Mackenzie Hrubey: Let me see them cat ears. Give me them good cat ears. Field Notes From The Unknown: I'm And I'm Mackenzie. And this is Field Notes from the Unknown, ⁓ a podcast your favorite local cryptid. Casey: Yes ow, he's biting me, so he's gonna get kicked off soon. Mackenzie Hrubey: So cute He just wants to eat you 'cause you're delicious. Casey: He's not cute. Ouch, he hurts. His teeth hurt. Mackenzie Hrubey: More of no bite. No bite. Casey: ⁓ yeah, do you I'm good. I'm good. How ouch I would never strike a cat. Mackenzie Hrubey: How are you Casey? Casey: I would never strike a cat. But Mackenzie Hrubey: you you might strike the beast in this week's episode of our Bigfoot series. Casey: I might strike a beast in this week's episode. Just sit down, would you? Mackenzie Hrubey: Actually, it's funny, you know, a fist is sort of it's actually a good intro into the opening scene for this episode. So I mean, do you wanna get started? Okay. All right, all right, all right. So let's set the scene. Casey, you are a worn out young mother of two teensy children. One of them is still a baby. Casey: A fist? Yeah, let's go for it. Mackenzie Hrubey: One of them is a toddler. And you are living in the town of Fauk Falk. Falk Falk. Falk, Arkansas. ⁓ you're married. ⁓ your husband is out on the night shift, or he works with his brother. It has been a long ass day, and you're just really, really tired. Not to mention, you've been being kept up at night for the past week or so by the sound of something Casey: Okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: big moving through all of the plants around your modest log cabin out in the countryside. So before you know it, you're on the couch watching the news when suddenly you start to fall asleep. And you fall asleep until you are startled awake. Because you've just been grabbed and when you turn over your head, Weird. Did I just freeze? Casey: No, mine just stopped. Like everything just stopped. Okay, so we I am a mother in Arkansas, two young children, and my husband works night shifts. And I was just about to fall asleep on the couch. Right? Ugh. Mackenzie Hrubey: Weird Weird Weird. We were vibing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you're you're on the couch and your eyes are growing heavy and heavy and heavy until suddenly you stop hearing the news. ⁓ do we talk about how the fact you've been not sleeping well for the past week or so 'cause there's been a large beast that you hear rubbling through the woods outside? Casey: I hope it's a bear. Mm-hmm. It's probably just that pesty bear. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. It's probably just a bear. So all of a sudden you fall asleep. You are dreaming of a tropical vacation, perhaps, when all of a sudden you are startled awake by the feeling of something grabbing you by the arm. And you wake up and you look and what has you is not a child. It is a hairy hand that has ripped. Casey: In my house? Mackenzie Hrubey: through the screen window above the cou the couch. And the hand and the arm has reached through the window and it has you. It has you in a grip. What do you do? Casey: ⁓ try and run away. Hopefully there is a lamp somewhere that I can just strike his hand with. And then I'm gonna set the house on fire after I get everybody. I'm gonna they're not gonna be soon. They're gonna be awake real quick. And I'm gonna burn the house down and I'm gonna move and I'm never gonna put a couch in front of a window again. Ever. Mackenzie Hrubey: Well kids are asleep. Sweet you Well, I mean, I understand that feeling, I think. So you s you scream, you scream, and you use I think I think it is actually a lamp. You grab the nearest object to you and you you hit the arm with the object until it releases you. At that point the kids have wandered in rubbing their eyes. Mamma, mama, what's the matter? Yeah, you grab the kids and you duck into the kitchen where there are no windows and you pick up the landline and you dial. You dial your husband. Yeah. Casey: You think? See, they're already awake. That's even worse. A kitchen with no windows? Huh. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. You dial broop broop broop in the little rotary dial and you call Bobby Ford Bobby Ford Get your get your ass right back to this house right here, right now, Burrier. You call your husband Bobby. And Bobby and his brother Dan, who also Don Dan yeah, they work together on the night ship. They race home. They race home when they find you and the kids. Casey: Work together. Mackenzie Hrubey: And they hear a noise outside and it's the predator. And they go outside and they see a creature. And that creature is eight feet tall, on two legs, with hair like a bear, no snout, and glowing eyes. And they shoot. They shoot at the creature. Cause of of course they do. We're we're in Arkansas. Casey: Yeah, they're gonna shoot first, talk later. Mackenzie Hrubey: They're gonna shoot that thing. The creature screams and runs into the brush. Casey: Okay. Did they even have any idea of what it could have been before they shot? Probably not. