Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1108 Wildman of the Woods

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Wildman of the Woods, explore the bigfoot legend through documentary films with interviews, exploration and storytelling around everyone's hairy bipedal woodsman. Tonight I will be talking with Paul who is the creator of the channel. He interviews eyewitnesses in his documentary and takes the viewer back to when and where the eyewitness saw the creature. Here is a link to his channel

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelt me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that shocked me. They don't make people that that big. The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forward.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears. What are you reporting? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That's son of a bitch is about six years. I don't know. Do you see a bouncer? Yes, I'm looking right in.

This is Sam Starblin from London, UK, and you're listening to Cessquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. I'll be chatting with Paul Fonsinski. He's actually the creator of the Wild Man of the Woods on YouTube, and I've actually become a huge fan of his. I post all of his documentaries on the blog.

and I'll be chatting with him tonight about the series that he created that's becoming very popular on YouTube. Again, it's called Wild Man of the Woods. I'll include some links below this episode. But here's a clip from one of the documentaries. Bigfoot chased us out of the woods, a terrifying Sasquatch encounter, and this takes place in Ohio. That scream, man, it was just like nothing I've ever heard. It was freaking terrifying. To this day, I honestly don't know what it was.

I can't explain it, but it definitely was not a human. Every year, thousands of park visitors across North America report sightings of Bigfoot. Most describe a massive, ape-like creature, elusive, intelligent, and capable of vanishing without a trace. Despite thousands of eyewitness accounts, the mystery of Sasquatch remains unsolved. Is it possible that a species has managed to evade capture and scientific classification for centuries? Or are these encounters merely the product of overactive imaginations? Skeptics dismissed these reports, but for those who have come face to face with the creature, the terror is very real.

Kevin and his friend had no idea the dreadful events that awaited. them deep in the heart of the park. That night the forest would fall silent and in the darkness they would come face to face with something that would shake them to their core. At first it was just an ordinary night, laughter, conversation, and the peaceful sounds of nature. But then without warning, the woods fell unnervingly silent. Wild Man of the Woods on YouTube. Paul posts some pretty cool stuff. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email.

My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Paul to the show. Paul, thanks for coming on. Hey, no problem, Wes. to be here. Yeah, I'm glad to have you, Paul. And again, for the audience, go check out Wild Man of the Woods on YouTube. And we'll talk about your documentaries in a moment. Before we get into that,

you had two strange things happened to you. The first one was in California. How long ago was this? Absolutely. So the stuff that happened in California was in June of 2024. So this year, my wife and I went on vacation to California. She's always wanted. to see the Redwoods. And, you know, I'd been making these documentaries for about a year and a half, two years. But, I mean, I was never the guy that went out and looked for Bigfoot. You know, I'd go if we were filming and we would go in the woods with night vision cameras and thermals, but I'd never, you know, went out on my own looking for Bigfoot. So, you know, I didn't expect anything to happen. We're just on vacation, hiking around all the tourist spots. You know,

the Redwoods that anybody's ever been out West are extremely beautiful. And, We rented an Airbnb just north of Eureka in this town called McKinleyville. And, you know, we weren't there very much. We mostly were spent our time in the national park and hiking and checking out the beaches and the beautiful stuff that goes on there in California, being from Ohio, it's really foreign to us. But I'm a big fly fisherman. So, you know, I was like, I'm going to bring my fly rod with me.

And if there's some water nearby where we'll be, I'm going to try and fish. So one night we kind of got in a little early. We were pretty beat from hiking so much. We're not used to hiking like that out in the Ohio. So like, let's go down to this river. It's right down the hill from, you know, it's like a mile from our Airbnb. And I saw I've been driving by when we'd leave to go explore. I'd drive by this little pulloff.

And I was like, I wonder if that's like public land. I was looking on maps online trying to figure it out because I don't want to trust pass, you know, and get in trouble. I'm there to enjoy myself. And I see this older gentleman pulled over on the side of the road. And so I say, hey, is this like public? Can we go here and fish? And he's like, yeah, it's maintained by the water company or something.

And my wife kind of maintains the trail down there. And I was like, cool, man, well, we parked and left our rental car in the parking spot. I grabbed my just, I have a fly rod with me. And we walk down to the river, you know, a fish for like an hour, hour and a half. And the sun starts to set. And, you know, the trail was a little longer than I thought it was going to be. I, you know, the river, you could almost see it from where we were parked, but it wound through this scrubby, really thick brush, which you think of Redwoods National Park. And you think of that area of California, you know, in my mind, it's this big open, giant redwoods.

You can see pretty far into the woods. You know, it's just this beautiful scenery. But this was like totally the opposite. It was very thick, very dense with small little trees. You couldn't see to either side of the trail where you were going. So we're walking back. I didn't catch anything. I was kind of bummed, but we were just like, hey, what are we going to eat for dinner?

And walking down this trail and we're just kind of joking and having a good time. And, you know, we're almost back to the car, which is the strange part to me. We're probably 200 feet from the car. we're about to take the last bend that walked up the slope back. You could see the car. And this yell, I don't know how to describe it really. I've been, you know, racking my brain about this since it happened. It was the loudest thing I've ever heard in the woods.

And I, you know, my wife and I have been, like, we're very experienced in the woods. Like I do wildlife filmmaking. She and I hiked the Appalachian Trail in its entirety in 2015. So we've done our fair share of time out in the wilderness. And, you know, I've heard bears. I've heard, you know, elk out west and all the, you know, general wildlife of North America. Owls. You know, I'm fairly well versed and all the different types of owls.

