Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence – An Anthropologist Speaks Out
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2010
Reading group homepage for this book: Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence
Re: Chapter One of Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence – An Anthropologist Speaks Out by Dr. Grover S. Krantz, “Introduction”:
Dr. Grover S. Krantz was fascinated by the possibility of Bigfoot’s existence. His enthusiasm shines through in the pages of his seminal scientific examination of the phenomena: Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence – An Anthropologist Speaks Out. The introduction and chapter one are the same thing – there is no separate introduction.
In Chapter One – Introduction, Dr. Krantz explains how he came to be invested in Bigfoot research. He lists the books he read and tells what he thought of them and what he learned from them. He introduces a few prominent Bigfoot researchers of his era; he started his Bigfoot research in the mid-sixties. Next he examines, briefly, various types of proof he’ll discuss at length later in the pages of his book.
Not content with telling why people believe in Bigfoot, Dr. Krantz also writes about alternative explanations for Bigfoot sighting reports and Bigfoot related phenomena, including bear misidentifications, fabrications, misinterpreted chance irregularities, and other types of human error. He states:
Dr. Krantz lists a series of events needed to prove to scientists that an animal is real. The process includes sighting reports, skeletal remains, a complete body, a live capture, and then studies in its natural habitat. We’re a long way from proving anything about Bigfoot! We’re still in stage one of the process – gathering sighting reports.
The next section explains why we are unlikely to ever find Bigfoot bones. Dr. Krantz concluded the chapter by discussing strong opinions, unusual historic Bigfoot sighting and encounter cases, his personal involvement in Bigfoot research, and the focus of his book, which is professional and scientific in nature.
Next chapter: Big Footprints
March 11, 2010
Bigfoot: to Research or Not to Research?
Bigfoot Research: Good or Bad?
There’s been a bit of controversy recently about Autumn William’s Professional Suicide blog posting in which she videoed herself saying she met a person who is friends with a Bigfoot. Her new informant, she says, “doesn’t like Bigfoot researchers.” She’s convinced his story is so compelling she’s writing a book about it, without any of what people normally consider evidence or proof. So, she now says, “I am not a Bigfoot researcher – I’m an eyewitness advocate.”
In saying all this she managed to upset a few Bigfoot research bloggers and people on Bigfoot message boards. As for me, I sensed that she’s had a shift in self-perception and no longer feels comfortable with the former role we all perceived her in, as a Bigfoot research blogger and website owner. She has a great website with a large database of sightings. What about this is not really research?
Despite what she said, I don’t think it should now become unpopular to be called a Bigfoot researcher, or to call oneself that. Call yourselves whatever you like… and if your interest is in learning more about Bigfoot then you’re a Bigfoot researcher no matter what you intend to call yourself. If you put “Bigfoot sightings” into a search box and found this site, you’re researching Bigfoot, right? So to eliminate the term makes no real sense to me.
I’m sorry to hear that Autumn’s new friend doesn’t like Bigfoot researchers. Perhaps, more specifically this person could say what exactly isn’t liked. Is it the action of going into the woods with loud Bigfoot scream recordings, making tree knocking sounds, and all the other things some Bigfoot researchers consider standard? Is it the attempt to learn anything about Bigfoot at all that is not being liked?
It is a fact that as long as there’s a mystery there will be people intrigued and wanting to resolve it. However they go about that, it is hopeful they’ll do so with an intention not to harm any other living creature. Those that seek to capture, imprison, or kill a Sasquatch for fame or financial gain are not approaching the issue with pure hearts. Purity of heart is most likely the only thing that will result in relationship with a Bigfoot. Rather than seek Bigfoot with motion sensors, trail cams, and night vision cameras, perhaps it would be best to search within, to purify our hearts and clarify our thoughts, so that when we’re faced with the reality of a Sasquatch we’re ready to befriend and not to exploit.
A lot of what Autumn said in her video, I can agree with. I don’t have a need to drop the word ‘researcher,’ however. The specific term for the people who are difficult to tolerate is Bigfoot exploiters… those who would harm a Sasquatch and interfere with that person’s life, for their own self-aggrandizement (or pocketbook) — those are the ones who should be ‘not liked’ … not researchers. Research is a human occupation. We think, we question, we study. Being human is not something to be ashamed of.
For more information and links, see Steven Streufert’s comments re: A Bold Statement Out of Oregon.
