Bigfoot at Hosak's Cave | Salt Fork | Ohio

0:00 Welcome to Big for Society. If you have BIGFOD activity to report from the same areas discussed in this episode, please reach out to me directly after this episode. And if you'd like to be on the podcast to discuss a personal Bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Do you wish there was more Big for Society to listen to you every week? Well there is now. If you become a supporting member over at Patreon, you get a special members only episode every single week on Wednesdays, and sometimes even more episodes. Head on over to patreon dot com. Forward slash the Big for Society and now let's get on with the show. All right, Bigfoot Society, You've got the privilege of talking to Wes today. Wes is a listener that reached out to me about an incident that happened out there in the great state of Ohio. He reached out early December, so glad to talk to him about what's going on. But welcome to the show today, Wes.

0:57 Thanks thanks for having me on. Absolutely you know, as we were talking about just a few minutes ago, is there anything else that you would like to provide about yourself that listeners might need to know for context before we get into it about myself. I grew up in town not far from Saltfork State Park. I had my upbringing. I spent a lot of time outdoors. We didn't have cable. It was a spring of probably nineteen ninety four or nineteen ninety five, and the snow was melting. It was a sunny day, and in towns around there, there isn't really anything to do for the most part. So I decided to go hop in my car, go for a little drive. And I had never seen I had been to Saltfork State Park and seen the Hosac's Cave in the summertime, which is beautiful, but there's no there's a waterfall that goes over it, and I've only seen it either dried up or during you know, with just a little t So I figured, hey, I'll go out there and we'll see if you know, it's actually from the parking lot, it's a it's an easy short hike and we'll see if I'll see if I can see the falls. And so popped the car, headed out there, got into the parking lot and was like, oh, nobody else here, awesome. Nobody else wants to see this, I guess, and got out started walking towards the falls

2:27 and or towards the cave, and I get maybe thirty feet in and I get hitting the back with a little piece of gravel a stone, and I'm like looking around, I'm like, well, there was nobody in the parking lot, so there must be somebody up here who was hiking from somewhere else and is just messing with me. So I go another fifty feet and I get hit hit again, and it didn't hurt. It wasn't anything, you know, they weren't thrown it hard. And I'm like okay, So I kind of crawl up a little bank and look around see who's messing with me, and there's there's there's nobody there, all right, Well that's weird. And I just keep on walking and I get to I'm getting probably halfway there, and I go up around a bend and I get hit with a rock about the size of a baseball in my like near my ankle, and it came from close enough that I can tell exactly where it came from.

3:30 So I turned around and was like, hey, that hurt, And I'm kind of peering around, and I see a pair of eyes and I'm like, hey, that hurt. And they just stare at me, and I'm just kind of glaring at them. And then I'm like, something's off here, What's what is what's going on here? And I could tell I was close enough. I was probably five six, no more than ten feet away from them, and I could see that the whites of their eyes, uh for us, was not white, it was it was black. And I just kind of throw my brow I'm like, what what thee? Then I kind of figured out, you know, I started looking at the at the skin, so the face was mainly mainly covered. I could see from about the middle of the middle of the nose up and it looked like they had a like a gilly suit on their head, so a bunch of long grass and whatnot. And I'm like looking and I'm like and then I look under the eyes and there's I mean, I looked long enough that I could see kind of like cheek pads like you would see on a on a male ringutang, or at least that's what I perceived at the time, and and I'm like, what the heck? And then I glanced you know, I'm like thinking about this, and I'm like, well, that's not a person. And I turn and I get

5:04 I get the heck out of there, and I get back to the parking lot and there's still no cars. Then I take off go back home and tell my brother and my friend who's there, and they're like, okay, truth, okay, okay, Wes. And nobody believed me, of course, so I you know, I just kind of put it at the back of my mind. It's like, Okay, well that was weird. And like I said, I grew up with no cable, no internet, wasn't really a thing quite yet. Then and a couple of years down the road, I'm watching a watching a show on I think Discovery Channel or something about about Bigfoot and and somebody comes on and he's like, yeah, so for Kozak's Cave the Ohio grass Man. I'm like what, And so I'm like, no, way that I actually did.

