Jan. 25, 2025

Garden of the Gods Bigfoot! | Illinois

Join host Jeremiah Byron on Bigfoot Society as we dive into an eerie Bigfoot encounter with Shelly, a hiker and avid traveler, who experienced a series of unsettling events in the Garden of the Gods within Shawnee National Forest, Illinois. Shelly...

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Season 1

Join host Jeremiah Byron on Bigfoot Society as we dive into an eerie Bigfoot encounter with Shelly, a hiker and avid traveler, who experienced a series of unsettling events in the Garden of the Gods within Shawnee National Forest, Illinois. Shelly recounts her camping trip on August 24, 2015, where she was followed by a bipedal creature during a night hike. The silent, yet terrifying, pursuit left a lasting impression on her. She shares her detailed account of the footsteps, broken branches, and strange occurrences that night. Hear how this event has influenced her life and led her to delve deeper into the world of Bigfoot research. Additionally, hear insights from Harold Benny, a zoology expert and Bigfoot enthusiast, who has investigated the Shawnee National Forest area and its mysterious sightings.

Resources:

Harold's article: https://icl.coop/brushes-with-bigfoot/

Harold's other episode: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/what-i-found-after-the-siege-at-honobia--58791196

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WEBVTT

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Welcome to big for Society. If you have bigfod activity

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to report from the same areas discussed in this episode,

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a personal Bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly

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Bigfoot Society and now let's get on with the show.

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All right, Bigfoot Society. We've got the privilege of talking

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to Shelley today. Shelley's an individual that reached out to

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me through my TikTok account for Bigfoot Society with some

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interesting things that she had experienced down there in southern Illinois.

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So Shelley, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

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I'm doing great. How are you?

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I'm doing great too. I'm just having a nice day,

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you know, talking to different people and looking at bigfoot stuff.

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I mean, you can't get any better than that. So

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you have a really interesting thing that you're going to

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share because on the podcast yet, we haven't had a

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lot of people come forward about this particular area. We

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were talking just a few minutes ago that there's a

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lot of things that get reported about this area, but

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on this particular podcast, not a ton yet. So maybe

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that'll change after this. But you know, Shelley, before we

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get started, is there anything that listeners would also need

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to know about you before we get going.

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I'm I'm a hiker.

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I started actually running trails at a very early age,

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about high school.

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I guess I could give you my age gives you

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an idea if I I'm fifty two years old, graduating

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ninety two, so I've been on running and hiking trails

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for quite some time now.

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And just I'm an artist and one avid traveler.

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Fantastic, Shelley. I'm going to go ahead and I'm gonna

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give things over to you. Feel free to take us

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back as far back as we need to go to

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when things first started happening for you. Regarding this subject.

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Well, I had this this this goal.

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All all camping and hiking in the National Forest, I

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was trying to get to a different forest each weekend,

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and the first forest I chose to travel to with

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a friend was the Shawnee National Forest, and I chose

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this particular spot, Garden of the Gods. You know, I

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drove down from from Indiana, northwest Indiana, and we got

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we got our last camping spot. There's only twelve camp

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spots there at Pearl's Camp, which is about a half

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mile from the hiking area of Garden of the Gods.

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The Garden of the Gods takes the lower portion of

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Illinois going into Missouri. It's a pretty large national forest,

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extremely beautiful. Garden of the Gods is an amazing interesting area.

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It used to be the bottom of a lake bed,

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and so the cave system and the bedrock, I mean,

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just think of like the Flintstones if you were to

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go there, all this type of bedrock that you can

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walk out on and hike along. It's just absolutely gorgeous.

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So this is August twenty fourth of twenty fifteen that

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we had traveled down there to camp. We went and

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hiked the Garden of the Gods. You know, it took

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some hours to get through. It's just absolutely beautiful. Watch

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the sunset. Then we walked back to our camp spots,

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had dinner, and as night fell. You know, I'm a

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curiosity adventure type of person, and it was like, well,

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let's go stargates and Guarden of the Gods area. So we,

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you know, we decide to do that, and so we

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walk in it.

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It's dark.

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It's dark, and I'm gonna say that this is probably

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about after ten o'clock when we head down the road

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and back into the hiking area of Garden of the

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Gods from Pharaoh's campground. And so we were, you know,

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on this bedrock stargazing.

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It's just absolutely beautiful. You can see the Milky.

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Way, and we were there for well over an hour.

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Then we decided to walk to the parking lot. So

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we made our way through the forest on the trailmark

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trope and we you know, found ourselves, you know, spit

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out into the parking lot and we're stargazing and we

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I don't know, this kind of crossed the lines, I

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guess on the levels, but we saw some things in

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the sky that had caught our interests pretty quickly, and

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I don't know if I could really even venture into

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that subject, but they were definitively unidentified flying objects. So

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we're we're watching this and for at least forty five

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minutes and my friend turns to me and this is

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pitch black. You know, there's there's there's no street lamps here,

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there's no one around. She turns to me, my friend,

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and says, let's go, like and her voice is kind

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of quivering a bit, and I looked at her and

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I kind of like to push things a little bit,

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and I was like, yeah, you know, let's stay because

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I'm watching basically this in the sky and which would

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be the six aircraft. And we stayed about another fifteen

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twenty minutes before she turned to me again nervously.

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And said, we gotta go. I'm not feeling right.

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And I finally acknowledged that I wasn't feeling right either.

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You know, I get this feeling in the pit of

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your stomach and that something is off. And so we

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proceeded to walk back to the campground.

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Down a road.

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And not too long after we had started on our walk,

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parking lot of Garden of the Gods, It's.

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A beautiful summer night.

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I'm in shorts, it's clear, the forest is dead, silent, silent, now.

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I've camped in Brown County.

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I've done lots of camping Wisconsin. I know what to

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listen for. What I've found silence. As we're walking, I'm

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hearing these steps. I'm hearing footsteps, but it's up up

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in the woods to my right, about fifteen to twenty

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five feet back behind me.

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Staggered. I'm hearing footsteps.

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I'm listening and I'm gauging, and every sense in my

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body is on fire. I'm I'm listening to this and

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once I heard a branch break, like snap, I stopped.

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I'm flashing my light into the woods. I'm yelling out,

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who's there? Who is there? These footsteps had stopped. When

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we had stopped. Oh my gut. Everything I mean is

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saying run, but you you don't run. We started up again,

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walking very quickly, very very quickly, and again I'm hearing

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the footsteps and I'm hearing again a branch break. Stop

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again it stopped. Now what's bothering me here is when

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I stop. Whatever this by Peetle is no doubt because

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I turned to her or I.

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Said, this is Bipedle.

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Now I want you to understand at that time, you're

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just I'm just scared. I'm not thinking about what it

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could be. I understand that it's not a bear. I've

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seen bear on horseback and in the Smoky Mountains.

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This wasn't bear. This wasn't that.

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There's no other animals in the Shawnee Forest. There's very

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rarely a bear there. And but again I'm not.

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All I know is that what I'm hearing is I

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feel like I'm being tracked. I'm being followed.

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And we had made you know, but it followed us

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at least for a good half mile.

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Now.

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I didn't smell anything. I didn't hear any grunts, there

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were no other sounds. But of those footsteps branches breaking.

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As far as I know, if a branch is breaking,

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that's something enough to put weight and snap, and whatever

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it was, there was weight to it for.

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These branches to be snappy.

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And I also need to add that this area, this

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National Forest, is unplunched. These woods and these limestone formations

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that come up out of the ground is not anything

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that you an eye could just walk through.

