"We Saw a Bigfoot While Fishing the Lake in Arkansas."

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Either you're listening to the Big Fort
Society podcast and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Every

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week I talk to individuals who have
experienced Sasquatch in some way or another,

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so you won't want to miss an
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so by becoming a Patreon supporter or
a YouTube channel member. Links to those

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are in the show notes in Bigfoot
Society. I've taken far too much of

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your time so far, so let's
get on with the show, all right,

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Big for Society. You've got the
privilege of talking to Rusty today.

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Rusty is a MD and a surgeon. He's a specifically a cancer surgeon and

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also an outdoor enthusiast down in the
area of Arkansas. How's it going today,

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Russie? Good, Thank you very
much. I was excited when you

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reached out to me. You've got
an interesting story and it's also one of

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those that are also documented on the
BFRO, which is always fun. But

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how are things going down there in
your neck of the woods right now?

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Well, we've had a really hot
summer, so I'm hoping it's about to

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cool down because it's been hard to
even get out door as much at all

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this summer. Otherwise, things going
pretty well, fantastic. It's it's always

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interesting when you're when I'm able to
talk to someone who has such an interesting

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background and might we might get into
that later. But one thing I wanted,

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let's start with this, So looking
at the BFRORO report, there's one

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detail that I noticed that before,
you know, I let you share your

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story. It might be interesting to
start here. Your encounter happened in the

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year nineteen eighty per the report.
Correct, it was submitted by yourself on

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March first of two thousand and six. Why did it take you twenty six

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years to report this because I didn't
know the BFRO existed until shortly before that

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time. You know, I was
in college at the time, and there

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was no such things, well,
no such things the internet even you know,

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in nineteen eighty U and I went
to college, went to medical school,

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did my medical training, and worked
very hard. And as you might

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guess, that takes a lot of
time for many years, so I really

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just kind of put it out of
my mind. And then somehow I stumbled

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on you know, I forget exactly
what it was, but some Bigfoot related

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topic online and it, you know, brought reminded me of my experience that

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I had so long ago, and
I searched around a little bit and found

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the bfrovent and reported it then simply
out of you know, a happy accident.

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If nothing else. That's very interesting. I guess that makes total sense

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with the timeframe that it took place
in. Listeners, if you're younger,

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you have to realize that the internet
wasn't around forever, so pretty pretty wild

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stuff. But Rusty, let's go
back to that time in nineteen eighty and

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yeah, I'd love it if you'd
be able to share kind of what happened

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and what was going on in that
timeframe. Sure. Well, I was

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in college at the time, so
I was twenty twenty one years old.

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It was the summer of nineteen eighty
and as a college job, I was

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working at a resort type lake in
Arkansas, and in the evenings my buddy

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and I he and I worked out
there together and had been friends in school,

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so we were very close in the
evening after the lake closed and we

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sent all the picnickers and swimmers and
stuff home. He and I will go

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fishing most nights. So one evening
in I want to say, it was

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probably late June or so, so
it was probably seven pm and still bright

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daylight in that part of the country
in late June. We're out fishing as

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we normally did. We were in
a like a fourteen foot aluminum john boat

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with a trolling motor and just slowly
paralleling the shore, probably ten fifteen yards

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out from the water's edge, you
know, slowly moving down the parallel the

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shore, like I said, and
didn't hear anything, and all of a

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sudden we heard a little rustling on
the shore, you know, again like

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I said, fifteen yards maybe away
from us, and looked up and there

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was a best I can describe it
is the head and shoulders from about I

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just maybe nipples up of a manlike
creature that was covered with hair except for

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the face looking back at us basically, and you couldn't see the rest of

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him because the brush was so heavy
there. So it was like behind,

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you know, trees and bushes and
stuff from like I said, from a

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bounce, nipples down, so I
really couldn't make out anything defendingly, you

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know, beyond that his face was
I've always said it was more or less

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human. I thought it was more
human than ape like for example, but

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it was dark skin. Then there
was no hair really on the face.

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It only started like at the hairline
and like the jawn line and downs.

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Really it didn't seem to register any
expression. I think I took it at

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the time as we might have just
surprised it because we were quiet, We

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weren't even speaking, we were just
slowly drifting and like we just happened up

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on it by chance and cried by
surprise, like maybe he was coming down

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to the water. He or she
was coming down to the water to you

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know, just get a drink or
something. Who knows, and just happened

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up on us. This is This
lake is pretty isolated. It's right off

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the Mississippi River. It's one of
the old horseshoe type lakes where the river

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changes course and leaves a lake behind. And it's on private property, so

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there was nothing surrounding it but Forrest
by Spence wallps for several miles, so

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it's relatively isolated. Any rate.
So we sat there looking at him for

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maybe ten seconds at most, not
any more than that, and it turned

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and walked back into the undergrowth,
and within a few seconds we couldn't see

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it anymore. We heard it for
a few more seconds. You could actually

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hear it moving through the undergrowth,
but it didn't seem to make any kind

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of vocalization. And like I said, within a few seconds of turning away

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from us, he was gone.
Here she was gone. And we never

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heard anything else really that we were
convinced or saw any sign after that of

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it again. And obviously, as
I guess, we were fairly unnerved at

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the time because I was twenty and
my buddy was, you know, maybe

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a year older. So we left
immediately at that point. We went back

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to our cabin, which is at
the other end of LA and stayed there

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and talked about it. And we
really didn't tell anybody about it, not

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even his parents who actually owned the
property, because we didn't know what to

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tell him. You know, we
thought Jesus is just weird. I mean,

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we both knew of the Bigfoot phenomena, but had never really thought much

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about it. You know, we've
seen the movies and so forth, but

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never really thought much about it,
so we didn't know what to say or

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what to anticipate if we did say
anything. And what would you say,

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you know, Oh, there's a
monster loose on the property. Oh yeah,

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sure, were you guys drunk again
last night? You know. I

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mean, that's the kind of thing
we were worried about. So we basically

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kept quiet about it, like I
said, for in most of those years.

