
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,440
Speaker 1: Well they're everywhere here too, That's what I mean. Why

661
00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:00,440
do you need a sanctuary? So it's just it kind

662
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,840
of makes me think that there's some shoddy stuff going on.

663
00:40:05,199 --> 00:40:08,760
Speaker 2: You mentioned earlier, you know, hearing sticks breaking and getting

664
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:11,599
little pebbles thrown at you and stuff. Whenever you're down there.

665
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:16,760
What was going on whenever they're throwing stuff at you? Specifically,

666
00:40:20,199 --> 00:40:26,960
it was usually after midnight, and it only happened in

667
00:40:27,039 --> 00:40:27,800
certain areas.

668
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,400
Speaker 1: Like if we'd start getting pelder with rocks and we'd

669
00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:37,039
move five hundred feet down the canal, they wouldn't follow us.

670
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:41,840
So I want to think that it was a kind warning,

671
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,400
Hey you're too close to something, or you're messing up

672
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,000
what we have going on, or you know what I mean.

673
00:40:48,039 --> 00:40:52,320
It was I never other than that one time, you know,

674
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:55,000
when I was twelve and actually seen it. Because I

675
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,360
don't know who you are, but that's going to scare anybody.

676
00:40:57,639 --> 00:41:00,800
I don't care if you're a big research you're not

677
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,239
what You're ten to twelve feet away from this thing.

678
00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:07,639
You can't help but be scared. I mean, it was

679
00:41:07,679 --> 00:41:10,559
a sickening feeling of my gut, you know when we

680
00:41:10,639 --> 00:41:14,679
heard that. Well, and you know, it's before I knew

681
00:41:14,679 --> 00:41:17,920
anything about that infrasound thing and things like that. But

682
00:41:19,119 --> 00:41:23,880
I almost think, if I think back, me and my

683
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:25,960
cousin might have been hit with something like that. Now

684
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:29,320
I don't know, but I'm just spitballing here because we

685
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:33,039
both felt sick to our stomach, dizzy. Now, I know

686
00:41:33,159 --> 00:41:35,719
fear can do that too, and I'm it was either

687
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:39,960
fear we got hit with infrasound, But it was just

688
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,039
a sickening feeling. The one time we were down at

689
00:41:43,039 --> 00:41:47,480
the footbridge, which literally is just a drain pipe, like

690
00:41:47,519 --> 00:41:50,719
a four foot diameter drain pipe and a grated walkway

691
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:56,320
over it that goes well fifteen feet across the canal, okay.

692
00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:01,440
And we were down there standing on that and there's me,

693
00:42:01,599 --> 00:42:04,000
my dad, my uncle, and my cousin. Again we were

694
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:08,280
in separable. We were standing down there. We heard something

695
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:13,679
moving through the swampy area, the slashing, you know, and

696
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:16,159
we're waiting for somebody to walk out, you know, like

697
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,119
you know, we a homeless guy or you know something,

698
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,000
because it's probably been six eight months before anything's happened,

699
00:42:23,079 --> 00:42:26,320
you know, we just kind of it's moved on, it's

700
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:29,760
not here. And all of a sudden, we started hearing

701
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:31,360
and I don't want to say sticks. I want to

702
00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:37,000
say these are at least saplings being snapped, because it

703
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,920
would echo. It literally would sound like a shotgun going off,

704
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:46,039
and we're like what, you know, we all instantly thought

705
00:42:46,639 --> 00:42:48,800
what it was, you know, without saying, you know, the

706
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:55,280
grassman's back. But it felt completely different that time than

707
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:59,880
any other, like this was a very strong warning get out,

708
00:43:02,199 --> 00:43:05,360
you know, like, okay, if there's a nest back there,

709
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,840
that's a breeding nester, a nursery, we might have been

710
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:13,280
too close, yeah, you know, and we took its warning

711
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:15,960
after about ten of those things snapped and we were like, okay,

712
00:43:16,159 --> 00:43:18,079
we're gonna go ahead and leave. Let's just walk along

713
00:43:18,119 --> 00:43:20,800
the you know, the path which is now the towpath,

714
00:43:21,599 --> 00:43:23,400
but you know, it was just a four foot path

715
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,280
along the canal the bank there. We just were just

716
00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:29,159
gonna walk along here. You know, we made noise the

717
00:43:29,199 --> 00:43:33,320
whole time we were going, and we were being paced out.

