Bigfoot hunters and Raystown ray in the news

Central Illinois man on watch for Bigfoot  by Dave Bakke

THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER  May 29, 2010

Some of you will think Stan Courtney is wasting his time. Others of you will think Stan is onto something. Your reaction depends on how you feel about Bigfoot (Sasquatch, if you prefer). Stan is central Illinois’ foremost expert on the legendary (mythical?) man-beast. Stan’s website – www.stancourtney.com -- contains an exhaustive record of Illinois Bigfoot reports dating from 2009 all the way back to 1883. For 35 years, Stan lived in Pawnee and worked at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. He has retired and is living, well, all he’ll say is that it is “south of Springfield.” “I don’t want other researchers invading my territory,” he explains. There isn’t much chance of that, since Bigfoot researchers appear to be on the sparse side. Be that as it may, Stan says his Bigfoot interest began when he was a boy in his native Idaho. “I heard stories, read newspaper articles, when I was a kid about him,” Stan says. “I had relatives who had contact and had seen him.” Since then, Stan’s interest has grown into an avocation. Stan has spent nights out in the woods, listening and recording weird, unexplained sounds (you can hear them for yourself at his website, along with more conventional outdoor recordings). “I’ve interviewed over 200 witnesses who’ve seen (Bigfoot),” Stan says. “I literally know hundreds of people who’ve seen these animals. There have been lots of them in central Illinois. I’ve recorded lots of sounds that other researchers and witnesses believe come from these animals. People in Springfield don’t realize it, but there have been a lot of reports from the Sangamon River around Riverton.” Already, I can hear the scoffing. Go ahead. Stan’s used to it. It must, I told him, be like the UFO sightings. There have been thousands of reports of UFOs, but most people still dismiss the idea. Mere weather balloons. Meteorites. The aurora borealis. Airplanes. Lightning. Here is a report Stan documents concerning a Nov. 8, 2008, sighting in Macoupin County: “I recently moved out of my house in Girard, IL. During the last year or so I have experienced several strange occurrences.“I have never actually seen anything except once a large dark shape moving bipedally through the heavy fog. I have heard the sound of something drumming on tree trunks. The sound of something BIG walking in the woods, on 2 legs. I have found chunks of firewood thrown from my wood pile. And on November 25 of 2008, as I was packing to move I heard a moaning howl very close to the house. I have hunted for 20 years and I have NEVER heard the likes of this. Read the Full story here : http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x514811886/Dave-Bakke-Central-Illinois-man-on-watch-for-Bigfoot

On Sasquatch's trail in Virginia's Spotsylvania County

By Paul Schwartzman Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 30, 2010

THORNBURG, VA. -- Billy Willard says he's on the verge of a major discovery that could change the way humans think about the natural world, not to mention their need for a creature-proof home security system. Here in Spotsylvania County, in the forests around Lake Anna, Willard claims there have been 14 sightings in the past decade of that most fabled of cryptozoic beasts: Bigfoot. Or Sasquatch, as the elusive, apelike brute is referred to in more high-minded circles -- and on the side of Willard's blue pickup. The decal on the truck reads "Sasquatch Watch of Virginia," of which Willard is chief pooh-bah (when he's not earning a living installing and removing underground home oil tanks). Go ahead, call him a loon, a flake, a huckster. He's heard it all. But Willard knows what he knows, which is that three people from this area -- a woman, her husband and their granddaughter -- told him they saw a shaggy, super-size figure on two legs gallivanting across their wooded property. Last month, Willard led a weeklong expedition to the site, where he installed five motion-sensor cameras that will snap photos if the big galoot wanders by again. Read Full story  here : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052903710.html

 Bigfoot! : The True Story of Apes in America

 Bigfoot Observer's Field Manual: A practical and easy-to-follow step-by-step guide to your very own face-to-face encounter with a legend

And a lake monster story you might have missed:

NBC affiliate investigates Huntingdon lake monster By Jeff Gill, For the Mirror

HUNTINGDON - A California-based production company has been in Huntingdon this week, trying to document proof of Raystown Ray. Raystown Ray is one of many strange creatures around the world people claim to have seen. In the Pacific Northwest are stories of Bigfoot. In Scotland, it's the Loch Ness Monster. The Abominable Snowman is said to inhabit the Himalaya Mountains.Base Productions, which is affiliated with NBC Universal Studios, has been in the Lake Raystown region since Wednesday, filming and conducting eyewitness interviews with people who claim to have seen the creature that some people believe lives in the waters of the 26.1-mile man-made lake.Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Matt Price said he is not certain whether there is something abnormal swimming in the dark regions of Raystown Lake. At its deepest point near Raystown Dam, the lake is about 200 feet deep."I don't know if there is something in the lake or not," Price said. "It is a big lake and it is capable of holding something that large." Former Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Pam Prosser, who now runs Seven Points Marina, has heard the stories."I grew up on the original lake. I have seen the pictures of the ski jump that we used to use for our ski club and there was a shadow in the picture. We always thought there was a mythical creature in the lake. We were never afraid of it," Prosser said.Prosser admitted that she is not certain if Raystown Ray is real, but it is difficult to dismiss the rumors and legend."Is there a monster? I don't know, but I don't think it is something to be afraid of," she said.

Read Full story here: http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/529433.html?nav=742

More on the story of Raystown Ray here :http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-sighting-of-raystown-lake-monster.html

http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/08/raystown-ray-lake-monster-hoax-or-fish.html