Today in Bigfoot History | JUL 09, 2000 | Married Couple Chased by Bigfoot

Bigfoot chasing a couple

"My wife and I were chased out of the woods by what I am sure was a Bigfoot in the Lake George/Buck Mountain region of the Adirondacks, New York in Warren County."

 Source: Bobbie Short, http://www.bigfootencounters.com/
A couple were chased away from their resting place by what seemed to be a Bigfoot.

Warren County, New York State
Lake George - Buck Mountain region Adirondacks

Around July 9th, 2000 — My wife and I were chased out of the woods by what I am sure was a Bigfoot in the Lake George/Buck Mountain region of the Adirondacks, New York in Warren County. The creature observed us from about 100 feet away and broke large branches and made a large roaring/screaming like sound at least 7 times, maybe more that could only come from a very large mammal. I have been in the woods with very large bears and have even taken away food bags from bears, but this was no bear or Coy-dog, it was much larger.

We never did see it, but we could hear it following us out through the trail in the woods and I have NEVER been so scared in all my life. It kept coming closer — would stop and "roar", then approach us closer. We were nearly frozen in fear, but managed to collect our things from where we had been resting and nearly ran out of the woods. My wife is a very big skeptic of Bigfoot... until this point. The whole time we walked out of the woods, she kept on commenting that it was following us. We could feel it watching us and could hear it through the woods, a few times I saw something moving through the woods parallel with us but tried not to look as we both picked up large sticks in case in attacked us. There was no one parked at the trail head when we came out and I suspect it had followed out 2 other hikers that had hiked in earlier ahead of us and just happened to come across us.

The sounds we heard that day have really bothered me since then. I am literally scared to death of going into the woods alone now, even though I have been hiking for over 20 years. I can't explain the terror I felt from hearing this thing. I feel like I have to go back to the area and check it out, but my wife will never go back into the woods after this incident, that's how frightening these sounds were.

I was wondering if you know of anyone in the Upstate NY area that researches Bigfoot that would go up into the trail with me to just look around and see if we can maybe find tracks of some sort or look for signs of the creature. Thanks JW, witness identity withheld by request.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 08 | Circus Train Wreck Blamed for Wildman Sightings

Recreation of Bigfoot escaping a train wreck

Today in 1905 The Washington Post published an article regarding the sighting of a "wildman".

The "wildman" was described with all the Bigfoot characteristics we have become familiar with.

The story continues to speculate that the wild man may have escaped from a traveling circus during a train wreck. You would be surprised how often "a wild animal escaped from the circus" is used to explain a Bigfoot sighting.  In the book Historical Bigfoot by Chad Arment there are at least 24 counts in as many papers suggesting circus train wrecks as the origin of the escaped "wildman". Here is a quote from the Jan 8th 1905 event.

Several persons give it as their opinion that this creature is a wild animal of some kind that made its escape from the Robinson & Franklin circus that was touring this peninsula a number of years ago. The circus train met with a railroad wreck, and several wild animals were freed from their cages, many of these beasts were captured, and others were shot, and while others were never seen by the circus people again.

The source of all of this can be read online at Google books. The Historical Bigfoot, by Chad Arment, which covers sightings of Wild Men, Gorillas, Yahoos, and What-Is-It's, from the early 1800s to the 1940s. Before the term "Bigfoot" was coined to signify an unknown species of North American primate, sightings of towering bipedal apes were reported throughout the continent, and were called by a variety of names. This book compiles and sorts the most significant sightings, but also provides a look at hoaxes, mis-identifications, and the influential perspective of newspaper editors as they dealt with reports of a strange hairy manlike ape.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 07 | First Documented Mystery Footprint

Postage stamp commemorating David Thompson's Life and reputation as a mapmaker

Today in 1811, marks the first recorded account of an overly large foot print in North America by a non-native person. The honor goes to David Thompson, a British-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, who was known for keeping detailed records. On January 7th, 1811, Mr. Thompson found curious animal tracks in the snow near Jasper, Alberta. He described the tracks as 14 inch long footprints (see T.C. Elliott, "Journal of David Thompson", Oregon Historical Quarterly, 15 March-June 1914) Some years later, a book of Thompson's, David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations of Western America, based on his journal, was published. In it he says:

I now recur to what I have already noticed in the early part of last winter, when proceeding up the Athabasca River to cross the mountains, in company with.... Men and four hunters, on one of the channels of the River we came to the track of a large animal, which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches in breadth by a tape line. As snow was about six inches in depth the track was well defined, and we could see it for a full hundred yards from us, this animal was proceeding from north to south. We did not attempt to follow it, we had not time for it, and the Hunters, eager as they are to follow and shoot every animal, made no attempt to follow this beast, for what could the balls of our fowling guns do against such an animal? Report from old times had made the head branches of this River, and the Mountains in the vicinity the abode of one, or more, very large animals, to which I never appeared to give credence; for these reports appeared to arise from that fondness for the marvelous so common to mankind: but the sight of the track of that large a beast staggered me, and I often thought of it, yet never could bring myself to believe such an animal existed, but thought it might be the track of some Monster Bear.

For all you rational, critical thinkers who took Santa Claus away from us at 6yrs old. Yes, we know snow melt distorts prints and we don't know how long the tracks were laid before they were discovered. We are also aware that 8 inches is rather wide for a 14 inch print. Prints 8 inches wide are usually at least 17-18 inches in length. So even with the obligatory caveats listed in the previous sentences, we still love adopting David Thompson's mystery creature into the Bigfoot lore. After all, we are the same blog that thinks historically, werewolves are potentially misidentified Bigfoots.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 06 | Meldrum Backs Freeman

Photoshopped picture of Jeff Meldrum holding a Paul Freeman cast

“So the thought occurred to me: Well, if [Paul Freeman] is responsible for this [Bigfoot] hoax, why would he portray it so incorrectly on the chance I would read it differently?” -- Dr. Jeff Meldrum

Today in 1997 according to the book, Bigfoot Exposed, Dr. Jeff Meldrum stakes much of his academic reputation on the Paul Freeman trackway. This trackway was a series of  Bigfoot tracks from the Blue Mountains near Walla Walla, Washington. He wrote his support on a posting to the Internet Virtual Bigfoot Conference, an online (email-based) Bigfoot research community.

This was a pretty big deal since at the time Dr. Jeff Meldrum was member of the Biological Sciences faculty at Idaho State University and Grover Krantz’s professional heir-apparent in the field of anthropology. Currently as of 2013, Meldrum is a full professor. Krantz was the first university professor to publicly support and research the possibility of Bigfoot's existence.

If you have ever heard Dr. Meldrum speak, you may be fortunate enough to hear how he first met paul Freeman and the circumstances of thier meeting. In our previous post, "Dr. Jeff Meldrum Compelled by Freeman Tracks" you can read Dr. meldrum retell the story, below is a short excerpt from that post:

Meldrum began following the tracks, far beyond where Freeman’s boot tracks ended, and found additional sets of footprints coming and going. Whatever had made the tracks had apparently come down the Mill Creek drainage, using the brush along an empty irrigation ditch as cover, possibly to raid the apple and plum orchards further below.

