Bigfoot Research Lodging: Hotels, Motels, RV Parks, and Campsites Near the Bigfoot Scenic Byway and Bluff Creek in Northern California
By request, this is a listing of accommodations near the Bigfoot Scenic Byway. The Bigfoot Scenic Byway is Northern California’s Highway 96 from Happy Camp, California, to Willow Creek, California.
This is a preliminary list. I will be adding to it as there are more campgrounds to list, and perhaps more motels or cabin rental opportunities. If you know of a business or campground that should be included here, please let me know by clicking on the ‘contact’ link on the right side of this page.- ljm
Happy Camp
The Klamath River Resort Inn, 61700 Highway 96 Happy Camp, CA 96039, (530) 493-2735 (Wi-Fi. Adjacent to the Klamath River. Two miles east of town.)
The Forest Lodge Motel, 63712 Hwy 96 Happy Camp, CA 96039, (530) 493-5296 (Wi-Fi, in-town near the Bigfoot statue.)
Curly Jack Campground – operated by the US Forest Service (South of town adjacent to the Klamath River.)
Elk Creek RV Park & Campground, 921 Elk Creek Road Happy Camp, CA 96039, (530) 493-2208 (Wi-Fi, south of town in the forest next to Elk Creek.)
Klamath Inn & RV Park, 110 Nugget Street Happy Camp, CA 96039, (530) 493-2860 or 493-5377 (Located on the western end of town.)
Thompson Creek Lodge – Cabins, 52431 Hwy. 96, Seiad Valley, Ca. 96086, 530-496-3505 (Located ten miles east of Happy Camp.)
Hoopa
Tsewenaldin Inn, PO Box 219, Hoopa, CA 95546, (530) 625.4294 (Pool. Internet. The only motel in Hoopa, located right next to the Lucky Bear Casino and Ray’s Market.)
Orleans
Klamath Riverside RV Park, PO Box 236 Orleans, CA 95556, (800) 627-9779
Orleans Mining Company Mall, (Motel/Restaurant & Tavern), PO Box 143 Orleans, CA 95556, (530) 627-3213
Pines Trailer Park, 38030 Highway 96, P.O. Box 116 Orleans, CA 95556, (530) 627-3425
Somes Bar
Marble Mountain Ranch, 92520 Hwy 96 Somes Bar, CA 95568, (800) 552-6284
Willow Creek
Bigfoot Motel, 530/629-2142 (In town near the intersection of Highway 299 and Highway 96.)
Coho Cottages, P.O. Box 729, Willow Creek, CA 95573, 1-800-722-2223 (Wi-Fi. Deluxe or standard cottages.)
April 4, 2010
Missouri: Saint Louis University Biology Professor Supports Bigfoot Research
Dr. John Severson lectured on “Bigfoot: Science Fiction or Science Fact” during a recent family night at the Space Museum in Bonne Terre, Missouri. Dr. Severson is a professor of biology at Saint Louis University where he teaches Biology of Health and Disease.
He clarified that although there’s no “hard evidence” (bones or bodies,) there’s plenty of “soft evidence” (footprints and sightings.) He also told his audience that recent examinations of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film showed it could not have been a hoaxer in a costume.
Dr. Severson has been interested in Bigfoot for a long time. He did not commit to being a totally convinced believer, but said that Bigfoot is thought to be nocturnal, omnivorous, and a strong swimmer.
His statements about the flexibility of Bigfoot footprints and the ludicrous idea that thousands of fake-foot hoaxers exist are reminiscent of Dr. Grover Krantz’s anthropological study in Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence, which I’m currently reading. (I’ll share more about that in a future posting.)
Source: Giving Bigfoot evidence a second look; Dr. John Severson talks about Bigfoot at space museum’s Family Fun Night by Teresa Ressel, published on March 30, 2010 in the Park Hills, MO Daily Journal Online.
Note that a comment on the article cited above mentions a Bigfoot known to frequent the Bonne Terre Rock Quarry. Rock quarries are known to be a site frequently associated with Bigfoot sightings.
Bonne Terre, 62 miles south-west of St. Louis, is surrounded by forests, and in the vicinity of Missouri’s St. Francois State Park.
March 17, 2010
Pennsylvania: Fayette County Bigfoot Sightings in the News
If you look at the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society website you’ll see there are dozens of Bigfoot sighting reports recorded, covering every county in the state of Pennsylvania. Recently there’s been several new sightings near Dunbar in Fayette County, in the southwest corner of the state.
Featured in the Herald Standard article by Dave Zuchowski (see link below) are three sightings, two of which had multiple witnesses. A mother-daughter outing on September 23, 2009 resulted in a viewing of a tall, muscular being who got as close as 150 feet. The next day Pennsylvania Bigfoot researcher Eric Altman went back to the site with them and found a possible foot impression and a 3′x10′ lean-to structure.
In July 2009 a woman saw two Sasquatches close to town. A juvenile Bigfoot feasted on blackberries, accompanied by an adult.
Most recently, on January 31, 2010, Heath Landman and his twenty-year-old son, Heath Nickolas Jr., were driving when they saw a large bipedal creature cross the road in three steps. Landman described it as being 6′3″ with a cone-shaped head. Landman got his three brothers and two nephews to help him examine the site. They found hair and snow footprints. Eric Altman is handling this investigation and may send the hair to a lab for testing.
Source: New rash of Bigfoot sightings reported across Fayette County by Dave Zuchhowski, published March 14, 2010 in the Herald Standard.
