Welcome to Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains I'm Larry Hedrick where we bring the past into the
present for our future viewers today we have another great story by Hank Sheffer well hello
folks I am Hank Sheffer and I'm known as the old storyteller and the first story I got to
tell you is how that came about why they call me that at Apacheland many years ago
uh part of my job was to haul this rocking chair out in the middle of the street at the beginning
of all the shows and I'd sit there with my book in hand and I would read stories to the people
and then we would have a gun fight after that so that's exactly what I'd like to do today is
is redo some of that I want to read you a couple stories just like they were in the old days
Well now, I have said in our mission statement that there would be times when we will present
legends, lore and stories and sometimes pretty fantastical stories they are simply
occurrences that have been passed along around campfires and perhaps over-indulged whiskey bars
nevertheless they are very much integral parts of the superstition mountain legacy
the interpretation of these stories now is only limited to how deeply you allow your imagination
to delve into their suspicious if not sometimes superstitious nature now that said hang on to your
hat this story is actually did take place finding bigfoot not so much many years ago a call was
received by one of our local historians in the junction from a Mr C Thomas Biscardi from over
there in Northern California now in case you don't know who this guy was because I didn't either
Carmen Thomas Biscardi known as Tom is a Cryptology enthusiast a Las Vegas promoter
an internet radio host and a film director he describes himself as a real big foot hunter
he was interested in a Yeti and a Bigfoot in Reavis valley
a landlocked biotic area above the Sonorian desert floor that supported dense ponderosa pines
it means that this area was where adaptations ensure the animals can survive
it's a place where Bigfoot could survive and Mr Biscardi wanted to know how to get there
well that came as a surprise to pretty much everybody in the Junction a story about Bigfoot
and the superstition wilderness was ridiculous the best especially for people who had been in
and out of the mountain and who knew most of the rocks on a first name basis up there
but then it was recalled there was another tale about a strange encounter more than 80
years prior to that when two prospectors hiked into the area around pope springs
they were in search of gold like pretty much everybody else was
pope springs is about a mile and a half southeast of rogers trough trailhead the
two prospectors were all settled in when one night something attacked the camp
whatever was killed and hauled off their burrow before they could fire a shot must
have been something both men said that they got a good look at the huge beast
as it dragged their burrow off but after that they stayed up wide awake too scared to go to sleep
they kept trying to figure out how big an animal would have to be to carry off a 450 pound buro
in their mind's eye it almost had to be a grizzly bear that was the biggest critter out here capable
of doing such a deed the only problem was there weren't grizzly bears out here they were mostly
black bears but they get big too we'll talk about that in a minute later when the prospectors were
pressed by the newspapers to describe their uninvited intruder they said it was large
smelly strange sort of an animal with matted coarse and tangled hair they said it was tall
they said it was every bit of eight to ten feet tall although they couldn't actually identify
the beast as an animal or a human they sell that it smelled like uh well you know what bears do
and it was unusually agile on its back feet they guessed it weighed between 400 and 800 pounds
it was these two stories that probably fueled the imagination of Tom Biscardi the real big foot
hunter well here we go on may 11 1981 see it's not all that long ago the phoenix gazette announced
explorer plans to capture Bigfoot now C Thomas Biscardi was making an exploration trip to the
Superstition Mountain in Arizona to search for Bigfoot the interviews must have been
something to witness Biscardi claimed his latest encounter with Bigfoot occurred on
Mount Lason in North California he said he took photographs of the elusive primate but admitted
the front view images of the large hairy figure emerging from the clump of trees in the dark
may not be enough to convince skeptics he went on to say that there were more than 850 sightings of
creatures matching the descriptions of Bigfoot in the Soviet Union, Canada and the United States
Biscardi planned to prove their existence to be true and said he believed these creatures could
be the possible link he didn't say to what he just said they were a link now Mr Biscardi now
had two reports of these large human-like creatures in the superstition wilderness
he spent two weeks in the Reavis ranch area but reported not seeing anything he did however
report finding signs of Bigfoot he pointed out some ponderosa pines with scratch marks
13 feet up and that the ground indicating a tall animal must have been the one scratching that tree
Biscardi also stated there was a sour sweet smell associated with Bigfoot
this smell was reportedly found in several locations around the Reavis ranch
I must interject here I...I gotta say this first off the scratch marks on the ponderosa pines could
have easily been caused by black bears as they were very prevalent in the superstition mountains
at that time they weren't grizzlies black bears would often climb the pines just like little kids
out playing and slide down the trunks using their claws as breaks that would explain how
those scratches got there and secondly anyone who has ever been to Reavis ranch orchard fields
could tell you that they could smell the sweet and sour smell of those apples on the ground before
they ever got to the ranch the wild critters up there just loved all those apples on the ground
Biscardi's expedition may have been a serious attempt to prove the existence
of Bigfoot up in the superstitions but tom had to say that his expedition was disappointing
Bigfoot was now nowhere to be found in the final analysis or excuse whatever you want to call it
he concluded that the wilderness area was not large enough to support a population
of these unknown creatures he went on to say that he never found Bigfoot
but that wasn't the end of the reported sightings of the elusive creature now tom had already left
he was gone but there were also other reports in the fall of 2000 there was a report that said
while rep while riding horseback North of Reavis ranch a large black bear was spotted the man who
made the report said if a person had any kind of imagination at all they could have easily
envisioned Bigfoot running across the old tall grass pasture he looked just like a Bigfoot
and then a few years later after that it was reported that a large upright animal spooked a
rider and pack horse near the headwaters of rough canyon along the northern edge of white mountain
this story surfaced about 15 years ago and I can tell you the rough canyon area is extremely remote
and ignored by most folks because it is almost impossible to get through the area
the rider who reported the large upright animal said he was trying to get to the headwaters of
rough canyon to set up a camp and explore the area for archaeological sites he claimed that he was
studying the pattern of inhabited areas north of white mountain and south of Reavis mountain
well and after after that there were several other sightings but they all turned out to be
just as unsuccessful at finding and capturing Bigfoot as tom Biscardi's endeavors had been
but make no mistake my friends the 250 square miles we call the superstition wilderness area
with the superstition mountain right in the middle has always been a region that
attracted the unusual and unexplained as it is with so many of the other legends in myths
if Bigfoot does exist it remains to be proven
turns out the superstitions are not the only place where things stay hidden so in closing let me say
as the years pass by the superstitions continue to leave behind more questions than answers
and those interesting characters who we we know about who explore the superstition wilderness
are still chasing their dreams of finding lost gold archaeological treasures learning about the
flora and fauna or just simply they're trying to figure out what is fact and what is fiction
and ironically so much of it just sits right out there in front of us
such as the case with the next story I'm going to tell you too thank you for watching this episode
of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains