Bigfoot Book Research vs. Bigfoot Field Research
Bigfoot Book Research vs. Bigfoot Field Research
While I’m on the topic of Bigfoot research I thought I’d throw this one at you…
Ever since I started blogging about Bigfoot I’ve come across the field research vs. book learning controversy. Apparently some people think they’re better researchers because they spend more time in the forest. Personally, I think that’s rather silly. It takes a big ego to think you’re a better “anything” than others… but I’m not here for psychology lessons.
We’re all struggling to learn about something that hasn’t been proven to be real (unless you, personally, have seen one or someone you implicitly trust has seen one.) Still, working mainly with eyewitness accounts and somewhat with physical evidence such as footprints and the Patterson-Gimlin film, we’ve pieced together a mental picture of what Bigfoot people are like. Adding to that we’ve tossed in a variety of theories that are mental constructs that may or may not be valid.
There are two main ways to learn about Bigfoot.
(1) By reading what others have written, or talking to eyewitnesses, or doing computer research. All second-hand information.
(2) By going out into the forest to follow up on Bigfoot sighting reports, or to try to set up conditions for a personal Bigfoot encounter. This is called squatching. These are attempts to have first-hand experiences and to collect your own evidence.
The idea that field research is better is, to my way of thinking, pure nonsense. There’s lots to be learned by studying the work of others and by listening to people talk about their Bigfoot sighting experiences.
Also, I feel that in some ways, for many people, field research is a huge waste of time. People suit up and enter the woods for ‘research’ knowing full well that finding a Bigfoot walking around out there is extremely unlikely. You’d probably have the same chance of winning the state lottery. So field research is often like a glorified camping trip with high-tech recording and camera equipment on board.
Really, squatching is a lot of fun and I’m not dissing it. If you love camping and being in the woods, go for it! But don’t expect to see a Bigfoot because you probably won’t. They are much better at avoiding us than we are at encountering them.
Squatching reminds me of teenagers daring each other to go into a graveyard on Halloween night. It is fun to be out in the scary old woods at night with a small group of friends, listening for anomalous sounds and hoping not to be attacked by a cougar or a bear. Way cool! And if you happen to hear a Bigfoot-type scream or whoop or whistle, you feel like you’ve just hit paydirt… however Bigfoot sightings are 99.99% experienced by people who had no prior thoughts of Bigfoot, who just happened to be driving by or walking in the woods, and were confronted by something totally unexpected. I am beyond thinking that going into the woods with scream machines will do much more than make Bigfoot people chuckle while avoiding you.
On the other hand, using Don Campbell’s Bigfoot-attraction techniques may help increase your chances. A few others have had success at locating Sasquatches as well. What they have in common is that they don’t work with large groups who would no doubt send the signal to Bigfoot people to stay away.
So, read a book, read about Bigfoot on computer sites, talk to people who saw them in the woods, and in your spare time, go camping at a Bigfoot hot spot just for fun. Both book research and field research are worth doing and if you’re a Bigfoot research enthusiast, you’ll probably want to do both.
March 10, 2010
Bigfoot Sightings Winter Hiatus Ends…
Bigfoot Dance
From my Bigfoot watercolor sketchbook.
I took my usual winter break from Bigfoot blogging. There’s nothing quite like a hint of spring to bring back my joy at Bigfoot questing. This year I’m excited about my greater mobility (better tires, better vehicle) and am looking forward to miles on Klamath River Valley forest roads looking for … whatever’s out there.
Though I’d be excited to come across a cougar or a bear while driving the backroads, I’d be both excited and shocked to see a Bigfoot. That won’t keep me from hoping…
Now, just for fun, I’m going to reveal to you my list of amazing words and phrases that people used to find this site during the first nine days of March 2010. Each one of these words and phrases was put into the search box at a search site (usually Google, Yahoo, or Bing) and in response Bigfoot Sightings came up in the results, and someone chose to come to this site. I have been getting hundreds of hits daily, even with the site in winter hiatus condition… so the list is long. You’ll see it at the end of this posting.
