Ep. 34: Face to Face with Bigfoot

Brandon: Welcome to a new episode of Ted Foil Tells. I'm your host, Brandon Ryan. Got a great episode here for you guys tonight. Gonna be joined by my guest, Todd. Todd is an archeologist. And years ago, Todd encountered what could only be described as a face-to-face with the known Bigfoot. Todd has spent many years researching the creatures, as well as other paranormal instances. And I'm very much looking forward to jumping into discussions with Todd tonight. Before we jump into that, if you've ever had an encounter and you have a story you'd like to share, you can be on an episode of Ted Foil Tells. You can send an email to TedFoilTellsPodcast.gmail.com. That's TedFoilTellsPodcast.gmail.com. We'll get you scheduled for a future episode. Coming up here in October, the 21st to be exact. If you're around Indiana, you can come up to the pair of Unity 5. That's where I will be. Come up, say hello, got a story you'd like to share. I'll have my recording stuff there. We can talk about it. If you wanna help the podcast, you can share it around. Leave us a review. The higher the ranking for the review, the more chances are that other people will discover the podcast because that's how the ranking systems work. So the higher the ranking, the more likely it is to be visible. Like us on Facebook, you can find us on Twitter or X or whatever it is these days, Instagram. Probably gonna get into other socials here eventually, but for now, that's where I'm at. Obviously, if you're following on YouTube, appreciate that. But anyways, we're gonna dive on into discussions with Todd. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Like to take this time to welcome my guest tonight, Todd. Thanks for coming out and talking with me. You're welcome. Glad to be here. Definitely appreciate it with you coming on here and talking with me tonight. It's a topic that I kind of hold close to me and true to myself just because certain things in the past, but wanna do a little bit of background on yourself before we get started.

Todd: Okay, my name is Todd Baker. I live in Southern Indiana. I have a master's degree in anthropology. I've worked as an archeologist for over 30 years. In my specialty, I'm a faunal analyst. So I do ID of animal bones from archeological sites. And I'm also a human osteologist. And I do a lot of burial work. Had been out West for several years and did a lot of burial work for the tribes out in the Northwest. So, and that's a little bit of my background. And also I'm very interested in cryptozoology. And actually my wife and I are paranormal investigators and have been for over 20 years. That's awesome.

Brandon: I've dabbled here and there, but I'm not an avid investigator. I've always wanted to, but I'm also kind of a chicken. So I'm afraid of what I'll actually uncover.

Todd: Yeah, we haven't started a new group since we moved back to Southern Indiana, but we're thinking about doing that. But we did over 250 investigations when we were out West out in Oregon.

Brandon: I actually just had an interview come out today with someone, they have a paranormal research group. It's actually, they work for universities and in the medical field. So they're actually like professional type people. Oh wow, okay. It's called Boo 812.

Todd: Boo 812, I like that. That's catchy, I like that.

Brandon: But she, her name's Katie, she runs that. And I know they do all sorts of research and they do investigations and all sorts of things down in Southern Indiana. So it might be something you could look into. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've just recently moved here,

Todd: so it'd be nice to hook up with somebody who's doing the same thing so we can get a little more familiar with the area.

Brandon: Yeah, that's one of my goals is to help people connect. So, right. But yeah, we talked a little bit before we got started, but I heard, I believe it was your wife that we originally got in contact with. She'd mentioned that you're on a television show. I don't know much about that show. I think I've seen it on here or there every once in a while, but I've never really sat down and watched it too much. I don't know how often you were on.

Todd: I was on one episode of Expedition Bigfoot. I was on season three, episode seven, Return to Lake Fear, I believe was the name of the episode. And they were interviewing me because of my background in archeology and interested in identification of bite marks on bones, if they could tell what type of animals are making bite marks, if they might find something that a Bigfoot or a Sasquatch or however you wanna call it would make. And they were asking me about my thoughts on basically like, do they bury their dead? What type of intelligence they have and things like that. And one of the reasons I was on the show is I've had multiple Bigfoot experiences. One was a face-to-face sighting when I was in high school. And then I had some experiences when I was out in the Northwest doing work for the tribes. Love to dive into the stories of those. Okay. Your first encounter was that here in Indiana? It was, it was in Southern Indiana. I was 17 years old at the time. And it's down, I don't know if you're familiar with Southern Indiana, but I was living in a little town called Boonville, which is just outside of Evansville. And Evansville is right there on the Ohio River. And there's another little small town called Yankee Town just South of where I grew up. And we were out, I don't, I guess I could tell the name of the road. It was a road called Red Brush Road and kind of remote area. And there's just a gravel road that runs through there and there are stripper pits all around. I guess being from Indiana, you know what stripper pits are, right?

Brandon: They're like the- From the coal mining. Yeah.

