New MonsterQuest Episode: Hillbilly Beast
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on January 19th, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xJ-dbnUeq8
The second episode of the new season airs Wednesday night:
MonsterQuest : Hillbilly Beast
Airs on Wednesday January 20 09:00 PM
Legends of a terrifying monster lurking in the back hills of Kentucky date back to the days of frontiersman Daniel Boone, but encounters with this mystery beast are increasing. Witnesses report alleged attacks by the creature and the sounds of ferocious screams from the wilderness. New photographic evidence may hold the key to uncovering the mystery. The MonsterQuest team goes on location to analyze the evidence, and heads deep into the dark forests, where they have their own frightening encounter.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
“If they lived among us there’d be no quest”…..or as it relates to bigfoot, “If it existed it would have been captured 300 years ago”.
Sounds really interesting. I can’t wait. I hope they find some solid evidence.
Looks pretty cool. I’m hoping they caught this experience on tape.
Sounds about as plausible as The Jersey Devil, Mothman, and those spinning alien bugs caught on video camera.
MonsterQuest is overusing supposed primates the same way the old Dr. Who show overused the Daleks. Give it a rest for a season or two.
If it’s not too impertinent to ask, what does this monster actually look like? What has it done, and who to?
It must be understood that while D Boone was traveling in what is now Kentucky, his favorite book he carried was GULLIVERS TRAVELS. The stories of the YAHOO were mostly condensed from it.
Sounds like the ‘bat-eared bear-booger’ I heard stories about from my childhood. Basically, it was a big, hairy thing with large, pointed ears that walked upright.
There’s mile after mile of untouched wilderness in the Daniel Boone National Forest.
They won’t find evidence of sasquatch here because there aren’t any sasquatch here. There aren’t any legends either. I should know; I live here. My grandmother has lived here all of her nearly 96 years, and grew up in a family that foraged the woods for food and medicine plants. She has never heard of any legends of a sasquatch-type creature, either.
MQ is really scratching the bottom of the barrel this year. If they don’t have a cryptid to investigate they will just make one up. SSDD.
When I first got involved in the investigations of Midwestern apelike creatures, Ivan T. Sanderson’s “little red men of the woods” sightings and the Trimble County “gorilla” were some of the first ones I investigated almost 50 years ago.
Glad to see MonsterQuest is looking into these encounters.
coelacanth1938, I’d much rather see any monster quest episode relating to primates/sasquatch than see another episode about wild feral dog packs, or supposed super rats, or most boring of all alligators in our sewers. I think after three seasons they have exhausted most of the “monsters” they can fill an hour long show about. The description of this episode seems very exciting, personally i have been waiting to see it since it was first announced.
I have to agree with Cloud, I would rather watch episodes on hairy hominids than those of oversized rats or feral dogs. The episode about crocs in the sewers was boring but I really liked the episode about giant crocs in FL. At least I think that was MQ. I don’t know there is so many series about mystery critters I can’t keep them straight.
“They won’t find evidence of sasquatch here because there aren’t any sasquatch here. There aren’t any legends either. I should know; I live here. My grandmother has lived here all of her nearly 96 years, and grew up in a family that foraged the woods for food and medicine plants. She has never heard of any legends of a sasquatch-type creature, either.
MQ is really scratching the bottom of the barrel this year. If they don’t have a cryptid to investigate they will just make one up. SSDD.”
I’m sorry, kittenz, but while I respect your opinion I must strongly disagree with this statement. These creatures have been in all parts of the Bluegrass State for as long as there have been people here. Western Kentucky is particularly active and I’ve collected reports from every other region as well. MQ is right by turning their attention to the Bluegrass State. With all due respect, one family who has never experienced any type of this phenomenon does not negate the testimony of the many families who do. And there is simply no need for the MQ people to make anything up. I should know. As well as the author of “Mysterious Kentucky” (Whitechapel Press 2007) I participated in filming the western Ky. segment of the episode which airs tonight with the MQ crew back in late Aug. Bigfoot is here. There is no doubt.
