If you’vebeen following along with me these past few years, then you know my love of the American industrial Revolution, King Phillips War and scenery of the Blackstone River Valley. So now imagine my excitement when I visit a place where they all come together so beautifully within this modern marvel of a park that you know just became on of my favorite places.
The centerpiece of the park, The Ashton Mill was built in 1810 in Cumberland Rhode Island for the Smithfield Cotton Company. The mill was built in this location to harness the power of the Blackstone River, one of America’s few Heritage Rivers that was named after William Blackstone who was an original founder and settler of Boston Massachusetts.
The company struggled and eventually sold the mill to the Lonsdale Company in approx. 1840. Lonsdale was a manufacturer of textiles and had tremendous success throughout the remainder of the 19th century.
Eventually it became a mill village as family housing was constructed. The mill employed men, women and children so family housing was a great need.
In 1848 the Providence and Worcester railroad was built to pass directly at front door of the mill. This provided a secondary mode of transportation to get goods to customers on time.
In the 1950s the industry really started to decline and by the 1970s it was simply cheaper for the companies to move to the south and then eventually overseas.
This park was such a great adventure. The mills once worked this river so hard no fish or river life, save leeches, where left living it . Now it’s thriving again and this park holds within it a snapshot of its history. While I was strolling along or I saw Someone fly fishing, I stared at the beautiful architecture of the 116 bridge, the amazing view of the river, a museum and all with the mills looming over everything. I will definitely be here often to make sure I’ve seen everything it has to offer. Here’s a little blurb about the history from the RI parks official website.
“While the feel and look of the Blackstone River State Park stitching together the river banks and the abutting boundaries of Cumberland and Lincoln, is definitely rural and naturalistic, the history of the land and waters making up the park is thoroughly industrial. At various points in the twelve-mile trek, one can see the remains of the area’s industrial past peek out from beneath the foliage and reflect in the waters. Mill dams, which once held back the river in order to power machinery, still mark the river’s drop at four locations. Sluices and power trenches, canal mile-stones, ground level, protruding shapes of cellar holes of former worker tenements, along with recycled mills now used as apartments and small businesses dot the path. The observant visitor is challenged to discover the legacy layers of this landscape of industry.”
I recommend if you’re ever in the area, to make a stop and spend the day. There is something here for everyone….
“The wolf-like, bat-like, snake-like, bear-like, gargoyle-Gollum creature from Hell that sucks the blood out of chickens and goats” a good description of a chupacabra from David Buccilli from the Michigan Daily. But unfortunately many of the Chupacabra sightings turned out to be coyotes with various stages of mange. In fact, there have been both dogman and bigfoot sightings attributed to mange, bears, coyotes, etc.
I started to wonder how many cryptid encounters from the past were also mange. It would make sense now I think that if you’re are someone like myself out in the woods searching for bigfoot, we should add one more thing to be familiar with before venturing out, along with knowing how to identify animal prints, animal sounds, etc. wouldn’t it also be good to know what various wildlife with mange may look like too? What do you think about mange and cryptids?
My Tuesday morning thoughts…And I went with a chupacabra pic for this because I know looking at pictures of animals with mange can be upsetting, even to myself.
Vernon, B. C, Oct. 24. With a human footprint nineteen inches long, the big toe alone measuring five inches, it is left to the imagination to fill in the superstructure of this huge monster that has frightened the inhabitants of this smiling valley. Men, women and children have turned out to look with awe and wonder at the mysterious and .enormous “hoof.” It is a naked human foot in all the essentials, and its partner is at the other side of a six-foot creek, giving some idea of the pre-historic stride of the creature.
A resident was calmly sawing timber when a gentleman of the neighborhood came up to him and sprung the yarn on him so suddenly that he thought he had somebody from the New Westminster institution to deal with. But the informant was perfectly sane, and produced a stick with the pedal particulars carefully marked. The footprint was down the hill there for anybody to see. No one certainly ever heard of the fertile Okanagan producing stray giants but an old Indian gives color to the theory by averring that forty years ago there were what he terms giants who stole children and things. Perhaps this may be the last of the Canadian mound dwellers.
The reservation folks have certainly had a genuine scare and have called up all the whites round about to help them out. Rifles are all loaded and lanterns lit about in the darkness, so that it is unsafe for a stranger to loom up into view to suddenly when the least crash in the bush is sufficient to excite their tense nervous system.