Todd: They dig these big holes to mine the coal. And then when they're done, when they do the reclamation, they just fill them in with water basically. And some of these things can be even a couple hundred feet deep. So there was a stripper pit right beside this gravel road. And I was, let's just say, I was out with a female friend of mine on the gravel road and we were parked next to a stripper pit. We were getting ready to leave. And I was in my 65 Mustang, turned my headlights on. In middle of the gravel road, about 40 feet in front of us, there was a Bigfoot. When I turned my headlights on, it turned and looked at us. And one of the things I remember the most were the eyes were glowing red. And when my headlights hit it, and this thing was huge. It was at least eight feet tall. It was huge. Dark hair, very shaggy. Couldn't really make out facial features. I mean, you saw the red glowing eyes, but I wasn't close enough, you know? And it was dark with the headlights on to make out facial features. One thing I do remember, there was really no neck. It just went from head to shoulders. I mean, it was just this huge bulky thing. Well, of course me, I jump out of the car, take off, run and toward it. All I had was a machete. So I grabbed my machete and run toward this thing. And it ran on across the road. And there was a lot of vegetation where the gravel road slid down into the stripper pit. There was a lot of blackberry. And I heard all the noise. I heard it sliding through the blackberry. I heard it hit the water. And when I ran up there, I could see huge ripples in the water where something really, really big hit the water, but it was gone. I didn't see anything swimming. I didn't see anything. I didn't see any other movement, but there were just these big, huge ripples of water. And that's, it was just gone. It just disappeared. And it was really, let's just say it changes your life and your perspective on things. When you see something like that. I can relate to that. It was quite, and even to this day, thinking about it, I still kind of get chills when I think about it, just the size of this thing. And the person I was with to this day, she refused. She said, I won't ever speak about this again. I won't talk about it. She was screaming when our headlights hit that thing. It really freaked her out. I mean, it freaked me out too, but of course, I've always been curious and interested in these types of things. So of course I went running after it, but by that time it hit the water and said it was just gone. There were huge ripples. I could see where it slid down the bank, I think all the vegetation was disturbed, but in ripples and what, it was just gone. I don't know if it could swim. Obviously I would think they could, but if it could, it sure wasn't making any noise. I don't know if it went underwater and held its breath and was, I don't know where it went, but it was just, it was gone. It was very, quite an experience, to say the least.

Brandon: Yeah, I bet that. You said the eyes were glowing red. Yeah, yeah. I've heard a lot about this eye shine and everything, but are there any other primates known that have the ability to have a dog's eyes or a deer eyes where they reflect? I didn't think primates had that. Generally, no.

Todd: So that's a little hard to explain too, but definitely when my headlights hit it, those eyes were shining red. It was like the, you get the red eye when you take a photo, like that, like a person's eyes, and that's exactly what it, and they were just, they were shining red.

Brandon: Yeah, I've heard their red eyes, and then I've heard some like the reflective yellow sometimes, but a lot of the reports that I've heard about or read about have always been red. So it's kind of, it's creepy.

Todd: Yeah, and another thing, you know, people a lot of times say they smell them, you know, of times say they smell them, you know, I didn't smell anything. So I wonder, this is just a theory of mine. I wonder if the smell is almost like a defense mechanism, like a skunk puts off can spray because a lot of people have sightings and they don't smell it. And a lot of people smell, but they don't see anything. So that that's just kind of a theory of mine. I think the whole smell thing might be a defense mechanism for them to let you know, Hey, we're here. And we really don't want you around. We're going to let you know, we're here. Just kind of stay away. Like I said, just a theory of mine. So this thing though, and then, well, then said that this thing too, I don't know, I don't know how long it had been there. I don't know if it was over in the woods watching us. And I just happened to turn my headlights on when it was walking across the road or if I just happened to catch it when it was walking across the road. So that's, that was always been kind of a weird feeling. It's like, was this thing over there spying on us and watching us the whole time we were there, you know, that's kind of,

Brandon: kind of creepy to think about. Yeah. I just had an interview with someone else and they were floating down a river and it was right next to his wife to where basically it could grab her if it wanted to. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. So that episode will be coming out. Well, it'll be out before this one airs, but I've been trying to get back in to do more of the cryptid with the whole Sasquatch dog, man, and some lately I've been dabbling into, I don't, I don't know what to actually call them. They're little humanoid creatures. Some call them Pukwudgies. Some call them like goblins, the Kentucky goblins. I've

Todd: been looking into stuff like that. I've heard the Pukwudgie term. Generally where I've heard that is East coast. A lot of native American groups on the East coast talk about Pukwudgies, especially like Massachusetts around that area. Yeah. So there's a lot of stories popping up

