Garden of the Gods Bigfoot! | Illinois

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 Bigfoot 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. Ford Slash the Bigfoot Society and now let's get on with the show. All right, Bigfoot Society. We've got the privilege of talking to Shelley today. Shelley's an individual that reached out to me through my TikTok account for Bigfoot Society with some interesting things that she had experienced down there in southern Illinois.

0:54 So Shelley, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing great too. I'm just having a nice day, you know, talking to different people and looking at bigfoot stuff. I mean, you can't get any better than that. So you have a really interesting thing that you're going to share because on the podcast yet, we haven't had a lot of people come forward about this particular area. We were talking just a few minutes ago that there's a lot of things that get reported about this area, but on this particular podcast, not a ton yet. So maybe that'll change after this. But you know, Shelley, before we get started, is there anything that listeners would also need to know about you before we get going.

1:41 I'm I'm a hiker. I started actually running trails at a very early age, about high school. I guess I could give you my age gives you an idea if I I'm fifty two years old, graduating ninety two, so I've been on running and hiking trails for quite some time now. And just I'm an artist and one avid traveler. Fantastic, Shelley. I'm going to go ahead and I'm gonna give things over to you. Feel free to take us back as far back as we need to go to when things first started happening for you. Regarding this subject.

2:23 Well, I had this this this goal. All all camping and hiking in the National Forest, I was trying to get to a different forest each weekend, and the first forest I chose to travel to with a friend was the Shawnee National Forest, and I chose this particular spot, Garden of the Gods. You know, I drove down from from Indiana, northwest Indiana, and we got we got our last camping spot. There's only twelve camp spots there at Pearl's Camp, which is about a half mile from the hiking area of Garden of the Gods.

3:06 The Garden of the Gods takes the lower portion of Illinois going into Missouri. It's a pretty large national forest, extremely beautiful. Garden of the Gods is an amazing interesting area. It used to be the bottom of a lake bed, and so the cave system and the bedrock, I mean, just think of like the Flintstones if you were to go there, all this type of bedrock that you can walk out on and hike along. It's just absolutely gorgeous. So this is August twenty fourth of twenty fifteen that we had traveled down there to camp. We went and hiked the Garden of the Gods. You know, it took some hours to get through. It's just absolutely beautiful. Watch the sunset. Then we walked back to our camp spots, had dinner, and as night fell. You know, I'm a curiosity adventure type of person, and it was like, well, let's go stargates and Guarden of the Gods area. So we, you know, we decide to do that, and so we walk in it.

4:22 It's dark. It's dark, and I'm gonna say that this is probably about after ten o'clock when we head down the road and back into the hiking area of Garden of the Gods from Pharaoh's campground. And so we were, you know, on this bedrock stargazing. It's just absolutely beautiful. You can see the Milky. Way, and we were there for well over an hour. Then we decided to walk to the parking lot. So we made our way through the forest on the trailmark trope and we you know, found ourselves, you know, spit out into the parking lot and we're stargazing and we I don't know, this kind of crossed the lines, I guess on the levels, but we saw some things in the sky that had caught our interests pretty quickly, and I don't know if I could really even venture into that subject, but they were definitively unidentified flying objects. So we're we're watching this and for at least forty five minutes and my friend turns to me and this is pitch black. You know, there's there's there's no street lamps here, there's no one around. She turns to me, my friend, and says, let's go, like and her voice is kind

5:54 of quivering a bit, and I looked at her and I kind of like to push things a little bit, and I was like, yeah, you know, let's stay because I'm watching basically this in the sky and which would be the six aircraft. And we stayed about another fifteen twenty minutes before she turned to me again nervously. And said, we gotta go. I'm not feeling right. And I finally acknowledged that I wasn't feeling right either.

6:37 You know, I get this feeling in the pit of your stomach and that something is off. And so we proceeded to walk back to the campground. Down a road. And not too long after we had started on our walk, parking lot of Garden of the Gods, It's. A beautiful summer night. I'm in shorts, it's clear, the forest is dead, silent, silent, now. I've camped in Brown County.

