Updated Research at Catharpin, VA site

Just a quick update about our research site...

More camera systems have been installed at the site. One in particular in the area of the experimental rock stack. Since we have had things occur with the rock stack in the past, we installed a camera system dedicated to the rock stack. This will help us determine if we have an issue with nature, creature or foul play. The camera has been well hidden. We will post any results, no matter what they may be, here in the future for all to see. Check back often!

Updated Research at Catharpin, VA Site

Over the past few months, additional experiments have been performed at the Catharpin, VA investigation site.

Experiments being performed are just that, experiments. Any results obtained by these experiments are inconclusive until photographic or video evidence is discovered. With that note, here is what we've been doing.

We have constructed a rock stack on the property. Over the past few months we have left various items on the rock stack. Two times a penny was left on top of the rock stack, another time a carnival ticket was left between the top and second stone.

Everytime we have returned to the site (about every two weeks) the rock stack has been dismantled and the item has been taken. During our last visit (about 3 weeks ago) one the the pennies reappeared under the first rock on the base rock.

In summary, this activity warrants more extensive research. These experiments so far only prove one thing...either "someone" or "something" is dismantling the rock stack and taking the items left. In addition, for a penny to reappear under the stones, "someone" or "something" with hands.

The next step to this investigation will be to install a well hidden, small video/camera system. This will determine what is happening at the site. Stayed tuned to our website as we update the investigation now on a more regular basis.

If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact Billy Willard at bwillard@sasquatchwatch.net

Catharpin, VA Investigation

On November 10, 2008, an eyewitness named Bob came out of his house, turned to get into his van and saw a Sasquatch walk across his neighbors yard toward the woods behind his home. He described the creature as being 8 feet tall and appeared to be around 400 pounds, reddish brown in color with a conical shaped head. No odors or sounds were experienced. The creature acted as if he was not there but was moving like he startled it. Bob's wife has heard something around the outside of the house at previous times.

Since receiving this report, team members of Sasquatch Watch of VA have been conducting field investigations on a regular basis. Below is a post of activities to date.

___________

Date: 12/07/08 2:00 pm
Location: Catharpin
Weather: Clear, Windy and Cold

Investigators: Billy Willard and Charlie Polizzi

On the above time and date, the two listed investigators walked the property at the Catharpin site. We found an area at the edge of the field just into the woods where it appeared that something large had laid down in some grass, matting it down. (possibly a deer)

We also found several old tree twists in that area, which Billy photographed. (Likely created by growing vines)

The complainant Bob had nothing new to report except that some ducks had been killed, presumably by a fox, and he said he saw a shadow pass by his window one evening, however he could not be sure what it was that passed by.

Case will remain active. (Courtesy of Charlie Polizzi)


Date: 12/14/08
Weather: Clear/cold

Investigators: Billy Willard and Charlie Polizzi

On the above date the above two investigators returned to the Catharpin site and spoke with Bob. Bob had nothing new to report except on 12/11/08 at approx 6pm he had just returned home from work and he heard what sounded like a howl with a whoop on the end of it coming from a wooded area to the right of his residence.

The above two investigators walked the property and place an IR Trail Camera up in a wooded area to the right of Bob's residence near a small ravine that leads down to a stream. The camera will be left there for a week, and will be re-located to another area of the property.

Case Active (Courtesy of Charlie Polizzi)

Date: 12/21/08
Weather: Clear/cold

Investigators: Billy Willard and Charlie Polizzi

On the above date the above two investigators returned to the Catharpin site and checked the trail camera we had placed to the right of the residence. We found the camera had taken four (4) photos, the first was a test photo of Billy. The other photos were night photos taken between 12/14 and 12/21.

The memory card was removed from the camera and given to Billy for further study, a new memory card and batteries were placed in the camera and the camera was relocated to a new area behind the residence along the stream.

We walked the property and observed several stick structures which did not appear to be natural. Billy photographed them with his cell phone. We also located an area which appeared to be the site of another chicken kill. The Complainant, Bob had nothing new to report.

Case Active, Investigation continuing... (Courtesy of Charlie Polizzi)
_______________

Updates on this investigation will be added as they become available.

Some pictures of the area and some findings in the area are posted below.

Frederick County, MD Investigation

Frederick County Watershed Sound Encounter

Sound Encounter report courtesy of the Alliance of Independant Bigfoot Researchers (AIBR)

(Investigation conducted by Billy Willard and Tom L)

Witness Name: Mr. Patrick H.

