Tennessee Wildman and Cryptid Con 2025

Join us, Saturday, August 16th 2025 for a day of Guest Speakers and Experiencers on many varied cryptid topics - ranging from Bigfoot to Dogman to UFOs and more, as well as our expansive Vendor Hall where you'll be able to find all the Bigfoot and Cryptid related merchandise for your wants and needs!
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Across the Volunteer State, a myriad of local and regional names stand for Bigfoot-like creatures seen and encountered just outside local townships and communities. From the Flintville Monster to the White Screamer of White Bluff, to "Old Green Eyes" of Lookout Mountain and the Screaming Jacks of the Cumberland Plateau - reports of hairy Wildmen have remained consistent across the ages.

Whether captured in the tall tales of the European frontiersmen whom first entered it's remote foothills and hollows or the matter of fact re-tellings of the Indigenous peoples whom once lived here along side them, within Tennessee's wooded, rural deep country, legends not only walk and wail, they leave imprints everywhere - Upon the wild grounds on which they tread and in the lives of those that encounter them, the communities they haunt and the mythic stories and legends they leave echo across the state's history.

From the Smoky Mountains in the east to the karst-ridden Cumberland Mountains of Middle Tennessee, and from the river and lake bottoms of the Tennessee basin to the sprawling floodplains along the Mississippi river at our western edge, the Volunteer State has always held a deep history marked with the mysterious, the extraordinary, the paranormal and the bizarre.

Most infamous of Tennessee's fortean folklores is quite likely the Bell Witch of Adams, Tennessee - But did you know that a 6ft 5inch hair-covered Wildman was tracked, hunted down and captured in Middle Tennessee, near Sparta, in the late 1800's?

Have you ever heard of the "Tennessee Pygmies" purportedly discovered throughout the nineteenth century, with thousands of them seemingly buried en-mass with their remains interned in acres-large slate-box graveyards along the western edge of the Cumberland Mountains? Were you aware that the local indigenous tribes of the region all accepted their existence quite matter of factly and both respected and feared them?

Were you aware that one of America's first reported cryptids, the "Cheeklaceela" described as a 4 foot tall "Dragon", was made by multiple military soldiers serving during the Nickajack Expedition of 1794, a few miles northeast of Cookeville, Tennessee?

Did you know that the region west of Nashville, near Dickson, Burns and White Bluff are legendary for sightings and encounters with the infamous "Werewolf" of Burns/Montgomery Bell? Did you know those legends stem from an encounter two brothers had that was reported in the regional papers of the time, in an area that's now within the state park itself, that purportedly ended in the death of one of the brothers via the attack from a large, hairy man-thing?

The great state of Tennessee has a long and lengthy history with cryptozoology and strange phenomenon. So let's explore some of it with the Researchers, Field Investigators and Experiencers that are out looking for these mysterious phenomenon, shall we?
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Guest Speaker: M.K. Davis

Speaking on the subject of Bigfoot and the Patterson/Gimlin film!

For the last 29 years M.K.Davis has been researching the subject of the Sasquatch.
M.K.'s quest began quietly with his interest in astro-photography where he gained experience with film and how to photograph the very faint objects in the heavens. One day, all those years ago, M.K. saw two very high quality frames from the famous Patterson Bigfoot film and they were nothing like what was commonly shown on television and the movie theaters.
M.K. began an inquiry into this famous piece of cinema that has taken him around the country until he had obtained the highest quality frames from the film. From there he reprocessed the frames and removed all hand motion to produce the clearest and most stable version of the film to date.
This led to a wider pursuit in search of the answers such as "What is the nature of the Sasquatch?" and "What is the importance of the Sasquatch and how does it relate to each of us?"
M.K. has travelled to and hiked many of the major wilderness areas in his quest for the answers to such questions. From Bluff Creek in Northern California to the Jarbidge Wilderness in Northern Nevada and down to Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks in the Mojave desert, Texas hill country, Louisiana swamps, The Everglades, and most everywhere in between, M.K. has been there.
M.K.Davis has been married to Debbie Davis for 46 years and they have four children and five grandchildren along with their dog Buddy and cat Neffi. M.K. has enjoyed a long career in the Chemical industry and now devotes his spare time to researching the unexplained.
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Guest Speaker: Chester Moore

Speaking on the subject of Dark Outdoors: A deep look at feral humans and primitive survivors in the American South!

Author of 15 books including the recently released expanded edition of "Bigfoot South: Examining Cryptozoology’s Greatest Mystery in the Southern United States".

Chester Moore is an award-winning wildlife journalist, conservationist and investigator.

He is the host of Dark Outdoors, a podcast that investigates true crime, strange encounters and human-wildlife conflict in the great outdoors as well as the wildlife investigative podcast Higher Calling Wildlife®.