7:17 I've done lots of camping Wisconsin. I know what to listen for. What I've found silence. As we're walking, I'm hearing these steps. I'm hearing footsteps, but it's up up in the woods to my right, about fifteen to twenty five feet back behind me. Staggered. I'm hearing footsteps.

7:58 I'm listening and I'm gauging, and every sense in my body is on fire. I'm I'm listening to this and once I heard a branch break, like snap, I stopped. I'm flashing my light into the woods. I'm yelling out, who's there? Who is there? These footsteps had stopped. When we had stopped. Oh my gut. Everything I mean is saying run, but you you don't run. We started up again, walking very quickly, very very quickly, and again I'm hearing the footsteps and I'm hearing again a branch break. Stop again it stopped. Now what's bothering me here is when I stop. Whatever this by Peetle is no doubt because I turned to her or I.

9:03 Said, this is Bipedle. Now I want you to understand at that time, you're just I'm just scared. I'm not thinking about what it could be. I understand that it's not a bear. I've seen bear on horseback and in the Smoky Mountains. This wasn't bear. This wasn't that. There's no other animals in the Shawnee Forest. There's very rarely a bear there. And but again I'm not. All I know is that what I'm hearing is I feel like I'm being tracked. I'm being followed. And we had made you know, but it followed us at least for a good half mile.

9:48 Now. I didn't smell anything. I didn't hear any grunts, there were no other sounds. But of those footsteps branches breaking. As far as I know, if a branch is breaking, that's something enough to put weight and snap, and whatever it was, there was weight to it for. These branches to be snappy. And I also need to add that this area, this National Forest, is unplunched. These woods and these limestone formations that come up out of the ground is not anything that you an eye could just walk through.

10:35 This is thick. When I was shining my flat flight into those woods, all I saw was foliage and just black. Whatever had been following us was consciously stopping as I was stopping. And what bothered me was. I knew that I knew it was there, like I'm flashing my light off into the woods. Yet it's still picked up after we had stopped. It wasn't like I've been challenged by gear on the trail, meaning you're.

11:18 Stomping and snorting at me. You know, this is my territory. I've seen funcks, I've seen turkey. I've hiked all up in the northern part of the dunes of Lake Michigan calls bog. I've hiked the Lusure National I was hiking the Lusier National Force the next weekend and growled by a coy already in the dark. But again, yet, to this day, I've never had anything like that ever happen again. And I've hiped a lot of miles. I used to run eight miles every other day on trails. I've never had anything like this ever happen again. It stopped right as like right when we got to our campsite, which is really the very first campsite to that loop. So this half mile walk, we're being followed, kind of stopped by the entrance, nothing but woods in front of us.

12:15 All these campsites are on the loops. We're all back to back to back on and mind you, twelve rustic. Everybody's asleep. There is twelve forty five at night that this had happened. I never felt right at my campsite either. I never felt quote unquote like safe, so to speak. She had went to bad, I had stayed up. I'm watching everything in the sky. I'm starting ezing. I went and changed clothes in my car. Car somehow we locked itself, I don't know. And this thought kept coming through my head.

13:06 You could disappear and nobody would know. I got into that tent so fast. This experience is stuck with me for many years. It's been over nine years now, and I only with n recent really after some research. And of course there's a sasquatch statue outside our campground. So I mean this kind of adds like a little bit of whoa to it, like a little like a little preemptive. I mean, we were taking pictures with say. The sasquatch stat you outside Garden of the Gods.

13:47 You know, we act to like where at b and she's big for. Society will be right back after these messages. I mean I had no idea when I selected this area. I didn't know what I was getting into. Now we went and hiked another section of the Shawnee. I felt fine. I didn't feel like I had to really look behind my back or anything. But I will tell you that in this spot a garden of the gods, which is lots of caves. And now I want to mention to our phones were acting weird, like my I had a brand new Sony Experience phone and it was draining wild was off.

