John Green: a Lifetime of Sasquatch Research

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The RELICT HOMINOID INQUIRY 4:1-36 (2015)

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JOHN GREEN: A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH

This publication, the RHI, and its editor, are China Flats Museum. He truly established a indebted to the curiosity, commitment, and pragmatic foundation to the investigation of generosity of John Green. After spending over sasquatch, from which serious researchers and 50 years in pursuit of the sasquatch question, investigators now operate. it was John who encouraged this editor to John’s insight and perspectives are best undertake the creation of this journal, and who expressed in his own words. Therefore, in personally invested in its realization. It was addition to a biographical sketch provided by John’s example of persistently laying this cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, this tribute subject before the scientific community, of includes three previously unpublished challenging individual academics to object- discourses delivered by John, two of them tively engage the apparent evidence, that in presented before scientific bodies, i.e. The large measure inspired this editor to commit to International Society for Cryptozoology, and establishing a scholarly venue dedicated to the the Society for Scientific Exploration, the investigation and discussion of evidence for third at the opening of the new wing of the sasquatch and other relict hominoids. John had Willow Creek – China Flats Museum, a journalist’s knack for facts and a statesman’s dedicated to Bigfoot. skill for logically and eloquently articulating a compelling argument. His accumulated data John Willison Green base established a baseline from which an by Loren Coleman informed profile of the sasquatch could be inferred. His instructive books were John Green has enriched the study of instrumental in promoting a matter-of-fact unknown hair-covered primates in North consideration of the subject. He played a key America for decades. He once told a reporter role in establishing the collection of original he had a database of more than 3000 sighting casts and other artifacts at the Willow Creek – and track reports, before the advent of the

Internet. He holds the title as the first primary Ostman’s 1924 Sasquatch abduction incident. chronicler in Sasquatch studies. His work in John Green also extended the modern history the field has led some to affectionately refer to of Sasquatch back to the 1941 Ruby Creek John Green as “Mr. Sasquatch.” encounter labeled such because it happened a John Willison Green was born on February half-mile east of that little settlement in British 12, 1927, growing up in Harrison Hot Springs, Columbia. Although only the Chapman family British Columbia. His father was Howard was involved in this sighting, others in the Green, a long-time Member of the Canadian Ruby Creek area also saw the footprints. Parliament and a Cabinet Minister. His Although only the Chapman family was mother, Marion Green (nee Mounce), was the involved in this encounter, others in the Ruby daughter of a Vancouver Island lumber baron Creek area also saw the footprints. and the first woman to graduate from the During 1958, hundreds of large footprints University of British Columbia (UBC) school were found on a logging road near Bluff of Agricultural Sciences. Creek, California, by construction workers John Green's writing career began in 1944. and reported to authorities. One man, When Green was a student at the UBC, he bulldozer operator Jerry Crew, took a plaster wrote for the student newspaper, The Ubyssey cast of one track to a local newspaper as and the Totem yearbooks. He also covered “proof,” and the moniker “Bigfoot” was born. campus news for the Vancouver Province. John Green and his wife June immediately After graduating at 19 (UBC, BA, 1946, major drove south to investigate, but were told they English), he immediately went to Columbia were too late; the tracks had been back bladed. University, and soon obtained a Masters in Green grew skeptical and told his wife they Journalism. might have just driven three days for a prank. Green worked part-time for The Globe and He asked the road construction crew if they Mail in New York City, and then for two could look around, anyway. years as a full-time reporter at the paper’s Green says that what happened next was Toronto headquarters. He returned to June opened her car door and there was a Vancouver to cover local news for The footprint a few feet from their vehicle. What Province, worked for a time at the Victoria particularly impressed John Green was the Times Colonist, and then decided to purchase similarity between the outline of these Bluff the Agassiz-Harrison Advance in 1954. Creek tracks and the tracings he had of one of As a journalist and publisher, Green had the Ruby Creek footprints. Today, John Green access to a variety of British Columbia news, remains the sole surviving investigator of this and was first asked about Sasquatch in 1956 significant first American Bigfoot case. when Swiss-born René Dahinden entered During the years after 1958, Green became a Green’s office to inquiry about two-legged well-known member of a loose group of upright creatures, like the Abominable Bigfoot-Sasquatch hunters and researchers Snowmen, reported in the area. Green told working together and apart throughout the Dahinden the accounts were nonsense. Pacific Northwest. He was hired by Texas But Green continued hearing about lore and millionaire Tom Slick to track Sasquatch in sightings from people he respected. Thus British Columbia, and suggested to Roger Green started investigating Sasquatch reports Patterson he might wish to look for Bigfoot in in earnest in 1957, interviewing witnesses and the Bluff Creek, California area. When conducting on-site inquiries. In the late 1950s, Patterson and Bob Gimlin encountered and Green was the first to conduct an in-depth filmed a Bigfoot there on October 20, 1967, interview of Albert Ostman, regarding Green was one of the initial researchers to

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 3 understand the footage’s importance and get a he won a commissioner’s seat in 2002. screening of it before scientists at UBC. Bigfoot and Sasquatch were always there John Green’s first book On the Track of the too, of course. John Green noted to The Sasquatch, was soon published, and through Observer’s Michelle Vandepol: “In 1978 I co- various editions, has sold nearly 250,000 published with Hancock House a 492-page copies since its release in 1968. hard-cover book, Sasquatch, the Apes Among Green published three books over five years Us, which included different coverage of while he owned a printing business. The much of the same information that was in the books, On the Track of the Sasquatch, Year of earlier books and a lot more, including the Sasquatch, and The Sasquatch File, sold information from eastern North America.” mainly on magazine racks. The first two were Green did not stand still. In 2005, Green combined and published in 1973 by a wrote four updating chapters combining his California pocket book publisher, selling old books for Hancock House into a tome 100,000 copies alone. called The Best of Sasquatch Bigfoot. That Green sold The Advance in 1972, “when book and the Hancock’s second paperback income from my [Sasquatch] books exceeded version of Sasquatch the Apes Among Us are the net income from the overall business,” he still in print. told reporter Michelle Vanderpol of The Green became so famed for his Sasquatch Observer, August 22, 2007. He worked off studies that late in his life he complained and on over the next 18 years, part-time, for about trying to keep up with an ever-growing the Hope Standard, the Sidney Review and body of people who wanted to correspond the Advance. with him. Green kept encouraging others to go Green’s Sasquatch investigations were beyond his own works. He directly interacted merely one part of his life. He raised his and influenced many of the early researchers family, ran a business and pursued his in the field, including René Dahinden, Tom political aspirations. He ran for provincial Slick, Ivan T. Sanderson, Roger Patterson, office as a Conservative and lost four times. Loren Coleman, Mark A. Hall, Bob Titmus, Finally, he was elected as village mayor of Grover Krantz, Chris Murphy, and Jeff Harrison Hot Springs in 1963, and got funding Meldrum, to name a few. to have hundreds of thousands of tons of sand In Sasquatch Odyssey: The Hunt for Bigfoot from the lake bottom cover the large boulders (director Peter von Puttkamer, 1999), John found along the shore. He was responsible, Green is profiled as one of the “Four therefore, for creating the popular beach that Horsemen of Sasquatchery,” along with exists there today and transforming the area Grover Krantz, Rene Dahinden, and Peter into one of southern British Columbia’s most Byrne. popular tourist locales. He is the founder of John Green, a historical figure, major the World Sand Sculpture Championships. chronicler, and renowned authority in the field Green took on many challenges in his life. of Sasquatch investigations, has appeared as a He was a competitive sailboat racer in his keynote speaker at all three of the major youth, and designed and constructed the first scientific Sasquatch symposia held so far. He fiberglass hull sailboat to steer through British was the guest of honor at “A Tribute to John Columbian lakes. He also was a successful Green,” held in Harrison Hot Springs from investor of the inheritance he received from April 8–10, 2011, and attended by over 300 his father, and a philanthropist. Then finally, specially invited patrons. Tributes were given years after being mayor, Green returned to by most of the well-known figures in the field, politics. Forty years after first being elected, recognizing John Green’s contributions and

4 legacy to the study of these unknown Gilgamesh in the third millennium B.C., 1,500 hominoids, known as Sasquatch and Bigfoot. years before the siege of Troy. One translation The field of Sasquatch studies would have of the epic begins: an entirely different personality, if it were not “Gilgamesh was king of Uruk, a city for the gentle giant named John Green. set between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in ancient Babylonia. Enkidu was Footnote: born on the Steppe where he grew up John Green’s wife, June Doreen Green (the former June Howard) passed away on January 17, 2012. June and among the animals. Gilgamesh was John Green are the parents of five children. June had called a god and a man; Enkidu was an been ill for some time. Despite her health, she was at animal and man.” John’s side at 2011’s “A Tribute to John Green” (and And in the third and fourth verses we find was herself honored). this description of Enkidu:

