|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Jun 5, 2015 7:25:51 GMT -5
'Minerva Monster' documents Bigfoot scare in 1978
MINERVA, Ohio – In August 1978, the area was abuzz with reports of a Bigfoot creature – 7-feet-tall, hairy and smelling of ammonia – that had been reported peering into the kitchen window of the Cayton family’s farmhouse near Minerva, invading the chicken coop and even hurling rocks at the home. “I think a lot of people believed them. I believed them,” recalled Jim Shannon in a new documentary titled Minerva Monster. Shannon worked with the Stark County Sheriff’s Office at the time.
Although many cried hoax and openly mocked the Caytons, according to the film, “There was no doubt in my mind then or today that those folks saw something. No question in my mind. There was no booze involved,” said Shannon, who investigated the claims. “They were terrified.” Similar creature descriptions came from residents of a nearby trailer park and even drivers on US Route 30. The 55-minute Minerva Monster film includes multiple eyewitness accounts from Minerva-area residents including Howie Cayton, plus extended interviews with Shannon and Barbara Galloway, a cub reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal assigned to cover the story in 1978.
Making the Film. Seth Breedlove, a Bolivar native who wrote and directed Minerva Monster, had been researching the Minerva story for a planned book when he met Bigfoot enthusiasts Alan Megargle and Jesse Morgan through the Ohio Bigfoot Conference. “We had film equipment and Seth had interview contacts,” said Megargle, the editor, cinematographer and a producer of Minerva Monster. A collaboration was born.
While the documentary is enhanced with atmospheric camera-work and evocative music composed by Brandon Dalo, it includes none of the melodramatic narration or sensational re-enactments so prevalent in “reality” television. “There have been lots of Bigfoot films but never one the way we did ours,” Megargle said. “They’re mostly about hillbillies with guns trying to kill off Bigfoot.” While Breedlove describes himself as “the group skeptic” of the Minerva Monster crew, he was persuaded by the Caytons’ story for a basic reason. “They had nothing to gain from all this other than a lot of ridicule,” he said.
Witness Accounts. Breedlove spent months persuading the Caytons to cooperate with the film. Minerva Monsters marks the first time that Howie Cayton, who was a boy in 1978, has been interviewed about what happened. “Most of the witness accounts are about fleeting encounters” with the creature, Megargle said. “Howie claims to have jumped on it.” Because the Minerva Monster saga unfolded almost 37 years ago, “nobody’s stories linked up,” Breedlove said. “Inconsistencies abound and we made a conscious effort to leave that in (the film).”
Minerva Monster had its world-premiere May 16 at the Ohio Bigfoot Conference held at Salt Fork State Park Lodge, with about 450 people in attendance. “The reaction was real positive,” Breedlove said. “What people seemed to like most was that we took the subject seriously. It was straight-up eyewitness testimony with none of that hokey, overdramatized stuff.”
The Minerva Monster documentary will be the centerpiece of a celebration in downtown Minerva on Saturday, June 6, from noon to 5 p.m. The film will be shown at 12:30 and 3 p.m. at the historic Roxy Theatre. Marc DeWerth, organizer of the Ohio Bigfoot Conference, will give an hour-long talk about Bigfoot in Ohio following the 12:30 screening. The Minerva Monster production crew, along with some individuals interviewed in the film, will take the stage after the 3 p.m. show. While admission is free, tickets can be requested by emailing: smalltowmonsters@gmail.com. (A 5 p.m. showing is already full.)
DVDs of Minerva Monster and film-related merchandise will be for sale at the Roxy. Additionally, there will be Bigfoot merchandise vendors outside the theater, Minerva Monster-related carvings at local retail store Local Flair, food vendors and a costumed “Minerva Monster” for photo opportunities.
Source: Dan Kane, CantonRep, June 1, 2015. |
|
|
|
Post by Sam on Jun 6, 2015 3:48:01 GMT -5
This sounds interesting. I like reading and watching documentaries about monster sightings, UFOs, and other paranormal events from the past. It seems that in the past, these kinds of things were investigated better than they are today.
|
|
|
|
Post by jane on Jun 6, 2015 12:04:36 GMT -5
This sounds interesting. I like reading and watching documentaries about monster sightings, UFOs, and other paranormal events from the past. It seems that in the past, these kinds of things were investigated better than they are today.
