Matt got involved with bigfoot/sasquatch research while attending UCLA in the 1980's. During that period he investigated a multi-witness sighting deep in the Ventura County mountains just north of Los Angeles.
While backpacking into the area with two companions he came across fresh bigfoot tracks for the first time and heard the distinctive wood knock sounds of a bigfoot emanating from a creek in the forbidding Sespe Wilderness.
A few years later, while attending law school in Ohio in the mid-1990's, Matt networked with bigfoot researchers locally to collect information about where encounters with bigfoots had been occurring in eastern Ohio. That led to a face-to-face encounter with a bigfoot during a stakeout in a swampy wildlife refuge in Portage County in July of 1994.
After that close encounter confirmed the existence of bigfoots, Matt created the first organization for bigfoot field researchers, named the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO).
The web site for the BFRO began receiving and publishing sighting reports from across the US and Canada. This clearing house of report information and witness contacts led to numerous requests for assistance from journalists and television producers.
His growing network of contacts within the television industry eventually led to invitations to appear in TV documentaries, and finally to roles in unscripted TV series about bigfoot research. The first series was "Mysterious Encounters" on OLN Channel. The second was "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel.
Matt Moneymaker
Finding Bigfoot (Animal Planet TV Series)
Finding Bigfoot was the longest-running television series ever devoted to the search for Sasquatch. Premiering on Animal Planet in 2011, the series followed a team of BFRO investigators as they traveled across North America examining eyewitness reports, conducting night investigations, and exploring regions with long histories of Bigfoot encounters. Over 12 seasons and more than 100 episodes, the show introduced millions of viewers to firsthand witnesses, compelling audio recordings, and the rigorous field techniques used by investigators. By combining entertainment with investigative fieldwork, Finding Bigfoot brought unprecedented mainstream visibility to the Bigfoot phenomenon and helped spark a new generation of interest in field research and eyewitness documentation.
Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO)
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) is widely recognized as the world’s largest and most respected organization dedicated to investigating reports of Sasquatch activity. Founded in 1995, the BFRO maintains the largest public database of Bigfoot sighting reports in North America and has conducted hundreds of on-site field investigations across the United States and Canada. Its investigators include experienced outdoorsmen, former law enforcement personnel, wildlife observers, and researchers who apply structured documentation methods to eyewitness accounts and physical evidence. The BFRO has played a central role in elevating Bigfoot research from campfire folklore to organized field study, bringing consistency, credibility, and serious inquiry to a subject long dismissed by mainstream science. See their web site and sightings database at http://www.BFRO.net
"The wilderness holds secrets that only those who listen carefully can truly understand."
— Matt Moneymaker