Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Ten: “Humboldt County”

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Re: Chapter Ten of Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, “Humboldt County”:

I love that David Paulides had so much time (and money) to travel and spend time doing research and meeting people. But I like to check things out for myself, so after reading his notes about Lucy Thompson’s book, published in 1916, a source of information on the “Indian Devil” aka “Oh-ma-ha” – I requested a copy from the Siskiyou County Library. Lucy Thompson was a Yurok Indian… Yurok meaning “downriver” compared to the local natives here in the Orleans/Happy Camp area who are Karuks, meaning “upriver people.”

A few days ago I received the book through a library transfer from another city in our county, and turned to Chapter IX: The Indian Devil, page 129. Almost everything that was written about the Indian Devil in Lucy’s book was retold in Chapter Ten of Tribal Bigfoot, so you might think my quest was a waste of time . . . but then I kept reading further into the chapter, amazed at her remarks about wars in Europe compared to the peacefulness of Native Americans. I found this: “Tears and love, love and tears, sweetly mingled when infant and adult meet in one great brotherhood of forgiveness. Always thus, since time began, someone must die a martyr for the beginning of every cause; and it has ever been thus, since the dawn of history, among all races and nations: the heathen, the barbarian and the civilized nations of the world.” (Pg. 132 of To the American Indian by Lucy Thompson)

This says to me that before humans and Bigfoot can come together there will be martyrs… and indeed there have been some. Bigfoot has been shot at. Some perhaps killed. Recently an esteemed reader of this blog sent me a link to an article on the Oregon Bigfoot Blog (Autumn Williams) with YouTube renditions of the Art Bell “Bugs” interview. I remembered hearing this interview when it was first aired, years ago. “Bugs” was a false name for a man who claimed to have been one of three hunters who killed two Bigfoots and buried them. Fascinating interview… “Bugs” on Art Bell – Did he really shoot and bury Bigfoot? I listened to Bugs on several occasions and always felt he was very credible. He said he and his hunting buddies killed a male Bigfoot thinking it was a bear… then after realizing their mistake, they were charged at by a grief-stricken female Bigfoot so they killed her too. Martyrs, perhaps?

Earlier in Tribal Bigfoot there was a section on Bigfoot killings – including a report David Paulides got from a former Forest Service employee who met a sixteen-year-old hunter who claimed to have shot a Bigfoot. But killings go both ways. Theodore Roosevelt told the story of Bauman, whose hunting partner was killed by a Bigfoot. To read between the lines of Lucy Thompson’s report on the Indian Devil, the Yuroks were very paranoid of contact with Oh-ma-ha: “When the Indians would go on their hunting and camping trips into the mountains, as soon as they heard an owl screech or hoot, they would stop and listen, and try to distinguish if it was an Indian devil imitating an owl or the cry of a wild animal. The Indians would stop at once, kindle a fire, and hallo; this was given as a warning to the devils that they were awake and ready to fight them if necessary.” (Pg. 130 of To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman by Lucy Thompson)

I’m impressed enough with Lucy’s writing to want to buy my own copy and read the entire book, but that will wait for another time as today I’m reviewing Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, Chapter Ten, all about Humboldt County Bigfoot sightings. He claims that Humboldt County is the “Bigfoot Capitol of California” and the chapter was quite thick.

There are many credible and intriguing Bigfoot sighting accounts in this chapter: a woman who saw one walking through her front yard; a young boy who saw one when he had to unplug a water line, a two hour climb uphill from his home; a waitress who saw a Bigfoot on the Bigfoot Scenic Byway between Willow Creek and Hoopa in 1987; another woman who saw a Bigfoot enthusiastically chasing a motorcycle her son was riding; an ambulance driver who happened upon a Bigfoot on Highway 299 west of Willow Creek at 3 in the morning. These are all very credible witnesses and the stories written by David Paulides are detailed and entertaining.

The chapter also contains an update on some Hoopa sightings including hair sample DNA results and wonderful forensic sketches by Harvey Pratt. There’s also a profile of Al Hodgson, long-time Willow Creek resident and witness to the Bluff Creek Bigfoot footprints back in the 1960s. He is the curator of the Willow Creek Bigfoot Museum.

…

Note: I’m behind my self-imposed schedule for reviewing this book thanks to my injury and a trip out of town to Mt. Shasta. I have three more chapters to cover in this book before I go on to the next one, Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence by Dr. Grover Krantz. I expect that book will go slowly as well because it is full of scientific information. I am a slow reader but that will not stop me. It may mean my reading of Dr. Krantz’s book will continue into November. This may pose a problem for me because I’m writing another novel (with Bigfoot in it) during November (I always participate in NaNoWriMo.) So, my reviews may be slow, but they’ll be posted. Get the books and read ahead of me if you like… I’ll get there sooner or later.

Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, California, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 1:23 am

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September 26, 2009

Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence

Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence is a scientific look at Bigfoot evidence by Dr. Grover S. Krantz.

Dr. Krantz was a professor of anthropology specializing in human evolution at Washington State University. He started his study of Sasquatch in 1963 after examining footprint castings and believed that Sasquatch is an actual flesh and blood creature.

The book, Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence, is sub-titled “An Anthropologist Speaks Out,” and is a look at the physical evidence that proves the existence of Bigfoot. This book is challenging; most Bigfoot books compile anecdotal evidence. Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence is different because it is a scientific examination of facts.

This book will be reviewed, chapter-by-chapter, on this blog as soon as all reviews of Tribal Bigfoot are posted.

A home page for Dr. Krantz’ book has been created at Squidoo: Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence.

