TROY — Mike Miller and Mike Feltner of the Ohio Night Stalkers and the Travel Channel’s “Terror in the Woods” series will appear at the Troy-Miami County Public Library on Saturday, Oct. 1, sharing their experiences with studying and tracking Bigfoot throughout southeastern Ohio.

“We enjoy sharing what we find,” Mike Miller said. “There will be free prizes also; the program is for the entire family.”

Miller has been studying and tracking Bigfoot in Ohio for more than 16 years, and co-founded the Ohio Night Stalkers organization in 2013 with fellow Bigfoot researcher Mike Feltner. Since then, the two friends have also been featured on the Travel Channel’s “Terror in the Woods” series and in filmmaker Seth Breedlove’s “On the Trail of Bigfoot” specials.

Miller and Feltner will appear at the Troy-Miami County Public Library at 1 pm on Saturday, Oct. 1, delivering a presentation on their research featuring footprint castings, audio samples, photographs and first-hand accounts of their encounters. The presentation is open to all ages, and no registration is required. More information can be found online at www.tmcpl.org or by calling the library at 937-339-0502, ext. 117.

The Ohio Night Stalkers are based in Cincinnati, but Miller and Feltner’s Travel Channel and film appearances have focused on an experience they had near Shawnee State Park in the Portsmouth, Ohio area.

“We went into an area in Adams County in 2014, and we basically got run out of there,” Miller said. “They chased us out of there.”

“We recorded them screaming and howling, or whatever you want to call it,” he said. “Since then, those audio clips have been analyzed by a professional sound analyst; he analyzes audio for the police and fire department. He can’t say it’s Bigfoot, but he said we recorded no known animal in North America, and that one of those screams peaked higher than a baboon.”

“There were about four places we stopped that night,” Miller said. “We did another howl, and we got a reply from two of them.”

“I felt like we were being herded,” he said. “That was really, really creepy.”

Miller has investigated other reports and sightings throughout southeastern Ohio, including several cases in Miami County.

“There’s stuff in Miami County, too,” he said. “There was a report in Miami County, just outside of Tipp City.”

“It was about 15 years ago,” Miller said. “A lady had her kids, and they were taking a walk before nightfall. There was some whistling involved, and she thought somebody was fishing and playing around, and her kids whistled back. But she said what bothered her was that the whistles went so high up in octave; she taught music, and she said there’s no way a person could do that.”

“Her little boy supposedly saw it, and he had to have therapy because it freaked him out,” he said. “They’re real, and they’re around. There’s stuff out there that we haven’t discovered.”

“They’re going to places we really can’t follow,” Miller said. “Of course, you’ve got people who won’t believe until you flop a body in front of them, but that’s easier said than done.”

Evidence like footprints or tree damage is all that has been found, so far.

“There is a big difference between storm damage to trees and unnatural damage,” Miller said. “In one of your parks up there where you’re at, there is a tree in that park that they took the limbs off of, and they bent this thing and drove it into the ground.”

“It looks like the St. Louis Arch,” he said, “and it’s not pinned by another tree, it was driven into the ground.”

Miller and Feltner don’t reveal the exact locations they visit.

“We don’t tell where we go,” Miller said. “Some of the areas we go in are privately owned.”

“My advice for anyone interested is, look up some reports, get a map, get some people and go,” he said. “Make a plan before you go, and go check it out during the day, we always do that. Don’t go alone; In most of these places there is no phone service at all, so if you slip and fall or break a leg and get hurt, you’re not going to get ahold of anybody.”

The Ohio Night Stalkers presentations have grown over the years, and Miller and Feltner have traveled to libraries across the state sharing their experiences.

“We started doing library lectures, and bringing what we found right to the public,” Miller said. “We had over 120 people in Portsmouth; they had to turn people away because of the fire code.”

“I didn’t think Ohio had big enough tracts of land to have anything,” he said. “The more I looked the more I found, and here I am sixteen years later still doing this.”

The writer is a regular contributor to Miami Valley Today.