A perfunctory, two-word Google search — “Bigfoot investigators” — yields nearly 5.7 million global results immediately, but one particular investigator amid the throng resides — and focuses his energies — closer to home.
That would be Les O’Dell of Idamay, in Marion County, who has been trailing the elusive, cryptic cryptid in recent years, in large part driven by resounding response to a Facebook page he launched five years ago.
A father of four and grandfather of one, O’Dell, 50, said his literal — and literary — pursuit of Bigfoot was preceded by his work as a paranormal investigator. “It isn’t the normal story — I’ve not had an experience with Bigfoot, but I became a paranormal investigator after an experience I had as a child,” he said. “My oldest son got into the Bigfoot part by listening to podcasts, so I started to listen and read about it. We had a discussion and thought, ‘Why don’t we start a Facebook group for people in West Virginia with their accounts not only of Bigfoot, but with UFOs, ghosts, whatever?’”
The WV Cryptids and Strange Encounters page has amassed more than 20,000 followers since. “People started messaging me about their Bigfoot sightings. That snowballed into getting more and more reports and investigating locations that had had sightings.”
O’Dell and an illustrator friend, Mark A. Randall, had published a small book about 11 cryptids allegedly seen in West Virginia, “West Virginia Cryptids: A Visual Field Guide for Traveling the Mountain State.” The outpouring of Facebook reports and newspaper accounts he found prompted him to return to the keyboard and write “Old Man of the Mountain: The West Virginia Bigfoot.” Published this spring, it contains 60 accounts of Bigfoot sightings from 1921 to 2018.
“I put some of the accounts in a small binder and shared them at the Bigfoot Museum. Many people wanted to know if they could buy it, but the owner told them it was just my research. I approached a publishing company in Charleston, and it was published a little over a month ago. It’s doing really well on Amazon, and it’s pretty much sold out at the museum.”
O’Dell said he will contact sources by email, phone or in-person visits. “Basically, I talk to people and try to help them understand [their encounter],” he explained. “I’m no expert at it; I have some interview skills from my paranormal background that I gained on my own. People appreciate me talking to them.
“I hate saying what I do is research. I consider it investigating,” he added.
The reputed Bigfoot sightings he’s chronicled have come “from all corners of the state, from both panhandles. I have a map I pin all of them on, but the majority come from the eastern part of the state where the national forest is. The book has 60 accounts, but I have definitely between 100 to 200 accounts in binders at home.”
Personally, O’Dell skews more toward Dana Scully than Fox Mulder in his belief in Bigfoot’s existence, but he keeps an open mind at all times as the tales he hears unfold.
He said witnesses’ reactions to his questions help determine the credibility of their sightings for him. “Some of the accounts I can come up with an explanation for. When I talk to them, I have certain questions, then I’ll ask them in a different way to see their reactions. I have CGI or artist renderings I use. It’s kind of a tell, I guess you’d call it; if they react, I kind of listen to the story a lot closer.”
He said one of the most credible accounts he’s recorded is ironic in that the Bigfoot sighting didn’t include the creature’s feet. “I was in Summersville talking to a couple. My son and I went to the location and we interviewed them separately. He had the gentleman’s wife sketch what she saw while I had him sketch what he saw. In her picture, she draws everything but the feet. I had the gentleman put my son on the road where he said he saw the creature, and I took a picture from their windshield where the wife had seen it. As soon as I got out of the car, I noticed from her viewpoint you couldn’t see the feet where my son was standing. That’s how close they were to this thing. It’s one of the most compelling stories I’ve heard.”
O’Dell noted that the cryptid wasn’t even called “Bigfoot” until 1958 (“The Old Man of the Mountain” is an Appalachian-based name for it). “Before then, it was called many things. They were called ‘wild men’ in some of the stories — folks who went out into the wild and went feral or whatever. Some are definitely something different, though, covered with hair or having oddly shaped heads. Mainly, ‘The Old Man of the Mountain’ comes from what a lot of older folks in the southern part of the state call it; I used it for the book title. There are many other different names, like ‘boogers’ or ‘woodboogers.’ The Bigfoot Museum has a wood carving there. An older fellow came in and said he knew what the wood carving was. The owner, Jim, said, ‘That’s Bigfoot.’ The man said, ‘No, that’s the Old Man of the Mountain.’ I looked into it. It’s a West Virginia thing. I though it was a cool title.
“I’m a skeptic/believer, although I know that sounds like a contradiction,” O’Dell said. “I have some belief there’s something out there; I’ve talked to so many people who swear they’ve seen something. The descriptions match others across the United States and other parts of the world.
“I’m still skeptical, because my skepticism comes from my investigation part. Where they come from. Where they go. The stories that are out there. The things that have been found and filmed and photographed and shown on videos. I just question them. As an investigator, I won’t believe until I get proof.
“In my heart of hearts, I believe Bigfoot is an undiscovered primate. There are a lot of different views out there — that’s it’s something paranormal, something otherworldly, related to UFOs. To me, it’s an undiscovered primate, but there are some weird stories out there.”
O’Dell also speculated on the possible ramifications of Bigfoot being finally verified in the hirsute flesh. “That’s to be seen, I guess,” he said. “I know it would change a lot in the scientific realm. I don’t know how much the government would be involved. I don’t know if I’d support that. It would definitely change history, but I don’t know how it might affect other stuff, if it’s an endangered species.”
O’Dell attended the 2023 West Virginia Bigfoot Festival June 24 at the Sutton museum, with upcoming appearances in Pennsylvania. He has also spoken to school and 4-H groups in recent years.
Both of O’Dell’s books are available at Amazon.com and at the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum, 400 Fourth St. in Sutton (wvbigfootmuseum.com). O’Dell can be contacted via the WV Cryptids and Strange Encounters Facebook page or by emailing wvcase304@gmail.com.
