Bigfoot Society - The Ghost Elephant of Baraboo, Wisconsin and Unexplained Bigfoot of the Kettle Moraine | Pine Barrens Institute | Adam Benedict

Episode Date: February 19, 2022

#115In this episode I interview Adam Benedict, the head of the Pine Barrens Institute, a website for forgotten and rediscovered Midwest cryptid tales, ghost stories, and odd encounters! Adam and I talk about the art of research, some jaw dropping Kettle Moraine Bigfoot investigations and the paranormal ghost elephant of Baraboo? Enjoy this episode of Bigfoot Society.Join the Bigfoot Society Patreon for an extra 30 minutes with Adam where we talk about a lake monster, a 1970s UFO and an odd story that I definitely wasn't prepared to hear! You'll also get a sweet membership card, a special vinyl sticker and much, much more!https://www.patreon.com/thebigfootsocietyTune in every Saturday at 5 pm Central for new episodes of Bigfoot Society!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Qq45W6iaTU8FE9kelxT7QIG: @bigfootsocietyWebsite: https://bit.ly/3jvKIm7Donate: https://bit.ly/3C4hodMShop: https://etsy.me/3ptlubQiTunes: https://apple.co/3fmmhTCSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3vF1vIriHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/3CarDgDStitcher: https://bit.ly/3m75I4xFacebook: https://bit.ly/3b5XgMpFull links: https://bit.ly/bigfootlinksResource:Website: https://pinebarrensinstitute.comAdam's books (affiliate links):Oddities in Print https://amzn.to/3H3H8ZpMonsters in Print https://amzn.to/3H5a5nIGhosts in Print https://amzn.to/36sOY2jSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/thebigfootsociety)

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Valid through 527, while supplies last. Selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for details. Visit your nearby Lowe's on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. This advice right now is the advice I've been trying to get. I'm not even kidding because this question I asked this like a few times over the last 100 whatever episodes. And it's like people always prance. This is really good information.

Thank you, Adam. I don't know. I'm super jazzed up tonight. I don't know why. I have really good garlic bread for supper. Welcome back to the Bigfoot Society podcast. I'm your host, Jeremiah Byron. Every week we talk to a different person in the cryptozoology community,

get their thoughts, stories, and just have a good time. This week, I have the privilege of talking to my new friend, Adam Benedict from the Pine Barrens Institute, out of Wisconsin. We talk about all things, Wisconsin, weird, and a whole lot of different cryptic things. Dog man. Yeah, it's crazy. I'll let you know I'm a little bit amped up for this episode, as you could hear in the teaser. But I think you'll really enjoy this look behind someone who is a great researcher, great article writer,

and has put so much time into... discovering and documenting these weird, odd tales, these crypt tales and ghostly tales from across Wisconsin's history. Definitely enjoy this interview as I talk to Adam Benedict from the Pine Barrens Institute. All right, well, thanks for coming back to the Bigfoot Society podcast. I've got the privilege of having Mr. Adam Benedict with me from the Pine Barrens Institute. Hello, Adam. How's it going? Hey, pretty good. How about you? Perfect. Well, before we get into it too deep, let me kind of go over a little bio about you so our listeners know what they're in for tonight. So we got Adam Benedict is a native Wisconsinite designer by trade researcher by choice.

Drawn to the weird at a young age like most of us. I added that part in there. Thanks to the likes of Robert Stack and Leonard Nimoy. I spent a good portion of his life studying up on the weirder parts of history. Realizing the knowledge he had gained might be of some interest, others. He founded the Pine Barron's Institute in 2015. Since its creation, the Pine Barron Institute has become a well-received gathering point for those seeking to learn about the more obscure side of the Midwest, which, being a Midwestern myself, there is definitely some weird stuff in the Midwest. Yep. I also want to point out that you are a published author.

You have the Inprint series. You have Monsters in Print. Ghost in print and Audities in print, which was just, I believe, released a December of this 21, correct? So that one's pretty recent. I myself became familiarized with your website, PBI, through, you have some really good articles, interesting articles about cryptid, cryptid events in Iowa. I think it was the South Skunk River Monster Battle of 1884. And you're like the only guy who's written about it. And it's good.

It's like these aren't just like, this isn't just some guy, you know, writing a paragraph. Like this is, these are well, well written, uh, multi paragraph articles. They're very good. A big fan of your work, Adam. Thank you. So thank you so much, uh, for coming on. Um, I got to ask you. So what was it like, think back to like 2019, and what was it like when you first saw one of your books on Lauren Coleman's 2019 Cryptozoology book list?

Is that a pretty cool experience for you? It was honestly crazy to see that, you know, people actually were interested in it. Because I was doing it for myself, really, because as a kid, out looking for these books and stories. and stuff like that. You'd always come across the same ones. Books would have the same stories in it repeatedly. And I, you know, there's always so much more out there that people weren't writing about. So it's like, you know what, I'll just collect them together and put them out there for people to do with what they want.

