Chasing the Mogollon Monster

GLOBE, Ariz. - From UFOs to the Loch Ness monster, the mysterious and inexplicable phenomena across the globe which claim just as many believers as skeptics have a hold on many here in Arizona.

Here's the story of a monster living among us.

They seem like unbelievable stories fit for the campfire, but these guys have seen the signs and heard the sounds.

"The fur was clean and shiny it was a brownish red," says Alex Hearn, crypto zoologist.

"They're very intelligent they are the masters of the forest the rulers of the night," says Mitchell Waite, a Mogollon Monster hunter. "Whistling... they'll do that."

But have you ever heard the tale of the Mogollon Monster? Arizona's very own Bigfoot creature wandering the wilderness of the Tonto National Forest?

We spoke with the locals in and around Globe who not only believe such a creature could exist, some have even seen him!

"I passed it off as being a bear but I don't know it was black or very dark and it was trailing some horses," says believer Gene Center.

It's tales like these that keep Mitch Waite and Alex Hearn coming back to these mountains in search of the mighty Sasquatch -- about two hours north east of the valley.

Their Bigfoot research trailer is much more conspicuous than the "monster" itself, though, who avoids detection almost without fail.

These Bigfoot believers have had their own encounters. Mitch claims the monster attacked his campsite.

"Soon as we grabbed for the pistol, cocked the pistol, it backed off the tent, popped up, you know scared the bejesus out of us," says Waite.

Hearn has spent a lifetime searching for Bigfoot after a close call when he was 12 years old in the woods of New Hampshire.

Not long ago he saw a similar mystery beast near this campsite along Rose Creek.

"The creature was not straggly and dirty it was well groomed it looked like either another creature or something or someone was grooming it," says Hearn. "You honestly believe this was some sort of a Sasquatch creature, yeah it seemed very human like."

No logical explanation of a bear or another wild animal will satisfy these amateur explorers.

But isn't Bigfoot more at home in the Pacific Northwest, and the skunk ape settled in the dense marsh land of the southeast, than here in the desert?

Our research team pointed out that this ecosystem is the perfect candidate for such a creature -- with countless plants and trees to provide cover and food -- and water sources only found in the high country. Maybe this landscape could be Bigfoot's lair.

"This is probably the first bedding or nesting area we found in our research," says Hearn.

The monster hunters led us to what they call the hot zone for Bigfoot activity -- where they found all the proof they'll ever need of the biped's existence.

A 19-inch footprint cast in plaster to preserve the evidence, and a number of curious structures made with tree branches and pine needles.

So why is it so hard to spot the Mogollon Monster, or any so-called Sasquatch for that matter? Where's the proof?

"By the time I get it in reverse and get it back he'd already started running down that direction," says Waite.

"I didn't have the camera ready at the time. I carry 3 or 4 cameras with me at all times and I didn't have a camera with me at that point that one second," says Hearn.

And so it goes with creatures of the occult.

Nothing concrete for the scientific community, but plenty of circumstantial evidence to peak curiosity.

Like this night vision shot of a shadowy figure raiding the ice chest -- or this dark image hidden between the trees. Could this be the face of an ape-like animal in Arizona?

The research team's strategically placed game cameras capture a lot of shots of just that -- game, elk, who may have seen something before they were left in this lifeless state… if only those bones could talk.

"I think basically the serious Bigfoot researcher will eventually win out with enough data to get the scientific community interested," says Waite.

"How do you convince people that you guys are legitimately looking for something you believe to be absolutely concrete and real? I don't really try because I don't feel that anybody that has that strong of doubts is going to believe me no matter what I say," says Hearn.

With dozens of documented accounts over the last several years -- it could be just a matter of time before the Mogollon Monster moves from make-believe or mysterious to mainstream.

"I think there's something to it. I think there is such a creature out there, I really do," says Center.

If you'd like to hunt for the Mogollon Monster to see for yourself or if you've had your own encounter you can contact Mitch Waite's research team at www.mogollonmonster.com .