Game Camera captured BF in Florida?

[Explorer]

I re-read Joe Gisondi’s book, Monster Trek, and took better notes.  Of interest was the claim that rangers at the Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve (Florida) caught a bigfoot in a game camera.  Date was not given. 

 

The story below is not told by the rangers but by Carolanne Solomon who used to research BF in the Colt Creek State Park and personally knew one of the rangers who told her the story.  So the story is told from a secondary source.

 

Below are some quotes from the book.

 

“Apparently the rangers inadvertently took a picture of one during a research project where they had used game cameras to calculate the number of feral hogs in the area.  A few days after collecting the cameras, the rangers popped the picture onto the computer, briefly looking through them.  As they flipped through the photos, a ranger described on image as a black bear and moved on.  The second ranger asked, “How big is it?” So they rewound and looked more closely.  “That bear can’t be that big,” the second ranger said, estimating it to be seven feet tall. And the eye shine looked different, they both realized, not the red refraction from bears.  After a while, they understood what they were viewing.”

 

According to Carolanne, the ranger told her that they got a BF in the Green Swamp (based on the game camera photo).

The next quote shows why this story did not go anywhere.

 

“Like other rangers, this one refused to say anything on the record.  The National Park Service had always discouraged rangers from talking about bigfoot publicly.  “I hate to do this, but if you ever call me on this in front of other people I will deny it.  I want my pension when I retire.””

Chapter 4:  Green Swamp, p. 131-132

 

There are two reasons I bring this story to the attention of BFF, one is the possibility of a game camera photo of a BF in Florida and second this could be an example of typical ranger behavior when seeing BF evidence.  If that photo exists, then somebody must still have possession of it.  Doubt the rangers deleted the photo.  Maybe they kept it to themselves if they did not want to report it up the chain of command.   Or maybe they shared the photo with their supervisors and it was confiscated.  We don’t know.  Unfortunately, Carolann Solomon passed away in Dec. 2015 (see link below) and it is not clear if she shared the ranger contact information with any of her close research friends. 

 

http://www.cryptozoonews.com/solomon-obit/

 

Information on Green Swamp Wilderness below:

 

https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/green-swamp-wilderness-preserve

 

I posted a book review in BFF back in March 28, 2016, but I could not find it using the search engine.  The post apparently was deleted.  Thus, I will re-post my review below after this new post.

 

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I recently read Monster Trek: The Obsessive Search for Bigfoot by Joe Gisondi, University of Nebraska Press, 2016 and thought it was a good read.

 

Gisondi is not a Bigfoot researcher.  He is a professor of Journalism at Eastern Illinois University who got curious about the folks who are investigating/researching BF in the field and decided to document who these people are,  what they are doing, and why.

 

I was curious about this book because I also wondered what drives BF researchers to spend so many hours in the field looking for mythological creatures that Science does not recognize.   He connects mainly with conventional research groups (BFRO, etc.) and not with woo woo types.  He goes into the field with different groups/research organizations/individuals.  He visits the Ouachita Mountains-OK, Uwharrie Mountains-NC, Southern Illinois, Green Swamp-FL, Northern Wisconsin, Eastern Kentucky, Salt Fork State Park-OH and Wind River Mountains-WY.

 

The author used the term “obsessive” to describe the researchers and that was clearly observed in many of the case studies he presents.  Some of this obsession is driven by a personal encounter and desire to prove to the world that they are not crazy.  Some of this obsession is more about looking for meaning in life –by pursuing something that is beyond the mundane (higher purpose).   I think the author was fair in his characterization of the main drivers.  He did not use cases of folks just doing this for fame, glory and money (even though those types do exist).

 

It appears that the author did most of his field trips with the different BF research groups back in 2009.  So while this will appear dated material, the stories and behavior of many of today’s researchers probably have not changed.

 

Of the 8 chapters, I like the following 3 the best:

 

Chapter 1: Ouachita Mountains. He went with Matt Moneymaker and a BFRO group expedition, and apparently a BFRO investigator named Pam Porter got zapped (and got sick).  This was news to me because I did not know that BFRO believes in the concept of BF zapping people.  Or at least that is the impression I got from that chapter.  You also get to meet the different type of people who join BFRO and why they are there.

 

Chapter 5: Northern Wisconsin: Author meets researcher Don Young and goes over his multiple BF encounters.  Young is a hunting guide and no city slicker, so he does have more credibility than most when he claims that he saw a BF.  Don lost his job and livelihood after going public.  His story and some of his videos are in the internet, but I never heard of his case until Gisondi summarized them in this book.  Parts of Don’s claims are that he had a BF on this gunsight but did not shoot and that a juvenile BF chased him up a tree.  Great stories and if true, no wonder he became obsessed with finding proof!