This sounded like, like, and I do, I play heavy metal. It sounded like a death metal. singer screaming at full volume, but it was like 10 times louder than that. And, you know, I'm trying to reconcile this in my brain and my instinct from doing so much backpacking in the backcountry and being around, you know, potentially dangerous wildlife out west, like grizzly bears and things like that. My first reaction is stay calm, keep walking, just, you know, don't panic because we can see the car.

So I'm like, we're like, whatever happened. and my we will be to the car very quickly. So, you know, I turn around and face the direction that I heard the noise. She's walking up the hill and I say, just stay at the same pace. Don't panic. Don't run. I'll keep my eyes looking. And it just made my blood run cold.

I don't know how to describe it. I mean, I normally am like, oh, that was X animal. That was a deer grunting or that was a, you know, I don't know. know what this was. And I still don't know what it was. She got in the car and me having done, you know, I had done a handful of the Wild Man Mysteries documentary or Wild Man of the Woods documentaries before this happened. So I, you know, I talked to people about Bigfoot, but I was kind of like, you know,

I don't know if this is real. I've never experienced anything, you know, but I've always been interested in the topic. And I start asking my friends, you know, from from around the, the big foot scene, I guess you want to say. And people I know that are wildlife experts, I'm like, what would make this kind of noise? And I,

nobody, nobody knew. I thought maybe it could have been like a homeless guy because we saw a lot of homeless people in the cities, but we weren't near the city. We were kind of on the outskirts. But I just, I don't think a person could yell that loud.

That's what really hit my brain is like, I don't, I know, I do. heavy metal death metal vocals in a band and I can't yell that loud and I did I mean I do it all the time it's not it's a normal thing for me um and it it I didn't experience any of the what people say like you know shit like I wasn't shaking or I didn't feel any like vibration or anything it just scared me honestly it it really scared me and we took off um I I before we drove away I did get back

out of the car and look down there because my instinct was like, hey, man, you got to put your money where your mouth is. If you're making Bigfoot documentaries, you know, you need to go look and see what's there at least stand there for a couple of minutes. Your car's right here. Worst case you can just get in the car and get out of there. I stared down that path where I heard it from. And I was nervous. I was very nervous. I was like, I don't know. And then we left. We went back to the Airbnb and I was like, what was that? And, you know, my wife. It's like, it probably was a bear. I was like, that was not a bear.

I've heard bears, like, in-person growl I spent the rest of that night. I probably stayed up until 2 in the morning on YouTube looking at every bear in North America sound that they could make. I mean, you know, bears make weird noises. There's no doubt about that. Like, everybody thinks they sound like this TV version of bears and they have these epic roars and stuff. Like, they make strange noises occasionally. some like just teeth clackings and weird stuff. It wasn't any of that.

A growling animal sounds like a growling animal. And it wouldn't have been that loud. So that was the first time I've ever had anything that potentially could have, what I think could have been a Bigfoot experience. You know, and it's hard when you go out with people making films, you know, you go out with some people and everything's a big foot. You know what I mean?

Like every noise is a Bigfoot. every owl's a big foot and I've done that a few times and I'm like, that's all wildlife to me. This was not wildlife that I'm aware of. So that was the first time I've ever had anything at. And it wasn't in the Redwoods. It was just in like the outskirts of some rural town outside of McKinleyville. Like it was kind of not in a city, not quite in the countryside. It was just weird.

So that's about that's the first thing that ever happened to me. And it still freaks me out. Have you ever found anything online that kind of matched what you heard? I mean, what you heard, did it just sound like a man yelling? It was just, I keep saying it was guttural. It wasn't like, because I mean, I listened to heavy music. I listened to like, like, I just have always been like a metal head. And it wasn't, it was like somewhere between a growl and a yell.

it just, I've never heard a human make that noise. And I've heard some pretty weird noises with some of the music I listen to. I'm not going to lie. I just, it's hard to describe, but it was like guttural deep, but very loud. Like the air pressure that it would have taken to made that loud of a volume is insane. Like it scared the crap. It made me like my blood run cold. And if it was a bear,

I didn't hear anything move. I didn't hear anything run, break through the brush, charge anything. It was just like dead silent after that. And I don't know. Your memory isn't 100% accurate even after a few months. It's just it was just so loud, deep guttural yell. It was like, you know, you use audio software. Obviously, you do the podcast. If you, you know, if you like pitch down someone yelling really loud, like, ah. But if you pitched it down, a few octaves maybe, but it was the lower it gets, the harder it is to produce volume vocally. So it doesn't make sense how it was that loud. That's, I don't know. I've never heard anything like it. Yeah, you're right. You know, when you pitch someone down who yelled to get more of that bass, more of that angry sound, the octaves go down. And for some reason, that rule doesn't seem to apply with Sasquatch. How many years later was a second incident? And did it happen in this same area?

No. So the second thing happened in August of this year. And again, neither of these things were while I was doing anything with Bigfoot. It wasn't like we weren't on location filming someone. We weren't, you know, like interviewing people for Bigfoot. This was a completely separate thing. This actually took place in Texas. So I have a friend that I've met through just, you know, the outdoors industry.

