Tracking Belief in Bigfoot

The big hairy monster we call Bigfoot has both eluded and fascinated many, with blurry photos and even blurrier video being some of the best evidence the creature exists.

Bigfoot stories of sightings vary on some details and the type of "evidence." In 2008, two Georgia men claimed they had a body, photos of the body and DNA evidence of a Bigfoot. A few days later, evidence surfaced that the DNA was that of an opossum and the body was really a frozen gorilla suit.

More recently in 2011, a Charlotte, N.C.-based man named Thomas Byers claimed that, while driving, he and a companion videotaped a Bigfoot crossing the road in front of their truck and at one point it "made a snarling growling sound and looked back at me," Byers said. Various hints, including the fact that no truck is seen, nor headlights (it was pretty dark in the video), and that the slow-moving creature (or human) seems to be waving in the footage, weighed heavily against the video's validity.

The most famous recording of an alleged Bigfoot is the short 1967 film shot in Bluff Creek, Calif., by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. The video shows a dark, humanlike creature striding through a clearing. It has never been proven real, and in the 45 years since the film was shot, it has remained the best evidence for Bigfoot. (It seems even with today's technology, quality video of Bigfoot is tough to come by.)
And, of course, these sightings are not confined to the United States.
The legendary woodlands ape, though answering to different names, has been a fascination across the globe.

For instance, a group of Chinese researchers announced in October 2010 that they were mounting an expedition to seek evidence of the yeren, the Chinese version of Bigfoot. Other searches for the yeren in pior decades all failed to find conclusive evidence of the beast's existence. The team, led by a man named Luo Baosheng, is hoping to raise $1.5 million to launch the search.

The so-called Canadian Sasquatch is essentially the same creature as the American Bigfoot, though it is claimed to be primarily nocturnal and a fast runner. Moving to Asia, the Yeti — formerly known as the Abominable Snowman — is said to live in the forest below the snow line of the Himalaya Mountains. Reports suggest the creature is muscular, covered with dark grayish or reddish-brown hair, and weighs between 200 and 400 pounds (90 and 180 kilograms). Compared with Bigfoot, the Yeti is claimed to be relatively short, with an average height about 6 feet (1.8 meters).

The Down Under variety, dubbed Yowie, reportedly stands anywhere from 5 to 11 feet (1.5 to 3.4 meters) tall, and has yellow or red eyes deeply set inside a dome-shaped head.

This lack of evidence hasn't stopped enthusiasts, however. The reason could be human nature: We want to believe. "The human brain is always trying to determine why things happen, and when the reason is not clear, we tend to make up some pretty bizarre explanations," said Brian Cronk, a professor of psychology at Missouri Western State University, back in 2008.

And our belief in all things supernatural, from fairies and elves to gods, ghosts and monsters, seems to go way back in human history. The reason, say some social scientists, is the human need to explain that which we don't understand. -via livescience and Cryptozoology.com

Taxi driver breaks silence over "dark figure"

Taxi driver breaks silence over "dark figure"

9:30am Tuesday 20th March 2012 in News By Lauren May

 

 

Taxi driver breaks silence over "dark figure"

A taxi driver has corroborated the sighting of "a dark figure" in Epsom last month but has played down its significance.

The man, who works with NV cars in Sutton has been on holiday since the mysterious sighting on February 14 on the Ewell bypass near Nescot College.

His passengers reported seeing a dark figure cross the road in front of the taxi at about 10.30pm before leaping a 15ft bank.

They were amazed by what they saw and likened the figure to the legendary Spring Heeled Jack.
Since the story broke it has been one of the top stories on our websites attracting thousands of hits and comments from ghost hunters around the world.

Their suggestions for the sighting range from a haunted road, apparition, scientific phenomena, and an alien life form to Spring Heeled Jack himself - a mysterious dark figure reported to be responsible for a string of attacks in the 1800s and known for his ability to leap great heights and spit blue flames.

This week the taxi driver said he could not understand what all the fuss is about and refused to speak publicly about what he saw.

He admitted that what he saw was 'a bit odd' but said that he quickly got over it and did not believe there was anything supernatural involved.-via epsomguardian.co.uk and Cryptozoology.com

The Bigfoot Enigma

The following story about Bigfoot's and the connection between
them and UFO's, The Paranormal, etc. comes to us from:

Phantoms and Monsters

The Bigfoot Enigma

On Friday, 'The History Channel' presented its recent installment of the 'Ancient Alien' series titled Aliens and Bigfoot. The program covered, in essence, much of what I believe in reference to the Bigfoot phenomena. In the near future, I will present a followup post that includes my thoughts on why these creatures are on Earth, but in the meantime I am again offering my post from July 2010 that is titled Readers Respond: The Interdimensional Sasquatch:

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A few months ago, I posted a poll that posed the question ‘What is Bigfoot / Sasquatch?’ To my surprise, 26% of the 574 participants answered they believed this creature was an interdimensional or extraterrestrial being. Are we at a point where people are open minded enough to accept that a hominid species may very well not be of our time or planet?

I posed this question to my readers and challenged them to make their case. Again, I was surprised at the amount of response I received. A total of 112 emails, with well thought out theories and opinions, were received in a three day period.

I was sent a link to a piece written by Nick Redfern that referenced a woman named Jenny Burrows, who had a remarkable tale about a creature she claimed to have encountered in a particularly dense area of Seattle woodland: nothing less than a fully-grown Saber-Tooth Tiger.

According to Jenny, she had been walking through the woods with her pet Labrador dog, Bobbie, when it suddenly stopped in its tracks, whined loudly, and dropped to the ground, shaking.

Thinking that it had possibly had a seizure, Jenny quickly bent down to comfort her pet, and could then see that the dog was staring intently to its left. Following the gaze of the dog, Jenny was horrified to see moving in the undergrowth what looked like a large cat – “like a mountain lion, but much bigger.”

That the creature was possibly a mountain lion filled Jenny with dread; however, that dread was amplified to stratospheric proportions when its face could clearly be seen; including the two huge teeth that were the absolute hallmark of the Saber-Tooth Tiger.

As Jenny said to me, with much justification: “You don’t have to work in a zoo or a museum to know what a Saber-Tooth Tiger looks like: everyone knows.”

It was then, however, that Jenny’s story became even more bizarre.

As the cat loomed fully into view and out of the confines of the bushes and undergrowth, she could see that its body seemed to be semi-transparent and that, “the bottom of its front paws were missing.”

Jenny concluded, she told me, that what she was seeing was not a still-living Saber-Tooth at all. Rather, she thought, it was “the ghost of a Saber-Tooth” that was haunting its old pathways and hunting grounds – thousands of years after its physical death. http://www.mania.com/lair-beasts-sabertooth-terror_article_110846.html

Could it be true? Are ghostly creatures really roaming our planet? Perhaps the idea is not as far-out as it might seem. Though it is likely that this may have been a residual spirit of a once living creature, it may also be a manifestation of a non-terrestrial or interdimensional being. Our world cultures possess thousands of cryptid and humanoid legends that have been told for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. Is there a chance that we are chasing real entities that slip in and out of our plane of existence?