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence — Linda Martin @ 2:10 am

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September 25, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”

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Re: Chapter Nine of Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, “Del Norte County”:

The Del Norte County chapter of Tribal Bigfoot is a montage of fascinating Bigfoot sighting accounts. In this chapter you can read about a tall, thin, golden-haired Sasquatch, a group of six Sasquatches that surrounded a pair of hikers, and many others. There are fourteen interviews featured in this chapter. All worth reading. You’ll also find some of Harvey Pratt’s fascinating forensic sketches illustrating sightings found in this chapter. The golden Sasquatch was especially believable because it is so unusual that someone would report seeing a Bigfoot with that shape and coloring. There are many very credible witnesses profiled in this chapter.

One of the sightings involved two young hikers in the Siskiyou Wilderness. They were on a hillside overlooking a lake in the remote backcountry when they became aware of two Sasquatches playing in the lake below. The creatures splashed water on each other, and had a grand time until they suddenly became aware of the two young men. Then they ran to get out of the water and to disappear in the forest near the shoreline.

Another man accompanied friends to the Siskiyou Wilderness. His friends hiked into the wilderness to climb Preston Peak while he stayed near Raspberry Lake. He decided to take a hike and walked for nearly an hour. Just as he turned back he started hearing vocalizations. First there was the sound of a goat. These men had two goats tied up back at the lake – goats intended to be pack animals. The goat sounds were followed by a loud, long scream, some guttural sounds, and some gibberish which may have been a Bigfoot language. Next he heard “Hey, hey,” as if one of his friends was trying to get his attention. Startled and fearful, he raced back to camp to find the goats still securely tied up there.

This particular experience excited me because my goal is to be able to communicate with Bigfoot, and so the linguistic abilities of Sasquatches intrigue me. This one apparently had eavesdropped on the group, hearing them call to each other using the word, “hey.” The creature also mimicked the goats! It is extremely hopeful to know that they’re able to vocalize in imitation of others. This could eventually lead to an exchange of languages, once contact is made. Then we can find out what it is really like to live as a Sasquatch, to experience nature as a highly intelligent species living in the woods. I would love to know what they think about us!

In this chapter David Paulides stated several times that the Siskiyou Wilderness area is a prime area for Bigfoot research because it is between Highway 199 (which runs between Crescent City, CA and Cave Junction, OR) and the Bluff Creek area. He wrote: “The Siskiyou Wilderness Area sits in probably the best location in the world if you want to study Bigfoot. It is located between Bluff Creek and the end of the Go Road (the location of the Patterson-Gimlin movie) and the region in Del Norte County of Gasquet and Crescent City. This region is remote. There are no vehicles allowed and I have personally never seen anyone take horses into the region.” (Pg. 247)

I had an experience back in the summer of 2000. At that time I was exploring local swimming holes. My neighbor suggested a swimming hole eight miles into the wilderness on Clear Creek. To get there I had to drive six miles south from Happy Camp to the Wingate River Access. From there I turned right on 15N32, also called Clear Creek Road. Staying to the left at the fork in the road I drove eight miles west. At the end of the road there were a couple campsites and a sign installed by the Forest Service. There, we parked and hiked along a trail which was at least a mile long, to a place where there were some very beautiful swimming holes.

The swimming hole where the teens were playing.

A large group of teenagers were at the last swimming hole just before the bridge. The young people were jumping off a rock, laughing, and in general making a lot of noise. We crossed the bridge into the Siskiyou Wilderness. From that point there’s a trail (Clear Creek Trail) that crosses the wilderness. We looked at the creek over there, and hiked a little further in. I remember a Forest Service sign there that was shattered and splintered. My first impression was that a Sasquatch had done it because they didn’t want people in their territory. This was five years before I started my Bigfoot research.

That’s me, hiking on the Clear Creek Trail in 2007.

I started walking uphill on the trail leading further into the wilderness and got a very distinct feeling that something didn’t want me going there. The feeling was overwhelming and I decided to stop and go back downhill.

Now, while reading this book, the memory of this experience came back to me. Was a Sasquatch there guarding the wilderness? Was he watching the teenagers playing in the swimming hole? Did he send me a mental “stay away” message? I’ve been back several times since then and have not received the same mental warning. Maybe a Sasquatch was on the hillside, worried that I’d see him if I continued further along the path.

I’ve always known that the Siskiyou Wilderness is the place to go if you want to be near Bigfoot. It isn’t used as frequently as the Marble Mountain Wilderness. You can read more about the Siskiyou Wilderness in The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution by David Rains Wallace. This book won the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, the Commonwealth Club Silver Medal for Literature (1984), and was named one of the twentieth century’s best non-fiction books by the San Francisco Chronicle.

David Rains Wallace mentioned Bigfoot in his manuscript. In the epilogue he wrote:

“I admit, on re-reading the book, that the Klamaths’ local giant, Bigfoot, sometimes seems to play the 400-pound gorilla in what might have been more a straightforward evolutionary tale. Still, it’s one thing to read a book, and another to write it. I wrote as a backpacker sleeping in the woods, and my perceptions were not always straightforward. I didn’t see Bigfoot or evidence of his existence, and I did see reasons why a nocturnal, boreal wild hominid would be an evolutionary anomaly. But I also had experiences which made me wonder about consciousness, a subject which remains mysterious, and which includes phenomena like Bigfoot sightings.