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This is thick.

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When I was shining my flat flight into those woods,

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all I saw was foliage and just black. Whatever had

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been following us was consciously stopping as I was stopping.

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And what bothered me was.

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I knew that I knew it was there, like I'm

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flashing my light off into the woods.

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Yet it's still picked up after we had stopped. It

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wasn't like I've been challenged by gear on the trail,

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meaning you're.

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Stomping and snorting at me. You know, this is my territory.

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I've seen funcks, I've seen turkey. I've hiked all up

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in the northern part of the dunes of Lake Michigan

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calls bog. I've hiked the Lusure National I was hiking

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the Lusier National Force the next weekend and growled by

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a coy already in the dark. But again, yet, to

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this day, I've never had anything like that ever happen again.

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And I've hiped a lot of miles. I used to

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run eight miles every other day on trails. I've never

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had anything like this ever happen again. It stopped right

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as like right when we got to our campsite, which

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is really the very first campsite to that loop. So

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this half mile walk, we're being followed, kind of stopped

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by the entrance, nothing but woods in front of us.

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All these campsites are on the loops.

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We're all back to back to back on and mind you,

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twelve rustic.

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Everybody's asleep.

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There is twelve forty five at night that this had happened.

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I never felt right at my campsite either. I never

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felt quote unquote like safe, so to speak. She had

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went to bad, I had stayed up. I'm watching everything

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in the sky. I'm starting ezing. I went and changed

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clothes in my car. Car somehow we locked itself, I

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don't know. And this thought kept coming through my head.

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You could disappear and nobody would know. I got into

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that tent so fast. This experience is stuck with me

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for many years. It's been over nine years now, and

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I only with n recent really after some research. And

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of course there's a sasquatch statue outside our campground. So

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I mean this kind of adds like a little bit

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of whoa to it, like a little like a little preemptive.

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I mean, we were taking pictures with say.

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The sasquatch stat you outside Garden of the Gods.

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You know, we act to like where at b and

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she's big for.

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Society will be right back after these messages.

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I mean I had no idea when I selected this area.

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I didn't know what I was getting into. Now we

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went and hiked another section of the Shawnee. I felt fine.

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I didn't feel like I had to really look behind

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my back or anything. But I will tell you that

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in this spot a garden of the gods, which is

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lots of caves. And now I want to mention to

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our phones were acting weird, like my I had a

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brand new Sony Experience phone and it was draining wild

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was off.

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So whatever is is within this area was just intense.

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To see what was happening in the sky and it

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had something like that happened on.

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Ground is mind blowing.

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And it's taken I mean, like I said, almost nine

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years to be able to really be able to say,

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you know, I think this is what this was.

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I'm not want to jump to conclusions. Even then her

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and I were like, what happened? Like, what was that? Well,

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no doubt was by Peedle.

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I had taken anthropology in college and had studied the

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apes at Brookshield Zoo. I'd written a long paper studying

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that the whole troop and the silver Back and everything,

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and I mean, I you know, I just have such

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an interest in that, and when this happened in the forest,

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my brain just immediately went by, petle, there's a predator around.

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There's no sounds coming from the forest, no crickets, no nothing. Sure,

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we could probably go maybe you know, two girls, two women,

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00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:54.039
young women, you know, I think that was probably about

227
00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:59.240
thirty eight thirty nine when this happened, by themselves, probably.

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Being followed by man in the woods.

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And and sure, I mean you think, well, but the

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fluidity that these footsteps were following her and I And

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mind you, I'm like five seven and at that time

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probably like one hundred and fifteen pounds.

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She's like five to four, you know, very petite. We're

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both petite women. I felt frightened that I mean, to

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be followed like that in the woods, footsteps pitch black, stop,

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when you stop, start, when you start. You know, I'm

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the daughter of a combat Vietnam better And one thing

238
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comes to mind is I'm being tracked. And that's what

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00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:47.639
my dad would have told me. That's what my brain went.

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And I was I was on guard. I couldn't turn

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00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:55.879
my back. I kept flashing my light out letting it

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know that I knew it was there.

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It knew. I knew.

244
00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:05.880
It. Whatever it was, was definitely not scared. I've had

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gear run off. I've seen Fox run off with its kid.

246
00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:12.839
I've had a pack of turkey run off from me.

247
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The following weekend, I was looking for wood in the

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00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:19.599
pitch black and then who's your National Forest? I had

249
00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:22.559
a growl? Happened That was no doubt. At Coyote, we

250
00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.359
heard a wild boar outside our campsite, and who's your

251
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national forest? Never I've footsteps bipedal sounds? No, no, never

252
00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:41.759
happened again. And so what happened brought me to share

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my story today and to really come to understand as

254
00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:51.079
to most likely as to what happened to me was

255
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I had joined TikTok recently decided to start exploring, and

256
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it was this podcast that I came across and start

257
00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:09.000
listening to, and it was other podcasts and videos, and

258
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then I started researching, and I thought, you know, I

259
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:16.880
think there's really only one answer here as to what happened.

260
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And I had a friend, a close friend from Being

261
00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:26.319
Blossom that had shared some things with me that were

262
00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:29.079
really intimate, and.

263
00:18:29.079 --> 00:18:34.000
I told her my story. You know, I I think

264
00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:36.079
I actually was followed by a bigfoot.

265
00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:39.799
I actually think this happened in the Shawnee National Forest

266
00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:43.440
this night, and I proceeded to share my story with her,

267
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which my mom and dad had never even heard me

268
00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:52.559
talk about this. I'm very close. Even my husband, I've

269
00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:55.880
never shared it the story with him until recent So

270
00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:58.079
I told my friend that was in game Blossom, and

271
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she called me up immediately and said, I've got something

272
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for you. And I've actually lost friends because of this.

273
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She told me about what had happened to her in

274
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being Bostom, which is southern Indiana, and that's where I'm

275
00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:23.720
at in Lafayette, about an hour and a half from me.

276
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And she was living on a horse farm.

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And she had been out partying one right drinking at

278
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a bar, and came home, you know, three thirty am

279
00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:36.200
and said, you know what, I'm not going to make

280
00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:41.599
it down to this these horses at five am. You know,

281
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I'm just going to go take care of this now.

282
00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:52.160
Her chores. Walk down this trail and what she saw

283
00:19:54.640 --> 00:20:01.480
was the arm, a hairy arm, duck into a tree,

284
00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:06.720
like passing to a tree to hide. And she said, chilly,

285
00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:11.079
I know for a fact I saw a juvenile bigfoot

286
00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:16.880
which explained a lot of things have been happening around

287
00:20:16.920 --> 00:20:22.079
on the horse farm, such as three hundred gallon three

288
00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:28.559
three hundred gallon horse trots were coming up empty with water,

289
00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:35.680
and we know horses don't chalk water. She was hearing

290
00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:39.799
yells and screeches at night. She said that we're odd.

291
00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:43.599
But now that after she had seen what she had seen,

292
00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:47.960
it all made sense to her. She said, very massive horse, well,

293
00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:51.759
big horse farm, and being blossomed. I know a footprint

294
00:20:51.799 --> 00:20:54.720
came out of being blossomed just about five six weeks

295
00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:59.599
ago on axel Tiktoka, a good mudprint. So she shared

296
00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:03.039
that with me, and I shared my story, and I

297
00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:08.960
recently have traveled to two high hot areas a Manito

298
00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:10.920
Springs Pikes Peak area.

299
00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:13.119
I was in Colorado, and.