I was told of the experiences of a well known veteran Sasquatch investigator in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains who stated that he was watching one of these creatures walk away from him and then suddenly disappear. The terrain did not offer cover or camouflage and there was no direction that the creature could have taken without being seen. There were no caves or holes for the Sasquatch to duck into…it just vanished.

Rick Phillips posted an interesting reference in his blog recently. Jonathan Downes, of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, first coined the term Zooform in 1990 and maintains that many of these phenomena result from complex psychosocial and sociological phenomena, and suggests that to classify all such phenomena as ‘paranormal’ in origin is counterproductive. Thoughtform may be understood as a ‘psychospiritual’ complex of energy or consciousness manifested either consciously or unconsciously, by an individual or a group. Thoughtform are understood differently and take on different forms. Rick makes a reference that anomalies and paranormal entities might fall into the category of Temporary beings. Temporal characters that represent ideas, such as the Bigfoot type entities that were reported on the Skinwalker ranch or, for that matter, any type of Bigfoot, Mothman or Chupacabras. Could these entities be IDEAS? Could they be ideas that transform into temporal characters - like memes? Here’s is a link to the entire post - http://barfstew.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-what-bigfoot-is-theories-in-reply-to.html

S.A. Robinson, a self-described ‘armchair Bigfoot researcher’ states that it’s understandable that a subject as odd as this one, with the supposition that there is an enormous hairy creature that lives in forests around the country without being clearly photographed, videotaped or fully understood, should attract a good deal of divisiveness and even infighting. When proponents of the 'flesh and blood' camp mix with those who favor a 'magical' explanation, it can sour both sides from the real objective, which is to prove conclusively this entity's existence.

The principle of the simplest explanation, usually being the correct one, stands up in terms of building theories, but it should not be used as an arbiter between two opposing theories…and so we are left with the two camps.

He continues to explain that because of the similarities between our current understanding of the UFO phenomenon and that of Sasquatch, the fleeting visual aspect (most reports lasting less than a few seconds) the high strangeness (UFO’s and Bigfoot moving at extreme speed often with disregard to physics) and with lack of much physical evidence (some trace material like radioactive soil or some unusual hair), not to mention the seeming invulnerability of both phenoms to physical attack (no UFOs or BF downed by gunfire) the link between Bigfoot and UFO encounters must fall into a similar category.

Why, in these modern times, with so much technology, do we not have a full accounting of everything in our animal kingdom? Some will cite the case of the Coelacanth fish as evidence of an evolutionary throwback that, due to it’s extreme habitat, was thought to be extinct until it was brought to fresh, modern speculation in a fishing net. To suggest that Bigfoot falls into this same explanation is to say that we have not really looked deeply enough into the woods. I refute this suggestion, as we have the ability to see nearly every square foot of the planet in high detail from space through satellite technology. We have a military/industrial complex that can ferret out any heat-producing organism of human size (or larger) with FLIR equipped cameras, and despite the large tracts of uninhabited land on the North American continent, humans have traipsed on so much of it that over the past fifty to one hundred years we have compiled perhaps several thousand decent eyewitness reports of weird footprints, strange sounds and sightings of the giant hairy extra-human entity.

A subscriber states that just because we don't understand how Bigfoot move in and out of another dimension or what their purpose is, doesn't rule out this possibility. He has questioned a variety of people that channel interdimensional beings and every time the answer turns out that Bigfoot are indeed interdimensional beings as well. There are many other beings that can move in and out of another dimension including fairies, gnomes, sprites, and others. Indigenous people worldwide will verify this as they have strived to maintain to keep their connection to earth and the natural beings while the ‘civilized’ world has nearly completely lost touch. Only young children and intuitive adults are able to see/feel these beings as they move in and out of other dimensions. It’s time for us to wake up to this possibility regardless of what conventional wisdom and science has to say about the matter. The evidence is there…time to become open to a broader perspective. Sharon Lee's latest blog in reference to 'Mr.Mike' and his possible ability to see beyond the naked eye may be a very good example of this theory - http://bigfootlives.blogspot.com/2010/07/ghost-of-bigfoot-and-mr-mike.html

Well known paranormal investigator Jon-Eric Beckjord’s theories sum up much of the argument. He believed that Bigfoot and similar cryptids may be interdimensional beings that can occasionally take physical form for brief periods of time, but have the ability to ‘fade out’ and pass through ‘wormholes’, possibly to other dimensions or parallel universes. He reported to have had one of the creatures speak to him using telepathy, communicating the words ‘We're here, but we're not real, like what you think is real’. Beckjord claimed that such entities may be able to actually disappear into thin air, or even shapeshift.

Beckjord maintained that the interdimensional hypothesis may possibly, if proven, explain why there are thousands of alleged Bigfoot creature sightings each year, yet no dead zoological physical body is ever found. To evidence these ideas, Beckjord accumulated a large collection of enlarged photographs that he says show, among other things, ‘half-Bigfoots’ and ‘invisible Bigfoots’, or possible aliens. The forms are often found in situations where the camera picked up images not seen by the witnesses, often due to distance. According to Beckjord, the images show primates, carnivores and beings not readily identified within known zoological classifications that resemble descriptions of aliens submitted to investigators. He conducted much field work, such as camping out at ‘window sites’ where, he said, Bigfoot activity is frequently seen. He collected his own photographic evidence of what he believes to be a ‘tribe’ of either Bigfoots or aliens at El Dorado National Forest.

Beckjord's strong beliefs about Bigfoot and similar entities brought him into conflict not only with skeptics, who consider Bigfoot sightings to be a cultural phenomena purely resulting from wishful thinking or hoaxes, but also with those who believe Bigfoot to be an actual physical creature.

Researcher and author Kewaunee Lapseritis maintains that the Bigfoot race was brought to Earth by the ‘Star People’, long before human civilization. His evidence is the creature’s use of telepathic communications, alleged hundreds of joint Bigfoot-UFO sightings going back over a hundred years and theoretical physics. He also stated that conventional Bigfoot investigators have not found the creature because they are limited in their belief that Bigfoot is "simply a relic hominid that never became extinct." "That really may be true," Lapseritis said in an interview. "But in addition to that, (Bigfoot) may literally be, as I've discovered, a paraphysical, interdimensional native people that have told me and other people telepathically that they were brought here millions of years ago by their friends, the ‘Star People.’

