Haunted Highway (2012) s01e01 Episode Script
Bear Lake Beast; Vergas Hairy Man
I'm Jack Osbourne, and I've been obsessed with the paranormal since I was a kid.
I wanted to investigate some of America's scariest cases, but I decided it had to be done differently.
I put together two teams -- myself and my researcher, Dana, and my friends Jael and Devin.
We shot everything ourselves -- just us.
This is what we discovered, and it completely blew my mind.
- Okay.
- Good? Bear Lake beast underwater cave dive.
Hairy Man, day 1.
We are in Utah, kind of in the middle of nowhere.
This Hairy Man is aggressive and dangerous.
Something's out here.
Some serious [bleep.]
here right now.
This is crazy.
It must have run through this way.
What the hell is that? Look, look, look.
This is fresh.
I think I just saw something break the surface.
I don't think we're alone here.
It's on.
Bear Lake beast, day 1.
Music.
All right, so, we are in Utah, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and we are looking for the Bear Lake beast.
Now, there is the ongoing theory that there are ancient prehistoric creatures that were trapped and isolated in these lakes and they could have flourished and continued to live on.
It was reported that this thing snatched children from the water.
Awesome.
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe that's just a story parents tell their children.
I'm kind of small, though, so, uh We're nearing garden city, Utah, which sits right on the edge of Bear Lake.
And this seems to be where most of the eyewitness reports have come from.
Why don't we pull over somewhere, see if we can talk to some people on the street? So, what do you know about the Bear Lake Monster? Nighttime is when it comes out on the land.
That's what I've heard, anyway.
I've heard that they close the beaches at 10:00 at night.
I mean, you can't come to Bear Lake without having a raspberry shake, and you can't come to Bear Lake without knowing about the Bear Lake Monster.
Is this where we get the famous raspberry milk shakes? Yes, it is.
Wow.
Oh, that's no joke.
Have you ever seen it? I've never seen the Bear Lake Monster, no.
But my cousin has.
You could definitely talk to him, and he could tell you what he's seen.
I think that's Brian right there, who supposedly has had a run-in with this creature, according to his cousin.
Hey.
- I'm Brian.
- Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
Is that one rolling? On the front? You guys ready, then? How big is this lake? It's about 50 miles in circumference, about 20 miles long, 8 miles wide.
Do you know where the deepest point is? It's over on the east side.
It's about a little over 200 feet deep.
This is the area that I had the encounter with what I believe is the Bear Lake Monster.
Wow.
And what exactly did you see? Well, I was a couple hundred yards off the shore, and I saw these two bumps in the water about 3 feet apart.
10 seconds later, I had the scare of my life.
Something unexplained breached about 50 feet off the side of the boat.
And it actually breached out of the water and splashed back down, like a whale would do.
Wow.
Wow.
It was such a big beast that it actually rocked the boat with the waves.
And it did make a noise, kind of like a roaring bull, and went back down under the water.
Can you describe it? It was dark in color -- either dark brown or dark green, probably 20 to 30 feet long.
It's about a foot and a half in diameter, the head, with a long neck, kind of, maybe serpentine-like.
I could see water coming from its mouth or head area, kind of shooting it out.
Has this creature only been seen on the water, or does it ever come onto the shore? People have seen it go up on the shore.
A lot of cattle have disappeared, sheep.
How would you feel about us borrowing your boat for the evening? I won't sink it, I promise.
That'd be great.
Perfectly fine.
Okay.
Hope you find the monster.
So do I.
Well, let's head back to shore and we'll set up.
So, Brian seemed like he -- yeah, he seems really nice and credible and normal.
Yeah, it's nice of him to let us borrow his boat, too.
Yeah.
What do you think? I mean, it goes down pretty far.
Yeah.
I mean, this is a good place to set up.
Yeah.
Okay.
The Bear Lake beast has been said to come onshore sometimes to feed.
Let's set up three I.
R.
cameras on the beach but facing the water.
That way, we have maximum coverage of land and the lake.
And what about the flir? The flir's gonna pick up anything out in the lake if it gives off a heat signature.
All right, let's get to it.
So, if you want to just head out, and I'll walkie you and tell you when to stop when you're kind of in the middle.
Cool, I'll stay in constant contact 'cause I don't want to get left alone out there.
All right.
Sounds good.
You can see me on the cameras, right? If anything comes outr of the water or breaches the surface, this thing is definitely gonna pick it up.
Obviously, my visibility is limited right now.
I'm gonna need you to kind of do that for me with those cameras.
I'm looking for anything strange -- dark spots under the water, any strange splashes, you know, basically, anything out of the norm.
Okay.
Got it.
Getting some feedback on the sonar.
What's it look like? Talk to me.
It's telling me there's a bunch of fish.
See any large shapes on there or anything bigger than the others? Uh No, there's nothing, like, standing out too crazy.
I'm gonna go out a little further.
Sounds good.
Make sure that you're still on walkie.
You see anything? Hey, hold on.
The sonar's going off the chart a little bit.
Holy [bleep.]
what is that?! Hey, hold on.
The sonar's going off the chart a little bit.
Holy [bleep.]
what is that?! What is it? Talk to me.
Seems to be one large object below me.
Is it a rock? Or what do you think? I don't know.
It's right underneath me, but I can't see anything.
Hey.
I just got an idea.
I'm gonna MacGyver a little rig together and stick a camera under the boat.
Do whatever you need to do.
All right, it's going under.
I don't see anything.
How clear is the water out there? I really can't see much out here.
All right.
Just come back to shore.
All right.