He makes custom fly rods. And I do a lot of work for him video-wise and photography-wise. And he has a place. He owns a place on Lake Toledo Bend. And he, you know, he likes his privacy. And it's surrounded by Sabine National Forest. And, you know, I don't. I'm from Ohio, so I'm like, I know that Bigfoot stuff happens in Texas, but I'm not like,

an expert on any of this stuff. I went down there to do some, he's updating his website. So I went down there to take some photos for his website of some new rods he was building. And that meant, you know, getting out at about five in the morning and getting on his boat and going out to the, you know, remote spots of Lake Toledo Bend to get some like nice, beautiful nature scenery and him fishing and using the rods and just getting some cool photos and videos for his website. So I'm there and my friend Chester Moore, he's the guy who does the narration on our

Wildman YouTube channel. He is a writer. He does a lot of outdoor writing in Texas. And he's like, hey, I'm going to meet up with you guys. And we'll fish together. And I'm going to write an article about this, you know, fishing on Toledo Bend. It's a very famous lake for bass fishing. It's like number five in the world or something or seven in the world.

So he's like, I'll meet you guys. out there. So Chester and I are standing at the boat ramp at 5 a.m. It's pitch black. There's there it's dead to the world surrounded by National Forest and we're talking, which is rare because both of us are pretty big talkers. Um, and we're just waiting the guy, the guy who owns the the fly fishing company was like, hey, I got to run back inside. I forgot something in the house and we're like, okay, so we're just sitting there, you know, still trying to wake up. And out of the woods, it was, it was, it sounded kind of far away, but it was, it was loud enough that like there was no mistaking that it was a woo.

Like it was a classic run of the mill bigfoot whoop if I've ever heard one. And I watched, you know, growing up, I've watched every single piece of Bigfoot content that you could imagine. I mean, even everything back to like Southern Fried Bigfoot and all of this obscure stuff. I've just always loved it. So I know what a whoop sounds like. And it was loud. It was very, it just, you know, kind of shattered the night. And you're not expecting this.

I looked over at Chester and I said, you got to be, you know, effing kidding me. There's no way that that just happened. And he, you know, he's been doing Bigfoot stuff for 30 years. And he was like, I told you, dude. And we stopped talking to listen. And we heard another response, like a very short one in a completely different direction in a different part of the woods respond to it. And I'm a very skeptical person. You know, like, you know, I don't, I wouldn't say that I don't believe people, you know.

I mean, I've been listening to your podcast for years. I've watched tons of stuff online and classic documentaries. And I'm like, you know, I don't think people are lying. but I've never experienced anything. I spent six months, I mean, your classic, I spent six months in the woods straight hiking,

the entire east coast of America and some of the most wild places that still exist on the eastern half of the United States. And I never heard anything like that. And, you know, I'm just getting ready to go do my job in the morning and in Toledo Bend. And I hear a clear-as-day whoop. There was no mistaking it.

Like, that was, there's no way that it was an owl. It was, the only thing that was different about, about it was you hear a lot of the whoops and it's just like, woo-whoop. But this had like the first part of it was so long.

It was like, it was probably three to five seconds of the high-pitched part. It was like, woo. And it, I don't, I don't know how to wrap my head around it. I still am like reeling it because it wasn't that long ago.

August or, yeah, August wasn't that long ago. And we kind of had to be quiet about it because like, We don't know. I mean, I know the guy that I was doing the work for, but I don't know him at like that level of like, hey, do you believe in Bigfoot? You know, like, I'm doing, I'm there to do a professional job for him. So we're Chester and I are sitting on the boat and trying to like not talk about this. I'm like, can you believe that this happens? And so we get back to the house. It's like noon or whatever. We're kind of wrapped up the shoot. And we went up to the room we were staying at at the guy's house. And I'm like, dude, there's how am I going to explain this to people? You know, I've always been like the skeptical guy. And he's like, dude, I told you, you know, if you hang around me long enough, you're bound to have something like this happened.

And it happened. And, you know, we get back, we get back to go downstairs and start talking to him and his wife. And later that evening, we're talking to them. And it just happened to, you know, bring up. They had known Chester had done Bigfoot stuff. And kind of they, the guy and his wife brought it up. they're like, so you guys really think Bigfoot's real? Because he knew I made the Wild Man series.

And I'm like, well, I don't know what to say, man. Like I've heard some things. And they were saying, then they started talking about it. He's like, well, I was hunting back in the day and in the middle of the forest. And, you know, this is the guy who was, I'm at his house filming. He said he, you know, had climbed up a tree and a climber. And he was just there by himself in the middle of the forest. the forest in Texas.

And he said, the tree, there was no wind. He said, you know, the tree just started shaking. Like, and he said, I was so scared. I was too scared to turn on my flashlight and look down. And I'm thinking, okay, so like, we're, we're probably safe to tell him about this because, like, you can tell what he's hinting at. And I said, yeah, I just kind of blurted. I was like, dude, when you went in this morning, we heard like a big foot.

And he was like, oh, yeah, I've heard that before out here. And we just spent the rest of the night talking about Bigfoot. And it was wild. So not even a week later, his wife calls me, which is common. You know, she does their website and help. And I was coordinating with her. So she called me. And she's like, you are not going to believe what happened last night.

She said that she was sitting in her house by herself because he had the, her husband and had to go do something, run to somewhere, other place in Texas and do some work or something. And she was home by herself and she said, I kept hearing stuff walking around the house and throwing sticks at the windows. And I'm like, come, like, this is just all too wild, right? Like, I can't believe it. And then I'm like, you know, don't worry.

Like, you know, even if there's a big foot around your house, like, there's like very rare occurrences that I've ever heard of, you know, them breaking into houses or something like that, you know. So just lock your doors. You'll be fine. And then the guy calls me a couple nights later after she called me. And he goes, he's one of those guys that I absolutely am not that likes to wake up at like three in the morning and just kind of experience the morning and the sunrise and all this stuff. He's like, yeah, I was out.

