From Correspondent Aram Roston

October 13, 1998
Web posted at: 8:45 p.m. EDT (0045 GMT)

NANTAHALA NATIONAL FOREST, North Carolina (CNN) -- With bear hunting season in full swing, scores of hunters have poured into the same rugged mountains where bombing suspect Eric Rudolph is believed to be hiding.

But the FBI can expect little assistance from hunters like Garland Cagle.

"I bought my license to hunt," Cagle said. "I'm not here to find Rudolph. I'm here to bear hunt."

The FBI has offered a $1-million reward to the person or persons who help lead them to Rudolph, and the federal agency is hoping the reward money will get the attention of some hunters.

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CNN's Aram Roston reports from the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina
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"I'd probably be like Barney on Andy Griffith -- if I run across him, I'd stuff him and cuff him," hunter Clell Meyers said. "I ain't never seen a million dollars."

The 65-year-old Meyers has been hunting bears the same way for 60 years. He starts early in the morning looking for tracks. Then the dogs are sent out to follow the scent and chase the bear down. Eventually, the bear tires out and runs up a tree. The hunters then come for the kill.

"We dress it up, skin it, divide the meat up and eat it," Meyers said. "It's delicious."

The time-tested method used by the hunters to track bears is strikingly similar to the way the FBI has been trying -- so far unsuccessfully -- to find Rudolph.

Eric Rudolph

Agents have combed through these woods, looking for any signs or tracks that their fugitive may have left. But their hounds have so far taken them down a dead end.

Rudolph has been sought since the January 29 bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, clinic where abortions are performed. A security guard was killed and a nurse was seriously injured in the blast.

Rudolph also is wanted for questioning in three bombings in Atlanta, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park blast that killed a woman and injured more than 100 people.