The main such experience was my sudden illness on Clear Creek in the Siskiyous. Exhaustion or a backcountry microbe may have caused it, but the mental effects were more striking than any other illness I’ve had. They included not only the terror and historical visions I described in the book, but something I didn’t. Lying in the dark, I couldn’t close my eyes because intensely vivid faces would appear, mouthing incomprehensible words. The faces seemed so real that I had trouble reassuring myself that they came from my mind, and I afterward saw them at other camps, as though I’d been sensitized to something. The rational explanation was that I was sensitized to my experience in the forest, but I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that I was sensitized to something in the forest. It made me wonder where the mind ends and the forest begins.” Epilogue to The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution, Twentieth Anniversary Edition, pgs. 146-7.

Another Clear Creek Swimming Hole

A rattlesnake next to the Clear Creek Trail

Clear Creek, February 2006

…

…

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, California, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 10:55 pm

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September 22, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”

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Re: Chapter Eight of Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, “Siskiyou County”:

Since I live here in Siskiyou County, I looked forward to reading this chapter of Tribal Bigfoot. It was short and didn’t contain as many sighting reports as the chapters on Trinity County, Del Norte County, and Humbolt County, and I had to wonder why David Paulides kept mentioning other Happy Camp area sightings he was aware of, but profiled only Lars Larson and Tara Hauki, both people I know in this community.

He mentioned that “There aren’t many towns in California more remote than Happy Camp.” (Pg. 212) Maybe it is just too remote for most people, but I call it home and so do about 1200 other people hereabouts.

There are only three Bigfoot reports in this chapter. The first was from a hunter, Darrell Whiteaker, who entered an area near the Marble Mountain Wilderness and found himself in a quiet zone, associated with possible Bigfoot habitation. The experience is that the forest becomes entirely quiet – no birds twittering, no squirrels running about in or out of the trees. Nothing… just silence. A theory is that Bigfoot may frighten all forest creatures so severely that they must be still for self-protection.

The second segment of this chapter concerned Lars Larson, a local prospector that came here to Happy Camp back in 1987. Everyone who has been here a while knows Lars. I was sorry to read this part: “He told me that several years ago there had been visitors in town claiming to be professional bigfoot researchers, and they told him they didn’t believe his cast was real; they stated it was a hoax. This made him very upset….”

I’d like to respond to that. First of all, everyone in Happy Camp accepted that the casting he made was probably a Bigfoot footprint, prior to the summer of 2005. Everyone I know of who has ever spoken of Lars respects him. Nobody here has any negative feelings toward him that I know of, and I have no reason to doubt his credibility. To me he seems like a very sweet but quiet older man who doesn’t hurt anyone and keeps to himself most of the time.

I just read about this episode in JavaBob’s book, Monsters Myths and Me: And now my eyes are open a few nights ago. Here’s what he wrote:

Quoting from pages 32 and 33 of JavaBob’s book:

“Lars picked out the clearest print and made a plaster cast of it. He told me it was difficult to cast because it was on a fairly steep slope heading down towards the creek.

When I asked Lars what he thought might have made the print, he answered that he had absolutely no idea. He only knew he was not able to identify them.

I had asked Lars and the owner of the Moon Dragon, several days earlier, if they minded if I take the print and share it with the GABRO team to investigate. They both agreed and let me take it back to my business to share with the team.

Later, after the GABRO team arrived and I had my conversation with Tom, I went into the back room and brought Lars’ print out for Lee to see. [Lee Hickman, tracker.] Lee took about three minutes to identify the print. He explained to me; “…the print was most likely made by a small black bear. It was apparently walking down hill, probably after a rain, on soft wet soil. The bear print was elongated as it slid down the hill and pushed the soft dirt in front of it. This is not a Bigfoot print!” I was totally amazed by his explanation. It fit the story that Lars had shared with me … perfectly.

Later that day, I returned the print and shared this information with Lars. Lars was happy to finally get an answer he could be comfortable with. However, after Lars told the owner of the Moon Dragon about our findings, it got back to me that she was not quite as happy about the findings as Lars was. I never followed up to find out why.

On the other hand, I was impressed to see that not every unusual object was accepted by the GABRO team as a Bigfoot artifact.”

That’s how I remember it. I never talked to Lars about the pronouncement that his print was from a bear, but I clearly remember in 2005, Bob talking about this incident exactly as he reported it here. He too likes and respects Lars as much as the rest of us do, and none of us ever had any intention of calling his footprint casting a “hoax.” According to what we remember, Lars never said it was made by a Bigfoot. He always said he didn’t know what it was. It was everyone else in town (well, lots of us) that thought it was a Bigfoot footprint because of the size.

Now here is Marcie Stumpf’s article about the incident which I reprinted in Happy Camp News in 2003 with New Era publisher Maria McCracken’s permission:

Reprinted from an article in Modern Gold Miner & Treasure Hunter, January/February 1990
By Marcie Stumpf
Edited for space

. . footprints of a size and shape consistent with those of the legendary Bigfoot were discovered on a claim belonging to THE NEW 49’ers, on Indian Creek, near Happy Camp California.

Lars Larson, a NEW 49’er who was mining on the claim, discovered several of the footprints which measured 17 inches long, and 11 inches wide. Three of the prints were in gravel, and were not distinct, but one was on solid ground, and Lars was able to make a plaster cast of the print.

Happy Camp is well known as “Bigfoot Country”. The first sighting of one of these elusive creatures was made on Thompson Creek, a nearby tributary of the Klamath River, in the 1860’s. A group of Chinese workers who were building a ditch to carry water to a hydraulic mine sighted one, and were so frightened they refused to return to the job.

. . . Lars reported that he searched the surrounding area thoroughly, but was unable to find any further evidence, such as broken branches, or tufts of hair, or any further footprints.

Bigfoot, if he is out there somewhere, still desires not to be seen, and he has many miles of forest where he can remain secluded. Some of us prefer it that way also.