300
00:21:13.079 --> 00:21:15.920
Then I just spent three four days in Shelter Co

301
00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:21.920
from Bulcamp County in California over Christmas. So it's been

302
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.559
it's been fascinating to be able to talk about my

303
00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:31.119
story within recent for my friend to open up about

304
00:21:31.160 --> 00:21:35.200
her story, and then to travel by accident, mind you,

305
00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:38.359
to these areas that seem to be a big hotbed

306
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:43.000
for Sasquatch. I mean there are stores I mean, you

307
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:47.079
really can't go into a shop without seeing a sasquatch lug.

308
00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:53.240
But there are stories too, And I did talk to

309
00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:55.920
a gentleman who shared a story that had come out.

310
00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:58.599
He had come out of Michigan at Manitoe Springs.

311
00:21:59.039 --> 00:22:02.079
So there are people out there that do you believe

312
00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:05.160
it has become a really big topic. I think with

313
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:11.440
the advent of technology here, we're able to record sounds,

314
00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:15.920
were able to find the DNA. I know, as a

315
00:22:16.039 --> 00:22:21.160
recent if we're all following all the research ourselves at

316
00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:26.039
rang DNA has come out of Vancouver Island. I myself

317
00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:31.359
just visited the Discovery Museum Bigfoot Museum in Santa Cruz, California,

318
00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:36.279
saw quite a few casts. Talked to the owner of

319
00:22:36.279 --> 00:22:40.119
that museum, who's going to be retiring all those Bigfoot

320
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:41.680
casts are being sent up to?

321
00:22:42.359 --> 00:22:46.079
I think it's Washington, so, you.

322
00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:49.480
Know, when we look at things, and I looked at

323
00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:53.799
the area and I thought, after some research and after

324
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:58.279
reading a couple of people that have reported their sightings

325
00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:03.319
or experiences were very similar to mine, And that really

326
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:07.400
then led me to really think also that the you know, I'm.

327
00:23:07.240 --> 00:23:08.599
Not the only one here.

328
00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:11.160
You know, back in the day play about thirty forty

329
00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:14.519
years ago. And we've often heard people talk about this,

330
00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:17.519
to talk talk about this, or talk like this. You know,

331
00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:20.640
they want to take you off in the pant again.

332
00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:22.400
But it happened.

333
00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:26.720
It, No DoD happened that night August twenty fourth, twelve

334
00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:35.039
forty five. Stomach has dropped. I'm even talking about it

335
00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:40.759
right now. I'm nervous and my hair is standing. When

336
00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:43.400
I do hike now I do. I do look back

337
00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:46.160
behind me, probably more so than I did before.

338
00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:49.480
But I've never experienced anything like that.

339
00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:53.200
Again, I did have a weird experience in Humboldt County though,

340
00:23:53.240 --> 00:23:56.480
with there has been a couple of sightings on the mountain.

341
00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:58.240
I was in Shelter Cove, which.

342
00:23:58.039 --> 00:24:03.839
Takes one hour of white knuckle driving off of the

343
00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:06.400
one on one in California to get to Shelter Cove.

344
00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:14.240
Something had knocked over a massive steel double there trash can,

345
00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:18.640
and then I was woke up the night before.

346
00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:23.240
Again by something. It sound like it was angry smashing

347
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:25.119
the can. I don't know.

348
00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:28.039
We were told that there's a bear that comes around,

349
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:30.519
but I also know for a fact that there's a

350
00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:32.799
couple of sightings on the mountain right in front of

351
00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:36.079
our end. I honestly was not even aware of that

352
00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:39.279
until after we left, Like I'm not trying to put

353
00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:43.240
anything into my mind here for things to happen. It

354
00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:45.720
was like, okay, now I'm leaving this area. Now I'm

355
00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:48.960
going to investigate has there been anything? And I was

356
00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:52.680
like whoa as we were heading back down to the coast.

357
00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:58.680
So that that is that's my story that it was

358
00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:04.200
a lot. It was so intense that night it took

359
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:05.880
a long time for me to be able to go

360
00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:15.000
to sleep. Legitly scared, legitly scared. Now did I feel

361
00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:20.119
maybe threatened for my life? No, I you know, if

362
00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:22.519
I maybe if I had heard a growl or something,

363
00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:26.160
then I would have felt maybe like oh my god,

364
00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.039
you know, then I would be sprinting. But with no

365
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:36.480
other sounds, I just wanted to maintain a cool calm,

366
00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:40.319
get back to my campsite as quickly as I can,

367
00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:44.119
as effectively as I can. But I also know that

368
00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:48.039
sometimes when you run for animals, they chase you, So

369
00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:51.519
I was trying to be kind of smart about that too, Like,

370
00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:54.279
obviously something following me in tracking me.

371
00:25:54.359 --> 00:25:56.000
I'm not gonna sprint.

372
00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:01.200
I'm also trying to show not as much fear either

373
00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:04.880
with my actions, like WHOA, what's out there.

374
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:10.759
Kelly, That's that's just incredible. I mean, so I do

375
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:13.480
definitely have a few questions for you, but I just

376
00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:16.400
want to say thank you for sharing what you experienced

377
00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:20.440
on the show today. Definitely, this Garden of the Gods

378
00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:24.000
area in Illinois looks very interesting. So, I mean, the

379
00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:26.759
first the first question I have is why is there

380
00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:31.480
a bigfoot statue in this campground? Randomly? Is there a

381
00:26:31.519 --> 00:26:32.400
story behind it?

382
00:26:32.519 --> 00:26:35.079
Or from what I.

383
00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:39.039
Know now, if you look up Wikipedia, you know Bigfoot.

384
00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:42.839
That picture of that bigfoot, her name is Sassy the

385
00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:44.039
task Watch.

386
00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:47.680
Actually comes up for Wikipedia.

387
00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:48.319
Now.

388
00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:54.160
The people that own some cabins nearby Feerald's campground erected

389
00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:59.200
Sassy the task Watch, and that has become a popular

390
00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.079
spot in it self to visit the statue.

391
00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:07.119
But those people that all in that have not said

392
00:27:07.319 --> 00:27:11.839
exactly why they decided it would be a Sasquatch. I

393
00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:13.000
don't know if it was out of.

394
00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:17.880
Humor or being that they live in that area that

395
00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:22.680
they're aware of things themselves. I have researched that and

396
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:26.480
that's what I've come up with altogether. Than me going

397
00:27:26.839 --> 00:27:32.599
there and asking them personally, why what was it? Why

398
00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:36.200
have you erected this? And because it was a big

399
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.359
deal to even install it. So these people definitely went

400
00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:43.720
out of their way to install the statue and was

401
00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:49.400
looking for one. So that is that is interesting in it.

402
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:53.359
And then after our experience, it just makes you grat

403
00:27:53.400 --> 00:27:56.200
your hand of it and all, okay, ei, there's a

404
00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:01.000
statue outside this campground. I had has happened to me

405
00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:05.000
in not the campground, but I didn't, you know, half

406
00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:05.799
mittle outside of.

407
00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:12.720
The campground, but followed us back to Whoa, Whoa. It

408
00:28:12.839 --> 00:28:15.400
was almost like a little preemptive.

409
00:28:17.160 --> 00:28:22.680
I don't know, I try not to manifest things, but wow,

410
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:27.039
I didn't mean for that to happen. We were being

411
00:28:27.160 --> 00:28:31.720
funny and taking pictures. But and again, you know, this

412
00:28:31.799 --> 00:28:35.680
is twenty fifteen. You know, I have been interested in

413
00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:37.559
Bigfoot since I was a young girl.