“At that point it was clear Paul had read the whole circumstance completely backward,” Meldrum says. “So the thought occurred to me: Well, if he’s responsible for this hoax, why would he portray it so incorrectly on the chance I would read it differently?”

The point is, Dr. Meldrum found enough interesting about the trackway himself, that he was compelled independently what he had observed himself. But let’s back up and discuss Paul Freeman a bit.

Paul freeman is described in an AP article.

Freeman, 45, does not seem the type to spook easily. He is beefy, bearded and, at 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, approaches Sasquatch proportions himself. He's a meat-cutter by trade; an outdoorsman and hunter by nature.

Apparently he put down the butchers knife and started to search for bigfoot. Before his death he had claimed to see Bigfoot himself 4 times and has collected more cast, most of them with dermal ridges, more than any other Bigfoot hunter. This brings us back to Meldrum. Meldrum not only staked his good name but also put his money where his mouth is, he ended up buying Freeman’s collection for a sum of nearly $2000 dollars. 

Dr. Meldrum was quoted by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, "I’d been given an earful by people about Paul’s reputation, and it was bad. I went into it very skeptical."

You can read Meldrum's initial reaction to the prints at our post, Dr. Jeff Meldrum Compelled by Freeman Tracks. You can get further details at Cliff Barackman's Cast Database.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 05 | 5 Primatologist Advocate Bigfoot

5 prominent primatologist that advocate Bigfoot (left to right: Jane Goodall,  George Shaller,  Russel Mittermeier,  Daris Swindler, Estaban Sarmiento)

“Even if you throw out 95 percent of [the sightings], there ought to be some explanation for the rest..."--GEORGE SCHALLER; International science director for the Wildlife Conservation Society

On this day in 2003 Theo Stein, environmental writer for the Denver Post writes an article entitled BigFoot Believers. It is an encouraging article showcasing the pendulum of public opinion swinging towards the scientific consideration of Bigfoot. He goes into great detail describing each of the five prominent primaotologist's advocacy for Bigfoot as a scientific endeavor. Read the complete article below. There is even an interesting epilogue to all of this that you can read about after the article.

Bigfoot Believers: Legitimate scientific study of legend gains backing of top primate experts 
Author Theo Stein

Publication -Denver Post , Sunday January 05, 2003 – EDMONDS, Wash. – After enduring decades of ridicule, Bigfoot researchers are enjoying support from some of the world’s most respected scientists in their efforts to prove the hulking creatures of legend are no myth.

The persistence of reported sightings of Bigfoot-type creatures in North America and elsewhere has convinced leading researchers on primates – including Jane Goodall, made famous by her studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania – to call for something never seriously considered before: a legitimate scientific study to determine whether the greatest apes that ever lived persist in the world’s moist mountainous regions.
Skeptics, who include those in the scientific mainstream, scoff at such ideas. They say reported Bigfoot encounters, tracks and other evidence are either hoaxes or mistakes, and that people who believe such nonsense are soft-headed.

But dedicated amateurs and a smattering of professionals are trying to change that attitude. Using accepted scientific methods, they believe they can show at least some of the claimed evidence for Bigfoot – footprints, hair, voice recordings and a 400-pound block of plaster known as the Skookum Cast – are authentic traces of a rare giant primate.

Recently they have received support from a handful of the field’s top experts.

Daris Swindler, for example, is not the typical Bigfoot believer.

When he retired in 1991 after more than 30 years at the University of Washington, Swindler was an acclaimed expert in the arcane study of fossilized primate teeth.

His book, “An Atlas of Primate Gross Anatomy,” went through several printings and was among the standard references in the field.

So it comes as a surprise to some of his peers that Swindler believes that the Skookum Cast, discovered by amateur Bigfoot researchers in 2000, is a genuine record of a hairy giant that sat down by a mudhole to eat some fruit.

“Daris said that?” asked Russell Ciochon, a prominent paleo-anthropologist and professor at the University of Iowa. “He’s an important figure. But I still don’t think Bigfoot exists in any form.”
Mythical giant apes lurk in the traditions of nearly every Native American linguistic group and in legends handed down through the ages from Europe and Asia. Each year, Bigfoot or similar creatures are reported by hundreds of hunters, hikers, motorists and others from central Asia to the central Rockies. But no one has provided the minimum proof required by science: a type specimen or remains that researchers can pick up, measure and argue over.

Nevertheless, Goodall is intrigued.

“People from very different backgrounds and different parts of the world have described very similar creatures behaving in similar ways and uttering some strikingly similar sounds,” she said. “As far as I am concerned, the existence of hominids of this sort is a very real probability.”

George Schaller, director of science at the Wildlife Conservation Society, has spent 40 years studying rare animals in remote places, including pioneering studies of Central Africa’s mountain gorilla, which Western scientists first discovered in 1903.

THE SCIENTISTS:
JANE GOODALL A world-famous primate researcher and author, she revealed, in studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park, surprising behaviors in humanity’s closest living relative. Goodall has won numerous international awards for her contributions to conservation, anthropology and animal welfare. Currently affiliated with Cornell University, she serves as the National Geographic Society’s explorer-in-residence.

GEORGE SCHALLER
International science director for the Wildlife Conservation Society. His pioneering field studies of mountain gorillas set the research standard later adopted by Goodall and gorilla researcher Dian Fosse. Schaller’s 1963 book, “The Year of the Gorilla,” debunked popular perceptions of the great ape and reintroduced “King Kong” as a shy, social vegetarian.
Schaller’s studies of tigers, lions, snow leopards and pandas also advanced the knowledge of those endangered mammals.
In 1973, he won the National Book Award for “The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations,” and in 1980 was awarded the World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal for his contributions to the understanding and conservation of endangered species.During the past decade, he has focused on the little-known wildlife of Mongolia, Laos and the Tibetan Plateau.

RUSSELL MITTERMEIER
A trained primatologist, herpetologist and biologicalanthropologist, he has discovered five new species of monkey,including two last year. Mittermeier has conducted fieldwork in more than 20 countries around the tropical world, with special emphasis on Brazil, Guyana and Madagascar.
Since 1989, Mittermeier has served as president of Conservation International, which has become one of the most aggressive and effective conservation organizations in the world during the last decade. His publications include 10 books and more than 300 scientific papers and popular articles.

DARIS SWINDLER
Emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Washington, Swindler is a leading expert on living and fossil primate teeth and one of the top primate anatomists in general.His book, “An Atlas of Primate Gross Anatomy,” has become a standard reference in the field. A forensic anthropologist, Swindler worked on the Ted Bundy and Green River murder cases along with hundreds of others.