14:41 So whatever is is within this area was just intense. To see what was happening in the sky and it had something like that happened on. Ground is mind blowing. And it's taken I mean, like I said, almost nine years to be able to really be able to say, you know, I think this is what this was. I'm not want to jump to conclusions. Even then her and I were like, what happened? Like, what was that? Well, no doubt was by Peedle. I had taken anthropology in college and had studied the apes at Brookshield Zoo. I'd written a long paper studying that the whole troop and the silver Back and everything, and I mean, I you know, I just have such an interest in that, and when this happened in the forest, my brain just immediately went by, petle, there's a predator around.

15:41 There's no sounds coming from the forest, no crickets, no nothing. Sure, we could probably go maybe you know, two girls, two women, young women, you know, I think that was probably about thirty eight thirty nine when this happened, by themselves, probably. Being followed by man in the woods. And and sure, I mean you think, well, but the fluidity that these footsteps were following her and I And mind you, I'm like five seven and at that time probably like one hundred and fifteen pounds. She's like five to four, you know, very petite. We're both petite women. I felt frightened that I mean, to be followed like that in the woods, footsteps pitch black, stop, when you stop, start, when you start. You know, I'm the daughter of a combat Vietnam better And one thing comes to mind is I'm being tracked. And that's what my dad would have told me. That's what my brain went.

16:47 And I was I was on guard. I couldn't turn my back. I kept flashing my light out letting it know that I knew it was there. It knew. I knew. It. Whatever it was, was definitely not scared. I've had gear run off. I've seen Fox run off with its kid. I've had a pack of turkey run off from me. The following weekend, I was looking for wood in the pitch black and then who's your National Forest? I had a growl? Happened That was no doubt. At Coyote, we heard a wild boar outside our campsite, and who's your national forest? Never I've footsteps bipedal sounds? No, no, never happened again. And so what happened brought me to share my story today and to really come to understand as to most likely as to what happened to me was I had joined TikTok recently decided to start exploring, and it was this podcast that I came across and start listening to, and it was other podcasts and videos, and then I started researching, and I thought, you know, I think there's really only one answer here as to what happened.

18:18 And I had a friend, a close friend from Being Blossom that had shared some things with me that were really intimate, and. I told her my story. You know, I I think I actually was followed by a bigfoot. I actually think this happened in the Shawnee National Forest this night, and I proceeded to share my story with her, which my mom and dad had never even heard me talk about this. I'm very close. Even my husband, I've never shared it the story with him until recent So I told my friend that was in game Blossom, and she called me up immediately and said, I've got something for you. And I've actually lost friends because of this.

19:11 She told me about what had happened to her in being Bostom, which is southern Indiana, and that's where I'm at in Lafayette, about an hour and a half from me. And she was living on a horse farm. And she had been out partying one right drinking at a bar, and came home, you know, three thirty am and said, you know what, I'm not going to make it down to this these horses at five am. You know, I'm just going to go take care of this now. Her chores. Walk down this trail and what she saw was the arm, a hairy arm, duck into a tree, like passing to a tree to hide. And she said, chilly, I know for a fact I saw a juvenile bigfoot which explained a lot of things have been happening around on the horse farm, such as three hundred gallon three three hundred gallon horse trots were coming up empty with water, and we know horses don't chalk water. She was hearing yells and screeches at night. She said that we're odd.

20:40 But now that after she had seen what she had seen, it all made sense to her. She said, very massive horse, well, big horse farm, and being blossomed. I know a footprint came out of being blossomed just about five six weeks ago on axel Tiktoka, a good mudprint. So she shared that with me, and I shared my story, and I recently have traveled to two high hot areas a Manito Springs Pikes Peak area. I was in Colorado, and. Then I just spent three four days in Shelter Co from Bulcamp County in California over Christmas. So it's been it's been fascinating to be able to talk about my story within recent for my friend to open up about her story, and then to travel by accident, mind you, to these areas that seem to be a big hotbed for Sasquatch. I mean there are stores I mean, you really can't go into a shop without seeing a sasquatch lug.

