September 3, 2025 • 58 mins
Growing up in the north Georgia mountains in the 1980s, I had an encounter that changed everything I thought I knew about the world. Something massive, walking on two legs, chased me out of the woods when I was twelve years old. That terrifying experience sent me down a decades-long rabbit hole, researching and collecting stories from across the American Southeast.
In this episode, I share my personal encounter along with the haunting story of Mr. Brown, a Summerville carpenter who came face-to-face with an injured eight-foot-tall creature while hunting ginseng in 1986. We explore the hidden history of Sasquatch sightings throughout Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, from ancient Cherokee legends of Tsul 'Kalu to modern-day encounters captured on police dash cams.
Despite what skeptics claim about the Southeast being too developed for unknown primates to exist, the evidence tells a different story. We examine compelling accounts from the Minnehaha Falls incident, the Florida Skunk Ape photographs, Tennessee's Flintville Monster siege, and hundreds of other documented encounters that mainstream science refuses to acknowledge. From the vast wilderness of the Great Smoky Mountains to the impenetrable Everglades, these creatures have been seen by thousands of credible witnesses over centuries.
This isn't about proving anything to anybody. This is about the truth of what people have experienced in the shadows of the Southern woods, and why these ancient mysteries deserve our respect, not our ridicule.
Because sometimes, in those quiet moments when the fog rolls through the hollows and the modern world feels far away, we're reminded that we don't know everything about the forests we call home.
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In this episode, I share my personal encounter along with the haunting story of Mr. Brown, a Summerville carpenter who came face-to-face with an injured eight-foot-tall creature while hunting ginseng in 1986. We explore the hidden history of Sasquatch sightings throughout Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, from ancient Cherokee legends of Tsul 'Kalu to modern-day encounters captured on police dash cams.
Despite what skeptics claim about the Southeast being too developed for unknown primates to exist, the evidence tells a different story. We examine compelling accounts from the Minnehaha Falls incident, the Florida Skunk Ape photographs, Tennessee's Flintville Monster siege, and hundreds of other documented encounters that mainstream science refuses to acknowledge. From the vast wilderness of the Great Smoky Mountains to the impenetrable Everglades, these creatures have been seen by thousands of credible witnesses over centuries.
This isn't about proving anything to anybody. This is about the truth of what people have experienced in the shadows of the Southern woods, and why these ancient mysteries deserve our respect, not our ridicule.
Because sometimes, in those quiet moments when the fog rolls through the hollows and the modern world feels far away, we're reminded that we don't know everything about the forests we call home.
Get Our FREE Newsletter
Get Brian's Books
Leave Us A Voicemail
Visit Our Website
Support Our Sponsors
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now one of your pudding. I got a string going
on here, something just because my dog. Something killed your dog?
My dog. We're flying through the or over the tree.
I don't know how it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm
really confused. All I saw was my dog coming over
the fence and he was dead. And once you hit
the ground like, I didn't see any cars. All I
saw was my dog coming over the fence. Sat, what
(00:38):
are you putting? We got some wonder or something crawling
around out here? Did you see what it was? Or
was it was? Standing enough? I'm out here looking through
the window now and I don't see anything. I don't
want to go outside. Jesus, Quice, you better hello, get
(01:03):
the Boddy out here? What quin? I'm out there? I
thought of a bench about tech foot nine. I don't
know easy out there? Yeah, I'm walking right head.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Ask most people about Bigfoot, and they'll tell you straight up,
if these things exist at all, they're out in the Pacific,
northwest Washington, Oregon, maybe northern California. That's Bigfoot country. That's
where the famous footage was shot. That's where all the
TV shows go looking. They'll tell you the southeast doesn't
have the right habitat, too many people, too much development,
(01:35):
too hot, not enough wilderness. They'll say, our black bears
get mistaken for something else. They'll say, people down here
just want to jump on the big foot bandwagon, trying
to get famous or make a buck off tourists. The
experts will explain it all away. Wildlife biologists will pull
out their maps and show you how there's no way
an eight foot tall primate could hide in Georgia or
(01:57):
Alabama or the Carolinas. They'll tell you we would have
found bones by now, bodies, clear pictures. They'll say. Every
square mile of the Southeast has been logged, farmed, hunted,
or developed at some point. There's nowhere for a population
of giant apes to hide. But here's the thing they
don't want to talk about. People have been seeing these
(02:18):
creatures in the Southeast for centuries, long before anybody heard
a bigfoot, long before the internet, long before people could
get famous from a hoax. The Cherokee didn't call them bigfoot.
They called them none uneu We, the stone men. They
weren't telling campfire stories. They were warning each other about
something real that lived in these mountains. The Creek, the Seminoles,
(02:41):
the Choctaw. They all had names for these things. Every
single tribe in the southeast knew about them. When the
first European settlers pushed into these hills and hollows, they
started seeing them too. You can find it in old journals,
newspaper clippings from the eighteen hundreds, court records, ee farmers
reporting livestock killed by something that wasn't a bear or panther,
(03:05):
Hunters describing creatures that walked upright like a man, but
were covered in hair and stood taller than any human.
These weren't people trying to get on TV or sell
t shirts. These were folks just trying to make sense
of what they'd seen. My own family has been in
the North Georgia Mountains for five generations. My great grandfather
used to tell stories about something in the woods that
(03:27):
would scream at night, Not like a panther, not like
an owl, but something that would make your blood run cold.
He wasn't a man given to tall tales. He was
a hard working farmer who knew every animal sound in
these mountains, and he knew this was different. The skeptics
have never spent a night alone in the Okefinokee Swamp
(03:48):
They've never walked the old logging roads in the Ouhari
Mountains when the fog is so thick you can't see
ten feet ahead. They've never stood in the middle of
the Sipsy wilderness and felt that feeling, that ancient, primal
knowledge that you're being watched by something that shouldn't exist.
I used to be one of those skeptics. Myself, raised
on science and logic, thought people who believed in Bigfoot
(04:11):
were either crazy or lying. That was before my own encounter.
Before I started talking to others who'd seen things before,
I realized just how many people have stories they've never
told because they know exactly what folks will think. See.
There's something the experts don't understand about the Southeast. Yes,
we have cities and farms and roads, but we also
(04:33):
have millions of acres of wilderness that most people never see.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park alone is over eight
hundred square miles, and most visitors never get more than
one hundred yards from their car. The Everglades. Good luck
searching every square mile of that swamp. The mountain hollows
of North Georgia and Tennessee. There are places back in
(04:55):
there where no human has set foot in decades. And
then there's the simple fact that the these things, whatever
they are, don't want to be found. Every witness describes
the same thing, incredible intelligence. They know how to avoid
trail cameras, they know how to stay hidden. They've been
doing it for centuries. The Native Americans had a saying,
(05:16):
just because you don't see something doesn't mean it's not there.
The wind is invisible, but you feel it. The mountain
has caves you'll never find. The forest keeps its secrets.
So when someone tells you there's no way bigfoot could
exist in the Southeast, ask them this. Have they talked
to the hundreds of witnesses. Have they examined the footprint
casts that show anatomical details no hoax or could fake?
(05:40):
Have they listened to the audio recordings of sounds no
known animal makes. Have they spent time in these vast wildernesses,
really spent time, not just driven through on the interstate,
Because I have, and I'm here to tell you that
something walks these southern woods. Something has always walked these woods.
Our ancestors it, the indigenous peoples knew it. And despite
(06:03):
what the skeptics say, despite what logic tells us should
be impossible, people keep seeing them. This is not a
story about proving anything to anybody. This is simply the
truth about what people have experienced in the forests, swamps
and mountains of the American Southeast. Take it or leave it,
believe it or don't. But the next time you're driving
(06:23):
through the mountains at dusk, or camping near a swamp,
or hiking a trail that seems a little too quiet,
remember that thousands of people just like you have seen
something that changed their lives forever. Regular people, honest people,
people who had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
By telling their stories, they say sasquatch can't exist in
(06:44):
the Southeast. Tell that to the people who've looked one
in the eyes. It was the mid nineteen eighties and
my family had just moved to this little rental house
in the North Georgia Mountains. The place sat right next
to a cow pasture with pine forests all around it.
For a kid like me, it was heaven. I could
disappear into those woods for hours, just exploring being myself,
(07:08):
nobody bothering me, nobody telling me what to do. I'd
gotten a bb gun for Christmas that year. My most
prized possession. Truth is I rarely shot anything with it.
The few times I did shoot at a bird, I
felt so guilty afterward that I mostly just carried the
thing around to look tough, you know how kids are.
(07:28):
This happened right after school let out for summer. I'd
gone deeper into the woods than usual, checking out some
new territory. The June heat was already building, but under
all those pines and oaks, it stayed cool, smelled like
pine sap and old leaves. I was pushing through this
really thick patch of brush and trees when I heard
something moving about twenty yards away. The undergrowth was so
(07:52):
thick I couldn't see more than a few feet, but
whatever made that noise was big. I figured it was
a deer, maybe a dough with her fawn, so I
stopped to listen, and then the noise stopped too. Everything
went quiet, even the birds shut up, which should have
been my first warning. I started walking again. That's when
I realized whatever was out there had started moving too,
(08:15):
moving with me, staying parallel to my path through all
that thick brush. When I stopped, it stopped. When I walked,
it walked Now I'd spent hundreds of hours in those woods.
I knew what deer sounded like. I knew bears, raccoons, possums.
This wasn't any of those. These were footsteps two feet
(08:37):
not four, and heavy, really heavy. Whatever this thing was,
it had to weigh ten times more than me. You
ever get that feeling where every hair on your body
stands up, where something deep in your gut just screams
that you're in danger, That's what hit me hard. I
suddenly knew I didn't belong there. This wasn't my woods anymore.
(08:58):
I was in something else's territory. I couldn't move, just
stood there, frozen while this thing kept moving through the brush.
Then I heard the sounds. It was making, these deep
guttural grunts and hoofs, nothing like any animal I'd ever heard.
They came from a chest that had to be massive.
Almost sounded like it was talking to itself, or maybe
(09:19):
to something else I couldn't see. Then it charged. I've
never heard anything like it before or since. Sounded like
an elephant crashing through the forest, coming straight at me.
Branches snapping like firecrackers, the ground actually shaking. It stopped
maybe ten feet from me, just out of sight in
the brush. I could hear it breathing, deep, rumbling breaths.
(09:43):
That's when my body finally unfroze. Every instinct I had
said one thing, Run and I ran. God did I
run six hundred yards back to our house, and I
swear I covered it in about thirty seconds, Thorns ripping
my clothes, branches whipping across my face. I didn't care.
Behind me, I could hear it following for maybe the
(10:05):
first fifty yards, crashing through the undergrowth like it was nothing.
Then it stopped, but I didn't, not until I jumped
our barbed wire fence in one leap and collapsed in
our front yard. I lay there, gasping, clothes torn to hell,
scratches all over me. And I never told anyone, not
my parents, not my friends. What was I going to
(10:28):
say that something on two legs, something that weighed as
much as three grown men, had chased me out of
the woods. They'd think I was crazy. It took me
years to tell my mother what happened that day. By then,
I'd learned a lot about these things, and I still
can't say for certain it was a sasquatch, but the
way it walked on two feet, the weight, those sounds,
(10:51):
how it acted, it all fits. That experience sent me
down a rabbit hole. I became obsessed with these stories,
and it turned out I wasn't alone in what I'd experienced,
not by a long shot. I was fascinated by all
these stories growing up, and they only made me more
obsessed with sasquatch and other cryptids as I got older.