ESTEBAN SARMIENTO
A functional anatomist affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History, Sarmiento focuses on the skeletons of hominids.In 2001, he participated with George Schaller in a search forCongo’s Bili ape, a possible species super-chimp reported by natives but unknown to Western science. Sarmiento has also studied the Cross River gorilla, a critically endangered subspecies on the Nigeria-Cameroon border whose population is thought to be numbered in the hundreds. He has taught in the U.S., South Africa and Uganda.

Schaller remains troubled by the fact no Bigfoot remains have been produced, nor have any samples of feces whose DNA can be chemically poked and prodded to unlock the identity of their maker. And he is mindful of hoaxing.

But he, too, considers Bigfoot an open question.

“There have been so many sightings over the years,” he said. “Even if you throw out 95 percent of them, there ought to be some explanation for the rest. The same goes for some of these tracks.”

“I think a hard-eyed look is absolutely essential,” he concludes.

The most common evidence allegedly left by these animals are the footprints: big prints in remote locations, some deeply pressed in sand or gravel firm enough for a grown man to pass without leaving a trace. Some footprints, like those Ray Wallace’s family claim he left near Bluff Creek, Calif., in the late 1950s, are hoaxed. Many more are too vague to be conclusive. But a few are so detailed and anatomically accurate that they baffle the experts.

“Either the forgers are spending an awful lot of time on this, or there is reason to give this evidence another look,” said primate researcher Esteban Sarmiento of the American Museum of Natural History. “I think a serious scientific inquiry is definitely warranted.”

Skeptics argue that large mammals, particularly great apes, simply aren’t discovered anymore. Not true, says Russell Mittermeier, vice president of Conservation International, who has co-authored scientific papers describing five new primates.

Since the 1990s there have been several spectacular finds, he said, including the antelope-like spindlehorn from Vietnam and a South American peccary thought to have gone extinct thousands of years ago.
“I’m not one to pooh-pooh the potential that these large apes may exist,” Mittermeier said. “I guess you could say I’m mildly skeptical but guardedly optimistic. Whoever does find it will have the discovery of the century.”

Words of encouragement like these are music to Bigfoot researchers’ ears.

“My whole motivation has not been to convince anybody of the existence of the animal, but to convince them that there’s a body of evidence begging for further consideration,” said Idaho State University professor Jeff Meldrum, whose expertise in primate locomotion led him to become one of the few academics openly researching Bigfoot tracks.

“This is immense,” said author John Green, who has tracked Bigfoot reports for almost half a century from British Columbia and investigated some of the most famous sightings and track finds. “The possibility that there could be a real animal behind it just didn’t occur to scientists 20 years ago.”

The flap over recent claims of Bigfoot hoaxing has not deterred Swindler. But the lack of a body plus the acknowledgment of at least some hoaxing adds up to too many questions for Ciochon.

Like that of Swindler, Ciochon’s work focuses on fossilized primate teeth, but of a very special species: Gigantopithecus blacki, the giant Asian ape of the Miocene epoch, which lasted from about 24 million to 5 million years ago.

Most Bigfoot supporters advance Gigantopithecus, or Giganto for short, as the likely ancestor of Bigfoot, if not the hairy beast itself. It’s a tantalizing but entirely unproven link that drives Ciochon to distraction.
Ciochon thinks his study subject, which co-existed with the human ancestor Homo erectus for hundreds of thousands of years, may well be the archetypal inspiration for the “boogeyman” and other nocturnal monsters that populate the traditions of aboriginal cultures from Nepal to North America.

But he vigorously rejects any suggestion that Giganto, which he thinks was a specialized, bamboo-eating vegetarian, could persist today.

And he worries that the hotly contested grants that fund his work overseas may go elsewhere if the stigma of the shambling sasquatch of Native American lore attaches to his study subject.

“My biggest problem is there’s no evidence, other than conjectural hair and these footprints, some of which we know are faked,” Ciochon said.

“If someone finds a skeleton, I’ll be there in a nanosecond,” he said. “But that’s what it’s going to take to get me to change my mind.”

“There are so many problems,” agrees Swindler, who six years ago told a USA Today reporter to count him among the skeptics.

But as he examines the Skookum Cast on a rainy December afternoon in this Seattle suburb, Swindler points out landmarks in the lumpy landscape: a hairy forearm the size of a small ham, an enormous hairy thigh, an outsized buttock, and a striking impression he feels confident was made by the Achilles tendon and heel of a creature that is not supposed to exist.

“Whatever made this was very well adapted to walking on two feet,” he said. “It’s not conclusive, but it’s consistent with what you’d expect to see if a giant biped sat down in the mud.”

Swindler hopes that his assessment of the Skookum Cast, and a Discovery Channel documentary set to air Thursday, will generate support for further research.

The key, Schaller said, will be finding dedicated amateurs willing to spend months or years in the field with cameras. “So far, no one has done that,” he said.

It was a group of dedicated amateurs that discovered the Skookum Cast. A team of volunteers from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization had spent two days in Washington state’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest, putting out pheromone-basted plastic chips during the day and blasting sasquatch calls at night in an attempt to attract an animal.

On the second night, researchers heard a powerful reply to their broadcasts, said Richard Noll, an aerospace toolmaker who has spent 30 years researching the mystery. The next morning, Noll was stunned to realize that an unusual impression of a large animal on the edge of a mudhole near their camp could have been left by their elusive quarry.

“An elk will gather their feet under them when they get up,” he said. “But there are no elk hoofprints in the center of the cast.”

Meldrum and Swindler concur there are only two logical explanations for the cast: Bigfoot and elk. And they have also ruled out elk.

John Mionczynski, a wildlife researcher who has spent 30 summers studying bighorn herds in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains, has his own reasons for believing in Bigfoot.

On a moonlit summer night in 1972, he backhanded an animal he thought was a bear as it sniffed at a bacon stain in his tent, then watched as the silhouette of a giant, shaggy arm with a broad hand at the end swept toward his tent, collapsing it on him.

“That hand was three times as wide as mine and had an opposed thumb that stuck out as plain as day,” Mionczynski said.

He spent the rest of the night huddled by the fire with a revolver in his hand as the creature lobbed pine cones at him from the dark woods behind his tent.

“That pretty much eliminated bears,” Mionczynski said.

Mionczynski is working on a contraption of tiny hooks and barbed wire that he intends to place near seasonal foods he thinks sasquatch depend on. He hopes the snare will let him get a DNA sample.
North of Seattle, Noll is collaborating with Owen Caddy, a former Ugandan park ranger who studied chimpanzees in the mid-1990s.

For the last 18 months, they’ve scoured certain sandbars on a north Cascades river, documenting more than 30 suspected sasquatch footprints they believe were made by a mother and two young. They hope to identify the animals’ food sources and travel corridors, then set out a picket line of infrared camera traps.
“I feel the animal is out there, and I don’t hedge on that,” Caddy said. “I’ve found physical evidence myself, and I’m confident in my analysis of it.

“Something is making these tracks, and it’s not people.”

