THE PHOTO ON THE LEFT IS --- BESIDE THE TRACK WHICH WAS OUTLINED WITH KETCHUP. THE PHOTO ON THE RIGHT IS A CLOSEUP PHOTO OF THE TRACK.
THE PHOTO ON THE LEFT IS THE PRINT WITH PLASTER IN IT. THE PHOTO ON THE RIGHT IS DON KEATING WITH THE CASTING. IT TOOK ABOUT 45 MINUTES FROM POURING IT TO REMOVING IT FROM THE GROUND TO GET TO THIS POINT.
DECEMBER 2006 TRACK DISCOVERY AND SIGHTING
On or about December 23rd, 2006 I was notified by a Guernsey county resident that he, his wife and a couple of friends had discovered a track in the mud in a remote portion of the county. He took several photos of the track with, and without his wife’s foot beside it. It had definite toes on it. I was told where the track was discovered and so I decided to head to the area on Sunday December 24th.
We (Missey and me) arrived in the early afternoon under sunny and cool conditions. My hopes were minimal of finding the track in the same condition it was as in the photo the man and his wife showed me and Missey, as the discovery had taken place two weeks prior to our learning of it. Over half an inch or rain had fallen in the area just a few days before we got to it. Upon arriving it wasn't difficult to locate where the track had been. The outline of it was still quite clear, but it was weathered to the point that no detail was discernable. The man who took the photo has e-mailed it to me and I am waiting on his approval to share it with all of you. Hopefully that'll come about soon.
THE PHOTO ON THE LEFT SHOWS THE LOCATION THE CENTRAL OHIO WITNESS WAS STANDING WHEN SHE SPOTTED WHAT SHE DID... ON THE RIGHT, A CIRCLE SHOWS THE APPX LOCATION WHERE THE TOP OF THE INDIVUAL WAS WHEN THE CENTRAL OHIO WOMAN FIRST SPOTTED IT. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATIONS INDICATED THE HEIGHT AT ABOUT EIGHT (8) FEET TALL.
Me and Missey went to the area today (December 31st, 2006) and interviewed the husband and wife. I tried a method of me walking to the approximant area where she claimed to have seen it walk to, then to its right. I was talking to her with a set of radios and she came to a conclusion that the individual she spotted could have been as much as eight feet tall, up to three feet broad at the shoulders, dark in color and rather large. Walking back to the area where the couple and Missey were, I spotted a track in a soft area. The track measured out at 14" long, six inches across the ball of the foot and 4 1/2 inches at the heel. The ironic thing about this is that these measurements were plus or minus 1/2 inch the same measurements of the earlier track I wrote about.
While visiting the park picnic area with relatives and friends, a two-year-old girl was playing in the picnic area. It was near sunset or 8:30 p.m. when “Ellie” was running and playing near the north side of the picnic area. Suddenly she stopped. She pointed out to a relative a short time later that she had seen a “cowman” standing at the side of the open picnic area and she also said that the cow man had made a “moo” type of noise. On the evening of July 1st I was able to talk to the then three-year-old girl. I asked her a couple of questions before her attention was drawn elsewhere. I asked her how the cowman had walked. I said, “did it walk like Cobey (the family dog) or did it walk like me (on two legs). She said it walked like me. I also asked what color it was, black like the dog, white like me but about the time she was going to answer me she started running and playing with the dog. I never got an answer. The say children are the best eyewitnesses because they don’t lie; make things up, and so on. Did “Ellie” spot a Bigfoot in the picnic area that evening? We may never know.
Employees in the kitchen of the lodge reported that they observed a Bigfoot creature pulling something off of a tree near the lodge. The employees reported this to more than one person who works at the lodge. I received the report from a good friend of mine who works at Salt Fork lodge. It was reported the creature was black in color and at least seven feet tall. It was also reported that it was a female.
