North Carolina – 48 in ’08
North Carolina was my fourth stop squatchin’ in all 48 contiguous states in 2008. I was invited to go squatchin’ with Chris P, BFRO_North Carolina Investigator. We were joined by a few of his friends.
On the 14th of March, 2008 we were in a wooded area of North Carolina. We spent several hours hiking, setting up recording gear and listening for night sounds. This particular area has a history of several sightings and many vocalizations.
The weather was great, and the forest was very quiet. We did hear some suspicious whistles, a distant woodknock and one member had a possible sighting.
Thanks for allowing me to tag along Chris!
To listen to an audio recording of this segment click here.
North Carolina 48 in ’48
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Oklahoma – 48 in ’08
Eastern Oklahoma was my third stop squatchin’in all 48 contiguous states in 2008. I was invited to go squatchin’ with Doug Bilby, also know as “Bullet maker”.
On the 7th of March, 2008 I visited with Bullet maker and his wife at their home which is set on a beautiful 200 acre site. This setting is richly blessed with a great variety of wildlife, from mountain lion & bobcat to deer and smaller game and birdlife. The area is a mixture of bluffs, creeks and a large expanse of woods.
Although the weather was cold and blustery with some snow we were still able to check out several areas using Bullet’s Kawasaki Mule. Doug has had many experiences with squatches on this property. His stories have been posted on several bigfoot forums and is also available on a series of CD’s entitled IN THE SHADOWS WITH BULLET MAKER. If you are interested you can contact him directly at chiggers@hughes.net.
Thanks for your hospitality and allowing me to visit your wonderful place Bullet maker!
To listen to an audio recording of this segment click here.
Oklahoma 48 in ’48
Are you interested in being part of this project?
Sound Skeptics
On the 4th of February 2008 DB Donlon of Virginia (The Blogsquatcher) was a guest on Squatchdetective Radio.
During the show DB shared some of his sound recordings. DB also discussed what he calls Sound Skeptics. I thought it was a very good statement and you can read it below and also listen to the original sound clip.
DB Donlon –
Sound skeptics will object that you can’t tell what animal made a sound if you didn’t see the animal make it. I think this is true in the broadest sense. After all, I can play a file of a coyote and if you heard it in the distance, you’d think it was an actual coyote, and not a recording.
But an important point I want to stress is that these same sound skeptics are the first to say, “you’ve recorded a coyote,” or “you’ve recorded a hog” when they hear the sounds we get. They don’t say they don’t know what it is, they almost always define it as something known, and they get to that identification from the sound alone. If you can’t tell what made a sound without visually i.d.ing the sound maker, how do they know we’ve recorded coyotes and hogs?
I’m not just making that point to rub someone’s nose in it, I’m saying you can’t have it both ways. If it really is possible to id creatures by their vocalizations (and we do this all the time, don’t we? When we hear an owl call, we don’t say, “I’ll never know what that is..” we say, “oh, an owl!” The plain fact of the matter is that the calls we’ve recorded don’t sound like coyotes, and they certainly don’t look like coyote calls when you look at them in the software. They do sometimes sound coyote-ish, but they don’t sound like the coyote calls I’ve found on the net. (I’m being strict about definitions here — like serving as an = sign, rather than an approximation.) Nor does the East Central Ohio chatter sound like a hog, rather, occasionally hog-ish.
So when the skeptics tell you that we can’t tell what made the sound because we didn’t see the animal making it, you insist that they stick to that. They are right, we can’t really tell. So let’s stop calling these things misidentifications out of hand in an attempt to quell all interest in sounds. It’s a legitimate area of research. Who knows what advances will come in the future that will make this kind of research easier?
Media Article – Grundy County, Illinois – # 5
Monday, November 5, 2007
Searching for Bigfoot Researchers look for evidence of DuPont Monster
By Heidi Terry-Litchfield Herald Correspondent
Morris Herald News
He was in the area hunting snakes as part of a field guide activity, something this Marseilles resident has done across the United States, when he saw a large creature heading up a hill in the woods by the road.
The snake hunter, who wishes to remain anonymous, described the creature as tall – over 7 feet tall – with hair on it.