Maybe we should regroup, check the footage, and just -- we're gonna have to come out here another night.
I honestly think the only way we're gonna find something is if I get in.
If you what? I'm just gonna go in.
Tomorrow I'm gonna go, I'm gonna rent scuba gear, and we're gonna go in.
You feel safe doing that? I've done solo night dives before.
This is gonna be no problem.
I'm on board if you are.
All right.
Well, I've made some calls, and we're gonna go meet with Bryce Nielson, who is a retired Marine biologist.
That would be very helpful.
Absolutely.
And he apparently knows this lake like the back of his hand.
"Marina Store.
" Hello.
Hey.
How you doing? I'm Jack.
Hi, Jack.
Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
So, you want to just start by giving us a little background as to kind of what your relationship is with Bear Lake? I spent 35 years up here working on this lake because it's such a unique ecosystem.
What makes it so unique? This is a natural lake.
It's had water in it for at least 200,000 years.
It has four species of fish in it that are called endemic species that are found nowhere else in the world.
Just in this one lake.
Exactly.
Do you think there could be a fifth, and the fifth being the monster? You know, being a biologist, I can't flat say, "oh, yeah, I know it exists," because I've never seen it, but on the other hand, this lake covers 170 square miles, 208 feet at the deepest part.
So, there's a lot of question marks, is what I'm saying.
If there is a monster, where do you think this monster would live, and why don't you think it hasn't been seen that often? A lot of the old-timers and stuff -- they used to think that Bear Lake was bottomless because they couldn't get a good depth on it.
So if we had some organism in the lake, it could easily be down in the marl.
Where do you think the best place is to go if I'm gonna take the dive? Well, you're crazy to begin with.
I'll tell you that right now, Jack.
But if I was gonna do it, I'd be out the east side, probably along cisco beach or rainbow cove.
There's some caves over there which could produce some cover for the monster.
Should he be worried about anything? You always have to worry when you dive in Bear Lake because if you kick a fin wrong, it comes up around you, just like this big white fog, and the only way you can figure which way to go is look for your bubbles.
Mm.
So just be careful.
You got everything? Yeah.
I do.
You sure you want to do this? Yeah.
The only way that we're gonna solve this or not solve it -- jump in.
Dana, I am your father.
That'll scare away something.
Whoa! You getting scared, Dana? I don't necessarily trust your boat-driving skills, buddy.
It's easy.
Aah! Oh, my God.
You laughing like that is not cool.
It's hilarious! I think we're at the right spot.
Yeah.
This is where Bryce said the caves were.
Sounds like they could be a perfect hiding spot for a large predator.
We are in no man's land.
Let's do it.
Set up.
I'm gonna turn on night vision.
So, how far deep are you going here? I'm planning on going around 70 feet.
Supposedly, that's where these caves are.
All right.
So, you see that peli case right there? That has a communication set right there.
So that's how you're gonna be able to communicate with me.
Bear Lake beast, underwater cave dive.
Here we go.
You ready? You taking the camera? So, how far deep are you going here? I'm planning on going around 70 feet.
Supposedly, that's where these caves are.
Bear Lake beast, underwater cave dive.
Here we go.
How does it look down there? As soon as you went down, the wind just kicked up, like out of nowhere.
The boat is rocking.
This is not good.
Dude, what is up? Jack, are you by the boat? I got the flir all set up.
What in the hell? I think I just saw something.
I think I just saw something break the surface.
What do you see? Jack! Can you hear me? Hey, please answer me.
If you can hear me, you're freaking me out.
I was worried for Jack going scuba-diving, but honestly, this is some serious [bleep.]
here right now.
Now he's not answering.
Hey, answer me if you can hear me.
Jack, come in.
It's been 10 minutes now.
Still haven't heard from him.
I'm getting really, really worried.
I can't believe that.
Oh! Thank freakin' God.
A what? Get over here.
I found a bone! Cuttlose.
You're cutting it close.
What the hell is that? Oh, my God.
Get in.
Here.
Give me the camera.
You good? You are not gonna believe what I got on the thermal.
We've got to send this to Bryce as soon as we get back to land.
Hopefully, we can see what we got in the morning.
I want to take a look at this thermal again.
Okay.
Check out this e-mail that Bryce sent me this morning.
He said it could have been some type of thermal spring at the bottom of the lake, releasing warm water and it coming to the surface and then mixing with cooler water and dissipating.
There are thermal Springs under the lake, supposedly.
And what about the bone you found? Well, the bone is really quite interesting.
Bryce suggested that it was either a cow or a deer bone.
He says there's one of two ways that it could have ended up in that cave -- the first being an animal tried to swim across the lake and it drowned and floated to the bottom of the lake, body decomposed, the current moved the bones around, and one ended up in that cave at the bottom of the lake.
The second being the most intriguing, which is some kind of creature took the animal from the shore and dragged it down into this cave, much like a crocodile would do.
Pretty interesting in a lake supposedly home to a giant predator, right? I'd say so.
The whole thing is Inconclusive.
Very inconclusive.
We don't have anything rock solid.
So, what do you think? This was my first time investigating a lake cryptid, and I must say, I was not disappointed.
We got some pretty interesting evidence.
We got the thermal of something large breaching in the lake.
We found a cow bone in an underwater cave, which normally wouldn't find its way there.
And we also got a huge sonar reading of something, which we cannot explain.
Is the Bear Lake Monster real? I can't say "no.
" But is there definitely something strange going on in Bear Lake? I think I'm gonna have to say "yes.
" And rolling.
Hairy Man, day 1.
All right.
Time to get some gas.