This morning I got up at three. And he's like, I made a cup of coffee and went and sat on my porch. And I was just kind of thinking and waiting for the sun to come up. He's like, I heard that noise you were telling me about. And I'm like, this is wild. So long story short, I went from never having any big foot anything happened in 35 years to like early back to back things happening. I know that sounds crazy because it's like the likelihood of that is low. I mean, I've always been like, I'm like, I'll never hear anything in my lifetime. You know, I'll be so lucky to hear anything. And. I just am still kind of reeling in that, those moments. Like, after the first one happened in California, it was kind of like, you know, it's easy to write it off. It's like, it was probably just like a homeless guy out there trying to get us to get away from he's camping there tonight or something. You know, it's easy to just write it off.

And, you know, without having a recorder or anything, there's no way to to prove what I heard to anyone. But, you know, in the back of my mind, I'm like, yeah, it could have been anything. Okay, that's a write-off. But when you hear the whoop that everyone's heard that has ever done anything, Bigfoot, I mean, Chester pulled up the old Legend Meet science video where they, where they analyze the recording of the Bigfoot calls that they got on recording. And he's like, that's what it sounded like, wasn't it? And I was like, yes, that's the sound, the classic Bigfoot whoop.

And I don't know, man, I kind of am still in shock a little bit. Um, because like, yeah, I went, I went to school for culture anthropology. I went to school and, and, you know, they beat you to death saying, you know, everything that you've ever learned is, if it doesn't, if it doesn't exist in a science book, it's not real. And, you know, you can't just take everybody's word for everything. And you go to school and you learn that. And, you know, they, they essentially beat that out of you in, in college, they're like, hey, man, if you don't believe exactly what has been taught to you by this existing, standards of scientific whatever, like, and you just kind of write everything off.

Like, yeah, maybe it's just my imagination. But like, when you hear it in person, I don't, I don't know. There's no reconciling and I heard it. Either the guy went inside and called somebody and told him to make a whoop at five in the morning and then someone else a mile down the road, call back, which is unlikely. Or I heard a big, I don't, I don't know. I'm still kind of. of, I don't want to say I'm in shock, but like, it's definitely had my brain kind of collapse on itself and keeps me up thinking about it at night. Honestly, like, I'm in the woods all the time.

I wouldn't say I'm scared, but I think about it now. Like, before, I was just like out there with a thermal at two in the morning with a bunch of dudes running around whooping, making calls. And I'm like, oh, this is fun. But like, I don't think anything is going to happen. And now I'm kind of like, uh, what am I doing out here? So, yeah, I get it, man. And two years of, ago, you created Wild Man of the Woods on YouTube. Here's another clip from Sasquatch in Ohio. I heard a twig snap, looked in this direction, that second tree, not the one with the stuff on it, the one right behind it. Something was coming off the ground, pushed up with one hand into a walking position. And like pushed up and just started walking all in one motion. And it

walked off this way. That tree right there is where how far my niece got to there when I realized that whatever it was, when I thought it was human size, it was a little, well, a lot larger than human size. And that was when I did not come back up in these woods for about a year. It was 12, 12.30 at night.

I was sitting on my fire with a female friend of mine. Maybe 45 minutes before that, I had seen headlights up in the woods. So I was like, you guys want to jump on the cart? Let's go up in the woods, see if anybody's up there. Three different times, we stopped the golf cart, look to the right, up in the woods, see if anybody seen headlights. Did it again. Maybe, you know, a couple hundred feet, couple hundred feet.

Stopped the third time, and we were there for a minute, and we were talking, and we were all kind of looking to the right. And then I hear a twig snap to my left. I grew up my whole life in the woods, hunting and fishing, and I know if a twig snaps, something had to step on it. So I flipped my head to the left. The girl in the passenger side, which was the adult, turns to the left. I'm blocking her.

The 15-year-old young lady on the back turns her head when we all hear the snap. When I turned my head, it was coming off the ground with its hand, stood up into a standing position, and started to walk. He was on my left and it started to walk towards back away from us. and my golf cart was moving before I made a conscious thought to move like it was just a flight reaction the little girl on the back yelled what's that

and then she said go go well we were already going so in the adrenaline of all this happening and the passenger didn't see it so she's like what what just happened and we're all freaked out adrenaline up I pass the only trail I know how to get out of these woods because like I said I was only up there

so we were full throttle Oh, on a golf, fast as a golf cart would go, flying through these woods. We end up coming up onto this bean field. And I have to stop because I don't know where we are and how I need to get back to the camp. And I'll never forget, and I always tell that part of the story because when I stopped and I looked over my shoulder

to see if I could see lights or I looked at that little girl, and she was so upset that the veins were coming out of her neck and spit was coming out of her mouth. And she said, just go! Like with this fear. And I'm like, I can't. So it was almost like we were fighting because she was adrenaline up.

I was adrenaline up. So we find the way out of the woods. Her camp was closer. I get to her camp. We are fired up, you can imagine. And her parents kind of get mad at me because they think I'm, they know I like that stuff. They think I'm messing with her.

So we kind of just dropped her off. Like I said, by now it's 1 o'clock in the morning. The very next thing I did was call my research partner, Amy Boo. I wanted to repeat the whole story. It was fresh and my adrenaline was still going. When I got back to my camper, I seen a campfire across the lake. So I walked over there and the people had been drinking and I was kind of new to this campground. And I was like, hey, were you guys up in the woods or, you know, to see?

Because could it have been a human? Absolutely. We were there. Why would somebody be hiding in the woods? I mean, to scare their friends or something. And if it was when they stood up and we weren't their friends knowing that we looked, Why didn't they say something or a wrong person? So a lot was going through my head with why it happened like it happened.