I am not a great tracker but I have looked at and compared bear tracks and Bigfoot tracks. I have no opinion on this particular footprint casting because I’m no expert, but I wanted to make it clear that nobody here in Happy Camp doubts Lars Larson’s credibility, and nobody considers him any kind of hoaxer, as was stated in Tribal Bigfoot.

Possible Bigfoot Bedding

Okay, that’s one Happy Camp story… and the other one David Paulides researched for Tribal Bigfoot is about Tara Hauki. In case you’re not familiar with her sighting experiences, you can read them on her website, Sasquatch and Me, and on the BFRO site here. I met Tara when she came to JavaBobs Bigfoot Deli to tell us about her July 2005 experience. We all went to her home and looked over the property she lives on – and this was within a day or two of the sighting.

The one thing on the property that looked like it could possibly be Bigfoot evidence was the “bed” of broken horsetails that was found right next to the spring. This is the picture I took that day of this area. You can’t see the spring but it is at the back of the hollowed area under the leaves. The bedding doesn’t show well in this photo but it is the dried out area. This was the only indication that I had that possibly something could be unusual with the property. I didn’t know what else could have picked the horsetails and piled them there… and figured it had to be a human, or a Bigfoot. In Tribal Bigfoot David Paulides wrote, “The next day Tara went to the front of her house and looked for tracks. She found one footprint, 18 inches by seven and three-quarters inches.” This was after her first sighting according to Paulides. Well, I was there right after that sighting and don’t remember anything about a footprint in front of her house, and I wonder where that story comes from… or was there some kind of misunderstanding? The only footprint I know of related to this sighting was found weeks later on the hill nearby by Bigfoot researcher Rex Howdyshel.

The Happy Camp Footprint Cast of 2005 is the abnormally big one.
This was discovered on the hill by Rex Howdyshel and cast by Rob Shorey.
I was one of the first people Rex showed the print to before it was cast.

Poker Flat

After that I spent considerable time with Tara during 2005, and up until about April 2006. One of my favorite memories was our trip to Poker Flat, just the two of us. We had a good time that day. It gave me a chance to get to know her better and I appreciated her knowledge of the plants that grew there. Poker Flat is a mountain meadow campground quite a few miles into the forest at a high elevation, near the Siskiyou Wilderness. At one time that area was used as a stop over for mule trains. The picture on the left is of Poker Flat.

In his segment on Tara Hauki in this Siskiyou County chapter of Tribal Bigfoot, toward the end David Paulides mentioned caves on the hill Tara lives next to. I live on the other side of that hill. The cave system is actually a gold mine that operated on the hilltop many years back (see photo below). The entire top of the hillside was washed away by hydraulic mining and the “caves” are probably a drainage system. There used to be an opening in my backyard.

The old gold mine could have indeed provided a place for a Bigfoot to live. Entrances to the gold mine system have been blocked by the forest service now which I think is a great idea because otherwise children could be injured while trying to explore them. The last time I went there, mountain lion tracks were evident in the area of the mine entrance at the airport. We’ve still got mountain lions roaming around at night so I guess they’ve found another place to live.

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, California, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 12:32 am

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September 21, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”

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Re: Chapter Seven of Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, “Trinity County”:

One of the things that makes David Paulides’ books so enjoyable to read is that he makes each segment a story in and of itself. Though the Trinity County chapter profiles more than ten Bigfoot sightings, each is related as its own story complete with lots of background information. For example, when he related Jeannie Lewis’ story (starting on page 162) he began with a description and history of Highway 299. From there he went on to explain how this highway figured into Jeannie’s life and her Bigfoot sighting story.

In the section about Shirley Forks, we get to learn a bit about her family’s history in Willow Creek before she takes off on the trip to Medford that resulted in a Bigfoot sighting next to the Trinity River. The time Paulides spends introducing the people involved makes them real to us by bringing forth the details of their lives.

Though in The Hoopa Project he focused on Bigfoot sightings only for most of the book, here he’s also included episodes that had only footprints or other phenomena, somewhat short of actual sightings. Nevertheless they are compelling accounts of highly unusual finds and experiences.

Doug Mortenson’s sighting account was remarkable because he was a logger. We hear few sighting reports from loggers though we know they’re likely to be in the right area at the right time. This particular sighting took place near Friday Ridge Road, a location name that jumped off the page for me as I recalled that just a few weeks ago I was there in Willow Creek where I went to the Friday Ridge Road vicinity, and later heard from Bigfoot Books blogger Steven Streufert that there have been recent sightings in that area. Later that evening after I left Willow Creek, Steven went squatching on that road with Craig Woolheater of Texas, Sharonlee of Ohio, and the Believe It Tour team members: Mike Esoridi, Diana Smith, and Brad Pennock.

Trinity Alps Wilderness
Photo by Prindleman courtesy Wikipedia Commons

There are a lot of Bigfoot reports in this chapter and I can’t write about them all, but will mention a few. In the segment about Mel Hester of Hyampom, a retired US Forest Service employee, he correlated UFO sightings with Bigfoot sightings in his area. Once he went to Big Bar Road to look for an unusual orb light phenomena and instead found Bigfoot tracks in the snow.

John Lewis of San Francisco shared a Bigfoot sighting event that took place in Trinity County in about 1915. His father was a line worker helping to build a railroad south of Eureka when another line worker disappeared. He was missing for about a month then was discovered naked and delirious in a pit. Before he died the man stated that a female ape had kidnapped him and held him captive. At the end of this segment Mr. Paulides shared a couple reports from Ray Crowe’s Track Record newsletter that mentioned rock-lined pits in relation to Bigfoot. One more thing to watch out for in the woods! This was a highly detailed section – you will have to read the book to learn more. If it were not for David Paulides’ research efforts this shocking and historic Bigfoot sighting and kidnapping report would probably never have been recorded!