We're heading to the middle of nowhere, I think, so we got to make sure we're all filled up.
Yes.
Where's the map? So, we're on the border of Minnesota.
We're gonna take the 10, northwest of Vergas, and hopefully find a Hairy Man.
I'll give you $10 if you can fold that map up properly.
$10? That's an easy task.
I'll give you $5.
$5.
No! You can't take that back! You got to give me $10 now.
All right.
$10.
She's a tough one.
$10! Are you ready to go find the Hairy Man? Yes.
Let's do this.
So, the Hairy Man It's supposed to be like 8 feet tall and like 300 pounds.
Right.
Every report that I've heard and read about this, this thing sounds like a sasquatch.
You know, when I've investigated bigfoot in the past, people tend to say that the creature is friendly, but the difference here is that some of the people in Vergas claim this Hairy Man is aggressive and dangerous.
People are saying that this thing has even climbed onto people's cars, dented the hood, even throws boulders at people.
That's pretty freakin' dangerous.
I got an e-mail from this guy named Brian Wierima.
He's a local news reporter, and he's tracked a lot of the sightings of the Hairy Man in Vergas.
So we're gonna meet him at this local restaurant and see what he has to say.
"Welcome to Vergas.
" I mean, there's the beginning of the town.
And there's the end of it.
Hey, Devin, what time did he say he was getting here? He should be here any minute.
Is that him? Oh, there we go.
Brian? Yes.
What's the population of Vergas? 400, 400-plus, maybe.
We're rolling.
So, you're somebody who's approached this legend from an objective, sort of journalistic perspective.
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
It hasn't been reported on that much, so I decided to jump in and do my research.
What do you know about the Hairy Man legend? One of the big consistencies is the scent.
It really has a musky, dead odor, you know, rotten odor.
And the size of it, too.
Who's to say it's not just some really tall man with overgrown hair? Well, it would have to be a very tall man.
If there's someone that's over 7 foot tall in the town, we'd probably know of him.
Do you know anybody who's actually seen the beast? Yes, actually, I do -- a great person to talk to, another lifelong resident, Cheryl Hanson.
I can definitely get you in contact with her.
Yeah.
She's got one of the better eyewitness accounts that I've heard.
I'm excited to meet Cheryl because she's an actual eyewitness.
Yeah.
Finally, someone who's seen this Hairy Man.
I wonder why she wants to meet us in the middle of the woods.
Do you know anybody who's actually seen the beast? Yes, actually, I do -- a great person to talk to, another lifelong resident, Cheryl Hanson.
I'm excited to meet Cheryl because she's an actual eyewitness.
Yeah.
Finally, someone who's seen this Hairy Man.
I wonder why she wants to meet us in the middle of the woods.
Well, maybe this is where her encounter was.
There she is.
All right.
Nice to meet you.
This is Jael.
Hi, Jael.
Thanks for meeting with us.
Well, thanks.
I'm glad you guys finally got here.
I was out here kind of waiting for you on my own, and I definitely don't like being in this area.
Really? Really.
Could you tell us a little bit about your sighting? My cousin and I were on snowmobiles.
We were out in this area here, and we were just snowmobiling around, and all of a sudden, from the woods, came this, what I consider, larger than a man, completely covered with hair -- long, stringy hair.
And the thing that's always stuck with me is it had bare feet.
And we're talking the middle of winter in Northern Minnesota.
And it chased us.
It had something in its hands.
It could have just been where he grabbed a piece of wood and it started chasing us.
And so, then we took off on the snowmobile.
And once we, you know, looked back, it was no longer chasing us.
I'll never forget it.
I won't be out here at night because of that happening.
Most of the sightings happen at night? Yeah.
Most of the sightings do happen at night.
You think that the snowmobile noise either irritated or attracted it? I think the loud noise probably got its attention.
So, where should we go to find the Hairy Man? Okay, what we're looking at here is right where we're at right now, where that clearing is, on Squatch Hill.
That's where my sighting was.
I think that if you're going to pick up any kind of sign or any kind of activity, that's where it's gonna be.
Devin? Yeah.
Are you ready for this hike? I'm rolling.
Ready to rock 'n' roll, baby.
Can you get me here? And rolling.
According to Cheryl, this is where we're headed -- squatch point.
Very detailed directions, which I think is this way.
You know, we haven't considered the fact that it could be a her.
Maybe it's a hairy woman.
It could be.
If that's the case, we're gonna tie you to a tree and try to lure her to you.
As like a sexual offering? Bait.
Man bait.
Man bait.
Okay.
We are really close.
Should just be up this hill.
Well, here's a clearing.
I think this might be it.
Oh, is this it? 'Cause we're, like, at a higher vantage point right here, considering how much we just hiked up.
It is almost 9:15.
We've got a few minutes of light left, so let's start setting up some infrared cameras on the perimeter.
Hey, Devin.
Is the camera on? Do you see me? Yeah, it looks good.
I.
R.
2 is good.
I.
R.
3 looks good.
How's it going? How does it look? We've probably got 50 to 100 yards of this whole area covered around Squatch Hill, so if we see anything up here or down -- a ways down that way, we'll catch it.
I love it.
This forest is so dense, we're not gonna be able to see a footprint if we wanted to.
We would need snow.
So we're gonna have to rely on our nose, our ears, and our eyes for this one.
Yeah.
So, I've got this iPod, where we can actually play the sound of a snowmobile over these speakers.
Good one.
I don't know if this is gonna attract it.
My first thought was that it would scare it away.
That's a good sample.