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I eventually told my wife a number
of years later, who was actually

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my girlfriend at the time, and
then, like I said, many years

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later, reported it to DFROO,
and I talked about to a number of

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people, you know since then.
My buddy actually died a few years ago,

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so he was my only other eyewitness. So that's pretty much the story

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that is really really interesting. Do
you have a few questions for you,

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if that's all right? So few
about the sighting of the actual creature.

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What you saw, So you said
there was kind of a dark skin that

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you noticed. Do you remember an
actual color to the skin or just that

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it was a more dark skin you
know, I guess I would say just

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a very dark brown, not quite
black, but pretty close to it.

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And it wasn't even like Ploicrin phrase
this. It wasn't even like, it

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didn't seem like a human skin zone. It was like a black man versus

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a white man. You couldn't even
I wouldn't even say that. I mean

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it was darker than that. Interesting. That is very interesting. You said

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that the features that you saw in
the face were more human than ape.

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Were there any specific features that you
remember seeing that that kind of contributed to

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you thinking, Okay, this is
definitely seems more like a human creature than

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an ape type creature. You know, I think the nose was probably the

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distinguishing factor that that led me to
think that, you know, instead of

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having what you would imagine as an
ape or a monkey having sort of flattened,

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large nostril up flared nostril nose,
it was very much human nose.

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It's fairly narrow pointed downward. You
know, it really had, like I

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say, more, it looked like
a human nose. Interesting that the hair,

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did you did you notice anything?
You know, you said that it

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was covered with hair except for the
face, not the entire face, But

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did you notice anything about the length
of the hair, color, anything that

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you notice the ordinary to do with
the hair that was on the creature.

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Yeah, I thought the hair was
was brown, but not as brown the

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face. And there's the face.
I thought the skin was distinctly darker than

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the hair surrounding it. And I
would have guessed the hair was several inches

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long anyway, if not longer.
And it did seem to be kind of

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what's the right word tangled or matted
to some degree, you know, unkempt.

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I guess might be a working use
for a human. And like I

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say, I didn't see anything below
the nipples, so I couldn't tell you

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anything about like the palms or the
soles of the feet, but that really

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the face was the only part that
seemed to be from our vantage point.

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You know, here free interesting and
you know, just to come right out

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and ask it. A thing that
you've mentioned multiple times is as a point

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of reference. So when you say
around the point of the nip, is

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that something you actually saw or is
it a thing like I would guess those

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are where they would be on the
creature, right, that that was really

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it. I didn't mean to mister
lead you. I could not say that

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we definitely saw any nipples, you
know, I will say we could see

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how would I phrase this, you
know, a prominence like your pectoral muscles,

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and there was you know, a
really well built man, i'll have

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big pectoral muscles that stand out,
and that this thing had that. But

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no, I did not see any
nipples per se. Very interesting, did

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you could you see anything to do
with the type of teeth that the creature

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had, that they have an open
mouth or anything at that time? Yeah,

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I don't believe it ever opened its
mouth, you know, And actually

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it was kind of that's the thing
about the mouth. The mouth was pretty

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small. I thought again, maybe
that was another one of the things that

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made me think it seemed more human, like you know, the mouth was

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you know, proportional to the nose. There was this narrow middle of the

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face not upturned. It did not
have the mouth didn't seem to have you

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know, enormous flexible lips like you
know, an april monkey would. It's

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very interesting, you know, all
the time that you spent there, was

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that the only time that you had
interaction with a creature like that, or

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did you ever maybe smell anything or
hear anything out of the ordinary things like

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that? You know, we heard
things a few times out there that we

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couldn't explain like howls or roars or
something like that. But you know,

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there were other animals out there that
could potentially make that sound. There were

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lions or you know, cougars,
mountain lions that lived in the area.

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So we you know, we kind
of resumed it was that or coyotes or

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something. Did not hear anything when
we actually saw the creature others, I

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couldn't tell that it made any vocalizations. I did not smell anything you know,

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unusual, and never did. We
didn't find when we didn't go back

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looking for tracks, but we never
spend any tracks anywhere else, including like

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you know, around Earld cabin or
anywhere else that we couldn't explain. So

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now you know, we, like
I said, over the few weeks after

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that, maybe we heard screams a
few times, but that's about as specific

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as I could be. That's very
interesting. So there were screams at times.

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That's that's pretty cool. Remind me, if you if you had to

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guesstimate, like how how tall the
creature was that you were looking at,

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did you have any point of reference
to see how tall it was? You

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know, yeah, it would be
difficult to do more than estimate, because

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I see, we didn't see its
feet, so you know, we didn't

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see it, you know, the
whole thing, the whole body. We'll

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be back with more Bigfoot Society after
these words from our sponsors. From the

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uh, you know where we from
what we saw, it was wide.

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It seemed to be like wider shoulders
than a normal man would and we presume

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based on that in the size of
the head that it had to be at

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least the size of a above or
a human, so you know, a

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human above six feet tall, but
really beyond that, I couldn't say.