“He ran with the animals, drank at The following remarks were delivered at the their springs, not knowing fear or Annual Conference of the International wisdom. He freed them from the traps Society for Cryptozoology, held at Washington the hunters set.” State University, Pullman, WA, in 1989. “A hunter's son one day saw Enkidu opening a trap. The creature was all Sasquatch: An Historical Overview covered with hair and yet his hands had the dexterity of men's: He ran beside the Someone, a few days ago, referred to me as freed gazelle like a brother.” the “keynote speaker” of this conference. Greek mythology, of course, describes a Well, I want to make it clear from the start variety of hairy bipeds, and Europeans in the that I have no such pretensions. Rather, I see Middle Ages were quite preoccupied with the my role as relating almost entirely to those of hairy “Wild Man,” in fact, King Charles VI of you whose cryptozoological interests have not France almost burned to death at a centered on the sasquatch, and who might masquerade in 1392 when a torch set his therefor benefit from some background wildman costume on fire. information on the subject. There are others Shifting to this continent, a variety of here who could give this talk, perhaps better newspaper reports of hairy bipeds have than I can, and who won't find much of been found in issues from the 1800's and interest in what I have to say, except perhaps the early years of this century – although not in noting points they disagree with. I will take as many, oddly, as have been found in no offense if they prefer to adjourn to the Australian publications. lounge. If they choose to stay I guess we will There are also many references in both have to suffer the consequences. ethnographic literature to semi-human To begin at the very beginning, reports of creatures, often hair-covered and often giants hair-covered, human-like creatures resembling that were considered part of the real world in what we now know as “sasquatches” go back North American Indian cultures. about as far as you can go. Bernal Diaz del It is from the Coast Salish Indians, living Castillo may have seen an Onza in in southwest British Columbia and the Montezuma's Zoo in 1519, and St. Columba northwest corner of this State that we have may have encountered the Loch Ness Monster received the name of “Sasquatch” which we in 580 A.D., but these are relatively recent are using at this symposium – although the news bulletins. We in the sasquatch field can man who popularized the word has stated go back to the ancient Sumerian epic of that the original form of it was something

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 5 spelled SASKAHAVAS – ''Saskahavas.” That Vancouver, B.C. There an Indian woman man was John W. Burns, who for about 30 living in an isolated cabin by the river bank years during the first half of this century lived told of a hairy giant frightening her away from with the Chehalis Indians on their reserve on her home, and many people later examined a the banks of the Harrison River, about 60 trail of 16-inch, human-like footprints miles due east of Vancouver, British approaching interviewed in later years, Columbia. He was a teacher and Indian agent, witnesses recalled that the track-maker's and he took seriously the stories of giant, hairy weight crushed potatoes in the ground, and wild men told to him by his Indian friends. that it appeared plainly to have stepped over a He also wrote about them for local four-foot railroad fence without breaking newspapers and eventually for major stride. magazines in Canada. Interest in the sasquatch waned after Mr. In July, 1924, there was quite a bit of Burns retired and moved to San Francisco, but excitement around Portland, Oregon, when the it was revived in 1956 when Rene Dahinden newspapers carried stories of a group of showed up in the Harrison area determined to prospectors encountering a band of apes on hunt for them, and in 1957 the village of Mount St. Helens. They said that they had Harrison Hot Springs stirred up world-wide shot at least one of the animals and that others publicity by proposing to hold a sasquatch had then attacked their cabin with a barrage of hunt as part of British Columbia's centennial rocks at night. The name of “Ape Canyon,” celebration. This publicity resulted in several high up on the east side of the volcano, new stories coming to light, including an commemorated this incident until the account by a man who told of observing an mountain blew the whole area away. apelike animal at close range on a mountain At that time newspapers quoted information side in east-central British Columbia only two from the Clallam Indians about a giant, hairy years before. This man, who was an tribe called “Seeah-tiks.” Otherwise, Mr. experienced wildlife observer, described, and Burns seems to have been the only person provided a drawing of, a female six feet tall taking a serious interest in the stories of such and almost three feet wide which was giants. There may be a question whether his completely covered with dark brown, silver- efforts come within the field of cryptozoology, tipped hair, walked upright like a man and ate since the information he compiled pictured the leaves from a bush by stripping the branches sasquatch as a tribe of giant humans, but there with its teeth. This and other accounts that is no doubt that he was the pioneer, the grand surfaced at that time contradicted the popular old man, of sasquatch research. conception of the sasquatch as a tribe of giant Up to this point, obviously, I have been Indians, describing instead a creature that dealing only with stories that could easily be acted like an animal and looked like a huge dismissed as lies or legends. There were ape walking upright. footprints reported seen by the miners at Ape Just a year later, in the summer of 1958, Canyon, huge four-toed ones, and Mr. Burns there was a second surge of interest in the also told of having seen at least one giant subject generated quite independently in the footprint, but no pictures or even drawings northwest corner of California. There huge survive. The first incident that I know of footprints started to appear overnight in the which brought the sasquatch into the realm of dirt of a road construction job, 20 miles up a zoology, although on a delayed-action basis, remote valley beside a stream called Bluff took place in October, 1941, at Ruby Creek, Creek. One of the road crew made a cast of a beside the Fraser River 70 miles east of footprint and took it to a newspaper, and as a

6 result the word “Bigfoot” came into common hundreds of stories came to light, some of use and I.S.C. honorary member Bob Titmus them old, but mainly current eye-witness began his lifelong hunt for the animals that reports of encounters with hairy bipeds. make the footprints. There were also thousands of giant, human- What was particularly significant about like tracks found, and the casts made of them “Bigfoot” to me was that a tracing of his track may well have numbered in the hundreds that was almost a perfect match for the outline of was the situation before Roger Patterson and the cast made at Ruby Creek, 17 years before Bob Gimlin emerged from Bluff Creek in and 800 miles away. The California situation October, 1967, with a 16-mm motion picture differed drastically from that in British of a female creature exactly matching the Columbia in that footprints continued to show witnesses' descriptions of a heavily-built, hair- up there, and in fact can still be found in the covered bipedal ape. vicinity of Bluff Creek to this day. In the late That movie stirred up enormous interest in 1950's and early 60's they were seen so the subject, which again brought out many old frequently that tracks of three individuals and new reports of sightings, eventually became quite familiar to those who were numbering into the thousands, and stimulated studying them. There have probably always scores of people to get involved in been a few enthusiasts, like the deputy from investigating the matter. Many of those people Bellingham, investigating sasquatch reports took only a temporary interest, actively at without their activities coming to public least, but others have stuck with it, and of attention, and I know now of a footprint cast course quite a few of them are here. I am not from Washington and a footprint photo from supposed to talk all day, however, so from this California that apparently pre-date the first point on I will name no names, and I will not Bigfoot excitement. try to follow developments chronologically. Mainly, though, widespread activity in The Patterson movie, although taken more searching for the sasquatch dates from the than 20 years ago, remains the most casting of that track in 1958. In particular, impressive piece of evidence that the major magazine articles by the late Ivan sasquatch is a real animal. The site where it Sanderson, plus several chapters in his book was taken is well known and was studied by “Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to many people before time altered its Life” stimulated a lot of people to get appearance, leaving no grounds for doubt that involved. Also, media attention to the subject the movie does show something walking in brought out many stories from new areas, that particular location. mainly, although not entirely, on the Pacific If it is not a sasquatch, therefore, it must be slope from Alaska to Southern California. an imitation of one, either a machine or a man I am not any sort of authority regarding the in an ape suit. And since no walking machine “Abominable Snowman” in Asia, but of such sophistication has been devised even naturally have paid attention to news on that yet, that explanation can be disregarded with subject over the years, and I note that from the absolute certainty. Anyone who has seen the Himalayas the same few stories come up over pathetic attempts of the movie industry, with and over again. Also, I have noted a lack of all its resources, to present sasquatch any reference to tracks being found in any imitations on the screen, would naturally material except snow, and I am not aware of a assume that that explanation can also be ruled single plaster cast of a footprint. out, but that cannot be the case, since to do In North America, by contrast, just in the so would involve accepting that the animal is decade after “Bigfoot” left his mark, literally real. And I am not convinced myself that

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 7

Hollywood could not produce a successful location was such that there seemed to be no imitation of the image on the Patterson film, way mechanical power could have been blurred and underexposed as it is, if the best applied. The idea persists that there must be technicians set out to do exactly that. What I somewhere people competent to do tests that am convinced of is that a couple of amateurs would establish absolutely whether such from Yakima, Washington, could not do it. tracks could be faked or not, but so far. If There have been a few other motion pictures there are such people, experts and tracks have brought forward since that are supposed to never been brought together. show sasquatches, and quite a few still Footprints are not common and most are photographs. Personally, I don't think any of encountered by accident. It may well be that the other movies are genuine, so I am not sasquatches generally avoid walking where going to talk about them. Some of the still footprints would show. Still, with enough photos could be the real thing, but the problem patience, they can be found. As to eye- is that they don't show nearly enough to be witness reports, perhaps the most impressive convincing in themselves, they depend for thing about them is that they can be found so their authenticity on the story that goes with readily, in so many places. Anyone who them. Those that could indeed show a attracts public attention as an investigator of sasquatch could equally well show an this phenomenon can count on being imitation of a Sasquatch. There is no way to contacted by people with a story to tell. A lot tell. of these witnesses are in the category What then, besides the movie, has more than zoologists like to dismiss as not being 30 years of searching for evidence of the “qualified observers,” but some are not – for sasquatch produced? Mainly footprints and instance the head naturalist at a national park eye-witness accounts, either of which could in the United States and the chief inspector for be, and in some cases have been proven to be, a provincial humane society in Canada. deliberate deceptions. They should not be In many cases it can be argued that even if disregarded on that account, however. As the witnesses are telling the truth they did not evidence they should be accorded the weight see anything that could not have been staged in a scientific investigation as they would in as a hoax, but again there are exceptions, any other form of investigation – a subject that where the creature is described as performing I am scheduled to deal with specifically later actions beyond the physical capability of a today. human. And there are cases where these two And while stories can be made up and conditions are combined. Not far south of footprints faked, there are some aspects of here, on Highway 95 in Idaho, on April 4, them not so easily dismissed. Our chairman, 1980, Chief Inspector Donald Hepworth of for example, has studied dermal ridges – the the Ontario Humane Society said he drove little hills and valleys that fingerprints are within 10 feet of two hair-covered bipeds that made of – found on some footprint casts, and were crossing the road and saw one of them has obtained opinions from experts in that go up a six-foot-high bank in a standing high field that these could not be artificially jump. duplicated. Unfortunately this evidence has Stories like that can be dismissed only on not so far been accepted as conclusive. the grounds that the witness is not telling the It has also seemed apparent in a number of truth. There is of course, a popular notion – cases that footprints showed too much popular at least among supposed experts compression of the ground to have been made interviewed on television programs – that with human weight and strength, yet their human beings have some inborn need to