718
00:43:34,039 --> 00:43:37,239
Never seen it, but heard it. You know, it was

719
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,639
walking probably ten foot in the woods right with us.

720
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:45,119
Didn't grunt, didn't make any aggressive sounds, but you could

721
00:43:45,119 --> 00:43:47,119
hear it walking. It wasn't a hiding the fact that

722
00:43:47,679 --> 00:43:48,599
I'm walking you out.

723
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 2: And how long did it pace you guys?

724
00:43:52,639 --> 00:43:54,719
Speaker 1: All the way to the edge of the woods by

725
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:59,039
my grandfather's house, I mean all the way out. And

726
00:43:59,039 --> 00:44:00,960
it never did that before, you know what I mean,

727
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:04,519
it would mess with us, we'd hear it, but usually

728
00:44:05,039 --> 00:44:07,400
once we made the turn, like we're heading back to

729
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,280
my grandfather's street and you could see the street lights

730
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:14,119
and stuff, we wouldn't hear anything. After that. This thing

731
00:44:14,199 --> 00:44:16,599
went all the way up until we crossed over a

732
00:44:16,639 --> 00:44:21,119
steel cable that blocked the road from the service road there,

733
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:25,760
and it all the way up. I mean we crossed

734
00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:30,880
over that that wire that stretched across and it was

735
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,199
probably seventy five yards to my grandfather's house. He was

736
00:44:34,199 --> 00:44:36,920
the first house on the street. And we heard that

737
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,000
thing all the way up until we hit the driveway.

738
00:44:39,039 --> 00:44:40,119
Then we didn't hear it no more.

739
00:44:41,079 --> 00:44:43,039
Speaker 2: Now do you think that was kind of like a

740
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:46,719
boundary for them or do you think they'd come up

741
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:48,039
around the houses and stuff?

742
00:44:49,079 --> 00:44:51,320
Speaker 1: Oh? I knew they come up from the houses. There

743
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,199
used to be apartment projects. There was my grandfather's house,

744
00:44:54,639 --> 00:44:58,440
another house, and then four apartment complexes right there, like

745
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:02,039
four apartment buildings. Yeah, And we would see the thing

746
00:45:02,079 --> 00:45:05,199
and the farmers steal behind our grandfather's house. We would

747
00:45:05,199 --> 00:45:08,960
see it in the back, you know, by the woods,

748
00:45:09,039 --> 00:45:13,360
right along the apartment buildings. I mean, it didn't hide

749
00:45:13,599 --> 00:45:17,400
from us. It's almost like we're friends, you know, I

750
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,280
know them, they know me. Now, not the type of

751
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:21,920
friends are all going to go hang out with, But

752
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:23,719
I mean I almost think that they were used to

753
00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:28,000
us because we spent so much time back there, and

754
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:31,679
with what my uncle showed me and my cousins, we

755
00:45:32,679 --> 00:45:35,440
took care of where we were at. We didn't come

756
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:37,599
back there in trash the place. We didn't, you know

757
00:45:37,599 --> 00:45:40,599
what I mean, we respected the wood, and I almost

758
00:45:40,639 --> 00:45:44,239
think that that was okay. These guys are okay. Now

759
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,719
we started wandering around, that's usually when crap would happen,

760
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,920
you know, don't come this way, you know what I mean,

761
00:45:51,679 --> 00:45:54,199
and it make a few things. We'd turn around and

762
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,400
leave us alone, you know. So I don't know, I

763
00:45:57,440 --> 00:46:00,679
don't want to say it was friendly. I mean I've seen,

764
00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:03,039
like I said, there was junkyard dogs. There was wild

765
00:46:03,079 --> 00:46:06,000
dogs back there. Their heads were just like you grabbed

766
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,440
the bottom of their jaw and pull their head all

767
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:11,440
the way back to their back. We seen like twenty

768
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:15,280
of those dogs throughout my time back there, just ripped apart.

769
00:46:16,039 --> 00:46:18,159
Speaker 2: And this was out in the woods or.

