Adam Benedict founded the Pine Barrens Institute in 2015 "as a way to just make something in this field easy." He says that most who research cryptids know that it can be extremely difficult to find accurate information on something you are looking into. Benedict took it upon himself to create one central place for people to get accurate information without spin.

While growing up, Adam fondly remembers watching and being sucked in by shows such as Unsolved Mysteries, marathons of The Twilight Zone, and re-runs of In Search Of...as well as a variety of other Fortean-centric shows. In elementary school he would actively seek out the strange and unusual books that dealt with famous cryptids, mysterious creatures, unsolved legends, and alien abductions at the Scholastic book fair. He says his interest in the world of the weird was something that had always been there with him and was probably some sort of fate or destiny.

Benedict has had his own unexplained experiences, from living in a haunted house to spotting something strange in the Atlantic Ocean while vacationing in Florida. But he admits that his favorite cases all lie firmly rooted in cryptozoology.

Adam and his cryptozoological organization are located in Wisconsin, and the Pine Barrens Institute does feature many monsters indigenous to the Midwest—but certainly not exclusively so.