I received a sighting of a Bigfoot creature at Salt Fork State Park on the morning of July 16th, 2005. It was observed by Bob of Alliance, Ohio and he writes it here in his own words…
I was at Salt Fork doing a night study. My son had a doctor's appointment at 11:30 the next morning in Chagrin Falls, so I began a nap at midnight. At 5:30AM, the sun was already up, clear sky with a few clouds (high), slight mist on the water, slight breeze from West to East, I heard and looked into two high pitched birdish screams from the woods to the NE and NW. At 5:45AM I headed to the water, south, with Grant to kill the 15min until I needed to head home to be able to get Bobby to his appointment. Home was 90 min away, and the doctors another 80 min on top. Whenever I camp or vacation near water, I always head to the water first thing. To kill the 15 min, I was walking Grant and myself to the edge of the lake. I was watching the ground for broken fishing hooks, et al, and going over my timetable in my mind. The lake was lowered 5 feet a few weeks back due to a problem with the dam. A friend advised me to be careful with Grant as the pre-lake-bed would contain lost hooks. With the gradual shoreline, you could walk 100 ft or more out into what was the lake.
As I approached the waters edge, a Herron called-out and was flying to the East. It called again. I thought this odd as it was across the lake from us, and at this distance we were previously never a bother to them. Only if we were on the same side. I was at the waters edge; I looked up and left to spot the Herron flying. I then moved my head from left to right to follow its path. When my eyes reached a point about directly in front of me, I saw a black (rectangular) object come thru what I thought was a hedge. It was the lower left leg, as the next instant the right leg and body of a Bigfoot emerged from the left side of a tree (American Hawthorn). The left foot/leg came through grass/weeds that were about 15/18 inches tall. The right leg/foot easily stepped down a 3 foot embankment to the rocky shoreline. The water is usually up close to the top of the embankment. The now exposed shoreline is rock covered and slopes to the new water line. The Bigfoot walked right to left, West to East, at an angle from the woods along the rocky shore line. It all seemed to be in slow motion. But that had to do with my fixation/attention on it. It seemed to raise its thighs higher than we do when we walk or run, then it extended the lower leg out, almost as a stretching motion. Maybe the rocks had something to do with that.
I noticed how much of the shoreline was visible between its legs. It was not thin, nor robust. Built very well like a Football tight end, very muscular. The hair was black, but not entirely laying flat like it would on a dog for example. Some of the hair stuck outward, giving a fuzzy appearance of sorts. But only a small percentage of hair stuck out. The top of the head came to a point, slightly rounded up to the point. Its head sat on the shoulders. No neck was discernable. It walked with its body from the waist upward at a slight tilt forward. I just kept staring at it. I could feel Grant lean into my leg. Grant made no attempt to move. He sat next to me without moving the entire time. After the Bigfoot took three strides, it was turning its head toward me, my nerves had had enough, and I did a reality check...I closed my eyes real tightly. When I opened them, he was still there. He had turned and was walking to the West. I watched him take four strides and exit to the right of the Hawthorn tree. He walked up and into the woods as easily as someone stepping over a curb.
I'll never forget it. You think about it every day. I do not drive past woods or fields without looking into them for another chance sighting. I was just very lucky, very lucky. If you want to call it luck.
On May 21st, 2005 Terry & Treba Jahn and Missey Patterson and me were hiking the Morgan’s Knob Trail at Salt Fork State Park. We began our hike around 2 p.m. that day and concluded around 5 p.m. Little did we know a sighting was to take place in the park that very day!
A good friend of mine whom I’ll call “Ted” reported to me that he had heard a woman and her family were cruising the back roads near Salt Fork dam. Around mid-afternoon that sunny and warm day, they spotted a bipedal creature, pitch black in color, walking the hillside across the lake and to the east of Salt Fork dam.
This is really all I know about the sighting as Ted was sworn to keep her name confidential. It should be noted this sighting took place less than a year after the well-noted and highly publicized sighting that Mike and Lisa Neilson had at a picnic area on August 18th, 2004.
by Eric Altman
On Saturday May 7, 2005 I was approached by Ron Schaffner who told me two men from Kentucky who were up for the conference discovered what they believed to be a possible footprint just off the hiking trail. I soon met up with the two men and they took myself, Brian and Terrie Seech to the location. The footprint was discovered by two men and a boy while hiking in a wooded area not far from one of the camp grounds in the park. They took me and showed me the track. The track was an older track and it measured 15 inches long and 7 1/2 inches across the ball. Although the track did not yield very much detail, it does look like the shape of a large foot.