As stated above, this article has an interesting epilogue. Dmitri Bayanov of the Darwin Museum of Moscow, wrote two letters; one to Theo Stein and the other to Daris Swindler.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 04 | Oliver the "Baby Bigfoot" DNA Results

Oliver was known as baby bigfoot, the missing link and even the humanzee

"I still get inquiries about Oliver really being a Bigfoot." -- Loren Coleman

Today in 1976, a newspaper declared the mDNA results of a captured “Baby Bigfoot,” while unique, the Baby Bigfoot was merely a chimpanzee. Oliver (pictured above) was often known as Baby Bigfoot, but a more modern, and perhaps cleverer moniker, was coined in a recent documentary broadcast on the Discovery Channel. This documentary called "Humanzee," featured an upright walking chimpanzee named Oliver. For those who have heard of Oliver before, he's just a chimp according to test results. Chimp or "Humanzee," Oliver was a remarkable, upright walking chimp who appeared to prefer living and behaving as a human being than a chimpanzee for the better part of his life.

At cryptomundo.com Loren Coleman wrote in 2007, "I still get inquiries about Oliver really being a Bigfoot."

Oliver's had a real strange and sordid history. Others have noted Oliver's peculiar smell, eye coloring, bird-like voice and various mannerisms as being very un-chimp-like. And then there is Oliver's sense of himself. The prevailing view is that Oliver is simply a mutant chimp. Could Oliver be the result of clandestine genetic alchemy? A mutant or hybrid chimp? Missing Link perhaps?

BOERNE -- His days on the freak circuit and on tabloid covers as the fabled ``missing link,'' are finally behind him, as are seven lost years in a medical research laboratory.

Now, Oliver, a mild-mannered, middle-aged ape that walks upright like a human, is taking a well-deserved Hill Country retirement, but is no less a scientific mystery than he first appeared 25 years ago.

"Oliver's had a real strange and sordid history. He was exploited tremendously for his very unusual morphological characteristics,'' said Ken DeCroo, a California anthropologist and animal trainer who owned him a decade ago and, like others, has not forgotten him. "His physical appearance was rather different than most chimps. He's bipedal, which means he walks on two feet, and that is very unusual. And another aspect is his very small head,'' he said.

Others have noted Oliver's peculiar smell, eye coloring, bird-like voice and various mannerisms as being very un-chimp-like. And then there is Oliver's sense of himself. "He was not like normal chimps and other chimps didn't get along with him too well. He preferred to be with humans,'' recalled Bill Rivers, another former owner. But Oliver has mellowed with the years. Since May, when he and 11 other chimps were retired from the Buckshire Corp., a research center in Pennsylvania, Oliver has shared a spacious open-air cage with other chimps at Primarily Primates.

Wally Swett, director of the primate sanctuary, said his newest celebrity guest is adapting well, and, after years in isolation, has formed an attachment. "He's bonded with one little female,'' said Swett.

"And he understands a lot and is quite cooperative. And he's not like other male chimps which can get quite grabby and aggressive,'' he said.

Old news accounts assert that Oliver has 47 chromosomes (see results info below), one more than a human, one less than a chimpanzee, but there are no records to confirm it. Quite soon, possibly for the first time, Oliver will undergo sophisticated blood and genetic analysis to resolve, once and for all, exactly who or what he is.

"The prevailing view is that Oliver is simply a mutant chimp. Others think he may be a cross between a common chimp and a pygmy chimp, and soon we'll be able to make a determination,'' said Dr. Gordon Gallup, an anthropology professor at the University of New York at Albany.

But, said Gallup, who has lectured about Oliver in his evolutionary psychology course, there are other possibilities holding infinitely more complicated implications. "It's difficult to know for sure, but I think there is reason to suspect that Oliver may be a human-chimpanzee hybrid. It turns out that humans and chimps are at least 99 percent identical in terms of basic biological chemistry, and you can get hybrids among much more diverse creatures than that,'' he said.

Rumors of such taboo experiments being conducted in China, Italy and the United States have persisted for years, but have never been acknowledged. Could Oliver be the result of clandestine genetic alchemy? The answer may come after a blood sample -- to be taken from Oliver at an upcoming medical examination -- are tested at the University of Chicago, allowing scientists there to finally determine his genetic pedigree.

"Let you imagination run wild. It has such mind-boggling implications for things like religion, and whether such a creature would be covered by the Bill of Rights. It could make people think about their relationship to evolution,'' said Gallup. "But until there is some evidence either way, it's simply an academic exercise rather than anything you can take seriously,'' he said.

Dr. David Ledbetter, who will do the testing, said genetics technology will allow him to determine if Oliver is a normal or mutant chimp, and if he proves to be a hybrid, his parentage. "It seems a little silly to me to have all this rumor and controversy floating around when its a very straightforward thing to do the chromosome analysis,'' he said. A spokesperson for the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, the most prestigious primate research facility in the country, said scientists there had never heard of Oliver.

Oliver surfaced in the early 1970s, when he was acquired as a baby by trainers Frank and Janet Burger whose dog, chimp, pony and pig acts were once regularly featured on the Ed Sullivan Show, at Radio City Music Hall, and once even by dancer Gene Kelly. "He came in from Africa with three other chimps that one of Frank's brothers had sent over from the Congo. But this one we could never use. He was odd and the other chimps would have nothing to do with him,'' recalled Janet Burger, 69. But if Oliver was strange in appearance, and was shunned by other chimps, his intelligence and personality were also quite different from the other apes in the Burgers' entourage.

"You could send him on chores. He would take the wheelbarrow and empty the hay and straw from the stalls. And when it was time to feed the dogs, he would get the pans, and mix the dog food for me. I'd get it ready and he'd mix it,'' she said. As he grew older, Oliver also acquired habits normally enjoyed only by humans, including a cup of coffee and a nightcap. "This guy, Oliver, he enjoyed sitting down at night and having a drink, and watching television. He'd mix his own. He'd pour a shot of whiskey and put some Seven-Up in there, stir it and drink it,'' she recalled.

Oliver also displayed emotions not normally associated with chimpanzees, including tears of remorse at temporary separations. But ultimately, it was another of Oliver's human like traits that forced the Burgers to sell him. By 1976, when he was approaching sexual maturity, Oliver was turning into a masher.

"He had sex on his mind. The old hormones flared up but he didn't care about the female chimps we had, he started trying to have sex with me and any other woman,'' recalled Burger. "I was leery of him. He was as strong as five men, so I told my husband, "I'm not putting up with this. He's going or I'm going," so we sold him to Michael Miller and his partner for $8,000,'' she said.

Miller, a New York City lawyer, had seen dollar signs in Oliver, and took him on the road, including Japan, where newspaper accounts report that 26 million Japanese viewed him.

In the United States and overseas, breathless speculation raged over the ape with the shaved head. Was he "the baby Bigfoot?'' A mutant or hybrid chimp? Or perhaps a newly discovered primitive African humanoid? Miller also hinted at the unspeakable: An ape-human hybrid.

