Life in Bigfoot Country: Happy Camp, California
Because I live in a place where there have been many sightings, I am fortunate to be able to meet a lot of the Bigfoot researchers who come into town. During the next couple of weeks I’ll be writing about some of the Bigfoot research people I’ve met here over the last three years since I started this blog in 2005.
In the meantime I’ll tell you more about my small town, what I’m doing here, and how I decided to start a blog about Bigfoot.
Happy Camp, California
Bigfoot Country!
Klamath National Forest
Happy Camp is a very small town in the center of the Klamath National Forest. There were 1211 people living here during the year 2000 census. Even though I’ve lived in Happy Camp over eight years, I still don’t know everyone in town. Plus there are always new people moving in. I can’t keep up with them all.
During the summer we get lots of tourists. Mainly we get several hundred gold prospectors and their families. These are people who join the New 49ers gold prospecting club, of which I am a member. Though I love gold prospecting the membership is mainly used by my boyfriend, Bob.
The Happy Camp Post Office Bigfoot Statue
Most of the other tourists are rafting groups stopping off in Happy Camp for food and supplies.
We also have hundreds of firefighters here during the summer. Almost every summer there’s a fire nearby, and firefighters are stationed at the base camp at our local elementary school. Thanks to firefighters and rafting groups, the restaurant I work in can get very busy!
Bigfoot researchers visiting our area are few in number, but I still have been able to meet quite a few… mostly by way of pure luck since these meetings are usually unplanned. If you’re going to be in town, it wouldn’t hurt to send an email first.
Scotty’s Bigfoot Towing
I moved here in January 2000 because I wanted to raise my two youngest children in a rural area. When I pulled into town and saw the wooden Bigfoot statue in front of the post office, I was pleased. I’ve always wanted to see a Bigfoot, and I knew I was moving to the right place.
Around town many of the businesses are named after Bigfoot. There’s Scotty’s Bigfoot Towing, the Bigfoot Apartments (what’s left of them after the big fire), the Bigfoot Car Wash, the Bigfoot RV Park, and of course there was JavaBob’s Bigfoot Deli but that’s been closed now for about two years.
The Bigfoot Statue
and its creator, Cheryl Wainwright
at the sculpture’s dedication ceremony.
About a year after I moved here a local artist started a Bigfoot sculpture project. She invited every Happy Camp citizen to donate metal to be used in creating a large metal Bigfoot sculpture. It is placed prominently at the corner of Davis Road and Highway 96. That’s also the eastern edge of the Bigfoot Scenic Byway. The other end of the Byway is in Willow Creek, where the Bigfoot Museum is.
There’s another wooden Bigfoot statue in front of Evan’s Mercantile now too.
While we’re talking about artwork, I need to tell you that a local friend of mine, Dennis Day, created what we believe is the largest dreamcatcher in the world. It is on the other end of Davis Road, not far from the metal Bigfoot sculpture.
In 2001 I founded Happy Camp News - which I’ve now sold. The first story I did for the news was on the celebration we had for the grand opening of the Bigfoot Scenic Byway. That took place on April 1, 2001. I wonder if the Forest Service chose April Fool’s Day intentionally for that event. At the same time we celebrated and cut the ribbon over the highway, there was a similar celebration down the road in Willow Creek.
My daughter was
a Happy Camp
Bigfoot Princess
Willow Creek and Happy Camp also have twin Bigfoot celebrations. Willow Creek has Bigfoot Days and Happy Camp has the Bigfoot Jamboree. Each year we have princess and queen contests, raffles, music, vendors, and a parade. It is a lot of fun. There are contests for the kids, and often a Forest Service demonstration of rappelling from a helicopter. The Karuk Tribe sometimes does a salmon bake dinner.
