2011 The Bluff Creek Film Site Project Videos Part 1 and 2

The November 1st (2011) corrected and revised map, drawn by  Robert Leiterman.

"See the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot Film Site area as it is today. Study a little history while you're at it. Part on an ever-ongoing series." -- Steven Streufert


In our earlier post, "The Most Refreshing Bigfoot Research" (November 18, 2011) . We mentioned not only the great work done by Robert Leiterman, Steven Streufert, Rowdy Kelly. We also gave proper respect (or "props" if we wanted to establish our street cred) to their open approach to sharing their research. 

Below are part 1 and part 2 of the 2011 season, part 2 just uploaded to YouTube Today (DEC 30th 2011). 

Part One:


Part Two:


Check out Great stuff at Steven Streufert's Bigfoot bLog
And check out Coalition for Reason, Science and Sanity in Bigfoot Research

New York Times Reviews Finding Bigfoot Season 2

Left to Right: Cliff Barackman, James "Bobo" Fay, Ranae Holland, Matt Moneymaker 

"[Dutchess County Residents] are exactly the kind of people who might be encountering sasquatches every once in a while on their own property." -- Cliff Barackman 

Be Wary of Bobo, Sasquatch 

By NEIL GENZLINGER

Published: December 30, 2011

It was bad enough to see them terrorizing Florida, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska and the other places visited in Season 1 by the sasquatch hunters of “Finding Bigfoot,” a documentary series on Animal Planet. But the opening episode of Season 2 on Sunday night finds the investigators just a few hairy strides from New York City. How would you like to be jostling for a seat on the subway with a cranky, possibly fictitious 10-foot biped who hasn’t had his morning coffee yet?

The show follows Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, and three sidekicks — Cliff Barackman, Ranae Holland and James Fay — as they investigate Bigfoot sightings with fancy-looking audio equipment and those cameras that record grainy, ghostly images in the dark. In Sunday’s episode they travel to the Catskills to try to show that footage of something climbing in a tree, captured accidentally 15 years ago, is proof of a Bigfoot infestation in the area.

The film, made during a music festival and generally known as the New York Baby Footage, comes from a man named Douglas Pridgen, who was shooting home movies with friends around a campfire. He tells the “Finding Bigfoot” crew that he did not notice the beast lurking in a tree in the background until a few years later, when he was transferring the footage to another format.

The film has been on the Internet for years and has drawn its share of skeptics. Some think the animal is just someone’s pet monkey. That the film was shot during a music festival has also been occasion for comment.

“Hippies are responsible for a lot of big foot sightings because of their hair and scent,” someone has posted under one YouTube version of the footage.

Mr. Moneymaker and his team go to the spot where the film was made, in Ulster County, and, by having Mr. Barackman clamber up a tree, prove conclusively that the thing in the footage looks nothing like a tree-climbing male adult human. At least one team member, though, had already made his mind up. “We’re clearly looking at a baby sasquatch in this footage,” Mr. Fay announced earlier in the show, his credibility only slightly diminished by the fact that his nickname is Bobo.

The crew also convenes a town meeting across the Hudson in Pawling, N.Y., in Dutchess County, where residents, Mr. Barackman explains, “are exactly the kind of people who might be encountering sasquatches every once in a while on their own property.”

The investigators invite those who attend to relate their sightings of Bigfoot or Bigfoot tracks, and quite a few do. By plotting the locations of these sightings, the investigators determine that the beasts seem to hang out in the vicinity of the Appalachian Trail.

“We think the Bigfoots use that as their highway,” Mr. Moneymaker says.

The team sets up nighttime surveillance in the woods in hopes of meeting some Bigfoots, bellowing an occasional sasquatch call — a cross between a police siren and an ill baby — through the hills to try to get the creatures interested in a rendezvous. As is usual for this absurd but delightfully addictive show, Mr. Moneymaker’s crew does not capture a Bigfoot, either on film or in the flesh. But the investigators nonetheless amass almost irrefutable evidence that the Catskills and Dutchess County are crawling with the critters: ¶When Mr. Pridgen appears on camera, the identifying label under his name says, “New York Bigfoot Witness.” Same thing for a couple of Pawling residents who describe sightings. Would Animal Planet, which has brought us rigorously scientific shows like “Hillbilly Handfishin’ ” and “Rat Busters NYC,” allow someone to be called a “Bigfoot Witness” on TV if he had not witnessed a Bigfoot? Seems unlikely.

Though the team does not find any Bigfoots, it does find a deer, and deer, as someone points out, are prime sasquatch food.

When the crew goes into the woods at night, it records assorted noises. And what possible explanation could there be for noises in a nighttime forest other than Bigfoots?

It seems clear, then, that these things are massing for an invasion of New York City. We need to act now, and decisively.

As with a military campaign, we need to sever their communication and supply route, i.e., the Appalachian Trail. Put up one of those police sawhorse barricades, or perhaps a sternly worded sign: “Absolutely no Bigfoots allowed.”

Clear cutting the Catskills would also seem advisable. At least then we’d be able to see the danged things. Any battlefield strategist knows that the key to dealing with invisible enemies is to flush them into the open.

Make sure you catch Finding Bigfoot Sunday night Jan 1st!
And catch after the show videos at CliffBarackman.com

Kentucky Bigfoot Sighting Reported on MUFON

illustration of MUFON report

A recent report on MUFON describes a 7 ft tall monkey like creature.