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I mean, you know, he
could have been kneeling down thro all I

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know, although I don't think so. That's that's a good point. Absolutely.

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You're thinking back to that that time
in late June that you had that

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sighting. Do you remember how it
affected you emotionally, like what you were

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feeling, you know, during the
encounter, how it affected you afterwards,

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what kind of conversation and you had
with your friend, things like that.

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Uh, well, I can tell
you immediately we were we're pretty scared.

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We we actually when we when it, when it went away, we started

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our big motor up and got back
to the cabin was maybe a mile away

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on the water. As fast as
we could, we were in the cabin.

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We did load allar guns. I
don't know what we thought we were

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going to do, but we did
and stayed in the cabin the rest of

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the evening, which was unusual for
us. And like I said, we

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talked about it a fair amount then
and several times after that, because,

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like I said, we were in
college at the time, so we saw

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each other pretty regularly. And we
decided, since we couldn't figure out how

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to explain this to anybody that you
know, I guess the best thing is

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just not to say anything. I
suppose, you know, did have any

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effect on me long term, you
know, I think not at the time.

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You know, I was, like
I said, twenty year old kid

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in college. I was still trying
to figure out, you know, what

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I was going to do with my
life at that time. But thinking back

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on it now, as time went
on, I think it made me more

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open to unusual ideas, are more
skeptical in a sense of established ideas,

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more willing to look at new ideas
that you know, may not have or

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may not be accepted by the mainstream, If that makes sense. Yeah,

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sure, you know, and that's
something that I definitely run into with other

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people's, other people that I've talked
to, and maybe even myself. You

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00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:53.680
know, you start looking into one
thing that might lead to another. So

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I definitely definitely get that. Did
you ever hear of any other foot sightings

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happening in that that maybe general area
or that region of Arkansas? Yeah,

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okay, both before and after.
Before we had heard the fishermen, because

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we had commercial fishermen who had come
on the lake, you know, and

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they'd be by themselves and so forth, so they would claim to see like

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something, and we always thought it
was either a bear or maybe a cow

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or that loose or something like that, you know, big black animal in

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the trees. But in retrospect,
you know, it made me wonder,

224
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what, you know, was what
they were seeing really the same thing as

225
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what we saw, which was clearly
not a bear or a cow or anything

226
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else. And then later on afterward, there was a story in West Memphis,

227
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Arkansas, which is just as the
crow lies. It's it's maybe ten

228
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miles from where this is actually I
say it was in West Memphis. Is

229
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actually in on what's called President's Island
in the Mississippi River. So it's kind

230
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of between Memphis and West Memphis,
and it's sort of an industrial park but

231
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although largely still forested. And there's
been more than one report of things being

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seen on President's Island, which you
know, it's very similar to where we

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were, except it's just you know, across half the channel of the Mississippi

234
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River. In fact, I think
there's one or two still maybe on the

235
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BFRO website. And I had heard
of others from around there later too.

236
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I remember one time, uh we
were. I was fishing later there,

237
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maybe just a few years later,
and I remember talking to one of the

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game wardens, because at that time
you had to go in and get your

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fishing license from the game wardens office. And the game warden actually mentioned it,

240
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actually asked me, had I seen, you know, any animal,

241
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see any bears? That's specifically what
he asked me. Yeah, I said,

242
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no, how come? And he
said, well, somebody saw something

243
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on President's Island. He didn't know
what it was, you know, he

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kind of thought it was a uh, bigfoot kind of a thing, or

245
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a monkey or something. But and
so it has been reported in the neighborhood.

246
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You know, I don't know of
any more substantial information than that.

247
00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:32.559
That is extremely interesting. I mean, that's the first I've ever heard of

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that. And the great thing about
this podcast is so many Yeah, let's

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say a fair amount of people listen
to it, and those people have a

250
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lot of weird experiences. And I'm
sure someone out there has heard something about

251
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President's Island and maybe creatures being seen
on there, And if you have,

252
00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:56.359
leave something in the YouTube comments or
email me Big for Society at gmail dot

253
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com. But that that is very
interesting when you said they're fishermen seeing it.

254
00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:07.319
So was that on President's Island or
was that on uh the same lake?

255
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Yeah, that was in our lake
that we were in, which I

256
00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:15.319
don't want to give the name of
the lake because it's i mean still there

257
00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:18.720
and it's owned by another party now, so I don't want to give anything

258
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:23.319
away, but it's it's still there
and they still have commercial fishermen who use

259
00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:26.279
it. So they rent a license
from the owner to go out on the

260
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lake, and I think they mostly
catch catfish for a commercial or restaurants so

261
00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:37.440
forth use any rate. And so
there was probably all at the time we

262
00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:41.079
were there, maybe eight or ten
of them who would go out on the

263
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:45.839
like regularly, so there's there was
somebody usually on the lake and they would

264
00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:48.319
come early in the morning, like
four or five in the morning in stay

265
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.319
till like eight or nine, so
we didn't see them too much, but

266
00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:56.160
we knew where they were always there, so there was probably somebody out on

267
00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.319
the water from oh gosh, it's
as soon as it got warm, like

268
00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:04.359
March or April, all the way
through like November, almost every day.

269
00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:14.440
Very very interesting. I was doing
some research about that area of the sighting

270
00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:18.880
and I believe it's Crittendon County,
so I was on BFRO looking around.