On the morning of August 19th, 2004 I received a phone call from a man I’ll call Fred. He told me that he and his wife, Ginger, had taken a drive out to a dairy on Route 22 the evening before. They picked up some food at the dairy and then continued on to Salt Fork State Park. They arrived about 7 p.m. and picked a picnic area out to eat their recently purchased food. They had their dog with them. After eating their food they tossed what was left of a hamburger and a hot dog on the ground for the dog. The husband and wife decided to take a walk into the woods down one of the nature trails. As soon as they entered the woods on the trail, they heard a whooping noise. As they walked further down into the woods, Fred and Ginger noticed a figure on the left side of the trail as it was standing near a tree. They watched it for several seconds. After a few seconds it decided to walk away to their right down the hill further into the woods.
They quickly headed back up the trail towards the picnic area. They heard the sound a few more times. As soon as they got into the clearing where the picnic area is, they heard the sound one last time. Fred noted this was the loudest and most obvious sound they had heard. Overall they heard the sound at least 12 times.
Fred contacted me less than 18 hours after the sighting, and contrary to another report that there were prints discovered in the area, I doubt there were due to passing thunderstorms. I know that I, Richard Myers, who went with me on the first investigation, and the two other people at the park, failed to locate any firm tracks. We estimated the creature was seven foot tall and it was black in color.
In September I had a public meeting in Newcomerstown. Fred and his wife Ginger attended and both related their encounter from that day. Fred and Ginger both now have a very serious interest in the Bigfoot phenomenon.
For additional information on this sighting, go to read the Daily Jeffersonain Bigfoot Report for much more.
Late spring of 2004 a gray colored eight-foot Bigfoot creature was spotted at Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County. An outdoorsman spotted this creature. I did not interview the actual eyewitness but received the report second hand.
May of 2004 a hunter reports seeing a seven to eight foot tall black in color Bigfoot creature at Salt Fork State Park. Eyewitness was never interview by myself but by another individual.
This sighting took place near Hosacks Cave late at night on August 30'th, 1992. It was reported at the December 1992 meeting of the Tri-County UFO Study Group meeting when Robert W. Morgan was promoting his new book "The Ultimate Legend Quest". He had fellow researcher and Bigfoot enthusiast Steve Jones with him at the meeting. Jones is also a host of an outdoors talk show on WNIR radio out of Akron, Ohio. Here is the way I originally reported the sighting in my October 1992 newsletter the Monthly Bigfoot Report...
"It has been reported that during the early morning hours of August 30'th, 1992, at about 2 a.m., there was a sighting of a Bigfoot creature in a wooded area. It was reported that the witness saw the creature from 70 yards and it was upright on two legs. Allegedly several different "methods" were used to draw the creature in to the area.
The location originally mentioned was southeastern Ohio. We have discovered that the sighting took place near Hosacks Cave at Salt Fork State Park. Many of you know this certainly is not the first time that there have been reports from that area. Salt Fork State Park is just 15 miles to the southeast of Newcomerstown in north-central Guernsey County."
Jones said at the December 1992 meeting of the Bigfoot creature he saw that "it was the most beautiful creature I've ever seen".
"In 1989 me and a friend were hunting deer in October. As we arrived at about 5 a.m. we saw something standing in a driveway. We went down the road about four miles, got out and asked each other 'did you see that?' We proceeded to go down the trail to hunt deer. Not having any luck my friend went down to the lake to see if he could see any deer. I sat on a hill and did not see anything. At about 7:30 I heard a sound of something in the direction of where we came into the woods. My friend came back and we decided to go somewhere else to hunt. As we were walking out we saw footprints all the way up to the cars. My friend looked at them as well. The prints were about 18 inches long and were in about four inches of snow. I have stayed at Salt Fork in the past two years and asked the girls at the front desk if they had heard any reports of Bigfoot. They said yes and there have allegedly been several people sighted it in the park.”
