Georgia Man Shares Lifelong Bigfoot Encounters on Podcast

Posted Thursday, June 25, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

There's something about a firsthand account that just hits different, especially when the person telling it didn't even realize what they were experiencing until years later. That's exactly what makes this particular episode from the Bigfoot Society channel so compelling. The guest, known as Bud, grew up in northwest Pennsylvania, right in the heart of Allegheny National Forest territory. For those unfamiliar with this region, it's a vast expanse of dense woodland spanning across several counties, and it's long been considered prime Sasquatch habitat. The Allegheny Plateau has a rich history of reported sightings, strange vocalizations, and unexplained wood knocks that researchers have been documenting for decades. Bud's story begins when he was around 14 or 15 years old. He was with his brother and father near a place called the Dorn Estate, a wealthy property on the outskirts of their land. It was a summer afternoon, somewhere around 12:30 to 1:00 PM, when he heard something that stopped him cold. A guttural, powerful vocalization that echoed down the valley. He describes it as something that literally felt like it was shaking the ground, with a lung capacity that suggested something enormous. For someone who grew up in those woods and knew every sound Pennsylvania had to offer, this was something entirely new. Now here's where things get really interesting. Bud had a girlfriend who lived on the other side of a mountain behind his house on Summer Street. Without a car, he decided to walk over the mountain to visit her, which meant traversing some pretty thick wilderness. On top of that hill, there was apparently an old homestead with a pasture and fence that he used as a landmark. What happened next is the kind of thing that makes researchers pay attention. Over the course of about nine or ten trips over that mountain, Bud started hearing voices. Not just any voices, but strange, unnatural vocalizations that he describes as "pop pop" sounds and knocking. These are textbook wood knocks and possible Sasquatch vocalizations that witnesses across North America have reported for generations. The interesting part is that these encounters always happened in summer, never in winter, and always within a half-mile radius of the same area. For anyone who's spent time researching Sasquatch behavior, this pattern is significant. Many researchers have noted that reported activity tends to peak during warmer months and often centers around specific territorial zones. The fact that Bud heard these sounds repeatedly in the same general area suggests he may have been passing through an established travel route or even near a nesting site. Bud also mentions hearing heavy footsteps during these treks, which he initially attributed to large deer. But combined with the vocalizations and knocking, the picture becomes much more intriguing. He was, by his own description, fearless at that age, having been chased by bears and even sat on rattlesnakes. Yet these sounds gave him pause. After graduating, Bud moved south, eventually settling in North Georgia near Clark Hill Lake, also known as Thurmond Lake, close to Elijah Clark State Park. This is where the conversation in the episode takes an interesting turn, though the discussion cuts off before fully revealing what happened next at the lake house he had there. What's particularly fascinating about Bud's account is the delayed realization. He didn't connect these experiences to Sasquatch until later in life, which is actually quite common among witnesses. Many people hear vocalizations or experience strange encounters in the woods and don't have a framework to understand what happened until they encounter Bigfoot research later on. The human mind tends to rationalize unusual experiences in the moment, especially when there's no visual confirmation. The Allegheny National Forest region of Pennsylvania has produced numerous reports over the years, with witnesses describing everything from strange howls to tree structures and ground disturbances. The terrain there, with its mix of old-growth forest, ridgelines, and remote hollows, provides ideal habitat for a large, reclusive primate if such a creature exists. For those interested in hearing Bud's full story, including what happened at the lake house in Georgia, the episode is definitely worth checking out. His calm, matter-of-fact delivery and the way he describes these experiences without embellishment adds credibility to the account. Sometimes the most compelling witnesses are the ones who aren't trying to convince you of anything, they're just sharing what happened to them. The Bigfoot Society channel continues to put out these long-form interview episodes that give witnesses a platform to share their stories in detail, and this one is a solid example of why that format works so well for this subject matter.