The Bigfoot Scenic Byway
Highway 96 from
Happy Camp
to Willow Creek
With all this hoopla about Bigfoot in this little village of Happy Camp, I was curious about whether there was any true substance to the idea that there were Bigfoot in the forest near our town. During the Bigfoot Scenic Byway grand opening celebration a local Karuk (Native American) man gave a short speech about Bigfoot sightings here. Unfortunately he didn’t have much information to share. He said it started with a group of Chinese miners who had a sighting over 100 years ago near Thompson Creek. Soon enough I discovered that most of the people in town were totally clueless about sightings near here - so I wondered why people were naming their businesses after Bigfoot and making such a big deal over it.
Little Grider Creek
South West of Happy Camp
The next specific information I got about a local sighting was in 2003. A member of the Chamber of Commerce came to a board meeting (I was a member of the board of directors at the time). She said a local teenager had a sighting near Little Grider Creek but that he didn’t want to talk about it or be identified. It was another couple of years before I finally figured out who that teenager was, but I knew Little Grider Creek. It is less than a mile from my home, and on many occasions I’ve walked down there. Once I got in the creek and walked upstream for about a mile. I also had a habit of sitting on the rocks under the highway overpass, reading a book on a hot summer day or finding protection from a winter rainstorm. So to hear that a sighting took place there shook me up. That’s so close to home!
For details of this and other Bigfoot sightings near my home, see my Squidoo lens: Happy Camp Bigfoot Sightings.
In 2005 the Chamber of Commerce had a meeting with two women who were marketing specialists working on regional travel magazines. One suggestion one of the women shared was to choose a theme and direct most of our marketing efforts to that group. For an example, she suggested marketing Happy Camp to rafting companies and giving them reasons to want to stop here rather than float on by.
That got me to thinking. Happy Camp already had a theme. Bigfoot. Yes, Bigfoot businesses, Bigfoot statues, a Bigfoot Jamboree… and even Bigfoot footprints painted on the sidewalk in front of our hardware store. Yet nobody here wanted to talk about Bigfoot. Nobody knew about local sightings. Suddenly I knew I had to change that. I decided to do a Bigfoot research project to find out if this little town in the center of the Klamath National Forest had any reason to be claiming that Bigfoot lives in the area. That’s when I bought my domain name, BigfootSightings.Org. I also bought the domain, BigfootHunt.Com, but later discarded it because I don’t believe in hunting them… it brings up connotations of killing and I definitely don’t believe in killing Sasquatch.
My first blog posting here at Bigfoot Sightings happened in the spring of 2005. I think it was the very first Bigfoot themed blog, and I’d like to know if anyone knows of one that started before mine did. At the time I didn’t know much about Bigfoot but I was already into blogging. I’d been doing it since 2000. I unfortunately lost all my early Bigfoot Sightings postings in a site crash in 2006 or 7… but maybe that’s a good thing. I started over and am happy it happened.
In the last three years I’ve discovered that there have been many recent Bigfoot sightings around Happy Camp - so our theme of Bigfoot-mania is definitely valid. I’d love to get more reports of Bigfoot sightings around here but I’ve also discovered that most people who have sightings don’t like to talk about them.
The Eddy on Indian Creek
For those that do want to share, I’m willing to maintain anonymity while sharing the details with others. The sooner we find out about Happy Camp Bigfoot sightings, the sooner my partner and I can follow up. If we get a report within a few days of the sighting we can go look for footprints and other physical evidence.
Suggestion: If you come here during the summer, be prepared to jump into one of our many local swimming holes. There’s a lot of clean, cool streams here with areas worth swimming in. With all that available water, you can understand why the region is ideal for Bigfoot too.
Dr. Matthew Johnson of Grants Pass
speaking in Happy Camp
in September 2006
Happy Camp is only fifty miles from Bluff Creek where the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was taken. We’re also about thirty miles south of Oregon Caves where Dr. Matthew Johnson had his sighting in 2000. He came over the mountain to tell us about it once, and was a featured speaker at our Bigfoot Jamboree.