And to see, you know, it appeared on a list with other fantastic books and writers and stuff like that. It was like, wow. I guess people actually, you know, enjoy this. And it's more than like a little passion project. Wow. So when was the, do you remember how old, when was it when you first started realizing, hey, there's stories out here that haven't been written about. You can find these in old newspapers.

And when did that kind of kick off? Do you remember? It really started to take effect probably somewhere in middle school. So the, you know, watching the old like history programs and, you know, old episodes of a church of and anything like that, it always, you know, have these really fascinating stories. And it would kind of get my brain going. It's like, oh, I should, you know, look into this more because they always mention that, oh, we got it from this source.

We got it from this source. So you go looking for those sources. And you stumble across like they make reference. to, oh, it first appeared in this newspaper, it first appeared in this journal. So then you go looking for those journals. And then after a while, it's like, well, what else do these, you know, magazines and newspapers and stuff have? So it kind of just opened that door where you start looking around.

It's like, I didn't know that this was a thing because no one's ever talked about it before. I didn't know that this was something because, you know, it's never been on one of the TV shows that I watch. And it just kind of like really started that deep dive into just looking around for, anything and everything. And then from there, you know, in the early days of the internet and stuff like that, it's like, oh, I'm going to save a file on my desktop and, you know, just everything kept getting added into that.

And it's like, man, there's a lot of stuff here. And ever, ever since then, it's just, you know, if I have time to kill or, you know, looking into some weird location, it's, let's, let's poke around in some digital archives. see what weird things we can find. Amazing. Amazing. Do you have a favorite place that you always like to check out to see if there's something new that you've overlooked in your bookmarks?

Constantly looking at Wisconsin. Okay. Being a native here entire life, it's like still the ability to discover something new that you never knew before. And then also, you know, if for some reason it's like, I'm going to step outside that bounds, you know, anything around the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes region of the United States always has some fantastic bits of folklore and stories. And a lot of people don't really give credit to or really think much about because a lot of people just consider the Midwest like the flyover area. Not much is going on here. So people don't spend a lot of time looking for this stuff. And you know, you can ask someone who's their, their families lived here their entire lives.

And it's like, have you ever heard of this event? No, never heard of it in my life. It's like, but it's happened in the city where you grew up. Wow. Your family's growing up where their family's grown up, you know. And just to be able to say that for someone goes, wow, I never knew that before. It's like, that's super fun. Yeah.

You know, it keeps the fire burning, I should say, to keep looking for different things. that is awesome. Do you have a lot of people contacting you through, we'll say PBI for Pine Barriers Institute from here on now. I'll probably end up saying PBI. That's cool. I say it all the time. All right, fun. So do you have a lot of people contacting you through PBI or like, you know, the contact form where it's like, oh my goodness, I never knew this about my state? Or do you get that a lot? Yeah. I get, you know, a, a, pretty regular flow of emails people saying, hey, it came across your site and, you know, I live here and I never knew this. Or, you know, my, my parents grew up here and they used to tell me about this and I didn't know anyone else, you know, knew this. Or there's people who are like, hey, I, I came across your story, but some of the information is wrong. How it's actually supposed to go, the river you're talking about or the location you're talking about is not here. You know, so it's like, okay, we'll correct it. Um, because it's coming from someone who lives there. which is always, you know, always awesome. It's like, oh, thank you. We're making it more authentic. We're making it, you know, a true source. Because that's really what I set out to do.

You know, it's just giving you all the facts. I'm verifying them to the best of my ability that the information I'm given is true. And then, you know, once it's out there, it's up for the reader, if they want to fully believe it or not, because we do touch on some pretty strange topics. Yeah, it's, they're awesome. But like I at the end of the day, I'm doing my best to accurate and authentic information in history. So people are learning various things across the board. And I'm guessing you're having people come to your website from all over the world.

Yeah. Got to be. Yeah. The analytics are pretty, pretty interesting to look at. Yeah. You're what you're one of those guys too where you like. look up who's coming to you. I'm that kind of guy where I'm like,

oh, that's weird. I had a hit from the Department of Defense. Interesting. Right? It's like, what is this person poking around? Weird. From Guam at like three in the morning. What are you doing?

You know, or some of the islands, you know, around, you know, South America or Australia, like locations like that. It's like, we're not touching on anything from over there, but somehow you're reading like everything that's being posted. So it sparks some sort of interest. Let's say, let's say the PBI archives, everything is completely deleted. It's all wiped away.

Nothing's there anymore. What's the first article that you would absolutely have to rewrite first? So it existed again. Oh, man. I really love the one that I, I, I, I just put out last month. I finally put it in to written form, but it's always been one of my favorites.

It's about the ghost elephant of Baraboo. In the 1930s, it said that an elephant, the spirit of an elephant was pretty much haunting this woman because her husband was associated with the circus and he was an elephant trainer. And this elephant poltergeist came back to terrorize this woman and her family.

