Searching For Bigfoot: Winter 2006 Bigfoot Expedition Diary

Bigfoot In Elmira, New York

February 2006

One of our first stops on our 2006 winter expedition was in the town of Elmira New York. It seemed odd to us to begin a search for Bigfoot in New York. However, we had received information from Tim Holmes, an Elmira New York resident who also founded and runs the Southern Tier Bigfoot Watch, which can be found at http://www.elmirabigfootwatch.com. Tim shared reports with us about a large apelike creature seen at a place referred to as Connecticut Hill.

Elmira is a smallish town nestled in the Chemung Valley, dominated by the Chemung River. The original town settled in Chemung County was the town of Chemung, formed in 1788. Soon after, the settlement of Newtown was established at the junction of Newtown Creek and the Chemung River. By 1792 the town now known as Elmira was split off as the town of Newtown. Three adjacent settlements, Newtown, Wisnerburg, and DeWittsburg?Create joined at that time to form the Village of Newtown. In 1828 the village of Newtown changed its name to Elmira and was incorporated in 1864. As of today, some of Elmira’s more famous residents were; Eileen Collins, Ernie Davis, Crystal Eastman, Tommy Hilfinger, John W. Jones, Hal Roach, Joey Sindelar, Mark Twain, and Brian Williams.

The population of the local area is about 31 thousand and the area has an average population density of 4,230 per square mile. However, there are some large areas of forested land along the rivers and creeks throughout the area. One of these remote areas is called Connecticut Hill. This is where our investigations centered.

Tim shared his experiences of strange sounds and sightings while visiting Connecticut Hill. He seemed very sincere and was truly quite nervous about being on the hill by himself. Tim was not willing to go up the hill alone after dark. Our team felt his demeanor was real enough to suggest that there was indeed something unusual going on at Connecticut Hill. We decided that it was worth checking into.

We began by taking a preliminary look at the area. We convinced Tim to lead us up to the area that evening. Tim McMillen , Pat Heaton, and myself (JavaBob ), climbed into Tim’s Ford Explorer and started up the road towards Connecticut Hill. We went as far back into the hill as we could before the roads became too frozen to continue. We continued on a little further on foot to survey the area. Although the area we were in seemed very remote, it was in fact, surrounded by homes and in our opinion, too small to support a large omnivore. Because Tim was so adamant about his stories we made the decision to come back in the morning a take a closer look anyway.

That evening, while we were gone with Tim, Tom Biscardi and Lee Hickman took the time to ask other people in the area about their experiences up on Connecticut Hill. They had the opportunity to meet and interview Dave and Becky Rose of nearby Horsehead, N.Y. Dave and Becky shared their experiences while camping up on the Hill. They talked about strange sounds and things rushing by in the woods close to where they were camping. They felt as though they were being watched and were very uneasy while on the Hill. This was very similar to the stories that were related to us by Tim Holmes, so we made the decision to go back the next day and do some additional investigation.

The following afternoon, the entire team plus Tim Holmes and David Rose took off to investigate the area. We split into smaller groups once we were on the Hill. The trackers, Pat Heaton and Lee Hickman took out on their own to search the area for available food supplies, signs of other animals, and suitable habitat for large omnivores. Tom Biscardi, David Rose, Tim Holmes, and JavaBob Schmalzbach stayed behind and observed.

In this photo, from left to right, are JavaBob , Tom Biscardi of Searching for Bigfoot Inc., Tim Holmes and David Rose of the Elmira Bigfoot Society, and Tim McMillen of SfBI?Create. We just came back from being in the brush for three hours. Near this bridge, the day before, the Mr. Holmes’ truck got stuck because of the ice. This is area of the search is called “Connecticut hill”.

After several hours on the Hill, we decided to go back to town and review our findings. Both trackers, (Lee and Pat), agreed that there were no signs of large animals on the hill and probably not enough food supply to support them. However, Pat did find a lot of signs of human activity. Some of which could explain the strange lights, sounds, and activity being reported. Pat photographed some fire pits that had been covered up by flat stones. This is a signature of a satanic ritual type fire. A fire where animals are sacrificed to Satan and then the pit is sealed with flat rocks to seal the sacrifice to Satan. Upon closer examination he found the burnt remains of domestic animals in those pits.

We all agreed that even though the local people were very open and honest with us, that there was sufficient reason to believe the activity reported was not caused by an unknown creature, but by human activity and that it was unlikely that there are any large creatures in the area. We decided to move on to the next site identified on our expedition.

See more photos from Elmira New York 2006 .

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