Monsters and Myths

Back in 2005 a ferryboat driver named Bobby Clarke was floating along the Nelson River when something caught his eye on the opposite bank. It was a big black creature of some kind so he took an old camcorder that he kept on the boat and took some footage of the creature. He took a 2:49 video which many people agree on could very well be Bigfoot. Clarke went on to show the tape to friends and alot of the locals in the area and then went onto to sell rights to screen it to “A current Affair”.

Clarke was quoted as saying ” he had been nervous ever since seeing the creature. especially when he takes his ferry over to that side of the river where he spotted the creature”. A Current Affair would launch an expedition to Manitoba to try and locate the bigfoot or sasquatch or signs of its existance but no results were ever published or announced. A few weeks after after the clarke monster sighting was no longer a hot headline the entire magazine would be canceled by fox television.

Here is the Clarke bigfoot footage so you can take a look and decide for yourself !

The creature known as Bigfoot, Sasquatch — or Se’sxac among the Coast Salish — is now covering a whole new territory; the Internet.

A Texas man, a self-styled Bigfoot researcher, has posted a video he claims to have taken near Tofino in July 2006.

Claims of the creature on Vancouver Island go back many years, and a Comox Valley man who has researched Bigfoot, John Bindernagel, claims to have found footprints in Strathcona Park near Mount Washington.

Bindernagel, a biologist, wrote North America’s Great Ape: The Sasquatch.

He is concerned that the ability to post videos by anyone claiming it to be a Sasquatch will damage efforts to do genuine scientific research into the phenomenon.

“For me the Internet is a mixed bag, it’s easier to report a sighting, but it’s not vetted very well.”

In 2005 Bindernagel told the Daily News that since 1850 there have been about 100 sightings on the Island. In the same time there have been about 400 sightings in B.C., a number he thinks is low due to fear of being mocked.

Though evidence has yet to surface proving Bindernagel’s claim the Sasquatch is real, he thinks that a scientific approach could prove its existence.

He is now working on a second book about the phenomenon to argue why scientists should give it serious consideration.

He said fuzzy films on the Internet do not help him making that argument.

“The evidence doesn’t get scrutinized objectively,” said Bindernagel. “We can’t bring the evidence to our colleagues because it’s perceived as tabloid.”

One Nanaimo man familiar with most native animals on the Island is Ron Heusen, a senior conservation officer.

He’s never seen anything but bear, elk, deer and similar wildlife.

“The Ministry of Environment through the provincial Wildlife Act does not regulate Bigfoot - it’s not in the Wildlife Act,” Heusen joked.

Though Heusen’s never had a call about such a creature, he said it would be easy to mistake a bear or other animal for a Sasquatch.

“It would be easy to make an honest mistake.”

Source: canada.com

Columbia Police Department is investigating a slew of Bigfoot sightings near the Pearl River, according to The Columbian-Progress.

The police chief indicated he believes it’s a hoax, but it makes you wonder, “What if it’s not?”

The next time I’m sitting in the deer stand and it’s dark and murky, I will probably spot one.

And then like the hundreds of other witnesses to the cultural phenomenon will have no tangible proof, and then everyone will think I’m crazy.

I first learned of Bigfoot while watching TV in my camp amid the swamps. It’s way out there - 30 minutes from the nearest Piggly Wiggly and just one bar with Verizon Wireless. And what pops on the TV, a Bigfoot special. Scared me to death.

I almost forgot about sasquatch (well, minus those beef jerky commercials) until some friends from Columbia were talking about it last week.

And as God as my witness, one of friends went out searching for it last week.

Let me tell you about Laura. I just met her two weeks ago, a friend of a friend. She lives in the outskirts of Columbia, and every evening, she sits on her porch with a cigarette, listening to the cackle of her police scanner.

I knew instantly she was my kind of person.

She didn’t find Bigfoot, but she did discover a track. No lies.

I wanted to make Mississippi famous, something other than Frank Melton stories.

I called CNN; no bites. I called Fox News; they said they couldn’t cover it because it could mock their viewers.

So, I decided I would write about it.

You may think I am kidding about the whole thing. No, it’s on the Progress’ Web site now. And even better, the police chief said “an out-of-state organization had visited the area with specialized equipment for primate study and had found no evidence of anything unusual.”

I know what you’re thinking; I looked into the matter.

