KETK: 'Bigfoot' comes to East Texas

KETK, a local Texas NBS affiliate files this report on the 10th Annual Texas Bigfoot Conference In the segment they focus on Daryl Colyer, co-founder of The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy

'Bigfoot' comes to East Texas
Conference in downtown Tyler unites enthusiasts

By Casey Claiborne - Reporter
Saturday, October 30, 2010 - 10:29pm
TYLER - After Daryl Colyer and his wife left a southeast Texas baseball game one night in 2004, Colyer says they actually saw what many call "Bigfoot."

"I saw this figure, about 40 yards in front me jump across the trail. It was upright, the size of a man, covered with reddish brown hair from top to bottom - jumped across the trail, took a little skip-hop into the woods," Colyer said.

But Daryl Colyer isn't your average Bigfoot enthusiast.

He's a Bigfoot investigator and vice-chairman of a non-profit organization called the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy.

On Saturday, the 10th Annual Bigfoot Conference was held in Tyler.

Apparently East Texas is a hotspot for Bigfoot sightings.

"East Texas is the part of Texas where most of the reported sightings come from. In fact, I would say as many as 90% of the reported sightings that we deem to be possibly legitimate reports are from East Texas," Colyer said.

Jack Wheeler and his friends attended Saturday's conference - they all believe "Bigfoot" exists - they just aren't sure what one might really look like.

"I think there's definitely something out there, I don't know if it's like a big huge hairy thing that attacks people, but there's probably something out there," Wheeler said.

"Out there" according to Daryl Colyer is 65 million acres of timberland in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. That's roughly the size of the state of Oregon. Plenty of places for the nocturnal primates to hide, Colyer says.

"It's a big world, and you know we're pretty much stuck in the cities and the interstate highways. There's a lot of timber out there," Colyer said.

And to Colyer, skepticism about Bigfoot is not only expected, it's a good thing.

"Have that skepticism, but have an open mind. Question it, look into it for yourself," Colyer said.

*** UPDATE ***
KLTV also covered the event. We added their coverage below.

Does Bigfoot live in East Texas?

Posted: Oct 30, 2010 3:46 PM PDT
Updated: Oct 30, 2010 10:09 PM PDT
By Layron Livingston - bio | email

TYLER, TEXAS (KLTV) - Tyler's Caldwell Auditorium played host to the 10th Annual Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy Conference, Saturday.

Bigfoot aficionados came from across the country to sort through latest findings and to separate what was fact and fiction surrounding the legend. A 44 inch lock of hair was also on display, reportedly found hanging in a tree in the Sabine National Forest.

"We certainly think that it lives [in East Texas]," said Alton Higgins, a wildlife biologist. Higgins is also board chairman of the TBRC. He said there have been a number of very credible sightings in the East Texas area, and the habitat is sufficient.

Daryl Colyer detailed his encounter with Sasquatch before an audience of conference goers. Colyer is now an investigator with the TBRC. "It's good to be skeptical about something like this," he said. "We expect people to have difficulty with this, after all, what we're talking about is extremely unusual."

Proceeds from the conference go to help the non-profit continue investigating future sightings.

Copyright 2010 KLTV. All rights reserved.

EXTERNAL LINKS
SRC: KETK's Website
SRC: KLTV's Website
Texas Bigfoot Researche Conservancy

Bigfoot hunters were perhaps the most surprising group

Discovery Magazine has an article that tries to determine what makes "paranormalist" tick. Yes, according to them all Bigfooters are "paranormalist". Some are, but it may be inaccurate to blanket all Bigfooters with this notion.

Although they cover Ufologist, Ghost hunters and the rest below we reprinted the stuff about Bigfoot.

SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS GETTING MORE COMMON
Believers range from free-spirited types to high-powered businessmen. Some were drifters; others were brain surgeons.

By Emily Sohn
Fri Oct 29, 2010 07:00 AM ET
(Discovery News) -- To understand what drives some people to truly believe, two sociologists visited psychic fairs, spent nights in haunted houses, trekked with Bigfoot hunters, sat in on support groups for people who had been abducted by aliens, and conducted two nationwide surveys....

...The numbers also showed that different types of paranormal entities appeal to different demographics. Women, for instance, are most likely to believe they live in haunted houses. College graduates are most likely to have out-of-body experiences. Unmarried white men are most likely to believe in UFOs.

Bigfoot hunters were perhaps the most surprising group, Bader said. They defied all stereotypes of paranormal pursuers who wear flowing clothes and commune with spirits.

Instead, they were very serious, extremely conventional and often highly professional. In fact, their beliefs contradicted their lifestyles so much that many of them were plagued by anxiety, which drove them even further to stick to their beliefs.

"Their friends and family consider them kooky," Bader said. "Everyone is saying they're nuts. So, they have a real aggressive style and seriousness of purpose. They want to prove everyone wrong."

For one hunter, the search began one day when he was out in the woods and, he swears, he saw Bigfoot cross his path.

"Imagine the stress that would put on your life," Bader said. "You consider yourself a normal, smart guy, and you think you just saw a giant monkey walk in front of you. Now, you have to fit that into your life."

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CNN Psychoanalyzes Bigfooters

EXTERNAL LINKS
SRC: Discovery News

5 Sylvanic Bigfoot Posts

Take a journey with us back in time all the way back to December of 2009. If you click on this magical link you can read all six of our previous Sylvanic Bigfoot Posts.

AKA Bigfoot World Map Updated: Kapre

Thanks to the good work at the North American Bigfoot Blog, maintained by Cliff Barackman, we were able to add a new Bigfoot variant to our AKA Bigfoot World Map.

At Cliff's blog he writes of an interesting tale of the Phillipine Bigfoot known as Kapre.

Not long ago, an eyewitness report from the Philippines was related to me by the witness' husband, and later posted on this blog. This has now brought other witnesses forth with their stories about seeing kapres (bigfoots?) on other occasions.

One man knew his wife had seen a kapre as a little girl back in 1985. He eventually coaxed her to meticulously describe what she saw. The man then found a talented and well-known bigfoot artist to whip up a couple renditions of what his wife saw...Read the rest here

Below is a small version of our interactive map. click on the link below the map to see Bigfoot variants across the planet!


View AKA Bigfoot World Map in a larger map

Childress Book Launch in Nepali: Yetis Sasquatch & Hairy Giants

David Hatcher Childress has a new book titled Yetis Sasquatch & Hairy Giants We did a little research on the guy and back in 2006 Loren Coleman was slightly critical of him for repackaging Sanderson's comments without contacting the Sanderson estate (which would have been a courtesy).

