Skeptic Sharon Hill Takes us on a Bigfoot Media Tour

Sharon Hill takes on Bigfoot in the media at Skeptic.com

"The group is governed by a set of pillars and is in the process of writing a “Book of Squatch,” with information, research and rules about the search for Sasquatch..." --Mark Kasting, Head Squatchman of Penn State's Searchers of Sasquatch

Sharon Hill is one of our favorite skeptics, we don't always agree, but she is fair and and extremely good at forming her argument. Better yet, she is thorough and a great fact checker, disciplines we think should be innate in any skeptic, but some self-proclaim skeptics just don't have the DNA for it.

She covers a few news articles we have also covered here at BLC. She mention the New York Times: How to Hunt for Bigfoot and the SantaCruz.com: Hunting for Bigfoot in the Santa Cruz Mountains. You can read her take on both articles at Skeptic.com: Serious searchers seeking Sasquatch, or Shenanigans? (nice alliteration by the way).

She also showcases a third article we have not covered here at BLC, the Penn State paper, The Collegian, mentions an unofficial Penn State club titled, "The Penn State University Searchers of Sasquatch". You can read The Collegians full article below.

This is where Sharon's skill at going beyond the article is appreciated. In the article the Club claims 140 likes in it's "club," but in actuality it there are only 4 members. We can add to Sharon's reporting, at least two of the four Facebook members are not Penn State students, but Craig Woolheater of Cryptomundo and Sharon Lee of The Bigfoot Reporter.

At the very least The Collegian article is entertaining. Although it is not made completely clear this is a lampoon. There are some indicators like the, "The Book of Squatch" and the new method of "Bird Squatching". Please read the full article below.

Penn State's club Searchers of Sasquatch search for Bigfoot

By Grace Rambo

Collegian Staff Writer

In the darkest part of the deepest woods surrounding State College, he waits. His footprints dot the peak of Mount Nittany; he hunts in Sunset Park and wanders through the trees of the Arboretum. His existence has been questioned for decades, neither proven nor disproven. He is the Sasquatch.

At least, that’s what some Penn State students believe.

For those who have always known in their heart that Sasquatch exists, for those who believe the ever-elusive creature still roams the woods unseen and even for those who remain skeptical of its existence: the “Searchers of Sasquatch” are here.

Where it all began

It started with a TV show and a couple college friends hanging out and watching the popular show, “Finding Bigfoot.” The Searchers of Sasquatch, although not yet named an official Penn State club, is a group dedicated to searching for the mythical creature known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch, said Mark Kasting.

Kasting, better known as “head squatchman” and one of the creators of the group, said he and his friends watched others searching for Bigfoot on television and soon realized that they had a passion for it, too. They decided to form a group the week before spring break, Kasting (junior-astronomy and astrophysics) said.

And so, the Searchers of Sasquatch was born.

Kasting said the group is currently in the process of creating a club constitution and getting an adviser, although Kasting said that such a club requires a “certain type” of adviser.

Jack Bagby and Bruce Etter are two members of the Searchers of Sasquatch who helped create the club alongside Kasting. Bagby (junior-philosophy and Greek) said he focuses on the ethical aspects and issues that come with “squatching,” such as dealing with non-believers and skeptics, while Etter (junior-sociology, psychology and English) focuses on the social aspects, such as keeping up a strong group dynamic when students are out on the hunt.

Kasting, Bagby and Etter said their love of Bigfoot also goes hand-in-hand with the love they have for nature. Kasting and Etter have hiked the Appalachian Trail, while Bagby was a Boy Scout.

And Etter said he’s already discovered some photographic evidence of Bigfoot, citing a footprint he found in State College that he could not explain. Etter described the print as belonging to a “large, five-toed creature,” which was neither human nor bear nor dog.

Kasting said the Searchers of Sasquatch don’t currently have meetings because there is no on-campus classroom large enough to house their members, which reached 140 on Facebook as of press time Thursday.

Ruling the squatch

Searching for Bigfoot is not a free-for-all among believers, but an organized group effort that requires a set of rules for squatchers to uphold and live by.