Brandon: here lately with people having run-ins with little humanoid type creatures too. So there's definitely a lot of weird things going on. Absolutely. Yeah. And my, you want me to

Todd: talk about my sighting out in the Northwest, if you'd like. Yeah, that's fine. We were working up in Northern Washington, fairly close to the Canadian border. There was a lake called Lake Roosevelt, and it was on the Colville Native American reservation. And we were doing some archeology up there. The tribes were trading, doing a land trade with the forest service. So they were getting back some of their traditional huckleberry picking areas. And so when making that trade, there was only one road, this old gravel road that went up there to that area. And it was about easily 45 minute drive off the regular road up these gravel forest service roads. Pretty steep area. You had one area on one side that went straight down. You didn't have areas on the other side that are straight up and just covered with trees. And we were up there putting in what, or they were going to put in what they call tank traps, you know, like from World War II. So these big holes in the road. So if something would go in, they couldn't get back out because they didn't want people driving up there anymore. The tribe just wanted it as a walking area. Well, I was up there with another coworker of mine. We were doing some work. We were doing some shovel testing and shooting and some things with our GPS unit just to make sure we weren't going to disturb any archaeological sites in the area. And then all of a sudden we heard two or three of these big tree knocks like pow, pow, pow. The trees up in front of us up on the slope. And it was so thick up there, I couldn't see into the trees. And we heard that and I turned to my coworker laughing and said, oh, maybe that's Bigfoot. And she said, that's not funny. It started getting a little upset. Well, we continued to do our work. Then all of a sudden the tree started shaking up in that area. There were knocks, then it was shaking. We never heard any sounds or smell or anything. But the thing is it was shaking in one area. It moved to an area, another area, then another. It was like they were all around us. I don't know if it was one that was shaking the trees and moving them spot to spot, but the trees were just violently shaking. And that went on for close to an hour. It took us about an hour for us to finally finish our work. And we never had any rocks thrown at us or anything. We never heard any whoops or any sounds, but there was a tree knock and continuous shaking of these trees. And by the time we finished, we got down to the tribal office and we were talking to one of the tribal elders because my coworker was very upset. She was crying by the time we got out of there. And believe me, it was pretty unnerving for me too because we weren't allowed to carry weapons with us on forest service property. So we couldn't have a gun or anything like that. So when we were talking to the tribal elder and we told him what happened, he goes, oh, he said, oh yeah, just matter of fact, he goes, yeah, we know they're there. They're part of us or part of our culture. And he said, they're happy that we're getting our traditional huckleberry picking areas back up there. And he said, what we do is when the huckleberries are ripe, we let them have the first two weeks during the season so they can pick what they want. And after the next couple of weeks, when those two weeks are done, then we go up and do our picking. So it was just a matter of fact, he says, they weren't going to hurt you. He said, they were just letting you know that they knew you were there and they weren't happy about it. And they were just trying to figure out what you were doing. They were just kind of more giving you a warning type thing. But he said, they won't hurt you. We see them all the time. So it was just like, matter of fact, it was just like, yeah, yeah, that's just part of our culture. And we know they're up there and we just coexist with them and we let them do their thing and we do our thing and kind of leave each other alone.

Brandon: I've always thought it was fascinating that a lot of Native American lore, like their stories and everything else, all have some sort of a hairy man, tall, hairy man story, like forest giant or something. It's weird to me that people can write it off as they're just stories, but yet if they're all the way on one side of the country, then you got some on the other side of the country that never seen each other. It's strange that they all have very similar stories.

Todd: You're right. Every single tribe pretty much has, and they have their own term for Sasquatch or Bigfoot Sasquatch, I think is actually a Northwestern Canadian term. But you're right. They all have their own version and some of them are friendly and helpful and some tribes consider them to be a nuisance and a danger. Some groups claim that they would steal women and children and that they would actually harm people. And other groups are just like, well, they're just part of the natural order and they're not going to hurt anybody and we're not going to hurt them.

Brandon: It's kind of like people, I guess, if you go to anywhere else in the world, like some of these tribes got along, some didn't, so I could see if Sasquatch is an actual creature that can be able to be reasoned with or thought with or something like that. I could see some of them being peaceful and some other ones not so much because even humans aren't always peaceful.

Todd: Exactly. I mean, that makes perfect sense to me, too. I agree with you. And you know, when you think about it, I think Hawaii is the only state in the United States that has not had a Bigfoot sighting, which that makes sense because they're an island. But people have seen them in every state and you wouldn't think a state like Indiana, you know, it's not as forested as many places out north, but like we have Hoosier National Forest down here in Indiana. And that's, I don't know how many thousands of acres that is, and there are a ton of sightings in Hoosier National Forest. And also you have Marengo Caves, which are in that same area around Hoosier National Forest. And you have a lot of sightings in those areas as well.

