QUOTE
Bigfoot believers back
Published: August 29, 2007
By Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
That rustling in the underbrush might be Bigfoot. Or it might not.
But one Bigfoot hunter, a structural engineer from Portland who refused to be identified except by his first name, Neil, thought that it probably was one of the elusive creatures Saturday night as he traveled logging roads above Longbow Organizational Camp on the Sweet Home Ranger District.
He was among a couple dozen Bigfoot believers and researchers who got together at Longbow campground for the annual International Bigfoot Society campout last weekend.
They spent Saturday evening comparing notes and giving presentations on their work. Following the presentation, Neil, along with Ray Rosa and Shelly Binkley of the Sasquatch Mystery Center in Grants Pass, decided to head up the hill on a short expedition to find Bigfoot mainly to demonstrate how they look for Bigfoot. They took along a reporter.
Those attending the camp believe Bigfoot exists but they're not necessarily together on exactly what Bigfoot might be. Some believe Bigfoot is a relative of the ape while others believe it may be a type of human. Others think that Bigfoot is an inter-dimensional, supernatural creature.
Probably half of the Bigfooters at the camp subscribe to the inter-dimensional theory, said Patti Reinhold of Sweet Home. She did not say what her opinion was.
The campout is open to Bigfoot believers in general, a place where they can relax and share what they've seen and learned, she said.
Neil is among those who think Bigfoot is inter-dimensional, meaning it exists in "dimensions" next to and twice removed from our own. That means most of the time the creatures are invisible in our dimension, so even though they are common, they are rarely seen.
Binkley explained that she is open to the idea based on some of the things that she has seen on expeditions.
The first stop was perhaps a mile above Longbow. Neil set speakers on top of his SUV. With a night scope and a remote switch to the speakers in hand, everyone got as quiet as possible.
Neil triggered recordings that he said were of Bigfoot screams and howls from the Estacada and Lake Tahoe areas. The first call was immediately answered by a strange howl.
"That was obviously a coyote," he said. After listening a little longer for evidence of visitors from another dimension, he said that site was exhausted.
He moved up the road a little more than a mile, attempting to reach an area that hadn't been touched by the previous Bigfoot calls. He triggered the sounds again. This time, there was some rustling in the nearby underbrush along with the occasional soft whistling sound. It soon grew quiet except for the buzzing and chirping of insects.
Based on three years of experience, Neil said he thought it was likely a Bigfoot, but Sasquatches are shy and cautious. There may have been too many cars and people for it to show itself. He didn't think it was a deer or other animal because a deer tends to run away.
Rosa and Binkley headed back for camp while Neil tried one more spot another mile up the road but to no avail.
Among those attending the campout was Peter Byrne, one of the top researchers in the field and author of "The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Man or Myth." He has appeared in numerous documentaries on Bigfoot.
As presenters made claims, he quietly questioned them about their more startling claims, asking about documentation.
M.K. Davis, a Mississippi man who has been digitally cleaning up images from the controversial 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film of a Bigfoot female in Northern California, explained that he has moved far beyond where he was two years ago, when he first presented his work at the Longbow campout.
"Things I had two years ago are far behind now," he said. His images from the film are better and higher quality; and he still hasn't been able to find anything artificial about the Bigfoot in the image. In the process, he believes he has uncovered another Bigfoot in the film. It is the size and shape of a Bigfoot, but it is far from certain. He pegs the chances of it being a second Bigfoot at about 80 percent.
Others have noticed a Bigfoot "arm" apparently reaching around a tree in the film, he said. He has checked that out too, but it never moves. If it is a Sasquatch arm, it doesn't move and he can't confirm it's a Sasquatch.
"A lot of people have made a lot of claims about this film," Davis said. "It's grainy, dark. I think four or five people have claimed to be the creature, but if they've seen what I've seen in it, they wouldn't risk it (the claims).
"It's something I've enjoyed doing."
He has had help, he said, expressing gratitude for those who have given him assistance.
Davis is preparing to put his findings together into a presentation and is planning on working with Don Monroe of Montana on a book to be released next year.