5:59 I actual I saw that. I did not know that other people had seen that, and and so I'm pretty sure I saw the Ohio grass Man. And you know, when it's when I thought about it a little bit more, it's like, why would why would why would it be throwing rocks at me. Right, So I'm walking towards the water source right in the springtime as the snow's melting and whatnot. And all I could figure was maybe I was walking towards the water source and maybe its family was there drinking, or maybe it was territorial of the water source perhaps, And you know, I was, I was close enough to it that if it wanted to hurt me, it could have hurt me. You know. When I was kind of looking looking at in the eyes, I'm like kind of glance at the falls and then glanced back at it, and I'm like, oh, and he you know, it didn't look angry. It didn't have a you know, a furl and brow. It was just like okay, he gets it. And it kind of turned and ducked behind the the bank. And like I say, I turned and got down of there, but didn't feel, you know, like it was evil or a monster or not to get me or anything like that.

7:23 That's extremely interesting, Wess. And you said this was in the Hosacs Cave area. Yeah, yeah, Okay. Have you ever done any research to see about the other incidents that have happened in Salt Fork State? Park over the years, not really dig digging too too deeply. I know that there's been other other sightings in the park nearby, and that makes sense. It's a pretty it's a pretty rural area. And I mean there's there's houses and whatnot out there, but I mean it's a protected area. It's a state park, so there's not a lot of there's no industry houses, there are no housing developments. It's it's pretty rural. Absolutely makes I mean in the in hindsight, it makes makes sense. If I was a creature, that's where I probably want to be. Oh.

8:15 Absolutely, it is a it's a large piece of land for that part of the country. You know, it's no Pacific Northwest, as we kind of alluded to beforehand, but for that area, it's a big piece of area for state park for sure. A few questions that I wanted to ask you about this. When you were hit with the rock the size of a baseball, which is is pretty I mean that's a good sized rock. Did that cause any any damage to your ankle or it. Hit me above the ankle like lower lower calf. I did have an abrasion, but nothing, you know, if I was close enough that if it wanted to hit me in the head and eat me. It could have so, but yeah, I had some scrapes on my on my lower leg, but nothing nothing, you know, I don't even think I had a bruise. But you said this was a it's been thirty years.

9:13 It's so's thirty years. That's a while to remember back. But it feels like a way you tell it that it's pretty fresh in your mind. Still. You said it was about ten feet away from you when you first saw it. Yeah, yeap. And like I said, it had like a grass I mean, I don't want to say a grass hat on, but it had like like a Gillie suit like it. It looked like it it was trying to conceal itself. And it had straw over its head and long grass over its head. And like I say, I didn't. I didn't realize there was even an Ohio grassman until a couple of years later, and I'm like, you got to be kidding me.

10:00 Was so let's see, was it sitting down on its haunches or was it standing or how how was it when you first saw it? So? So, it was behind an embankment and there was a tree a down tree that was on top of the embankment, so it was peering over that, and I couldn't see. All I could see was from the basically from the bridge of the nose to you know, just above the eyes. Everything else was either behind the tree or covered in grass. Were you able to see a shape to the head at all since you could see that top part of the head. No, not not really. I mean it looked like a big pile of you know, a big pile of leaves.

10:45 So but I did not get like a sense of like you're thinking of like the cone head type of a thing. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't necessarily get that that sense, gotcha. Were you able to see any ears at all? Nope, from what you could see, and you know, it's interesting because not seeing all the head, But were you able to get any idea of how whyde across the head was or how big you know, this head was that you were seeing. Yeah, I didn't get a sense that it was that it was at least the eyes and the head didn't seem like it was any bigger than a human's because the first second or two I was telling it, hey that hurt, it didn't even register that it wasn't a person, you know, wasn't a human. So but yeah, it didn't seem huge, didn't seem angry, thank goodness.

11:50 Right, No, exactly when you said, hey, that hurt, did it? Did it seem to react to when you were yelling at it in any way? Nope, just just kind of a dead stare. Yeah. Like I said, I didn't feel like it was glaring at me or anything. It just was like looking at me. And once I figured out what I was kind of looking at and had a oh crap look on my face, then it just kind of turned turned and kducked back behind, you know, behind the bank and the log. Absolutely, it sounds like or I guess I'll ask you in this way the hair on top of the head, was it more coming down over the face or was it kind of growing in a way that it was going back forehead and then up towards the top of the bed.

12:43 Yeah. I couldn't see much. So if you think of like somebody having a ski mask on, I couldn't. I couldn't see pretty much anything except for, like I say, the bridge of the nose to about the brow and then the rest. I didn't see necessarily hair. I saw only only the long grass. Okay, gotcha. Could you see any could you see any of the skin like a skin. Color of the face. Yeah, it was a brown brown, like I say, the cheek it looked like it had cheek pads, which could be it could be just baggy, you know what a baggy weathered skin. The black gilera.

