Douglas Lochmiller, President/Founder

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Douglas was born and raised in Iowa were he spent most weekends on his families ranch hiking and exploring the woods. At the age of 19, he moved to South Florida where he spent time in the Florida Keys and exploring the Florida Everglades.

While in South Florida he got his first job working for Publix Supermarkets and soon after a job in law enforcement. During his time in law enforcement he was certified and work in Traffic Crash/Traffic Homicide Investigation (THI), as a Field Training Officer (FTO) and as a Breathalyzer Operator.

After his time in South Florida, he relocated to the mountains of Western North Carolina (WNC). He quickly fell in love with the mountains and has spent countless days hiking the mountain trails. He has hiked the North Carolina section of the Appalachian Trail, and the Bartram Trail in both North Carolina and Georgia. His longest single trek was 9 days on the Bartram Trail.

Like countless others, Douglas was first introduced to Bigfoot while watching the television series, "In Search Of". Hiking the mountains of WNC, along with campfire stores in remote mountain areas, renewed his interest in the subject.

It wasn't until finding another like-minded person, Sonya Allen (Secretary), did the idea of starting an organization to investigate Bigfoot enter his mind. The more they both talked about the subject, the more it started to make sense to organize a group devoted to investigating the possibilities of it's existence in their own backyard.

You can contact Douglas at:  douglas@cryptidstudies.org