Today I had the pleasure of meeting up with Craig Woolheater (the founder of the wonderful cryptozoology website Cryptomundo) and several other Bigfoot researchers at Chicot State Park. Craig ventured out of his home state of Texas and joined us here in the swamp to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his life-changing sighting of a Bigfoot in 1994 near the town of Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish (LA).
I couldn't pass up an opportunity to meet fellow enthusiasts and find out more about Craig's encounter since Bunkie is literally fifteen minutes down the road from my home in Lecompte (LA). It also didn't hurt that I have known Craig for several years and I was once a contributor to his website.
Here is Craig's published report of the sighting:
"My ex-wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were driving back to Dallas from New Orleans. We had started out at 9 pm. I was driving my 1991 Isuzu Amigo, and the top was rolled up because the weather was nice. We had been traveling between 2 1/2 to 3 hours at 75 mph. We were approaching Bunkie. At this point, we were on an unlit 2-lane highway, Highway 71. On the left side of the road, it was very swampy, to the right 25 to 30 feet from the edge of the road, was the tree line.
As we were driving at approximately 75 mph, we saw an upright figure off to our right in the headlights. We both saw it as we passed and exclaimed simultaneously, "Did you just see what I saw?". We both agreed that we had and I asked her, "What do you think that you saw?". She said, "It think I saw a Bigfoot." I wanted to immediately turn around and go back. She did not as we were in an open convertible. There was a friend of ours asleep in the back seat, who slept through the entire incident.
As we passed it, it never seemed to detect our presence. At least that's the way it seemed because it never turned or even flinched as we went by.
We drove for 10-15 minutes until we came to a small church in the country and pulled in to talk about what we had seen. We discussed it for ten minutes or so and got back on the road to Dallas.
DESCRIPTION: We saw the backside of the creature, as it was traveling in the same direction that we were. We estimated its height at 7'. It was covered with hair and in the illumination of my headlights, it appeared to be gray in color. It was walking and it was slumped over in the front."
Besides being able to hear about Craig's encounter first hand the event provided the opportunity for several of us to share our own stories and brain-storm about possible future expeditions, town hall meetings (where people could feel comfortable about sharing their own sightings) and even a documentary in the future. The idea of even expanding future investigations to other paranormal phenomena such as hauntings and UFOs was also touched upon but that may be getting way ahead of ourselves. Regardless, there was a consensus that local researchers should get together in the future to work on Bigfoot related projects.
This is where I would like to put forward an open invitation to anyone who has seen Bigfoot or any other unexplained creature here in Louisiana to respond to this article or contact myself through this website. The reason for this call for information is to help compile a database of local sightings for future articles, research, expeditions and possibly the documentary I mentioned earlier. These reports can of course be anonymous if you wish and no reported sighting will be published without consent.
My kudos to Mark Daniels, Eden Boudreaux, Courtnye Ann Frederic, Valerie Bamburg Guice, Elise Orr. Sasquatch Ethology Society, The Ladies of Louisiana and Mississippi for making this event possible.
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