LISTEN: Audio of Bigfoot Howls Haunting 3 Indian Tribes

Sylvia and Denise Minthorn have both heard the strange nighttime cries coming from the brushy wetland behind them.

"a young Bigfoot that had got separated from the rest of his clan." Josh Franken, the tribal housing authority's interim director, on theories for the new howls.

There is an area near the Umatilla Indian Reservation where the local Indians will not wander. The sounds are unfamiliar and known at the same time. The Oregonian reports, "Members of the Confederated Umatilla, Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes believe the noises come from Bigfoot, the mythical manlike creature said to roam Pacific Northwest forests."

This is the entrance to forbidden brushy swamp and source of the mysterious noises.

Read an excerpt below describing how the sounds have captured the attention of the locals and even spurred them to make phone calls.

The eerie late-night serenades began in November and emanate from a brushy swamp on the Umatilla Indian Reservation east of Pendleton. The cries range from high-pitched screams to basso profundo roars.

"It's causing an uproar around here," said Sylvia Minthorn, who lives in a tribal housing unit near the swamp, where she used to play as a child.

She's seen grown men's hair stand on end when the shrieks commence.

Colleen Chance, a tribal housing authority employee, keeps a recording of the howls on her iPhone.

"It's kind of spooky," she said. "Some say it's foxes, some say it's a female coyote and some say it's Sasquatch. I don't know what it is."

So far no one's pinpointed the source of the noise on this rugged 178,000-acre reservation that extends into northeastern Oregon's Blue Mountains and is home to about 1,500 people. The swamp in question borders the old reservation community of Mission, in a canyon north of the Wildhorse Resort and Casino.

Phone calls about the wails started coming in last month to the housing authority, and the office has had a half dozen so far. More could come in because the cries are continuing from time to time.

Some tenants of the reservation's 190 rentals and 32 homes admitted being afraid and one man reported that his dogs were too terrified to go outside, said Josh Franken, the housing authority's interim director.

"This guy was rather scared himself," Franken said. A rumor quickly spread that the cries were made by "a young Bigfoot that had got separated from the rest of his clan," he said.

Some have said these could possibly foxes. Silvia Minthorn (pictured at top of post) insists these are not foxes.

"And the first time a person hears a fox calling in the night, kind of echoing around the canyons, it raises the hair on the back of your neck," Sheeler said. "That wetland is a perfect place to have an echoing call sound eerie."

But many who've heard the racket dismiss such notions. "Foxes do sound creepy," said Sylvia Minthorn. "But it's not the same sound, not even close."

Her mother, Denise Minthorn, believes more than one creature is out there in the darkness. She's heard shrieks from two directions at once, as if two animals were communicating.

Click the following link to read the original Oregonian Bigfoot article.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 20 | Mike Rugg Exposes Pogonip Hoax

The Pogonip Bigfoot side-by-side with the Bigfoot Discovery Day streaker, composited in Photoshop. Photoshop composite by Mike Rugg

Today, January 20, 2008, Mike Rugg posted in his newsletter Bigfoot Discovery Project (Vol. 3 No. 9) a series of events that lead him to believe he was dealing with a hoaxer.

Initially he was sent an email from a gentleman named John Henry Camper claiming he had taken photos of a Sasquatch running away from him. Mike Rugg expressed interest and Mr. Camper sent three digital photos. 

Three Images sent to Mike Rugg

Although it was January when Mike Rugg became certain the photos were a hoax, he had initially published the photos several months ealier in the August 2007 issue. Rugg describes his correspondence since the initial publication of the photos.

For a week or two after I wrote that article I had back and forth emails with “Jack.” He promised to come into the museum as soon as possible to discuss the matter in person as he was interested in getting advice on what to do next, claiming a friend to whom he showed the photos told him they “looked phony.” He assured me he had not doctored the photos in any way and that they represented the “creature” he observed on the outskirts of the City of Santa Cruz, just five miles south of our museum on Highway 9.