All Fritscher family members are accounted for, and none have passed through the Columbia area. I have some beastly aunts and uncles - quite possibly science’s link between us humans and the homanids.

During my research of Bigfoot, I stumbled upon some nifty facts (all from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization):

For many in Hoopa, Bigfoot is a reality of the inland valley — one that several residents have experienced through first-hand encounters.

Those encounters — profiled in David Paulides’ “The Hoopa Project: Bigfoot Encounters in California” — point to evidence bolstering the existence of the large human-like creature.

The book, a collaborative effort of the North American Bigfoot Search, is based on a numerous interviews conducted in 2004. But, the catalyst goes a bit further back.

In a telephone interview from his Los Gatos home this week, Paulides said the organization began when a group of business acquaintances were sitting around a table one day and began talking about strange occurrences in the woods.

”That was the catalyst for us to talk,” he said.

The search and the organization evolved slowly among the tight-knit group, the author said. With a combination of time, resources and well-honed investigative skills, the colleagues began by noting all of the Bigfoot sightings on a map of the Pacific Northwest — a realization that led to the publication of a map showing those sites and noted that a predominant number of sightings had been reported from Northern California.

Those sightings, however, weren’t enough to immediately sway the author, a veteran of 20 years as an officer and investigator with the Los Gatos Police Department.

”I was open to the idea,” Paulides said, “but I was pessimistic.”

Even after the numerous interviews, Paulides said he couldn’t swear to a 100 percent belief in Bigfoot’s existence, but the scale weighs heavily in that direction. Paulides pointed to the time it took longtime resident Al Hodgson — who has been looking into the existence of Bigfoot for some 60 years. Three years ago, Paulides said, a member of Hodgson’s church, a woman he knew could tell nothing but the truth, confessed that she had seen Bigfoot. It was that confidence that swayed Hodgson.

That’s not to say that Paulides doubts the words of those he interviewed.

”I believe everybody in the Hoopa project that was interviewed was telling the truth,” he said.

Each of those included in the book signed an affidavit attesting the truth of their statements.

Even those who held no cotton to the very tall biped’s existence.

Michael Mularkey, then manager of the Ray’s Food Place in Hoopa, recounted an early-morning sighting during the commute to work from his Willow Creek home.

”Michael was approximately 15 minutes into the drive when he entered Hoopa and an area of the highway that parallels Shoemaker Road,” Paulides wrote. “He had his headlights on and was traveling approximately 40-50 mph when he saw a huge creature standing on the roadway near the computer shop. He immediately slowed when he saw the hairy beast standing on two feet. Michael said the creature was covered in reddish-orange hair or fur, except under its arms, and was standing on two feet. He stated that the creature did not have a snout like a bear, but had a flat face like a human or ape. He said he saw the creature take two giant strides, 6-8 feet each time, as it walked across the roadway and attempted to partially hide behind a large tree on the eastern side of the road. Michael said that he continued to slow his vehicle to get a good view of the creature. He said that it could not get completely behind the tree, and appeared to be looking at him as he continued driving. Michael said that as the creature was looking at him, he could see that its eyes seemed to be almost glowing yellow. He continued his journey to Ray’s and told a few friends about what had happened later in the morning.”

Thus a doubter was converted.

”Michael said he was the ultimate skeptic about Bigfoot being a living mammal,” Paulides wrote, “but no more. He stated, ‘I know what I saw and it was not a bear, it was Bigfoot. Those eyes were unreal, I’ll never forget its eyes or its size’.”

Paulides’ book is full of illustrations of Bigfoot, drafted from discussions between those who reported seeing the creature and longtime forensic artist Harvey Pratt, who Paulides hired to visually chronicle the Bigfoot encounters.

Nearly all of those drawings share many similarities, although Paulides said none of the sketches were shared among those who were interviewed.

”Nobody saw anyone else’s sketch,” he said, noting that all were kept concealed until the book’s publication. The consistency is that all but one show a lack of facial hair.

”We never thought it would be like this,” he said, “We thought it would be more ape-like, more gorilla. That’s completely not the case.”

”The Hoopa Project: Bigfoot Encounters in California,” is available at the Bigfoot Museum in Willow Creek and the Bigfoot Bookshop in Salyer, as well as online through Amazon.com.

