The Roar in Allegheny with Amy Bue

0:00 Hi, this is Kip Morral. I'm traveling about the United States, but I'm always listening to the Bigfoot Society podcast. Welcome to Big for Society. If you have bigfoot activity to report from the same areas discussed in this episode, please reach out to me directly after this episode. And if you'd like to be on the podcast to discuss a personal bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Do you wish there was more Big for Society to listen to you every week? Well there is now. If you become a supporting member over at Patreon, you get a special members only episode every single week on Wednesdays, and sometimes even more episodes. Head on over to patreon dot com. Forward slash the Big for Society and now let's get on with the show. Three two one, All right, Big for Society. We got the privilege of talking to Amy bou Amyboo is a Ohio based bigfoot researcher and the co founder of Project Zoo book and I'm sure we'll be talking about that later on in the interview.

1:02 But how's it going today, Amy, It's. Going really well. Thank you. Trying to keep cool out here in Ohio. Oh I know it out here now. I'm not succeeding. Here in Iowa. We're burning up. It's a pretty crazy time out here. It'd be nicer to be on the West Coast, I think. But I had the privilege of meeting you out at Monsterfest two. We were able to have a nice dinner with some of your fellow researchers and I guess individuals that you would call your mentor, right, your mentors? Definitely, yes, Yes, we have a nice group of researchers break around where I live in Ohio, so definitely, especially a few of them, I would definitely call my mentors.

1:54 Absolutely. It was a very, very enjoyable chat. And then there was actually outside there was a whole party going on. I think I caught a little bit of that. But you know, listeners, if you're able to go to any of these conferences and festivals, like you know, your Monsterfest and can't Ohio, your Sasquatch Summerfest in oak Ridge, I mean that's where the real magic is going to happen and you're able to learn things that you would not learn on the internet. And I would just recommend people start to take advantage of those times. But let's get into what amy. So what was it? We'll start with the first basic question. So what was it that first got you into all this wild bigfoot stuff?

2:38 To begin with? Well, I saw something. It was twelve years ago in April, and I was a passenger in a car going over a reservoir here in Ohio, and I saw something along the shoreline that I still don't know what it was because it was too far away and we were driving and couldn't stop or anything like that. But it looked to me like what I would think Bigfoot looked like. And at the time when I was staring at it, like from the time we hit the bridge till we got parallel to it, I just was looking at it like what in the world is that? And you know, I was not into Bigfoot at the time, but I knew, you know, the folklore or whatever I thought of Bigfoot, so I knew that this creature, whatever you want to call it, looked like what I had seen, you know, on TV or in movies or you know, in Little Magnet or whatever, you know, what I would think Bigfoot looked like. And as we went past it, it was holding onto a tree it moved. It was very tall and wide, all on color, and as we went past it, I yelled out, I think I just saw Bigfoot. And then the first thing I thought after that was how stupid that was, because there's no such thing as it.

4:08 And you know, I relived that moment in my mind probably every day, because I wish I could say for sure what I had seen. But whatever it was, that's what kind of sent me down the rabbit hole, so to speak. Wow, and what was that in Ohio? That was in Ohio? And so that was another reason, you know, even though when I think back to it, I can say it was not a bear. It didn't have the stance of a bear, it was not shaped like a bear, it did not have a muzzle, you know, So I know it wasn't a bear. I can't be sure what it was, just because in my like when I talked to other witnesses, and we all, oh, not all of us maybe, but a lot of it say the same thing that Bigfoot. You know, when we saw something it was not supposed to exist. So your mind kind of plays tricks with you trying to make sense of it. And since I'm a pretty skeptical person, even to this day, even though I can't, you know, I think I would have been able to tell anything else it would be. But in the back of my head, I keep thinking, what if it was a guy dressed up like a bigfoot? You know, like you know it.

5:28 It still messes with my mind, Like just talking about it, I can see it in my head. I think about it, and that's what it looked like. And now I think it absolutely could have been a bigfoot. At the time, I'm just saying at the time, I thought that was stupid, and I'm like, well, what what is it? Because it's not that. But I still can't say for sure because it was too far away and too quick of a sighting. But I definitely think it could have been because my mind has changed a lot since then. Oh absolutely, I'm sure going from that point of time to where you are now, it's leaps and bounds. But were there any details that you remember seeing that were really hard to explain away in your mind?

6:13 Yeah, Well, first of all, the location where it was. It was next to a body of water that is under the Department of Homeland Security, so I've never even seen a person out there. But to be fair, you know, you have rangers and people that work there, so there could have been a person. It was just really strange to see anything there because you usually don't, so that was the first, you know, thing that caught my eye. But I would say just the breadth of the shoulders. It was so incredibly wide. If it had been a person, I would think they would have had to have some kind of like football pads something on to make it look that disproportionate, Like it didn't look like a person.

7:08 So and then it was all that one color. I feel like, say it was one hundred yards, and that's my best estimate because I still go over that bridge. But I feel like I would be able to tell if a person was standing in the end zone across from me on a football field, and this did not look like a person, especially because of how wide it was. And we've never been able to go in there to try to do a reenactment or anything like that, so it seemed to be very tall as well. But I know your mind could play tricks on you a little bit with how big something is. But it was extremely wide in the shoulders compared to the rest of it, like what I would think a person would look like absolutely.

7:58 In your years after that, you know, maybe watching TV or movies or looking at magazines, have you ever seen any other individual that has that same width of the shoulders or did that ever remind you of that in any ways? Oh yeah, I've seen I've seen illustrations of bigfoot like that. Other people have said they've seen, like Sybylla Irwin does her drawings, you know, based on what witnesses tell her. And definitely I've seen some pictures that look more like that, that very those very wide shoulders with the thinner body, long arms. Now it was holding on to a tree, but I was too far away to really be able to see the other arm or how long it was or anything like that. I couldn't see a face, you know, but it just was that consistent color. So I feel like if it was a human, they had to be doing some kind of a hoax or something like that because they weren't wearing normal clothing.

