Bigfoot Hair to be Auctioned this Saturday (07.07.2012)

A close up of the Bigfoot hair samples up for auction (Click to enlarge)

“I got it from a guy out of state, actually. I can’t confirm it’s Bigfoot hair. You’d have to have the actual Bigfoot to match the hair...” -- Ty Shafer current owner of the Bigfoot hair sample

On June 19th 2012 we mentioned the news that Bigfoot hair samples were for sale from a collector named Ty Shafer. Since his offer was publicized at the Daily Sentinel, Shafer realized this hair sample may be worth more than a mere $30. Mr. Shafer has decided to put the hair up for auction.

It's not too late to get your bid in for the auctioning of a Bigfoot hair. The auction will be held Tomorrow (July 7th 2012, 5:30pm)  at  Hwy 59 South Between Lufkin and Nacogdoches (Nacogdoches, TX).

Can't make it to Lufkin Texas? No problem. Call the auctioneer Bonnie Worley txl # 16894 phone: 936.366.5745. You can look at the auction yourself at Auctionzip.com. 

After speaking to Ty yesterday, he claims there is already some interest from Texas Museum of the Weird. 

Below are pictures provided from the auction site.

NEW BOOK: Skeptics Analyze and Dissect the Psychology of Bigfooters

Daniel Loxton’s Illustration for new Skeptic book about the psychology of Bigfooters

At the Skeptic Blog Donald Prothero announces his upcoming book on cryptozoology co-authored by Daniel Loxton. This is a great opportunity for us Bigfooters, it is easy to remain in our own echo-chamber of assumptions. Although we believe bigfooters are a little more rational than most sub-cultures, this doesn't mean we don't have our own bubble. After all we are human.

Unfortunately at Skeptic Blog Prothero doesn't talk much about his new book.  He references two other books familiar to us. First he mentions Joshua Blu Buhs book, "Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend"

Buhs also points out a common theme in the conflict between amateur cryptid hunters and professional scientists. The amateurs usually have a big chip on their shoulder over their treatment by academic scholars. They feel that if they can find the elusive creature that science rejects, they will be able to triumph over people who have ignored, ridiculed, and disrespected them for decades. In the words of veteran Bigfoot hunter René Dahinden, “I’d take the scientists by the scruff of their collective necks and rub their goddamn faces in—actually, I would like to see all the people—the scientists—who have opened their mouths and made their stupid, ignorant statements, fired from their jobs….They should totally, absolutely, right then and there, without pension, without anything, just be taken and thrown out the front door. Then and there.” Buhs follows this statement with “and when that dream was realized, those who had always known the truth, those who had come to the right conclusion by the dint of hard work and the application of skill, would receive the dignity that the world had otherwise denied them .” According to Bigfooter Peter Byrne, “More credibility should be given to the common postal worker, the truck driver, the policeman, the housewife, the fisherman, the farmer, the surveyor, the bum off the street, hippies, hitchhikers, milkmen, shop-janitors, bookkeepers, etc. ..The simple genuine honesty of the country people” would at last be celebrated, and the world put right.

Then Prothero introduces a different take from Christopher Baders book, "Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture"

Bader et al. (2011) provide a slightly different look at the culture of Bigfoot “researchers” based on their experiences in the Bigfoot community of East Texas. (We used the quotes around “researchers” here because they don’t really do true scientific research in the sense of lab experiments, testing hypotheses, or scientific publication; their “research” consists mostly of reading the Bigfoot literature and tramping through the woods). Like fans of any particular topic (from NASCAR to the vampire series Twilight or True Blood), the Bigfooters form their own “subculture” of people who believe strongly in the reality of Bigfoot, and spend a significant amount of their time and resources researching Bigfoot. They have their own meetings, their own jargon, their own shared body of accepted knowledge, and their own distinctive way of looking at the world.

Bader et al. describe the people and events at the annual Texas Bigfoot Research Conference (TBRC) in Tyler, Texas, and also followed one of the dedicated Bigfoot hunters on his late night hunts for Bigfoot. As they describe it , the conference of nearly 400 dedicated Bigfoot “researchers” is much like any other meeting or convention of an established organization or interest group. It is populated by mostly conservatively dressed, white, middle-class people attending a daylong slate of presentations. Exhibitors selling books, DVDs, T-shirts, and every other sort of Bigfoot merchandise fill the hallways. Most of the membership are people who know the Bigfoot legends and evidence backwards and forwards, and speak in shorthand about “the Skookum cast”, the “PG [Patterson-Gimlin] film”, the “Ohio howl”, or the “shoot/don’t shoot” controversy (whether a Bigfoot hunter should actually shoot or not if they find Bigfoot). As sociologists have long pointed out, the argot or distinctive lingo of a subculture is part of the process of becoming a member of the subculture, distinguishing insiders from outsiders, and a mark of acceptance when you master it.

Overall Prothero concludes:

Needless to say, the more conventional Bigfoot “researchers” try to disavow any connection to the paranormal crazies like Johnson or Beckjord, but the boundary between the subcultures is very faint and frequently crossed. More importantly, Bader et al. (2011) showed that most Americans who accept Bigfoot also accept the ideas of UFOs, Atlantis, psychics, ghosts, and other paranormal beliefs. To most Americans, all these paranormal ideas are more or less equal, and there is no real distinction between cryptozoology and the UFO cults.