I’m now going to choose five of those search queries at random and answer them! (Will continue with this game at a later date; only five for today.)
1. Bigfoot sightings in Florida … honestly, I’m not a Florida Bigfoot sightings expert, as I’ve never been in that state. However I did review a few websites that focus on that area: The Skunk Ape Files and Stocking Hominid Research. They were both part of the “Bigfoot Site of the Day” program I did last year between August and October. Speaking of this program, I might do something similar this year, but honestly I thought “Site of the DAY” was a bit too intense. I’m more likely to try “Site of the WEEK” this year.
2. Northern California bigfoot association … I really don’t know of one. My partner and I have our own Friends of Sasquatch thing going on, but haven’t opened it for actual memberships by anyone else yet. That’s definitely on the table, but keep in mind our focus with that project is on communication via subtle energies, and as I understand it not everyone is into that, unfortunately. I think the world would be better if everyone could slow down and realize that all the buzz-buzz of electromagnetism in the air these days may be having an effect on your telepathic abilities. Every one of us has been subjected to radio and TV waves since birth, and things have gotten much worse in the last twenty years. Oh, don’t get me started! I’ve never owned a cell phone but occasionally we discuss it because being stuck in the mountains without a communication device could be a bad thing. On the other hand, neither of us cottons to the idea of holding one of those things up to our heads. ……………anyhow………….. if anyone out there knows of any Northern California Bigfoot associations please let me know. I think the museum in Willow Creek might be the closest we get to one. I know someone might say the museum in Felton (near Santa Cruz) could be one too (bless you, Mike Rugg!) but when you’re in REAL Northern California, way up north here, honestly… Santa Cruz County seems like Central California, not Northern!
3. Creepy things seen while on a atv – I love this one! You don’t think BIGFOOT could be CREEPY do you? I hope not! I don’t think Sasquatches are at all creepy. I feel they are more mystical, amazing, impressive, and respectable. The word ‘creepy’ just doesn’t fit. (Or maybe you’d like to differ with me on that?) I think this term brought my site into the search results because I recommended a forum thread on this type of thing a few months back: Weird Stuff Seen In The Woods.
4. Bigfoot paranormal … here’s another controversial search query. Is Bigfoot really paranormal? In other words, is Bigfoot an ordinary forest animal/tribal-being/creature/entity that lives, breathes, and eats just like humans do, only in a forest/cave/treetop atmosphere… or, is Bigfoot a shape-shifting/interdimensional/telepathic traveler through time or primordial goo that does amazing, mind-bending things that we can’t comprehend because we can’t do them? (Or maybe we can’t do those things because we can’t comprehend!) Anyhow, we covered that topic, to an extent, in the comment thread at Should Bigfoot Researchers Care About Shape Shifting Reports? My personal take on this is … yeah, we should. Why close your mind to anything just because it doesn’t fit with your version of what reality should be? Honestly, I could write good science fiction if I wasn’t currently so involved with Bigfoot fiction. (My work-in-progress…)
5. What does cryptid mean – Cryptozoology means – the study of hidden creatures. I wrote this post a long time ago: Cryptozoology – What Does The Word Mean? A cryptid is therefore a hidden creature – in that all information about it is hidden except for the reports of people who say they have seen them.
More answers to search queries later. Here’s the complete list of search queries from March 1 to March 9, 2010:
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December 12, 2009
The Trail-Cam “Bigfoot” – My Opinion
A reader emailed to ask me what I think of this new trail cam “Bigfoot”. The picture was originally published in the Bemidji Pioneer, in Minnesota, and was a trail cam photo attributed to brothers Peter and Casey Kedrowski, and their father, Tim Kedrowski.
My first impression was that it obviously is not a Bigfoot, because the legs don’t have any muscle definition – in fact, they look very much like a costume or a pair of loose pants.