8 imagine monsters. These experts never seem either human, chimpanzee or gorilla. It to be required to prove the existence of this certainly wasn’t human, since much of the need, their academic degrees apparently sample was wool hairs, which humans lack, authorize them to assume it, but I have a and the guard hairs all had tapered ends, question for them: How do they explain the whereas human hair grows continuously and fact that, in North America at least, the human is cut off square. It would have been easy to need to imagine monsters dries up in regions check the other two possibilities with a where the annual rainfall is less than 20 comparison microscope if any of the hairs inches? remained, but they had all been ground up in It is also assumed, again without any order to get a maximum amount of protein requirement to produce proof, that monster from them. Next time, l am sure, some will be reports can be explained away by noting that a saved. movie on the subject has recently been shown Interesting hair and feces are not readily or in the area in question. It is true that publicity frequently found, but it can be done. What has regarding an actual sighting report in an area never been found is any bone or flesh from often brings out additional reports, but it is which identification acceptable to most also true that the movie “Harry and the scientists could presumably be made. The Hendersons,” which I expect was seen by a far question why, if such creatures exist, no one greater audience than any other movie on this has ever killed one or found a body is object, did not seem to stir up any reports at certainly valid. There are a few stories of such all. things happening, but physical remains have Besides tracks and sighting reports, what never been produced. I have no answer to that other evidence has been produced in 30 years. challenge that could be expected to satisfy There isn't a great deal, but some of what there zoologists in general, or even members of the is can't be lightly dismissed. A talk scheduled general public, but with cryptozoologists this later today will contain information, I expect, presumably is not a problem, since all of you about rotten logs found torn apart as if by a are searching for creatures about which the bear searching for grubs, but without claw same thing can be said. marks, and there are holes dug in rocky slopes And unlike its cryptozoological predecessor, as if by bears digging for rodents where the the gorilla, the sasquatch does have suitable rocks that came out of the holes have been fossilized forbears. Many people have found neatly piled. There have also been hairs surmised that the sasquatch is just Giganto- and fecal material collected that did not match pithecus, not extinct after all; Australopithecus anything to be expected from creatures known robustus also has its supporters. to be in the area. I have mentioned that for quite a few years This sort of evidence I wrote off many years there have been a lot of people looking for the ago as being of no use because the best it sasquatch, and that could easily leave the could lead to was a verdict of “unknown,” but impression that if these things exist one should I have considerable hope for it today. Modern have been found by this time. I would like to techniques for identifying proteins promise to make it clear therefore, that the odds are be capable of expanding that verdict otherwise. No scientific or other institution “unknown higher primate,” which would with the resources to go about the task certainly be of value. There is already one effectively has ever been involved in more case in which hair collected in connection than a marginal way, and few of the laymen with other evidence of sasquatch activity has who have been active have spent much time been identified by radioimmunoassay as being doing anything that could actually settle the

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 9 matter. have talked to in Florida, Texas, New Jersey You can’t bring in a sasquatch by compiling and Ohio seemed as down-to-earth and bibliographies, or by writing newsletters, or credible, on the average, as those I have by interviewing witnesses, or even by casting interviewed out here. Eastern reports often footprints. You can't even do it by finding a involve odd-shaped footprints too, quite a few sasquatch unless you are prepared to do of them with the wrong number of toes – something effective about it when you get the generally three. And there are creatures with chance. Quite a few people who have looked eyes that shine red in the dark even when there for sasquatches claim to have found them – all is no light to reflect, plus a few that have that does is to add to the list of eye-witness been said to change shape or vanish when accounts, of which there is already a surplus. shot at. Even taking a good movie of sasquatch is not There is also a widespread tendency to link likely to prove a significant contribution, since sasquatch reports with U.F.O. lore, suggesting that too has already been done. they involve experimental animals brought to It used to be that a fair proportion of the earth in space ships, or even that the space people trying to find a sasquatch hunted them ship pilots are large, hairy humanoids. Such with guns, but public attitudes towards man's stories are not unknown out West, and there relationship with animals have been changing are lots of straightforward, uncomplicated rapidly, and while there are still people who sighting reports from the east, but the contend that shooting a sasquatch is the proportions of the two are different. It would logical way to establish that the species does be convenient to be able to say that the exist, I have the impression that there are very anomalous reports don’t fit and therefor can few man-hours spent these days in actual be disregarded as mistaken or untrue, but of sasquatch hunting. course that is exactly what we in the sasquatch Another major change that has taken place is field object to when it is said to us by that the bulk of sasquatch reports no longer orthodox scientists. Being a layman, however, come from the traditional areas like British I don’t recognize any obligation to follow this Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Northern subject beyond where my own interest stops, California. Information from those places has and I have no wish to look for things that can been scarce for more than a decade while in vanish when shot. Or ride off in flying the same period there have been clusters of saucers. reports from unlikely locations like Florida, I remain convinced that whatever else is or Maryland, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. is not out there, the mountains forests of It is very easy to demonstrate that from western North America do support a California to Alaska there is ample mountain population of ordinary earthbound animals forest to support a population of large that are covered with hair, walk upright and omnivores. In the eastern part of the continent occasionally leave behind trails of enormous, this is more questionable, but a statistic I human-like footprints, and that is what I am learned last winter that Ohio licenses 300,000 looking for. Further, even though we do not deer hunters each season, suggests that there have indisputable evidence that such animals can be plenty of wild land even in places that exist, I contend that once they are proven to are generally considered to be densely exist we will already know a lot about them. populated with humans. If the animal is real, then it is only I have not been able to do much reasonable to assume that most of the people investigating in the east, so I can’t say much who claim to have seen one, really did so, and about those reports, except that witnesses I the odds are that most of the things

10 consistently described in eye-witness reports western reports would require substantial are correct. On the basis of observed behavior, numbers. If the same species is responsible we know that these are not the giant humans also for the eastern reports and those from of some of J.W. Burns' stories, nor even the every other continent except Antarctica, then semi-humans of popular fancy, but a very this is the most widespread wild creature in animal sort of animal, living much the same the world. life as a bear.

Sasquatches resemble humans in that they The following remarks were delivered at the walk upright, have legs that are longer than Willow Creek - China Flats Museum, Willow their arms, and have flat faces. There the Creek, CA, in 2003. resemblance ends. Sasquatches are a great deal larger than humans, wider and thicker in Most of you will have noticed that I am not proportion as well as being taller, so that an Jane Goodall, and you may well be wondering eight-foot sasquatch might easily weigh more why I have been asked to fill her spot at this than 1000 pounds. They are covered all over symposium. Well, you are missing the obvious. with hair, but do not have long hair on their We have the same initials. That Dr. Goodall has heads, and their necks are so short that they been unable to keep her commitment to speak often appear to have no neck at all. here is most unfortunate. Her presence might They are solitary creatures, usually seen well have focused the attention of the media on alone, they eat a great variety of things, the fact, which they have so far largely including meat, and can apparently see in the succeeded in ignoring, that scientists of world- dark, as, they are as often seen at night as in wide reputation are starting to take a serious the daytime. Unlike other apes they are good look at the evidence that humans are not the only swimmers, and make considerable use of bipedal primates on Earth. That, in my opinion, water. Big and strong as they are, they do not is the current development that holds the greatest have at all the same relationship to other promise for the future of Bigfoot/sasquatch animals that an unarmed man would have. investigation. They do not have homes and there is no It is by no means just Jane Goodall. In recent evidence even that they use caves, although years I have had considerable contact with they probably have to find or make some sort George Schaller, director of science for the of den to sleep through the winter in, since Wildlife Conservation Society; Esteban they are seldom reported then. They do not Sarmiento, primate specialist at the American have speech and they do not know the use of Museum of Natural History; Russell tools or fire. They can throw objects, but only Mittermeier, president of Conservation underhand with a looping trajectory. They International and chairman of the world-wide may not have an opposable thumb. Primate Specialist Group, and Daris Swindler, Towards humans they are not aggressive, author of the atlas of comparative anatomy of although they sometimes show considerable man and chimpanzee. curiosity, to the extent of looking in windows All but Dr. Mittermeier have spent time or shaking human habitations. There are a few examining the Skookum cast. All of them are on reports of threatening behavior, but not our side. They have all stated, all but one of leading to actual attack. They don't necessarily them publicly, that the evidence already run away, but there seems to be no reason to accumulated establishes the case for full consider them dangerous. scientific participation in getting to the bottom Finally, they are certainly not an endangered of this matter. Dr. Mittermeier told me that he species. To populate just the area of the has long considered taking up the hunt himself-

