Bigfoot in New Jersey: The Garden (State) Variety Sasquatch

By WR Matts

Since the 1894 report that a “Wildman” with a club was seen traveling through Morris County, strange creatures resembling Bigfoot have been reported in New Jersey. The Pine Barrens, 1.1 million acres covering parts of seven different counties and 22% of the entire state, has been a rich source for glimpses of the legend. Many other parts of the state have been visited by Bigfoot as well. In this book WR Matts documents 68 of these recorded sightings from all across the Garden State.
In addition, he provides three comprehensive reports about his own research in High Point State Park and Wharton State Forest. Matts explains his personal methodology, the success of which led him to encounter one eight-foot creature at the Godfrey Bridge Campground in the Pine Barrens.
Other chapters of the book discuss how studies of Bigfoot are evolving with the realization that these intelligent creatures can avoid current research methods such as camera traps and call blasting. Recent reports of long-term habituation experiences seem to point in the direction of using Bigfoot’s natural curiosity as a more effective way to make contact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pine Winds Press
• Release date: Jul 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9780937663332

WR Matts

Even as a young boy, WR Matts was enamored with the outdoors. His family spent summer weekends and several weeks each year camping on the East Coast. Many more days were spent fishing and hunting with his father, from whom he learned his outdoor skills. These experiences developed his interest in being in the woods to watch, listen, and learn. For the past 38 years Matts has absorbed lessons from forest wildlife as pertaining to his research about Sasquatch. He is feverishly, actively, and continually studying the Bigfoot phenomenon.

Book preview

Bigfoot in New Jersey

The Garden (State) Variety Sasquatch

WR Matts

Pine Winds Press

Pine Winds Press

An imprint of Idyll Arbor, Inc.

39129 264th Ave SE, Enumclaw, WA 98022

www.PineWindsPress.com

Cover Design: Thomas M. Blaschko

Pine Winds Press Editor: JoAnne Dyer

Author photos: Donna Stoddard

Other photographs: WR Matts

© 2013 Idyll Arbor, Inc.

International copyright protection is reserved under Universal Copyright Convention and bilateral copyright relations of the USA. All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the relevant copyright laws.

paper ISBN 9780937663318

e-book ISBN 9780937663332

Published by Pine Winds Press/Idyll Arbor at Smashwords.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Matts, W. R.

Bigfoot in New Jersey : the Garden (State) variety sasquatch / WR Matts.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-937663-17-2 (paper : alkaline paper) -- ISBN 978-0-937663-33-2 (e-book)

1. Sasquatch--New Jersey. I. Title.

QL89.2.S2M365 2013

001.944--dc23

2013004451

To Melanie and Stephanie,

Regardless of whether you believe in the existence of Sasquatch or not, the one thing that I am deeply grateful for every day of my life is that the two of you have always, and always will, believe in your Dad. I love you both so very much.

To Donna,

For your tireless work and direction on this book, but most of all for your love and support. I thank the heavens each and every day for you coming into my life. My love and appreciation of you are endless.

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 Sasquatch as We Know Them

2 Habituation

3 Reported Behavioral Traits

4 Possible Crated Sasquatch Shipped to New Jersey?

5 History of Reported New Jersey Incidents

6 Personal Research

7 Tools of the Trade

8 Closing Thoughts

Sources

About the Author

Foreword

Like many people who develop an interest in Bigfoot, WR credits The Weekly Reader from his fifth grade class in elementary school for his initial exposure to the subject. Around that time, the popular television show, In Search Of… began scaring a generation of school kids.

Hosted by Leonard Nimoy, the show would further pique WR’s interest, and as time went on he would find books about Bigfoot that would turn him into a lifelong researcher.

Back in the early and mid-1970s, you were careful whom you told about your interest in monsters, Bigfoot in particular. Bigfoot was front and center on many tabloid newspapers then, and by and large the busy customer at the supermarket checkout line would snicker, Just as I thought! The whole Bigfoot topic is pure bunk and fantasy. Bold headlines such as I Had Bigfoot’s Baby only reinforced the skepticism.