I recently received a telephone call from a woman in British Columbia who said she was the daughter of a Kootenai shaman. She stated that most Native tribes seem to believe Sasquatch is a non-physical creature. Some tribal elders mention that they have seen the creature shapeshift into a wolf. She said her father thought that the creatures lived in another dimension from our physical plane, but can come here as it wishes. He also believed that Sasquatch has great psychic abilities and that the creature can be visible to some people, while at the same time remain invisible to others in the same group.

I recall a story that I bookmarked some time ago. I’m not sure who wrote it but I do know that is was told to a alternative author or researcher by one or two of the witnesses and demonstrates several facets pertaining to a paranormal Sasquatch.

On one warm summer’s night, three teenage girls had gone to visit another friend. Her parents were out of town, and so the girls planned to watch TV, play music, and have a fun and enjoyable evening. During the night, their discussion turned to horror-movies and the paranormal so the four girls decided to try out an old Ouija board.

None of them were frightened by the board or the possible implications...in fact, they had no real idea at all how to even use the board, apart from what they had seen on TV or read. However, what initially started out as nothing more than a bit of late-night fun quickly changed into something much darker and much more terrifying.

Using familiar television imagery, they removed a wine-glass from a kitchen-cupboard, placed the index-fingers of their right hands atop it, and were soon working the board. There were questions about boys, when they would marry, and attempts to contact dead relatives followed...all to no avail. However, something decidedly odd did occur: on two occasions, the electricity went off...which scared the living daylights out of the four friends.

One of girls explained later: “When that happened with the electricity, we all kind of looked at each other in a funny way and decided to stop.” It was all too late, the damage was done, and a doorway was unwittingly opened. Nothing further happened that evening.

The host girl, whose name was Laura, can't explained much of what happened as the next day progressed and afternoon became early evening. Once again the electricity failed, around 6.00 p.m., and the dark, foreboding feelings began to take an ever-stronger hold on Laura’s mind. She decided to retire to the comfort and (so she thought, at least) safety of her bedroom.

Later that night, Laura was woken from a deep sleep in the early hours, and heard what sounded very much like a loud, yet disturbing, animal-like “scream” emanating from the vicinity of a small, but densely-packed, area of woodland that was situated at the rear of the family home. Cautiously, but also curiously, Laura got out of bed, went to the window and peered out into the darkness and the shadows. Nothing out of the ordinary could be seen, so she returned to her bed and was soon asleep again...but not for long.

It was approximately 2:00 a.m. when Laura was jolted from her slumber by what she described as “the grossest smelling thing ever: like an old rotting cabbage.” Laura put out her hand to turn on the lamp that sat on a small bedside table, when she was horrified and panic-stricken by the sight of a silhouetted, large, black, hairy figure that was partially eclipsed by the shadows in the darkened room.

Laura said the creature was “hunched over and had huge, long arms and big, white eyes.” She added that at the very moment she tried to scream out loud she experienced a sudden feeling of paralysis: “I was sitting up, but couldn’t speak or move at all,” she stated.

The worse was still to come: the hairy giant slowly moved in Laura’s direction, stooped down over her, and brought its face within eight or nine inches of hers. The creature was, Laura explained, “just like Bigfoot: a big hairy thing that I couldn’t tell if it was a monkey or a hairy man.”

For several moments, the giant beast stared intently and deeply into her eyes, then slowly and carefully backed away, until the point came where its dark mass was almost indistinguishable from the shadows that dominated the room.

The strange form ultimately disappeared, Laura recalled: “like it had been sucked into the shadows.” Notably, Laura added that although the beast had certainly scared her out of her wits, she did not get the feeling that it was in any way directly hostile. Instead, it was her opinion that the creature had appeared to warn her “not to get mixed up with ghosts and Ouija boards again.” Unsurprisingly, since that day Laura has not.

The beast has never returned.

Now, I wonder what a traditional Bigfoot researcher would say about that story?

Maybe we’ll discover beyond a doubt where the truth lies in reference to Sasquatch. We may actually kill several birds with one stone if or when we do find the answers to our questions. There may be a grand connection between all the mysteries in our world...possibly involving other worlds or dimensions as well. Mankind may be the greatest mystery of all and the reason why Sasquatch, extraterrestrials, spirits, etc. seem to be as fascinated with us as we are with them.

“While many cryptozoologists and cryptozoology supporters find such theories ridiculous, and often laugh them off, we would all do well to remember that the so-called "mainstream" of science has much the same reaction when presented with the possibility of Sasquatch existing at all. If we hope for mainstream scientists to keep an open mind, we must lead by example and not waste time and energy, that would be better spent searching for evidence, fighting amongst ourselves.” – James R. Harnock


Sources:
The readers of ‘Phantoms and Monsters’
urbanhonking.com
burlingtonnews.net
coasttocoastam.com
bigfootencounters.com
barfstew.blogspot.com
mania.com
unknown-creatures.com
gralienreport.com
cryptozoology.com
cryptomundo.com
thewatcherfiles.com
'Interdimensional Universe: The New Science of UFOs, Paranormal Phenomena and Otherdimensional Beings' - Philip Imbrogno - 2008

NOTE: here are a few other links that may be of interest:

Sasquatch...or Something Else?

The Bigfoot Paradox

The Bigfoot Paradox 2: What Do They Already Know?

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The Ancient Alien Question: A New Inquiry Into the Existence, Evidence, and Influence of Ancient Visitors

Ancient Alien Agenda: Aliens and UFOs from the Area 51 Archives

Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook

How to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day Like an Irishman

Darth Vader and the Imperial March on Bagpipes and Unicycle - The Unipiper

Top Secret NASA Alien UFO Video Discovered

My 30 Search After Finding Bigfoot

The following story comes from Lon's site Phantoms and Monsters:

Thursday, March 15, 2012

My 30 Year Search....After Finding Bigfoot

Many of the readers of 'Phantoms and Monsters' and listeners of 'Beyond the Edge Radio' can recall my description of my 1981 encounter with a Bigfoot. If not, here are a few links:


My Bigfoot Encounter - Spring 1981
Man witness confrontation between Bigfoot and stray dog, near Sykesville, MD
The 'Sykesville Monster'

Over the years, I have attempted to gather more information on my sighting as well as other sightings in the general area. Since my sighting in 1981 there have been two (2) more BFRO 'Class A' reports along the Patapsco River Valley and another four (4) general reports and sightings in the same area from 1972-1979.

I interviewed and got to know several of the witnesses of the 1972-73 flap after my personal encounter in 1981. Many of these witnesses have since passed away. There were other unreported incidents in the general Sykesville and Gaither, MD areas. I personally took statements to eight (8) more sightings / encounters between 1972-1979, including a home invasion on Norris Ave. and utility shed break-in on Oklahoma Ave...both in Sykesville. There were also several chicken pens broke into up and down the South Branch of the Patapsco River including Gaither, MD - Sykesville, MD - Woodstock, MD - Daniels, MD and Ellicott City, MD. Most of the sightings have been within the Patapsco State Park...which has a history of unusual activity throughout the park. I still live within 15 miles of all the locations.

