Searching for Bigfoot

I didn't know how big this topic was when he first started mentioning it and other shows from Scary FM. I very vaguely remember hearing about Bigfoot on television when I was growing up, but that was pretty much the end of it. I mean, tales of creatures from the woods have always been fun to listen to, with things like windigoes and fairies. It was during the conventions that are tailored for enthusiasts of the paranormal fields when I discovered huge events specifically for Bigfoot fans, and that's when I realized just how big the Bigfoot phenomenon was. YouTube videos and tales that have been sent in to storytellers about encounters in the woods started growing in popularity, well at least in my circles. This episode, we'll get into some Bigfoot cases and take a real look at its potential existence. In case you're like me and curious about what it is or how we got here, you'd be surprised at all of the things we found along the way. My name is Edwin, and here it's a dark memory. Deep in the forest of the United States, primarily in the West Coast area, people have talked about a strange creature five hundred pounds six to ten foot tall thing that evades humans. They say that it has no neck and has dark hair, and if you look at it at night, its eyes glow yellow or red. When you first hear about this, you start to wonder, can this be true? Or You've got to be kidding me? Right? It was a simple story that I used to hear about forests, but I never thought of it as anything other than a legend. When I first started looking up information on this creature bigfoot or sasquatch, That's when I I started thinking of it on the same level as aliens or ghosts. You know, those things that we are probably not going to believe, but they're so complex that you can't flat out deny them. There are just too many witnesses to deal with. But then I started finding more correlations between these things. Those who study and compare information about UFOs, for example, are highly organized the measure angles, come up with theories, and even build prototypes. Ghost hunters, as another example, also have sophisticated systems to detect differences in magnetic fields, sounds, frequencies, and have even assigned different levels of paranormal entities almost to an Encyclopedia level of study. Well, Bigfooters, those who are on the hunt for Bigfoot, and our believers are right up there. In an article from The Mercury News by Elliott Almond about this kind of stuff, he talked about Ken Carter. Ken is in his sixties now, but has been searching for Bigfoot for a decade, and I'll tell you he's not the only one. Since nineteen ninety five, the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has been tracking and investigating encounters, and Ken joined them for one of their outings, things that people pay hundreds of dollars to attend. Basically, they go out on an expedition in North America and they actually have several schedule throughout the year. But people also like to host their own camping events meetups I guess you could call them, where groups of bigfooters gather to explore and tell Bigfoot stories. It has turned into this branch of cryptozoology where they look for creatures to prove their existence, and Bigfoot is among them. Have this down to a science and can tell you all their own stories, and of those that they've heard, some are bizarre. I swear this happened type stories with just fear in their eyes. Some people who have witnessed them even refuse to go out into the woods altogether. But this is not new. Tales of a large creature that lurks in the woods go way back. Around the Big sur back country, Native inhabitants used to tell stories of giant silhouettes that would appear at twilight, and Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century used to tell stories of Los vijilantes oscuros, or the dark watchers. As Anglo Americans started settling around the region, they also felt the same thing, something was watching them from the hills. An article on sf Gate written by Katie Dowd explained a little more about this. In that same region, around the Santa Lucilla Range, around Monterey and the central California coast, people have claimed to see tall, like ten feet in height creatures that turn to look at you and then leave, quickly disappearing in the wilderness. The first account I could find in American literature came from Robinson Jeffers in nineteen thirty seven and a collection of poems called Such Councils You Gave to Me and other poems, and one of the works. He wrote, he thought I might be one of the watchers who are often seen this length of coast range forms that look human to human eyes, but certainly are not human. They come from behind ridges to watch around there. John Steinbeck, who grew up in Selina's, would hear stories from his mother, Olive how Hamilton, who would say that she would go and leave fruit out for the watchers, and when she would come back to the same spots there would be flowers in their places. But it was his son Thomas Steinbeck who is keeping the story alive in the page for his book. In collaboration with the painter Benjamin Broad, they try to capture the dark Watchers from a more artistic perspective. Thomas told Ben about the dark Watchers, and Ben set off walking in the woods and sketching things, you know, like a true artist. They also agreed with what people say that that area of Big Sir feels so far away from everything, and it feels so mystical that they say that they feel this presence when they're there, something that appears and disappears so quickly from the shadows and the stillness of the trees. Still, please remember that this isn't something exclusive