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 11 and he told Jeff Meldrum that he would not fear never sought publicity, so he never became well being criticized for doing so, because he and his known, but not even Rene Dahinden dedicated team have already discovered several other his life to the hunt for Bigfoot to the extent that unknown primates. Bob did. And no one in the 40 years that he was Dr. Swindler, whom I have known for more active accomplished anything to compare with than 30 years, has appeared in documentaries on what he accomplished. this subject in the past as the obligatory If you think that statement is extreme, try to skeptical scientist. Now, after careful think of anyone else whose original materials – examination of the best heel print in the not clippings or copies – could form the basis Skookum cast, he has expressed the conviction for a substantial museum exhibit. And yet almost that it is the heel print of a large unknown all of this is from California. The bulk of his primate – and he would be here with us today if time was spent in British Columbia and the his health permitted. material from the most productive period, when With this high-profile support, and with the he was able to spend full time in the hunt, was increasing number of less eminent but fully- lost when his boat burned and sank while he was qualified zoologists and physical anthro- on shore. Bob was a hunter all his life, and was pologists, who are already participating at their also a master taxidermist, so he knew a lot more own expense, the time may well be near when about animal sign and animal anatomy than most scientific institutions, with resources and of us. He also had almost unlimited patience and funding, will join us in our search. perseverance, great assets when looking for All that, however, is in the future and I am individual hairs in the underbrush. What's more, really about the past. The number of individuals his subconscious mind was tuned to continuously and groups now participating in the investigation check out animal tracks from a moving car no and the amount of information now available on matter what else had his attention, the way most the internet have gone far beyond my ability to of us are subconsciously aware of the traffic monitor, and my own recent efforts have around us. produced nothing worthy of the keynote position From the time in 1958, when his old friend that has been assigned to me here. Jerry Crew came back from the Bluff Creek road What I do have is experience, nearly a half job with a cast that proved that the huge tracks century of it, so mainly I will talk about that. I were not just big bear tracks, Bob devoted all the would like to start with a few words about Bob time he could afford to the search for the track Titmus. Those of you who have had a chance to maker. Initial success came quickly. After only a go through the Bigfoot wing of the Willow few weeks he and his friend Ed Patrick, who is Creek museum will have noted that most of the here today, found on a sandbar in Bluff Creek items exhibited are his, and you have probably slightly smaller tracks of distinctly different made the connection that without him there shape, proving that “Bigfoot'' was not just a would be no Bigfoot wing and we wouldn't be freak individual, but a member of a population. holding this symposium. The casts that Bob made on that early occasion What you may not realize is that without Bob are on display in the museum, and are still Titmus there would have been no magazine among the best ever made anywhere. articles by Ivan Sanderson, no expeditions Progress was much slower after that, and a few funded by Tom Slick, no movie by Roger years later Bob abandoned his beloved Patterson, no books by John Green or Grover taxidermy, selling his business so that he could Krantz or John Bindernagel – and in all spend full time in what was then a hot area on the probability most of you would never even have coast of British Columbia. There he suffered heard of Bigfoot. Bob never wrote a book and back injuries that left him fighting extreme pain

12 for the rest of his life, but he kept up the hunt, smaller presumably have a very different including many returns for weeks or months at history. Bluff Creek. On one of those trips he made his Also I should warn you that some of the things invaluable series of footprint casts from the I have to say will be things many of you don't Patterson film site, and on another he drained a want to hear, and may refuse to accept. Being, pond to get at what I consider are probably the like a lot of sasquatch hunters, a contrary sort of only genuine hand impressions ever cast. person, I’ll get to that part right away. Another accomplishment, which should have First, and foremost, we are not involved in a settled this whole matter years ago, was story that can be shaped to fit our own fantasies, gathering one by one from twigs where he had and it is not necessarily one with a happy reason to believe a sasquatch had passed, a set of ending. Most of us probably started out with a hairs that were identified by radioimmunoassay mental image of what these creatures are, but if as having to be either chimpanzee, gorilla or we aren't prepared to amend it to fit the facts as human. The eminent scientist who made the we learn them we are not likely to accomplish identification had previously established by the anything. Most of us also want to believe that same method that chimpanzees are more closely our efforts will be beneficial to the sasquatch in related to humans than to gorillas, a finding since the future. I sincerely hope that will be the confirmed through DNA, so that identification eventual result, but experience suggests that a was as good as saying “it's something close to disturbing episode will come first. all three but not any of them.” Bob knew they The evidence is crystal clear that we are were not human hairs, because there were guard dealing with animals, not semi-humans or super- hairs that all tapered to a point, while human humans. That means that anything that any of us guard hairs, all on the head, grow continuously do towards proving that sasquatch exist brings and have cut-off ends. That they weren't chimp closer the day when zoologists and physical or gorilla hairs was equally obvious, since they anthropologists will take over from the were brown and found on twigs in a California amateurs. forest. That they were something different from They will want to study these creatures in all three could have been established in minutes every possible way, and some, I expect, will get with a comparison microscope, but the scientist official permission to collect for dissection not had ground up every hair. one, but several. I am, of course, familiar with I spent a lot of time with Bob and I could tell the argument that we should only study stories that you would find a lot more sasquatch the way Dr. Goodall studies entertaining than what I am actually going to chimpanzees, and such methods will certainly be say, but my main role in this investigation, tried. I doubt, however that they will prove to be especially in recent years, has been the collection practical with creatures that are so much more and study of information, and since I have been mobile in their home environment than humans, at it for so long and since I no longer write and even if they are practical, they cannot books, I believe that I should use this provide all the information that will be wanted. opportunity to pass on to you some of what I The anatomy of creatures that walk in much the think I have learned. same way that humans do is going to be studied Let me stress that I am speaking strictly about in detail. To do that effectively will involve just one form of unrecognized bipedal primate, dissection, and will require more than one the huge one that makes the enormous footprints cadaver, because the cuts made while exploring in North America. There are others described, one bodily system destroy the others. particularly in Eurasia, that I don't pretend to You may consider what I have described so know much about, and those which are a lot horrifying that it will never be allowed, and

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 13 attitudes towards animal rights may have is knuckle walking. We are the only recognized changed to the point where that will be the case, bipeds, but there are two knuckle-walking but 30 years ago I was shown a freezer full of groups, chimpanzees and gorillas. Although chimpanzees stacked up like cordwood awaiting chimpanzees are far more arboreal than gorillas dissection for just such a study. So if your top their feet are very similar, and like gorillas they priority is to make sure that no sasquatch is have special pads for walking on the backs of killed, your most logical course is to do what their fingers. Common sense says that such odd over the years quite a few like•minded people adaptions must have a common origin, so have already done – drop the whole thing and chimps and gorillas must be each other's closest hope, although of course it won’t happen, that relatives. Immune reactions and DNA analysis, everyone else will do the same. however both say that the chimpanzee's nearest I call these big creatures sasquatch because relative is us. Knuckle walking, therefore, must that is the name for them where I come from, far have evolved after the gorilla's ancestors started older than “Bigfoot”, and not so suggestive that their own branch of the family tree, and there is only one of them. But why do I call them chimpanzees and gorillas must have evolved it animals? Not just because of what I have learned separately. I am not submitting that as proof that about them in the last 46 years, but more because humans and sasquatch evolved upright of what scientists have learned during that bipedalism separately, but it does prove that it period about human origins. could have happened, and considering that our Fossil finds have established that more than a DNA is almost identical to that of chimpanzees million years ago our forebears had already lost and bonobos, the chance that we are even more the primate's best natural weapons – fighting closely related to sasquatch seems to me to be a teeth. And for evolution to reduce their dental very slim one. armament until it became no better than our The other thing I have to say that may well own must have required a similar previous upset some of you is this. There is nothing new period when those small, slow bipeds had about people claiming that they have been able weapons in their hands. That gives some idea of to make detailed observations of sasquatches and the almost unimaginable amount of time that know all about their appearance and behavior. human ancestors spent relying more and more on People with stories like that have turned up mental adaptions, mastering the use of weapons numerous times in the past 45 years, and so far and tools, precise communication and group co- the end result has always been disappointment. If ordination, in order to survive on the dangerous you are involved with such a person, be cautious. African plains and become what we are today. I have watched former colleagues get so deeply The idea that creatures which emerged from committed and then so sharply disillusioned that that time period equipped with magnificent it soured them on the whole subject and they physical adaptions also acquired mental abilities dropped out. similar or superior to our own may have Similarly there is nothing new about people romantic appeal but it is evolutionary nonsense. believing they see or hear or smell evidence of But they walk upright like us, so they must be sasquatch presence almost every time they go our close relatives. Something as unusual as out in the woods. But unidentified sounds and upright bipedalism couldn't have evolved twice. smells are just that, unidentified sounds and That is a compelling common-sense argument, smells. And shapes found in photographs that but science has recently blown a huge hole in it. could be sasquatches could also not be. There are Among the few higher primates known to exist other agencies besides sasquatch that can take there are two very unusual methods of food, make beds of vegetation, break trees and locomotion, one is upright bipedalism, the other branches, move rocks, pound on things or make

