Georgia Icons by Don Rhodes and Jeff Barnes

My friend Don Rhodes, together with photographer Jeff Barnes, has released Georgia Icons: 50 Classic Views of the Peach State. The books is full of beautiful pictures of spectacular places of interest around Georgia.  Included among them are The Varsity, Archie Butt's Titanic Bridge in Augusta, the Rock Eagle Effigy, the Tybee Lighthouse, Stone Mountain, the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds, and of course, the ever-mysterious Georgia Guidestones. 

Don is a noted author, having published in the field of Georgia music history.  The link on the story title above is a link to his amazon.com page. Please check it out. This is a wonderful book, and it should be included in any Georgia enthusiast's library.  I highly recommend it!!!

Appearing as guest on Squatchdetective Radio Show This Sunday, February 27th

I am excited to report that I will be the guest on Squatchdetective Radio Show this Sunday night at 8:00 p.m.  The show is hosted by Steve Kulls and Chris Bennett.  Many of you may remember Steve Kulls from MonsterQuest from the episode on the New York Bigfoot. 
Check out their website at:http://squatchdetective.com/
The radio show is at this site: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/squatchdetective
The show is this Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. and the link will tell you how to log in and listen.
Hope you enjoy!!!

Altamaha River Area Seems to Be a Hotspot for Bigfoot Sightings

The Altamaha River area of Georgia tends to be a very active area in terms of Bigfoot sightings.  Recently, I have had several emails and found several reports of sightings and activity in the area.  One reader on Facebook sent me a message that contained stories about two sightings in the McIntosh County area.  The first was a story told to the reader by a friend of his who was with his father in McIntosh County in a swampy area.  They were both on foot walking a railroad track deep in the woods. According to the story, the area where the tracks were had been cleared out about 20 feet. In the distance, the man and his father could see what they thought was a man walking across the tracks.  Not being a Bigfoot believer, the man said he was a bit perplexed by what he saw. He said that it may not have been a man afterall, as what he saw was over six feet tall, had lots of hair all over its body, and had arms that were long and hung down its side for quite some length.  In another story told to me by this same reader, he and a friend of his were on the Altamaha River for a hunting and camping trip.  It was the summer of 2005, and he and his friend decided to go for a late night boat ride. Finding a creek running off the river that they had never seen, the two decided to explore the area to see if there was any game there that they might come back later and hunt.  They boated about a mile up the creek when they decided to stop the motor and listen.  On the banks of the creek could be heard loud growling sounds and what sounded like the crashing of tree limbs and the breaking of tree branches in the woods.  The animal seemed to get more and more irritated as the pair remained on the creek, and as this happened, it became louder and seemed more aggressive in terms of breaking things in the woods.  Deciding that it was time to go, the two cranked up the boat and left the area before they saw whatever was making these awful growls and tearing up the woods face to face.
At the BFRO website there are a number of reports from this area of Georgia.  In one, posted in November 2008, a man was hunting with his uncle on the Altamaha River.  As he sat on the bank of the river, he looked to his side and noticed what he thought was a huge man standing near a tree.  He described the "thing" as being very tall, built like a football player, and hairy.  In fact, he said the thing was covered with hair about a foot long. It had a greyish cheek and a pointed nose with beedie eyes.  He looked away and then back again, and whatever this was had left.  After hearing some splashing in the water, he realized that whatever he had seen was now in the river. He walked closer, which elicited a 15-20 second growl from the animal.  The witness said that when the animal growled, all the squirrels in the vacinity ran toward him. 
There have been other sightings reported along the Altamaha River basin. It is a very large area, and the river itself is ripe for such events.  But I can't help but think that there is quite a bit of activity, or sightings at least, in that area.  Perhaps someone has heard of these types of encounters in that area. As a matter of fact, the witness in the BFRO story above says that there is a Wayne County legend called "Feets." It would be interesting to hear more about this.  I grew up and lived for quite some time in Montgomery County. The Altamaha River is formed at the south end of that county near Uvalda.  It is an impressive sight. I had never heard stories like this while I was growing up there. I still have lots of family there now.  I return to the area on holidays and family visits. Perhaps I ought to try to find out if there have been newspaper stories in my hometown paper that contain reports and sightings of weird animals on the banks of the Altamaha. 

