sasquatch

21st Annual Ohio Bigfoot Conference

On Saturday May 2nd, 2009, I attended the 21st Annual Ohio Bigfoot Conference held at Salt Fork State Park. The event was headed by Don Keating of EOBIC. This is an event I’ve been attending the past few years. I’m always looking forward to getting out and spending time in the park while meeting with a bunch of bigfoot enthusiasts. Unfortunately this year, I didn’t have the funds to stay at the lodge so I had to drive their on the day of the conference.

I got a late start but I arrived 10 minutes before the event started at 4PM EDT. Worthy of noting is that on the way to the Lodge, I passed an area known as Hosacks Cave. As I did, I noticed quite a few emergency vehicles in the parking lot which made me wonder if someone else had fallen off the cave. At the beginning of the conference, a small prayer was conducted for the 20 year old student who had fallen off the top of the cave. You can read about what happened in this story published on the Daily-Jeff.com but she ended up dieing later on due to her injuries which makes her the second person to die from falling off the top of this cave. My sympathies go out to her family and I won’t go into another argument on whether the trail should be closed or not.

As for the conference, I had to stand up in the lobby as ALL of the seats were taken. We’re talking four to five hundred people in a conference room. That is a lot of squatchers! No worries though as after the first few speakers, I managed to grab a seat in the back but because of rude people in the lobby, I was unable to concentrate on the speakers and their presentations. I think next year, the lobby doors will have to be closed to prevent this from happening.

Overall, I just wasn’t into the conference this year as I was last year. The highlight for me though was John Cartwright retelling his sighting/experience. You could literally hear the fear in his voice as he recounted what happened to him. I met some old friends, talked a bit of bigfoot, ate a great buffet dinner which set me back $15.00 and then went home. Don Keating mentioned that he will probably do 4 more conferences and then, perhaps end on the 25th one. So, I have four more conferences to look forward to. Hopefully, I’m in a better financial position and can stay at the lodge.

Click here to visit my photo gallery of the event on Flickr.

Here are some YouTube videos of the event.

Salt Fork And The 20th Annual BigFoot Conference

Salt Fork State Park Entrance

First off, special thanks to Don Keating of the E.O.B.I.C. for putting on yet another memorable BigFoot conference. This was the 20th time Don has hosted the conference and this time, at least 415 people showed up for the event. In fact, many people ended up having to stand in the conference room with some members of the audience having to sit near the room entrance in order to encompass the speakers. The conference included speakers such as Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, M.K. Davis and Eric Altman. I thought the conference was really well done.

There were quite a few rumors that this conference may be the last one Don puts on, but until we hear otherwise, that is not the case. All indications that I witnessed during this years conference point to another one being put together for 2009. However, Don now has to deal with the fact that there may not be enough room at the conference room at Salt Fork State Park to do the conference. If he ends up hosting it somewhere else, the costs go up exponentially. How Don will treat this double edged sword is beyond me, but my girlfriend and I really look forward to attending the conference each year while also staying at the lodge as a mini vacation for a long weekend. If the event is hosted elsewhere, I’m not sure we’ll be able to afford staying at Salt Fork any longer.

So that’s my mini review of the conference. On Sunday, after Don Keating gave the group a guided tour of sightings that have taken place at Salt Fork over the past few years, my girlfriend and I decided to do a bit of hiking. We walked a trail known as Morgan’s Knob. This trail is a loop which provides walkers with an excellent opportunity to get a grip with the type of terrain that the park has to offer. Hills, plenty of trees, ravines, cliffs, mini waterfalls, you name it, it’s part of this trail. At some points, you feel like you’re hiking a trail in the Pacific North West. After hiking a trail such as Morgan’s Knob, you get the idea as to why it would be pretty easy for a creature such as Sasquatch to move around the park unnoticed.

The following photos as well as videos are from our hiking trip into the woods. These are only a few of the photos from the gallery, if you would like to see the entire photo set, click here. Here’s to hoping that there will be a 21st bigfoot conference/expo at Salt Fork State Park. Continue reading →