In press accounts of the time, Miller said he intended for Oliver to undergo a full battery of scientific tests to determine his identity, but the results, if any, were never made public. After belonging to Miller for several years, Oliver was owned by a series of West Coast animal trainers, beginning with Ralph Helfer, owner of Enchanted Village in Buena Park, Ca., where Oliver was exhibited as a freak. "They had two or three shows a day. I'd just walk him out on stage while another fellow talked about him. They had theories that he was half-man, half-ape. That was part of the show,'' recalled Bill Rivers, who years later would be the last animal trainer to own Oliver. "It was just like seeing a space alien,'' he said.

Oliver later became part of Helfer's menagerie at Gentle Jungle doing occasional television commercials and shows. But when the facility closed he was given to Ken DeCroo who had worked there. DeCroo, an anthropologist and animal trainer, said Oliver was unlike any of the hundreds of chimps he had worked with in both research and commercial settings. "It was very hard to predict what was happening in that brain and generally he acted more human than chimp in a lot of settings,'' recalled DeCroo.

"This is the classic example. Very often I would sit him down in the living room with me to drink coffee. And one time he was out of coffee. I never trained him to do this, but maybe he knew it from the past. He got up from the table, walked into the kitchen, picked up the coffee pot, poured coffee into my cup, then into his, and then took the pot back into the kitchen,'' he said. "But here's the chimp part. He's making a terrible mess. His brain is telling him what to do, but his body isn't quite doing it. But he had the awareness. He understood where all the elements fit and that I was out of coffee. It was shocking,'' he said. DeCroo is now struggling to put Oliver down on paper. "I'll tell you how much Oliver has affected me in my life. I'm writing a novel, which is very much fiction, but is very much based on Oliver,'' he said.

"It's about researchers in a university that decide to do the experiment: man and ape. This experiment is quite possible, but would you do it?" he asked. "In deciding that, you can imagine the ramifications both ethically and scientifically. And what do you do with the creature in the end? It's quite an adventure and Oliver inspired it,'' he said.

DeCroo said in 1986, when he closed his animal compound, he sold Oliver to Bill Rivers with the understanding Oliver would be given a decent retirement. When he heard later Oliver had ended up at a research facility he was remorseful. "He was a good friend and I've always felt guilty. I failed Oliver. I really thought he wasn't going anywhere,'' said DeCroo. But Rivers said he eventually sold Oliver to the Buckshire Corporation, where he languished for almost seven years, when the ape proved too difficult to keep. "He couldn't get along with the other chimps. I was doing a lot of traveling. I really didn't have a place for him,'' said Rivers.

According to Buckshire president Sharon Hursh, Oliver showed signs of a rough treatment, but was never used for research. "When we got him, we gave him an entrance physical and it was evident to us he'd had a pretty tough life. Somewhere along the line, he must have been a tough chimp. He had scars that indicated rough handling,'' she said. "We basically purchased him for laboratory research but he was never used. He just sort of ate, kicked back and slept all day,'' she said. Fortunately for Oliver, others did not forget him.

Vincent Pace, a concert pianist and circus ochestra leader, met Oliver when the Burgers were traveling with the Vargas Circus in the early 1970's. But when Oliver was put up for sale in 1976, Pace said he was outbid by Miller, the New York lawyer. "I lost track of him totally for 20 years,'' said Pace.

"But two years ago I came into a big sum of money and I made a list of things I wanted to do. I wanted to buy a new Rolls Royce, I wanted a face lift and I wanted a new baby chimp. And in searching for a new chimp, I bumped into Oliver at the Buckshire,'' he said. Initially, he said, the Buckshire appeared willing to release Oliver. "I spent $70,000 to build a room on my house here for him. It's all plexi-glass, stainless steel and Formica. He'd have private eating quarters,'' he said. But after his attempt to get Oliver failed, said Pace, he was glad to see him and 11 other Buckshire chimps end up with Primarily Primates in Boerne.

"I'd lived without him for so long, I thought getting him out and into anybody's hands would be better than him being where he was,'' said Pace. "Someday I'll go to Texas and see Oliver before he dies. This animal is almost human in his emotions,'' he said.

Regardless of the outcome of the genetic testing, Oliver will enjoy a peaceful and permanent refuge in Boerne, said Swett. "He's been dragged around and exploited for over 20 years, but this is his final retirement. He'll never go into research or on exhibit again,'' said Swett. "In terms of significant scientific findings, we'll play it by ear, but never to the point of inconveniencing Oliver,'' he said.

Thanks to astute and resourceful BLC fan, Nadia Moore for finding this link for the abstract of Oliver's DNA results.  

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 03 | New York Times Declares Wallace is Bigfoot

Rough estimate of the New York Times Front Page, Headline accurate 

In 2003, January 3rd, The New York Times printed a front page article reporting Ray Wallace's "death bed" confession as the guy wearing a Bigfoot costume in the famous Patterson/Gimlin film. To Bigfooters the Sasquatch in the film is referred to as Patty. Ray Wallace has been claiming he was Patty long before he died, but somehow as a "death bed" confession the story seemed to stick better. He also claimed at one point his wife was in the suit. The testimony of Michael Wallace, Ray's son is the thrust of the article.

''This wasn't a well-planned plot or anything,'' said Michael Wallace, one of Ray's sons.

''All it means is that Ray Wallace is dead, not Bigfoot,'' said Dr. Wolf Henner Fahrenbach, a zoologist in the Portland area who is retired from the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center.

Though some Bigfoot believers had long suspected that Mr. Wallace created the tracks, he kept his secret, and his family never confirmed it until his death.

Michael Wallace said his father had a friend carve the feet. Dr. Fahrenbach has tried to prove -- by DNA analysis of hair samples -- that Bigfoot is a species heretofore unknown to science. ''Sasquatch feet grow in substantial excess of general body dimensions,'' Dr. Fahrenbach wrote in one study. ''Hence the justifiable moniker Bigfoot.''

Filmed in the Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California, not far from where Ray Wallace laid his tracks, the short film shows a bewildered-looking apeman walking upright, while glancing at the camera.

The film has its believers, Dr. Meldrum and Dr. Fahrenbach among them. ''As long as Dad was alive, he was Bigfoot,'' Michael Wallace said

Our favorite part is when Dr. Matthew Johnson get's wrapped into this famous article. Dr. Matthew Johnson is an active leader in the Bigfoot community and a Bigfoot witness who currently offers parenting advice via books, CDs, and conferences. His site Family-Rules.com is one-stop center for "Parenting with a Plan." He also has a popular Facebook Group Team Squatchin' USA. 

Dr Matthew Johnson (Dr. J) in the wilderness. In 2003 he was quoted
in the now famous New York Times article about Ray Wallace

Below is the excerpt that includes Dr. Matthew Johnson.

Dr. Meldrum and Dr. Fahrenbach may have some academic investment in Bigfoot, but Dr. Matthew Johnson, a clinical psychologist from Grants Pass, Ore., said his conviction could not be dismissed as scholarly bias.

Dr. Johnson said he was too big - 6 feet 9 inches tall - too educated, and too familiar with the outdoors after living in Alaska for years to be fooled by some guy in an ape suit, or a logger with wooden feet.

