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Books on
the Unexplained from Whitechapel Press
INTO THE SHADOWS
American Unsolved Mysteries & Tales of the Unexplained by Troy Taylor
MYSTERIOUS ILLINOIS
The History, Mystery & Unexplained of the Prairie State
OUT PAST THE
CAMPFIRE LIGHT
Hauntings, Horrors & Unsolved Mysteries of the Great Outdoors
MYSTERIOUS
KENTUCKY
The History, Mystery & Unexplained of the
Bluegrass State by B.M. Nunnelly
STRANGE HIGHWAYS
A Guidebook to American Mysteries & The Unexplained by Jerry D.
Coleman
MORE STRANGE HIGHWAYS
More True Stories of America's Unknown Creatures & Mysterious Happenings by Jerry D. Coleman
Myth or Real
Card Series
Explore the Strange and Bizarre with this Exclusive Series on the Unexplained
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There is no greater mystery in
the annals of the unexplained in America than Sasquatch, the
creature most commonly known as "Bigfoot". Reports of giant, man
and ape-like monsters have been documented all over the country,
although primarily in the forested regions of the Pacific
Northwest. There are many tales of giant hairy figures in every
state in America, although the "traditional" Bigfoot is believed
to roam the vast regions of California, Oregon, Washington,
Idaho and the western edge of Canada. The narrative that follows
will include history and lore from a variety of locations.
Although most mainstream scientists maintain that no such
creatures exist (and short of an actual specimen, their minds
will not be changed), it is not inconceivable that undiscovered
creatures could be roaming this wide region of mountains and
forests. There are areas here that have been almost completely
untouched by man and where few signs of the modern world can be
found, even today. If we combine these often unexplored areas
with the hundreds of eyewitness accounts and pieces of evidence
left behind, then we have no choice but to at least consider the
idea that these creatures may actually be real. Of course, the
reader is asked to judge for himself but let's consider the
history of Bigfoot in America.
According to the many eyewitnesses, Sasquatch averages around
seven feet in height, sometimes taller and sometimes a little
shorter. They are usually seen wandering alone and hair covers
most of their bodies. Their limbs are usually powerful but are
described as being proportioned more like people than like apes.
However, their broad shoulders, short necks, flat faces and
noses, sloped foreheads, ridged brows and cone-shaped heads make
them appear more animal-like. They reportedly eat both meat and
plants, are largely nocturnal and less active during cold
weather. The creatures are most commonly reported as being
covered in dark, auburn-colored hair, although reports of brown,
black and even white and silver hair do occasionally pop up. The
footprints left behind by the monsters range in size from about
12 to 22 inches long, with around 18 inches being the most
common. They are normally reported to be somewhere around seven
inches in width.
The stories of Sasquatch and reported man-like creatures have
been part of Northwestern American history for generations.
Native American legend and lore is filled with creatures that
sound a lot like Bigfoot in description. One such creature was
the "Wendigo". While this creature is considered by many to be
the creation of horror writer Algernon Blackwood in his classic
terror tale of the same name, this spirit was considered very
real to many in the north woods and prairies. Many legends and
stories have circulated over the years about a mysterious
creature who was encountered by hunters and campers in the
shadowy forests of the upper regions of Minnesota. In one
variation of the story, the creature could only be seen if it
faced the witness head-on, because it was so thin that it could
not be seen from the side. The spirit was said to have a
voracious appetite for human flesh and the many forest dwellers
who disappeared over the years were said to be victims of the
monster.
The American Indians had their own tales of the Wendigo, dating
back so many years that most who were interviewed could not
remember when the story had not been told. The Inuit Indians of
the region called the creature by various names, including
Wendigo, Witigo, Witiko and Wee-Tee-Go but each of them was
roughly translated to mean "the evil spirit that devours
mankind". Around 1860, a German explorer translated Wendigo to
mean "cannibal" among the tribes along the Great Lakes.
Native American versions of the creature spoke of a gigantic
spirit, over fifteen feet tall, that had once been human but had
been transformed into a creature by the use of magic. Though all
of the descriptions of the creature vary slightly, the Wendigo
is generally said to have glowing eyes, long yellowed fangs and
overly long tongues. Most have a sallow, yellowish skin but
others are said to be matted with hair. They are tall and lanky
and are driven by a horrible hunger. But how would a person grow
to become one of these strange creatures?