Brandon: I haven't really done a whole lot of research for like southern parts, but I've looked around up in this area and I haven't really seen too many reports far as up in my area. We only have like a couple dams and some parks here and there, but it's nothing like the southern part of the state.

Todd: We're pretty much in the cornfield. Yeah, exactly. So down here it's a little different, but also around Nashville, Indiana, Brown County, there's a lot of sightings around that area as well.

Brandon: We've been to Brown County a few times. I do enjoy it. But I've always kind of gotten down in those areas and I was like, this would be a great place to kind of look around, search around. But when I went out to Oregon, it's been almost 10 years ago now, but I was only out there for a few days. And I was like, one of my goals was I wanted to go out there and kind of go on a little hike or something, but I never got to. But the air out there was completely different for some reason. I just felt like it was crisp and clear and I could breathe better.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. And also recently, I can only talk a little bit about this. This is some area we're going to do a little research in. I have a friend, his son is a police officer down here. And so I don't want to say exactly where, you know, down here in southern Indiana. And do you know where Ferdinand, Indiana is? It's along I-64 likely you're on your way to Louisville, Kentucky, around Santa Claus, Indiana, that area in there. I'm familiar with Santa Claus, but I don't know Ferdinand. It's a pretty small town, but there have been some sightings recently that we're going to investigate and we're going to be interviewing the people. I can tell a little bit about the sighting. So there was a truck driver who runs a route from Ferdinand, Indiana to Cincinnati. Basically, that's his normal route and he leaves at like midnight. And it's like, so he's gone to like seven in the morning. It's like an overnight route. Well, apparently he was driving along I-64 up around the Ferdinand area. Well, apparently he was driving along I-64 up around the Ferdinand area. And it was the middle of the night and there was hardly anybody out on the road. And he said he was driving along and he saw what he thought was a big black plastic bag on the side of the road. And he thought, you know, like somebody may be throwing a bag of trash out. Well, as he got closer, that plastic bag stood up and he said he'd never seen anything like this before. He's been running this route for years and it ran across the freeway down into the medium and off into the, into the trees. Well, his buddy who also runs the same route runs about an hour or two behind him and as his buddy was coming along behind him, he saw the same thing. Only on the one side of the road there, there's a high cliff wall. When you get up to the one side that goes out and like limestone cliff type thing, and he said this thing ran across the road and scaled up that limestone cliff wall, just like it was nothing. So, and, and so this guy was kind of freaked out and ended up actually contacting a police officer and filing a police report on this. He was so shaken up about it. So, and this was just a few months back. So there had been, he said he didn't, he couldn't say it was Big Foot, he didn't know exactly, but he said when this thing stood up, it was only about five feet tall. So he wasn't sure if it was a juvenile. He said it almost looked like an ape to him. So that's very interesting that, and these are very recent sightings. So there's still a lot of activity taking place down in this area.

Brandon: I interviewed someone from around, I believe it was Louisville or Evansville area last year and they go out Bigfoot hunting. He says that they're out in the woods near where he lives. He's gotten audio recordings and stuff like that. And one of the things that he had mentioned, which to me kind of went back to these Kentucky goblin things, but he said he'd saw him and his family had saw something that looked like Gollum from the Lord of the Ring movies. I was like, that sounds, I said, that sounds like the typical Kentucky goblin type, about four foot tall humanoid, but where they're at in the location where he's at, it's kind of in the very Southern part of Indiana, Kentucky border. So it's kind of down in where you're saying it is to around 70 plus Ferdinand area. Wow. There seems to be a lot of activity down there then. Yeah, they go, they go squatching to what he says all the time. So I know there's some people down there out doing it and there's activity going on because he had, he'd sent me some audio clippings and stuff and again, I'm no expert, so I can't tell. I hear things, but I don't know what it is. Yeah. I've always been interested to know, like it's always been something I'd love to know and I don't know why we haven't been able to figure out what it is yet, but there's clearly something out there. Yeah.

Todd: And I'm looking forward to getting out and doing some squatching. They call it. I mean, I haven't had a chance yet since I've been back, but, you know, ever since I had that close-up sighting, I mean, I know they're real and I mean, I don't know exactly what they are either as an anthropologist, I tend to believe that they're, you know, they think that they might be giganopithecus or a relation to that, an early hominid like that, because that's about the size these things were. But, you know, I don't know because obviously with all the different sightings across the country, there has to be a large enough population as a viable breeding population. So, and where are these things living? Nobody's actually found any type of a living structure. I mean, you know, you see some of these tree structures, you know, that people see and think maybe it's something built by a big foot, but we really don't know, nobody's ever really found a living area that they're in, but so, but how are they, where are they living that they're able to keep out of our view or out of our site where nobody's found them, you know? I mean, I think that's just absolutely fascinating to think about.