(11:11):
One story that really stuck with me was about this guy,
mister Brown, from Somerville, Georgia. This happened in August nineteen
eighty six, around the very same time as my own encounter.
Brown was a carpenter, but like a lot of folks
in the mountains, he'd hunt Jensing to make extra money.
That day, his usual hunting buddy couldn't make it. Brown
(11:33):
drove out to Jenkins's gap alone, and right when he
got out of his truck, he felt eyes on him.
At first, he thought maybe a game warden was watching
for poachers, but it felt different, more intense. He went
down into the woods anyway, found a flat spot loaded
with jen saying he was digging up roots. Really focused
on what he was doing. When that feeling of being
(11:54):
watched got overwhelming. He turned around, expecting to see his
buddy had shown up at after all. What he saw
instead was eight feet tall and covered in brown or
black hair. The thing was maybe twenty feet away, close
enough that Brown could see everything. It had this huge
head that sat right on its shoulders, no neck that
(12:15):
he could see, long arms that hung down to its knees,
and it was covered in dried mud like it had
been wallowing in a creek. But here's the detail that
always gets me. Its left arm was messed up, hung
limp at its side. The fingernails had grown so long
they'd tangled together, pulling the hand into this permanent claw.
(12:37):
This thing was injured, had been for a while. Somehow
that made it more real, more terrifying. They just stood there,
staring at each other. Brown said it felt like twenty minutes,
but was probably two. Neither of them moved. Then the
creature turned sideways, grunted twice these deep sounds from its chest,
and looked back to see if Brown was still there
(13:00):
a couple times, then started walking away. It had a
bad limp. Brown said, it moved like a drunk old man.
The second that thing turned away, Brown ran up the
hill behind him faster than he'd ever moved in his life.
When he got to the top, he threw up, not
from the smell, though the creature stank like roadkill, but
(13:20):
from pure terror. Brown went straight to the sheriff's office.
Then he called the newspaper and TV stations in Atlanta.
See he was worried some kid might run into this thing.
Brown was raised to tell the truth, went to church
every Sunday, But after that day people looked at him different.
Nobody called him a liar to his face, but he
(13:41):
knew some folks didn't believe him. That hurt him bad.
That story haunted me for years. I'd lie awake at
night staring at my bedroom ceiling, imagining I could hear
those low grunts outside my window. I'd picture what it
would be like to stand face to face with something
like that, to look into its eyes and see something
wild and intelligent staring back. But I guess I already
(14:05):
knew what that was like, didn't I. I'd felt that
same terror, that same certainty that I was looking at
something that shouldn't exist. There were other Jensang hunters with
stories too. Homer Bradshaw was this old mountain man who'd
been hunting Jensaying for decades. He knew every trail, every hollow,
every secret spot in North Georgia. Back in the seventies.
(14:28):
Homer was up on Blood Mountain following some old Cherokee
trail nobody else remembered. Early October, leaves just starting to turn.
He'd been out since before dawn, and he was bent
over digging up this big Gensang plant when he heard
something moving through the trees above him on the ridge.
At first he figured it was a deer or maybe
a bear. Then came this howl, long and sad sounding,
(14:52):
echoing off every ridge for miles. Wasn't a wolf, wasn't
a coyote. Wasn't anything Homer had heard in sixty years
of being in those mountains. And stay tuned for more
sasquatch ot to see. We'll be right back after these messages.
When he looked up, there was this huge hair covered
(15:14):
thing standing on a rock ledge about fifty yards away,
shoulders whiter than any man's, arms too long for its body.
They just watched each other for a minute or two.
Then it turned and walked on two legs like a person,
back into the forest. Homer left his gin, saying right
there and got out, never went back to that spot again.
(15:36):
Some folks believed him, some didn't. But Homer never changed
his story, not one detail, right up until he died.
These weren't just random stories. They were part of something bigger.
The Cherokee had names for these things. None you knew
we the stone men Kekla kudla, the harry savage. The
(15:57):
Creek Indians called them koloa. The Seminoles said st Kapcaki,
which means tall man. These weren't fairy tales meant to
scare kids. They were warnings. They were saying something else
lives in these forests, something that was here before us,
something that's still here. I spent years collecting these stories,
(16:18):
talking to people who'd seen things, researching sightings, and what
I found was a hidden history of the American Southeast
that science won't touch, but thousands of people know is real.
These are their stories, These are our stories. This is
what walks in the shadows of the Southern Woods. Long
before European settlers pushed into the Southeastern wilderness, before the
(16:41):
first surveyor measured these lands, before the first axe cut
into old growth timber, the native peoples of the southeast
knew something walk their forests on two legs, something that
wasn't quite human, wasn't quite animal, but lived somewhere in
the shadows between. The Cherokee, whose lands stretched across what's
now Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama, had the most
(17:05):
detailed traditions about these creatures. They spoke of sul Kalu,
the slanted eyed giant, a massive, hairy figure who was
the great lord of the game. Unlike the scary reputation
Bigfoot has today, sul Kalu was often seen as a protector,
though one who demanded respect and proper behavior from humans.
(17:25):
According to Cherokee legend, sul Kalu lived in a place
called Sunagunyi, a mysterious location that nobody could ever quite find.
The giant had incredible strength and strange powers. He could
read minds, control game animals, and move through the forest
without making a sound, even though he was enormous. The
(17:45):
Cherokee believed hunters who showed proper respect might get sul
Kalu's blessing for successful hunts, but those who broke the
sacred laws of the forest would face his anger. One
of the most important sights connected to zul Kalu is
Judico Rock in Jackson County, North Carolina. This massive soap
stone boulder is covered in mysterious carvings, and the Cherokee
(18:07):
say it has the giant's handprint and footprints on it.
The story goes that sul Kalu jumped from one mountain
to another using the rock to steady himself, leaving his
mark forever in the stone. Researchers have dated some of
these carvings to be over three thousand years old, which
means stories of giant, mysterious beings in these mountains go
(18:28):
back thousands of years. The Creek nation, whose territory included
much of Alabama and Georgia, had their own traditions. They
talked about large, hairy, powerful creatures that lived in the
deepest parts of the forest. Some Creek stories said these
beings were dangerous, others said they just wanted to be
left alone, but everyone agreed you had to be extremely
(18:50):
careful and respectful around them. Down in Florida, the Seminole
and Mikusuki peoples had long spoken of the esti Kapkaki,
which translates to furry, tall man or hairy giant. Their
stories described a creature that was incredibly strong, secretive, and
had a terrible smell, descriptions that would be repeated centuries
(19:11):
later by modern witnesses. The Seminoles believe these creatures lived
in the deepest parts of the Everglades, in places where
humans rarely went. What's remarkable about these native traditions isn't
just how similar they are across different tribes and regions,
but how matter of fact they are. These weren't presented
as myths or fantasies, but as simple facts about the world.
(19:33):
There are deer, there are bears, there are panthers, and
there are the hairy giants who walk upright through the forest.
They were part of the natural order. Mysterious perhaps, but
no more so than the wind or the seasons. The
first European settlers to push into the Southeastern wilderness brought axes, plows,
and bibles, but they also brought something else, a rigid
(19:57):
worldview that had no place for giants in the four
But even though they were skeptical, even though they believed
civilization could tame the wild, they too began to report
encounters with things that shouldn't exist. One of the earliest
documented encounters comes from eighteen eighteen in what's now Appalachicola, Florida.
Local newspapers reported a story of a man sized monkey
(20:20):
that had been raiding food stores and stalking fishermen along
the shore. The creature was described as walking upright, covered
in dark hair, and incredibly strong. A group of armed
men chased it into the swamps, but it vanished into
the maze of water and cyprus, leaving only large human
like footprints in the mud. In the eighteen twenties, as
(20:42):
settlers pushed into the North Georgia Mountains, stories began to
come out about encounters with what they called wild men
or wood devils. These weren't the romantic, noble savage tales
that were popular in books back then. These were accounts
of genuine terror. Settlers reported fine their livestock killed in
ways that didn't match any known predator, massive footprints around
(21:05):
their cabins, and horrible screaming sounds that would echo through
the valleys at night. One particularly detailed account comes from
eighteen twenty nine, recorded in the journal of a Baptist
minister named Jeremiah Tilton, who was traveling through what's now
Raven County, Georgia, Tilton wrote, on the third night of
our camp, near the waters of war Woman Creek, we
(21:26):
were awakened by such a noise as I have never
heard before or since. It was neither panther nor bear,
neither wolf nor screech owl, but something that seemed to
combine the worst qualities of all God's creatures. When morning came,
we found prints near our camp, prints like those of
a man, but near half again as large, with the
(21:47):
stride of a giant. Our Cherokee guide refused to track
the creature, saying only that we should leave that place immediately,
which advice we readily took. The eighteen fifties brought a
wave of sids across Tennessee, particularly in the Eastern Mountains.
Logging crews working in what's now the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park reported frequent encounters with large, hair covered beings
(22:11):
that would watch them from ridgetops and sometimes throw rocks
at their camps. One crew near Cade's Cove abandoned a
valuable stand of timber after what they described as being
under attack by multiple creatures over several nights. In eighteen
fifty six, in Alabama, the Civil War era brought its
own strange tales. Confederate and Union soldiers alike reported encounters
(22:34):
with mysterious creatures in the dense forests of the northern
part of the state. A Union cavalry officer, Captain Marcus Thornton,
wrote to his wife in eighteen sixty four about an
incident near what's now Bankhead National Forest. The men are
considerably shaken by an encounter last evening with what they
insist was neither man nor bear. Private Morrison, who was
(22:55):
on picket duty, claims a creature of enormous size, covered
in hair, like an ape, but walking as a man walks,
approached his position. When challenged, it made no reply, but
rather screamed in a manner that brought every man from
his bedroll. We found tracks, Dear Sarah, tracks that I
cannot explain. They are like those of a man, but
(23:16):
far too large. The men are calling it a wood ape,
and I confess I have no better explanation. As the
Southeast entered the twentieth century, as railways cut through the
mountains and cars began to replace horses, As electric lights
pushed back the darkness, and radio waves carried voices through
the air, you might think the old stories would fade away. Instead,
(23:40):
they multiplied. The nineteen twenties brought a rush of sidings
across the region. In nineteen twenty nine, at the famous
Perky Bat Tower in the Florida Keys, a structure built
to house bats for mosquito control, workers reported encounters with
what they described as a large, hair covered humanoid that
seemed attracted to the structure. The creature was seen multiple
(24:02):
times over several weeks, always at dusk or dawn, before
it disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. But it
was in the nineteen forties that things really began to
pick up. In nineteen forty two, in Swanee County, Florida,
a man driving down an isolated road reported that a
large ape like creature rushed from the brush and actually
(24:23):
grabbed onto his vehicle. According to his account, the creature
held onto the running board and beat on the door
for nearly half a mile before finally letting go and
disappearing back into the forest. The man's car showed damage
that matched his story, deep gouges in the metal that
looked like claw marks, and the running board was nearly
torn off. The post World War II era saw an
(24:46):
explosion of encounters across the southeast. Maybe it was the
increased development pushing deeper into previously untouched wilderness. Maybe it
was better communication allowing stories to spread beyond isolated communities.
Or maybe something else was happening, something that caused these
creatures to make themselves known more often. In the nineteen
(25:07):
fifties and nineteen sixties, North Georgia became a particular hot spot.
