NPR, HuffPost cover 'Finding Bigfoot' in Michigan Town Hall

Town hall meeting for the Finding Bigfoot's season one finale
(Left to right: Matt Moneymaker, Cliff Barackman, Renae Holland, James "Bobo" fay)

The following three articles are updates for Michigan Town Hall meetings conducted by the crew at Finding Bigfoot. To catch up to the news before the town hall click the following link to read our entire Michigan Bigfoot news coverage (this includes the Bigfoot that favors blueberry bagels).

In chronological order we will repost the three articles that address the town hall meeting held in the Houghton Lake area. The town hall meetings have become a staple of the television series, it is set up as an opportunity to find encounters to investigate. Although sometimes they find new encounters, it may be interesting to know, some of the investigations are already pre-picked and planted in the town hall. Its TV, you don't complain when the dish is pre-cooked in the oven during a cooking show. 

FIRST: DETROIT NEWS

Bigfoot show seeks close encounter of a hairy kind

By Tom Greenwood

Bigfoot in the Big Mitten?

Producers from the Animal Planet TV program "Finding Bigfoot" have been filming in the Houghton Lake area this week, looking for signs of Sasquatch.

Phil Shaw, a member of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, said there have been more than 130 Bigfoot sightings in almost every county in Michigan, and they got some leads at a town hall meeting April 5 at the Houghton Lake Playhouse.

"I'd say there were at least 350 people at the meeting," said Shaw, 69. "Many people had stories that they shared: My favorite was from a lady who lives south of Houghton Lake that actually had been able to record 'whoop howls' from a Bigfoot.

"They only howl on a limited basis, so that was very rare and impressive."

Bigfoot is a general description of a huge, hairy, ape-like — and what most believe to be mythical — creature usually covered in dark brown or reddish hair.

They are usually described as having a huge brow ridge, a gorilla-like face, a jaw-dropping aroma and reportedly have left footprints as large as 24 inches long and 8 inches wide.

According to Shaw, the average male Bigfoot is 8 feet tall and weights 800 pounds; females are 6 feet tall and a petite 600 pounds.

Many scientists have largely dismissed the idea of an ape-like hominid living in the backwoods of America.

Tim Barnum, news editor for the Ogemaw County Herald, says there are many reports of the big guy in the area, but often people keep the sightings to themselves rather than face potential ridicule.

"I've heard stories, but personally I've never seen one," Barnum said. "Then again, I'm not much of an outdoorsman."

For many Americans who want to believe in Bigfoot, the truth is out there.

"People might think it's crazy to believe in Bigfoot, but there have been sightings like this for years in every culture all over the world," Shaw said.

The episode featuring the search near Houghton Lake will run sometime this summer, Shaw said.

tgreenwood@detnews.com

(313) 222-2023

From The Detroit News: 

SECOND: THE HUFFINGTON POST

'Finding Bigfoot' Takes Search To Houghton Lake, Mich.

The Huffington Post  |  By David Sands 

Posted: 04/12/2012 3:37 pm Updated: 04/12/2012 4:15 pm

The stars of a popular cable show are combing the woods around Houghton Lake, Mich., for signs of the the giant bipedal ape-man known as Bigfoot. Animal Planet's show "Finding Bigfoot" is filming in the area and drew 350 people to an April 5 town meeting held to gather clues about the whereabouts of the elusive cryptid, according to the Detroit News.

Phil Shaw, a member of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization told the News that some of those who showed up for the meeting shared stories of personal encounters.

"My favorite was from a lady who lives south of Houghton Lake that actually had been able to record 'whoop howls' from a bigfoot," he said. "They only howl on a limited basis, so that was very rare and impressive."

Shaw's organization has records of around 140 Michigan Bigfoot sightings since 1910 -- including a November 2011 report by a hunter who heard "resonant vocalizations and bipedal movement" while camping in Roscommon County.

"Michigan has been a hotspot for sightings since the 1960s, especially areas like Sister Lake and Monroe, where there were reports of very aggressive creatures and people being attacked," said Loren Coleman of the International Cryptozoological Museum in Portland, Maine.

Coleman said the high number of sightings makes sense because of Michigan's extensive wilderness.

"It's in the boreal forest, the heavily tree-covered area that goes from the Pacific Northwest across the U.S.-Canada border to Maine, but it has more sightings than other places because there are more people," he said. "You need people to see Bigfoot and Michigan has a higher population than, say, the Dakotas."

The Houghton Lake episode of "Finding Bigfoot" will air on Animal Planet this summer.

David Moye contributed to this report.

From: HuffPost

THIRD: NPR

Searching for Bigfoot in the mitten state

by MICHIGAN RADIO NEWSROOM

April 12, 2012

In terms of hotspots for giant, bipedal ape-men, Michigan might not come to mind, especially compared to states in the Pacific Northwest. But the mitten state is not without its share of alleged Bigfoot sightings.

According to the Detroit News, some high-profile Bigfoot hunters are paying visit to Michigan with camera crew in tow, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive cryptid.

From the News:

Producers from the Animal Planet TV program "Finding Bigfoot" have been filming in the Houghton Lake area this week, looking for signs of Sasquatch.

Phil Shaw, a member of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, said there have been more than 130 Bigfoot sightings in almost every county in Michigan.

The episode including the Michigan investigation is set to air sometime this summer, the Detroit News reports.

-John Klein Wilson, Michigan Radio Newsroom

From NPR.org

Watch Matt 'Finding Bigfoot' Moneymaker's 2012 CBS News Interview

Although they get his name wrong in the text description
Matt is correctly addressed by the interviewer, John Miller. 

Matt Moneymaker eloquently presents the case for Bigfoot in a mostly respectful interview by CBS News' John Miller. Topics covered are Matt's personal Bigfoot encounter, the pluralization of Bigfoot, the Patterson/Gimlin film, and why it is so darn hard to get a photo of Bigfoot.

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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