So I frequented back up in the woods a lot. And people would ask me, including my research partner, you know, size-wise. And I said, human size, human size. So maybe three months later, I have a family member with me that I know for sure is over six feet. We happen to be in that part of the woods. I said, hey, while I have you up here, jump off the car. I'm going to stop. You jump off the cart,

walk over that tree just to... She wasn't 10 feet from my cart, and I already knew. My lips kind of stick to my teeth thinking about it. And it was a lot bigger. And to be honest with you, I lied to people for the next year when they wanted to go up in the woods.

My golf carts broke. I don't have any... I couldn't... And it was funny because I went up there a lot for three months until that happened, until I put her in that spot. And then I couldn't go back up. You know, I became aware of your documentaries about eight months ago,

but there's two years worth of content up there. What made you start this documentary on Sasquatch? Well, I grew up on your classic stuff. Like my dad and I would watch X-Files, and we would watch Unsolved Mysteries. And every time there was a Bigfoot show, they had all those shows on Discovery Channel and History Channel and they'd always be out looking for Bigfoot. And I always just loved those shows and it was very nostalgic.

And I grew up, you know, we grew up in northern Michigan. I'm sorry, southern Michigan. And we grew up in the woods. Like we always lived in the woods. So my dad would tell us stories about Bigfoot. And we had these big open windows that looked out in the woods. And I remember being a kid, like, he used to work. night shift at Jeep up in Detroit.

So he would come home at like 3 o'clock in the morning. And on summer break, my brother and I would stay up and watch TV until he'd come home. And I always used to have this like childhood fear of like looking up one day. There was a big foot looking in the window. Like it's always just been a part of my life. I, you know, when I was on tour, I would always play. I had this, I got this giant big foot tattoo on my arm. Like it's just like always something I've been interested in.

And my dad had just, I mean, I've been making wildlife films and doing like conservation work and pod conservation podcasts and things like of that nature for seven years now or so. And, you know, my dad, I heard my dad saying one day, he's like, man, they really don't make Bigfoot shows like they used to anymore. Like, you know, a lot of the shows nowadays that have kind of evolved to this like the people go out in the woods and look for Bigfoot. And he was like, I kind of miss those shows where it was like. they talk to people and about the Bigfoot encounters, like essentially a video version of your podcast. That's why I like your podcast so much because I like, I love hearing people's Bigfoot encounters. It's like super interesting to listen to different perspectives, hear these people's stories. And I was like, you know what?

I'm going to make my dad a Bigfoot documentary. Like, I'm not going to tell them. I'm just going to make it. And so again, I do a lot of work with Chester and for conservation stuff. And he invited me down to Texas to film something. I can't remember what we were working on at the time. It was some wildlife thing. But he's like, hey, during this time period, I have to give a presentation at the

Boggy Creek conference, like the Bigfoot conference. I was like, oh, sweet, dude. I love Bigfoot. That would be so awesome. So I went with him to that. And I, you know, I was just there hanging out and talking and helping him run his booth and like filming his presentation or whatever for him. And I was like, we were literally driving from the airport to,

the conference and I was like hey chester do you think it would be cool if I just randomly interviewed people at this conference to just get their interview about um what they're like their bigfoot encounters she's like oh yeah dude I know everyone at this conference I'll throw some people your way so I literally went outside the back door of the of the you know falk Arkansas at their like community center and filmed a couple of interviews at the and at the time you know I don't really know who any of these people were. And it was like Ken Gearhard, Jerry Hestand. I mean, I've heard the names, but like, you know, they've done a lot of stuff in the

Bigfoot world. And there's a lady Jody I interviewed. And these people were just cool. And I'm hearing these stories in person for the first time. I've never heard anybody actually talk about Bigfoot in real life. I've always heard it through TV or other media. I got sucked in. And I've recorded these interviews.

And they're like, hey, we're going to go out and to actually like boggy creek and we're going to do some squashing tonight. Do you guys want to go? And I'm like, sure. That would be super cool. So I filmed that. And I was just kind of interviewing people out there. And it was a blast.

Honestly, didn't think too much about it. I just was like, this will be a fun, you know, like my dad's been talking about he didn't have any big foot shows that he really was interested in anymore. I wanted to make him one.

It all just kind of came together. And I put it out. And I put it on a YouTube channel. I just basically made the YouTube channel to put it up there. And I was like, cool, whatever. I put it out. Had a lot of fun playing with that style of video. And I didn't really think about it for like a year.

I was like, that was really fun. I showed it to a couple of friends and family and it left it on public on YouTube. And I think it was like eight or nine months later, maybe a year later, I came back and I opened up that YouTube channel. And the video had like, a hundred and six. 70,000 views or something. I was like, oh, wow, that's crazy. You know, like, I didn't think anything of it at the time. And then I was like, dude, that was really fun.

Like, I want to keep doing that. So I had just decided to make Wild Man of the Woods. And the name came from my grandpa when I was growing up. I was very energetic child, apparently. And they, he always used to call me Wild Man. So, like, you know, people have asked me if it's like a throwback to like, native culture or something like in a way it is i i understand that that side of things but it was really just my grandpa used to call me wild man and i've always liked being outside i'm an outdoorsman at

heart so i just called it wild man of the woods and uh i was like you know i met i met my good friend set who helps me kind of make these he helps me film and he's very very good with logistics and i'm not i'm just kind of a guy that goes around and does things um and i'm and i'm just kind of a guy that goes around and does things. And I was like, what if I find somebody in Ohio that we could interview? And I started looking around. I'd gone to the Hocking Hills Bigfoot Conference and like, I don't know, I was having a hard time talking to people.