The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is an American non-profit organization that investigates cases of reported UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest UFO-investigative organizations in the United States.

They should have their hands full with UFOs and aliens, but they had to dip into the Bigfooting pool.  This report has all the signatures of a regular Sasquatch sighting except for a translucent glow. We assume the translucent glow is where Ufologist and Bigfooters meet. We have made an nice Venn diagram to explain all of this.You can see how the two topics overlap. See Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Enjoy the MUFON report below:

Case Number: 34374
Log Number: US-12292011-0010
Submitted Date: 2011-12-29 16:51 GMT
Event Date: 2011-12-28 18:15 GMT
Status: Assigned
City: Burlington
Region: Kentucky
Country: US
Longitude: -84.7241133
Latitude: 39.02756
Shape: Other
Duration: 00:00:02
Distance: 100 feet or less

I was driving down a residential street in the dark when suddenly, my headlights landed on a ~7 ft. tall man like creature. It almost looked like a very tall standing monkey, but it also resembled a man. It looked as if it had fur all over it's body that was a medium red color. What really looked odd to me was that it seemed to have a translucent aura around it. I had to focus very hard to see these details because it seemed like the creature was moving at a pace of nearly 50 mph. I was afraid, of course, but I didn't feel as if it were here to harm me or anyone else. It seemed scared more than anything else. I feel it was trying to hide or find a way home because it was running right toward a large wooded area. I lost sight of the object within 2-4 seconds of first seeing it because it was moving so fast. - MUFON CMS

Conflicting Reports on Russian Yeti Capture

UPDATE: According to The Sun, Marshani is quoted as saying, "...it was a bit of fun made for the kids at the national park here."

Screen capture of the Yeti captured

"It growls and makes strange sounds ... and eats meat and vegetables" -- Bagaudin Marshani, former head of the labour ministry in the territory of Ingushetia

Monsters and Critics reposts the story below:

Moscow - Conflicting reports on the possible live capture of a yeti-like creature were emerging from Russia's rugged Caucasus mountain region, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
'The creature looks like a gorilla, about two metres tall, probably a male, and it's very massive. But a gorilla stands four-footed, and this stands vertically, like a person,' Bagaudin Marshani, former head of the labour ministry in the territory of Ingushetia, told the agency.

The creature was being held in a private zoo in the village of Surkhakhi, in Igushetia's Nazran district, some 1,480 kilometres south of the Russian capital Moscow, Marshani said.
'It growls and makes strange sounds ... and eats meat and vegetables,' he said. 'Some people say it's an Abominable Snowman, and others say that it's a great ape. But honestly, I've never seen anything like it.'

Marshani said Russian border troops captured the creature after a hunter shot and wounded what he suspected to be a bear in a forest near Nazran. When the animal rose up on two feet and ran away, he called the authorities.

However, a statement by the border troops command contradicted Marshani's account, stating, 'This information as reported in mass media is not based on fact and is an invention.'
Authorities in Moscow had been informed of the capture and a team of scientists was en route to Ingushetia to investigate, Marshani said.

In September, a search team led by Russian heavyweight boxer Nikolai Valuev found possible evidence of yetis in a remote valley in the country's central Siberian Kemerovo region.
Members of Russia's respected Academy of Sciences later said that hairs and track photographs collected by the Valuev expedition were inconclusive.

Loren Coleman Hilights a difference between Erickson/Ketchum Project and Pangboche Yeti Finger DNA tests

In a comment to Loren Coleman's post on Cryptomundo titled, "Pangboche Yeti Finger In Context: What Does Human Mean?" An astute reader asks a very important question:

Wendigo Truth Force responds:December 28th, 2011 at 11:34 am

So I’m a little confused here, admittedly. They found this [Pangboche Yeti] finger bone the other day? And DNA testing is already complete? I thought it took much longer, and that was part of the reason the Ketchum/Erickson debacle is taking so long

Loren Coleman has a great response explaining when the Pangboche Yeti finger bone was found and highlights, by example, a difference between the two DNA studies.

Loren Coleman responds:December 28th, 2011 at 11:44 am

The Pangboche finger was found some time ago, filming of interviews were conducted, Peter Byrne was flown in, more taping occurred, and in the meantime the DNA analysis was taking place. A timeline was not published, but it is apparent this BBC program has been in the works for some time. However, unlike the Erickson Project, there were no leaks.

He is referring to the Erickson Project leaks by several sources, the one with the loosest lips may be Richard Stubstad.

Watch this clip from Unsolved Mysteries: Episode #4.29. This 1992 episode talks about the Pangboche Yeti Hand and interviews Loren Coleman at some length.

Erickson What?! Its called the Ketchum Study! Sasquatch DNA Drama Continues

** UPDATE: Please read the correction supplied by Richard Stubstad on Apr 8, 2012  in the comments below.

 A couple of comments from Richard Stubstad indicate Dr Melba Ketchum as the "Official" lead on the Sasquatch DNA research. It is now called the Ketchum Study. Whenever Stubstad refers to the Erickson Project Ketchum Study, "Ketchum" is in quotes. We don't know why. It could be the internet equivalent of underlining her name three times, with arrows pointing to the name.