Trinity National Forest
Photo courtesy US Forest Service

On page 140 Paulides wrote about his arrival in Hayfork: “I didn’t have any specific names to contact when I arrived, so I knew I would have to canvass the area for locals willing to talk.” His efforts at finding connections in Hayfork and other towns have been very effective and fruitful!

One sad section of the chapter details Bigfoot killings. David Paulides got on this topic because of a report that a sixteen-year-old hunter claimed to have shot a Bigfoot on Knob Peak near Wildwood in Trinity County. Paulides brought forth other reports of Bigfoot killings near the end of this chapter. A very distressing topic! Not only is it distressing because possibly these creatures were killed, but also because now the other Bigfoot family members will be more cautious around humans, and may even harbor animosity toward us. That would make Bigfoot seeking in those areas more dangerous than it otherwise would have been.

Trinity County is a beautiful place to visit. I don’t know how David Paulides got through this entire chapter without mentioning Weaverville, the county seat and a favorite vacation destination of mine. I suppose there aren’t a lot of Bigfoot sightings right in town there but you can visit the Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park and learn about Taoism as practiced by Chinese miners who at one time populated the area. When I first visited the Joss House in the mid-1970s the temple was still being used. The Chinese settlers called this “The Temple of the Forest Beneath The Clouds.”

This spotted owl in the Shasta Trinity Forest probably knows more about Bigfoot than we do!
Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, California, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 12:13 am

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September 19, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”

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Re: Chapter Six of Tribal Bigfoot, “Amador County”:

Amador County is one of my favorite counties in California, and if I was to relocate from Happy Camp that is one county I’d be interested in moving to, so I was surprised to read in Tribal Bigfoot that this county has no Bigfoot sightings recorded in online databases. There certainly is enough forest. If you travel through the mountains there, you might get that spooky feeling that Bigfoot could very well be around. I’ve been there and remember that feeling well!

After David Paulides created the North American Bigfoot Search website, 24-year-old Daniel Walker emailed him about his Bigfoot sighting in Amador County. Daniel got a good look at a Bigfoot at the intersection of Hale Road and Fiddletown Road in August 2007. Perhaps now Amador County can invest in one of those yellow “Bigfoot Crossing” signs for the first time. County residents need to keep their eyes open. Something might be lurking behind the trees!

From this map we can see there’s plenty of forested area in Amador County:

View Larger Map

I love the gold rush town of Jackson there in the Sierra Nevada foothills… but further uphill there’s forest, a small but gorgeous town called Volcano, and Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park — one of my favorite of the California State Historic Parks, and I’ve been to quite a few. There’s no doubt that there are LOTS of Bigfooted Ones living in the forest in that region, and either the 38,471 residents of this 593 square mile county haven’t seen one, or they have kept their sightings hush-hush.

In 1996 I toured the Mother Lode with my children, then ages 6 and 7. We drove on scenic Highway 49 from Tuolumne City to Downieville. Jackson in Amador County was on our route. It is a slightly modernized gold rush town, and a great place to spend time. A few years later we went back to Jackson, this time to visit Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park where we took a hike on a trail nearby that taught us a lot about the local herbs and wild natural foods. There’s more there than an untrained eye would imagine! The park includes an impressive ceremonial roundhouse and museum, and Mi’wuk Indian village.

This is a great place for a vacation – and with a few walks in the woods you might be first to put your Amador Bigfoot sighting into one of the online sighting databases. While you’re there, you could check out one of the outdoor amphitheater performances of the Volcano Theater Company.

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, California, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 10:50 pm

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September 16, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”

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Re: Chapter Five of Tribal Bigfoot, “Santa Cruz County”:

I read chapter five of Tribal Bigfoot about a week ago. The part that stayed with me, that I couldn’t stop thinking about, is a report on a Bigfoot who was ridgewalking in a wooded area on the county line between Monterey County and Santa Cruz County when he came upon a group of campers. That’s when Kenny Rogers, who was still awake, heard heavy footfalls approaching. Then the Bigfoot stopped and let out a loud howl. This didn’t awaken Kenny’s friends, who had been drinking earlier in the evening.

According to David Paulides’ report on this Bigfoot sighting, “The creature then stepped over to a small grouping of large trees and started to shake them very violently.” (Pg. 122) After that the creature walked around the perimeter of the group for about an hour before leaving.

Does anyone ever stop and think about things from the Sasquatch point of view? I can imagine what was going through this poor Bigfoot’s mind. He was walking along a wooded ridge he was probably accustomed to using as a corridor to reach Monterey Bay, or some other area he needed to get to, and suddenly discovered a large group of sleeping human beings in his path.

Perhaps that wouldn’t have been such an emotionally charged event for him were it not for the fact that there’s limited forested land in that area, and humans have encroached on Bigfoot territory for generations, taking more and more away from them. Maybe this ridge was his home, or his favorite place in the world. So he walked up and saw all these humans taking even more land from him — perhaps even a corridor of wooded land that he felt vital to his well-being, and it traumatized him to the point where he had to howl his fright and displeasure, then take out his extreme emotions on some trees! Finally he calmed himself down and inspected the site, perhaps wondering if this would become another permanent settlement violating land he thought was his.

The woods east and north of Santa Cruz are filled with redwood trees, homes, streets, people, and traffic, yet there are many areas where Bigfoot could be living, and in fact, many have seen evidence or had direct sightings. This chapter of the book examines several of them including Colette Alexander’s sighting which was posted to this blog in October 2008: Santa Cruz, California Bigfoot Sighting, 1999. That one tends to amaze me still because it took place right outside the city of Santa Cruz.