Monroe is in the camp that believes Bigfoot is a type of human. Monroe thinks there are four varieties of them, partly Neanderthal, Monroe said.
Joe Belart shared stories about his research in the area between Estacada and Detroit in recent years. He has explored 63 incidents in that area, he said. Among stories in the area is a farm family just outside of Estacada that started planting corn in 1955.
"They had to quit planting sweet corn because ‘the beast with big feet' would come in and eat the corn," he said.
Belart said he talked to a Forest Service employee, who told a story from 1967. The man was nearly finished changing a tire on his pickup when a Bigfoot walked across the road in front of the pickup, looked at him and then walked up the hill on the other side of the road.
"He became so distraught he jumped in the truck and drove off his jack," Belart said.
Forest Service employees are notoriously tight-lipped about Bigfoot, he said, but he has been able to talk with a few who have seen things.
Rosa and Binkley announced plans for a late-September expedition to an area in Southern Oregon where, they said, their group has spotted several Bigfoot. They invited others to join them on the three-day trip.
Rosa described the trouble he has been having getting a photo.
The Bigfoot have broken cameras and sometimes used sticks to drag food out of the bait piles without being seen by the motion-sensitive cameras, Rosa said. They may be shy, but they've also left "gifts" behind in exchange, including a pile of mushrooms.
Joey Lowell of Salem has not clearly seen a Bigfoot. He said he has found tracks, heard roaring, seen trees snapped off at 12 to 14 feet from the ground, and gotten responses to tapping, banging a branch on a tree.
Though these stories may sound preposterous to some. To people like Monroe, Bigfoot hunting and these stories are important.
He has evidence, such as unidentified hair samples taken from caves; but most people don't like the implications, he said.
"You're the small percentage that thinks outside of the box. You‘re the few that dare to say the ‘h--- with the world,'" a world where governments cover things up and people choose to live in the dark.
"It's an adventure," he said. "It's a quest and lonely too."
It's people like those at the campout, people who want to know the answers to questions, who can get to the truth, he said. "People like me, like yourselves, are a different breed."
Published: August 29, 2007
By Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
That rustling in the underbrush might be Bigfoot. Or it might not.
But one Bigfoot hunter, a structural engineer from Portland who refused to be identified except by his first name, Neil, thought that it probably was one of the elusive creatures Saturday night as he traveled logging roads above Longbow Organizational Camp on the Sweet Home Ranger District.
He was among a couple dozen Bigfoot believers and researchers who got together at Longbow campground for the annual International Bigfoot Society campout last weekend.
They spent Saturday evening comparing notes and giving presentations on their work. Following the presentation, Neil, along with Ray Rosa and Shelly Binkley of the Sasquatch Mystery Center in Grants Pass, decided to head up the hill on a short expedition to find Bigfoot mainly to demonstrate how they look for Bigfoot. They took along a reporter.
Those attending the camp believe Bigfoot exists but they're not necessarily together on exactly what Bigfoot might be. Some believe Bigfoot is a relative of the ape while others believe it may be a type of human. Others think that Bigfoot is an inter-dimensional, supernatural creature.
Probably half of the Bigfooters at the camp subscribe to the inter-dimensional theory, said Patti Reinhold of Sweet Home. She did not say what her opinion was.
The campout is open to Bigfoot believers in general, a place where they can relax and share what they've seen and learned, she said.
Neil is among those who think Bigfoot is inter-dimensional, meaning it exists in "dimensions" next to and twice removed from our own. That means most of the time the creatures are invisible in our dimension, so even though they are common, they are rarely seen.
Binkley explained that she is open to the idea based on some of the things that she has seen on expeditions.
The first stop was perhaps a mile above Longbow. Neil set speakers on top of his SUV. With a night scope and a remote switch to the speakers in hand, everyone got as quiet as possible.
Neil triggered recordings that he said were of Bigfoot screams and howls from the Estacada and Lake Tahoe areas. The first call was immediately answered by a strange howl.
"That was obviously a coyote," he said. After listening a little longer for evidence of visitors from another dimension, he said that site was exhausted.