414
00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:39.960
I mean I remember being in elementary.

415
00:28:39.400 --> 00:28:43.000
School and getting the book out of the library and

416
00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:48.759
looking at the Peterson photograph, which amazingly recently has been

417
00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:50.920
really digitized beautifully.

418
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:52.319
And if you look at that.

419
00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:55.519
Now, wow, I made it.

420
00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:57.839
As clear as day that she has brasset.

421
00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:02.440
This was a female walking and so you know, all

422
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:06.079
I could think of is such an area with all

423
00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:08.599
these caves. I mean, there was a big cave right

424
00:29:08.680 --> 00:29:14.720
by our campground below us. There's so many, it's a

425
00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:17.599
kind of a noe brainer. It's it's done a lot.

426
00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:25.240
It's thickly forested. Hardly anybody around there's there's there's water

427
00:29:25.960 --> 00:29:28.960
and from our from the from my research too, because

428
00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:32.640
obviously now I've really just become so interested in all

429
00:29:32.680 --> 00:29:36.799
of this, is that they're around in the areas where

430
00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:41.359
there's water, and that's the Pacific Northwest. It's Colorado and

431
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:46.759
Shawnee and that you know, lots of of rivers and

432
00:29:46.759 --> 00:29:51.400
and that going through that forest. And so wherever there's

433
00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:56.640
enough food national forest, obviously there's a food source, there's

434
00:29:56.680 --> 00:30:02.240
a water source. I think it's very realistic, absolutely, and

435
00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:03.599
from what happened.

436
00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:07.359
With me that that area is hot.

437
00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:10.079
And I mean even within the past couple of years,

438
00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:12.559
there's been a report that was very similar to him,

439
00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:16.640
and I have reported mine officially as well.

440
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:21.240
Too big for society will be right back after these messages.

441
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:41.880
I official reported that that that happened and the date time.

442
00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:46.000
That's fantastic. I'm looking at a picture of Sassy right now,

443
00:30:46.039 --> 00:30:48.880
And I have actually seen pictures with this bigfoot a

444
00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:50.920
lot over the years. I just didn't know what it was.

445
00:30:51.640 --> 00:30:53.920
But yeah, I'm definitely going to reach out to the

446
00:30:53.960 --> 00:30:58.119
owners of these cabins in the area, sure, and that

447
00:30:58.200 --> 00:31:01.759
might be an interesting lead that comes from that. But

448
00:31:02.039 --> 00:31:04.200
you know something else I want to ask you, which

449
00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:07.440
you kind of just maybe answered in a ways after

450
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:10.680
this happened, did you kind of start doing your own

451
00:31:10.759 --> 00:31:14.920
research to see if other people had experienced weird things

452
00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:17.880
in this area as well?

453
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:18.319
Well?

454
00:31:18.359 --> 00:31:21.000
At the time, I think I was more interested in

455
00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:23.640
what happened visually with the sky, so I sort of

456
00:31:23.759 --> 00:31:27.000
researched about that, and I think I kind of did,

457
00:31:27.240 --> 00:31:30.279
And it's like it's almost like I put it on

458
00:31:30.359 --> 00:31:33.680
the back burner. Throughout the years, off and on, I've

459
00:31:33.759 --> 00:31:37.119
kind of gotten on YouTube and looked at bigfoot videos

460
00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:41.880
or listened, you know, to the calls and try to

461
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:48.240
be like, correlate my incident with someone else's.

462
00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:48.839
You know.

463
00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:51.519
It's almost like you're you're in a support group and

464
00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:54.720
you're you're all trying to share your stories because they're

465
00:31:54.759 --> 00:32:01.160
so unique and and you know, what happened with you

466
00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:05.279
or you know what just happened with me? And so

467
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:10.000
I have started to research off and on throughout the

468
00:32:10.039 --> 00:32:13.240
past like nine years, but more so within the past

469
00:32:13.319 --> 00:32:19.559
like two months. I finally said, you know what, I'm

470
00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:22.000
old enough now, I'm I'm just going.

471
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:22.880
To tell my story.

472
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:27.400
I have nothing to lose. I think it's important. I'm

473
00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:30.640
a stats person. I actually studied stats in college. I

474
00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:36.400
think numbers are important. I think that with the coming

475
00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:40.200
out and sharing what had happened helps to place my

476
00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:44.839
incident and maybe others will come forward with their incidents

477
00:32:44.839 --> 00:32:48.200
as well. And then with that data, we can't start

478
00:32:48.279 --> 00:32:52.559
to make concrete decisions as to how hot or not

479
00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:55.279
that area would be. This is a one off or

480
00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:59.440
is this not? And I am interested in those numbers

481
00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:01.839
and those areas. And like I said, I was just

482
00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:04.119
up in Plumbolt County. I went all the way up

483
00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:09.240
into Eureka, California, up by will Lake, and that is

484
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:14.480
all just you know, people have come forward with their incidents.

485
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:16.799
It's marked, it's registered.

486
00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:19.400
We can look back and go, oh, yes, and let's

487
00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:23.480
add in this incident. And I think the more we

488
00:33:23.839 --> 00:33:29.680
everyone comes out with what their stories, more brave we are.

489
00:33:30.279 --> 00:33:34.319
We can really get to the bottom of this. I

490
00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:40.160
personally do anything to happen to any of these animals.

491
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:46.039
I think they're hidden for a reason. But God, the

492
00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:49.079
evidence it's out there. I mean, it's got more than

493
00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:52.759
two thousand sightings. I'm not the only one.

494
00:33:52.839 --> 00:33:56.160
It's it's intense the amount of sightings that are coming out,

495
00:33:56.319 --> 00:34:00.960
especially in previous years. Have you ever big Foot Mapping

496
00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:01.720
project before?

497
00:34:04.160 --> 00:34:07.240
I have looked at their stuff, Yes, absolutely, and I

498
00:34:07.240 --> 00:34:09.920
think actually followed them on TikTok that's awesome.

499
00:34:11.159 --> 00:34:15.800
Yeah, there is a really interesting report on it that

500
00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:21.000
was from September twenty sixteen, also in the Garden of

501
00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:21.599
the Gods.

502
00:34:22.039 --> 00:34:23.760
I think I saw that repe you saw.

503
00:34:23.559 --> 00:34:26.360
That one where they were trying to they were camping

504
00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:30.599
on a bluff overhang and then they heard whoops and

505
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:34.760
chatter and they also found footprints as well.

506
00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:38.400
Nope, I do now know that report.

507
00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:41.320
You should really check that out. It is intense. And

508
00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:46.679
then there's also a few BFRORO reports from the Shawnee

509
00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:51.400
National Forest as well. There are things such as potential

510
00:34:51.559 --> 00:34:55.119
sightings with a thermal imager where it's kind of doing

511
00:34:55.159 --> 00:34:59.559
a peekaboo back and forth behind a tree. There's also

512
00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:03.679
a another one where says there was a nighttime sighting

513
00:35:03.880 --> 00:35:07.760
by two witnesses and these are to do I believe

514
00:35:07.800 --> 00:35:11.280
they're there to do with the BFROO people on BFRO

515
00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:16.679
expeditions as well. But I mean that alone tells me that, yeah,

516
00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:19.480
that's a great hunch that you have that you're not

517
00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:22.519
the only one that's been having issues in this area.

518
00:35:24.559 --> 00:35:29.400
No, And I mean again, you know, we we felt. Now.

