Vance Orchard spent more than three decades writing for the Walla Walla Union‑Bulletin, covering the people, places, and rhythms of eastern Washington. He was a storyteller by trade, a community man by instinct, and a chronicler of the land long before he ever wrote a word about Bigfoot.

His shift into Sasquatch reporting wasn’t a gimmick or a stunt. It was a natural extension of his beat. Orchard talked to ranchers, loggers, hunters, and families who lived deep in the foothills, the kind of people who didn’t seek attention and didn’t embellish their stories. When they told him about strange tracks, heavy footsteps, or encounters in the timber, he listened with the same seriousness he gave to any other local event.

That simple act, taking witnesses seriously, changed the trajectory of Bigfoot research in the Blue Mountains.

We’re heading deep into one of the most mysterious stretches of land in the Eastern United States: the legendary Chestnut Ridge.

Running through Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, this region has earned its reputation as a hotspot for UFO sightings, cryptid encounters, and high strangeness that refuses to fit into any single category.

Our guest tonight, Chadwick Gales, has spent the last 12 years embedded in those woods. As the founder of Chestnut Ridge Paranormal, he has documented everything from three‑toed tracks to bizarre light anomalies and unsettling events that defy logical explanation. His boots‑on‑the‑ground research offers a rare look into one of America’s most active paranormal corridors.

Wes Sumerlin never chased fame, never pushed himself into the spotlight, and never tried to turn Bigfoot research into a performance. He was a woodsman first, a tracker second, and a researcher only because the evidence kept finding him.

Sumerlin had that rare kind of patience you only see in people who grew up living close to the land. He didn’t rush. He didn’t force meaning onto every broken branch. He watched. He listened. He let the woods tell him what mattered.

Jason J. Tavares has lived one of the most unexpectedly fascinating lives you’ll ever hear about. From his college years to military service, from travel to relationships, strange and unsettling experiences have followed him at every stage. Tonight, we’re diving into the haunted side of his journey, the moments he can’t explain, the encounters that stayed with him, and the mysteries that shaped his creative path.

Jason is a writer, director, producer, and author… and maybe, just maybe, a man touched by the unexplained.

Bobby Short was one of the most quietly influential Bigfoot researchers of the late 1990s and early 2000s. She wasn’t chasing fame, she wasn’t trying to be a personality, she was trying to preserve the human side of Bigfoot encounters. Her work focused on eyewitness testimony, historical accounts, and the emotional impact of encounters on ordinary people.

Thomas Marcum is the founder of The Crypto Crew Research Team, an organization specializing in cryptozoology and paranormal research.

He’s a Kentucky-based filmmaker, author, writer, researcher, and investigator, whose work bridges mystery, folklore, and raw indie authenticity. As the founder of TCC Research Team, he has built a loyal following by diving headfirst into cryptid lore, paranormal investigations, and regional legends.

Scott McClean isn’t a household name in Bigfoot research, but his contributions are woven into the field in ways most people never realize. Working mostly in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, McClean focused on track documentation, terrain analysis, and pattern recognition long before those became standard practices.

He wasn’t chasing headlines; he was chasing consistency.

Tonight, we’re diving deep into the eerie world of urban legends, and guiding us through the shadows is the founder of Ohio Urban Legends. From forgotten ghost towns and haunted cemeteries to the backroads where people swear something still walks after dark, they’ve built a booming YouTube channel exploring the stories that refuse to die.

We’ll uncover the history behind these legends, the investigations that brought them to life, and the chilling encounters that keep Ohio’s folklore alive and well. If it’s eerie, unexplained, or downright creepy, it’s on the table tonight.

For decades, skeptics have repeated a simple but misleading claim: that the entire Bigfoot phenomenon began in 1958 when a California bulldozer operator named Jerry Crew cast a set of large footprints found around a logging site, prints later linked to Ray Wallace, a man known for carving wooden feet and staging hoaxes.

It’s a tidy explanation.

It’s also completely false.

Don Keating began investigating Bigfoot in 1984, inspired by reading John Green’s work. He quickly became one of the most active field researchers in the Midwest, focusing on what he later named “The Sasquatch Triangle”, a cluster of counties in eastern Ohio known for dense forests and consistent sightings.

 

Keating wasn’t just collecting stories; he was building a regional research infrastructure. He founded the Tri-State Bigfoot Study Group and the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center, creating organized teams long before social media made collaboration easy.

Ron Howe’s journey into Bigfoot research began when he was just 13 years old, the day he came face‑to‑face with a massive, hair‑covered creature in the woods of his family farm. That single encounter changed the course of his life forever.

Since then, Ron has spent decades trekking through forests, documenting activity, and chasing the truth behind America’s most elusive legend. In this episode, he shares stories from his many expeditions, the encounters that shaped his research, and the moments that still stay with him after all these years.

Ray Crowe founded the Western Bigfoot Society (WBS) in Oregon in 1991, holding monthly meetings in the basement of his Hillsboro bookstore. Those meetings became a hub for eyewitnesses, researchers, and curious locals, one of the first consistent public spaces dedicated to Bigfoot discussion.

 

Crowe’s approach was open‑door and community‑driven. He welcomed anyone with a story, a question, or a theory. That accessibility made him a beloved figure in the field and helped normalize Bigfoot research for everyday people.