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yep. Yep. No, no, no. They just knew it was big and it was comin' their woman. Casey: I guess great. Thanks for saving me and the kids. But ⁓ can you fix the window now? And we're gonna move the couch. Mackenzie Hrubey: Right. So Right. Right. The the family spends your family you are Elizabeth Ford and you and your family spend a sleepless night far from the windows and the doors, waiting until morning, where your husband Bobby and his brother Don go out to investigate and they find no blood trail despite having hit the creature. But what they do find is three toed footprints. Casey: Three toes. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yep. Yep. And you get so scared that you eventually end up selling the property that you live on and moving in with your father in law back in town. Casey: Well, it must be really bad. Mackenzie Hrubey: Nope. Yep. So this is the real account of Elizabeth Ford and the Ford family from May second of nineteen seventy one in the little town of Falk, Arkansas, the legend that gave rise to the movie The Legend of Boggy Creek. Casey: Ooh, I've honestly never watched that movie. Mackenzie Hrubey: It is worth it. It's so sixties and seventies, it's ridiculous. At one point in time there's these little girls that are having a sleepover, but that's not what they say. They say that they're doing a bunking party. Casey: ⁓ Cooking party? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, yep, and the whole trailer they're in gets rocked back and forth by creature. Casey: Ooh, that's scary. Mackenzie Hrubey: So the forward's encounter with the creature that comes to be known as the Beast of Boggy Creek or the Falk Monster or the Swamp Stalker. ⁓ Swamp Stalker is good. Casey: I like Swamp Stalker. Swamp Stalker's my favorite so far. Mackenzie Hrubey: Encounters continue. So May twenty-third, in Falc, three witnesses see a similar creature cross the road across Highway 71. ⁓ more people see it, footprints are cast. The game warden named Carl Galen ⁓ examines the prints and cannot account for any known animal that could have made them. A bounty, which you know is my favorite. Casey: Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Of specifically one thousand and ninety dollars because one th one thousand felt too little, but Casey: Yeah, but that ninety really really gets gets the point across. Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Really seals the deal. Yep, yep. Bounty was put out. No one ever claimed it, but yet three men were fined fifty-nine dollars apiece for quote unquote filing a fraudulent monster report. Casey: How they know it's fraudulent? One, how do they know it's fraudulent? And okay, let's back up. Do we have pictures of the casts? Mackenzie Hrubey: We do. There are. You can find the Falk Monster Prince and they look a little reptilian. People think it's probably. Casey: Okay, that good, because that was my next question. ⁓ it made me think of the lizard man because doesn't he just have three fingers? Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: He does. He does. But remember we talked about how a footprint cast is not the shape of the foot, but rather the shape that the foot makes when it interacts with the ground. Yep. Yep. And people also think these were probably faked. Casey: In the impr yes Yeah, that okay. But Okay, so when people actually see this thing, w do th I obviously I guess you're not gonna look directly at its feet, you're gonna look at the thing that has glowing eyes. Okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: No one said that it necessarily had three toes. No, no, no, no. But but this is important because the Falk Monster is probably the quintessential flagship of Bigfoot in the we're gonna call it the mid South Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Casey: Okay. Okay. So technically it could be a swamp thing hybrid. Mackenzie Hrubey: It could it could be a swamp beast hybrid. Or just Bigfoot. Casey: Or Bigfoot and the Lizard Man created a child, a love child. Mackenzie Hrubey: Maybe they're maybe they're all aliens and they're up in the spaceship on the, you know, cosmic world order making hybrid babies. I I d I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Casey: Ooh, yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: So the Falk monster is has been seen around Fog Arkansas on and off for all ever and ever and ever since those original 1971 sightings. sightings come and