271
00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:25.119
There's another class A sighting as well
that's really interesting on Mounds Road near West

272
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:30.920
Memphis in two thousand and six.
The creature that was seen that time reddish

273
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:40.119
brown hair but also kind of similar
to they said an orangutang. Anything.

274
00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:42.920
Does that jog any any memories or
things that you've heard as well, or

275
00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:48.200
you know, I think I read
that report at one time, and I

276
00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:52.880
do know where Mounds Road is,
and yes, it's not far at all

277
00:22:53.079 --> 00:22:57.559
from where we were where we had
our experience. And maybe again as the

278
00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:02.400
crow file is maybe five mile there
are no roads that go directly between the

279
00:23:02.440 --> 00:23:07.680
two. So my road is probably
twenty five miles. You know, I

280
00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:11.440
wouldn't have called what I saw in
around the time. I would not have

281
00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:18.160
made that the connection. But you
know, who knows absolutely And you know,

282
00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:25.559
maybe interesting question here. So in
that same area, you know,

283
00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:30.720
sometimes when we hear reports of bigfoot
or we see weird things, have them.

284
00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:33.880
Have there been other things reported that
you've you've heard of as well?

285
00:23:34.039 --> 00:23:41.720
You know sometimes people see things like
UFOs or dog man or any other weird

286
00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:47.480
things that you've heard of over the
years in that area. Yeah, the

287
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:52.200
only thing I can think of,
which it turns out it was not you

288
00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:56.279
know, unusual or supernatural paranormally thing
was they? Like I said, we

289
00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:00.720
used to hear screens that we kind
of thought or mountain lions and supposedly,

290
00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:06.519
uh, they were I don't know
if extinct is the right word, but

291
00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:10.559
they were not found in our in
that part of Arkansas for like the previous

292
00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:15.240
one hundred plus years. And you
know, we heard them and we even

293
00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:19.680
saw footprints of them, you know, giant cat primps outside of our cabin.

294
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:23.759
And you know, we told people, I think they're out here.

295
00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:29.079
I haven't seen one but I think
they're here, And then eventually it was

296
00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:33.319
documented, you know, there's there
there. Since then there have been you

297
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:37.039
know, photographs and videos of actual
mountain lions in well really on both sides

298
00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:41.559
of the Mississippi River. So there, they definitely are there, although in

299
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.319
days in times past that might have
been considered something of a you know,

300
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:51.240
a cryptid. I guess, oh
sure. Absolutely. Another thing that just

301
00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:56.640
came to mind, We know there's
fish in the area because you were fishing

302
00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:00.880
in the boat. How are there
other food so versus that you remember seeing

303
00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:07.039
around the area as well. Uh, well, there's lots of animal sources.

304
00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:14.119
I mean there it is. There
are cattle, uh, not too

305
00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:15.440
far away, you know. Every
once a long, like I said,

306
00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:18.839
a cow would escape and make its
way down into the lake. Uh.

307
00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:22.720
And other than that, there certainly
was deer. There were certainly turkey,

308
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:29.200
and lots of small animals, you
know, rabbits, squirrels. We saw

309
00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:34.759
skunk every once in a while.
So it was it was very you know,

310
00:25:34.839 --> 00:25:37.960
biodiverse, I guess you would say. I mean it was. It

311
00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:47.559
was full of wildlife. Various lots
of snakes too, alligators, Yeah,

312
00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:51.440
they didn't have alligators then but apparently
they do. Now somebody has found an

313
00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:56.119
alligator in that area, so maybe
the alligators are coming back there too.

314
00:25:56.279 --> 00:26:03.160
Man, that's something I've I've never
heard of a a bigfoot alligator interaction.

315
00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:07.200
That would be interesting. If anyone's
heard of that, let me know.

316
00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:10.720
But man, I wonder if that
would be considered a food source. Who

317
00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:15.680
knows. I'll give you my hypothesis
on it, absolutely, but if you'd

318
00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:21.160
like it. Yeah. So that
summer, the summer of nineteen eighty in

319
00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:27.480
that area was like the hottest on
record for the time. They had had

320
00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:34.680
like thirty plus days in a row
of temperatures over one hundred degrees and without

321
00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:38.880
any rain, so it was very
dry. It was very hot. I

322
00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:45.960
wondered if the creature was trying to
get down to like, if nothing else,

323
00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:49.079
maybe just to cool off in the
water, because I remember it was

324
00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:55.319
way hot that day, you know, and I can't imagine a creature that's

325
00:26:55.319 --> 00:27:00.039
covered by hair wouldn't be you know, very hard to cool off. I

326
00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:03.400
always thought, you know, in
retrospect, I thought, you know,

327
00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:07.640
maybe this thing was coming to the
water, either to get a drink or

328
00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:10.519
to get in. I even had
the you know, the fault later on,

329
00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:14.240
maybe he was going to, you
know, get in and swim in

330
00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:17.839
the water. I don't know,
but it certainly seemed like it to me

331
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:22.240
in retrospect that that would be a
reasonable conclusion as to what he was doing

332
00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:27.359
there. Oh, I think you're
absolutely onto something there, because I've I've

333
00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:36.839
heard similar hypothesis from some other people
that have or more I guess researchers you

334
00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:41.119
know that have told me say,
hey, if it's if it's hot out,

335
00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:45.359
it's probably you want to be by
somewhere where there's a water source,

336
00:27:45.400 --> 00:27:48.559
because it just it makes perfect sense. I mean, imagine how hot you

337
00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:53.400
are, and now imagine if you
are completely covered by hair. Yeah,

338
00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:57.000
a big hair covered creature. He
must be sweltering. Yeah. Absolutely.