A few years after my Bigfoot encounter I happened upon an older gentleman named Phil who was fishing on Piney Run near Marriotsville, MD. I had been trying out a new fly rod upstream and confronted Phil as he was packing up gear by his car. We started talking about a few odds and ends when he mentioned that skeletal remains of a large 'human' had been found on the Piney Run south bank not far from where we were standing. He said that another fisherman had chanced upon the bones while he wandered off the trail. After the discovery the man simply mentioned to a few other fisherman that there were bones in that direction as he gestured to the area.

Phil said that he and a companion walked over to the other side of the stream to take a look at the remains. He said that some of the bones were obviously missing but there was a skull without a jawbone as well as the vertebrae, a few ribs and long bones of the arms and legs. There was no visible tissue but there were a few small dessicated patches of reddish brown fur scattered around. Phil said that both he and his companion both muttered at the same time "where are the clothes?" Then Phil said "this is too big to be a human."

This was back in the early 1980's so there were no cellphones. Phil's companion walked to the small store by the Patapsco River bridge to call the police. As they waited for the authorities Phil took out his fish tape and measured the upper arm bone (humerus)...he remembered it measure 22 inches. Phil's observations and conclusions were that it was something similar to a large ape or gorilla. He also mentioned that the skull looked very much human but larger.

After the Baltimore County Police and State Police arrived on the scene everyone was advised to leave the area. In fact, Phil said they placed crime scene tape across the road so no one could get within 300 yards of the location. He said he and a few others hung around the general store by the railroad tracks so they could see who was coming and going from the scene. There were unmarked helicopters bringing people on-site as well as several unmarked vehicles. These vehicles were similar to what I had seen after my encounter.

When I had made my report with the BFRO I mentioned the finding of these remains. The investigator stated there was no record of the incident...which is the same story with my encounter. There was never any mention on the local news.

I have been searching for information for 30 years. As a result of the information I did gather from witnesses and residents I assume that there may have been a breeding population of Bigfoot in the Patapsco State Park. The most recent sighting was in 1993 by an 8 year old boy in the Woodstock, MD area...a few miles downriver from Marriotsville. There was a report filed for a sighting in 2001 at the Liberty Reservoir (witnesses thought they saw Bigfoot on frozen lake). Since the area is now heavily zoned for residential dwellings, it's obvious to me that these creature breeding units have moved on to more natural locations.

These links may be of interest:


The U.S. Government is Ready for Bigfoot
Sasquatch and the U.S. Government
Mount St. Helens Strangeness
The Mt. St. Helen's Bigfoot Body Claims

Bigfoot Declassified: The Official Government Manual For Co-Existing With The Now Documented Species

Everything The Government Wants You To Know About Bigfoot: From The Secret Files...

Alabama "Gorilla" Sighting! Breaking News!

The following breaking news story comes to us from Loren Coleman thanks to Cryptomundo:

Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 12th, 2012

North American Apes (Napes), Swamp Apes, Boogers, or Gorillas in Alabama, whatever you want to call them, are soon to be in the news again. A reporter I know in the state has informed me that a major investigation is occurring this week of new accounts coming out of Perry and Hale counties, Alabama, of encounters with “gorillas.”

UPDATED: I learned overnight that the 10:00 pm newscast at the Birmingham ABC affiliate broke the story last night, after interviewing my contact Travis Vaughn’s editor, John Allan Clark. Here’s what ABC 33/40 reporter Erin Toffler wrote:

Hale County, AL -

The Hale County Sheriff’s Office says they are searching for at least one gorilla. A gorilla was last spotted near a store on County Road 61 in Newbern.

A dispatcher with the Sheriff’s Office said a crew consisting of the Newbern Volunteer Fire Department, police department, as well as Sheriff’s deputies were searching for the animal.

Currently, it is unknown how many are loose or in what direction they are headed

ABC 33/40 has a crew in Newbern and will provide more information as it becomes available.
The investigation continues today.

BTW, “gorilla” is a word used to describe what people are seeing. Think outside the box.
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As examples of past “gorilla” sightings from Alabama, let me share two historical review articles:
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Gorilla Family Hunt Is In Vain

Anniston, Alabama, April 15 (UP) ~ Sheriff W. P. Cotton dismissed a posse of “wild man” hunters today and reported that an all day search for a strange gorilla like family in a Choccolocca Valley swamp was in vain.

Cotton led a group of farmers and citizens into the swamp after rural residents reported seeing a man, woman and child whose bodies were covered with hair and at times walked on all fours.
The Modesto Bee, Modesto, California; Friday, April 15, 1938
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Thursday, July 08, 2004

 Bigfoot sighting reaching Silver milestone

By Jason Cannon 

The Clanton Advertiser

CLANTON – Many things have changed in Chilton County. Things have come and gone, including what could be Chilton County’s first and only documented ‘Bigfoot’ sighting.

It’s been almost 25-years since the original report was filed in the fall of 1960 but that hasn’t stopped Bigfoot spotters and researchers from around the country as citing the events around Walnut Creek as a legitimate and marvelous occurrence.

“There’s a Southern version of Bigfoot that is much like a chimpanzee,” said Bigfoot researcher and [fulltime researcher and adjunct] professor at the University of Southern Maine, Loren Coleman. “It runs around in the bottom lands and is much more connected to the creeks and swampy areas.”

 Two years ago, Coleman penned a book about Bigfoot and has devoted a portion of it to the uniqueness of the Clanton sighting.

“At a time where people in the 50s and 60s were talking about Bigfoot being just a giant that looked like a human, this was extremely important because it shows they were more ape like creatures in the south.” Coleman said the prints left behind at the Clanton scene proved the creature was more ape than man.

“It’s a very general kind of creature that’s much different than the Pacific Northwest Bigfoot that’s 8-to 9-feet tall and stands upright.” Also, the southern version is often referred to as a booger, a swamp ape or a skunk ape and only stands around 4-feet tall.

According to reports, including those of witness Reverend E.C. Hand of the Refuge Baptist Church, the creature was seen along Highway 31 where it crosses Interstate 65 – just south of town. A few more were filed from two-miles west.

The report said, “Large and small tracks were found as if there were at least two individual animals.”

Then Sheriff T.J. Lockhart and Deputy James Earl Johnson investigated the scene and according to the report, described the prints left behind as “the strangest things I’ve ever seen.” Lockhart and Johnson also took a concrete mold of the prints.

The prints were described as “about the size of a person’s foot but looking more like a hand.”

