Bigfoot believers gather for sasquatch conference in Missouri

Darla Logan vividly remembered the first time she spotted what, she still believes, was Bigfoot. It was 1987.

After finishing her waitressing shift in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, she took the shortcut home. Her car was out of commission and the walk was a simple 15 minutes. While cutting through a clearing, Logan saw what looked like a dead tree.

“I realized there’s a face to this dead tree,” Logan said before she whispered that it was “really ugly.”

The figure, which she said looked akin to a tall orangutan, stood still when Logan made the decision to turn around and walk the long way home, foregoing thoughts of a shortcut. Once there, she snagged one of her sons to return to the spot. Although they couldn’t find any footprints in the packed earth, Logan said she could tell something had been standing in the spot she spotted Bigfoot.

Logan’s retelling isn’t the first story shared about the elusive sasquatch with folklore tales of cryptids ranging from the Ozark Howler to Momo the Monster circulating for generations, but Bigfoot is among the most legendary.

Although the creature was absent, a group of 75 enthusiasts attended the first Ozark Mountain Bigfoot Conference at the Christian County Elks Lodge Saturday in Ozark, Missouri. Event Coordinator Mary Ann Ziebell said she was going to be happy if 50 people showed up, so her hopes were exceeded. She’s already planning for next year’s conference slated October 2023.

‘People either believe or they think we’ve lost our freaking minds’

When she realized there may not have been a sasquatch conference previously in Missouri, Ziebell jumped at the chance to set one up. She contacted members from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, Ozark Mountain Sasquatch, a crypto linguist and others to speak at the all day conference Oct. 8.

“It falls one of two places: people either believe or they think we’ve lost our freaking minds — there’s really no in between,” Ziebell told the News-Leader minutes before the conference began. “Now with some people, it wouldn’t matter if you dragged a body in here, they’re not gonna believe it.”

For the doubters, Ziebell said spending a night in the woods may change their mind.

“First of all, they have to be observant when they’re out there,” Ziebell said. “We are so disconnected from nature.”

After decompressing away from electronics for a few days, Ziebell said you should be able to notice when the noise dies down, as if something is in the woods.

“There’s an apex predator in the area,” Ziebell said before explaining that you should be listening for what’s called wood knocks. “There’s something out there that’s got hands to pick up a stick and hit it against the tree.”

Ziebell said she first encountered sasquatches only recently. She was on an expedition with her husband in 2019 when she saw one illuminated by the full moon.

“It was standing behind a tree, but it did what they call peekaboo, where it sways to one side to the other,” Ziebell said.

After doing a headcount of their group of 10, Ziebell said there was an extra person.

“They’re like, ‘There’s 11 of us sitting here,'” Ziebell recalled before the creature ran off and another one was spotted behind the group. “It was not hiding; it wanted us to pay attention to it. So after discussing it, we decided that maybe there was a baby or a youngling.”

Southwest Missouri is a “hotbed” for sightings, Ziebell said.

“You can go 30 minutes outside of Springfield and find all kinds of things,” Ziebell said.

‘Our goal is to prove that these things are real — 100%’

This isn’t the first time the News-Leader has written about cryptids. Reporter Wes Johnson interviewed a man about reportedly photographing the Ozark Howler in 2017, and journalist Gregory Holman wrote about Animal Planet’s show “Finding Bigfoot” visiting the Ozarks. Springfield resident Ron Boles was featured in that episode and was the first speaker during the Ozark Mountain Bigfoot Conference.

Conference guests brought along casts of footprints allegedly belonging to sasquatches, tools for thermal imaging and other supplies that help in searches. Larry Newman, a retired detective and now bail bondsman, discussed steps for securing evidence, even discussing the proper way to dust for finger prints.

Ozark Mountain Sasquatch Team Leader Shane Carpenter had dozens of castings strewn across two folding tables in the corner of the elks lodge. Many of the footprints may be from juveniles from one area of private land, Carpenter said. Even if Carpenter didn’t have his own sighting story, he would still believe.

“There are thousands and thousands of reports of these things, and if only one of those reports is true, these things are real,” Carpenter said, before retelling his first sighting took place in 1984 when he was 10 years old near West Plains. “Our goal is to prove that these things are real — 100%.”

There are similarities in the stories Carpenter hears from others.

“They don’t want to tell their friends because then they’re the only weird Bigfoot person,” he said. “I want them to tell me their stories because it’s like therapy for them. I know this because I went through this myself.”

After getting pushback from his father after his sighting in the ’80s, Carpenter didn’t open up about his experience until he had another encounter while on a hike with his family in 2013.

“I had to stop and tell my wife and hope my wife was gonna believe me and not think I’m a crazy man,” Carpenter said. His wife believed him and Carpenter remained grateful and “obsessed” with spending the last few years still on the hunt for Bigfoot.

‘We keep an eye out, from a distance’

Logan’s encounter in ’87 wasn’t the last time she got close to a cryptid. Logan, now a nurse and still living near Poplar Bluff, was visiting her sister and spotted footprints she believed belonged to Bigfoot. She had an iPod with her and took a few photos of the melting markings in 2006 and later uploaded them to social media in 2021.

Her search isn’t over.

“We keep an eye out, from a distance,” Logan said, laughing.

Follow Ozark Mountain Bigfoot Conference on Facebook to learn more.

Sara Karnes is an Outdoors Reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Follow along with her adventures on Twitter and Instagram @Sara_Karnes.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Bigfoot believers gather for sasquatch conference in Ozark, Missouri

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