519
00:35:29.480 --> 00:35:32.119
What she said to me is I feel like we're

520
00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:36.079
being watched. My friend said to me, I feel like

521
00:35:36.119 --> 00:35:40.559
we're being watched. And I looked down and I remember

522
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:43.559
saying her softly, I do too. Now we're walking back

523
00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:47.719
in silence because we're scared. And you know, with everything

524
00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:50.199
being as quiet as it was, it had let me

525
00:35:50.280 --> 00:35:53.159
know that there was something around. Once those branches started,

526
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:57.039
it let me know that I was correct and that

527
00:35:57.159 --> 00:35:58.800
there really was something there.

528
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:01.119
And there's no doubt.

529
00:36:01.320 --> 00:36:06.880
I mean, it's that area too, is just wow intensely,

530
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:10.320
just like I said, the cave systems and that in

531
00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:14.320
there is just a great area for anything to hide.

532
00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:23.519
And so you know, one one experience, I'm I'm drenched

533
00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:26.039
in sweat. I want everyone to know that I literally

534
00:36:26.159 --> 00:36:29.679
have probably just like it soaked my clothes. Talking about this,

535
00:36:30.519 --> 00:36:34.519
I literally almost flashed back to that night and when

536
00:36:34.519 --> 00:36:37.760
I was at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Santa Cruz, which,

537
00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:40.360
by the way, is going to be closing it yet again. Yeah,

538
00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:43.079
I've had the gentleman is going to be retiring, which

539
00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:45.119
I got to meet him and take my picture.

540
00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:47.000
With me crow.

541
00:36:47.679 --> 00:36:51.679
I yeah, yeah, the pictures up and I told him

542
00:36:51.719 --> 00:36:56.519
my incident and my friend's incident, which you know, boy,

543
00:36:56.599 --> 00:37:00.880
his eyes shot up, especially about the information about the

544
00:37:00.920 --> 00:37:04.159
horse troughs, the miss the water missing out the horse troughs.

545
00:37:04.199 --> 00:37:06.559
I mean, wow, you.

546
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:09.480
Know, because because my friend was going, what is going

547
00:37:09.559 --> 00:37:12.960
on here? Like these horses aren't drinking us? You couldn't

548
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.960
figure it out. And so, you know, meeting him and

549
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:22.039
seeing those casts, it was a bit emotional for me

550
00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:28.280
because the scene in reality, the size of all these casts,

551
00:37:29.079 --> 00:37:33.039
the the concept, the size of this animal that possibly

552
00:37:33.199 --> 00:37:36.679
was not I'm just gonna say, was tracking us.

553
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:43.760
It's intent and I feel, honestly, I do want to

554
00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:45.119
say this publicly too.

555
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:51.400
And I I've heard good and bad stories about about Sasquatch,

556
00:37:51.400 --> 00:37:55.880
about Bigfoot, is you know, there's some not good stories

557
00:37:56.519 --> 00:37:59.920
that have come out. There was that Alaskan mining tunnel

558
00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:05.519
that was emptied because of thirty five plus people that

559
00:38:05.679 --> 00:38:07.639
had went missing, women and children.

560
00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:10.119
I want to count.

561
00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:15.199
Ourselves pretty lucky really that we were threatened in any way.

562
00:38:15.239 --> 00:38:22.800
I mean threatened enough to be followed obviously, but that

563
00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:25.079
could have went south really quick.

564
00:38:25.320 --> 00:38:26.480
Really, you know.

565
00:38:27.079 --> 00:38:29.880
That's the reality of that, and I think that for

566
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:32.679
those people out there tracking them, we all need to

567
00:38:32.719 --> 00:38:35.280
take that pretty seriously too. We don't need to be

568
00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:38.360
losing lives over this, but we know what's out there

569
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:46.719
and respect their space too. So I personally believe that

570
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:49.000
they they come from the ice age. I believe it's

571
00:38:49.039 --> 00:38:53.000
a DNA that's been left over. I really do.

572
00:38:54.280 --> 00:38:58.159
And it's an it's it's a very interesting it's an

573
00:38:58.239 --> 00:39:03.119
interesting thought. A great thing about the people I get

574
00:39:03.159 --> 00:39:06.000
to talk to is that there are so many different

575
00:39:06.039 --> 00:39:11.280
ways to look at this, and there is not you know,

576
00:39:11.960 --> 00:39:15.000
we're just not there yet where we know what is

577
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:17.880
the correct we haven't been able to study them. Like

578
00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:21.719
Diane Fosse, Yeah, it could be so many, so many

579
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:25.599
different things. Shelley, I just want to say thank you

580
00:39:25.639 --> 00:39:28.800
so much for coming on there. There is another question

581
00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:33.400
that I had after this happened to you. You know,

582
00:39:34.159 --> 00:39:37.960
you probably have heard because it sounds like you listen

583
00:39:38.039 --> 00:39:41.199
to it. You know, you've been researching by listening to

584
00:39:41.280 --> 00:39:45.119
things in other ways. But after you had this experience,

585
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:49.119
were there any out of the ordinary things that started

586
00:39:49.159 --> 00:39:51.719
happening in your life, like at home or did it

587
00:39:52.320 --> 00:39:56.880
hopefully just once you left that area it was out

588
00:39:56.920 --> 00:40:01.000
of your life.

589
00:40:01.239 --> 00:40:04.679
Well, it seemed that once I was out of the area,

590
00:40:05.320 --> 00:40:08.719
it was out of my life. The experience of courses

591
00:40:09.719 --> 00:40:13.639
with me till I stopped breathing. But as for what

592
00:40:13.800 --> 00:40:18.679
I had cited in the sky, I've seen more after that, UFO,

593
00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:23.440
so that that hasn't stopped. I haven't seen anything as

594
00:40:23.519 --> 00:40:26.000
close as I as I did in the Shawnee That

595
00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:30.239
was that was intense. And he must understand too that

596
00:40:30.280 --> 00:40:33.440
it took me nine years to come to grips again,

597
00:40:33.559 --> 00:40:36.239
I want to reiterate, for what I saw, what was

598
00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:38.639
happening in the sky and then what happened on the

599
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:42.960
ground is a lot. It's really a lot for anyone

600
00:40:43.039 --> 00:40:46.000
to really comprehend and then come to the conclusion that

601
00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:49.440
this is probably what happened, you know, But it feels

602
00:40:49.480 --> 00:40:54.159
good to say that and you admit it, and you know,

603
00:40:54.440 --> 00:40:58.480
you call me crazy, I don't care, but I absolutely

604
00:40:58.519 --> 00:41:04.280
know what happened. And wow, wow, pretty pretty lucky, very

605
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:12.719
very lucky really And and also one experience for anything

606
00:41:12.880 --> 00:41:16.360
like to to you know, again, it wasn't looking for

607
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:18.280
it just happened to happen.

608
00:41:18.440 --> 00:41:20.199
Usually that's what this does. Happen.

609
00:41:21.760 --> 00:41:27.079
But it's out there, there's something out there, and it

610
00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:31.280
was so cautious, and it was making conscious decisions that

611
00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:35.039
adds to the space that was keeping from us, and.

612
00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:39.519
It just led to me. It led me to believe

613
00:41:39.519 --> 00:41:42.079
that whatever it was was definitely smart.

614
00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:47.280
Oh absolutely. And do you feel like so, are you

615
00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:51.760
going to continue going to other you know, wilderness places

616
00:41:51.800 --> 00:41:54.199
like you continue to go And is it a thing

617
00:41:54.239 --> 00:41:58.000
where you might continue to look into different bigfoot areas

618
00:41:58.079 --> 00:42:01.559
or only if it just happens to to happen by itself.