Caught this show soon after it started tonight, by accident, and thought it sounded intriguing. I am not a fan of MonsterQuest – it’s usually far too much build-up about nothing – but I was hooked into this episode with the promise of an experienced local hunter with an image of a mysterious critter caught by a trail cam. This guy seemed like he should know his local wildlife, as good hunters usually do, so if he thought he’d caught something unusual, I would definitely pay attention! I held my breath as they pulled out the photo… and stared in slack-jawed disbelief as he pointed out the “mysterious, unidentified dark creature” which was clearly a freaking TURKEY VULTURE. It was caught as it was taking off, so the image was blurred, but it was very unambiguously a turkey vulture with its wings curved beneath it. You could even see the little red naked head! I laughed out loud when the man pointed to a second “unidentified creature” in the corner of the photo – it was a Northern Cardinal flying out of the shot! Some photo expert came to re-create the conditions of the shot, but mistakenly put the hunter’s son (used for scale) way farther from the camera than the turkey vulture was, back behind some grass. I think they thought the vulture was the head and shoulders of some creature standing in the tall grass. This mistaken set up made it look like the “creature” was human-sized… I had to turn it off. Maybe they explained the reality at the end, I don’t know, but I just couldn’t stand it.
If MonsterQuest were anything but a lot of hot air, they would have taken the photo to some local wildlife experts FIRST. They would say, “Let’s pull out some photos of local critters and see who this could be!” Let it be a guessing game for the audience if you need a hook – and finally we’d say it’s a Turkey Vulture, and isn’t it crazy how photos can fool us? End with a cautionary note about taking things at face value and not knowing your local wildlife. Don’t fake the audience out with “photo experts” who can’t evaluate the picture properly with false information about the distance of the subject from the camera. Grrr, it just makes me mad.
The bird picture was old news. The tooth wasn’t worth even talking about since the NA wouldn’t allow them to take it for DNA (I don’t blame him). The recorded sound/s had no conclusion whatever but the thing that disappointed me most was the guy with the van. A “creature” *cough* bear *cough* bounces his van around. What’s the first things you think? Examine damage? Look for prints, hair, etc…? Nobody even mentions any of those things.
MQ, you are beginning to revert back to the season 1 style. Last season showed a little promise but this season is starting out badly. Of course that doesn’t mean it won’t get better. Also, I agree with the poster above, I prefer the Bigfoot stories. In fact I’d like it if they had an entire network just for Sassy. I know, selfish.
Western Kentucky has been the location of a number of sightings of the Wisconsin Werewolf/Michigan Dogman creature.
There is the story of The Beast of LBL, Land Between the Lakes, which involved what was thought to be a dogman killing a family of tourists in the early 1980s.
Those ‘sasquatch hunters’ who fell for the frozen rubber monkey suit scam have a website which includes an account of their visit to LBL, when they spent a night listening to something attacking a pack of coyotes and winning, and failed to make the connection!
Is this the creature MonsterQuest are going in search of?
sketko, Although I am sympathic with your disappointment in that you feel that you are being subject to the same old MQ smoke and mirror routine, you did turn your set off too early. The “picture” was revealed at the end to be a (MQ tension building grrrrrrrrrrrr) simple crow. A vulture would have been much more exciting, however. Thanks for the tip on the second image. On the more cheerful side, MQ reenacted a scene where a scientist heard a nearby wood knock and witnessed a rock thrown into the water nearby, when he went looking for “sign” in the vicinity of where they recorded a pretty nice little scream the night before. Any new recorded scream is a gift to be appreciated. MQ has the predictable difficulties of producing a decent documentary, because their whining cameras kill all possibility of any activity occurring when they arrive at the crime scene, months after the event actually occurred. That condition will likely never change until they figure out how to hide the high pitched whine of their cameras. And nothing will change until they choose to seek friendly contact with the forest people, instead of pursuing them as if they were wild animals. Trail cameras historically kill all BFT activity as well. MQ hasn’t learned those basic lessons yet. The forest people are highly telepathic and study the MQ teams every thought. MQ does not appear to have learned that important lesson yet either. So until the MQ team completely revamps their documentary techniques, nothing will ever change. However taking a more global perspective, all these documentary games are simply the second time around with a completely new generation of an old story. In an attempt to prove something to the scientific community, that was already proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, back in the early 60’s. Most so called researchers today, were not even a thought when BFT’s real story was known nationwide and was seemingly on everybodies uneasy mind. Due to that uneasiness, the BFT’s true nature was slowly buried. Their true nature is mostly known today only by Native American tribes that still reside on their respective reservations. NA do not talk about BFT because nobody believes them. The Federal Government does not talk about it, because nobody will believe them either and they do not want to contribute to any general uneasiness. So the true BFT story can likely only be found on NA Indian reservations. Not in chasing uncooperative ghosts through national forests, led by trembling first time encounterees, who do not have the slightest clue as to what they are pursuing. The MQ team has so far not demonstrated any promise in thinking outside the box that they are trapped in, and punching through the glass barrier to gain cooperative documentation for an entirely new generation of disbelievers.