 

Chapter 8: Wind River Mountains Wyoming:  This is the story and short biography of John Mionczynski.   He also tells the story of the unknown creature that fell on his tent.  I was impressed with John’s background and will pay more attention/respect to his insights into BF.  Good background on John for anybody who is researching BF.

 

 

 

[Huntster]

A quick look at Google Earth shows the Green Swamp to be a tiny 300 square mile area completely surrounded by a sea of humanity. It is 25 very busy miles from Sea World and Disney World. There is no way for a creature to leave this small "wilderness" without crossing many miles of city to reach another wild area.

 

I just can't swallow this one. Sorry.

 

[hiflier]

We had a member here named Brian who was heavily involved in Skunk Ape research in the Green Swamp area. he was studying a pinch going under the 8 lane highway separating the green swamp East of the highway from a smaller area to the West. a river was flowing under the highway and there seemed to be a lot of barefoot prints in the mud there along the river banks.. Maybe if he is still around he could comment?

[WSA]

Huntster: 300 sq. miles = "Small"? 110,000 acres? M'kay.

 

This is also not prairie or open taiga we are talking about. This is dense, almost impenetrable thicket of palmetto, vines and Spanish moss, black water and triple canopy.  You could hide an entire Division there, probably. You may not be familiar with this terrain, but if you are not, it is sort of hard to picture just how dense and inaccessible most of it would be to anyone on foot. Visibility is pretty much nil outside of 50 ft. in any direction if you are not on open water or the occasional marsh savannah/hummock.   So what that there are hordes of humans close by?  Actually, sounds to me to be about the perfect habitat/location for a swamp ape.  Pig for breakfast, pig for dinner, pig for supper.... 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by WSA

[RedHawk454]

Interesting read but was a little disappointed when I opened the thread and didn't see the alleged game cam photo

 

The thread title is misleading

 

but the idea of a gubment cover up of the species is so fascinating

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by RedHawk454

[Huntster]

2 hours ago, WSA said:

Huntster: 300 sq. miles = "Small"? 110,000 acres? M'kay..........

 

Absolutely tiny, especially compared to the huge area surrounding it featuring millions upon millions of Homo sapiens, both resident and tourist, hemming all large fauna in. I don't think a ninja could escape from that swamp if he wanted to, let along a large ape man. If there's a sasquatch in there, he's been there since at least the 1970's, and he ain't getting out.

[Huntster]

 

Compare the above image of the greater Tampa/Orlando metropolitan area and the swamp between them with the British Columbia coastal region just west of Bella Coola. There aren't even any roads you can drive to, for Pete's sakes. It's boat, or stay home. Those little "towns" spread out are actually little villages with as few as a dozen people in them. Moreover, the Pacific coastline looks like that for a thousand miles to the north, and 250 air miles to the south before you get to Vancouver, where you come to the closest metropolitan area. In contrast, it's a mere 60 miles from Tampa to Orlando running through that swamp, including the width of the swamp.

[JKH]

Urban green spaces are very interesting. I've found evidence in such areas, and they can do anything they want at night. I'd bet on it. I checked out that area SE of Orlando on the maps when I thought I might travel there awhile ago.

[Huntster]

44 minutes ago, JKH said:

Urban green spaces are very interesting..........

 

Including downtown Tampa? 

 

Below is an SSR map readout of every report within 50 miles of the center of the Green Swamp. They range in date from 1955 to last year. The 1955 report is the one that is nearly in today's downtown Tampa.

 

 https://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=13034

[ShadowBorn]

What makes it interesting is how afraid the rangers are of loosing their pensions over a picture that could be real or not. The fear of reporting this creature to the higher up's is greater then just staying silent and not saying a word. There jobs is actually on the line for just speaking up about what they saw or have seen. This is not a good thing if anyone ever want to work for the forest service.

[Huntster]

4 hours ago, WSA said:

...........This is also not prairie or open taiga we are talking about. This is dense, almost impenetrable thicket of palmetto, vines and Spanish moss, black water and triple canopy.  You could hide an entire Division there, probably. You may not be familiar with this terrain, but if you are not, it is sort of hard to picture just how dense and inaccessible most of it would be to anyone on foot. Visibility is pretty much nil outside of 50 ft. in any direction if you are not on open water or the occasional marsh savannah/hummock.   So what that there are hordes of humans close by?..........