State: Maryland

County: Frederick

Closest City to Area of Encounter: Frederick

Time of Encounter: 1:30 – 2:30 am

Date or Season of Encounter: Approximately July/Aug 1973

Witness Narrative: At approx 1:30 am a friend and I were sleeping in a small pup tent approx 12 ft off of the fire road in a small clearing. I was sleeping on my right side with my head to the door of the tent when something stomped me onto my face [front]. At least that is what it seemed like [I was asleep but woke up quite abruptly]. The rear tent pole was down, the line holding out my side of the tent was broken and the pegs holding my side were uprooted. I asked my friend [after waking him up] if he had kicked the tent. I couldn't think of any other logical explanation, he muttered something and went back to sleep. I did not go back to sleep because what happened to me. About 30 to 45 min later just as I was about to sleep I heard faint crunching sounds from down the side of the mountain. I listened for a while and it became clear that it was footsteps coming up the side of the mountain. The footsteps got louder and closer it became clear to me that it was something on two feet, heavy, coming our way. Maybe a person? When It was maybe 40yds?away and still coming I woke up my friend and said, “Listen!” He heard it and confirmed what I thought that it was a person. Whatever it was came steadily to within maybe 10 yards off the back of the tent and then any further footsteps stopped. I called out [Who's out there]. No answer. Then something like [Is there somebody there?]. Then [If there's somebody there you better say something]. Nothing. Then [You better say something we have a gun and you will be shot]. Then [You will know what this sound is]. I pumped a cartridge into the chamber of the shotgun very loudly. Still nothing but dead silence. We decided it was time to get out of the tent and see what it was. My friend exited first and said something like "something smells like sh*t out here”. I came out of the tent shotgun in my right hand flashlight in my left holding the pump. My friend relit and revived the fire and I looked around with flashlight and shotgun. Just standing in front of the tent turning and scanning. After about 5min the fire starts to go and I have the gun/light pointed down and across the road. At that moment in the almost exact direction of the gun/light something screamed in a way that can hardly be described. It was loud,long,started as a loud deep growl and slid into a much higher pitched long scream. When it stopped the echo could be heard off of several mountainsides. We decided it was time to get in the car. We did. We packed up the tent at daylight and left.Description of Animal(s): He had no visual sighting of the creature. This was a sound encounter only.Food Sources in Area of Encounter: The area is very populated with deer and other wildlife. Plenty of water supply, this area serves as a water supply for the City of Frederick, Maryland.Type of Terrain (be thorough): The terrain is very mountainous. Lots of large rock outcrops. Very deep cut ravines and relief in the area. Entire area is wooded with the closest homes being at least 2 miles away.

Commentary by Billy Willard:

I spoke with Mr. Patrick H. by telephone on February 2, 2008 and discussed his encounter report submitted to the AIBR. We have since communicated largely by email and he seems to be very reliable in his report. Mr. H. emailed me an attachment of the location of the encounter and a trip was planned to investigate the area. Unfortunately, this is a very old encounter, but I feel an investigation of the area was warranted.

On March 1, 2008, Tom L and I visited the location. The fire road is off of Gambrill Park Road in the Frederick Municipal Forest. The witness provided a map to locate the area. We identified two possible areas of the campsite spoken of in the report. Upon entering the area, a “possible” stick formation was identified. The formation appeared unnatural, although is not definitive proof of the creature, but interesting to say the least.

This area is very mountainous; deep cut ravines with a lot of large rock outcrops. These large rock outcrops have a lot of large, deep crevices that allow a place for hiding. I entered one of the crevices and was able to go into it 60 feet in. The area is very plentiful of food and water. The area serves as part of the drinking water supply for the City of Frederick, MD.

Several ATV trails and other fire roads, which are blocked, were observed. While there, we did encounter some folks on two ATV’s.

We identified an area piled deer kill. This pile of deer kill was obviously created by humans. This was obvious due to the noticeable saw cut marks on the heads removing the antlers.

We did not experience any strange sightings or sounds during our investigation.

In summary, I do believe this area could support a population of bipedal creatures. There is plenty of food, water and shelter in the area. There are areas extremely difficult for human travel as well to keep them out of sight of people.

