November 3, 2009
Another Sasquatch search is afoot


As one search for Bigfoot wound up with a suspicious footprint but no sightings in West Virginia's Dolly Sods area, another is set to begin in the vicinity of Kanawha State Forest.

During the last week of October, six members of the Virginia Sasquatch Watch organization spent several cold and wet days looking for the legendary primate atop Dolly Sods.

Other than close encounters with inclement weather, "it all went good," said search leader Billy Willard. While no sightings took place, "we did find a 17-inch footprint, but it was in material that wasn't good for taking a cast in," Willard said. The large print was photographed, and a number of other prints analyzed, but turned out to have been produced by bears. A coyote was determined to have produced a suspicious scat sample found in the search.

Willard said a reported Bigfoot sighting at Red Creek Campground at Dolly Sods prompted the search in the remote highland wilderness at the northern end of the Monongahela National Forest.

Meanwhile, fulltime Bigfoot researcher and filmmaker Tom Biscardi plans to join Charleston area musician Kris Allen starting Friday night to hunt for the ape-like creature within bellowing distance of the state Capitol.

Allen said Biscardi will conduct a pair of middle-of-the-night searches in the Kanawha State Forest area using high-tech imaging gear to capture any sightings. The Kanawha County stop is part of a cross-country Bigfoot quest being done to gather footage for a documentary titled "Searching for Bigfoot" that Biscardi is compiling.

Allen, a Texas native who grew up in the Chelyan area before moving to Nashville to pursue a career in country music, maintains that he has had several encounters with Bigfoot in West Virginia.

The frontman for Kris Allen & Southern Thunder said his first encounter with the legendary creature took place when he was 8 or 9 years old and living in Chelyan.

November 3, 2009
Another Sasquatch search is afoot
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"The entire family saw what looked like a large monkey up in a tree out in the yard," he said. "It wasn't until later that I realized it was Bigfoot."

As an adult while hiking through Dunlop Hollow in Kanawha State Forest, Allen said he encountered a second Bigfoot -- this one leaning against a tree and staring at him.

Allen said he had another Bigfoot encounter in 1993, while camping at Lake Sherwood in Greenbrier County.

"I heard a loud beating-on-wood sound just outside the tent, and a similar sound coming from across the lake," he said. "My dogs got so scared they jumped in the toolbox in the back of my truck and wouldn't come out."

Allen, who now lives in the Kanawha Valley, said he has been on Biscardi's Internet radio show, "Bigfoot Live," six times, and will take part in Biscardi's Charleston area search. He said a 3-D movie is being made of Biscardi's coast-to-coast Bigfoot search.

"I'm probably the only recording artist that's associated with Bigfoot," he said. "But I know there are a lot of people out there who believe that Bigfoot exists but are scared to admit it because people will laugh at them.

"People laughed at folks who talked about seeing a giant black and white bear hiding out in the mountains of China eating bamboo, but years later, the panda was 'discovered.'"

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.

What happens to the remains when they die?

Do they burst into flames?

Does a spaceship pick them up and carry them off?

Do their kin bury them or cannibalize them?

Why hasn't anyone found their remains?

Why aren't they roadkill?

by Jared Dillingham / 3TV
Posted on October 16, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Updated yesterday at 6:34 PM

SELIGMAN, ARIZONA -- Seligman is the birthplace of historic Route 66, but could it also be the home of Bigfoot? "Java" Bob Smallsback of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. is in town researching two reported Bigfoot sightings by a Phoenix man who is building a cabin in the area. The sightings reportedly happened on two different occasions over the past two years. Smallsback says he was called in after the most recent sighting and claims he was able to track the creature, finding what he says is a fingernail where the Sasquatch had stubbed his toe on a rock.

Smallsback says a team from Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. will be in Seligman for the next few months in hopes of making contact with the elusive creature.