That would be Les O’Dell of Idamay, in Marion County, who has been trailing the elusive, cryptic cryptid in recent years, in large part driven by resounding response to a Facebook page he launched five years ago.
A father of four and grandfather of one, O’Dell, 50, said his literal — and literary — pursuit of Bigfoot was preceded by his work as a paranormal investigator. “It isn’t the normal story — I’ve not had an experience with Bigfoot, but I became a paranormal investigator after an experience I had as a child,” he said. “My oldest son got into the Bigfoot part by listening to podcasts, so I started to listen and read about it. We had a discussion and thought, ‘Why don’t we start a Facebook group for people in West Virginia with their accounts not only of Bigfoot, but with UFOs, ghosts, whatever?’”
The WV Cryptids and Strange Encounters page has amassed more than 20,000 followers since. “People started messaging me about their Bigfoot sightings. That snowballed into getting more and more reports and investigating locations that had had sightings.”
O’Dell and an illustrator friend, Mark A. Randall, had published a small book about 11 cryptids allegedly seen in West Virginia, “West Virginia Cryptids: A Visual Field Guide for Traveling the Mountain State.” The outpouring of Facebook reports and newspaper accounts he found prompted him to return to the keyboard and write “Old Man of the Mountain: The West Virginia Bigfoot.” Published this spring, it contains 60 accounts of Bigfoot sightings from 1921 to 2018.
“I put some of the accounts in a small binder and shared them at the Bigfoot Museum. Many people wanted to know if they could buy it, but the owner told them it was just my research. I approached a publishing company in Charleston, and it was published a little over a month ago. It’s doing really well on Amazon, and it’s pretty much sold out at the museum.”
O’Dell said he will contact sources by email, phone or in-person visits. “Basically, I talk to people and try to help them understand [their encounter],” he explained. “I’m no expert at it; I have some interview skills from my paranormal background that I gained on my own. People appreciate me talking to them.
“I hate saying what I do is research. I consider it investigating,” he added.
The reputed Bigfoot sightings he’s chronicled have come “from all corners of the state, from both panhandles. I have a map I pin all of them on, but the majority come from the eastern part of the state where the national forest is. The book has 60 accounts, but I have definitely between 100 to 200 accounts in binders at home.”
Personally, O’Dell skews more toward Dana Scully than Fox Mulder in his belief in Bigfoot’s existence, but he keeps an open mind at all times as the tales he hears unfold.
He said witnesses’ reactions to his questions help determine the credibility of their sightings for him. “Some of the accounts I can come up with an explanation for. When I talk to them, I have certain questions, then I’ll ask them in a different way to see their reactions. I have CGI or artist renderings I use. It’s kind of a tell, I guess you’d call it; if they react, I kind of listen to the story a lot closer.”
He said one of the most credible accounts he’s recorded is ironic in that the Bigfoot sighting didn’t include the creature’s feet. “I was in Summersville talking to a couple. My son and I went to the location and we interviewed them separately. He had the gentleman’s wife sketch what she saw while I had him sketch what he saw. In her picture, she draws everything but the feet. I had the gentleman put my son on the road where he said he saw the creature, and I took a picture from their windshield where the wife had seen it. As soon as I got out of the car, I noticed from her viewpoint you couldn’t see the feet where my son was standing. That’s how close they were to this thing. It’s one of the most compelling stories I’ve heard.”
O’Dell noted that the cryptid wasn’t even called “Bigfoot” until 1958 (“The Old Man of the Mountain” is an Appalachian-based name for it). “Before then, it was called many things. They were called ‘wild men’ in some of the stories — folks who went out into the wild and went feral or whatever. Some are definitely something different, though, covered with hair or having oddly shaped heads. Mainly, ‘The Old Man of the Mountain’ comes from what a lot of older folks in the southern part of the state call it; I used it for the book title. There are many other different names, like ‘boogers’ or ‘woodboogers.’ The Bigfoot Museum has a wood carving there. An older fellow came in and said he knew what the wood carving was. The owner, Jim, said, ‘That’s Bigfoot.’ The man said, ‘No, that’s the Old Man of the Mountain.’ I looked into it. It’s a West Virginia thing. I though it was a cool title.
“I’m a skeptic/believer, although I know that sounds like a contradiction,” O’Dell said. “I have some belief there’s something out there; I’ve talked to so many people who swear they’ve seen something. The descriptions match others across the United States and other parts of the world.
“I’m still skeptical, because my skepticism comes from my investigation part. Where they come from. Where they go. The stories that are out there. The things that have been found and filmed and photographed and shown on videos. I just question them. As an investigator, I won’t believe until I get proof.
“In my heart of hearts, I believe Bigfoot is an undiscovered primate. There are a lot of different views out there — that’s it’s something paranormal, something otherworldly, related to UFOs. To me, it’s an undiscovered primate, but there are some weird stories out there.”
O’Dell also speculated on the possible ramifications of Bigfoot being finally verified in the hirsute flesh. “That’s to be seen, I guess,” he said. “I know it would change a lot in the scientific realm. I don’t know how much the government would be involved. I don’t know if I’d support that. It would definitely change history, but I don’t know how it might affect other stuff, if it’s an endangered species.”
O’Dell attended the 2023 West Virginia Bigfoot Festival June 24 at the Sutton museum, with upcoming appearances in Pennsylvania. He has also spoken to school and 4-H groups in recent years.
Both of O’Dell’s books are available at Amazon.com and at the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum, 400 Fourth St. in Sutton (wvbigfootmuseum.com). O’Dell can be contacted via the WV Cryptids and Strange Encounters Facebook page or by emailing wvcase304@gmail.com.
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