Was kind of disappointing. Lot of hype up for nothing as usual. About the only thing interesting I got from the episode was the eye witness account from the bow hunter. Described almost exactly what I always pictured a big foot encounter as. Your walking along and some day dreaming Bigfoot steps out from behind some cover and you both jump about 3 feet and before you can do anything logical like pulling out your gun/camera Bigfoot disappears back into the forest, and people seriously wonder why we have a lot of eye witnesses and a lot of cameras and few pictures.
Since I am new here I will begin with a simple thing, I have studied crypto zoology since the late 1970s. I have minored in anthropology and with this background I hate to tell you that yes Virginia there is more things here that have yet to be discovered.
Many of the animals, I wont use the word creatures, are unknown or misidentified, not saying that the vulture could not be real in that picture but as for other sightings these are more then a mountain gorilla that has escaped from a zoo.
Many of these reports are close to the shape form and actions of the giganticus picticus, an extinct gorilla. When you considered how much of the national forests have yet to be explored and the fact that many creatures that are omnivores are nocturnal you have a very good reason as to why they haven’t been seen.
Many Native American cultures have tales or the Wild Men going back thousands of years. These can be our missing link. As any hunter will attest through genetic memory an animal will survive, deer learn through time when hunting season is near and will bed down during daylight hours then. Those that don’t end up as dinner.
With these Wild Men, nature and selective breeding can teach them how to survive. Since they live in a large forest, with plenty of water and food sources they can remain hidden for a long time.
Most animals have a distrust of man, and since many of these documentary crews are not trained in the art of stealth and tracking they have no idea that the cigarette that you are smoking can be smelled for two miles away; the cologne a mile; sound carries… taking all these in account you can see why an unknown creature can remain hidden.
Many think that all the animals that have been discovered are all that there is, yet everyday there are new ones discovered. The local indigenous people know of them and yet our society wants to disprove these legends as fairy tales, which is nothing more then ignorance.
When one commented on the fact that the crew should have used quieter traps yes that is so but using those cameras, and trail cameras one needs to remember that they have to mask their scent with something other then human.
How many of those people going on those expeditions have decided to urinate outside. Fine and dandy but the smell of human urine can be picked up by all animals.
What needs to be done is they have to be trained to be like a sniper not apart from the environment but a part of it, also they need more then one or two days out there set up traps for a month or more since animals will hunt in a large area and may not come back to the starting point for up to a month or so. Yet what people need to understand is that as a journalist they have a deadline for stories and have to have one ready so they can’t do an effective hunt in a month.
Many comment that Daniel Boone may have lied; if he was alive do you really think you would have the grit to tell him that to his face? Just because you read a book that is fiction doesn’t mean that you accept it as real. Harry Potter is excellent example how many believe that there is a school called Hogwarts. None.
So don’t judge him by the fact that he read Gulliver’s Travels.
I happen to live in Tenn along the Kentucky border. The Big Southfork National Park which which meets the Daniel Boone park butts up on my back yard.
The big south fork alone covers some 125,310 acres, or 195.80 sq miles. its northern edge joins the the Daniel Boone Forest which covers 2.1 million acres in its with in its boundary.