There are other compelling Santa Cruz County Bigfoot sighting reports in the book. Several young men there had clear sightings of a hair-covered Bigfoot close up.

I’ve spent some time in that forest, having vacationed there as a youth and returned many times during my adult years. My mother grew up in Santa Cruz, I lived there years ago in the early seventies, and my brother lives in the woods there now. The forest as seen from Highway 9 can be dark and spooky, and there are many square miles of undeveloped wooded land.

…

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, California, Site Notes, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 12:12 am

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September 14, 2009

New Things Learned

Say hello to Linda Newton-Perry, a writer living in Oregon who produces a weekly column on Bigfoot. She has graciously offered to have her column included here at Bigfoot Sightings.

I just received from Amazon.com my copy of David Paulides’ book, Tribal Bigfoot. The 480 page book is stuffed-full of sightings and illustrations. The book isn’t cheap. It cost me a little over thirty dollars with postage. But, I can see that I’m really going to enjoy it. The first few pages of the book have what appear to be scanned newspaper articles about these animals dating back to the 1830’s. He has reduced the print so it is hard to read, but one can with effort. Of these articles, there are at least two reported incidences of a “wild man” being captured and transported by train to be displayed by an unnamed entity. An odd point was made that in these newspapers there was no follow up on what happened to the animals.

I thought I would tell you about some of the “new” things (new to me, that is) that I’ve learned in just the first 146 pages. It seems that Bigfoot/Sasquatch is a “ridgewalker.” The author, Paulides, didn’t understand what the term meant until a Native American of the Yurok tribe explained that these animals walked the mountain ridges so that they could see down into the valleys where men most often stayed (for one thing, to keep out of the wind). He could see smoke from campfires and knew that his territory had been invaded, that he had visitors. On page 87 of the book, Paulides writes that high mountain ridges are where these animals, “more than any other” area have been observed; and, that fact documented, I assume. So, if you wish to observe a Bigfoot, look up to the mountain ridges, according to a spokesman of the Yurok tribe of Native Americans.

Another thing I learned is that these animals don’t seem to be afraid of women and children. One woman was picnicking when she noticed a Bigfoot mimicking her while she ate a sandwich. It seems Bigfoot/Sasquatch has been observed letting himself (herself in this case) be seen by women and children. Paulides concluded that the animals must be aware that women and children do not generally carry guns.

…

Linda Newton-Perry, along with her husband Christopher Perry, is the author of four books: Forced Blood The Norseman, a Viking Age novel, and three children’s Bigfoot books, Lock Your Doors Country Folk, Eye of the Beast, and The Little Red Car and Bigfoot. Order your copy at www.christopherperryandlindanewtonperry.com. Email your Bigfoot sightings to lindap at douglasco.net.

…

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Filed under: Linda Newton-Perry, Oregon, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 9:21 pm

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September 12, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”

Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot

Re: Chapter Four of Tribal Bigfoot, “Extreme Sighting Locations”:

Chapter four of Tribal Bigfoot is about Bigfoot living in extreme weather conditions – either extreme hot or extreme cold. The chapter starts with sighting reports from the Yukon Territory, Alaska, and Wyoming. Many Bigfoot families have adapted to living in freezing places and walking barefoot in snow.

Grand Tetons, photo courtesy NPS

David Paulides opined that this may be due to overcrowding in more temperate areas: “Researchers do understand that all creatures (even humans) are pushed out of prime habitat areas because of a variety of conditions. . . . Animals are forced out of areas because the bigger and stronger creatures have established a region as their home and the younger and weaker need to seek out new habitat.” (Pg. 102)

It makes sense to me that many Bigfoot are conditioned to be comfortable in cold climates. In the Pacific Northwest where sighting reports are numerous, snow is ubiquitous in the mountains during winter. But what of those poor hair-covered Bigfoot that must live in the heat of a desert? David Paulides gives examples from Lancaster, San Bernardino County, Sedona in Arizona, and the Arizona Navajo reservation, Apache County.

Carlsbad Caverns, photo courtesy NPS

He wrote that Bigfoot may be drinking water from agricultural projects. He didn’t mention it but they could be surviving with water from underground streams, living in caves during the heat of the day. There are some amazing caves in Mexico they could thrive in. Here’s a site with information about Arizona Caves, and let’s not forget Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico! These cave systems could be harboring lots of Bigfoot families during the heat of the day, and providing plenty of moisture for drinking water too.

…

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Filed under: Arizona, Bigfoot Reading Group, Mexico, New Mexico, Tribal Bigfoot, Wyoming, Yukon Territory — Linda Martin @ 9:50 pm

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September 10, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”

Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot

Re: Chapter Three of Tribal Bigfoot, “Associations.”

In chapter three of Tribal Bigfoot David Paulides shares the associations he’s made from his years of studying Bigfoot sighting reports. These associations are things that are common in Bigfoot sighting reports.

The first association he mentions is elevation. David Paulides says he’s documented an unusual number of sightings at or close to 2400 feet elevation. Why would this be? Is this where Bigfoot feels freer to roam because there are fewer human beings living at that elevation?

Happy Camp, for example, is at 1085 feet elevation, but we have roads that will take us to 2400 feet nearby. Nobody around here actually lives up there. Is this an elevation where humans would go on vacation and cross paths with wandering Sasquatches who thought they had the place to themselves?

My opinion is that David Paulides got it right in the first sentence of that section when he said that “Bigfoot can be found at any elevation at any time anywhere in California.” (Pg. 60) He suggests purchase of his Bigfoot Sightings map for a better perspective on why he makes an association with the 2400′ elevation. You can find the map at his website.