Like nobody really seemed interested in being interviewed. So I started reaching out online and came across the very first like official, the documentary I guess we made was about Salt Fork State Park because I knew that. Salt Fork, when you talk about Ohio and Bigfoot, Salt Fork is like the first thing to pop up. Everybody's always talking about Salt Fork. I was like, there's got to be somebody in Salt Fork that'll talk about this. And I just did some digging online. I came across John Hickenbottom, who's a naturalist there.

And I just happened to see that he had a YouTube video where he gave a presentation about Bigfoot. So I just reached out to him. And he was like, yeah, I'd love to do an interview. That would be so fun. So we drove down to Hocking Hills, I mean a Salt Fork State Park. and interviewed John and we got some beautiful scenery. It was beautiful down there. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and had a lot of fun.

And his video went crazy. It did like 200,000 views. I was like, dude, what is happening? So John introduced us to Amy, who's been, you know, she's Project Zoo Book and she does all that stuff. And, you know, Amy's become a really good friend of mine. And, you know, I go on Project Zoo Book now and learn about Bigfoot there. and it just kind of has spawned from there. And I just love it, man.

It's so fun to talk to these people. And honestly, I'm sure you get this too. Like, when you sit in a room with someone and it's you, them, and they might bring a friend to feel more comfortable. And it's, you know, my buddy Seth, we sit in a room and you listen to these people. Talk about this. They look you in the eye and they're like, how. How would you think that this person's lying to you?

Like half the time, you know, after it's over, they're half in tears telling you stuff that's happened and, you know, people think they're crazy and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, it's, it's wild to talk to these people about this at a personal level. Because it's just you, like, it's just you and them in a room, essentially. And they're just spilling out this, all this stuff that's happened to them. And you're like, how would I, how could I think you're lying to me? Like, you're telling me this to my face 10 feet away from. me. And, you know, and that's back to the point. I've always been very skeptical of it. Like,

whether it was mythology or reality, I always have loved Bigfoot. But like, when you sit and listen these people and then you have something happen yourself, it's just, what do you do? And like, I was debating ever talking about it publicly. I mean, I purposely am not in my documentaries. You know, I don't, I don't like have any desire to be like this face of Bigfoot thing. I just I'm very interested in it. And it's kind of, I don't know, it's almost like at a deep level, you're kind of like, man, I don't think people are lying about this. I don't think people are making this up just to be famous because like, you know more

than anyone. What do you get being famous in the Bigfoot world? People telling you you're crazy and that you're a liar. And like, there's no upside to that, you know, like the comments we get on YouTube and stuff that I purposely delete. So if you leave mean comments on our YouTube channel, you just get deleted. So don't waste your time. You know, there's no advantage to being Bigfoot famous.

It's like you just have people out there telling you you're nuts. And I don't know why people would go on camera willingly to do that if they didn't firmly believe that's what they saw. Yeah. And you're right. You know, being famous in the Bigfoot world is like being the skinniest kid at Fat Camp. You know what I mean? Yeah.

That's a good analogy. There's really not much to be gained by it. I want to play another clip and then ask you another question about the documentary. This is a clip from Sasquatch of the South from the YouTube channel Wild Man of the Woods. Well, a friend of mine from work took me out to his dear lease, and he told me, oh, by the way, there's big foots out here. I'm like, oh, really? He said, yeah, the guys believe, well, he's a friend of mine. next thing you know, we walk out onto the property and wood knock.

He said, you hear that? I said, yeah, he said, that was a squads. That was a wood knock. Well, I've heard of wood knocks. I said, for real? And all of a sudden, I heard another one. And all of a sudden, there was in three different directions. And he was adamant.

That's what, I said, well, I'll be dang, man. So he made one whoop at them and one wook back. And I said, you are kidding me. Whatever. And we just went on about our business. But, you know, that's in the back of your mind. You know, a few days go past, we go back out there to go hunting, and we separate, and I'm walking down a wide open levee top. And right next to it is the woods.

And I look up ahead of me, and in the water, there was, we have these white birds we call eagrets, cattle inkards. Well, there's some real light puffy, downy feathers floating up on top of the water in the slightest breeze. that scooting across it. Wow, that's fresh. I looked over there while I seen one of them big birds, and the first thing went in my mind and said, oh my God, something short enough must have been hungry to eat, that's rascal. And the closer I got,

I'm like, my God. And it looked like it had been sleeved on the neck. I thought, well, I just scared something off. It's still wet. It's still bleeding. I walk a little further, and there's something pacing me in the trees.

I'd stop, it'd stop. I'd walk a little further. It'd walk a little further. Well, I'm not looking over there. I'm hearing it. And I always pretend like I don't see or hear anything. So whatever it is doing, and we'll keep doing it until I can figure it out. And it kept pacing me and kept pacing me until finally I got alarmed enough.

You know, I swung a gun around and pointed it at the trees and told them, you know, if you're in there, you need to come out because I'm going to shoot you. And nobody said a word, so I just kept walking, and it finally stopped. I turned a corner and went up a high line. I get a phone call from my buddy. He said, you need to come over here. I said, what is going on? He said, there's something pacing me in the woods. Huh?

Well, that just happened to me. Well, I come blistering out of them trees. I didn't run, but I come on out of them trees and went way around. And I got down there, and sure enough, he's doing the same thing I was doing. He's doing like this, and he turned his gun over there. Well, it got down to a ditch. I stepped out on the pipeline, and he looked up. And it stopped.