The cast was on display at the courthouse for many years but in August 2002 the Sheriff’s Department discarded it. “That’s why the cast was so unique is that is actually proves that the southern ‘Bigfoot’ was much more like a chimpanzee than a human.” Coleman said one theory is that the chimpanzees were brought over during the African slave trade and allowed to run wild. He added there have been reports filed about similar creatures for about 250 years across the south.

However, there have been no other documented sightings in Chilton County since 1960.

This is the tenth anniversary of the discarding of the valuable evidence that was the alleged footcast of the Clanton “ape.” I searched and searched for the concrete cast for years, and to finally hear that it was sitting at the Sheriff’s Department, then was thrown away, was frustrating and heartbreaking. -Loren Coleman

Update!

osted by: Loren Coleman on March 13th, 2012

The specific details of the recent Alabama ape encounter (see first posting here) are contained in the following official law enforcement document:

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE HALE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
March 12, 2012

STATEMENT REGARDING ALLEGED GORILLA SIGHTING IN HALE COUNTY

On Saturday March 10, 2012 at approximately 7:33 p.m Hale County E-911 received a call from Perry County Dispatch advising several children on a school bus returning to Uniontown from a sporting event had seen what they believed to be a gorilla at AL Hwy 61 and Hale Co Rd 20 in the Town of Newbern.
 
Deputies responded and checked the area.



NO gorilla or other large primate was located. The Hale County Sheriff’s Office answers all calls for service in a professional and serious manner. This call, like all others, was investigated and until further evidence is discovered we consider this matter to be unfounded.


Thanks to reporter Travis Vaughn.

Note: It seems to me this could be some sort off mass hysteria, panic or hoax. There
is a possibility that somehow a Gorilla did escape and maybe more then one at that.

Stay tuned.... -Rob

Soldiers' Stories: The 'Rock Ape'

The following stories come to us thanks to Lon's site Phantom's and Monsters:

Soldiers' Stories: The 'Rock Ape'

APE STORY LINGERS

CAM RANH BAY, Viet-nam - With binoculars and sonar, people probe Loch Ness for its monster, expeditions search the Himalayas for the abominable snowman, and the guards at the depot here keep a watch for Powell's Ape.

It has been nearly three years since the monster was almost seen by a bleary-eyed guard. Detecting movement on the perimeter, the guard fired and the beast fled. When morning came the area was examined and a footprint and trail of blood were found.

The footprint was neither human nor ape. A picture was taken of the track but no one could decide who or what had made it. It wasn't long before Capt. Powell, then a depot company commander, found his name associated with the monster.

All that remains now is a small photograph on the ammunition area's orderly room wall. Perhaps the legend of Powell's Ape is all there ever was, but the guards at the ammunition area here still have something to think about besides Charlie. - 'Army Reporter,' 27 Apr. 1970

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We're all familiar with stories of Bigfoot and Sasquatch sightings and even the tales of the Yeti of the snow-covered mountains of Tibet. Now it's time to introduce you to the Vietnamese version of Bigfoot.

They were taking a breather. The six-man patrol from the 101st Airborne Division's LRRPs was set up in a protective wagon-wheel position--heads facing outward, feet pointed toward the center --as secure a formation as the terrain would allow. And it wasn't allowing much.

The behind-the-lines patrol had taken them into a remote and difficult stretch of mountainous jungle in the Central Highlands. The terrain was rugged and steep, and at night, the LRRPs had to wedge themselves between trees to keep from slipping or sliding downhill.

Wiping the sweat from their eyes and leaning against their heavy rucksacks, the tired LRRPs tended to loosen straps or realign equipment as they rested--all the while watching and listening to the jungle around them.

On quiet guard, the six soldiers were facing out against the wall of green-and-brown underbrush, guarding against any Viet Cong who might have tracked them or who might happen upon them by chance.

The combined weight of their rucksacks, weapons, and LBE--the load-bearing equipment harness that held their web gear--was one hundred pounds or so, and climbing the steep hills with that kind of load took some doing. So the break was a momentary but necessary respite.

Gary Linderer was thinking that the surrounding jungle was quiet and deceptively peaceful. The forest noises--the occasional rustling of the wind through the trees, the grunts of an animal in the distance, and the sound of birds--could easily lull a soldier into a false sense of serenity even though the war was very much around them. However, if anything was out of the ordinary, there was no indication. That is, until the small trees and underbrush just fifteen yards uphill began to shake violently.

Linderer's attention and the frenzied focus of the other team members turned to the commotion. On guard, the LRRPs brought up their weapons and waited. Linderer was the closest team member to the hubbub, his heart was jumping in his chest as he watched and waited for the intruder.

While he was ready for a VC soldier, he wasn't ready for the face that peered through the underbrush. If it was a Viet Cong soldier, then it was a damn ugly one! An oblong head framed the hair-covered face. Dark, deep-set eyes lay beneath a prominent brow, and they did nothing to complement the heavy jowls and angry mouth. As it stepped into a small clearing, Linderer could see that matted reddish-brown hair ran down the creature's neck and covered most of its body. Whatever it was, it stood at least five feet tall, had broad shoulders, long thick muscular arms, and a heavy torso. It walked upright. In the small clearing, it stopped and studied the Americans.

"What the hell is that?" someone called out from behind Linderer.

"It's a rock ape," said another team member. Another team member disagreed. "No, it ain't," he said. "I've seen rock apes, and that sure as hell isn't a rock ape!" "It's an orangutan, isn't it?" Linderer asked while the others kept their eyes glued on the strange creature. "Well, if it is, then he can't read a map. There are no orangutans in Vietnam."

The apelike creature soon lost interest in the six LRRPs, turned back the way it had come, and easily climbed back up the steep rise. "It's an ape of some kind," one of the LRRPs said. "It has to be." But then, maybe it wasn't.

In the Central Highlands region of Vietnam in the remote province of Kontum where the country bumps up against Cambodia and Laos, there is mounting evidence of the existence of strange, humanlike creatures the locals call the nguoi rung --"The people of the forest." Bigfoot.

While the montagnards and other tribal peoples have believed that the nonhuman species have inhabited the region for centuries, scientists now say there may be something more to the folktale and legend.

Toward the end of the American war in Vietnam, numerous sightings by Viet Cong and NVA soldiers of apelike creatures walking upright became so overwhelming that the North Vietnamese party secretariat ordered scientists into the region to investigate the nguoi rung while the war was still going on.

In 1974, as the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong pushed south to overrun the country, Professor Vo Quy of the Vietnam National University was sent into the region to conduct an investigation.

Vo Quy discovered a nguoi rung footprint on the forest floor and made a cast of the impression, which was analyzed and studied by Vietnamese academics. It was wider than a human footprint and too big for an ape. The unusual find added credence to the folktale. It also set off debate in the scientific arena. Other expeditions were mounted but yielded few results. Chance sightings of the nguoi rung continued, ranging from small creatures to larger ones. Eyewitnesses had differences of opinion as to the exact color of the creatures' body hair. Like those sighted earlier, these latest nguoi rung walked upright and were described as having human characteristics.