This report was sent to me by Ron Schaffner of Cincinnati, Ohio. I thank him for it. You can check out Ron's web site Creature Chronicles on line.
"It was foggy. One of the same friends and I were driving thru the park another night on a different remote part, when my headlights caught something running down the road in front of us. It was running on two, brownish/black hary legs. The hair looked well groomed, almost silky. All we could see was from the feet to the minimal lower back. I didn't see any arms swinging - I don't know about my friend. I can't visualize the exact color of the soles of the feet, but they weren't black - a lighter shade than the hair, but they were exposed.
The thing was running down the road in front of my car, just at the reach of my lights. We must of caught it the mere instant it was crossing. It ran in front of us for about 2-4 seconds, and jumped over the guardrail to our right, down an embankment. That paved road wasn't exactly in the park, but it goes round the northern rear of the park eventually leading to Kimbolton (about 10 miles - I'm guessing, it's been a while)".
This sighting is one that Joe Turner related to me at the Tri-County UFO Study Group in Alliance, Ohio.
"I was at a shopping center just casually talking to a man there I ran into and we were talking about airplanes. Then I brought up the topic of UFO's. He then told me that he knew of a man who had been fishing at Salt Fork State Park in May of 1987. He said the man was fishing when all of a sudden a rock came flying out of the woods towards him and his son, who was in the boat with him. He looked towards the area where he thought the rock came from, but didn't see anything. Another rock came flying out of the woods, and then he spotted who, or what, was throwing the rocks.
A dark brown hair covered creature, which was obviously female. The creature was reported to be between six and six and a half feet tall."
This sighting took place near Hosacks Cave. This is also the location of the August of 1978 and 1979 sighting of, you guessed it, a female and dark brown in color Bigfoot creature. At first I thought Joe had made a mistake by telling me this report took place in 1987 when years earlier he told me of two similar sighting reports in 1978 and 1979. I asked him about this but he swore, they were all three separate incidents. Quite interesting. Maybe to encounter a Bigfoot at SFSP, all one has to do is go fishing near Hosacks Cave.
On July 18'th of 1986 Betty and Leon Parks were scouting the territory of SFSP. Once again luck was with them as they discovered prints. These prints were 10 1/2 inches long; seven inches at the ball of the foot and four inches at the heel.
One thing that has really irritated me since I began research in July of 1984 is that most people and researchers think that if you find a human shapped print that is human sized in proportion is that they automatically attribute the print(s) to a human.
I've always said that if a Bigfoot is an animal, no matter what type of animal it is, doesn't a Bigfoot have small feet when it is born? I mean, I have never heard of a person having full sized feet when they are born or even a few or several years old. Do you think Shaq O' Neil had full sized feet when he was born?
All animals and people grow. As a part of this growing process, every part of the body with maybe a few exceptions, grow as well. I'm sure the feet would be in the list of growing body parts. I'm not saying to automatically say small prints that are barefooted when they are discovered in a remote area should be called young Bigfoot tracks. I do, though, think some serious consideration should be given to smaller or human proportioned prints when they are discovered in some remote locations, especially when there has been a sighting reported to have come from the same area.
On April 28, 1986 Betty and Leon Parks were at Salt Fork State Park driving around and surveying the area. They decided to go to Hosacks Cave area and check for prints in the soft soil near the lakes edge. On a sandbar near the lake, they discovered an impression that appeared to be a print.
The yellow X denotes the approximate location of the track discovery.
Closer examination revealed that it was indeed a print of some kind, but they were not sure of what. The print measured 12 1/2 inches long; 4 1/2 inches at the ball of the foot and 3 3/4 inches at the heel. I attempted to take a cast of this impression in the sandbar, but it never came out because of the ample moisture just under the surface from the lake.
Deer season took place in Ohio from November 30'th to December 6'th of this year. Floyd Wylie reported to me a story he had heard about one of the deer hunters that was hunting at Salt Fork State Park sometime during this period. Reportedly the sighting took place on December 2'nd at about 4:30 p.m. Following is Floyd's report to me....
