Clarke County, Al Man Has Multiple Encounters, Is Firmly In The Kill Club

[WSA]

http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2016/06/who_is_the_man_who_reported_bi.html#incart_river_home

[norseman]

Most southerners are, they are still red blooded.

[JKH]

Are what?

 

I remember reading this at BFRO and shaking my head. Running a booger buffet and then complaining seems pretty crazy. Capturing is out of the question, and they better hope they don't kill or injure one.

[Branco]

As WSA probably knows, Gainestown is about 3 miles west of the Barlow Bend of the AL River. About 25 miles downriver it joins the Tombigbee river where they become the Mobile River. The basins of those rivers probably contain one of the largest populations of Bigfoot per square unit of measure in the Southeast part of this country. After spending many weeks down there "Booger Hunting" over a period of about ten years, I can truthfully say the area mentioned, and the adjoining Monroe and Washington counties, has many resident Bigfoot that are brazen around people, easily PO'ed by them and their dogs, and can can be aggressive as the devil himself when confronted.

 

The Sheriff's statement is BS; not only has that office received complaint reports about them, deputies from that office - maybe not during his term - have had their own personal encounters with the animals.

 

The newspaper editor, Jim Cox, while a young reporter for that same newspaper group, actually photographed and published a picture of a Bigfoot crossing highway 69 between Coffeeville and Jackson. It was a scenic shot he made early one morning on his way to work. Apparently most older folks that live in that area knew the figure in the photo was a Bigfoot, as the location was a known road-crossing location for the "Boogers" foraging in the Tombigbee River bottoms at night and returning to their bedding areas on the hills north of the highway. Mr. Cox just thought it was a scenic shot of a man working on the road across the creek valley from him, with the sun coming up behind the man and a layer of fog over the valley. When I heard about it I began searching the newspaper's files. Many hours later, I found the photo. When I met him and we discussed it. he conceded; (1) it was unlikely that there would be a highway worker working that early in the morning, (2) there was no sign a man at the location as he passed the spot about a minute later, (3) there were no houses even close to the spot and, (4) when the height of the figure in the photo was compared to the known width of the black top road, the "man" would have been at least 8 feet tall. 

 

He wrote and published a column about our meeting and discussion in which he attempted to have a little fun; but did ask in THAT column for information from residents who had knowledge of Bigfoot. Later I found out it backfired on him. None of the folks that DID personally know about Bigfoot would respond because of his flippancy. (One lady did write in to tell about her mother seeing one dejectedly sitting on a dead log.)

 

As a side note, there are several African-Americans who live close to Gainestown. One of them had several "bad-to-the-bone" pit bulldogs that he kept tied on chains in the open pine forest behind his home. He discovered that one of the dogs deepest inside the woods would often go "nuts" after the man put out his feed at night. The dog lost weight, and at times its food container would come up missing. The man began putting  food out a little earlier, and hid in his truck to watch. He saw a a huge red Bigfoot walk toward the one dog - which began barking and growling, and backing away as far as the chain would allow. The BF walked to the feed pan, scooped out most of the food, turned and walked away munching. 

 

Not trying to derail the thread WSA, but Clarke County rung a big bell in my old gourd.

[MichaelX]

The photo by the newspaper editor that Branco is referring to was taken back in 1977. By searching through an archive of the Alabama Bigfoot Forums that has been partially captured on another BF forum, I was able to find a link to what may be the original story that Jim Cox published about it. I'm not sure if it was published first in an actual print newspaper or if its first appearance was on the paper's website. Branco might be able to confirm the date and some of the other details; the date on the Front Page of the online edition of the paper is November 18, 2004. The link below gets you there but an online subscription is required to view the story in its entirety.

 

http://www.southalabamian.com/news/2004-11-18

 

The post in the Alabama Bigfoot Forum archive contains another link which I'm pretty sure is the same article that the above link points to; it has the same title and is attributed to Jim Cox.

 

http://www.bigfootencounters.com/stories/coffeevilleAL.htm

 

The story mentions a visitor, referred to as Bill by the editor, "who looked up the photograph and called me about it". In regards to the flippancy Tal (or should I say Bill?   ) mentions, Mr. Cox says in the article, "I am skeptical of unidentified "witnesses" reports posted on a website and of an investigator who comes in here and wants information but doesn't even want full identity known (sorry, Bill). The Internet contains a wealth of information but it also contains a lot of misinformation too."

 

Both the South Alabamian website and the story at BF Encounters contains the picture but it's pretty small in both instances. I'll see if I can get a better image from the archived post.

 

[WSA]

I was sort of hoping you'd pop up and give us some details Branco.   Thanks for doing that. I've read with keen interest your extensive knowledge of Boogers in the Black Belt, and figured you'd have something to add. 

[Airdale]

Here is the photo after resizing and optimization in PhotoZoom Pro 6. Google Earth shows Highway 69 between Coffeeville and Jackson to be 23 feet, fogline to fogline or 11.5 feet per lane. Assuming the same width in 1977, the step of the figure in the photo appears to cover a bit more than half of the west bound lane or close to 6 feet and appears to be stoutly built. It is obviously upright and bipedal. It is taller with legs bent than the length of the step which leads me to believe that a height of 8 feet is conservative. It would be helpful to have access to the original negative or a high resolution scan of it.

 

Edited June 25, 2016 by Airdale

[Branco]

Here is the photo after resizing and optimization in PhotoZoom Pro 6. Google Earth shows Highway 69 between Coffeeville and Jackson to be 23 feet, fogline to fogline or 11.5 feet per lane. Assuming the same width in 1977, the step of the figure in the photo appears to cover a bit more than half of the west bound lane or close to 6 feet and appears to be stoutly built. It is obviously upright and bipedal. It is taller with legs bent than the length of the step which leads me to believe that a height of 8 feet is conservative. It would be helpful to have access to the original negative or a high resolution scan of it.

 

Alabama Bigfoot (resized).jpg

Dang!!!! Nobody can say ole Airdale don't trail, hunt and retrieve. Good work. I asked Mr. Cox about the negative and the possibility of looking at it. He wasn't too interested in that and said it would take a long time to find it, even if he still had it. He did a LOT of photography as a young reporter. 

[MichaelX]

I went back to the archived post from the Alabama Bigfoot Forums, here are a few of the images from it.

 

First, the original image that looks as if it's been resized:

 

 

Next, the image with some notes added to it by a member of the forum who lives or lived in the area at the time the post was started. This person had been to the location and took a current photo as well as road measurements. His assessment is pretty close to the conclusions that Airdale came to in his post.

 

 

 

 

 

[MichaelX]

Photo of the location taken (presumably) in 2010:

 

 

The correct name is Eberline Mill Creek, here's a Google Maps link to the exact area: https://goo.gl/maps/rKyfNzybBHS2

 

And finally, a photo taken with a friend of the investigator on the highway. He is at the approximate spot that the figure in the original photo was thought to be at, the investigator claims the friend is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 270 lbs. This photo does not match up exactly as the above photo, it looks as if the investigator had moved to his right so as to get a view that looks straight up the road.

 

   

   

[Branco]

MichaelX: Good job! Thank's.