Um, but the story that people would normally come across would stop there, but there was a whole other side to the story that doesn't make it seem like, there was more to it than what people knew. And figuring that part out and, you know, completing the whole story, um, is one of those ones I would write again and get it back out there immediately. Wow. So how did you, uh, how did you go about getting all the information about the,

the, the, the, the, the, haunting elephant of bear boo. So it's one of those stories that have been around forever,

but people here, it's like only a handful of people knew about it. It was one of those like pretty underground

ones. Okay. So if you stumbled across it, like you were really into this, this sort of stuff. So what it was,

I always tried to figure it out because this was another one of those events or stories where they reference a new that the story first appeared in. So first thing said out, okay, we're going to find this newspaper. They say it took place in the 30s.

It was written in Chicago. Well, that newspaper didn't exist. So then we have to backtrack and say, oh, it also appeared in Fate Magazine. But the Fate Magazine article is from 1953. So you have to get your hands on a back issue from 1953. So I was able to track down someone who was selling one for a reasonable price. And, you know, I got that. And it's like, okay.

I'm reading through the article, and they're pointing out names, they're given locations, which match up to actual places and names from Baraboo, Wisconsin. Okay. So I'm getting this timeline ready, and then I'm looking into the names in which they're reference in, like one person they call it in particular was the sheriff at the time. So now I need to verify that this person is real. So going about it, doing normal searches through Baraboo, city history, if there's any information on the sheriff that's being pointed out, but there's

nothing coming up. So then it's getting in contact with the sheriff's department in Barabu in the historical society, hey, can you verify this information that I need? Which was a fantastic call because when they picked up the phone, they're like, you know, how can we help you? And it's like, I just straight up told them, it's like, I don't know this is about a ghost story and I need information on your share from the 30s. And the woman just responded with, oh, wow, yeah, I can help you. This is the most interesting call I've had all week.

So, you know, it's just kind of going down the list like you would just do for any subject. This one just so happens to be paranormal related. Right. So I'm finding out all these, you know, which people existed, which people didn't exist. Long story short of it, it turns out that the entire story was created and never actually. happened. It was passed off as false. But the person who wrote it was actually involved

in another famous story hoax. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot Society. We'll be right back after these messages. Which people still to this day pass off as fact. So figuring out that link, it was like, finally. It's solved.

This didn't happen, but the story has grown to a portion where now it's its own piece of folklore where it's just like, okay, Okay, it exists out there and the true story exists separately, but they're both equally fascinating. That is really cool. I'm going to have to go read that after this for sure. That sounds fascinating.

Let's say, so you've got the paranormal one. After that, is there, excuse me, is there a cryptid one that you would want to rewrite and get back into existence? I have, I think one, another phone. one was probably the Lake Michigan monster. Okay. There is, I like to start, I like to start this one off with, there's only one recorded shark attack in all of Lake Michigan. Okay. It's on the, the, the, the directory of shark attacks lists a young boy being attacked in Lake Michigan by a shark.

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Take noise-canceling headphones. Do they block hearing to height and taste? Hmm. That sound seems to show. Everything happens for a Reese's. Diving into that, it unraveled this big historical, you know, different descriptions of a lake monster in Lake Michigan from the 1800s. until the early 1900s, descriptions of it varied,

you know, being a giant whale, being a giant fish, a serpent, many different descriptions for this thing, the classic dinosaur. But then that also, you know, a mystery unraveled from that one as well with a lot of hoaxers, a lot of people creating their own parts of the legend.

But it all comes back to that one strange incident of something attacked someone in the lake they don't know what it was and then this it got dragged into this this legend of a monster and it just like the ghost elephant it became its own thing um it's a it's another one of those stories that i love because it's equal parts um classic mystery it's it's equal parts monster story it's you know there's so many different avenues that base off from this one incident and it's it's one of those ones that you just keep writing and writing and writing because you keep going to covering something new.

And I love those ones. So that would have to go up there for sure. That's a fascinating one as well. So how is it, let's say when you're researching these stories, how are you coming to the realization that this story is a hoax? Like, what is it that gives you that evidence, usually? Typically, linking back to like the ghost elephant, when names, you can't find any historical information on a lot of these people.

You know, if they're stating that they're in a position of high standing or some sort of power or authority, they would have some sort of history. A record would have been kept of their accomplishments outside of this one incident. So if you can't find anything on that, you know, that kind of points your nose in the direction of this may be fake. if the story loves to talk about an incident that refers to an incident that talks about another incident, kind of like a game of telephone, that usually spells up. This was probably created for the sole purpose of selling newspapers or just playing a joke. So more than like this one is probably fake too.

