Lindagodfrey's Blog

Bald Bluff star, courtesy of and copyright Ronald Kurowski

Bigfoot and the Christmas Star sounds like the title of a children’s book, I know. Far from it! As soon as I started looking into tales of unknown upright canids 20 years ago, people also began reporting other creatures to me. I’ve received sightings of everything from giant birds to flying Batman to small green humanoids. But chief among those other sightings, especially in Wisconsin, are encounters with Bigfoot.

The sightings date back to at least the early 60s, and I’ve collected 15 or 16 very credible Sasquatch reports from a certain section of Southeast Wisconsin alone. This area stretches from Delavan north toward Eastern Rock County, southwestern Jefferson County and Northern Walworth County. There are plenty of other sightings all around Wisconsin but this area is very close to where I live – – in fact, you could say I’m in the thick of it. That comes in very handy for study purposes.

I’ve been revisiting some of the older sightings in this area to compare with newer incidents, and one that comes to mind every Christmas is the one I call Bigfoot and the Christmas star. I covered it more thoroughly in Hunting the American Werewolf, but here’s a brief recap:

Every December for many years, a Palmyra inventor and philanthropist named Irvin Young and his wife, Fern, lit a giant, electric Christmas star on the Kettle Moraine hill known as Bald Bluff. Locals also referred to it as Young Hill since the star was then on property owned by the Youngs. Area resident Judy Wallerman told me that as a teenager in  1970, she often sat on a nearby hillside and watched the star through binoculars just to see the bright lights.

Judy was watching one winter evening after a fresh snow that made the star’s surroundings easier to see, when she noticed a shadow- like figure darting about beneath it. The figure was near human in shape and covered with shaggy brown fur!

Eye witness sketch by Judy Wallerman for Hunting the American Werewolf by Linda S Godfrey

“It seemed to be focused on something,” said Judy.” It didn’t stand fully upright and it had a lumbering gait, it was slightly stooped but definitely on two legs.” She witnessed the creature running around the star on several other occasions, and when she told her friends about it she learned at least four or five others had seen it, too. The creature even had a nickname, Bluff Man or Bluff Monster. Her friend Rochelle Klemp was willing to speak to me about it and said, “It seemed human because it was upright, but size wise, it was taller than an average human.”

I have included Wallerman’s witness sketch. I’d have to say it’s a classic rendering of a Bigfoot.

The star was taken down in 2003 after Fern Young passed away. She had ceded the land to the state of Wisconsin years earlier but had stipulated the star must remain standing and lit every December for as long as she lived. (You can read more about the Youngs and Irvin’s strange sculptures on the site in my book, Strange Wisconsin; More Badger State Weirdness.)

Bald Bluff boasts a half-mile hiking trail and is part of the Kettle Moraine State Forest Southern Unit. The Kettle Moraine is comprised of plunging, bowl shaped depressions left by the last glacier. Most of it is heavily forested and teems with deer, wild turkey and other game perfect for a large predator. Hiking and biking trails wind along the ridges between the kettles, leaving plenty of space for a large creature to get around in between them. Bald Bluff is also very close to Blue Spring Lake, marshes and other water sources. And as I mentioned earlier there are plenty of other sightings of Bigfoot – – not to mention dog men, as well – –here to establish this was not a fluke incident.

I like to think perhaps that star-struck Bigfoot was doing a Christmas dance. But even if he was only chasing a deer or a rabbit, I love the mental image and hope it brings joy to you all.

Review: The World’s Weirdest Places by Nick Redfern, New Page Books 2012

As the author and co-author of two books in the Barnes & Noble Weird US series (WI and MI), I’m more than a little interested in bizarre places. Nick Redfern’s latest book, The World’s Weirdest Places, both piqued and satisfied that interest with his global tour of the most ghoulish, ghastly, and enigmatic locations to be found on planet Earth.

I expected no less. Redfern is always a font of Fortean-inspired nonfiction. He maintains that reputation here with chapters that sweep readers to the four corners of the earth, from the mysterious ancient city of Bhangarh, India, to the mystical vortexes of Sedona, Arizona.

The weird side of India’s gargantuan culture deserves a lot more press than it usually receives from the Western world. Although I’m a fan of archaeological digs in far-flung areas, I had never heard of Bhangarh , a once-bustling place that became a ghost town when its entire population suddenly up and blew town in the late 1700s. Redfern offers both the official explanation that the people disappeared due to unexpected famine and the more locally popular idea that a terrifying curse scared everyone away.  According to Redfern, Bhangarh’s ruins retain an aura of evil to this day, possibly due to a legacy of black magic. The details Redfern reveals about that alleged magic are eye-popping.