Bagby said that any student who wants to join in the search for Sasquatch must remember to keep an open mind — an important trait if he or she is willing to join the Seachers of Sasquatch and submit to such a “squatchy existence.”

“We don’t want to make too many projections [about Bigfoot],” Bagby said. “It keeps us more ethically minded.”

The Searchers of Sasquatch are not just students who wander in the woods casually searching for the mythical creature, though. The group is governed by a set of pillars and is in the process of writing a “Book of Squatch,” with information, research and rules about the search for Sasquatch, Kasting said.

Some of the pillars include rules like “Everyone can squatch,” “No area is unsquatchable” and “Squatching is fun.” However, there are also very serious pillars, like the killing of Sasquatch, which is one of the most “unsquatchman-like” things a person can do.

Kasting also said another pillar is the idea that searching for Sasquatch becomes instinctive. The instinct to search for Sasquatch is usually triggered by “squatchy” territory. Kasting said a squatcher will feel in tune with nature and know when he or she enters squatchy territory.

One of the final pillars states, “Squatching is forever.” Etter wondered aloud when the hunt for Bigfoot would ever end, since the search for Bigfoot has gone on so long already.

But Kasting said that the hunt for Sasquatch will never end, even if someone were to find Sasquatch or one of his many offspring.

“We have to learn what they have to teach,” Kasting said, in regards to Sasquatch. “They know how to live what appears to be happy lives.”

Etter echoed these sentiments, saying that squatching is more than an attempt to find Bigfoot — it’s a lesson learned.

“Squatching teaches persistence in the face of adversity,” Etter said. “It’s sticking with what you believe.”

How to squatch

Being successful in the hunt for Bigfoot requires more than walking into the woods and taking a look around. There is a unique technique required if a person wants to have any chance of catching a glimpse of the mythical creature.

Bagby said the best place to search for Bigfoot is in large forests that contain big objects to hide behind, and the “further you get” into the forest, the “squatchier” it gets. He added it appears as though in the State College area, Bigfoots are not sedentary, and instead of settling down, they tend to just pass through the area.

Despite knowing where the Sasquatch prefers to live, it’s still difficult to attract them because they are intelligent creatures, Kasting said.

“Anyone who has ever tried has failed; they may be smart enough to know when we’re looking for them,” Kasting said. “It’s going to require a technique other than sneaking around. It’s going to require attracting the squatch to you through calls or noise-making, or showing the Bigfoot that you’re a decent group of people.”

Etter said that there are some important tips that can help anyone search for Sasquatch. One of the first things to remember, Etter said, is to be respectful.

“You’re a guest,” Etter said referring to sasquatch territory. “You’re walking in their home; you want to be courteous.”

Kasting added that keeping a good attitude is important because sometimes, the search for Sasquatch can be discouraging, especially when there are so many non-believers. However, for those who believe, Kasting said being attentive and observant of the qualities of nature will go a long way.

Despite displaying these qualities, Bagby said utilizing nature is also an important part of discovering Sasquatch. In particular, Bagby said a new type of squatching has developed, known as “bird squatching.”

Bagby said observing the way birds react to their surroundings in the wild can give clues as to where a Bigfoot may be hiding.

“Birds see the squatches that we can’t,” Bagby said. “If we watch their patterns, we are able to predict where the squatches are.”

The fascination with squatch

In 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin announced the first report of a Sasquatch sighting in the U.S. The pair claimed they captured video of a Bigfoot on film. While many sightings have been proven false, this sighting still stands as the sole evidence of Bigfoot’s existence.

Nearly 45 years later, the search for Bigfoot is alive and well, especially on Penn State’s campus.

Kasting said he thinks the biggest reason people still search for Sasquatch is for the pursuit of something unattainable.

“People like the search for something that hasn’t been proven,” Kasting said. “People search for meaning in their lives.”

Etter echoed similar sentiments, saying that everyone has their own “squatch” they are constantly searching for.