I'll tell you what -- I'll go out on an initial sweep now, and in the meantime, every few minutes, you should play that Yeah.
and see if we can use it as a way to lure this creature in.
Hey, Jael.
I'm going to start playing these snowmobile sounds, so keep your eyes peeled.
Copy.
Devin, I just heard something behind me, like a branch breaking.
It might be time to get the flir out.
All right.
I'm gonna play some more of this.
Hold on.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa.
What is that? It might be time to get the flir out.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa.
What is that? Devin, is that you in the woods right now? No.
I'm at base camp.
Holy [bleep.]
Devin, I swear, I just saw something run by the flir.
I'm not sure what it was, but it definitely looked big.
Okay.
All right.
I'm coming.
Hello?! Jael, where's your flashlight? Shine it.
I see you.
Devin, Devin, Devin.
What? What? What? What? What? What? What? It was right over there.
Ohh.
[Bleep.]
Are you sure it went this way? This is where I saw it.
This is thick.
How did it fit through here? I don't know.
Whoa! Whoa! Look at all these trees! Whoa.
All of these look like they've been bent over.
D.
It's like something just It must have run through this way.
I mean, it's really hard to see footprints here, 'cause it's all full of leaves.
Well, we're on a path here.
This is the path.
We don't know which way it went, but we need to coax it back out again, so what's another thing that we can do if we're trying to lure a sasquatch out? Oh, I know.
I know.
A lot of people say that, you know, they respond intelligently to certain sounds.
Like knocking on a tree or something? Exactly.
So, let's grab a branch, knock on a tree with a certain pattern, see if it responds.
Okay.
All right.
That's a big one.
You don't need something that big.
I want to make a loud noise.
Okay.
It is half past 1:00.
We're gonna do a "Hairy Man" test.
We're going to do four knocks on a tree branch onto a tree stump and see if we get a response.
Okay.
Okay.
Shh.
No response.
Let me log this.
All right.
It is approximately 1:34 in the morning.
We knocked on the tree four times to try to get an intelligent response.
Failed.
Did you hear that? Shh.
It was up here! It was up here! What was that? It was up here! Are you okay? Yeah, yeah.
What the [bleep.]
was that? I don't know.
We got another tree down.
It sounded just like the branch.
Yeah, it was like one single knock.
Whatever's out here -- it seems to be interested in what we're doing.
It's not like we're scaring it away.
It's curious.
It is.
You smell that, right? Yeah.
Oh.
It smells like something rotting.
It's like a pungent musk.
Yeah.
- Broken branch.
- Holy is that fresh? This is crazy.
Hold on.
It's soft and damp.
This is fresh.
Look at that.
Look at it.
The bark is still wet.
That wasn't like that earlier.
No.
This was just done.
Look at the bark.
Whoa! I'm gonna shoot this with this color camera.
You can see how the bark has just been kind of peeled away in this one spot.
Holy [bleep.]
Is that hair? Are you kidding? I don't think we're alone here.
Look at the bark.
Holy [bleep.]
Is that hair? Are you kidding? I don't think we're alone here.
Look at that.
Come here.
Look at this.
Get a close-up of this.
Grab the measuring tape.
I want to measure where that was.
Let me save this.
Well, it's like 7'3".
Okay.
Something's out here.
I don't know what this is.
Whatever it is, it knows that we're filming.
It seems to be around our perimeter and then bailing on us, and it's eluding us, and it's It's past 4:00 in the morning.
It's gonna start getting light in a little bit.
Maybe we should call it a night.
Whatever it is, it doesn't want to be seen.
I've tried searching for four different kinds of sasquatches, and right now this is the closest I've ever come to encountering anything like one.
Let's go back to base camp and get our stuff together.
We got a lot of footage to get through in the morning.
Hairy Man evidence analysis.
Okay, so, it has been three days since our investigation into Vergas.
Now, we sent that hair that we found off to be analyzed, and we're about to get the results.
Great.
I also went ahead and sent the thermal image hit that we got to professor Jeff Meldrum.
Let's give him a call.
Hey, Jeff.
Hey.
Thanks for your time.
So, let's start with the thermal-image hit.
You know, it looked humanoid to us.
What did you think? Well, it's difficult to draw any conclusive opinions.
It's just such a sketchy image there.
You're right.
There seems to be an upright figure.
It's hunched over.
A few hot spots along what look like the thighs and sort of the core.
The closest thing is human.
That's interesting.
What's your analysis of the hair we sent you? Yeah.
The indications seem to be that this hair sample is human.
It's similar in diameter, as opposed to fur on animals with guard hairs and underfur.
Human hair.
Interesting.
Yeah.
This suggests that there could have been someone out there playing a prank on us, but I'm not sure now.
I'm really confused, because when we were out there, we didn't feel like anyone else was with us.
Hoaxes, in my experience, are pretty rare, whereas misidentification of data is more likely or more often the case.
Well, thank you, professor.
You've given us a lot to think about.
Oh, you're welcome.
My pleasure.
We appreciate your time.
So, what do you think? Okay, so The thermal is humanoid, and now Jeff said that the hair was human.
I don't think we found the Hairy Man.
Hmm.
I think it's possible that someone found us and they were trying to keep the Hairy Man legend alive.
The thought of somebody roaming around the woods and following us is still pretty creepy.
Well, you know what? Everyone in that town knew that we were there.
Yeah.
You know, so it's possible that someone came in after us and decided to play a trick.
The Hairy Man might be out there, but I don't think we found him.
I've investigated several types of cryptid cases over the years, but this one threw up some compelling evidence that something was out there with us.
After analyzing our findings, everything's pointing toward a human explanation.