Brandon: There's never been any bodies uncovered either. And if there has been, no one's really reported it. Exactly.

Todd: And my thought on that is I, I, I obviously, I think they're intelligent. I mean, have you heard the Sierra sounds, those recordings? Yes. And you can tell there's some type of a rudimentary language there. It's a very basic language, but there is a language there. So if they're intelligent enough to have a language, they're obviously intelligent enough to use tools of some sort. You know, I would think, I mean, even chimps use tools to get insects and things like that. So I think they're smart enough to use tools and they don't want to be found and they're that intelligence. I think they're burying their dead. That's my theory. They don't want anybody to find their dead. And I think that's why you're not finding a lot of bones, but then again, you know, it's very rare to find bare bones or anything like that out in the woods too. And I've worked outside in the woods my whole life being an archeologist and I've only seen bare bones once. So I'm not saying bears bury their dead, but I'm just saying it's, it's hard to, you know, you don't even find bones like that. But I think that Bigfoot are intelligent enough that I personally think they bury their dead.

Brandon: That's what I was just getting ready to say was something similar to the bare thing is like, how often does anyone really go out in the woods though, and do you ever really find a bare skull? Or do you find like a mountain lion, any bones from the, you really don't. You're right.

Todd: It's very, it's incredibly rare to find the bones of a large predator like that. You're absolutely right.

Brandon: You might find some deer bones here or there. You might find smaller animal here or there, but even that isn't always a given, like you might find a random bone here. That's about it. You're not going to find a skeleton or something. Right. Right. Exactly.

Todd: So, but I do think they bury their dead. That's, that's my theory, in my opinion.

Brandon: My other thought process was if they are, and you touch base on this, if they are a living, breathing primate species, they have to have enough to keep the population going. So where are they at all the time? Because if they're across the whole country, there has to be enough of them to keep going. Otherwise it'd go extinct at this point, unless they're on the verge of it, but still. Exactly. Yeah. It's just fascinating to me that there's that many out there. How come there people see them, people have encounters, but you've never seen anything conclusive. Like no one's ever really hit one with a semi. No one's right. Right. Yeah. You don't see a dead one on the side of the road anywhere. And I've heard stories of people actually shooting at them or someone claims that they have hit one before and like DNR or state troopers take the body and never hear about it again. I was like, well, I don't know if those are true stories or not, but I don't see what the big secret would be too, if they're all trying to hide it. Exactly.

Todd: Well, and like up in the Northwest, you know, in 1980, when mountain hates it, Mount St. Helens erupted, there are stories, I don't know if they're true from people that worked in the national guard in the military that claimed that they found bodies out there because they Canyon was a very famous area up there with that, that attack where they attacked the miners ran back in the, I think it was like the thirties, I believe. Yeah. So Canyon is no lie. I mean, it was pretty much destroyed, devastated by Mount St. Helens, but there were stories that the military was taking bodies out. And nobody was supposed to talk about it. And there's one story that there was a Sasquatch. It was alive. It was badly burned, but it was alive and the military was taken care of it. So, you know, who knows what the truth really is.

Brandon: I had heard part of that was they had one with them and it was helping them find the injured ones and helping them find the dead ones and stuff too. Like it was, they were actually like helping it. Yeah. And that's, that's just fascinating to think about. I've wondered if they're not like, if you believe in the whole evolution theory and everything else like that, like obviously we evolved. Why couldn't they be another offshoot of what we came from that just hasn't evolved as mandated, like we took a turn and came to more modernized man and they didn't take that turn that we did and they stayed more primatish. Yeah, that would make sense too.

Todd: And that kind of goes along the lines that they could be like a gigantopithecus or a cousin to, to that, you know, those type of animals. Yeah. I think that's very, very plausible.

Brandon: That's where I've kind of lean into a lot of people. I've listened to other podcasts and I've watched other interviews and they think they're interdimensional beings or. I've heard that one too. Yeah. Other something they're not even from the planet, like their space or something. I don't know about any of that stuff, but a lot of people say they've seen lights or they just vanish and there's orbs.

Todd: It is some people have claimed that they've seen them associated with UFO sightings and well, like that one I saw when it hit the water, it was gone. I mean, I'm not saying it was went into another dimension or just that maybe it was underwater and held its breath and was swimming underwater. I don't know, but something that big and hit that water and I could see the ripples were hit the water, but it was just gone. But, but I tend to believe they're a flesh and blood creature. I don't think they're interdimensional. on, I personally don't think they're connected with UFOs or that type of thing. That's, that's just my personal opinion.