Because he seemed to be stalling and no meeting took place after several weeks I was moving ever more towards my initial impression that this was a hoax. I showed the photos to visitors to the museum, including a number of our members, and the concensus was to let it go, so I stopped emailing Jack and gave it up as bogus. Then, just before Thanksgiving I heard from him again: Date: November 21, 2007 2:32:21 PM PST Hi Mike I was hoping to be able to stop by the museum this weekend since I have some time off of work. What are your holiday hours? I look forward to meeting with you. Thanks Jack

The man never did show up and Mike Rugg remembered another "Bigfoot" that was seen in the area at the same time. He referred to it as The Bigfoot Discovery Day Streaker. You can see streaker below in a photo taken by Tom Yamerone.

Bigfoot Discovery Day Streker (Photo by Tome Yamerone)

Mike went to Photoshop to do a composition of the streaker and the "Bigfoot" sent by Mr. Camper and the similarity between the two Bigfoot was uncanny. See for your self in the composite Mike Rugg Made below.

Click on the following PDF links for more details:

The issue publishing the first three photos (Volume 3, Number 4)

The issue with Mike Rugg's breakdown of events and his composite (Volume 3, Number 9)

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman Speaks about Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA Study

Loren Coleman, left, speaks with host Joshua Foer at the Institute Library in New Haven.

“My standard is: no data, no discovery, and why is she saying ridiculous things like ‘These are angels from heaven’?” -- Loren Coleman on Melba Ketchum DNA Study

In an article by Randall Beach for the New Haven Register, Loren Coleman is asked about his approach to cryptozoology. You can read below as he describes himself as a skeptic and then brings up Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA study:

Coleman stated at the outset: “I am a skeptic.” He demands to see plenty of hard evidence before believing any of the many claims of creature sighters.

“I try to interview the witness first,” he told us. “I try to understand the human element. The creature is important to me. But I’m never blown away by a piece of evidence. I always look for the motive.”

For instance, he investigated the claim by a veterinarian in Texas she had discovered a being that was “part human, part primitive.”

“My standard is: no data, no discovery,” Coleman said. “And why is she saying ridiculous things like ‘These are angels from heaven’?”

The article continues to talk about a few other cryptids but the subject comes back to Bigfoot and Mr. Coleman reveals what started his fascination for Cryptozoology; a Japanese movie about the Yeti.

Coleman said that for every 100 cases of new animal claims, about 80 of them are mistaken identity, one is a hoax and the other 19 are unknown.

“But the media goes crazy about the hoaxes,” he noted.

Coleman said Bigfoot hoaxers are “really evil people.”

“Let’s talk about Bigfoot,” Foer said, and Coleman was off and running.

He noted that when he surveys people who come to his International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Me. (the world’s only cryptozoology museum), “nine out of 10 are interested in Bigfoot.”

Coleman thinks he knows the reason: “Of all the cryptids, Bigfoot is the one that looks the most like us.”

Coleman isn’t about to declare Bigfoot is real but he did say, “I think there is something going on out there.”

He said the most “compelling” evidence is the Patterson-Gimlin footage of a hairy figure shot Oct. 20, 1967, in Bluff Creek, Calif. “You can see the mammary glands,” he noted. “And muscle contractions.”

Coleman added: “You see horses reacting to the creature. You have film, you have footprints. We have to be careful about putting all of our eggs in a basket. But if you look at it now, it’s the gold standard of all Bigfoot films.”

Coleman said we needn’t look for Bigfoot in populated regions such as Connecticut. But he noted: “You’ve got the melon heads in Shelton! Groups of unknown creatures in the woods with giant heads. They’re folk art.”

Coleman said, “I’ve been at this 53 years” and yet cryptozoology is still often dismissed as pseudo science. “I’ve long ago given up my defensiveness.”

He got interested in the field when he was a kid. The date was March 20, 1960. He saw a Japanese documentary, “Half Human,” about the Yeti (the Abominable Snowman).

You can read the full article at the New Haven Register