Source: times-standard

The flooding rains which have ravaged the east coast of Australia over the past week have left a trail of misery for many, but for one man their aftermath provides a rare opportunity to attain elusive evidence of Australia’s most famous mystery animal.

In the wake of south-east Queensland’s record-breaking floods, Tim the Yowie Man, Australia’s leading mystery investigator, has raced from his national headquarters in Canberra to the Gold Coast hinterland in an attempt to find conclusive evidence of the yowie.

“Historical records indicate that there is a direct correlation between significant rain events in this part of Queensland and the sightings of Australia’s fabled yowie,” explains the purveyor of all things mysterious.

“The soaked soil and muddy bogs created by the heavy rain is more conducive to animals, including yowies, leaving their footprints,” further explains the Yowie Man.

“Rain to the extent experienced up here in the last week would make a large hairy bipedal hominoid creature very uncomfortable and potentially force it into areas it might not otherwise frequent,” says the crack cryptonaturalist.

Tim the Yowie Man has set up camp in the village of Springbrook which has earned the title as yowie capital of Australia for its steady stream of reports over especially the last fifty years, including an alleged sighting by an Australian politician and one of the few alleged yowie encounters that has involved violence.

“It’s certainly a hot-spot for yowie activity and now immediately after the rain is historically a good time to hunt for evidence of the creature – I’m quietly confident of finding some sort of evidence such as hair or footprints of the mystery beast.”

“If I’m really lucky I may even get to see one,” hopes the Yowie Man.

Source: allnewsweb

Felton — The legendary Bigfoot is not a legend after all, and has been seen in remote parts of Santa Cruz County, according to the sponsors of a June 7 discussion and exhibit on the reality of Bigfoot.

The event will be held at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum located on Highway 9 in Felton.

Museum curator Michael Rugg said not only is Bigfoot real, but he himself once saw the primate with his own eyes.

“As a boy, when I was 5 years old I saw Bigfoot,” he said. “My family had a saw mill in Laytonville Humboldt-Mendocino county line. We vacationed and fished on the Eel River. We were camping on a beach and my parents were fixing breakfast, and I wandered off one morning. I came to a sand bar in the river and saw a very large hairy man, completely covered in bushy dark hair, with nothing on but the remnants of a torn shirt hanging off one shoulder. I looked at the hairy man, and he looked at me, and then I heard my parents screaming, Mikey! Mikey where are you?’”

Rugg said he ran to get his parents and return to the site, but Bigfoot was gone.

Called the Bigfoot Discovery Project, the June 7 event will feature a talk by David Paulides, a former police investigator and noted Bigfoot researcher who wrote a book titled “The Hoopa Project, Bigfoot Encounters in California,” focusing on areas in Northern California where the greatest concentrations of alleged Bigfoot activity exist. Many of the witnesses featured in the book are American Indians.

They have signed affidavits testifying to what they saw, he said.

Bigfoot allegedly has been seen in wooded areas of Santa Cruz County including the region between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, the northwest side of Loch Lomond, the Nisene Marks Forest along Aptos Creek Road, and the Quail Hollow Sunset Trail area near Felton.

Rugg is also writing a book on the subject of Bigfoot and said much of the information to be presented is based on personal interviews. He described Bigfoot as a large bi-pedal primate, not a missing link as some people wrongly think.

“Missing link is a misused term,” he said. “That’s a link in a chain showing a transition in evolutionary traits between prosimian animals and monkeys.”

Famous film footage taken in 1967 in the Six Rivers National Forest near Crescent City in Northwest California, called the Patterson/Gimlin film, Rugg said shows a genuine Bigfoot, or “Sasquatch” as it is sometimes called. A similar creature called a Yeti has been seen in the Himalayas.

“We even have a tooth that might be from a Bigfoot,” Rugg said.

Rugg, 63, a resident of Felton, was a graphic artist involved in the high-tech industry before retiring and going into Bigfoot research full time. He said the subject often provokes derision and skepticism among disbelievers, but people need to be open minded about the possibility.

“The BDP will add to the dialogue of the impending discovery of Bigfoot by Western science and the general public,” he said. “If anthropologists are right, the only thing separating us from these forest giants is the grid of our culture, our technology.”

Source: santacruzsentinel

HONOBIA — Researchers believe that a footprint they discovered over the weekend in the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma is that of the elusive creature Bigfoot.

