Kick Ass Oregon History Presents: Bigfoots in Oregon

Imagine you meet a girl who tells you she spent the previous afternoon drinking in a bar with the state of Oregon. During this wet afternoon Oregon spilled it's historical guts. This is the premise of ORHistory.com the home of kick ass Oregon history.

This is a brilliant website finely crafted by Doug Kenck-Crispin, a graduate student at Portland State University in the Public History Program, and Andy Lindberg, an actor, designer, musician.

June is Bigfoot month at ORHistory.com a/k/a Kick Ass Oregon History. In order to celebrate they have already had two podcasts, Bigfoots in Oregon Part 1 and Bigfoots in Oregon Part 2 (embedded at the bottom of the page) and will be speaking this Tuesday (6/19/2012) in Portland, Oregon at Jack London bar (basement of the Rialto, SW 4th and Alder). Free to get in, but must be 21 or over – there’s a full bar!

This will be the history of Bigfoot in Oregon from a bona fide historian! Who also happens to be engaging and entertaining. We can't wait and if you can't make it to the event we will do our best to share it with you after we attend.

Below is an excerpt from the announcement on the Dave Knows Best site.

Stumptown Stories: Bigfoots in Oregon (19-June-2012)
Posted on 17 June 2012
The Stumptown Stories: Free Tuesday Lecture Series, geared to anyone who is curious about the world and community in which we live and loves to learn new things, takes place most Tuesdays at Jack London bar (basement of the Rialto, SW 4th and Alder). Free to get in, but must be 21 or over – there’s a full bar!
This Tuesday, June 19, 2012 join Kick Ass Oregon History‘s resident historian Doug Kenck-Crispin as he presents Bigfoots in Oregon.

You see, June is BigFoot month at OrHistory.com

“So Sasquatch?” you rightfully ask, respectfully skeptical Ass Kicker. “Do we even know if Bigfoot is real, for realz?” And that is a great question to ask. In fact, we THANK YOU for asking such a question. And the answer to that question is, to quote Brandt, “well Dude, we just don’t know…”

If we dig deeper behind the methodology of the question, we might wonder that if something is not real, let’s say a One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater, then can it really be called “History?” And I, the Resident Historian of this learned site, counter with a resounding… “Maybe…”

We don’t know if there are Bigfoots. We do know that Native Americans in the area have disparate oral traditions of things that might be considered Bigfoot-esque. We also know there have been some crazy big prints found, some difficult to identify scat and hair, and almost innumerable sightings reported. But we don’t have a (thank God) Sasquatch in a cage, a body in the woods, or even a portion of the aforementioned to really examine and prove existence definitively. So in a sense, I feel it is a fair statement to proclaim that we don’t have a real history of this beast to present.

But there is NO disputing that there is a phenomenon that is called “Bigfoot.” Thousands of sightings have taken place of this gentle giant of the woods, and he (or the lactating “shes”) have left their imprint on the legacy of Oregon’s History.

The presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. Always free. Always fascinating.
And don’t miss the Bigfoots of Oregon Kick Ass Oregon History podcasts – part 1 and part two (embedded below) are live!

Kick Ass Oregon History: Bigfoots in Oregon | PART ONE



Kick Ass Oregon History: Bigfoots in Oregon | PART TWO

Benjamin Radford Writes Predictable Critique on Bigfoot Conferences

Benjamin Radford, Editor of the Skeptical Inquirer

Benjamin Radford has offered a critique of Bigfoot conferences. The kind of critique that would take little effort to write from the perspective of a skeptic. As many of you readers know, we believe skeptics are a healthy part of the Bigfoot conversation. In fact, we often have high praise for Brian Dunning of Skeptoid and Sharon Hill of Doubtful News. So, we appreciate the the amount of rigor and discipline that comes with most skeptic commentary, even if we don't always agree. What we do not appreciate is when the commentary is predictable and lazy, like Radford's post in today's Huffington Post article, "Bigfoot Conference Cites No Hard Evidence...Again"

You only need to read three paragraphs to know how the rest of the article goes.

There's rarely much new in the way of Bigfoot evidence to offer or discuss; after all, it's not as if researchers can give presentations comparing, say, a Bigfoot body found in Oregon in 1984 with a Bigfoot body found last year in British Columbia. Without hard evidence grounding the discussion, conferences are often heavy on personal stories by people who swear they encountered the world's most famous mystery monster, if only indirectly.

Other than the exotic subject matter, Bigfoot conferences are pretty much like any other conferences. There are guest speakers of varying quality, plus lunches and networking opportunities. And, of course, merchandise: Bigfoot is the most commercialized monster in the world, lending its name and likeness to everything from monster trucks to pizzas to beef sticks. Bigfoot-themed sundries include plaster footprint molds allegedly recovered from sightings, DVDs, books, hats and posters, as well as general camping and hunting equipment that might plausibly be used in an amateur Bigfoot hunt.

How do you organize a conference around a subject that has never been proven to exist? Often the answer is by accepting the assumption that the beast exists, and offering theories about it: what Bigfoot monsters eat, where they sleep, their mating and social habits, and so on. Discussions on the details of Bigfoot ecology and morphology often resemble the classic debate among medieval theologians about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It makes for a fun parlor game among interested parties, but it's all opinion, theory and wild speculation until we know they exist.

The gist of the article is we bigfooters accept the assumption that the beast exists, and don't even debate if Bigfoot even exist. Guilty as charged. Yes, our starting  position is that there is an unidentified bipedal primate out there, a relict hominid, if you will. It is Bigfoot conference!

If there is a glimmer of novelty in Radfords's article is his paragraph about how sometimes we feverishly debate opposing views that are "putting the cart before the horse" as Radford says.

Many discussions at conferences and within the Bigfoot community tend to put the cart before the horse, a classic example being the long-running "kill or capture" debate: whether it would be ethical to shoot or kill a Bigfoot if it meant that the creature's existence was finally proven. (Ironically, this would be the first step toward protecting these presumably endangered animals.) This debate is taken very seriously and is highly contentious in some circles, especially since it was recently ruled legal to shoot Bigfoot in Texas.

We wish he would have expanded on this point a bit more and fleshed it out. We think this is an important argument, because some of these heated debates create road blocks towards cooperation. Some of these divisive debates are bridges we haven't even crossed yet.

You can read Benjamin Radford's full article here.

Fundraiser: Bigfoot Discovery Museum

Save the Bigfoot Discovery Museum, a fixture in the community for over a decade

The Mission of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum is noble honest endeavor: To create a fulltime research center and library towards educating and inspiring Bigfooters and the general public alike.

Mike Rugg owner and curator of the museum needs your help. We mentioned earlier how you could donate to the Bigfoot Discovery Museum. Now for every $5 donation you can be entered in a raffle/funraiser to win a a chance to host The Extinct? Podcast or a painting by artist Steven DeMarco. Watch the video below as Ro Sahebi describes the details.

 If you still need convincing check out these awsome videos by Amazing Amanda who spent some time with Mike Rugg at Bigfoot Discovery Museum.

Part One



Part Two