The question is, why? Does that mean the Hairy Man isn't real? Not necessarily.
I wanted to investigate some of America's scariest cases, but I decided it had to be done differently.
I put together two teams -- myself and my researcher, Dana, and my friends Jael and Devin.
We shot everything ourselves -- just us.
This is what we discovered, and it completely blew my mind.
- Okay.
- Good? Bear Lake beast underwater cave dive.
Hairy Man, day 1.
We are in Utah, kind of in the middle of nowhere.
This Hairy Man is aggressive and dangerous.
Something's out here.
Some serious [bleep.]
here right now.
This is crazy.
It must have run through this way.
What the hell is that? Look, look, look.
This is fresh.
I think I just saw something break the surface.
I don't think we're alone here.
It's on.
Bear Lake beast, day 1.
Music.
All right, so, we are in Utah, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and we are looking for the Bear Lake beast.
Now, there is the ongoing theory that there are ancient prehistoric creatures that were trapped and isolated in these lakes and they could have flourished and continued to live on.
It was reported that this thing snatched children from the water.
Awesome.
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe that's just a story parents tell their children.
I'm kind of small, though, so, uh We're nearing garden city, Utah, which sits right on the edge of Bear Lake.
And this seems to be where most of the eyewitness reports have come from.
Why don't we pull over somewhere, see if we can talk to some people on the street? So, what do you know about the Bear Lake Monster? Nighttime is when it comes out on the land.
That's what I've heard, anyway.
I've heard that they close the beaches at 10:00 at night.
I mean, you can't come to Bear Lake without having a raspberry shake, and you can't come to Bear Lake without knowing about the Bear Lake Monster.
Is this where we get the famous raspberry milk shakes? Yes, it is.
Wow.
Oh, that's no joke.
Have you ever seen it? I've never seen the Bear Lake Monster, no.
But my cousin has.
You could definitely talk to him, and he could tell you what he's seen.
I think that's Brian right there, who supposedly has had a run-in with this creature, according to his cousin.
Hey.
- I'm Brian.
- Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
Is that one rolling? On the front? You guys ready, then? How big is this lake? It's about 50 miles in circumference, about 20 miles long, 8 miles wide.
Do you know where the deepest point is? It's over on the east side.
It's about a little over 200 feet deep.
This is the area that I had the encounter with what I believe is the Bear Lake Monster.
Wow.
And what exactly did you see? Well, I was a couple hundred yards off the shore, and I saw these two bumps in the water about 3 feet apart.
10 seconds later, I had the scare of my life.
Something unexplained breached about 50 feet off the side of the boat.
And it actually breached out of the water and splashed back down, like a whale would do.
Wow.
Wow.
It was such a big beast that it actually rocked the boat with the waves.
And it did make a noise, kind of like a roaring bull, and went back down under the water.
Can you describe it? It was dark in color -- either dark brown or dark green, probably 20 to 30 feet long.
It's about a foot and a half in diameter, the head, with a long neck, kind of, maybe serpentine-like.
I could see water coming from its mouth or head area, kind of shooting it out.
Has this creature only been seen on the water, or does it ever come onto the shore? People have seen it go up on the shore.
A lot of cattle have disappeared, sheep.
How would you feel about us borrowing your boat for the evening? I won't sink it, I promise.
That'd be great.
Perfectly fine.
Okay.
Hope you find the monster.
So do I.
Well, let's head back to shore and we'll set up.
So, Brian seemed like he -- yeah, he seems really nice and credible and normal.
Yeah, it's nice of him to let us borrow his boat, too.
Yeah.
What do you think? I mean, it goes down pretty far.
Yeah.
I mean, this is a good place to set up.
Yeah.
Okay.
The Bear Lake beast has been said to come onshore sometimes to feed.
Let's set up three I.
R.
cameras on the beach but facing the water.
That way, we have maximum coverage of land and the lake.
And what about the flir? The flir's gonna pick up anything out in the lake if it gives off a heat signature.
All right, let's get to it.
So, if you want to just head out, and I'll walkie you and tell you when to stop when you're kind of in the middle.
Cool, I'll stay in constant contact 'cause I don't want to get left alone out there.
All right.
Sounds good.
You can see me on the cameras, right? If anything comes outr of the water or breaches the surface, this thing is definitely gonna pick it up.
Obviously, my visibility is limited right now.
I'm gonna need you to kind of do that for me with those cameras.
I'm looking for anything strange -- dark spots under the water, any strange splashes, you know, basically, anything out of the norm.
Okay.
Got it.
Getting some feedback on the sonar.
What's it look like? Talk to me.
It's telling me there's a bunch of fish.
See any large shapes on there or anything bigger than the others? Uh No, there's nothing, like, standing out too crazy.
I'm gonna go out a little further.
Sounds good.
Make sure that you're still on walkie.
You see anything? Hey, hold on.
The sonar's going off the chart a little bit.
Holy [bleep.]
what is that?! Hey, hold on.
The sonar's going off the chart a little bit.
Holy [bleep.]
what is that?! What is it? Talk to me.
Seems to be one large object below me.
Is it a rock? Or what do you think? I don't know.
It's right underneath me, but I can't see anything.
Hey.
I just got an idea.
I'm gonna MacGyver a little rig together and stick a camera under the boat.
Do whatever you need to do.
All right, it's going under.
I don't see anything.
How clear is the water out there? I really can't see much out here.
All right.
Just come back to shore.
All right.
Maybe we should regroup, check the footage, and just -- we're gonna have to come out here another night.
I honestly think the only way we're gonna find something is if I get in.