"Publisher/writer/repackager David Hatcher Childress, as some reviewers have found, likes to take out-of-print books, and frequently adds an introduction by himself. He puts on a new cover on the old text to sell these reprints, and he’s done several via AUP. It’s all part of his form of American ingenuity and capitalism at work, and that’s fine. But with a little more care in editing and writing, his reprints could be much better." --Loren Coleman

There is an update at the end of Coleman's post stating Childress had contacted him and "he would write Sabina Sanderson, to work out giving her royalties." We dont know if Childress followed through. Coleman also states he is grateful that many next-generation cryptozoologist are able to have access Sandersons words, thanks to Childress.

Most recently, David Hatcher Childress launched (re-launched?) his newest book in in Katmandu Yesterday Saturday, Oct. 23rd. At Amazon the book is described as:

Author and adventurer David Hatcher Childress takes the reader on a fantastic journey across the Himalayas to Europe and North America in his quest for Yeti, Sasquatch and Hairy Giants. Childress begins with his own decades-long quest for the Yeti in Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and other areas of the Himalayas, and then proceeds to his research into Bigfoot, Sasquatch and Skunk Apes in North America. He includes recent discoveries in the field of Yeti and Bigfoot research, as well important case histories. Tons of illustrations and a color photo section bring the astonishing subject to life!

Below is the the article written in the Nepali Paper The Republica:

Book on Yeti launched

(REPUBLICA)-- KATHMANDU, Oct 24: ‘Yetis Sasquatch & Hairy Giants’, a book authored by David Hatcher Childress, was launched here in Pilgrims Book House, Thamel on Saturday.
Amidst a large enthusiastic crowd, the author showcased a slideshow and briefed about the book, which revolves around the history and myth of the legend known as Yeti.

“Bigfoot, Sasquatch, skunk apes or Yetis have been very famous in the past through myths and their activities in the wild, and I have compiled this book from my research, not only in Nepal but the whole world,” he expressed.

The book, according to the author, is an investigation spanning over 20 years.

“There have been many instances of people coming in contact with Yetis in the Himalayan area of Nepal, Pakistan, India and Bhutan in Asia; also in the US and Poland, thus there is substantial proof that they exist,” he added.

Childress, who has published more than 25 books on various subjects, finds the topic of the Yeti very alluring.

“I firmly believe that the Yeti is real, and I hope to find more evidence to support my thesis,” he added.

Published on 2010-10-24 10:44:21

EXTERNAL LINKS
The Cryptomundo post re: Childress
The Republica's Report of the book launch
Yetis, Sasquatch & Hairy Giants at Amazon.com

Ghost Theory: Todd Standing: Photo Of Sylvanic Bigfoot

Ghost Theory has an awesome update on Todd Standing of Sylvanic Bigfoot Fame. You can see our previous post awarding Todd Standing an academy award.

Todd Standing: Photo Of Sylvanic Bigfoot
Submitted by Javier Ortega on October 23, 2010
...Pictured above, is the latest evidence Mr. Todd Standing presents onto the world. An image of a Bigfoot which he captured in Sylvanic during his 8 days.

From his website:

Todd just returned from an 8 day expedition with incredible Bigfoot documentation. It was a bit of an adventure as he had a confrontation with a Grizzly bear that ended in rescue by RCMP and Search and Rescue after being missing for 3 days. The team and his family are thrilled he made it back safely and he is ecstatic with his new photo and video evidence!

Here is one of the photos where he caught Bigfoot watching him through the bushes~as you can see it was taken in full sunlight with fantastic detail.

More will follow shortly; Todd has just returned a couple of days ago and is recuperating with his family. We can’t wait to see his new video!

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For Your Consideration
Sylvanic Bigfoot: Case Closed

EXTERNAL LINKS
Ghost Theories Recent Coverage of Todd's Picture
Sylvanic's Website

Lair of the Beasts: Seeking the Indian Bigfoot

Mania.com is a leading website dedicated to providing avid Comic Book, Anime, Movie fans with news and feature stories about Comic Book, Fantasy, SciFi, Horror & Anime. Nick Redfern, author of Final Events and the forthcoming The NASA Conspiracies, pens a weekly series titled Lair of the Beast. Today's article (October 23rd, 2010) is regarding the CFZ's efforts to find the Indian Yeti.

Lair of the Beasts: Seeking the Indian Bigfoot
A Monstrous Expedition

By Nick Redfern October 23, 2010
On October 31 – appropriately Halloween, of course - a team from the British-based Center for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) will be embarking upon a truly ambitious expedition to the Garo Hills of Northern India in search of legendary, hairy, man-like beasts know as the Mande-burung – or, in simpler terminology, the Indian equivalents of the United States’ Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman of Tibet. The 5-man team will be led by Adam Davies – the author of the monster-hunting-themed book, Extreme Expeditions – and will also consist of Dr Chris Clark, Dave Archer, field naturalist John McGowan, and cryptozoologist Richard Freeman; the latter a former keeper at England’s Twycross Zoo and the author of the book, Dragons: More Than A Myth.

Jonathan Downes, the founder and director of the CFZ, says of these strange and elusive animals: “The creatures are described as being up to ten feet tall, with predominantly black hair. Most importantly, they are said to walk upright, like a man. Walking apes have been reported in the area for many years. These descriptions sound almost identical to those reported in neighboring Bhutan and Tibet. Witnesses report that the Mande-Burung - which translates as forest man - is most often seen in the area in November.”

Downes continues: “The Garo Hills are a heavily forested and poorly explored area in Meghalaya state in the cool northern highlands of India. The area is internationally renowned for its wildlife, which includes tigers, bears, elephants and Indian rhino and clouded leopards.”

He adds: “The Indian team will be led by Dipu Marek, a local expert who has been on the trail of the Indian Yeti for a number of years and has, on previous occasions, found both its nests and 19-inch long ‘footprints.’ The expedition team has also arranged to interview eyewitnesses who have seen the Mande-Burung. Camera traps will be set up in sighting areas in the hope of catching one of the creatures on film.”

As for what these creatures may actually represent, Downes has a few thought provoking ideas: “The Mande-Burung may be a surviving form of a giant ape known from its fossilized teeth and jaw bones, called Gigantopithecus-Blacki, which lived in the Pleistocene epoch around three hundred thousand years ago. This creature is, of course, extinct. However, much contemporary fauna such as the giant panda, the Asian tapir and the Asian elephant that lived alongside the monster ape, still survive today. It is thought by many that Gigantopithecus also survives in the impenetrable jungles and mountains of Asia. Its closest known relatives are the Orangutans of Sumatra and Borneo.”