14 interesting depressions in the ground. only on their heads, who lived in villages, held There have been cases where people have gone annual get-togethers on a special mountain, and far beyond any reasonable extreme to fool used signal fires. His descriptions, so contrary to someone with manufactured evidence of the media image of his time, have stood up sasquatch presence, and also cases where people wonderfully well over the years. More than that, have gone pretty far to fool themselves. Try not he was questioned for hours by Daris Swindler to add to that list. All of us surely hope that and the veterinarian from the Seattle primate someday some such story will be proved to be center, and they told me that the physical details true, and at my age I tend to wish very hard that it and the actions he said he had witnessed all rang will happen soon, but my experience offers no true. Did he actually observe such creatures, in reason for optimism. Many years ago I decided whatever circumstances? There is just his story, that people who saw so much and knew so much with no supporting evidence, and that is were a long way ahead of me, so they had no unfortunate, because there are elements in his need of my help and I would just await definite story that would be very significant but are not results. I am still waiting. confirmed by subsequent reports. No one else, to For anyone hoping to persuade mainstream my knowledge, has claimed that the females go science to take on this quest and provide the out and gather food to bring back to a home expertise and resources to bring it to a place, or that sasquatch sleep in woven blankets conclusion, episodes of this sort do real harm. of bark and moss, and while there is indeed a Those who take them seriously end up looking widespread assumption that they live in family foolish, and the prospect of looking foolish is groups the bulk of evidence suggests, to me at surely one of the main reasons why few of the least, that they do not. scientists that we know have an interest in this Another witness who contributed some unique subject do anything about it, and why there is no elements of information did have evidence to financial or institutional support for those that do show. Glen Thomas, a logger living in Colton, take it up. Oregon, eventually claimed four separate In this respect I have my own cross to bear, the sightings, which is more than enough to set Albert Ostman story. How could we have taken alarm bells ringing, but his first story, of seriously his tale about being carried off in his watching a big male sasquatch dig deep into sleeping bag by a big male sasquatch, being kept broken rock high up on a mountain ridge to get corralled in a box canyon with a family that at hibernating rodents, was backed up by the included an old lady, a young male and a hole in the rocks, five feet deep, as steep-sided as younger female, and escaping by getting the old a well, and obviously beyond human ability to male to swallow a box of snuff? Albert was a duplicate without machinery. He also had very believable fellow, who handled tough something to say bearing on the family cross•examination with cheerful composure, hypothesis. A female and infant were with the swore to his story without hesitation, and stuck big male and shared in eating the rodents, but to it until he died, but I wouldn't believe him if Glen noted that the young one was always he were telling it today. Today, however, he careful to keep on the other side of its mother would have easy sources for his descriptions of from the male. Glen Thomas did not tell his first those four individuals and what they did. When story until after the Patterson movie was public his story came to light, in 1957, the opposite was knowledge, but another account of exceptionally the case. Sasquatch were not commonly thought detailed observations came to light not just of as completely hair-covered creatures living before the movie, but before the first “Bigfoot” much the same life as a bear, instead their public cast was made in 1958. image was that of a tribe of giant Indians, hairy William Roe, a man whom I later learned had

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 15 an established reputation as an accurate observer found the new tracks, and from Ed Schellenberg of wildlife, told of watching a six•foot, very and perhaps others, who were there when the heavy, hair-covered, obviously female creature original Bigfoot tracks showed up on the Bluff in a small clearing on a mountain near Tete Creek jobsite. Jaune Cache, British Columbia. He said it was I have mentioned that the bulk of evidence eating from a hush, not berries but the leaves. does not support the hypothesis that sasquatch The Ostman and Roe stories had a lot to do live in family groups. On what basis do I make with my becoming caught up in this that statement? Well, I wasn't always the investigation so long ago, but there was another homebody I tend to be today. I won't bore you that was even more instrumental. That was with specifics, but I spent many years and something that had taken place at Ruby Creek, traveled many miles stirring up, investigating British Columbia, in 1941. As a sighting report it and recording sighting reports and footprint was nothing special, a women living in an finds, and I conducted an information exchange isolated home on an Indian reserve told of involving most of the investigators active at the seeing a hairy giant approach from the nearby time. It certainly didn't compare with what the woods. She fled, but a group of men went to Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has investigate and found a series of huge human- done in recent years, but it went on a lot longer, like tracks which, among other things, indicated and the number of reports that I had on file grew that the track maker had stepped casually over a year by year from dozens to hundreds and four-foot railway fence. I was told that story in eventually to thousands. For a while I even tried 1957 by one of the men involved, someone I to keep up with all the information that became already knew and respected, and I later spoke available after the internet got going, but that has with three other people who had seen the tracks. now grown beyond what I care to attempt. I was also told that a deputy sheriff from Every few years I used to go through a complex Bellingham, Washington, had come to exercise in trying to analyze the information in investigate at the time. He had since died, but those reports, counting tiny symbols on big from his son I obtained a tracing of a footprint sheets of graph paper, until that became cast that he had made. When I came to this area completely impractical. Then, about 10 years in 1958 I had that tracing with me, and, as you ago, I switched to trying to do it with a can see, it is almost a perfect match for a tracing computer – and I knew nothing about that Bob Titmus had made from Jerry Crew's computers. “Bigfoot” cast. Sasquatch hunting in the early days used to be Ordinarily at this point I might go on to tell of stimulating, even exciting at times, occasionally seeing some old tracks on the Bluff Creek Road hilarious. Entering thousands of reports in a on that occasion and of returning to see the computer is just a wearisome grind, and many a second type of tracks found by Bob Titmus, and sad software story is involved before you even also of my experiences with Roger Patterson get to that stage. I won't bore you with specifics, before and after he got his movie. The time to but nothing comes easy. In any event, for the deal with those events, however, is tomorrow past several years I have had thousands of reports afternoon in the panel discussion, with other entered, currently just over 4,000, and people who were much more closely involved considerable ability to get answers to questions than I was. from them. For the first time at any symposium, you will For many questions only a minority of the have the opportunity to hear directly from Bob reports contains any answers, but nearly all Gimlin, who was with Roger on that fateful day, reports tell how many creatures were involved from Ed Patrick, who was with Bob when they and their size. Currently, out of 3,684 such

16 reports, 3,325 list single adults and 171 list more encounters there was no smell noticed at all. than one adult. Small creatures by themselves We used to speculate whether the lack of smell were reported 111 times, and small creatures in some cases, strong smell in others, indicated with one adult 37 times. Only 40, or just over that sasquatch shared with dogs an inclination one percent of the reports, involve combinations to roll in strong-smelling things, but gorilla of large and small creatures that may have been researcher Dian Fossey has provided a more families including an adult male and female. likely explanation. In her book “Gorillas in the Only 32 of the creatures seen alone were Mist,” she refers several times to a powerful described as adult females, so it seems plain, “fear odor” produced by adult male gorillas assuming that sasquatch do exist, that only the under stress, and notes that they have special adult males normally behave in ways that expose glands in their armpits from which the scent is them to a risk of being seen by humans. That emitted. does leave open the possibility that females and As to frequently asked questions, how many young are often present but remain out of sight, times have we heard the challenge, “If these however it seems to me beyond reason to elevate things exist, how come hunters (or loggers, or that possibility to an assumption. The family of prospectors etc.) never see them?” (An even one male, one female and their offspring is, after more frequent question is “If these things exist all, unknown among large higher primates other how come nobody ever sees them?” but you than man. don't need a computer to answer that.) As to It has always been my hope that someone the people whose recreation or occupation would show up who could write a program that regularly takes them into the woods, the would set the computer, on its own, searching answer, of course, is that they do report day and night for relationships among the sightings and they do find tracks. hundreds of items of information until they At the end of 1995, I had 1162 entries of revealed something unsuspected that would be sightings and track finds in which the activity of useful. So far that hasn't happened, but by less the witness was noted. Of these, 125 were exotic means the computer has provided hunting, 34 logging, 23 prospecting, 10 trapping interesting answers to some frequently-asked and 77 involved in other outdoor occupations. questions, and has poked holes in some of the The commonest sighting report, by far, was things we used to think we knew. something seen on or by a road from a car, and Consider smell, for instance. It seems as if the second most common something seen people are always reporting that sasquatch have outside by a person in a house. Of encounters in a terrible smell. In Florida they are even called the wild, at least a third were by hunters or “skunk apes.” The numbers tell a very different people working there. story, at least for western North America. In the One of the questions that we ourselves tend to spring of 1995, when I had only western ask is whether sasquatch migrate with the entries completed, strong smell was mentioned seasons, the hope being that they might regularly in only 72 out of 923 descriptions. Of course in pass by the same spot at the same time of year. In many cases, because of distance or some other 1996, I looked at the evidence of the computer reason, there could have been a smell that the entries in three different ways: the relationship witness did not detect, so I checked the few of altitude to the time of year; the relationship of entries where the animal was reported to be 10 direction of travel to the time of year, and the feet or less away and not separated from the relationship of location to the time of year. witness by glass or any other barrier. The None of these showed any consistent pattern result, there were 14 mentions of a strong smell that would indicate migration. Altitudes were and four of a mild smell, while in 26 highest in summer, but lowest in the spring, not