"I've never had a U.F.O. encounter and have not seen the Loch Ness monster," he said. "I was just a husband and father out for a hike."

Two years ago, while hiking with his family in the Oregon Caves National Monument, Dr. Johnson said, he ventured off to the side of a trail, looked up to some trees and stared, eye to eye with Bigfoot. He reported his find to the National Park Service.

"Ray Wallace may have indeed hoaxed his own tracks," Dr. Johnson said. "But I can guarantee you that Ray Wallace was not walking around in a nine-foot Bigfoot suit in the Oregon Caves at the age of 82. What I saw was real."

Since the encounter, Dr. Johnson, now president of the Southern Oregon Bigfoot Society, has led numerous outings to feed and track Bigfoot. He leaves bananas and husked corn for the animal.

Click the following link to read the entire Bigfoot New York Times article.

In a previous post we broke the news that Judge Rheinhold is planning on producing a movie about Ray Wallace.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 02 | The Bigfoot Bulletin is Published

George Haas pioneer of disseminating Bigfoot news and research

"One of the most significant developments of the year 1969, at least from a Sasquatch hunter's point of view, was the birth of an unassuming little publication called the Bigfoot Bulletin. " -- John Green

In 1969 on January 2nd George Haas, the organizer, archivist, and spokesman of the Bay Area Group of Bigfoot investigators, publishes the first issue of The Bigfoot Bulletin a two-page newsletter that allowed Bigfoot researchers to actually compare and share notes.

A diagram of a Bigfoot hand trap, the type of ideas you would see in The Bigfoot Bulletin

The Bigfoot Bulletin was a new kind of venture in North American hominology, much approved at the time both by René Dahinden and John Willison Green. In Fact one chapter of Green's Year of the Sasquatch (1970) is devoted to that newsletter. Green writes:

One of the most significant developments of the year 1969, at least from a Sasquatch hunter's point of view, was the birth of an unassuming little publication called the Bigfoot Bulletin. For years people who were spending their spare time and money running down Sasquatch reports have talked about the need for a means of communication, but none ever did anything about it. Some kept in fairly regular contact by letter, but others did little or no writing, only dropping in during their travels or telephoning at intervals that might be years apart. Quite a few didn't know that anyone else was active in the field at all.

The man who changed all that is George Haas, of Oakland, California. George has worked at a variety of outdoor jobs and has been a keen woodsman for many years, but he got into the Sasquatch business via the bookshelf. From correspondence with George I know that his experience included a period as Ranger in Charge of the Calaveras Big Trees State Park in California and six years in Yellowstone National Park where he designed, built, and operated an 18-acre reforestation nursery.

The first issue of the Bigfoot Bulletin came out on January 2, 1969. It was just two mimeographed pages. The first item reported the finding of 16-inch tracks in the snow on the Bluff Creek Road, December 2, 1968. Most of the rest of the first page listed published articles on the subject in current papers and magazines, but on Page 2 was an article by Jim McClarin, who has continued to be the Bulletin's most prolific contributor. It was the first of a series of old-time stories to reach a modern audience in the Bulletin.

Despite its growth in size and circulation, George Haas has continued to distribute it (the Bulletin) free of charge, as well as handling an ever-growing volume of correspondence resulting from it.

A number of Sasquatch hunters are basically more inclined to compete than co-operate — because they each want to be the first to bring one in. From this point of view some already object to the Bulletin as making too much hard-won information available at no cost and no effort to anyone who comes along. But for those whose main interest is to see the facts brought home to a doubting world, the Bigfoot Bulletin is an undiluted blessing. No one can buy the Bulletin. It is sent only to those who contribute information.

As someone who has been blogging about Bigfoot since 2007, I am reminded of my hard-copy predecessors. Men like George Haas,  Ray Crow, and Mike Rugg; men who were compelled by research and were interested in sharing as much insight on Bigfoot as possible. These Bigfoot newsletters were made with typewriters, scissors, paste and are still impressive today.

Click the following link to see the Bigfoot Bulletin archives
You can also buy archives of Ray Crows newsletter, "The Track Record."

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 01 | Chief Big Foot and Finding Bigfoot Season 2 Premiers

Photo of Chief Big Foot taken on January 1st 1891, 2 days after the Wounded Knee massacre .

This photo had been taken on January 1, 1891, two days after the chief was killed by a horrific revengeful Seventh Cavalry gone berserk. Although far from the cryptozoological Bigfoot, Chief Big Foot got his namesake in a similar way; not from his actual feet, but from his tracks. Jut as Jerry Crew's 16 inch print discoveries led the media to describe our favorite cryptid as Bigfoot, Chief Big Foot was also known for his extra large snowshoe prints he left while pursuing deer. In other words, white people have been abusing the word Bigfoot 70 years earlier than we thought. It should be noted that only U.S. soldiers referred to the Chief as Big Foot, he was known by the Lakota as Spotted Elk (Unpan Glešká).

Spotted Elk (Chief Big Foot) The son of Lone Horn, he was cousin to Crazy Horse and half brother of Sitting Bull. He became chief upon his father's death in 1875.

Though skilled in war, he was known as a great man of peace, adept at settling quarrels between rival parties. Known for his political and diplomatic successes, he was often called upon to mediate disputes. Following their defeat during the War for the Black Hills, he encouraged his people to live in peace, and to adapt to the white men’s ways while retaining their native language and cultural traditions. He encouraged them to adapt to life on the reservation by developing sustainable agriculture and building schools, taking a peaceful attitude toward white settlers.

This makes all the more tragic the circumstances of his death. Sick with pneumonia, he was en route to the Pine Ridge Reservation, seeking shelter with Red Cloud's band. Apprehended, he became a victim of the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890) in which nearly 300 men, women and children of his tribe lost their lives.

Cliff Barackman trying to be a "baby Bigfoot"

On a less somber note, on January 1st, 2012 the second season of Finding Bigfoot kicked off. Below is an excerpt from the full Finding Bigfoot press release.

Over the course of 10 hour-long episodes, Animal Planet’s FINDING BIGFOOT returns for a brand-new season on Sunday, January 1, 2012, at 10 PM (ET/PT) for further expeditions to investigate reports of the mysterious bigfoot. From small towns in the South to remote areas of the mountain West and dense forest of the Northeast and into Canada, four passionate, driven researchers and adventurers embark on one single-minded mission – to find this beast.

BFRO members Matt Moneymaker and James “Bobo” Fay, professional educator Cliff Barackman and skeptical biologist Ranae Holland engage in the ultimate quest in search of proof that Bigfoot really does exist – and that he or she is alive and abundant in North America. By examining photos and videos of the creature, speaking to local witnesses, using new technology and luring the mysterious beast with the team’s squatch calls, the group uncovers startling proof of the legendary and highly intelligent enigma that has eluded capture for centuries and fascinated man for just as long.