770
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:22,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, the junkyard dog the back of the junkyard didn't

771
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:25,880
have a fence, so they would come out into the woods.

772
00:46:26,199 --> 00:46:29,440
But they wouldn't mess with you until you got to there,

773
00:46:29,599 --> 00:46:33,440
you know, to the junk yard. Yeah, but they yeah,

774
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:36,440
they were all over the place. Years later, I met

775
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:38,400
a guy that used to work nights at the Junkyard

776
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:41,440
as a night watchman, and he said he fired his

777
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,960
three fifty seven and something out there there was making

778
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:48,400
all kinds of noise and banging on metal, and you know,

779
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:50,159
I'm like, well, I'm not going to tell you what

780
00:46:50,159 --> 00:46:52,119
it was because you're not going to believe me anyway.

781
00:46:52,159 --> 00:46:56,880
But you know, you're three fifty seven wouldn't have done nothing.

782
00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:02,320
Speaker 2: So I know you don't want to retell your dad's stories.

783
00:47:03,039 --> 00:47:07,440
But with this being your grandfather's house, the events that

784
00:47:07,519 --> 00:47:09,599
happened to your dad and your uncle and everything, was

785
00:47:09,639 --> 00:47:10,559
this the same area.

786
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:16,519
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, my dad moved into that house. He was

787
00:47:16,559 --> 00:47:19,840
born in fifty three. They moved in there in fifty six,

788
00:47:20,519 --> 00:47:24,559
so he spent his whole life. You know, my grandfather

789
00:47:24,639 --> 00:47:27,000
moved out there in ninety nine is when he moved

790
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:31,079
out of his house. So all that time we were

791
00:47:31,119 --> 00:47:33,840
back there, you know. I mean, I'm fifty five now,

792
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:38,960
and from nineteen, let's say I turned eight and seventy,

793
00:47:39,159 --> 00:47:42,639
So from seventy eight on, I would go camp back

794
00:47:42,639 --> 00:47:46,199
in those woods, you know, even by myself. Times were different,

795
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:48,840
but yeah, I mean I would even go camp there

796
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:49,480
by myself.

797
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 2: So stuff was happening in this general area for years

798
00:47:53,719 --> 00:47:59,000
and years and years. Oh yes, oh yes, yeah, that's

799
00:47:59,079 --> 00:48:02,559
really interesting. It's kind of rare that you find places

800
00:48:02,599 --> 00:48:02,920
like that.

801
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,840
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, if you draw I don't know

802
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:12,280
if you're familiar with Ohio, I mean, but you go

803
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:16,639
from the Kyahaga Valley National Recreation Area, which is basically

804
00:48:16,679 --> 00:48:21,079
the whole top of Ohio bend patches, but the big area.

805
00:48:21,119 --> 00:48:24,480
If you draw a straight line from there to Salt

806
00:48:24,559 --> 00:48:27,400
Fork State Park, which is a big foot hotspot in Ohio,

807
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,280
my little sections right, you've got to go right through.

808
00:48:31,079 --> 00:48:32,119
Speaker 2: It, right in the middle.

809
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:36,960
Speaker 1: So I almost think that they're migrating and they just

810
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:38,199
spent some time back there.

811
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:40,400
Speaker 2: You think that's like a travel corridor.

812
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:43,679
Speaker 1: I do, I really do.

813
00:48:45,039 --> 00:48:50,760
Speaker 2: Yeah. I do have some friends up in Ohio that

814
00:48:51,519 --> 00:48:56,480
actively researched, and I can't talk about it too much,

815
00:48:56,639 --> 00:48:59,639
you know, out of respect for them giving away locations

816
00:48:59,639 --> 00:49:02,639
in area. Like you're saying, you know, Salt Fork has

817
00:49:02,639 --> 00:49:05,360
become a well known hotspot, a little too well known

818
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:09,039
for a lot of people exactly. But there are a

819
00:49:09,119 --> 00:49:13,599
lot of areas that connect up to Salt Fork. That

820
00:49:15,039 --> 00:49:18,519
activity is happening, and they're finding all sorts of stuff.