339
00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:07.920
You mentioned that seeing this back in
the eighties kind of opened up your minds

340
00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:15.680
of other interesting things. Any any
any other interesting things happened because of this,

341
00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:21.680
or you've or you noticed certain things
in your life for anything cool or

342
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:27.440
anything that's anything that you care to
elaborate on. When you when you said

343
00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:33.480
that, well, sure, you
know I have always been interested. I've

344
00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:40.880
been answered a long time in old
hotels and particularly if I have a haunting

345
00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:44.519
story. So it's part of my
job. I have had to travel a

346
00:28:44.599 --> 00:28:48.839
fair amount across the US, and
when I go to some when I have

347
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:52.720
a trip coming up to someone,
I will look for, you know,

348
00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:56.119
an old historic hotel in the area
that can stay it. I can't say,

349
00:28:56.200 --> 00:28:59.680
and my wife will laugh at me
for this because when she goes with

350
00:28:59.759 --> 00:29:02.640
me, she says it's because of
her. You know, we don't see

351
00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:04.480
any ghost because she's there. If
I went by myself, I really see

352
00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:11.839
him. But I can't say that
I've absolutely seen or experience anything at any

353
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:17.960
place. We'll tell you interestingly,
and this is just another chance happening.

354
00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:22.200
So we actually live in New Orleans. Now. I was in Arkansas for

355
00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:26.599
I grew up there, but as
for most of my adult life, I've

356
00:29:26.599 --> 00:29:30.839
been in New Orleans. Our house
in New Orleans is in the Uptown area,

357
00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:34.319
which is one of the older parts
of town. The house was built

358
00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:40.279
in eighteen eighty by a retired Confederate
general who died in the house, and

359
00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:48.400
there have been haunting stories in the
house concerning presumably the general. I have

360
00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:52.160
not, me and my family have
not experienced anything with the general, but

361
00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:56.920
the people we bought it from did
and they told us a story. They

362
00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:03.759
had a five year old girl daughter
who was in the house one morning.

363
00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:07.440
Her mother was in the kitchen.
She was in another part of the house

364
00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:12.440
and came in the kitchen and told
her mom. I asked her mom,

365
00:30:12.559 --> 00:30:18.759
who is the policeman standing on the
stairway. We'll be back with more Bigfoot

366
00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:27.279
society after these words from our sponsors, and mother said, there's nobody else

367
00:30:27.319 --> 00:30:30.960
here. I don't know which time
about. So they went and looked,

368
00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:36.119
and there was nothing there, And
so the little girl describes it. And

369
00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:41.960
then later on, apparently they took
her and her sister, I guess to

370
00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:47.720
the Confederate Museum, which is also
in New Orleans, and the little girl

371
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:51.079
pointed to the picture of the general
who built her house, which is on

372
00:30:51.319 --> 00:30:55.039
display in the museum, and said, oh, that's the guy. And

373
00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:59.640
apparently she was what she was looking
at was the general in his I guess,

374
00:30:59.720 --> 00:31:06.319
like uniform. So this little girl
supposedly saw something in a uniform standing

375
00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:08.400
on the stairwell of her house,
which is the original part of the house.

376
00:31:10.039 --> 00:31:12.599
But as I say, neither me
or my family can say that we've

377
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:19.039
experienced anything extremely interesting, not the
first time that you know, I've heard

378
00:31:19.680 --> 00:31:27.079
a younger child seeing things. It's
almost like, you know, maybe they're

379
00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:33.359
not at the point where their minds
are clouded by the who knows, but

380
00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:40.640
it's some very interesting things exactly.
Yeah, oh man, that is that

381
00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:49.480
is wild. The question for you
if you had the chance to or not,

382
00:31:51.079 --> 00:31:55.279
if you could make the call and
someone was like, I can put

383
00:31:55.359 --> 00:32:00.799
you in a situation where you would
absolutely see another bigfoot, would you take

384
00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:07.319
or not take the opportunity? Oh? Absolutely, yeah, I'd love to.

385
00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:10.279
In fact, believe it or not, I went on my first sort

386
00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:15.960
of bigfoot expedition. I guess,
for lack of a better word, just

387
00:32:15.079 --> 00:32:22.599
this spring bends anything. But that's
what it was designed for. And I'm

388
00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:27.559
trying to go again, hopefully this
fall sometime. So yeah, absolutely,

389
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:31.519
I'll do it again. And what
is it you think that that draws you

390
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:37.480
back to trying to see one again? Oh? I just think it's fascinating,

391
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:43.680
you know. And I kind of
a phrase this, I I if

392
00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:47.119
you ask me what I think it
is. Number one, I think the

393
00:32:47.240 --> 00:32:53.200
thing we saw couldn't be anything else
other than whatever a bigfoot is, you

394
00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:57.319
know, whatever that that's what it
was. Whatever a Bigfoot is. Now,

395
00:32:57.319 --> 00:33:01.960
if you ask me what what is
big I have to believe it is

396
00:33:02.599 --> 00:33:07.359
some kind of undiscovered primate. In
other words, it is some kind of

397
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:12.720
living creature. It is not paranormal, not supernatural on other people who,

398
00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:17.079
as you mentioned, you know,
associate with with some of those things.

399
00:33:17.720 --> 00:33:22.960
But I, you know, I
guess my mind is still logical enough that

400
00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:27.039
I can't believe it's anything other than
an animal that we just hadn't found.

