Salt Fork Creature Weekend 2018
A Weekend at Salt Fork
I attended Creature Weekend at Salt Fork State Park in Ohio in October of 2018. Salt Fork is Ohio’s largest state park covering 17,229 acres. It is said to have derived its name from a salt well used by the Native Americans. The park hosts an annual Bigfoot conference along with Creature Weekend each year. There have been multiple Bigfoot sightings in the park along with other paranormal activity including floating orbs.
One of the special guests this year was Bob Gimlin, one of the two men that recorded the Patterson-Gimlin film on October 20, 1967. This was the first time that I met Bob personally and was the highlight of my trip. Bob was very gracious to shake hands and take pictures with anyone who asked. I had the opportunity to sit and talk with him in the lounge area of the lodge. He is an old cowboy who freely shared the he has wisdom gained throughout his 87 years on this earth. Bob is a legend in the Bigfoot research community and truly one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. If you have any interest in Bigfoot, I would highly recommend that you travel to one of the many conferences held around the country that Mr. Gimlin frequently attends.
Other speakers at Salt Fork included Stanton T. Friedman, Bruce Champagne, and Amy Bue. Mr. Friedman was a Nuclear Physicist and has published over one hundred articles and books on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and performed extensive research on the Roswell Incident—a suspected UFO crash site near Roswell, New Mexico in mid-1947. The military initially stated that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon and later a nuclear test surveillance balloon.
Bruce Champagne is a cryptozoology researcher and author of many articles in the Journal of Cryptozoology, International Cryptozoology Journal, and Woodknocks: Journal of Sasquatch Research. Amy Bue is a teacher by trade but also a researcher for Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO). Amy, along with a private group of zoologists, formed Project Zoobook, a group of Bigfoot field researchers and mainstream scientists interested in the possibility of Bigfoot being an unknown North American primate. Each of the speakers shared their expertise in a particular area of paranormal studies.
It was a wet and rainy weekend at Salt Fork which forced the cancellation of a night-hike planned as part of the events. Although the formal hike was cancelled for safety reasons, Bigfoot Researcher George Dudding and I, along with two other paranormal enthusiasts decided to venture out on our own night excursion. We hiked in the pouring rain to Hosak’s Cave, a 60-foot-high sandstone cliff where the bottom has eroded away. There have been several Bigfoot sightings around the cave as well as wood knocks, vocalizations, and rock throwing. The cave is reported to be haunted as orbs have been spotted floating through the trees at night. Several deaths have occurred in the last few years as tourists have fallen from the top of the cave which has forced park officials to barricade some of the trails around the area. Our group did not encounter Bigfoot or any other paranormal activity on our night investigation that was cut short due to the pouring rain. We did however see an abundant number of whitetail deer that could serve as a good food source for Sasquatch.
One story relayed to me during the weekend happened just four years ago. There was a bass fishing tournament at Salt Fork Lake that brought in anglers from all over the country. One pair of fishermen stayed in the lodge where they talked freely with the employees. They had heard of the Bigfoot sightings and stories associated with the park and found the topic very humorous. They cracked jokes about Salt Fork being a hotspot for Bigfoot activity. While out fishing one day during the tournament, these two fishermen saw a creature down next to the lake that was not recognizable as anything they had ever seen before. Upon returning to the lodge that evening, they reported to the lodge employees that they thought they had just seen one of the Bigfoot creatures they had recently been joking about, only this time it was no laughing matter. They reported the exact location where they had seen the creature.
After receiving the report, Salt Fork Park Rangers planned to investigate the area the next morning. Three rangers formed a party and met at the sighting location just before dawn. Upon arriving at the beginning of the trail leading into the investigation area, one ranger saw two figures under the skylight at the top of the point. They appeared to be in conversation although he was still too far away to hear what was being said. He suspected that it was two fellow rangers who had arrived a little earlier than expected. He announced his presence to them by waving his arms at them just as it was beginning to get light in the woods. The figures turned to look at him and then proceeded to walk over the ridgetop and out of sight. At this point, the ranger was alarmed that this was not his co-workers, but he was too far away to identify the figures. He thought that perhaps it was two illegal hunters or anglers who were up to no good. He scrambled to catch up to them at the top of the ridge. When he looked down over the other side, he saw two Bigfoot just before they disappeared into the brush on that side of the mountain. Now this particular ranger was a skeptic and was never known for telling any tall tales as it was just not in his nature. This event changed him from being a skeptic to being a believer in the existence of Bigfoot.
Creature Weekend 2018 was a great experience for me personally, and I plan on attending as many future conferences as time permits. Whether you would like to attend this conference or just do some field research on your own, Salt Fork State Park in Ohio is a great spot to go squatching.
