MULTISTATE_FOLLOWUP 01-08

ALABAMA_FOLLOWUP 01-08

Come with us as we join Chuck Creel and Mike Sims to continue investigating their stories in Alabama!

Here are three generations of Creel men helping us to investigate this mystery!

We Arived at Chuck and Kelli Creel's home in Chancellor Alabama on Sunday, January 13, just past 6:30 in the morning. We said a quick hello and Chuck showed us to the rooms he had set up for us. We had driven straight through from our visit with the White River Apache Nation in Arizona and were exhausted. Chuck and his wife Kelli told us to go to bed and that they would wake us in a couple of hours so we could plan out our day. About 9:00 am, Chuck got us up and we met with him and Mike Sims. Mike and Chuck had been doing a lot of work investigating the stories and locations that other local people had shared with them, prior to our arrival and had lots to tell and show us. Chuck and Mike shared a story that a local woman, Ramona Gardner, shared with them (and also on the Bigfoot Live Radio show), about her encounter with a creature. We decided to head off and meet this person ourselves and see what we could learn. Chuck and Mike agreed and we arrived at the place Ramona had her encounter about noon. Ramona was there to meet us and Steve Kulls and myself (JavaBob ) re-interviewed this lovely lady, while the rest of the team took a look around the surrounding area, setting up some trip cameras in strategic areas.
I met with Ramona and asked her if she would attempt to recreate the encounter using me as the creature so that I might be able to estimate distances, sizes, and other physical aspects of the experience. After that brief exchange, Steve Kulls, did an indepth interview with Ramona, which we recorded (with her permission). We will post pictures and that recording on this site, when we get back to the office and have use of more of our equipment. (Come back and keep checking this site for more updates.) In the mean time, my estimates indicate that the creature was standing about 16 - 20 feet away from Ramona during the encounter. It was straight in front of her and she would have had an unobstructed view. She was on the front porch of the trailer she was staying at and the creature would have been standing at the bottom of a small hill. It would have been 16 - 20 feet straight ahead of her and about 6 feet lower than where she was standing. When I asked her if it was taller or shorter than me, (I am just a little taller than 6 foot), she said probable two or two and 1/2 feet taller than me.

Listen to Steve Kull's interview with Ramona!

There were some bushes behind me and I asked her if she noticed where the creature's head came on those bushes, she said yes and pointed out approximately where. We measured that spot and found it to be just about 8 feet from the ground, confirming my estimates.
It was clear there was something in this area and we were determined to find out about it! We did all we could before running out of daylight and decided to go back to Chuck Creels house and make plans for a physical exploration of the area. We needed to identify what kind of equipment we would might need to get around the area safely. About 1/4 mile beyond the place of this encounter is a swampy area and a river, heavy woods, and some cleared feed lots and deer stands. We met with the owner of this property to get his approval to come back, set up a base camp, and do our investigations. He agreed and also shared more history from this area.
We headed back to the Creel home and began making arrangements to come back with the proper equipment for an extended stay in the area. This included a boat and infra-red night viewing remote cameras.

There is much more to this and other encounters in this immediate area. I am not able to get it all onto this website at this time, but I will promise to share it all with you as soon as I physically can get it done. In the mean time, here are just a couple of photos of what will be coming!

Find out what we believe killed this deer and why a local hunter wouldn't leave this stand!

Report from Steve Kulls: I was shown a deer head found by the locals, whom stated they found no obvious wounds, fractures or internal bleeding on the trunk of an 8 point buck. The animal upon examination was found dead in the forests surrounding a research area, where a hunter in November had claimed an encounter while in a deer stand nearby and refused to get out of the deer stand until friends came to retrieve him. The animal had one rack of antlers missing and the other rack was intact and unscathed with no obvious signs it had been in a fight with another buck. There was a lack of any facial trauma as well. When observing the area where the antler was missing, it was apparent that the animal most likely expired from a sub-dural hematoma caused by the removal of the antler. The removal of the antler causes much more questions than answers, as the missing antler was not found, despite a thorough search, and was not cut, but appeared to have been ripped out, as the removal caused a skull fracture resulting in the hematoma.

