Over the past weekend, the three day Tennessee Bigfoot Conference was held at Bays Mountain on Friday and lasted until Sunday. The conference was organized by Dr. John Stamey and had talks and panels with other leading Bigfoot researchers from across the globe.
“I have always been interested in the paranormal,” Stamey said. “I run a number of comicons and festivals. These include Cape Fear Comicon, Summerville Comicon and the South Carolina Lizardman Festival, while I also currently run five Bigfoot events: Georgia Bigfoot Conference, Tennessee Bigfoot Conference, Kentucky Bigfoot Conference, Mid-South Bigfoot Conference and Uwharrie Bigfoot Conference.”
Dr. Stamey is a leading Bigfoot researcher in the area with a master’s in computer science from Clemson University, a master’s in agriculture and natural resource system’s management from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a doctorate in tech education and computer science from North Carolina State University.
Stamey has ran a podcast for years when he came across a man who turned his interest to Bigfoot.
“On one of my podcasts in August 2017, I interviewed a guy doing a documentary on Bigfoot,” Stamey said. “It was eight weeks until the 50th Anniversary of the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage from 1967, so on Oct. 2 of that year we celebrated that anniversary at the first event I ran at Bays Mountain Park called “Bigfoot Day.” The conference was popular, and I became very interested in the topic of Bigfoot.”
Stamey has since published seven books on the topic and is in the third year of organizing the Tennessee Bigfoot Conference. The conference included personalities such as Dr. Igor Burtsev, Janice Carter, Robin McCray, Tony Felosi, William Henry and Matt Delph. The keynote attendee was Burtsev, an internationally recognized Bigfoot researcher from Russia.
“This year, we have the respected and perhaps the best known real researcher in the Bigfoot world, Dr. Igor Burtsev,” Stamey said. “Also, we have his well-known team of Robin McCray and Janice Carter, who wrote ’50 Years with Bigfoot: The Tennessee Coexistence Chronicles,’ which is arguably the most famous book ever written about interacting with Bigfoot. On Saturday, we have Tony Felosi heading the lineup, superb paranormal investigator and will wow the audience with ‘The Manzo Shepherd Story.'”
About 250 people attend the Tennessee conference each year, putting the event likely within the top 20 for size of a Bigfoot Conference.
The event ended on Sunday with Bigfoot University, a 1-day course involving lectures, seminars and field experience, ending with a round table discussion with the guests. The conference next year will be staying in Bays Mountain, according to Dr. Stamey.
“Bays Mountain is the perfect location,” he said. “It is in the woods, and the staff is so great to us. We won’t be leaving Bays Mountain any time soon.”