to that area of the United States. Bigfoot or very similar creatures are part of the myths and history of far away countries too, the Yeti, skuncape, and the wild man, among others. But here in the United States, settlers have been spotting these creatures since the late eighteen hundreds. The ruggaroo was one of them, which comes from the Ojibwe people of the Northern Plains, who believe that it appears in times of danger. The wendigo, another creature that we've talked about in Dark Memory, is another one of them. The tall creature that is said to live in the woods, though it's described as more sinister, almost evil in nature, but it also falls under this category. When did all of this start to become real? Reporter Natalia Estrada from Eureka Time Standard claims that it all started with an article called Giant Footprints Puzzle Residence along Trinity River. It was published in the newspaper Humboldt Times in October of nineteen fifty eight. That original article talks about a road construction group with a man named Jerry Crew who found footprints in Bluff Creek, and that's where Bigfoot was first used. I mean the name the one that we used to refer to that creature. Anyway, Jerry took an impression with plaster of the footprint and then took it to the newsroom. It was eighteen inches long and seven inches wide. This thing was huge and the newsroom was going crazy about it. This was going to be big than it was. Reporter Andrew Gonzoli wrote up the article, got it published, and suddenly everyone knew about Bigfoot. By the way, Jerry, the guy who took the impression of the footprint, had referred to it as a sas squatch when he reached out. However, that whole story was eventually discredited. One of the construction workers with Jerry came forth and said that he had made the footprints. Eventually, Jerry himself told the truth to his family before he died in two thousand and two. But remember, the whole thing had gotten out of control, with believers using the article as fact and using it in arguments with skeptics who claimed that it was all fake. Eventually, June Wallace, Jerry's wife, told the truth to reporters and the whole thing was finally settled. This was after Jerry had died. The whole thing had been faked or had it, And that's what this debate is all about. Do you remember that area where the footprint had supposedly been found, Bluff Creek. Well that's where the most famous footage of a bigfoot caught on camera was taken. And this is the one you have probably seen already. And that guy, the one who was there when it was filmed, is the one who knows the truth. I'll tell you the story behind that footage up next. Stay with me. It might have been that headline from nineteen fifty eight that eventually reached these two cowboys from Washington, one named Bob Gimlin and the other Roger Patterson. They went to northern California through the forest and they wanted to see this thing. As they were riding around Bluff Creek, their horses detected something and got scared, and that's when they saw it. Less than one hundred feet away. There was a gorilla like figure walking away very quickly on two legs along the creek bed. Patterson got off the horse and grabbed the camera. He ran over the creature, capturing a blurry image until he finally stopped and fixed the legs on the figure in front of him. The whole film lasts about a minute, but you can clearly see a figure walking towards the forest. They had the film developed and it became the New Sensation. Since it came out, it has been scrutinized, tested, and has many replication attempts, but still it has not been completely debunked. Lea Satilly wrote for Outside magazine about this as she investigated why Bob Gimlin stayed behind the scenes for about forty years after the film's release. Bob himself explained things a little bit differently. Bob had to start as a young kid riding horses and doing all this outdoor stuff. As he grew older, those habits still stuck with them, doing these types of races on horses and taming them and doing all this type of thing. But the idea to go find Bigfoot came from Roger to try to convince him by playing him recorded testimonies of encounters, giving him books and newspaper articles. And then that heap of articles was the one that I told you about, the one with a construction crew finding footprints. Of course, Bob would be lured by an adventure, so he agreed and that's when they reached that area near Bluff Creek where they saw the creature. You know, it's interesting they actually named her Patty. Pretty cool anyway, Even though they made history in that trip, Bob told the reporter that he wished he had never gone exploring with Roger because it ruined him. Patterson had died in nineteen seventy two from cancer, and Bob was left alone to deal with all of the fame this had brought him and a place where all you have is your reputation. The Bigfoot ordeal really messed that up. Still. When asked about it, he said that, yeah, it sounds hard to believe, in that he couldn't believe it himself, that the thing could not be human, that it was impossible. He started getting support from believers eventually, and they invited him to a convention in California in two thousand and three along with some pretty well known people in the field. An interesting side note here is that Jane Goodall actually believes in Bigfoot, and she is well respected in the scientific community. She says that she knows and is sure that Bigfoot exists. She has talked with many Native Americans who have described the same sounds and two of them had actually seen them, and also mentioned that British scientists have found hair that isn't from any known animal. There