December 12, 2009
The Trail-Cam “Bigfoot” – My Opinion
A reader emailed to ask me what I think of this new trail cam “Bigfoot”. The picture was originally published in the Bemidji Pioneer, in Minnesota, and was a trail cam photo attributed to brothers Peter and Casey Kedrowski, and their father, Tim Kedrowski.
My first impression was that it obviously is not a Bigfoot, because the legs don’t have any muscle definition – in fact, they look very much like a costume or a pair of loose pants.
My partner’s first impression was that it is a hunter in dark camo (see examples below which are from Cabelas.) I’m not sure if my examples are the darkest camo, but it very well could have been a hunter walking by in full camo, including one of those strange hats.
Camo or not, the legs look like the give-away to me, because they aren’t curved as muscles in an unclothed leg would be. Others have pointed to the hand, barely visible behind the tree. It looks like a glove to me.
And those two bright spots on the head – they couldn’t be a Bigfoot’s eyes because a Bigfoot’s head is close to the body – there’s no neck, so a Bigfoot doesn’t turn his head like a human being does. A Bigfoot has to turn his torso too. (I get these ideas from eyewitness reports, such as those in David Paulides’ books.)
It could be a Bigfoot costume. I’ve seen plenty of them in the Bigfoot parades here in Happy Camp and in Willow Creek, and they hang exactly like that – baggy and loose.
Sample photos of dark camo winter clothing and headgear from the Cabelas website:
So, it looks to me like either an intentional hoax, or perhaps just an accident. Perhaps the brothers put up a trail cam and later a hunter walked by, triggering the motion sensor. In that case the brothers may have honestly thought they got a Bigfoot’s photo, however the lack of muscle definition in the legs makes me wonder how this particular photo got to be so well publicized. Surely people can’t be thinking this is real. Or can they?
Bigfoot researchers must have an enormous amount of skepticism in examining Bigfoot evidence, but others, unfamiliar with evidence we’ve seen submitted over time, might be more willing to believe.
Because I’ve got this site I often am sent possible Bigfoot pictures, but they’re usually very unimpressive, I’m sorry to say. We’ve got a big credibility problem with all Bigfoot photographs these days because with modern software photos are easily faked, and there are excellent artists available to do that. To have a truly conclusive photo that nobody would be skeptical about would be very difficult these days. I’d go so far as to say it is impossible. So when someone points to something shadowy behind a tree and says it is a Bigfoot, I don’t believe it. If it isn’t clear enough to be analyzed it isn’t going to impress any credible Bigfoot researcher.
Even movies are questionable. Look how much controversy there’s been over the years about the Patterson-Gimlen film. I do believe that’s a real Bigfoot, but a lot of people are still denying it, even though many respectable scholars have analyzed it frame by frame and declared it has to be real.
What we need is for some Bigfoot researcher to make contact with a Bigfoot on a long term relationship basis. I know people have reported having these relationships, but often these people will not allow others to know, for the protection of their Sasquatch friends. We need credible scientists or scholars to be able to witness and hopefully even participate in these relationships, to document the existence of these forest people. Photographs aren’t going to suffice, and film most likely won’t either, though Patty is a great start. And I’m totally against the theory that killing one will help; that would only give the Sasquatches one more reason to want to avoid us.
So there you have it… my opinion. I often don’t comment on these types of photographs that hit the news because if I can’t believe they’re real Sasquatches, what good does it do to show them to people?
If you want to see a lot of bad “Bigfoot” photographs head over to this link: Field & Stream’s Trail Cam Contest – they offered a million dollars to anyone who could provide a photo of a Bigfoot, so consequently they attracted all kinds of hoax photos from collages to blobsquatches to bears to sheer nothingness. People were desperate to get that money! (Thanks to Don Campbell for sending me that link.) You can sift through the photos and help rate them… it is great advertising for Bushnell trail cams.
I wonder if this photo everyone is talking about was intended for that contest. Is it worth a million dollars to you to put on a Bigfoot costume and walk in front of a trail cam at night?
Too late… the contest has ended.
December 4, 2009
M.K. Davis – Have You Seen the New Interview?
For those of us obsessed with the weird “Bigfoot Massacre” theory… you may be interested in reading the new interview with M.K. Davis by Steven Streufert on Bigfoot’s Blog. I’ve visited Steven at his Bigfoot Books store just east of Willow Creek, CA, and can see that he probably has plenty of time to work on his interviews with Bigfoot researchers between chats with customers. He’s been producing a great series of interview postings on that blog… including interviews with Daniel Perez and David Paulides.
