Sorry if a poll like this has already been created, I just want to get an idea of how many believed him and how many didn't.

Ooops.

I voted No. Personally I think it was just that, a story.

I tend to think he was making it up, but I'm hesitant to write it off totally since John Green said in Apes that he (at least in 1978) was leaning towards believing him.

I found a few items in the story difficult to believe, but I lean more towards believing the story than not. It's mostly mimicked behavior, IMHO...

I have a hard time with it because he describes them as acting so human....having furs to sleep on and 'talking' etc....I mean its like they were furry people.....

I don't like that idea at all

I voted undecided. I don't have enough info to say one way or the other. I have only read his story on B. Short's website but I have not read John Greens stuff yet *gasp* I know bad bad bad. I would like to read the opinions of the people who interviewed him. I also remember a report of a Sas who got up from a cross legged sitting position without using its hands. This is something that Ostman says he witnesses also and it seems to corroborate his story somewhat but it could just be an anomaly. Does anyone know who else interviewed Ostman and what the consensus is amoung these people on the veracity of his story?

I feel Ostman was telling the truth.

He gained no money, social status or fame from it.
He never changed his story in over 20 years, neither adding or subtracting anything from it.
The physical descriptions aresimular to what we are seeing now.
The vocals are what we are hearing today (chatter).
The physical abilities are what we are learning they are capable of.

I had to vote "undecided," but not because I have any problem with sasquatches being some sort of "furry people," should DNA evidence ultimately identify them as such. Although Ostman's story does seem convincing, and he was consistent about it for many years, it is possible that he simply built the whole thing out of various Native American stories he had heard. Everything in his story, except (to my knowledge) the part about using snuff to choke the adult male, can be found in various Indian legends. So, I just can't be positive that he wasn't simply telling a tall tale.

I also had to vote "undecided". There is simply not enough objective information for me to make a decision one way or the other. I hate to accept verbal reports without some extrinsic evidence; then again, I hate to disbelieve reports because they are strictly verbal......geez, thank goodness that BF evidence is hardly ever comprised of verbal reports

I was about to say Homer ...
Yeah, thousands of reports that consist of nothing more than the basic "big hairy thing on two legs walked out in front of my car" kinda reports.
Who to believe?

i voted undecided, because i wasn't there, i didn't see it happen, he didn't have a witness, i didn't read where a family member or a friend reported him missing, if they did it was something i missed. i think it could happen, but i still wonder about it. i have heard of indian women being kidnapped by bigfoot, but not very often a man. it just makes me wonder even more. soooooo, maybe it happened maybe it didn't, who knows for sure except ostman and the bigfoot.

Yeah . . . I voted undecided for essentially the same reasons Ontheloose did.

For me, I honestly am more on the side of, "Yep, I'm willing to accept this probably happened." Some of the details, like the pads on the feet, seem to me to be the kind of random little things someone would pick up in that kind of situation. At least, to my line of thinking. And, as RobUstes pointed out, a lot about it is consistent with reports that come up today.

There are also a few other incidents of sasquatches moving sleeping people. Generally, it's just a couple of feet. I've been in the field with a guy who said he was dragged part way out of his truck, and I've got no reason to doubt him on it . . . Both because he takes this subject very seriously, and because it's a behavior pattern that seems to crop up other places. I know there are links somewhere . . . Hopefully someone with better bookmarks can track something down.


~Ice

good poll. I tend to think something happened to the guy.
Whether or not he was really carried in there that far, I don't know.
Whether or not he was accurate in his descriptions, I don't know.
If Green thought he was telling the truth, maybe he was.
Regardless, its a fine tale with some interesting detail that really can't be used as a reason to dismiss it. The weaving is interesting and perhaps might be one of the things that suggests he was "padding" his story. Don't know. But its sure fun stuff.
His physical descriptions were interesting as well, but as Kisal said, there was information available back then and who knows what kind of mindset he had before this story came up. I "want" to believe it.
But........ you don't know for sure. Wish there was something that would "ice" it for us

I voted undecided. Who am I to say that it was a fabrication? I wasn't there. Half the people that I tell my sighting to dont believe it.

I'll keep that an "open" because it will "hurt" my research more than it will "help" it.

Undecided....(you know you expected me to say no ) agin its the lack of info but couples with the consistency of the story over a long period of time,plus details that one would expect to emerge from several days (?) with them,and just to throw this in Dahinden along with Green also believed him...

OFF TOPIC--

Angie, I've just got to ask this, and I hope you don't mind: Exactly what is it that you have as your avatar? I can't identify it.

Hey Kisal.... I got this avatar from one that Etheral posted in the thread "RB needs an avatar". I looked and looked for one that I liked. I couldnt find any besides this one. I couldnt get it the right size cuz the smileys keep stretching out of shape. It looks better in Etherals post. Maybe I'll try to resize it again.

It is two smileys. One is poking the other with a stick. It fits me more than anyone here can know. I have always been notorious for poking things with sticks. As a child, we would find different things, sometimes animal remains and everyone else would be grossed out but I would poke it around til I figured out what it was.

I still poke things with sticks...call me weird But it's a lot better than poking unidentified things with my fingers. Yuck!

Edit: I just resized it again. That looks a lot better. I had to make it a lot wider than tall.