Brandon: I know that show, Survivor Man, Les Stroud, he did a Bigfoot show and I've heard an interview where he claims that during one of his investigations searching for it, he could hear it mind speaking to him. I was like, okay, that kind of gets weird when you, I respect that guy. I've always liked what he does. I've watched Survivor Man a lot and everything else he's been involved in. And then when he was talking about that, I was like, I'm not going to discredit the guy like, but that just sounds, it's a little bit out there, but I don't know. I agree.

Todd: He just, who's to say, you're right. You're absolutely right. And they're also in this area, Shelby County, Kentucky, around the Louisville area. There's been a plethora of sightings in that area recently as well.

Brandon: I feel like there's a lot more people coming forward because I, it's like the stigma has slowly started to fade away from it. I see people with, I have a 10 foot tall metal silhouette cut out of a Sasquatch out in my backyard. It used to be out in my front yard, but the welds broke off. I had to bolt it to my pole barn. But I've seen people with those out in their yards now, and I've seen a lot of bumper stickers with a Sasquatch silhouette on it or something. Like it's almost as if it's become, I wouldn't say accepted, but it's, it doesn't seem to have that laugh at you mentality anymore. Like most people would write it off. But now I think there's a little bit more openness to it. I think you're right.

Todd: People are definitely starting to talk about sightings more. I think in, I think having the TV shows, you know, finding big foot, expedition, big foot, I think that's helped a little bit too. I think people being more willing to talk about sightings.

Brandon: I think that and all of the paranormal shows anymore, like you've got all the ghost hunting shows. True. Yeah. And it's just within the last 20 years, it seems like the paranormal topic in general is a lot more acceptable. I agree.

Todd: And also like when it comes to UFOs too, that's included in there. It's like all these, like recently these congressional hearings on, on UFOs or what they call UAPs now instead of UFO. But I think you're right. It's a lot, there's a lot more of it out there. And I think people are a lot more willing to come forward with their experiences because they don't think they're going to be laughed at or made fun of or told they're crazy more so now than it was even 10 years ago.

Brandon: The latest that I've seen from that congressional hearing, one of the witnesses said that they've recovered graft from not of this world with bodies from not of this world. And mainstream news just doesn't even like bat an eye about it. They just keep going about the business. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. I was like, did they just say that there was aliens and confirmed aliens, but yet no one really, no one cares at this point. Yeah. Yeah.

Todd: That was a, that was pretty eyeopening to watch that. I must say, I have to say.

Brandon: I thought that was interesting, but again, I don't think we'll never get a hundred percent disclosure on that aspect for that. I almost feel the same way about cryptids and Sasquatch too, for some reason. There's, I don't see all the details. Just, yep, here you go. And just release it to everybody. Right.

Todd: I mean, to be able to prove something like the Sasquatch, you're going to have to come up with remains. I mean, that's really, or capturing one alive or coming up with the remains that they could prove belong to that type of creature. And if they were found, say by the government and the military, it's like, they're not going to turn that over. They're not going to tell the truth about it. And then you think, well, why are they trying to hide that? What do they have to hide when it comes to that? I just don't quite understand that.

Brandon: It would have to be a widespread like agreement, not just within the United States, but even Canada and even across the continent, because, or the whole world, because they're sightings in China. They're sightings in Australia. They're sighting like all over the planet, but no actual governments has ever come out and to my knowledge said they're real. So why would there be such a big conspiracy to hide the existence of a creature? I don't like, we know there's other primates. We know there's gorillas and chimpanzees and orangutan. Like, what is so special about these things that everyone's in agreement that they can't talk about it.

Todd: Yeah, I don't quite understand that either. I don't know what the big thing would be to try to hide. I mean, what is it about them that needs to be kept secret? I mean, they would just be another species, you know?

Brandon: My only thought process was that they were very close to man. And maybe that would be too close for some people because if they think that they're intelligent enough, like a person where they have their own dialogue, where they do their own things, then I could see it being like a very protective species. And that might stop some, the global industry of burning forest and logging and stuff like that.

Todd: But that's a very good point. Yes, that's a very good point. Well, I know there's one County up in Washington, Scamania County, where there's a law on the books that it is a federal defense to shoot or kill a Sasquatch. So, yeah, they're actually, that's city law. So I find that, or county laws, I find that very interesting.

Brandon: I feel like up in those areas, if you've lived up there, you can attest to it. I feel like the vastness, like the mountains and the trees and everything else, it seems like a great place for something to live out there and be undetected, but I feel like local authorities, DNR or whatever it would be have to know something's out there. You would think so. Yeah.

Todd: And if they do, then why are they afraid to let everybody know? Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon: That's the one thing I can't ever wrap my head around is what's the big secret about. I understand like the UFO aspect and, or alien aspect. If that's, they're keeping that hush hush because that's big technology that they can use to, for their own benefit, but a walking primate, I don't see what the big secretness would need to be.

