April 16, 2007

Paris, TX Bigfoot Expedition Organizer Speaks Out

Jim Snell, the co-organizer with Tom Biscardi of the recent Paris, Texas Bigfoot Expedition, offered the following thoughts in response to the comments here on Cryptomundo regarding the event.

Hey Folks,
This is Jim, Director of GSP (Granite State Paranormal).

I should first explain to you all how I and GSP operate in our investigations, we are science based skeptics, we look for the definitive proof in investigating the unknown, meaning we look to experience reports of paranormal activity ourselves, then immediately we go to work trying to debunk it and look for natural causes for the reports. We record scientific measurements, as well as Audio and Video Data. Most of the time, we find natural causes for reported activity, this is how we work as Ghost Hunters. We are not cryptozooligist, We’re just plain ‘ol Ghost Hunters, but we were in contact with Tom Biscardi who is the most active Bigfoot Hunter in the Country, and over the past few months he has taught us a lot about the creature known as ‘Bigfoot’.

Like I said before, as reasonable as some of the stories sounded from Tom (including reports of sitings nation wide from various sources) I still take a skeptical approach to all of this.

Now, I just returned from this expedition yesterday, and I have to say, I’m quite impressed with Tom and his team, especially their passion for their work, when you read on about what went on in Texas, I think you will be as well.

When I first talked to Tom, we spoke at length about his 35 years of experience in this field, and as fantastic as some of it sounded, after looking at how much Tom and his team have invested in time, passion and money looking to solve this mystery, I surely didn’t feel like there was nothing going on out there, so it was time to find out for myself.

I suggested to Tom that we open the expedition to a limited number of non-affiliated participants, folks that were also interested, but had nothing to gain by running with either side of the story, if a total stranger has an experience, that to me is more credible to the public than one of our crew who obviously has an investment of time and money invested in this. So we opened it to the public, *BTW, there was absolutely ‘NO Profit’ made on this expedition, the ticket money paid for the holders included hotel room, field meals, and other expenses, this expedition cost Tom quite a chunk of change, and he was more than willing to spend what he had to in order to do it, so when I hear it’s all about the Money, I have to say “What Money?”, last time I checked, Hunting Bigfoot wan’t the most profitable way to make a buck, I don’t think that’s Tom’s motivation at all, it goes much deeper with him than something a common as money.

OK, that all being said, what happened out there you ask?

Many of you might know that this past week the area we were in was pummeled with tornado’s (yes, Tornado’s, I saw one in the sky myself!) heavy rain, and flash floods, but we went out in it all anyway, that’s the kind of passion these guys have for this. It surely doesn’t begin and end at the computer screen for these guys let me tell ya!

Our camp was ripped apart on Thursday night by the (I was told) 70+ mph winds, I’m not just talking about tents being blown over, they were shredded, poles shattered and our stuff was everywhere. While this was happening, most of the teams were stranded on an island across the 2 mile lake, the water was way to choppy, it looked like the ocean, there was no way to get them back safely, so the team leaders connected all the teams together, (which required, several miles of hiking through the elements to the rendezvous point where they were actually able to get a fire going in all of this and hunker down and keep everyone safe and comfortable until it was safe enough to bring them back to shore.

Being from NH, I had never seen a tornado first hand, as I was on patrol with Tom Jr. (who is the COOLEST Guy you’d ever meet and work with), We actually observed a tornado spinning away in the sky, it was quit something, sounded just like a jet roar, it didn’t touch down where we were, so it was actually fun to watch.

Since I’m on the subject of my patrol that night, here’s the interesting part of my experience which happened at that time.

It was myself, Tom Jr., and 2 Ticket Holders, we drove to an area where Tom’s Team had discovered prints the day before I arrived (Tue) they knew the prints had to be fresh, because Monday the rain was hard enough to wash any prints in that area. Texas has a lot of clay, and when it rains, it’s like walking on 3″ of grease, we had a heck of a time walking in this area, so it was very conducive to tracks, and they lifted some really nice casts.

We had staked out the area where the prints were found, we heard some movement in the woods, but there are a lot of animals out there that I’m not used to, wild pigs (which will attack), panther, armadillo (which sound like a bunch of elephants) and the usual white tail, rabbits, coons, etc..

We were armed with a thermal imager which will pick up heat signatures of anything live out there and give you it’s shape and size and show it’s real time movement.. It was pitch black out there, we didn’t use flashlights if it wasn’t necessary.

After about an hour (this is when I saw the tornado), we headed back up to the road, we no sooner go there, when we heard what the crypto’s call a ‘Tree Knock’, it’s suspected that this is how the creatures communicate with each other. As we walked down the road, I could hear something was walking in the woods along with us, when we would stop, it would as well, it seemed like deliberate, sentry type behavior, the woods were thick and dark so I couldn’t see much even with the thermal. As we got closer to the shoreline, the trees thinned out considerably to where we could see the light of the night sky through them as the lake rolled into a cove on the other side about a thousand meters from the road. As we reached this point, we all saw a huge shadow moving from tree to tree, and crouching down, we were able to see it as it crouched on the thermal, it was a bit creepy because it was human shaped, we figured it was about 500 meters away. Tom Jr. went instinctively towards it, and for a minute there I thought he as going to give chase, I stayed on the road with the ticket holders, both were women and I didn’t want to leave them alone up there, at that point Tom Jr. had the same thought, since he was the only one of us armed, he turned back and rejoined the group, he later told me he was concerned that if there were multiple creatures out there, we might have been at risk unarmed.

Having had this experience has left many questions, like I said, I require definitive proof, having not had the benefit of any resolution or definition of what I saw, which was a really big silhouette or shadow, I can’t honestly say it was a Bigfoot, I can however say that watching these guys work, and now knowing them personally, I’d be able to say honestly that I think there is Something out there whatever it is, and it was a very exciting expedition, an experience like I’ve never had.

We were joined by Fox News and ABC while out there, both were great producers and camera men to work with.

The ticket holders had a real survival experience, I have said before, this stuff isn’t for the squeamish, it’s a real hardcore survival adventure, the danger is real, and what you come away with is a real sense of accomplishment in taking on these adversities and working to get the job done which is sometimes basic survival, everybody did great, and Tom’s guy’s were top notch PROFESSIONALS!

The equipment we brought, designed and operated by Dr. Ron Milione, worked great (you might know Ron from TAPS and the hit Sc-Fi TV show ‘Ghost Hunters’).
Even with the awful weather conditions which greatly affected the thermal stuff because the rain was cool and came in sheets, and cut down our reciever distance, the equipment was a lot of fun to try and work with.

Over-all I have to say I’m extremely impressed with these guy’s, and damn proud to have worked and become Friends with them.

I also suggest to you all, instead of reading about them, if you are truly interested in this field of study, go out there, see for yourself, that’s the only thing that convinces me, experience, and they have it!

So that’s my report for now, I’m always happy to answer questions just email me at granite_state_paranormal@hotmail.com

Thanks again for all your interest!Jim, Director- GSP

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptotourism, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Expedition Reports, Eyewitness Accounts, Sasquatch, Television