619
00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:04.400
Well, I.

620
00:42:06.199 --> 00:42:09.320
Do have word as to an area and being blossomed

621
00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:12.639
that I can be taken to. So I have thought

622
00:42:12.639 --> 00:42:17.400
about going on a couple of hikes like that, but

623
00:42:17.480 --> 00:42:23.000
I'm also reading and studying, and before I was to

624
00:42:23.039 --> 00:42:25.960
do anything like that, I'd have to really just be

625
00:42:26.079 --> 00:42:30.119
on my top game. But I am interested in that.

626
00:42:30.280 --> 00:42:33.920
I but y'all, you know also to be careful of

627
00:42:33.960 --> 00:42:36.960
what you look for. I don't want to become one

628
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:41.360
of those lost and never found stats. And from what

629
00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:47.360
I understand that, you know, there's a certain boundary.

630
00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:49.159
Here that we cross or don't cross.

631
00:42:49.519 --> 00:42:54.119
And so I do have the opportunity to go into

632
00:42:54.159 --> 00:42:58.559
an area that is considered hot in southern Indiana, and

633
00:42:58.639 --> 00:43:02.440
I am thinking about it out what my my last

634
00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:05.719
trip here up in the Colorado in California, that was

635
00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:10.559
all kind of accidental, but maybe it wasn't psychologically right.

636
00:43:11.400 --> 00:43:16.000
We were very interested in the Pacific Northwest. Anyway, Look, boy,

637
00:43:16.119 --> 00:43:18.800
those redwoods. I mean, I don't blame Sasquatch for want

638
00:43:18.840 --> 00:43:22.440
being out those redwoods. It is amazingly gorgeous there.

639
00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:26.480
Absolutely just wait until you get up to Oregon. Maybe someday,

640
00:43:28.159 --> 00:43:29.840
Oh I oh we will, we will.

641
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:32.760
We want to get up run the Sequoias, and I

642
00:43:32.800 --> 00:43:36.119
want to go to will Lake and obviously check out

643
00:43:36.159 --> 00:43:36.960
that museum.

644
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:39.719
Yeah, and it has become a thing.

645
00:43:39.840 --> 00:43:43.599
I mean, I'm putting a sticker on my car, I'm

646
00:43:43.639 --> 00:43:44.480
letting it out there.

647
00:43:44.719 --> 00:43:47.039
So yeah, who knows.

648
00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:50.480
If I find anything, I'll definitely share that with you,

649
00:43:50.760 --> 00:43:51.800
it'll be the first to know.

650
00:43:52.159 --> 00:43:52.320
Well.

651
00:43:52.360 --> 00:43:55.159
Definitely, Well, Shelley, thank you so much again for coming

652
00:43:55.199 --> 00:43:57.519
on the show. You give me some interesting things to

653
00:43:57.599 --> 00:44:01.079
look into, and I know this has been very helpful

654
00:44:01.239 --> 00:44:05.440
for your shell, for yourself to share what you experienced

655
00:44:05.559 --> 00:44:08.079
almost ten years ago, and just you know, thank you

656
00:44:08.119 --> 00:44:11.119
for coming on this show. And hopefully what you shared

657
00:44:11.599 --> 00:44:14.719
will give people that are listening that have had things

658
00:44:14.760 --> 00:44:18.039
happen in the same area the courage to reach out

659
00:44:18.039 --> 00:44:20.719
as well to share what they've experienced in the Garden

660
00:44:20.920 --> 00:44:24.800
of the Gods area. But thank you so much, sholl out, Yeah,

661
00:44:24.840 --> 00:44:25.440
thank you so much.

662
00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:28.559
Welcome, thank you, You're welcome. Thank you.

663
00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:33.679
So I'll go ahead and I'll start recording. So this

664
00:44:33.719 --> 00:44:37.960
is Harold Benny. We talked to him about a year ago.

665
00:44:38.639 --> 00:44:41.400
We had a really good conversation about ow Oklahoma, and

666
00:44:41.440 --> 00:44:44.199
a few other things that you are. You have a

667
00:44:44.239 --> 00:44:49.400
few degrees in zoology the lifelong bigfoot or enthusiast researcher.

668
00:44:49.679 --> 00:44:52.280
But I was calling real quick because I saw your

669
00:44:52.360 --> 00:44:56.159
name on a BFRO report about the Shawnee National Forest,

670
00:44:56.320 --> 00:44:59.119
and so I'm curious, did you have any thoughts about

671
00:44:59.199 --> 00:45:02.000
bigfoot in the show any National Forest or Garden of

672
00:45:02.039 --> 00:45:03.199
the Gods specifically.

673
00:45:05.320 --> 00:45:08.519
Well, I've been and I've been a speaker twice after

674
00:45:08.679 --> 00:45:12.840
the Murphysboro celebration they have with about the big mighty

675
00:45:12.920 --> 00:45:16.039
monster down there, and there's another one this year, but

676
00:45:16.119 --> 00:45:18.880
I don't have a date yet. Anyway, I read the

677
00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:21.960
story of the Big Money Monster in a publication that

678
00:45:22.079 --> 00:45:26.920
the the let's see the publication that used to be

679
00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:33.119
put out by the Conservation Department, but they quit putting

680
00:45:33.159 --> 00:45:38.760
it out, but they ran a nice article a little

681
00:45:38.760 --> 00:45:41.880
bit of depth to it about the big Buddy Monster.

682
00:45:42.639 --> 00:45:46.159
Big Money Monster occurred down there, was seen by several

683
00:45:46.239 --> 00:45:48.920
people over about a week's time.

684
00:45:49.920 --> 00:46:25.519
Big for society, who will be right back after these messages.

685
00:46:10.320 --> 00:46:13.239
In many three I think it was about the twentieth

686
00:46:13.280 --> 00:46:17.840
of June and seventy three. And anyway, I got was real,

687
00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:21.800
real curious. I wondered, well, that really had been something

688
00:46:21.840 --> 00:46:26.039
that went on down there, and so I started spending

689
00:46:26.039 --> 00:46:29.159
a lot of time down there, and I took some

690
00:46:29.280 --> 00:46:35.840
people down there to help me out. And actually one

691
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:37.840
of the persons I took down there was again was

692
00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:42.360
a young guy, and he had a charge sighting on

693
00:46:42.599 --> 00:46:46.119
a trail area down there that I got special permission

694
00:46:46.159 --> 00:46:51.159
to use, and another person at the party also saw something,

695
00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:54.199
but he really didn't see it long enough to identify it.

696
00:46:55.519 --> 00:46:58.159
So with all the time I've spent down there, I'm

697
00:46:58.159 --> 00:47:01.239
pretty sure there is there is something or more than

698
00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:04.920
more than one something down in that area, and it

699
00:47:04.960 --> 00:47:07.840
had been down there for quite a while, and I've

700
00:47:08.039 --> 00:47:13.559
I've looked through different areas down in the Shawnee and yeah,

701
00:47:13.559 --> 00:47:17.599
I've seen something, but some of them I really couldn't identify.

702
00:47:18.320 --> 00:47:22.239
And my feeling there definitely is something going on down

703
00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:26.119
there in the area south of where I was down there,

704
00:47:26.360 --> 00:47:28.639
and they're definitely there are definitely something going on. There's

705
00:47:28.679 --> 00:47:30.920
no doubt about it that there's something in there.

706
00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:31.039
Now.