The incidences where it comes across where you kind of really have to give it some thought are the ones that are just very matter of fact there doesn't seem to be any embellishment on them there doesn't seem to be any um sort of sway to do you see the humor that we're doing do you see how this is you know we're we're trying to lead you this way but we're not telling you to go this way right uh you know like very like early classical can be described as bigfoot encounters like you can you can tell the difference right away if the the author is being sincere and how they're writing it or it's just kind of a puff piece um if they don't do any embellishing and they just straight up give you the facts more than likely a person saw

something then um but if they're like oh it attacked and it killed this party of six hunters and they came back and heads were ripped off and things like that you're like okay now they may have saw something to begin with but this person really embellished the story and turned into something that more than likely it wasn't. Hmm interesting that also goes for like like like monsters or you know like giant thunderbird sightings things like that it the way that they write it the short the article, in my opinion, the more authentic that it probably is. Okay. That's very interesting.

There's always something I, you know, everyone has their, their favorite, but did, et cetera. I noticed that there, from what I could see, there is an article on your website that does not exist. And I'm kind of curious if it will ever exist. Have you ever looked into the VAM? meter visitor of van meter Iowa. I have looked in the van meter

visitor, but I don't feel like I'm in the position to really write about it because so many people have done it justice already that I'd feel like I'm stepping on. But have they though? Yeah, it's it's that like, yeah, what if

I do something? But it's like, then it's like, oh no, you got the information wrong and you put it out there. It's like, I feel like I'm stepping on someone's toes and that's specific one. No, no, I don't think you should feel like, it's owned by any certain, which that is a real thing in cryptozoology culture, I think, where it's like, oh, I feel like Francis Jacobson owns the South Skunk River Monster, and I could never write anything about it, you know, like, which that guy doesn't exist.

I just made him up. But you get what I'm saying. But the cool thing is that you're going to have access to things. I would recommend you to do it. Here's the thing. And it's like, let's say someone wrote a book like a while back about a cryptid. We start to look into the cryptid. We're going to have maybe access to new information. For example, like I try to find all this Van Meter visitor stuff on TikTok. TikTok is weird because it's the newer generation that is not using Facebook and stuff like that. So like I make a TikTok about Van Meter Visitor and I have this person come out of nowhere where it's like, oh yeah, you've heard about the stories out of Van Buren County, right?

I'm like, what are you talking about? And she's like the Amish ones. I'm like, what? And she's like, you've never heard these? I'm like, you've got to tell me all this like right now because this isn't in the book. it's not, I haven't seen it anywhere. So like, because of a connection on TikTok, I am talking with this person that's in their 20s to 30s that grew up in that area and potentially has all this information

about a cryptid that is not in our circles yet. So it's like all that to say, you know, you never know who you will stumble upon that the person who made the book maybe, uh, never had. access to you right yeah or for sure i can i completely agree it's one of those things it's like how how deep do you want to get into it because anything that's anything that something has written you know gives you a great base that's to start off of that you know they did a lot of legwork and you know they always need the respect that you laid the foundation i'm going to use your research and then i'm going to build off of that but it it's kind of like how far are you willing to take it especially

as encrypted or a haunted location or like an alien encounter, the more it becomes popular, the more people are looking at it, the more information is getting uncovered. So the bigger it's going to get because when more people start to learn about it, more people come out of the woodwork like, oh yeah, my uncle was there. Or no, that happened to my grandfather. And it's type of, well, we didn't know that 30 years ago. And it's like, well, no one was really asking these questions. So it's just growing and growing and growing.

So it's like you hear about those people who are like, I decided to do it one day and I spent the last five years of my life. It just becomes crazy. It's like, man, I don't know if I could, if it comes like a Zodiac killer type thing, right? Yeah, just on like one thing. Yeah. Do you find that like you're looking through your analytics and like all of a sudden one month? It's like, bam, old article just skyrockets and page views and you're like,

what is going on here? And then all of a sudden you're like, I gotta go down this rabbit hole again. But you're like, I can't because they got to talk about that poltergeist elephant from Baraboo. And you know, that's got to be,

yeah, that would be wild for me. But it's weird when it's like, why is this trending? Like I have no idea why someone must have shared it or someone heard about it. And like, you know,

you just said it's like maybe it showed up on TikTok. Someone was talking about it. Yeah. Someone posted in a top five's video or something like that. It's like, totally. Who knows? But it's always.

cool to see which one is going to be the one to take the top spot for like that month. Has a PBI ever been shouted out by anything weird that like you found out about and you're like, oh my goodness, I was like shouted out by that guy. That's crazy. I was contacted by the Canadian news to like give information on a possible like an Ogopogo sighting. Oh, that's serious stuff. Yeah, it was, they contacted me. They're like, hey, we came across I did an article on a lake monster up there, a Canadian lake monster, which did pretty well. Like people seem to enjoy it. And they got in contact with me like, hey, we're going to be going on the air in like three hours. Would you be willing to like talk? Whoa. I'm like, okay,

like what's it about? Oh, wow. They're like, oh, well, someone says that they saw Ogopogo. Could you give some insight in what you think it is? Oh, so. Okay. You know, and I watched the video and like, I'm sorry to say it was just a wave. Like it was like that's what it was. But they were so passionate in it. You know, and, you know, I had, I had to say that what the person they saw was a wave, but that doesn't discount, you know, all the other sightings that people have. Sure.