D.W. Lee, global director of the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center, said the print was discovered about five miles into the woods. They were able to make a cast of the print, which measured 15 3/4 inches long and 5 inches wide.

“The toes were clearly visible on the cast after it was lifted up,” Lee said.

In addition, Lee said they heard “vocalizations” in the woods that they recognize as the tell-tale mocking calls of Bigfoot. Whoop sounds, “attempted imitations” of whippoorwills and mimicking of dove and owl calls were heard, he said.

One crew member was hit by a rock during a night hike just moments after two large animals were spied through a night scope walking on two feet across a logging road.

“A lot of people, it doesn’t really dawn on them when rocks land near them” that Bigfoot could be responsible, Lee said.

Lee and his crew are evaluating hundreds of photographs and hours of video recordings taken over the weekend by about 30 researchers.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Scott Simmons said he has not been involved in any Bigfoot-seeking expeditions but that people are capable of collecting and analyzing data and have been doing so for years in fascination of the possibility of an unknown apelike species.

“I’m not going to tell someone they did not see or did see something.” he said.

Source: tulsaworld

This short film clip was discovered on an 8mm 3 minute reel purchased at a yard sale in Pennsylvania.Reel was marked as  1977  according to the seller, the guy who filmed it was a farmer/hobbyist who is deceased.

It was discovered and purchased in 2009 and was placed on youtube sometime last week.

It is hard to tell if it is actually bigfoot as the footage is not of great quality. Could this simply be another one of the many previous hoax’s , or is this actually video of bigfoot (sasquatch) ?

HONOBIA — Some 25 to 30 researchers will be braving the southeastern Oklahoma woods this weekend in search of the reclusive Bigfoot.

The Kiamichi Mountains provide the apelike creature a habitat that’s rich with deer, berries, honeysuckle and plenty of woodsy cover, believers say.

“You could hide an army in there and never know it,” said D.W. Lee of Stilwell, global director of the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center.

In October in Honobia, the researchers saw “eye shine” from a creature standing about 8 feet tall, he said.

“They would get close enough that the campfire would shine in their eyes and it would show green,” Lee said.

Like ghost hunters, the Bigfoot researchers will be equipped with night-vision goggles and scopes, along with an array of audio and video equipment. They will record hours of footage from the trail for viewing after their trip.

Lee said the creatures typically throw rocks at them when they’re sitting around a campfire.

“If they wanted to hit you, they would,” he said. “It’s like they just want to see how you’ll react. Other times you may get in areas where you’re not welcome. If you’re close to the little ones — the young Bigfoot — they’re going to make sure you leave.”

The only time Lee said he became fearful in the woods was during a trip to the Chelsea area in northeastern Oklahoma.

“I saw three groups of Bigfoot going across a field in front of me,” he said.

About a year ago

in the Chelsea area, the researchers poured a cast of a footprint, 15 inches long and 5 inches wide, that they believe was made by a Bigfoot.

They’ve photographed other footprints along logging roads in the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma.

Mountain-area natives and Sasquatch-track followers are familiar with what they say are the creature’s distinctive screams and whoops.

Lee said Bigfoot is intelligent and can mimic the sounds of other animals.

“We do hear a lot of owl calls, but you can tell it’s not an owl because it’s like an 800-pound owl hooting at you,” he said.

About five years ago, Lee’s group received a report from a man hunting deer in a tree stand in the Kiamichi Mountains. It seems that his pager went off, and after he turned it off, he heard something in the woods mimicking its beep-beep sounds.

“When he turned around, he saw Bigfoot standing there,” Lee said. “His words were that it was a ‘big something’ that he just didn’t want no part of.”

Perhaps Jane Goodall gives skeptics some pause.

In a 2002 interview with National Public Radio, the primatologist said she believes that the creature could exist. She said she based that assessment on descriptions given to her by American Indians, who reported two sightings and described sounds they’d heard.

Some people have dismissed Bigfoot sightings in Oklahoma as actually black bear sightings. But unlike bears, Lee said, a Bigfoot walks upright exclusively and — at 7 to 8 feet tall — is much taller than a black bear.

“We’re not just a bunch of country hicks,” said Lee, a network administrator.

Hundreds of people attend the Honobia Bigfoot Festival and Conference each year. This year it will be held Oct. 2-3 and sponsored by the Talihina Chamber of Commerce.

Source: tulsaworld