9:07 Absolutely, And to look at that a different way, have you ever seen that with in maybe if you've been looking at like a sports athlete or a movie star or anything like that, or does nothing even really come close to it? Well, just just like I said, like a football player, you know, with the with the shoulder pads on, but even more pronounced than that. I would say, just how you know, you can have these guys that are really tall, big guys, but they have these huge shoulder pads on and so they look like an inverted triangle kind of. So it was more like more like that. Just the body was a lot thinner, I guess, or narrower than the shoulders.

9:56 It's it's interesting when I've asked that. I asked that. Every once in a while, and more oftentimes than not, individuals will bring up a hul Cogan, which is, yeah, kind of a funny real picture. But now that is true. But I would say, like even more so than him, like even the shoulders even more pronounced. And what in my memory, you know, that's just what I remember being so taken aback by, Like what in the world is that? Absolutely? You mentioned this area sounds very interesting and I haven't heard of many reservoirs that are controlled by the Department of Homeland Security. Is it a place where you can kind of talk about where it is or are you keeping it kind of?

10:38 I can tell, Okay, No, I can definitely tell. It's called Neander Reservoir and it's outside of Youngstown, Ohio. So it's just like such a crazy in my mind at the time place for something like that to be. The reason it's under that is because it's the city's water supply. But if you drive around the perimeter, it's all fenced in. You cannot get in there. You get in a lot of trouble if you try. I mean, you could crawl over a fence or something, you know, but it's not impossible, but I wouldn't try it. But it has a lot of signs that say like wild I think it's it's something like wildlife refuge area, you know. So it's just kind of mysterious, you know, it really is. So that adds to the whole thing. And after I started looking into Bigfoot, which was pretty quick after that, at whatever it was that I saw, I realized that a lot of people, well to me, a lot of people have seen things around there. And as the years have gone by, I've talked to people, you know, maybe I was at a library talk or something like that, or at the park and people will tell me their sightings. And there was like a lady that had a sighting of one crouch down in the water with a duck in its mouth, so she got a really good sighting. And then another gentleman who saw one with a dead deer under its arm walking across the road. So you know, it's it's

12:11 not the hugest forested area, but it's pretty pretty well preserved, and it is something that something could get in and out of, following different waterways and things like that. And you said neanderoir, Yes, So that's that's so interesting, right. I find a study of names and locations to be very interesting when it comes to Bigfoot. You know, we were actually I was mentioning before the interview Henry Franzoni, and he has this great book I want to Spiraciaco maybe where it is h a study into all of the names that are associated with Bigfoot in all the different states.

12:58 And I meander. That sounds like another word to me, maybe neanderthal, But maybe that's kind of going too far. But I don't know. I'm sorry, it's not me. It's me ander, like with the am so like getting meanders around. No, but I see what you're saying. I get what you were trying to say. Yeah, And there's like a there's the reservoir, and I'm not sure if they call it a creek meander creek, I think not a river that comes out of that and meanders its way around. But no, that would have been really cool if it was neander. Wouldn't it. I would have been all about it. So, yeah, you have that sighting and then how quickly after that do you find yourself launching into the world of bigfoot research and going different places.

13:43 Well, it took me about a year before I submitted a report, and back then it was you know, when you start looking into bigfoot and stuff, you see the BFRO pretty quickly. I had not been somebody that watched TV shows. I was not into bigfoot, but you know, like back in the day, I watched In Search of and stuff so and until Mystery, so I knew of it, but again didn't think it was could in any way be real. But I started looking into that. But it was about a year before I submitted a report because I was like, oh, what the heck, I'll do it because at the time I didn't think my maybe sighting was good enough to submit. I because I wasn't sure what I saw, and it was kind of fun. You know for our way and all of that, so I thought, well, they won't want to hear that. Now I know that that's not true, because you know, you want a story of the whole area, and and any any bits of information that come in or worthy, you know, are good.

14:47 You know, if somebody hears something or sees something, or find the print or whatever whatever you're talking about. I think that's really good to show the story of an area. But at the time, like I said, I still was, you know, going back at my head, this can't be true. Is this true? Could it have been that? And it turned into like that year before I submitted my own report, I read and read and read. I really got hooked into this mystery. It absolutely fascinated me because I had no clue that so many people were seeing things. I had no clue of the potential evidence that we have the footprints, the audio, all of the witness reports, which is just fascinating in itself. I got into all the history of it. So even to this day, like whether or not my first maybe sighting was really sasquatch doesn't really matter to me. You know, it was my jumping off point. But that's what got me interested and I spent that whole year. I started going to hear you know, speakers and things like that, you know, if I would see that somebody was going to be close by, and I really just kind of educated myself in it. Then I submitted my report and then like I went to my first Bigfoot conference, I met other people, so then it kind of took off quickly. But I spent a

16:17 lot of time just really familiarizing myself with what could be going on here. Big for society will be right back after these messages, and. I thought, first of all, I thought, you know, I'm gonna this can't be real, So I'm going to prove to myself it can't be real. And then I thought, oh, you know, this is actually interesting. And all through the years since, I've just gotten more and more convinced that these creatures are real.

17:07 I found there was a point for me where I experienced some things that after I experienced that, it just really rocked my worldview. And I had been what I feel was one hundred percent, but it just launched me way way into an area where there's no way I could come back from what I experienced. Did that ever happen to you or was it just a gradual into Okay, now I'm like one hundred and fifty percent Bigfoot and there's no going back. Or was there a catalyst point that really launched you into it? Well, it has definitely been very gradual, and it's honestly only been the last few months where I even say I think Bigfoot is real. You know, I have mostly always said I am a hopefuls skeptic. I think they're real, I'm not sure, and there's still a little bit of that in me, you know, without I've had some other experiences, but never the smoking gun there it is. I am one hundred percent convinced, right, I've never had that myself.

