QUOTE
Bigfoot in Clayton County -- who would have thunk it
By Tom Kerlin
My wife often laments that I watch too much “educational” television. She prefers to be entertained by the television.
I, on the other hand, can take it either way. I enjoy television entertainment, especially of the cowboy movie type. But I also like to watch the History Channel, A & E, RFD-TV, the Biography Channel and the Discovery Channel (especially the latter since my son-in-law is employed by the same).
Sometimes there just isn’t anything to watch on any of the 200 or so channels that I get by satellite at my home, except, that is, one of the educational stations.
And there are those particular times when regularly scheduled shows are just too interesting to pass up.
Take for instance ‘Monster Quest’ which airs once or twice a week on the History Channel. The premise of the show is to investigate stories about unusual creatures that are purported to have been seen and yet which are dismissed as just so much of someone’s imagination.
The show has dealt with such supposed myths as the Loch Ness Monster (and its American cousin, Champy), the legendary thunderbird of American Indian folklore, 50-foot snakes in the Amazon, giant wildcats in the United States and, of course, Bigfoot or Sasquatch if you prefer.
Whether or not I believe that any of these creatures exist is irrelevant.
The fact that some people not only believe in their existence, but claim to have seen them, while some even present photographic and even physical evidence is enough to make the television shows worth watching.
Bigfoot has always captured my attention. I suppose it goes back to my days in Wyoming when I saw the 1967 Roger Patterson documentary that had clear shots of a large hairy creature walking through an area of downed trees.
Much has been said and written supporting and disclaiming Patterson’s film. But to date it provides the most compelling evidence that there is such an animal living in the wilds of America.
That is until this week ... maybe.
Right next door in Clayton County two men, one of whom is a Clayton County police officer, claim to have a “well-preserved” Bigfoot body. They even have a website that promises they will unveil the body on September 1.
Why Sept. 1 I have no idea. I could certainly understand having an unveiling date of April 1, however. That would fit right in.
The news article announcing the so-called male Bigfoot corpse appeared as the lead story in the July 23 Clayton News/Daily, and names Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer as the holders of the body.
On an Internet web site Whitton says the body is real and not a hoax. “It’s not a mythological creature that there’s just one of. It’s a species that may be really rare, but they’re actually out there breeding.”
Whitton apparently did not elaborate on the “breeding” evidence. But we are left to wonder.
Meanwhile the story has taken over Internet sites devoted to Bigfoot, Sasquatch and the Skunk Ape.
All of the previous stories about Bigfoot seemed to have come from the Northwest, while the Skunk Ape appears to be a similar creature living in the South.
More recently I have seen shows reporting to have sightings of a Bigfoot in Texas and Oklahoma. But never one in the deep South.
That is until the latest news broke. Now, according to the newspaper article, the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, based in California, maintains that at least 61 Bigfoot sightings have been reported in Georgia. That was certainly news to me. I’ll have to keep a closer watch at night when my dog starts barking.
A spokesman for that organization calls Whitton and Dyer “idiots” and “clowns,” and says their claim of having a Bigfoot corpse is simply a scam.
He goes further to accuse the pair of trying to advertise their business, which, coincidentally, just happens to be a company selling Bigfoot expeditions into the North Georgia mountains. Hmmm... it just keeps getting better.
There are people, however, who are hoping the claim is anything but a hoax. An Arkansas man, T. H. Branco, who writes a regular column about Bigfoot research, says many people are watching to see if the Clayton County incident is a hoax. “It is apparently being promoted by a police officer that has everything to lose as far as his profession is concerned, if it is a game, a hoax or just a joke.”
Well, that certainly makes sense, to me. But who is to know, actually. After all, the existence of Mountain Gorillas was thought to be a myth until they were discovered in the early 1900s. Why couldn’t a yet-to-be-discovered primate be living in the wilderness areas of this country?
As of Thursday the two men were still maintaining that their claim of a Bigfoot corpse was not a hoax. I’m waiting on the unveiling.
It just so happens that years ago I saw a large cat, about the size of a mountain lion, cross Redwine Road in the vicinity of Camp Creek. When I told my granddaddy, who was in his late 80’s at the time, he didn’t doubt me, telling me that he had seen a few “panthers” in his time.
Yet there are any number of people who insist that such cats never existed in this area because there hasn’t been evidence to substantiate their existence.
Nevertheless, I saw one. I know I saw it. I remember when and where I saw it.
So, why not a Bigfoot?