If you what? I'm just gonna go in.
Tomorrow I'm gonna go, I'm gonna rent scuba gear, and we're gonna go in.
You feel safe doing that? I've done solo night dives before.
This is gonna be no problem.
I'm on board if you are.
All right.
Well, I've made some calls, and we're gonna go meet with Bryce Nielson, who is a retired Marine biologist.
That would be very helpful.
Absolutely.
And he apparently knows this lake like the back of his hand.
"Marina Store.
" Hello.
Hey.
How you doing? I'm Jack.
Hi, Jack.
Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
So, you want to just start by giving us a little background as to kind of what your relationship is with Bear Lake? I spent 35 years up here working on this lake because it's such a unique ecosystem.
What makes it so unique? This is a natural lake.
It's had water in it for at least 200,000 years.
It has four species of fish in it that are called endemic species that are found nowhere else in the world.
Just in this one lake.
Exactly.
Do you think there could be a fifth, and the fifth being the monster? You know, being a biologist, I can't flat say, "oh, yeah, I know it exists," because I've never seen it, but on the other hand, this lake covers 170 square miles, 208 feet at the deepest part.
So, there's a lot of question marks, is what I'm saying.
If there is a monster, where do you think this monster would live, and why don't you think it hasn't been seen that often? A lot of the old-timers and stuff -- they used to think that Bear Lake was bottomless because they couldn't get a good depth on it.
So if we had some organism in the lake, it could easily be down in the marl.
Where do you think the best place is to go if I'm gonna take the dive? Well, you're crazy to begin with.
I'll tell you that right now, Jack.
But if I was gonna do it, I'd be out the east side, probably along cisco beach or rainbow cove.
There's some caves over there which could produce some cover for the monster.
Should he be worried about anything? You always have to worry when you dive in Bear Lake because if you kick a fin wrong, it comes up around you, just like this big white fog, and the only way you can figure which way to go is look for your bubbles.
Mm.
So just be careful.
You got everything? Yeah.
I do.
You sure you want to do this? Yeah.
The only way that we're gonna solve this or not solve it -- jump in.
Dana, I am your father.
That'll scare away something.
Whoa! You getting scared, Dana? I don't necessarily trust your boat-driving skills, buddy.
It's easy.
Aah! Oh, my God.
You laughing like that is not cool.
It's hilarious! I think we're at the right spot.
Yeah.
This is where Bryce said the caves were.
Sounds like they could be a perfect hiding spot for a large predator.
We are in no man's land.
Let's do it.
Set up.
I'm gonna turn on night vision.
So, how far deep are you going here? I'm planning on going around 70 feet.
Supposedly, that's where these caves are.
All right.
So, you see that peli case right there? That has a communication set right there.
So that's how you're gonna be able to communicate with me.
Bear Lake beast, underwater cave dive.
Here we go.
You ready? You taking the camera? So, how far deep are you going here? I'm planning on going around 70 feet.
Supposedly, that's where these caves are.
Bear Lake beast, underwater cave dive.
Here we go.
How does it look down there? As soon as you went down, the wind just kicked up, like out of nowhere.
The boat is rocking.
This is not good.
Dude, what is up? Jack, are you by the boat? I got the flir all set up.
What in the hell? I think I just saw something.
I think I just saw something break the surface.
What do you see? Jack! Can you hear me? Hey, please answer me.
If you can hear me, you're freaking me out.
I was worried for Jack going scuba-diving, but honestly, this is some serious [bleep.]
here right now.
Now he's not answering.
Hey, answer me if you can hear me.
Jack, come in.
It's been 10 minutes now.
Still haven't heard from him.
I'm getting really, really worried.
I can't believe that.
Oh! Thank freakin' God.
A what? Get over here.
I found a bone! Cuttlose.
You're cutting it close.
What the hell is that? Oh, my God.
Get in.
Here.
Give me the camera.
You good? You are not gonna believe what I got on the thermal.
We've got to send this to Bryce as soon as we get back to land.
Hopefully, we can see what we got in the morning.
I want to take a look at this thermal again.
Okay.
Check out this e-mail that Bryce sent me this morning.
He said it could have been some type of thermal spring at the bottom of the lake, releasing warm water and it coming to the surface and then mixing with cooler water and dissipating.
There are thermal Springs under the lake, supposedly.
And what about the bone you found? Well, the bone is really quite interesting.
Bryce suggested that it was either a cow or a deer bone.
He says there's one of two ways that it could have ended up in that cave -- the first being an animal tried to swim across the lake and it drowned and floated to the bottom of the lake, body decomposed, the current moved the bones around, and one ended up in that cave at the bottom of the lake.
The second being the most intriguing, which is some kind of creature took the animal from the shore and dragged it down into this cave, much like a crocodile would do.
Pretty interesting in a lake supposedly home to a giant predator, right? I'd say so.
The whole thing is Inconclusive.
Very inconclusive.
We don't have anything rock solid.
So, what do you think? This was my first time investigating a lake cryptid, and I must say, I was not disappointed.
We got some pretty interesting evidence.
We got the thermal of something large breaching in the lake.
We found a cow bone in an underwater cave, which normally wouldn't find its way there.
And we also got a huge sonar reading of something, which we cannot explain.
Is the Bear Lake Monster real? I can't say "no.
" But is there definitely something strange going on in Bear Lake? I think I'm gonna have to say "yes.
" And rolling.
Hairy Man, day 1.
All right.
Time to get some gas.
We're heading to the middle of nowhere, I think, so we got to make sure we're all filled up.
Yes.