18:16 But it's been in the last you know, this year where I'm like, you know, I keep saying that, and that's true because I think a lot of us there's an occasional day where you get up and you spend so much time doing this, so much effort trying to figure this whole thing out, that there are some days, at least for me, where I'm like, man, what if it's not real? What if I'm wasting my time? You know, it's just you're got to get down a little bit, and I have zero expectations of ever seeing something like I think I could go my whole life and never see something again. And that's okay, but it can mess with your mind a little bit. But anyway, I keep getting off track. Sorry, but I have come to the conclusion and there have been some things along the way that have brought me here so kind of aha moments, if you want to say that. But I've come to the conclusion that when maybe I haven't had that absolute moment, but people that I trust with my wife have you know, friends that have begun become family, and if I you know, if they would say pretty much anything else to me, I would believe them, you know, So why am I not believing them on this? Does that make sense? You know?

19:45 And it isn't been so much that I wasn't believing them, but I and I think it's healthy to be skeptical, you know. I think it's healthy to not think everything is Bigfoot. But there's just so much in my mind, overwhelming clues toward this being a real creature that I can't I can't throw that away anymore. So now you know, I do have that occasional doubtful day, But I really think that I absolutely think they could exist, and I really think that they do. Some of the things that have sent me on that way, I've not just been people who I trust that have told me their stories.

20:28 But one of the things I do a lot now is I go to outdoor shows like hunting and fishing shows. Every year, I go to several of them, and I get so many hunters and fishermen and women who are telling me their stories. You know. I used to have people say, well, if Bigfoot was real, the hunters would see them, and I'm like, they do, they do see them. There are so many reports that I've gotten over the last i'd say five years frominters that I don't think everybody is lying. And when you are talking to a hunter that goes out for bo season looking for bear or you know, whatever it is, they know what a bear looks like. So I think your possibility of misidentification goes way down when you're talking about that. So if everybody's not lying to me and hoaxting and everybody is not misidentifying something, there's something out there now. What it is is up for speculation, but I don't think everybody's lying about it. And I've talked to people who have such an emotional reaction, like visceral reaction when they're telling me their story. You know, I'm a teacher. I know I can't tell when everybody lies to me, but I feel like I'm a pretty good judgment of that. And there have been stories that have been told to me that I absolutely believe these.

21:57 People know exactly what you're talking about. I experienced that in Oregon, and there are people with bloggers and barbers and construction workers and hunters that we're having so visceral reactions in front of me that I didn't even ask them a lot of questions because I didn't want them to be in that emotional state for too long to damage them again. You know, it's just it is extremely intense, and there's no way that you know, I agree with you that all these people are lying and they're not selling books, they don't have a YouTube channel. They just saw something and they're trying to come to grips with what they saw, what they experienced. It's crazy. Over the years, have you been able to go to any actual in the field spots to try to research Bigfoot for yourself face to face in the field.

22:56 I guess you'd say. I do, I have, and I do. I live about, I think, like ten miles from the Pennsylvania Ohio border, so I actually go out to PA a lot more than I do Ohio for research purposes. So the Alleghany National Forest is my home. I always say, my grandpa had a hunting cabin up there, and we, my whole family spent you know, our childhood and teenage years and everything going to that cabin. The cabin's no longer there, but I still go to the area where it was, and I go there for nostalgic reasons and because it's so beautiful and I love it there. But I also go there because there are so many bigfoot reports in that area. So I spend a lot of time in Pennsylvania, also in Ohio, especially in Columbiana County where there are a lot of reports, but all over Ohio. And now you know, over the last several years, I travel quite a bit. So I go out to the Pacific Northwest when I can make it out there, both as a member of the Olympic Project and just you know, doing my own research. I go to Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan.

24:15 Even I have went out to Montana with the members of my project a few years ago and plan on going back so wherever I can make it to. You know, if I'm invited out there to look into a specific and you know, case or specific witness report, I will. But my favorite thing to do is just to get out there on my own and hope, hope something happens. So you've mentioned all these places, have there been Has there been a time where you've been in a certain place and even though you may have you know, you may not be one hundred percent at that time, but something has happened and it's hard to explain away, and it's just things got very very intense and hard to wrap your mind around.

25:05 Oh yeah, absolutely, Which one do you want to hear about? I have? I have several things like that. I have several things like that. I had another possible sighting in twenty eighteen in southern Ohio. I had something really strange that I don't know whether or not, you know, it would be attributed to Bigfoot, But something really odd happened in Pennsylvania. And then I when I was out in Oregon in Mount Hood National Forest. It was just we had hiked in several miles and there were just so many odd sounds going on. There were you know not and some yells and things like that. We were, you know, remote camping out there and found a possible footprint across the lake where we were like fishing for our supper and everything where we had put you know how, I don't know if you can still buy them, but you used to be able to go online. And they were called like sasquatch pheromone chips, which they were not really sasquatch, but they were I think they were like had gorilla urine or something in there. So we somebody that I was with had bought some of those and put one in a tree across the lake, and we had weird sounds coming from there, possible footprint, trees breaking and things

26:42 like that. That was just a lot like we were the only people out there that we knew of. And I always say that to be you know, total disclosure. Could there have been other people? I suppose right, because we were there, but this was not a campsite or anything. We were just camped by lake with our shovels. If you had to go to the bathroom. Know, it was like just very remote and that was a it was creepy. You know, It's wonderful. I loved it, but it was a little creepy. Also, when I was in Stevens County, Washington, I have never been anywhere where I was, I felt such a feeling of oh, just there was something out there, like it was very and it wasn't like a really good feeling. It was more foreboding. The woods were beautiful, there was nothing like a creepy about where we were, but it just had a different feeling to it. I don't know how else to explain that, but I felt like, you know, I had we heard some odd noises there as well, But the weirdest one that happened was in Pennsylvania.

27:55 You want me to tell you about that one, Okay, So this is the one where I'm still not exactly sure what to think. But I saw nightmares about it. And when I say nightmares, it's more like I wake up kind of panicked. You know, Nothing really bad happens or anything like that. Nothing bad did happen, but it was just such a scary feeling. So basically, I think it was about a year and a half ago. Now I could get my times a little different. But I got a call from a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, of all places, and he wanted to do an article about Bigfoot, like a paragraph that was going to be on the front page. It was kind of a teaser thing where I forget what they call that, but it's like he had written one about somebody who used to be the world champion pogo stick jumper or whatever.