Todd: Well, I think you might be onto something with the whole thing about the protected forest. And because think about it, if this, if they're, you know, they have to be fairly rare. So I would think if you could prove they were real, they would be put on the endangered species list or would be protected and what that would do to companies like Warehouser and Georgia Pacific and these places that log, especially up in the Northwest in those areas, they have a ton of land up there to log. And if something like that was listed as endangered and they weren't able to log on that property anymore, they'd lose a lot of money. So you're right. Something, some of that might be involved in this.

Brandon: That's the only thing I can ever think of when it comes to secretness. I always go back and follow the money. Yeah. I mean, it makes sense.

Todd: It makes sense when you think about it. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon: If there's a reason they're trying to keep things secret, go back and look for money and then you'll probably come up with your answer. Yep. Yeah. I think you're probably right. That's just my tin foil hat logic, I guess. Yeah.

Todd: No, I think you're onto something there. I don't disagree with you on that.

Brandon: But yeah, basically I feel like there has to be at some point, there's going to be something like someone's going to catch one video. If someone actually like, obviously your encounter was long time before this was possible, but I'm waiting on the day that someone has their phone in hand and just start live streaming instantly to Facebook. Cause you can't really say it's hoaxed if you see it live as it's happening. That would be the only thing that I think would get people's attention because if you've just posted up a video on YouTube, everyone's going to like, Oh, that's fake. Oh, they edit it. There's always skeptics or critics or something.

Todd: There are a lot of fakes out there and that's the bad thing too. But I think you're right. If somebody could actually live stream something, then yeah, then you really got something there. Bad or a body.

Brandon: And then that's a, that's a touchy subject. And some people think they should shoot them. I was like, well, if they're an endangered species and there's only a couple of them around here and you killed one of them. Right.

Todd: And if they're that intelligent, I mean, that what gives somebody the right just to go out and shoot one of these, you know? I mean, it just wouldn't be a good thing to do. So, and I wouldn't want to make one mad. I tell you that because based on the size that I've seen, um, they got ahold of you, they can break you in half pretty quick and there's not much you could do about it.

Brandon: I feel like a lot of people, when they report these, they get told they're mistaken, they're bears or something else and it's, I don't know about anybody. I'm not a bear expert, but I don't feel like I would mistake what a bear looks like compared to what a Sasquatch Bigfoot would look like. I don't see that being an issue. You know, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Like you can, you put up a picture of a bear. you put up a picture of a bear, one knows it's a bear. Right, right. And if you say, well, that's not what I saw. I saw something that looked like this and it looks like a really tall human monkey looking man. That doesn't look anything like a bear.

Todd: Exactly, and what I saw, it was real obvious it was not a bear. I mean, it was, there was no doubt. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon: I don't understand how people just, the discrediting of people that way. They make themselves to try and make someone else sound stupid by making themselves sound stupid, so.

Todd: Yeah, and you have a lot of these people, especially these hunters that are out hunting their whole life and they're familiar with everything they see out there in the woods. They know the difference between a bear and a primate, bipedal primate walking on two feet that's nine feet tall, I'm sorry. You're not gonna mistake that for a bear.

Brandon: The hunters are also almost a double-edged sword because the ones that have never seen anything will be the ones that say, I've been out there for 40 years of my life, I've never encountered one. Okay, well, how often have you ever encountered a bear or a puma or something?

Todd: Right, right, exactly. Yeah, I've only seen a bear one time out in the wild is when I was working down in Southern Oregon. Only one time in all the years I've been doing field work. So that, yeah, I've only seen one bear.

Brandon: Yeah, just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it's not there, but I'm also of the mindset to seeing is believing just because someone says they've seen it doesn't necessarily mean it's true to them. That's very true, you're right, yeah, yeah. So it's one of those things, I guess, until like I said earlier, there's either a body or a live stream or something definable proof. I don't see it coming to light anytime soon unless something like that happens. Yeah, I think you're correct on that, yeah. Well, do you have any other experiences that you've encountered doing research and stuff?

Todd: Well, we had one, another experience, my wife had this experience actually before we left Oregon, we lived in a little town called Canby and she was sitting out back on our deck and she heard these, were you inside when that happened? Okay, she was in the house and she heard these three loud whoops, whoop, whoop. I can't even do it like she could do it and it literally rattled the windows of our house. It was so loud and we had like a nature reserve behind us so there's no houses or buildings or structures back there and there have been sightings in that area where we lived before but she heard those three loud whoops and she was afraid to go outside by herself for about a week after that. So these, they're definitely for real.

Brandon: I don't know of any animals that would make that type of sound other than like a primate. I can't think of anything in North America that makes whooping sounds.