And as Downes carefully notes, the CFZ’s intrepid explorers are no strangers to heading off into the vast unknown in search of mysterious and elusive creatures: “Last year the team, who investigate mystery animals all over the world, travelled to Sumatra in search of a small, bipedal ape known as the Orang-Pendek. Dave Archer and local guide Sahar Didmus saw the creature, and the group brought back hair that was later analyzed by Dr Lars Thomas at the University of Copenhagen. The DNA proved to be similar to an orangutan's, an animal not found in that part of Sumatra.”

Needless to say, I will be providing right here at Lair of the Beasts both careful and up to date information, as and when the team reports in to the Devonshire, England headquarters of the CFZ. Will the fearless five really turn up hard evidence in support of the theory that giant apes – possibly even surviving, relic populations of the presumed-extinct Gigantopithecus – actually do inhabit the wilder parts of India? Only time will tell…

Nick Redfern is the author of many books including Final Events and the forthcoming The NASA Conspiracies.

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Sumatran Bigfoot
Orang Pendek Update


EXTERNAL LINKS
Nich Redfern at Wikipedia
Mania.com lair of the Beast

Thom Powell Week: Seven Tentative Conclusions

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"


Almost a decade ago Thom Powell was part of the first "Wireless Wilderness" Project with BFRO. It was an two-year endeavor to obtain photo and video images of Sasquatches using a remote monitoring system. Below is a short excerpt from Thom's article about the project, including a list of 7 tentative conclusions based on that project.

As this first monitoring project concludes, I will share these seven tentative conclusions. Like sasquatch research in general, nothing here is provable. In the absence of hard data, one can only observe subtle changes in the landscape and look for patterns in those changes, and then try to make inferences as to why this might occur based on our knowledge of animal behavior in general. It need not be said but the conclusions below are completely my own, and not necessarily shared by my BFRO colleagues. If any of these hunches are correct, then they should fit with observations and patterns being witnessed by other observers at other active sites. I am sharing these tentative conclusions in the hope that we will receive feedback on them from other bigfoot researchers or rural residents who periodically witness bigfoot activity:

Bigfoots seem to choose certain homesteads to frequent based on things like the available sources of food, and maybe even more subtle matters like a ‘live-and-let-live’ spirit of animal accommodation displayed by some rural residents. A&A’s place earns high marks on both counts. They raise many types of livestock, and they have a compassion for animals that is evident through their behavior and the caged animals in various stages of rehabilitation on their property. It is easy for me to accept that bigfoots have the capacity to identify people who display compassion for animals because I have seen indications of this at other rural locations where bigfoot activity was suspected. I also understand that such suggestions are pretty far-fetched. Gathering hard data on extremely rare events like bigfoot sightings is virtually impossible. Gathering data on even rarer and more obscure matters like behavioral preferences or characteristics is beyond the current realm of science. All we can do when it comes to answering such questions is to look for patterns and make educated guesses based on very limited data. It’s not very scientific, but it is the best we can do for now.

Bigfoots consciously and effectively avoid most human contact. In general, they don’t want to be seen or found by people. The more you try and stalk them, the more they retreat and hide until you leave. Trying to stalk bigfoots is not just futile, it may be counterproductive. They likely observe people in the woods. If someone is seen to be searching for footprints and casting them in plaster, they may strive to avoid leaving any more easily identified footprints. This suggests that if you want to see a sasquatch, try not to be too obvious about looking for one. Best to go to the woods with another purpose in mind, whether it is mushroom picking, meditating, playing music, or painting nature scenes. Then keep your eyes open and your ears attuned. Guns and other visible weapons are anathema.

Bigfoots are very smart and very shy. They modify their behavior in response to our behavior. The more you try to trick them, the trickier they become in avoiding your tricks and traps. So, if you are trying to get a bigfoot on camera, make sure that your first attempt is your best attempt. Once you flash a bulb or aim a video camera at them, you will never get another chance with the same group of bigfoots. Whether they understand it is a camera or not is a point of considerable debate. Regardless, they have an aversion to things being pointed at them, particularly things that look like weapons or big eyes.

Remotely monitored video systems seem promising for getting a sasquatch on film, but they are still crude and heavily reliant on luck. Based on our experience at A&A’s, getting lucky probably means catching a less cautious and more curious juvenile that carelessly wanders in front of the camera. At our experiment site we thought we were seeing evidence that the juvenile was sometimes far away from any supervising adult. One possible reason for bigfoots blocking trails could be as a reminder to juveniles not to wander too close to suspicious items like the cameras that we had placed in their woods.

The only photographic evidence we are likely to get from mounted video cameras would be fleeting images that are lacking in detail, and therefore inconclusive. On the other hand, the only photographic evidence that could have any real scientific merit must be close-range, extended video or film footage. This seems unlikely to happen with stationary remote monitoring equipment. A more promising approach that has not been tried to my knowledge would be to first habituate a family group over a period of years. Only after the bigfoots are completely comfortable with the researcher’s presence should a camera be deployed. Even then, it would be necessary to avoid big lenses and obvious cameras. I would suggest wearing a hands-free, button-sized miniature camera that is recording images on a belt-mounted digital recorder.

Habituating not just one, but a group of sasquatches to human presence is a critical step. Bigfoots are not necessarily solitary by nature. Even when it appears that there is only one around, there may well be a family group that keeps very much out of sight. (which may well occur more often than is commonly believed) Gaining their trust takes an amount of time that is measured in years, not months. Based on sighting report patterns, children and human females, being more inherently vulnerable, seem to be trusted by bigfoots much more readily than human males.

Forget about proving they exist by shooting one with a gun. There are practical problems of caliber and shot-placement that make the chances of success improbable in the extreme. Beyond that, you just can’t get close enough to one to shoot it. Unless you have habituated it to your presence, it will take years to overcome their distrust of humans. If gaining their trust were actually accomplished, empathy for the creatures on your part would be so great that betraying them with a gun would feel like murdering a relative. If you doubt this, it is only from a position of no particular experience. Even if someone did succeed in killing one, it is highly doubtful that this bigfoot executioner could avoid the swift and lethal retribution from the rest of the family group. This is why, when people ask me what to do if they did manage to shoot a bigfoot, my answer is, “Reload.” If obtaining a carcass is your goal, chances are it will be a road kill or other accidental mortality, not a hunting mortality.

We recommend reading the entire post on the BFRO site as it goes into greater details regarding the methods used during this project.

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Thom Powell Week: Oregonian Guest Columnist

EXTERNAL LINKS
Original Oregonian Article
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Thom Powell Week: Oregonian Guest Columnist

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"



Below is an article by Thom Powell for the Oregonian. Although it is not strictly about Bigfoot, Powell does suggest a connection between the words "Squaw" and "Sasquatch". Fascinating Stuff!