According to the lore, the Wendigo is created whenever a human
resorts to cannibalism to survive. In years past, such a
practice was possible, although still rare, as many of the
tribes and settlers in the region were cut off by the bitter
snows and ice of the north woods. Unfortunately, eating another
person to survive was sometimes resorted to and thus, the legend
of the Wendigo was created.
But how real were these creatures? Could the legend of the
Wendigo have been created merely as a "warning" against
cannibalism? Or could sightings of Bigfoot-type creatures have
created the stories? While this is unknown, it is believed that
white settlers to the region took the stories seriously. It
became enough a part of their culture that tales like those of
Algernon Blackwood were penned. Real-life stories were told as
well and according to the settlers' version of the legend, the
Wendigo would often be seen (banshee-like) to signal a death in
the community. A Wendigo allegedly made a number of appearances
near a town called Rosesu in Northern Minnesota from the late
1800's through the 1920's. Each time that it was reported, an
unexpected death followed and finally, it was seen no more.
Even into the last century, Native Americans actively believed
in, and searched for, the Wendigo. One of the most famous
Wendigo hunters was a Cree Indian named Jack Fiddler. He claimed
to kill at least 14 of the creatures in his lifetime, although
the last murder resulted in his imprisonment at the age of 87.
In October 1907, Fiddler and his son, Joseph, were tried for the
murder of a Cree Indian woman. They both pleaded guilty to the
crime but defended themselves by stating that the woman had been
possessed by the spirit of a Wendigo and was on the verge of
transforming into one entirely. According to their defense, she
had to be killed before she murdered other members of the tribe.
There are still many stories told of Wendigo's that have been
seen in northern Ontario, near the Cave of the Wendigo, and
around the town of Kenora, where a creature has been spotted by
traders, trackers and trappers for decades. There are many who
still believe that the Wendigo roams the woods and the prairies
of northern Minnesota and Canada. Whether it seeks human flesh,
or acts as a portent of coming doom, is anyone's guess but
before you start to doubt that it exists - remember that the
stories and legends of this fearsome creature have been around
since before the white man walked on these shores. Like all
legends, this one too was likely started for a reason.
The Yakama Indians of the Pacific Northwest had a tradition of a
"Qah-lin-me", which was a devourer of people and the Hupa
Indians called the man-like beasts the "Omah", a demon of the
wilderness. The Nisqually tribe of western Washington had the "Tsiatko",
which was a gigantic, hairy beast and the "Tenatco" was known by
the Kaska. Their creatures were known to dig a hole in the
ground as a place to sleep and would sometimes kidnap women and
children. Most of the woodland giants in the lore of the Native
Americans seem to be more aggressive than the creatures we know
as Bigfoot but there is little mistaking them for something
else. In fact, in 1934, author Diamond Jenness reported that the
Carrier First nation told of a monster that left enormous
footprints in the snow, had a face like a man, was very tall and
was covered in long hair. This hardly seems to be coincidence
when compared to "modern" version of Bigfoot.
The legend of Bigfoot-type creatures is so mired in the history
of American that even the Native American term "Sasquatch" is a
bit of an extraction from mythological stories. The folkloric
Sasquatch (the word is the Americanized version of the Coast
Salish Indian term from Canada) was introduced to the world in
the writings of J.W. Burns, a schoolteacher at the Chehalis
Indian Reservation near Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.
Burns' Sasquatch was a legendary figure that he learned of
through native informants and was really more man than monster.
He was an intelligent "giant Indian" who was endowed with
supernatural powers. Somehow, the name managed to stick for the
huge beings that we would come to call Bigfoot.
THE HISTORICAL BIGFOOT
In 1901, an account of a Sasquatch encounter appeared in the
Daily British Colonist. In this story, a lumber man named
Mike King stated that he was working alone on Vancouver Island,
near Campbell River, because his Indian packers had refused to
accompany him because of their fear of the "monkey men" they
said lived in the forest. Late in the afternoon, he observed a
"man beast" washing roots in the river and when the creature
became aware of King, it cried out and ran up a nearby hill.
King described it as being "covered with reddish brown hair, and
his arms were peculiarly long and were used freely in climbing
and brush running; while the trail showed a distinct human foot,
but with phenomenally long and spreading toes".
Three years later, on December 14, 1904, the Colonist again
featured a Sasquatch story, this time from "four credible
witnesses" who saw a man-like creature on Vancouver Island. In
1907, the newspaper told of the abandonment of an Indian village
due to the inhabitants being frightened away by a "monkey-like
wild man who appears on the beach at night, who howls in an
unearthly fashion."
