Bigfoot Encounters


The "Bardin Booger," Putnam County, Florida

Bardin is a small town tucked away in the pine flatwoods north of Palatka on Highway 17 in Putnam County, Florida where there weaves a legend that the piney areas are guarded by the watchful eye of a resident bigfoot called the ‘Bardin booger, Booger-boo or Booger-man.’

Bud Key, proprietor of the "Bud´s Grocery", in the heart of Bardin, sold t-shirts printed with images of the alleged monster -- and a local country music-man by the name of Billy Crain even composed a song about the thing, which he titled "The Bardin Booger's Christmas Wish."

Enormous tracks were supposedly found, but none were cast or photographed.

Eyewitness Doug Crew, long time resident of Bardin said he was seated in its truck one night with two young women, when the vehicle began to vibrate with violently. "…the best was I can describe it, Crew explained later, is that it looked like when a dog shakes the water of the back." The phenomenon induced some jokers to falsify footprints and sell them as an attraction along with mugs and t-shirts.


Mystery primates are not unusual in Florida, the most famous are the reported sightings of skunk apes that average roughly seven feet tall, carrying a stench about them and otherwise are described much the same as the Pacific Northwest and the Northeastern sasquatch...

According to Moran and Sceurman’s “Weird U.S”. book, the Bardin booger is a bear-sized beast has a pig's nose, a long, red tongue dangling out of its mouth and a stride longer than humanly possible, but I found it a very old tale usually retold over campfires to scare young campers.

There may be some basis for this tale, but all told, it’s more likely the invention of a hungry journalist who put an embellished spin on an old Florida yarn about some beast that roamed the Bardin Woods – now of course, lost in the distant past.

Sketch is from The Snowbird’s Organization
(Bobbie Short, 1999, -updated 2006)


Comments to the Bardin Booger Story
:

My brothers and there friends were working for a man over the summer a few years ago when they saw something on line edge of the hay field the surrounding area is thick with woods.

They saw what they said was a skunk ape, a tall hairy dark haired man.  The man they worked for had a pistol and they had four wheelers, they proceeded to chase the creature. The man pulled his gun but he couldn't fire, because he got sick from the rotten smell from the creature when it went into the woods they left it alone and headed back away from this area.  This area is located in Bardin, which is near Palatka Florida in Putnam County on highway100. It has flatlands thick with pines and many swamp areas; there have been a number of sightings around Bardin and let me assure you no one thinks it is the Bardin Booger! I believe that is just a made up tale for publicity anyway I have been looking into legend and information on these creatures and thought I'd just let you know they are in Bardin and if I ever see one long enough to get a kill shot I will because I am a hunter and have heard strange things in the woods but myself have never come close enough to one but I hope I will..

Thank you for your time
Sincerely Phillip Wilkinson
Friday, May 22, 2009 2:38 PM

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