Searching For Bigfoot: Winter 2006 Bigfoot Expedition Diary

Bigfoot In Portmouth, Ohio

February 2006

On this leg of our expedition, we went off to meet with Dallas Gilbert, an interesting and high-energy character from Portsmouth Ohio. Along with his friend Wayne Burton, who seemed to come straight out of the novel “Of Mice and Men”. Dallas had written us of his many encounters with the creature and sent numerous pictures he has taken over the years. Most of the pictures he sent were not very distinct but did show possible images of faces and bodies mixed in shadow and light, but none that could be easily verified as an actual creature. After meeting our hosts, I, personally, was a little skeptical but because of Dallas’s strong beliefs and insistence, and the general location just outside of the 60,000-acre Shawnee State Forest, the team decided to take a closer look.

This is a copy of the photo that Dallas Gilbert sent us. Although it is not very distinct and could leave a lot of questions, we thought it needed to be investigated. Several other people had dismissed it as a fake, but we needed to see for ourselves before making a final decision.

The Shawnee State Forest, once a hunting area for the Shawnee Indians, came into existence in 1922 and during that same year, land acquisition was begun for the Theodore Roosevelt Game Preserve. Shawnee State Forest, also called "The Little Smokies of Ohio," has developed into the largest of the 20 state forests, with over 60,000 acres. Nearly 8,000 acres of the forest have been designated as wilderness and are not accessible by motorized vehicles. This allows the area to remain relatively natural and undisturbed. A prime habitat for our elusive friend, “America’s King Kong”!

The first night we arrived, Dallas met us at our hotel and agreed to take the trackers out to survey the area he had found to be most productive. Once there, Dallas began to make some very interesting “calls” to help him “attract” the creature. Most of the team was a little taken back by his efforts, but we tried to keep an open mind. The trackers, Lee Hickman, Pat Heaton, and Tim McMillen agreed that the area could support large omnivores and therefore could be a reasonable habitat for our elusive subject. We decided to continue with our investigation. Meanwhile, Tom Biscardi and I (JavaBob ) began contacting the local media to see if they would want to come out with us and see what we find, as we find it. One of the people who wanted to see what was going on out there was Jay, a local moviemaker. So, the next evening, we made plans to go again with Dallas, Dallas’s son, Wayne, the team, and Jay and his crew. We went to an area we had scoped out the night before and set us some trip cameras. We brought along a bionic ear, capable of hearing a whisper from 300 yards away, a thermal imager that can find any warm blooded creature in total darkness, night vision equipment, cameras, a “boom box” with a CD of what is commonly believed to be a creature’s call, and other miscellaneous equipment.

While the trackers set out to surround the area we chose, the rest of us set up camp and built a fire to protect us from the 6 degree cold! While we were still setting up, the trackers used some animal distress calls to see if they could attract some attention from any predators in the area. They used rabbet distress calls and squirrel distress calls and got replies from coyotes, owls, and other common predators. Then Tom played his CD of the creature call. This CD is “looped” so that it replays about ten times. Tom let it play about three times when he stopped it. To our amazement, something answered with a similar call immediately! The entire camp came alive with excitement and fear! It was all the team could do to quite everyone down. Jay and his cameraman came running back towards the fire yelling “Did you hear that…. Did you hear the monkey sound..!!??!!” Dallas’s son came running back screaming, “… Something is chasing me.. it threw rocks at me… something big and hairy!!!!”

These pictures show the area where we did the vocalizations. The picture on the left is the area in daylight from our preliminary investigation. The picture on right is the area at night, just prior to playing the vocalizations.

It was then, that I realized my skepticism may have been misplaced! After the camp calmed down and we were able to get everyone settled again, the forest became un-nervily quite. We continued our calls and searches for several hours, but never again got a reply. We decided to call it a night and plan our next attempt.

We extended our stay in Ohio for a couple more days to see if we could capitalize on our ability to call in the creature. We had to find another place to stay. We contacted the good people at Shawnee Resort & Conference Center, located deep in the Shawnee Forest and made arrangements for a two-night stay. The Center is nestled in the hills and hollows of the 60,000 plus-acre Shawnee forest. The Center offers a range of vacation attractions and amenities from golfing along the banks of the Ohio River to taking a dip in the indoor or outdoor pool. There are 65 miles of adjacent hiking trails, ideal for avid hikers or photographers looking to capture wildlife and wildflowers on film. Shawnee Resort & Conference Center features a cedar and flagstone lodge with 50 rooms, 25 two-bedroom cottages, the O-Hee-Yuh Restaurant cocktail lounge and gift shop. For group gatherings, it features fully equipped meeting rooms that accommodate up to 450, professional on-site meeting planners and a full variety of planned or customized packages. The Center is open year-round and our stay there was clearly one of the highlights of our expedition.

From this beautiful location, we were able to continue our search for “America’s King Kong”. We made arrangements to return to our “hot spot” and try again to call in our subject. We tried again for several hours each night, but we were unable to repeat our initial results. We decided that due to the commotion and noise our guests made during our first response that the creature, being extremely intelligent, was able to associate our calls with people and was too wise to repeat his response. Reluctantly, we had to move on to our next location on our scheduled expedition. We will consider coming back to this location at a later date to do a more thorough investigation. In the mean time, we are due in Illinois, so we packed up and headed off.

Next stop Searching For Bigfoot In Funk's Grove, Illinois ...

Try other stops along the way: Visit some of the other locations of JavaBob's Winter 2006 Expedition Diary :