13:23 I think it's called the white of our eyes and the eyes the color of our eyes it was for it's it was kind of like a golden brown, golden golden yellow. Interesting, So you could see kind of the color of the skin. Could you get a feel as to if it was smooth skin or were was it weathered anything like that? Yeah, it was weathered. It was. It was more of a leathery, leathery, kind of a thick look to it. Interesting. The four Could you see anything regarding the forehead, if it was a larger forehead or maybe even if there was like a brow ridge above the eyes? Anything?

14:16 I thought, No, not that I can not that I remember. I just remember seeing the eyes and like I say, that long, long, dry grass. What were the sounds in the forest like that day when you were walking up to that area and then started to get stones thrown at you. Yeah, I you know, I don't remember nothing, nothing outside of ordinary for that time of year. So probably probably some bird shirpping, but nothing that. Like I said, growing up with no cable, spent lots of time in the woods, and nothing that popped out at me is Oh that's weird except for the obvious.

14:58 Right, Yeah, except for the big Foot ten feet away. Kind of a kind of a day changer for sure. Man, I'd be thinking about that every day. Were there. I have, I have been absolutely. I don't blame you. I do not blame you big for society who will be right back after these messages. Were there any sounds from the Bigfoot itself or any communication of any ways.

15:43 Nope. Besides eye contact, No. At any point in the interaction, did you start to feel different emotionally or physically besides getting hit with a rock. No. When I when I think back, I think, I mean in my memory, I processed, Okay, I'm walking towards the water source. Oh, he must have family, she, it must have other ones down there, so it's protecting the water source. Kind of popped into my head. I can't. I wouldn't say that it projected a you know, a psychic image of that or message of that to me, like some accounts, if it did, it was subtle enough for me to think it was me figuring it out.

16:33 Sure, And I mean the thing is is that you know, you only saw the top of its head. You don't know what was going on behind that area you couldn't see, or maybe there was a little one on its back, like you have no idea what you may have potentially been walking into. Really yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I know where I was on the trail. If I'd have gone further, there's like a if I'd have gone further up the trail another fifteen twenty feet, I would have been able to see the falls or see the cave, assuming there were falls, And so it makes sense that it would, you know, choose a bigger rock when I got around that area, if that's what it was, you know, trying to do.

17:20 Absolutely, have you ever been back to that park since this happened? Not that I not, that I recall. I wouldn't be. No, I couldn't have, because if I was, I'd be looking at everything. I would be looking at everything differently. So I'm pretty sure I have I know, for a fact I haven't been out there since then. Absolutely. That was kind of a leads into a question I was going to ask you next, is how has this affected you being in the woods since that day in the early nineties.

18:02 Yeah, well, not a whole you know. I just like I was just saying, if I was out there again, I'd be looking at things differently, looking at things close, more closely. And I do that whenever I I mean, I live outside of you know, I live in the suburbs now, so not many opportunities to get out into nature. But when I do, I'm just looking at things and it's like, is that a stump? Is that a bush? What am I looking at here? So I guess in a way it makes me appreciate it more, appreciate nature more because I'm looking at things a little bit, a little bit differently, or a little bit more, but not not creeped out to go through the woods or anything like that.

18:44 Sure, asking this because I did not get it in my notes. But remind me again, what color of the hair was on what you saw? I didn't see any hair, it was all it was. All all I could see was was grass. Oh sure, sure, yeah, right, Okay, Okay, Well, I guess I can ask it this way. Was it a. Grass that looked like it was more dead grass or live green? M It looked like it was a dead grass, so it was. It was light, like a light brown, like dry long grass. So I mean, I suppose if it had if it had blondish hair, it would have blended in.

19:30 But all I recall seeing was the kind of the grass and sticks and stuff. Trusting after this happened, how long was it before you had any conversations regarding what you saw? Oh, within half an hour. I high tailed at home and told my brother and my best friend, who were were teenagers at the time, and you know, they were like, okay, okay, sure, so, which is typical. Typical when you tell a story like that, it's like, okay, buddy.

20:11 Unfortunately it is it is par for the course usually with these accounts. Was there anyone that believed you when you would tell what happened to you that day? Only more recently I had I told, I told somebody and they were like, oh, when I was in the Pacific Northwest, we were we were hiking from somewhere to the to the ocean and to the shore, and something big was following us. A couple of things that were big were following us, and the trail guide said, just keep on going. You're you're You're fine, They're fine, Just keep on keep on waking walking. Wow.