In July 1924, a weird incident involving a group of Bigfoot
occurred in the Mount St. Helens region of southwestern
Washington. The incident involved a night long assault by
unknown creatures on a cabin where four miners were staying. The
men had been prospecting a claim on the Muddy, a branch of the
Lewis River, about eight miles from Spirit Lake. While working
in the canyon, the men occasionally saw huge footprints but had
no idea what to make of them. Then one day, they saw a huge
ape-like creature peering out from behind a tree and one of the
men fired his gun at it. The creature was apparently struck but
it ran off. Fred Beck, one of the miners, met one of the
monsters at the canyon rim and shot it in the back three times.
It fell down the cliff and into the canyon but they never found
the body.
That night, the "apes" struck back, starting an assault on the
cabin where the men were staying by knocking a heavy strip of
wood out from between two logs of the cabin. After that, there
were repeated poundings on the walls, door and roof. Luckily,
the cabin had been constructed to withstand heavy mountain snows
and the creatures were unable to break in. However, they did
begin using rocks to hit the roof from above and the miners
became nervous enough to barricade the doors. As the creatures
began thumping around on top of the cabin, as well as battering
the walls, the men fired shots through the walls and roof, but
to little effect. The noises and attacks continued until nearly
dawn, ending after about five hours. Even though the cabin had
no windows and the men could not see what was attacking them,
Beck later told Bigfoot researcher John Green that he was sure
that more than two creatures had been outside.
The incident was more than enough to get the men to pack up and
abandon their mine the next day. They told their story when the
returned to Kelso, Washington and a party of men went back to
the cabin. Big footprints were found all around it, but no
creatures were discovered. There have been other sightings in
the area since, but none with such dramatic results. A
first-hand account of the events was later written by Fred Beck
called I Fought the Apemen of Mt. St. Helens. The area where the
events took place was later dubbed "Ape Canyon" and it still is
called that today.
One of the most bizarre Bigfoot encounters in history also
occurred in 1924, although it would not be reported until many
years later, in 1957. It involved a man who claimed to be
abducted and held captive by a party of the creatures while on a
prospecting trip in British Columbia. Although such tales seem
to stretch the limits of believability, those who interviewed
the man years later, including esteemed investigators John Green
and Ivan T. Sanderson, did not for a moment doubt his sincerity
or his sanity. Primatologist John Napier remarked that the man
gave a "convincing account... which does not ring false in any
particular."
The same cannot be said for all alleged Bigfoot "abductions"
though. In 1871, a young girl named Seraphine Long was said to
have been kidnapped by a male Bigfoot and she was taken to a
cave and held prisoner for a year. She eventually got sick and
so her captor allowed her to leave. However, when she returned
home, it was discovered that she was carrying the creature's
baby! She gave birth to the child but it only lived a few days.
Of course, that was the story. The reader is asked to judge the
validity of it for himself but I have to confess that I have my
doubts about this one.
However, it's tough to feel the same way about the ordeal of
Albert Ostman, who was prospecting for gold near the Toba Inlet
in British Columbia in the summer of 1924.He claimed that he was
abducted by Bigfoot but his detailed accounts of the creature's
habits and activities remain unique to this day - leading many
to wonder if perhaps he was telling the truth after all.
Toba Inlet in British Columbia was a secluded wilderness in 1924
when Albert Ostman decided to visit there during a much-needed
vacation. The construction worker and lumberjack liked to
prospect for gold as a hobby and in addition to doing some
hunting and fishing, he planned to search for a legendary lost
gold mine that was rumored to be in the area. Ostman hired an
Indian guide to take him to the head of the inlet and on the
way, the Indian told him about a white man who used to come out
of the area laden with gold. When Ostman asked the guide what
happened to the man, the guide replied that he had disappeared
and had probably been killed by Sasquatch. Ostman scoffed at the
story, not believing a word of this tall tale.
When they reached the inlet, the guide helped Ostman to set up
his base camp and then he departed. Ostman had paid him to
return in three weeks. For the first week or so, he hunted and
fished a little for food and spent quite a bit of time hiking in
the woods and searching for any traces of the lost mine. He was
quite casual about the search though, enjoying the outdoors and
the freedom away from his work. Then one day, he returned to
camp to find that his gear had been disturbed. Nothing was
missing, but it had all been moved around. Ostman assumed that a
porcupine or some small animal had been looking for food. He
tried to stay awake for two night to try and catch the annoying
animal but each time, he fell asleep. On both mornings when he
awoke, he discovered that food was missing from his pack.