North and south of the state line are densely wooded, sparsely populated counties. with trails that run from the Tenn side all the way to Lake Cumberland.
Having spent a few years hiking, horseback riding, canoeing and four-wheeling on both sides of the state line. I have a pretty good grasp on the size of the area.
Unlike one of the above posters, I have heard stories about something in the woods.
And there are enough woods around here for something to not been seen but once in a blue moon.
And no I don’t believe that if there is a bigfoot its an alien, telepathic, or what ever the current crank theory is. Its those kind of stories that make people unwilling to even look into this.
now something to ponder on. you do realize that most wild animals can smell active circuits, plastic, human scent on devices as well as trees and plants. they can hear the hum of electronics that are out of range of Human hearing. some animals can even see into the IR spectrum. all these means if an animal wants to stay away from people it can most likely detect people and equipment and avoid the area.
there are some thousand or so bears on this side of the state line, their range limit is forty miles or so. Ive seen exactly three bears in Five years.
I do know that two years ago, something crossed the trail behind me at night. I know it wasnt a bear, bears will drop down and run on all fours. what ever this was walked out of the woods and crossed the trail up right and tall. it vanished into the woods on the other side.
I cant say what it was, only that it wasnt a bear. and not being an idiot, I decided not to follow it in the dark, down a ridge line. So debate and argue and be scepitical nothing wrong with it till you just refuse to listen or see and dismiss everything. I know somethings out there.
I am GLAD MonsterQuest is doing stories on regional and little known creature sightings. Some of these are more well known such as The Lizard Man or The Beast Of Brey Rd. but many areas have little hot spots of creature sightings. One is about 15-20 miles from my house in Marietta, GA. The sightings occurred in a cluster in 2006-2007 in Paulding County, reports are on BFRO. I mentioned it to a co-worker back when it was going on and he said there was a swamp that he and friends while in high school had an encounter in the 80s. Hannah Swamp. There are several sightings further into NW GA and I have traveled through there and its heavily wooded, probably a migratory group in this area. There are many more creature sightings then just the ones reported in the Pac NW, Texas, Florida and Louisiana. Bring them on, I want to see them all on MonsterQuest! lol.
I wish we could be rational about this: why does it have to be either one way or another? Why is it that when I express dissatisfaction with the evidence MonsterQuest presents, people assume that not only do I NOT believe in the possibility of finding an unknown animal, but I actively want to suppress investigation of unknown animals? I’m a biologist, and I am totally comfortable with the idea of unknown animals running around. In fact, I dream of the possibility of FINDING such an unknown animal myself! However, as a biologist, I know the importance of providing valid evidence. We can dream up all kinds of critters and discuss whether bigfoot has a language or is telepathic, but if we can’t even prove that bigfoot exists, it is just dreaming. Fantasy. Blurry photos and whispered conspiracy theories won’t cut it. Sure, it may be hard to get evidence – it’s hard enough to see many fully-accepted creatures in the wild. But I get kinda sick of people who are offended when biologists won’t accept their bigfoot theories. Go out into the woods and bring a camera, already! Or work some telepathic mojo to get bigfoot out in the open! Go get that proof! Think of how good you’ll feel when your theories are validated. Just bring better evidence next time…
I’m not sure if anyone is checking this board any more…but I just saw the rerun of the “Hillbilly Beast” episode of Monster Quest.
When the MQ team blasted the first sound into the woods during their investigation, I literally jumped off the couch. I live in rural CT, and the screaming/squawking sound they projected, which they said is an as-yet-unidentified sound, is one that I’ve heard periodically moving through the forest near my house. Recently, I recorded the sound on my digital camera, but I’m not sure where to take the recording. All I know is that the sound I heard on MQ was identical.
It’s been suggested to me that the sound might be a turkey vulture; others have said it’s a bobcat or mountain lion (we do have both of those in CT, though the state denies that mountain lions still live here).
Does anyone know what that sound might have been? Or have any suggestions as to what organizations/people might be interested in hearing the noise?
Many thanks for any responses, if anyone’s still around.