707
00:47:31.079 --> 00:47:32.719
I haven't been able to last a couple of years,

708
00:47:32.760 --> 00:47:34.920
haven't spent as much time as saying as I'd like

709
00:47:35.039 --> 00:47:39.400
to down there, and I haven't had any more people

710
00:47:39.480 --> 00:47:44.199
are any more personal sightings down there, but there's a

711
00:47:44.239 --> 00:47:47.400
lot of people that have some stories. I met one

712
00:47:47.480 --> 00:47:49.719
lady down there through through one of my friends that

713
00:47:49.800 --> 00:47:54.239
lived down there, and she has actually has a plaster

714
00:47:54.440 --> 00:47:58.400
cast footprints that her dad took years ago, back in

715
00:47:58.440 --> 00:48:03.679
the seventies, and it was high of the situation and

716
00:48:03.719 --> 00:48:06.440
the proof that she got you just can't get much better.

717
00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:11.800
It seems there was a teenage couple that saw an animal,

718
00:48:11.880 --> 00:48:18.320
big furry animal, and they were down around Gorham and

719
00:48:18.599 --> 00:48:23.039
they saw it real close, and the word got out.

720
00:48:24.400 --> 00:48:28.800
And this woman's mother worked, I believe it was at

721
00:48:28.840 --> 00:48:32.199
a like a nursing home. She worked the night shift,

722
00:48:33.199 --> 00:48:37.000
and she was driving home through this area where this

723
00:48:37.079 --> 00:48:41.159
sighting had occurred pretty early in the morning when she

724
00:48:41.239 --> 00:48:43.440
got off, I don't know, it was seven or whatever,

725
00:48:43.960 --> 00:48:48.719
and she saw this big, big, furry, bipedal animal. She

726
00:48:48.880 --> 00:48:51.920
saw it down there walking along the road. So she

727
00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:56.400
got home and she told the grandkids, and she told

728
00:48:56.400 --> 00:49:00.159
her son what she saw, and her son grabbed that

729
00:49:01.079 --> 00:49:06.000
all the plaster hands similar products that he had and

730
00:49:06.159 --> 00:49:09.119
went down there and sure enough he found a string

731
00:49:09.199 --> 00:49:13.880
of tracks and he made a cast. And his daughter

732
00:49:13.960 --> 00:49:18.159
there's still still has the cast and she takes it

733
00:49:18.239 --> 00:49:22.119
to a raided schools and it sold something, you know,

734
00:49:22.159 --> 00:49:24.360
she's pretty proud of. And I went down and I

735
00:49:24.400 --> 00:49:27.800
saw it, and somewhere around I've got some pictures of it.

736
00:49:27.840 --> 00:49:30.599
And matter of fact, I saw it again two summers

737
00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:34.800
ago when they had the Big Buddy Monster Festival down there.

738
00:49:35.199 --> 00:49:40.320
They we had the speakers and the movie theater down there,

739
00:49:40.360 --> 00:49:42.719
and she brought the cast down there, and everybody that

740
00:49:42.800 --> 00:49:45.440
came in to listen to the speakers had a chance

741
00:49:45.519 --> 00:49:50.039
to look at the cast that came from down around Gorland,

742
00:49:51.119 --> 00:49:53.000
and she adds quite a bit to.

743
00:49:53.119 --> 00:49:59.199
It that is fascinating, Harold. So, Shawnee National Force goes

744
00:49:59.360 --> 00:50:02.559
pretty much a across the bottom of southern Illinois. Correct.

745
00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:06.440
Yeah, it's one of those like a lot of forests

746
00:50:06.440 --> 00:50:09.159
and a lot of states. It's got a lot of

747
00:50:09.159 --> 00:50:12.480
patches of ground that are in the middle of it,

748
00:50:12.519 --> 00:50:15.559
are on the edges of it, and that are under

749
00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:20.559
private ownership. But for the most part it it goes

750
00:50:20.599 --> 00:50:25.760
across southern Illinois and in most places you can tell

751
00:50:25.800 --> 00:50:28.239
where the you know, where the boundaries are, and it's

752
00:50:28.400 --> 00:50:32.320
park park areas, like I said, like that are you know,

753
00:50:32.480 --> 00:50:35.760
are kind of hard because they are kind of body

754
00:50:35.840 --> 00:50:38.440
so you kind of have to watch where you're going,

755
00:50:38.599 --> 00:50:41.239
so you don't want to trespass on anybody. But I just

756
00:50:41.280 --> 00:50:42.320
make everybody upset.

757
00:50:42.519 --> 00:50:46.800
Oh absolutely, And have you heard anything specifically from over

758
00:50:46.840 --> 00:50:50.760
the years from the Garden of the Gods or eastern

759
00:50:51.480 --> 00:50:54.840
like the Shawnee National Forest on the eastern side of Illinois.

760
00:50:54.880 --> 00:50:56.039
Down the corner.

761
00:50:55.960 --> 00:50:59.480
Up Okay, Well, a Garden of the Gods. I had

762
00:50:59.639 --> 00:51:01.599
when I first saw the Garden of the Gods. It

763
00:51:01.760 --> 00:51:04.719
was one of the young girls that I met on

764
00:51:04.719 --> 00:51:07.039
one of the Actually it was that trip to Hunaby

765
00:51:07.199 --> 00:51:09.320
that we talked about last time. That's where I met her,

766
00:51:09.360 --> 00:51:13.199
I think, and she showed me Gardens of the Gods.

767
00:51:13.239 --> 00:51:15.840
I had never seen it. This is way back. This

768
00:51:15.960 --> 00:51:20.719
was like eighteen years ago, and we hiked some areas

769
00:51:20.760 --> 00:51:24.519
and looked at it. And she didn't live too far away,

770
00:51:24.599 --> 00:51:27.079
so her and her dad made a lot of trips

771
00:51:27.119 --> 00:51:31.079
down there, and they made one of their early trips.

772
00:51:31.840 --> 00:51:35.960
They went down and they did some knocking and tried

773
00:51:36.039 --> 00:51:40.400
some yells and stuff. And they went down once in

774
00:51:40.559 --> 00:51:45.320
November and they parked the car there and actually it

775
00:51:45.360 --> 00:51:48.360
was that Indian Point I think it called that was

776
00:51:48.480 --> 00:51:52.679
right right next to the Garden of the Gods. And

777
00:51:53.079 --> 00:51:58.519
they got to their their response was they heard frog crow,

778
00:52:00.920 --> 00:52:04.760
but the same the same night they also saw uh

779
00:52:07.039 --> 00:52:12.360
eyeshine and and something came up and left some kind

780
00:52:12.400 --> 00:52:16.159
of prints on their cars too. It's really unusual so

781
00:52:16.599 --> 00:52:18.960
they you know, they had a pretty good experience there.

782
00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:22.440
We were down there that time and we took one

783
00:52:22.519 --> 00:52:26.239
day and went to Garden to the Gods and we went,

784
00:52:26.400 --> 00:52:31.400
I think it's like West of the Rocks basically where

785
00:52:31.440 --> 00:52:35.760
they've got a big trail and in a big hiking area,

786
00:52:36.760 --> 00:52:39.519
and there was there's maybe six of us guys and

787
00:52:39.559 --> 00:52:43.679
they were pretty much all b f R investigators, and

788
00:52:43.880 --> 00:52:46.159
one of them saw something he thought was it was

789
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:49.519
a big foot way back there in the brush, and

790
00:52:49.639 --> 00:52:52.960
we saw well, some some some tracks back in there,

791
00:52:53.960 --> 00:52:58.880
and definitely something that's using that that area. So it's

792
00:52:59.320 --> 00:53:02.159
pretty active. And now there's a little place where you

793
00:53:02.239 --> 00:53:06.599
make your northern northern turn off a Carbo Ridge trail

794
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:10.000
or car Carbo Ridge Road, I think they call it.

