Annual Texas Bigfoot Conference Kicks Off Friday

Legend has it in East Texas that a very fast creature with short brown hair eluded capture mostly because the horses used for tracking it were too scared to go near the quick beast. For nearly 100 years, Texans have reported sightings of either dark or gray, ape-like creatures better known as Bigfoot. The majority of these sightings reported have been from East Texas, so it's no coincidence the Annual Texas Bigfoot Conference will take place near the Louisiana state line.

The conference begins Friday in Jefferson, Texas, which is just north of Marshall in Northeast Texas and near Caddo Lake. The murky, swamp-like setting seems like the ideal place for seekers of a creature that's part imaginative, part mythical and, for some, quite real.

Some of the recent Texas sightings this millennium include 2002 in Sabine and this July in Round Rock. The "Sabine Thing" is similar to the reported "Caddo Critter" from the 1970's. Three months ago the city of Round Rock tweeted out videos of foot tracks in the mud, and there's another video of a strange creature running into the woods.

Established in 2001 as the original annual Bigfoot Conference in Texas by the Texas Bigfoot Research Center. Confirmed Speakers:Cliff Barackman - Survey of Sasquatch Handprint EvidenceLoren Coleman - Fact or Fake? The Patterson-Gimlin Film at FiftyLyle Blackburn - "Caddo Creatures: Bigfoot in Jefferson"

• David Weatherly - "At War With Sasquatch", covering "The Choctaw-Bigfoot War" and other Native American battles with big hairy men.
• Chester Moore - A Wildlife Journalists Perspective on Sasquatch
• Ken Gerhard - Littlefoot: Accounts of Proto-pygmies around the World
• Jerry Hestand - They Always Follow the Creeks: Hunting Apes in America
• Shelly Covington-Montana - Bigfoot Research for Beginners: Evidence Collection and Analysis

The conference is Oct. 6-8, and here is a complete schedule of events and registration information.

Top image: Daryl Colyer, lead field researcher for the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, delivers the kickoff presentation Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005, at the Texas Bigfoot Conference in Jefferson, Texas. Hundreds gathered Saturday at the fifth annual Texas Bigfoot Conference to look at casts of footprints and hear about the latest sightings and other evidence they say proves Bigfoot exists. (AP Photo/D.J. Peters)