Thursday, January 30, 2014

THE SEARCH FOR BIGFOOT



I’ve heard about Bigfoot for years, but it wasn’t any concern of mine. From what I’d heard the creature was mostly spotted in the Pacific Northwest, especially in Washington State. Although one of my sisters and her husband live out there, they’d never seen one even though they’re often hiking in the mountains and forests. Of course, that might be because they’re members of the Washington Native Plant Society and spend their time looking for flowers and plants and not for Bigfoot.

Then this past fall, there were four sightings just south of Salem, Ohio in Columbiana County, not too far from where I live and where some of my siblings live. From the several articles printed in our newspaper about this unusual activity – the first I’d ever heard that Bigfoot is in Ohio – I learned there are several societies in Ohio devoted to finding Bigfoot. There is The Genoskwa Project, a Bigfoot research and investigation group founded by Paul Hayes of Canton and Dan Baker of Sebring. According to Baker, the group is seeking more information about the sightings.  Baker claims Bigfoot typically stands 7 to 9 feet tall, while the Genoskwa is not only larger, it's a more hostile cousin of Bigfoot with a stone appearance and red eyes. Frightening!

Dave Waller of the Southeastern Ohio Society for Bigfoot Investigations came to Warren, the city nearest me, to talk about the search for Bigfoot. I didn’t attend, but the Tribune reported a sighting seen in Ashtabula County north of me. Apparently a woman in her car thought she saw someone on a
dirt bike in a field. She reported when the large creature came closer to her vehicle, it was long- waisted and stood upright, but covered its face when it saw the headlights. Later some investigators went to the field and saw some 18” tire tracks. There was also a brush pile that may be a possible nesting area. The property owner said he saw nothing in the field. Hmmm. Bigfoot can ride a dirt bike? How interesting is that?

I decided this topic needed to be checked out. If Bigfoot creatures are getting closer and closer, I need to know about it. It was cool knowing a bear was in my woods last summer, but Bigfoot? I’m not looking forward to that. So I Googled Bigfoot and discovered all sorts of cool pictures, even some that looked believable.
I found out The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has a database with 4,500 reports of sightings broken down by state and county. Washington is #1. I wasn’t surprised by that, but I was surprised to find Ohio is #5 in Bigfoot sightings. Oh, my! Pennsylvania next door to me by not many miles is #12 in Sasquatch sightings, and the first in the NE. So apparently it’s safer to live in New York or New England. However, I also learned that the county in PA with the most sightings is Allegheny County where two of my sisters and I camped over a long Labor Day weekend this past year – in a rather primitive campground with very few campers there that weekend.  We camp in tents, too. But we neither saw or heard any cries, whoops or howls like a property owner heard south of Salem nor when we walked to latrine at night did we see large golf ball sized eyes glaring at us as was reported, too, when the man said his dog went crazy.
                

One of the most interesting accounts of a Bigfoot problem was from a man in Michigan. He claims when he bought his 17-acre property in 1997 he was breaking up sticks by banging them against larger trees. Apparently doing this, he awoke the spirit of Bigfoot and has been plagued by this shape-shifting, pizza eating creature ever since. He finally went to the local sheriff’s office with numerous pictures, a pizza box and scat he claims belongs to the Bigfoot that has been tormenting him. The sheriff’s department wouldn’t test the DNA claiming it was only for serious crimes. There was more to his story, but I’ll have to admit that instead of feeling sorry for the guy, I was laughing out loud.

So do I believe in Bigfoot, Sasquatch or even worse, Genoskwa? No. But wouldn’t it be fun to create a character, who did believe in Bigfoot. For a fascinating search Google Bigfoot and see what comes up and while you're there you can create an email alert for Bigfoot sightings in Ohio, or I imagine for whatever state you live in.

 What about you? Do you believe? Why do you think so many people do?

19 comments:


  1. I’m not a believer. One of the groups trying to find Big Foot spend a couple of weeks recently not too far from our place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. At least they pumped a little money into the local economy.

    ~ Jim

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  2. Jim, I'm not, either. I think the photos are fakes - either pictures of gorillas or someone dressed up in a gorilla costume. If there were such a critter, why haven't there ever been dead ones found, not even their bones.

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  3. I admit I like the idea of Bigfoot or Nessie or any of the other supposed magical creatures out there, just because I like to think there are things we don't know. But I can't rightly say I actually believe in them:)

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  4. Sarah, I recently heard they found fresh water dolphins in the Amazon and scientists had no idea they were there before. So keep looking for magical creatures. They do make for good stories. The most valuable tool a writer has is imagination.

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  5. I really want Bigfoot to exist. But not too close to my house!

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  6. Yes, Carla. I don't mind a bear or two, would not like any type of cougar or big cat, nor would I want Bigfoot wandering around. I wouldn't want to keep it supplied with pizza, either. :-)

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  7. There was an incident not too long ago in Montana where some people tried to get reportings of Big Foot sightings. One man dressed up in a ghillie suit and jumped out from the roadside into car's headlights. He ended up being hit and killed by a poor teenage girl who evidently panicked and swerved into him.

    There's a lot we don't know out there. And Big Foot type creatures have been reported in several areas of the world. Who knows?

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  8. I think I heard about that, KM. Dumb guy, poor girl. Well, maybe poor dumb guy and his poor family. Can you imagine the trauma that girl went through and is still probably going through.

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  9. In England even though the pranksters who made crop circles and started the hunt for aliens admitted what they had done and demonstrated their technique, people who thought they had been made by being from another world continued to believe.