Now irritated, and determined to trap the culprit, he loaded his
rifle and shoved it down in his sleeping bag with his clothes
and some of his personal belongings. He planned to stay awake
the entire night and drive off the pesky animal. Despite his
intentions though, Ostman fell asleep. Later on that night,
still half asleep, Ostman awoke to find that he had been picked
up, still inside his sleeping bag, and was being carried through
the woods. He first assumed that he had been tied and thrown
over the back of a horse, but then realized that he was pinned
into his sleeping bag by two large arms. Unable to reach his
rifle, or even his knife, he was trapped in the bedroll. There
was no sound but the uttering of breath from the figure who
carried him, the sound of powerful feet trudging through the
forest and the occasional rattle of a fry pan and canned food in
Ostman's pack, which the giant had also picked up from the camp.
Ostman traveled for several hours and estimated that he
journeyed about 30 miles inland. At the end of this time, he was
dumped onto the ground and he slowly crawled out of the bag in
the darkness. His whole body ached from the trip and as he was
trying to massage some feeling back into his legs, the sun came
up and the prospector got his first good look at his abductors.
Squatting nearby were four hairy giants, the same type of
creatures that had been described to Ostman by the Indian guide.
They sat there looking at Ostman with curiosity, but did not
seem threatening in the least. The two older creatures were male
and female and the two younger ones were also of both sexes. The
oldest male stood nearly eight feet tall and weighed an
estimated 750 pounds. The oldest female was slightly smaller and
had large, hanging breasts. The younger creatures were of
smaller proportions than what Ostman assumed were the parents
and the younger female had no breasts. All four of the Bigfoot
had coarse, dark hair that covered their bodies.
Ostman later recounted that the older female seemed to object to
his presence during the first day of his captivity. She
chattered and grunted at the male but eventually, he seemed to
win the day and was allowed to keep Ostman around. The two
females avoided him as much as possible, spending their time
hunting for roots, nuts and berries. The two male creatures were
curious about everything the prospector did and found the
contents of Ostman's pack and sleeping bag to be quite
fascinating. He had with him his food, his rifle, a few pots and
pans and his knife. They often looked at these items but never
touched them, although the oldest creature was very interested
in Ostman's snuff box and its contents. This keen interest would
eventually prove to be integral in Ostman's escape.
Two days into his captivity, Ostman tried to run away. The
Sasquatch lived in a small ten-acre basin that was cut between
two cliff walls. A narrow break in the rock provided the only
entrance. When Ostman tried to slip out of the valley, the
oldest male quickly caught him and pulled him back into the
basin. He considered using his rifle and trying to shoot his way
out, but knew that if he did not kill the creature with the
first couple of shots, the beast would surely tear him apart.
After six days, Ostman had another idea. He was becoming
increasingly nervous of the creatures because he was starting to
get the impression that he had been captured in order to provide
a mate for the younger female. Not wanting to spend the rest of
his life in captivity, he began working on a plan to break free.
He knew that the elder Bigfoot was very interested in his
chewing tobacco. Each day, he gave the creature a small amount
of it to chew on. He wondered if there might be a way to use the
Bigfoot's love of the snuff to his advantage.
On the morning of the seventh day, Ostman made a fire for the
first time since he had arrived. He decided to make some coffee,
which interested the two male Bigfoot. As he was eating his
breakfast and drinking from the tin of coffee, he decided to try
out his idea. He reached over and offered the older Bigfoot some
of his snuff. He held on tightly to the box so that the creature
could only take a small amount, which irritated him. He jerked
the box from Ostman's hand and proceeded to devour the entire
contents of it. He liked the taste so much that he literally
licked clean the inside of the container.
It only took a few moments for the Bigfoot to become violently
ill. Retching and coughing, the creature ran towards the stream
and collapsed on all fours. At the same time, Ostman grabbed his
rifle and his pack and began to run. He shot towards the narrow
entrance but his escape attempt was noticed by the older female,
who set off after him. He made it to the gap in the rock just
seconds before she caught up with him and turning quickly, he
fired a shot over her head. The creature stopped in her tracks
and let out a squeal, but she did not pursue him any further.