Drawing the line on offensive place names
Published: Monday, August 16, 2010, 7:00 AM
By Thom Powell

The Oregonian's story on the removal of offensive place names was interesting and accurate -- mostly. A few interesting additions: The modern-day movement to change offensive place names began with an Oprah Winfrey show in 1992. A guest on her show declared that use of "squaw" as a place name was offensive. The Oregonian's story explained that the word was derived from an Algonquian name for "woman." More accurately, the translation is said to be something on the order of "female reproductive parts."

Algonquian as a tribal language was spoken only in the northeast corner of the U.S. and Canada. Three quarters of the continent's tribes did not recognize the word at all, much less regard it as something offensive. Nineteenth century linguists may have incorrectly translated the word as a more general reference to female Indians. Being easy to pronounce and remember, it was then carried across the continent in the minds of explorers, trappers and settlers who were completely unaware of any implied insult associated with the term.

They were a hardy bunch, but the early settlers were not always literate, and they definitely weren't politically correct. They doubtless used disparaging terms for females of all races, including their own. Yet, "squaw" was not meant to demean or offend when it was assigned to plants (squawberry, squawroot), places (Squawback Ridge, Squaw Butte), and people, male or female. Interestingly, a white man who took an Indian bride was a "squawman."

Consciousness-raising began with a 1992 episode of the daytime talk show "Oprah." Guest and Native American activist Suzan Harjo, appealed for change to demeaning names used by professional sports teams (think: Washington, Cleveland and Atlanta) even though such names are intended to convey generally positive images of warrior-like fierceness.

In any case, Harjo bolstered her position by invoking other linguistic insults such as use of the word "squaw." Not being an expert in Algonquian herself (she is Cheyenne), Harjo cited a 1972 book, "Literature of the American Indian," in which the authors raised the dubious claim that the word referred to female genetalia in the Naraganset dialect of the Algonquian Nation.

In truth, it is not at all clear which of several words has been anglicized into "squaw," but "eskwaw," "esqua" and "ojiskw" are all possibilities. Other Algonquian tribes used "squa." By the way, the Algonquian term for white settlers was "wasichu." How would that do as a team name? Anyone want tickets to see the Washington Wasichu play?

In any event, leave it to explorers and settlers to phoeneticize and simplify tricky pronunciations, then carry them westward, but the story probably doesn't end there. No Indian in western North America ever named a place using Algonquian terms, but white explorers and settlers may have.

Why places such as the remote Squaw Butte in Clackamas County would be so named is less clear. Did an explorer see a female Indian there? That's possible, but I doubt it. My own research suggests that another Indian term in use more locally may have been confused and simplified into the handier term "squaw."

Squaw Butte sits within the lands once occupied by the Clackamas band of the Chinook Indians. Nearby, the Kwakiutl Indians of the Pacific coast used the term Tsonoqua. This term, also spelled "Tsonokwa," translates into "a wild, very hairy female being with big feet."

Another put down? I don't think so. Rather, it's a reference to a female "sesquac" or sasquatch, as we call them today. The "tsonoqua" was a female bigfoot, and while the concept of the sasquatch or bigfoot is much ridiculed in modern society, the Indians in virtually all parts of North America had terms to describe these elusive and mysterious beings. As it turns out, Squaw Mountain lies in a remote location in the Mount Hood National Forest where the legend of the sasquatch persists to the present.

Pioneering research on this point, done by Molalla resident Frank Kaneaster, even identifies Squaw Butte as being at the center of a cluster of modern sasquatch sightings. My own research bolsters Kaneaster's dubious data set with two more sightings by local hunters who emphatically claim that a sasquatch is what they saw while hunting the flanks of Squaw Mountain.

Frank Kaneaster map with color-coded pins showing a cluster of reports near Squaw Mountain .

When one examines the places in Oregon alone that bear (or once did) the name "Squaw", they all bear an interesting similarity: They are remote, even by today's standards, and so were even more remote in the days of early wasichu (white) settlement. They are surrounded by other place names that hearken of the mysterious wild beings: Devil's Ridge, Devil's Lake, Skookum Lake, Tarzan Springs, Skookum Meadow, Diablo Mountain and more.

Virtually all North American tribes embrace the wildman or sasquatch phenomenon. They uniformly regard these beings not as animals but people, member of a mysterious but very real tribe. And if the sasquatch, or skookums, exists then there are females, for which one of the local terms was Tsonoqua. This is a more likely origin for the word "squaw" when referencing remote geographical places in the Pacific Northwest that were actually named by the Indians, not the wasichu.

I guess it doesn't matter anymore. The Forest Service has removed the name from the creek and its parent butte. It is now known as Tumalo Creek and Tumalo Butte, which, in the Klamath dialect, means either "wild plum" or "cold water," depending on which translation one accepts. A strange choice considering the Klamath Indians didn't live around here, and the name "Tumalo" is already prominent in central Oregon. It's also kind of a boring name. I mean, "Coldwater Creek"? "Wild Plum Butte"? C'mon, guys, is that the best you could do? If we're going to change the name, how about reverting to "Tsonoqua"? It's probably the original name for the place, and laugh if you will, but the place does have a history of reported sasquatch encounters to back it up. The Indians don't laugh, but they don't discuss their feelings on the subject with the wasichu either. They know all too well our tendency to label unfamiliar beings as animals, then use that as an excuse to shoot them.

Tsonoqua may be an old name, but it is not as easy to spell or pronounce as is "squaw." The nice thing about "Tsonoqua" is that if some of the locals don't like it, they can just slur it, and it will sound like the traditional wasichu name. That's probably the way Squaw Butte got its name in the first place. Now, if I could just get on "Oprah," I know I could change people's minds.

Thom Powell lives in rural Clackamas County and teaches sciences at Robert Gray Middle School in Portland. He is the author of "The Locals: A Contemporary Investigation of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch Phenomenon."

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EXTERNAL LINKS
Original Oregonian Article
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Thom Powell Week: On the heels of PG film Anniversary

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"

Please Note: The following reprinted content was before MK Davis's assertions of the Bluff Creek Massacre and although most disagree with MK's assertions (we do anyway), this post is more about the Patterson/Gimlin Film and Thom Powell's ponderings of the possible human-ness of Sasquatch.

On the heels of the anniversary of the Patterson Gimlin film (OCT 20) We found this insightful remark from Thom Powell on Cryptomundo. It is a response to an M.K. Davis Presentation at Don Keating’s Ohio Bigfoot conference on May 17th, 2008.



There is no doubt M.K. Davis has made his mark in the Bigfoot Community, for better or for worse. Most would say for the worse. Once heralded as one of the greatest contributers to analyzing the Patterson/Gimlin Film, his theories became controversial when he began to assert he had evidence for a Bluff Creek Massacre.

