The Bigfoot Controversy in Pine County, Minnesota

Although sightings of Bigfoot in Pine County (Minnesota) have hit the news the last few years, via several newspaper reports and "Finding Bigfoot" television series, just when it seems like the talk is fading away, another twist rises to the top.

I've seen Chad Lewis give a talk in Henderson, Minnesota three years ago, about haunted places in Minnesota. He also sells several books about the topic for Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and does 'headline' books and books on other creatures people reported seeing, mostly in the Midwest. He is entertaining, which is why people come to his seminars. It seems most of us just can't get enough scary stories.

I came across this story and received permission from Editor Mike Gainor of the Pine City Pioneer (Minnesota) to reprint his article that ran March 7, 2013. Although Lewis has come and gone, if you want to learn more about him and his talks, go to "Unexplained Research" on your favorite search engine.

"by Mike Gainor

Pine City Pioneer

Some say Bigfoot is a myth, but Chad Lewis isn’t so sure. What’s more, the paranormal researcher knows many who say they have spotted the creature  right here in Pine County. 

Lewis, author of “Mysterious Creatures of Minnesota,” said he first started receiving reports of Bigfoot sightings in the northeast corridor of the St. Croix State Park and Nemadji State Forest 19 years ago.

“[Reports] trickle in maybe once a year,” Lewis said. “People [are] seeing this large biped walking around on its hind legs, somewhere [between] six to eight feet tall. It’s got this thick, matted-down, shaggy fur.  From all accounts, for lack of a better word, they tell me it looks like a Bigfoot.”

Lewis shared a photo of a plaster cast of a footprint, and a drawing of the creature pictured on this page.

“The drawing is from Dennis Murphy, who spent 30 years in the area just west of Danbury tracking Bigfoot,” Lewis said. “He had that sighting ... and then another with a smaller one he thought was maybe a female or offspring creature. It’s very rare to see something like that.”

Lewis holds a Master’s of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and said he comes by his interest in the odd and supernatural, well, naturally.  

“I blame it on my home state of Wisconsin,” he said. “I grew up in Eau Claire which is not too far from one of the three ‘UFO capitals of the world’ that we have in Wisconsin.  When I was in high school, I was really interested in these people who kept seeing UFOs, or believed they were seeing them. So I just traveled there and started talking to people.”

In college he studied the psychology behind why people believe in the weird and unusual. 

“I would give presentations at statistical conferences ... but people in the audience would come up and say, ‘I know this isn’t quite what you’re doing, but I think my home is haunted,’ or ‘I saw something in the woods I can’t explain. Can you help me out?’ I said ‘Sure,’ and that spiraled from [studying] why they believe to what’s actually happening.”

Since then, Lewis has traveled across the world in search of the paranormal, reporting on tracking vampires in Transylvania and chasing the Chupacabras in Puerto Rico, to searching for the elusive monster in Loch Ness, and pursuing ghosts in Ireland’s castles. He has been on the Discovery Channel and ABC’s “World’s Scariest Places” among many other media appearances. 

But with so many tales of the odd, uncanny and supernatural, how many does Lewis actually believe? 

“Probably about half and half,” Lewis said. “After 20 years of doing this, I’m left with more questions than answers. But when you look at the ‘Phantom Pig of the State Fair,’ do I give that more credence than an undiscovered large creature like the Bigfoot? 

Probably not.

“But then again,” he added, “when you’re dealing with the weird, what’s too weird?”

Lewis will read from his new book, “Mysterious Creatures of Minnesota,” at the Hinckley Public Library on March 14 at 7 p.m."

As a journalist by nature, when I read accounts I want to talk directly to the source. So hopefully in the future I can give you a first hand account from those who experience mysterious encounters.

My intention is to just contact those in Minnesota - that should keep me busy for quite awhile, if they decide to go on the record. It will be tough though, because just adjacent to Pine County is the Wisconsin county of Burnett, where a bigfoot was sighted years ago near Danbury - where my family's cabin is located. 

Maybe it's the same bigfoot family? We'll just have to wait and see.

And if I happen to find a Bigfoot or mysterious creature or find out someone else who did in the Pine County, Gainor said give him a call. He'd be interested in whatever I find.

Him and umpteen others.