How Did All This Start With You?

[Midnight Owl]

  I went through the normal phase of growing up fearing the dark, what was under my bed at night and what goes bump in the night.  At puberty, I outgrew all that, never giving it a second thought.  Then after several decades of mature adult life, marriage, raising a family and retirement from a first career, that all quickly changed. 

  It wasn’t something I expected, nor endeavored to make happen, but occurred none the less and my thinking about our world has changed forever!  I will never view remote, isolated areas of America the same way that I did in the past.

  It was back in 2003 in North Texas while night fishing with my teenage son along a remote, heavily wooded creek bottom.  Something very large subtly approached us in the brush. 

  I thought I momentarily saw a face as I panned the brush line with my Q-beam spotlight but, then it was gone.  I was not sure if I had imagined it or not.  What I did know for sure was seeing the huge cinder block sized object hit the water less than 10 feet from us, showering us both with large drops of water!   That was not imagined, but very real and wet!

  That incident scared the crap out of both of us and was my first “What in the world was that!?†moment.  From that point on, I began a personal quest for solid answers that has resulted in multiple close encounters, some of which I have shared publicly in past.  Others, I prudently choose not.  Not many would believe or accept it, so why try.

  I am just curious, what it that happened to you.  What incident or personal experience first caused you to become interested in the Bigfoot/Sasquatch phenomenon? 

  

 

 

 

[Guest]

Google Earth...first downloaded when it launched and BFRO had pinned "footprints" with hyperlinked accounts in many of the areas I enjoy hiking and surveying for past human traces.  Read many and even downloaded the "layer" when Google Earth got big enough to seperate user groups.  Then saw the MQ Snell Grove Lake episode and bought Meldrum's book. Then Krantz's used, and a few more..Then Robert Morgan's "how to," and decided to go look for myself.  I finally did in the summer of 2008.  Crimey...!  Don't recall the PG film, but do recall reading in first grade the sheperdess story of the Yeti who attacked her Yaks....  and of course, Harry and the Hendersons... a family fav in the 80's I think..

[Guest zenmonkey]

Several different things or me into it. I remember seeing the stories on Unsolved mysteries. My parents had a book with the same titles it had stil shots of the PGF. I always was interested in cryptids mainly Loch Ness. It wasn't until collage my biology professor who was also a primatologist. Told me an encounter that he had back in the early 90s down south east OK. It fueled my fire and my education. Now it's an obsession can't wait to hit the trails and help discover the mystery. Not only a mystery but another upright walking ape!! Might help us with our origins. Zen

[southernyahoo]

I was interested in the topic from a young age after seeing the PGF. Always caught the documentaries when they would air on TV. The mystery was so intriguing, so enduring yet plausable. I perhaps wanted to believe but more so wanted to know. I got involved with an investigating group for a while, met some people I found credible and who had become investigators after their own encounters. I watched them spend loads of their own money and time in the persuit of proof. The challenge to find them was appealing, I like a challenge, so started to aquire knowledge of the evidence and duplicating field efforts. It wasn't long before I had a few class B experiences and soon understood that what percipitated the reports could be experienced, documented, studied, and resolved eventually.

[salubrious]

I had an encounter on the Dallas Divide in Colorado, one that is apparently *not* typical of BF at all:

 

http://bigfootforums.com/index.php/topic/29115-colorado-sighting-of-two-bf-in-the-road/

[Guest Darrell]

Saw the adds for the PGF in the late 60's when it was making its tour thru the NW. Later I read the Mysterious Monsters book and saw the movie in 74 I think. Visted the Bigfoot Information Center in The Dalles, OR in 75 and met Peter Bryne. Kinda been into it ever since. I remember Bryne commenting back then that bigfoot would be found and proven by 1980 at the latest.  

Edited October 24, 2013 by Darrell

[Scarecrow]

For me, it was 1977 at 8 years old, I went to the movie theater and saw the fictional documentary Sasquatch, the Legend of Bigfoot. That ignited a spark of interest that has not been estinguished these many years. Though I haven't had a class A encounter,  I've had a couple of Class B's since that time, and still as interested as ever.

 

BTW, you can still watch that movie on Youtube. Though, I admit, watching it as an adult, it is pretty campy, it still is a fun watch:

 

 

[Guest Darrell]

^I saw that one in the theater too! Love that movie.

[Guest]

I first heard of Bigfoot while as a young child living in SE Washington from my Grandfather and fell in the love with the outdoors in the nearby Blue Mountains , watched shows like In Search Of and The Six Million Dollar Man versus Bigfoot, Legend of Boggy Creek etc.. Decades later after growing up in Texas I had my interest rekindled after seeing programs like Bigfootville and Weird Travels in 2004-2005 (that featured some people I now research with)  about Sasquatch in Oklahoma and Texas  that made me get online about it and discovered so much about Bigfoot reports in the OK-ARK-LA-TX region. Had several very close Class B encounters since then and also thinking back at old memories of camping and aparently I had a few back then as well but didnt know at the time. Really stepped up my field research in 2009 to present.