Learn what happened to JavaBob while he monitored the cameras and what TJ and the team found in the woods!

TJ and Steve found a deer at the bottom of a hill. It had all it's skin pulled off and it's inards missing! First though was it may have been a large animal kill, but Steve did find the bullet hole, which debunked our theory...

From this point on, I will give you short notes from my daily log. Once I get back to the office, I will try to answer all the questions my notes raise and post many more photos!

On 01/14/08, we had to take TJ into town to see an emergency dentist. It seemed he had developed a badly absessed tooth and needed to have it pulled. After the extraction, we headed back to Chuck Creels home to get set up for the next day in the field. TJ was very uncomfortable, but we had a job to do and setup to go do it.

On 01/15-16/08, we stayed at the Creel residence until about 1pm to recieve a package from a Dr. Lynch. Dr Lynch had been working on some special equipment that might help us locate a creature at night and help us document the finding at the same time. He wanted us to field test the new equipment and send him back the results so he could hone his designs. After we recieved the equipment, we headed back out into the field and set up our cameras and other equipment. We monitored the equipment for several hours and attempted several differant calls and attraction methods, including tree knocking. We had no luck with any of it. After a bit, while JavaBob was monitoring the remote cameras, TJ decided to attempt to mimic some animal sounds using a whistle. Some thing none of us had tried in the past. To our amazement, we began to hear footsteps moving around us in the dark! In a few minutes, there was a very loud tree knock that seemed to be coming from about 10 to 15 yards away! We grabbed our IR equipment, thermal imagers, and hand held night cameras and rushed towards the sound... but could find nothing. We looked for about an hour but saw no signs of anything in the deep wooded areas around us. We spent another couple of hours repeating our whistle calls and tree knocking but to no avail. By early morning, a freezing rain began falling and the winds picked up considerably so we packed up our equipment and headed back to the Creel residence.

On 01/17/08, I stayed back to catch up on laundry and some of my notes while the rest of the team headed out to the area we had been monitoring. They went out to pick up the trip cameras we had left in the field and to look for a cave that some of the locals had told us about. We were told that the cave had a very foul odor and that they would not go into it to investigate what might be inside.

Mike Sims piloted TJ and Steve Kulls to attempt to find the cave...

The team had to get across a very fast running creek to get to the area where the creek was reported to be. Chuck Creel and Mike Sims arranged for us to get a boat and attempted to cross the creek to find the cave. The creek was running too fast due to the recent rains and after several attempts to cross it, the team was forced to abort this mission. When they returned, we found that there were more than 100 pictures to be checked out, on the trip cameras. We cleaned, recharged, and preped our equipment for the next days work and tried to get a little sleep before setting out again.

01/18/08, The team headed out the area where they had seen the creature on their prior visit to Alabama. This was on private property and after getting all of the required releases and permissions, we headed on out. We followed Mike Sims to a spot close to the bottoms were we thought the creature may reside. We set up camp, but very soon after that it began to rain again. We stayed as long as possible, but it was getting so muddy and wet, that we were afraid we would not be able to get back out again, so after only a few hours in the freezing rain, we packed back up and headed back to the Creel residence.

01/19/08, Mike Sims and Chuck Creel have a place that they use for hunting. It has a little shed on it that overlooks a very large meadow, surrounded by heavy woods that lead off to some swampy areas. We went with them out to this area to see if it would be possible to set up out there. There had not been any known sightings there, but he area sounded like good habitat and with the shed, we could stay out of the rain. As it turned out the shed was actually a small cabin built on the upper part of an old barn. It had a propane heater and several cots. It gave us excellent views of the surrounding woods and kept us warm and dry. We spent the night there and monitored the surrounding areas, but saw and heard nothing.