He has been seen on many wildlife television programs including Animal Planet’s “Animal X”, Nat Geo’s “When Sharks Attack” and various programs on Discovery, The Travel Channel, The Outdoors Channel and Destination America.

He and his wife Lisa are children’s advocates that are founders of the Wild Wishes® program that grants wildlife encounters for children with a critical illness, traumatic loss and other life struggles.

He contributes to dozens of magazines and web platforms, is Editor-In-Chief of Texas Fish & Game magazine and produces weekly content on his blog at highercalling.net.

His favorite place to be is in the woods or on the water, often with a fly rod in hand and usually in the company of family and friends.

Host "Moore Outdoors" Newstalk AM 560 KLVI
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Guest Speaker - Darrell Denton

Speaking on the subject of Bigfoot and other cryptid hominids

Admin of the online Cryptid Community Bigfoot Believers and Other Creatures.

While growing up in Tennessee Mr. Denton had hunted his Grandfathers Cannon County farm all of his life, but in November of 1992 his life would be changed for ever, when while 25 feet up in a Deer Stand Mr. Denton saw a "Monster" in the woods. This first encounter scared Mr. Denton like he’d never known before, and he didn’t go into the woods for many years after. Then approximately 7 years after that encounter, Mr. Denton had his secound encounter while fishing on the Cumberland River with a different type of creature. This Creature was unexpected but not aggressive like the first. Since then Mr. Denton has researched, and experienced and had many encounters and sightings both good and bad with the Forest People, Bigfoot and in the last 5 years, Dogman. Mr. Denton's Research team consist of some of his closest friends, Martin Groves, Barton Nunnelly, and now Mr. Ron Morehead, as well as still researching a certain area with his good friend Billy Howell. After nearly 32 years Mr. Denton has seen and experienced things that he would never have believed could exist in our woods and National and Federal Parks. Mr. Denton knows for a fact, there are MONSTERS in Tennessee.
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Guest Speaker: Martin Groves

Speaking on the subject of Dogman!

Author of the books "Beasts Between the Rivers" and "the Devil's Backbone".

As seen in the documentary "Cryptic Expeditions: The Land Between the Lakes".

A retired Law Enforcement Officer with 32 years of active service, Mr. Martin Groves was certified in the following job skills

BASIC AND ADVANCED CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS

ADVANCE CRIME SCENE TECHNICIAN /DNA EVIDENCE

ADVANCED FINGERPRINT PATENT/LATENT / DNA EXPERT

ADVANCED COMBAT TRACKING IN URBAN/RURAL AREAS- MAN OR ANIMAL

CIRT TEAM-CRITICAL INCIDENT RESPONSE TEAM / HOSTAGE RESCUE

ADVANCED ACTIVE SHOOTER RESPONSE OFFICER.

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After his encounter in the Land Between the Lakes, Mr. Groves has spent the last thirty (30) years actively investigating and interviewing experiencers, with now over 300 witnesses to strange encounters and/or attacks in the area. Mr. Groves also has researched Bigfoot and Dogman sightings in the Smokeys and Appalachian Mountains of both Kentucky and Tennessee. Mr. Groves never intended to go public with his encounter, but has since become so overwhelmed by the missing person reports in the Land Between the Lakes and other National Parks that it is now his goal to save as many people and, hopefully, give answers to the families whom wish for closure due to their loved ones becoming missing in such fashion.

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Guest Speaker: Randy Hutchings

Founder and lead-investigator of Fortean TN

Co-founder and Event Director of the Tennessee Wildman and Cryptid Con 2023-2025

Randy Hutchings was born and raised in the shadow of the region of the Appalachians known as the Cumberland Plateau, and as a child found himself often hiking and camping it's many varied gulfs and hollows. It was during such a trip to a local abandoned quarry that he and his cousin both witnessed having a boulder thrown at them from some distance, all the while whatever was responsible bellowed and yelled like "something between an angry Bull and a Howler Monkey". This began a trek into Cryptozoology that he never really meant to find himself on, becoming a boots-on-the-ground field investigator for several Bigfoot research groups such as the BFRO (Bigfoot Field Research Organization), GCBRO (Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization), SRI (Sasquatch Research Initiative) and several others, before finally founding Fortean TN in 2015 - a field investigative group that researches fringe topics within the state of Tennessee, be it Bigfoot and other Cryptid sightings, Paranormal experiences such as hauntings, UFO/UAP sightings and encounters as well as "forbidden archeology" within the state.


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Guest Speaker: Linda Eastburn

Linda Eastburn is rapidly becoming one of the foremost interviewers on the subjects of Bigfoot and UFOs, having documented dozens of cases, in the experiencers own words, on her Youtube channel.

