Monsters and Myths

They’re still not sure what to do with it, but a family living on the Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwestern Ontario has a plaster cast of a “huge” footprint from what they think is a sasquatch-like creature.

“It’s got six toes and a giant heel,” said 21-year-old Judy Fobister, whose father went out and took the imprint.

“He brought it home and he showed us,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked that there is actually something out there.”

The footprint measures about 38 centimetres long by about 15 centimetres wide and nicely fills a large pizza box, which is where the plaster cast is now safely stowed.

“The way toes are, it looks kind of weird,” Fobister said Tuesday. “They don’t look normal. They’re huge. The big toe is huge. If you put three of your middle fingers together, that’s how wide and how long the big toe is.”

Fobister said her aunt, Helen Fobister, and her grandmother, Agnes Fisher, were driving back roads of the reserve on their way to pick blueberries. They told family members that they saw a tall, slender, black creature just a few metres ahead of them.

“They said they were pretty close,” Fobister said. They said it was really tall, like about eight feet tall.”

The creature disappeared into the bush, but members of the family went back to look around. Fobister said that’s when her father found the footprint and took the plaster cast.

She says she’s grown up hearing stories about a sasquatch-like creature in the area. Now she “kind of” believes them, but would still like to see more proof that the fabled creature, which is sometimes called bigfoot, really exists.

Grassy Narrows is about 80 kilometres north of Kenora, Ont.

Source: cananda . com

The Mogollon Monster is Arizona’s version of Bigfoot. It supposedly lives, as you may have guessed, along the Mogollon Rim, although it has allegedly been spotted around Prescott and in the Grand Canyon. It seems to be a shy thing, but every now and then, it tears up a campsite or takes the campers’ food.

Don Davis, a cryptozoology investigator who died in 2002, claimed that he encountered the monster at a Boy Scout camp near Payson in the 1940s. He reported:

“The creature was huge. Its eyes were deep set and hard to see, but they seemed expressionless. His face seemed pretty much devoid of hair, but there seemed to be hair along the sides of his face. His chest, shoulders and arms were massive, especially the upper arms; easily upwards of 6 inches in diameter, perhaps much, much more. I could see he was pretty hairy, but didn’t observe really how thick the body hair was. The face/head was very square; square sides and squared-up chin, like a box.”

At mogollon monster.com, you can see pictures of Mogollon Monster poop and caves, watch some videos, find links to other MM sites and read an account from a woman who said she saw the creature last Christmas near Springerville. She described it as hairy, black and about 8 feet tall.

Source: arizona republic

WHAT makes so many people want to believe in fabulous creatures? Chris Lavers and Joshua Blu Buhs set out to explore this question, and although one tackles an ancient myth and the other a modern one, they come up with remarkably similar answers.

The Natural History of Unicorns might sound whimsical, but in fact it is an erudite, scholarly book which uses the unicorn to illuminate millennia of social and geographical change. Unicorns appear in many guises in many cultures - from the ferocious one-horned ass described by the Greeks to the courtly, Christianised goat of medieval Europe and beyond. Lavers’s achievement is to show how each of these is a chimera based on startlingly accurate reports of real animals, carried over trade routes stretching from the African jungle to the Arctic Circle.

The unicorn’s susceptibility to virgin maidens, the curative qualities of its horn, its elusiveness and temperament: Lavers explains how these properties were shaped to suit the ideologies and beliefs of different societies, throwing up - and answering - fascinating questions along the way. For example, did khutu, a material used in ornamental knife handles, come from narwhals, giant birds, musk oxen or woolly mammoths?

For those, like myself, who always assumed that our forebears more or less made up unicorns from folk superstitions and a pinch of rhinoceros, Lavers’s book offers revelations not only about mythical creatures, but about the extent and effects of globalisation in ancient times. It’s eminently readable, too.

One of the themes of Lavers’s book - that belief in mythical animals is a product of social change - is central to Bigfoot, an exhaustive study of wild-man myth-making in the 20th century. Buhs’s book starts out in similar territory to that of Lavers, suggesting that the Himalayan legend of the yeti became “folklore for an industrial age” because it meshed well with Britain’s post-colonial concerns and drew on popular fascination with far-flung places - a kind of media-accelerated version of the same processes that created unicorns.

Buhs goes on to describe how the search for Bigfoot and Sasquatch was dominated by the concerns of white, working-class men. For this disenfranchised group the quest was a validation of their lifestyle, skills and knowledge, which they perceived as being threatened by mass media, formal education and popular culture. The hunters’ desire to be accepted as scientific, while simultaneously disparaging the scientific establishment, makes for thought-provoking reading: there are obvious parallels with the attitudes of intelligent-design enthusiasts and climate change sceptics.

Popular culture eventually defanged Bigfoot, and unicorn-hunting has fallen out of fashion. But both Lavers and Buhs suggest that these myths, and others like them, will persist in one form or another. Tellingly, both trace their respective subjects all the way back to Gilgamesh, one of the world’s oldest fictional texts, in which the wild man Enkidu is tamed by female sexuality. If belief in fabulous beasts has such deep roots, it is unlikely to go away any time soon - although with the Earth becoming an ever-smaller place, Buhs suggests that future monster-hunters may have to turn their attention to the stars.