Anyhow, the new interview is with M.K. Davis, and will help us all get a grip on understanding who he is and why he thinks someone killed a Bigfoot at Bluff Creek!
While I’m talking about Steven, I should mention he’s started a second blog to write about Bigfoot books. Since he owns a rather large used bookstore and sells both new and used books about Bigfoot, he’s also done a lot of reading. Here’s his blog with a Bibliography of books on Bigfoot, Sasquatch and the Yeti.
November 9, 2009
Bigfoot Blogsearch
A few days ago I went to Google Blogsearch and put “bigfoot” in the searchbox at the top of the page… and was excited to see a link to my blog at the top of the results page! A link to one of Linda Newton-Perry’s articles was not far beneath that.
It amazes me that this blog is getting as much traffic as it does. I’m deeply grateful, especially since I know there are other Bigfoot blogs that deserve a lot more recognition. I’d like to share my blog traffic by redirecting you to some very worthy bloggers.
1. Cliff Barackman’s blog – Cliff is in Oregon
2. Bigfoot’s Blog – Steven Streufert in Willow Creek, California
3. Autumn Williams – also in Oregon
4. Blogsquatcher – I loved hearing him on Blog Talk Radio…
5. Stan Courtney – he always seems to have something new and worth reading.
6. Bigfoot Times – Daniel Perez
7. Bigfoot Field Reporter – Sharon Lee
There are some great Sasquatch bloggers out there on the internet! [I will be adding to this list.]
You’re welcome to place your Bigfoot blog link in the comment section here. I know I haven’t mentioned all the good ones, and I’ll appreciate any heads-up links to Bigfoot blogs I don’t know about yet.
October 31, 2009
Derailed in October . . . ready for some excitement in November!
October was a difficult month for me due to health problems and being far too busy doing things that had nothing to do with a computer or a Bigfoot! Please accept my apology for not updating this blog more often. I’ve actually heard from several people who cared enough to email me and ask if I was okay. I truly appreciate that… my heart is warmed and I feel surrounded by Bigfooting friends… a good feeling!
November should be an interesting month. I’m not promising daily updates here because I’m going to be busy writing a novel along with the crowd at NaNoWriMo. I have been doing this every November since 2001. Most of my novels have Bigfoot in them!
This year my novel will be special (and different!) because a Bigfoot will be the main character! I’m looking forward to getting this project underway at midnight tonight, when the NaNoWriMo fun starts. I’ve been planning this novel since early September and feel well-prepared for the challenge. In case you want to check on my progress, here’s my NaNoWriMo profile page.
I have another blog I write in about writing topics… and I’m not sure that I’ll write much at all about my novel in this blog during November. After all, don’t people coming to this blog want to hear about a real Sasquatch, not a fictional one?
Does anyone have an idea on what I should have my main character, Oja, call her people? The word Bigfoot is out. Sasquatch is contrived, not something that came out of the wild. I’d love to have an authentic word for Bigfoot – one that they themselves might recognize as pertaining to them. Any suggestions will be welcomed.
Aside from that, I have some columns to post from Linda Newton-Perry, and will probably work on reviews for the last few chapters of Tribal Bigfoot – I left off after the last Northern California chapter was done. I haven’t given up on the project. That was such a good book! I hope others have been able to read it and please, if you do read it in the future feel free to come back here and comment on the postings for the chapters. Many thanks to David Paulides for writing such a thoughtful and unique book! By the way, there’s an excellent interview with Mr. Paulides over on Bigfoot’s Blog which comes from Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek. Steven Streufert has been producing some fascinating interviews this past month. These could become classics!
I’ve also recently received several reports of Bigfoot activity, past and present, from readers. I’ll be posting them soon. Yesterday and today I spent time clearing out my email inbox and reorganizing my folders. It is such a good feeling to have email under control and findable again. It amazes me that we have so much information coming at us all the time, we must struggle to choose what pieces of information have real meaning.
Happy Bigfooting, Squatchers! What a great time of year to get out into the forest. I haven’t been able to go out much lately because I hurt my foot on September 17 and it still hurts… but since I live in the forest I don’t miss it too much!
[Update 10/29/09: The NaNoWriMo experience was successfully finished so there's one more novel about Bigfoot in existence now.]