"I heard about a deer hunter who was hunting in the Salt Fork area not too long ago. I guess it was on December 2'nd. He saw a large human figure, about eight feet tall, covered with dark hair and walking into the woods."
This is all I know about this alleged sighting because Floyd heard about it second handed. As far as I know the report could be fabricated, but it does fit into a pattern of sightings that was reported during that time frame.
One of the first reports that I ever investigated was alleged tracks that were discovered on a trail between the lodge and the cabins at Salt Fork State Park. The prints were discovered by a visitor to the park as he walked the trail towards the cabins. The man reported it to the Newcomerstown News and said the prints were 14" in length. So, I went to the trial along with a part time photographer by the name of Jim Richardson.
In July of 1985 Richard K. was at the rangers station and was told of a sighting that had taken place just a month or two before his visit. Below is what Richard wrote up and submitted to me....
"Reported to me by a ranger. He informed me a man had told him that he had seen a Bigfoot creature about two months prior to my visit (June of 1985) in the Hosacks Cave area. The man stated that the creature was a 'dull' brown in color and over seven feet tall. The man stated that the creature screamed, (before he spotted it) and it had a musty odor.
The Ranger stated another man said that during the same time period he had discovered a big area where something big had been lying, and the ground was still very warm where something had been laying.
As the man was leaving the area, the creature the creature stepped out in front of him on the road and ran into the underbrush. The man stated the creature looked like a female since it did have large breasts. These are the only two reports I know of at this time."
So, yet another report of a brown colored female creature in the Hosacks Cave area. Quite interesting.
I received the following in the form of three messages and have edited them for content on here. I have had a researcher interviewing the witness and he appears to find him credible.
"I worked at salt fork from 1977 to 1991 at the lodge. I worked the 3 to 11 shift so I drove thru the park late at night all the time. I heard a few stories about strange sightings thru the park and on one occasion I "seen something" by the road by the north entrance of the park, near the Hosacks cave and Stone House area. My first thought was a bear but it moved too sleek into the woods for a bear. I went back in the daylight but saw no evidence of anything being in the area. I also remember stories from some people in Newcomerstown who reported sightings in the area. There was an article in The Daily Jeffersonian, Cambridge area newspaper, about the people.
Salt Fork is a huge park with a lot of areas yet to be explored so God only knows what lurks in the woods. If you ever make the trip to the park, check out the area around the cave. I seen my creature right by the entrance to the parking area.
The sighting occurred sometime in the mid 80's around 11:30 in the evening. It was in the fall. I was driving past the Hosacks cave area and what I saw was standing upright, just on the other side of the guard rail, it was a dark color, and moved real smooth into the woods as I approached.
It was difficult to estimate the size, but it was at least as tall as a man along side of the guardrail. The side of the guardrail was located on a slope though so what I saw was standing down hill from the guard rail.
Another interesting thing I remember as a kid was playing in the old swamp in the Kimbolton area, and seeing what I thought was a foot print in the mud, it was at least 14" long, my shoe size is 9 and it was almost 1 1/2 times that size. The track was also twice as wide as my foot. I went home to get a camera to take a picture of it but my mother wouldn't let me go back down that day. She thought I was crazy. The next day I went down but the creek rose during the night and flooded the area.
Unfortunately I have lost track of all the old employees of the park.
It might be interesting to find some of the old park rangers and see if they have any tales to tell. I remember a few of them but haven't heard or seen them for years. I have tried to contact Butch in the past, a former ranger, but his email wasn't correct. As a kid we were always warned about the Salt Fork Monster by our parents, maybe they weren't just pulling our leg!"
In January of 1997 I conducted a telephone interview with a gentleman named Ron Rush (not his real last name) about an encounter he had had at the park.
Ron reported that it was unusually warm for that time of year, breezy and in the 45 to 50 degree range. He estimated that the creature was eight feet tall, dark brown in color and was about 100 yards away from him. He said he discovered no prints from the creature he had spotted.