Days before he announced the "massacre", at Don Keating’s Ohio Bigfoot conference on May 17th, 2008, MK presented other less controversial assertions. These assertions supported the more human-ness of the figure of the Patterson Gimlin film, including the possibility of a top-knot and ponytail.

Although there was the back and forth that can be emblematic of our Bigfoot community, we like Thom's response to the presentation in general. Instead of entering the fray of whether or not Bigfoot is human or ape, capable of braiding its hair or not. Thom provides the sanity of context and asks us not be afraid to look past our assumptions.

To all,
I was fortunate to hear MK Davis make this presentation in Portland OR recently. He showed the audience various enhancements and how he accomplished them. He was able to identify numerous features and elements in the PGF that almost everyone is unaware of.He showed us that there is a great deal of useful and interesting information in that short clip. The short quotation that is taken out of context and published above does not come close to doing justice to the whole subject of enhancing the PGF. Davis provides compelling but admittedly inconclusive film data to support the following conclusions:

1. the creature shows a number of hair stylings like a top-knot. He concludes it’s not a saggital crest on the subject. It is a top-knot of hair. He shows his detailed analysis that supports this view and it is more compellling than most realize.

2. There is also evidence of braids and a ponytail in the head hair. These are utilitarian hair styling that are commonly used in modern and ancient tribes to keep hair cleaner and out of the way. On this basis Davis asserts that the PGF subject is closer to a vestigal member of a Native American population, not an ape. This is the essence of the assertion that the film shows a human being.

3. He presents data that supports the view that the creature is holding a stick, which could be for digging (hence the whole digger-indian thing.)

4. Most reproductions of the PGF have been darkened in the reporduction process. The closer one gets to the original film, the lighter the creature appears and the thinner the hair appears to be. This shows better views of the body outline beneath the hair/fur. Enhancements Davis performed show the breasts and facial features more plainly and definitely. His enhancements show more ‘humanish’ facial features than the animalistic features that other researchers contend are shown in their respective analyses of available copies of the PGF.

There are other interesting points about the subject and the surroundings that Davis presented. It is an excellent talk and if you haven’t seen it, you have no accurate basis to judge it. Roger Knights was at the same talk I attended so I submit that Roger’s assesments of the infromation presented are more accurate than most.

Hopefully Marlon Davis will publish an monograph so more people can get an informed view of his data and conclusions. Davis is a very skilled technician and his conclusiona are fairly sound.

A final note:
Here in the greater Portland area there is a lot of sasquatch activity in the surrounding forests. The patterns that emerge from analysis of dozens if not hundreds of unpublished accounts does, in my view, strongly support the view that at least some of these creatures are intelligent enough to qualify as human, i.e. vestigal Indians. With this body of locally available information in mind, MK Davis’ assertions are really nothing shocking. If anything, his assertions validate something that has been argued by others for a long time: that at least some of these creatures are some form of human.

Yet, the ‘ape’ paradigm still holds sway elsewhere on the continent and indeed some of these being may indeed be ape, but they probably are not all apes and I think Davis compellingly shows that the one in the PGF is not the ape that Dahinden argued, but the rather intelligent creature that Ivan Sanderson asserts. So, we’re back to the old Danhinden vs. Sanderson debate about the true nature of these creatures. Perhaps they are both correct: The bigfoot phenomenon represents multiple taxonomic grouping, as Colemen has long argued.
Best to all,
Thom Powell
May 20th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

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Thom Powell Week: To true believers, Bigfoot lives
Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher
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Shady Neighbors Book Cover

EXTERNAL LINKS
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Thom Powell Week: Book Cover Tease

Click the above picture to enlarge and see details!

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot Research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"

Speaking of the book, "Shady Neighbors," Thom Powell is taking Bigfoot art and Bigfoot book covers to the next level. He has commissioned our artist to create an original and unique cover for the book.

The image above is what those artist-types call a study, basically practice to see how to create textures (like the liver spotted skin of a primate) or lighting (like the way a sunset highlights fur). Proportionals and sizing is also worked out, like perhaps a baseball would look even smaller in the hand of a Sasquatch.

You may ask yourself why would a Sasquatch hold a baseball. that's a question for Thom Powell on November 3rd!

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
November 3rd Event
Thom Powell Week: To true believers, Bigfoot lives
Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher
Thom Powell Week: Peer Review

EXTERNAL LINKS
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Thom Powell Week: Peer Review

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot Research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"

We like to say, "How your peers say what they say, says a lot about what they are saying about you." Then we sit in the lotus position and ponder the infinite reflection of emptiness.

Joking aside, we find it insightful when we read what Cliff Barackman has to say about Thom Powell. As Bigfoot researchers they are peers in the community, both have slightly different approaches, but, in the end, the same goal.

We know if your visiting us you've already been to Cliff's blog, but please visit his site today he has breaking news on the TV show he did with Bob Saget.

Without Further Ado here is one of our favorite post

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2009
Trying Something New by Cliff Barackman

I was invited to the woods this past week by Thom Powell, author of the excellent book The Locals (scroll down to see the book). Thom thinks outside of the box when it comes to bigfoot research, and his intelligent ideas are always refreshing and fun. Hanging out with him is never dull, and he nearly always has something great up his sleeve. This idea would prove to be in a direction I had never gone.

For this excursion, Thom explained that while most bigfooters seem interested in call blasting or playing rather disagreeable sounds into the woods to lure in bigfoots, he wanted to play something totally unoffensive, pleasant, and multi-cultural (quite the understatement when considering the intended audience). He chose the song "Smaointe" by the artist Enya.

To further entice the creatures' curiosity, he picked lavender, rosemary, and even sunflowers from his own garden to leave out in conspicuous locations near the camp as gifts for the bigfoots. Again, Thom was looking to leave something that would be interesting to them in ways other than food might be. The herbs made my car smell great, so maybe he's onto something.

Thom Powell placing a "gift" of garden herbs on a large stone.

We travelled into Mount Hood National Forest to a camp at the end of a logging road. The camp was near a talus slope overlooking a spring. The rocky hillside was perfect for blasting the recordings since it would reflect the sound outward rather than absorb the sound, as happens with trees.

Thom left the "gifts" on prominent rock piles near camp. We explored the area and set up our gear utilizing what little daylight we had left. I brought out my "big guns" for this trip, since it was only to be a few hours (I had to work the next day). I brought my 500 watt Yamaha PA system which pumps sound through two speakers with crystal clarity. I set the speakers up with them angled outwards by perhaps 45 degrees in order to create a "big" sound, which can be more important than being just loud.

Thom setting up the sound system.