Hunters in the Chattahoochee National Forest reported numerous encounters. In
nineteen fifty seven, two hunters claimed that a giant, smelly
ape invaded their camp near Blue Ridge. They described it
as over seven feet tall, covered in reddish brown hair,
with eyes that reflected their campfire light like a cat's.
(25:31):
The creature supposedly ransacked their camp, throwing equipment around with
incredible force before disappearing into the night. Meanwhile, in Florida,
what would come to be known as the skunk Ape
was making itself known. The name came from the creature's
supposedly overwhelming odor, described as a combination of rotting eggs, methane,
(25:52):
and wet dog. In the nineteen sixties, reports started flooding
in from across the state, but particularly from the Everglades region.
One of the most believable early skunk ape witnesses was
a Seminole elder named Joseph Billy, who in nineteen sixty
three reported seeing what he called an stcapcaki near the
Big Cypress Reservation. Billy, respected in both Native and non
(26:16):
native communities, described watching the creature for several minutes as
it moved through the swamp, apparently hunting for something. He
noted that it moved both on two legs and on
all fours, switching between the two easily. The nineteen seventies
brought what many researchers consider the golden age of Southeastern
bigfoot encounters. In nineteen seventy one, Alabama experienced what could
(26:39):
only be called a flap, a concentrated period of intense
sighting activity centered around Huntsville and spreading across North Alabama.
Dozens of witnesses reported encounters with large, hairy, bipedal creatures.
The descriptions were remarkably consistent, seven to eight feet tall,
covered in dark hair, with a tear rible smell, and
(27:00):
glowing red eyes. But perhaps the most dramatic series of
events happened in Florida. Between nineteen seventy four and nineteen
seventy five, in Palm Beach County, Sheriff's deputies Marvin Lewis
and Ernie Milner had an encounter that would make headlines
across the state. While investigating reports of strange noises and
livestock deaths, they claimed to have been stalked through a
(27:23):
grove by an ape like creature. They fired at it
and later found blood and hair samples on a barbed
wire fence. The hair was sent for analysis, but mysteriously
disappeared before results could be obtained. In Tennessee, nineteen seventy
six brought the terror of the Flintville Monster. The small
town of Flintville was basically under siege for several weeks
(27:44):
as multiple witnesses reported a seven to eight foot tall,
hairy creature that seemed particularly interested in attacking cars and homes.
The creature left behind sixteen inch footprints and an overwhelming
skunk like odor. The incidents were so frequent and so
terrifying that armed patrols were organized, though they never managed
(28:04):
to encounter the creature directly. North Carolina had its own
celebrity Bigfoot, in the form of nobby named after Carpenter's
Knob near King's Mountain. Throughout nineteen seventy eight and nineteen
seventy nine, numerous witnesses reported seeing a large creature with long,
dark hair walking on two legs. The sightings were taken
(28:25):
seriously enough that local law enforcement investigated, though they officially
concluded that witnesses were likely seeing a large black bear.
As we entered the nineteen eighties and beyond, the phenomenon
didn't fade away as skeptics predicted. Instead, it evolved with
affordable cameras, video recorders, and eventually smartphones. The number of
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supposed pieces of evidence exploded, but something else happened too.
Organized research groups formed and credentialed scientists began to take
the phenomenon seriously. In Georgia, the nineteen nineties brought so
several compelling incidents. In nineteen ninety seven, a police officer's
dash cam near Helen, Georgia, captured what appeared to be
(29:08):
a large, two legged figure crossing the road. The video
got national attention, though skeptics claimed it with students in
a guerrilla suit, but analysis of the figure's walk in
proportions by experts suggested otherwise, But perhaps no encounter from
this era is more significant than the many Jiha Falls incident.
(29:28):
In the early two thousands, an off duty police officer
visiting this popular North Georgia waterfall had a face to
face encounter that would change his life. The officer, whose
identity remains protected, had stayed at the falls after other
visitors had left, enjoying a quiet moment and a sandwich.
As dusk approached, he noticed what he first thought was
(29:49):
another hiker at the base of the falls, but as
he approached to say hello, the figure stood up to
its full height nine to ten feet tall. Stay tuned
for more sou squatch otty see, We'll be right back.
After these messages, the officer described an overwhelming smell of
(30:10):
body odor and feces and found himself looking at a
creature covered in dark, matted hair. The officer, trained in
threat assessment, drew his weapon and yelled at the creature,
which responded with what he described as an almost sad look,
before turning and disappearing into the forest within human speed.
Florida's Skunk Ape continued its reign of mystery into the
(30:32):
new millennium. In July two thousand, Dave Sheeley, who runs
the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochipe, captured what he
claims as video footage of a skunk ape. The grainy
daytime footage shows a large, dark figure moving through a
palm hammock before breaking into a long limbed run. Sheeley,
who claims to have seen skunk apes on four separate
(30:54):
occasions since childhood, has dedicated his life to proving they exist.
Perhaps the most intriguing evidence from Florida came later that
same year. The Sarasota County Sheriff's office received an anonymous
letter with two photographs. The letter's author, claiming to be
an elderly woman, said that a large ape like creature
had been stealing apples from her back porch near Di
(31:17):
I seventy five. The photographs, which became known as the
Mayaca skunk ape photos, show what appears to be a
large orangutan like creature with a visible face and chest.
The photos have been analyzed extensively, with experts divided on
whether they're real or fake. Alabama continued to produce compelling accounts.
(31:38):
In twenty twelve, a series of sightings in Clay County
caught the attention of researchers. Multiple witnesses, including some who
held positions of authority in the community, reported seeing large,
hair covered creatures walking on two legs legs near Mount
chay Aha, Alabama's highest point. One witness described watching a
creature through binoculars for several minutes as it moved through
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a clearing, noting its massive size and the way it
seemed to flow through the forest despite its bulk. Tennessee's
encounters took on a new dimension with more sophisticated research techniques.
In twenty twelve, a family visiting Klingman's Dome in the
Great Smoky Mountains captured video of what appeared to be
a large, dark figure watching them from a distance. The figure,
(32:23):
when it realized it had been spotted, quickly retreated into
the forest. Analysis of the video suggested that whatever was
filmed was approximately seven and a half feet tall and
moved with a walking pattern unlike that of a human
or bear. In North Carolina, the Uhai National Forest emerged
as a major hotspot, with fifteen reported sightings in Montgomery
(32:45):
County alone. It has the highest concentration of reports in
the state. In twenty fifteen, researcher Michael Green claimed to
have had a close encounter while camping in the area,
using thermal imaging equipment to capture what he believed was
a bigfoot watching his camp from the tree line. The
establishment of dedicated research organizations brought a new level of
(33:06):
credibility to the investigations. The big Foot Field Researchers Organization BFRO,
founded in nineteen ninety five, began systematically cataloging and investigating
sidings across the Southeast. Their database shows Georgia one hundred
thirty two documented encounters, Florida three hundred forty four documented encounters,
(33:29):
third highest in the nation, Tennessee over one hundred documented encounters,
North Carolina one hundred and seven documented encounters, Alabama one
hundred one documented encounters. South Carolina numerous encounters, with Lee
County leading at eight reports. Beyond the eyewitness accounts, physical
(33:50):
evidence has been piling up across the Southeast that challenges
conventional explanations. Footprint casts, hair samples, audio recordings, and even
supposed poop samples have been collected and analyzed, often with
intriguing results. The Elkins Creek cast from Georgia remains one
of the most studied pieces of evidence from the region.
(34:10):
This footprint cast, taken from a remote area of North Georgia,
shows dermal ridges, the foot equivalent of fingerprints that experts
say would be nearly impossible to fake. The foot that
made the print was estimated to be fifteen inches long
and showed a distinctive mid tarsal break, a feature found
in great apes but not in human feet. In Florida,
(34:33):
researchers at the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters have collected dozens
of footprint casts over the years. Many show a distinctive
four toad pattern, different from the five toed prints typically
associated with Pacific Northwest bigfoot. This has led some researchers
to think the skunk Ape might be a different species
or subspecies, adapted to the swampy environment of the southeast.
(34:57):
Audio evidence has proven particularly compelling. Throughout the mountains of
Tennessee and North Carolina, researchers have recorded sounds that don't
match any known animal. These recordings include long, sad sounding howls,
rapid fire, samurai chatter, and what sounds like a language,
complex sounds with apparent structure and pattern. When analyzed using
(35:19):
special equipment, these sounds show frequencies both above and below
what humans can produce with their voices. In twenty thirteen,
the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization, active in northwest Florida
and Alabama, conducted an expedition in Okaloosa County where they
recorded what they believed to be bigfoot sounds responding to
(35:39):
their calls. The recordings, when analyzed, showed complex harmonics and
frequency ranges that would be difficult for a human to
produce without electronic help. Hair samples have provided frustrating but
tantalizing evidence. Many samples, when sent for DNA analysis, come
back as unknown primate or contamina, or simply disappear before
(36:02):
analysis can be completed. In twenty fourteen, a sample collected
from a barbed wire fence in Berkeley County, South Carolina
after a siding was first identified as belonging to an
unknown primate species, but further testing was inconclusive. Certain locations
across the Southeast have become consistent areas of activity, places
(36:22):
where encounters happen so often that they become destinations for
researchers and enthusiasts. In Georgia, the area around Cherry Log
has become synonymous with bigfoot activity. The expedition. Bigfoot Museum,
opened in twenty sixteen by David and Melinda Bakara, has
become a hub for research and education. The museum houses
(36:43):
over four thousand square feet of evidence, including footprint casts,
hair samples, and documentation of local sidings. David and Melinda,
both field researchers, report that the area around Gilmour, Dawson, Lumpkin,
and White Counties, all mountainous regions, have the highest concentration
of clearly viewed sidings in the state. The Chattahoochee National Forest,
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covering over seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of North Georgia,
has been the site of numerous encounters. The dense forests,
steep ridges, and remote valleys provide perfect habitat for a
large reclusive primate. Hikers on the Appalachian Trail through Georgia
frequently report strange sounds, the feeling of being watched, and
(37:28):
occasional glimpses of large, dark figures moving through the trees.
In Florida, the Everglades in Big Cypress National Preserve represent
the heart of skunk Ape territory. Dave Shiley's skunk Ape
Research headquarters in Achipee has documented hundreds of sidings in
the area. The vast, hard to navigate swamps provide countless
(37:49):
hiding places, and the abundant wildlife offers a food source
for an omnivorous primeate. The Green Swamp in central Florida,
covering parts of five counties, has produced numerous reports over
the years. The eight hundred seventy square mile wilderness of
cypress swamps, pine flat woods, and hardwood hammocks is one
(38:10):
of the most important water recharge areas in the state
and also apparently home to skunk apes. Multiple witnesses have
reported encounters while hunting or camping in the area, often
describing creatures that seem more aggressive than their northern cousins.
Alabama's hotspot activity centers around the Bankhead National Forest and
the areas along the Black Warrior River. The Sipsey Wilderness
(38:33):
within Bankhead is Alabama's largest wilderness area and has been
the site of numerous encounters. The deep, gorgeous, thick forests,
and remote locations make it ideal habitat for a creature
trying to avoid human contact. Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
even though it's one of the most visited parks in
the nation continues to produce regular sightings. The park's eight
(38:56):
hundred and sixteen square miles of wilderness, much of it
rarely visited by humans, provides plenty of room for a
population of unknown primates. The areas around Cade's Cove, Klingman's Dome,
and the more remote backcountry have all been sites of encounters.
The Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee has emerged as another significant
(39:16):
area of activity. The combination of extensive forests cover few
people and abundant water sources creates ideal conditions. Multiple witnesses
have reported encounters in Cumberland County, often describing creatures that
seem curious about humans rather than aggressive. North Carolina's Yuwari
National Forest stands out as perhaps the most active site
(39:39):
in the state. The fifty thousand acre forest in the
ancient Uhari Mountains has produced sightings consistently over the decades.
The big Foot nine to eleven research group based in
Marion regularly conducts expeditions in the area and claims to
have had multiple encounters, including collecting physical evidence. South Carolina
(40:00):
Francis mary And National Forest, covering over two hundred and
fifty thousand acres has been the site of numerous encounters.
The mix of pine forests, swampy areas, and maritime forest
provides diverse habitat The proximity to the coast adds another dimension,
with some researchers thinking these creatures might use the coastal
(40:20):
waterways as travel corridors. Behind every documented sighting, every footprint cast,
every blurry photograph, there are dedicated individuals who have made
it their mission to solve the mystery of Bigfoot in
the Southeast. These researchers come from all walks of life,
former law enforcement, scientists, outdoor enthusiasts, and ordinary people who
(40:43):
had an encounter that changed their worldview. Jeff Carpenter of
North Carolina shows how someone can go from skeptic to believer.
A retired director of Jackson County Parks and Recreation, Carpenter
was a traditional outdoorsman who knew the woods inside and out.
His conversion began in two thousand and eight when he
heard sounds unlike anything in his decades of wilderness experience.
(41:06):
Even though he didn't want to associate with crazy people
at first, Carpenter eventually joined the big Foot Field Researchers
Organization and has become one of the most respected researchers
in the Southeast. The Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization, active
in Alabama and northwest Florida, represents a more systematic approach.
Their methods include regular expeditions, baiting stations, and the use
(41:31):
of advanced technology like thermal imaging and audio analysis equipment.
In twenty thirteen, they investigated a Crestview, Florida siding, finding
disturbed vegetation and collecting hair samples, though no conclusive proof emerged.
Doctor Jeff Meldrum, though based in Idaho, has investigated numerous
Southeastern cases and provided crucial analysis of evidence from the region.
(41:54):
His examination of footprint casts from Georgia and North Carolina
has identified anatomical features that he argues would be nearly
impossible to fake, including the mid tarsal break and consistent
dermal ridge patterns. The Alabama Bigfoot Society, led by researchers
who stay anonymous to protect their professional reputations, has documented
(42:15):
dozens of encounters across the state. Their approach emphasizes witness confidentiality,
understanding that many people fear ridicule or professional consequences if
their encounters become public. The presence of Bigfoot in Southeastern
culture goes way beyond simple sighting reports. These creatures have
become woven into the fabric of regional identity, inspiring festivals, tourism,
(42:40):
and a unique subculture that blends serious research with celebratory enthusiasm.
Mary in North Carolina hosts an annual WNC Bigfoot Festival
that draws thousands of visitors. The event features famous speakers,
evidence presentations, and vendors selling everything from serious research equipment
to Bigfoot thievs crafts. It represents a fascinating intersection of
(43:03):
scientific inquiry and popular culture. In Georgia, the town of
Cherry Log has embraced its reputation as a Bigfoot hotspot.
The Expedition Bigfoot Museum has become a major tourist attraction,
voted as one of the top road side attractions in
the United States. The museum's success has sparked economic development
(43:24):
in the small mountain town, with local businesses creating Bigfoot
themed products and experiences. Florida's Skunk Ape has achieved its
own legendary status, inspiring everything from horror movies to craft beers.
The legend of Boggy Creek, though set in Arkansas drew
inspiration from Florida skunk ape encounters. Local businesses throughout the
(43:46):
Everglades region have capitalized on the legend, offering skunk ape
tours and merchandise. The cultural impact extends into serious academic
study as well. Anthropologists have examined the Bigfoot phenomenon as
a modern mythology that serves important psychological and social functions.
The creatures represent, they argue, our mixed feelings about wilderness.
(44:09):
It's both threatening and attractive, dangerous and in need of protection.
Some scholars have noted that bigfoot sightings often increase during
periods of social stress or environmental change. The creatures become
symbols of wilderness under threat, representatives of a wild America
that's rapidly disappearing. In the Southeast, where development has dramatically
(44:31):
changed the landscape over the past century, Bigfoot might represent
a connection to a wilder, more mysterious past, not everyone believes.
For every witness who swears to what they saw, there's
a skeptic ready with a conventional explanation. Bears walking upright,
hunters in gilli suits, hoaxers and guerrilla costumes, mass hysteria.
(44:54):
The skeptical arguments are numerous and often compelling. Stay tuned
form mo sasquatchy ott to see We'll be right back
After these messages. Wildlife biologists point out that no large
mammal in North America has escaped scientific documentation in the
modern era. They argue that a breeding population of seven
(45:18):
to eight foot tall primates would need substantial food resources
and territory, and would leave behind considerable evidence bones, bodies,
clear photographs. Matt Henman, wildlife biologist for the Georgia Department
of Natural Resources, represents the official scientific position it's a
mythical animal with no basis, no founding whatsoever. His colleague,
(45:43):
David Gregory, with twenty two years of experience studying wildlife
in Georgia, has never seen anything to convince him of
Bigfoot's existence, even though he's received numerous reports from his
coverage area. Yet some scientists are beginning to take a
more open minded approach. Discovery of new species continues even
in the twenty first century. The Siola, a large mammal
(46:06):
in Vietnam, wasn't scientifically documented until nineteen ninety two. The
bornee and rainbow toad, thought extinct, was rediscovered in twenty eleven.
Homo floresciensis, the hobbit species of human, was unknown to
science until two thousand and three. Doctor Jane Goodall, the
famous primatologist, has stated she believes it's possible that undiscovered
(46:29):
primates exist in North America. I'm sure they exist, she
said in interviews, citing the numerous sightings by credible witnesses
and the vast wilderness areas that remain unexplored. The Patterson
Gimlin film from nineteen sixty seven, though filmed in California,
has been exhaustively analyzed using modern technology. Some analyzes suggest
(46:51):
that the figure in the film displays body proportions and
a walking pattern that would be difficult or impossible for
a human to copy, even in a sophistic catered costume.
As we stand in twenty twenty five, the mystery of
Bigfoot in the Southeast remains unsolved, but the evidence continues
to pile up. Recent years have brought new sightings, new technology,
(47:13):
and new approaches to the investigation. In twenty twenty two,
Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina became the site
of a Class A siding, a clear daylight encounter with
multiple witnesses, three visitors reported seeing a large, two legged
creature near the Lighthouse exit road. The consistency of their
independent descriptions and their credibility as witnesses has made this
(47:36):
one of the most significant recent encounters. The COVID nineteen pandemic,
oddly enough, seemed to produce an uptick in sidings across
the Southeast with fewer people in the woods during lockdowns.
Some researchers think the creatures became bolder coming closer to
human habitation. Others suggest that people spending more time outdoors
(47:56):
for recreation led to more encounters. Advances in technology have
revolutionized the search. Environmental DNA sampling, which can detect genetic
material from soil and water samples, offers new possibilities for
proving the existence of unknown species without direct observation. Several
research groups in the Southeast have begun collecting DNA samples
(48:19):
from areas of frequent sidings. Drone technology has opened up
previously inaccessible areas for investigation. Thermal drones can scan large
areas of forest at night, potentially detecting heat signatures of
large animals. Audio analysis software has become sophisticated enough to
identify and catalog unknown sounds building a database of potential
(48:42):
bigfoot sounds. The establishment of the International Bigfoot Conference, which
rotates through different Southeastern cities, has brought together researchers from
around the world to share findings and methods. The cross
pollination of ideas and evidence has elevated the level of
investigation beyond simple amateur enthusiasm. I've moved far from the
(49:03):
place where I had my first encounter. These days. My
family and I owned forty acres in the hills of
North Carolina, and strange things have found us here too.
Still my thoughts often drift back to when I was
twelve years old. I'm older now, my hair more gray
than brown, my knees less forgiving. When I climbed the
ridges I once bounded up with ease, yet that memory
(49:26):
remains clear. I no longer walk that same creek, but
I remember it well. The landscape has changed with time,
development pressing in old growth, trees giving way, the nights
never as dark as they once were. And yet in
my mind, when the fog settles thick and the modern
world seems to fade, I can still feel it, that presence,
(49:50):
that quiet certainty that I was never truly alone in
those woods. The spread of trail cameras throughout the Southeast
hasn't produced the definitive proof we might expect, but it
has produced something else. Hundreds of images of eyeshine in
the darkness of shadows that don't quite match any known animal,
of disturbed areas where something large is passed. Each image
(50:13):
alone proves nothing, but together they form a pattern, a
suggestion that something is out there. I've spent years now researching,
interviewing witnesses, examining evidence. I've talked to deputies who've seen
things they won't put in official reports, to hunters who've
changed their hunting grounds after encounters they can't explain. To
(50:34):
children who've seen monsters that adults dismiss as imagination until
they see the fear in those young eyes. What strikes
me most is the consistency. Even with the regional variations
Georgia's classic Bigfoot, Florida's skunk Ape, Alabama's white Thing, the
core descriptions remain remarkably similar. Large, two legged, covered in hair,
(50:57):
intelligent are defined a terrible smell. These aren't stories being
copied from the Internet or television shows. Many come from
people who had no previous interest in or knowledge of bigfoot.
Before their encounters, the native peoples knew these creatures were real.
They didn't debate their existence anymore then they debated the
(51:18):
existence of bears or deer. They simply accepted them as
part of the natural world to be respected and avoided.
Maybe we've lost something in our modern world, some ability
to accept mystery, to acknowledge that we don't know everything
about the world around us. The SouthEast's Bigfoot phenomenon challenges
us to reconsider what we think we know about our
(51:39):
own backyard. In an age of satellites and smartphones, of
Google Earth and GPS tracking, how can a large primate
remain hidden? Yet the Southeast provides the answer vast wilderness areas,
swamps you can't get through, mountain hollows that rarely see
human visitors. If such a creacher exist anywhere in the
(52:01):
eastern United States, it would be here. The economic impact
alone makes the phenomenon worthy of study. Bigfoot tourism brings
millions of dollars to small communities across the Southeast. Museums, festivals,
guided expeditions, and merchandise sales provide livelihoods for hundreds of people.
Whether the creatures exist or not. Their economic impact is
(52:24):
undeniably real. But beyond economics, beyond tourism, beyond even the
scientific implications, there's something deeper at work here in our
increasingly connected, mapped, and monitored world. Bigfoot represents one of
the last true mysteries. It reminds us that there are
still shadows between the trees, still places where cell phones
(52:46):
don't work, Still moments when we're reminded that we're not
the apex predators we think we are. Every witness I've
interviewed has been changed by their encounter. Some become obsessed,
dedicating their lives to proof what they saw. Others never
enter the woods again. But all of them share a
common realization that the world is stranger, wilder, and more
(53:09):
mysterious than they ever imagined. As I write this, looking
out at the Blue Ridge Mountains covered in morning mist,
I can't help but wonder what's moving through those forests
right now. Maybe it's just deer and bear, turkey and Bobcat.