Aside from the philosophical search for meaning through squatching, Bagby said another reason people find such fascination in Bigfoot is the fact that Bigfoot is a creature more relatable to humans than any other creature.

“We could relate to this animal,” Bagby said. “A dog is a domesticated thing, but a Sasquatch lives on its own just like we do.”

But anyone, even those who don’t believe in Sasquatch, can join the group.

Kasting said believers and skeptics alike are welcomed to join the Searchers of Sasquatch. The main idea, Kasting said, is that people are coming together.

“Not everybody will see it the same way,” Kasting said. “The important thing is that everyone is out there doing it together.”

Etter said that he personally is unsure of the existence of Bigfoot. Despite his doubts, he said it’s crucial for all people who look for Sasquatch to have fun and keep searching.

“We’re just trying to get our feet wet and not take a question mark for an answer,” Etter said. “I believe in the possibility of the unbelievable.”

SRC: The Collegian

Loren Coleman Talks Midwest Bigfoot History and BFRO Commercialism

Loren Coleman reminds us that the earliest reports of Sasquatch
sightings in the country came from Missouri and Arkansas.

“The most wrong-headed ideas are coming out of the BFRO. You’re just not going to find animals like this primate if you go into an area with 30 to 50 people looking for it. The noise and the camping activities will scare these creatures to the next valley.” --Loren Coleman

It should be mentioned that further in the article Coleman has high praise for the individual BFRO investigators themselves, he makes a definite distinction between the commercial group ventures and the respected individual researchers.

Mostly he talks about the history of hairy wild men and the sightings that took place in the Midwest--okay technically Oklahoma is considered part of the Intermountain Region, and the Midwest contains 10 other states, but that makes for a long headline.

Bigfoot sightings common in Four-State Area

By Josh Letner
jletner@joplinglobe.com

— Woolly corners of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma may support more than just black bears, mountain lions and wild hogs, according to one group of researchers. They believe the region also could hide a population of the legendary sasquatch.

They cite dozens of unexplained encounters in the Four States going back 150 years. But their search for a 7-foot tall beast has run up against more obstacles than bigfoot’s shy nature.

‘Old Sheff’

Loren Coleman, founder of the International Museum of Cryptozoology in Portland, Maine, says some of the earliest reports of sasquatch sightings in the country came from Missouri and Arkansas.

Coleman says there are reports of a “monstrous wild man” in the swamps of the Missouri Bootheel dating to the 1840s. A decade later, hunters in Arkansas reported seeing a creature that was “gigantic in stature, hairy, and having footprints that measured at least 14 inches long.”

“What we have to look for in terms of old reports are people talking about hairy wild men and there are many, many of those coming out of the Ozarks. It was a real hotbed for reports of these creatures in the 1850s,” he said.

A similar report emerged out of Crawford County, Kan., just after the Civil War.

“We of the Arcadia Valley, in the southern part of Crawford County, are having a new sensation, which may lead to some new disclosures in nature history, if investigated as it should be. It is nothing less than the discovery of a wild man or a gorilla, or ‘what is it,’” stated a report that first appeared in the Journal Free Press of Osage City, Kan., in 1869, and was soon reprinted in the St. Louis Democrat. “It has so near a resemblance to the human form that the men are unwilling to shoot it. It is difficult to give a description of this wild man or animal. It has a stooping gait, very long arms with immense hands or claw; generally walks on its hind legs but sometimes on all fours.

“The settlers, not knowing what to call it, have christened it ‘Old Sheff.’

“It cannot be caught and nobody is willing to shoot it.”

The letter was signed by M.S. Trimble.

SOUTHWEST CITY

Since then, there have been more than 200 reports of Bigfoot encounters out of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas, according to the Bigfoot Field Research Organization.

Ron Boles, who lives in Springfield and is senior regional investigator for BFRO, said they are a volunteer group that catalogues, investigates, and rates Bigfoot encounters across the nation. A Class C encounter, for example, is non-visual evidence, such as a track; a Class B encounter may involve a vague or blurry sighting; the rarer Class A sighting, said Boles, involves a sober-as-Sunday-morning contact.