Additional notes from my interview with Ron on the phone were... He was hunting and ran into something. Three years before this sighting he discovered prints in the snow. He spotted the creature about 1/2 mile from the location of where he spotted the creature. He said of his sighting "I scared it and it scared me. I saw the back of it. I had made a noise and it turned to look at me. The prints in the snow were about 18" long. I spotted the creature near the primitive hunting and camping area.
These two sightings took place in August. One in 1978 and the other in 1979. Joe Turner told me of these sightings. I thank him for these.
"I was talking to a man who was visiting my relatives when I struck up a conversation about my involvement in a UFO group. This man told me of a friend of his who had seen a Bigfoot type creature twice at Salt Fork State Park. They were back to back in two consecutive years. The first time he and his son were in their boat near Hosacks Cave fishing. Suddenly stones came out of the woods towards them. They looked up on a hill in the direction from where the stones came from and saw the creature standing there. A short time later it walked up the hill away from them.
Joe Turner passed away in October of 2001, but his memory will live on in part by his contributing these two, and other Bigfoot sightings to the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center.
One of the more fascinating sighting reports I have received from Salt Fork State Park is one that a park Ranger had. It was during the first year that the park was open to the general public, 1972. I will call the gentleman Mr. "S" as he did not want his true identity given out if I ever decided to publish his encounter. Mr. S told me that he had a fear in him and was sweating because of it just before he looked out the window and 'swatted' at the face.
His is one of four sightings that took place in a one week span back in the spring of 1972. Two of the sightings took place by the general public and the other two took place by park Rangers. I will report Mr. S's sighting here on this link, but the other three I will place on another separate link because I don't have as much detail about those sightings.
Mr. S's sighting was the last of the four sightings in SFSP during that one week period. He had received word from another park Ranger that a Bigfoot type creature was apparently heading in his direction. The radio was situated in the corner of a room on a table. The radio was placed near a window. As his fellow worker had just told him that there was apparently some creature heading his way, he became extra alert. As he finished transmission with his fellow worker, he glanced up to the window from looking at the table and spotted a very large face looking in the window at him. He described it as follows.....
It had a brow ridge. Its nose was not human like but it was not pointed like a bears nose would be either. The nose was 'tight and twisted up'. The eyes were black in color. The lips on the mouth were not shaped like a human but more gorilla like. The ears were small and placed near the head; not sticking out like a humans ears. The skin on the face was leather like and dark in color."
The incident took place between 7:30 and 8 p.m. in the spring of 1972.
Salt Fork State Park opened to the general public in 1972. They broke ground for the lodge in 1970. It has the second highest number of visitors annually. It is the largest state park in Ohio. It also has the highest number of alleged Bigfoot incidents of any state park in Ohio. The spring of 1972 started this well known fact off to a roaring start.
During the late afternoon or early evening one day in the spring, a report was submitted to the ranger’s main office. A ranger was sent to investigate the incident. When he arrived he was met with a woman he was very upset at what she spotted crossing the road in front of her between the lodge and the road that goes down to the cabins. The ranger reported that she appeared to have a bit of an alcohol smell to her, but she was very upset. She made the typical description of an individual walking on two legs, crossing the road and around eight feet in height as well as dark in color.
Another sighting from SFSP and took place the same night as the previous one also described pretty much the same thing. That was a dark colored creature crossing the road in front of a park visitor. This incident took place less than 2 hours after the first sighting and less than a mile away.
A third sighting on the very same night took place less than an hour after the second one. It was by a park ranger who had actually investigated the first sighting listed above. His encounter also described the same type of creature as the first two sightings. His encounter took place while he was on the way back to the ranger station. It was this ranger than called the ranger at the building and told him about the alleged Bigfoot creature heading in the direction of the ranger station. Turns out, the ranger in the station had the best, and most frightful and harmful encounter with this creature.
This series of four sightings was the start of a series of sightings at SFSP over the next 30+ years. Many sightings have taken place as well as countless track discoveries at the park over the decades. Researchers, hunters, rangers and the general public have all spotted something at the park.