Easter weekend we traveled to Vanceboro, North Carolina to visit family. It is about 20 minutes from New Bern. Since we were in the area, we decided to do a Roadside research project on our way back. We picked a sighting report that was about 2 hours away and planned our return trip with the area as a stop point on our route map. It was Smithfield, North Carolina on Cleveland Rd. That road is off highway 210. We came in on US highway 70 w.
We stopped and ate lunch at a restaurant mentioned in the original report. Unfortunately, there is more than one and the one nearest the site of the report was closed because it was Sunday. We got directions from the owner on how to reach our destination and continued to follow the clues from the report. Once we arrived at the approximate location, we stopped to look at the scenery. In eight years, things had changed. There was now a small housing addition in the vicinity. Despite this, we think we were able to understand the geographical conditions that must have existed at that time.
We took pictures that will be in the article we write so the reader can visualize what we saw. It would have been nice to have a more recent event because eight years down the road, there is little to see except the area as it is lain out today. We are hoping that the original witnesses will come forward to help us clarify what we were seeing. The young man would now be about 31 and his sister 23.
The location is farming and is just west of the Neuss River. This would lend itself well to being able to support a Bigfoot, even a family group. However, as with most sightings, only one was seen. It was, of course, traveling from one place to another and happened to cross the road. It was not carrying anything. And, as the witness said, it seemed unruffled by the car. It was just set on continuing its walk to where ever it was going.
The downside of Roadside Research is that we are always coming in after the fact, sometimes years and so what we are seeing is after years of change has taken place. However, it is fun to find the spot and actually see the terrain and investigate the area to see if a population could live there.
The Neuss River empties into the Ocean in New Bern, North Carolina. According to Wikipedia, “The Neuse River is a river rising in the piedmont of North Carolina and emptying into Pamlico Sound below New Bern. Its total length is approximately 275 miles (443 km),[1] making it the longest river entirely contained in North Carolina. The Trent River joins it at New Bern. Its drainage basin, measuring 5,630 square miles (14,600 km2) in area, also lies entirely inside North Carolina. It is formed by the confluence of the Flat and Eno rivers prior to entering the manmade, artificial Falls Lake reservoir in northern Wake County. Its fall line shoals, known as the Falls of the Neuse, lie submerged under the waters of Falls Lake.”
So, It would be amazing to be able to figure out how Bigfoot arrived in the area in the first place.
So, even though the incident is long past, there is much we can discover by viewing the actual terrain surrounding the sighting. We just have to remember that the purpose is to gain more knowledge. It won’t have the excitement of the original incident when it was fresh. But, it is a valuable tool to add to the information we already have.