01/20-21/08, We headed back to the Creel residence to make arrangements to visit another local ranch. Several of the people who live on this ranch had seen the creature in recent weeks and wanted us to come and investigate the area to help them verify what they had seen. They did not want their names used or the location of their ranch shared with anyone, so we gave our assurances to honor their wishes and headed out to set up a base camp. We got to the ranch by early afternoon and set up our camp. We deployed four remote IR cameras and five static trip cameras. We broke up into three, two man teams, while I stayed back to monitor the remote cameras. Team #1, was TJ Biscardi and Chuck Creel, team #2 was Greg Worthington and Collin Creel, and team #3 was Mike Sims and Steve Kulls. Team #1 headed off towards the E of the base camp, into the woods and towards a swampy area to look for evidence and signs. Team #2 headed out towards the NW to do the same. Team #3 headed off towards the East. There was a main road to our SW, so the three teams had almost all of our surrounding areas covered. We remained in contact using our hand held walkie-talkies. Within and hour, team three called in with a possible set of tracks and just few minutes later, team one called in with a set of tracks as well! Both teams marked the areas and after a couple more hours of searching, I called all teams back to the base camp to compare notes. The teams discussed their findings with each other and then went back to the sighting areas together. They went out to Team#3's finding first. After closer examination, the determined the the tracks found were not those of a creature, but most likely of other animals. However, when they returned to the area of Team#1's sighting, they all agreed that these were some type of human like prints. They could clearly see a big toe and heal print. There were several prints there, but the teams could only find one that was clear enough to attempt a casting. They took a cast of that print and we are bringing it back to our lab for a closer inspection. Due to the poor quality of the cast, we are not yet ready to say if it is or is not a creature, but once our analysis is complete, we will post the results and pictures of the print.

The raw print and the casting of the same...

01/22-23/08, After returning from the non-disclosed area, we went back to the Creel residence to get a few hours sleep and recharge our equipment. The following afternoon, we headed out to the family farm of George Williams. This was over 300 acers of cattle ranch that had been in his family for going on two centuries! George told us that he had never seen or heard anything on the property before, but then again, he had never really looked. The property back up against the same creek that we had investigated at the beginning of this expedition where there had been several sightings. The habitat was ideal, rich with food sources, cover, and access to the bottoms where a creature to move undetected through out the surrounding areas. We decided to find a likely site on the ranch and set up a camp. We found a place far from any homes or roads that was close to the creek, had a fish filled pond on it, and lots of good tree cover. We set up our equipment and began our wait. We stayed there until early Thursday morning, but had no luck. No signs at all. No prints, no smells, no replies to our calls, nothing. We were not disapointed however, because we know that you have to turn over a lot of stones before you find a jem. I, however, did learn a valuable lession on this particular site. I learned not to mess with FIRE ANTS! While picking up fire wood, I picked up a log that was home to colony of fire ants. I was bitten at least 20 times before I was able wipe off the hoards of protective ants that were defending their colony! A lesson I will remember for a long time!

LOUISIANA_FOLLOWUP_01-08

After investigating our friend in Alabama, we received a call from our associates down in Louisiana. After a short drive we arrived at the famous Honey Island. We are planning to spend a little more quality time back in the swamp attempting to verify that the "swamp ape" has the means, habitat, and enough isolated space to survive un-molested over the years. We will spend the next week here in the swamp isolated on an island just across the river, from the now famous Honey Island. Most of our research will be done in this remote and isolated Louisiana bayou. We will attempt to learn the rivers and sloughs here to get us in and out safely.
Thanks to Terral and Dana hosting us with all we need i.e. boat, camp, and map we will be spending most of out time outdoors looking for signs of our elusive quarry.
TJ

On this visit to Slidell Louisian, we visited with Dana and Terral of the Honey Island Monster fame. The following is from the website; http://www.angelfire.com/la2/SwampMonster/

A site that promotes their new movie by the same name, HONEY ISLAND SWAMP MONSTER:

�My Grandfather, Harlan Ford, who retired from the FAA, was the first man to report a sighting after he poured plaster casts of tracks believed to be made by a man-like, hairy creature that walked upright in the swamp. After Ford was interviewed by the local media and then on, "In Search Of", the creature he described became known as the legendary Honey Island Swamp Monster.