21:48 But there are stories too, And I did talk to a gentleman who shared a story that had come out. He had come out of Michigan at Manitoe Springs. So there are people out there that do you believe it has become a really big topic. I think with the advent of technology here, we're able to record sounds, were able to find the DNA. I know, as a recent if we're all following all the research ourselves at rang DNA has come out of Vancouver Island. I myself just visited the Discovery Museum Bigfoot Museum in Santa Cruz, California, saw quite a few casts. Talked to the owner of that museum, who's going to be retiring all those Bigfoot casts are being sent up to?

22:42 I think it's Washington, so, you. Know, when we look at things, and I looked at the area and I thought, after some research and after reading a couple of people that have reported their sightings or experiences were very similar to mine, And that really then led me to really think also that the you know, I'm. Not the only one here. You know, back in the day play about thirty forty years ago. And we've often heard people talk about this, to talk talk about this, or talk like this. You know, they want to take you off in the pant again. But it happened.

23:22 It, No DoD happened that night August twenty fourth, twelve forty five. Stomach has dropped. I'm even talking about it right now. I'm nervous and my hair is standing. When I do hike now I do. I do look back behind me, probably more so than I did before. But I've never experienced anything like that. Again, I did have a weird experience in Humboldt County though, with there has been a couple of sightings on the mountain. I was in Shelter Cove, which. Takes one hour of white knuckle driving off of the one on one in California to get to Shelter Cove.

24:08 Something had knocked over a massive steel double there trash can, and then I was woke up the night before. Again by something. It sound like it was angry smashing the can. I don't know. We were told that there's a bear that comes around, but I also know for a fact that there's a couple of sightings on the mountain right in front of our end. I honestly was not even aware of that until after we left, Like I'm not trying to put anything into my mind here for things to happen. It was like, okay, now I'm leaving this area. Now I'm going to investigate has there been anything? And I was like whoa as we were heading back down to the coast.

24:54 So that that is that's my story that it was a lot. It was so intense that night it took a long time for me to be able to go to sleep. Legitly scared, legitly scared. Now did I feel maybe threatened for my life? No, I you know, if I maybe if I had heard a growl or something, then I would have felt maybe like oh my god, you know, then I would be sprinting. But with no other sounds, I just wanted to maintain a cool calm, get back to my campsite as quickly as I can, as effectively as I can. But I also know that sometimes when you run for animals, they chase you, So I was trying to be kind of smart about that too, Like, obviously something following me in tracking me.

25:54 I'm not gonna sprint. I'm also trying to show not as much fear either with my actions, like WHOA, what's out there. Kelly, That's that's just incredible. I mean, so I do definitely have a few questions for you, but I just want to say thank you for sharing what you experienced on the show today. Definitely, this Garden of the Gods area in Illinois looks very interesting. So, I mean, the first the first question I have is why is there a bigfoot statue in this campground? Randomly? Is there a story behind it? Or from what I.

26:35 Know now, if you look up Wikipedia, you know Bigfoot. That picture of that bigfoot, her name is Sassy the task Watch. Actually comes up for Wikipedia. Now. The people that own some cabins nearby Feerald's campground erected Sassy the task Watch, and that has become a popular spot in it self to visit the statue. But those people that all in that have not said exactly why they decided it would be a Sasquatch. I don't know if it was out of. Humor or being that they live in that area that they're aware of things themselves. I have researched that and that's what I've come up with altogether. Than me going there and asking them personally, why what was it? Why have you erected this? And because it was a big deal to even install it. So these people definitely went out of their way to install the statue and was looking for one. So that is that is interesting in it.

27:50 And then after our experience, it just makes you grat your hand of it and all, okay, ei, there's a statue outside this campground. I had has happened to me in not the campground, but I didn't, you know, half mittle outside of. The campground, but followed us back to Whoa, Whoa. It was almost like a little preemptive. I don't know, I try not to manifest things, but wow, I didn't mean for that to happen. We were being funny and taking pictures. But and again, you know, this is twenty fifteen. You know, I have been interested in Bigfoot since I was a young girl.

