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Willow Creek’s Bigfoot Days ready to roll this weekend
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Bigfoot squirts the audience with a water gun during the Bigfoot Days Parade in Willow Creek last year. Submitted photo/Shelly Baldy/Hoopa Two Rivers Tribune
By ASHLEY BAILEY, The Eureka Reporter
Published: Aug 27 2008, 10:44 PM · Updated: Aug 28 2008, 12:40 PM
He may be the most noted Bigfoot expert in Willow Creek, but 85-year-old Al Hodgson doesn’t think so.
Sure, he believes in the hairy man-beast that has a questionable existence, but being dubbed “Mr. Bigfoot” and the Bigfoot Curator of the Willow Creek China Flat Museum seemed to be stretching it, he said, since he only got the name for knowing many of the Bigfoot believers around town.
“Some of them are real kooks, I’ll tell you that,” Hodgson said. “But there are a lot of good people you meet, too.”
Hodgson will be joined by those who question, love or fear Bigfoot at Willow Creek’s 48th annual Bigfoot Days starting Saturday.
There will be a parade through town at 10 a.m., followed by live music and vendors from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Veteran’s Park.
The theme, “Year of the Bigfoot: Seeing is Believing” compliments the 50th anniversary that the term “Bigfoot” was coined by the media.
Parade coordinator Rebecca Cape, a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout, said she had questioned if the festival would happen this year due to wildfires that sparked in the Hell’s Half Complex on June 20.
But with the fire now contained and air quality alerts lifted, Cape said residents were ready to move on and enjoy themselves during Bigfoot Days.
“If we made it through the fire storm, we can do anything,” she said.
Cape insisted she is a Bigfoot believer, claiming to have spotted the man-beast seven years ago in the forest.
“Something went by and shook my body and I couldn’t get out of the truck for twenty minutes,” she said. “It took me months to admit to myself that it was probably Bigfoot running by. There’s no animal that tall and there was long hair whipping behind it.”
Event coordinator Cortney Colby said festival-goers get really into the event and many dress up like Bigfoot themselves.
“There’s always someone in a Bigfoot suit hiding behind trees scaring kids,” Colby said. “I don’t know who does that, but there’s always somebody.”
Even, the Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau has taken advantage of the Bigfoot phenomena to attract tourists to the North Coast.
Their newest video can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p22BGJ6dXU.
In the end, Hodgson said there is no way anyone can prove Bigfoot exists and believes it’s just an animal that nothing is known about.
“Even the pictures we have are so vague,” he said. “For that reason, I’m still edgy about what it is.”
For Cape, the fun about Bigfoot is believing, and she feels it has become a national icon.
“We’ve had our fair share of sightings, it’s pretty exciting stuff,” Cape said. “I hope nobody ever finds one.”
For more information about the event, phone 530-629-3530.
(Ashley Bailey can be reached at abailey@eurekareporter.com, or at 707-269-7433.)
Bigfoot Days schedule of events
Saturday
9:30 a.m. - parade line-up begins
10:30 a.m. - parade starts along state Route 299 in downtown Willow Creek
11 a.m. – 5 p.m. festival with vendors and live music at Veteran’s Park
Sunday
12 p.m. to 4 p.m. – Kids day at Creekside Park with puppeteer, clown, waterslide, storytelling, crafts, barbecue and more
Click to view attachment
Bigfoot squirts the audience with a water gun during the Bigfoot Days Parade in Willow Creek last year. Submitted photo/Shelly Baldy/Hoopa Two Rivers Tribune
By ASHLEY BAILEY, The Eureka Reporter
Published: Aug 27 2008, 10:44 PM · Updated: Aug 28 2008, 12:40 PM
He may be the most noted Bigfoot expert in Willow Creek, but 85-year-old Al Hodgson doesn’t think so.
Sure, he believes in the hairy man-beast that has a questionable existence, but being dubbed “Mr. Bigfoot” and the Bigfoot Curator of the Willow Creek China Flat Museum seemed to be stretching it, he said, since he only got the name for knowing many of the Bigfoot believers around town.
“Some of them are real kooks, I’ll tell you that,” Hodgson said. “But there are a lot of good people you meet, too.”
Hodgson will be joined by those who question, love or fear Bigfoot at Willow Creek’s 48th annual Bigfoot Days starting Saturday.
There will be a parade through town at 10 a.m., followed by live music and vendors from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Veteran’s Park.
The theme, “Year of the Bigfoot: Seeing is Believing” compliments the 50th anniversary that the term “Bigfoot” was coined by the media.
Parade coordinator Rebecca Cape, a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout, said she had questioned if the festival would happen this year due to wildfires that sparked in the Hell’s Half Complex on June 20.
But with the fire now contained and air quality alerts lifted, Cape said residents were ready to move on and enjoy themselves during Bigfoot Days.
“If we made it through the fire storm, we can do anything,” she said.
Cape insisted she is a Bigfoot believer, claiming to have spotted the man-beast seven years ago in the forest.
“Something went by and shook my body and I couldn’t get out of the truck for twenty minutes,” she said. “It took me months to admit to myself that it was probably Bigfoot running by. There’s no animal that tall and there was long hair whipping behind it.”
Event coordinator Cortney Colby said festival-goers get really into the event and many dress up like Bigfoot themselves.
“There’s always someone in a Bigfoot suit hiding behind trees scaring kids,” Colby said. “I don’t know who does that, but there’s always somebody.”
Even, the Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau has taken advantage of the Bigfoot phenomena to attract tourists to the North Coast.
Their newest video can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p22BGJ6dXU.
In the end, Hodgson said there is no way anyone can prove Bigfoot exists and believes it’s just an animal that nothing is known about.
“Even the pictures we have are so vague,” he said. “For that reason, I’m still edgy about what it is.”
For Cape, the fun about Bigfoot is believing, and she feels it has become a national icon.
“We’ve had our fair share of sightings, it’s pretty exciting stuff,” Cape said. “I hope nobody ever finds one.”
For more information about the event, phone 530-629-3530.
(Ashley Bailey can be reached at abailey@eurekareporter.com, or at 707-269-7433.)
Bigfoot Days schedule of events
Saturday
9:30 a.m. - parade line-up begins
10:30 a.m. - parade starts along state Route 299 in downtown Willow Creek
11 a.m. – 5 p.m. festival with vendors and live music at Veteran’s Park
Sunday
12 p.m. to 4 p.m. – Kids day at Creekside Park with puppeteer, clown, waterslide, storytelling, crafts, barbecue and more