go. Sometimes they pop up around the nearby towns of Russellville or ⁓ Centerville, Arkansas. ⁓ but it's all a similar creature. All a bipedal ape man with brown shaggy fur. Low-hanging arms and smelling of sulfur. Ironically, following along what are called the sulfur river bottoms. So, if you have not watched ⁓ The Legend of Boggy Creek, I would say, listeners, if you're at home, take a pause, and this is your time to go spend the best hour and a half of your life, and then get back to us. Casey: Well I know what I will be turning on the TV as soon as we end here. Mackenzie Hrubey: It is it is a time. It is a time. So, Casey, did you know that there were Bigfoot in this part of the US? Casey: I think each state has a Bigfoot. He is not confined to a state or a certain area. I think Bigfoot is all over the United States. In fact, I would like someone to tell me a state that he doesn't have any sightings in. Mackenzie Hrubey: The only one is Hawaii. Casey: I that's okay, Hawaii was what I was gonna say. But I'm pretty sure there's probably like an ape like creature that could be perhaps cousins with the Bigfoot in Hawaii. Mackenzie Hrubey: And maybe we'll unpack that creature on a future episode. Casey: Sounds like a wonderful idea. So I'm not crossing Hawaii completely off my Bigfoot map list. Mackenzie Hrubey: Fair. Totally fair. So we open this up with Arkansas. ⁓ any guesses as to how many reports are active on the BFR website for Arkansas? It might surprise it may surprise you. Casey: Mm. Is it high as five thousand or higher? Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ 5,000's quite high. Remember, these are published reports. So when we were talking about like New York State and Pennsylvania, we were in a couple hundred. Casey: Mm. Yes. So let's do Let's do seventy five. Mackenzie Hrubey: Hundred and thirteen active reports. the most recent report was last year. Casey: okay. Ooh. Mackenzie Hrubey: Mhm. Yep. ⁓ but of this region, the state that absolutely takes the cake in terms of density of reports is Texas. ⁓ any guess as to how many reports are in Texas? Casey: Two hundred. Mackenzie Hrubey: Two hundred and sixty four. Casey: Ooh. Texas is huge though. Mackenzie Hrubey: most recent report was it is, it is. But they're clustered. They're clustered primarily in the counties of Liberty and Montgomery, which are contiguous and also make up ⁓ a large portion of the Big Ficket National ⁓ National Preserve, which is actually a hot spot for ⁓ Bigfoot related activities. ⁓ and Casey: Sounds like a trip to Big Ficket. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, we we should go 'cause ironically it's less than two hours from two major airports. Which also kinda goes to show you that you're never really that far away from Bigfoot. Casey: ⁓ huh. Surprising. I mean, okay, yeah, two hours is quite the distance, but still Mackenzie Hrubey: Yep. Yep. So while we're on Texas, let me go ahead and share with you a Texas encounter. ⁓ one thing I love about this region is each state has a couple different, you know, pet Bigfoot stories and they have these really fantastic names. So our Texas story is the Howley Hymn. Casey: Hmm. Mackenzie Hrubey: So on july seventh, nineteen seventy seven, fifteen year old Renee Miller was out with two teen boys. The scandal. Casey: Scandalous, Renee. Two? Mackenzie Hrubey: Two No, but she wasn't doing anything anything untoward. They were actually cleaning that we know of, they were cleaning up brush, cleaning up bushmore like it. So So that allegedly, so that a local farmer could put up an electric fence on his property for cattle. Casey: That we know of At night. Hmm Okay, something else is going up. ⁓ Mackenzie Hrubey: A likely story. Yep. All of a sudden, the allegedly, the two boys that were several yards away from her began to run, yelling to Renee and stating that something had started throwing rocks. All three kids ran all the way back to Renee's mom, Mrs. Miller, who advised the group of teenagers to take up guns and then go back to see what was going on. Casey: Allegedly. ⁓ gone Here you go, kids. Don't run. Mackenzie Hrubey: The armed teenagers crept carefully back to the area. Casey: Not the arms teenagers is so fucking awful. no. Mackenzie Hrubey: It's Texas. Casey: The armed children Mackenzie Hrubey: armed children crept back to the area where the rock pelting had begun. And well in fact the scent of rotten eggs began rolling in and they started to feel an overwhelming sense of dread before the stone pelting began once more. Casey: I hope there's more rock belting. What are you gonna shoot at if you don't even see where the rocks are coming from? Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ Well, as the stones were thrown, Renee raised her rifle into the air and shot. Casey: Renee what are you shooting at? Mackenzie Hrubey: That's when a creature stepped out of the brush towards them. They just made it angry. Casey: ⁓ yeah, great. Mackenzie Hrubey: It was between six and seven feet tall, with thick brown hair like a bear, but without any snout and no visible ears. It had a flat nose and a flat face, huge arms that hung down all its all the way to its knees, and broad shoulders. The teenagers fled and told their mother who called the sheriff, and then the sheriff did posted Another reward. Casey: Mm-hmm. Mackenzie Hrubey: We're five thousand dollars, a nice even number, big spenders in Texas. For anyone who could kill the creature. No one ever could. Casey: Yeah. And at this point they still have no idea what the creature is. It's just the creature. Mackenzie Hrubey: The creature. It i it it it was probably a Bigfoot. I mean what else is six to seven feet tall? With no visible ears, hair like a bear on two foot? Casey: Are they calling it a big foot? I don't know a lot of things. Actually, Mackenzie Hrubey: Reptile man. And escaped orangutan. Casey: I feel like the I feel like Blizzard Man was really tall. Mackenzie Hrubey: But he was scaling and he had a like the weird he had scales. Casey: Maybe it was cold. What what are the seasons? Maybe he got a coat. Mackenzie Hrubey: He didn't have fur on him. He had scales. Casey: He might have had a fur coat. Mackenzie Hrubey: But you know, I g ⁓ it's it's i i it's possible. We can't rule it out. Casey: Uizard Man in a ghillie suit. Mackenzie Hrubey: Sightings remain obscure. So Casey: Okay, did any of the teen did any of the children with guns actually g hit this thing? So like he came out of the woods and then they just ran? Mackenzie Hrubey: No, they shot in the air. They shot in the air, yep, and then they ran. With the guns. Yep, yep. Alright. Up to our next date. Casey: Bitches. Okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: It's time for a little Louisiana action, are you ready? All right. So any guesses to the sighting reports out of Louisiana? Casey: Yeah. ⁓ Bourbon Street. Mackenzie Hrubey: There are forty six reports out of Louisiana. It's actually a little bit lower in both Louisiana and Mississippi, contiguous state. Casey: Wait, did you ask me how many sightings or where they were in Louisiana? That okay, now I understand why you gave me that look. Because I thought you asked where do you think ⁓ okay. Yeah, okay. So now it makes more sense why you looked at me like I was fucking crazy. Mackenzie Hrubey: Ask you how many, but I I'm Bourbon Street. Casey: ⁓ yeah, f I fif forty six on Bourbon Street. Mackenzie Hrubey: Forty six is the answer. On Bourbon Street specifically. So when Bigfoot isn't drinking himself to a you know, a blitz is that a cattail? What's going on over there? God. Casey: It's a cattail. He is gonna lay down here. Mackenzie Hrubey: Right, all right. Maybe he'll bite you. Casey: You can't see them, but Kit is sitting right here and then Marv is right beside her. Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's adorable. The cats have left me for their father. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. When Bigfoot is not drinking himself, you know, to a coma on Bourbon Street, you can find him at Honey Island Swamp. Yes. Right? It's north of Lake Pontchatrain. Up in de woods, Demder Buyer. Casey: Traitors. Ooh Sounds like a little spa Gender pool. Mackenzie Hrubey: Honey Island is located in Saint Tammany Parish. It's a pretty big space, 75,000 acres, and is a protected wildlife zone, so no one can go out there and hunt. Casey: ⁓ thank God. Mackenzie Hrubey: But there was a man called Harlan Ford, who was a retired air traffic control officer. He was super, super into amateur filmmaking and he really liked birds, which is honestly the start to a lot of like serial killer movies. Like he was just a normal guy and he really liked birds and amateur filmmaking. Casey: ⁓ yeah, I forget the bird part. You had me an amateur filmmaking and I'm like Okay. Here's a Marv. We can both be on camera, okay? Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm Arv One day Harlan Ford was out with his of age friend, Billy Mills. I look I should specify. Casey: Why did you have to ⁓ why did you have to specify that? Did they specify that in th the story? Mackenzie Hrubey: What? It's one to clarify for any listeners that were concerned about his immature filmmaking and what that might imply. Casey: ⁓ yeah. Thank you for specifying that. Mackenzie Hrubey: You're so welcome. They were out and about when they caught sight of a creature that was seven feet tall, bipedal, and covered in long grey hair, and once again super duper stinky. Casey: ⁓ ⁓ Mackenzie Hrubey: Thank you, boy. Yep. They tracked this creature and actually came upon footprints. And