821
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: Well, it's like Hawking Hills here in Ohio is starting

822
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:28,639
to have a lot of you know, yeah, activity, Ashland County,

823
00:49:28,679 --> 00:49:31,480
Ohio is having a lot of activity. The thing that

824
00:49:31,599 --> 00:49:36,000
amazes me about the whole Bigfoot community, you got so

825
00:49:36,039 --> 00:49:40,039
many people that if you don't believe they're part of it,

826
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:44,960
then you're not a believer, right, And that's the wrong

827
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:48,599
way to do any type of scientific research. I mean,

828
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:52,880
he's come out and said it. It's already been known.

829
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:55,559
I mean, I don't know if you're affiliated with the

830
00:49:55,639 --> 00:50:00,199
BFRO or anything like that. But Matt Moneymaker at the

831
00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:05,159
school an accurate Okay, he graduated from the university here.

832
00:50:06,079 --> 00:50:09,480
He knows about my story. You know. He's like, you know,

833
00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:13,679
if there's any I don't know what they call it now,

834
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:17,599
the WU or whatever, I don't want to hear leave

835
00:50:17,679 --> 00:50:21,000
that part out. Well, no, there's not really any WOO.

836
00:50:21,119 --> 00:50:23,320
But if there was, it's part of the story. It

837
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:27,000
goes with it, you know, and I just I just

838
00:50:27,039 --> 00:50:30,039
want to He's got to be open to it. You know,

839
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:33,039
I'm not necessarily saying I believe you know, big pots

840
00:50:33,079 --> 00:50:36,119
an alien or can teleport or anything like that. But

841
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:39,719
I'm not opposed to it either. You know, something happens

842
00:50:40,199 --> 00:50:43,440
to change my mind, and so be it.

843
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:50,719
Speaker 2: I've talked to a lot of people, and there's you know,

844
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:55,559
a handful that I very much value and respect their

845
00:50:55,760 --> 00:51:00,840
opinions and theories on the subject. However, I have yet

846
00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:05,800
to meet anyone that I believe they know for sure

847
00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:08,559
one way or the other about any aspect of it.

848
00:51:09,639 --> 00:51:12,239
There's a few things we can tell you for sure,

849
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:15,760
that they're out there, that they can walk up right,

850
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:19,280
that they're covered in hair. You know, we know that

851
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,719
much from eyewitness accounts and everything. But beyond that, I

852
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:24,239
don't think anybody knows anything.

853
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:27,960
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what I like. I said the

854
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:34,440
one for visual I had the thing was massive. I

855
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:38,960
mean it was. It's I hear people say four or

856
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:43,519
five hundred pounds, man, I'm I'm even pushing more than that.

857
00:51:43,639 --> 00:51:46,639
I'm saying eight to nine hundred, maybe one thousand pounds

858
00:51:47,079 --> 00:51:50,000
as bulky as this thing is. I mean, now, I

859
00:51:50,039 --> 00:51:51,880
get it ways hard to guess, and you know, I

860
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:58,519
was young, but just the sheer mass alone, and everybody

861
00:51:58,559 --> 00:52:02,599
knows muscle weighs more than fast, and the thing didn't

862
00:52:02,639 --> 00:52:06,840
look fat. It looked muscular, you know, and it just

863
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:12,159
it left me at all. Now. I watched the film

864
00:52:12,159 --> 00:52:15,119
with Patty and I'm not saying real or not for

865
00:52:15,199 --> 00:52:18,079
that because I wasn't there. To me, it looks convincing

866
00:52:18,119 --> 00:52:21,679
as all get out. But I've also seen some other

867
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:26,519
videos on the Internet that if AI wasn't around, I

868
00:52:26,519 --> 00:52:29,440
would say, yeah, they could be it. But now that

869
00:52:29,519 --> 00:52:34,199
AI is so relevant and popular with everybody, I almost

870
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:39,320
look at every video on the Internet is most likely Aiah.

871
00:52:39,519 --> 00:52:42,559
Speaker 2: Videos and photographs and things like that at this point

872
00:52:42,599 --> 00:52:45,800
are just for entertainment purposes only as far as I'm

873
00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:50,840
concerned exactly. I mean, that's just the unfortunate reality of it,

874
00:52:50,920 --> 00:52:55,440
unless I'm involved in taking the footage myself or it's

875
00:52:55,559 --> 00:52:57,079
you know, somebody I know personally.