 

Think of it this way:

 

The surrounding area has boxed it in completely over the past 50 years. Any movement in or out now becomes a sighting or several. Essentially, if a sasquatch is in there, he's there to stay, or if he gets out and into another "wilderness" in the region, he's not likely to return. 

 

So how long can such an area support a breeding population? The estimated Florida population of black bears before European contact was @ 11,000. Today there are an estimated 4,000 black bears in seven subpopulations statewide (also fragmented by human densities). Given the old ratio of sasquatch/black bear at 1 sasquatch per 200 bears, that would be @ 20 sasquatches in seven subpopulations. In short, a regionally dying species.

 

A human comparison might be Japanese military holdouts after Japanese surrender at the end of WWIi throughout the Pacific theater, which makes the Green Swamp a postage stamp on a football field.. There were quite a few of those guys out there at first, and over the years they died of disease, were killed by the elements, killed by police, or killed by military units after they joined revolutionary groups. The last known holdout to exist alive surrendered 1974 in Indonesia, a few months less than 30 years after the articles of surrender was signed. But reports continue to surface, just like sasquatches in the shadow of Disney World, in the 1980's and even 1990's, but despite searches, they were not found. It has been 74 years since the end of the war. My Daddy was among the youngest to fight that war, and he was born in 1926 and passed away 15 years ago at 78 years of age. 

 

If sasquatches still exist in the Green Swamp, they won't much longer. They will either successfully escape, or they will die out. I doubt there will be any immigration.

[Explorer]

19 hours ago, hiflier said:

We had a member here named Brian who was heavily involved in Skunk Ape research in the Green Swamp area. he was studying a pinch going under the 8 lane highway separating the green swamp East of the highway from a smaller area to the West. a river was flowing under the highway and there seemed to be a lot of barefoot prints in the mud there along the river banks.. Maybe if he is still around he could comment?

 

Thanks for the reference, Hiflier.  

 

Brian did post several photos of prints found on the Green Swamp (see BFF link below).  Look forward to his opinion of the claim made by Carolann Solomon about the rangers knowing that BF is present.

I think it is local researchers who can have better luck approaching these rangers.

 

I interviewed one NP ranger in Shasta and he disclosed that he saw a BF walking down the road (south of Mt. Shasta). 

I also interviewed another lookout tower ranger who told me that her brother saw a BF (east of Mt. Shasta).

So if you approach them when they are by themselves and have some privacy, they will tell you their personal stories.

But, that is different than being on record and writing a report on their sighting.

 

On the other hand, one time I made the mistake of asking about BF presence to the rangers at the Happy Camp Ranger District Office, and they all laughed at me.

The problem there was that there were 3 rangers on the front desk and no privacy.

At Happy Camp there seems to be a big battle between the Chamber of Commerce pushing the BF idea to attract tourists and the Ranger District totally disgusted with the idea.

 

 

 

 

[spacemonkeymafia]

I worked with a guy that was hog hunting in the Green Swamp and had a sighting.

[ShadowBorn]

Another thing about this in the green swamp area . If this area is not that big and the forest service was doing a survey on the population on the amount of boars in the area. Then one would think that the population of wild boar would decrease in population per square mile depending how many of these creatures live within this area. One way to find out what is living and eating in a given area is to go to past and find out if there are records of wild boar or any other species. Then go and find out if there was an increase or a decrease in any given species.in a given area. I am sure that the forest service is allowed to give this info for the past three years. This way one can rule out the usual suspected predators which will leave only the population of species that one is looking for.

 

Yes, it will take some math and some major calculations but for that given area one should find out how many creatures live with in a given square mile. Not just that one should be able to figure out how much they consume with a fixed variable. But maybe I am just talking out of my butthole.  

[Huntster]

6 hours ago, ShadowBorn said:

..........If this area is not that big and the forest service was doing a survey on the population on the amount of boars in the area. Then one would think that the population of wild boar would decrease in population per square mile depending how many of these creatures live within this area.........

 

Like the decrease in black bear populations, it isn't so much a lack of food but a dramatic decrease in habitat that pressures the sasquatches. Even more than bears, sasquatches need areas of solitude from man. They prefer complete wilderness. 

 

And they reproduce very, very slowly.......much slower than black bears, which can produce litters of up to 4, 5, and even 6 cubs, with litters of 3 being common. Wild hogs? They breed like rabbits.