Edited October 24, 2013 by GEARMAN

[Guest]

    Scarecrow and Darrell,

I too saw that in theater's when I was around 9 and had nightmare's of the Ape Canyon(miner's cabin attacked) scene for 2 decade's. I would dream they were trying to get in my window's and this for some reason scared me more than anything ever did when I was awake. I bought or read dozen's of books and watch any TV show on the subject. I will not watch Dave Shealy's "Swamp Ape" again because it was too silly/stupid

[LeafTalker]

Hey, Midnight Owl. Was realizing yesterday, when I posted that link to that description of one of your amazing encounters, that we hadn't heard from you in a while, and I was sad about that. So happy to see you start this thread!

 

I came to be interested in this subject because of Animal Planet's "Finding Bigfoot", which I stumbled on a little less than 2 years ago. Then came about six months of web crawling, looking for relevant YouTube videos and radio interviews. After that came the courage to contact a local researcher and ask if I could tag along on a stroll through the woods, where I smelled a funny odor and observed lots of odd structures. Then finally came the courage to go into an adjoining area on my own, where I've had a bunch of class B things happen, as well as some things that defy classification (in BFRO terms, anyway). Have been in the woods about 3 times a month ever since. Many times, nothing much happens, but I have learned to appreciate small things, instead of hungering for ever closer contact; and that means that my visits to the woods continue to be as much fun as ever. 

 

BF is teaching me about patience and gratitude. 

 

Best adventure I've ever been on.  

 

(Scarecrow, I love "The Legend of Bigfoot", too! Gearman and others, fun to hear your stories, too.) 

[Guest DWA]

This very balanced treatment in a very mainstream magazine, that came out when I was about 10 and a half.

 

http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/wildlife1968.htm

 

Seeing two pieces of possible evidence for which I have no other explanation; talking to one possible eyewitness I know personally; and reading a lot about it haven't hurt any.

 

It comes from a deep and abiding interest in animals...which one must have to begin to make sense of this topic.

[MarkGlasgow]

I saw The Legend of Boggy Creek movie as a child and it scared me to death. I was always told that 'monsters' weren't real. Came as a shock to find out otherwise!

Edited October 24, 2013 by MarkGlasgow

[Guest lightheart]

I guess the beginning of it for me was the picture of Patty.I thought however that if Sasquatch was real they probably lived only in the Pacific Northwest. Over the years I heard some college friends talking about the yahoos in the southern counties of WVA. My grandmother who grew up in Randolph County near Seneca Rocks made the comment that they were some really strange things that lived back in those woods on Mill Creek. Then some other people whose rural property backed up to Kanawha State Forest said that some wildmen lived back in those woods. They had seen them numerous times. When my father bought his hunting camp in Pocohontas County he aksed me what I thought about Bigfoot and asked what I would think if he told me that they also lived in Pocohontas County not just the Pacific Northwest. We had a hair-raising experience one foggy morning waking deep in the woods along a river. After I moved to Florida I didn't think much about it until I took some students camping in the Everglades with the guidance of some traditional Seminoles. They told us that if we saw the big man to just back away and leave him alone and he would not hurt us. They said that they were a kind of people and would not hurt us if we did not bother them. Within the last year I had a three or for hour experience in Central Florida where they were all around me as I stood on the porch of a cabin. Also I have had three experiences with super close wood knocks and tracks in a wildlife refuge near where I live. I guess you could say I've got the bug and will probably be interested for the rest of my life.

 

Midnight Owl I am so glad to see you posting.You had a great deal of insight to offer us and I have always appreciated hearing about your experiences. This is how we all go forward and learn more by sharing.

[hiflier]

Hello All,

 

In 1962 I was 13 (yes, a bit older now LOL). My folks gave me Ivan T. Sanderson's book "Abominable Snowman: The Legend Comes To Life" that year for my birthday and it terrified me to think that such a creature could have been thought to exist. Over 500 Pages of info which over the course of 3 years I managed to read twice. The book was left behind or otherwise went missing in Ohio when my family moved to California. Nearly 50 years have gone by now but the subject never left my thoughts in all that time, though I didn't pursue it in the least until last June. I joined this Forum out of curiosity to see what progress had been made after so much time had passed.

 

So you have my parents to thank now that I'm in everyone's hair and being such a royal pain in the neck. I've learned much in the last 6 months and continue to do so. Thank you all for being here.

Edited October 25, 2013 by hiflier