Since August 31 till October 4 the Russian hominologist Dr Igor Bourtsev visited Tennessee to meet local Bigfoot researchers and cooperate to them in their investigation, especially concerning the case of events at the Carter’s farm in Monroe County and Mary Green’s research in Patnam-Overtone Counties. He has a PhD in History and has spent many years in searching for bigoot/hominoids in Russia. Now he is the President of the Cryptosphere Fund for Furthering Scientific Exploration and Searches in Moscow Together with Dmitri Bayanov, the Scientific Director of the International Center of Hominology under the Cryptosphere Fund and the head of the Hominology Seminar under the Darwin Museum in Moscow he made acquaintance with Mary Greens two books, “Bigfoot at my Door” and “Fifty Years with Bigfoot: Tennessee Chronicles of Co-Existence” (the last one with co-author Janice Carter). After having read these books and two years of correspondence with both of them the ICH gathered a little sum of money and sent Igor to Tennessee, USA.

Here is what Igor Bourtsev says in the end of his visit here.

Russian Hominologist in Tennessee

By Igor Burtsev

Habituating Bigfoots at the Carter Farm

We made acquaintance with these books and had correspondence for two years with Mary Green and Janice Carter and other researchers concerning the Tennessee experiences with the bigfoot homins. Finally, we decided me to visit this country to know more about the conditions and the activities here, to cooperate in this research and to exchange the experiences. It was also very important to receive some additional materials in preparing for a future book publication of these Tennessee experiences. Because we have worked to illustrate proposed publication with some sketches about the concerning events and to prepare the commentary about the activities. That is why I have come here from Moscow for four weeks. Later the events pushed me to prolong my visit up to five weeks.

Three weeks of this visit I lived at Carter’s Farm which is reported usually inhabited by family of bigfoot consisted of a large male named Fox, 60 years old, with some of his children and grandchildren. Fox supposed still uses the basement of the old farm house to shelter during inclement weather and to sleep in. He also takes food from buckets and bags prepared for him.

I understood that it was necessary for the bigfoots to have time to habituate to me. It is known from experience: when other people come to the farm, the bigfoot stop their activities, but after several days they become use to their presence. At first it was about ten days when there were no signs of their presence at the farm. I used this time to make acquaintance with those places were meetings have appeared before during the three decades of Janice’s experiences and her encounters with these creatures.

Janice has showed me the place where she had the first such a meeting with Fox. It happened when she was seven years old; the places where Fox and his family were fed by her grandfather, Robert Carter, who patronized them even before Janice, and other places. After I photographed the places of the encounters and examined a blanket in the basement that contained hairs from Fox. I also photographed twisted trees as done by somebody with tremendous strong hands, and also structures called tree markers the bigfoots have made from tree limbs and saplings. I spoke to the neighbors about

the bigfoots and received confirmation of their existence on and around the Carter Farm. Some of neighbours participate in feeding them.

In general, I have confirmed our with Bayanov previous opinion that this is a real story that was written in the book, “50 Years” and in the letters written by Janice and Mary.

I have continued to hope to obtain new evidences of their appearance to the Carter Farm and they have happened. At 1:30 a.m., September 11-12, 2004 the dogs were barking hardly and we went to look around and nothing was seen, but the next morning, the 12th of September, Janice’s sister, Lila, who lives in a trailer situated some 50 meters away from farm house come to us early and said that approximately the same time, somebody had walked around her trailer, coughing several times, whistling, and after knocked softly on the wall of her trailer. Lila was sitting and reading a book while her three children were sleeping at the time of this occurrence.

On the 13th of September, after visiting Mary Green that day, me and Janice came back to the farm by car about midnight. Again, Lila met us, and said that just now somebody walked around her trailer and when we stopped the car, this “somebody” disappeared.

On the 14th of September during the observation of the basement, Janice and me found that an armchair in the basement had been moved about two feet aside. It looked like a visitor wanted to broaden his place for having a rest. Also, a necklace made from metal with a spider charm appeared on the blanket that was on the back of the armchair. This necklace had not been seen before by Janice, and previous absence of the necklace was undoubtedly confirmed with the occasional photograph of the chair made before.

Also, during the same observations we noticed that the plastic bag of food hanging there on a metal water pipe under the ceiling of the basement had been replaced along the pipe closer to the wall, it was moved more than one and a half foot along the pipe. After we moved the bag of food back to the original placement.

On the 16th of September something else occurred. All the day it rained very hard and me and Janice were absent because we visited Janice’s friend’s home to work with the computer as Janice’s phone and computer was out of work. We returned back home around midnight and were stressed because Janice had to drive many miles under hard rein without the windshield wiper of her vehicle which had stopped working. I asked Janice to go with me to the basement to check if somebody is there, but she begged off due to being very tired and stressed. The next morning, when I woke up, I visited first the basement and looked. Oh, my God, the blanket was on the floor and the bag again was moved to the wall, the same distance as before. It looked like HE was playing with us!