My partner’s first impression was that it is a hunter in dark camo (see examples below which are from Cabelas.) I’m not sure if my examples are the darkest camo, but it very well could have been a hunter walking by in full camo, including one of those strange hats.
Camo or not, the legs look like the give-away to me, because they aren’t curved as muscles in an unclothed leg would be. Others have pointed to the hand, barely visible behind the tree. It looks like a glove to me.
And those two bright spots on the head – they couldn’t be a Bigfoot’s eyes because a Bigfoot’s head is close to the body – there’s no neck, so a Bigfoot doesn’t turn his head like a human being does. A Bigfoot has to turn his torso too. (I get these ideas from eyewitness reports, such as those in David Paulides’ books.)
It could be a Bigfoot costume. I’ve seen plenty of them in the Bigfoot parades here in Happy Camp and in Willow Creek, and they hang exactly like that – baggy and loose.
Sample photos of dark camo winter clothing and headgear from the Cabelas website:
So, it looks to me like either an intentional hoax, or perhaps just an accident. Perhaps the brothers put up a trail cam and later a hunter walked by, triggering the motion sensor. In that case the brothers may have honestly thought they got a Bigfoot’s photo, however the lack of muscle definition in the legs makes me wonder how this particular photo got to be so well publicized. Surely people can’t be thinking this is real. Or can they?
Bigfoot researchers must have an enormous amount of skepticism in examining Bigfoot evidence, but others, unfamiliar with evidence we’ve seen submitted over time, might be more willing to believe.
Because I’ve got this site I often am sent possible Bigfoot pictures, but they’re usually very unimpressive, I’m sorry to say. We’ve got a big credibility problem with all Bigfoot photographs these days because with modern software photos are easily faked, and there are excellent artists available to do that. To have a truly conclusive photo that nobody would be skeptical about would be very difficult these days. I’d go so far as to say it is impossible. So when someone points to something shadowy behind a tree and says it is a Bigfoot, I don’t believe it. If it isn’t clear enough to be analyzed it isn’t going to impress any credible Bigfoot researcher.
Even movies are questionable. Look how much controversy there’s been over the years about the Patterson-Gimlen film. I do believe that’s a real Bigfoot, but a lot of people are still denying it, even though many respectable scholars have analyzed it frame by frame and declared it has to be real.
What we need is for some Bigfoot researcher to make contact with a Bigfoot on a long term relationship basis. I know people have reported having these relationships, but often these people will not allow others to know, for the protection of their Sasquatch friends. We need credible scientists or scholars to be able to witness and hopefully even participate in these relationships, to document the existence of these forest people. Photographs aren’t going to suffice, and film most likely won’t either, though Patty is a great start. And I’m totally against the theory that killing one will help; that would only give the Sasquatches one more reason to want to avoid us.
So there you have it… my opinion. I often don’t comment on these types of photographs that hit the news because if I can’t believe they’re real Sasquatches, what good does it do to show them to people?
If you want to see a lot of bad “Bigfoot” photographs head over to this link: Field & Stream’s Trail Cam Contest – they offered a million dollars to anyone who could provide a photo of a Bigfoot, so consequently they attracted all kinds of hoax photos from collages to blobsquatches to bears to sheer nothingness. People were desperate to get that money! (Thanks to Don Campbell for sending me that link.) You can sift through the photos and help rate them… it is great advertising for Bushnell trail cams.
I wonder if this photo everyone is talking about was intended for that contest. Is it worth a million dollars to you to put on a Bigfoot costume and walk in front of a trail cam at night?
Too late… the contest has ended.
December 4, 2009
Weird Stuff Seen in the Woods
I surf through the Bigfoot Forums message board almost every day, looking for new information about Bigfoot (what else?) … and I noticed this outstandingly entertaining thread about weird things seen in the woods: Creepiest thing you found or saw when hunting for BF, that wasn’t, Gold Miners, Meth Freaks, Hippies, and More!.