One such encounter occurred in Southwest City the morning of Sept. 6, 2010, according to Boles and BFRO.

It was Labor Day, and three fishermen were driving home at about 12:50 a.m. when they allegedly spotted a large creature hiding behind a trash can on the north end of Main Street. When they approached in their vehicle, the creature stood on its hind legs and fled. The fishermen pursued briefly before it escaped into the night.

The incident was reported by the driver to the BFRO and Boles says he investigated it, along with Larry Newman, a current candidate for sheriff in Jasper County.

“I was never more convinced of a Class A sighting than that one,” Boles said.

“Never in my life was I prepared for what I saw,” the witness told investigators. “It had long hair about 5 or 6 inches long and turned and looked at us twice to see if we were on his tail, I guess. This was a face-to-face encounter with this thing. He had his head in a trash can eating something. That’s how we got so close, he didn’t see us coming. He left a footprint behind and the police took a picture of it.”

Boles says the driver willingly gave his account but the others were reluctant to talk.

“I trust apprehensive witnesses a lot more than I do willing ones,” Boles said. “In some rural areas, people would rather go to their graves than lose face.”

Newman and Boles, who conducted their investigation six days later, described the witness as “genuinely frightened” by the experience.

“The footprint was 16 inches long and 8 inches wide,” Newman’s investigative report states. “They described a creature about 6 1/2 to 7 feet tall with a shoulder width of about 3 feet. Very heavy muscular legs, arms and body. The face had a wide flat nose, black around the eye area and small ears. The hair (not fur) was a reddish-brown color and not messy and matted as often described. The face was black.

“After this lengthy and detailed interview we believe this to be a close contact Class A sighting,” Newman wrote.

Boles and Newman said they did not want to release the name of the witness, citing the stigma surrounding those who claim to have sighted Bigfoot.

Newman has conducted other investigations for BFRO, and says he was contacted by the group because of his experience in law enforcement. He says he has investigated several reported sightings in the region. He says some seem legitimate while others are clearly false.

Newman says he has never seen a sasquatch himself, so he remains unconvinced of their existence. Boles says it is good for investigators to have a healthy dose of skepticism..

“We have been taught to be more skeptical of these reports than anybody,” he said. “If we’re not the most skeptical people out there, then that takes away the integrity of our research.”



Chetopa Hoax

Skepticism is warranted, too, because the Four States is not only noted for its woolly corners, but also for its practical jokers.

Such may have been the case in Chetopa, Kan., in February 1978.

According to BFRO and media reports at the time, the Chetopa Police Chief was alerted to more than two miles of tracks, with footprints that measured 17 inches in length and nearly 6 inches in width. Thousands of people came out to see them.

“After a while the chief supposedly found what was making the tracks, which was a 6-foot-6 kid named Chuck Bentley,” says the BRFO.

Bentley later admitted he made large wooden feet and stapled them to his boots, and created large strides by running while friends served as lookouts.

“I was just trying to add some excitement to Chetopa,” he said after he confessed.

However, the BFRO website implies the chief may have concocted not the story of the tracks, but the story that it was a hoax, to get people to settle down and to keep the curious from stirring up the town.

Bentley never returned telephone calls.

SCIENCE OR FICTION

Clever tricksters aside, Coleman says there is still much in the world that remains undiscovered. The growing field of cryptozoology, derived from the Greek word “krypto” meaning hidden, is the study of creatures that are not known to science, but are hypothesized to exist.

While some people might scoff at the notion of cryptozoology, new species are still being discovered. He points to a new species of monkey discovered in Burma, giant lizards in the Philippines, and giant squid in the Pacific Ocean, which were first photographed only a few years ago.

“In our society today everything is instant, but people forget that it took 67 years to find the giant panda in the 1930s. It took over 50 years to find the mountain gorilla in Africa in a concentrated search area,” he said.

Coleman says he believes it is possible that a sasquatch could survive in the Ozarks. He says, although the area’s population has grown, it has become more concentrated in towns and cities.