28:53 You know. It was like something more lighthearted. And he got ahold of my name because I was a featured speaker at a festival in that area, and so I said, sure, we can do that. But then he was asking me a little bit about what I do, and I started telling him about Project Zoo book, which I'm sure we'll talk about it here in a minute, and he got really fascinated with the whole thing and he's like, wait a minute, you mean it's not just for fun, like you think Bigfoot could actually be real? And like, yeah, I do. Long story short, He got really involved in what we were doing, interviewed a bunch of people, and ended up being like a lot bigger of a deal.

29:37 I guess, if you want to say it that way then I thought at first, But after he was done writing everything. He well, no, he wasn't done yet. I guess he wanted like some experience too, So he asked if myself and some of Projects zoo Book would take him out camping and looking for Bigfoot. And I'm like, we sure will, but just fear warning. We probably won't find anything, just because you know, I don't normally, you know, I'm not somebody that goes out there and finds stuff all the time. But I said, you know, so you know what I mean, Like, I didn't want him to feel like he's going to come out we're going to see Bigfoot everywhere, although you always hope that, right. So he came out in a photographer and the night before they arrived, myself and some of Project zoo Book members who are also my friends, we went up to the area where we were going to be camping.

30:36 Big for Society will be right back after these messages. And this is like for the Alleghandy National Forest, it's pret remote. You know, when you go out to the Pacific Northwest, those forests are huge. De Alleghanies might not be as big, but you can go to places in them where you're not going to see a lot of people. And so to get to where we were going, Like, there are some spots carved out there, but it's again not a campground, no bathrooms, no running water or nothing.

31:22 You're just you have a place where you can have a campfire. And the road to get there, especially at that time, was so horrible, Like I kept thinking the potholes were going to swallow my car. And I have a reason for saying for mentioning that, which I'll tell you in a minute. But it's hard to get to, you know, It's not the easiest place to get to. So anyway, we went up the night before, the evening before, because we wanted to set up camp and have everything ready for them, and so we were not in bigfoot mode, you know. I remember when I first got into this, somebody warned me, like, before you can get out of the car, put your audio recorders on. You never know what you're going to catch. But I wasn't thinking about that.

32:08 I'm just like, oh my gosh, the Wall Street journalist coming tomorrow, so I better get cracking. So we didn't have any cameras set up, we didn't have any audio equipment set up nothing. We were just like, let's set up this canopy you know, so in case it rains, let's have some firewood, all that kind of stuff. So that night we were ready and we went to sleep. Never did any kind of research, nothing, We just were ready. And my friend Tina was in her van because you can drive up to the area where we were at, you know, there's some places to park, so she slept in her van on a cot. Next to her van in a tent was Monica. And I'm saying kind of giving you an idea what it was like, because that's important too. Then I'm so bad at distances, but I don't know, like maybe twenty yards away was me and my tent, and then further away from me were our friends Kevin and his daughter, and they were in tree hammocks, like tent hammocks up in a tree, and their dog was on the ground beneath them. So you kind of get this setup a little bit. So we had gone to sleep. It was dark. This area that you're in, you cannot, like very rarely get a text or a phone call or anything to go through. It's you know,

33:39 there's just no service up there. So I'm in my tent and I couldn't sleep right away. It was very windy at first, and I was like playing a game on my phone, like something you didn't have to have WiFi for, and I was reading a little bit and as I was doing that, but I feel this, and I think I had like dozed off kind of you know, I can't I can't remember. It was just kind of like I need to fall asleep type of thing. And I feel this really odd feeling. So I don't know if you knew that. I am much much better. But a few years ago I got really sick and I was put into heart failure by when I got a really bad bout of COVID. So I had been very sick, had a lot of heart problems, and have been recovering ever since. So the reason I say that is like I thought something was wrong with my heart, Like it was just like I felt like it was like vibrating beating really heavy, and I'm like putting my hand on my chest. I'm like, oh my gosh, what's wrong. And I wasn't feeling nervous or you know, anything like that, So I'm like, why is this happening? So I'm lying there and it kind of the feeling kind of made me start to feel a little bit panicky because I'm like,

35:12 oh my gosh, we're really far away, not just from a house or anything or to call anything, but to get to a hospital. It would take a really long time to get to. So I was nervous, but I just lie there for a little bit, lay there. I'm an English teacher. I just lay there for a little bit and I had to think about it for a minute, and I was nervous but that finally went away. But it shook me up enough that I just kind of was awake then and I'm like, what the heck was that? So about an hour later, I'm lying there again, and I, oh my gosh, like even to say it, like, I wish I could describe what this was like, but I can't, too, I can't, but I'll do my best. So I'm lying there in the dark. I had tried to message and tried to text Tina and the others, but it was it was windy, like I could have yelled, but I was also trying to like not ruin everybody's time, you know, So I'm like, uh, you know, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. So I was trying to convince myself of that, so About an hour later, I'm lying there and out from the woods like to the left past Tina's van, but to the left of it, so kind of behind where my car was parked. I hear this god awful roaring yell come out of the woods, and all I

36:48 I just remember freezing, like, oh my gosh. It was absolutely terrifying. I wasn't in my head thinking bigfoot at the time. I didn't know what to think. I am not like the world's most knowledgeable person when it comes to animal calls, but I'm pretty knowledgeable about it. I'm a certified volunteer naturalist in Ohio. Had to go through different training, and I also train myself, you know, and take other classes and they train myself about animal calls and things like that, because I always say, I think it's important to know what isn't bigfoot, you know, like what other things are making noises and leaving tracks and things like that. So I knew it was not a bear.

37:33 I'm what it sounded like to me was like one of those warrior men, those island warriors where they do that is the hakkah, is that what it's called. Just that those yells, you know that they do It wasn't a scream, really. I might have called it that in the past, but it's more it was more. Of a really big, deep, loud yell, like aggressive, and like now when I look back at it, I feel like if I was standing in front of whatever or whoever was doing that, like my hair would have blown back, like in a cartoon or something, because it was just so powerful.

