Bigfooting for Cash: Capitalizing on Bigfoot

This week I received email from someone who objected to my review of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy because the organization accepts money from people wanting to be included in their research expeditions. Certainly, everything about this organization spells money… the website appears to be professionally designed, there’s a membership application on the site, and photos of expensive equipment give one the impression that there’s got to be some kind of funding going on.

Membership is clearly explained on the site and requires a $60 annual fee: TBRC Membership. There’s also an annual TBRC conference. I believe the $15 general admission charge is very reasonable, and the public is welcome to attend so that price is not just for members. The person who wrote to me said that a friend paid several hundred dollars to participate in a TBRC weekend expedition. There’s no mention of this kind of fee on the site, so far as I can detect. Such a fee rivals BFRO’s expedition costs.

So this brings up a topic that I believe a lot of people have problems accepting – that people want to make money with their Bigfoot research hobby! Moreover, equipment costs money! I can totally identify with both issues. My partner and I are both unemployed at this point and we don’t have the high-tech equipment to use like the big organizations do (TBRC, BFRO, etc.) …so money, getting donations, and finding solutions in order to be able to do Bigfoot research – these have been topics of conversation around here! Until recently we didn’t even have a 4 wheel drive vehicle to take into the forest. I just purchased a 1995 4wd Ford Aerostar van for Bigfoot research activities, and I still can’t take it into the forest because it needs better tires first. I’m hoping to get them before the end of the year, but there’s other equipment we’d like to have: a good video camera and trail cams, for example. I would love to be able to make YouTube videos of our activities in the forest. So money, yes… it is an issue. I’m very close to putting a donation link on my Friends of Sasquatch site. I had one on this site many months back but never got any donations. Also the AdSense I have on this site doesn’t even cover the cost of my server, so I can’t really say I’m making money here at all.

I can also see why many people who do Bigfoot research as a hobby are offended by organizations that charge for participation. The organization may justify this as a needed revenue building opportunity so that expensive equipment can be purchased, gasoline paid for, and organizational expenses paid. On the other hand, some of this money could be siphoned off for other uses. Do any of these organization czars get paid? Does Matt Moneymaker actually make money with Bigfoot explorations?

My informant stated that he has been doing Bigfoot research for quite a few years, paying his own way, with a group that does not accept donations or collect fees. There are probably hundreds of similar Bigfoot researchers who do this because they love squatching, not because they’re looking for donations for their research organizations. I picture them as hard working people (mostly men) who buy their own research equipment and go on expeditions with their friends in their spare time.

At the other end of the spectrum are people like “he whose name will not appear in my blog” whose Bigfooting business plan has been put online by an ex-cohort.

There are lots of ways that Bigfoot researchers and investigators try to earn money, and here are some that I know of:

1. Creating a website then asking for donations
2. Putting advertising on the website
3. Charging for expeditions
4. Creating a NPO then charging membership fees
5. Getting large donations from rich businessmen needing a tax write-off
6. Writing a book about Bigfoot
7. Creating Bigfoot themed products and selling them
8. Gathering Bigfoot evidence, then selling it

Am I missing anything on this list?

So which of these are acceptable and which aren’t? When should a hobby turn into a business?

Is it ethical to charge a fee for expedition participation when anyone can just go out into the woods and start squatching on their own?

I’d like to get comments on this from anyone having strong feelings one way or the other about money issues in Bigfoot research. I told the person who emailed me, “I have never paid to be in any Bigfoot research organization or to go on any expeditions. It seems senseless especially since there are many miles of forest for anyone to explore, and being in a large group is likely to repel a Bigfoot, not attract one.” That’s just my opinion; I’m sure there are others able and willing to pay hundreds for a little field training.

Filed under: Bigfoot Research — Linda Jo Martin @ 11:26 am

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The Polish Yeti, In The Snow

A 27-year-old film maker, Piotr Kowalski of Warsaw, claims to have filmed what looks like a Bigfoot in the Tatra Mountains in Poland. The film is now in the hands of The Nautilus Foundation of Poland, a group which attempts to explain unusual phenomena.

Source article: I had walk with a yeti on holiday published August 29, 2009 in the Sun.

The proportions seem right, but the way it lingers out in the open, lurching forward, seems kind of odd. I think a real Yeti would stay behind the rock the whole time rather than allowing himself to be seen. I don’t have an opinion on whether or not this was a hoax though my first reaction is that it probably was a friend in a hair suit. Perhaps someone with CAD skills can measure the proportions using Jack D. Davis’ methods explained on his Is it Real? website.

What do you think? Real, or fake? Or are you reserving judgment, as I am?

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Filed under: Bigfoot in the News,Bigfoot Videos,Poland — Linda Jo Martin @ 10:51 am

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August 28, 2009

Stocking Hominid Research

Continuing my tour of Bigfoot sites around the internet, I found Stocking Hominid Research, Inc. – a non-profit organization for scientific study of Sasquatch. The site says, “We use critical thinking and forensic procedure in our investigative process.”

The About Us page gives biographical information for Diane Stocking, Donna Stocking Cohrs, and a few other team members. Most of the work they’ve done has been in Florida but they’re willing to consider doing a follow up on sightings anywhere in North America. If I ever again need to refer someone to a field investigator in Florida, I’ll know who to call on!

There are some outstanding research papers on this site. I couldn’t read them all, but what I looked at impressed me. Check out The Credibility of Sasquatch Witnesses by Barbara Wasson (PDF file) or The Sociological Impact of Bigfoot Reports by Ron Schaffner. I can see I’ll have to return to this article archive when I’ve got more time.

An especially valuable page on the site has sound files of Bigfoot howls, as well as a fascinating 911 call recording. For comparison there are links to sounds made by other woodland animals, including the elk. On a separate page you’ll find some great photographs of animal tracks.

The page on hoaxes and misidentifications fascinated me. They rejected the Florida Skunk Ape photographs and even the Skookum Cast! Will they add a section on the Bigfoot massacre theory? Time will tell…

Don’t miss the page of their own photos so you’ll know what kind of evidence they find acceptable. There’s also a few sightings listed on the site.

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Filed under: Bigfoot Site of the Day,Florida — Linda Jo Martin @ 7:53 pm

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August 27, 2009

The Bigfoot Information Project

The Bigfoot Information Project has good articles to read, podcasts, and resources. I believe this site is owned by the same webmaster who owns Bigfoot Forums.

There’s an interview with John Green by Gerry Matthews, in which you can find out how Green evaluates Bigfoot sighting reports and evidence, what he thinks of the BFRO Bigfoot sightings database, how he feels about the suppression of scientific Bigfoot information by the media, and what he thinks of the “Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery,” of which he is one.

The articles are well-researched and informative, for example:
An Archaeological Viewpoint of the Hairy Man Pictographs by Kathy Moskowitz Strain;
Evaluating Purported Sasquatch Photographic Evidence by Alton Higgins;
and Letters In Response To “Bigfoot Believers” by Dmitri Bayanov.

Podcasts are found in the lower-right corner of the front page of the site. You can download audio files and listen to Rick Noll, Kathy Moskowitz Strain, and Scott Herriot.