In a post we did earlier about Dr Meldrum titled, "Meldrum is Interviewed by NPR and is criticized by Wired Magazine" Stubstad responds and breaks the news of the new title of the Sasquatch DNA research:

 "I have discussed with Jeff Meldrum some of the DNA findings and conclusions I reached early on in the "Ketchum" study (as it is now called).

I did not hear the interview, but I think he is extremely intrigued about the progress that other scientists have made in the discovery process, now in terms of complete DNA genomic sequencing.

While neither Meldrum nor I am in possession of irrefutable proof that "sasquatch exists" as a new hominid or subspecies of an existing or past hominid, we do have compelling evidence that this is so -- far beyond the footprints, Double-pleaked normal Distribution of footprint lengths and widths, dermal ridges, and questionable video and film footage.

The latter is at least possible to hoax; but not DNA.

Richard Stubstad

Dec 28, 2011 12:38:00 PM 

In another comment to the post, "Robert Lindsay Gives Biscardi Benefit of the Doubt." Richard offers Biscardi's early role in the Erickson Project Ketchum Study:

Your take on Biscardi is probably correct. It's all about publicity (he's from the Las Vegas show scene, you know?).

Java Bob once told me that Biscardi's MO is: "bad publicity is better than no publicity at all".

The interesting thing is: Now and then he is correct; using the "saturation" method, he's bound to be.

We (that is, an ad-hoc group as the proverbial "we") are currently collecting potential sasquatch DNA samples for a so-called "parallel" study by a non-North American research lab. We have about a dozen samples so far, and we are (of course) vetting these samples before accepting them into the study. Guess who provided the first sample -- once again? Biscardi, that's right. Our vetting procedures indicated his sample was likely from a sasquatch (75% certain; we can't do any better than that without first doing DNA sequencing).

For the "Ketchum" study, he also provided the first samples for the currently ongoing project. Out of five samples, only one tested positively certain as being a hominid other than typical modern human or chimp, etc.

Some of the others were not tested; one may also be from a sasquatch; I just don't know, since it was never tested (to my knowledge).

By comparison, Erickson submitted six DNA samples to the "Ketchum" study; I know for a fact that the first two of these were both from "an unknown hominid", as it were. I have also heard the other four were equally viable -- and non-modern human.

The moral of the story is: Some folks do their homework well; some do not. Both manage to contribute to the state-of-the-art come hell or high water.

Richard Stubstad

Dec 28, 2011 12:27:00 PM

You can go to Richard's Website http://www.sciencealivenews.com/

The Pangboche Five: The Shorter Version of the Yeti Finger History

(left to right: Tom Slick, Peter Byrne, Jimmy Stewart, Gloria Stewart, Dr. Osman Hill)

By now you may know the Pangboche finger has been tested and has been declared human based on DNA evidence. This does not make the story behind the retrieval of the Pangboche Yeti Finger any less intriguing. In a nut shell this is how the PangbocheYeti Finger was found, lost and found again.

Tom Slick Finances (1916 – October 6, 1962) A San Antonio, Texas based inventor, businessman, adventurer, and heir to an oil business. Possibly the the model for the Dos Equis "most interesting man in the world" commercials. In 1957 he finances a 3-year American Yeti Expedition led by Peter Byrne.

Peter Byrne Travels

In his own words: "In 1958, the second year of the three year American Yeti expedition...I and my brother Bryan were camped in a meadow close to the temple of Pangboche." 

Peter ended up talking Yeti stuff with a temple custodian and finds out there is a Yeti hand in the temple and is even invited to see it.

Again, in his own words, Peter describes the hand, "The find-of what looked to me like a partially mummified primate hand, black and glistening from the oily smoke of the temple lamps-was very exciting and I immediately sent a runner off to India with a cable to Tom Slick, telling him  about it."

Tom Slick, "Get That Hand!"

Peter Byrne writes he receives word back, "Slick said that it was imperative that we get  the hand and bring it to England, where it could be scientifically examined under controlled conditions. Failing that we should try and get at least one finger and then get it to London where an associate of his, a Dr. Osman Hill, a renowned British primatologist, would examine it and determine its authenticity."

Peter Byrne asks for a Hand-out

I talked with the Nepalese-speaking lama about borrowing the hand for examination and he consulted with the other custodians. The answer was no. The hand must not leave the temple. Taking it from the temple would disturb the local deities and bring bad luck.”

There are two stories how Byrne was able to overcome this hurdle. According to the first version Byrne told decades ago, he solved the problem by getting the monk on duty that night drunk on rum and, when the monk passed out, switching a human fingerbone for one of the bones in the Pangboche Hand. A later story told to Mike Allsop, an adventurer who was interested in the Pangboche Yeti Hand history.

“So I made a  counter proposition, which was that they give me a just one finger and that this would suffice. They all sat down and pondered on this for a couple of days and then agreed to my request if two things were done. One, I would have to replace the finger with another finger. And, two, I would  have to make a substantial contribution towards the upkeep of the temple."

Tom, Peter and Dr. Osman Shake Hands
Peter Byrne goes to London to meet with Tom Slick and Dr Osman to discus the plans for replacing the hand. Peter decribes the luncheon to Allsop, "we discussed a strategy for getting the finger and replacing it with another one. The problem, of course, was getting a replacement. But this was quickly solved by Osman Hill who had brought a human hand with him…which he produced from a brown paper bag..."  Yes, had probably been carrying a human hand in a brown paper bag and brought it to lunch.

