THIS FAMILIAR IMAGE of what many claim is bigfoot is taken from the Patterson film, shot in 1967 in Washington. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization is hoping to catch the creature on film again, using state-of-the-art equipment.


Next month, teams of people will be combing parts of the Greenbrier Valley for signs of a large, hairy ape.

It’s not an escaped circus animal, and it has nothing to do with the lion that was spotted on Cold Knob last November. Members of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization are searching for what they believe to be a rare species that ranges across the continent.

The organization last visited Pocahontas County in October 2006, when 13 members had what was described as a “Class A” sighting, not far from Watoga State Park. According to BFRO founder Matt Moneymaker, two or three of the creatures tossed rocks at the people in attempt to drive the team off their turf.

“They were very aggressive,” said Moneymaker. “We like that. It’s better for us to confirm they’re there, rather than these things running away, which is usually what they do.”

Of course, BFRO’s experiences aren’t the first to be reported in Pocahontas County. In the late 1800s, Pete and Paris Hammons, along with their father Jesse and friend Wilburn Baldwin, were camping and hunting near the head of the Cherry River when they encountered a creature they referred to as the “yayho.” After hearing the creature call in the dark, they later found a large footprint that looked like nothing the seasoned woodsmen had seen before.

Details of that encounter were passed from Paris Hammons to his son Burl. Burl Hammons later recalled the story in “The Hammons Family: Traditions of a West Virginia Family and Friends,” a recording made for the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture.

Moneymaker believes there is a simple reason sightings have persisted here for more than 100 years.

“These animals do exist and there are some of them in Pocahontas County,” he said. “Many, many people in that part of West Virginia have seen these animals and heard them.”

More recently, BFRO has recorded four reports in the county, in such places as Wildell and Spruce Flat, since 1989. The group has recorded more than 50 reports around the state. Neighboring Pendleton County had the most reports, with nine. In the Greenbrier Valley, Greenbrier and Monroe counties have only had one report each.

Moneymaker won’t say specifically where the April 10-13 expedition will take members, only that the team will be heading to the “Greenbrier River region.”

The goal of these trips, in addition to winning over skeptics, Moneymaker said, is to obtain irrefutable visual confirmation of the creatures’ existence.

“We’re trying to film them, but they are very difficult to film, because they approach you in the dark, and you have to have equipment that films in the dark, which is very expensive,” he said.

Moneymaker and his organization believe that the creatures are descendants of a line of large, pre-historic apes. To find them, the organization looks for areas with high concentrations of deer, which the group believes is their major food source.

“They’re more intelligent than many bigfoot researchers ever thought,” said Moneymaker. “They live much like aboriginal humans, but they’re not aboriginal humans. However, they’re kind of a window on the way humans used to live.”

With each expedition to West Virginia, Moneymaker said BFRO’s ranks are growing.

“People go on these trips and think this must be some sort of glorified snipe hunt,” he said. “They’re naturally suspicious, as anyone would be. But then they go out there and have a confrontation with one of these things, and they know we’re not fooling around. These are real, and we’re very good at finding them.”