Shortly after sunset, we let the diatonic sounds of Enya echo through the countryside. When the six-minute song ended, we started it over again. In fact, we played nothing but that one song for nearly a half hour.

I don't own any Enya music, but she's a talented musician and very good at what she does. It was not hard to allow her majestic music to add to the moment of watching the last shades of pink and purple play in the wisps of clouds over the Cascades to the west. It was downright lovely. Of course, by the fourth or fifth time through the song, most of the magic was lost...

I only wish a photograph could capture the loveliness...

While no bigfoot activity was noticed that night, that does not mean that Thom's experiment was a failure. Thom knows that this is a long-term game plan. He will do this same activity again. He wants the local bigfoots to recognize him by his sounds and his efforts. He hopes that by trying benevolent means to lure the locals in, he will be recognized as benevolent himself.

In Thom's words, he is not striving to prove these things are real, he's striving for understanding. An advanced thought, to be sure.

What I'd like to suggest to the reader is that everyone should be out there repeatedly trying their own ideas. Sure, learn from those with experience, but as a bigfooter one should try to think about new ways to grab the critters' attention. More importantly, put those ideas to the test. In fact, test those ideas many times before writing them off as not working. You might get an interesting visit one night, but if you don't, maybe there was no bigfoot nearby at all.

Either way, enjoy the woods, and try something new. We're not getting very far with traditional thinking, so let's start thinking outside of the box. Way outside...

Oh, and one last thing. Share your results with other bigfooters so they can try the same methods. They might be able to confirm your findings, and perhaps add to them. That's science, after all. Not sharing your data is, well, like not having any data at all.

Cliff Barackman enjoying a sunset while bigfooting.

SRC: http://northamericanbigfoot.blogspot.com/2009/08/trying-something-new.html

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
November 3rd Event
Thom Powell Week: To true believers, Bigfoot lives
Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher

EXTERNAL LINKS
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher

We are celebrating Thom Powell Week He will be speaking at an engagement sponsored by Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon on November 3rd.

In 2004 the first edition of this work, Meet the Sasquatch, accompanied a sasquatch exhibit at the Vancouver Museum, British Columbia, Canada. In that same year, it won the Anomalist Book of the Year Award in the category of best illustrated book. General feedback and comments from numerous researchers, together with new findings, indicated that the work should not be simply reprinted. As a result, it has been updated, with a considerable amount of new material added, and has now become Know the Sasquatch/Bigfoot. For this new edition, Chris Murphy again consulted many major sasquatch/bigfoot researchers, scientists, and others. The information provided is the latest available, and again is highly authoritative.

We were fortunate to get a copy of this exclusive and extensive book about the Sasquatch; as much about the creature as it is about those that investigate. We literally read all 300 pages cover to cover in one night. One of the chapters covers none other than Thom Powell. Below we have a short excerpt from that chapter.

THOM POWELL: THE CONTEMPORARY RESEARCHER.
Thom Powell is best known as author of The Locals, an entertaining and informative book that presents some of the stranger, even "paranormal," aspects of the Sasquatch phenomenon. The book has been acclaimed for providing fresh information, fresh perspectives, and being well-written. Conventional scientists, of course, have no patience with even a hint of paranormalism, so Thom has had to "ride that tide," like many others who have reported findings in that connection.

Thom's interest in the Sasquatch began as a skeptical science teacher, searching for local examples of pseudoscience that he could use in his middle school science lessons. Thom did not take the whole Sasquatch matter seriously until he moved from downtown Portland to outlying Clackamas County, Oregon, in 1988. There he met neighbors who reported Sasquatch sightings in the immediate vicinity. In an effort to debunk those sighting claims, Thom got to know local Sasquatch researchers such as Joe Beelart and Frank Kaneaster, who had track casts and other evidence to share.

Thom's interest in photography led to an interest in deploying remote wildlife cameras (camera traps) in an attempt to resolve his questions about the validity of the whole Sasquatch issue. In the late 1990s, this initiative led to involvement in Ray Crowe's local organization, the Western Bigfoot Society, and Matt Moneymaker's fledgling Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO). At about this time, the BFRO was making organizational changes, and Thom soon became the regional director for the Pacific Northwest.

As he continued to pursue his interest in camera systems, Thom was overwhelmed with BFRO sightings to investigate, and as a matter of necessity, he steadily added regional investigators including Jeff Lemley, Leroy Fish, Rick Noll, and Allan Terry.

In 2000, this group collaborated on the BFRO's Skookum Expedition. The expedition was actually organized to support an Australian film crew that was producing a segment for a cable TV series on cryptids called Animal X On the advice of Joe Beelart and Henry Franzoni, Thom took the expedition to the Skookum Meadows area of Washington's Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Due to an extraordinary set of circumstances, the well-known Skoopkum Cast was produced (see: Chapter 8, section: The Skookum Cast), Which became not only a valuable item of sasquatch evidence, but also the first completed chapter of what would eventually become Thom’s book.

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EXTERNAL LINKS
Know the Sasquatch Book
Thom Powell's book the Locals

Thom Powell Week: To true believers, Bigfoot lives

We Are kicking off Thom Powell Week. That's right! We are dedicating a whole week to Thom Powell.

Many of you may know him as author of "The Locals" We are doing this to help promote an event co-sponsored by the Oregon Bigfoot Symposium and the University of Oregon at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 in the UO Living Learning Center’s South Building. Tomorrow we will have a full bio of the man, until then, keeping with our pulse on breaking news, we thought we would launch THOM POWELL WEEK with an article just released today by columnist Bob Welch of the Registered Guard.

To true believers, Bigfoot lives

BY BOB WELCH
Register-Guard Columnist
Appeared in print: Sunday, Oct 17, 2010

LEABURG — Outside Ike’s Pizza, a half moon tints the thin clouds above the McKenzie River in a touch of mystery. It is just after 8 p.m. last Thursday. The restaurant is closed.

Inside, sweat trickles down the semi-bald head of a 40-something man who is telling of his encounter in Northern California five years ago.

“Please don’t put my name in the paper,” he says. “I have kids who go to school up here. But he looked like the old King Kong. I call it ‘bug-eye gorilla.’ I ran away, then built the biggest campfire I’ve ever built. Haven’t been camping since.”

Behind the man, on the wood-paneled wall, a drawing of a Sasquatch-like creature — “Enoch” — shares face time with the chinook salmon over the fireplace.

Ike’s owner Dave Starck hands the man a paper towel to wipe off the sweat, then turns to me.

“This is what happens to people who’ve had encounters,” says Starck, whose on-display plaster casts of supposed Sasquatch prints fan the creature’s flames. “One customer took one look at that poster and said, ‘That nose was pressed up against my window when I was a kid.’ Another woman was so shaken by it she went back outside. We had to deliver her pizza to her out there.”

