Lorraine Ash

@LorraineVAsh

FREDON – Animal Planet's four-person "Finding Bigfoot" team searched the mountainous terrain of rural Sussex County last week in search of a Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot. The crew for the hit show came into town quietly.

"We don't want people to be crawling around in the woods while the team is there," said Joe James, producer of the North Jersey episode.

As always, the team – Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Researchers Organization; Cliff Barackman and James "Bobo" Fay, researchers; and Ranae Holland, skeptical scientist – started their stay with a town hall-style meeting to collect local stories of Sasquatch sightings.

Though their arrival was not made public, word circulated through the Bigfoot community and some 60 people gathered at The Fountain House on Route 94, a tavern dating to 1860, for the June 21 taping. They listened to stories of community members who reported sightings from as far back as the early 1970s and as recently as two weeks ago, particularly in the northern reaches of the county.

Fourteen people came forward with stories, 13 of them firsthand sightings and one with a cast of an alleged Sasquatch footprint he had made. No specifics on any story shared by the locals will be released until the show is aired.

The "Finding Bigfoot" episode featuring Northwest Jersey will be aired months from now, potentially as late as December, according to the film team. The show is now in its fifth season.

"These are the best stories we've had in years," said an enthusiastic Fay, who wore a "Keep It Squatchy" cap, as the town hall drew to a close.

"This is Jersey, baby!" yelled back someone from the audience.

Consistent with the show's format, the team mapped out the locations where eyewitnesses allegedly had their encounters. In that way, they determined hot spots for conducting investigations in the days after the town hall took place.

Sasquatch, or "Squatch" for short, is a term used mostly in the Pacific Northwest to describe an 8- to 10-foot bipedal hominid cryptid, or animal whose existence is unproven.

The visit marked the second time the "Finding Bigfoot" team, which has gone "squatching" throughout the U.S. and abroad, searched for Sasquatch in the Garden State.

In "South Jersey Sasquatch," which aired in the fourth season, the team searched to no avail in the Pine Barrens, 1.1 million acres of woods spanning seven counties in the southern part of the state. Barackman told the crowd at the Fountain House that the team members, sometimes called the "fab four," experienced the best vocalization they'd ever heard in South Jersey.

In that episode, the team questioned whether some reports of the famed "Jersey Devil," a winged creature, actually could have been Sasquatch.

But Northwest Jersey has its own history of the big, hairy creature, known for its glowing eyes, foul stench, and distinctive gait.

Some reports of "Old Red Eye," as it's known in Northwest Jersey, are passed down orally from old Lenape, or Delaware Indian, accounts. The region spanning rural Sussex and Warren counties is replete with wilderness areas, including High Point State Park, Stokes State Forest, and Jenny Jump State Forest.

Indeed, the Appalachian Trail cuts through the northwest corner of New Jersey, too. Some local squatchers have speculated the number of sightings in the region may be attributed to the creatures following the trail.

In the past 50 years alone, 207 Sasquatch reports have been made in New Jersey, according to William Taylor, author of "Bigfoot in the New Jersey 'Burbs." A total of 107 were in the northern part of the state, the most famous being the sighting of an 8-foot, 400-pound Sasquatch in the spring of 1977 by the Sites family farm on Wolfpit Road in Wantage, located east of Montague and west of Vernon on Sussex County's northern border.

According to Barbara Sites, quoted in a Daily Record clip from that era, the creature, with luminous red eyes, killed the family's rabbits and, with one swipe, threw their 70-pound dog 20 feet. Reportedly, the family fired on the animal, which walked away.

For now, though, the locals will patiently wait to see how the "Finding Bigfoot" episode chronicles the current state of Sasquatch sightings right where they live.

"It's a goof that Ranae and Bobo and the team came here, and we wanted to meet them," said Doug Mertrud of Byram, who brought his daughter, Lauren, to the June 21 gathering. Mertrud had a firsthand encounter but did not share it on film.

"It was interesting to hear how many stories there were and how believable they were," he added. "When you experience something, you can't deviate. You know what you saw."

Kathy Perrine of Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, accompanied her husband, Rich Armstrong, a purported Sasquatch eyewitness, to the event.

"It's been his dream all along to let somebody know about this – somebody who would believe him and not think he's totally off the deep end," Perrine said. "There's no question. They (Sasquatches) live among us."

"Finding Bigfoot" enjoyed a viewership of 1.6 million for the debut of its second season and 1.3 million for the debut of its fourth, according to Discovery Communications. While popular, the show has taken its knocks. Online, some viewers have taken to calling it "(Not) Finding Bigfoot" since the team has not yet successfully caught up with one of the beasts on the air.

Other critics point to "Mermaids: The Body Found" and "Finding Bigfoot" and contend Animal Planet pays too much attention to so-called fantasy animals.

But the believers – and the seers who shared their stories – on June 21 would have none of that.

"They're up here," said Dave Johnson of Harrison, who hikes High Point State Park and photographed what he thinks are Sasquatch footprints from February 2012 to the present. "I wasn't going to show my pictures to anyone because they'd think I'm crazy, but here it's fine."

Barackman, known as the team's expert in Bigfoot impressions, examined Johnson's collection.

"Maybe someday I'll actually see Bigfoot and get a picture of him instead of his footprints," Johnson mused. "We'll see what happens as the years go on, but it sure is like finding a needle in a haystack."

Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660; lash@njpressmedia.com

The "Finding Bigfoot" episode featuring Northwest Jersey will be aired months from now.