Deliverable #3

Skunk Ape Sightings

The Skunk Ape is one of Florida’s biggest myths and most elusive creatures. For over three decades the Skunk Ape, known as Bigfoot’s cousin, has brought a lot of controversy from alleged continuous sightings of the being. In the 1970s there was a spike in the amount of sightings and lead to the creation of House Bill 58 in 1978, which unfortunately wasn’t passed in the Florida Senate. The summary of the bill was “Provides a first degree misdemeanor penalty for persons taking, possessing, harming, or molesting any anthropoid or humanoid native to Florida.” Even with the failing of the bill people contend to spot the Skunk Ape all over Florida and many times believed to be the same creature spotted multiple times. Over the years after multiple sighting and encounters with the creature, people have made the effort to bring more awareness to the being by creature shows that depict the search for Skunk Ape and other Bigfoot related creatures. Many people believe that they have seen the creature personally; most well known would have to be Dave Shealy. From his first sighting of the Skunk Ape in 1974 at the age of 10, Shealy has created an enterprise that caters to the searching of the Skunk Ape. To better understand where some if the Skunkape sightings happened, I have created a timeline with some of the hundreds recorded sighting of the Skunk Ape. Not every Skunk Ape sighting is near the everglades, there as close as Miami-Dade to as far as Jacksonville. The Skunk Ape or Apes have been all over Florida and probably Florida’s most famous tourist.