401
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:31.480
I think it's a very rare animal. I think it's probably to some degree

402
00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:37.839
migratory, and that they're probably clusters
of them in certain parts of the country,

403
00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:42.279
but there's probably not more than a
few thousand in the whole United States.

404
00:33:42.279 --> 00:33:46.559
So therefore they're and they're relatively intelligent, so they know how to hide,

405
00:33:46.640 --> 00:33:50.680
you know, you think about it, whoever sees a mountain lion in

406
00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:53.640
the wild, very few people for
something that's even more intelligent than that.

407
00:33:55.599 --> 00:34:00.279
You know, it makes sense to
me that this is a living, breathing,

408
00:34:00.799 --> 00:34:06.680
real thing, probably a primate of
some kind that we just haven't found

409
00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:10.199
yet. Oh. Absolutely. And
you know, the great thing about this

410
00:34:10.280 --> 00:34:15.519
show is there's many different viewpoints,
but I personally as well have the viewpoint

411
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:21.039
that we are looking at some kind
of you know, undiscovered great ape that

412
00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:24.920
you know, can be found in
most states, but definitely loves to hang

413
00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:32.239
out around southeast Oklahoma and the Pacific
Northwest and maybe even southeast Iowa, all

414
00:34:32.280 --> 00:34:37.199
over the place, right down in
Arkansas specifically, you know, as you'd

415
00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:44.280
said. But you know, I
think here's my other sort of hypothesis about

416
00:34:44.280 --> 00:34:50.679
it. I think you could surmise
that it uses the river valleys in the

417
00:34:50.719 --> 00:34:53.639
southeast as sort of a highway.
Like if you look at the Mississippi River

418
00:34:53.760 --> 00:35:00.679
lower Mississippi River Valley, it's surrounded
on at least one side almost completely up

419
00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:06.599
and all the way up and down
from say certainly from Memphis down to New

420
00:35:06.679 --> 00:35:13.159
Orleans by wide patches of swamps and
forests on either side, like you know,

421
00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:15.920
twenty and thirty miles or more a
forest on either side. So it's

422
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:24.079
a very undeveloped, very you know, undisturbed natural area. I wonder if

423
00:35:24.119 --> 00:35:29.639
these things use that as something of
a you know, a highway or a

424
00:35:29.679 --> 00:35:34.239
migratory path, you know, to
get to some other part of it.

425
00:35:34.360 --> 00:35:38.519
So you maybe, like as you
said, in southeast Oklahoma and western Arkansas,

426
00:35:38.719 --> 00:35:43.280
and excuse me, East Texas.
You know there's in theory there is

427
00:35:43.320 --> 00:35:47.760
a sort of cluster of signings.
Well, what if they followed, say

428
00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:52.679
the Red River or the White River
or the Arkansas River down to the Mississippi

429
00:35:52.719 --> 00:35:58.199
Valley and then could go up or
down the Mississippi Valley, you could certainly

430
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:02.199
stay undercover. A large creature could
stay undercover in those river valleys for long

431
00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:07.719
periods of time and for long distances. So I kind of wonder if if

432
00:36:07.760 --> 00:36:09.599
that's, you know, how they're
doing it. Like I like this thing.

433
00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:15.760
I suspect it did not live full
time where we were where we saw

434
00:36:15.800 --> 00:36:20.079
it, but it was passing through
for whatever reason. Uh. And like

435
00:36:20.119 --> 00:36:22.480
I said, it just came down
to get a drink or get in the

436
00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:27.320
water or something, but was on
the way to somewhere else. And it

437
00:36:27.480 --> 00:36:32.079
just seemed logical to me again to
think it could be walking along the the

438
00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:37.239
green space on the either side of
the river valley to get there. Go.

439
00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:44.239
I think you're you're absolutely definitely onto
something. And there's there's actually been

440
00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:47.400
some really interesting maps that have been
created. Uh. You know, of

441
00:36:47.440 --> 00:36:53.239
my friends Scott with Bigfoot Mapping Project
has made some maps that are are pretty

442
00:36:53.239 --> 00:36:59.480
similar to to what you were were
seeing there. How they call out different

443
00:36:59.599 --> 00:37:04.960
byway is that you know Bigfoot could
take But you had mentioned earlier that you

444
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.039
know, you're down in the New
Orleans area, so down in Louisiana.

445
00:37:09.239 --> 00:37:15.000
In your time down there, have
you have you run into any sightings or

446
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:21.800
reports of that you've heard about a
bigfoot or even other cryptids like I know

447
00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:27.519
they have the ruguru down there,
other dog man type things. Yeah,

448
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:31.440
you know, I have heard the
stories. You know, perhaps the most

449
00:37:32.199 --> 00:37:36.800
if famous, for lack of a
better word, or recognized, is the

450
00:37:36.920 --> 00:37:44.800
Honey Island Swamp story. So Honey
Island Swamp is just to the east of

451
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:49.800
New Orleans proper, and it's basically
the delta of the Pearl River is an

452
00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:53.760
empties into the Gulf of Mexico,
and it is a stretch of about oh

453
00:37:53.800 --> 00:38:02.400
gosh, fifty plus miles across by
probably that long of swamps and unbroken you

454
00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:08.239
know, cyper swamps and forests,
and so there's a wide area. And

455
00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:14.960
there have been reports in there for
years of a big foot like creature in

456
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:17.440
there, and there have been several
that were pretty well documented. There was

457
00:38:17.440 --> 00:38:23.519
a I want to say there was
an episode in the it was the nineteen

458
00:38:23.559 --> 00:38:30.000
seventies, although I can't remember for
sure now that made like various newspapers around

459
00:38:30.039 --> 00:38:37.239
the country about the Honey Island swamp
monster, So that's probably the most recognized.