He moved up the road a little more than a mile, attempting to reach an area that hadn't been touched by the previous Bigfoot calls. He triggered the sounds again. This time, there was some rustling in the nearby underbrush along with the occasional soft whistling sound. It soon grew quiet except for the buzzing and chirping of insects.
Based on three years of experience, Neil said he thought it was likely a Bigfoot, but Sasquatches are shy and cautious. There may have been too many cars and people for it to show itself. He didn't think it was a deer or other animal because a deer tends to run away.
Rosa and Binkley headed back for camp while Neil tried one more spot another mile up the road but to no avail.
Among those attending the campout was Peter Byrne, one of the top researchers in the field and author of "The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Man or Myth." He has appeared in numerous documentaries on Bigfoot.
As presenters made claims, he quietly questioned them about their more startling claims, asking about documentation.
M.K. Davis, a Mississippi man who has been digitally cleaning up images from the controversial 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film of a Bigfoot female in Northern California, explained that he has moved far beyond where he was two years ago, when he first presented his work at the Longbow campout.
"Things I had two years ago are far behind now," he said. His images from the film are better and higher quality; and he still hasn't been able to find anything artificial about the Bigfoot in the image. In the process, he believes he has uncovered another Bigfoot in the film. It is the size and shape of a Bigfoot, but it is far from certain. He pegs the chances of it being a second Bigfoot at about 80 percent.
Others have noticed a Bigfoot "arm" apparently reaching around a tree in the film, he said. He has checked that out too, but it never moves. If it is a Sasquatch arm, it doesn't move and he can't confirm it's a Sasquatch.
"A lot of people have made a lot of claims about this film," Davis said. "It's grainy, dark. I think four or five people have claimed to be the creature, but if they've seen what I've seen in it, they wouldn't risk it (the claims).
"It's something I've enjoyed doing."
He has had help, he said, expressing gratitude for those who have given him assistance.
Davis is preparing to put his findings together into a presentation and is planning on working with Don Monroe of Montana on a book to be released next year.
Monroe is in the camp that believes Bigfoot is a type of human. Monroe thinks there are four varieties of them, partly Neanderthal, Monroe said.
Joe Belart shared stories about his research in the area between Estacada and Detroit in recent years. He has explored 63 incidents in that area, he said. Among stories in the area is a farm family just outside of Estacada that started planting corn in 1955.
"They had to quit planting sweet corn because ‘the beast with big feet' would come in and eat the corn," he said.
Belart said he talked to a Forest Service employee, who told a story from 1967. The man was nearly finished changing a tire on his pickup when a Bigfoot walked across the road in front of the pickup, looked at him and then walked up the hill on the other side of the road.
"He became so distraught he jumped in the truck and drove off his jack," Belart said.
Forest Service employees are notoriously tight-lipped about Bigfoot, he said, but he has been able to talk with a few who have seen things.
Rosa and Binkley announced plans for a late-September expedition to an area in Southern Oregon where, they said, their group has spotted several Bigfoot. They invited others to join them on the three-day trip.
Rosa described the trouble he has been having getting a photo.
The Bigfoot have broken cameras and sometimes used sticks to drag food out of the bait piles without being seen by the motion-sensitive cameras, Rosa said. They may be shy, but they've also left "gifts" behind in exchange, including a pile of mushrooms.
Joey Lowell of Salem has not clearly seen a Bigfoot. He said he has found tracks, heard roaring, seen trees snapped off at 12 to 14 feet from the ground, and gotten responses to tapping, banging a branch on a tree.
Though these stories may sound preposterous to some. To people like Monroe, Bigfoot hunting and these stories are important.
He has evidence, such as unidentified hair samples taken from caves; but most people don't like the implications, he said.
"You're the small percentage that thinks outside of the box. You‘re the few that dare to say the ‘h--- with the world,'" a world where governments cover things up and people choose to live in the dark.
"It's an adventure," he said. "It's a quest and lonely too."
It's people like those at the campout, people who want to know the answers to questions, who can get to the truth, he said. "People like me, like yourselves, are a different breed."
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