• 1957 — Pair of hunters claimed the ape invaded their camp
• 1970 — Fshermen in Placida, Florida, Gulf of Mexico
• 1971 — Cayo Pelau, Florida — At 3:00 am two men saw a creature and called out. Mr. Osbun saw a man with no neck and a body covered with hair. it left a terrible smell.
• 1972 — Allen Carter — Brooksville, Florida. 5-year-old saw large Skunk Ape with a baby. The boy ran and got siblings, when they came back they saw the baby Skunk Ape playing with little boy’s trike. Had similar no neck and terrible smell as 1971.
• 1974 — Dave Shealy age 10 with older brother. “It was walking across the swamp, and my brother spotted it first. But I couldn’t see it over the grass — I wasn’t tall enough,” Shealy says. “My brother picked me up, and I saw it, about 100 yards away. We were just kids, but we’d heard about it, and knew for sure what we were looking at. It looked like a man, but completely covered with hair.” He and his brother stared at the creature, mouths agape, but almost at the same time, as he tells it, the skies opened and rain poured down. The ape hurried away, into the cypress hummocks scattered amongst the marsh. “Holy crap,” he remembers thinking. “I finally saw this damn thing, and it got away, just like that.”
• 1974–3:30 am Craig Smith, thought he saw a man fishing but when approaching the man he saw that it was an skunk ape. The creature ran towards him then jumped over his truck. It was said to be seen at a horse ranch and ripped off the head of a pony. Smith saw the creature again when he was driving on state road 27 and hit a two-legged creature that resembled a gorilla. Two hours later a call came in from Dade County saying they saw the same creature limping five miles south on SR 27.
• 1976- (Grove City, Florida June 15) Tom Williams (Deputy Sheriff) had spotlight on large animal bent over in pond, drinking or trying to fish. It loped off into brush on two legs 4–5 ft. high. Hairy all over, hissed and growled but seemed non- aggressive, and chased one. The creature laughed like hysterical man.
• 1977 — Man with CB radio reported that in the wooded areas of Torry Pines, a few miles from Delroy Beach, at 8:30 pm a large hairy 7-ft tall creature jumped in front of his car then disappeared. There were several reports in the same week, all the same descriptions. First one on golf course west of town, the course superintendent told County Animal Regulation Director John Street, that he saw a creature down, drinking from lake near second par, creature was 7-ft tall had black shaggy hair.
• 1977- At the Moon lake area near Port Richey, FL, people witnessed three creatures come into their yard; the largest being 10 ft tall and eyes that reflected red. One creature shook a neighboring trailer, and school children saw one of the creatures from the bus in the early morning.
• 1977 — (Ft. McCoy, Florida, Ocala National Forest, Oct.) Rev. S.L. Whatley , 67 , was cutting firewood off of Hwy 19, drive down dirt road and saw creature 7 1/2 to 8 ft. hairy creature. Not much hair on arms and none on face, which was flat, with a flat nose and deep sunk eyes. Standing in middle of palmetto bushes. Whatley is Pastor at Ft. McCoy Baptist church. Parishioners say he is sober and level headed. Rev. Whatley was getting ax from truck when it left.
• 1978 — (Venice, Florida, Mike Corridino — newsman, January) Corridino says he has logged 78 Skunk Ape sightings in the past 2 years. Refers to 18" footprints found where rabbits were killed in barn; 9ft “hairy man” seen by a busload of people headed for the Everglades; construction crew site in Scrubby Pinelands awakened a Skunk Ape in the early morning, with their heavy equipment. It ran shrieking into the swamp. Venice residents saw a pair of apes frolicking outside the city limits.
• 1979-(Jacksonville, FL. Feb. 25) Four motorists near Jacksonville, Florida, stopped with mechanical problem on interstate 95, motorists told State Troopers of encounter with 8ft. hairy white humanoid that went through underbrush like a tank.
• 1981 — (Bardin, Florida) Group standing out near a church scattered when something described as immense and ape-like approached. Story from Palatka, Florida was picked up by National wire service.
• 1982 — (Bardin. Florida. Rand Medlock and Ronny Cone) Medlock saw a thing come out of the woods and walk 30 ft. in front of his car. It was big and hairy and looked like a bear, but had a pug nose and walked upright with its arm swinging, just like a man, it looked sideways at them and kept walking. It went back into woods slapping pine saplings out of the way like they were nothing. Tracks on hill bigger than Medlock’s size 13 feet and stride more than he could stretch. He is 6'2"
• 1993 — (Art Dandridge, Titusville, Florida, Jan. 5) Ten miles south of Titusville, Florida, Dandridge, a Lockheed Systems manager at Kennedy Space Centre was driving SW on SR 407, a mile past I-95, when he saw something lurching around on a bridge ahead, hit brakes and just missed approx. 6ft. figure, entire body bristled with dark hair, seemed favoring left foot, turned car, watched it about 30 seconds then left. Phoned police on car phone at 8:04pm
• 2000 — a woman who claimed it was attracted to the apple trees in her yard, again near the Myakka River
• 2004 — (From the Orlando (FI) Sentinel: Woman says ‘skunk ape’ stood up beside highway. By Linda Florea/Sentinel Staff Writer, Posted November 20, 2004)
  Lakeland — Urban legends are supposed to be legends and that’s all. But if you ask Jennifer Ward about the Florida Skunk Ape, she will tell you it stepped out of the mist of myth and into reality. “ I never thought anything like that was out there before,” Ward, 30 said Friday, “but I know there is now.” Ward’s encounter with the hairy creature came in August, about a week after Hurricane Charley, along a rural stretch of Moore Road as she was driving home from a friend’s house. Her daughters were asleep in the back seat and it was approaching dusk. “I noticed something in the ditch. I looked over, and I guess it noticed me. It rose up,” she said explaining that the animal had been crouching when she first saw it. “Its eyes went from serious, maybe it was getting frogs — it was focused on something,” she continued. “When he saw me, he was as surprised as I was. I slowed down to almost a stop; I didn’t stop because I was scared. It was almost dark, but I could see it and get a good look.” Ward said the creature was 6 to 8 feet tall and covered with hair about 2 inches long. There was white around the eyes, but she not notice a nose or ears. She said the lips were full with texture of a dog’s paw pad. Its hands were drawn up next to its body. At first, Ward only told friends and family about what she saw. She acknowledged that it took considerable time for her to decide to go public.
• 2004 — (Sept. 6th near Ocklawaha, central Florida on edge of Ocala National Forest)
  not wanting to be identified, a woman and her son were awakened by something tapping on her window. Something terrified the dogs, three pit bulls, which are usually aggressive. “Me and my son went to check out the noise and there was a smell like something was dead, when we seen this huge manlike creature run into the woods. We were both scared. This thing was as tall as our orange tree, about 8 ft.”
• 2013 — March, Mike Falconer, 45, saw what he thought was a Skunk Ape, also in the Myakka River State Park, recorded it with his cellphone and posted the grainy video on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWPw_D5vpuw)
• 2014 — A woman driving in September on Highway 72 toward Arcadia, Florida, in the Myakka River State Park reported seeing Florida’s cousin of Bigfoot, the Skunk Ape.

Finding Skunk Ape on your own

If you ever find yourself in the mood to go Skunk Ape hunting there are a few essentials you need. This list of essentials will help you experience the best conditions and have the best tools needed to find a Skunk Ape or have some fun attempting to track one.

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Expedition Checklist
• Map of the Area
• Compass
• Flare Gun/Whistle
• Flashlight/Strobe Light
• Snake Bite Kit
• Lima Beans (1 lb dry)
• Binoculars
• Camera
• Ladder Stand
• Leaf Rake
• Rope (30ft)
• Personal Locating Device
• Plaster of Paris (5 lb)
• Bucket (5 gal. w/handle)
• Plenty of Water
• Magnifying Glass
• Insect Repellant
• Pocket Knife
• Survey Tape (2 rolls)
• Duct Tape (1 roll)

What problem are you trying to solve? Many people believe that Skunk Apes are rarely seen or if seen only a few people have ever had real encounters with the creature.
What is your solution? My solution was to make a timeline that shows encounters of the Skunk Ape all across Florida. Some of the Sighting have varying descriptions of the sightings to show how each one is different and couple of them include more than one person seeing the creature.
What assumptions are you making? I’m assuming that the people reading this don’t actually believe that the Skunk Ape is real
How will you implement your solution? To implement my solution, I want to input my data into an interactive map of Florida, that will show some the cities that that Skunk Ape has been seen and have a brief description of the sighting or link to an article.
How can you measure your success? I think creating a hashtag for our project or searching #Skunkape, we can see if our work was shared on social media sites or mentioned.