876
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,039
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. It also gets everyone's like, why is

877
00:53:01,039 --> 00:53:03,719
the picture always so blurry? Why is it always so

878
00:53:03,800 --> 00:53:09,599
out of focus? I can tell you firsthand. Okay, I

879
00:53:09,599 --> 00:53:13,079
mean I've been in firefights. Okay, your blood pressure goes up,

880
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:18,039
you lose feeling in your fingertips. If you're trying to

881
00:53:18,079 --> 00:53:22,440
hold a camera still and every muscle in your body

882
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:25,920
is contracting and shaking, every picture's going to be out

883
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:29,440
of focus. It's gonna be blurry. It's gonna be even

884
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,440
if you if that's what you're going out there to

885
00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:35,320
find when you see it, if you've never seen it before,

886
00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:39,440
you're not prepared. And I mean it's been years since

887
00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:41,280
I seen it, okay, But I am not gonna lie

888
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:42,920
to you. If I see it again, I'm probably gonna

889
00:53:43,559 --> 00:53:45,119
be just as scared as I was the first time

890
00:53:45,159 --> 00:53:49,079
I seen it. But it doesn't change the fact that

891
00:53:49,119 --> 00:53:50,639
I know what I'm looking at.

892
00:53:51,639 --> 00:53:55,559
Speaker 2: Whenever you talk about the size and the mass of

893
00:53:55,599 --> 00:53:57,519
the one that you saw that you got a clearer

894
00:53:57,639 --> 00:54:01,840
view of. You mentioned earlier about it kind of blending

895
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:04,159
into the tree and you lost it silhouette and couldn't

896
00:54:04,159 --> 00:54:10,159
see it anymore. Uh, something that large? How did you

897
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,519
lose it silhouette against a tree?

898
00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:17,239
Speaker 1: This wasn't a little tree, okay. I mean, granted it

899
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:20,079
was bigger than the trunk with wives. I mean the

900
00:54:20,119 --> 00:54:24,079
shoulders had to be three and a half four foot across, right, okay.

901
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:27,679
And when this thing went against the tree, it didn't

902
00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:31,320
just stop, okay. It kind of trying to think of

903
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:34,480
the best way to explain it, picture yourself walking against

904
00:54:34,519 --> 00:54:37,920
its tree instead of going around it. You almost hug

905
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:41,519
it to go around it. I didn't see it go

906
00:54:41,599 --> 00:54:42,079
past it.

907
00:54:42,639 --> 00:54:45,039
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, yeah, so it could have

908
00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:48,920
put itself, you know, the tree between you and itself,

909
00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:51,920
and you kind of used the tree as a blind spot.

910
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:57,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he is wider than the tree. Now, like

911
00:54:57,079 --> 00:54:59,079
I told you before, I'm Army ranger. It was a

912
00:54:59,119 --> 00:55:02,719
seventy fifth Ranger regiment. I know how to look at silhouettes.

913
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:05,960
I learned this after this incident. You know. Like I said,

914
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:09,119
I was twelve years old when this happened, right, But

915
00:55:09,119 --> 00:55:11,880
when I'm at Fort Lewis now, mind you, Like I said,

916
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:16,480
I only have blanks and we're on a training op. Okay,

917
00:55:16,559 --> 00:55:18,960
five days on the woods. All you have is your

918
00:55:19,039 --> 00:55:22,920
ruck and your gear. I don't think I had a

919
00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:27,599
good night sleep during that, you know, whole time out

920
00:55:27,639 --> 00:55:31,159
there because I'm laying there and I look up and

921
00:55:31,199 --> 00:55:34,679
you see a tree, and then you like, blank in

922
00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:36,960
the trees doesn't look the same.

923
00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:37,920
Speaker 2: Yeah.

924
00:55:38,039 --> 00:55:40,800
Speaker 1: Now I'm trained to look for silhouette, you know what

925
00:55:40,840 --> 00:55:43,360
I mean. It got to the point where I would

926
00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:47,440
keep my night vision on the whole time. They're like,

927
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:49,440
you're going to burn batteries on. I'm like, I don't care.

