Media Article # 438

Saturday, January 8, 2005

Bigfoot hunter gets airtime on Canadian children's TV show

By Andrew Griffin
The Town Talk / Alexandria-Pineville, LA

Nearly five years ago, Pineville fire fighter Scott Kessler was featured in The Town Talk because of his interest in Bigfoot.

Some claim the elusive creatures live in remote corners of the North American continent.

And Kessler, a member of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, has said he believes there is strong evidence that the mysterious hairy humanoid has relatives living in the forests and swamps of central Louisiana.

A 2000 sighting of a Bigfoot-like creature near Flagon Creek in the Cotton Island area of Rapides Parish led to national coverage.

Several cable networks, including the Outdoor Life Network, filmed Kessler for pieces on the show "Mysterious Encounters" in 2003.

But the most recent show to include Kessler and his Bigfoot research premiered on Discovery Kids channel this past autumn.

The Montreal, Canada-based Apartment 11 Productions produced an episode of the children's show "Mystery Hunters" and featured an interview with Kessler.

On the program Kessler takes a teenaged "hunter" to the bayou where large footprints were found and also shows him a plaster cast of the footprint.

In another segment, an agent with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries takes the young investigator on a canoe trip into Honey Island Swamp, near Slidell, where a strange creature reportedly has been lurking.

It should be noted, that according to the shows' producers -- "Mystery Hunters gather the facts and use science and reasoning to try to interpret them while remaining open to the unknown. Whether we can fully explain things or not, we encourage critical thinking among our viewers.

"Our reporters try to get as close to the center of the action as possible in their quest to both debunk myths and unravel mysteries."

In the "Mystery Hunters" episode, which also featured an investigation into a red-eyed ghost dog spotted by people in England, Kessler recounted his first experience seeing a Bigfoot.

It was in the mid-1970s. He was camping with his family near Woodworth in the Indian Creek area.

Late one night, after everyone had fallen asleep, Kessler was awakened by noises.

"There were some coons nearby, and they got scared off by something. Then I heard a loud splashing sound in the creek and could hear something coming through the water and grunting as it was struggling to get up the creek bank," he said.

Kessler, who recalled being terrified, said he could make out the creature as it stood near the creek. It was over 6-feet-tall. Then, a companion Bigfoot, a little shorter but less frightening, appeared.

As quickly as the two sylvan-dwelling creatures appeared, they just as quickly darted off into the night.

Kessler has never given up on his quest to find hard evidence that would prove once and for all whether the creature actually existed.

In fact, this weekend, Kessler is meeting with approximately two dozen other Bigfoot hunters in the Sam Houston National Forest near Conroe, Texas.

"We're going in with infrared cameras, pheremone chips, call blasts ... all in hopes of finally proving there is something out there," Kessler said.

Previous article on Scott Kessler:
BIGFOOT- 2 Encounters Made a Believer of Pineville Man

After-action report from field operation:
Operation Primate Web II

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