Any questions or comments about Happy Camp and local Bigfoot sightings will be welcome here.
May 27, 2008
Bigfoot Sightings - on Squidoo
About a year ago I decided to try using Squidoo.Com to build some pages on various topics. One page I built is about Bigfoot sightings near my home town of Happy Camp, California.
My page offers a poll that over 150 people have taken during the past year, plus five Happy Camp Bigfoot stories, and a Bigfoot news feed.
October 16, 2007
Oak Knoll Ranger District, North of Seiad Valley
Last Saturday my Bigfoot research partner and I explored the wilderness north of Seiad Valley in the Oak Knoll Ranger District of the Klamath National Forest. This is an area in Northern California where Bigfoot footprints have been found; I’ve spoken to one first-hand witness and heard of several others.
We traveled north on Seiad Creek Road which borders the creek until there’s a bridge crossing the creek, at which point the road veers to the right and up a hill. Great views! The road continues all the way to Oregon.
The first photo is Seaid Creek. I took this photo from the little bridge that crosses Seiad Creek Road. There were other much more picturesque areas on the creek, but I got no photos of them. I’ve heard there are several swimming holes and waterfalls, but we didn’t see them. There was also a recent marijuana farm bust in the area; when hiking in the forest, be aware that the Mexican mafia uses the forest for marijuana crops and can be very dangerous if detected. Signs to watch for are hedges of dried and broken branches, and pvc pipe near streams.
The second photo is a ridge in an area where Bigfoot prints were found. We spent a lot of time scanning this area, as I’ve been considering it for Bigfoot research for several years. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get into the back country, so I’m leaving this information here for other researchers who may be looking for new locations to explore.
This ridge is not far from the location of Dr. Matthew Johnson’s well-documented and credible Bigfoot sighting in July 2000 at Oregon Caves, south of Cave Junction, Oregon.
The third photo is of me, crossing an old, broken and abandoned bridge. The bridge may have been as old as 100 years; of course we have no way of knowing the exact age. It was made from two large logs with planks across them.
We crossed the stream here and hiked uphill on a very old dirt road, then came to the ruins of an old cabin. It seemed to have burned, and we guessed it may have been burned by the forest service to discourage people from trying to move in. As you can see, there was also an attempt to burn the large logs of this bridge. Beyond the destroyed cabin, there was a hiking trail which we intend to return to.
The fourth photo is of me, climbing up the west bank of the creek next to the destroyed bridge. It may look like I’m holding a cigarette… but I’m not. That’s a twig in the background. I’m not a cigarette smoker. Note the Bogger.Com hoodie… I used to use Blogger.Com but switched to WordPress a few years ago.
Anyhow, it is a great area for exploration, and easy to access. To get there travel west from Highway 5 on the State of Jefferson Scenic Byway, Highway 96, to Seiad Valley, which is 18 miles west of Happy Camp, California. Turn north on Seiad Creek Road. Soon it becomes a dirt road and the further north you get, the rockier it becomes. It goes all the way to Oregon. Of course, the road is closed during winter due to snow.
About the photos: My Bigfoot research partner and I hold the copyrights on these photographs. Do not take them and use them without our permission! I always have to mention this on this site because people have stolen photos from me in the past and used them online and in other publications. That is a copyright violation. Please don’t do it!
August 6, 2007
Possible Bigfoot Habitat Destroyed By Forest Fire
I’m sorry to report that an area of the forest that I considered to be a likely Bigfoot habitat near Happy Camp has been incinerated by a recent forest fire. The Little Grider Fire ignited on top of a hill right next to the one I live on on July 14, 2007.
A lightning storm three days before brought over 1200 lightning strikes to the Klamath National Forest. By the next day fire fighters were working to control about 55 fires. The Little Grider Fire probably smoldered a few days before bursting into flames. The only other explanation is that it could have been intentionally set, but that’s very unlikely and locally, nobody seems to believe or talk about that theory.