28:37 I mean I remember being in elementary. School and getting the book out of the library and looking at the Peterson photograph, which amazingly recently has been really digitized beautifully. And if you look at that. Now, wow, I made it. As clear as day that she has brasset. This was a female walking and so you know, all I could think of is such an area with all these caves. I mean, there was a big cave right by our campground below us. There's so many, it's a kind of a noe brainer. It's it's done a lot.

29:17 It's thickly forested. Hardly anybody around there's there's there's water and from our from the from my research too, because obviously now I've really just become so interested in all of this, is that they're around in the areas where there's water, and that's the Pacific Northwest. It's Colorado and Shawnee and that you know, lots of of rivers and and that going through that forest. And so wherever there's enough food national forest, obviously there's a food source, there's a water source. I think it's very realistic, absolutely, and from what happened.

30:03 With me that that area is hot. And I mean even within the past couple of years, there's been a report that was very similar to him, and I have reported mine officially as well. Too big for society will be right back after these messages. I official reported that that that happened and the date time. That's fantastic. I'm looking at a picture of Sassy right now, And I have actually seen pictures with this bigfoot a lot over the years. I just didn't know what it was.

30:51 But yeah, I'm definitely going to reach out to the owners of these cabins in the area, sure, and that might be an interesting lead that comes from that. But you know something else I want to ask you, which you kind of just maybe answered in a ways after this happened, did you kind of start doing your own research to see if other people had experienced weird things in this area as well? Well? At the time, I think I was more interested in what happened visually with the sky, so I sort of researched about that, and I think I kind of did, And it's like it's almost like I put it on the back burner. Throughout the years, off and on, I've kind of gotten on YouTube and looked at bigfoot videos or listened, you know, to the calls and try to be like, correlate my incident with someone else's.

31:48 You know. It's almost like you're you're in a support group and you're you're all trying to share your stories because they're so unique and and you know, what happened with you or you know what just happened with me? And so I have started to research off and on throughout the past like nine years, but more so within the past like two months. I finally said, you know what, I'm old enough now, I'm I'm just going. To tell my story. I have nothing to lose. I think it's important. I'm a stats person. I actually studied stats in college. I think numbers are important. I think that with the coming out and sharing what had happened helps to place my incident and maybe others will come forward with their incidents as well. And then with that data, we can't start to make concrete decisions as to how hot or not that area would be. This is a one off or is this not? And I am interested in those numbers and those areas. And like I said, I was just up in Plumbolt County. I went all the way up into Eureka, California, up by will Lake, and that is all just you know, people have come forward with their incidents.

33:15 It's marked, it's registered. We can look back and go, oh, yes, and let's add in this incident. And I think the more we everyone comes out with what their stories, more brave we are. We can really get to the bottom of this. I personally do anything to happen to any of these animals. I think they're hidden for a reason. But God, the evidence it's out there. I mean, it's got more than two thousand sightings. I'm not the only one. It's it's intense the amount of sightings that are coming out, especially in previous years. Have you ever big Foot Mapping project before?

34:04 I have looked at their stuff, Yes, absolutely, and I think actually followed them on TikTok that's awesome. Yeah, there is a really interesting report on it that was from September twenty sixteen, also in the Garden of the Gods. I think I saw that repe you saw. That one where they were trying to they were camping on a bluff overhang and then they heard whoops and chatter and they also found footprints as well. Nope, I do now know that report. You should really check that out. It is intense. And then there's also a few BFRORO reports from the Shawnee National Forest as well. There are things such as potential sightings with a thermal imager where it's kind of doing a peekaboo back and forth behind a tree. There's also a another one where says there was a nighttime sighting by two witnesses and these are to do I believe they're there to do with the BFROO people on BFRO expeditions as well. But I mean that alone tells me that, yeah, that's a great hunch that you have that you're not the only one that's been having issues in this area.

35:24 No, And I mean again, you know, we we felt. Now. What she said to me is I feel like we're being watched. My friend said to me, I feel like we're being watched. And I looked down and I remember saying her softly, I do too. Now we're walking back in silence because we're scared. And you know, with everything being as quiet as it was, it had let me know that there was something around. Once those branches started, it let me know that I was correct and that there really was something there. And there's no doubt. I mean, it's that area too, is just wow intensely, just like I said, the cave systems and that in there is just a great area for anything to hide.