What many who watched that segment, do not know, is that Ford was not alone on that encounter in 1963. He was with Billy Mills, also a retired Federal Air-Traffic Controller. Ford and Mills were on a hunting trip together when they came face to face with the large, hairy creature.

Ford passed away in 1980, but while filming this documentary, we located Billy Mills out of state and he agreed to talk about the encounter on camera for the first time.

In my documentary film, we went by boat deep into the heart of Honey Island Swamp where few humans tread to the area that Ford and Mills came face to face with the man-like bigfoot beast. That is when we discovered fresh tracks.

Also included in this film, is an old Super-8 movie reel that my grandmother came across in a box of my grandfather's belongings. She claimed that he he had taken up wildlife photography -- instead of killing wild game, he decided to photograph them. The reel was labeled, "Honey Island Swamp Monster". On the reel, from a treeblind where Ford kept watch, he filmed a large, hairy, bigfoot-like creature walking upright through the swamp. So, I included the reel in this documentary so you can see for yourself the way I saw it for the first time.�

Slidell, Louisiana was founded around 1882 during construction of a major new railroad from New Orleans to Meridian, Mississippi, connecting there with Cincinnati, Ohio and eventually with New York, NY. The New Orleans and Northeastern (n.o.n.e.) Railroad established a building camp at first high ground north of Lake Pontchartrain which eventually grew into the city. Slidell was chartered as a town in 1888 by the Louisiana legislature.

The Pearl River rises in the historic area of the Nanih Waiya Indian Mounds of Winston County where it is formed by the confluence of Nanawaya and Tallahaga Creeks. It flows southwesterly through Neshoba, Leake, Scott, Rankin and Hinds Counties, bringing with it the vast potential of an abundant water supply. Continuing through Mississippi�s capital city of Jackson, the Pearl flows through Copiah, Simpson, Lawrence, Marion, Pearl River and Hancock Counties before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico through Lake Borgne and the Mississippi sound.

The basin of the Pearl River contains seven million acres and drains an area of 8,760 square miles, draining all or parts of 23 counties in Mississippi and 3 parishes in Louisiana. It is the third largest drainage basin in the state, meandering approximately 421 miles through the central portion of Mississippi and a small part of southeastern Louisiana. Over two trillion gallons of water pass along her banks each year.

We found the area to be vast and full of islands and bayou that would make ideal habitat for a creature similar to our elusive friend. We interviewed many locals who spoke of encounters and sightings of a large man like creature in these sloughs and back islands. Many spoke of large prints that they did not recognize nor could explain. We even heard about a local hunter who thought she had shot some kind of monkey out of a tree. She brought it home and called the local Fish and Game agent. The agents told her to wrap it in newspaper and put it into the deep freeze until they got there. They were there later that day and looked at the animal she had shot. They said it was unlike any other animal they had ever seen, took the animal away with them when they left, and never gave any other information to the person who had originally shot it. This was just one more local mystery from down here in the bayou!

TJ pilots our boat in the bayou

After meeting with our hosts, Dana Holyfield Evans and her husband Terral Evans. They showed us to the boat that they would let us use and gave us the key to the cabin in the bayous that we would be staying in. We were all very tired and headed into the bayous to set up our cabin.

The view at sunrise, from the front door of our cabin in the swamps.. Honey Island is just across the river.

We settled in and after a couple of trips back and forth to our truck, we ferried over all of our supplies and equipment. Exhausted, we slept until early the next morning before preparing for our extended stay out in the swamp. We spent the next day, Saturday the 26th, preparing the equipment, buying groceries, and attempting to learn our way around the bayous in our boat. We knew that being prepared was our best way to remain safe. Many people have been lost to this maize of waterways and islands, and we did not want to become another statistic!