Using his compass, Ostman managed to make his way back to
civilization. After three days, he met up with a party of
lumberjacks and told them that he had gotten lost while
prospecting. He was sure that no one would ever believe his
account of what really happened and he remained silent for more
than 30 years, only telling his story in 1957.
Although Ostman has long since passed away, Bigfoot researcher
John Green knew him for more than 12 years and questioned him
extensively about his captivity. He had no reason to consider
him a liar and neither did the police officers, primate experts
and zoologists who also looked into his account. For this
reason, we have only the option to consider his story, no matter
how bizarre, to be true. But, of course, that remains up to the
reader to decide.
Sasquatch sightings and encounters continued and were
occasionally mentioned in mostly Canadian newspaper accounts.
Bigfoot did not enter the American mainstream until 1958, when
the now infamous tracks were discovered at Bluff Creek. This was
the time when the giant creature entered the mainstream but
America's fascination with Bigfoot was only beginning. Through
the remainder of the 1950's, the 1960's and the 1970's, interest
in these elusive creatures reached its high point. After a
cooling down period of about two decades, when only Bigfoot
hunters and diehard enthusiasts were seeking information about
Sasquatch, public interest is again on the rise. New attention
has been given to some of the evidence that has been collected
for the creature's existence, including plaster casts of
footprints, possible fur, photographs and film. Let's take a
look at some of that evidence and the reader can judge for
himself how credible much of it actually is.
THE PATTERSON FILM
By the decade of the 1960's, Bigfoot had become firmly
entrenched in the imaginations of Americans. Though scientists
refused to admit that what witnesses could be seeing was
actually what they claimed to see, a number of investigators had
begun seeking out witnesses and venturing into the forest,
hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the monsters. Books began to
appear and articles began to generate even more interest with
the readers of magazines like True and Saga.
Among the amateur investigators who went looking for Bigfoot was
Roger Patterson, a onetime rodeo rider, hopeful documentary film
maker and Bigfoot hunter. In 1967, Patterson was barely scraping
by as an inventor and promoter but his interest was piqued by a
1959 True magazine article about Bigfoot. From them on, he
devoted as much of his spare time as he could afford roaming the
woods of the Pacific Northwest in search of the creature.
Patterson always carried with him a motion picture camera on his
expeditions, hoping that he might be able to catch one of the
monsters on film.
Around 1:15 in the afternoon on October 20, 1967, Patterson and
a friend, Bob Gimlin, were riding north along a dry stretch of
Bluff Creek in the Six Rivers National Forest of northern
California. At one point, a large pile of logs in the middle of
the stream bed blocked their path and they had to maneuver their
horses around to the east. As they rode along the logs, they
veered left and resumed their original course, only to see
something that still has investigators and researchers puzzled
today.
A female Bigfoot stood up from the creek water where she had
been squatting and walked away from the approaching men and
horses, moving briskly and swinging her arms as she moved toward
the forest. At the same time this occurred, all three horses
(including the pack horse) began to panic. Patterson's horse
reared up and fell over sideways onto his right leg, but managed
to stagger back to its feet again. As it did, Patterson quickly
reached for the 16mm camera in his saddlebag and began to follow
the creature, filming as he went. Unfortunately, only 28 feet of
film remained in the camera but Patterson managed to use it to
record the Bigfoot's escape from three different positions.
After his return to civilization, Patterson enlisted the help of
researcher John Green to get some sort of scientific
confirmation of the evidence that he had captured. However, the
amateur investigator was ignored and berated by the established
scientific community so in 1968, he took his case to the public.
After padding his film footage with a documentary-style look at
other evidence gathered in the search for Bigfoot, he went on a
tour of the American west, renting small theaters and
auditoriums for one-night shows and lectures. Since that time,
the footage has gone on to become one of the most famous, and
most controversial, pieces of Bigfoot evidence ever found.
Patterson's life was cut short in 1972 when he died, nearly
broke, from Hodgkin's Disease, but he swore to the end of his
life that the sighting and the film were authentic. Bob Gimlin
also maintained that the events really took place and that his
friend's film was the genuine article. Gimlin did not start out
as a believer in the creature either. He was interested but
unconvinced and only came along on his buddy's expeditions out
of friendship, rather than a belief that they would actually
find anything. "He'd talk about it around the campfire," he said
in an interview. "I didn't care, but after a time you'd find
yourself looking for the doggone thing too."