Where's the map? So, we're on the border of Minnesota.
We're gonna take the 10, northwest of Vergas, and hopefully find a Hairy Man.
I'll give you $10 if you can fold that map up properly.
$10? That's an easy task.
I'll give you $5.
$5.
No! You can't take that back! You got to give me $10 now.
All right.
$10.
She's a tough one.
$10! Are you ready to go find the Hairy Man? Yes.
Let's do this.
So, the Hairy Man It's supposed to be like 8 feet tall and like 300 pounds.
Right.
Every report that I've heard and read about this, this thing sounds like a sasquatch.
You know, when I've investigated bigfoot in the past, people tend to say that the creature is friendly, but the difference here is that some of the people in Vergas claim this Hairy Man is aggressive and dangerous.
People are saying that this thing has even climbed onto people's cars, dented the hood, even throws boulders at people.
That's pretty freakin' dangerous.
I got an e-mail from this guy named Brian Wierima.
He's a local news reporter, and he's tracked a lot of the sightings of the Hairy Man in Vergas.
So we're gonna meet him at this local restaurant and see what he has to say.
"Welcome to Vergas.
" I mean, there's the beginning of the town.
And there's the end of it.
Hey, Devin, what time did he say he was getting here? He should be here any minute.
Is that him? Oh, there we go.
Brian? Yes.
What's the population of Vergas? 400, 400-plus, maybe.
We're rolling.
So, you're somebody who's approached this legend from an objective, sort of journalistic perspective.
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
It hasn't been reported on that much, so I decided to jump in and do my research.
What do you know about the Hairy Man legend? One of the big consistencies is the scent.
It really has a musky, dead odor, you know, rotten odor.
And the size of it, too.
Who's to say it's not just some really tall man with overgrown hair? Well, it would have to be a very tall man.
If there's someone that's over 7 foot tall in the town, we'd probably know of him.
Do you know anybody who's actually seen the beast? Yes, actually, I do -- a great person to talk to, another lifelong resident, Cheryl Hanson.
I can definitely get you in contact with her.
Yeah.
She's got one of the better eyewitness accounts that I've heard.
I'm excited to meet Cheryl because she's an actual eyewitness.
Yeah.
Finally, someone who's seen this Hairy Man.
I wonder why she wants to meet us in the middle of the woods.
Do you know anybody who's actually seen the beast? Yes, actually, I do -- a great person to talk to, another lifelong resident, Cheryl Hanson.
I'm excited to meet Cheryl because she's an actual eyewitness.
Yeah.
Finally, someone who's seen this Hairy Man.
I wonder why she wants to meet us in the middle of the woods.
Well, maybe this is where her encounter was.
There she is.
All right.
Nice to meet you.
This is Jael.
Hi, Jael.
Thanks for meeting with us.
Well, thanks.
I'm glad you guys finally got here.
I was out here kind of waiting for you on my own, and I definitely don't like being in this area.
Really? Really.
Could you tell us a little bit about your sighting? My cousin and I were on snowmobiles.
We were out in this area here, and we were just snowmobiling around, and all of a sudden, from the woods, came this, what I consider, larger than a man, completely covered with hair -- long, stringy hair.
And the thing that's always stuck with me is it had bare feet.
And we're talking the middle of winter in Northern Minnesota.
And it chased us.
It had something in its hands.
It could have just been where he grabbed a piece of wood and it started chasing us.
And so, then we took off on the snowmobile.
And once we, you know, looked back, it was no longer chasing us.
I'll never forget it.
I won't be out here at night because of that happening.
Most of the sightings happen at night? Yeah.
Most of the sightings do happen at night.
You think that the snowmobile noise either irritated or attracted it? I think the loud noise probably got its attention.
So, where should we go to find the Hairy Man? Okay, what we're looking at here is right where we're at right now, where that clearing is, on Squatch Hill.
That's where my sighting was.
I think that if you're going to pick up any kind of sign or any kind of activity, that's where it's gonna be.
Devin? Yeah.
Are you ready for this hike? I'm rolling.
Ready to rock 'n' roll, baby.
Can you get me here? And rolling.
According to Cheryl, this is where we're headed -- squatch point.
Very detailed directions, which I think is this way.
You know, we haven't considered the fact that it could be a her.
Maybe it's a hairy woman.
It could be.
If that's the case, we're gonna tie you to a tree and try to lure her to you.
As like a sexual offering? Bait.
Man bait.
Man bait.
Okay.
We are really close.
Should just be up this hill.
Well, here's a clearing.
I think this might be it.
Oh, is this it? 'Cause we're, like, at a higher vantage point right here, considering how much we just hiked up.
It is almost 9:15.
We've got a few minutes of light left, so let's start setting up some infrared cameras on the perimeter.
Hey, Devin.
Is the camera on? Do you see me? Yeah, it looks good.
I.
R.
2 is good.
I.
R.
3 looks good.
How's it going? How does it look? We've probably got 50 to 100 yards of this whole area covered around Squatch Hill, so if we see anything up here or down -- a ways down that way, we'll catch it.
I love it.
This forest is so dense, we're not gonna be able to see a footprint if we wanted to.
We would need snow.
So we're gonna have to rely on our nose, our ears, and our eyes for this one.
Yeah.
So, I've got this iPod, where we can actually play the sound of a snowmobile over these speakers.
Good one.
I don't know if this is gonna attract it.
My first thought was that it would scare it away.
That's a good sample.
I'll tell you what -- I'll go out on an initial sweep now, and in the meantime, every few minutes, you should play that Yeah.
and see if we can use it as a way to lure this creature in.