Or maybe it's something else, something that's been there far
longer than we have, something that watches us with ancient
(53:30):
eyes and wonders what strange creatures we are. The search
continues every day researchers head into the field with new
technology and old determination. Every day someone somewhere in the
southeast has an encounter they can't explain, and every day
the mystery deepens. We may never prove for certain that
(53:51):
Bigfoot exists, but we also can't prove it doesn't. And
in that space between knowing and not knowing, between civilization
and wilderness, between myth and reality, something walks on two
legs through the shadows of the southern woods. Something that
smells terrible, something that screams in the night, something that
leaves footprints too large to be human. Something that has
(54:14):
been seen by thousands of witnesses over centuries. Something that
refuses to be captured, cataloged, or explained away. Something that
reminds us in our age of answers, that some questions remain.
And maybe, just maybe that's exactly as it should be,
because the day we solve every mystery, map every shadow,
(54:35):
and explain every sound in the night is the day
we lose something essential about what it means to be human.
We need our monsters, we need our mysteries. We need
to know that somewhere out there, beyond the reach of
our street lights, and our certainty, something wild and unknowable
still roams. So the next time you're in the Southeast,
driving through the mountains of North Georgia or the swamps
(54:58):
of Florida, hiking in the are, camping in the Yuwari,
pay attention. Listen to the sounds that don't quite fit,
watch for shadows that move wrong. And if you smell
something terrible, something like wet dog and death and wildness
all mixed together, maybe, just maybe you're not alone. They're
(55:19):
out there.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
I know it.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
I've seen them, And someday, when the world is ready,
when we've learned to approach them with respect rather than rifles,
with wonder rather than cages, maybe they'll step out of
the shadows and into the light. Until then they walk
among us, unseen but not unfelt, unknown but not unreal,
(55:42):
keeping their ancient secrets in the last wild places of
the American Southeast. And honestly, I hope they keep those
secrets a little while longer.
Speaker 1 (55:52):
They say, you don't gotta go home, but you can't.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Stay, and I don't want to feel as world happened.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Science. Try this chart. That chart everything calling right back,
(56:34):
Pride back, joy from me, joy, staying right, come it
right away. Sssssst f s s s.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
S s s Stistius
Speaker 1 (57:41):
Stististsssssssssss
Now one of your pudding. I got a string going
on here, something just because my dog. Something killed your dog?
My dog. We're flying through the or over the tree.
I don't know how it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm
really confused. All I saw was my dog coming over
the fence and he was dead. And once you hit
the ground like, I didn't see any cars. All I
saw was my dog coming over the fence. Sat, what
(00:38):
are you putting? We got some wonder or something crawling
around out here? Did you see what it was? Or
was it was? Standing enough? I'm out here looking through
the window now and I don't see anything. I don't
want to go outside. Jesus, Quice, you better hello, get
(01:03):
the Boddy out here? What quin? I'm out there? I
thought of a bench about tech foot nine. I don't
know easy out there? Yeah, I'm walking right head.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Ask most people about Bigfoot, and they'll tell you straight up,
if these things exist at all, they're out in the Pacific,
northwest Washington, Oregon, maybe northern California. That's Bigfoot country. That's
where the famous footage was shot. That's where all the
TV shows go looking. They'll tell you the southeast doesn't
have the right habitat, too many people, too much development,
(01:35):
too hot, not enough wilderness. They'll say, our black bears
get mistaken for something else. They'll say, people down here
just want to jump on the big foot bandwagon, trying
to get famous or make a buck off tourists. The
experts will explain it all away. Wildlife biologists will pull
out their maps and show you how there's no way
an eight foot tall primate could hide in Georgia or
(01:57):
Alabama or the Carolinas. They'll tell you we would have
found bones by now, bodies, clear pictures. They'll say. Every
square mile of the Southeast has been logged, farmed, hunted,
or developed at some point. There's nowhere for a population
of giant apes to hide. But here's the thing they
don't want to talk about. People have been seeing these
(02:18):
creatures in the Southeast for centuries, long before anybody heard
a bigfoot, long before the internet, long before people could
get famous from a hoax. The Cherokee didn't call them bigfoot.
They called them none uneu We, the stone men. They
weren't telling campfire stories. They were warning each other about
something real that lived in these mountains. The Creek, the Seminoles,
(02:41):
the Choctaw. They all had names for these things. Every
single tribe in the southeast knew about them. When the
first European settlers pushed into these hills and hollows, they
started seeing them too. You can find it in old journals,
newspaper clippings from the eighteen hundreds, court records, ee farmers
reporting livestock killed by something that wasn't a bear or panther,
(03:05):
Hunters describing creatures that walked upright like a man, but
were covered in hair and stood taller than any human.
These weren't people trying to get on TV or sell
t shirts. These were folks just trying to make sense
of what they'd seen. My own family has been in
the North Georgia Mountains for five generations. My great grandfather
used to tell stories about something in the woods that
(03:27):
would scream at night, Not like a panther, not like
an owl, but something that would make your blood run cold.
He wasn't a man given to tall tales. He was
a hard working farmer who knew every animal sound in
these mountains, and he knew this was different. The skeptics
have never spent a night alone in the Okefinokee Swamp
(03:48):
They've never walked the old logging roads in the Ouhari
Mountains when the fog is so thick you can't see
ten feet ahead. They've never stood in the middle of
the Sipsy wilderness and felt that feeling, that ancient, primal
knowledge that you're being watched by something that shouldn't exist.
I used to be one of those skeptics. Myself, raised
on science and logic, thought people who believed in Bigfoot
(04:11):
were either crazy or lying. That was before my own encounter.
Before I started talking to others who'd seen things before,
I realized just how many people have stories they've never
told because they know exactly what folks will think. See.
There's something the experts don't understand about the Southeast. Yes,
we have cities and farms and roads, but we also
(04:33):
have millions of acres of wilderness that most people never see.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park alone is over eight
hundred square miles, and most visitors never get more than
one hundred yards from their car. The Everglades. Good luck
searching every square mile of that swamp. The mountain hollows
of North Georgia and Tennessee. There are places back in
(04:55):
there where no human has set foot in decades. And
then there's the simple fact that the these things, whatever
they are, don't want to be found. Every witness describes
the same thing, incredible intelligence. They know how to avoid
trail cameras, they know how to stay hidden. They've been
doing it for centuries. The Native Americans had a saying,
(05:16):
just because you don't see something doesn't mean it's not there.
The wind is invisible, but you feel it. The mountain
has caves you'll never find. The forest keeps its secrets.
So when someone tells you there's no way bigfoot could
exist in the Southeast, ask them this. Have they talked
to the hundreds of witnesses. Have they examined the footprint
casts that show anatomical details no hoax or could fake?
(05:40):
Have they listened to the audio recordings of sounds no
known animal makes. Have they spent time in these vast wildernesses,
really spent time, not just driven through on the interstate,
Because I have, and I'm here to tell you that
something walks these southern woods. Something has always walked these woods.
Our ancestors it, the indigenous peoples knew it. And despite
(06:03):
what the skeptics say, despite what logic tells us should
be impossible, people keep seeing them. This is not a
story about proving anything to anybody. This is simply the
truth about what people have experienced in the forests, swamps
and mountains of the American Southeast. Take it or leave it,
believe it or don't. But the next time you're driving
(06:23):
through the mountains at dusk, or camping near a swamp,
or hiking a trail that seems a little too quiet,
remember that thousands of people just like you have seen
something that changed their lives forever. Regular people, honest people,
people who had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
By telling their stories, they say sasquatch can't exist in
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the Southeast. Tell that to the people who've looked one
in the eyes. It was the mid nineteen eighties and
my family had just moved to this little rental house
in the North Georgia Mountains. The place sat right next
to a cow pasture with pine forests all around it.
For a kid like me, it was heaven. I could
disappear into those woods for hours, just exploring being myself,
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nobody bothering me, nobody telling me what to do. I'd
gotten a bb gun for Christmas that year. My most
prized possession. Truth is I rarely shot anything with it.
The few times I did shoot at a bird, I
felt so guilty afterward that I mostly just carried the
thing around to look tough, you know how kids are.
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This happened right after school let out for summer. I'd
gone deeper into the woods than usual, checking out some
new territory. The June heat was already building, but under
all those pines and oaks, it stayed cool, smelled like
pine sap and old leaves. I was pushing through this
really thick patch of brush and trees when I heard
something moving about twenty yards away. The undergrowth was so
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thick I couldn't see more than a few feet, but
whatever made that noise was big. I figured it was
a deer, maybe a dough with her fawn, so I
stopped to listen, and then the noise stopped too. Everything
went quiet, even the birds shut up, which should have
been my first warning. I started walking again. That's when
I realized whatever was out there had started moving too,
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moving with me, staying parallel to my path through all
that thick brush. When I stopped, it stopped. When I walked,
it walked Now I'd spent hundreds of hours in those woods.
I knew what deer sounded like. I knew bears, raccoons, possums.
This wasn't any of those. These were footsteps two feet
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not four, and heavy, really heavy. Whatever this thing was,
it had to weigh ten times more than me. You
ever get that feeling where every hair on your body
stands up, where something deep in your gut just screams
that you're in danger, That's what hit me hard. I
suddenly knew I didn't belong there. This wasn't my woods anymore.
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I was in something else's territory. I couldn't move, just
stood there, frozen while this thing kept moving through the brush.
Then I heard the sounds. It was making, these deep
guttural grunts and hoofs, nothing like any animal I'd ever heard.
They came from a chest that had to be massive.
Almost sounded like it was talking to itself, or maybe
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to something else I couldn't see. Then it charged. I've
never heard anything like it before or since. Sounded like
an elephant crashing through the forest, coming straight at me.
Branches snapping like firecrackers, the ground actually shaking. It stopped
maybe ten feet from me, just out of sight in
the brush. I could hear it breathing, deep, rumbling breaths.
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That's when my body finally unfroze. Every instinct I had
said one thing, Run and I ran. God did I
run six hundred yards back to our house, and I
swear I covered it in about thirty seconds, Thorns ripping
my clothes, branches whipping across my face. I didn't care.
Behind me, I could hear it following for maybe the
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first fifty yards, crashing through the undergrowth like it was nothing.
Then it stopped, but I didn't, not until I jumped
our barbed wire fence in one leap and collapsed in
our front yard. I lay there, gasping, clothes torn to hell,
scratches all over me. And I never told anyone, not
my parents, not my friends. What was I going to
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say that something on two legs, something that weighed as
much as three grown men, had chased me out of
the woods. They'd think I was crazy. It took me
years to tell my mother what happened that day. By then,
I'd learned a lot about these things, and I still
can't say for certain it was a sasquatch, but the
way it walked on two feet, the weight, those sounds,
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how it acted, it all fits. That experience sent me
down a rabbit hole. I became obsessed with these stories,
and it turned out I wasn't alone in what I'd experienced,
not by a long shot. I was fascinated by all
these stories growing up, and they only made me more
obsessed with sasquatch and other cryptids as I got older.
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One story that really stuck with me was about this guy,
mister Brown, from Somerville, Georgia. This happened in August nineteen
eighty six, around the very same time as my own encounter.
Brown was a carpenter, but like a lot of folks
in the mountains, he'd hunt Jensing to make extra money.
That day, his usual hunting buddy couldn't make it. Brown
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drove out to Jenkins's gap alone, and right when he
got out of his truck, he felt eyes on him.
At first, he thought maybe a game warden was watching
for poachers, but it felt different, more intense. He went
down into the woods anyway, found a flat spot loaded
with jen saying he was digging up roots. Really focused
on what he was doing. When that feeling of being
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watched got overwhelming. He turned around, expecting to see his
buddy had shown up at after all. What he saw
instead was eight feet tall and covered in brown or
black hair. The thing was maybe twenty feet away, close
enough that Brown could see everything. It had this huge
head that sat right on its shoulders, no neck that
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he could see, long arms that hung down to its knees,
and it was covered in dried mud like it had
been wallowing in a creek. But here's the detail that
always gets me. Its left arm was messed up, hung
limp at its side. The fingernails had grown so long
they'd tangled together, pulling the hand into this permanent claw.