928
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:53,119
I can see. Oh you're not letting that story good

929
00:55:53,159 --> 00:55:56,039
to you? Just stop. Yes, I am. You know what

930
00:55:56,119 --> 00:56:00,400
I mean. You don't understand, right, you know, It's just

931
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:05,679
it's not that I was going to do anything if

932
00:56:05,719 --> 00:56:09,000
the thing if I got another look at it, but

933
00:56:09,079 --> 00:56:11,880
I still wanted to get a look at it. Yeah,

934
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:13,280
I want to see what's going to kill me if

935
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:17,719
that be the case. I don't believe that every big

936
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:21,320
put out there could be a monstrous killer. I almost

937
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:24,599
think that they're not like a human. There's good ones,

938
00:56:24,639 --> 00:56:27,480
there's bad ones. There's ones you just don't know about.

939
00:56:29,079 --> 00:56:30,800
And I kind of think it's the same with them.

940
00:56:32,639 --> 00:56:35,320
I mean, you get down in the southern parts of

941
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:38,280
the country, and the big put down there seem a

942
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:41,199
little bit more mischievous, I don't want to say violent,

943
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:45,599
but more mischievous. You get to the Pacific Northwest, where

944
00:56:45,599 --> 00:56:48,079
there's not as many people, it has more room to roam.

945
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:53,599
They're more shy and try to stay away from humans.

946
00:56:54,239 --> 00:56:58,119
And I think the ones in the eastern part Ohio, Pennsylvania,

947
00:56:58,239 --> 00:57:02,599
West Virginia look at humans as a little nuisance, not

948
00:57:02,639 --> 00:57:05,480
going to do anything to you. But yeah, you might

949
00:57:05,519 --> 00:57:06,920
be able to mess with them a little bit. Don't

950
00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:08,679
give them little bit, don't give them too much, you

951
00:57:08,719 --> 00:57:09,280
know what I mean?

952
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:12,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, where is your thoughts at at this point in

953
00:57:12,800 --> 00:57:14,519
life about what these things are?

954
00:57:18,599 --> 00:57:22,840
Speaker 1: Again, just my thoughts, my opinions. I think they're flesh

955
00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:28,199
and bloods. I just think they're another form of animal.

956
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:33,840
I mean, in between the Great Apes and US. If

957
00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:37,400
you'd have to put them on the you know, the

958
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:40,199
evolution thing. I think they're in between like the Great

959
00:57:40,199 --> 00:57:41,639
Apes and US.

960
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:44,960
Speaker 2: Do you think they'll ever be proven to exist?

961
00:57:46,039 --> 00:57:49,639
Speaker 1: I think so, I really do. I think so. I

962
00:57:49,639 --> 00:57:52,320
think it's going to get to the point where they

963
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:55,599
can't deny it anymore. I mean, I believe there are

964
00:57:55,639 --> 00:57:59,000
scientists out there that have proof that they are being told.

965
00:57:59,199 --> 00:58:02,320
You don't or that, I mean, I don't. I don't

966
00:58:02,360 --> 00:58:04,880
think it's gonna be proven on the TV show. I

967
00:58:04,920 --> 00:58:08,519
mean I love watching Expedition Bigfoot, but that's strictly entertainment.

968
00:58:09,280 --> 00:58:11,719
They're not going to prove it on that because I mean,

969
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:13,639
if they were to prove it, I mean, the last

970
00:58:13,639 --> 00:58:16,480
season was pretty cool how it ended with the footage,

971
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:23,320
but TWOV shows over if you prove it, no point

972
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:26,880
having a TV show. So I think that those shows

973
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:30,800
like Finding Bigfoot and Expedition Bigfoot and the whole Josh

974
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:34,199
Gates thing, I think it's strictly entertainment. I mean, Josh

975
00:58:34,280 --> 00:58:37,360
Gates got some pretty good proof of the Eddy and

976
00:58:37,400 --> 00:58:40,800
he got laughed at. But I mean I really think

977
00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:43,039
they're scientists out there that are already known. I'm not

978
00:58:43,119 --> 00:58:45,280
talking just about Jeff Meldrum and things like that. I

979
00:58:45,280 --> 00:58:49,360
mean actual biologists and zoologists. I think they know it's there,

980
00:58:49,679 --> 00:58:53,920
but they they out a reputation alone. I mean, the

981
00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:57,679
government can ruin anybody. And if you that that's your

982
00:58:57,719 --> 00:59:00,320
livelihood and you come out and say yeah it's real,

983
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:02,039
your livelihood's gone.