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 17 the winter. Direction of travel was a mishmash of had known all along it was a Ray Wallace hoax. inadequate numbers, but showing a slight It was a totally irresponsible performance by majority heading south in the summer and the media, and frankly a lot of people involved towards the ocean beaches in the spring – in Bigfoot research weren't any better. Their opposite of what the migration hypothesis would reaction might be summed up as: “Okay, Ray suggest. Latitude and longitude put the center of Wallace faked the Bluff Creek tracks but we observations in all four seasons within a circle have other tracks that are genuine.” They didn't just 30 miles in diameter. bother to find out, any more than the media did, Considering that the examples I have just whether the Wallace claims were true, and given were picked because I thought you might seemed perfectly willing to discard as evidence find them the most interesting, you can see that tracks that are the most thoroughly investigated sasquatch hunting by computer is not and best authenticated of any that have ever been particularly exhilarating even after the task of found. doing the entries is completed. However I am The current Wallaces actually don't show any glad to have been able to provide data for studies sign of knowing much about the Bluff Creek other researchers have done, and perhaps I will tracks and may even believe that what they are be able to do the same for some of you in the saying is true, although one of them told Rick future. Noll that his father never actually said he had I have said that the events at Bluff Creek in the faked the tracks, they just grew up knowing he 1950s and 60s can best be dealt with at the panel had. The wooden feet that they showed the discussion tomorrow, but there is one aspect that media, as you can see in the full-size photos of very much involves the present, and perhaps I them on display here, do not match the original can dispose of it now. I am referring to the claim “Bigfoot”. They do appear to be attempts to made last year by his family that the late Ray duplicate the casts made by Bob Titmus of the Wallace, the contractor on the road construction different set of tracks he found on a Bluff Creek job where the first “Bigfoot” track was cast, sandbar, but one of them is so crudely carved made those footprints by walking around that they would not likely fool anybody. wearing a pair of wooden feet. I expect those feet were just made to see Had the first newspaper to carry the story whether tracks could be faked with them, behaved responsibly, and asked the Wallaces to something that probably, like myself, some of demonstrate that they could duplicate those you have also tried. The answer, of course, is tracks with the wooden feet that they displayed that you can make passable tracks in flat ground as proof, that story would never have been if it is soft enough, but in firm materials or up printed. Instead it was treated as revealed truth, and down slopes, forget it. and it was republished and broadcast all over the Some of the original tracks were in very firm world, with some wonderful embellishments. materials, and some went up and down steep One newspaper quoted a Wallace nephew saying slopes. This museum has had an offer in that Ray had sent younger members of the clan circulation for several months now of $100,000 out to make all of the big tracks that have been for anyone who can show how they could have reported all over the continent. Others took a been faked. So far there is no sign that any mention of Ray making movies of his wife in a Wallace cares to try for the money, but perhaps fur suit and twisted it to include the Patterson they haven't heard of it. The same editors that movie. Even the newspaper in Eureka, which swallowed whole their nonsensical story refused had printed the original stories that introduced to believe a real one. Priding themselves, I “Bigfoot” to the world, got on the bandwagon suppose, on not falling for a publicity stunt, they with a yam about how the publisher at the time gave the $100,000 offer no publicity at all.

Granted that the $100,000 was put up in an To give you something of the flavor of the attempt to get publicity, since all other attempts man, I'll quote a couple of passages from of his to get the media to counteract the damage they letters. In 1961 he wrote to the Klam-ity had done had failed, but it is a genuine offer. The Kourier, here in Willow Creek, as follows: first person who can demonstrate how the Bluff “Big foot used to be very tame, as I Creek tracks could have been faked will be paid have seen him almost every morning on $100,000. Tomorrow, you when you hear the my way to work ... I would sit in my people who were involved at the time, describe pickup and toss apples out of the window what they observed, I think you will agree that to him. He never did catch an apple but he there is no cause for concern that the money will sure tried. Then as he ate the apples I ever be claimed. would have my movie camera clipping What is the story about Ray Wallace? I never off more footage of him ...I have talked to met him, because he was never around Willow several movie companies about selling Creek the times I was here, but I was told early my movies which would last for three on about his reputation as a practical joker, and hours. The best offer I've had so far is in later years I got occasional letters and phone $250,000.” calls from him. According to newspaper stories A letter to me in April, 1979, included the he was pretty upset in 1958 about people following: suggesting he had faked the tracks, pointing out, “... everyone says who has heard Big undoubtedly correctly, that the whole thing was Foots screams in northern California, interfering with his contract and costing him before all the Big Foots were killed and money. hauled down the Klamath River in a tug It wasn’t long, though, until he began to try to boat and out into the ocean 12 miles to get in on the action, telling outlandish tales where was a small ship anchored in about his adventures with Bigfoot. He even tried international waters and frozen into a to sell Tom Slick a movie of Bigfoot he that block of ice and then transported to Hong claimed to have taken. I wasn't there, but I was Kong and sold, so now there aren't any told that Ray asked for $10,000 and wouldn't more left in northern California, or is show Tom the film until he had the money. We there if they are being let out of flying had learned by then that Tom could be very saucers.” gullible at times, but that wasn't one of the Everything Ray did was so transparently bogus times, so we never knew what would have that it seemed obvious he was just having fun. It happened if he had agreed to pay. We thought is hard to imagine he expected his yams to be then that it was an attempted swindle, but having believed, and although some writers back East learned more of Ray's reputation from people swallowed the bait I don't know of anyone who knew him well and admired him I feel sure involved in the sasquatch search in the West now that it would have turned out to be just one who took him seriously or felt that he was of his pranks. causing any sort of problem. A while later, after he had returned to the area Ironically he didn't fool people on a grand in Washington where he came from, Ray got scale until he wasn't around to enjoy the joke, involved in selling very odd looking footprint and unfortunately when it did happen it did real casts, supposedly from the Mount Saint Helen's harm. We will never know the full extent to apes. I never heard that he had casts from Bluff which people or projects that could have made Creek, and I'm sure he never claimed publicly valuable contributions in this field have turned that he had faked the tracks there, because he away or been turned down because the media fell would certainly have been called on to prove it. for this silly story, but we do know of enough

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 19 examples to establish that the effect will be In British Columbia, where I grew up, substantial and long-lasting. Sasquatch hunting, stories about hairy forest giants, known however, has always been three steps forward, there as sasquatch, have been widely two steps back, so we will just take our lumps publicized since the 1920s. I don’t remem- and carry on, undeterred. ber a time when I was not aware of them, In that vein I would like to close with one of but like most city dwellers I considered them my favorite memories from the days when Rene to be tall tales, and indeed to some extent Dahinden and I were pioneers in this strange they were. pursuit. We had been on a radio phone-in show The picture painted of the sasquatch in for a couple of hours, back in 1963, when a man those days was of a race of giant Indians, called in and said something like this: “Don't hairy but in some depictions only in the you idiots realize that there are two hundred fashion of the hippies of a later generation. million people in North America and you are the They were said to live in villages, speak only two who take this stuff seriously.” I don't Indian languages, communicate with signal remember the caller's exact words, but Rene's fires on the mountains, wrestle with grizzly reply still rings in my ears: “Mister, there are two bears and kidnap Indian girls for nefarious hundred and twenty million people in North purposes. America, and every bloody one of them is Then, after a decade of experience on city wrong!” newspapers, I bought a small weekly paper in There may be an extra hundred million of them the area where many of the sasquatch stories today, but there are also a lot more of us, and we originated, and in 1957 I was quite abruptly are making real headway – so carry on. confronted with the fact that people I have come to respect took the sasquatch very seriously indeed. The following remarks were delivered at the The stories I then heard were not myths or Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific legends, but first-hand accounts of inspecting Exploration, held in Kalispell, MT, in 2003. giant, human-like tracks, or close observations of huge, bipedal, hair-covered creatures Some of you may have noticed that I am that looked more like upright apes than not a young man. Once upon a time I was. humans. It is more than 60 years since I first In one case I was told that a deputy sheriff encountered information about what is now from Bellingham, Washington, had cast one known as Bigfoot years since I began to print from a series of 16-inch bipedal tracks investigate the phenomenon, and about 46 that had been made by something so heavy years since I began a campaign to have it that it crushed potatoes in the ground. subjected to scientific exploration. At the time I thought that was surely On the face of it this organization and this stretching the truth, and perhaps it was, but I subject should be a perfect fit. I doubt that have since read that large bears can do the there exists any anomaly of as much same. In any case it turned out that the deputy potential scientific importance that has been was real, although he had since died and the so determinedly ignored by the world of cast had been broken. science. His son gave me a tracing of the cast, and I understand, however, that most of you told me that his father had researched are not likely to have paid any attention to sasquatch reports for years and had it, so with apologies to those who have I am accumulated a great deal of material, but they going to begin at the beginning. had not kept it.