795
00:53:10.840 --> 00:53:13.719
And when you when you turn to go uh to

796
00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:16.119
a Garden of the Gods, there's they go, oh, I

797
00:53:16.159 --> 00:53:18.159
don't know if they call it an outpost or whatever,

798
00:53:18.199 --> 00:53:21.360
but it's an ice cream shop and they've got all

799
00:53:21.440 --> 00:53:25.559
kind of Southern Illinois souvenirs and a pretty good collection

800
00:53:25.679 --> 00:53:29.840
of Midfoot souvenirs and stuff right there. So it's it's

801
00:53:29.880 --> 00:53:33.559
a real nice little place to stop and if instead

802
00:53:33.599 --> 00:53:36.480
of turning north. If you turn south at that same point,

803
00:53:37.119 --> 00:53:40.119
you get down into some real, real brushy areas that

804
00:53:40.159 --> 00:53:42.880
I've been down there a few times, but it's so

805
00:53:43.360 --> 00:53:46.280
it's so hairy and kind of spooky. I don't know

806
00:53:46.320 --> 00:53:47.960
if i'd want to spend a lot of time down

807
00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:51.239
there at night. I mean, it's it's it's some really

808
00:53:51.320 --> 00:53:56.320
rough areas. But they they tell me that supposedly there

809
00:53:56.400 --> 00:54:00.679
was some geological activity or something down there, well, you know,

810
00:54:01.039 --> 00:54:06.000
thousands of years ago, and it's a kind of a

811
00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:10.800
little valley, and the road runs around the edges of

812
00:54:11.320 --> 00:54:14.960
this valley, and it'd be a really great place to

813
00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:18.840
spend a lot of time. There's just a lot of

814
00:54:18.840 --> 00:54:21.000
places down to sean easy to spend a lot of

815
00:54:21.039 --> 00:54:25.159
time looking for any kind of animal that you chose to.

816
00:54:25.559 --> 00:54:27.599
It's really good area down and through there.

817
00:54:29.320 --> 00:54:33.159
Harold. Thank you for I mean, this information is invaluable,

818
00:54:33.199 --> 00:54:36.840
and I'm sure that someone listening in that area might

819
00:54:36.880 --> 00:54:39.320
be able to make some good use of it. But

820
00:54:39.800 --> 00:54:42.199
I really appreciate you spending a few minutes of your

821
00:54:42.199 --> 00:54:46.960
time and letting us know what happened a few years

822
00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:48.280
earlier in the same area.

823
00:54:50.039 --> 00:54:52.800
Okay, that's great, Yeah, it's a really good spot as well,

824
00:54:52.800 --> 00:54:55.719
worth the trip down there. And like I said, most

825
00:54:55.800 --> 00:54:58.400
years I spent a lot of time down there, but

826
00:54:58.599 --> 00:55:03.400
last year I think we for different like Bigfoot conferences

827
00:55:03.480 --> 00:55:07.679
or whatever, and we're pretty busy check up a lot

828
00:55:07.679 --> 00:55:09.840
of our time where normally we will be out in

829
00:55:09.880 --> 00:55:14.199
the field. But anyway, I'm good. Good talk to you again, yes, sir,

830
00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:17.159
and that'd be great. Thanks a lot, you too, sir,

831
00:55:18.199 --> 00:55:22.960
and bye bye. Just wanted to take a few minutes

832
00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:25.679
to say thank you to you all my listeners for

833
00:55:25.840 --> 00:55:29.719
listening to the podcast. Please take a minute to help

834
00:55:29.800 --> 00:55:33.719
out the show by subscribing on YouTube, making sure you

835
00:55:33.800 --> 00:55:36.639
hit the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and

836
00:55:36.719 --> 00:55:39.840
share the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if

837
00:55:39.880 --> 00:55:43.639
you're listening to us on a podcast, thank you so much,

838
00:55:43.840 --> 00:55:48.400
make sure that you're subscribed share the show with a friend. Really,

839
00:55:48.440 --> 00:55:50.239
it's all about sharing the show.

840
00:55:50.159 --> 00:55:53.519
Wherever you can. If you've had a Bigfoot encounter related

841
00:55:53.519 --> 00:55:57.480
to the following or know someone who has, please reach

842
00:55:57.559 --> 00:55:59.880
out to me at big for Society at gmail dot

843
00:55:59.880 --> 00:56:04.480
com or pass on my email. Here's the list. Number

844
00:56:04.519 --> 00:56:09.760
one encounters from Franklin County, Texas. Number two encounters from

845
00:56:09.800 --> 00:56:13.559
the entire state of Iowa. Number three encounters from Oakridge,

846
00:56:13.559 --> 00:56:17.320
Oregon or the surrounding area. Number four, any individuals that

847
00:56:17.360 --> 00:56:19.920
know about bigfoot being flown off after the Mount Saint

848
00:56:19.960 --> 00:56:23.559
Helens eruption. Number five. Individuals that have had a bigfoot

849
00:56:23.639 --> 00:56:27.400
encounter while in the military. Number six those that have

850
00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:30.360
had a bigfoot encounter in the southern New Hampshire or

851
00:56:30.599 --> 00:56:35.519
north central Massachusetts area including Franklin County, Massachusetts. Number seven.

852
00:56:35.559 --> 00:56:37.800
Individuals that have had a bigfoot encounter in a Bible

853
00:56:37.800 --> 00:56:41.519
camp or boy Scout camp setting. Number eight individuals that

854
00:56:41.559 --> 00:56:43.960
have had bigfoot try to enter their house forcibly while

855
00:56:43.960 --> 00:56:48.119
they were living inside. Number nine individuals that have actively

856
00:56:48.239 --> 00:56:52.480
have a bigfoot living on their property. And lastly, any

857
00:56:52.519 --> 00:56:55.880
sightings that are in the Watchitaw National Forest area of

858
00:56:55.920 --> 00:57:00.559
Oklahoma or Arkansas. A special thank you to all the

859
00:57:00.920 --> 00:57:04.880
Bigfoot Society, Patreon and YouTube channel members. It's your support

860
00:57:04.920 --> 00:57:08.440
that helps keep the show going and I extremely appreciate it.

861
00:57:09.199 --> 00:57:12.440
I'll see you back next time. Listeners. Satsa summerfest this

862
00:57:12.599 --> 00:57:16.119
year July eleventh through the twelfth. It's going to be fantastic.

863
00:57:17.199 --> 00:57:20.519
July eleventh through twelve, in Greenwaters Park and Oakridge Ore

864
00:57:20.519 --> 00:57:24.360
again and listeners, if you're going to go, you can

865
00:57:24.360 --> 00:57:28.079
get two day ticket for the cost of one if

866
00:57:28.079 --> 00:57:33.440
you use the code b FS like Bigfoot Society, but

867
00:57:33.639 --> 00:57:37.880
BFS I'll get used some off your cost. Priscilla was

868
00:57:38.079 --> 00:57:41.719
nice enough to provide that for my listeners. So there

869
00:57:41.719 --> 00:57:43.320
you go. I look forward to seeing you there, so

870
00:57:43.400 --> 00:57:46.719
make sure you head over to www dot Sasquatch Summerfest

871
00:57:46.840 --> 00:57:49.039
dot com and pick up your tickets today