Todd: And for them to be that loud that they rattled the windows in our house, it just reverberated in the house. It was a little frightening. Yeah, she says it was not a peacock for sure. So, yeah, and plus it was like at 8.30, nine o'clock at night, so.

Brandon: I think it's tigers. I think I've talked about this before. I think tigers have a way of, when they make a sound like the roar or whatever, they have a way of like freezing their prey and I think it's like the vibrations from the roar. I forget what it's called. But it sounds similar to like what people report was like Sasquatch, like when they've come face to face with one and like it's screamed or roared or whatever and like they said they could always feel it through their body and like you just said, you could feel it vibrating like the reverberations through the house.

Todd: Yeah, yeah, it was quite intense. Yeah. So maybe it's the same type of thing like you said, like a tiger's use. Maybe that's their form of that type of, yeah, yeah.

Brandon: I think it's just like the power behind it, the big deep rumbles from inside. I think that's probably what it is. If they're this big, obviously when they yell, they've got a lot of power behind it.

Todd: Exactly, I got some pretty strong vocal cords, obviously.

Brandon: Now, do you think, we've kind of touched, so you just believe that they are just more or less an offshoot of a primate?

Todd: I do, not to say that they might be a distant, depending on what you believe evolution-wise, but they could be a form of a distant relative, a distant hominid who just didn't, who branched off in a different direction and they've stayed that way, you know, this whole time and they haven't evolved into something any more advanced. But my feeling is that they are some type of relation, some type of primate. As an anthropologist, that's my opinion on them.

Brandon: We obviously know that Gigantopithecus was real. They found fossilized teeth, I think.

Todd: I don't know if they found it. Part of the jaw and teeth, that's it, yeah.

Brandon: But because of that, they decided that there was a big upright primate that was eight to 10 feet tall that existed like 100,000 years ago in China. Well, who's to say that that's not more generations on as now what we see? Like if they can confirm that something like that existed, why can't it be confirmed that these things exist if they already could have possibly already been confirmed?

Todd: Right, right. And you know, the Sasquatch you see over here and the ones you see in China and Australia and Malaysia, you know, the Ring Pendic and these, they're all a little different. So I think it's just based on, and even like in Florida, the Swamp Ape, you know, sort of Skunk Ape, I'm sorry, is they're a little different, not maybe quite as big as the Sasquatch or reported like the Northwest in those areas. And I think they're all the same species. They're all related, but I think the difference in the way they look and the size is based on environmental factors. So, but I think they're all the same species, but they've just adapted differently to the different environments. And that's why you have maybe different colored fur, a little bit different size or this type of thing, so.

Brandon: You can see that with other animals and other species, but you can see that even within humans, like we all don't, depending on where you live and where they originated from, like people look different. Exactly. So I could see why an animal would evolve differently just because of geographic location.

Todd: And if they did come over, say, across the Bering land bridge there, and then once this continent was cut off, then they're gonna evolve a little differently over here than they do in other parts of the world. So, yes.

Brandon: Well, if you don't have any other things you wanna touch base about, we could probably get ready to wrap this one up. Okay, all right, sounds good. I appreciate you coming out into here and talk with me tonight, Todd. It's been very interesting. It's been interesting.

Todd: It's been a pleasure for me as well. I'd be happy to talk to you again about this or anything else or paranormal or anything you'd like to chat about. I'd love to be on the show again sometime, if you'd have me.

Brandon: Yeah, I'd love to. I love to talk with others, especially ones that have actually experienced things because I know maybe it's just my own personal thing, but like it helps validate things that other people have seen. So like I've seen stuff and I've always questioned it myself. So it's like hearing stories from somebody else, it's like, okay, well, maybe I'm not crazy. You're not, believe me. You are not. Because if you are, so am I, and I'm not crazy. I just think there's too many similarities between people's encounters with Sasquatch, with other cryptids, with other things going on out there to just completely write them off. Now, obviously some of them clearly aren't real, but it's too hard to write off hundreds of years of Native American stories all across our country, not to mention other countries. And it's just, I don't know. I guess it's not related to Sasquatch, but it is strange to me that we used to build pyramids all over the planet. Like Egypt had pyramids, Southern America had pyramids. I think there was some in other countries. I don't, I'm not- Yes. What made them all build pyramids around the same time period when they were all thousands of miles apart? How did they all have stories that are similar about upright walking hairy men thousands of miles apart? Exactly.

Todd: I mean, you'd find it in all the continents. So, right, yeah. Had to have been something that made them have these stories, so. I agree 100%. Okay, Todd.

Brandon: Well, again, I appreciate you coming on here. It's been a pleasure and we'll definitely do this again here soon.

Todd: Okay, thank you very much, Brandon. I enjoyed it. Yeah, thank you. Have a good night. You too.