You know, this one instance. But it was cool because, you know, I have some friends who live up in Canada and Canada. And they like texted. They're like, hey, we just saw you on TV. Nice. That's cool. I guess I'm huge in Canada now. Yeah, there you go.

Hey, that's a that's a badge of honor, right? Right. I feel that we're going to have some listeners that want me to ask this. Let's say someone's a fan of PBI and they're like, man, he gets all these cool stories. I want to be the person who like is looking through the newspapers and sees these old, old stories. What's the what's the how do you find all these old stories? Are there any tricks or like do you go into libraries and look in microfichees or like what's the tricks? Luckily the times we live in now, you know, a majority of libraries have all digitized their collections. So that, you know, that takes a lot of the legwork out of it. You can do it from the comfort of wherever you have your setup or your tablet or your phone.

So that right off the bat, it's accessible to everyone. Two, a lot of states or counties will have their own newspaper archive collection for just newspapers within their state. And typically, they'll make this free for residents of that state. They track it by the ISP where it's like, okay, you're doing it from this location. can get into the website for free. They might block it off to people outside. I've come across a few of those where you need a membership or something like that. Sure.

Third, Library of Congress. The Library of Congress's digital archives are constantly growing. Really? They give grants to universities all over the place to digitize their entire collections to to put into this national archive that anyone in America is free to use. Um, so, you know, there's, there's a lot of places you can start from. But once you get in there, the, the one thing I can say is you cannot go looking for terms that we use for these things today. Uh, okay.

Yeah. You can't go away and be like, you know, type in Bigfoot. Right. Like, why are no Bigfoot, you know, stories coming up? Because the, the term wasn't created, you know, until modern times back in the day. You're going to have to look for things like, you know, Wildman. cow man, monstrosity.

Yeah, any combination you can think of how it would be described without a name. That's what you want to look for. Same thing with like, like Monsters, the Thunderbirds,

things like that. You have to really get in a mindset of how would someone 150 years ago describe this to someone else in a way that they would understand that I can search for? And once you kind of get into that mindset where you know what you're looking for,

then it like really opens a lot of doors on what directions you can go for. Oh my goodness. This is so, this advice right now is the advice I've been trying to get in, I'm not even kidding because this question I asked this like a few times over the last 100 whatever episodes. And it's like people always prance. This is really good information.

Thank you, Adam. I don't know. I'm super jazzed up tonight. I don't know why. I had really good garlic bread for supper. Fantastic. No, but I remember sitting there at one point and I'm trying to figure this out. Like, why can I not find anything?

And it's just like, no one would know what this thing is. You know, so you're looking for unexplainable visitors or indescribable creature. Like you're looking for terms like that because that's the only thing. that someone back at that time, you know, would have been able to to relate or, like, it was some kind of monster. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot Society. We'll be right back after these messages. Word.

So if you think the term sounds dumb in your head, search for it. Because guaranteed something is going to come up. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here, and one here, One here. You need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like starting starting over,

you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-Native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place. Learn more at intuitt.com slash ERP. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse? Being understaffed or being poorly staffed?

Well, that's a trick question, because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or go a different way and get no traction.

Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a higher than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less less,

time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. It said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a Reese's. Take noise cancelling headphones. Do they block hearing to heighten taste? Hmm. That sound seems to show. Everything happens for a recess. Do you keep like a list of terms with you? Yeah. I in my bookmarks bar up top,

like I have different, you know, sections where it's just kind of like, these are all of them for what I think would be UFOs. These are all of them for what I think would be Bigfoot. And it's like, I'll jump back and forth between those. It's like, okay, I'm, I've kind of run the course for the past few days on strange aerial phenomenon. Let's jump over to monsters. Let's jump over to paranormal, you know, events. And then you also got to remember, too, like a lot of these things were just categorized under one umbrella term. Like, like ghost.

Ghost was a term that would be applied to many different things. Not a ghost how we think of today, but an unexplained visitor in the town. they would describe as a ghost or what could be described as modern day bigfoot sightings back then they would listed as a ghost as well. So you're reading this and you're like, this doesn't sound like a ghost.

Like people are saying they're interacting with this six foot tall thing that doesn't sound like a ghost where they're just like, we don't know what it is. So it's a phantom. It's a ghost. It's a spook.

It's a specter. Anything like that. They're like just name it and get the article out there. Legit. That's awesome. I got to ask you since you're from Wisconsin. What are your thoughts on Dogman Beast of Bray Road?

I have a feeling that's a, that's me pressing a button when I'm talking to a Wisconsin person. The story, I love that we, we have our own legend. Like when a state finally has its official cryptid, you know, outside of the Hodag would be our, They are unofficial cryptid. That's the thing. The whole dag is Wisconsin cryptid. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

And that's the cryptid. We know like, right. Yes, this is our hoax. This is our joke cryptid. Like, this is ours. But in terms of this is our real cryptid,

like to say that we have the Beast of Bray Road and Dogman is very cool. Now, the believability behind it is when you start getting into the, eh, I don't know because the science doesn't link up. to how something like that could exist. So it's kind of like are what people seeing, was it just misidentification?

