News and Video from the Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo

Screen shot of the first annual Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo website. 

Below is an article we found on the Jamestown Your News Now Network. According to the report it was a big turnout for the event. The speakers included Larry Battson, Billy Willard, Melissa Hovey, and Steve Kulls.

You can read the article below and watch the following video coverage of the event.

Big Turnout For Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo

By: Mark Goshgarian

MAYVILLE, N.Y. - "Now we believe truly, honestly that Chautauqua County has bigfoots here, and they're also known as Sasquatch, but they're in Warren County, they're in Cattaraugus County, they're probably in every county that has good stretches of forest and state forest lands," said Peter Wiemer, Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo Chair.

To help share that belief, local business owner Weimer played host Sunday to the first ever Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo at the Chautauqua Suites in Mayville.

The expo capped off a three day event dedicated to the mystique surrounding one of nature's most elusive creatures.

"I have been researching Bigfoot on the Internet for about four years, every morning for about a half hour and at least a few hours every night. I'm really kind of obsessed with it, but I truly believe he exists. I have no question about it. I would stake my life on it," said Cheektowaga resident Donna Klinko.

"Oh yeah its very exciting to me," said Gerry resident Clair Wisler. "I wish I could be out in the woods all the time just looking for it, but from what I see on TV its awfully scarce to get the information."

"And I've literally just went out and hunted for it," said Westfield resident Daniel Dunmore. "So I went and did it, didn't get anywhere, found a few footprints but not big enough to be bigfoot but it was just a lot of fun to do it."

The expo included live animal presentations, information and exhibits, as well as national experts who shared their research findings and eyewitness testimony.

"It perpetuates the idea what is it, what are these people seeing and I think that's what made the most interested to begin with, what are these people actually seeing out there if this isn't supposed to exist," said Melissa Hovey, American Bigfoot Society President

"It's the mystery behind it, the fact that there seems to be an animal out there that walks on two feet just like we do, and the amazing fact that it can stay elusive, stay out of sight," said Billy Willard, Sasquatch Watch of Virginia Director

Organizers hope to make the bigfoot expo an annual event. For more information visit www.chautauqualakebigfoot.com.

Melissa Hovey Billed as the #1 Female Bigfoot Researcher in the Country

Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo Bills Melissa Hovey as the Number One
 Female Bigfoot Researcher in the Country (click pic to enlarge)

The above is an edited and cropped screen shot from the official Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo page. Recently the The Post-Journal, a paper based in Jamestown, New York, announced the inaugural Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo set for May 4-6 in Mayville. We provide an excerpt below and a list of the speaker line up.

Expo To Discuss Bigfoot Sightings Event Set For May 4-6 In Mayville
April 22, 2012
The Post-Journal
MAYVILLE - The inaugural Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo will take place May 4-6 at the Chautauqua Suites.

Melissa Hovey, one of the speakers coming to the Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo and one of the leading female bigfoot researchers in the country, has defended herself against a copyright infringement of a photograph she owns and has copyright of a Bigfoot picture she will show publicly at The Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo. [You will want to read Bigfoot Lunch Club's exclusive Melissa Hovey Photo Coverage]

Hovey will discuss at the Expo the emotional turmoil a witness to a Bigfoot sighting can go through, and the toll such an experience can and does have on the personal and professional lives of people who are simply talking about being witness to something they can't explain.
This turmoil and fear of has touched upon a number of eyewitnesses that have come forward to Peter Wiemer, Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo chairman, in telling and emailing him about their personal eyewitness sightings here in Western New York.

"They are remaining anonymous, because of their genuine fear of being ridiculed and the fear of being outcast by their peers and professions," Wiemer said in a news release...

...Events open to the public include a town hall-type meeting on May 4; a Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Golf Championship at WoodCrest Golf Course at 9 a.m. May 5; and a Bigfoot Expedition in the early evening on May 5.

The event culminates with the Expo on May 6, which will also include a Bigfoot Poster Contest for children and adults.

For more information, visit ChautauquaLakeBigfoot.com.

The line-up of the four speakers from the article is below (these are the same bios that are pulled directly from the speaker line up at ChautauquaLakeBigfoot.com.

Wildlife expert and educator Larry Batson and his wife, Cheryl, have appeared on television shows and traveled around the country with their wildlife show. They have rescued animals ranging from baboons to snakes to large felines and travel to many schools and public events educating children and adults on the natural history of wild animals. Batson will speak both May 5 and 6, and will have some of his animals with him.

Sasquatch expert says creature is alive and well in U.S. wilderness
Read more: www.vcstar.com

Melissa Hovey is a paralegal and Bigfoot researcher from Ohio. She is the president of the American Bigfoot Society. Melissa is also a member of Sasquatch Watch of Virginia, and a former member of the TBRC. Since beginning her research in 2005, Ms. Hovey has started her own blog and forum entitled "The Search for Bigfoot." In 2007, she began co-hosting Internet radio shows starting with "Let's Talk Bigfoot," then she joined, "The Sasquatch Experience," with Sean Forker in February 2008. In June 2008, she began co-hosting a new program on Blogtalk radio, with Monica Rawlins, her friend and former TBRC board member and field researcher, called, "The Grey Area." Ms. Hovey was also featured on the all-female expedition episode of the History Channel's "MonsterQuest" titled, "Bigfoot" during the show's first season.