“We go from one place to another on these strips of asphalt and we are increasingly ignoring the places that are green,” he said. “There are a lot of animals out there that people are absolutely ignoring.”

Boles says there is currently more forested land in the United States than at any point in the last century. He also points to skyrocketing populations of deer, turkey and feral hogs as a potential food source for sasquatch.

But Coleman says he is concerned that a recent activity — charging to search for sasquatch —  could undermine the scientific integrity of the quest to document cryptids.

A WALK IN THE WOODS

In late February, the BFRO ran afoul of the National Park Service after an expedition of more than 30 Bigfoot enthusiasts — who had each paid $300 to attend — was stopped by park rangers in the Buffalo National River south of Harrison, Ark. The group was fined for leading an expedition without receiving a vendor’s permit.

Chief Ranger Karen Bradford said the group was acting as a concessionaire without the proper permits. She said that even if the group had applied for a permit, it is unlikely that the Park Service would have approved of a Bigfoot expedition because there was “no evidence of any Bigfoot, sasquatch, or yeti living in the Buffalo National River.”

Boles said the issue the Park Service was “an oversight, nothing more, nothing less.”

He says he is alarmed to hear that the BFRO would not be granted a permit in the future. He says the Park Service allows guided ghost tours at its Civil War battlefields, so why not Bigfoot expeditions in the wilderness?

“The Park Service is willing to acknowledge the possible existence of Civil War ghosts, but not an undiscovered primate?” argued Boles.

He also said the BFRO doesn’t guarantee that participants will have an encounter, but it does provide “the potential to have an encounter.”

“We offer an opportunity for people to come together to learn the signs that we look for and the things we do to draw them in,” he said. “You can’t go looking for them and hope to find one; you have to draw them in. You have to become the bait. You’ve to peak their curiosity and have them come to you.”

Coleman says BFRO guides have encouraged expedition participants to beat on trees and set off fireworks in an attempt to attract the reclusive creatures.

“The most wrong-headed ideas are coming out of the BFRO,” he said. “You’re just not going to find animals like this primate if you go into an area with 30 to 50 people looking for it. The noise and the camping activities will scare these creatures to the next valley.”

Coleman says the expeditions are “commercial adventures” that do not follow scientific method.

While Coleman is critical of the weekend expeditions, he has praise for the field investigations conducted by the BFRO of reported sightings.

“If you’re talking about the group and the weekend events, that’s much different than their individual investigators who also have a credible background in law enforcement. Those people are doing good research and good science.”

Boles says he is confident that there are many unknowns in this world that are yet to be discovered.

“I think there are a lot more mysteries left on this Earth than modern science will ever admit to,” he said. “Just because they don’t recognize it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Scientists haven’t been able to prove the spooklight in Joplin, but are you going to tell me that it isn’t there?”

SRC: The Joplin Globe

Grassroots Bigfoot Legend Ray Crowe in Hospice

Ray Crowe is the consummate Bigfoot organizer, from people,
to events, to research. Ray Crowe has organized them all.

Ray is the type of man that would invite anyone and everyone to share his passion about Bigfoot. At the second annual Oregon Sasquatch Symposium his name was mentioned several times as the man who introduced prominent researchers to Bigfooting. Before social media like Facebook Groups and Blogs, and before you could Google "Bigfoot", Rays Crowe's Newsletter, "The Track Record" was the social media Bigfooters used to gather and learn from.

I have only had the most recent fortune of meeting Ray Crowe. Thom Powell was kind enough to introduce me to Ray via email. We became instant pen pals and since last October I had gotten used seeing him at least once a month at his Western Bigfoot Society meetings located at Patti's Homeplate Cafe.

I marvel when I think how much successful effort Ray put into getting people together, investigating witnesses, and providing compelling research to anybody curious enough to learn about Bigfoot. A lot of what Ray did is still being done today, but not by any one single person. Despite technology allowing us to do many of these things easier, it takes a special personality to do all of these things well. It takes a Ray Crowe.