Could some of them just be, you know, if Bigfoot exists, could it have just been a Bigfoot sighting that was misidentified? Could it have been, you know, anything really to try and explain an upright walking man dog. It's just one of those things that I'm not willing to put all my eggs into one basket, but I'm also not willing to keep all of them out of it.

Okay. So it's like I'll entertain the idea, but I'll definitely look into the believability of it. Not saying people didn't see anything, but what you saw, I don't know. Interesting. Is there a crypted that you would put all your eggs towards instead? If I were to throw any eggs in any basket, the believability would have to go to sea monsters. Interesting. And not the, and I'm going for like the classic depictions.

No dinosaurs, no, like, pleasaur type descriptions. I'm going for like the early 1800s of what they described as like sea dragons. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. You know, like the big, they described it as almost massive. crocodiles with, you know, like the camel heads and, you know, the massive flipper claws and stuff like that. I would say those probably have the most, the most, the highest possibility of possibly

existing at one point or maybe like a small population exists. The terrestrial animals, it's iffy, depending on where they're coming from, when the stories are coming from. you know if someone says oh we got a lake monster you know in this area but you only have a lake that's like 10 feet wide and four feet deep it's like I highly tell you have anything going on in there or the person who's saying you know bigfoot comes up to my house you know every night it's like you live in a suburban area there's no woods or anything around so yeah can't really believe that but when you start getting people who are like you know I live off grid you have to drive 10

miles before you can figure out I'm living. And it's like, okay, you're probably, you might be telling the truth there. There might be something to this. But, uh, yeah, a long about way saying that sea monsters would probably real if they did exist. Gotcha. We were talking, uh, before the show about some of, uh, mutual people that we know from Wisconsin, uh, Jay Pachocan, et cetera. Um, have you ever, I'm just curious, like, uh, have you ever gone out?

And looking for stuff like Bigfoot yourself, any expeditions? Yeah, I have, I have gone along with Jay, who's a great researcher. Such a nice guy. Fantastic guy. Yeah, so nice. Searching through the, through the kettle moraine. And then also along is Tobias and Emily Wayland from the Singular 40 Society. Oh, yeah.

So we'll go out there. You know, it's like a four-person group. And what I enjoy is the mindsets of everyone who's part of that group. You know, there's there's all different avenues of everyone who's there, which, you know, they, they, um, stuff that interest them, stuff that they research, uh, beliefs, things like that. So was such a, a good group with varying, varying, um, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? research avenues. Gotcha.

It makes talking about what is, was possibly seen or not seeing or, or ideas like that much more interesting. Me, I would describe myself as, as an open-minded skeptic. A lot of this stuff I don't believe in at all, but I'm not willing to say,

it's not a possibility. I'd love to, I'd love to find evidence. I would love to, you know, witness something that I can't explain. It might be out there. I have no way of knowing that it's not out there.

But I also know that the probability of it existing is very, you know, very low. But then again, some other animals and stuff out there who have said were to never exist, eventually we found those well. So it's like if we're going to go out and look for something, yeah, I'm going to look for it. But I'm not going to go out there, hold my breath. You know, not behind every tree is a big foot. Not behind every, you know, turn on the trail is a dog man. But if you come across something's weird, definitely investigate it.

Yeah. Oh, sure, because, I mean, you never know what it could lead into. Yeah. When you're out in the kettle and the rain with Tobias, Emily, Jay, did you have anything weird happen, anything that you couldn't really explain? or were you able to explain away most everything that happened? There was a few occasions where were strange lights in the sky were seen. Oh, interesting.

Emily, Jay, and Tobias all witnessed a, and they love to joke about this to remind me about it. They all witnessed a bright, extremely bright light in the sky and flash that lit up the area. It was caught on one of the trail cams that they were wearing as well. happen to be looking the other way, you know, looking down into a kettle. And then, of course, everyone, you know, shouts and like, did you see that? And I turn. It's the most amazing thing and you missed it. Yeah, I saw nothing. Um, so they love to point that out. Um, you know, there's been what, what you can be described as like will of the wisps or fairy lights or things like that. Unexplained little lights around the trail that can't really figure out what they are,

but they're seen quite often. Um, but the, the strangest experience. experience I had was when all four of us went out and we were doing a technique that Jay refers to as leapfrogging, where the group will will split up. One person will go off on their own and just walk down trail like 100 yards or so just to be by themselves and then then wait. And when they get to their destination, then the other one will do it. And then eventually you get to the last person. So everyone has a moment where they can be by themselves. And if anything happens, you know, maybe it's, it'll just happen to that one person. Maybe it'll happen to two people, whatever. So we were doing this, this technique.