Culpeper County Research with Autumn

Sasquatch Watch of Virginia Field Notes...by Billy Willard, Director (Dec 22, 2007)

On December 22, 2007 I took Autumn, my beagle dog in training, on her first research project. I decided to do this in an area the group has been researching for a few years now in Culpeper, VA. Autumn has been sniffing "possible" Sasquatch hair everyday since she was a few weeks old, so I decided to take her out and give her a trial run.

We arrived around 10:00 am. We entered the area by way of a service road that leads toward the Rappahannock River. Immediately upon entering the area, Autumn quickly identified some scat.

A few feet further, a game trail seemed to catch her attention. Her nose nevers leaves the ground, she was constantly sniffing the ground. She leads me up the game trail and we go into the woods about 100 feet. At this point, she stops suddenly, raises her head for the first time and the hair on her neck and tail bone stands straight up! She literally turns around and pulls me out of the trail and back to the gravel road. It was strange, I never heard or saw a thing, but she apparently sensed something.

We proceeded further down the access road. The next item to catch her attention was a freshly broken pine branch laying in the middle of the road. She examined the broken branch for at least an entire minute, afterwards, looking into the woods.

A few minutes later, her attention was drawn to another trail leading off into the woods. As she proceeded to pull me down the trail I put my camera in video mode and recorded some live footage for the readers to see. The following link will take you to that footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8bR8Kc0fn4

Later, as we headed up stream alongside the Rappahannock River, we had to cross a tributary to the river. I picked Autumn up to carry her across. After crossing, I put her down and she immediately became uneasy. As I tried to encourage her to continue, she simply dug her paws into the soil and would go no further. I found this rather odd as well. She began whining vigorously and pulled me back towards the tributary, so I picked her back up, crossed over and put her down on the other side. She immediately pulled me back out the way we came in.

Once out of the woods we were back on the access road. She proceeded into another area of the woods and located a rib bone from a deer. She picked it up in her mouth and wanted to carry it back out (typical of Beagles). However, to my astonishment, once getting out of the woods, she dug a hole beside the gravel road, placed the bone in it and covered it over with soil using her nose! I didn't expect that! I assumed she would want to take it with her and eat it like every other Beagle I've seen, but she didn't.

Other items she found were alot of rabbit droppings, another typical feature of Beagles. We then left the area.

What caused her to react the way she did? I'm not sure, but hopefully I can work this fear factor out of her.

One item of interest, about a month prior to this field outing my older son Frank had called me at work. A friend of his had lost their cat and he called me wondering if Autumn may be able to assist them in finding the cat. Obviously, I was unsure but figured "What the heck?" So I told him to try and locate something that the cat laid on or used. They couldn't find anything so he asked me "What about the litter box?" I told them to go ahead and give it a try. Autumn sniffed the litter box and they took her outside. I instructed my son to tell her "Go Get It!" She immediately pulled him down a sidewalk, found an area of interest within 50 feet of the house where the cat lived and walked around in a circle for about a full minute, constantly sniffing the ground. After a minute, Autumn seemed to pick up something and aggresively pulled him about 100 feet in the opposite direction towards the parking lot. Her attention was placed on a storm drain in the lot and she began scratching and whining. My son found a tool and opened the manhole above the storm drain and lo and behold, there was the cat down in the drain. The cat was fine and simply seemed to be hiding down in the drain. However, I was very impressed with the results. I will continue to work with Autumn and hopefully in the near future she will find me something amazing! Until next time...keep on squatching!

A Trip to Grottoes, Virginia

Well folks, this is Billy Willard and I figure it's about time to add some new information to the research blog.

Yesterday, on December 1, 2007, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Adam Frye. Adam recently came home from Kosovo where he was deployed on a mission with the U.S. Army. So, first off, my hat is off to this fine gentleman and his great service to this nation!

After we became aquainted with each other, we were both eager to get out into the field. After a brief drive along the dirt road where Adam lives, we made our first stop at an old abandoned nursery. We parked my truck alongside the road, and walked in carrying some simple equipment. The nursery contains hundreds if not thousands of pine trees that were planted. Alot of these pines create a perfect blind for staying hidden. In some areas, a person would have alot of difficulty seeing anything within 10 feet of them.

One of the first strange things Adam pointed out to me were the strange, almost bipedal looking footprints found on this obviously, well used trail. The footprints do not show up well on the forest ground during the colder months, but I have included a photo that was taken by Adam back during the warmer months to give the readers an idea of what I mean. This was really strange, the impressions were really quite deep and appeared to have been used over and over again. I have to say that this was a first for me, I have never seen anything like this before.