Well, he walked maybe 15, 20 feet and waited on me. I was a good 300 feet from him. We talked about it. I said, well, it was on this side of the pipeline? He said, yes. I said, well, it had to cross. Let's go back behind you and look. And sure enough, we went back there and I looked,

and there was a footprint about that big and about that wide that I could put my number 12 bit of red wing boot down into would not touch the sides, still had water running into it. Every other puddle around there was clear except that one. And that's where it had stepped and crossed over. And I realized then, oh, my God, something was really out there. And that was the first OMG moment that I had with Sasquatches. Wild Man of the Woods on YouTube, you know, from when you very first started this project until now,

has your opinion changed as far as what you think Bigfoot is? Absolutely. So when I first started this, I would say I was a hopeful skeptic. I really wanted it to be real, man. Like, there's this, you know, we live in this day and age where everything is accessible 24-7. And every answer that you want to know is just like a Kindle book away or whatever, a Google search. And I've always wanted to be like, you know, I hope Bigfoot's real, man, because like, there's still this mystery in the world. Everything's not so bleached and sterile.

And like, you know, it gives you hope that there's like some wilderness out there still. And, you know, I more than the average person I say, like, I'm not, you know, saying I'm anything special or anything. But I do, like, I willingly spend a lot of time outside because I do work in a job that is, it's all media. It's like, you know, social media managing and managing people's YouTube content and all this stuff. And I'm in a computer a lot. And it sucks being at a computer all the time. Like, I like to be out in the woods. So I spend as much time out in the woods as possible. And, you know, I don't think a lot of people realize how much, especially out your way out west, like how much wilderness there is in parts of the U.S. Like where I'm at in Ohio, it's the northwestern end of Ohio. And literally the only Bigfoot encounter I've ever heard from where I live was from

Sasquatch Chronicles. I think it was the episode called like the witch or something or like the guy. It was Oak Openings Park. There's never been a reported Bigfoot encounter in this part of Ohio because it's all cornfields. And there's, you know, areas that have woods, but there's no contiguous forest or anything. Whereas, you know, out west, like when I was in the. of Redwoods, unless you're on a road or on the coast, everything is forested, even if it's private land or public land or park. I was always hopeful that there'd be something out there.

Did I, would you say I believed in it? No. Like I said, that was beaten out of me in school. Like, there's no such thing. We've found every contact at every tribe and blah, blah, blah, blah, across the globe and this and that. We've mapped every inch of the earth and blah, blah, blah, blah. You hear all this stuff. But in the back of my mind, I'm always like, man, I really hope, You know, like, and like, I'm sure you remember back in, I don't remember what year it was. There's always been every couple years. There's been on the news. They found Bigfoot.

And I'd get so excited. I was like, yes, dude, finally. And then, you know, they'd come out and say someone froze a Bigfoot costume in a freezer or something. And you get bummed out again. But then, you know, interviewing these people and then having this stuff happened to me, like, I don't know what to think anymore, man. Like, I don't know. Like, I can't, there's no way to prove what I heard. You know what I mean?

There's always that in the back of my mind. Like, he could have been screwing with me. I don't think he's the kind of guy that would do that. But like, I don't know. But to have it happen two times in a row like that, and it sounds, it doesn't sound feasible. Because, again, you hear this stuff. And this, like, this is the most common comment we get on our YouTube channel is, oh, yeah. This guy.

and nobody ever sees Bigfoot, and these people see them three times in a row or something. And I was like, well, yeah, it is kind of a little like, you know, some of the stuff is maybe like, you know, every noise is a Bigfoot sometimes for people who really want it to be real. But, I mean, I heard it myself, man. I don't, that's what I keep telling people. And, you know, even, you know, my partner, Seth, who my filmmaking partner, he, I think he thinks I'm a little crazy too because he, I'm pretty sure he definitely does not believe in Bigfoot. at all. But I'm like, dude, I called him. I was like, I don't know what to tell you. I freaking heard it. And you know more than anyone what that sounds like. If you were here with me, what would you have thought? He's like, well, you know, and like, I, what can I say?

I heard it. I heard the Bigfoot noises in remote East Texas. Yeah, I get it, man. And you know, it's good that that happened to you because now when an eyewitnesses in front of you, talking about a sound that they heard, you can kind of relate on some level. You know, I wanted to ask you out of all, I think there's seven or eight of them up there on YouTube currently, Wild Man of the Woods. And, you know, out of all of the episodes you've done, it's going to be kind of a hard answer to give. And I get it because it's like sausage. Everyone loves sausage. Don't tell me how it's made. So I understand you might have a different perspective, but out of all the episodes, which one's kind of leaning, which one was your favorite?

Oh, that's a tough question. I would say, surprisingly, my favorite is probably the one with Amy, which is called Sasquatch in Science or something like that. I don't know. You know how it is. You've done a million episodes, and you're like, I don't know which one that was. It was, you know, five, three, one of those episodes, but it was the one with Amy Boo. And I really like it because it's actually one of our lowest view documentaries, which is strange to me because I really think it's one of the better ones we've done, because Amy's definitely on the same page as she's very skeptical about this stuff. And, you know, we talk about it, you know, all the time.

And just, you know, we want it to be real super bad, but we don't have any tangible evidence, you know, like there's no, like you always say, I don't have a big, foot in my garage or my basement or whatever. And she really goes into the weeds about how she gathered this group up of people just kind of on her own that are actually scientists like hard-nosed scientists, primate, you know, people who work with primates at zoos and stuff. And she just started this coalition of people with Project Zoo Book that's like actually out there trying to scientifically research this stuff.

