Is there a Bigfoot lurking in the Mark Twain National Forest in Barry County?

Rick Dyer, master tracker and longtime Bigfoot hunter, insists there is, and he intends to find it.

Dyer and Jeremy Ware, fellow master tracker, are started working last week with a film production company to produce a documentary for the Discovery Channel, a fivepart series filmed primarily in Butler Hollow near Seligman and the forest.

“We are wanting to kill one,” Dyer said. “We have located a group in Butler Hollow, and we play to try to take one alive or to hunt one. It sounds crazy, but this is what we do, trying to bring attention to Bigfoot.”

Dyer said he is investigating in Barry County after a credible sighting in the area.

“We went to check it out and found hair samples and other things that coincide with where Bigfoot lives,” Dyer said. “There are many different kinds of Bigfoot all over the world, and I track them differently using deer urine and pork ribs.”

Dyer said initially, he and his crew will go into areas of the forest, sprinkle the urine and hang ribs from trees, similar to a deer feeder to entice the creature to come to the area.

“When we know one is there, we will rush in a film crew,” he said.

Dyer is an enigma in the Bigfoot world, largely because he admittedly perpetrated two hoaxes, one in 2008 and another in 2012, which he said were made to replicate the two Bigfoot he caught and had confiscated.

“We’ve dealt with the ‘Men in Black’ before,” he said. “When we were shooting a Bigfoot in San Antonio, myself and the film crew came across them. The ‘Men in Black’ are government agents like what you see in the movies. They wear all black and drive black cars, but that’s where the singularities end.

“Two times I had a Bigfoot in my hands, and both times, they came and took them.”

Dyer said the hoax Bigfoot he created toured the country and was a sellout attraction, and he is not reserved in saying making money off such a find is his goal.

“We are not doing it just to prove Bigfoot is real — we are also doing it for the money because if you find a real one, you’re an instant billionaire,” he said. “That’s what made us do the hoaxes.”

In 2008, Dyer announced he had a Bigfoot body in his possession, leaking grainy footage showing the 7-foot, 7-inch, 500-pound creature and presenting a carcass encased in a block of ice to the press. He claimed to have taken the creature in Georgia.

As the creature thawed, a Halloween costume retailer pointed out the similarity between Dyer’s Bigfoot and one of the retailer’s costumes. Upon further inspection, it was determined the creature Dyer had presented was that costume, stuffed with opossum roadkill, entrails and slaughterhouse leftovers.

In 2012, Dyer claimed to have killed a Bigfoot in San Antonio, which he said had been DNA tested with a result of unknown species. “Hank,” as Dyer called the creature, toured the U.S. and people were charged to view it beneath plexiglass in a wooden coffin. The sold-out tour netted about $500,000.

Dyer later announced “Hank” was in fact a fake, manufactured by a company in Washington state using latex, foam and camel hair.

Despite the past hoaxes, Dyer said his hunt in Barry County is legitimate, and he intends to have media on call if he captures or kills one.

Dyer said in his line of work, there is plenty of skepticism, but he wants people to know Bigfoot is real, and dangerous.

“The thing is, there’s no way to convince a person Bigfoot is real when their mind is set,” he said. “I had a guy here tell me he’s been in the woods for over 20 years and never seen one. I said, ‘I guarantee they’ve seen you.’ We had a BBC film crew with us in 2012, and one of the producers said he was filming because he thought it would be fun, then when he was attacked by a Bigfoot, it turned serious.

“People do need to worry, because Bigfoot are vicious. It’s not like Harry and the Hendersons. The feds believe it’s just a nice, big creature that needs to be left alone, but that’s not true. There are books out there that say Bigfoot may be responsible for all the disappearances in the national parks — they are not stupid and stay in the parks where they can’t be hunted. Bigfoot are dying off, and a lot of that is due to inbreeding, which also makes them more and more erratic.”

Video of the alleged Bigfoot attack in 2012 is available online. Dyer said that creature was one confiscated from him by federal agents.

Despite his history of hoaxes, Dyer said his success in the past is why he continues to land TV deals, which he also said has made him a pariah among fellow Bigfoot enthusiasts.

“A lot of Bigfoot hunters hate me because they are jealous,” he said. “We’re the best in the world, and we did the hoaxes after getting the real ones, and we still get TV calls. They hate that. But, no one likes to watch boring people with boring stories. You have to track them on the ground, and the way we do it is the best.”

Dyer said a timeline for release of the documentary depends on a host of factors, such as what he finds and when, as well as production company and Discovery needs.

I’ve been in the business long enough we’ve set our dates out because we don’t want to waste the film crew’s days,” he said. “I’m basically in charge of the ordeal because I want to drag one out of the woods, and that’s what will happen come hell or high water.”

Dyer was involved in two previous productions, the 2013 documentary “Shooting Bigfoot,” and the 2020 comedy film “Interviewing Monsters and Bigfoot,” starring Tom Green. Both are free to watch online.

Dyer has also been featured on “The Proof Is Out There,” a History Channel series assessing claims of encounters with the unexplained.