Examples of creepy things Bigfoot researchers found out in the middle of the forest: clothing, car parts, a crow tied high in a tree, a ritual site, and more. Definitely there’s lots of strange things happening out in the boonies, and a lot of it has nothing to do with Bigfoot.
I wondered about the car hood found on a remote mountainside. My partner suggests it was placed there by a tornado. Could have been, but that can’t account for all these creepy things. I think the weirdest thing in the woods… is sometimes another human being.
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
Derailed in October . . . ready for some excitement in November!
October was a difficult month for me due to health problems and being far too busy doing things that had nothing to do with a computer or a Bigfoot! Please accept my apology for not updating this blog more often. I’ve actually heard from several people who cared enough to email me and ask if I was okay. I truly appreciate that… my heart is warmed and I feel surrounded by Bigfooting friends… a good feeling!
November should be an interesting month. I’m not promising daily updates here because I’m going to be busy writing a novel along with the crowd at NaNoWriMo. I have been doing this every November since 2001. Most of my novels have Bigfoot in them!
This year my novel will be special (and different!) because a Bigfoot will be the main character! I’m looking forward to getting this project underway at midnight tonight, when the NaNoWriMo fun starts. I’ve been planning this novel since early September and feel well-prepared for the challenge. In case you want to check on my progress, here’s my NaNoWriMo profile page.
I have another blog I write in about writing topics… and I’m not sure that I’ll write much at all about my novel in this blog during November. After all, don’t people coming to this blog want to hear about a real Sasquatch, not a fictional one?
Does anyone have an idea on what I should have my main character, Oja, call her people? The word Bigfoot is out. Sasquatch is contrived, not something that came out of the wild. I’d love to have an authentic word for Bigfoot – one that they themselves might recognize as pertaining to them. Any suggestions will be welcomed.
Aside from that, I have some columns to post from Linda Newton-Perry, and will probably work on reviews for the last few chapters of Tribal Bigfoot – I left off after the last Northern California chapter was done. I haven’t given up on the project. That was such a good book! I hope others have been able to read it and please, if you do read it in the future feel free to come back here and comment on the postings for the chapters. Many thanks to David Paulides for writing such a thoughtful and unique book! By the way, there’s an excellent interview with Mr. Paulides over on Bigfoot’s Blog which comes from Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek. Steven Streufert has been producing some fascinating interviews this past month. These could become classics!
I’ve also recently received several reports of Bigfoot activity, past and present, from readers. I’ll be posting them soon. Yesterday and today I spent time clearing out my email inbox and reorganizing my folders. It is such a good feeling to have email under control and findable again. It amazes me that we have so much information coming at us all the time, we must struggle to choose what pieces of information have real meaning.
Happy Bigfooting, Squatchers! What a great time of year to get out into the forest. I haven’t been able to go out much lately because I hurt my foot on September 17 and it still hurts… but since I live in the forest I don’t miss it too much!
[Update 10/29/09: The NaNoWriMo experience was successfully finished so there's one more novel about Bigfoot in existence now.]
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 27, 2009
Squatchers: Be Careful in the Forest During Hunting Season!
By Linda Martin – © 2009
A few notes for those planning to do any squatching in the Klamath National Forest any time soon:
First, be aware that this is the marijuana harvest season. This means that those who are holed up in our forest growing marijuana illegally will be paranoid and on edge. Do be very cautious and watch for forest marijuana farms — which should be cleared out by the end of October. These are not usually locally based growers. They often are growers from south of the border working for cartels. They are well armed, and dangerous. I wrote about this before recently: Marijuana – Danger in the Forest!
Second, the hunting season has just opened. Our area is inundated with deer and bear hunters this time of year. Deer season started Saturday, September 26. Hunters are encouraged to wear bright orange vests for safety. Visitors (including squatchers) should consider doing the same.
