Presenters and Documentary Screenings, Main floor

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT
CHRISTIAN BARIL

10:00 - 10:25

I was born and raised in Murphysboro, graduated HS in 1988. I grew up in Westwood Hills and used to play in the woods all the time where the sightings took place.  I practice law in Carbondale and am a married father of twin boys.

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHTS
Tony Gerard

10:30 - 11:30

Tony has taught Biology and Earth Science classes for many years at Shawnee College. On the side, he was a former  investigator for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. He worked as cast and crew on all four seasons of the History Channel series Monsterquest. Tony has also participated in a number of other films and documentaries. 

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT
HAROLD BENNY

11:30 - 12:00

Harold is from Hillsboro, Illinois, and graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a BS in Zoology/Botany and an MS in Zoology concentrating in Cytology/Histology. His love of nature led to his interest in Sasquatch and the Big Muddy Monster. He has been visiting the Murphysboro area since around 2003.

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT
KEVIN LEE NELSON

12:30

Kevin is an author, researcher, and adventurer. He has written and lectured on folklore and the paranormal for over twenty years, including co-authoring 'The Big Muddy Monster: Legends, Sightings & Other Strange Encounters'. 

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT

MIKE SCOTT

1:30

I discovered the existence of Sasquatch first hand in December 2019 and have been field researching/investigating ever since. I have a YouTube channel, Understanding Bigfoot, where I've put up 37 shows from 2021 through 2023. I'm on the Bigfoot Outlaw network on the Grizzly on the Hunt program and I wrote a chapter in Thom Cantrall's 16th book, Sasquatch America. 

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT
The Sqwatchers

2:30

The Sqwatchers, founded in 2015 by Jim Peters and Joe Jenkins, are a dedicated Bigfoot research team chasing the legend of Sasquatch across the wilds of southern Illinois. Based in the heart of the Shawnee National Forest, this duo combines rugged fieldwork, cutting-edge technology, and a passion for the unknown to uncover evidence of the elusive creature. 

Grand Tower: UFOs and Other High Strangeness

This film by Joe Tury of Chatham, IL,  explores the mysterious lights in the sky witnessed by credible locals, along with other reports of high strangeness: cryptids, paranormal phenomena, and the unexplained energy that seems to linger in the hills and rivers of the region.

Creature from the Big Muddy

In the early 1970's in Murphysboro, Illinois, the town was terrorized by a creature that was thought to come out of a local river called the Big Muddy. This documentary explores the legend of The Big Muddy Monster.