After this events, having been confirmed that somebody had visited there, I worked two days with a mattock, to make soft the extremely hard and packed soil around and inside of the basement. This was done to obtain possible footprints of anyone entering the basement. After I asked Janice’s friend Tom to keep the soil wet, because if it dried, it could not make impressions, and look what will happen. They could do plaster casts if the footprints appear. I then left to visit Mary in another county, as was planned before.

In Overtone – Patnam counties

During my visit with Mary from September 19-23, 2004, I went with several Tennessee researchers in Overton County, a place of many prior sightings. The place was called Standing Stone State Forest and where a calf was found that had been purportedly killed by a bigfoot. Research was done mostly late at night and they called with some special screams and whistles, sometimes calling them by names. It astonished me that the first night we achieved positive results. Some answering screams by Sherry Malin appeared and also return knocks were heard when Wayne Murphy used a club to hit upon some trees. Next day I photographed the footprint that was found by this group last weekend before my coming.

Fig.1. Igor Burtsev, Mary Green and ranger.

At day time Mary showed me the place where a calf was found and photographed. Near that place a big visitor left big footprints just on last weekend, and one footprint still stayed unharmed.

I photographed here also some wooden constructions, supposed markers by Mary. I could compare these markers with those found in my own country in Kirov region. In general, they look like ours, so they are similar. I met with rangers in that State Forest, one named Shawn Hughs, and I asked him who made such constructions. He replied easily and naively, “I don’t know.” I asked, “Do people do this?” and he said, “No.” No comment for rangers…

After my experiences for several days and nights I came to conclusion, that here it was really a very prospective place to search bigfoots.

Back to the Carter Farm

I came back to the Carter farm late in the evening of September 23. At the same evening I checked the basement, and no traces were seen there.

Next morning the TV team of National Geographic headed by Noel Dockstader came to shoot interview with me and Janice. They made their job and supposed were satisfied with Janice’s reports and believed her. On another day they came again to continue. While they were filming the reports by Janice’s sister Lila, I went to look in the basement and – O, my God! I saw the footprints…

Fig.2. Igor Burtsev with cast

Those footprints were very specific, and I recognized in them the prints of a young bigfoot named by Janice Squeaky. His right footprint was across the direction of movement, toes inside. And two bulbs on the outer edge of the foot. Janice told just the day before to the TV men about such a peculiarity of the Squeaky’s game because of damaged his right leg.

I called the TV men, and they filmed the footprints. After Jan came, and she confirmed footprints’ belonging to Squeaky. That boy is about five years old adopted son of Nicky, a 15 years old daughter of Fox. His height is about five feet, that is why his foot is rather small (as I measured, about 27 cm, or 11” long), a little less than my foot (which is 28 cm).

After I learned, that also food disappeared from the plastic bag hanged under ceiling, and the bag itself had been cat from the top to the bottom on one line.

Later we made a plaster cast from the best footprint.

Fig.4.Burtsev in the Bigfoot's nest.

It happened on Saturday, just that day when I had to leave the farm for Washington in the evening. But – I could not… We called to the airport and postponed the flight for one week.

And that next week was most effective one! We have found in following days very nice “three room” shelter of BFs in trees in a far corner of the farm lands, marked with a broken toll plant marker; we have picked up a lot of BF’s hair in that shelter stuck in broken twigs of a fur-tree, bent by BFs up to the ground and now being dry. Later Jan sorted those hairs to colours, they belonged to various BFs; we have found very interesting artifact – a clay ball with a bunch of hairs inside and outside looking like a tail – probably a kind of a toy for baby-BF (there is a 1.5 year old small bigfoot, Nicky’s son between them).

As to the case of the Carter farm, I think that the work there should be developed but with the assistance of the state or scientific establishments. Equipment and financial assistance is necessary. I suppose that it should be set up as a State Wild Life Reserve there including some properties, as this property of Janice Carter.

Fig.4. Artistic picture of Jan and Fox meeting.

It could be constantly reserved as a scientific laboratory. After 30 years, Janice became very knowledgeable about this creatures and has become an expert on them. It’s necessary somehow to support her efforts of patronizing these creatures on that land, because it is a unique case of the co-operation of the bigfoot with people, with humans. It’s necessary not to lose this contact and this co-operation. If necessary attention will not be paid to this case, we can lose such a unique opportunity to make constant contacts and co-operation with these creatures and research them in their natural conditions.

I have not met Fox and other creatures here, but surely I met here very warm attitude to me and I feel the warmth of the hearts of all the people, the bigfoot researchers here to whom I’ve met – Janice Carter, Mary Green, Will Duncan, Sherry Malin, Wayne Murphy, Tom Shirley, and many others, and I will take with me this warmth from their hearts to my country. I intend to come here again with more supplies to continue the approach to BFs.

Finally, together we shall win and come to the recognition of the existence of Bigfoots, and generally - Homins! And we shall prevent their extinction.