460
00:38:37.400 --> 00:38:40.880
I guess, you know, the
idea behind the rugaroo it was sort

461
00:38:40.880 --> 00:38:45.519
of a that came from more from
Cajun country, which is kind of to

462
00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:52.320
the west of New Orleans in the
swamps, you know, near like Blafayette

463
00:38:52.360 --> 00:38:58.519
and so forth, and so that
it has more of the Cajun French I

464
00:38:58.519 --> 00:39:02.920
guess culture attached to it. And
the rugarou supposedly was something like a were

465
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:06.519
wolf or like you said, a
wolf man or dog man, or you

466
00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:09.119
won't call it, you know.
I don't know that there's anything that I

467
00:39:09.159 --> 00:39:14.920
would say has any significant documentation,
but you know, I always wondered if

468
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:23.320
if that was mostly a way for
a relatively uh uh, poorly educated culture,

469
00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:28.599
and I don't mean that in a
disparaging way to use, you know,

470
00:39:28.639 --> 00:39:30.519
to keep the kids close to the
house. And I you know,

471
00:39:30.519 --> 00:39:32.719
if you live in the swamp where
the alligators can get you, you scare

472
00:39:32.760 --> 00:39:36.960
the kids into staying close to the
house, but tell them that you know,

473
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:39.599
the ruber u will get a get
you. You know, I always

474
00:39:39.639 --> 00:39:43.920
wondered if that was more of that
story, but you know who knows.

475
00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:47.440
Yeah, And I mean, you
know, i'd even say that probably you

476
00:39:47.480 --> 00:39:52.039
know, runs across many different cultures, you know, as a way for

477
00:39:52.159 --> 00:39:58.159
the adults to to maybe you know, throw a story out there and so

478
00:39:58.199 --> 00:40:01.639
that their their kids would, uh, you know, behave when it's time

479
00:40:01.719 --> 00:40:05.480
for bed, like you know,
the boogy man will get you if you're

480
00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:10.400
not quiet or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, do you think No,

481
00:40:10.519 --> 00:40:14.320
I wonder if that was you know, a sort of a French an

482
00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:21.320
old French story or custom that just
kind of marked into the Rugaroo when they

483
00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:25.480
came to Louisiana. Absolutely, you
know that that area. I've talked to

484
00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:29.239
a few people from down in New
Orleans and it just seems to be,

485
00:40:29.599 --> 00:40:34.719
you know, just like there's so
many interesting things that happen in that area.

486
00:40:34.760 --> 00:40:37.159
Do do you have you ever thought
about, like, are there certain

487
00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:44.239
reasons why this area is so you
know, drenched in just really interesting.

488
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:49.880
I don't know if you could almost
say, you know, spiritualism or things

489
00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:54.920
of that nature. Have you ever
noticed that? Yeah, I think it's

490
00:40:54.960 --> 00:41:00.440
several reasons, I think, one
of which is that Louisiana, our New

491
00:41:00.519 --> 00:41:05.719
Orleans, particularly among American cities,
even American season in the South, was

492
00:41:06.039 --> 00:41:12.480
overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, you know,
it still is still is largely Roman Catholic,

493
00:41:13.039 --> 00:41:20.000
and it was a Roman Catholicism that
was very you know, intense or

494
00:41:20.119 --> 00:41:24.079
very very devoted Roman Catholicism, you
know, and that you know, it's

495
00:41:24.239 --> 00:41:29.599
is somewhat mystic to some degree.
So I think that leaves people, you

496
00:41:29.639 --> 00:41:34.519
know, with kind of an open
mindset about you know, uh, unprovable

497
00:41:34.599 --> 00:41:37.199
or fantastic events. So I think
that's part of it. I think the

498
00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:43.719
fact that New Orleans is maybe the
most multi cultural city in the United States

499
00:41:43.760 --> 00:41:49.559
and has been, you know forever. The you know, is originally founded

500
00:41:49.639 --> 00:41:57.599
by the French and Spanish, had
a large black population, both from refugees

501
00:41:57.639 --> 00:42:02.639
from Haiti after the Haitian Revolution as
well as Africans brought over his slaves.

502
00:42:04.039 --> 00:42:12.199
Then obviously has the Anglo population that
came you know a little bit later on

503
00:42:12.519 --> 00:42:17.000
from eighteen hundred on, and there's
a significant Native American population in the words,

504
00:42:17.079 --> 00:42:22.760
and all of those things I think
contribute to the stories, you know,

505
00:42:22.760 --> 00:42:24.760
if you mix all those cultures together, you know, you're bound to

506
00:42:24.800 --> 00:42:27.960
get something new. It's kind of
like the food. You know, you

507
00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:30.119
get something good, you get gumbo
when you mix all of those things together.

508
00:42:31.159 --> 00:42:35.960
So the same idea, I think
all that you mix those those cultures

509
00:42:35.960 --> 00:42:40.440
together and you get better stories than
any of them would have had otherwise.

510
00:42:44.280 --> 00:42:47.079
Yeah, one other thing I think, and again I don't mean to disparage

511
00:42:47.119 --> 00:42:52.760
anybody, but and I don't think
anybody will to deny that both New Orleans

512
00:42:53.360 --> 00:43:00.760
and Louisiana in general are are and
have been a relatively who were part of

513
00:43:00.760 --> 00:43:02.840
the United States, and as a
result, they've been relatively poorly educated.