>> Fast forward: Peter returns to the Temple and gets the finger

Tom Slick: Give Jimmy Stewart the Finger
In a letter to Mike Allsop, Byrne recalls instructions from Tom Slick to deliver the finger to Jimmy and Gloria Stewart, "“Another cable arrived from Slick and in it was a further instruction…  go to Calcutta, take the finger with you, get there soon, and plan to meet with a Mr. and Mrs. Stewart at the Grand Hotel, on Chowringhee Road;  they will be expecting you and they will take the finger and get it to Osman Hill in London.

“So I hiked down to the border again, took another train to Calcutta, took a taxi to the Grand and booked in. A few hours later I knocked on the door of an upstairs suite and was warmly greeted by the famous and quite delightful Stewarts, Jimmy and Gloria.

“I handed over the finger, after which we had a most enjoyable evening together and a very good dinner at the Grand’s Casanova restaurant.”

The Stewarts as Stewards
The Toronto Sun recaps the tale. "...Gloria Stewart told the story of how she and Jimmy decided to smuggle the finger out of India in her lingerie case. Yes, as well as smuggling antiquities out of sovereign countries, celebrities and other women of a certain social strata used to travel with special baggage for their undies, etc.

As Gloria later told the story, the lingerie case was missing when the Stewarts finally arrived at the Dorchester Hotel in London. A few days later, Her Majesty’s Customs Service contacted the Stewarts to arrange a meeting.

At the appointed time and place, a young Customs official appeared — with Gloria’s lingerie case in hand. After due courtesies, the awe-struck young movie buff gave Gloria the case, shook the Stewarts’ hands and took his leave from the Hollywood royals."

Dr. Osman Hill Primate Authority
The good doctor was a leading authority on primate anatomy during the 20th century. It says so on his wikipedia page.

"William Charles Osman Hill (13 July 1901 – 25 January 1975) was a British anatomist,primatologist, and a leading authority on primate anatomy during the 20th century. He is best known for his nearly completed eight-volume series, Primates: Comparative Anatomy and Taxonomy, which covered all living and extinct primates known at the time in full detail and contained illustrations created by his wife, Yvonne. Schooled at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys in Birmingham and University of Birmingham, he went on to publish 248 works and accumulated a vast collection of primate specimens that are now stored at the Royal College of Surgeons of England."-- SRC: Wikipedia contributors, "William Charles Osman Hill," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Charles_Osman_Hill&oldid=451353600 (accessed December 28, 2011).

His Findings?
According to a Toronto Sun Article earlier this year:

Maybe yes. Maybe no. But not human. And not ape. Something in between. Osmond Smith’s  first finding was that the finger bones were “hominid” — the broad anthropological category of upright walkers that includes modern humans and Neanderthals. He later refined that verdict to say the sample was a closer match to Neanderthal than modern human.

Don’t forget, this is  back in 1959 and 1960, loooong before DNA testing.

However, another member of Tom Slick’s scientific team, American anthropologist George Agogino, also received a portion on the Pangboche finger. And in 1991, Agogino turned it over to an NBC program called Unsolved Mysteries — and they did tests.

I’m sorry to say nothing conclusive came from these studies either — not human, not ape — but if you don’t have a yeti to compare your sample to, how ya gonna know it’s a yeti?

Unsolved Mysteries
Below is the clip from unsolved nysteries:

To read what happened next and the DNA results check out our post http://www.bigfootlunchclub.com/2011/12/bbc-news-pangboche-finger-is-human-not.html

BBC News: Pangboche Finger is Human, not Yeti

DNA tests support Pangboche finger is human

If you stayed up late last night (or actually early this morning)  you could hear the conclusion of the DNA test on the Pangboche Finger. As we announced yesterday on our post BBC Radio 4: Full Results of Pangboche Yeti Finger Test the Pangboche Finger was an artifact that was stolen from the Pangboche Monastery and believed to belong to a Yeti.

Below is an Excerpt from the a BBC article that followed the broadcast of the Radio show. The article confirms the results that support the finger is, indeed, human.

Yeti expeditionProfessor Hill's notes recorded that the finger had been brought to him by Peter Byrne, a former explorer and mountaineer. 

Mr Byrne is now 85, and living in the United States, I discovered. When he recently visited London, I arranged to meet him. 

He did indeed bring the yeti's finger to London, he explained. His story began in 1958, when he was a member of an expedition sent to the Himalayas, to look for evidence of the legendary Abominable Snowman. 

"We found ourselves one day camped at a temple called Pangboche," Mr Byrne told me. 

Peter Byrne was photographed in 1958/9 with the head lama at Pangboche monastery

"The temple had a number of Sherpa custodians. I heard one of them speaking Nepalese, which I speak.  

"He told me that they had in the temple the hand of a yeti which had been there for many years. 

"It looked like a large human hand. It was covered with crusted black, broken skin. 

"It was very oily from the candles and the oil lamps in the temple. The fingers were hooked and curled." 