And I off, I offered, I'll go last. So everyone went and I was just kind of hanging back and I was just, you know, walking back and forth across the trail, kind of walking into the trees, stuff like that. And I was standing in the trees, just kind of looking around. And it sounded like something was walking up to me, to that. to that point where your lizard brain kind of goes off like, hey, there's something around. So, you know, I did the, you know, the kind of look at.

I was like, there's nothing here. And then, you know, I kind of stopped and just waiting again. And it started walking to me again. I was like, is this like a deer? Because I've had that happen before where you don't realize a deer is standing right there. And then when, you know, it gets spooked, you get spooked, you know, then you part. But I did the same thing. I'm looking around and I was like, there is something here.

So I'm looking through the brush. There's nothing down there. There's nothing in the trees, like a raccoon or or anything like that. So I stop. And I'm just kind of standing there and I'm looking in the direction of where I think this thing is coming from. And I kid you not, it sounded like something just came walking right up to me in front of me. Like it sounded like a human being, like how they would walk through underbrush. just kind of move right in my direction.

And I just like threw my arms up and I was like, no, I'm not going to do this. And I ran down the trail. And I'm just like, I don't know what just happened back there. But it was very strange. Have no idea what it was. I'm not going to say, you know, this is where I double back to. I'm not going to say it was a big foot.

I'm not going to say it was a ghost. I'm not going to say it was anything like that. But it was very weird and unsettling. because I could hear it, but I couldn't see it. And it was registering that something is around me, but I don't know what it is. So it's best to just leave the area. Yeah.

Wow. Jay was filming at the time, and you can actually see it in his footage where he's, you know, he's talking about, you know, things that go on in the woods. And you see me running up behind him. Oh, yes. Something happens.

Something happened. We need to talk about it. Oh, man, that is so funny. And that's a great story, too. Yeah, no, finding Jay, watch, watch it. And his documentaries are legit. Yes, he's got a fantastic, grounded approach on how he goes about it. He comes down to the Van Meter Visitor Festival.

And last year, we were able to vend near each, right, actually next to each other. Nice. And we got to spend a lot of time talking that day. He's such a nice dude. what is the one thing about let's say Wisconsin folklore tales legends that people always seem to get wrong is there one thing where it's like people are always seen to be not hitting the mark when it comes to Wisconsin? Oh man people typically when they when they think Wisconsin if they're going to go like the paranormal side or the supernatural side it seems a lot of them will go towards. you know, Bigfoot stories. I be like, oh, I saw this or I heard there was a Bigfoot sighting, you know, up, up north.

But typically, Wisconsin's not known for. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like start starting over, starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-Native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place. Learn more at intuitt.com slash ERP.

All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse? Being understaffed or being poorly staffed? Well, that's a trick question, because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills. certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or, go a different way and get no traction.

Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor. job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a recess. Like this commercial break. Did you need 15 seconds away from music? Or 15 seconds to eat a Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens. for Reese's. Bigfoot sightings. It's actually known for UFO sightings. Really? Interesting. There was,

there was a huge flap for, I believe, in the 70s. Also, there were some in the 50s. There's pretty much been every decade where big flaps of UFOs were seen around the state. And then also, ghost stories, haunted locations to the point that historians and teachers of folklore, Um, um, guard and Robert E. guard and I can't remember the other author's name. And I feel terrible. Uh, Sordin is his last name. They wrote a book called Wisconsin lore.

And they straight up say like, you know, per capita, Wisconsin is probably the most haunted state in the United States. Just, just based on how many collected pieces of family, uh, folklore and witness. statements and anything like that revolving ghosts have been collected from this area. Dating back to, you know, the founding of the state in 1848. And even before that, when like the French came over in the, in like 1645, there's been, you know, stories filtering out. So I'd say people think we're known for monsters when it's actually aliens and ghosts are the,

uh, the top two. Wow. And, Yenge, you're known for, uh, delicious, uh, cheese curds and Oh yeah You eat beer and Let's see what else Lutifisk

You guys do You guys do apple pie With a slice of cheddar cheese right? Yep That's uh I used to live in Western Mass New England And they we all did that out there

And I was like Wisconsin does it too That's wild Because Iowa people think I'm crazy When I talk to them about it Nope A slice of pie With a thing

A sharp cheddar cheese on top That's so good A fun little Wisconsin fact is when Ed Gein was brought in for questioning the night that he was caught. That's the first thing he asked for was a slice of pie with warm cheese on top of it. He wouldn't talk until he had something to eat and that's what he wanted. And that's what a lot of people, they focus on when you watch a Gein documentary. They're like, it's weird that he asked for pie with cheese on it. But then when you're from here, you're like, it's not weird.

Stay tuned for more Bigfoot Society. We'll be right back after these messages. Like that's actually very normal. Yeah, yeah, that's delicious. If you, let's say you had a weekend, you're going to, you're going to check out Weird Wisconsin and you have a weekend to do it. What's going to be, where would you go in the state?