Note that the tracing, which is on display Copies of casts of two of those tracks are here, has been in my possession since 1957, on display here, along with a picture taken the year before a man named Ray Wallace on another occasion showing a deep track on supposedly started making all the Bigfoot a different Bluff Creek sandbar with a boot tracks in the world, and that the 16-inch print beside it hardly discernable. footprints had been observed, investigated, I was a newpaperman, not any sort of measured and cast in 1941, sixteen years scientist, so I took my information to the earlier. zoology department at the University of Further investigation quickly established British Columbia, expecting that they that a number of people had done would be enthusiastic to take over the considerable research into the subject in the investigation of something of such obvious past, although none were doing so currently importance in their field. What a joke. and that there had been some very well- The department head’s response was a publicized incidents in British Columbia condescending explanation of how the around the end of the 19th century, and in tracks of a bear's hind feet can overlap his Washington State in 1924. front feet, making imprints of the shape I In the fall of 1958, when newspapers described. pictured a cast of a 16-inch footprint from a A cast of just such an imprint is on dirt road under construction in the Bluff display. There is a resemblance in general Creek valley in northwest California, I drove shape, but on examination it would fool there to see for myself. nobody. All the recent tracks had been destroyed by Disappointments like that are something I the time I got there, but some old ones were have become used to in the subsequent 46 still impressive, and I met a taxidermist years, but otherwise the experience has been named Bob Titmus who had studied fresh rewarding. Good footprints are not reported tracks and had become completely very often, but they turn up once in a while, convinced that they were genuine, made by and in 1967, I was notified about, and able some giant human or animal. to examine, hundreds of them made by two A few weeks later I got a letter from Bob individuals on another road under construc- saying that he and another man had found tion in the Bluff Creek area. perfect tracks of a second individual, an inch An original cast from each of those prints shorter than those of the original Bigfoot and is on display as well as some photographs of a distinctly different shape, and that these of them. Clearly the larger track is that of tracks were not in dirt on the road but at the the same individual that made the tracks bottom of the steep, brush•covered side hill, Bob Titmus found in 1958, a n d other in a hard-packed sandbar beside the creek. people have made casts and photographs of I made a second trip to California, and this that individual's tracks at other times and time what I saw changed the course of my places. life. Where those huge tracks sank an inch In the nine year since I had first seen that in the ground my boot prints hardly showed tracks and others who had taken up the at all. investigation had accumulated, often on tape, Tremendous weight was obviously required dozens of accounts by people who claimed to to make the tracks and the location was such have seen one or more huge, hair•covered that we could see no possible way that bipeds suitable to make such tracks, and in machinery could have been used there the autumn of 1967, one of those undetected. investigators, Roger Patterson, got lucky. He

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 21 not only saw a sasquatch, he took 16- primates are quadrupeds. millimeter footage of it walking across yet It has a sagittal crest, which is a male another Bluff Creek sandbar. feature. No, it’s a feature providing anchorage Since 1967, hardly a year has passed for large jaw muscles. It is related to size, not without someone announcing that they have sex. proved the Patterson movie a hoax. I have And soon, Roger Patterson took his movie to kept no record of all the people who are the Smithsonian Institution, but I am told that supposed to have made the hairy suit, or only the janitors turned out to see it. I know worn it. The stories contradict each other the Smithsonian later used to send out a form every which way, and you can be sure there letter describing it as an 8-millimeter film. will be a different one along next year and In Russia, the top man in the field of another the year after that. What I do have is biomechanics did study the movie, and found, a lot of first-hand knowledge about the as he told me himself, that the creature walks people and circumstances involved. in a way that is different from, and more I knew Roger Patterson quite well before efficient than, the way humans walk. he got the movie, and I had considerable Considering the implications if it is genuine, contact with him afterwards. He may not it could be the most important strip of film have had an unblemished reputation in his taken in the 20th century, yet in 36 years no community, but he was entirely sincere in American scientific institution has seen fit to his efforts in the sasquatch search, and he had study it. neither the skills to attempt fake such a The Patterson creature didn't just leave her creature nor the money to hire anyone who image on film; she left tracks in the sandbar. did. As usual they were far deeper than the tracks As a matter of fact, a senior executive in the of the humans that walked around them. Disney organization told me in 1969 that they Roger Patterson and his partner cast two of did not have the ability to match it. If they them. wanted something like that they would have A day or so after they left the area a to draw it. forestry crew happened on the scene and What is probably more serious concerning three tracks were photographed by a young the movie is the string of objections to it which man, who later became one of the top have been raised by scientists that most people executives in the U.S. Forest Service. would expect to know what they are talking Several days after that Bob Titmus made about: casts of all the remaining tracks, one of It shouldn't have hairy breasts because no which I expect may figure in the presentation female primate does. Well, on the inside cover Dr. Meldrum will be making later this of this month's National Geographic is a morning. picture of a female bonobo with hairy breasts, From the time it was made the Patterson and bonobos don't even live in a cold climate. movie changed everything. It stimulated It’s supposed to be a female but it walks widespread public interest, which in tum like a male. Well, human females walk brought to light a lot of reports, both old and differently from males because they have a current, and was responsible for many more wide pelvis to accommodate the human infant's people, including a few with academic large head. Other primates don't have that qualifications, getting involved in the adaption. investigation. It has prominent buttocks. Other higher From then on what had begun as a search primates don’t of course. It's a biped, other for information became instead a struggle to

22 keep up with it. I spent more than 30 years description was solidly established before doing that, with coded file cards, tabs on the movie was taken. maps, and since 1990 with what was then a Also, some reports mention specific behaviors fairly-sophisticated computer program. that match those now known of other higher By 2001, I had close to 4,000 reports in the primates but reported first about the sasquatch. computer, 67 percent involving sightings of a On that subject I will defer to Dr. Bindernagel. large hairy biped or bipeds, 11.5 percent The reports are also numerous enough to involving both a sighting and a footprint find, establish a few things about the sasquatch and 21.5 percent involving tracks alone. lifestyle: At that point, however, the flood of They are omnivorous, with almost equal information available on the internet had mention of meats and vegetable matter in become too much to keep up with and I observations of things eaten or taken apparently gave up the attempt. to be eaten. Today if you ask Google for sites that They are largely nocturnal. Although contain references to both Bigfoot and humans cannot see well in the dark and there are Sasquatch and include the term “report a far more humans around in the daytime, almost sighting” you have 230 websites to check half of sightings take place at night. out. If that seems a high number, consider They are not active in cold weather. Less that if you ask for just “Bigfoot” the count than 10 percent of reports mention snow, and is 880,000. tracks in snow are rare. One group alone, the Bigfoot Field They have an affinity for water. Unlike Researchers Organization, at BFRO.net, the known apes they have been reported lists more than 1,600 North American swimming, both on the surface and under water. reports that have been checked out by their They are not a threat to humans. There investigators, and there is a backlog of are quite a few reports of bluffing or threatening hundreds more awaiting checking. behavior, including shaking vehicles and small These reports do not prove the existence buildings with people inside, but only a very few of the creature, of course. Science has made old and questionable stories of injuries to it clear that nothing short of physical humans, fatal or otherwise. remains will do for proof. But assuming for The reports are also informative in what they a moment that such an animal does exist, do not mention: the reports contain enough information to In spite of a common assumption that answer a lot of questions about it. sasquatch live in caves, indications of use of One thing they provide is a consistent caves, or any other form of shelter, are very physical description-of upright-walking or rare. running creatures completely covered with Tool use is not indicated at all, and while relatively short hair, averaging, by estimate, objects are sometimes thrown it is in a looping, almost eight feet in height; far more heavily underhand manner, not in a straight line. built than humans_.. but with... similar leg and...... There..... are also.. no reports1.1 of fangs1 or claws, arm proportions; flat faces with no an unlikely omission if we are dealing with an projecting muzzle, and necks so short as to imaginary monster. be almost non•existent. Those things are presumably not reported Today it is easy to assume that such a because they don't exist, but there are also consistent description results from the fact very few reports of females with infants or that almost everyone has seen a picture of small juveniles, which must exist. This brings the Patterson creature, but actually the into question one of the most obvious

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 23 assumptions, that sasquatch are solitary where there is a shortage of rain. animals. Why are sasquatch never seen by qualified Less than I 0 percent of reports involve observers? In fact there are sighting reports more than one creature, but if females and by people with every imaginable their young are very rarely seen it remains qualification, many of whom were total possible that family groups exist, while skeptics prior to their encounter. normally only lone males take a chance of One of the most recent is a professor of encountering humans. psychology at a major university who Two widely-held opinions find no support recorded a close and detailed observation in the accumulated information: while hunting wild boar. Sasquatch is not an endangered species. If these creatures are real, why is there no past They are reported everywhere in temperate record of them? There are accounts in books North America except in areas where there is and newspapers of such creatures being limited rainfall. To occupy so much territory seen on this continent since at least the they must number in the thousands, and be 1700s and European, Oriental and Middle able to sustain themselves in a wide variety Eastern references to hairy wild men are as of habitats. There is no record of humans old as recorded history. successfully hunting them, and if they are Oral information from Indian sources is under pressure from destruction of habitat it presumably also very old, but is complicated can only be in a minor portion of their by the fact that their traditional belief enormous range. systems do not make a clear division They are not some kind of wild humans. between “real” vs “supernatural” creatures. They may be our closest relatives, although Many Indian languages contain names for there isn't much room for anything to beings that may be equated to sasquatch, squeeze in between humans and which is itself an Anglicized version of an chimpanzees, but their adaptions are entirely Indian name, and as Gordon Strasenburgh, Jr. physical. They can never have been under any will tell you, m any words that refer to these pressure to develop the mental abilities creatures appear in modern place names. humans depend on for survival. Returning to the matter of scientific So much for assuming that sasquatch exist. exploration of this phenomenon, there have The fact that no one has ever produced any recently been some positive developments. physical remains is a compelling argument While no museum or university has yet taken that they do not, and I know of no answer any role in the investigation, and no for it. institutional funding has been made available, There are other arguments, though, that are a small but increasing number of individual easily dealt with: scientists are taking part. Why are there no fossils? Actually t h e r e There are also some of the very top people a r e a t least two potential fossil ancestors in the fields of zoology and anthropology for sasquatch, one or both of which I expect now taking a public stand that scientific you will hear discussed today. The gorilla exploration is warranted. They include by contrast, has none. George Schaller, director of science for the People have a need to imagine monsters. Wildlife Conservation Society (formerly the Those who make that claim, often New York Zoological Society); Russell scientists, are never asked to produce Mittermeier, president of Conservation evidence for it, and they volunteer none. Nor International and chairman of the worldwide do they explain why that need dries up Primate Specialist Group; Jane Goodall,

