WATCH: Yale Ph.D. Champions Bigfoot Research

Cliff Barackman, Dr. Robert Michael Pyle and Guy Edwards

The Bigfoot community needs more people like Dr. Robert Michael Pyle, not just because he is a respected Yale academic, but because he equal parts hopeful and skeptic.

Most know Robert Michael Pyle as a lepidopterist, a butterfly expert. He has published twelve books and hundreds of papers, essays, stories and poems. His credentials include a Ph.D. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. It is from these credentials that Dr. Pyle was able to get a Guggenheim fellowship grant to pursue research "where bigfoot walks".  His studies were shared in one of the best written chronicles of an area where Sasquatch could live.

Last Tuesday, May 20th 2014, I had the honor of listening to Dr. Pyle present on the topic: "Of Butterflies and Bigfoot".

The presentation was described as, "The wildlands around Mount St. Helens are famous for the abundance of Bigfoot reports they have generated. Fewer people may be aware that the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is also good butterfly country. Dr. Pyle has researched and written extensively about both of these phenomena. In this program, Dr. Pyle will bring Bigfoot and butterflies together in a fascinating blend of natural history and lore that will open listeners' minds to all that resides (or might reside) in our wild woodlands."

Below is a short clip of Dr. Robert Michael Pyles segue into the Bigfoot portion of his presentation ( a part he calls the dessert). If you are a bigfooter you will find the clip inspiring. It's nice to see a high-profile academic encouraging a room of scientist to pursue Bigfoot research with such reason and heart.

Missing First Nation Bigfoot Mask Returns 75 Years Later

The mask disappeared in 1939 from Sts’ailes First Nation, near Harrison Hot Springs in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.

The Vancouver Sun tracks interesting Bigfoot news as a man's journeys across nations and decades to find a mask that was rumored to be taken by a man consumed and obsessed by the Sasquatch legend. Read an excerpt from the story below.

VANCOUVER - Hunting for an elusive sasquatch mask revered by a British Columbia First Nation has been a 16-year journey for James Leon, taking him through London, Boston, New York and Ottawa.

In the end, all it took was a question to the lady sitting next to him at a Vancouver event that led him to his nation's Sasq'ets mask that vanished 75 years ago.

Leon was at a repatriation event for another First Nations artifact held by the Vancouver Museum when he asked the lady sitting beside him if she knew of the ape-like mask partially covered in bear fur.

"Her eyes lit up and she said 'We were just looking at that mask the other day.' And they were gracious enough to go get it for me," he said with a chuckle.

The mask disappeared in 1939 from Sts'ailes First Nation, near Harrison Hot Springs in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.

Community elders told Leon that the mask had been taken by J.W. Burns, a teacher at the Chehalis Indian Day School, and a man obsessed with the sasquatch legend.

Burns, who is often credited for bringing the word "sasquatch" into common use, donated the mask to the Vancouver Museum.

Leon took the job of finding the mask seriously and learned it had been on travelling display. He searched through the archives of several museum's known for having artifacts from British Columbia.

While all those elders are gone, he said they'd be pleased the mask has been returned.

"We do burning for the sasquatch. It's our belief that his primary role is to ensure that the land is being taken care of. Because everyone of us, as Sts'ailes people, we carry an ancestral name, a rich name from the land."

Read more: Mask associated with Sasquatch lore returned to B.C. First Nation

Bigfoot Day Describes Three Types of Bigfoot Enthusiasts

Bigfoot Day in Clearfield speaker Fred Saluga explains his view that there are three groups of Bigfoot enthusiasts.
Photo: MARCUS SCHNECK,mschneck@pennlive.com

There was a strong UFO theme at the Bigfoot Day gathering in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Fred Saluga (pictured above) categorizes Bigfoot enthusiasts into three categories. Below is a snippet from an article by Marcus Schneck of PennLive.com, where you can read how Mr. Saluga categorizes the bigfoot enthusiasts.

Wide-ranging views on Bigfoot converged on Clearfield in northcentral Pennsylvania on Saturday, as about 50 Bigfoot enthusiasts and investigators gathered at the Clearfield Arts Studio Theatre for Bigfoot Day in Clearfield.

Bigfoot enthusiasts fall into one of three camps, the group heard from Fred Saluga, state director of the Mutual UFO Network of West Virginia and director of the West Virginia Mountain State Sasquatch Watch. The first believe that Bigfoot is a "cryptozoological hominid creature." (Cryptozoology is the search for animals that have not been proven to exist. The animals that cryptozoologists search for are often referred to as cryptids. A hominid is a primate mammal that resembles humans and apes, and walks on two legs.)

Saluga said, the second group thinks Bigfoot "dwells in extraterrestrial origin," travels interdimensionally and has UFO or non-Earthly ties. And, the third group believes the Bigfoot types envisioned by the first two groups are two different creatures.

"I think he's a creature from another dimension," he said. "He can come through whenever he wants, and he becomes like us, flesh and blood." For Saluga that explains why Bigfoot is not susceptible to diseases, infections and the like; never has been wounded by people shooting at him; and can simply walk away from or disappear from collisions with vehicles.

You can read the rest of the article at PennLive.com titled "Bigfoot Day in Clearfield draws enthusiasts and investigators with differing theories on Bigfoot"