"Osmond Hill said, 'You have got to get this hand. We've got to see it. We want to examine it.' But I had already asked the lamas there if I could have the hand and they said no, it would bring bad luck, disaster to the temple if it was taken away."Prof Hill and Mr Slick asked Mr Byrne to go back and at least try to get one finger with permission from the temple's custodians. 

The plan was to replace the missing finger with a human finger. Prof Hill then brought out a brown paper bag and tipped out a human hand onto the table."It was several months old and dried. I never asked him where he got it from."Returning to the temple, he gave a donation in return for the finger, and then wired the human finger onto the relic. 

The expedition sponsor Tom Slick helped ensure the finger would reach London safely with the help of his friend, the Hollywood actor James Stewart and his wife Gloria who were in India at the time. 

They were to meet in the Grand Hotel in Calcutta, said Mr Byrne.Continue reading the main story"They were a little bit worried about customs, so Gloria hid it in her lingerie case and they got out of India no trouble." 

"They arrived at Heathrow, but the lingerie case was missing," 

A few days later, a customs official returned the case to the Hollywood couple, reassuring Gloria that a British customs officer would "never open a lady's lingerie case." 

The finger was handed over to Prof Hill after which, Mr Byrne explained, he lost contact with him. 

DNA testBut could this finger really have come from a yeti? 

The Royal College of Surgeons granted a request for a DNA test to be carried out on a tiny sliver of the finger. 

The finger is of human origin, according to Dr Rob Jones, senior scientist at the Zoological Society of Scotland. 

"We have got a very, very strong match to a number of existing reference sequences on human DNA databases. 

"It's very similar to existing human sequences from China and that region of Asia but we don't have enough resolution to be confident of a racial identification."

Src: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16264752 

Want to listen to the conclusion? Matthew Hill presents Yeti's Finger on BBC Radio 4.  

BBC Radio 4: Full Results of Pangboche Yeti Finger Test

The Yeti' finger, pictured that was displayed at London's Royal College of Surgeons

UPDATE: Click to read the results of the Pangboche Yeti Finger

The Pangboche finger, as you can guess, is part of the Pangboche hand. The hand was one of two artifacts, (the other was a scalp) that were stolen from a Buddhist monastery in Pangboche, Nepal. We have covered multiple stories regarding the Pangboche artifacts in the past.

Loren Coleman, Cryptomundo contributor, is responsible for confirming many of the stories surrounding the Tom Slick expedition that discovered the Pamboche artifacts. 

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman rediscovered this story while writing Tom Slick's biography in the 1980s. Coleman confirmed details of the incidents with written materials in the Slick archives, interviews with Byrne, and correspondence with Stewart. -- Wikipedia contributors, "Pangboche Hand," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pangboche_Hand&oldid=451541253(accessed December 27, 2011).

You can read some recent news regarding BBC 4's announcement of the Finger DNA at Cryptomundo by Loren Coleman and an excerpt from the Daily News Article. Below is a reprint from the BBC 4 radio show titled "Yeti's Finger"

Pangboche Hand and Skull Cap.

High up a remote Himalayan Mountain in Nepal is a Buddhist monastery. The monks say there is no doubt yeti's roam the high forest, they see and hear them and they sometimes even attack people. The tantalising prospect of being the first to prove that this mythical ape like creature actually exists has been the goal many explorers - but the beast has always evaded capture. Then the discovery of a supposed yeti's hand kept in the monastery set off a remarkable chain of events that drew in a mountain explorer, an American oil tycoon, a Hollywood film star and a high tech lab for forensic science in Scotland. But is it a yeti? 

Some people will go to extraordinary lengths to be the first. Tom Slick, an American oil tycoon, had the money and the desire to try to prove that yetis really do exist. He used his vast wealth to mount expeditions, sending off climber and explorer Peter Byrne into the most remote areas of the Himalayas to follow any leads he came across, and one seemed worth investigating further - a hand of a "yeti" in Pangboche monastery in Nepal. Byrne did a deal with the monks and replaced one finger of the hand with a human finger and arranged to have the yeti finger smuggled back to London. 

How the finger actually reached London is a most bizarre tale that involved Hollywood film star James Stewart concealing it in his wife's lingerie case. And then the trail went cold. Slick died, Byrne went onto other things and the finger was lost to the world until it was found by chance in a forgotten collection of curiosities in the Royal College of Surgeons in London. New scientific techniques are now applied to see if the yeti's finger really is what it claims to be - or if not - what on earth has a finger like that? 

Presenter: Matthew Hill
Producer: Mary Colwell
Editor: Julian Hector 

You can catch Loren's Take at Cryptomundo
Read the history of The Pangboche Finger at Daily Mail
Listen to The results at BBC 4

Finding Bigfoot: The Game!

Beginning Screen for Finding Bigfoot Game

"I've always said that if you want to see a bigfoot, you've gotta be a bigfoot. Well, now you finally have your chance." --Cliff Barackman

Watch out for those researchers!

As Bigfoot, You've ramained hidden for thousands of years, but researchers are on the brink of finding proof that you exist.

 How much longer can you elude them?

 Use your mouse to control Bigfoot. Avoid the flashlights. grab food to replenish your energy. press Spacebar to sprint. Tossing rocks will throw the Bigfoot researchers off your trail. Aim with your mouse and click to throw a rock.

When you finally become found this is the screen you see.