these were not three-toed, not five-toed, but in fact four-toed. Four four-toed. But again, say it with me. The shape of the track is not the shape of the foot, but the shape of how the foot interacts with the ground. Casey: Six? It's just is not the shape of the foot, but the he interacts with the soil, yeah? Okay. Yes. Oop ⁓ Mackenzie Hrubey: So all well and good. ⁓ my son is here. My son is here and he brought this for our recording session. Casey: How how nice of him to bring you a a toy. Mackenzie Hrubey: You wanna come on camera espresso? Well we'll see we'll see if he if he decides to come take the toy. But so they observed this creature and then found its footprints and it disappeared off into the woods. They continued seeing this creature over the span of about five or so years. ⁓ at one point they actually caught it on film With this really, really super duper grainy ⁓ class eight real footage. Casey: Ooh, okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah. Casey: And that's not the famous Bigfoot picture though, right? Mackenzie Hrubey: I think you're thinking still of the of the boggy of the not Boggy Creek, ⁓ the ⁓ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. ⁓ and I can't believe I'm a terrible bigfooter to have forgotten what the fuck the name of that place in California is. Also I'm too hot. Casey: You know the the still Yes So okay, this is Marf we have to share screen time. Okay, so this is a new one. Another one. Mackenzie Hrubey: Same creature. Yeah, ⁓ and the super eight I couldn't find it, but I didn't dig that hard. I think it's somewhere on YouTube. It's super grainy, it's a blob squatch. ⁓ also, allegedly the pair found a boar with its throat cut in nineteen eighty four, despite it being a protected wildlife area. So that was a little bit weird, but it also could have been poultures. But something yeah. Casey: Mm. Especially if it was cut. Like depending on how cut. Clean cut? Saw cut? Teeth cut? Mackenzie Hrubey: Did not specify. Did not specify. ⁓ but interestingly there's ⁓ Casey: I don't think I've ever heard of a you know Sasquatch with a utility belt and like a switchblade, so I mean I I've heard some pretty crazy things. would I believe it? Possibly, yeah. I would believe it. Aliens have probes, so Mackenzie Hrubey: No, sometimes People say that some Sasquatch wear clothes. Yeah. Yeah. They do have probes. Casey: Why couldn't a Sasquatch have a switchblade? Mackenzie Hrubey: Are you an alien? ⁓ Casey: Espresso Are you an alien? Mackenzie Hrubey: An alien? Casey: I'm gonna take that as a yes. He's so talkative. Mackenzie Hrubey: Fine so there He is. There's a legend I'm not playing with them. There's a legend in the area dating back decades that the creature was in fact an escaped circus chimpanzee that fled a train crash in the nineteen hundreds and then adapted to life in the wild. But but right? Yeah, like chimpanzees don't get that tall. Casey: And grew sifs like to eight feet? Did he get into like a vat of like acid or like radioactive things? Mackenzie Hrubey: Radioactive material. A radioactive vat of moonshine. Yeah, and then they you know, it it's its flesh melted away and then they had to dynamite its bones. Hashtag stalligast it forever. Casey: Something Yeah. Yeah, they just had to use the dynamite. Mackenzie Hrubey: So that's probably the most famous story out of Louisiana. We've got two more states. Mississippi has a fair amount of reports. we talked about the number, twenty seven reports. ⁓ also most recent one was earlier this year. So stuff happens out of Mississippi. Some people hypothesize that the numbers for Louisiana and Mississippi are lower because there's more regional people just don't talk. Like people are labeled absolute crazy fools. And also there are big pockets down there that are just more conservative and people don't want to share those stories. Casey: Ooh. Mm-hmm. No one knows how to express their feelings and what they witnessed. No, Espresso can easily express his feelings. Ugh, sorry, kit just Mackenzie Hrubey: But yeah, that's not a press that's not a problem that espresso has. Yeah. Espresso's good about his feelings. Yeah, tail. Tale. Probably the most famous story from Mississippi is the Chautauqua Monster. ⁓ there's not a ton of details on this one, but more or less the stories are about a hairy hominid creature or multiple creatures, and sightings began with the nuns and school children of Saint Mary of the Pines, a Catholic school. Casey: Nuns would never lie to you. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's the thing and then the nuns said that they saw monkeys gigantic monkeys swinging from trees. Casey: But also nuns are gonna try and justify it and make s it sound right 'cause if they're like, I don't know what that was Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah, they're not gonna be like, Yo, we're crazy, they're gonna be like, here's a logical explanation. Casey: Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: So it happens in Mississippi too. So our last regional Sasquatch I want to talk about is from Oklahoma. And where the wind goes swooping down the plains. For Oklahoma, we have a little story and then we have a little discussion. So strap in for this Oklahoma story. By the way, any guess as to how many reports come out of Oklahoma? Casey: ⁓ Glahoma. Okay. One and fifty? Mackenzie Hrubey: Close, hundred and thirteen. Casey: Ooh, okay. All right, all right. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yep. So I'm gonna take you to the little sleepy town of Hanobia, Oklahoma. In two thousand, only twenty six years ago, we were alive. Casey: We were alive. Mackenzie Hrubey: So meanwhile, in Oklahoma, a family chose to anonymously report their ongoing encounters with a huge eight to ten foot tall, hair covered creature on two legs with a putrid stank. Casey: Why why is it the stink? Not all Bigfoots have the stink. Mackenzie Hrubey: In fact, only about forty percent of Bigfoot encounters report an odor at all. It might be that in the South, ⁓ they are just sweatier and more full of bacteria and natural bodily bacteria that make odors. ⁓ It could be that some of the rivers and waterways that these animals are seen around have a higher concentration of minerals like sulfur that do cause odors. ⁓ hard to say, but yeah, that's very astute. Not all encounters have ascent. Casey: It's a devil. Mm. Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ some people think that the odors are actually hormone glands that are released whenever the animals are in a heightened state. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Literally. Casey: Maybe it's just like when they're ⁓ or like mating season and they're like, ⁓ yeah, the smell of sulfur really gets me going. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, it's like a it's like a scent signalling, which other great apes do do. Casey: Well, kinda like men who hunt. And, you know, they get deer pissed, which is just fucking weird. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, strange. Weird. And they they roll around in it. It's weird. Casey: I don't know. It's like oof. But God forbid they report Bigfoot. Sorry. Mackenzie Hrubey: So the story of Hanobia began The story began serenely at first, as they often do, with the family planting a bumper crop of snow peas that they planned to can for the season. The peas took off due to good rainfall and good soil, and what that did was bring a shit ton of deer to the property. Casey: Ooh, okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: But it seems that something else followed the deer. Casey: yes. Mackenzie Hrubey: And it wasn't Lizard Man. Allegedly The encounters with the terrifying beast started with food rations being stolen off the front porch. Then fuck if I know, I don't know, maybe maybe maybe they just you know, maybe the kids were gone and papa came home with milk and then mamma was feeling frisky and so the milk was forgotten. I don't know. They're anonymous. I'd probably Casey: Allegedly it was not. Why are they keeping their food rations on the front porch? And they probably still drank it. Mackenzie Hrubey: Whatever. They're f they're f they're f I don't I don't mean to disparage any of Oklahoma visitors, but this is like the backwoods of Oklahoma. I I d I don't know. Maybe they were smoking deer. I don't know. Maybe they were like leaving deer to dry. Food was stolen. Casey: I have Okay, no, see I can I can see that. If they if they butcher and they have an animal hanging that makes more sense to me than the milk. Okay. They they were butchering and skinning deer. Mackenzie Hrubey: Then the milk. So we're gonna say that they were carrying deer or something. I I don't know. Fuck if I know. Yep. But after that things started escalating to the point where at night they'd be woken up by the entire goddamn log cabin rocking. Casey: Damn. Damn. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Throughout the night they would be kept awake by loud howls and screams from the trees that would make their bones shake. Casey: Hell no. Mackenzie Hrubey: Rocks began being thrown at all hours, breaking windows, causing dents, and the windows and doors were pounded on at night by an unseen creature. Eventually the family was so scared and also perturbed by the gross odor that permeated the area that they fled as if their lives were in danger. Casey: Yeah. So I don't want a Bigfoot for a neighbor. why the rock throwing? Like, I understand if it's a defense mechanism, but like if they're just throwing rocks at a house Why Mackenzie Hrubey: I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It might be let's go on the deer angle. Let's say that the deer Yeah, maybe the deer are a primary source of nutrition and if if this family were in fact eating deer and then like, you know, cleaning the deer and whatnot near the house and that's what was being stolen, maybe they were getting competitive over food r resources. Casey: Or like territorial. okay. I can yeah. I can I can get down with that. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's an angle, yeah. ⁓ but it's anonymous source, so you know, details are unclear. ⁓ and it sounds a lot of these sound honestly like campfire tales, right? Casey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with campfire tales. Mackenzie Hrubey: Absolutely not. But you know what I love is a well documented and well researched campfire tale. Mm-hmm. So what if I told you that Oklahoma is the state with probably the most robust scientific study on Sasquatch? Casey: Campfire tail. Yes. Ooh, I would be very surprised actually for some reason. I have no idea what else is in Oklahoma. Sometimes I forget it's at state. Sorry. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. So when I picture Oklahoma Same. Yeah. Yeah. I think about like I don't know, grain and like farmland, but Casey: I only think of the scene in Euphoria where it's like, are you auditioning for Oklahoma? She has and she's they're like, What's that supposed to mean? Bitch, y you better be joking. Like you look like you're going for Oklahoma. Ugh, okay, anyway, sorry if you haven't seen Euphoria, you will not understand anything that came out of my mouth. But you should watch it. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yes. Does that even mean? Give it watch. It's okay. Do it. So I'm ⁓ s surprised to s surprise to tell you that the entire western portion of Oklahoma actually has like a pretty substantial mountain range. ⁓ they're called the Wichita Mountains, and they actually have a super high level of biodiversity and like a lot of prey species. They have deer, they support a small population of bears, they get ⁓ tons of berries, ⁓ a lot of tree producing or nut producing trees. ⁓ stop biting your mother. Casey: Sorry. I just got I I gotta be fair. I was picking on him. It was cool with me. I was the instigator. I threw rocks. Mackenzie Hrubey: Don't do that. You know what? Marv, bite her again. Bite her again. So, the Wichita Mountains are also the site of what's known as Area X. So, not the X-Men. Nothing weird. Casey: I know, but I just like ca I I'm thinking of Chemical X, but I just like that Eric Area X Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Area X. Yeah. So this is a research area for the North American Wood Ape Conservancy, or Knaulik. ⁓ first off, I love that they choose to call this a wood ape versus like a Sasquatch or a Bigfoot because whenever whenever whenever Bigfoot is proven as a species, wood ape sounds a lot more Yeah, right? That is exactly what it is. So Casey: Yeah. A wood ape? Wow, yeah. It's a wood ape. Mackenzie Hrubey: If you want to hear more about this story, I highly recommend a book. This book is called Valley of the Apes: The Search for Sasquatch in Area X by Michael Myers. ⁓ not Stabby Stabby, Michael Myers from the Halloween series. Casey: ⁓ and not the Michael Myers that plays Austin Powers. Hmm. We got Mackenzie Hrubey: Nope. Totally different, Michael. Nowak researcher. And I think he was also a past president as well. But they do some really phenomenal research out of the Wichita Mountains. a couple of big highlight points out of the book. I super suggest that if you're Bigfoot curious, pick up this book and read it. ⁓ what they did was a best case scenario. They had a piece of private property called Area X that no one else besides researchers knew about. Casey: Alright. Mackenzie Hrubey: and the property owners. It was about a one and a half hour ride in the middle of goddamn nowhere into the woods, so cut off from any kind of potential human you know, disruption of the experiment. And then what they did was they had field teams that came in for a week at a time and then were subbed out at shift change by another team. So they would do this for stretches of eight or nine months where they were at the same place constantly. waiting for things to happen. And sometimes nothing happened, but sometimes a lot of shit happened. Casey: Interesting. