Cryptomundo
for Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and More

Woolheater spent many nights on his grandparents’ boat, a cabin cruiser, anchored out in the middle of Eagle Mountain Lake, which was separated by a dam from Lake Worth.

Although the story eventually died down, Woolheater got a copy of John A. Keel’s book “Strange Creatures from Time & Space” and saw the movie “The Legend of Boggy Creek,” which was filmed just an hour outside of Jefferson where the Texas Bigfoot Research center is hosting their annual “Original Texas Bigfoot Conference” next weekend.

It spawned a lifetime of fascination with cyptozoology, Bigfoot in particular.

“It made me think about the possibility that Bigfoot was closer to me than I had previously thought,” Woolheater writes on his website bio.

In 1994, while driving back to Dallas from New Orleans, a figure on the side of the road highway was illuminated by Woolheater’s headlights.

“It appeared to be about 7-foot-tall, hairy and looked to be gray,” Woolheater wrote. “Its back was towards us and it was walking in the direction we were traveling, parallel to the road. My wife, then girlfriend, and I looked at each other and simultaneously said, ‘Did you just see what I saw?’”

Next weekend, Woolheater will head up the annual Bigfoot conference, which aims to show participants that “there are still some mysteries left. Science hasn’t discovered everything,” Woolheater said.

The event will feature speakers like Rob Riggs, a semi-retired veteran managing editor of Texas weekly newspapers.

Riggs is the author of “In the Big Thicket: On the Trail of the Wild Man,” a co-author of “Weird Texas” and “Bigfoot: Exploring the Myth and Discovering the Truth” and has authored numerous newspaper and magazine articles.

Author speakers also include Nick Redfern, Ken Gerhard, Lyle Blackburn and John Kirk III.

“All of the presentations will be about Bigfoot, but our speakers are also well versed authors on a wide range of cryptozoological critters,” Woolheater said. “From lake and sea monsters, to flying humanoids like Mothman to the Houston Batman, lizard men and swamp monsters to chupacabras.”

The event was held in Jefferson from 2001 to 2008, then in Tyler in 2009. Woolheater resigned from the organization in 2010. This is the first year back in Jefferson, organized as The Original Texas Bigfoot Conference hosted by the original organization, The Texas Bigfoot Research Center.

Woolheater originally founded the organization in 1999, then in 2007 it was re-organized as a nonprofit that he has no affiliation with. Woolheater resurrected The Texas Bigfoot Research Center in late 2013 with some of the original members.

He has appeared in or contributed to numerous TV shows, films and documentaries, including Travel Channel’s “Weird Travels: Bigfoot,” the History Channel’s “Monster Quest: Swamp Stalker,” Destination America’s “Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror, Lake Worth Monster” and Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot.”

The event will be held on Saturday at the Jefferson Transportation and Visitors Center, 305 E. Austin St.

General admission tickets are being sold in advance online for $20 and will be $25 at the door. Children 12 and under are only $10. Limited VIP packages are available for $45 and for $25, you can get a ticket to the catered BBQ dinner with the guests and a screening of “Willow Creek.”