24 world-famous chimpanzee researcher; Esteban compare them with, and attempts to replicate Sarmiento, primate specialist at the Ameri- their DNA have been unsuccessful. Someone can Museum of Natural History, and Daris more knowledgeable about such things than I Swindler, author of “An Atlas of Primate am will have to explain why. Gross Anatomy – Baboon, Chimpanzee and A different technique that did show a result Man.” is radioimmunoassay, which makes identi- Dr. Swindler has in the past appeared in TV fications through immune reactions to documentaries on this subject as the proteins. Some hairs collected by Bob Titmus mandatory skeptical scientist. He changed his were tested by Dr. Jerold Lowenstein, who opinion as a result of the discovery in a patch had previously determined by the same of drying mud, beside a road in a mountain method that chimpanzees are more closely forest in Washington, of the hairy imprints of related to humans than to gorillas. His a buttock, thigh, and forearm, plus several findings in that regard were later confirmed heel prints of an animal far larger than a via DNA, and his tests showed that the human. Titmus hairs were very close to human, A huge plaster cast was successfully made chimpanzee and gorilla, although not clearly that shows all of these elements with such any one of the three. All three possibilities detail that individual hairs can be counted. could easily have been checked with a One heel print, a cast of which is on comparison microscope if there had been display, shows several inches of the Achilles any hairs left to examine, but he had ground tendon, and Dr. Swindler has gone on public all of them up. Presumably because they record that it is the heel of a huge unknown were brown and were collected in higher primate. California, Dr. Lowenstein suggested that Another major step forward has been in the the hairs were probably human, but they study of skin ridge patterns that are preserved were pointed hairs, gro wn to length, in a very few of the footprint casts. These w h i l e human hairs never stop growing dermatoglyphics are distinctly different for and have cut-off ends. A copy of Dr. each species of higher primate. And Lowenstein's letter is on display. sasquatch cas ts , far removed from each What is the bottom line on all this? It is other in date and distance, h a v e been found quite simple. The existence of the to share their own unique pattern. sasquatch has not been proved and the lack This line of research was originated by the of a specimen remains a powerful argu- late Dr. Grover Krantz and has been carried ment that no such creature exists. There are, on by Dr. Jeff Meldrum. Recently a police however, two t h i n g s that HAVE been fingerprint expert from Texas, Officer Jimmy proved, not just beyond a reasonable doubt, Chilcutt, who has studied the footprint but beyond any doubt at all. patterns of all the great apes became involved One is that something in North America and has stated flatly that the dermatoglyphics makes huge human-like footprints, with a prove beyond question the existence an depth indicating tremendous weight, and unknown species of ape in North America. scientists cannot tell us what that something A third scientific approach has been to is. attempt to identify hairs co11ected in The other fact is that thousands of people connection with sasquatch incidents. who would be considered credible on any Unidentifiable hairs have been found at other subject claim to have had a good look different locations that match each other, but at one or more huge, bipedal, hair-covered there are no known sasquatch hairs to creatures. Scientists can't explain that either,

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 25 and in neither case are they making any make and sell fake track casts, but so far no effort to find an answer. evidence has surfaced that he ever tried to Without recourse to the supernatural or fool anyone with fake tracks in the ground. extraterrestrial, there are only two possible He eventually made many fabulous claims explanations for these established facts. One concerning himself and “Bigfoots,” but is that humans share North America with a having made the tracks that showed up on huge animal that may be our closest relative, his road job was never among them. His but determinedly remain in ignorance of it. original, very genuine, reaction was concern The other is that humans throughout that the tracks were interfering with the work recorded history have been faking evidence and costing him money and trouble. for the existence of an imaginary animal. Everyone who looked into the matter at the Surely establishing whichever answer is time of course started with the idea that true would be a scientific achievement of the someone wearing false feet might have made greatest interest and importance, yet of the the tracks, and Ray, who had a reputation as a billions of research dollars and millions of practical joker, was a suspect, but the idea did man and woman hours of scientific talent, not survive investigation. hardly a dollar or an hour is devoted to this Sinking deep into hard ground, which I saw quest. Why that should be so is, to me, the for myself, and taking huge strides up steep most intriguing mystery of all. side hills with deeply dug-in toes, which Some of you, I expect, have been only half other investigators saw, the tracks showed listening to what I have said, because you evidence of tremendous weight, size and read in the paper or saw on television that strength. Ray Wallace, the man responsible for faking A story is on display here quoting a all the Bigfoot evidence, h a d made a geophysicist who examined the tracks and deathbed confession, and his family had made a cast of one. He estimated that the displayed the carved wooden feet he did it track maker must have weighed MORE with. THAN 800 pounds. The idea that a man Editors who were cocksure that the whole wearing the equivalent of snowshoes could Bigfoot thing was some sort of put-on just have faked the tracks made no sense then, loved that story and spread it everywhere. It and makes no sense now. was a horrible example of completely As to the wooden feet the Wallace family irresponsible journalism, because the slightest produced, life-size photos of them are also on effort at investigation would have shown that display, and they do not at all resemble the only the name “Bigfoot,” began in Ray original “Bigfoot” tracks they are supposed Wallace’s time on Earth, t he phenomenon to have made. They were apparently carved, to which that awkward name has become rather crudely, in imitation of the casts Bob attached is infinitely older. Titmus made of the second type of tracks he Unfortunately the same editors have since found. refused to publicize the fact that they were Accurate, shoe-mounted fiberglass copies taken in, so the stifling effect their false of those casts are also here, and anyone who stories have had on potential scientific can get in size 11 shoes is welcome to try exploration of an important matter will be them out. The fiberglass copies were made to with us for a longtime. determine what could be done with them in Ray Wallace was indeed the contractor for the way of faking tracks, which proved to be the road job where the first “Bigfoot” cast not much. Presumably the Wallace carvings was made, and he did indeed, in later years, were fitted with foot straps for the same

26 reason and showed the same result. They he strove foremost to elicit scientific interest can be used to make passable fake prints on in the subject. flat, soft surfaces, but even if the wearer His efforts were among the first to offer on- carries another man on his back they are site photographic evaluation of the Patterson- useless in hard-packed sand, and they are Gimlin film and he coordinated its first totally unsuitable for climbing side hills. scientific screening. He has continued to foster Someday some institution that includes ongoing analyses of that film footage. He was students of zoology and of human behavior one of the first to suggest a connection to is going to take up the sasquatch question Gigantopithecus, the presumed-extinct giant and find itself in a win-win situation. There is ape of the Orient. His assemblage of a blockbuster discovery to be made in one documented reports proceeded the age of the field or the other and amateurs have already internet. The resulting database provided one done most of the leg work. of the first statistical summaries of sasquatch It will be a pity if that discovery is long anatomy and behavior, as well as formed the delayed because a bunch of media know-it- basis for some of the first GIS analyses that alls fell for a nonsensical story. have offered a glimpse into the range and ecology of the species. His generosity has supported other undertakings, including the Homage delivered by the editor on the archiving of three-dimensional scans of occasion of the “Tribute to John Green,” footprint casts attributed to the sasquatch. Harrison Hot Springs, on April 9, 2011. If John is one of the “four horsemen” of sasquatchery, I would have to identify him as John Green’s no-nonsense journalistic point that astride the white horse armed with a bow, of view has introduced a generation to one of and his name was Conquest. His principal the most intriguing mysteries of our time. objective has been to conquer the ignorance of From the pages of his intelligent, yet highly any who dismiss this phenomenon off- accessible books, this phenomenon became handedly. He has wielded his bow skillfully tangible and grounded in the natural as he launched well-reasoned arguments and landscape. One had the sense of actually challenges at those who disparage or tramping the dirt roads and back country of a depreciate the evidence before them. much wilder West of a half century ago. His Throughout, I have personally known him as a investigations plumbed and evaluated the man of insight and integrity and generosity. I possibilities rather than simply relate a string am privileged to count him as my personal of secondhand events and personalities, while friend and mentor.

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 27

1959, Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada examining a footprint cast from northern California

Interviewing Albert Ostman in 1957.

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 29

1967 Blue Creek Mountain Road, California

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1975 posing with Bob Titmus’ cast collection, Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia, Canada

On a Seattle film set for the documentary Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 33

Poster from “Tribute to John Green,” Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., 2011

During the 2011 tribute, Dr. Jeff Meldrum noted the uncanny resemblence between John and actor Michael Rennie, star of the classic Sci-Fi movie, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and in jest speculated on the “true” origins of sasquatch – John was actually the space alien Klaatu, and the behemoth robot Gort was actually a sasquatch (John was very amused).

A LIFETIME OF SASQUATCH RESEARCH 35

In his home office at Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., Canada, displaying a footprint cast from the province, made by Bob Titmus