During the series premiere, called “Baby Bigfoot,” the quartet of investigators head to the Catskills in New York near Poughkeepsie to provide in-depth analysis of 15-year-old video footage from 1997 that indicates a juvenile or baby sasquatch could have been in the area at the time.

 Click the following link to read responses to the Baby Bigfoot episode.

Hitler, Thanksgiving and Bigfoot

Who would have known Hitler tried to thwart Thanksgiving by replacing it with Bigfoot day? Fortunately, in this case, Bigfoot was just as elusive for him.

Watch the video below in full screen mode to read the subtitles. Or click Hitler Finds Out He Can't Find Bigfoot to see it on YouTube.

Bigfoot and other Pongidae Skeletons

You can click the picture above to see larger version.

New Illustration for you Bigfoot Lunch Clubbers. As most primatoligist and anthropologist know, we humans share a classification called Homindae which includes Pongidae (the three/four other great apes; Gorillas, Orangutans, and Chimps/Bonabos).

Well, obviously BF would fit into that class as well. Above are the skeletons of the homidae/pongidae family, notice different porportions such as a a gorillas wider torso, orangutans longer slimmer build, and the chimps thicker, stockier leg bones. The BF skeleton is a blend of a Gigantopithecus reference and the Patterson film.

RELATED LINKS
Homidae Taxonomy at Wiki
Gigantopithecus at Wiki
Patterson/Gimlin at Wiki

Microsoft Hires Bigfoot and Yeti as Internet Security Consultants

“Internet Explorer 8 managed to recruit the world’s biggest experts in security and privacy: Yeti, Nessie, and Bigfoot. As part of the development team, they optimized the world’s most important browser with powerful security features that protect your privacy online,” Microsoft revealed.

The timing of these videos is odd, due to the fact Internet Explorer 8 was released in March 2009. Either way, enjoy your favorite cryptids on Microsofts payroll.

Sneak Peak for Washington State History Museum Sasquatch

As we reported earlier, the Washington State Historical Society has an upcoming exhibit, "Giants in the Mountains: The Search for Sasquatch" January 23 through June 27.

This exploration of the Sasquatch story here in the Pacific Northwest focuses on why the geography and heritage found in this area of the globe feeds into the Bigfoot legend. The exhibit studies all aspects of the legend and draws no conclusions.

It opens Saturday, Jan. 23 at 10 a.m. A special "sneak peek" at the exhibit will happen during Third Thursday ArtWalk. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., co-curators Gwen Perkins and Susan Rohrer will lead a tour through the hairy show.

[Washington State History Museum, Thursday, Jan. 21, 6:30 p.m., free, 1911 Pacific Ave., Tacoma 1.888.238.4373]

Bigfoot Prankster Claims Violation of Free Speech

Excerpts from an article with the headline "Summit stunt: ‘Big Foot’ cries free-speech foul." This article was written by Jessica Arriens of the New Hampshire Sentinel Source

JAFFREY — In early fall, Keene resident Jonathan C. Doyle had a spontaneous idea: Dress as Bigfoot and appear atop the summit of Mount Monadnock.

He surprised some 80 hikers, then shot video (embedded below) of interviews with them and posted the clip on YouTube.

Doyle and crew were stopped by a park ranger and told to leave, because they did not have a permit to perform at the park.

Through the N.H. Civil Liberties Foundation, Doyle is arguing that the expulsion violated his First Amendment rights, by curbing free speech in a public forum — a state park.

In a Dec. 14 letter to George Bald, commissioner of New Hampshire’s Department of Resources and Economic Development (which includes the Parks Department), Foundation Staff Attorney Barbara R. Keshen says the special permit rule is vague, giving “unchecked discretion” to the park director.

Doyle said he hasn’t received any reply from the parks department.

Despite the free speech challenge, Doyle said it’s important for people to remember that the Bigfoot performance — and accompanying film — is still the absurdist, humorous idea it started out as.

While we agree with Doyle the Bigfoot performance is absurd, however, we would not go as far as saying it is humorous--or entertaining or interesting for that matter. Watch it at your discretion.



You can read the whole New Hampshire Sentinel Source article here

UPDATE: I've been holding on to this post for a while, and I'm glad I did. CBSNews is calling him an artist.

San Antonio Sasquatch and Body Shop Bigfoot are not alike

UPDATE! Cryptomundo reveals this odd coincidence! The founder of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research(SFBR) was none other than Tom Slick!

From Wikipedia:

During the 1950s, Slick was an adventurer. He turned his attention to expeditions to investigate the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti, Bigfoot and the Trinity Alps giant salamander. Slick’s interest in cryptozoology was little known until the 1989 publication of the biography Tom Slick and the Search for Yeti, by Loren Coleman.

As you can see in the map below the SFBR is nearby all the San Antonio Sasquatch action and dispatched two representatives immediately to investigate the mysterious primate at the Body Shop.


We just want to be fair. The sightings based on the San Antonio Police report have been loosely tied to a primate spotted at a body shop. The Body Shop "Bigfoot" should not be related to the San Antonio Sasquatch sightings. Why? Because based upon further research we have discovered the primate at the body shop was identified. Using a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the guys at the shop were able to lure the primate and videotape it. Katie Birk of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation center was able to study the video and quickly identify the macaque.

There is one thing bigfooters can gain from this. We have learned that a PB & J sandwich is an effective lure to attract primates (like Bigfoot), although I would recommend leaving a cold glass a milk to wash it down. Be kind to the big guy.



Above is the footprint the macaque had left, which also help identify the three foot primate. Below is an exerpt from the article and interview from www.mysanantonio.com:

“We didn't know what to think,” Joe Duarte said.

But he did wonder if the animal could have escaped from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, which keeps baboons on hand and is located just north of the shop at Loop 410 and Texas 151.

The two immediately called the foundation. Adrian Duarte, the shop's manager, said that a few hours later, two individuals showed up to inspect the prints. He said the men told them they resembled a baboon's print.

Foundation officials said Wednesday they don't know what it is but they do know it's not theirs.

Ty May, a veterinary resource manager at the foundation who's familiar with the incident, said it's not conclusive that the prints found at the business were from any type of primate. May said the research center was “not missing any animals and have not confirmed a sighting of any kind.” Worried about what kind of animal might be foraging from their trash bin, the Duartes set up a video camera to get a better look at the animal.

“I'm cautious to walk over there,” Adrian Duarte said. “I mean, I want to see him, but then again I don't. Those animals can be dangerous.”

Still, they left food on top of the trash bin, including a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, to try and lure the animal out.

The dimly lit and fuzzy footage shows some type of animal climb atop the bin, grab the sandwich and jump back down — all in a fluid motion. But the video camera is too far back, making it hard to clearly make out any of the animal's features.

So the guys at the body shop called the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation center in Kendalia for a second opinion. On Wednesday, Katie Birk, an animal caretaker at the rescue, went to the shop to see the video.

Her initial reaction was a large smile and a laugh.

“You got a little monkey friend on your hands,” Birk said chuckling. She said the creature was “agile” and it's movements resembled an animal “not native to the area.”