You can read the full Skeptic Blog post at http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/07/04/bigfoot-on-the-brain/ 

6 of the best July 4th Stories from BFRO

Happy 4th of July from the Bigfoot Lunch Club!

There are about 17 Bigfoot Fourth of July stories from BFRO! Below are the top 6th, Hope you enjoy. These stories have been rewritten for you reading pleasure, you can read the rest of the stories told by the witnesses at the links following each story.

The Stick Throwing Stomping Sasquatch of Shawnee National Forest
During July 4^th weekend camping trip, a man, his wife and three children hear rustling in the middle of the night, assuming it was raccoons until they heard the vocalization of something much bigger. 

“It sounded like it was calling the other one from the woods into the site,” The wife recalled

When a second one came close to the tent the husband yelled, “HEY GET OUTTA HERE!”

It was enough to get the two creatures to stomp away, and the stomping sounds were enough to convince the family these were not raccoons.  The mother gathered the kids and drove to the nearest town of Portsmouth. They returned an hour later when light began to break. When the parents went to scout the camp site, sticks were thrown and heavy breathing was heard, so they returned to the car and stayed there for another 3 hours. Eventually they returned to camp and had found everything in tact except for the garbage, which had been thoroughly gone through.
http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=27972

Family of Fourteen Finds Bigfoot on the Forth
Three miles east of Nebraska, a family had lit their final fireworks and the hour was close to 11. The party of eight adults and six children retired to the patio as the night began to wind down. Suddenly one of the adults jumped from his chair and urged everyone to look at the bean field across from the house.

“The animal/creature walked at a very fast pace through the beans to a point behind a hill where we lost sight of it,” reported the witness, “I have hunted my entire life and have never seen anything like this before. It walked leaning slightly forward, swinging it's arms as it moved across the field.”

The witness drove his 4x4 truck equipped with spotlights to the place the creature was heading towards. The trail led to a barbed wire fence that clearly indicated the creature had crossed through. The evidence at the fence was enough to scare the witness into turning around and go home.
http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?ID=6410

Mother and Baby Run over Bigfoot with a Honda Civic
During a Fourth of July Weekend a Mother and her Baby were heading home in a Honda Civic. As they rounded a corner the mom eyes followed the guard rail to her right, past the final guard rail post was a crouching creature. To her surprise the seven-foot tall creature stood up eventually jumped in front of the car. In shock, she did not slow down and the creature seemed to know this. Immediately the creature laid flat on the ground and the mom could feel her driver side tires roll over the creatures head. Once home she checked for damage to her car and found only the some hair got in the license plate bolt.
http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_report.asp?id=33908

Seattle-bound from Seneca Sasquatch caught in Headlights
it was 1:30am on highway 395. It was the evening of the Fourth of July (officially the fifth as it was 1:30 am) and the witness was driving his 1964 Lincoln Continental Convertible, a car with four headlights.

“ I was doing about 70 MPH when my lights caught the eye reflection. I rapidly decreased my speed & the damn thing just stood there like he owned the road! Maybe he was as supprised [sic] as I was? I had good visual on him for at least 10 seconds at close range.” The witness reported.

As the witness got closer he claims, “It crossed the highway (one lane & shoulder) in 2 or 3 steps! It then proceeded up the bank & into the tree line.”

Upon a follow up interview the witness estimates that he got within about 40'-50' at the closest approach before the animal decided to move and could clearly see its facial features, as it was looking at the car directly. He emphasized its short neck and ape-like face with brow ridge and flat nose, the head shape closer to that of a gorilla than of a chimpanzee.

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=7819

Cabinet Mountain Climbers hear a Curdling Call
Five climbers made base camp at 6500 ft, a great spot to witness firework in Libby, Montana 10 miles away. Any chatter amongst the climbers was silenced by a call lasting for ten long seconds.  The calls are described as a low bear-like growl that continued to rise into a high-pitched scream. The next day a 15ft deep cave was discovered that was lined with pine needles.  Knocks have been heard in the area when the witnessed returned with his son 6 years later.
http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=10260

Waking Whoops heard in Washington State

A fourth of July camping trip near the Humptulips fish hatchery at the mouth of Stevens creek. This is in Grays Harbor County Washington, a hot spot for Bigfoot encounters. After a cooking hotdogs and talking, almost all five campers including a father, son, fiancé, a friend and his step-brother settled in for the night. The friend had stayed up until 2:30 am, and that’s when the whoops began.

When asked by his fiancé what the noise was he claimed it was people as not to alarm her, but these sounds were familiar to him as he states, “the first thing that entered my mind when i heard this was the whoops from the 1974 recording from California..it was almost identical to it but the ones that i heard had more of a primate tone to it...I do believe there was 2 of them communicating because there was one just on the other side of the river not to far back in the timber..(the one that woke us up)...then occasionally we would hear one farther away, then the closer one would whoop back in response...this went on for an hour.”
http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=24216