I’ve previously written about Pennsylvania Bigfoot research in Pennsylvania: Footprints Found In Luzerne County. The Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society was my Bigfoot Site of the Day on August 21, 2009.
October 31, 2009
Illinois: Look for Bigfoot near Pyramid State Park
This just in – from Ed, a Bigfoot Sightings reader, about his 1994 sighting near Pyramid State Park.
This creature stood about 7-8 feet tall, was covered in hair and literally jumped up out of the field and crossed behind my car…
The body was massive. It never lost stride as it jumped up from the field and onto Rt.13 and crossed behind my car.
I sat there in amazement and fear thinking if what I saw was really what I have been hearing about for years. This was no bear. I know what a bear looks like, and I know that a bear can’t run as far as this creature did, on two legs…
I never told anyone about this encounter for about one year. Then I told a Conductor, who worked for AMTRAK, what I had seen.. I asked [him] … if he was going to laugh at me. He said no, there are a lot of things running around down here with SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST so close. This was the only time i have experienced this creature, but I do believe in them now!!!”
ED
Thanks, Ed, for sharing that sighting with us! A few months ago I reviewed a web page about Illinois sightings and was amazed to find that Illinois has a lot of Bigfoot activity! Shawnee National Forest sounds like the right place to find them.
Here’s the map showing Pinckneyville.
The sighting was very close to Pyramid State Park.
The Shawnee National Forest is south-east of there.
View Larger Map
October 5, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Ten: “Humboldt County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
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
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
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.
September 29, 2009
Oregon: Indy Film Maker Focuses on Sasquatch
The True Believer is finally in production after filmmaker/script writer Nathaniel Bennett and his wife saved for a year to be able to fund the project. In the film two brothers, played by Alex Warren and Thomas Shelton, will work together to try to find Bigfoot. They’ll also be attending a civic forum to try to stop logging in Bigfoot habitat areas.
The script is said to be ‘absolutely hilarious.’ The 30-minute indy film will be entered in Ashland and Sacramento film festivals, and other film festivals throughout the country.
Source: Indy film starts shooting locally: Jacksonville up first; 30-minute movie has Bigfoot as part of plot by Tony Boom, published September 28, 2009 in the Mail Tribune.
September 28, 2009
Bigfoot Fiction: “North American Primates” by Shane Durgee
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Shane Durgee’s first book is a work of fiction called North American Primates — a fantastical, frenetic fantasy about Clay Sturgeon, a man whose tent was attacked by a Bigfoot while he was hiking with a friend. Clay becomes obsessed and must return to the site of his encounter in New York’s Adirondack Mountains many times in his search for communion with “The Man.”
Obsession seems like a reasonable trait for this particular character who is a pathetic loner whose friends are teenagers, who has never had a reasonable romance. The character is what I might call a degenerate. Not high minded, not ethical or respectable… yet for reasons only a Bigfoot could know, he’s chosen to reveal some Sasquatchy truths to Clay, who keeps showing up in the woods as if asking for lessons.
Clay Sturgeon goes through many changes during the course of this 211-page novel. The first-person narrative is highly entertaining though a bit crude, in some passages. That in itself should tell you a bit about who Clay is and why he needs change in his life.
Clay Sturgeon started the novel as a good for nothing, do almost nothing, near waste of human life.. but found himself through squatching. In the end he’s a somebody… thanks to “The Man.” Clay has enough redeeming traits to make the reader care about his squatching adventures. He takes form, morphing from a ball of human ooze into a person of stature because of his contacts with a couple fairly decent Sasquatches. Other characters in the book as are similarly well drawn. The author created a cast of realistic characters whose faults are substantial and must be believed. I’d have to say that the most likable of the bunch is Pickerel, the cat, though in a strange twist of fate he too is greatly changed before the novel’s final pages.
The weak point of the book is, in my opinion, description. This is also a weak spot in my fiction writing so I’m not saying I’m a description expert. Descriptions are there, but they are sketchy. Some would consider this a good thing. This book is action oriented, a psychological thriller of sorts. You get to hear what Clay does and thinks. Apparently Clay wasn’t big into nature study and appreciation, other than for his desire to see and interact with “The Man.”
There are some utterly weird and unexpected plot twists. I thought at first I was holding a fairly predictable novel, ie: “Man meets Sasquatch, gets into squatching, and has another sighting.” Though that would thrill most Bigfoot researchers, that’s not the plot of this novel. It gets fairly strange in places. You would be surprised. I certainly was!
The perceived theme of the book may vary depending on personal perspective. To me, it was that a young man discovered his self worth by pursuing an issue most people would avoid. Through his unique persistence, he discovered that he too could be more than a worthless degenerate. You see what squatching can do for people? If this novel makes it to movie status they’ll need a few good fur costumes and someone who looks like a total socially incompetent nerd to play the lead character. Add a few wooden ducks, and there you’d have Clay Sturgeon!
I’m a novelist too, so naturally I think Bigfoot fiction is awesome, even if it isn’t written the way I’d have done it. I’m into writing mostly for children and teens, whereas Durgee’s novel is definitely for adults and not for kids. I applaud Shane Durgee on the development, plot, and especially the fine characterization work in his first novel, and for getting it edited and into print. Well done!
If you want some fictitious Bigfoot entertainment, North American Primates is well worth the read. Keep an eye on the Red Weaver website – the book should be published during October 2009. If you’d like to be further impressed, check out the colorful illustrations at ShaneDurgee.Com.
