Bigfoot hunters are turning their attention to New Jersey, where reports of the legendary creature continue to surface.
A team investigating alleged Sasquatch encounters in the Garden State is examining nearly 80 reports describing an upright, humanlike figure that was supposedly seen or heard across the state.
Although folklore typically places Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest, the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization lists 79 reported Bigfoot sightings in New Jersey on its website.
Bigfoot researcher Mike Familant and his team recently focused on a strange, animal-like sound at High Point State Park in northwestern New Jersey. Familant told NJ.com that the sound emerged after the group attempted to imitate an owl.
The team recorded the noise in 2022, but the mystery only grew after an expert concluded it did not match any known animal in the area, according to Familant. He chronicles alleged Bigfoot sightings through his online series, “In the Shadow of Big Red Eye.”
A military linguist “came back with a report that said it was outside of human vocal range and wasn’t any known animal from northwestern New Jersey,” Familant said.
Familant also identified the forests around the Delaware Water Gap and Stokes State Forest as potential hotspots for sightings of the elusive creature.
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Jacob Korbel, an investigator with the research organization, said he once doubted Bigfoot reports. That changed after he joined the team on an expedition into the Pine Barrens in 2021.
“About 100 yards away in front of us, there’s this whoop response,” Korbel told NJ.com. “And right away, I’m like, that’s nothing that I’ve ever heard before. That’s not an owl, that’s not a coyote, fox.”
“And you could hear it slowly getting closer to our position, like it was coming in to check us out. Like we were almost getting flanked,” he recalled.
The reported Bigfoot encounters are spread across the state, including 18 in Sussex County, 16 in Burlington County and 11 in Ocean County.
Yet even after years of investigation, there is still no irrefutable proof that Bigfoot exists. Whether the creature is an elusive animal or simply a product of myth remains unresolved.
Believers cite alleged footprints, photographs and even DNA recovered from hair as evidence that the creature has been roaming the forests of North America for decades.
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