20:53 After someone experiences something like this where you know, you actually had a class a visual sighting, sometimes it will affect them in their lives afterwards, or strange things will happen. Is that the case with yourself? Has anything out of the ordinary happened to you in the years since you had this sighting? Wow, it's hard to It would be hard to parse out nothing that I would that I could go back and attribute to that experience. What are the main things that you think about regarding that day when you think about it? Are there any regrets you have? Things that you wish you had done differently that day?

21:44 Oh? Well sure, I mean in hindsight, right, it's like I wish i'da would have engaged engaged it, you know, if if it wasn't, like I said, I didn't get to necessarily the vibe that I was in, you know, peril or danger. I would like to think that if I, if I, if I was to go back there and have the same experience today, I would try to make, you know, communicate with it, or make contact with it, or just kind of get a better you know, get a better get a better look at it without without it, you know, becoming hopefully becoming aggressive or or anything of that sort. But you know, I wouldn't have changed that I went out there that day. I'm glad that I did.

22:34 It gives me a wider perspective on the world in general, the natural world, and also in how skeptical people can be when they don't when they haven't seen it, when they haven't seen something, how flippant they can be just like mm hmm, okay exactly. It's unfortunately a thing where even what I've found from just going out a little bit, you have to be careful who you tell what happened to because people will view you differently afterwards. It's important to try to find the right type of person that will be receptive to what you experience. I don't know, that's something I'm still working through myself, and I haven't I haven't even had a visual sighting like yourself. It was just a weird thing we heard, you know, down in the Class B section.

23:36 But I was very strange. Nonetheless, thinking back to what you had seen and experience that day, did you get any feelings or from what you experience that whatever was out there ten feet away was something more of a huge human type creature or an ape or maybe something completely different. Yeah, I mean I could, I could. I could see it being a you know, a rangutang. Is the is the first thing that kind of came to mind when I saw kind of the skin under its eyes and the you know it to me, I mean. But however, on the same note, when I was kind of glaring at it, I couldn't you know, I had to stop and kind of parse out what was what is off here, so I could see it being some something in between.

24:37 I could see it being a full on, you know, a rangutang type of a species that said has you know that has. I don't know if it would be even extra intelligent, because orangutans are pretty smart as as it is. Well, there's no there's no fossil records of as far as I know, frimemates and whatnot in in that area, even from from ancient not ancient times, but you know, way back. But so my, you know, it's hard to say It's hard to say, but I would say definitely not a human pretending or anything like that.

25:19 It seemed more physically, it looked more like it was a primate it like. But but the eye contact communication seemed like, Okay, we have an understanding or hey, you know, I get I get it. No, that probably doesn't help at all. It's kind of a. I think it does help in a way that I think any you know, any talking about about what happened definitely helps, and it's in its unique way. But do you ever you know, I'm trying to put myself in that situation, and I'm almost thinking I wonder if I would have a regret that I didn't follow it over that hill to see what was over there. I don't think I probably would have done it, though, I mean to be honest, I probably would have been freaked out and just gotten out of there.

26:26 Oh yeah, I mean fighter fight or flight kicks in, and you know, it's like scoot, I don't even remember half the drive home. It's like, oh, lost in my head and trying to process right. But yeah, in hindsight, it's like I wish, I wish I if I had the same opportunity again, I would I would try to to not necessarily walk over that ridge, but maybe walk towards it, or kind of keep eye contact and and and walk towards it a little bit non threatened. But you know, who knows in the moment what anybody does.

27:06 And that's the trick. You know. It's easy for I think sometimes when you listen to people giving accounts and you can be like, oh, I would have easily done this, or you know, but when you get in that situation, it's a whole whole different ballgame. That's why I'm learning myself as I start to go out. But have you, you know, being in that area, have you ever heard any other accounts of people seeing similar things? Not I guess not so much in the Salt Fork area, but maybe in the region around this part of Ohio.

27:46 Oh yeah, yeah, there's let's see north of there. My parents are both from Tuscross County, which is which is a county or two, I think one county up from Salt Fork north and there's there's legends, and there's every every so often there's sightings in the newspaper and whatnot. But and that's the the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. I mean, that's that's where they they are just rolling hills and it's still pretty lush, but a lot of it is farmland. But the wherever there is you know, wooded areas, it's pretty pretty thick. And I've I've had I've had another. When I was younger, I had had an another experience which with a big foot, I think, so, which is probably sounds I mean, it all sounds unbelievable. Right.

28:47 I was in I was probably eleven or twelve, and I was out of my my uncle's place, which is Sugar Creek, Ohio, and we would spend all summer there and I'm there was a wooded area behind his behind his house that was on a on a bank, it was a hill, and we used to go back there and swing on on on vines and stupid stuff. And I was, you know, it was had it was summertime, and I'm kind of going going through, going through the woods, and I hear something hitting a tree with a log Bank Bank Bank. I'm like, oh, that wasn't very far away.