Billy Willard is president of an environmental consulting firm. He oversees various types of environmental assessment and cleanup projects such as leaking underground petroleum tanks, environmental site assessments and soil and groundwater remediation. He is an OSHA hazwoper supervisor and holds many other credentials. He became interested in the Bigfoot phenomena early in life as a child after watching such movies as the "Legend of Boggy Creek" and the "Creature From Black Lake." In 2005, Wilard and his son Josh formed Sasquatch Watch of Virginia. Billy is vice president of the American Bigfoot Society, a director for The Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers, member of the Northeast Sasquatch Researchers Association and a member of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society.

In addition, Willard used to host an Internet radio program every Monday night at 9 p.m. on the Blogtalk Radio Network called "Sasquatch Watch Radio." Each week he has guests from around the world that include Bigfoot researchers and eyewitnesses. The shows are archived and available for listening.

Steve Kulls began his quest in 1998 seeking knowledge from other researchers in the field. Kulls said he believes in a "boots on the ground" methodology of obtaining evidence for or against, evidence regarding the Sasquatch mystery. Kulls said he has had five sightings in the last 12 years and a handful of what he describes as "most likely, close encounters" with the creatures, after initially entering the field quite skeptical. Kulls has appeared internationally on television, radio and in print as well as appearing on the History Channel's "MonsterQuest" series (Bigfoot in New York) and on the NatGeo Channel's "The Truth Behind" series (The Truth Behind: The Loch Ness Monster).

Watch Local Vermont News Cover Sasquatch Authors, Witnesses and Finding Bigfoot

WCAX news talks to Bigfoot Author/Witness Paul Bartholomew

Paul Bartholomew, along with his brother have methodically researched, documented, and studied the Bigfoot question in both New York and the New England states for over thirty years.

Today WCAX.com ran a story with the author as well as witness Frank Siecienski. Siencienski had an apple orchard ravaged of so many of its apples he believed it was more than a deer, so he put a trailcam to see if he could see exactly what could be eating all his apples.

Then on a September evening in 2010 the camera caught what he suspects is a female Sasquatch carrying her young. The picture has made it's rounds in the bigfoot community and now Finding Bigfoot will investigate it further. 

Steve Krull on the left, Mother Sasquatch with baby on the right.

Video and report of the WCAX segment below, followed by Steve Krull's audio interview with both Paul Bartholamew and Frank Siecienski on his BlogTalkRadio show Squatchdetective Radio.

FROM WCAX.COM

RUTLAND, Vt. -
Bigfoot sightings across New England have been reported for hundreds of years.
"Red glowing eyes, about 7 feet tall, making a sound like a pig squealing or a woman screaming and walking like a man but looking more like a gorilla," Paul Bartholomew said.

That's the most common description researcher and Bigfoot author Bartholomew hears from those who say they've seen the sasquatch.

"It's a global phenomena and it's here in our own backyards," Bartholomew said.
Bartholomew's backyard-- Whitehall, N.Y.-- has had recorded sightings for centuries.
"You go back to the Algonquin and the Iroquois and they talk about the stone giant and the giant men of the mountains. The Abenaki had their creature reports. So this whole area is rich in traditional reports of this creature," Bartholomew said.

But there are some more recent reports, he says. One was supposedly spotted at a local golf course in the 1970s. It now uses Bigfoot as its logo. And Whitehall passed an ordinance to protect the creature in 2003. There's even a statue of sasquatch in town.

Just east of Whitehall, sightings have been reported along Route 4 and all across the state of Vermont from Bennington to Colchester.

Frank Siecienski of Hubbardton believes a Bigfoot was near his home.

"One section of my apple tree, the apples were completely devoured. One whole section. I pointed it out to my wife and she says 'oh God,' the deer must have been hungry. And I said no, a deer couldn't have eaten that many apples in one night," Siecienski said.

So Siecienski set up a trail camera trying to catch the sasquatch on tape. On a September night two years ago he recorded something.

"I found out from researchers that this is a female sasquatch with its young underneath it. It's protecting its young," he said, showing the recording.

Whether you believe the evidence collected is reality or just a ruse, they'll have an interested audience Saturday.  The TV network Animal Planet will bring its show Finding Bigfoot to Rutland. Producers will pick stories feature on the show.

"Not only is it a fun, upbeat, interesting, different story that is being filmed here. And the local community is getting very excited about it," said Tom Donahue of Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce.

Bartholomew hopes the show will bring some more credibility to his claims.

"Our major goal is to bring this out of the tabloid mentality and bring it into science. The DNA age. And I think that's right where we're heading," Bartholomew said.

Big news for Bigfoot fans all across Vermont.

Few details about the network's plans have been released, but our sources say about 100 people will show up, and three stories will be chosen.

LISTEN TO STEVE KULLS INTERVIEW

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