    It is nearly impossible to prove something does not exist. Proving something does exist is much easier.

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  10. While I think there are many Bigfoot hoaxes, I also realize there's a lot of uninhabited forest that could hide unknown creatures. As Shakespeare wrote, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."- Hamlet

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  11. I try to keep an open mind, but a pizza-eating Bigfoot just makes me laugh!

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  12. Come on, what part of people love myths do we not understand? And the myth making is a great indulgence by those seeking power over the "easily" swayed.
    The skin shakes like a costume.
    I stand on the boarder of WA and OR and fight diligently to keep that nonsense up there. And now that they made weed legal, I'm sure there will me a lot more sightings. :)
    Totally non-believer.
    Patg

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  13. Warren, until they find the body or at least the bones of Bigfoot, it would be hard to prove one lives.

    Kara, that could be true in the massive forests in the NW, but in Ohio near where I live? I don't think so.

    Shari, that's what made me laugh as well as one riding a dirt bike.

    Pat, you made me laugh. So now you think people will actually be reporting sightings of Bigfoot in Portland?

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  14. Not really, Gloria.Oregonians will cross into WA to get their pot and probably report over there.
    No, if Oregonians saw Big Foot, they'd prefer to dress him up as a hippy and ask him to join The Weird.
    Patg

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  15. Who knows, Pat. Maybe some BigFfoots have managed to disguise themselves as Hippies or space aliens.

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  16. The existence of bigfoot has been conclusively disproved by simple statistics. In the last 15 years the percentage of people carrying cameras around everyday went from less than 1% to almost 70%. In that time, photographic evidence of bigfoot has not increased at all. Game over.

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  17. Too busy yesterday to leave a comment, but my belief is that big foot is a big bear who everyone mistakes for something that isn't. Bears are amazing animals. I once witnessed a bear running like a deer and jumping fences like a gazelle. No one would have thought a bear could move like that. But they also can stand on two feet and waddle almost duck-like. Catching a glimpse of a big bear, someone might make up an animal such as big foot. I never expected a bear to demonstrate such speed and agility as the one I witnessed--like a runner going over hurtles.

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  18. Anonymous, I agree with you. I hadn't thought of the camera angle of it, but I did think the pictures I downloaded were fakes most likely of gorillas somewhere or someone dressed up as Bigfoot.

    Elaine, you're right about bears.
    They are big and probably most so called Big Foot sightings are actually bears. Rangers always warn hikers and campers not to run from bears. They are incredibly fast and can climb trees, too. Thank goodness they're usually not aggressive unless cubs are involved. The Shenandoah National Park has the largest population of bears in the east, and it's where we did most of our backpacking. Yes, I saw them sometimes, but they were more likely to run away than cause a problem. They have been known to steal backpacks, though.

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  19. Anyone who truly takes a good, objective look at the evidence, can easily see that there are multiple forms of absolute proof these creatures do indeed exist. In fact, once most intelligent people take such an objective look, the most amazing aspect of the entire phenomenon is the fact that so many people fail to understand the realitiy of these creatures existence. I doubt most people out there ever will truly take a good look at that evidence, but if you do, you will never come to the rational truth, unless you put asiyour faulty, preconceived notions about how things are, or should be,in regards to whether we should have bones, fossil records, etc., for in reality, it turns out in the end that all the arguments against the existence of these creatures are based on assumptions that are just plain incorrect. For example, we do have a fossil record for these creatures, we call them hominids, it's simply the case that creatures dwelling in environments such as deep forests/jungles/swamps simply do not leave fossils, & once we humans drove these creatures into those places, they stopped leaving fossils as well. It is such faulty reasoning as "We should have fossil records of these creatures exist.", that absolutely blinds otherwise intelligent folks to the obvious proofs that exist of the reality of these creatures.
    Just for one single form of that evidence, the Patterson Footage has been stabilized, &/or analyzed by several great, highly qualified & objective analysts, such as Bill Muuns, M.K. Davis, & Thinkerthunker. Measurements of body ratios is just one of about 10 ways by which we can see absolute proof that the film is genuine, & throw out all the irrelevemt, & absolutely false, tabloid type trash & slander skeptics have used to attack the men who shot it. It's NOT POSSIBLE, even today, to fake the elements seen in that film, let alone to have been faked by two cowboys -or anyone- in 1969. It's just not possible. Most damning against the ridiculous conclusion that this film is fake(besides what common sense tells you by simply looking at the creature in the footage, especially when the footage is zoomed in & stabilized), is the fact that a human simply COULD NOT, in a million years, possibly fit into the dimensions of a 'suit' the size of the creature seen. Period. End of debate. There is no logical argument t that can overcome this fact. Looking at that film & deciding the subject is a man in a gorilla suit, is as ridiculous as looking at true film of wolves & deciding one is seeing men in solve suits- the dimensions & body ratios(& movements too, although this is less rock solid proof because measurements are not as easy, & their results are black & white as the results of body ratio measirements, & so I hesitate to mention it) are all impossible. Period. Not possible, & by simply measuring, we can determine this fact to be true. Go check out Bill Muuns analyzation of this film, & watch Thinkerthunker's videos "Cracking the Bigfoot Code", "21 Degrees Between Bigfoot & You", & "Is Bigfoot a Neandertahl?" videos (all three are short), & try maybe not being so sure you "know" the answers before you look objectively at the evidence, & see if you don't have a profound epiphany regarding the truth of the bigfoot matter, that changes your thinking forever?

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