Hey, Jael.
I'm going to start playing these snowmobile sounds, so keep your eyes peeled.
Copy.
Devin, I just heard something behind me, like a branch breaking.
It might be time to get the flir out.
All right.
I'm gonna play some more of this.
Hold on.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa.
What is that? It might be time to get the flir out.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa.
What is that? Devin, is that you in the woods right now? No.
I'm at base camp.
Holy [bleep.]
Devin, I swear, I just saw something run by the flir.
I'm not sure what it was, but it definitely looked big.
Okay.
All right.
I'm coming.
Hello?! Jael, where's your flashlight? Shine it.
I see you.
Devin, Devin, Devin.
What? What? What? What? What? What? What? It was right over there.
Ohh.
[Bleep.]
Are you sure it went this way? This is where I saw it.
This is thick.
How did it fit through here? I don't know.
Whoa! Whoa! Look at all these trees! Whoa.
All of these look like they've been bent over.
D.
It's like something just It must have run through this way.
I mean, it's really hard to see footprints here, 'cause it's all full of leaves.
Well, we're on a path here.
This is the path.
We don't know which way it went, but we need to coax it back out again, so what's another thing that we can do if we're trying to lure a sasquatch out? Oh, I know.
I know.
A lot of people say that, you know, they respond intelligently to certain sounds.
Like knocking on a tree or something? Exactly.
So, let's grab a branch, knock on a tree with a certain pattern, see if it responds.
Okay.
All right.
That's a big one.
You don't need something that big.
I want to make a loud noise.
Okay.
It is half past 1:00.
We're gonna do a "Hairy Man" test.
We're going to do four knocks on a tree branch onto a tree stump and see if we get a response.
Okay.
Okay.
Shh.
No response.
Let me log this.
All right.
It is approximately 1:34 in the morning.
We knocked on the tree four times to try to get an intelligent response.
Failed.
Did you hear that? Shh.
It was up here! It was up here! What was that? It was up here! Are you okay? Yeah, yeah.
What the [bleep.]
was that? I don't know.
We got another tree down.
It sounded just like the branch.
Yeah, it was like one single knock.
Whatever's out here -- it seems to be interested in what we're doing.
It's not like we're scaring it away.
It's curious.
It is.
You smell that, right? Yeah.
Oh.
It smells like something rotting.
It's like a pungent musk.
Yeah.
- Broken branch.
- Holy is that fresh? This is crazy.
Hold on.
It's soft and damp.
This is fresh.
Look at that.
Look at it.
The bark is still wet.
That wasn't like that earlier.
No.
This was just done.
Look at the bark.
Whoa! I'm gonna shoot this with this color camera.
You can see how the bark has just been kind of peeled away in this one spot.
Holy [bleep.]
Is that hair? Are you kidding? I don't think we're alone here.
Look at the bark.
Holy [bleep.]
Is that hair? Are you kidding? I don't think we're alone here.
Look at that.
Come here.
Look at this.
Get a close-up of this.
Grab the measuring tape.
I want to measure where that was.
Let me save this.
Well, it's like 7'3".
Okay.
Something's out here.
I don't know what this is.
Whatever it is, it knows that we're filming.
It seems to be around our perimeter and then bailing on us, and it's eluding us, and it's It's past 4:00 in the morning.
It's gonna start getting light in a little bit.
Maybe we should call it a night.
Whatever it is, it doesn't want to be seen.
I've tried searching for four different kinds of sasquatches, and right now this is the closest I've ever come to encountering anything like one.
Let's go back to base camp and get our stuff together.
We got a lot of footage to get through in the morning.
Hairy Man evidence analysis.
Okay, so, it has been three days since our investigation into Vergas.
Now, we sent that hair that we found off to be analyzed, and we're about to get the results.
Great.
I also went ahead and sent the thermal image hit that we got to professor Jeff Meldrum.
Let's give him a call.
Hey, Jeff.
Hey.
Thanks for your time.
So, let's start with the thermal-image hit.
You know, it looked humanoid to us.
What did you think? Well, it's difficult to draw any conclusive opinions.
It's just such a sketchy image there.
You're right.
There seems to be an upright figure.
It's hunched over.
A few hot spots along what look like the thighs and sort of the core.
The closest thing is human.
That's interesting.
What's your analysis of the hair we sent you? Yeah.
The indications seem to be that this hair sample is human.
It's similar in diameter, as opposed to fur on animals with guard hairs and underfur.
Human hair.
Interesting.
Yeah.
This suggests that there could have been someone out there playing a prank on us, but I'm not sure now.
I'm really confused, because when we were out there, we didn't feel like anyone else was with us.
Hoaxes, in my experience, are pretty rare, whereas misidentification of data is more likely or more often the case.
Well, thank you, professor.
You've given us a lot to think about.
Oh, you're welcome.
My pleasure.
We appreciate your time.
So, what do you think? Okay, so The thermal is humanoid, and now Jeff said that the hair was human.
I don't think we found the Hairy Man.
Hmm.
I think it's possible that someone found us and they were trying to keep the Hairy Man legend alive.
The thought of somebody roaming around the woods and following us is still pretty creepy.
Well, you know what? Everyone in that town knew that we were there.
Yeah.
You know, so it's possible that someone came in after us and decided to play a trick.
The Hairy Man might be out there, but I don't think we found him.
I've investigated several types of cryptid cases over the years, but this one threw up some compelling evidence that something was out there with us.
After analyzing our findings, everything's pointing toward a human explanation.
The question is, why? Does that mean the Hairy Man isn't real? Not necessarily.