When he first saw it, he thought it might be a national guardsman in a gully suit, but after he yelled, “Hey,†the creature looked toward him and the snake hunter saw the profile of the creature’s eye and cheek and knew this was no human.
It was this eyewitness report that led a group of Bigfoot hunters from California to the Morris area to see if they could find any proof of the creature.
Brian Mazzola, Steve Kulls, Tommy Biscardi Jr., and Jimmy Snell stand next to their travel trailer, which is filled with gadgets and supplies, in the backyard of a Morris residence where they camped while searching locally for signs of a Bigfoot-type creature known as the “DuPont Monster “. (Herald Photo/ Heidi Terry Litchfield)
For the past week, a team of trained professionals has been scouring the area near the old DuPont chemical plant near Seneca in the hopes of finding proof of the DuPont Monster . Rumors about the monster have been told in the area for about 30 years, with several area residents reporting they have seen a large, hairy, Bigfoot-type creature in the woods.
Tommy Biscardi Jr., the director of field security for the live capture team from Searching for Bigfoot Inc., said they receive tips from all over the United States reporting Bigfoot sightings, but they don’t rush out to every one of them.
“We do a thorough background check on the area and situation to see if we can substantiate any of what is reported,†said Biscardi.
“If we feel the information makes sense, we will send a team to check out the area.†Biscardi wasn’t always a believer in Bigfoot, so he understands when people feel skeptical about what his team does.
“My father hunted Bigfoot for 30 years, and I never believed him until I had an encounter while out spending a day with him in Texas,†Biscardi said.
The field team is made up of individuals who all bring something to the field in the way of tracking and searching for Bigfoot. Biscardi was an Army Ranger; Jim Snell has been with the team for one year, coming from a background as a paranormal investigator; Steve Kulls has been with the team for a 1 1/2 year since leaving his profession as a private investigator; and cameraman Brian Mazzola was hired on to film the hunt in a sequel to the group’s first documentary, “Bigfoot Lives.â€
The no-kill team uses devices to aid its search, including night-vision glasses, thermal imaging, cattle prods, binoculars, and wireless cameras. “I’ve traveled 25,000 miles with this team and I want to see the documentary to its end,†said Mazzola.
“But I will admit I’m still a bit skeptical. If anyone is going to find a Bigfoot, they will.â€
Biscardi and his team had spent several nights in the area of the reported sightings, as well as doing recon missions during the day. They said they have found foot prints along the water that they can’t explain as being human.
“It’s cold, there is cut corn stalks and thick brush, and bare foot prints that can’t be explained,†said Biscardi. “While I haven’t seen this one, I can say for sure there is something here.â€
Biscardi said the state of Illinois has a rich history with Bigfoot stories and that the Seneca area was not the first place they’ve examined. They went to Funk’s Grove in 2006 on another resident tip.
He said the creature has hair that can be several different colors. It walks upright. It is nocturnal, doing it’s moving and hunting at night, and, he believes, it wants nothing to do with humans.
Biscardi also believes that the creature lives on several different continents and is called several different names, including Sasquatch, Yeti and Almas, as well as many names given to such a creature by the different Native American tribes.
“Many places have stories of a large half-human, half-animal type creature,†said Biscardi. “We don’t think it is only in North America.â€
The team was scheduled to leave the area over the weekend, having searched all of the area it was given permission to search. It is hoping companies and land owners in the old DuPont area will give permission for the team to return and search their land.
“Without being able to go into all the areas, it’s hard to do a thorough investigation,†said Biscardi. “We hope that property owners in that area will invite us back; we’d love to come. The people we’ve met have been very nice to us.â€
For further information on the team, its findings, or photographs of the footprints found near Seneca, visit http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com
Illinois Howl – California Postcard
News10 ABC Sacramento, California features a program called CALIFORNIA POSTCARD which “is a weekly look at the people, places and things across California that make it the unique state it is.”
Recently they featured the Bigfoot Discovery Museum and interviewed Michael Rugg. The museum is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Central California in South Felton in the San Lorenzo Valley.
Among several sounds heard in the background is the Illinois Howl
Illinois Howl – Springfield FOX 55
During the fall of 2006 the Illinois Howl was used as a background sound for a short promo for Springfield FOX 55 Illinois WRSP in Springfield, Illinois.