What would you do where you're going to get like the absolute, you know, best chance at checking out some weird, attraction. Not so much attractions, but me personally, I would make it a point to hit as many of the lakes that have monster sightings in them as

possible. State a former state historian and director of the historical museum in Wisconsin, Charles E. Brown, back in the, I want

to say the 60s, but don't quote me on that, actually wrote a series of pamphlets. regarding different historical items of Wisconsin importance. And he wrote one pamphlet was entitled just sea serpents. And he documented a bunch of different lakes throughout the state and the legendary monsters which were said to dwell within them. And, you know, a lot of those monster sightings still, you know, they exceeded,

they continued long after the pamphlet was written. And so there's there's a lot of history to those lakes. And I would love to just, you know, drive around and see all of them. Not even to just like hope to see something, but just to say I was here and maybe even collect like, you know, a little sample of water and like a little glass pile and stuff and be like this monster said to be here. That would be legit. But it would probably be that. Yeah, there needs to be like Wisconsin sea monster trail that. that someone sets up and then you can like drive it like i have has the wine trail you know yeah the

lake monster trail would be a fantastic drive yeah be cool stuff uh yeah that's that's that's that's good that's good um i had this weird as weird question i'm going to throw it out there uh if you had one final wisconsin meal what would it be like you can only have one more Wisconsin meal for all time. Oh man. Probably tater tot casserole. Yeah. Probably.

A hot dish of some sort. That's good. And of course, cheese curds. Yeah. Oh, that would be great. Like combine them together.

Oh, that would be legit. Sprinkle the, sprinkled cheese curds on top of the tater tots. I love it. It's been a extremely fun conversation. how can people keep up to date with what it is that you're doing, Adam?

Everything can be found at Pine Barrens Institute.com. From there, that's got, you know, all the articles, that's got links to other places. It's got links to the books, our Twitter, Instagram, all of that can be found at that one location. Awesome. And you have an older, you had a series of interviews you did. I want to say they were in like 2018, 2019 around there. You have about 10 to 12 of them. So, yep.

So if you've got, I believe you talk to Nash Hoover's in there, an older one with Alex Petacoff. Yep. So some good stuff. Definitely check that out. But oh, and, you know, definitely go and check out Adam's books. Pick those up. Adam's tier collection.

Monsters in print, ghosts in print, oddities in print. Good stuff. I'll have those linked in the show notes as well. Adam is going to hang out after the show. Spend a little bit more time. I think we might be talking about he's got some ideas, maybe some crazy weird stuff, some UFO stuff. We'll see, but he's going to hang out for a little bit longer chat for a conversation for the Patreon, which you can check that out.

Patreon.com for the Bigfoot Society. But Adam, thank you so much for all you do, looking into the forgotten history and making sure that is Indiana Jones for the next generation. How about that? My mind is so wild right now, man. I don't know. Carly bread is killing me. All right. But thanks so much for hanging out, Adam,

and have a great rest of your night, all listeners. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to the Bigfoot Society podcast. Please take a few minutes to review the show on iTunes, five stars, as it does help us get into the eyes and ears of more listeners on iTunes. That will help us just get bigger and bigger

and get even better quality guests for future shows. Also, if you have any big, Bigfoot encounters or cryptid encounters, please send your stories and audio and photos, whatever you've got over to Bigfoot Society at gmail.com. If you'd like to become more involved with Bigfoot Society and get some extra content, we do have a Patreon where you can get all sorts of cool things. For example, for $7 a month, you get extra Bigfoot Society content, usually interviews, but other things as well. you get a sweet membership card and a vinyl sticker that I send to you in the mail. You get access to the Bigfoot Society after show, which is an extra interview, after the main interview with the weekly guest. And usually they are up for Patreon members to be in that extra show segment with them and me.

And you get to ask your question live to them and get an answer from the guest, which as you've seen what, guest we've had in the past, this could be a really big deal. There's also a private discord where you can get involved with talking to me one-on-one and the community there, and that's always a great time. You can find the Patreon at www.patryon.com forward slash the Bigfoot Society. We're very thankful for all our supporters that we have in so many different ways and appreciate all our listeners coming back week after week to listen to more cryptozoology-based interviews. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you next time. The views and opinions expressed are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect

the official policy or position of Bigfoot Society. Any content provided by our guests are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone. Thank you. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here, and one here, and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like start starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-Native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place.

Learn more at Intuit.com slash ERP. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse? Being understaffed or being poorly staffed? Well, that's a trick question, because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or go a different way and get no traction.

Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed, are 95% more likely to report a higher than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves. At Indeed.com slash podcast.

Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a Reese's. Like this commercial break. Did you need 15 seconds away from music or 15 seconds to eat or Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for a Reese's. Folks knew the Colonel approved of his new honey chili crisp and jalapeno ranch sauces the moment he tasted them and said, that's right. No notes. Just absolute silence. Turns out some flavors don't need explaining. They just need dipping. It's saucy season at KFC with new honey,

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