Source: Newscientist

Florida’s answer to Bigfoot is a 7- to 12-foot, 300- to 700-pound human-ape thing that really stinks.

It supposedly hides in muddy, abandoned alligator caves, thus the smell.

For more than two centuries, people have sworn they saw it dash across the Everglades or retreat from a rural road.

In Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, barking dogs, petrified security guards and bug-eyed kids bear testament.

There are photographs, grainy and distant, but attested to by their bearers.

More than 75 sightings were reported in Florida in the past two decades.

The scare had started when an amateur archaeologist claimed he’d seen the thing in southwest Florida’s Big Cypress Swamp.

But it was concentrated locally in the 1970s, when South Florida then had more open space and about half the people it does now.

A local dispatcher said he was advising lawmen that locals were so jumpy the cops should identify themselves when they approached homes.

“I know it exists,” Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy Marvin Lewis said in 1980.

He said he and fellow deputy Ernie Milner made some 50 forays to the wild.

They said they shot something in 1974 west of Lantana that grunted and fled back to the dark. Another time, they found mysterious hair on a barbed-wire fence.

Lewis put in 27 years and retired in 1997. He hasn’t changed his mind.

He said recently that any along the coast were long ago driven west by encroaching civilization.

“I couldn’t point to a photo and say, ‘That’s what I saw,’” he said. “But cops act on investigation and evidence. And the evidence says something was there.”

palmbeachpost.com/npost/content/neighborhood/npall/epaper/2009/04/02/npall_posttime_0402.html

Is Bigfoot walking around your backyard? A recent visitor to the Monument area is sharing what she captured on video, and saw with her own eyes.

A choppy, 15-second video clip depicts a typical day on Palmer Ridge, until things get interesting along the treeline.

A shadowy figure saunters into the frame, long arms swinging by his side.

Reportedly, it’s Bigfoot making a brief appearance near Monument.

“Never did believe it until I saw it for myself,” said Denise Plante. She spotted the big guy during a recent barbecue.

“We heard a noise, and thought maybe we should take a closer look,” Plante said.

11 News showed the video that’s been posted online to residents in the area.

“I saw something move,” said Kathy. “I seriously doubt it’s bigfoot.”

It’s a hard sell for some.

“I don’t think it’s him. I’ve seen him. He’s a little shorter,” said Jim, an El Paso County resident.

Others could at least be swayed.

“That was him! I saw his long hair!” said Jim’s son Finn.

Despite compelling video, and a telltale footprint, the whole thing boils down to two words.

“April Fool’s!” Plante said.

Plante thought up the gag for her gig as a morning talk host on Denver’s KOSI 101, choosing a southern Colorado setting by doing some homework.

“A lot of people have witnessed bigfoot at Pikes Peak, they claim,” she said.

That part of the bigfoot story is true. Bigfoot researchers conducted expeditions in Colorado as recently as last August. But do believers think it’s possible he spends time further downhill?

“I think it’s cool!” said Cassie, who lives near Monument.

The whole truth may still be out there.

“We’ve been here a long time and I haven’t met him yet,” said Cassie’s mom. “But I’d like to.”

kktv.com/home/headlines/42306692.html

The expedition that went looking for bigfoots in a cave in the mountains of Siberia has so far been fruitless, but its organizers blame the weather for failure and say they will return in summer.

Earlier this week an expedition headed by “yeti specialist” Igor Burtsev set off to explore the several kilometer long cave in the Kemerovo Region, where local hunters reported to have seen the creatures. The expedition returned to Moscow without any success.

“Our expedition visited the Azasskaya Cave. Unfortunately, we did not find any direct evidence of a bigfoot’s presence there,” Burtsev was quoted by RIA Novosti as telling a press conference directly after his return.

But he was not discouraged by this failure, blaming it on bad weather and the curiousity of local people.

“People are simply pouring in there now. If there had been any footprints there originally, they were destroyed,” he said.

Besides, the cave is very deep, Burtsev said, and to explore its full length, a team of speleologists would have to join the mission. Since the exploration was made almost impossible by heavy snow drifts, the expedition should return in summer, he added.

In February the administration of Kemerovo Region in Russia’s Siberia started receiving reports from local hunters who claimed to have seen human-like creatures near Azasskaya Cave, 500 kilometers off the city of Kemerovo. The creatures reportedly were 1.5-2 meters tall and covered in fur. One of the hunters also made a photograph of what he said was the creature’s footprint in the snow.

Burtsev, a PhD in History and a passionate believer in bigfoots, says he sees nothing strange about bigfoots possibly showing up in the Kemerovo region. Its mountains are part of the Altai range, thought to be the favorite yetis reproduction spot. In late 19^th and early 20^th century, he says, female creatures with young ones were frequently spotted there.