Linda Eastburn is an author, filmmaker and intuitive. Her latest book, Threshold to Encounters comes from years of research in the field of alien, Bigfoot and ghost experiences. Her other books, with Heart, and Riding the Intuitive Wave are about her life as an intuitive instructor and consultant. Today she hosts the Linda Eastburn YouTube Channel focusing on creating a platform for others to tell their story. She was host of the television and radio show Anomalies, founded the Midwest Research Society, where she took groups on research trips to explore the paranormal. She has spoken at conference and universities all over the US. Her films have played from art houses to movie theaters.

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Guest Speaker: Tim "Coonbo" Baker

Tim Baker, also known as “Coonbo” in the Bigfoot/Sasquatch community has been actively researching Bigfoot, cryptids and other phenomena for over 50 years. Growing up on their family farm in northwest Alabama, he had his first encounter with a “Booger” or “Catamount” (now known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch) before his 3rd birthday and started learning about them from his parents and grandparents at that time. He had his first up-close, full-body sighting at the age of 4 and continues to have interactions with them on their farm to this day. At the age of 12, in 1967, he first called a bigfoot to him using just his voice. He started seriously researching Bigfoot in 1975 but had been researching UFOs and archaeological cover-ups before that.

He attended Auburn University, majoring in Civil Engineering and the University of Alabama, Huntsville, majoring in Electrical Engineering. In 1980, he went to work as a test engineer for a major Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) government contractor in Huntsville, Alabama, doing projects for the Nuclear industry, the Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, and the Army Missile Command. He held both a Nuclear “Q” as well as Top Secret security clearances for years. He went back to school and earned engineering certifications in six additional specialties, and manned a console in Mission Control during seven Space Shuttle missions and in other facilities during several other missions. He was in Mission Control when the Challenger Disaster occurred.

He has worked hard to apply science, technology, and research to the study of Bigfoot, Cryptids, and other Phenomena.

He worked in RDT&E for 14 years, traveling extensively during that time, learning that most government installations have a population of Bigfoot living there. In the early 80’s while researching sonic weapons, he was the first to discover that Bigfoot can generate and use infrasound and performed pioneering research in that field, often designing and building his own equipment. Later, also found that they use ultrasound. Since 1984, has researched Dogman and closely studied the incidents in LBL. In the early 2000’s, he and another researcher started a long-term project to determine if Bigfoot are related to Nephilim, which led to him being the very first to use a Shofar to successfully call Bigfoot.

Has researched, feet on the ground, in the boonies, in 43 out of 50 states, and several foreign countries. Has spoken in over 100 Blogtalk Radio and YouTube programs about his research, encounters and other related subjects. Mr. Baker knows they exist, and is not trying to prove they exist, but rather, his focus is on teaching others about them.

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Guest Speaker: Jessi Doyle of Hellbent Holler

Deep in the heart of the Southern Appalachians, a dynamic duo is on a mission to uncover the truth behind the region's most baffling mysteries. Meet Jessi and Joe Doyle of Hellbent Holler, a two-person research team that's been fearlessly exploring the unexplained phenomena of the Carolinas, the southern Appalachian mountains and beyond. From Sasquatch and Dogman sightings to ghost lights and other paranormal activity, Joe and Jessi combine their 20+ years of expertise in field investigative research and the occult to take a bold, tech-driven approach to the unknown. Join them on their thrilling quest for answers as they delve into the strange and unknown, pushing the boundaries of conventional research and sparking a new era of discovery!


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Guest of Honor: R. Scott Nelson

Speaking on the subject of Bigfoot Language in the Sierra Sounds/Berry-Moorehead recordings.

R Scott Nelson, as one of few two-time graduates of the Defense Language Institute, served 20 years in the US Navy as a Cryptologic Technician Interpreter, a “Crypto-Linguist” in Russian, Spanish and Persian, during which time he conducted the Collection, Transcription and Analysis of hundreds of hours of the human voice on tape. After retiring from the Navy, Scott spent 20 years teaching at Wentworth Military College, and another three years at Missouri Military Academy as Chair of the Philosophy and Language Department.
Peripheral to his teaching career, in 2008, Scott stumbled upon the “Sierra Sounds”, which he now calls “The Berry/Morehead Tapes” in which he recognized that the creatures were speaking a complex Human-like Language

Also appearing in our Exhibitor Hall

Harley Owens
Bigfoot Field Researcher from the Smoky Mountains region

Kelly Shaffer
Author of the "Paranormal Pages" and lead investigator of K2 Paranormal Research

David Eller
Cryptozoologist and Adventurer

Matt Seeber
Bigfoot Researcher and Founder of East Tennessee Bigfoot

Janice Carter
Experiencer and subject of the book, 50 Years with Bigfoot

Dewey Edwards
Author of 12 O'Clock High, Eye in the Sky and Ten Hours of Hell.