Elkins Creek: The Story and the Cast
An article by WCGBI

Elkins Creek (a tributary of the Flint), located in Pike County, Georgia has been the site of quite a fascinating discovery for the Georgia (and national) Bigfoot community. In February of 1997 Pat Akin, was able to make a cast of a Bigfoot print in the Elkins Creek area.

The cast measured in at an amazing 17.5” long and 8.5” wide. His cast is one of few in the entire U.S. that shows dermal ridges (those lines that make up your fingerprints). The only other cast was made in Washington, in 1982.

The Elkins cast came from an area near Double Bridges Road, though The GSARC’s primary research location in Pike Co. was actually some miles west of Zebulon, a good ways from the actual cast incident location.

Here is the story behind the cast, as told by Steven himself:

  “The cast was actually made by my good friend Pat Akin, now a schoolteacher but at that time a Pike Co. Sheriff's Deputy. One night the SO received a call from a tenant farmer in the area who lived in a mobile home and complained of odd disturbances at night. The story goes that the farmer (now deceased) heard strange noises at night; incidents of someone banging on the side of his trailer, dog food and livestock feed disappearing followed by dogs and livestock disappearing. This went on for about two weeks, culminating in someone/something tearing a barn door off its hinges to break into a corncrib. Other deputies had investigated prior similar complaints from this person and never found anything, and began to suspect he was a little nuts. Pat was dispatched to the barn damage call and decided to strike up a friendly conversation with the individual to try and figure out what was really going on. Pat actually suspected a known gang of moon shiners who he thought may have been trying to harass the farmer enough to move away.
   After some discussion, the farmer suddenly said, ‘I can show you what did this, but I know you'll think I'm crazy’. Pat told him he wanted to know, so the farmer took him down to an area close to the creek. There in the wet silt was a definite trail with at least 5 good prints, only 1 of which was above water (this was the one that was cast).
   Pat and I knew each other only casually during that time and the subject never came up. A couple of years later we were in a local pawn shop owned by a mutual friend one Saturday, chatting idly when the subject somehow turned to Bigfoot. I told Pat I had an interest in the subject for many years and hoped to go to the Pacific North West one day to study in the field. He then told me about the incident above and that he had an interest since it happened, and GSARC started at that moment. Once I saw the cast, I talked him into letting me send it to Grover Krantz and then Jeff Meldrum, [famous researchers in the Bigfoot community].”

The Elkins Creek cast was one of a kind. Jeff Meldrum stated, "This particular footprint, immediately upon looking at it, was very consistent with the proportions and anatomy that I have examined with other tracks that are reasonable credible as one can establish." Additionally, Meldrum noted the ridges “lacked particular tension creases that show up on human prints but are absent on the feet of apes.” As quoted from tracone.com, Meldrum commented “Right off the bat, you have to ask: If someone were faking this why would he think to include - even if he knew - a ridge pattern that was devoid of these flexon creases and situated in such a position and oriented in a typical fashion that is consistent with non-human apes?"

A fingerprint examiner, Jimmy Chilcutt of Conroe, Texas also had a look at this fascinating cast. He found that the dermal ridge patters did not occur in any known humans or primates, but the fact still stood the patterns were consistent with those taken from the Pacific Northwest! Chilcutt concluded simply and firmly “The Elkins Creek Cast is that of an unknown primate.”

Conclusion: The Elkins Creek Cast is one of very few pieces of evidence that prove the existence of Bigfoot in the South Eastern U.S.

Sources: Steven Hyde, along with www.tracone.com