And, you know, I don't think science is kind of boring and people don't like to talk about science. I love it. I love reading dorky stuff about wildlife and nature and science and stuff like that. I just really, she has such a good perspective about it. And she's so sincere in her encounters. And, you know, she always is the first one to say, like, I can't say that it was a big foot, you know, but like, do I want it to be? Absolutely. And Amy's just a sweetheart, man. She's very nice. So I would say that's my favorite. It's hard to pick a favorite when you spend so much time on, you know, media that you really enjoy. But I think it's just kind of an underrated. one, honestly. It's the underdog. It's a really good, interesting. And she talks about Native American

culture. She talks about science. She talks about her own personal encounters. It's really interesting stuff to me. Yeah, the one with Amy Boo is the one I watched as well. It's Sasquatch and Science, Bigfoot Beyond Belief, Project Zoo Book. You know, Amy Boo, I think, is one of the best Bigfoot researchers out there. And I think for the most part, the audience understands how I feel about Bigfoot researchers, but Amy's one of the good guys, one of the good girls, you know, out there. She's smart. She brings a lot of common sense to this subject and a science. You know, there's a portion of science that she definitely brings to this subject.

You know, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? And after doing all these documentaries, what's your take? What do you think Sasquatch is? Well, from, you know, the people I talk to and just my background is, you know, like going to school for anthropology and as a filmmaker and an outdoors writer and stuff of that, you know, I would say that, you know, if Sasquatch is real, it is some sort of undiscovered primate, you know, and I know everybody has their own thoughts on it. It is a little wild that we haven't found it. I, it could to be, completely honest with you. I just, that's the hardest part for me to reconcile with is like, man, they found like Saddam Hussein and hole in the middle of the desert, you know, buried in like this crazy thing. And that's always like the back of my mind. But I think it would be some sort of an ape. And, you know, I think people throw around the word intelligent a lot.

And that's really hard to reconcile too because every animal is intelligent. You know what I mean? Like humans are intelligent. Sometimes we're not so. intelligent, but like deer are intelligent. I've been hunting out in the woods and I've sat in a tree. I had the wind blowing directly in my face. And, you know, the deer walked towards me. And I didn't move a muscle. I was 15 feet in a tree, not moving, not breathing, just watching this deer, trying to like let it do its thing so I could take my time to hunt the animal. and he just knew I was there. You know what I mean?

And like, that's intelligence to me. You know what I mean? I don't think Bigfoot's out there with like a Ph.D. in Woodcraft or something. But I think, you know, it lives in the wilderness. It's where it's comfortable and it doesn't want to be around us because we kind of suck sometimes. So, you know, I don't want to give, I don't want to like people like to give animals these human traits. If it is an animal, I don't think, you know, I just think it was, is like.

curious and it doesn't want to be around people because, you know, we don't have a great record with dealing with animals from a conservation perspective. We usually are shoot first, ask questions later. So yeah, that's my answer. And, you know, I knew you're going to ask me that. And I didn't have a good thorough way to think about it because that's kind of like as a wildlife guy. I'm always, you know, like I think animals are super, super smart every single one of them. like a squirrel smart man like these animals live with nothing we're the ones that are kind of dumb we need like a supermarket to get our food and all this stuff and we need heaters to stay warm like they're just out there they're they're totally chilling and having a good life out there

most of the time without any intervention and we're the ones sitting in here like i need an iphone so you know what i mean yeah you're right i mean animals are smart even my dog you heard before we started recording um he knows when i'm mad he knows when i'm going to good mood. He knows when I'm in a bad mood. And I don't even really have to say two words about it. He knows. But animals definitely are smart. And I really hope people go and check out your documentary channel, Wild Man of the Woods. I like how you put it together. I think there's a lot of creativity. I like how it's shot. You know, too many documentaries nowadays. It's a Bigfoot researcher with a camera in front of his face as he's running through the forest telling you what

he's hearing and what he's not hearing. And this is more of like documenting someone's encounter. I just like the way it's put together really well. And I'll throw links underneath this episode of people want to go and check it out. I know when it comes up, I tend to put them up on the blog for people to watch. But I really like your work and I really enjoyed having you on the show, Paul. Hey, thank you so much, Wes. You've been a huge inspiration in all of this.

It's like your storytelling is what has, you know, got me to really try and be a better storyteller to do like visually it's challenging and I really enjoy it and you know I appreciate it if people want to watch it they're more than welcome you know we have we try and keep everything very positive because I know the big foot world can be a little hostile as you talk about quite often and and uh we don't we don't tolerate that stuff on our channel we keep it very positive any any bad comments or mean nastiness is not welcome so I just want to throw that out there. And, you know, I want to just say thank you, everybody who has watched it. You know, I just never expected anybody to ever do it. And we got, we're working on a new series right

now called Wild Man Mysteries. That should be coming out pretty soon. It's a little, it's even shorter, but it's based on like those, we're trying to basically rip off all the cool old shows that I used to watch when I was a kid. So it's a little bit, a little retro, a little fun, a little, kind of hokey, but that's kind of what we're going for. And then I've been working with my friend Chester on his new channel called Global Bigfoot, where he's kind of doing more Bigfoot from around the world, and he's got tons of stuff. So, I mean, I just appreciate the opportunity to let me come on this podcast and say, you know, when you called me today, I was kind of shocked because I was just getting off a work call and then I was like, uh, I've heard this voice every day for five years and

now Wes is talking to me on my phone. This is crazy, too. I appreciate it, man. I'm more than happy to be here. This is like one of the coolest parts of my life so far. So thank you very much. Thanks, Paul. Appreciate it, man. And again, Wild Man of the Woods, please go check it out, subscribe, check out Paul's work. I'm telling you, he does good work, a lot of heart in what he puts out there. If you've had an encounter and he'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com, and if you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.