| Bigfoot
Encounters Researcher: Bigfoot alive, well in southern Oklahoma |
By Lance West July 27, 2004 Are they the rantings of Bigfoot-crazed Oklahomans? Or does a mysterious beast really roam the mountains of southern Oklahoma? A Sulphur man has been working for years to prove the existence of Bigfoot. And now, a piece of rare evidence has surfaced to substantiate his claims. When the sun descends over the Chickasaw National Park, and the tourists retire to their campsites, work begins for this Sulfur researcher. "A lot of big foot in here," said Charles Hallmark, who spends endless hours in the wilderness trying to confirm the existence of a mysterious beast. "Some little Bigfoot prints right here where I'm standing," he said. "Right here, all around me." From foot prints to photographs, this tracker and his friends have collected plenty of evidence over the years. Hallmark claims he's had several close encounters. "No muzzle, no tail. Just boing, boing, boing," Hallmark said. "My first impression was to get out there and chase him through the woods to get a better view of him and then I thought, that's a juvenile. That means mamma is not far away and I'd hate to get in an arm wrestling match with a female monkey that weighs 600 pounds because I don't think I would win." But Hallmark said his most compelling evidence is a series of unusually large fingerprints. "My fingerprint, it might be half the size of that," he said. "This cup is just covered with finger prints." Here's how he collects them. Hallmark puts cookies, candy bars, or hamburgers in a large cup. Then, he covers it with some microwave popcorn and hides it in a trash can with a large rock on top. That keeps the smaller animals out. And then he waits. "They'll handle that greasy popcorn bag, then handle the cup," he said. "It's as simple as 'A B C.' "A fingerprint is something [that] can't be faked," he said. On our expedition, yhe only creatures we encountered were loud dogs. "They start barking about sun down," he said. "It's Bigfoot they're smelling. "Menacing spiders, there's all kinds of evidence out here," Hallmark said. "And hungry raccoons." But Hallmark said he will one day gather "the proof", convincing everyone there is a Bigfoot living in our backyard. "Science doesn't want to admit that the missing link is not missing," Hallmark said. "It's out there, running around beside us right now." The only explanation, Hallmark said, is it's a Bigfoot. Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation officials say there have been several reported sightings over the years. But to date they have no evidence supporting the existence of a "mysterious beast." Copyright 2004 KFOR-TV-DT. Portions of this website are reprinted and sometimes edited to fit the standards of this website under the Fair Use Doctrine of International Copyright Law |