Some have gone on the trail on horseback with magazine guns, but a few men even with a Maxim under each arm might not stand the ordeal of confronting a hairy monster some thirteen feet high, judging by the feet. Besides, the possession of the creature alive would be as good a financial “spec” as a valuable quarter section of Okanagan land. As there are no people around here to hoax and the Indians are too grave and occupied to manufacture footprints for sport the story and the evidence are just as stated, the Indians themselves being the most concerned and serious over it.”
“Created from a storm Born to sooth the monster A monstrous bride She didn’t wish this She had a life she lived But can’t remember it now But she know it’s not this one somehow This hideous creature she saw seems to think she is his But she won’t live with this Escape, trapped, in this unknown place This dank castle, this, this lab Her mind screams escape This cannot be her fate She’s alive and knows this should not be She will end this life once she’s free She has seen her visage And knows this is not nature’s plan A monsters bride? Never She knows she should not be reborn, Shouldn’t live forever …”
I’m always looking forward to a new bigfoot movie, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing this one in particular because I had seen his first bigfoot film.
David Ford, the writer, director , producer and star of this picture is not new to Bigfoot. This is his follow up to his previous bigfoot movie, Something in the Woods.
If you haven’t had a chance to see this one yet, I highly recommend it. The movie is centered around a logging foreman and his family who live out near the woods. The family begins to get habitually visited on their property by a bigfoot who has less than friendly intentions…
In his sophomore film, Man vs. Bigfoot (a battle in real life I’m not sure we’d win) starts out with a man heading out for some solo camping. Going solo as some, like myself know, can be scary enough with or without bigfoot lurking about, but he was lurking about and this camper was figuring that out…
After the man doesn’t return home as scheduled the wife calls his brother, Jack Rollins, played by David Ford, who then packs up and heads out to the forest In search of him…
While camping that first night, he started to hear noises in the woods around him, and then a trapper, played by Antonio Tec, came out from the woods to greet him. The trapper is Native American, and he shares some of the history from his tribe about bigfoot. He describes him as being more of a protector of the woods type creature to them.
If you follow along with me you know I love the idea of him being a protector out there, but unfortunately that’s not likely to be the case. And it’s definitely not in this one. (Hey, a girl can dream right?). What ensues after the trapper leaves is a battle between Rollins and the elusive beast himself. Now besides that theory of a protector, there were many things I liked about this movie, the biggest being that most of this epic battle is taking place during the daylight hours. Which means that the suit had to hold up and after a few hiccups and changes it does.
The other things I appreciated was , the scenery. The location of a bigfoot movie is one of the first things I’m noticing. I also liked the fact that the traits and behaviors most cryptozoologist attribute to a bigfoot are being used here such as, using environment to camouflage, using rock for tools, and giving the creature signs of intelligence, which to avoid the human race it must have.
I really enjoyed this film, and in my opinion if you are a bigfoot enthusiast you will definitely appreciate this movie. I reached out to David to ask him a few questions, and here is what he shared with me…
“I got interested in filmmaking in college when I started writing screenplays. It took me about 18 years before I made my first one though. My favorite part of the process is principle photography and actually shooting the film. I enjoy it all but I particularly like watching it all come together on camera. I did know many of the actors but also held auditions. Covid only interrupted the post production aspect of it. We had already filmed the movie when Covid hit. I chose Bigfoot because of personal experiences and because I needed a big star and couldn’t afford a known actor. Everybody knows who Bigfoot is. I am a believer because of experience in the field as well as other personal experiences that pertained to a rock being thrown at me in a remote area with fellow researchers. I even caught some audio of the creature back in 2013. We had many issues with the suit. The suit that I ordered was not what I got. I would like to keep that part out of it, but I will say Keith Lack stepped in and saved the day with the creation of the mask and baby bigfoot (spoiler). I worked with Jeff Stewart closely on the project as he was my AD primarily and practical effects supervisor, amongst also playing a role in the film. He advised me in the film. We will be showing the film at the Texas Bigfoot Conference in Jefferson in October from my understanding. I don’t plan to make another bigfoot film as I am moving on to other types of films such as faith based and thrillers. Finding private investors is not easy though so if anyone wants to invest in one of my future films they are free to reach out. If anyone decides to watch the film on VOD please leave us a rating as each rating and review helps the film tremendously. Thank you…”
David with his Mother at Man Vs. Bigfoot premiere taken by Bridget Ortigo
Follow along with David’s upcoming film The Preacher Man here:
Sasysquatchgirl 