The film crew from England is expected shortly. For now, I feel like an agnostic who’s stumbled into a church of tried-and-true believers.

Why here? Why now? Why me?

Because much as I’d like to just make fun of this Bigfoot stuff, I can’t — even though when the guy says the Sasquatch had “matted sideburns,” I confess I think of some Bigfoot/Elvis incarnation.

Instead, when I hear of this gathering of eye witnesses at the McKenzie’s unofficial Bigfoot headquarters, Ike’s — and a five-man film crew from England’s Diverse Bristol (“Men vs. Wild”) film company arriving to capture it — I head upstream like a spawning salmon.

I arrive just before 6 p.m. The film crew is to arrive at 6:30 p.m.

As I wait, I ask Toby Johnson, 35, the organizer of last summer’s Oregon Sasquatch Symposium in Eugene, why he got involved in the movement. Above the greasy remains of a small pepperoni, he hands me his cell phone with a photo of what appears to be a very large footprint.

“Saw this print five years ago, in the hills near Thurs ton, while hiking with my son,” he says.

Like the folks in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” drawn to the Devil’s Tower, he followed the urge. “It awoke the child in me again,” he says. “There’s this mystery that could be true.”

But going public invites ridicule. “Suddenly, you’re grouped in with these banjo-picking ‘Deliverance’ types,” he says.

Still, that didn’t stop him from organizing the symposium or an upcoming lecture by Bigfoot author Thom Powell, an event co-sponsored by the Oregon Bigfoot Symposium and the University of Oregon at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 in the UO Living Learning Center’s South Building.

The handful of people here tonight all seem to believe. I hear of guys driving dark roads and suddenly seeing Sasquatch come out of the woods along a highway and into their headlights. Of recent footage supposedly taken by a river guide near the McKenzie River’s Fish Ladder Rapids, between Olallie and Paradise campgrounds, that appears to show a Bigfoot-like creature. (See YouTube footage on my blog at www.registerguard.com/blogs.) And of John Bull’s four encounters over three decades in areas south and east of Cottage Grove.

“At least 8 feet tall and 300 pounds,” says Bull, 42 and a chef’s assistant at a Eugene retirement center. “Smelled like a bear that had gone through a garbage can and laid out in the sun all day.”

Once, he and a few other Boy Scouts had sneaked away from Sharps Creek Campground for a few beers late one night. There it was, only 15 yards away, he says.

“I remember thinking I don’t wanna look. I did. His head turned and he looked over his shoulder at us, but never broke stride.”

As someone who spends time in the woods, I prefer a more lighthearted version, say, the Bigfoot in the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky commercials. But the witnesses clearly see beyond the humor veil.

“I’m a pretty good judge of character,” Johnson says, “but when someone wells up in tears or you see the hair of their arms stand up … . They want it to be a bear or something else, but they can’t shake the fact that it walked on two legs and had fingers and eyes like us.”

By nearly 8:30, I’m convinced that it’s a hoax — the film crew, that is — and am ready to leave. But suddenly in walk five Brits and Jim Stuckey, a hunting-show guide — think a Canadian Crocodile Dundee — who’s auditioning to host a new “strange encounters” show for which this is to be the pilot episode.

I watch the filming. Hear more stories. Then get in my car and head home through the darkness, glancing more than usual into the woods along the way.

Do you believe in Bigfoot? E-mail me at bob.welch@registerguard.com.

Source: The Registered-Guard

Other Thom Powell Links
November 3rd Event
Cryptomundo's Review of The Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Bigfoot sighted on Taibai Mountain

China's People's Daily announces this breaking news.

Bigfoot sighted on Taibai Mountain
13:03, October 15, 2010


The file photo shows an unidentified Bigfoot in Shennongjia, China's Hubei Province.


The striking news on the appearance of a Bigfoot on Taibai Mountain in Xi'an, Shaanxi Provnice recently spread among local residents of Mei County located near the foot of Taibai Mountain. Is Taibai Mountain really home to a Bigfoot?

Who encountered the Bigfoot on Taibai Mountain?

Reporters interviewed many residents of Mei County, and their accounts varied. According to one story, when several travelers from Xi'an made camp in the deep forest, they suddenly heard a howl and when they looked up, they saw a hairy monster moving back and forth in the woods. After one of them cried, "It is a monster," they ran away in panic and nearly fell into a groove. It was said that these travelers were too frightened and were completely speechless for a few days after they got off the mountain, and they were admitted to the hospital right after returning to Xi'an.

However, according to another story, a few backpackers from Shanghai went to visit Taibai Mountain, the main peak of the Qinling Mountains, and started climbing the mountain in Houzhenzi Village, Zhouzhi County. They walked for two days in the misty mountain where there are a large number of old rattan plants and trees.

When they made camp at the foot of a cliff in the undeveloped Donghe scenic zone at dusk on the third day, they heard an unearthly cry and dimly saw a humanlike creature flying overhead, but the creature was quickly out of sight before they could take a good look. Afterwards, one of them said that the creature was entirely covered with hair but closely resembles a human being, and can swing from branch to branch. This unexpected incident really scared them all.

Then which one of the two stories is true? Or are both false?

A Taibai Mountain National Forest Park official told reporters that several tourists from Xi'an did tell park staff on Sept. 18 that they saw a wild creature in the mountain, but it is still unclear whether it was really a Bigfoot.

Reporters were also informed that Shaanxi Daily and other newspapers had published long reports on the discovery of half-human, half-animal creatures on Taibai Mountain as early as 1990s.

By People's Daily Online

Bigfoot Discovery Museum hosts day dedicated to Bigfoot research

Santa Cruz Sentinel does a great job promoting The Bigfoot Discovery Museum's fourth annual Bigfoot Discovery Day on Saturday at both the museum and the Louden Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz.

The Bigfoot Discovery Museum was founded by none-other-than Michael Rugg in 2004 following a career as a computer graphic artist and illustrator.

FELTON — The memory of his encounter with the large, hairy man along the banks of the Eel River in Humboldt County lay dormant for years — but came back in a flash decades later, while he was reading a passage about a similar encounter.

Michael Rugg says he was just a toddler when he wandered off alone on a trail while his parents cooked breakfast at their campsite on the river that early summer morning in 1950.

He passed through some brush and emerged onto a sandbar — and that's when he encountered a bigfoot.

“I looked up into the gaze of a very large man completely covered in bushy dark hair, with nothing on but a rather poorly fitting, torn shirt,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I looked at the hairy man, and he looked at me, then my parents started screaming for me, ‘Mikey, Mikey, where are you?'”