38:18 So I'm in that tent and I'm like, oh my gosh, Like I was just thinking, like we're all going to be murdered by somebody or something, you know. I just it was I was scared. So I was quiet for a little bit and then I was just like, I got to get out of here. I didn't want to be in that tent, you know, like a sitting duck or whatever. So you know, and I've been I've camped places like I've camped where there've been grizzly bears and mountain lions and you know, scary things. And I'm not sitting here saying I've never been scared before, because I have, but never to the point where I was like, get me out of here. And I made a move for that.

39:04 So my stomach was upset. It was just really scary. So I ended up getting out of the tent and I went over to my car, and you know, in the meantime, like I had called out to Monica, she finally heard me and she's like, are you okay? And I ended up in my car, and Tina said from her van, like she she heard Monica and I talking, she could see me with my head lamp on, like looking around all night because I just sat in my car steared so fast forward to the next morning, like nothing else ever happened that night, but I could not sleep. And the next morning, we were all bedraggled and sitting there drinking some coffee, and Tina was like, to my left, Monica was to my right, Kevin was over further to the right. We're all talking and we're talking a little bit about some stuff. And then Tina said, well, in other news, I think I'm gonna have to miss all of this whole thing today with the reporter. And we were like, what happened? And she said, well, I think I was having a medical emergency last night because I was having these really bad heart palpitations. And I myself and Monica just like whipped our heads around because we had already talked about the yell and stuff, but I had like the yell scared me so much that I wasn't thinking about the heart beating weird stuff. And we're like,

40:37 that happened to me, that happened to her, now did not happen to Kevin. He was up in the tree though, so I don't know if that's why, and he was further away. But another thing, when that yell happened, I heard it, Monica did, and Kevin's dog started barking, and the dog was barking toward where it came from and also the other way, and it wouldn't settle down until have been like unzipped his hammock tent and brought the dog in with him. So it's like everybody was experiencing something, but Kevin didn't hear it. It was windy, so I don't know, like I don't know the dynamics of why some of us experienced certain things and why so it was heard things and others didn't. But it was interesting how we could kind of corroborate things. Still don't know what that was, and I don't automatically jump to it was bigfoot, although who knows there's been lots of sightings there, which is why we were taking them there. We tried to do our due diligence to figure out what that could be. You know, we looked into fracking, if there was any fracking going on around there, if there's any seismic activity going on around there. The reason I talked about how bad the road is, like I absolutely am sure if it was like some kind of a truck or something coming up, we would have known that, Like that would not have been that would not have been a secret if any kind of vehicle came up there.

42:06 But that's not what it felt like. And for several weeks after that, especially Tina and I were both having these weird nightmares about it, like just like waking up panicked, like, oh my gosh, there's something there. There's something there. And I said to her, you know what, it reminded me of that weird vibration, you know, I said it, it reminded me kind of a Jurassic Park where the glass of water was vibrating when the when the t Rex was walking around, you know, like it was like boom boom, or like a bass in a music or something. So I don't know, what it was, Jeremiah, But I still think about it. And the last time, well the last several times that I've been up there, I've still I haven't camped in a tent. I've camped in my car.

43:00 I slept in my car because it really shook me up. I don't know what it was. So that's that creepy story. That's an extremely creepy story. And I don't like to talk about myself a lot on these, but in this case I'm going to because I have also experienced that. The way you described it is the same exact thing that I experienced when I went out a month or so ago and my son to Dono Tate Hieronymous I do. I don't know him personally, but I know who he is yet. Yeah. So he has a research area in Iowa, and we go there and my kid wanted to go out on a bigfoot adventure. And I've talked about this before, but pretty much what happened to me the night we were staying over, when it was dusk is I started having heart palpitations exactly how you described it, and I thought that we were going to have to drive immediately to a hospital, and my mood it changed, and it was even to the point where I almost walked away from this completely until we left the area in about ten minutes away from the area, my mood changed and I've always wondered what that was. And it's just really interesting to hear you describe what happened to more than just you.

44:17 And I've been trying to figure out is this an infrasound thing or what is this because it's in an extremely squashy area too. We've talked about that. Somebody brought that up to us, and I'm like, I don't know if that's what it was. I suppose it could have been. You know, I'm open to that explanation. It physically affected us, you know, I mean, my mom's going to say this is TMI, but the real reason I got out of the tent to get to my car was I also had to go to the bathroom. Like it just affected me my stomach and everything. So sorry, but I mean, I but honestly, that's happened to other people, so really that's important detail where it was like it just shook my entire self up. So I don't know if that's what it was or not.

45:08 I don't know, but it was really disconcerting. For sure, it is I can definitely see how that would be affecting your your dreams. That's a scary, scary thing to live through. And after this I will have done other episodes before this comes out. But I've also experienced the roar out in the Willlamme att National Force, similar to what you experienced, And it's just the more I get into this, and it's like there's something going on out in the woods. If people in different parts of the US are experiencing similar things like this, it's just some kind of This is a mystery. It needs to be solved. And I think this is a perfect segue into if we could talk about what you're doing with Project zoo Book to further.

46:03 The solving of this mystery. Absolutely so Project zoo Book in a nutshell, we call ourselves a think tank of researchers and scientists, and we started in twenty eighteen. I think I first met our first to primate zoologists in twenty seventeen, but we kind of started in twenty eighteen to really talk about things. They had a Bigfoot lunch club they called it at their zoo in the primate department because they especially the two that I'm talking about, But the other zookeepers at the time were also interested in bigfoot, and I stumbled across one of them out in a Facebook group and we became friends and our colleagues. And it's longer story than that, but long story short. From that time, when we first started just having kind of group phone calls, I knew at the time that at least I hadn't had a lot of scientists that were taking the topic of bigfoot seriously.