Third, fire safety regulations require a fire permit, available at the Forest Service office. Use of the small portable gas/propane/petrol stoves also requires a fire permit. Smoking must be confined to vehicles, buildings, and developed recreational sites and campfire areas.
Internal combustion engines are to be used only on roads and designated trails. Engines must have spark arresting devices, including ATVs. This reminds me of the ATVs GABRO brought into our forest back in 2005. Such noisy devices! I’m sure any self-respecting Sasquatch heard them coming and found an appropriate place to conceal himself.
For more information, refer to the Klamath National Forest website.
Something else to be aware of: vehicle vandalism and theft.
On September 13 a visitor from Chico parked his vehicle on Klamathon Road near Collier’s Rest Area. This is at Highway 5’s Klamath River exit, about 70 miles east of Happy Camp. While the owner was rafting on the Klamath someone broke into his vehicle and took wallets, cash, cell phones, backpacks, and a video camera. Sad to know there’s a thief running around loose there near Yreka somewhere.
I wish I could say that behavior is confined to the more “civilized” area of our county, but I saw something recently that made me think that vehicles parked along the Klamath River Highway may not be entirely safe either. An old truck was parked on the side of the Bigfoot Scenic Byway a few miles downriver from Happy Camp. We passed it in the morning; later when we came back the windows had all been broken! Since then, we don’t leave our vehicles parked on the highway. I’ve also heard that vehicles left at trail heads are subject to being broken into or vandalized. If you have a beater, sometimes that’s the better choice for a Klamath River adventure if you’re planning to leave the vehicle untended while you hike into the wilderness. A sad state of affairs. I would love it if all people were trained in the ways of compassion since birth. Unfortunately, that’s not the civilization we’ve got right now.
Van vandalized downriver a few years ago.
September 25, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
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
David Rains Wallace mentioned Bigfoot in his manuscript. In the epilogue he wrote:
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
…
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
…
September 22, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
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
Quoting from pages 32 and 33 of JavaBob’s book:
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:
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.
…
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
…
September 21, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
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.
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!
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
…
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
…
September 19, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
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.
…
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
…
September 16, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
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.
…
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
…
September 10, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
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.
…
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
…
September 8, 2009
Whistles and Whoops – Follow-up with the Forest Service Wildlife Biologist
Berries in a nearby dry streambed.
What are these? (Click to enlarge.)
Today I went to the local Forest Service office to speak to the wildlife biologist, a young man who took a few minutes out of his busy day to do some brainstorming with me about what local animal could be whooping and whistling in the forest near Happy Camp.
[Reference: My first post about the whoops and whistles I heard.]
He suggested an owl, egret, or heron. I listened to sound files and YouTube videos of bird sounds. The only one that comes close so far is this fishing heron that does a bit of whistling. The quality of the whistle wasn’t an exact match, but that’s a possibility. This heron’s whistle has a bit of trilling to it, which I didn’t hear. And it isn’t combined with a whoop… so the jury is still out.
Rapids at the bottom of the cliff.
He told me there’s a rookery downriver from Happy Camp. I know there’s one at the end of the human-occupied territory, across from the crushed rock business. I scanned the river at my research location further down and couldn’t see any herons or other birds fishing. I did hear birds twittering in the area today, mostly from a distance, but didn’t see any. I also scanned the trees across from where I sit, looking for nests; nothing found yet.
I enjoyed my talk with the wildlife biologist. He says he doesn’t believe there’s any Bigfoot in our forest. I told him a little about Bigfoot sightings near Happy Camp but got the distinct impression that his woo-woo tolerance level was exceeded by the end of our conversation.
I have now spent eight mornings sitting by the river in this one particular spot and during that time I’ve heard the whoops and whistles only once. Today I was out there again. I had my SanDisk on but it didn’t pick up any sounds except the river. Perhaps I should find another location that isn’t so close to a series of rapids. I also am devising ways to save the money for better recording equipment.
More on this issue if/when there’s anything worth reporting!
My very own blobsquatch!
