Bigfoot or Big Myth?
By Edward Robertson
VERMILLION, S.D.—In the early 1980s, a teenager was deer hunting in the Black Hills of South Dakota when he heard something he wouldn’t forget.
The sound was very loud and it varied in pitch and made grunting noises like someone would make when being silly. But it was scarier than that.
Sitting on a hill overlooking Nemo, S.D. – touted by the town brochure as “omen” spelled backwards – the 16-year-old believed he had heard a Bigfoot or Sasquatch.
I still believe that today.
Edward Robertson
Photo credit: Shannon Shaw
Edward Robertson
As that young man, I was with my family bow-hunting in various locations on the same hill above Nemo when the sound came that broke the monotony. I first thought it was a crazy man hollering at the top of his lungs from somewhere below me.
It was frightening enough for my dad to hurriedly round us up and get us back to our vehicle. My dad said later it was probably a Bigfoot and that some of his friends had experiences in that area where something circled their camp at night keeping just out of the firelight. I agreed.
Indians have many legends describing large hairy creatures. Shannon Shaw is an Osage Indian and a journalism graduate student. She has heard the tribal legend of a Bigfoot creature called “Hairy Man,” who stood more than 7 feet tall.
“He creates mischief,” she said. “He’s the bearer of bad news, and if you see him, it means you’re a pitiful person. There’s a reason he’s appearing to you.”
Making Mischief
Shaw also said there are a few stories in which he has hurt people. But mainly Hairy Man just makes mischief.
There are many who are skeptical about the existence of the Sasquatch, but there are many who are believers.
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) maintains a Web site. The goal of the BFRO is to document and substantiate the existence of Bigfoot.
Many of the researchers are from Oklahoma, and the site lists more than 2,000 reported sightings of Bigfoot from every state except Hawaii, with additional reports coming from Canada and other countries. The reports are from people who have either seen the creature or have found prints or other physical evidence such as hairs, broken limbs or scat of the supposed creature.
The lead scientist of the organization’s expeditions is Alton Higgins, an assistant professor of biology from Oklahoma. Higgins said he first became interested in Bigfoot when he was on vacation with his wife in Skamania County, Wash., during the summer of 1998. Higgins and his wife found large tracks and scat.
Two months later, he discovered the BFRO Web site and volunteered to join the organization. He and other members hope to document the existence of the creature and protect it. Higgins said he believes the creature to be a large primate but unrelated to humans.
There have been recent media claims that Bigfoot was a hoax after news reports that Ray Wallace, who sold plaster castings of Sasquatch footprints at roadside stands, was engaged in a ruse. But Higgins said Wallace’s actions do not disprove the existence of Bigfoot.
Searching for Prints
The organization of Bigfoot believers said on its Web site that there is physical evidence that a Sasquatch exists, a plaster-cast impression of its body. Higgins said the BFRO set up a trap to obtain tracks during an expedition in Skamania County.
Higgins said fruit was placed in a muddy spot in hopes that a Bigfoot, whose sounds had been heard in the area, would leave footprints while searching for the food. Higgins said that when they returned the next day there were no tracks but there was a depression on the ground where the creature had apparently lain.
Higgins said a cast was made showing the creature’s buttocks, forearm and side as if it had turned on its side to get the fruit. He also said the cast had hair samples. Higgins said though they have several hair samples, DNA sequencing has been unsuccessful but added that the hairs are definitely primate and nonhuman.
Daryl Collyer is another volunteer researcher with the BFRO who described himself as a former U.S. Air Force linguist and presently works in a credit union. Collyer said his interest in Bigfoot started when he grew up in East Texas. Collyer said he heard stories about damaged fences, hunting traps being disturbed, mysterious screams and black hairs found at those sites by puzzled residents.
Collyer said he found the BFRO out of curiosity and befriended Higgins. He added he has been thrilled by the search for Bigfoot and the research he has done. “I like it. I love it. It’s very fulfilling,” Collyer said.
Collyer dismissed critics and skeptics, many of whom think that humans are “king of the hill” and are upset at the threat of proof that other beings could evolve in a similar manner as humans.
“The reason we don’t see these creatures a lot is that not many people are in the woods at night,” he said, adding that “an animal with the cunning of a cougar, the brawn of a gorilla and the brain of a chimpanzee is difficult to track.”
Sightings
The BFRO receives weekly reports of sightings or physical finds, and Collyer said that while a majority are fraudulent, the group investigates all of them. With so many people seeing these things, Collyer said, “it’s more palpable to believe there is something out there than people … just imagining things or making it up.”
The hunt for Bigfoot, meanwhile, has gone high-tech. Collyer said that there is a fingerprint expert who works with BFRO who can tell if a Bigfoot cast is genuine by examining the ridge patterns on the bottom of the cast.
The Bigfoot print patterns of ridges on the feet are reportedly closest to a howler monkey but different from a human or other primates, Collyer said.
Another true believer is Billy Simmons, a retired deputy sheriff from Pecan Gap, Tex. Simmons said he and family members and friends heard strange noises on his wife’s property in Fannin County.
Later, he discovered that something had taken apart his corn deer feeders made of PVC pipe and that could only be taken apart by “something strong with thumbs.” Simmons said he also found a “nest” on the property and placed pictures on the BFRO Web site.
Simmons said he saw the creature while hunting in the same area in December 2001. Sitting next to the logging road that crosses the creek, Simmons said he heard a loud crash and the sound of footsteps walking down the road.
He recalled pointing his shotgun at whatever made the noise and, through the trees, he saw the creature from its waist up. Simmons, who said he is 6 feet 3 inches, described it as quite a bit taller and weighing approximately 400 pounds.
Simmons said the creature didn’t see him, but when he keyed the mike on his radio the creature “tore out of there screaming, faster than an athlete.” Simmons said he found two footprints where the creature had been standing. He described it as having long rusty colored hair like that of an Irish setter dog with hair darker around the eyes that were set in a cone-shaped head.
Simmons said the occurrences have died down and the creature may have moved on—and he acknowledged that some people will believe that his story is untrue. “People are going to believe what they want to,” he said, adding that “I’m a lot more leery when I go hunting.”
I must be more leery, too.
Several years ago I went back to that hill above Nemo and looked around. Of course I didn’t see anything. But I was alone. It was creepy, and I got out of there just like before.
This story was written as a class assignment at the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute in June. Reporter Edward Robertson is Choctaw and a student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Photo illustrator Princella Parker is Omaha and a student at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Exibit A: why photos are no longer acceptable BF evidence. That's actually a pic of my feet, stepping onto the bathmat after a shower sometime in late winter. I'm so very embarrassed. 