YEAR: 2010

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

DATE: Na

STATE: Georgia

COUNTY: Crawford County

LOCATION DETAILS: Ga Hwy 96 near peach county and taylor county and crawford county lines west of fort valley ga.

Investigator (MM) Notes:
GPS coordinates for the bridge described in the report
32.546093, -83.997939

NEAREST TOWN: Fort Valley

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 96

OBSERVED: In September of 2010 I was supervising a work detail of 6 males near the [Crawford County and] Peach county and Taylor County Ga lines. Our assignment was to clear tree and bushes from the right away of the bridge located on Ga Hwy 96 near River Road intersection.

Time was about 9am. Area was wooded with lots of trees and bushes with large thorns on them. Weather was partly cloudy and light winds. Upon entering the area several of the workers along with myself noticed a strange odor, which I dismissed as probably a dead animal.They began to remove the overgrowth by using bush axes, which when leveling trees makes a loud thud against the trees.

At that very moment I had the feeling that we were being watched. The fact that I nor the other workers had no weapons made me a little nervous, so I begin to be very visually alert.

In the distance of about 50 to 60 feet behind us I noticed [the sound of] movement. My first thought was since the wind was blowing it was just tree limbs blowing against one another. But the movement became persistent, and there were what sounded like muffled grunts, so I asked one of the workers to come take a look and tell me what he saw,

His reply was that looks like someone is peeping from behind a tree. We observed this for about 20 seconds after his reply and then the movement stopped just as it had started.

One of the workers saw a rabbit cornered it and killed it. He then skinned the rabbit with his bush axe. I asked him why did he do that. He replied that he wanted to cook the rabbit for food. I told him we didn't have time to cook the rabbit because It was now lunch time. So he hung the skinned rabbit from a tree with a small piece of rope. The worker was about 6ft 2in tall so the rabbit was at least 6ft high from the ground. We went to top of the bridge to our bus and ate our lunch. Upon returning to the area we noticed that the rabbit was gone. We talked amongst ourselves about what happened to the rabbit.

Work resumed. I noticed the sound of running water. I moved to find the water. To my amazement there was a shallow creek. As I got really close to creek I noticed what appeared to be footprints in the muddy bank area. But the bare footprints had appeared to trample the large thorns, I thought to myself this has to one of the workers playing a joke. So i called them all to come and see the creek, They all came and were astonished at the creek. I didn't show them the footprints at first. I asked them all to take off their boots and hold their feet close to the footprints I had found. Nobody foot sized matched those prints.

I jokingly said I guess Bigfoot made them. W all laughed and went back to work. Almost immediately upon the sound of the first bush axes hitting a tree we heard the sound of large limbs breaking in the front of us. We all ran up the bank and toward the bus. We high tailed it out there.

I went to report this to the contractor we was working for. He stated he had heard strange noises coming from that area before. So he granted us another assignment.

Years after this incident I started to watch Finding Bigfoot and I noticed some similarities to my experience. I have returned to that area several times since but never went underneath the bridge again.

ALSO NOTICED: Noticed footprints in the mud and heard grunts in the distance

OTHER WITNESSES: 6 and my self. We were clearing right of way underneath the bridge.

OTHER STORIES: Contractor advised that he had heard strange sounds in that area before.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 9am and 3pm

ENVIRONMENT: There was a bridge with lots of vegetation near and around both sides with a small creek running underneath the bridge.Few homes in area north of bridge.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

I spoke with Donnie Harris by phone. At the time he was working for the GA Department of Corrections. He would supervise work crews of prisoners for DOT projects -- landscaping along highways.

This incident occurred 4.5 miles to the west of a recent report closer to Fort Valley in neighboring Peach County. The bridge he describes is only a quarter of a mile south from the same railroad bed that comes with a half mile of the recent sighting on Old Highway 96, just west of Fort Valley. The railroad be is the connection between the two locations.

In September of 2015 Donnie Harris work for the Dept of Corrections supervising a prisoner work crew on a job for the GA Dept of Transportation (DOT) to clear trees growing up under the bridge for Hwy 96 above a swampy section of creek, exactly one mile east of the Hwy 96 bridge over the Flint River.

The prisoners were cutting down trees from under that bridge when something large started growling and grunting at them, from 50-60 feet back in the thick brush and trees.

Donnie and some of the work crew thought they could see a large dark figure peeking out at them from behind a tree deep back in the brush.

Later that same day large footprints were found in mud next to a shallow stream back among the same trees.

When the crew resumed cutting down trees again under the bridge they started hearing loud knocks and branch snaps. It was enough to make all of them want to leave.

When they returned to the contractor who assigned them to that location, he told them something similar had happened to him at the same location.






This is the view seen by drivers over the bridge. You would never know that a bigfoot might be taking shelter underneath as you drive across a bridge like this, where the creek bottom underneath is such that a human would not be able to approach them without making a lot of noise, providing ample time for a bigfoot to flee and hide in a different direction. This is infrastructure utilized by these creatures.

The GA DOT would be my heroes if they installed a hidden wildlife camera on the underside of this particular bridge.

About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.

- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

- Juris Doctorate (Law degree) from University of Akron School of Law

- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.

- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.

- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.

- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.

- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.

- Current Director of the BFRO

- Available for private bigfoot expeditions and conferences. To inquire please email ContactUS@BFRO.net

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