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tugboatwa
http://blog.mlive.com/traveling_coach/2007...ce_expedit.html
QUOTE
Sasquatch hunt: science expedition, ecotour, ripoff--or does it matter?

Posted by kim schneider July 13, 2007 09:22AM

The Bigfoot Research Organization has been spreading honey, sardines, licorice, even gorilla pheremones across the woods of Marquette in hopes of luring out a Sasquatch. Bigfoot's still staying low, but the debate's raging: would a true researcher charge someone $300 to come along on what may be a wild Sasquatch chase, or does that mean the expedition leaders are con artists of some kind?

Local forestry officers are weighing in on editorial pages of local papers, saying that if there was a Bigfoot in the UP, they'd surely have seen a sign. On the other hand, the Bigfoot expedition, in an open meeting with locals, heard tales of sightings of a big hairy animal with beady red eyes.

But as Loren Coleman speculates in his latest blog posting on Cryptomundo, the search for perhaps the world's most elusive creatures have become an interesting new form of ecotourism. Vacations that include time spent with researchers are a hot trend if you think about dolphins, turtle rescues and the like. And here, while the "quest" may be for the creature, I'd speculate that the "experience" goes way beyond that.

It's not unlike my recent trek to Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. This wilderness area said to be the second most biodiverse spot on earth, is home to roaming jaguars among other creatures. We never saw a jaguar, but we did see monkeys playing in the treetops, a sloth cradling its baby, trees so giant they seemed to be as mystical as, well, a Sasquatch. We even panned for gold, knowing full well we weren't about to hit the bounty. But just maybe . . . Meanwhile, with senses on full alert, we lived in the moment--noticing sounds, breezes, rare plants, the even rarer silence.

Maybe $300 isn't such a steep price for the experience that UP expedition member, Fox News Reporter Griff Jenkins, is blogging. Heck, having his new repertoire of stories to tell will likely be worth that, as he wears a helmet cam and treks around the woods at dark, lets out some Sasquatch-style howls, today heads back to the spot where another trek members says something standing on two feets tossed an injured shrew--one that had been "bitten"--at his car.
wudewasa
QUOTE(tugboatwa @ Jul 13 2007, 01:52 PM) *


"Bigfoot's still staying low, but the debate's raging: would a true researcher charge someone $300 to come along on what may be a wild Sasquatch chase, or does that mean the expedition leaders are con artists of some kind?"

Wow, this writer cuts to the chase!

However, this is not the first time that people have searched for a creature resembling bigfoot. It even seems that there was a special drink involved in the old quest that parallels the legendary liquid consumption by BFRO members today:

"The Boojum of the Plott Balsam
Boojum's Treasure Lies Unfound
by John Parris

Plott Balsam - The range of the Boojum is very limited.
Few folks outside the mountains have ever heard of the strange creature whose hideaway is somewhere among the rocky crags of the Plott Balsams.

As a matter of fact, not too may of the local folks know about the Boojum and his cache of priceless gemstones which, legend persists, is stored in stone jugs filled with pert'nin' juice.

But time was when the adventurous and the fortune hunters scoured the wilds of the Plott Balsams in search of the Boojum's secret cave, bent on turning up the bonanza of rubies, amethysts, and emeralds.

This was back when the famous Eagle's Nest Hotel stood atop this mile high peak that towers over Waynesville and catered to folks suffering to hay fever.

Expeditions to search for the Boojum's cave were organized leading guests to search Plott Balsam and surrounding areas.

According to the local tradition the Boojum had his cave somewhere among these rocky heights wehere there were onnly bear trails.

The Boojum was described as a strange creature, neither man nor beast. A giant of a creature who generally traveled about at twilight and dusk. No Man, twas said, had ever got a real good look at the Boojum. No one had ever run upon the giant face-to-face. Atleast if they had, they had never lived to tell of it.

But there were stories of folks having seen the Boojum from afar, a ghostly shape etched against the sky from a perch on Plott Balsam.

Some figured it was only a giant bear.

But the legend grew as all legends do.

By the time Peter G. Thompson, the founder of Champion Fibre Compmany, came this way in 1906, the legend was well established and was the talk at the Eagle's Nest Hotel.

He was the one who first mentioned the story of the Boojum to his son-in-law, Reuben R. Robertson. And in succeeding years, Robertson became an authority on the Boojum.

"The Boojum," he explained "is a Plott Balsam creature, somewhat akin to the abominable Smow Man of the Himalayas. The Boojum however, is different in that he developed a great fondness for precious stones of the mountains - rubies, amethysts, beryls, emeralds, and the like."

"And it was the firm belief of the mountain dwellers that the Boojum had amassed a most valuable collection of these jewels which he cached in his hidden cave."

"Furthermore, it was related that these jewels were stored in stone jugs and that to further camoflauge the contents of the jugs, he filled them with that mountain beverage known as pert'nin' juice."

"Obviously, to ascertain whether the jewels were present in a particular jug discovered hiddewn away in the mountains, the peart'nin' juice had to be removed."

"Now some outlanders might pour it out on the ground without so much as a thought. But not a thrifty mountain man. And unusually there were two or three mountain men on the expeditions into the wilds."

"And in time even the oulander agreed that to pour out the peart'nin' juice on the ground would be an unseemly waste."

"Thus, in this scientific search for the Boojum's lost jewels, much peart'nin' juicehas been consumed over the years. But the jewels remain hidden, albeit the search goes on, and there are yet many jugs of peart'nin' juice back in the hills to be explored."

Be that as it may, the search these days for Boojum's cave and its fortune is carried on without fanfare and strictly on the quite.

As a matter of fact, folks in the know just dont talk about the Boojum among strangers or even acquaintances.

It coould be that's the reason so few folks know about the Boojum and the bonanza of jewels hidden in stone jugs filled with peart'nin' juice. "


http://www.smokiesproperty.com/boojum.html
billgreen2005bigfoot
hey wude & tugboatwa wow this definetly a very heated pithy new bfro article. thanks bill. smile.gif please keep me informed of other new bfro articles or news segments.
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