The second association is with Native Americans and their reservations. David Paulides believes “There must be some relationship between Native Americans and bigfoot that we are still struggling to understand.” (Pg. 64)

I don’t believe there’s anything magically different about Native Americans. I live among them here in Happy Camp. We’re all human beings no matter what color our skin is. The big difference – and why they may have more sightings – is that many Native Americans live closer to nature than other Americans do. Their reservations are in extremely rural areas – which are for the most part undeveloped. These are places the US government granted to them because conditions there may have been inconvenient or too rugged for settlers with European blood. Many of these reservations, such as the Round Valley Reservation here in Northern California, are not the actual ancestral homelands of the people forced onto them.

Sasquatch, like Native Americans, have had their territory diminished by the onslaught of our materialistic civilization. There may still be pockets of Sasquatch habitation here and there but for the most part they’ve been pushed deep into the woods where they are safe from men with guns. Yes, they know what guns are no doubt, and what kinds of men or women use them. They also know that when people see them, the people are often fearful. Fear begets violence. The choice of Sasquatches to conceal themselves is self-preservation in action. They may be bolder around Native Americans whose culture has traditionally been a safe haven.

I particularly appreciated Earla Penn’s sighting in Oregon. Earla Penn is a Quileute Indian. “She wasn’t afraid, and waved at it. It stopped to look at her, and then walked away….” (Pg. 63) I’ve thought many times about what I’d do if I were confronted by a Bigfoot while out in the woods. How would I react? What would I say? My greatest hope is that there would be no fear. I’d like to wave and say hello, just like Earla did! But one never knows what his reaction will be until the moment comes.

I think the reasons for associations with berries and water are obvious. We all need water to survive, and berries taste good. In summer months Sasquatch may need to migrate downhill to live near springs and creeks — and in winter may migrate back to known caves in the mountains where water can be had by melting snow. There’s a sighting mentioned in the book that indicates a migration pattern: “…every fall a family of 6 passes near his place…heading west from a hilly forested area east of him.” (Pg. 64)

There are quite a few other fascinating sightings recounted – mostly from Ray Crowe’s research which was published in The Track Record. Several other associations are mentioned as well.

…

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 10:07 pm

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September 6, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”

Review by Linda Martin – @2009

Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot

Re: Chapter Two of Tribal Bigfoot, “The Bigfoot Map Project.”

David Paulides spent all of chapter two writing about the statistics behind his Bigfoot sightings map of four Northern California counties. It is a short chapter – only eight pages, which includes charts. He compiled a list of over 350 sightings (from the 1800’s to 2008) that took place in those four counties and arranged with the California State Automobile Association to use their map for the project. The map features sightings in Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, and Siskiyou Counties.

I live in Siskiyou County which includes Happy Camp and Mt. Shasta, so I found the statistical information of interest. The chart on page 53 credits Siskiyou with the least number of sightings per square mile but this is a large county and the eastern part has less forest. Happy Camp, where I live, is in the western section and is surrounded by the Klamath National Forest. According to this chart, Del Norte has one sighting per 17 square miles compared to Siskiyou County’s 1 sighting per 134 square miles. I’m suggesting that’s not because we have fewer Bigfoot, but because our county is more than six times the size of Del Norte County and our population less than twice as much as theirs. Most of Siskiyou County is uninhabited (by humans) forested land.

One could analyze the data provided by Paulides to guess that Bigfoot prefers the coastal mountains and forests, but then he also wrote that “A vast majority of the sightings fall into our elevation theory, sightings in California predominantly fall into a range focusing on 2400 feet with the majority 1600- 3200 feet.’ (See Blog # 47) Compare this with his statement that “69% of all the listed sightings/incidents logged on the map are within 40 miles of the coast.” (Page 59 in the book.)

The elevation of Happy Camp is only 1085 so I think it is safe to say that the area between here and the coast are not at the 2400′ level except for hilltops. (There’s more discussion of the preference of Bigfoot for coastal areas in the book.) Personally I’m not putting much weight on the elevation theories he’s coming up with (there’s also something about two huts at 350′ elevation mentioned on one of Michael Rugg’s videos – see episode #25) but I’ll keep my mind open in case something substantial is proven about Bigfoot and elevations.

He lists population density in his chart but doesn’t comment much on that aspect. If there are more people, then it makes sense that there will be more sighting opportunities. In Humboldt County there are 128,330 residents according to his chart.That county correspondingly has the highest number of sightings of the four counties analyzed: 124. That is one sighting per 1035 people. In comparison Siskiyou County has less than half the population – 45,091 people – with 1 sighting per 959 people for a total of 47 sightings.

Out here in the western section of Siskiyou County, in the Klamath National Forest, we’ve got about 2,182 residents in the Happy Camp census district. Happy Camp had 1277 in the year 2000 census but the census district includes residents of Seiad Valley and others up and down the Klamath River Highway. With 8 local sightings (according to Paulides – I’m aware of more) that’s 1 per 273 people. This rivals Trinity County’s 1 per 231 people.

There are also tourists to take into consideration – they are a great source of sighting reports. They tend to congregate on the coast — very few decide to make the long trip into the heart of the Klamath National Forest.

So there are a few more statistical considerations for the area of this Bigfoot map project. Perhaps you can come up with other ideas for analyzing the statistics that I haven’t thought about.

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bigfoot sasquatch cryptozoology bigfoot books Tribal Bigfoot David Paulides Humboldt Del Norte Siskiyou Trinity County California

Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group, California, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 8:58 pm

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September 5, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”

Review by Linda Martin – @2009

Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot

Re: Chapter One of Tribal Bigfoot, “Historical Bigfoot.”