The first investigator on the scene of the sighting was a man
named Bob Titmus, who found tracks that matched the creature's
stride depicted in the film. He made 10 casts of them and
discovered that the footprints led up a small hill, where the
creature had paused to look back on the men below. Patterson and
Gimlin had elected to recover their horses rather than pursue
the Bigfoot and risk being stranded in the wilderness.
And while Patterson died in 1972, the legacy of his film lives
on. Unfortunately, it has never settled the question as to
whether or not Bigfoot exists in the forests of America. Both
the number of supporters and detractors of the film are many.
Researchers have argued about the speed of the film, the gait of
the creature, the distance of its stride and more. Most
biologists and zoologists who have studied it remain
noncommittal. Film experts and individuals experienced with
hoaxes have been unable to find evidence that it is not
authentic. For this reason, the film has never been successfully
debunked.
Of course, that's not for the lack of trying though. The most
recent claims against the validity of the film have stated that
the Bigfoot was actually a man in a monkey suit. Some maintain
that Patterson and Gimlin were knowing participants in the hoax
and that they rented the suit with the idea of gaining from the
resulting film financially. This is in spite of the fact that
the men made very little money from it and Patterson died nearly
broke. Regardless, this theory has it that Patterson and Gimlin
(who were both poor rodeo riders in 1967) rented the expensive
suit, transported it to an area that was nearly inaccessible by
car and cleverly shot the grainy, jerky and poorly executed
film.
Defenders of the film believe this is ridiculous and state that
a frame by frame analysis of the footage shows a creature that
does not walk like a man. Anthropologist Grover Krantz
demonstrated that the human walk involves the locking of the
knees but the filmed Bigfoot does not do this, which would have
been very difficult for a hoaxer to do and still walk as
smoothly as this creature does. In addition, after viewing the
film with Bigfoot investigator Peter Byrne in 1973, the chief
technician at Disney Studios stated that "the only place in the
world a simulation of that quality could be created would be
here, at Disney Studios, and this footage was not made here." If
the Bigfoot was a fake, it was one that was very, very well
done.
And while the Disney tech may have been overstating the
importance of the studio, there were very few places that such a
film (or a suit like that) could have been made in the late
1960's. Even the detractors grudgingly agree that Patterson and
Gimlin did not have the resources to pull off a hoax of the
magnitude of the film and certainly could not have paid to have
a suit like this one created. Only two companies could have
created a suit of that type, at that time, and both claimed that
they did not do so. To make matters more mysterious, the man in
the suit (if there was one) has remained silent for more than 35
years, ignoring the opportunity for financial gain by
confessing.
Interestingly, a more popular theory as to who made the suit has
emerged within the last few years. According to some conspiracy
theorists, the Patterson Bigfoot was actually a man wearing a
suit created by master makeup artist John Chambers, who created
the makeup for the classic film Planet of the Apes with Charlton
Heston. The debunkers have fixed on Chambers for a couple of
reasons, including his award-winning makeup effects for the
movie and also for the fact that the movie finished filming on
August 10, 1967, just a couple of months before Patterson's
encounter. The idea is that Patterson could have easily rented
one of the surplus monkey suits for his own purposes.
Even though this seems somewhat plausible, the theory has its
problems as well. For one thing, the Bigfoot in Patterson's film
looks nothing like the apes that were created for the movie. The
apes in Planet of the Apes were not suits but were mostly facial
makeup. Were they clever? Yes, but the Bigfoot in Patterson's
film does not resemble these apes at all. The idea that Chambers
may have created the Bigfoot suit was apparently the result of
director John Landis joking about it to some friends at a party.
As anyone who knows anything about Hollywood knows, you can't
take every rumor you hear seriously in that town. To make
matters worse, Chambers himself repeatedly denied the claims
until his death. He told interviewers that he was "good but not
that good" in response to the story and it has been a general
consensus that Chambers enjoyed people thinking that he "might"
have made the suit because it bolstered his skills as an artist.
The truth is that it's very unlikely that he made it. In spite
of this, the story lives on.
To this day, the debate continues to rage. Many Bigfoot experts
believe that it is valid footage of an unknown creature but just
as many people laugh when the subject is brought up. While I see
that it might be possible for Chambers to have created the suit
and helped to perpetrate a hoax, I really have to ask if it's
plausible? I have no hard evidence to back up my own opinion
that the film is genuine. I see both sides of the argument and
have followed the debate for quite some time but for myself, I
see nothing here to convince me that this is a suit. Based on
the time period, I don't think that enough information had been
made available to the general public for someone to have
imitated a creature in the way that the Bigfoot moves in the
Patterson film. Just because Chambers "could" have made the suit
does not mean that he did.