Play the Finding Bigfoot Game

WeirdThings.com talks Bigfoot, Mormons, and Cain

Justin Robert Young and Andrew Mayne from the website and podcast WeirdThings.com

"...is Sasquatch really a biblical figure doomed to walk the earth for eternity?" --WeirdThings.com

We have covered the Bigfoot/Cain Theory in detail. We even have a response from Jeff Meldrum.

The theory was posited by Matt Bowman. Bowman found an an 1835 letter where David W. Patten, an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, describes his encounter with Cain; the description of Cain however was a hairy man of ill smell, who claimed to be none other than Cain himself. Yes, the creature talked.

This brings us to the fellas at WeirdThings.com. They are a couple of hilarious guys who talk about, believe it or not, weird things.

On their site they are self described as:

Weird Things is a blog dedicated to people who love both science and are fascinated by the impossible and fantastic. It’s for people who believe a mystery is interesting no matter the outcome.

Our goal is to bring our readers interesting content on a daily basis; consisting of original features and links worth looking at.

What we enjoy most about WeirdThings.com is the guys don't take themselves or topics to seriously. Its a perfect mix of entertainment and quality broadcasting. You will know what we mean when you hear that Bigfoot/Cain is the anti-Hulk theory. WeirdThings.com is a blog worth reading and their podcast is worth subscribing too.

Below, with their permission, is a 7 minute excerpt of the Bigfoot/Cain/Mormon discussion.

WeirdThings121611-bigfoot-cain-excerpt by BigfootLunchClub

Coalition for Reason, Science and Sanity in Bigfoot Research

Rational thought and open discussion abounds at new Facebook Group

"This is a pro-Bigfoot group open to skepticism and critical thought, so long as it is not hateful or slanderous." --Steven Streufert

The next best thing to happen to Bigfoot Research. We predict the Coalition for Reason, Science and Sanity in Bigfoot (CFRSSBR)is going to be the best place to openly debate and share rational bigfoot discussions. We also predict it will grow like gangbusters. After being up for only a week it has gained over 100 members. Even better, the activity and participation has been enormous.

The biggest appeal to this facebook group is the tone set by Steven Streufert and Nadia Moore. Both Steven and Nadia have done a great job of establishing respectful debate and openness to skepticism and critical thought.

The description of the group by Steven Streufert is as follows:

This group is open to all, and seeks to promote the spirit of rational thinking and evidence-based reality orientation in a field gone mad with fantastical dreaming and grandiose presupposition. Add all of your "Squatching" friends to this group. This is a pro-Bigfoot group open to skepticism and critical thought, so long as it is not hateful or slanderous. Take a stand for the compatibility of Sasquatch and Reason.

Check out and join the Coalition for Reason, Science and Sanity in Bigfoot Research

Man Shoots at Bigfoot, Makes Bigfoot Mad, and Then Builds a $9000 Statue

Close up of Bigfoot sculpture commissioned in 1976 at a cost of $9,000 (photo: Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin)

"It reached through the window, grabbed me and shook the daylights out of me. It was terribly strong. I could feel its face about 6 inches away from mine and believe me I was in a state of tremendous fear."--Clifford LaBrecque quoted in the Examiner in 2000

Clifford LaBrecque, 73, of Norfork looks at his 8-foot-tall model of Bigfoot, which he keeps in his living room. (photo: Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin)

Recently the Baxter Bulletin showcased a statue commissioned by Bigfoot researcher, Clifford LaBrecque. Before we get into the Baxter Bulletin piece we found an article describing his initial encounter in detail. The excerpt below is from an Examiner article from 2000:

Clifford LaBrecque, now 65 of Cameron, Missouri told the Examiner he had been watching the creature for about two and a half months on the outskirts of Des Moines, Iowa back in 1977.

The fearful attack took place about 11 pm.

That night LaBrecque decided to shoot the creature. "It was about 25 feet away from where I was parked in my pickup truck." LaBrecque said. "Two of the creatures walked up from behind a hedge. One stopped but the other went to a woodpile, bent down and started to eat with it back towards me. I stayed in the car and waited for it to turn around but it just kept on gnawing at the wood. Finally I decided to shoot it from behind. When the animals turned and saw me, I got buck fever and couldn't shoot. As it came towards me, I couldn't get the window rolled up fast enough. It was really close." LaBrecque was petrified with fear as the creature advanced. He tells what happened next.

"It loomed over the car. It was about 8 feet tall. It reached through the window, grabbed me and shook the daylights out of me. It was terribly strong. I could feel its face about 6 inches away from mine and believe me I was in a state of tremendous fear. I could feel my whole body shaking. I felt a sensation of being twisted around and pushed down onto the floor. The creature's eyes were burning with fury. I was angry, very angry at me for trying to shoot it. Then I pass out. When I regained consciousness it was gone.

Read the whole article at the excellent Bigfoot Encounters

Fast forward to 2011 and Clifford still has his statue in his house and is interviewed about his encounter. Below is the article from The Baxter Bulletin:

NORFORK — What is believed to be the only sculpture in the world created to scale in meticulous detail of an adult specimen of the legendary "Bigfoot" resides in this Ozark town.

"It took three months to get it from my head to his (the sculptor's) head," said Clifford LaBrecque, 73, of the fiberglass-and-fur model of Bigfoot he commissioned in 1976 at a cost then of $9,000.