47:16 Big for society, who will be right back after these messages. So I felt like, I mean, maybe it sounds dramatic, but I did feel a responsibility to bring people to them that knew a lot more than I did. You know, I have read a lot and I experienced some things. But although I don't think there are experts in bigfooting, there are people that know more, you know, or who have experienced more and know about certain topics and all of that. So we just started having these every other Thursday night. We started having these phone calls. Then it turned into zoom calls once that became more popular, and we've been doing it ever since. We you know, we have independent researchers in Project Zoo book, where I always call myself kind of the coordinator of things, where say one Thursday night, there's a whole bunch of us on a zoom call, and it could be like we have a certain topic I like infrasound, like we were just talking about something like that, where we might get an expert in the scientific arena to talk about that. Or we have some primatologists that will talk about great apes

48:47 and different behavior. We have wildlife biologists, we have marine biologists, we have anthropologists, et cetera. And everybody brings something to the table where we will discuss things about, you know, if bigfoot is real, because a lot of our scientists are still hopeful skeptics like what I call that. Some have had experiences so they know it's real, they say, But we're trying to number one, make the topic of bigfoot less taboo in scientific circles, like doctor John binder Naga wanted to happen, so we're kind of standing on his shoulders and furthering that a lot of our scientists are still I always say, in the bigfoot closet, where they are very open to it and perhaps even saw one, but are worried about losing their funding or credibility. Unfortunately, I get it. I always say I'm the mama bearer of the group because if they don't want to be involved openly, then that is fine with me, because I think somedays that's going to happen. I just support however much they want to dip their toes out into the public world through all of this. So we have some that have spoken with me at different places. We have others who were interviewed for Doug Hicheck's upcoming Sasquatch Legitimate

50:17 Science documentary, and then we have some who probably will always remain a bit under the radar, undercover because of their jobs. I always say that to not just the general public, but to people in academia some people, not all, but some people. If a scientist says they are seriously looking into bigfoot as a living breathing species, that they might as well be saying that they are looking for smurfs. I say that a lot, but I think it's a really good analogy where for some people, others are more open to it. And another thing I want to say about it, I have a couple of things. One thing I want to say about it is that We don't claim to know exactly what bigfoot is. Our interest and our area of study is could there be a living, breathing, pooping, mating natural creature out there? Like that's where our research is based. I personally have friends who look at things very differently, and I'm fine with that. Like, I think everybody should take their interests, take you know, their experiences, and follow the path that you know they're kind of interested in following. So and maybe the answer is somewhere in between all of it. But you know, I hate it when people are always fighting in the bigfoot community because to me, a lot of times when people talk

51:50 about like the woo or more paranormal supernatural things. And I'm not just saying this to be wishy washy or not, but I truly think that some of that it's just science we haven't put a name to yet or we haven't figured out how it works yet. So in Zoo Book Project Zoo Book, we're definitely you know, using scientific method seeing where that takes us. That is what I think Bigfoot could be. But I'm a cheerleader for other groups or individuals that take a different stance. I guess the other thing we hope to accomplish is you know, we have all these different individuals, whether you talk about the scientists or the researchers, and we have a lot of different projects going on, so we might have a lot of things I can't talk about it. I'm not trying to be vague, but you know, just out of respect for the scientists, but we might have you know, this researcher in scientists out in the Pacific Northwest working on a micro study of an area, or we might have a couple of the scientists working on data collection, you know, from different reports. There's lots of stuff going on, and we get together on those Zoom calls to talk about what people are doing, to listen to witness reports, to share our own experiences, and we hope that someday

53:22 just there's a lot of crossover between the Olympic Project and Project Zoom Book. We have a lot of members shared, but so we share the goal of being able to someday take any bits that we've either learned or conjectured, you know, because again we're not experts. We're trying to figure this out just like everybody else. But when and if Bigfoot is confirmed as a new species, that we would be able to take what we've learned and hand it to the powers that be and trying to to help preserve and protect them as a species. So that's our goal. We have a lot of fun. We've been going strong for six years now, and I love it.

54:15 It's one of my favorite things to do and one of my favorite things that I'm involved in. It's refreshing to hear someone else say the same viewpoint that I personally hold, which I've always felt that like kind of you said, feels like you're doing a cop out, but I mean that is literally My viewpoint too, is that it's probably a physical creature that can do stuff that science can't understand. You, That's what I think you know? And why not? I mean, there's so much we don't know. I think it's to me personally, I think it's arrogant to act like we know everything. Right. There could be two different things going on, one with a physical creature and something else that but are experiencing. I don't know, but I'm not afraid to say that. You know, I think absolutely think Bigfoot could be just a I don't think any animal or person is normal, but you know, I think it could be a earthly creature, and that would be so cool if that's what it is, and that's where our work is focused. I always say that while I'm out looking for Bigfoot, wouldn't it be awesome if I found a new fungus or something like that, you know, especially as a as a volunteer naturalist, that would be really neat. But I think it's important to be looking outside the box too. That's where most of the scientific discoveries are are outside the box.

55:45 Absolutely there, there's just so many. I would say, it's weird stuff, and it would be great if we could in some way discover that, yeah, there is maybe some animal that can affect affect our hearts, or even maybe the way that we think or the way that we hear in certain areas. I heard some very interesting theories out in Oregon over a week or so ago. The UAP community or the UFO community has been having a field day over the last few years with just different things coming out, different disclosure things.

56:32 Do you think that we might ever. Get to the point where there's like a Bigfoot disclosure heyday or maybe maybe not. I think there could, absolutely there could be, you know, if they are real and I do think that they are. But let's say they are. I do think it's just a matter of time for that to happen. You know, I've never ever been a huge conspiracy theorist, but I find myself more and more wondering about things like that, especially after the UAP information that's come out lately. You know, being a friend of Micah Hanks puts me in that in that, you know, he started heart started me being really interested in all of that, and I'm like, wow, you know here, I am, Oh, they would tell us if they knew anything, and nope. So I think I think that there definitely could be a day of reckoning where, you know, I don't know if that's the case, but I think there could be where we find out, oh, we've known they were there all along. Why not.