PRINTS, HAIR AND RECORDINGS
As the reader can well imagine, there have been literally
thousands of fraudulent footprints, photos and film that have
been "discovered" since Bigfoot entered the mainstream. While
much of the alleged evidence that appears is dubious at best,
other Bigfoot prints and samples have managed to defy easy
explanation.
In 1969, a series of 1,089 tracks were discovered near Bossburg,
Washington and were analyzed by researchers. They measured 17
1/2 inches long and about seven inches wide and seemed to
indicate that the creature that left them had a right clubfoot,
the result, some surmised, of a childhood injury. This minor
detail seemed to rule out any chance of a fraud for it's
unlikely that any hoaxer would have gone to the trouble to
include this in such a huge number of tracks.
And there have been hundreds (perhaps thousands) more footprints
found that are not easy to explain away. The occurrence of these
tracks in remote and seldom-traveled areas also seems to argue
against a hoax as well. Why would someone go to the trouble of
creating phony Bigfoot tracks in an area where no one would
likely ever see them?
Other evidence that has been discovered consists of feces and
hair samples that are either associated with sightings or may
have been indications of a Bigfoot's recent passing. Many of
these samples seem to resist identification. But what about the
body of a Bigfoot? Debunkers and skeptics say that Bigfoot
cannot exist for if it did, then we would have found the corpse
of one by now. Jeffrey Meldrum, an associate professor of
Anthropology at Idaho State University, disagrees. "Think about
it," he said in an interview. "It's rare, reproduces
infrequently, and if it's like other apes, it may live for 50
years. It's at the top of the food chain, so death most likely
comes from natural causes. When an animal is ill or feeble,
it'll hide somewhere safe, which makes it more difficult to find
any remains. Scavengers strip the carcass and scatter the bones.
Rodents chew up what's left for the calcium. Soil in the
Northwest is acidic, which is conducive to plant fossilization
but not to bones. They disintegrate."
Beyond the physical evidence, there have also been the
recordings that have been made by Bigfoot hunters of what is
alleged to be the "voice" of the creature itself. Many of the
tapes have been analyzed, including one notable recording that
was obtained on October 21, 1972 in California's High Sierra
mountains. That night, investigators recorded a series of moans,
whines, growls and grunts that were coming from the darkness.
Two electronic specialists, one from the University of Wyoming
and one from Rockwell International, came to the conclusion that
the sounds came from "more than one speaker, one or more of
which is of larger physical size than an average human male. The
formant frequencies found were clearly lower than for human
data, and their distribution does not indicate that they were a
product of human vocalization and tape speed alteration."
One of the most recent, and perhaps most convincing, pieces of
evidence to turn up has been the Skookum Cast, which was
discovered in September 2000 by members of the Bigfoot Field
Researchers Organization around Mount St. Helens in Washington.
During a Bigfoot expedition, researchers baited a marshy plain,
known as Skookum Meadow, with apples and melon hoping to attract
Bigfoot. They returned the next morning to find a number of
prints and many pieces of the fruit missing. They recognized
both coyote and elk tracks but were unable to identify a set of
anthropoid forearm, heel and butt imprints. They even found
marks that had been made by hair in the muddy ground, pressed
down by a huge weight. The hunters spent the next eight hours
studying the signs and creating a plaster cast of what appeared
to be a spot where Bigfoot had reclined.
The cast found many supporters among the most influential men in
the field, including John Green, Grover Krantz and others. In
June 2002, three noted anthropologists studied the cast and
commented on their findings. The examiners were Darius Swindler,
a professor emeritus from the University of Washington, Natural
History anatomist Esteban Sarimento and Jeffrey Meldrum from
Idaho State University. The presence of Sarimento marked the
first interest in Bigfoot by the New York-based American Museum
of Natural History. In his comments, Sarimento noted that one
impression that was lined with hair marks "could have been made
by a huge hindquarters." Meldrum summed things up by stating
that he felt that all of the evidence pointed to an
eight-foot-tall creature leaving the impressions at Skookum
Meadows.
As exciting as this was to Bigfoot proponents though, the real
proof of the creature's existence would be not just capturing
his footprints - but the creature himself. "The ultimate
evidence that this thing exists," said Esteban Sarimento, "is if
somebody found one and brought it back."