From Sasquatchpedia:

Ray Crowe
Charles Raymond Crowe (b. 1937) is a bigfoot researcher/archivist from Hillsboro, Oregon.
Ray's initial interest in the bigfoot mystery occurred after he went with a group of bigfoot hunters from nearby Vancouver, Washington (a rather militant group, according to Ray)[citation needed], who dropped Ray off on an isolated road near the forest. Ray found a set of tracks he could not explain, and he decided then and there to start a group dedicated to sasquatch research. He called it the Western Bigfoot Society and held monthly meetings in the basement of his bookshop.

Crowe also organized and held conferences in Carson, Washington called "Bigfoot Daze" in which he invited established researchers to speak. He also established a newsletter called The Track Record which told of the latest happenings in the bigfoot world, no matter how controversial or untrue. Crowe has a very open-door policy when it came to his meetings and newsletter, but he always warns his readers to "wear your skepticals."

Crowe was about to shut down the newsletter and organization in 2006 (by that time the organization had been renamed the International Bigfoot Society), but controversial researcher Tom Biscardi offered to continue the newsletter and the organization with funding, which he did. [The crossed out section is incorrect and should read, "Ray sold the IBS/WBS to David Paulides."] Ray continues to receive reports and media articles from around the world. After closing his bookstore, he continued to hold meetings in various places until he started holding them at Dad's Restaurant in Portland.

There should also be an update. As of October 2011, with the encouragement of Rhettman A. Mullis, Jr., Ray Crowe has restarted his Western Bigfoot Society monthly meetings. Mr. Mullis is President of Bigfootology and Ray Crowe is a senior member and advisor on the Bigfootology team.

Here is how others have characterized Ray Crowe.

[Ray Crowe is] not just a bigfoot hunter, but an editor, event organizer, field investigator, and generalized paranormalist and Fortean. He co-founded The Western Bigfoot Society...He kept an open mind, but always "kept his skepticals on." -- Steven Streufert, BIGFOOTS bLOG

"Crowe spent a lifetime researching Bigfoot, concurrently while establishing the Western Bigfoot Society, publishing one of the first Bigfoot newsletters, The Track Record. The newsletter was filled with valuable information about Bigfoot habitat, sightings, behavior and forensic data." -- Loren Coleman, Cryptomundo

Recently Ray Crowe has been admitted to Hospice. Rhettman Mullins has been updating tghe public through his facebook page. Below our Rhetmans updates:


April 25, 2012 update on Ray Crowe. The news continues to get worse. We have now entered death watch mode. The V.A. Hospital has determined that they are not going to treat Ray further and they are transferring him to a respite/hospice facility. They are expecting Ray to pass on at any time. At this point Ray is in God’s hands. There is still a chance that he may recover, but none of his doctors expects him to recover.

Kate and I talked today and have cried and prayed. She will call me later after they have moved him. Ray and Kate has asked me and my family to come down to Portland, and we are trying to figure out how to make that happen financially and personal time obligation limitations.

Pray for Ray, Kate, and Ray’s family.

April 26th update on Ray Crowe. Ray was actually up and about today. After eating all of this lunch he strolled down the hallway in his wheelchair and then was wiped out so he went back to bed and is sleeping now. He is in a lot of pain and his pain medication is not lasting as long as it is required before the next round of medication can be given. Other than that, Kate reports that he is in good spirit. I did not talk with Ray today because I did not want to disturb his sleep.

I appreciate, as does Kate and Ray, all of the well-wishers, thoughts, and prayers. Please continue to do so.

April 28th update on Ray Crowe. Ray is still doing okay. The vein in his neck is still collapsed and they cannot operate on it. The doctors have reiterated that it is not a good prognosis for him even though he is doing okay at the moment. He has some visitors today, Patti Reinhold, VP of the WBS, and her husband. Please keep your prayers coming and thank you for your continued encouragement and support from myself, Kate, and Ray.

Our thoughts are with Ray Crowe and his family and friends. If you would like to forward messages to Ray Crowe. You can do so at:
Ray Crowe
c/o Bigfootology
P.O. Box 193
Oak Harbor, WA 98277

Below is a n interview Stephen Colbert had with Ray Crowe.

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