(Kerlin is a veteran journalist whose family roots go back for generati0ns in the community)
By Tom Kerlin
My wife often laments that I watch too much “educational” television. She prefers to be entertained by the television.
I, on the other hand, can take it either way. I enjoy television entertainment, especially of the cowboy movie type. But I also like to watch the History Channel, A & E, RFD-TV, the Biography Channel and the Discovery Channel (especially the latter since my son-in-law is employed by the same).
Sometimes there just isn’t anything to watch on any of the 200 or so channels that I get by satellite at my home, except, that is, one of the educational stations.
And there are those particular times when regularly scheduled shows are just too interesting to pass up.
Take for instance ‘Monster Quest’ which airs once or twice a week on the History Channel. The premise of the show is to investigate stories about unusual creatures that are purported to have been seen and yet which are dismissed as just so much of someone’s imagination.
The show has dealt with such supposed myths as the Loch Ness Monster (and its American cousin, Champy), the legendary thunderbird of American Indian folklore, 50-foot snakes in the Amazon, giant wildcats in the United States and, of course, Bigfoot or Sasquatch if you prefer.
Whether or not I believe that any of these creatures exist is irrelevant.
The fact that some people not only believe in their existence, but claim to have seen them, while some even present photographic and even physical evidence is enough to make the television shows worth watching.
Bigfoot has always captured my attention. I suppose it goes back to my days in Wyoming when I saw the 1967 Roger Patterson documentary that had clear shots of a large hairy creature walking through an area of downed trees.
Much has been said and written supporting and disclaiming Patterson’s film. But to date it provides the most compelling evidence that there is such an animal living in the wilds of America.
That is until this week ... maybe.
Right next door in Clayton County two men, one of whom is a Clayton County police officer, claim to have a “well-preserved” Bigfoot body. They even have a website that promises they will unveil the body on September 1.
Why Sept. 1 I have no idea. I could certainly understand having an unveiling date of April 1, however. That would fit right in.
The news article announcing the so-called male Bigfoot corpse appeared as the lead story in the July 23 Clayton News/Daily, and names Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer as the holders of the body.
On an Internet web site Whitton says the body is real and not a hoax. “It’s not a mythological creature that there’s just one of. It’s a species that may be really rare, but they’re actually out there breeding.”
Whitton apparently did not elaborate on the “breeding” evidence. But we are left to wonder.
Meanwhile the story has taken over Internet sites devoted to Bigfoot, Sasquatch and the Skunk Ape.
All of the previous stories about Bigfoot seemed to have come from the Northwest, while the Skunk Ape appears to be a similar creature living in the South.
More recently I have seen shows reporting to have sightings of a Bigfoot in Texas and Oklahoma. But never one in the deep South.
That is until the latest news broke. Now, according to the newspaper article, the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, based in California, maintains that at least 61 Bigfoot sightings have been reported in Georgia. That was certainly news to me. I’ll have to keep a closer watch at night when my dog starts barking.
A spokesman for that organization calls Whitton and Dyer “idiots” and “clowns,” and says their claim of having a Bigfoot corpse is simply a scam.
He goes further to accuse the pair of trying to advertise their business, which, coincidentally, just happens to be a company selling Bigfoot expeditions into the North Georgia mountains. Hmmm... it just keeps getting better.
There are people, however, who are hoping the claim is anything but a hoax. An Arkansas man, T. H. Branco, who writes a regular column about Bigfoot research, says many people are watching to see if the Clayton County incident is a hoax. “It is apparently being promoted by a police officer that has everything to lose as far as his profession is concerned, if it is a game, a hoax or just a joke.”
Well, that certainly makes sense, to me. But who is to know, actually. After all, the existence of Mountain Gorillas was thought to be a myth until they were discovered in the early 1900s. Why couldn’t a yet-to-be-discovered primate be living in the wilderness areas of this country?
As of Thursday the two men were still maintaining that their claim of a Bigfoot corpse was not a hoax. I’m waiting on the unveiling.
It just so happens that years ago I saw a large cat, about the size of a mountain lion, cross Redwine Road in the vicinity of Camp Creek. When I told my granddaddy, who was in his late 80’s at the time, he didn’t doubt me, telling me that he had seen a few “panthers” in his time.
Yet there are any number of people who insist that such cats never existed in this area because there hasn’t been evidence to substantiate their existence.
Nevertheless, I saw one. I know I saw it. I remember when and where I saw it.
So, why not a Bigfoot?
(Kerlin is a veteran journalist whose family roots go back for generati0ns in the community)