In 1982, Professor Tran Hong Viet became the second scientist to discover nguoi rung footprints, and while scientists debated the actual existence of such creatures, many of the critics' arguments went up in smoke when zoologist John MacKinnon and a team of scientists discovered three previously unknown mammals in the Vu Quang Mountain rain forest in 1992.

The discovery of the new mammals demonstrated that the remote regions might well hold other new discoveries, including clues that might solve the riddle of Vietnam's Bigfoot.

Ironically, it was MacKinnon who, in 1969, came across manlike footprints in the jungles of Borneo, ascribed by locals to the Batutut. MacKinnon wrote that "the toes of the creature looked quite human...' and that the tracks would have been about the right size for the Asiatic black bear. However, the only bear known in Borneo is the sun bear, which is considerably smaller.

To this day, the controversy continues even as international teams of scientists scour the remote mountain jungles looking for what the local villagers say have always been there. - Excerpt from "Strange but True Stories of the Vietnam War -
Kregg P. J. Jorgenson

-----

"It was 1969; I was on patrol one evening, just before dark in the North Two Corp in North Vietnam. We were returning to the hill, when we encountered hostile fire, the squad was caught off guard so we used what cover was available. The fight had been going on for only a few minutes when movement caught my eye. Through the thick vegetation I saw what I thought was a large man breaking cover from behind my left side. As the thing ran past me I realized it wasn’t a man, and was not really sure of what I was seeing. The thing was about 7 feet tall and had an enormous build, though not completely covered with hair, the thing had reddish brown hair covering a good portion of its body. It had covered about 30 yards very quickly passing within just yards of my position, when it got hit in the crossfire. The thing stumbled once or twice but never fell. All of a sudden the enemy broke and ran, one even left his weapon behind, they were yelling something, but none of us ever knew what it was they were yelling."

"We slowly regrouped and made sure no one was wounded and discussed what we thought we had seen. As it was getting dark and there were hostiles in the area, we decided to get back to the hill. That night we heard several howls sounding very similar to the ones that you have recorded, coming from all over the place. Some sounded like they were just outside of the hooch and others sounded more than a mile away. There were all kinds of sounds from whines to growls to sounds that sounded like barks. Needless to say no one slept very well that night."

"The next morning, all of us that were on that patrol, decided to try to track this thing. It took a lot of talking to get Tops to let us go looking for it, but after hearing the same story from the whole squad he decided to let us have a chance to bring it back. We returned to the area and found a blood trail, leading into the jungle. We trailed it for quite some time when we found the body of an enemy soldier that had been almost entirely torn apart. We do not know exactly what happened, but I have a good notion to what may have happened. We basically ran out of the area back to our hill."

"The rest of the time we were in Vietnam, I never heard the sounds or saw anything like it again. The talk of what we had seen spread very quickly, and some of the locals called it a name that I can neither pronounce or remember, but the translation if I recall was 'Stench Monkey' or 'Foul Monkey', something like that. I can’t remember for sure. What I do know is that it bothered me so much that I transferred from there, to a job on a helicopter so that I wouldn’t have to be in the jungle anymore."

"After returning home to Alabama when my tour had ended, I occasionally heard sounds that reminded me so much of that encounter. It had been years since I left Alabama and moved to west central Illinois. I seldom thought of that day in Vietnam or the things I heard and saw. The recording is exactly what I had heard over there, I could close my eyes and still hear the howl in Vietnam. Regrettably I have mixed feelings about discovering your website, relieved that someone else may now know what I went through, frightened that I that there may be something in the area of where I now live."

"I realize that you are interested in pursuing this creature or one like it, but let me warn you from someone who has seen what it is capable of first hand. Don’t." - stancourtney.com

-----

"While at an army military police school, my brother in-law, Craig Miles of Boise, Idaho, met a Vietnam veteran that recalled a low altitude Special Forces drop in the interior during 1967-68. It was the middle of the night; there were no villages for 15 miles."

"For a period of three nights they heard choking and gurgling noises. On the fourth day they found the upper half of a decomposing bigfoot-like creature. It had been blown in half by something......not them. This was apparently not the noise they had heard ...a mate possibly? This was the speculation that was circulating."

"They could see into the body cavity...spine, lungs, and such. All was crawling with bugs. There was shorter hair on the huge head. The eyes sunk back an inch and a half from the brow line. It had long arms. Very large and long fingers. One hand was still wrapped around a branch."

"He didn't say what color it was, but did mention that it had a flat nose. If the creature had it's legs, the estimated height was around 8 ft tall...there was no sign of the lower half of the body. They were able to see the teeth. All flat, well formed molars, except the canines, which were longer and pointed. Seemed adapted to living in the forest with long arms and fingers, or perhaps just builds night nests like gorillas sometimes do." - Steve Williams

-----

"The matter of wild people or feral humans seems to be a reoccuring phenomenon in southeast Asia. Once while in the Marines I showed a Vietnamese colleague a reference in Mark Hall's hominid book to a term used for wildmen in Vietnam. He was surprised to see the word in print and explained that growing up in his village a wild man and woman were once captured from the jungle after they'd been stealing food (chickens, I think it was). Either they were killed or kept in cage prisons; something unfortunate in either case. They were people, he explained, and not something ape-like by any means. But they were very dirty and had long ragged hair and I think he said they couldn't talk. He seemed to suggest that while this was a rare occurence such incidents would be heard of from time to time." - Nick Sucik - Homin Investigator

-----

"We ran into them frequently and I have a friend whose Recon position on Dong Den was overrun one night by hundreds of them. They made a noise that sounded just like a dog barking. In fact, you'd swear it was a dog."

"One time on a ridge of Nui Mo Tau, about 15 km S of Hue, about eight of them came walking up a trail and surprised a squad of our platoon while it was stopped for lunch. All hell broke loose because they looked very much like NVA soldiers in khaki (same height, size and color) as they came around a bend in the trail about 10 meters from the unsuspecting GI's."

"I was with the other two squads of the platoon eating our lunch on the far side of a clearing about 50 meters wide that separated the two elements. The trails wound up the ridge and then through the clearing."

"All of a sudden and without any warning, the lone squad opened up with every thing they had...M-16's, M-79's and hand grenades. I grabbed about 300 rounds of gun ammo and my M-60, then ran across the clearing with the platoon Sgt. (everyone else stayed home!) to the cover of a huge, toppled tree that was lying on the far side and close to the point of contact. The Sgt. and I looked at one another, nodded and then came up over the top ready to blast away but what we saw instead blew us away!"