Here in Happy Camp, we’re used to having fire fighting activity during the summer - but usually the fires are far enough away from town that we’re not terribly concerned about anything but air quality issues. This year, however, the fire was less than a mile from town between my home and Little Grider Creek.
I was out of town for my birthday on July 13. When I arrived home the next evening at 11:30pm, I was shocked and worried when I saw the forest fire nearby. I contacted a local deputy that night and talked to other local residents while we looked at the fire map outside the post office after midnight. The deputy said evacuations were a strong possibility but that I’d be safe at home that night.
The next few days were full of town meetings, packing, storing valuables, and expecting the worst. But many prayers were answered when a heavy rainstorm stalled and put out most of the fire a few days later.
Still, the fire fighters did a lot of back burning in the area, to decrease underbrush and make the forest around Happy Camp more fire-safe. My partner complained about the animals of our forest whose habitats were being destroyed, and about the air quality, which was wretched. Our valley was full of smoke for days. I’m glad to say that’s over for now and the crews that remain in town are doing mop-up on the Little Grider Fire. The only local people evacuated were those living about ten miles south of town near Elk Creek Road, who were in the path of another fire. Those people are also considered to be Happy Campers though they live outside of town.
I’m very disappointed that this fire spread as far as it did, because I believe that Bigfoot lived in the area. Hopefully if so, they survived in caves, or moved on before the flames reached them.
There have been at least five separate Bigfoot sightings in this area during the last five years, so naturally I had my eye on the nearby forest and have traveled through many times, hoping to see something while driving on the old logging roads.
The map shows the area of the Little Grider Fire, about half-way through it. The stars are Bigfoot sighting locations nearby. Here’s a list of some of those local sightings:
1. A man claimed to have seen a Bigfoot on the hill above Buckhorn Road in 2005. He later recanted.
2. Other sightings also took place on Buckhorn Road in 2005. An unusually large Bigfoot footprint was found half-way up that hill later that summer. The reporter had two separate sighting experiences within a month.
3. An unconfirmed sighting reported to me took place at a picnic table near the airport. A man said he was eating lunch and noticed young Bigfoot (possibly more than one) playing in the forest nearby. I don’t know the year this happened, so it may not have been recent.
4. In 2002 a local teenager was driving down Highway 96 when he saw a large dark creature run across the road near Little Grider Creek.
5. In 2005 a Southern California minister said he saw a large dark creature jump down onto the highway in front of his car, then stand and cross the highway in only two strides.
I don’t want you to think that this fire destroyed all our local Bigfoot habitat; there have been Bigfoot sightings in other areas nearby, and you can tell from the photo above that the Klamath National Forest is vast, with many thousands of acres of possible Bigfoot territory. But this area of the Little Grider Fire was what I considered to be our best local hot spot because of the number of sightings in the area.
April 14, 2007
Bigfoot Sightings Reported in the Bigfoot Buzz
Terence Sakohianisaks Douglas is the author of the monthly Bigfoot Buzz column at First Perspective National Aboriginal News.
In his March 31, 2007 column he featured the Bigfoot sightings reports of four indigenous people who contacted him with information. In one, a woman alone in the woods encountered a Bigfoot who stared at her in such a way she believed she was being hypnotized. When she arrived home she was extremely tired, a condition that persisted for weeks and which she attributed to Bigfoot. While I believe it is possible that Bigfoot was doing some kind of hypnosis on her, I think the reason for her exhaustion was probably due to the shock and stress of seeing such an anomalous and huge creature.
In another account Bigfoot was seen near Ft. Bragg, California - something I found interesting as I received a report last year of numerous Bigfoot footprints found in that area.
Another segment of this issue of the Bigfoot Buzz included this statement, “Sasquatch people continued to trade with other First Nations and even learned a little of the old languages.” I find that fascinating as I’ve always wondered if Sasquatch could be taught our languages, and I have an interest in learning to communicate with them.
