April 3, 2007
Weather fails to dampen search
More than three dozen Bigfoot hunters got a taste of Mother Nature’s bad side this weekend, battling the elements for what most said was a successful contact with Sasquatch creatures near Paris.
Bigfoot hunters, including Searching for Bigfoot Inc. chief executive officer Tom Biscardi, found the weather their worst enemy in the search of areas on or near Pat Mayse Lake in Northwest Lamar County.
Officials of Biscardi’s group said a “tornado” touched down during Thursday night’s weather outbreak, tossing trees in a wooded area along the lakeshore. Winds of more than 70 miles per hour also raked the search area. National Weather Service radar did not show a tornado in the vicinity of Pat Mayse Lake.
Searchers, however, were not chased away from their goal of finding and perhaps capturing a Bigfoot.
One search team reported having made contact Thursday night in an area near Clay’s Bluff east of Lamar Point.
“We were going down a road and heard tree knocking,” Laurel Jones of Cincinnati said. “There was a noise to the right. Our team leader started looking and saw a creature crouched down. When it stood up, you could see it. It was moving. Then, we just heard rustling, and I saw something go up the other side.”
Leigh Leon of Los Angeles said: “We heard knocking, so we stopped. That knocking is supposedly a signal they give each other. What we saw was not a small creature. It was something walking through the trees. We could hear footfalls. Then, there was tree knocking on the other side of the road. You could see through the slots in the trees. It was a being crouched down and then moving. We could see it moving its head.”
“It was so dark, we could not have gotten anything on camera,” Leon said.
“When we saw the tornado, everybody headed for cover,” Jones said. “We are pretty sure we saw the creature. As we left, I felt the creatures were following us out. We didn’t waste any time getting out.”
Leigh came to the hunt “because of an encounter 34 years ago.”
She said she was camping with her family at Shasta Lake in Northern California, when she heard a huge creature walking beside their motor home.
“I could hear its footsteps and hear its arms swish,” she said.
Friday night, hunters reported more serious encounters with the weather and the creatures.
David Holley, of Clarksville, and son John David, both of the Timberline Bigfoot Hunters group in Northeast Texas, said about 1:20 a.m. Saturday they saw a female in the Clay’s Point area.
They called in and told Biscardi they had cornered the creature, then they reported being pummeled with rocks and stones from all around them.
Biscardi said they called for help, and his team rushed toward the scene to find the first hunting team running out of the area.
Biscardi said his team headed back into the area at dawn looking for tracks and will place infrared cameras in the area to try to get creatures on film.
Earlier, hunters took plaster casts of footprints they found in the area. Biscardi said the footprints, one measuring more than 18 inches, had dermal ridges and changed with each step.
Biscardi said because of the contacts with creatures, his team will continue to search in the area, but he hopes for better weather.
“I have never seen such light shows out here,” he said.
Biscardi continues to do his radio show from the hunt scene.
He said ABC and FOX filming crews came to the scene on the first hunt night and also braved the inclement weather to film on the first night of searching.
Biscardi said filming also is being done for a television series based on the search for Bigfoot.Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Well, where do I start?
Biscardi claims a “tornado” touched down, yet the ational Weather Service radar “did not show a tornado in the vicinity of Pat Mayse Lake.”
They had winds of seventy miles per hour and they heard tree knocking. I wonder if it was the wind or “tornado” that was knocking the trees?
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.
Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Breaking News, Cryptotourism, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Expedition Reports, Eyewitness Accounts, Media Appearances, Sasquatch, Television