514
00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:06.760
You know, in the Planter area, there was a fair amount of wealth,

515
00:43:06.840 --> 00:43:09.199
but it was concentrated in the hands
of you know, very few people,

516
00:43:09.559 --> 00:43:15.320
so that most of the population was
not educated and did not have you

517
00:43:15.360 --> 00:43:20.400
know, access to uh, you
know, more cultural things. So they

518
00:43:20.480 --> 00:43:24.360
depended on the stories they told more
than you would perhaps if you had more

519
00:43:24.440 --> 00:43:29.480
education. So I think you throw
all of that together, and I think

520
00:43:29.519 --> 00:43:34.000
that's what makes for you know,
all the good stories we hear from New

521
00:43:34.119 --> 00:43:37.679
Orleans, and there are good ones, you know it too, absolutely,

522
00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:42.440
and you know I haven't been able
to visit yet, but it's just it's

523
00:43:42.639 --> 00:43:46.480
a beautiful culture, you know,
beautiful folklore. It's very very cool,

524
00:43:46.519 --> 00:43:52.039
and it looks like delicious food as
well. But a few more questions at

525
00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:57.840
the end here, and I appreciate
you hanging out with me. You know,

526
00:43:58.079 --> 00:44:01.599
you've said that you know you have
the account of seeing the Bigfoot,

527
00:44:01.840 --> 00:44:07.239
and you know, sometimes I'll ask
people, what's the weirdest thing that you've

528
00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:10.000
ever seen? Would you say that
that is the weirdest thing that you've ever

529
00:44:10.039 --> 00:44:15.280
seen out in the woods, or
was there maybe something even weirder than that.

530
00:44:16.280 --> 00:44:22.360
You know, as a physician and
a surgeon, I've seen some pretty

531
00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:28.519
weird things. But if you were
just limited to what I've seen outdoors,

532
00:44:28.599 --> 00:44:30.159
yeah, that that's got to be
the weirdest. I mean, I've gone

533
00:44:30.159 --> 00:44:35.519
fishing and hunting for many years,
but I can't say that I ever saw

534
00:44:35.599 --> 00:44:42.039
anything you know, that I couldn't
explain like that was You are already mentioned

535
00:44:42.079 --> 00:44:47.840
that you have this you went big
footing already. But if you had the

536
00:44:47.880 --> 00:44:54.480
ability to go bigfooting anywhere in the
US, and there is no limit to

537
00:44:54.639 --> 00:45:00.360
what to where you could go or
who you could go with what would be

538
00:45:00.400 --> 00:45:07.360
your perfect spot to look for Bigfoot
at? Hmm, you know, I

539
00:45:07.360 --> 00:45:12.559
guess it would be the Pacific Northwest. You might be like, maybe I

540
00:45:12.559 --> 00:45:16.119
would say northern California where you know, the Bluff Creek Willow Creek area where

541
00:45:16.159 --> 00:45:22.199
the Patterson Gimlin family was shot.
I mean, obviously that's the I would

542
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:28.480
say most people would agree that's probably
the single best piece of evidence that exists,

543
00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:30.639
So you know, why not go
to the source in a sense?

544
00:45:30.920 --> 00:45:35.960
Uh yeah, I think that would
be probably, uh where I would go

545
00:45:36.119 --> 00:45:38.360
to if I really you know,
if there were no limits, that's probably

546
00:45:38.360 --> 00:45:42.519
what I would do. Awesome.
I agree with you. You know,

547
00:45:42.519 --> 00:45:45.519
I've heard the stories and I've talked
to plenty of people from that area and

548
00:45:45.519 --> 00:45:51.000
it's it's definitely one of the best
areas I think you can go to in

549
00:45:51.079 --> 00:45:53.280
order to see Bigfoot. And listeners, if you have another idea of a

550
00:45:53.320 --> 00:45:59.159
better idea, you feel free to
share in the YouTube comments. But Rusty,

551
00:45:59.239 --> 00:46:02.719
it's been pleasure chatting with you,
and we went places I wasn't expecting,

552
00:46:02.760 --> 00:46:07.199
but it was a fun chat along
the way, and I wish you

553
00:46:07.719 --> 00:46:14.760
best of luck in your future.
Bigfoot expeditions right. Thank you so much.

554
00:46:14.800 --> 00:46:19.519
I enjoyed it. Also here at
Bigfoot Society, our goal is to

555
00:46:19.599 --> 00:46:24.480
provide a platform for those that have
encountered Bigfoot to share their encounter in a

556
00:46:24.519 --> 00:46:30.239
safe and respected environment. But we
need to hear your story. If you've

557
00:46:30.280 --> 00:46:37.039
experienced something that you just can't explain, please send me an email at Bigfoot

558
00:46:37.079 --> 00:46:40.599
Society at gmail dot com. Then
we can start the conversation. And I

559
00:46:40.639 --> 00:46:45.800
know a lot of you have not
shared your encounter at all. It's been

560
00:46:45.880 --> 00:46:52.239
twenty years and it's time that you
get this off your chest and then you

561
00:46:52.280 --> 00:46:54.559
can get some well deserved for rest
because I know you haven't been sleeping.

562
00:46:55.719 --> 00:47:00.679
I understand what you're going through,
and I appreciate everyone of you listening.