SPRINGFIELD, Mo. –
“Missouri has a long history of Bigfoot activity,” says Bigfoot researcher. “News reports dating all the way back to the 1800s, the Kansas City Star, the New York Times have reports about the Wildman of the Ozarks.”
Dozens of people across the Ozarks every year claim they see the ape-like creature. And the reports may not be from people you’d think.
“To this day, we still receive witness reports from people with character, police officers, college professors, scientists, doctors and lawyers,” said Ron Boles.
“That Sasquatch are persistent mystery that have been in records in sightings and drawings for thousands of years,” said Cliff Barackman of “Finding Bigfoot.”
Ron Boles, the man who heads up the local chapter of the Bigfoot Research Organization and Cliff Barackman, the man behind Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” say a lot of people are fascinated with the idea of Sasquatch.
“I think that the idea of a real monster that is so similar to us walking around really grabs our attention,” said Barackman.
And these investigators say there’s evidence.
“For the past 50 years or so to this day people happen upon and photograph and cast Bigfoot footprints,” said Ron Boles.
“The footprint casts, at leaf the ones we think are real, specialists see that there is anatomy in there, that is consistent from cast to cast, no matter where they were collected,” said Barackman.
But one Drury professor isn’t convinced.
“Not likely no,” said Dr. Kevin Jansen, Drury Professor of Biology. “A good example would be the mountain lion. It has made a modest comeback but they still get hit by cars and noticed by people. There is clear video so it is something that still gets viewed, and the mythical Bigfoot has to have that happen.”
Dr. Kevin Jansen – a professor of Biology – says “Bigfoot” is most likely something much less mysterious.
“In the Ozarks, black bears are something that people could mistake for something different, says Jansen.
He says people who think it’s Bigfoot, are probably confused about the height.
“A six-foot-tall black bear could easily be seen as a nine-foot-tall thing in the woods, so yes, I think a black bear could be mistaken from something different,” said Jansen.
“Fact! For over 400 years, this has been in the first Native American, and early settlers of North American recounts,” said Boles.
“The notion of us never having had a direct encounter with a Bigfoot is odd,” said Jansen.
“People say do you believe in Bigfoots? Bigfoots are real and the evidence tells us that,” said Barackman.
And these Bigfoot investigators say the Ozarks is a great location for the Sasquatch.
“Bigfoot 101, where there is food, where there is good clean running water, where there is terrain where they can get around and easily conceal themselves, then there is a possibility of Bigfoot activity,” said Boles.
“There is so much land and so much food, these things have a lot of room to play,” said Barackman.
“The presence of a possible Bigfoot population is just difficult to accept by a scientist because, the population size that would be required to maintain a mating system and if it’s a primate related organism, you would assume there would be some social system necessary,” said Jansen.
But researcher Boles says he has proof there are groups of Sasquatch in the Ozarks…based on one sighting in the woods, right here in McDonald County.
“There were three good ol’ boys over Labor Day weekend and they were coming back around 1:00 a.m. from fishing,” said Boles.
Those men would have their one and only encounter with the hairy beast about five-years-ago They got within 15 feet of the creature when it stood up and looked them – not just once, but twice.
“I asked the witness so was the hair matters, dirty, mangled, and it was the second witness that responds,” said Boles. “No! This struck me as funny, the hair was very clean and unmated.
Boles says that is proof, this creature wasn’t alone.
Kenny S
There are lots of spooky things in the ozarks 🙂 lovin this ????????
Steven B
You know, I’ve never laid eyes on a BF. I’ve only had one weird experience that could have been anything (night forest went dead silent for a couple of minutes). Nevertheless, even having no experience with this thing at all, I am getting so blasted sick and tired of people saying, “Oh, they mistook a bear”.
Dammit! A lot of these people are outdoorsmen, hunters, fishermen, campers, prospectors, hikers, and trappers. People who are VERY familiar with the outdoors and the animals that naturally occur there. These are not people who were born, raised, and have never left the city and who think milk and eggs come from cartons and meat from a “meat factory”. How downright insulting, patronizing, and disgusting that people, with PhDs (which, with this kind of attitude, I believe stands for “Pile it High and Deep”), even come up with the notion that ALL these people are mistaking “bears” for BF!
If it was only one or 2 sightings in 50 years, I could maybe accept this kind of thinking. However, when you have the Native Americans, before the settlement of this continent, with a whole host of names for this thing – and THEY know their BEARS – and sightings since the settlement of this nation by the hundreds by non-Native peoples, anyone, with any amount of intelligence, has to sit down and say, “I don’t know what they are seeing, but there are too many sightings for it to be “bears” in every case.
I wish I could catch a booger and a bear and put them a large cage with 2 dividers. Throw the booger in one end. The bear in the other and then throw these “educated” knot-heads into the middle section for a night, lock the door, and tell them “When you can tell me the difference between a bear and this thing let me know.”
Done my rant – thanks…
JOHN E
OK STEVEN B….. HEY WES SOME THING SCARY MAN …YA RIGHT …EVERYDAY IS SCARY WITH BIG FOOT ON YOUR LIST ….THANKS FOR ALL THAT GIVE US THE STORY’S .
Andrew O
It’s good to see balanced arguments for pro and cons, and I think it should be discussed more openly without the fear of ridicule, etc.
You’re doing an excellent job, Wes. Keep it up ????
By the way, if I saw that creature from the initial image of that video walking towards me, I’d just crap myself!!
craig b
Instead of stating they don’t exist or it’s hard to accept they exist, Why don’t more scientists just say I don’t know if they exist and I haven’t yet seen enough evidence to convince me they exist. That is a fair and accurate, and unbiased, way to state it. So many scientists expose their bias by stating, with certainty, it doesn’t exist. Why do that? I suspect it’s because they are afraid of saying “I don’t know” because they feel as scientists that they always have to have an answer. I see that dynamic all the time in people, they are reluctant to confess they don’t know.
Eric B
I think many people are reluctant to acknowledge sasquatch exists because it scares the hell out of them. This works in the favor of those trying to cover it up. If it were to be “officially” acknowledged by the powers that be, I think there would be some “hysteria” and a movement away from rural, mountainous areas. I think there are industries: Logging, Home building, Land Development, the would spend their last dollar trying to keep it quiet. Our gubmint can’t survive (and grow!) without the $$$ these industries provide them. It’s the perfect conditions for NEVER being acknowledged publicly. It will have to come from privately funded and controlled effort. Which reminds me……Has anyone heard anything about Adrian Erickson in the last couple years??? What’s he up to now???
Samuel J
A brother said he was floating in the James River by himself. And something was pacing him and the tree line. He said it scared him so bad that he when he got back to the loading area to his canoe he didn’t even want to leave the water. I believe there’s something definitely out there. He said that something was hiding in the trees and he could see two sets of eyes. With his flashlight. He just personally told me this just a few days ago. So I really wanted to look up any kind of sign in the Ozarks.