Bigfoot in Georgia Gets Excellent Review in Daniel Perez's Bigfoot Times

Daniel Perez, the editor and publisher of The Bigfoot Times Newsletter, and well-known Bigfoot researcher, gave me rather good marks on my book Bigfoot in Georgia. In his December 2010 edition of the newsletter, he reviews the book. Some of his comments are below:
"Jeffery Wells, a department chairman for Georgia's Military College's Atlanta campus, has penned a rather interesting work on reports of Bigfoot in Georgia."  He goes on to say, "The author discusses the Georgia Bigfoot hoax of 2008, which attracted international attention, but wisely keeps the discussion brief."  He further writes, "BIGFOOT IN GEORGIA is well done, with references cited, and it is a very affordable book."
To be fair, he did have one criticism, with which I cannot totally disagree. He states, "His 'What is Bigfoot' chapter is long winded and goes over information already covered in other books."  I can see his point, but the reason I gave such a detailed account in that chapter is I knew many people who read the book would be new to Bigfoot studies, and I wanted to make sure they would have this opportunity to understand the background and the overall context in which the book fit. 
I want to thank Daniel for his kind words.  He even put a large copy of the book cover on one of the pages.  Also, thank you to Shane Honea, who sent me the copy of the review. 

A Cop, A Video of Bigfoot in Dahlonega, The Animal Planet and Me

Not long ago, a police officer and citizen riding along caught sight of what they thought might have been a Bigfoot.  The pair was driving at night in the Frogtown area of Lumpkin County when, on a dark and desolate stretch of the highway, a creature resembling the legendary Bigfoot crossed the road at amazing speed.  The incident was caught on the dashboard camera of the cruiser. 
The video has been circulated on the internet, and although some say it is a hoax perpetrated by two North Georgia College and State University students, the campus of which is located in nearby Dahlonega, the incident has become part of the Bigfoot legend in Georgia. 
Recently, a producer from The Discovery Network, contacted Mary Scott, the civilian riding along with the officer, as well as members of the BFRO about coming to North Georgia and filming their stories and following along on an outing for their documentary on the legend of Bigfoot in Georgia.  The producer has also contacted me about commenting on the Cherokee and Creek legends of forest giants said to be Sasquatch, as well as the story surrounding Track Rock Gap. My interview will be held at Track Rock Gap. 
The link to the story in The Dahlonega Nugget is here:
http://www.thedahloneganugget.com/articles/2011/01/26/news/04%20bigfoot.txt
The interview should be fun, as I am going to be talking about the Native American lore and stories that focus on animals that are thought to be Bigfoot, or at least bare some resemblance. 
I am most interested in this talk of a hoax, as hoaxes do quite a bit of damage to sincere research in this area, but I will be posting more on this as things unfold.

Voodoo In Sandersville, Georgia

The New York Times has some really interesting things. As a major news publication, they pick up stories from all over the world, and in yesteryear, they would include stories of interest from all over America, which they still sometimes do, but not with the frequency which they did this in the past. I came across a neat article that they ran in June 1888.

Apparently, in 1888, a local pastor's wife fell ill, very ill it seems, and the man of God sought help in any way he could to keep his bride alive. When traditional medicine did not seem to work, he resorted to calling in a, let's say, non-traditional healer. The man, who was part native American according to the article, diagnosed her as having been poisoned with rattlesnake venom, a malady that otherwise brings death quite quickly. For the large sum of $18.00, at least a large sum in that day, the man, named Gus Cheevers by the article, gave her a potion that caused the poison to seep out through her pores. The article gave vivid description to the method. It said, "The poison under his treatment exuded from the pores of her skin in threadlike sprays of mucous." How appetizing it must have been to see such a sight.

The story goes on to state that Cheevers did not stop with just healing the woman, but that he wanted to help pinpoint the culprit who had brought this blight on the pastor's wife. To accomplish this, all the neighbors of the couple would assemble, and Cheevers, holding a pendent would call out each of their names and have them come forward. The pendent would swing distinctly in the way of the culprit once he, or she, stepped forward. The method did not fail to provide an assailant, one Boston May. Although he denied it, the pendent told its tale and May was fingered as the poisoner. It was also noted in the article that a well owned by a man known only as "Old Jerry" began to boil up, to which Cheevers attributed to the fact that a little bottle containing the poison used to try to murder the poor woman was sitting at the bottom of the well.

What a strange story to appear in The New York Times. Sandersville is the county seat of Washington County, a county named for the first president, George Washington. I used to drive through there on my way up GA HWY 15 headed back to class at UGA each weekend I drove home. Never did I expect that such a strange story was floating around in Sandersville's past. Heck, Dairy Lane, an old-fashioned burger joint there in Sandersville, was the only thing that had caught my attention about the town in those days.

Appearing on Bigfoot Busters Internet Radio Show to Talk About Bigfoot in Georgia

I will be appearing, once again, with Wayne Ford, the journalist from Athens about whom I wrote in my book BIGFOOT IN GEORGIA, on Bigfoot Busters Blogtalk Radio Show this coming Sunday, December 12th at 9:00 p.m. Click on the title of this blog post and the link will take you to the show's website at Blogtalk Radio.

I am excited about appearing again on this radio show. I was a guest back in September, along with Wayne, and it was a lot of fun. Tune in. I know you will enjoy it!