Excellent point, Sam. Up until sometime in the 1990s, books and articles about the paranormal were researched and written well because the people who wrote and researched them were educated. Now, you have all these ghost hunters and bigfoot hunters, most of whom have nothing more than a high school education, writing on the Internet and its ruined the entire field of paranormal research.
|
|
|
|
Post by pat on Jun 7, 2015 14:39:53 GMT -5
This sounds interesting. I like reading and watching documentaries about monster sightings, UFOs, and other paranormal events from the past. It seems that in the past, these kinds of things were investigated better than they are today.
Excellent point, Sam. Up until sometime in the 1990s, books and articles about the paranormal were researched and written well because the people who wrote and researched them were educated. Now, you have all these ghost hunters and bigfoot hunters, most of whom have nothing more than a high school education, writing on the Internet and its ruined the entire field of paranormal research.
I also enjoying reading articles about the paranormal from the past. I guess I hadn't thought about it before, but it's probably because they are written a lot better than those today. They also have more interesting information instead of what someone picked up on EVP or on their digital cameras. I don't think that schools today teach kids how to conduct research.
|
|
|
|
Post by jason on Jun 12, 2015 10:32:58 GMT -5
This might be worth watching. I tried to watch some silly Bigfoot show one night and some nut kept saying, "That's a squatch." It was almost as bad as a book I tried to read by that nutty woman in Florida, Dusty something-or-other, in which almost every other word was "Dude." Whatever happened to her? I checked before I posted this and she doesn't seem to be a member of this group, but I think she was in all three Yahoo groups. |
|
|
|
Post by natalie on Jun 12, 2015 13:00:04 GMT -5
Sometimes, technology makes things worse. It takes away the intrigue and suspense, since people are no longer interested in writing about their sightings if they can just post an EVP or picture. Also, let's not forget all the technology that can be used to hoax people into believing what they see in the posted pictures or footage, so maybe people just don't care to investigate, they believe what they see and accept it.
|
|
|
|
Post by madeline on Jun 12, 2015 13:38:25 GMT -5
This might be worth watching. I tried to watch some silly Bigfoot show one night and some nut kept saying, "That's a squatch." It was almost as bad as a book I tried to read by that nutty woman in Florida, Dusty something-or-other, in which almost every other word was "Dude." Whatever happened to her? I checked before I posted this and she doesn't seem to be a member of this group, but I think she was in all three Yahoo groups.
I remember Dusty. She added her awful books to the Prize List in the Mystery Locations that we used to have before a certain person started cheating. I made the mistake of ordering one of her books from her website and it wasn't even a book, it was just typed pages stapled together. The "book" was so full of typos and grammatical errors that I threw it in the trash before finishing it. If she's on this list, she's using another name. Wasn't she involved in Troy Taylor's group?
|
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Jun 13, 2015 12:07:40 GMT -5
This might be worth watching. I tried to watch some silly Bigfoot show one night and some nut kept saying, "That's a squatch." It was almost as bad as a book I tried to read by that nutty woman in Florida, Dusty something-or-other, in which almost every other word was "Dude." Whatever happened to her? I checked before I posted this and she doesn't seem to be a member of this group, but I think she was in all three Yahoo groups. I remember Dusty. She added her awful books to the Prize List in the Mystery Locations that we used to have before a certain person started cheating. I made the mistake of ordering one of her books from her website and it wasn't even a book, it was just typed pages stapled together. The "book" was so full of typos and grammatical errors that I threw it in the trash before finishing it. If she's on this list, she's using another name. Wasn't she involved in Troy Taylor's group?
Her name was Doris Smith, but she was called "Dusty." If she's in this group, she joined as a ghost because she died around three years ago.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Jun 14, 2015 0:39:40 GMT -5
I had no idea she was dead. How old was she?
|
|
