'Finding Bigfoot' N.J. episode filmed in Sussex County

Seeing Animal Planet's "Finding Bigfoot" episode, filmed for a week in Sussex County this past June, has proved as elusive as the creature itself. But that's about to change.

"Bobo, Bobcat and the Big Red Eye" aired Sunday, Dec. 28, according to Discovery Press Web. The two-hour show was scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. and again at 11 p.m. It had been postponed five weeks ago after first being scheduled for broadcast just prior to Thanksgiving.

The episode features comedian Bob Goldthwait, director of the 2013 bigfoot found-footage film, "Willow Creek," who went on the Appalachian Trail with the show's "Fab Four" investigation team to help search for "Big Red Eye," a nickname for Sasquatches in North Jersey.

Sasquatch, Squatch and Bigfoot are all terms used to describe an 8- to 10-foot bipedal hominid cryptid, an animal whose existence is scientifically unproven.

"We did a special behind-the-scenes half-hour spot for the Sussex County episode and Bobcat Goldthwait's movie," said Matt Moneymaker, leader of the Fab Four and president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), which keeps an ever-growing national database of evidence its members find.

Though he was not certain, Moneymaker said Sunday's night episode may be two hours long because it includes the extra half-hour spot. Animal Planet acquired the rights to Goldthwait's "Willow Creek." Last Moneymaker heard, the channel plans to air the hour-long horror flick later this year.

Witnesses

The team had other excitement in North Jersey, too, according to Moneymaker, who said he was impressed with the quality of the witnesses here. Though the arrival of the "Finding Bigfoot" team on June 21 was not made public in Sussex County, word circulated fast throughout the bigfoot community.

Sixty people showed up for an afternoon town hall-style meeting at The Fountain House, a Fredon tavern dating to 1860. Each show starts with such a town hall at which stories of Sasquatch sightings are collected from the locals and mapped so that "hot spots" can be identified. These spots become the places the team investigates.

In Sussex County, 14 people came forward with stories, thirteen with firsthand sightings and one with a cast of an alleged Sasquatch footprint he had made.

"Not one of those town hall witnesses that we interviewed was making things up," he said. "I think all of them were Class A, legit witnesses."

Off camera first

Moneymaker also was impressed what he found the night of the town hall meeting, off camera. Though exhausted from traveling and filming, he said, he joined members of the New Jersey chapter of the BFRO, off camera, on their expedition in High Point State Park.

"Not having the production team with us allowed us to be very dark and sneaky and I think that really helped," Moneymaker said. "There were no TV lights. We ended up at a huge area of marshes by High Point State Park, a few miles up the Appalachian Trail. If the squatches were going to be anywhere, they were going to be in there.

"We got deep in and howled loud," he added. "Finally, we heard one howling back and got a recording of it. I was feeling pretty proud when we got that."

Of course, he said, he insisted that the whole team — including Cliff Barackman and James "Bobo" Fay, both researchers, and Ranae Holland, skeptical scientist — go back to the park for the final night investigation, with cameras rolling. To find out what happened, people must watch the show.

"When we went back up, we talked to some rangers and one ranger, in particular, who told us about all the bigfoot activity, with other rangers, that he knew about up there," Moneymaker said. "He had actually seen one himself.

"There are some bigfoots in New Jersey and they've probably been there a long time," he concluded. "I very much believe, based on a whole lot of experience, that they move up and down the East Coast. Their big thoroughfare is the Green Belt through which the Appalachian Trail flows. The trail extends from Georgia all the way up to Maine. There may be more of them doing that now than there were 20 or 30 years ago because the forests in the Eastern states have regenerated so much since the '50s."

Comedian connection

Known for his performances in "Police Academy" before becoming a writer and director, Goldthwait released "Willow Creek" last year. A fictional tale, it features a couple who travels to the site where Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin shot their famed yet controversial 1967 footage of a walking Sasquatch.

"I've always liked bigfoot," Goldthwait said during a promotional interview for the film. "Awhile ago, I went to Willow Creek, which is a town in northern California. I put about 1,400 miles on my car driving around and looking for bigfoot and going to all the bigfoot sites.

"When I got there, I didn't really have it in me to make fun of people in the bigfoot community," he added, "because I realized that I myself am a weirdo and an outsider. People think I'm a bit of a kook."

According to Moneymaker, Barackman, on some down time between shoots, happened to cross paths with Goldthwait in Willow Creek and became aware of his project. Consequently, Animal Planet became aware of it, too.

"In the process, there was discussion about bringing Bobcat out on something closer to a real bigfoot hunt," Moneymaker said. "His movie isn't about going out looking for a real bigfoot. That's our jam, so they invited him and he said OK."

On "Finding Bigfoot," Goldthwait helps the team by adding his iconic yell to the howls of the other investigators as, together, they look for a Sasquatch on the Appalachian Trail.

Old Red Eye himself

The visit to Sussex County marked the team's second visit to 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. 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 (len-AH-pay), 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.

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 near 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.

"One thing I say in the episode, which is really true, is that when all the Big Red Eye stuff was happening in the '70s, there was talk about in the papers there," Moneymaker explained. "But it really seemed from those articles that the journalists who were writing about it were not, at that point, making a connection with what people were talking about in the Northwest — Sasquatch.

"Yet what people were describing in New Jersey," he added, "was so similar to what people in Oregon and Washington were describing. It seemed like it was the same thing. Only people were not using the same name for it. This only goes to show that Sasquatch is still a relatively new subject in our lifetime."

Soft spot for Jersey

Moneymaker believes New Jersey's wilder regions, located as they are on a "special latitude," are particularly friendly to wildlife, including Sasquatches. Winter here doesn't get so cold that it's a hardship on mammals, he explained, and summer isn't so hot and dry that it's a problem, either.

"I have a soft spot for New Jersey," he said. "It's a primo environment for plant growth and for animals."

The investigative team saw more bears in Sussex County than anywhere else they've ever been, according to Moneymaker.

Together, the team has searched 37 states and seven countries, according to the show's promotional materials.

"There might be more bears in Wyoming and Alaska, but you don't see them as much. They're not right in your face like the New Jersey bears are," Moneymaker said. "You're walking down a trail in New Jersey and one is right in front of you.

"With the latitude, New Jersey is bear heaven," he added. "If I moved to New Jersey, I would start a bear tour company and I'd be the only one and I'd make lots of money."

"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 Press Web. 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.

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