984
00:59:02,599 --> 00:59:07,159
Speaker 2: Yeah. There's no money in it for sure. No for

985
00:59:07,239 --> 00:59:10,159
people trying to prove it, especially in the scientific community.

986
00:59:10,159 --> 00:59:13,360
I mean that's something that's obviously talked about. You know

987
00:59:13,519 --> 00:59:18,280
a lot about how to get scientists on board and everything. Well, scientists,

988
00:59:18,599 --> 00:59:21,519
you know, that's their job. It's not just a hobby

989
00:59:21,559 --> 00:59:26,119
for them, and they get funding to research and do

990
00:59:26,239 --> 00:59:29,719
certain things. And if they're not getting funded to do that,

991
00:59:29,719 --> 00:59:30,719
that's just the way it is.

992
00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:33,199
Speaker 1: So well, I'm going to turn it back on you.

993
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:35,880
What's your thoughts on it. I mean, obviously you believe

994
00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:39,159
or no, I mean, but oh yeah, do you think

995
00:59:39,159 --> 00:59:40,000
it's going to be proven.

996
00:59:41,000 --> 00:59:44,400
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I'm kind of of the mindset

997
00:59:44,519 --> 00:59:48,519
that they already know. The powers that be whoever they are,

998
00:59:49,039 --> 00:59:51,119
already know these things are out there because I know

999
00:59:51,159 --> 00:59:53,639
they're out there. You know they're out there. If two

1000
00:59:53,639 --> 00:59:55,800
guys like us can go out there and have an

1001
00:59:55,840 --> 00:59:58,960
encounter and sightings and see these things and all these

1002
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:03,039
other people have, then of course they know they're out there.

1003
01:00:03,079 --> 01:00:07,559
They've already studied them, they've already captured one. For whatever reason,

1004
01:00:07,599 --> 01:00:12,639
they've decided we're not supposed to know about them. And

1005
01:00:12,719 --> 01:00:14,719
so I just think that's the way it is. I

1006
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:16,719
think that's how it's always going to be.

1007
01:00:18,159 --> 01:00:20,800
Speaker 1: I hope you're wrong. You're probably not, but I hope

1008
01:00:20,840 --> 01:00:25,519
you're wrong. I love for the day where you know,

1009
01:00:25,639 --> 01:00:28,239
I'm watching the news and they break in and you know,

1010
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:32,679
breaking news Bigfoot has now proven to be exists. Oh wow.

1011
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:34,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to keep on fighting the good fight.

1012
01:00:36,840 --> 01:00:39,320
Speaker 1: I got a long list of people I'm gonna call

1013
01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:42,679
if that ever happened. See I told you yeah, because

1014
01:00:42,800 --> 01:00:45,360
of my army buddy. See, I wasn't overreacted.

1015
01:00:46,079 --> 01:00:49,039
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Bob, I appreciate you coming on here and

1016
01:00:49,360 --> 01:00:50,800
sharing your story and talking to me.

1017
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:54,400
Speaker 1: Man Hey, it was a pleasure. I appreciate it. Thank you.

1018
01:00:54,920 --> 01:00:56,920
Speaker 2: And if you've had your own encounter with Bigfoot or

1019
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:58,679
something else you can explain and you like to share

1020
01:00:58,719 --> 01:01:01,760
your story on the podcast, email me at Bigfoot Crossroads

1021
01:01:01,760 --> 01:01:05,559
at gmail dot com. Check out the website Bigfootcrossroads dot com.

1022
01:01:05,599 --> 01:01:08,599
You can find links to social media, past episodes, merchandise,

1023
01:01:08,719 --> 01:01:11,880
everything you need all in one place. And until next time,

1024
01:01:11,960 --> 01:01:14,800
remember there's something in the woods.