36:15 And so you know, one one experience, I'm I'm drenched in sweat. I want everyone to know that I literally have probably just like it soaked my clothes. Talking about this, I literally almost flashed back to that night and when I was at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Santa Cruz, which, by the way, is going to be closing it yet again. Yeah, I've had the gentleman is going to be retiring, which I got to meet him and take my picture. With me crow. I yeah, yeah, the pictures up and I told him my incident and my friend's incident, which you know, boy, his eyes shot up, especially about the information about the horse troughs, the miss the water missing out the horse troughs.

37:04 I mean, wow, you. Know, because because my friend was going, what is going on here? Like these horses aren't drinking us? You couldn't figure it out. And so, you know, meeting him and seeing those casts, it was a bit emotional for me because the scene in reality, the size of all these casts, the the concept, the size of this animal that possibly was not I'm just gonna say, was tracking us. It's intent and I feel, honestly, I do want to say this publicly too.

37:45 And I I've heard good and bad stories about about Sasquatch, about Bigfoot, is you know, there's some not good stories that have come out. There was that Alaskan mining tunnel that was emptied because of thirty five plus people that had went missing, women and children. I want to count. Ourselves pretty lucky really that we were threatened in any way. I mean threatened enough to be followed obviously, but that could have went south really quick.

38:25 Really, you know. That's the reality of that, and I think that for those people out there tracking them, we all need to take that pretty seriously too. We don't need to be losing lives over this, but we know what's out there and respect their space too. So I personally believe that they they come from the ice age. I believe it's a DNA that's been left over. I really do. And it's an it's it's a very interesting it's an interesting thought. A great thing about the people I get to talk to is that there are so many different ways to look at this, and there is not you know, we're just not there yet where we know what is the correct we haven't been able to study them. Like Diane Fosse, Yeah, it could be so many, so many different things. Shelley, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on there. There is another question that I had after this happened to you. You know, you probably have heard because it sounds like you listen to it. You know, you've been researching by listening to things in other ways. But after you had this experience, were there any out of the ordinary things that started happening in your life, like at home or did it hopefully just once you left that area it was out

39:56 of your life. Well, it seemed that once I was out of the area, it was out of my life. The experience of courses with me till I stopped breathing. But as for what I had cited in the sky, I've seen more after that, UFO, so that that hasn't stopped. I haven't seen anything as close as I as I did in the Shawnee That was that was intense. And he must understand too that it took me nine years to come to grips again, I want to reiterate, for what I saw, what was happening in the sky and then what happened on the ground is a lot. It's really a lot for anyone to really comprehend and then come to the conclusion that this is probably what happened, you know, But it feels good to say that and you admit it, and you know, you call me crazy, I don't care, but I absolutely know what happened. And wow, wow, pretty pretty lucky, very very lucky really And and also one experience for anything like to to you know, again, it wasn't looking for it just happened to happen.

41:18 Usually that's what this does. Happen. But it's out there, there's something out there, and it was so cautious, and it was making conscious decisions that adds to the space that was keeping from us, and. It just led to me. It led me to believe that whatever it was was definitely smart. Oh absolutely. And do you feel like so, are you going to continue going to other you know, wilderness places like you continue to go And is it a thing where you might continue to look into different bigfoot areas or only if it just happens to to happen by itself.

42:03 Well, I. Do have word as to an area and being blossomed that I can be taken to. So I have thought about going on a couple of hikes like that, but I'm also reading and studying, and before I was to do anything like that, I'd have to really just be on my top game. But I am interested in that. I but y'all, you know also to be careful of what you look for. I don't want to become one of those lost and never found stats. And from what I understand that, you know, there's a certain boundary.

42:46 Here that we cross or don't cross. And so I do have the opportunity to go into an area that is considered hot in southern Indiana, and I am thinking about it out what my my last trip here up in the Colorado in California, that was all kind of accidental, but maybe it wasn't psychologically right. We were very interested in the Pacific Northwest. Anyway, Look, boy, those redwoods. I mean, I don't blame Sasquatch for want being out those redwoods. It is amazingly gorgeous there. Absolutely just wait until you get up to Oregon. Maybe someday, Oh I oh we will, we will.