A lifelong resident of South River, New Jersey, WR has made this work his first effort chronicling the Sasquatch in the Garden State, beginning with the first report from Morris County from 1894, in which a Wildman was seen traveling with a club. In 1927, a Sasquatch was reported to have shaken a car while the driver was changing a flat tire in Salem County. In Union County, a fisherman witnessed something abnormal for Sasquatch reports: a large ape-man creature about six and a half feet tall was spotted near a river in hot pursuit of two deer.

For those who live in New Jersey, this work will be an eye opener, offering Bigfoot reports and evidence spanning over a hundred years.

Daniel Perez

Norwalk, California

Author: Bigfoot at Bluff Creek

Editor: Bigfoot Times Newsletter

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the following people for all their help and support:

Robert and Dorothy Matts

Melanie Matts

Stephanie Matts

Donna Stoddard — my rock

Melissa Kline, Jenna Kline, and Nicole Kline

Ryan Rizco

Jesse Rafter and Colleen Rafter

Shaun Snure

Kim Hart

Daniel Perez / Bigfoot Times

Nancy Bradley / Psychic to the Stars

Mike Aragona, Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization

David Couto

Cryptids USA

Bigfoot Encounters

Oregon Bigfoot

New Jersey State Parks

My entire family and friends

Introduction

When one hears the name Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, in all likelihood a massive hairy creature comes to mind — a creature that many believe in and many do not believe exists. Many people also associate Sasquatch with the Pacific Northwest, in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada. True, this area plays host to plenty of reported personal experiences such as sightings, sounds, and footprints, but as the big guys would have it, their activity is reported not only in most states of North America but also in dozens of countries on all continents.

One state in the U.S. people might not associate with Bigfoot would be New Jersey, perhaps because of New Jersey’s relatively small size. Those people, however, would be wrong.

My interest in Sasquatch began at the early age of ten. Our fifth grade class, as in many other elementary schools, received a paper publication called The Weekly Reader. It contained news stories along with comic strips and puzzles. One week’s issue featured a story about a mysterious creature being reported by people in Missouri that had been given the name Momo, short for Missouri Monster. The hairy monstrosity was said to roam the backyards of homes and occasionally peer into windows. My interest in the subject was immediately piqued. Shortly thereafter, I watched an episode of the popular early 1970s television show called In Search of…, hosted by Leonard Nimoy. The program delved into many different mysteries, and one episode was titled In Search of … Bigfoot. This was the very first time that I viewed the Patterson-Gimlin footage of a supposed female Sasquatch filmed in Bluff Creek, California on October 20, 1967. So there you have it: at the young age of ten, I was hooked on the Bigfoot phenomenon. A thirst developed for more knowledge. I needed to better understand this living creature that was called Bigfoot.

Many years later and many books read, along with scores of documentaries viewed, I now write this book not to plead my case for the existence of Sasquatch, but to share my experiences and those of others through the years in my own backyard, so to speak, in the state of New Jersey.

1

Sasquatch as We Know Them

The name itself, Sasquatch, is derived from a combination of names with similar sounds used by different Native American tribes. The spelling is believed to have been penned by a teacher by the name of J.W. Burns in a Chehalis Indian tribe in British Columbia, Canada, during the late 1920s.

There remain today many Native American tribes in both the United States and Canada that have their own names for Sasquatch. There are far too many to list here, but I will include some for you. Chehalis Indians call them S’oq’ wiam, Yakima Indians know them as Tah-tah-kle-ah, the Yurok Indians call them Oh-mah, and the Salish Indians of the Cascade Mountains refer to them as See ah tik. Tales of this legendary creature have been passed down for generations in these and many other tribes. The rest of us have our own names for these living beings: Momo, as they are referred to in Missouri, short for Missouri Monster, the Fouke Monster, Grassman, Skunk Ape, and here in New Jersey on several occasions, Big Red Eyes.

When the name Sasquatch is heard, a common emotion is fear. Despite their physical appearance, though, they are widely viewed as being gentle. Except for occasions of curiosity, they would much rather avoid human contact altogether. The Sasquatch, more widely