"It's accurate to the inch," LaBrecque says.

The striking model of Bigfoot stands 8 feet tall in the dining room of LaBrecque's home. He says it depicts accurately what LaBrecque remembers from sightings and a physical encounter with a Bigfoot specimen on June 18, 1977, and from many descriptions of the creature prior to his experience.

The encounter happened, according to LaBrecque, between 9-10 p.m. near a woodpile behind LaBrecque's home in the Windsor Heights suburb of Des Moines, Iowa. Prior to the altercation, LaBrecque says he observed almost nightly a Bigfoot specimen — about 8 feet tall — that sometimes appeared with two apparently juvenile Bigfoot creatures.

He says he called a Des Moines newspaper to tell of the sightings and had argued with the newspaper over copyrights to Bigfoot photographs should the newspaper act on his tip and obtain photographs.

On June 18 he had decided to shoot to kill the larger Bigfoot and had positioned his car for the shot that he believed would furnish incontrovertible evidence of the reality of the Bigfoot creature.

LaBrecque says he had been open-minded from an early age to the possibility that such a creature as Bigfoot existed.

"When I was a little kid, I heard stories about the wild man of the west, and I began watching out for one," he said. The busy youth found countless stories about American Indian legends of the wild man, and stories of similar creatures all over the world. As an adult he interviewed many people who claimed to have sighted a Bigfoot specimen.

First encounter
But it was not until 1977 that his eyes gave him all the evidence he needed to believe in Bigfoot.

"Our neighbors had a big black lab. One night I heard the dog barking around the woodpile. I looked out and saw what I thought was the dog on the wood pile. I remember thinking: 'That (dog) is going to knock my woodpile over.'

"Then it dawned on me that my woodpile is this high and what we were seeing is much, much taller than the woodpile. I got my wife to look and she saw it.

"We couldn't believe it."

An inspection of the woodpile the next day and after subsequent sightings found bark pulled from the split wood and the inner surface of the tree bark gnawed away.

That first sighting set in motion a series of sightings that would lead LaBrecque to spend night after night in the woods hoping to see the Bigfoot party traveling to the woodpile. He even conducted surveillance from settings in trees, but did not see the migration.

Skepticism
LaBrecque understands the skepticism some people may bring to his story. At 73 he can do without it, along with the skepticism the public would bring to a videotape of what he says shows a Bigfoot in its natural habitat.

He has shown the video privately but declines to show it publicly because of the ridicule that some people have for those who claim to have had unusual or paranormal experiences.

"I'm not going to listen to anyone who doesn't know crap telling me I don't know crap," LaBrecque said. "Right now if one of these creatures walked across the back yard and I called and tried to tell about it, people would say, 'Oh. That's the guy with the Bigfoot model in his house.'

"You are done before you start. You're not going to win that one."

A showing of LaBrecque's Bigfoot model at the 1977 Iowa State Fair attracted many spectators, LaBrec-que said, and several with stories of Bigfoot sightings.

After talking publicly about his Windsor Heights experience, LaBrecque says a farmer came forward to share a story of a Bigfoot sighting and to warn LaBrecque about continuing to talk about the incident.

A second witness to the Windsor Heights incident has long stopped talking about it because of the skepticism, ridicule and laughter the story evokes from listeners, he says.

"You have to understand just how hurtful this can be to the people who have seen Bigfoot," LaBrecque said. He says he has been the subject of extraordinary skepticism for his creation of the Bigfoot model before he actually saw Bigfoot. To LaBrecque it is simply good fortune that the sighting confirmed for him all that he had heard about the creature. It enabled him to better endure the scorn people bring to his story, he says.

LaBrecque said he is resurfacing now in the Bigfoot culture only because of a news reporter's call and renewed interest in the creature that he says was sighted four years ago in a rural area near West Plains, Mo.

"They're here in Norfork," LaBrecque said. "I have talked to people who have seen them."

"This is what they say it looks like," LaBrecque says, pointing to his model.
SRC: Baxter Bulletin

Blue Skinned Yeti is on the cover of Willamette Week's Gift Guide

Todd Standing Gets on TV Show for Getting Lost in the Woods

Uploaded today (12/14/2011) Todd Standing shares a video clip of a search and rescue show he "stars" in.

The description attached to the video on You Tube:

Uploaded by toddster45 on Dec 14, 2011
Call Out Episode 21

This Episode that aired on October 26 of 2011 featured me. But i have not and probably never will get to see it. Thankfully a fan of ours emailed us and said it was a great show. I am told i will also be on Finding Bigfoot and the National Geographic channel sometime soon.

You can read our detailed coverage Todd Standing.

Finding Bigfoot Host, Cliff Barackman, Details His Bluff Creek Solo Adventure

Cliff Barackman looking for signs of Bigfoot

"From the southwest came a large boom, wood on wood, echoing from the valley below. It was distant, but unmistakeable: a huge response to my knock. They were there." -- Cliff Barackman

Fans, it is no secret that we think Cliff Barackman is doing the best field research out there. Some of his best research and findings don't make it to the show Finding Bigfoot, this is completely understandable, after all there are 3 other hosts and only an hour-long show.