43:29 We want to get up run the Sequoias, and I want to go to will Lake and obviously check out that museum. Yeah, and it has become a thing. I mean, I'm putting a sticker on my car, I'm letting it out there. So yeah, who knows. If I find anything, I'll definitely share that with you, it'll be the first to know. Well. Definitely, Well, Shelley, thank you so much again for coming on the show. You give me some interesting things to look into, and I know this has been very helpful for your shell, for yourself to share what you experienced almost ten years ago, and just you know, thank you for coming on this show. And hopefully what you shared will give people that are listening that have had things happen in the same area the courage to reach out as well to share what they've experienced in the Garden of the Gods area. But thank you so much, sholl out, Yeah, thank you so much.

44:25 Welcome, thank you, You're welcome. Thank you. So I'll go ahead and I'll start recording. So this is Harold Benny. We talked to him about a year ago. We had a really good conversation about ow Oklahoma, and a few other things that you are. You have a few degrees in zoology the lifelong bigfoot or enthusiast researcher. But I was calling real quick because I saw your name on a BFRO report about the Shawnee National Forest, and so I'm curious, did you have any thoughts about bigfoot in the show any National Forest or Garden of the Gods specifically. Well, I've been and I've been a speaker twice after the Murphysboro celebration they have with about the big mighty monster down there, and there's another one this year, but I don't have a date yet. Anyway, I read the story of the Big Money Monster in a publication that the the let's see the publication that used to be put out by the Conservation Department, but they quit putting it out, but they ran a nice article a little bit of depth to it about the big Buddy Monster.

45:42 Big Money Monster occurred down there, was seen by several people over about a week's time. Big for society, who will be right back after these messages. In many three I think it was about the twentieth of June and seventy three. And anyway, I got was real, real curious. I wondered, well, that really had been something that went on down there, and so I started spending a lot of time down there, and I took some people down there to help me out. And actually one of the persons I took down there was again was a young guy, and he had a charge sighting on a trail area down there that I got special permission to use, and another person at the party also saw something, but he really didn't see it long enough to identify it.

46:55 So with all the time I've spent down there, I'm pretty sure there is there is something or more than more than one something down in that area, and it had been down there for quite a while, and I've I've looked through different areas down in the Shawnee and yeah, I've seen something, but some of them I really couldn't identify. And my feeling there definitely is something going on down there in the area south of where I was down there, and they're definitely there are definitely something going on. There's no doubt about it that there's something in there. Now. I haven't been able to last a couple of years, haven't spent as much time as saying as I'd like to down there, and I haven't had any more people are any more personal sightings down there, but there's a lot of people that have some stories. I met one lady down there through through one of my friends that lived down there, and she has actually has a plaster cast footprints that her dad took years ago, back in the seventies, and it was high of the situation and the proof that she got you just can't get much better.

48:07 It seems there was a teenage couple that saw an animal, big furry animal, and they were down around Gorham and they saw it real close, and the word got out. And this woman's mother worked, I believe it was at a like a nursing home. She worked the night shift, and she was driving home through this area where this sighting had occurred pretty early in the morning when she got off, I don't know, it was seven or whatever, and she saw this big, big, furry, bipedal animal. She saw it down there walking along the road. So she got home and she told the grandkids, and she told her son what she saw, and her son grabbed that all the plaster hands similar products that he had and went down there and sure enough he found a string of tracks and he made a cast. And his daughter there's still still has the cast and she takes it to a raided schools and it sold something, you know, she's pretty proud of. And I went down and I saw it, and somewhere around I've got some pictures of it.