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This thing was injured, had been for a while. Somehow
that made it more real, more terrifying. They just stood there,
staring at each other. Brown said it felt like twenty minutes,
but was probably two. Neither of them moved. Then the
creature turned sideways, grunted twice these deep sounds from its chest,
and looked back to see if Brown was still there
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a couple times, then started walking away. It had a
bad limp. Brown said, it moved like a drunk old man.
The second that thing turned away, Brown ran up the
hill behind him faster than he'd ever moved in his life.
When he got to the top, he threw up, not
from the smell, though the creature stank like roadkill, but
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from pure terror. Brown went straight to the sheriff's office.
Then he called the newspaper and TV stations in Atlanta.
See he was worried some kid might run into this thing.
Brown was raised to tell the truth, went to church
every Sunday, But after that day people looked at him different.
Nobody called him a liar to his face, but he
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knew some folks didn't believe him. That hurt him bad.
That story haunted me for years. I'd lie awake at
night staring at my bedroom ceiling, imagining I could hear
those low grunts outside my window. I'd picture what it
would be like to stand face to face with something
like that, to look into its eyes and see something
wild and intelligent staring back. But I guess I already
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knew what that was like, didn't I. I'd felt that
same terror, that same certainty that I was looking at
something that shouldn't exist. There were other Jensang hunters with
stories too. Homer Bradshaw was this old mountain man who'd
been hunting Jensaying for decades. He knew every trail, every hollow,
every secret spot in North Georgia. Back in the seventies.
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Homer was up on Blood Mountain following some old Cherokee
trail nobody else remembered. Early October, leaves just starting to turn.
He'd been out since before dawn, and he was bent
over digging up this big Gensang plant when he heard
something moving through the trees above him on the ridge.
At first he figured it was a deer or maybe
a bear. Then came this howl, long and sad sounding,
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echoing off every ridge for miles. Wasn't a wolf, wasn't
a coyote. Wasn't anything Homer had heard in sixty years
of being in those mountains. And stay tuned for more
sasquatch ot to see. We'll be right back after these messages.
When he looked up, there was this huge hair covered
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thing standing on a rock ledge about fifty yards away,
shoulders whiter than any man's, arms too long for its body.
They just watched each other for a minute or two.
Then it turned and walked on two legs like a person,
back into the forest. Homer left his gin, saying right
there and got out, never went back to that spot again.
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Some folks believed him, some didn't. But Homer never changed
his story, not one detail, right up until he died.
These weren't just random stories. They were part of something bigger.
The Cherokee had names for these things. None you knew
we the stone men Kekla kudla, the harry savage. The
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Creek Indians called them koloa. The Seminoles said st Kapcaki,
which means tall man. These weren't fairy tales meant to
scare kids. They were warnings. They were saying something else
lives in these forests, something that was here before us,
something that's still here. I spent years collecting these stories,
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talking to people who'd seen things, researching sightings, and what
I found was a hidden history of the American Southeast
that science won't touch, but thousands of people know is real.
These are their stories, These are our stories. This is
what walks in the shadows of the Southern Woods. Long
before European settlers pushed into the Southeastern wilderness, before the
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first surveyor measured these lands, before the first axe cut
into old growth timber, the native peoples of the southeast
knew something walk their forests on two legs, something that
wasn't quite human, wasn't quite animal, but lived somewhere in
the shadows between. The Cherokee, whose lands stretched across what's
now Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama, had the most
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detailed traditions about these creatures. They spoke of sul Kalu,
the slanted eyed giant, a massive, hairy figure who was
the great lord of the game. Unlike the scary reputation
Bigfoot has today, sul Kalu was often seen as a protector,
though one who demanded respect and proper behavior from humans.
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According to Cherokee legend, sul Kalu lived in a place
called Sunagunyi, a mysterious location that nobody could ever quite find.
The giant had incredible strength and strange powers. He could
read minds, control game animals, and move through the forest
without making a sound, even though he was enormous. The
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Cherokee believed hunters who showed proper respect might get sul
Kalu's blessing for successful hunts, but those who broke the
sacred laws of the forest would face his anger. One
of the most important sights connected to zul Kalu is
Judico Rock in Jackson County, North Carolina. This massive soap
stone boulder is covered in mysterious carvings, and the Cherokee
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say it has the giant's handprint and footprints on it.
The story goes that sul Kalu jumped from one mountain
to another using the rock to steady himself, leaving his
mark forever in the stone. Researchers have dated some of
these carvings to be over three thousand years old, which
means stories of giant, mysterious beings in these mountains go
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back thousands of years. The Creek nation, whose territory included
much of Alabama and Georgia, had their own traditions. They
talked about large, hairy, powerful creatures that lived in the
deepest parts of the forest. Some Creek stories said these
beings were dangerous, others said they just wanted to be
left alone, but everyone agreed you had to be extremely
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careful and respectful around them. Down in Florida, the Seminole
and Mikusuki peoples had long spoken of the esti Kapkaki,
which translates to furry, tall man or hairy giant. Their
stories described a creature that was incredibly strong, secretive, and
had a terrible smell, descriptions that would be repeated centuries
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later by modern witnesses. The Seminoles believe these creatures lived
in the deepest parts of the Everglades, in places where
humans rarely went. What's remarkable about these native traditions isn't
just how similar they are across different tribes and regions,
but how matter of fact they are. These weren't presented
as myths or fantasies, but as simple facts about the world.
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There are deer, there are bears, there are panthers, and
there are the hairy giants who walk upright through the forest.
They were part of the natural order. Mysterious perhaps, but
no more so than the wind or the seasons. The
first European settlers to push into the Southeastern wilderness brought axes, plows,
and bibles, but they also brought something else, a rigid
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worldview that had no place for giants in the four
But even though they were skeptical, even though they believed
civilization could tame the wild, they too began to report
encounters with things that shouldn't exist. One of the earliest
documented encounters comes from eighteen eighteen in what's now Appalachicola, Florida.
Local newspapers reported a story of a man sized monkey
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that had been raiding food stores and stalking fishermen along
the shore. The creature was described as walking upright, covered
in dark hair, and incredibly strong. A group of armed
men chased it into the swamps, but it vanished into
the maze of water and cyprus, leaving only large human
like footprints in the mud. In the eighteen twenties, as
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settlers pushed into the North Georgia Mountains, stories began to
come out about encounters with what they called wild men
or wood devils. These weren't the romantic, noble savage tales
that were popular in books back then. These were accounts
of genuine terror. Settlers reported fine their livestock killed in
ways that didn't match any known predator, massive footprints around
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their cabins, and horrible screaming sounds that would echo through
the valleys at night. One particularly detailed account comes from
eighteen twenty nine, recorded in the journal of a Baptist
minister named Jeremiah Tilton, who was traveling through what's now
Raven County, Georgia, Tilton wrote, on the third night of
our camp, near the waters of war Woman Creek, we
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were awakened by such a noise as I have never
heard before or since. It was neither panther nor bear,
neither wolf nor screech owl, but something that seemed to
combine the worst qualities of all God's creatures. When morning came,
we found prints near our camp, prints like those of
a man, but near half again as large, with the
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stride of a giant. Our Cherokee guide refused to track
the creature, saying only that we should leave that place immediately,
which advice we readily took. The eighteen fifties brought a
wave of sids across Tennessee, particularly in the Eastern Mountains.
Logging crews working in what's now the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park reported frequent encounters with large, hair covered beings
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that would watch them from ridgetops and sometimes throw rocks
at their camps. One crew near Cade's Cove abandoned a
valuable stand of timber after what they described as being
under attack by multiple creatures over several nights. In eighteen
fifty six, in Alabama, the Civil War era brought its
own strange tales. Confederate and Union soldiers alike reported encounters
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with mysterious creatures in the dense forests of the northern
part of the state. A Union cavalry officer, Captain Marcus Thornton,
wrote to his wife in eighteen sixty four about an
incident near what's now Bankhead National Forest. The men are
considerably shaken by an encounter last evening with what they
insist was neither man nor bear. Private Morrison, who was
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on picket duty, claims a creature of enormous size, covered
in hair, like an ape, but walking as a man walks,
approached his position. When challenged, it made no reply, but
rather screamed in a manner that brought every man from
his bedroll. We found tracks, Dear Sarah, tracks that I
cannot explain. They are like those of a man, but
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far too large. The men are calling it a wood ape,
and I confess I have no better explanation. As the
Southeast entered the twentieth century, as railways cut through the
mountains and cars began to replace horses, As electric lights
pushed back the darkness, and radio waves carried voices through
the air, you might think the old stories would fade away. Instead,
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they multiplied. The nineteen twenties brought a rush of sidings
across the region. In nineteen twenty nine, at the famous
Perky Bat Tower in the Florida Keys, a structure built
to house bats for mosquito control, workers reported encounters with
what they described as a large, hair covered humanoid that
seemed attracted to the structure. The creature was seen multiple
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times over several weeks, always at dusk or dawn, before
it disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. But it
was in the nineteen forties that things really began to
pick up. In nineteen forty two, in Swanee County, Florida,
a man driving down an isolated road reported that a
large ape like creature rushed from the brush and actually
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grabbed onto his vehicle. According to his account, the creature
held onto the running board and beat on the door
for nearly half a mile before finally letting go and
disappearing back into the forest. The man's car showed damage
that matched his story, deep gouges in the metal that
looked like claw marks, and the running board was nearly
torn off. The post World War II era saw an
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explosion of encounters across the southeast. Maybe it was the
increased development pushing deeper into previously untouched wilderness. Maybe it
was better communication allowing stories to spread beyond isolated communities.
Or maybe something else was happening, something that caused these
creatures to make themselves known more often. In the nineteen
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fifties and nineteen sixties, North Georgia became a particular hot spot.
Hunters in the Chattahoochee National Forest reported numerous encounters. In
nineteen fifty seven, two hunters claimed that a giant, smelly
ape invaded their camp near Blue Ridge. They described it
as over seven feet tall, covered in reddish brown hair,
with eyes that reflected their campfire light like a cat's.
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The creature supposedly ransacked their camp, throwing equipment around with
incredible force before disappearing into the night. Meanwhile, in Florida,
what would come to be known as the skunk Ape
was making itself known. The name came from the creature's
supposedly overwhelming odor, described as a combination of rotting eggs, methane,
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and wet dog. In the nineteen sixties, reports started flooding
in from across the state, but particularly from the Everglades region.
One of the most believable early skunk ape witnesses was
a Seminole elder named Joseph Billy, who in nineteen sixty
three reported seeing what he called an stcapcaki near the
Big Cypress Reservation. Billy, respected in both Native and non
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native communities, described watching the creature for several minutes as
it moved through the swamp, apparently hunting for something. He
noted that it moved both on two legs and on
all fours, switching between the two easily. The nineteen seventies
brought what many researchers consider the golden age of Southeastern
bigfoot encounters. In nineteen seventy one, Alabama experienced what could
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only be called a flap, a concentrated period of intense
sighting activity centered around Huntsville and spreading across North Alabama.
Dozens of witnesses reported encounters with large, hairy, bipedal creatures.