have been over ten thousand reported sightings in the United States, and one third of them come from the Pacific Northwest. Madeline, who researched their information for this episode, found a lot of cases on the internet. We had to decide on one, so eventually we found this Reddit user who wishes to remain anonymous. Based on Bob Grimlin's personal account, I kind of understand why. Anyway, here's what it says. About twenty years ago. We were hiking down in southern Oregon and at one point I heard a couple of loud, crashing sounds about fifty yards away in the forest. I stopped and looked in the direction the sounds come from, and I was sure that I could see a large face staring back at me. I stood there for several minutes, and it did not move. I made a mark on the trail where I had been looking, and we went on our way further along the trail. Later that afternoon, when we came back to the spot, I looked at where I had seen the face, and there was an empty space I could now see, and I confirmed that something large had been looking back at me earlier. A couple of years later, I read an account of a guy who would hike up that trail and count there with two dogs. He had said the dogs would often chase off bobcats, bears, and cougars. One night, the dog ran off chasing something and shortly came back terrified and hid in the tent. Whatever. This guy would try to take his dogs there, they were still terrified and would refuse to go there again. He had reported this account to a local bigfoot discussion group, and others confirmed similar experiences in that area. We reached out for comments and for some more information. When asked about that face, they said it was large, dark color with big eyes. I was a bit apprehensive, thinking that it might be a bear. At the time, I had not encountered a bear while hiking yet, but later on several occasions when I did, I never saw one just stare at me like that. They usually just ran off or went on their way. It wasn't until some time later, after reading bigfoot accounts, that I believe the sightings to be one. We got a hold of the account from the man hiking with his dogs on a website called Oregon bigfoot dot com, and it checked out. I was more amazed by the wealth of information and level of organization of that website still reports even controversial ones. I've been showing up even as far as nineteen fifty five when William Rowe was on a mountain in British Columbia and saw a quote partly human and partly animal creature while he was hiking. And there are many more witness accounts like this one from Florida about the Skunkcape, sent in by a man named Matthew mccameey again with footage available all the way to US Forest Patrolman Paul Freeman, who claims to have seen an entire family of bigfooteen ninety four. An anthropology and anatomy professor at Idaho State University go to see the famous Patterson Gimlin's Bigfoot on the screen back in nineteen sixty eight. Now he's a well studied expert on foot morphology and he's recognized as one of the best in the world. He also keeps the largest archive of big footprint casts, and he seems convinced. However, there are others that straight up deny everything, and not just the evidence but the credibility of the witnesses. That's like Greg Long, a man who wrote a book called The Making of Bigfoot, who called Bob Grimlin a liar and a con artist. Still, even his counter evidence is shaky though. One of the arguments is that there was a costume that was made, but the person who claimed to have made it could not prove a sale was ever made, for the person who wore it could never prove that he did so. His main point is that people who search for Bigfoot are driven emotionally to find it, and so they need it to be real. Plus, the Bigfoot phenomenon has turned into an industry, with Bigfoot expeditions and conventions all around the country. Could it all be driven by an incentive just to keep the legend alive? A newspaper, The Skeptical Inquirer, has an article written by Benjamin Radford that talks about this amazing discovery that turned out to be a hoax. There were pictures of a Bigfoot corpse, someone has shot one, and they were going to be selling access to see this thing for sixty dollars per person. Unfortunately, because hoaxes like these, the scientific community around Bigfoot and their progress all get sent back. Along with Jane Goodall, I also want to believe that there is a creature that roams the forests of the United States and other places. During this research, I noticed that testimonies from Native Americans get seen as myths and lore instead of what they are, witness accounts, just like anybody else's. Still, we can't deny that it's fun to tell stories, especially around a campfire while you're out in the forest, when you're talking about someone's encounter with a large ape like creature, the one that looks at you straight in the eye. The truth is that we don't know if there really is a creature hiding among the trees, one that's looking at the fire, that's slowly dying out. We don't know who is out there looking at you in the dark. This episode of Dark Memory was researched by metal Inguera and by me Edwin ko Arubias. If you have an idea for an episode, you can find me on social media and on dark memory dot com. Don't forget a tap follow so you get the next episode up next, be sure to check out Scary Mystery Surprise, where my co host Michelle and I talk about scary things that we find, but we talk about them in a lighter tone. We actually cover an episode on Bigfoot. If you want to check it out, type in Scary Mystery Surprise on your app to find it. We'll see you there. Thank you very much for listening. See us soon.