"The firing had been non-stop and we fully expected to engage a sizeable enemy force, but instead, we found ourselves looking at our men, some seated, some standing, some kneeling, and firing at these ghostly images swooshing around in brush and trees (some off the ground by that point) in all directions. All except one was light brown to reddish brown in color, and about 5 1/2 four feet
tall. One dark, almost black, male remained fighting to protect the others retreat and he was flying through the branches and rushing the men with his teeth bared. He was one very brave animal, I'll tell you that."

"Then, as if someone had snapped their fingers, they all just seemed to disappear. Zip, the male turned and flashed into the trees and was out of site in a second."

"This may sound very strange to you, but although I had no or little concern about killing the enemy, the killing of innocent animals turned my stomach and could enrage me if done without being a necessity. But I searched the site and but found not a drop of blood, which totally amazed me given the amount of firing that had gone on. I wonder to this day if the men were shooting just to scare the Rock Apes away or whether they were really just poor marksman!"

"The men who'd suffered the surprise looked a bit worse for wear, and I'm sure a few had to wash their shorts out as a result of the unwelcome visit. It really scared the crap out of them, I kid you not!"

"We, on the other hand, did suffer one casualty. A trooper had an eardrum blown out by the muzzle blast of the first shot fired because the trooper who first saw the apes just picked up his M-16 and fired without saying a word, and the muzzle was right next to this poor fellow's ear when he did."

"Apart from that, I have all the same questions your student does and would love to hear just exactly what sort of apes they were?" - Michael Kelley - D Co 1st/502d Infantry, 101st Airborne Div 69/70

-----

Lt. Alan Szpila of Cumberland. R. I., spotted footprints while piloting a 101st Airborne Division helicopter. 'I have been looking at footprints from the air for quite a while now and I noticed the exceptional size (of these) immediately. I landed to get a closer look and sure enough. these tracks were about 18 inches long and eight inches wide.' Someone suggested that they were made by Ho Chi Minh sandals. which are made of car tires. 'They were embedded deeply, indicating a heavy wearer. The stride of whatever made them was about four feet,' he said. Warrant Officer Darryl Santella of Long Beach, Calif., saw the footprints at the same time as Szpila and estimated that, if made by a man, he must have been about eight feet tall." - Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans - On the Track of Unknown Animals

Very Crazy, G.I.!: Strange but True Stories of the Vietnam War

War and Shadows: The Haunting of Vietnam

Donations Needed at Cryptozoology.com!

Donations are needed at Cryptozoology.com which is one of the best
websites on Cryptozoology on the internet for well over a decade in
order to help keep it up and running.

Cisco, the owner and founder of the site, writes on the forum
of his challenge in keeping the website up and running:

"I'm sorry to have to ask this, but theres been problems with money currently, and I'm not going to have the fee to pay for hosting of this site next week. The fee is $80/mth. If I could get some donations made to my paypal account, cryptozoology.com@gmail.com, or sent by mail to
Cisco Serret
8306 Valleyfield Dr.
Austin, TX 78724
I would greatly appreciate it. I can send out the remaining cryptozoology.com tshirts I have, but I have no more large, just a few small, medium, XL and XXL, to anyone who donates (or at least donates enough to cover the mailing cost).

Thanks, and hopefully this is just a temporary situation. And, of course, thanks to everyone who has donated in the past. I remember all of you.

- Cisco"

-From Cryptozoology.com forum topic via the main lobby Donations Needed 

I will try to help Cisco keep Cryptozoology.com up and running by
sending in one or two small donations sometime this year, hopefully
soon in a few months or so.

I urge everyone who likes this site or Cryptozoology to please
help Cisco keep it up and running!

Thanks for your help and support. -Rob

250th post!

It's the 250th post on my blog here! To celebrate this small milestone and over 5,000 blog
views as well here is one of the most interesting articles on Bigfoot/Sasquatch that I've come
across in a long time via The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy:

Indiana Jones and the Sasquatch of Doom 

By Henry Gee, Senior Editor for Nature Magazine

They get you, don’t they? Those big, unanswered questions of existence. What is dark matter? How did the universe get started? Why is Miley Cyrus? Who put the Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy’s Ovaltine?
Science presented as a list of pre-digested facts that we must obediently learn is rightly condemned as dull – but that’s not what science is about. No, science is a long list of unanswered questions, a voyage into the unknown, a quest to reach for things slightly beyond our grasp. Be honest, now: who’d really rather go on an adventure with Indiana Jones than be lectured at by Richard Dawkins?

Even today, when science is so often a world of pristine laboratories and humming machinery, the old-fashioned, down-and-dirty spirit of adventure pokes through. Just when you’d imagine that everyone has an iPod, and that we’d shaken every tree and looked behind every bush on the planet, some creature walks into view that is entirely new to science.

Not tiny creatures, either, such as sea urchins living obscurely on the ocean floor, miles below the surface; or near-microscopic wasps that lay their eggs in the pupae of jungle-living butterflies; or bacteria only found in sulphurous slag heaps. Sure, such things are being found all the time, and each and every one is a wonder. Oh noes, I’m talking about big creatures that everyone would recognise as such, living on land accessible to people with no special equipment except their own eyes.

As recently as 1993, a scientific paper landed on my desk at Nature describing a species of antelope hitherto unknown to science. And not some cute little creature that could slip between your knees and hide coyly behind a leaf, but a beast big enough to bump into, and do you serious injury if it stepped on your foot. How could people in this overcrowded world have missed it?

The location was a start. The saola, for such is its name (its more formal handle is Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), comes from the remote and deeply inaccessible Annamite Mountains on the border between Laos and Vietnam, a kind of Lost World known for hosting other rare species. Even if you can hack your way in, the saola is pathologically shy, and goes out of its way to go out of its way.

A female saola or Vu Quang ox (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis). One of the world's rarest mammals, it is a forest-dwelling bovine found only in Vietnam (Vu Quang Nature Reserve) and in Laos, near the Vietnam-Laos border Image: Bolikhamxay Provincial Conservation Unit.

The scientific description was not based on a live animal, or even a dead one, but hunting trophies – horns, skulls and skins of several animals collected from the houses of local hunters. The live animal had not been seen. To my perhaps jaded editorial eye, the report seemed to have come straight out of King Solomon’s Mines. How romantic!

The saola is, in fact, so shy and secretive that it wasn’t until 1998 that it was photographed alive in the wild – and then only fleetingly. In 1999 it disappeared from view altogether. It was only in September 2010 that a live saola was captured. It obligingly stayed alive long enough to pose for its portrait whereupon it expired, presumably unaccustomed it its unwanted celebrity. The number of saola in existence is unknown, but it is likely to be small, and getting smaller all the time.

The saola joins a select band of large mammals discovered relatively recently, all of which are (not surprisingly) rare to the point of vanishment. A wild pig, the Chacoan peccary, Catagonus wagneri, was known only from fossils until it turned up on the wild borders of Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina in 1975, and is believed to be hanging on by its trotters.