Closer to home, I’ve personally visited Sedona, Arizona. My husband and I hiked to several of the vortex locations and spent a little time sitting on them, in fact. We didn’t experience anything weird, but others have reported a variety of odd phenomena. The rocky cliffs are supposed to be inhabited by entities called the Rock People who are apt to wreak havoc on unwary tourists. The site is also a mecca for UFOs, says Redfern. He provides several intriguing examples.

Redfern’s tour of world-wide weirdness also includes Sydney, Australia, Loch Ness, Russia’s Kremlin, the Philippines, Vietnam, and many more places sure to be added to the adventurous traveler’s bucket list. The book confirms what I’ve always suspected – – wherever there are people, there will be unexplainable experiences.

Redfern concludes with his observation that “window areas,” or places that exhibit multitudes of strange phenomena, are distributed throughout the world. He and other researchers speculate that such places may intersect with other dimensions or some sort of spirit world, and that occasionally those intersections open – – to let things in or out.

The book could be thought of as such a window in itself. It opened new possibilities in my own quest to explore baffling locales, eccentric people and strange creatures and phenomena. It’s sure to become another staple on every Redfern fan’s bookshelf, and is also a great entry point for readers uninitiated to the ever-expanding world of Redferneana.  As Redfern says, the weirdness is unrelenting and it’s everywhere. I say, best learn about it from someone who knows his way around the unfathomable parts of the universe.

I’m braving the Sandy tailwinds to be in Wautoma WI tonight.  Any Central WI Tweeps? Learn about Wolfmen with me tonight 6 pm Wautoma Public Library FREE http://www.wautomalibrary.org/

And here’s my interview with nbcnews.com  http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/27/14724203-why-werewolves-give-us-the-willies

And watch here for my Halloween blog of new sightings tomorrow.

Stay storm safe!

Here’s the podcast of my fun show with the Paracast crew  http://www.theparacast.com/podcast/now-playing-october-21-2012-linda-godfrey/

Ken Gerhard has a new, as yet unnamed book coming next year on the subject of Mothman, Man Bat and other flying fearsomes. He asked me to create a new illustration for it and said I could post as a sneak preview. For more on the book you must ask Ken. All I know is I want a copy!

Illustration of Man Bat copyright Linda S Godfrey

The recent tragic death of a Montana man killed on a highway as he tried to imitate a Bigfoot reminded me of another hoax effort: the so-called Gable films of Michigan, part one and part two. The costume of choice in both states was a ghillie suit, a stringy, head-to-toe covering  hunters often wear for camouflage in the woods.

The Gable films were made by amateur video buff Mike Agrusa as a sort of homage to the cryptid known as the Michigan Dogman. Agrusa added wire coat hanger “ears” as you can see in his intentionally grainy still at left, and was at least smart enough not to step onto a busy highway as he was filmed.

He confessed his part in the ruse on national television in the season four finale of

Mike Agrusa in Ghillie Suit copyright Linda Godfrey

History Channel’s Monsterquest . I was part of that show’s interview team and witnessed a re-creation of Agrusa’s performance. The ghillie suit was not convincing in person, and was effective in the video mostly due to the poor quality of the vintage  film Agrusa used in order to make everything in the 2007 vid look as if it dated from the 1970s.

The Montana man was not so crafty – – or lucky, may he rest in peace.

I have written many times about  hoaxing’s impact on the field of cryptozoology. Although I don’t believe that impact is ever as big as hoaxers would like it to be, staged “encounters” can waste the precious time and resources of investigators, endanger public safety by startling motorists, and as we have seen, may prove very risky for the hoaxer.

One near-death incident I like to cite is that of the Choccolocco Monster, the creation of several teenagers in Alabama in the spring of 1969. Two of the boys provided transportation  to and from various highway sites while the third, Neal Williamson, jumped out at cars after donning a cow skull and some type of long garment.

Once word got out that a ” monster” was on the loose in Calhoun County, creature hunters began to cruise the country lanes with rifle-toting passengers literally riding shotgun. After Williamson had been fired  upon once or twice he hung up his cow skull for good and waited 32 years to confess it to a local newspaper.

As for the Montana incident, I think the most important statement in the CNN  link above is: “But authorities received no calls from drivers thinking they had seen Bigfoot, the station reported.”

The Montana hoaxer gave his life in vain.

Several people have tried to hoax sightings of the Beast of Bray Road over the years, but none that I know of correspond to a credible sighting report. And even if an observer is occasionally fooled, this does nothing to prove that other sightings are invalid.

Let’s hope that this tragedy at least serves one purpose — giving other would-be pranksters great pause.