On Sunday the 27th, we began our investigations seriously. We wanted to know all we could about the �Honey Island Swamp Monster� and any other sightings or experiences the local people may have had with these or any other unknown primate like animals. We met with a man who many of the local look to as an expert �River Rat�, Denty Crawford. Denty is a man who knows the swamps and the history of the area better than anyone else in the area. Denty spent all day with us just talking and showing us around. It took this long to gain his confidence and trust, but it was worth every minute of our time. We knew that these local people lived within a different culture than we are used to and we would need to work at their pace if we were to be successful.

We spent the next two days searching the bayous for any signs of the creature, and talking to as many locals as possible. We found that a few locals were not comfortable with the story of the �Honey Island Swamp Monster�, but those same people spoke to us very matter of factly about �Big Foot�. They told us that many of them had seen the creature and the tracks that it left, but usually only during the months of October, November, and December, when it was migrating through! Something that Tom has been telling us for a long time. This helps to verify Tom�s theory of the creatures being migratory. They also told us that the creature they had seen was smaller than the ones they can find on the web from the Pacific North West. This also conforms to our findings from Texas and other Southern states! Most of the eyewitnesses also talked about a reddish color. There was even a credible sounding story about a woman who shot some kind of animal that appeared to her to be a type of monkey. When she called the Fish and Game department to come and identify it, they confiscated the body and never got back to her about it! The stories we heard were all very similar and consistent enough for us to suspect that there must be something to them. It became clear to us that there must be something in these swamps but we are probably not here at the right time. We spent until the 29th before picking up Tom at the airport, on our way back to Alabama to check back in with Chuck Creel and Mike Sims before heading out to the Four Corners area in New Mexico.

This is some of the typical area we were attempting to investigate and some of the remains from Katrina

A shot of one of Denty�s houses..............Denty Crawford...............Some of Denty�s friends

NEW MEXICO_FOLLOWUP_01-08

Dave Ortiz trying to stay warm while we investigated the area on Leonard�s property

We made it back to Alabama on Wednesday the 30th in time to do the Bigfoot Live Radio show. We slept up and left the next morning for Four Corners, New Mexico at 8:20 in the morning. We drove straight through and arrived in Farmington, New Mexico at 15:15 on Friday the 1st of February.

Once we had settled in our motel room, we called and arranged to meet our hosts, Father Ray, Dave Ortiz, Leonard Dan, and Jonny Johnson. Father Ray invited us to a restaurant to meet all of our hosts and some of his parishioners who were interested in meeting the Searching for Bigfoot team. We enjoyed a good meal then headed out the Leonard Dan�s property. Leonard had had a sighting on the back part of his property several weeks earlier. It was already dark when we arrived. We set up some IR remote cameras and did a walk through of the area looking for signs. During the walk around, we found some big cat prints, many deer prints, many dog and coyote prints, rabbits, and many other small animal prints in the fresh snow. We also found lots of corn husks scattered around and stripped of corn. The interesting thing about the corn was that it was found concentrated in small areas. It was not as if deer or other animals had pulled it from the storage bins and scattered it around, but more like something carried bundles of it away and then settled down to eat it away from the storage bins?

Pictures from the next morning showing the corn, the lion print, and a broken tree

We stayed out until late that night. We made a decision to come back in the morning and check out what we had found in the light of day.

After our daylight investigation, we verified what we had seen the night before. We could not find any current signs of the creature and made plans to come back in the near future. We had to start back towards California to prepare for the upcoming Board meeting.

Some of the new equipment we tested and some friends, L-R; Jonny Johnson, Leonard Dan, David Ortiz, and Jimmy Lee

At 21:00 on Saturday, 02/02/08, we hit the road heading home. We arrived in California on Sunday, 02/03/08 around 9:30 in the morning. Once here, we settled in to clean and pack the equipment, update the website, and prepare what was needed for the Board Meeting.

Posted by JavaBob

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