A wild ox called the kouprey, Bos sauveli, a cousin to the saola, was described in Cambodia in 1937. There were around 1,000 of them in 1940; down to around 100 in 1969; and it hasn’t been seen at all since 1983. This strongly suggests extinction, as creatures as big and beefy as the kouprey would be hard to miss.

Other creatures hardly touch the zoology texts before disappearing entirely: the red gazelle, Eudorcas rufina, is only known from skins discovered in Algerian souks in the nineteenth century. It has never been seen alive.

That such large creatures roamed the Earth until present times before dying out is a reminder of humanity’s remorseless conquest – hackneyed, to be sure, only because of its frequency of repetition. But there’s a wider point to be made here, about how little we know even about large mammals (let along squashy creatures from the abyss, or microbes), and the degree to which the documentation of recently extinct creatures grades from certain knowledge into myth. The Chacoan peccary was known from fossils until live ones were found. The saola was described from trophies before live examples were seen. The red gazelle is only known from such trophies. And where antelopes, oxen and pigs lead, humans will follow.

If stone tools are any guide, human beings – of one sort or another – have been living on the relatively far-flung island of Flores in Indonesia for a million years at least. By “one sort or another” I mean exactly that – as far as we know, modern humans didn’t arrive on Flores until a little before 10,000 years ago. The previous residents were (presumably) related to the extinct form Homo erectus.

The announcement in 2004 of an entirely unknown species of extinct human that lived on Flores – Homo floresiensis, or “The Hobbit” – caused a sensation. The small size and unique morphology of this creature is still a field of battle between those who contend that it is a real species, against those who think it is a diseased form of modern human. But what is really remarkable is the age. Initial findings showed that H. floresiensis lived on Flores from before 38,000 years ago to as recently as 18,000 years ago. Further work extended the range from as long ago as 95,000 years to as recently as 12,000 years ago.

Given the great age of the Earth, 12,000 years is very much less than an eyeblink. That an animal became extinct 12,000 years ago, or yesterday, hardly matters, for in the great scheme of things, this difference is insignificant. If the Chacoan peccary came to life from fossils, and if the saola emerged alive – if only just – from the Annamites, it is entirely legitimate to ask whether H. floresiensis, or something like it, still exists, or, perhaps, became extinct in historical times: a human version of the red gazelle, perhaps.

And if one admits H. floresiensis to the canon, what of other celebrated mythical beasts – if not necessarily Nessie, then the orang pendek of Malaysia? The yeti? The sasquatch? Bigfoot? Are all such creatures the products of delusion, conspiracy theories and hoax? Perhaps – but not necessarily. The little we know of those large mammals on the fringes of knowledge suggests that they live in remote places, are very shy, are extremely rare, and that to find them before they become extinct requires a degree of luck. So far, no hard evidence for yetis (say) has emerged. But in a world that hosts H. floresiensis and the saola, the kouprey and the red gazelle, one should keep an open mind.

Henry Gee is a senior editor of Nature. He blogs at The End Of The Pier Show. He will be speaking at the Grant Museum, University College London, on 26 October. [630pm; UCL Darwin Lecture Theatre; free admission].

Link to original article at The Guardian.

Hope you enjoyed this article from The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy. Stay tuned
for more blog posts to come! Thanks for your support :)

-Rob

Chief Shares Knowledge About Star Nations, UFO's

BFRO Report # 32634

Report # 32634  (Class B)
Submitted by witness on Thursday, January 26, 2012.

---

Two paranormal investigators find possible evidence at Cumberland Sugar Creek Cemetery

---

YEAR: 2011

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 28

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Sangamon County

LOCATION DETAILS: Two miles west of Glenarm.

NEAREST TOWN: Glenarm

NEAREST ROAD: Gordon Drive

OBSERVED: [Witness first names have been changed] On Tuesday evening June 28, 2011, I along with fellow paranormal investigator James arrived at the Cumberland Sugar Creek Cemetery in rural Sangamon County near the small town of Glenarm, Illinois a little before 10:00pm.

James and I are both paranormal investigators and had previously talked about trying to find the cemetery to check it out for a possible paranormal investigation. Upon finding the location, we decided to do a quick walk through of the cemetery to see if anything of a paranormal nature was occurring and to check out the cemetery's layout.

We also had heard from other local paranormal sources that a group of paranormal investigators had been pelted with rocks or dirt clods thrown from the tree line around the cemetery. This occurred less than one week ago and during a paranormal investigation. We had also heard of several recent sightings of large tracks or foot prints in the Covered Bridge area of rural Sangamon County which is not far from the cemetery.

James and I both felt that the throwing of stones sounded like classic Squatch activity and because of this we decided to check the tree line around the cemetery to look for possible signs of what may have been throwing the stones at the paranormal group.

This is when we found the following.

In the Southeast corner of the cemetery property and next to an opening in the fence line, we found a mound of fairly soft clay. As we were looking around the mound of dirt, we noticed what looked like a fairly large foot print. Upon further examining the foot print, it was apparent that whatever had been walking there was barefoot. In the same proximity we discovered two other footprints which were approximately the same size. We estimated the size of the prints to be at least fourteen inches long. The footprints were also barefoot.

The tracks were headed away from the cemetery and towards the southeast. Because we had not planned on doing anything more than a walkthrough of the cemetery we did not have our usual camera and lighting equipment with us, so we took several photos of the footprints with James’ cell phone camera. We also noticed that approximately 75 feet or so and to the North of the footprints a fairly good sized tree of maybe 3 to 4 inches in circumference had been snapped and bent over. The tree was located next to but outside of the fence.

The area surrounding the cemetery is rural, the cemetery itself has a fence around the rear part of the graveyard however the best that we could tell in the darkness is that it looked like there was an open field to the rear of the cemetery and it appeared that on the other side of the open field there may be more substantial tree coverage. But unfortunately due to the darkness and lack of lighting equipment, we could not determine any further details of the surrounding terrain.

We then left the cemetery around 11:00pm.
ALSO NOTICED: Only what is in report.
OTHER WITNESSES: Two of us.
OTHER STORIES: Yes, We also had heard from other local paranormal sources that a group of paranormal investigators had been pelted with rocks or dirt clods thrown from the tree line around the cemetery.
TIME AND CONDITIONS: 10:30 p.m. Clear weather
ENVIRONMENT: Pioneer cemetery, wooded creek nearby, corn and soybean fields.

---

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:
I have visited the cemetery several times and interviewed both witnesses in person.

• The footprints were 14" long.
• The width was 6" wide at the ball of the foot
• The toes were all plainly visible.
• The footprints were in soft clay.

Left foot impression found in soft clay.

(For pics from the report please go to this link:
BFRO report #32634)

Thanks. -Rob