The descriptions were remarkably consistent, seven to eight feet tall,
covered in dark hair, with a tear rible smell, and
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glowing red eyes. But perhaps the most dramatic series of
events happened in Florida. Between nineteen seventy four and nineteen
seventy five, in Palm Beach County, Sheriff's deputies Marvin Lewis
and Ernie Milner had an encounter that would make headlines
across the state. While investigating reports of strange noises and
livestock deaths, they claimed to have been stalked through a
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grove by an ape like creature. They fired at it
and later found blood and hair samples on a barbed
wire fence. The hair was sent for analysis, but mysteriously
disappeared before results could be obtained. In Tennessee, nineteen seventy
six brought the terror of the Flintville Monster. The small
town of Flintville was basically under siege for several weeks
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as multiple witnesses reported a seven to eight foot tall,
hairy creature that seemed particularly interested in attacking cars and homes.
The creature left behind sixteen inch footprints and an overwhelming
skunk like odor. The incidents were so frequent and so
terrifying that armed patrols were organized, though they never managed
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to encounter the creature directly. North Carolina had its own
celebrity Bigfoot, in the form of nobby named after Carpenter's
Knob near King's Mountain. Throughout nineteen seventy eight and nineteen
seventy nine, numerous witnesses reported seeing a large creature with long,
dark hair walking on two legs. The sightings were taken
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seriously enough that local law enforcement investigated, though they officially
concluded that witnesses were likely seeing a large black bear.
As we entered the nineteen eighties and beyond, the phenomenon
didn't fade away as skeptics predicted. Instead, it evolved with
affordable cameras, video recorders, and eventually smartphones. The number of
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supposed pieces of evidence exploded, but something else happened too.
Organized research groups formed and credentialed scientists began to take
the phenomenon seriously. In Georgia, the nineteen nineties brought so
several compelling incidents. In nineteen ninety seven, a police officer's
dash cam near Helen, Georgia, captured what appeared to be
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a large, two legged figure crossing the road. The video
got national attention, though skeptics claimed it with students in
a guerrilla suit, but analysis of the figure's walk in
proportions by experts suggested otherwise, But perhaps no encounter from
this era is more significant than the many Jiha Falls incident.
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In the early two thousands, an off duty police officer
visiting this popular North Georgia waterfall had a face to
face encounter that would change his life. The officer, whose
identity remains protected, had stayed at the falls after other
visitors had left, enjoying a quiet moment and a sandwich.
As dusk approached, he noticed what he first thought was
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another hiker at the base of the falls, but as
he approached to say hello, the figure stood up to
its full height nine to ten feet tall. Stay tuned
for more sou squatch otty see, We'll be right back.
After these messages, the officer described an overwhelming smell of
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body odor and feces and found himself looking at a
creature covered in dark, matted hair. The officer, trained in
threat assessment, drew his weapon and yelled at the creature,
which responded with what he described as an almost sad look,
before turning and disappearing into the forest within human speed.
Florida's Skunk Ape continued its reign of mystery into the
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new millennium. In July two thousand, Dave Sheeley, who runs
the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochipe, captured what he
claims as video footage of a skunk ape. The grainy
daytime footage shows a large, dark figure moving through a
palm hammock before breaking into a long limbed run. Sheeley,
who claims to have seen skunk apes on four separate
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occasions since childhood, has dedicated his life to proving they exist.
Perhaps the most intriguing evidence from Florida came later that
same year. The Sarasota County Sheriff's office received an anonymous
letter with two photographs. The letter's author, claiming to be
an elderly woman, said that a large ape like creature
had been stealing apples from her back porch near Di
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I seventy five. The photographs, which became known as the
Mayaca skunk ape photos, show what appears to be a
large orangutan like creature with a visible face and chest.
The photos have been analyzed extensively, with experts divided on
whether they're real or fake. Alabama continued to produce compelling accounts.
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In twenty twelve, a series of sightings in Clay County
caught the attention of researchers. Multiple witnesses, including some who
held positions of authority in the community, reported seeing large,
hair covered creatures walking on two legs legs near Mount
chay Aha, Alabama's highest point. One witness described watching a
creature through binoculars for several minutes as it moved through
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a clearing, noting its massive size and the way it
seemed to flow through the forest despite its bulk. Tennessee's
encounters took on a new dimension with more sophisticated research techniques.
In twenty twelve, a family visiting Klingman's Dome in the
Great Smoky Mountains captured video of what appeared to be
a large, dark figure watching them from a distance. The figure,
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when it realized it had been spotted, quickly retreated into
the forest. Analysis of the video suggested that whatever was
filmed was approximately seven and a half feet tall and
moved with a walking pattern unlike that of a human
or bear. In North Carolina, the Uhai National Forest emerged
as a major hotspot, with fifteen reported sightings in Montgomery
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County alone. It has the highest concentration of reports in
the state. In twenty fifteen, researcher Michael Green claimed to
have had a close encounter while camping in the area,
using thermal imaging equipment to capture what he believed was
a bigfoot watching his camp from the tree line. The
establishment of dedicated research organizations brought a new level of
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credibility to the investigations. The big Foot Field Researchers Organization BFRO,
founded in nineteen ninety five, began systematically cataloging and investigating
sidings across the Southeast. Their database shows Georgia one hundred
thirty two documented encounters, Florida three hundred forty four documented encounters,
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third highest in the nation, Tennessee over one hundred documented encounters,
North Carolina one hundred and seven documented encounters, Alabama one
hundred one documented encounters. South Carolina numerous encounters, with Lee
County leading at eight reports. Beyond the eyewitness accounts, physical
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evidence has been piling up across the Southeast that challenges
conventional explanations. Footprint casts, hair samples, audio recordings, and even
supposed poop samples have been collected and analyzed, often with
intriguing results. The Elkins Creek cast from Georgia remains one
of the most studied pieces of evidence from the region.
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This footprint cast, taken from a remote area of North Georgia,
shows dermal ridges, the foot equivalent of fingerprints that experts
say would be nearly impossible to fake. The foot that
made the print was estimated to be fifteen inches long
and showed a distinctive mid tarsal break, a feature found
in great apes but not in human feet. In Florida,
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researchers at the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters have collected dozens
of footprint casts over the years. Many show a distinctive
four toad pattern, different from the five toed prints typically
associated with Pacific Northwest bigfoot. This has led some researchers
to think the skunk Ape might be a different species
or subspecies, adapted to the swampy environment of the southeast.
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Audio evidence has proven particularly compelling. Throughout the mountains of
Tennessee and North Carolina, researchers have recorded sounds that don't
match any known animal. These recordings include long, sad sounding howls,
rapid fire, samurai chatter, and what sounds like a language,
complex sounds with apparent structure and pattern. When analyzed using
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special equipment, these sounds show frequencies both above and below
what humans can produce with their voices. In twenty thirteen,
the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization, active in northwest Florida
and Alabama, conducted an expedition in Okaloosa County where they
recorded what they believed to be bigfoot sounds responding to
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their calls. The recordings, when analyzed, showed complex harmonics and
frequency ranges that would be difficult for a human to
produce without electronic help. Hair samples have provided frustrating but
tantalizing evidence. Many samples, when sent for DNA analysis, come
back as unknown primate or contamina, or simply disappear before
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analysis can be completed. In twenty fourteen, a sample collected
from a barbed wire fence in Berkeley County, South Carolina
after a siding was first identified as belonging to an
unknown primate species, but further testing was inconclusive. Certain locations
across the Southeast have become consistent areas of activity, places
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where encounters happen so often that they become destinations for
researchers and enthusiasts. In Georgia, the area around Cherry Log
has become synonymous with bigfoot activity. The expedition. Bigfoot Museum,
opened in twenty sixteen by David and Melinda Bakara, has
become a hub for research and education. The museum houses
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over four thousand square feet of evidence, including footprint casts,
hair samples, and documentation of local sidings. David and Melinda,
both field researchers, report that the area around Gilmour, Dawson, Lumpkin,
and White Counties, all mountainous regions, have the highest concentration
of clearly viewed sidings in the state. The Chattahoochee National Forest,
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covering over seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of North Georgia,
has been the site of numerous encounters. The dense forests,
steep ridges, and remote valleys provide perfect habitat for a
large reclusive primate. Hikers on the Appalachian Trail through Georgia
frequently report strange sounds, the feeling of being watched, and
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occasional glimpses of large, dark figures moving through the trees.
In Florida, the Everglades in Big Cypress National Preserve represent
the heart of skunk Ape territory. Dave Shiley's skunk Ape
Research headquarters in Achipee has documented hundreds of sidings in
the area. The vast, hard to navigate swamps provide countless
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hiding places, and the abundant wildlife offers a food source
for an omnivorous primeate. The Green Swamp in central Florida,
covering parts of five counties, has produced numerous reports over
the years. The eight hundred seventy square mile wilderness of
cypress swamps, pine flat woods, and hardwood hammocks is one
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of the most important water recharge areas in the state
and also apparently home to skunk apes. Multiple witnesses have
reported encounters while hunting or camping in the area, often
describing creatures that seem more aggressive than their northern cousins.
Alabama's hotspot activity centers around the Bankhead National Forest and
the areas along the Black Warrior River. The Sipsey Wilderness
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within Bankhead is Alabama's largest wilderness area and has been
the site of numerous encounters. The deep, gorgeous, thick forests,
and remote locations make it ideal habitat for a creature
trying to avoid human contact. Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
even though it's one of the most visited parks in
the nation continues to produce regular sightings. The park's eight
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hundred and sixteen square miles of wilderness, much of it
rarely visited by humans, provides plenty of room for a
population of unknown primates. The areas around Cade's Cove, Klingman's Dome,
and the more remote backcountry have all been sites of encounters.
The Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee has emerged as another significant
(39:16):
area of activity. The combination of extensive forests cover few
people and abundant water sources creates ideal conditions. Multiple witnesses
have reported encounters in Cumberland County, often describing creatures that
seem curious about humans rather than aggressive. North Carolina's Yuwari
National Forest stands out as perhaps the most active site
(39:39):
in the state. The fifty thousand acre forest in the
ancient Uhari Mountains has produced sightings consistently over the decades.
The big Foot nine to eleven research group based in
Marion regularly conducts expeditions in the area and claims to
have had multiple encounters, including collecting physical evidence. South Carolina
(40:00):
Francis mary And National Forest, covering over two hundred and
fifty thousand acres has been the site of numerous encounters.
The mix of pine forests, swampy areas, and maritime forest
provides diverse habitat The proximity to the coast adds another dimension,
with some researchers thinking these creatures might use the coastal
(40:20):
waterways as travel corridors. Behind every documented sighting, every footprint cast,
every blurry photograph, there are dedicated individuals who have made
it their mission to solve the mystery of Bigfoot in
the Southeast. These researchers come from all walks of life,
former law enforcement, scientists, outdoor enthusiasts, and ordinary people who
(40:43):
had an encounter that changed their worldview. Jeff Carpenter of
North Carolina shows how someone can go from skeptic to believer.
A retired director of Jackson County Parks and Recreation, Carpenter
was a traditional outdoorsman who knew the woods inside and out.
His conversion began in two thousand and eight when he
heard sounds unlike anything in his decades of wilderness experience.
(41:06):
Even though he didn't want to associate with crazy people
at first, Carpenter eventually joined the big Foot Field Researchers
Organization and has become one of the most respected researchers
in the Southeast. The Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization, active
in Alabama and northwest Florida, represents a more systematic approach.
Their methods include regular expeditions, baiting stations, and the use
(41:31):
of advanced technology like thermal imaging and audio analysis equipment.
In twenty thirteen, they investigated a Crestview, Florida siding, finding
disturbed vegetation and collecting hair samples, though no conclusive proof emerged.
