Monkey Bear Lady Meets Bigfoot Researchers in Alabama

So there's this wild story floating around YouTube right now from a channel called "Can't Make This Up," and honestly, it caught my attention because it involves someone who claims to have been personally protected by a Sasquatch growing up in Alabama. The guest, Mindy Jackson, goes by the nickname "Monkey Bear Lady" in Turkey, of all places, thanks to her friend's podcast over there. Let me break down why this one is worth your time. Mindy grew up about 30 minutes from the Talladega National Forest in Alabama, which is actually a pretty well-known hotspot for Sasquatch sightings. The Talladega area has had reports going back decades, with folks describing large, hairy figures crossing roads and showing up near campsites. It's the kind of place where locals have stories they don't always share with outsiders, but once you start talking to people, the tales come out. Anyway, Mindy says she and her sister were protected by what she calls "Monkey Bear" when they were young. That's a term you don't hear every day, but in some Southern folklore traditions, especially in Alabama and the Appalachian regions, Sasquatch-type figures have been called by various names over the years, sometimes blending Native American, African American, and frontier folklore into local legends. The "Monkey Bear" name actually fits right in with that tradition. Here's where it gets really interesting. Mindy was driving through a campground area, saw a sign for "cryptic zoology" research, and pulled over. Now, if you're not familiar with that term, it's basically a field that studies animals that may exist outside of mainstream zoological acceptance, including Sasquatch. So she walks up to the head researcher and asks if they're looking for Bigfoot. The team apparently thought she was some kind of "woman in black," like a government agent sent to interfere with their investigation. But Mindy insisted on showing them where Sasquatch had been spotted many times in the area. The crazy part? According to Mindy, had those researchers stayed where they originally were, they would have been killed. She says she pulled them away from danger just by showing up and redirecting them. That's a pretty bold claim, and it adds a whole layer of high strangeness to the story. Her friend Matt, who she went to grad school with at the University of West Georgia, ended up writing a book called "High Strangeness" and later a second book where he featured Mindy as the "Monkey Bear Lady." Matt apparently moved to Turkey and started a podcast, and that's where Mindy became famous without even knowing it. She found out she was known across an entire country just because of her connection to Sasquatch stories from Alabama. The whole thing has this eerie, synchronicity vibe to it. Mindy showing up at exactly the right moment, the researchers being suspicious of her, the connection to her friend who later wrote about her, and now she's known internationally as the Monkey Bear Lady. It's the kind of story that makes you wonder about the deeper patterns in Sasquatch research, how people end up in the right place at the right time, and whether there's something guiding these encounters. If you're into Sasquatch lore, especially Southern Sasquatch stories, this one is definitely worth checking out. The full conversation has more details about her background as a psychotherapist and spiritual coach, plus how she ties her intuitive abilities into her experiences. You can find it on YouTube by searching for the "Can't Make This Up" channel. Trust me, you'll want to hear this one for yourself.