The Duartes showed Birk the evidence they had collected, including the prints and tufts of hair. Birk guessed the animal could be a macaque, a primate mostly located in Asia.

Although a macaque isn't as aggressive as a baboon, Birk said that if anyone comes across the monkey, they should walk away, go inside somewhere and wait for it to go away.

You can read the full article here.

Now that we got that out of the way, what did that woman see near Loop 1604 and Texas 151 Monday night?

Panda discovered in 1927 was once as elusive as Bigfoot

The Giant Panda was once as mythical and elusive as Bigfoot. Once captured, we were able to identify fossil records that concluded the existence of the Giant Panda for several million years, and yet it was only discovered within the last century. The first Giant Panda was not captured until November 9, 1927.

The story of the Giant Panda is significant, because even after it was spotted; it took another 60 years and hundreds of highly skilled trackers to finally capture one. So elusive in its natural habitat, the Giant Panda had never been photographed in the wild until 1982 by Franz Camenzind for ABC.

Bigfooters like to include many animals that symbolize the search for Bigfoot is not over. Many of these undocumented, were only discovered within the last century. These animals include the Lowland Gorilla (1860), Komodo Dragon (1910), Platypus (1799), Okapi (1901), and the Coelacanth (1938).

There are hundreds of of these once undiscovered creatures, literally check them out at cryptomundo here

TOP 10 TUES: Bigfoot Quotes

1. “I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault.” Source: Stand-up comedian Mitch Hedburg

2. “I saw Bigfoot once. 1951, back in Sequoia National Park. Had a foot on him thirty-seven inches heel to toe.” Source: Movie: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

3. “Yo' momma's so hairy, Bigfoot takes pictures of her.” Source: The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

4. "Your rhymes are fake like a Canal Street watch, You’re hearing me and you're like `Oh my god it's Sasquatch!`" Source: Beastie Boys

5. Mulder: (explaining cryptozoology) Animals that aren't supposed to exist like Sasquatch and the Ogopogo and the Abominable Snowman and-
Scully: (interrupting) Don't mind him. He'll go on forever”. Source: X-Files

6. "Given the scientific evidence that I have examined, I'm convinced there's a creature out there that is yet to be identified," Source: Jeff Meldrum in National Geographic

7. “…you're talking about a yeti or bigfoot or sasquatch. Well now, you'll be amazed when I tell you that I'm sure that they exist.” Jane Goodall on NPR

8. Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth: Bunk! Bunk, I say! Bring me a bag full of Bigfoot's droppings or shut up!
Ranger Park: I have the droppings of someone who saw Bigfoot. Source: Futurama

9. Your wife's a Bigfoot, isn't she, Gus? Your wife is a Bigfoot, isn't she? Source: Edie Murphy, Delirious

10. “It smells like Bigfoot's d*ck!” Source: Movie Anchorman: Ron Burgundy

Bigfoot; Polish and Perverted

Apparently the Native American legends characterizing Bigfoot with a fondness for the ladies has just been reinforced.

A TERRIFIED teen claims a YETI spied on her as she took a dip in her bikini in a remote stream.

Justyna Folger, 19, noticed the hulking ape-like beast in Poland's Tatra mountains, where there has been a spate of Bigfoot sightings in the past week.

Something exciting happened in Poland a few days ago. Piotr Kowalski was walking in the Tatra Mountains located in Poland, when he noticed a mountain goat. He quickly reached for his camera and started to video tape the animal when he noticed something else walking about on the mountain.

“I saw this huge ape-like form hiding behind the rocks. When I saw it, it was like being struck by a thunderbolt,” Kowalski said.

Kowalski did hand the film over to the Nautilus Foundation, a group that works with unexplained phenomena. Robert Bernatowicz the President of the Foundations said “The film clearly shows “something” that moves on two legs and it is bigger than a normal man.”

Yeti reports have been in Poland for centuries, now experts are on their way to Poland and expeditions are being set up to see if any types of tracks were left at the sight.

DID HUMANS MAKE LOVE OR WAR WITH CAVEMEN

Its an ongoing question. Time Magazine has a new article out today suggesting we made war.

It is one of the world's oldest cold cases. Sometime between 50,000 and 75,000 years ago, a Neanderthal male known to scientists as Shanidar 3 received a wound to his torso, limped back to his cave in what is now Iraq and died several weeks later.

New research suggests that Shanidar 3 may have had a more familiar killer: a human being.

At the time of his death, only humans, who had adapted their hunting techniques to the open plains of Africa, had developed projectile weapons; Neanderthals, who hunted in the close quarters of forests, used thrusting spears. To learn the cause of Shanidar 3's wound, Churchill and his team used a specially designed crossbow to fire stone-age projectiles at precise velocities at pig carcasses (a pig's skin and ribs are believed to be roughly as tough as a Neanderthal's). At kinetic energies consistent with a thrown spear, the pig's rib bore damage resembling Shanidar 3's isolated rib puncture. What's more, Churchill found that the weapon that killed Shanidar 3 entered at about a 45-degree downward angle. Churchill also found that Shanidar 3's rib had started healing before he died. By comparing the wound with wounds documented in medical records from the American Civil War, a time before antibiotics, Churchill hypothesized that Shanidar 3 probably died within a few weeks of the injury.

Others suggest they may have interbred with humans.

Read The full Article here.
Read the competing interbreading theory here.

FAYETTE, PA SIGHTING

The incident occurred on July 10, 2009, outside of Uniontown, in Fayette County.

On July 15, 2009, a team from the (Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society) PBS traveled to the location where the reported Bigfoot encounter occurred to interview the witness and to look over the area for any possible physical evidence. The team was comprised of Eric Altman and PBS members Dave Dragosin and his wife Cindy. When we arrived on the scene, the witness and her husband were awaiting us. The creature, which walked upright on two legs, had a head that was said to be large and elongated, and covered with hair that just looked wild.

The neck was somewhat hard to explain since it was covered in hair. The witness said that it appeared to be thin and long. The nose was flat and dark, but was also mostly covered in hair. The eyes were dark, possibly black in color, wide set, and “wild looking.” The witness thinks that is why the eyes looked so odd. The wild look and the fierceness of the eyes of the creature, scared the woman.

The creature was stocky and muscular in appearance. The witness said the hair on the arms was long, like ape hair. The witness had the impression that this creature was older in age. At the scene, Dave Dragosin sketched an illustration of the creature under the direction of the eyewitness. Eric and the witness’s husband searched a wooded area not far from the location of the encounter, but nothing of interest was found.

The scratched area was about 8.5 inches long and 2 inches wide. The witness told me that after the encounter, she drove down the road a short distance and parked her car. The fast movement of the creature and the way it leaped over the trunk. The eyes of the creature frightened her.

Original Report at Pensyvannia Bigfoot Society
Read about it at Paranormal News
See drawings posted at Cryptomundo

UPDATE!!!!
Cryptomundo has some photos of the sighting location here.