49:27 And matter of fact, I saw it again two summers ago when they had the Big Buddy Monster Festival down there. They we had the speakers and the movie theater down there, and she brought the cast down there, and everybody that came in to listen to the speakers had a chance to look at the cast that came from down around Gorland, and she adds quite a bit to. It that is fascinating, Harold. So, Shawnee National Force goes pretty much a across the bottom of southern Illinois. Correct. Yeah, it's one of those like a lot of forests and a lot of states. It's got a lot of patches of ground that are in the middle of it, are on the edges of it, and that are under private ownership. But for the most part it it goes across southern Illinois and in most places you can tell where the you know, where the boundaries are, and it's park park areas, like I said, like that are you know, are kind of hard because they are kind of body so you kind of have to watch where you're going, so you don't want to trespass on anybody. But I just make everybody upset.

50:42 Oh absolutely, And have you heard anything specifically from over the years from the Garden of the Gods or eastern like the Shawnee National Forest on the eastern side of Illinois. Down the corner. Up Okay, Well, a Garden of the Gods. I had when I first saw the Garden of the Gods. It was one of the young girls that I met on one of the Actually it was that trip to Hunaby that we talked about last time. That's where I met her, I think, and she showed me Gardens of the Gods. I had never seen it. This is way back. This was like eighteen years ago, and we hiked some areas and looked at it. And she didn't live too far away, so her and her dad made a lot of trips down there, and they made one of their early trips.

51:31 They went down and they did some knocking and tried some yells and stuff. And they went down once in November and they parked the car there and actually it was that Indian Point I think it called that was right right next to the Garden of the Gods. And they got to their their response was they heard frog crow, but the same the same night they also saw uh eyeshine and and something came up and left some kind of prints on their cars too. It's really unusual so they you know, they had a pretty good experience there.

52:19 We were down there that time and we took one day and went to Garden to the Gods and we went, I think it's like West of the Rocks basically where they've got a big trail and in a big hiking area, and there was there's maybe six of us guys and they were pretty much all b f R investigators, and one of them saw something he thought was it was a big foot way back there in the brush, and we saw well, some some some tracks back in there, and definitely something that's using that that area. So it's pretty active. And now there's a little place where you make your northern northern turn off a Carbo Ridge trail or car Carbo Ridge Road, I think they call it.

53:10 And when you when you turn to go uh to a Garden of the Gods, there's they go, oh, I don't know if they call it an outpost or whatever, but it's an ice cream shop and they've got all kind of Southern Illinois souvenirs and a pretty good collection of Midfoot souvenirs and stuff right there. So it's it's a real nice little place to stop and if instead of turning north. If you turn south at that same point, you get down into some real, real brushy areas that I've been down there a few times, but it's so it's so hairy and kind of spooky. I don't know if i'd want to spend a lot of time down there at night. I mean, it's it's it's some really rough areas. But they they tell me that supposedly there was some geological activity or something down there, well, you know, thousands of years ago, and it's a kind of a little valley, and the road runs around the edges of this valley, and it'd be a really great place to spend a lot of time. There's just a lot of places down to sean easy to spend a lot of time looking for any kind of animal that you chose to.

54:25 It's really good area down and through there. Harold. Thank you for I mean, this information is invaluable, and I'm sure that someone listening in that area might be able to make some good use of it. But I really appreciate you spending a few minutes of your time and letting us know what happened a few years earlier in the same area. Okay, that's great, Yeah, it's a really good spot as well, worth the trip down there. And like I said, most years I spent a lot of time down there, but last year I think we for different like Bigfoot conferences or whatever, and we're pretty busy check up a lot of our time where normally we will be out in the field. But anyway, I'm good. Good talk to you again, yes, sir, and that'd be great. Thanks a lot, you too, sir, and bye bye. 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.

55:50 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 big for Society at gmail dot com or pass on my email. 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 bigfoot encounter while 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.

56:35 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. Satsa summerfest this year July eleventh through the twelfth. It's going to be fantastic.

57:17 July eleventh through twelve, in Greenwaters Park and Oakridge Ore again and listeners, if you're going to go, you can get two day ticket for the cost of one if you use the code b FS like Bigfoot Society, but BFS I'll get used some off your cost. Priscilla was nice enough to provide that for my listeners. So there you go. I look forward to seeing you there, so make sure you head over to www dot Sasquatch Summerfest dot com and pick up your tickets today