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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Possible Bigfoot Bedding

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

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

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

Poker Flat

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

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

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

…

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

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September 19, 2009

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

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.

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bigfoot sasquatch cryptozoology Tribal Bigfoot David Paulides Amador County California

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

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September 16, 2009

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

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.

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bigfoot sasquatch cryptozoology Tribal Bigfoot David Paulides Santa Cruz Santa Cruz County Nisene Marks State Park Felton

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

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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!

Thicket in the forest near my research site

My very own blobsquatch!

bigfoot bigfoot sounds sasquatch cryptozoology Klamath River Valley California wildlife biology

Filed under: Bigfoot Research,California — Linda Jo Martin @ 2:49 pm

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Bigfoot Sightings

Bigfoot Research and Sighting Reports

September 22, 2009

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

September 19, 2009

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

September 16, 2009

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

September 8, 2009

Whistles and Whoops – Follow-up with the Forest Service Wildlife Biologist

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