As we continued on, several tree breaks were observed. All of the tree breaks were in locations concealed from any possible wind damage. The pines provide a thick barrier preventing any high winds in these tree break locations. In addition, the tree breaks were concentrated in certain areas. There seemed to be several tree breaks in certain areas, not one here or there. I tried to examine the areas around the tree breaks to identify any possible footprints or other evidence, but most of them appeared to be rather old occurrences. Therefore, any possible prints were probably long gone.

Several piles of feces were discovered. Again, like the tree breaks, the feces seemed to be concentrated in one general area. Items found in the feces were grasses, nuts, corn and seeds. The sizes of the feces seem to be different sizes and quantities.

But, probably one of the most exciting discoveries was some hair found on a tree. This particular tree was bent over in an arch blocking an obvious game trail. Adam with his amazing eyesight, spotted the hair on the tree while investigating it. We collected several hair samples, but one of the hairs were different from the rest. One of them had a reddish color, all the others were black. The hairs were collected using tweezers and placed into a plastic evidence bag for later examination on Adam's microscope.

We crossed over the dirt road and examined some property managed by the National Park Service (NPS). There, we found a FRESH tree break. This was a nice, healthy tree with no disease or imperfections. The tree was about 3-4 inches in diameter with a clean break.

We left this area and went to a local Italian grill for lunch. We had a brief drive around in the surrounding area and went back towards Adams house.

When we arrived back near Adam's house, we decided to take a walk up a fire road that leads towards Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Forest. We decided to climb up to a high point of rock formations as seen in the photo to the top left. We took our time climbing. As we climbed, we jumped something from the brush above us, approximately 50-60 feet away. Neither of us caught a glimpse of what it was, but it sure made alot of noise to get out of there.

Obviously, once reaching the top, it was time for photo opportunities. (Adam Frye in top photo, Billy Willard in bottom photo) There was a beautiful view all around. Both Adam and I saw some wonderful opportunities for future audio recordings within this valley area as well as a good survelliance spot.

Before ending the day, Adam decided it was time for more fun! He knew of a small cavern nearby and decided to see if he could still get through it. (I mean, afterall, caverns do seem to shrink over time, right?) It was a tight fit, but he made it through without me having to break his collar bones to get him out.

We decended the mountain by way of a rock slide area. It seemed to be easier to travel versus the slick, leaf covered forest area. I don't think I would want travel down this during the warmer months. What a perfect habitat for mountain rattlers! The temperature in the valley was getting quite cold by this time as it was approaching 5:00 pm EST.

On our way out, Adam spots a tarp alongside a creek bank. The tarp is rolled up in such a way that it appears to contain something. We first discuss whether or not we want to open it. Of course, bad thoughts are passing through our minds as to what it could contain. The last thing we wanted to find was a dead body. Once making a decision, Adam slowly opens the tarp to reveal that someone has cut off the paws and limbs of a bear. What a shame!

We made our way back to Adam's house to have a look at our collected hair samples. Adam had recently purchased a microscope with a USB connection live video feed to his laptop. What a wonderful purchase from Ebay! Next to follow are some known microscopic hair samples and our unknown hair sample. Further research will be done to determine what the unknown hair sample is and will be provided as an update on this research blog at a later date.

<---------------Domestic Cat

Domestic Dog------------>

<--------------Human

Mink-------------------->

<----------------------Raccoon

Skunk---------------->

<----------------Unknown???

The unknown hair appears to have a segmented type membrane in the center. None of the other hairs appear to have that feature. Further research will be conducted by examining other known area animal hairs. Any updated information regarding this issue will be posted here at a later date.

In summary, I truly enjoyed my visit with Adam. And I am proud to announce that Adam Frye is the newest addition to the Sasquatch Watch of Virginia group. After meeting him I can see that he is dedicated, hard working and devoted to this line of field research. His future plans are to write and publish a book and film a documentary. In my opinion, Adam certainly has the expertise to do all the above. Sasquatch Watch of Virginia will, in the near future, conduct more field visits and we look forward to planning some survelliance projects along with Adam.

Sasquatch Watch of Virginia visits Eastern Ohio

Billy Willard and Tom L visited eastern Ohio this past weekend. DB Donlon has put together a nice blog that discusses the findings and activities.
Enjoy the information by clicking the following link: http://blogsquatcher.blogspot.com/

Thanks to DB Donlon for his great work putting together the blog!