57:45 Absolutely your research from the years and going different places, do you have a feeling where, Man, it feels like probably this area of the US is at the end of the day, it's going to be the place where it all goes down. You know, I mean, just from spending time out there when you're in the Pacific Northwest. I was told and I've never researched this for myself, but it sounds right. I was told that in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, you know, covering that area, that there are like fifty this is true, I don't know, but I've been told that they're like over fifty small aircraft missing. And to me, that's not even hard to believe because when you're there, those forests are so huge, and here we are looking for something where they can move around. They are intelligent, they can hide. You know, there might not be that many of them, you know, compared to a bear or anything like that. So I personally think it could be out there. What I do, what I think it should, where I think it should come from. And you know, I have mixed feelings about it. I just I just spoke at a library and one of the people asked me, like, why are you trying to expose them? Why don't you

59:17 just let them stay hidden? And I'm like, believe me, I hope that they stay hidden. You know, that would be the best scenario. Like I selfishly, I would love to have a really good sighting just so I would never doubt it again, you know, But that would be the perfect thing, is if they just stay to themselves and it's always a mystery, and they'll be protected like that. But I just feel that someday it's going to come out and it's going to be people like us that are going to have to fight for them to be protected. But back to your question, if and when that truth comes out, I hope that comes from our indigenous people.

1:00:03 That's probably the thing that keeps me going the most, and the thing that I have the most interest in and the most respect for. You know, I was out in Montana a group of us from Project Zubook. We're invited to go out to the Blackfeet Reservation there overlooking Glacier National Park, and these wonderful ladies invited us out there. We camped on their private land. They took us on a hike where different in a meet Topee And I hope I'm saying that right. But Harryman's sightings had been We talked to different members of the Black Creet Nation and they told us about their experiences with the Hairyman, and they were just so matter of fact about it.

1:00:47 You know, you had asked me earlier about were there was there any times when I kind of had an awakening about or I'm not sure that was your word, but like an aha moment about these that would have been one of them spending time with the Blackfeet, and just that it was taken for granted that they were real. Another time is when I was out at the nest site for the Olympic Project and I was there with two primate specialists and the looks on their faces when they talked about how those nests looked so much like the gorilla us they had seen over in Africa. You know, those were like my, oh my gosh, Bigfoot is real moments.

1:01:29 You know, big for society will be right back after these messages. But I hope that our first nations, our indigenous people, have something to do with you know, if it gets to that where there's no more denying the fact that they exist, that they're going to be involved in protecting Bigfoot, the harry Man, Sasquatch, and the meetp whatever you call them, skuncape, I think we should listen to them.

1:02:16 Oh, I absolutely agree, And so you were This is really interesting because this is an anecdote that I've heard and also said multiple times. Usually when people ask me what they what my favorite Bigfoot evidence is, and I'll say something to the effect of well, the Olympic Project found these nests and they brought these primatologists out there, and the primatologists were like, wow, it seems like this, and so you were actually there for that. I was there. Yeah, it was two of our two from our pro Project Zoo book that we flew out and I was already in I was already a member of the Olympic Project at the time, but even members of the Olympic Project, not everyone has been to that nest site. So I did an automatic assumed that I was going to get to go, but Derek Grandalls kindly invited me to come along. So I was like the fly on the wall, like super excited about it. But I will just never ever forget the looks on their faces.

1:03:15 These two individuals worked with great apes. You know. One of them was over in Africa. The curator at a zoo he used to work with was one of the first scientists that had ever seen across river gorilla in the wild. You know. He had lived there for eight years on the border of Cameron in Nigeria, and he finally saw some cross river gorillas for ten seconds and then they were gone. And after eight years, you know, so these are people that know what they're talking about, and they've never said for sure, you know, and even the Olympic Project, we don't say for sure that that's what's making the nests, but it absolutely seems like it, you know, it really does. And the primate specialists they were like, you know, these look like what you know, like the nests had different personalities. They talked about how like chimpanzees will make different nests, like the females often take a lot more care and making their nests, and the males usually just throw some throw some you know, sticks or whatever down, you know, whatever plant material they have and sleep on that. And they were talking about how gorillas set up their nests in the wild and how the nests there in the Olympic Project really mimicked that with the sightlines to each other. And they were talking about how there were some smaller nests that were

1:04:46 up in some bushes and they weren't very well made, and they said that they looked a lot like practice nests that gorilla mothers will use to tea each they're young how to make a nest. And then we would talk about things like you know, orangutans only have young every seven and a half I think years, and so maybe this area was a birthing area of how you know, it's really really remote and you have to like belly crawl to some of the areas there, and there's a means of aggress down that embankment down to the salmon stream and plenty of food and just that's what's so cool about Project Zoo Book. When there they got interested in Bigfoot partly from listening to stories about it and noticing bits and pieces of and clues like and bits and pieces of information that somebody like myself, you know, I'm an English and reading teacher, I wouldn't know that that's something that that a primate would do. Does that makes sense? Like they absolutely they would pick up on things that we wouldn't pick up on. So it's just so much fun, it really is. I've learned so much, learned so.

1:06:06 Much that that one that the bit of conversation that you provided about how they look at those nests is I mean that that is incredible. Thank you for sharing that, because I know it's probably something where you know, you wouldn't know that information unless you were there with those people to observe it. So that that is very special. Asking about a certain area just because I like the certain area. Have you ever had the privilege of going to Oklahoma, idol? I have not. I would love to, just haven't made it there yet.

1:06:47 It is on my list for twenty twenty five. Hopefully, I hope you get to go. I'll be going back to Oregon for sure, but I've always want to check out Oklahoma, especially the southeast. But yeah, I hope you get to go. Yeah, I've been out to Texas but not to Oklahoma yet. Is that like the set in the southeast Texas? Or Yeah? I think that's the southeast. It's like the Four Corners. Now I'm getting my geography wrong. Yeah, where is everything? Yeah? I went down there like for a Bigfoot conference a few years ago, and then I traveled around a bit down went down to Arkansas and Boggy Creek and all kinds of stuff. So it was a fun trip I made.