When he returned to the campsite and told them about the encounter, they reassured him that what he'd seen was likely a homeless man.

He forgot about the incident until about 20 years later, when a passage in a book about bigfoot sightings prompted the flashback — and helped explain his self-described obsession with all things Sasquatch.

The Bigfoot Discovery Museum, which Rugg founded in 2004 following a career as a computer graphic artist and illustrator, will host its fourth annual Bigfoot Discovery Day on Saturday at both the museum and the Louden Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz.

Activities will include a presentation of evidence — including sound recordings, a large, unidentified tooth and a video clip of an unidentified, bipedal figure — that has been accumulated over the years in communities including Felton, Zayante, Ben Lomond and near the Forest at Nisene Marks in Aptos.

Local eyewitnesses will talk about their encounters for the first time in a public forum, while other presentations will explain research methodologies.

One of the eyewitnesses who may attend the event, Placerville resident Colette Alexander, said she saw a bigfoot near the Pocono trail head about a mile from downtown Santa Cruz along the San Lorenzo River in June 1999. She was eating a sandwich when she looked into the woods, “and this thing was mimicking me eating my sandwich ... I slowed down mid-bite, and it mimicked me doing that.”

She later studied primates at Cabrillo College, but when she tried to tell her professors about it, “I got shut down pretty hard. They don't condone that kind of stuff.”

In 2009, she finally reported the sighting to www.bigfootsightings.org. A full account can be read at (http://bigfootsightings.org/bigfoot-research/bigfoot-sightings/page/2/)

One of the experts expected to attend the event, Bart Cutino, is a longtime researcher with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers. He'll talk about field research he's conducted using thermal imaging devices and recount a sighting near Mount Rainier in Washington state in 2008.

Rugg says it's time people stop discounting the experiences of those who've seen and heard things outside of the norm, and for those who have had those encounters “to stop repressing their experiences.”

“I allowed myself to go ahead and believe my own memory ... It's time for people to realize that there's a lot of stuff going on out there that current science cannot explain,” he said.



If You Go

Bigfoot Discovery Day

When: Saturday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m.: Barbecue lunch and fellowship at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum; 6-9 p.m.: presentations at the Louden Nelson Community Center

Where: Bigfoot Discovery Museum, 5497 Hwy. 9, Felton; Louden Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz

Cost: Admission to the museum is free; lunch is $5-$6

Information: 335-4478 or mike@bigfootdiscoveryproject.com

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Almost Daily's coverage of Bigfoot Discovery Museum

EXTERNAL LINKS
Bigfoot Discovery Project
The Bigfoot Discovery Museum Show

Bigfoot Cousins Claimed in Many Countries

Considering Benjamin Radford is a skeptic, he even has a top ten list "Why Bigfoot is Bunk" we find it awfully nice of him to provide us with a brief description of the primary Bigfoot variants around the world. If you really want to get an idea of these variants in a visual geographic context follow the link to the AKA Bigfoot World Map.


Bigfoot Cousins Claimed in Many Countries

By Benjamin Radford, LiveScience's Bad Science Columnist
posted: 12 October 2010 10:41 am ET

A group of Chinese researchers has announced that they are mounting an expedition to seek evidence of the yeren, the Chinese version of Bigfoot. There have been other searches for the yeren in decades past, all failing to find conclusive evidence of its existence. The team, led by a man named Luo Baosheng, is hoping to raise $1.5 million to launch the search.

While Bigfoot is by far the best-known of mysterious bipedal creatures said to inhabit the world's wilds, it is far from the only one. Many countries and cultures have stories of hairy, feral man-like creatures.

Canada's Sasquatch
The Canadian Sasquatch is essentially the same creature as the American Bigfoot, though it is claimed to be primarily nocturnal and a fast runner. Some say it steals food and abducts women — and men: A logger named Albert Ostman claimed that in 1924 while camping in British Columbia he was kidnapped by a Bigfoot family and held for nearly a week. Ostman suspected that he had been captured as a potential breeding mate for the young female Sasquatch of the family, but before he could do the dirty deed he escaped when the male elder choked on Ostman's snuff tobacco. Needless to say, Ostman offered no evidence of his experience.

Nepal's Yeti
The Yeti, formerly known as the Abominable Snowman, is said to live in the forest below the Himalaya Mountains' snow line, though its tracks are occasionally found in snow. It is said to be muscular, covered with dark grayish or reddish-brown hair, and weigh between 200 and 400 pounds (90 to 180 kilograms). The Yeti is relatively short compared with Bigfoot, averaging about 6 feet (1.8 meters) in height. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to scale Everest, found no evidence of the creature. Mountaineer Reinhold Messner, who spent months in Nepal and Tibet researching the Yeti found that large native bears were mistaken for Yeti sightings and tracks. The Yeti made news in 2007 when Josh Gates, host of the TV series "Destination Truth," claimed that he found large, mysterious footprints that might be from the Yeti. Despite extensive media publicity nothing more was learned about the tracks; they are now on display at Disney World.

Australia's Yowie
Yowie, the wildman from Down Under, reportedly stands anywhere from 5 to 11 feet (1.5 to 3.4 meters) tall, and has yellow or red eyes deeply set inside a dome-shaped head. Yowies are said to have tan, black, gray, or white hair covering black skin, with arms so long they nearly reach the ground. According to George Eberhart's encyclopedia "Mysterious Creatures" (ABC-CLIO, 2002), the name Yowie comes from the Aboriginal word "yuwi," which means "dream spirit."

Indonesia's Orang Pendek
According to "The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide" (Avon Books, 1999), "The natives of Sumatra have long believed in the orang-pendek, which means 'little man.' The orang-pendek seems to have a large pot belly and may be dark gray, dark black, yellow, or tan in color." It is also said to have very long head hair, and stand anywhere from 2.5 to 5 feet (0.8 to 1.5 m) tall. One of the first alleged sightings of the orang pendek occurred in 1923, when a Dutch settler in Sumatra saw one in a tree; though he was armed he refused to shoot it, because it resembled a human.

Though most of these creatures share similar features, there is more variation within the types than between them. The other thing they all have in common is a lack of hard evidence for their existence. Perhaps the new Chinese expedition for the yeren will yield real results, but if history is any guide the search will likely be both difficult and fruitless.

Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology
The Surprising Realities of Mythical Creatures
Top 10 Beasts and Dragons: How Reality Made Myth


Benjamin Radford is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of two books about mysterious creatures: lake monsters and el chupacabra (out in March). His Web site is appropriately named Benjamin Radford.

You may also like to view all these variants on the Bigfoot Lunch Club'c AKA Bigfoot World Map.




View AKA Bigfoot World Map in a larger map