THE BIGFOOT HUNTERS
There have been numerous expeditions created to try and track
down Bigfoot over the years and many of the men involved with
these hunts have gone on to be considered as seminal figures in
modern Bigfoot research.
In 1960, Texas millionaire Tom Slick organized the Pacific
Northwest Bigfoot Expedition, the most formidable group of
researchers working at that time. Most of the men were seasoned
trackers and had spent time in the Himalayas with Slick
searching for the Yeti. Despite extensive searching though, the
group made little progress and when Slick died in a plane crash
in 1962, the Expedition disbanded.
In 1970, Robert W. Morgan tried to continue Slick's research
when he formed the American Yeti Association. The group
consisted of an archaeologist, a cinematographer, at least one
psychic, several biology students and George Harrison, the
editor of National Wildlife. Morgan and his crew traveled to the
region around Mount St. Helens and used jeeps, radios and
advanced gadgets of the period in their search. Funded by the
National Wildlife Association, Morgan was desperate for results
and even resorted to baiting Bigfoot traps with a nude female
volunteer. Eventually, after spending more than $50,000, he was
forced to dissolve the association.
In 1997, Peter Byrne, the Irishman who played a prominent role
in Tom Slick's 1960 expedition in the Northwest (and the 1959
expeditions to Asia), created the Bigfoot Research Project. It
was financed by the Academy of Applied Science of Boston and
made use of a wide range of technology, including digital global
positioning units, high tech cameras, night vision equipment and
motion and heat sensors. Byrne also planned to use a special
biopsy dart that could be shot at a Bigfoot and that was
designed to take small blood, hair and tissue samples without
injuring the creature. Byrne reasoned that with this evidence,
along with the other samples collected over the years, he could
conclusively prove the monster's existence. Unfortunately, the
team failed to spot a creature, much less shoot one with the
biopsy dart. Byrne dissolved the Project and has been on hiatus
ever since.
Another important figure in Bigfoot research was the late Rene
Dahinden, a Canadian who conducted numerous field investigations
throughout the Northwest. As a supporter of the Patterson film,
Dahinden worked hard to see that it got attention from the
scientific community and from the public as well. His only book,
Sasquatch (1973), was written by Don Hunter. Sadly, due to
declining health Dahinden was forced to reduce his research in
1999. He passed away in 2002.
John Green is considered one of the leading researchers in the
field, although has reportedly stopped cataloguing new accounts
of Bigfoot sightings. Born in Canada in 1927, Green began
investigating with Tom Slick, Rene Dahinden and others during
the early days of Bigfoot research. He wrote a number of books
on the subject, including Year of the Sasquatch, On the Track of
the Sasquatch and Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us. He chronicled
many famous cases (including Albert Ostman) and reportedly has
gathered more than 2,000 sightings and several hundred incidents
of footprint finds.
Grover Krantz was the first real scientist to become associated
with the study of Bigfoot. He once wrote that "It is tantamount
to academic suicide to become associated with any of these
people" and yet he did so anyway. As a professor of Anthropology
at Washington State University, he paid dearly for his
fascination with the mysterious creature, by way of lost
promotions and professional ridicule. By the end of his life
though (he died in 2002), he no longer cared. He had first been
convinced that there was something "out there" after the 1969
footprints that had been found near Bossburg, Washington. He and
many other researchers, including Rene Dahinden and John Green,
studied the tracks that had been left behind by "Cripplefoot",
as they dubbed it, and while Krantz had little hope that Bigfoot
was real at that point, he was soon to change his mind. The
professor managed to bring back plaster casts of 17 inch feet,
the right foot of which curved like a C and had enormous bunions
and splayed toes. Nobody could have faked that, Krantz realized.
He came to believe that Bigfoot may have descended from the
Gigantoithecus, a huge primate that roamed southern China more
than 300,000 years ago. Its bones are part of the fossil record
and it may have migrated to North America by way of the Bering
Strait when it was still a land bridge. He thought it possible
that some remnants of these creatures may have survived.
Today, there are still many researchers out there hunting for
Bigfoot, hoping to bring back remains, tracks or anything else
that will prove these creatures exist. As mentioned already, the
reader is asked to judge the existence of these creatures for
himself for short of incredible evidence, we can only surmise
that the mysterious giants are out there in the forests of the
Northwest. Until one is found though, they have to remain one of
the greatest of the mysteries in the annals of the unexplained
in America.
©
Copyright 2003 by Troy Taylor. All Rights Reserved.
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