29:33 So I pick up a branch and bank Bank Bank and just kind of look around and listen, and it happened again. Bank Bank bank, and I, you know, I replied, and I'm looking up the up the hill and this is probably thirty feet away, but was something that looks like a small gorilla out from from the side of the of a tree. And all I could see was silhouette, but it did have a like a cone head, and I'm just staring at it, of course, right, and it popped back behind the tree and I got the heck out of there, And of course I told my uncle and he's like, okay, you know, but that one did not appear to be you know, I didn't get the idea.

30:26 It wasn't huge. It had to have been a juvenile. But and same deal with like, not until years later watching some bigfoot show did somebody describe what peekers or or where they peek out from behind a tree? And I had never heard any other reports of that, so I that's the same deal. As soon as I saw that, it's like, you got to be kidding me. I thought, I thought that was just just because you know, you think about these and it's like, was I dreaming? What did I really see that? And to go to go you know, years did the future and and then see a show where others are reporting the same thing that you saw in the same way that you saw it.

31:16 It's like, oh, I'm not alone. Awesome, I mean, other others have. That wasn't a dream. Somebody somebody else saw the same thing that I saw. So it's it's weird that there's a there's a video that's out there now that's somebody out out in the woods and they're in like a pine pine tree kind of area and the end they look, you know, they look off to the to the right, and about thirty feet away there's a you know, a figure, a silhouette that pokes out behind the tree, looks like it should be wider than the tree, and then poke, you know, he walks, takes a step towards and it pops back behind the tree. And that's exactly what I saw, but smaller.

32:09 That's interesting that that county you're referring to. Looking at it on a map, it looks like it's just maybe a bit west of Minerva is to the east of it, which is, you know, you're probably aware, is a definite you know, hotspot area for Bigfoot. So you know, looking at sighting reports for this county, I see, you know, there are multiple people that are having sightings going you know, from two thousand and eight all the way back to nineteen eighty three. So I don't think it's it's out of the question at all that that people are having, you know, sightings in this this area just looktually just north of Salt Fork, a few towns north probably, but.

33:00 Yeah, probably probably an half an hour half an hour north. Extremely interesting, extremely interesting, Wes, I just want to say thank you for taking some time out of your day to share what you experienced those two times growing up and is fascinating. Always interesting when you hear more things coming out of Salt Fork. So much activity over the years, listeners, if you've had something happen in that area as well, please feel free to reach out. You can contact me at Big for Society at gmail dot com. Is the best way. I try to read every comment, but it's getting to the point where there's a lot of them, so please email me directly. But Wes, I just want to say thank you for coming on the show and sharing what you experienced that day.

33:48 My pleasure. It's nice to have somebody to talk to you about it and keep doing what you're doing. I enjoy listening thank you. I just wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you to you all my listeners for listening to the podcast. Please take a minute to help out the show by subscribing on YouTube, making sure you hit the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and share the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if you're listening to us on a podcast, thank you so much, make sure that you're subscribed share the show with a friend. Really, it's all about sharing the show wherever you can. If you've had a Bigfoot encounter related to the following or know someone who has, please reach out to me at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com or pass on my email.

34:39 Here's the list. Number one encounters from Franklin County, Texas. Number two encounters from the entire state of Iowa. Number three encounters from Oakridge, Oregon or the surrounding area. Number four, any individuals that know about Bigfoot being flown off after the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Number five. Individuals that have had a big foot encounter well in the military. Number six. Those that have had a Bigfoot encounter in the southern New Hampshire or north central Massachusetts area, including Franklin County, Massachusetts. Number seven individuals that have had a bigfoot encounter in a Bible camp or boy Scout camp setting. Number eight individuals that have had bigfoot try to enter their house forcibly while they were living inside. Number nine individuals that have actively have a bigfoot living on their property. And lastly, any sightings that are in the Watchitaw National Forest Area of Oklahoma or Arkansas. A special thank you to all the Bigfoot Society Patreon and YouTube channel members. It's your support that helps keep the show going and I extremely appreciate it. I'll see you back next time. Listeners. Sasat Summerfest this year July eleventh through the twelfth. It's going to be fantastic. July eleventh through twelfth in Greenwaters Park and Oakridge, ore again and listeners, if you're to go, you can get a two day ticket for the cost of one if you use the code b F s like Bigfoot Society, but BFS it'll get you some off

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