I love historic accounts of Bigfoot encounters found in newspapers of the 1800’s in the USA. I wonder how many of these old news articles are still undiscovered. David Paulides came up with some fascinating articles for the first chapter of Tribal Bigfoot — possibly from the Ray Crowe archive he purchased.

After reading the entire chapter, the historic articles that remain in my memory are those with detailed descriptions of a possible Bigfoot-like creature. Back then they were called “wild men.” They are described as having skin resembling a horses’s — not what I’d expect at all — but it fits: hair-covered hide, hands similar to bear paws.

What’s very cool about these news articles is that there are several accounts of a captured Bigfoot. One article is from 1833 in Kentucky (pages 48 and 49), and another from 1839 in Ohio (pages 44 through 46). Both these provide detailed descriptions of the appearance and behavior of the “wild man” that we would probably call Sasquatch or Bigfoot today. Another account of a captured wild man was published in 1908 in Wisconsin about a Volva, North Dakota incident (page 46).

If they were actually captured back then, it makes me wonder why we have such a difficult time doing the same now. Could it be that we (as a species) have learned incompetence during the last 170 years? Could television and radio waves and cell phone EMFs have affected us … and made us lazy? Yes, times have changed.. so are we capable of duplicating the captures of the past? Or, were these accounts of hairy wild man captures simply facetious? (I think not.) Another wild theory of mine is that these captured wild men were able to put the word out to others of their species through psychic means, to warn them that if they had contact with humans they could end up captured. Are Bigfoot creatures more cautious now because of what has happened in the past?

Captivity seemed to drain the fight out of these wild men. The Ohio article stated, “He is now quite tame and quiet and is only confined by a stout chain attached to his legs.” I find it hard to believe that a stout chain could stop a Bigfoot from escape. A few years back I saw a thick and hefty chain which had held two goats, that had been broken so that something (a possible Bigfoot) could take the goats for food. (The remains were found nearby on a hill in a wooded area.) Perhaps the Ohio wild man lost his strength because of a changed diet, or just a lack of will to escape.

The Kentucky account involved a possible Bigfoot on a train. He was being taken to New York to hopefully be sold to PT Barnum’s circus. This article states, “When Conductor Harry Smith took out his glistening nickel plated punch to cancel the tickets the wild man watched the punch intently until he heard it snap. Then he got down in the corner of the seat fairly shivering with fear, and set up a low howl…”

Could it be that the Ohio and Kentucky captured wild men were one and the same? Not if you believe the stories from the newspapers. The Ohio wild man was captured near the Mississippi River and the wild man on the train in Kentucky was said to have lived in North Carolina. He was also said to have been a sharp shooter and murderer. The part about being a sharp shooter doesn’t sound realistic so that brings into question the credibility of the men who possessed the wild man. Even so, the Kentucky article pre-dates the Ohio article by six years so it is unlikely to have been the same creature.

Another old news article that changed how I think about Bigfoot is the “What Is It” article published June 25, 1891 in Woodland, California, found in Tribal Bigfoot on pages 33 and 34. It tells of Mr. Herman Gilbert who was exploring Capay Valley, near Rumsey. David Paulides identified Rumsey as being a small town near Clear Lake in Northern California. The article tells that Mr. Gilbert found and followed footprints to a ravine where he witnessed an agitated Bigfoot-like creature “covered in gore” near a pile of rotting animal remains that stank severely. It made me wonder if members of the Bigfoot species are in the habit of covering themselves with gore to produce a terrible stench. It could be a way of self-protection from forest animals, or a way to keep human beings at bay.

Any comments on this chapter are welcome.

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Filed under: Bigfoot History, Bigfoot Reading Group, Tribal Bigfoot — Linda Martin @ 4:27 pm

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September 1, 2009

Bigfoot Reading Group

September’s Bigfoot Reading Group selection is Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides. This is his second book examining Bigfoot sightings in Northern California. He also includes sightings in Minnesota and Oklahoma. The first chapter, which I’m reading now, presents historic Bigfoot sighting information and newspaper clippings.

His first book was The Hoopa Project, something I found fascinating because I live down the road from Hoopa, about sixty-five miles on the Bigfoot Scenic Byway, Highway 96 in Northern California.

My schedule for this Bigfoot Reading Group project is semi-flexible. I want to read through the entire book within a month and plan to post something each time I finish a chapter. If you’d like to discuss it with me, the comment section for each posting will provide a place for opinions.

I’ve come up with a tentative schedule. I intend to read and comment on chapters 1 through 5 during the first week. Week two will be for chapters 6 through 9. Week three, chapters 10-12, and week four, chapter 13. Can I do it? Well, I will try. I am a notoriously slow reader, but David Paulides’ writing does manage to hold my attention.

After September, there will be more Bigfoot Reading Group books. Here’s the tentative schedule:

October – Bigfoot Sasquatch: Evidence by Dr. Grover Krantz

November – Bigfoot Encounters in New York & New England by Robert E. Bartholomew, PhD and Paul B. Bartholomew, BS

December – Giants, Cannibals & Monsters: Bigfoot in Native Culture by Kathy Moskowitz Strain

January – Bigfoot Film Journal by Christopher Murphy

February & March – Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us by John Green

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Filed under: Bigfoot Reading Group — Linda Martin @ 7:35 pm

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October 5, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Ten: “Humboldt County”

September 26, 2009

Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence

September 25, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”

September 22, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”

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Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”

September 19, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”

September 16, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”

September 14, 2009

New Things Learned

September 12, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”

September 10, 2009

Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”

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Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”

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Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”

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