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. And Area X is the site of the notorious tag seven. So one of the things that Nawak experienced with at Area X was the idea of deploying ⁓ transmitters, trackers that could track the movement of a creature. What they did was they put it up high at seven feet in the air. on fishing line that would be loosely wrapped around trees that the creature that tall walking through trees would catch onto the line and then carry it for a certain amount of time. A lot of these fell or got stuck ⁓ to birds or shit and went way too fast to be an actual reading. But one tag, tag seven, attached to something and they tracked that something for about an eight week period of time. And that something made really reasonable movements at a non-accelerated speed throughout this area of the Wichita Mountains. ⁓ and it's fascinating and it's absolutely worth a read. ⁓ so highly, highly recommend Valley of the Apes, The Search for Sasquatch in Area X, ⁓ for anybody that's bigfoot curious. It's probably the best ongoing study for discovery of the species. Casey: Oof. Mackenzie Hrubey: that besides, you know, the DNA Bigfoot project that we'll talk about happening over ⁓ in North Carolina State. Casey: S. So what is when is the time frame? When did ⁓ th when did the tracker start? Like what year? Do we have a date or a Okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: There's more details in the book. ⁓ I didn't pull all the details ⁓ for the sake of time really in this one. ⁓ but the tag seven stuff is super cool. ⁓ and after the tag seven, what Navak actually did is they released the book, but they also released a scientific research paper on the tag and what they figured out from the tag. So you can find that as well. ⁓ and the whole idea is that if you're gonna make these claims Casey: Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: You have to have some really interesting evidence to back that up and we have to start taking the evidence seriously. So what better way than submit it academically? Casey: Mm-hmm. That is really interesting. I will have all the links to this information in the show notes and also pictures on our Instagram f from what we've talked about today, but Mackenzie Hrubey: Thank you. Thank you. And before before we wrap up, it's been a long time since I have given you two things. One, ⁓ a statue of a cryptid. So for that, I present to you Gas Squatch, which is in the little town of Ida Bell, Oklahoma. It is one of the world's largest Sasquatch statues, located at a gas station that also has a 24-hour cafe. Casey: Mm-hmm. Gas scorch? Gas squatch. ⁓ Mackenzie Hrubey: Gas squash. Ha Casey: ⁓ my god. Mackenzie Hrubey: gas squatch. And not only do I have gas squatch for you, by the way you can also buy t-shirts and you can buy ⁓ hats of gas squatch. Casey: ⁓ my god. It's literally just that's okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: I just love watching your face. We also have a song about Bigfoot. Casey: A so Mackenzie Hrubey: We have a Bigfoot song. So this song is called Casey: That is amazing. Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ no, we don't we don't want a food advertisement. The song is Nobody Sees the Flowers But Me. From The Legend of Buggy Creek, 1972. So, listeners, I want you to pull this up on YouTube and take a good listen because this is the sound and the song sung by Sasquatch and those quiet Soulful River bottoms, all alone, deep in the woods. I hope you've enjoyed. Casey: Okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: Let's talk about Bigfoot once again. Casey: I loved it. This was great. Mackenzie Hrubey: Keithy believability scale. Casey: Five. Mackenzie Hrubey: Is it because of the song and of Gasquat or? Casey: No! You had me at a f So I wanna say I was probably at ⁓ a three. And then with the tracker, I get five. What else what else would it what else could do that? You know, like yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, not like that. Not like the data shows. No. There's nothing else. Casey: So yeah, definitely a five. What are you gonna give it? What Okay. Yeah, five five out of five. Like that's f insane. That's amazing. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, ⁓ of course a five. Fuck, five. Ten out of five. Yeah. Yeah. So listeners, I would love to know what you rate this one. And ⁓ I hope if you're you know if you're a Bigfoot suspicious, we're solely pulling you over the Bigfoot believer side. If you're a Bigfoot believer, then you know, drop us a comment. Let us know what your favorite Bigfoot story is. Just a reminder that we've got a couple more episodes in the Sasquatch series before we take you on to different cryptids, but thank you all for joining us on this journey. Casey: Alright guys, you know where to find us at Field Notes from the Unknown on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music. You know, the things. The places. Find us in the places. ⁓ but alright. Well I think that is it for us, and we will be back next Monday with another cryptid. Alright. Bye guys. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Thank you. Bye.