Doctor Jeff Meldrum, though based in Idaho, has investigated numerous
Southeastern cases and provided crucial analysis of evidence from the region.
(41:54):
His examination of footprint casts from Georgia and North Carolina
has identified anatomical features that he argues would be nearly
impossible to fake, including the mid tarsal break and consistent
dermal ridge patterns. The Alabama Bigfoot Society, led by researchers
who stay anonymous to protect their professional reputations, has documented
(42:15):
dozens of encounters across the state. Their approach emphasizes witness confidentiality,
understanding that many people fear ridicule or professional consequences if
their encounters become public. The presence of Bigfoot in Southeastern
culture goes way beyond simple sighting reports. These creatures have
become woven into the fabric of regional identity, inspiring festivals, tourism,
(42:40):
and a unique subculture that blends serious research with celebratory enthusiasm.
Mary in North Carolina hosts an annual WNC Bigfoot Festival
that draws thousands of visitors. The event features famous speakers,
evidence presentations, and vendors selling everything from serious research equipment
to Bigfoot thievs crafts. It represents a fascinating intersection of
(43:03):
scientific inquiry and popular culture. In Georgia, the town of
Cherry Log has embraced its reputation as a Bigfoot hotspot.
The Expedition Bigfoot Museum has become a major tourist attraction,
voted as one of the top road side attractions in
the United States. The museum's success has sparked economic development
(43:24):
in the small mountain town, with local businesses creating Bigfoot
themed products and experiences. Florida's Skunk Ape has achieved its
own legendary status, inspiring everything from horror movies to craft beers.
The legend of Boggy Creek, though set in Arkansas drew
inspiration from Florida skunk ape encounters. Local businesses throughout the
(43:46):
Everglades region have capitalized on the legend, offering skunk ape
tours and merchandise. The cultural impact extends into serious academic
study as well. Anthropologists have examined the Bigfoot phenomenon as
a modern mythology that serves important psychological and social functions.
The creatures represent, they argue, our mixed feelings about wilderness.
(44:09):
It's both threatening and attractive, dangerous and in need of protection.
Some scholars have noted that bigfoot sightings often increase during
periods of social stress or environmental change. The creatures become
symbols of wilderness under threat, representatives of a wild America
that's rapidly disappearing. In the Southeast, where development has dramatically
(44:31):
changed the landscape over the past century, Bigfoot might represent
a connection to a wilder, more mysterious past, not everyone believes.
For every witness who swears to what they saw, there's
a skeptic ready with a conventional explanation. Bears walking upright,
hunters in gilli suits, hoaxers and guerrilla costumes, mass hysteria.
(44:54):
The skeptical arguments are numerous and often compelling. Stay tuned
form mo sasquatchy ott to see We'll be right back
After these messages. Wildlife biologists point out that no large
mammal in North America has escaped scientific documentation in the
modern era. They argue that a breeding population of seven
(45:18):
to eight foot tall primates would need substantial food resources
and territory, and would leave behind considerable evidence bones, bodies,
clear photographs. Matt Henman, wildlife biologist for the Georgia Department
of Natural Resources, represents the official scientific position it's a
mythical animal with no basis, no founding whatsoever. His colleague,
(45:43):
David Gregory, with twenty two years of experience studying wildlife
in Georgia, has never seen anything to convince him of
Bigfoot's existence, even though he's received numerous reports from his
coverage area. Yet some scientists are beginning to take a
more open minded approach. Discovery of new species continues even
in the twenty first century. The Siola, a large mammal
(46:06):
in Vietnam, wasn't scientifically documented until nineteen ninety two. The
bornee and rainbow toad, thought extinct, was rediscovered in twenty eleven.
Homo floresciensis, the hobbit species of human, was unknown to
science until two thousand and three. Doctor Jane Goodall, the
famous primatologist, has stated she believes it's possible that undiscovered
(46:29):
primates exist in North America. I'm sure they exist, she
said in interviews, citing the numerous sightings by credible witnesses
and the vast wilderness areas that remain unexplored. The Patterson
Gimlin film from nineteen sixty seven, though filmed in California,
has been exhaustively analyzed using modern technology. Some analyzes suggest
(46:51):
that the figure in the film displays body proportions and
a walking pattern that would be difficult or impossible for
a human to copy, even in a sophistic catered costume.
As we stand in twenty twenty five, the mystery of
Bigfoot in the Southeast remains unsolved, but the evidence continues
to pile up. Recent years have brought new sightings, new technology,
(47:13):
and new approaches to the investigation. In twenty twenty two,
Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina became the site
of a Class A siding, a clear daylight encounter with
multiple witnesses, three visitors reported seeing a large, two legged
creature near the Lighthouse exit road. The consistency of their
independent descriptions and their credibility as witnesses has made this
(47:36):
one of the most significant recent encounters. The COVID nineteen pandemic,
oddly enough, seemed to produce an uptick in sidings across
the Southeast with fewer people in the woods during lockdowns.
Some researchers think the creatures became bolder coming closer to
human habitation. Others suggest that people spending more time outdoors
(47:56):
for recreation led to more encounters. Advances in technology have
revolutionized the search. Environmental DNA sampling, which can detect genetic
material from soil and water samples, offers new possibilities for
proving the existence of unknown species without direct observation. Several
research groups in the Southeast have begun collecting DNA samples
(48:19):
from areas of frequent sidings. Drone technology has opened up
previously inaccessible areas for investigation. Thermal drones can scan large
areas of forest at night, potentially detecting heat signatures of
large animals. Audio analysis software has become sophisticated enough to
identify and catalog unknown sounds building a database of potential
(48:42):
bigfoot sounds. The establishment of the International Bigfoot Conference, which
rotates through different Southeastern cities, has brought together researchers from
around the world to share findings and methods. The cross
pollination of ideas and evidence has elevated the level of
investigation beyond simple amateur enthusiasm. I've moved far from the
(49:03):
place where I had my first encounter. These days. My
family and I owned forty acres in the hills of
North Carolina, and strange things have found us here too.
Still my thoughts often drift back to when I was
twelve years old. I'm older now, my hair more gray
than brown, my knees less forgiving. When I climbed the
ridges I once bounded up with ease, yet that memory
(49:26):
remains clear. I no longer walk that same creek, but
I remember it well. The landscape has changed with time,
development pressing in old growth, trees giving way, the nights
never as dark as they once were. And yet in
my mind, when the fog settles thick and the modern
world seems to fade, I can still feel it, that presence,
(49:50):
that quiet certainty that I was never truly alone in
those woods. The spread of trail cameras throughout the Southeast
hasn't produced the definitive proof we might expect, but it
has produced something else. Hundreds of images of eyeshine in
the darkness of shadows that don't quite match any known animal,
of disturbed areas where something large is passed. Each image
(50:13):
alone proves nothing, but together they form a pattern, a
suggestion that something is out there. I've spent years now researching,
interviewing witnesses, examining evidence. I've talked to deputies who've seen
things they won't put in official reports, to hunters who've
changed their hunting grounds after encounters they can't explain. To
(50:34):
children who've seen monsters that adults dismiss as imagination until
they see the fear in those young eyes. What strikes
me most is the consistency. Even with the regional variations
Georgia's classic Bigfoot, Florida's skunk Ape, Alabama's white Thing, the
core descriptions remain remarkably similar. Large, two legged, covered in hair,
(50:57):
intelligent are defined a terrible smell. These aren't stories being
copied from the Internet or television shows. Many come from
people who had no previous interest in or knowledge of bigfoot.
Before their encounters, the native peoples knew these creatures were real.
They didn't debate their existence anymore then they debated the
(51:18):
existence of bears or deer. They simply accepted them as
part of the natural world to be respected and avoided.
Maybe we've lost something in our modern world, some ability
to accept mystery, to acknowledge that we don't know everything
about the world around us. The SouthEast's Bigfoot phenomenon challenges
us to reconsider what we think we know about our
(51:39):
own backyard. In an age of satellites and smartphones, of
Google Earth and GPS tracking, how can a large primate
remain hidden? Yet the Southeast provides the answer vast wilderness areas,
swamps you can't get through, mountain hollows that rarely see
human visitors. If such a creacher exist anywhere in the
(52:01):
eastern United States, it would be here. The economic impact
alone makes the phenomenon worthy of study. Bigfoot tourism brings
millions of dollars to small communities across the Southeast. Museums, festivals,
guided expeditions, and merchandise sales provide livelihoods for hundreds of people.
Whether the creatures exist or not. Their economic impact is
(52:24):
undeniably real. But beyond economics, beyond tourism, beyond even the
scientific implications, there's something deeper at work here in our
increasingly connected, mapped, and monitored world. Bigfoot represents one of
the last true mysteries. It reminds us that there are
still shadows between the trees, still places where cell phones
(52:46):
don't work, Still moments when we're reminded that we're not
the apex predators we think we are. Every witness I've
interviewed has been changed by their encounter. Some become obsessed,
dedicating their lives to proof what they saw. Others never
enter the woods again. But all of them share a
common realization that the world is stranger, wilder, and more
(53:09):
mysterious than they ever imagined. As I write this, looking
out at the Blue Ridge Mountains covered in morning mist,
I can't help but wonder what's moving through those forests
right now. Maybe it's just deer and bear, turkey and Bobcat.
Or maybe it's something else, something that's been there far
longer than we have, something that watches us with ancient
(53:30):
eyes and wonders what strange creatures we are. The search
continues every day researchers head into the field with new
technology and old determination. Every day someone somewhere in the
southeast has an encounter they can't explain, and every day
the mystery deepens. We may never prove for certain that
(53:51):
Bigfoot exists, but we also can't prove it doesn't. And
in that space between knowing and not knowing, between civilization
and wilderness, between myth and reality, something walks on two
legs through the shadows of the southern woods. Something that
smells terrible, something that screams in the night, something that
leaves footprints too large to be human. Something that has
(54:14):
been seen by thousands of witnesses over centuries. Something that
refuses to be captured, cataloged, or explained away. Something that
reminds us in our age of answers, that some questions remain.
And maybe, just maybe that's exactly as it should be,
because the day we solve every mystery, map every shadow,
(54:35):
and explain every sound in the night is the day
we lose something essential about what it means to be human.
We need our monsters, we need our mysteries. We need
to know that somewhere out there, beyond the reach of
our street lights, and our certainty, something wild and unknowable
still roams. So the next time you're in the Southeast,
driving through the mountains of North Georgia or the swamps
(54:58):
of Florida, hiking in the are, camping in the Yuwari,
pay attention. Listen to the sounds that don't quite fit,
watch for shadows that move wrong. And if you smell
something terrible, something like wet dog and death and wildness
all mixed together, maybe, just maybe you're not alone. They're
(55:19):
out there.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
I know it.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
I've seen them, And someday, when the world is ready,
when we've learned to approach them with respect rather than rifles,
with wonder rather than cages, maybe they'll step out of
the shadows and into the light. Until then they walk
among us, unseen but not unfelt, unknown but not unreal,
(55:42):
keeping their ancient secrets in the last wild places of
the American Southeast. And honestly, I hope they keep those
secrets a little while longer.
Speaker 1 (55:52):
They say, you don't gotta go home, but you can't.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Stay, and I don't want to feel as world happened.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Science. Try this chart. That chart everything calling right back,
(56:34):
Pride back, joy from me, joy, staying right, come it
right away. Sssssst f s s s.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
S s s Stistius
Speaker 1 (57:41):
Stististsssssssssss
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