1:07:39 Do you get a ton of reports I would imagine. I mean it sounds like you get a ton just from wildlife nature shows, hunting shows. Do you get a lot of reports about how the individual what they saw? They described it as an orangutan? I have had a few. I've had a few like that, especially from that color, you know, that kind of reddish brownish orange color. I had One of my favorite reports I ever had was actually from Alabama, and they described it more like a gorilla than an orangutan. But it was down like on its knuckles. So and I don't hear that very often, but they saw something by a bridge and it was crouched down like that. But you know, once in a while, like in orangutan, not too often.

1:08:36 We get a lot in northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania, we get a lot of reports of cream color or white sasquatch. Oh that's interesting I've gotten. I mean there's of course the northeast Alabama and then northeast Pennsylvania as well as really really interesting. One of my favorites was from a wildlife exterminator who had no interest in never thought about Bigfoot, but he was calling coyotes in an area and he saw what he described as a four foot tall, white, creamish colored primate that he thought escaped from somewhere and didn't think about it as Bigfoot until later on when he started getting interested in and he's like, oh my gosh, maybe that's what it was, because he couldn't figure out what it was, you know, and he never his brain didn't go to Bigfoot because it was four foot tall, you know.

1:09:35 But in that same area, the same summer he had that sighting, there was another gentleman who showed me pictures of some footprints that were like a quarter mile away from that sighting that were very unusual footprints that matched a lot of prints that we think are from Sasquatch. So something's out there. Oh yeah. The stuff I hear from Ohio alone is so weird, weird stuff. What do you What do you do specifically with the Olympic Project? Amy, Well, when I'm out there, I go out, We go out to the newer nest site and the old one, and we do a lot of research out in that area.

1:10:20 The last time I was there, I helped shame course and to like change batteries and the different in the different recorders and things like that. So I do just go out there and help with that kind of thing. But I'm more of a you know, I live in Ohio, so I'm a Midwest representative of it. I do a lot of speaking at different places trying to get new scientists involved in the mystery of Bigfoot, and so I tell people a lot about the Olympic project and share that with different scientists. I'm working with a certain university, their biology department, and so I'm kind of spreading the word as a Midwest representative of it. But when I'm out there, I go out and help as much as I can.

1:11:10 That that is really really cool. I first off, I want to say thank you for spending some time with me today to talk about your research and projects Zoo book and it has been fascinating. But before before the end of our time, I just want to say, so I know there's a few listeners at least that they are scientists or some related field I talk to. I mean, I talked to an individual from India the other day in the wildlife conservation community, and so I know these these individuals are listening to my show because they reach out. But if you could share with these listeners, how can they reach out to you if they're interested in, you know, finding out more about projects zoo book and maybe it's something that they can help out with as a scientist.

1:12:00 That would be wonderful. That's really why I do what I do. So I really really appreciate that. My email is Bigfoot Amy Amy at gmail dot com, so it's easy to remember. We are finishing up working on a website, and when it gets finished, we're gonna make it interactive where people can go on there and ask like certain types of scientists certain questions. So we'll have our primatologists and our zoo keepers and our anthropologists wild I follow us all on there. Some of them you'll get to know them personally. Others just because of their jobs. Again, they might have like a little cutout of a silhouette or something like that, but they'll be on there to answer questions. We'd love to hear people's stories, so there'll also be a way to get a hold of us.

1:12:52 I think I think you even can now get a hold of us through that website, but it just comes to my email bigfoot Amy at gmail dot com. I would love to talk to people if you have a really good sighting where especially if it does seem like you were saying like more great apish in in the sighting, especially, we would love to hear that. But no, we would we would love to talk to more scientists and people who love them. That's fantastic. And do you have any upcoming events that people can meet you at or talk to you at in person? Sure? In Oh my gosh, I'm forgetting dates. But in September October, I'm going to be in one of the weekends.

1:13:38 I'm going to be in Indiana for their first like Indiana Bigfoot Conference. I'll be in Michigan at their Bigfoot and Bruise b R E W S b R U I S E event. And I'm going to be in Kentucky at a conference as well. So I have that if people are on Facebook, they can friend me, and I have information about that on Facebook. I am just finishing up a whole summer full of libraries where I do things for both adult and kids, because the kids programs here in Ohio and PA have had like a cryptid theme. So I've been all over the place talking to kids about getting out in nature. And you know, I always say, Bigfoot is so much fun for kids.

1:14:32 So where they might not go out to look for a snake, they'll go upside to look for Bigfoot. So that's another good thing. I'm going to be here in Pennsylvania, not this weekend, but next weekend. I'm going to be helping with an event that is raising money for Hunt of a Lifetime. It's kind of like make a Wish for critically ill kids, but they want to go out hunting, Like these kids are hunters or fisher fisher kids, and so we raise money for that. And some of the kids want to go not hunt to shoot, but want to go look for bigfoot. So I'm going to be involved in that. I'm sure I'm missing some things, but those are the big ones that I'm doing. All my outdoor shows start back up in the spring.

1:15:25 Wow. That that is awesome. You're involved with way more than I knew about. That's that's really cool. But Amy, thank you so much for coming on. It has been a pleasure and I'm glad that we find that. I'm glad we finally got h to chat on the podcast. Thank you me too. Thanks so much, Jeremiah, this was fun. Thank you. Please take a minute to help out the show by subscribing on YouTube, making sure you hit the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and share the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if you're listening to us on a podcast, thank you so much, make sure that you're subscribed. Share the show with a friend. Really, it's all about sharing the show wherever you can. If you've had a Bigfoot encounter related to the following, or know someone who has, please reach out to me at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com or pass on my email.

1:16:19 Here's the list. If you've had any encounters in Oregon, which I'm sure there's probably a few of you out there, please feel free to reach out immediately. You can use email Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. 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. If you want to join in the fun, you can join over at Patreon dot com forward slash the Bigfoot Society. I'll see you there, and again, thanks for listening.

1:17:42 Her and I can get on here. We can tell our stories. Maybe there's somebody else out there listening. That's too afraid to tell their story. Maybe this will. Give them the courage to come out. And I feel so bad about it. Who cares what anybody thinks. I know what I saw, I know what's out there. That's all I care about it. Please let people know, Please let them. Know if you ever see one of these things, you need to tell because if you don't, then shame on you.

1:18:25 You have shame on you.