Fortunately there is a place where you can get Finding Bigfoot video debriefs and well-written posts by Cliff himself on his blog North American Bigfoot. Below is a short excerpt from his latest post dated (SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2011):

After our first night investigation, Bobo, Ranae, and Matt went back to Willow Creek, leaving me out in the wilds. With me was Craig Flipy, who would be filming my “solo” adventure. I was thankful to have Craig there because he and I work together on a very regular basis. We film our after-episode video debriefs, and have made a number of short webisodes about our forays into the wild. I was also given four nights in the woods to make some good bigfoot TV, as opposed to the three nights originally proposed. A new feature for season two of Finding Bigfoot is that one of us spends some time with only a bigfooty cameraman to try to get a close approach by a bigfoot. The fact that I was given an extra night was good news, as was the fact that I got to do it in Bluff Creek, an area I'm intimately familiar with.

The first night was spent on the old Bluff Creek Road that parallels the creek right above Louse Camp. There have been two sightings on that short section of road over the last three years. Bedding down in the middle of the path seemed like a good way to have a bigfoot stumble over you, so I went for it. I only got quail on my game camera that night. It was still nice to sleep out under the stars.

During my solo investigation, there are lots of scenes of me walking through beautiful meadows. These are located at Laird Meadow, half way up the slope from Louse Camp to Onion Mountain. Laird Meadow is actually a broken chain of meadows that extend on both sides of the road for nearly a mile. Separating these meadow oases are woods, with dense, shrubby undergrowth. Laird Meadow is the site of some interesting footprints found back in October 20 of 1963. A Forest Service timber cruiser named Pat Graves ran across Roger Patterson on October 21, 1963 and told him about some nearby prints that he saw the day before on a logging landing (Roger wrote in his book that the prints were found in 1964, but the original casts had the date etched into their backsides, and clearly stated 1963). I go to Laird whenever I can. There are some excellent meadows for tracking, and there is certainly a ton of food and animals in the area to make it worthy of a look when I'm in the neighborhood.

Read the rest including the paragraph with the wood-knocking quote above at northamericanbigfoot.blogspot.com

Meldrum is Interviewed by NPR and is criticized by Wired Magazine

(Photo: Rachel Anne Seymour)

"...discrediting the study of creatures whose existence is unproven countermands the scientific commitment to explore the unknown" Dr. Jeff Meldrum

Radio-west-interview-jeff-meldrum by BigfootLunchClub

Above is an hour long interview with Dr. Jeff Meldrum conducted by Radio West. Radio West is broadcast on KUER public radio, a charter member of National Public Radio (NPR). Below is the critique of the interview by Wired blogger and science writer Brian Switek.

The Squid and the Ape (excerpt)
By Brian Switek December 10, 2011 | 6:14 pm |
For the November 11th show, RadioWest producer Doug Fabrizio interviewed Idaho State University anthropologist and Sasquatch devotee Jeff Meldrum. The stated point of the interview was to see how Meldrum applied scientific reasoning to the search for a creature that, at best, exists on the fringes of scientific investigation. That’s not what actually transpired.

Even though Fabrizio kept qualifying statements about the ever-elusive Bigfoot with “if”s, he was clearly sympathetic to Meldrum’s efforts to give the mythical North American forest ape an air of respectability. The show was more about how Meldrum became attracted to the cryptozoological celebrity and his feelings as someone trying to prove the existence of a creature that, as far as I am concerned, probably doesn’t exist and has been a persistent focus of interest due to cultural phenomena rather than actual evidence. (As I wrote in a story for WIRED Science, there comes a time in searches for missing or presumably extinct mammal species that returns rapidly diminish and that species is more likely absent than simply elusive. So many have searched for Bigfoot for so long without finding any unambiguous evidence that I don’t see any reason to think such an animal exists.)

Almost all of Fabrizio’s questions were uncritical. Some, such as when Fabrizio asked when the search for Sasquatch supposedly became academically taboo, were even sympathetic to Meldrum’s exceptional claims. When Meldrum retells the story of how he saw tracks that convinced him that Bigfoot was real, Fabrizio doesn’t ask about how Meldrum could tell that the tracks were from a real animal and could not have been hoaxed. When Meldrum goes off about how he has brought Bigfoot into the scientific mainstream through papers, talks at conferences, and the like, Fabrizio doesn’t ask “Well, which journals and conferences? What did you say? How was your work received by your colleagues?” Likewise, Fabrizio lets Meldrum state that there is a lot of photo evidence – albeit poor quality – of Bigfoot as well as hair and scat without digging into the details of those assertions and why those lines of evidence have not done more to confirm the supposed ape’s existence. I didn’t want Fabrizio to be actively hostile to Meldrum’s ideas, but the radio host did not seem prepared to challenge his guest on any point.

The interview was mostly about feelings. What Meldrum felt about this or that aspect of Bigfoot arcana was more important than the veracity of what he was actually saying. I don’t take issue with RadioWest having cryptozoologists or other people who make exceptional claims on the show, but, for FSM’s sake, hold them to account and push them to explain why they believe what they do. If someone keeps saying there’s really good evidence for Bigfoot, Triassic Krakens, ancient aliens, or whatever, we shouldn’t be afraid of pressing them on how good that evidence actually is. To say that evidence is good is one thing. To demonstrate the same is not as easy.

EXTERNAL LINKS
SRC of Radio West Interview
Wired Science Blog