The Russian Academy of Sciences, however, is skeptical of Burtsev’s enthusiasm. To preserve a stable population, there would have to be many yetis, but only single creatures have so far been spotted, an anthropologist of the Academy, Sergei Vasilyev, told RIA Novosti. Besides, no body of a bigfoot has ever been found and studied, no matter how many sightings have been reported.

mosnews.com/weird/2009/03/25/bigfootupd/

A Bigfoot research group reported finding a handprint that “looked like a huge gorilla paw” during a recent expedition on Sand Mountain.

“It would’ve made two of my hands,” said Hawk Spearman, a founder of the Alabama chapter of the Elusive Primates of North America, or EPNA.

Spearman said the find was the first handprint he has discovered in more than a decade of research, although he has found footprints in the past.

“We were pleased with what we did find,” he said.

From Feb. 20-22, Spearman said the group explored a heavily wooded area about 15 miles from U.S. 431 and the Albertville and Boaz area. Spearman declined to release the exact location because he said the property owners did not want media attention.

Spearman said the group heard a number of vocalizations during the expedition.

“One guy said it was like sleeping in a zoo,” added Spearman. “There has been activity out there for quite a while.”

One of the vocalizations was particularly interesting.

“We heard something that sounded like a really mad cow vocal and then what sounded like a bear vocal,” Spearman said.

When the bear vocal drew closer, Spearman said, “All of a sudden we heard this vocal, like six deep, long, guttural growls. We know we upset what was there. We didn’t physically see anything.

“We did get vocalizations from that area in January as well, but we were unable to identify them. Lo and behold, we were watching Animal Planet and heard a similar vocal. An expert from Texas A&M University said it was an unknown primate with human texture vocalization.”

Spearman said a former game warden from Pennsylvania accompanied the group and noted signs of a bear or a big cat in the area.

EPNA’s next meeting is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Oneonta Public Library, where the Alabama chapter has been meeting for the past year.

Spearman said a group called the American Primate Research Organization, or APRO, from Cullman is expected to attend. He said EPNA plans to merge with APRO in the next few weeks.

sandmountainreporter.com/story.lasso?ewcd=dcb39996f2dafae0

According to news sources, an expedition led by the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Kemerovo set off in search of a Bigfoot-like creature that was sighted by some frightened hunters in the area. A news report just last week claimed that some local hunters near the Azass Cave on Mount Shoriya had spotted “some hairy humanoid creatures” that resemble some kind of brown bear from a distance. They have black or red fur all over their bodies and stand some 5-6 feet tall. With the report came one of those things they say is worth a thousand words; namely, a photograph from the inside of the cave showing the track of an unidentified creature.

The priest is also expected to make a private visit to open and bless a small church at a gulag barracks camp in Mount Shoriya. There were many of these camps during the Soviet era. The expedition will require snowmobiles to reach the village where the Bigfoot sightings took place. A spokesman from the Russian news-agency, RIA Novost said:

“A more formal scientific expedition to investigate the sighting is currently being organized for this coming summer. The financial details are being worked out, and there are already many enthusiasts, businessmen and hunters ready to help.”

Nikita Shulbayev, deputy head of the local administration said:

“People here are scared the creatures will attack villages because of hunger. We made a decision to send an expedition to research this issue. We need to understand whether they are dangerous for people and we need to calm people down.”

The head of the department of anthropology at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology in Moscow is not impressed and he stresses that despite the numerous reports of their sightings throughout the world, anthropologists have never seen or studied the body of a Bigfoot or yeti. He further stated that the spotting of singular yetis is “biological nonsense” as a large population must exist in order to create generation after generation. He made no comment about the fact that this particular sighting involved several creatures.

Whatever these things are or aren’t, it would seem that the entire matter is a lot more frightening for the creatures, n’est ce pas?

inventorspot.com/articles/

does_big_foot_have_foothold_siberia_24387

That funky smell; that hairy, not-quite-human gait; that long, low call through the woods:

Bigfoot! In Michigan!

There’s a declaration that’ll have friends turning away and snickering into their hands.

Here in the Great Lakes State, as in most of the northland, if it hasn’t been shot and dragged by the foot back into town for all to see, it’s considered not quite real.

But sightings of Bigfoot persist to this day. Just last year, a hunter in Oscoda County got a whiff of something stinky, then came upon a sleeping Bigfoot. Jeez-o-Pete!

One was seen in Arenac County in 2003, another in Ogemaw in 2007 near Lupton.

The reports keep trickling in, stoking the legend of Bigfoot. For fear of ridicule, few people are willing to make those claims publicly.

Who’s to say, though, that there isn’t a 7- or 8-foot, apelike creature hiding out in our remote swamps?

A team of researchers tried to flush one out in the Upper Peninsula in recent years, to no avail. Kind of like those cable TV “reality” shows where they never manage to find a live specimen of the creature of the week.

That’s OK. If Bigfoot were common, they wouldn’t be legend, would they?

Keep that in mind the next time you’re deep in the woods and you see, smell or hear something that’s Not. Quite. Right.

Could it be Bigfoot?

Maybe.

mlive.com/opinion/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/03/bigfoot_sightings_keep_the_leg.html