Haitian Folklore

When you visit the island of Haiti or meet it’s people you’ll realize that huge impact that folklore has on its culture and people. You’ll become engrossed in the narratives, captivated by the storytelling and terrified by the realness of each story. When it comes to Haitian folklore it all rings true for each Haitian. It’s hard for people who aren’t apart of the culture to believe that the stories that these people tell to be real but for Haitians it’s an everyday. Even though Christianity is the nation’s official religion, there’s another practice that runs rampant within the Haitian boarders. Voodoo isn’t just a fable in Haiti. Voodoo isn’t just a practice for some Haitians, it’s a lifestyle, and people live and breathe it. If you ask many Haitians they’ll tell you about the neighborhood voodoo priest/priestess, where they live, the evil acts they’ve committed and their deal with Satan. The people who are said to practice voodoo can be anyone: the 5-year-old girl down the block to the pastor of the church two blocks over. Voodoo isn’t the main source of folklore in Haiti. Witches/ warlocks are well known in Haiti and they aren’t seen as the same as Voodoo priests, there are demons, the devil and monsters that roam in the ocean and the forests that cover the island. There is so much folklore in Haiti that’ll worry you about even leaving your house in the middle of the night like the voodoo priest that turned into an animal to try to kill you or the zombie that they have sent out after you. But there is so much more that’ll make you refuse to set foot on the island like that killer mermaids or even the believed pact the people of Haiti made with Satan. The list can go on and on for the things that are believed to roam the island of Haiti. Reading about them wouldn’t do you any good; hearing about them from Haitians themselves would help you get the best sense of the reality of the folklore of Haiti. From births of possessed children and death of family, many Haitians seem to be able to pin it back to the folklore and evil that roams rampant in Haiti.

The Videos

This is a video of my mother telling me the story of the last couple days that her dad was alive. It was very hard to hear this story because it’s never an easy thing to lose a loved one. And that’s why I think this story needed to be told. Even though many people won’t ever have to deal with voodoo in their own personal lives, they can connect with the lost of a person, especially if it is unexpected. After our last lab meeting you mentioned using Instagram as a platform to show off this content and I think it’s how I want to present these stories. I think this story would be great in segments and Instagram would be an awesome platform for that. With 30 second segments, I can get the “better parts of the story and explain them, then link them back to youtube or whatever platform we decide to lay out our work on.

This is a video of my dad giving a breif history of the voodoo practicers of Haiti and their use and creation of Zombies. These zombies were dead people who were murdered and reawakened and controlled. My dad talked about the Haitian President Duvalier, who also used zombies when he was in power in Haiti. Once Duvalier started using these zombies, Haiti became stuck in the vicious cycle that it is now. My dad told me this story because the subject of voodoo is extremely vast and taking a subject like zombies that are so popular today might make it easier to understand. I was thinking about making these videos into Instagram videos as well because this video is a lot shorter than my other two videos.

In this video my mom is telling he story of how her neighbor tried to kill my oldest sister Phara. I know that many people can’t connect with someone trying to kill a family member, but in this story it’s easy to see the lengths someone will go when it comes to protecting the people the love and care about. This was a very scary experience for my parents and my mother did risk a lot to keep not only my sister but the rest of my family safe. I attempted to put subtitles on the video myself and I’m personally not too fond of them, but I did find a feature on YouTube to add the subtitles a lot better. This is the only video I but the subtitles on, because I still am a huge fan of the video sans subtitles, but I wanted to get your opinion on whether to have them on the videos or not.

What problem are you trying to solve? The lack of understanding/knowledge of different folklore from other countries.
What is your solution? I focused on Haitian culture and “forced” my parents to tell me quick stories of things people would consider folklore, but they see as reality.
What assumptions are you making? I am assuming that people do not know what haitian voodoo is or do not believe it is real. I’m also assuming that people have a misconception and believe that either a majority of Haitian practice voodoo or it is a retires practice.
How will you implement your solution? I’m going to make an Instagram for these stories (HOPEFULLY) and share them.
How can you measure your success? Thankfully with Instagram it’s my personal platform. I can create my own hastag and search that and see how many people are using that hashtag on their own posts or other comments. Also I can see who is liking the posts and following the profile. Since I have the ability to make the profile open to the pubic anyone can see the posts.