October 5, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Ten: “Humboldt County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
Re: Chapter Ten of Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, “Humboldt County”:
I love that David Paulides had so much time (and money) to travel and spend time doing research and meeting people. But I like to check things out for myself, so after reading his notes about Lucy Thompson’s book, published in 1916, a source of information on the “Indian Devil” aka “Oh-ma-ha” – I requested a copy from the Siskiyou County Library. Lucy Thompson was a Yurok Indian… Yurok meaning “downriver” compared to the local natives here in the Orleans/Happy Camp area who are Karuks, meaning “upriver people.”
A few days ago I received the book through a library transfer from another city in our county, and turned to Chapter IX: The Indian Devil, page 129. Almost everything that was written about the Indian Devil in Lucy’s book was retold in Chapter Ten of Tribal Bigfoot, so you might think my quest was a waste of time . . . but then I kept reading further into the chapter, amazed at her remarks about wars in Europe compared to the peacefulness of Native Americans. I found this: “Tears and love, love and tears, sweetly mingled when infant and adult meet in one great brotherhood of forgiveness. Always thus, since time began, someone must die a martyr for the beginning of every cause; and it has ever been thus, since the dawn of history, among all races and nations: the heathen, the barbarian and the civilized nations of the world.” (Pg. 132 of To the American Indian
This says to me that before humans and Bigfoot can come together there will be martyrs… and indeed there have been some. Bigfoot has been shot at. Some perhaps killed. Recently an esteemed reader of this blog sent me a link to an article on the Oregon Bigfoot Blog (Autumn Williams) with YouTube renditions of the Art Bell “Bugs” interview. I remembered hearing this interview when it was first aired, years ago. “Bugs” was a false name for a man who claimed to have been one of three hunters who killed two Bigfoots and buried them. Fascinating interview… “Bugs” on Art Bell – Did he really shoot and bury Bigfoot? I listened to Bugs on several occasions and always felt he was very credible. He said he and his hunting buddies killed a male Bigfoot thinking it was a bear… then after realizing their mistake, they were charged at by a grief-stricken female Bigfoot so they killed her too. Martyrs, perhaps?
Earlier in Tribal Bigfoot there was a section on Bigfoot killings – including a report David Paulides got from a former Forest Service employee who met a sixteen-year-old hunter who claimed to have shot a Bigfoot. But killings go both ways. Theodore Roosevelt told the story of Bauman, whose hunting partner was killed by a Bigfoot. To read between the lines of Lucy Thompson’s report on the Indian Devil, the Yuroks were very paranoid of contact with Oh-ma-ha: “When the Indians would go on their hunting and camping trips into the mountains, as soon as they heard an owl screech or hoot, they would stop and listen, and try to distinguish if it was an Indian devil imitating an owl or the cry of a wild animal. The Indians would stop at once, kindle a fire, and hallo; this was given as a warning to the devils that they were awake and ready to fight them if necessary.” (Pg. 130 of To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman
I’m impressed enough with Lucy’s writing to want to buy my own copy and read the entire book, but that will wait for another time as today I’m reviewing Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, Chapter Ten, all about Humboldt County Bigfoot sightings. He claims that Humboldt County is the “Bigfoot Capitol of California” and the chapter was quite thick.
There are many credible and intriguing Bigfoot sighting accounts in this chapter: a woman who saw one walking through her front yard; a young boy who saw one when he had to unplug a water line, a two hour climb uphill from his home; a waitress who saw a Bigfoot on the Bigfoot Scenic Byway between Willow Creek and Hoopa in 1987; another woman who saw a Bigfoot enthusiastically chasing a motorcycle her son was riding; an ambulance driver who happened upon a Bigfoot on Highway 299 west of Willow Creek at 3 in the morning. These are all very credible witnesses and the stories written by David Paulides are detailed and entertaining.
The chapter also contains an update on some Hoopa sightings including hair sample DNA results and wonderful forensic sketches by Harvey Pratt. There’s also a profile of Al Hodgson, long-time Willow Creek resident and witness to the Bluff Creek Bigfoot footprints back in the 1960s. He is the curator of the Willow Creek Bigfoot Museum.
…
Note: I’m behind my self-imposed schedule for reviewing this book thanks to my injury and a trip out of town to Mt. Shasta. I have three more chapters to cover in this book before I go on to the next one, Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence by Dr. Grover Krantz. I expect that book will go slowly as well because it is full of scientific information. I am a slow reader but that will not stop me. It may mean my reading of Dr. Krantz’s book will continue into November. This may pose a problem for me because I’m writing another novel (with Bigfoot in it) during November (I always participate in NaNoWriMo.) So, my reviews may be slow, but they’ll be posted. Get the books and read ahead of me if you like… I’ll get there sooner or later.
