Missouri: Saint Louis University Biology Professor Supports Bigfoot Research
Dr. John Severson lectured on “Bigfoot: Science Fiction or Science Fact” during a recent family night at the Space Museum in Bonne Terre, Missouri. Dr. Severson is a professor of biology at Saint Louis University where he teaches Biology of Health and Disease.
He clarified that although there’s no “hard evidence” (bones or bodies,) there’s plenty of “soft evidence” (footprints and sightings.) He also told his audience that recent examinations of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film showed it could not have been a hoaxer in a costume.
Dr. Severson has been interested in Bigfoot for a long time. He did not commit to being a totally convinced believer, but said that Bigfoot is thought to be nocturnal, omnivorous, and a strong swimmer.
His statements about the flexibility of Bigfoot footprints and the ludicrous idea that thousands of fake-foot hoaxers exist are reminiscent of Dr. Grover Krantz’s anthropological study in Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence, which I’m currently reading. (I’ll share more about that in a future posting.)
Source: Giving Bigfoot evidence a second look; Dr. John Severson talks about Bigfoot at space museum’s Family Fun Night by Teresa Ressel, published on March 30, 2010 in the Park Hills, MO Daily Journal Online.
Note that a comment on the article cited above mentions a Bigfoot known to frequent the Bonne Terre Rock Quarry. Rock quarries are known to be a site frequently associated with Bigfoot sightings.
Bonne Terre, 62 miles south-west of St. Louis, is surrounded by forests, and in the vicinity of Missouri’s St. Francois State Park.
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.]
September 28, 2009
Bigfoot Fiction: “North American Primates” by Shane Durgee
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Shane Durgee’s first book is a work of fiction called North American Primates — a fantastical, frenetic fantasy about Clay Sturgeon, a man whose tent was attacked by a Bigfoot while he was hiking with a friend. Clay becomes obsessed and must return to the site of his encounter in New York’s Adirondack Mountains many times in his search for communion with “The Man.”
Obsession seems like a reasonable trait for this particular character who is a pathetic loner whose friends are teenagers, who has never had a reasonable romance. The character is what I might call a degenerate. Not high minded, not ethical or respectable… yet for reasons only a Bigfoot could know, he’s chosen to reveal some Sasquatchy truths to Clay, who keeps showing up in the woods as if asking for lessons.
Clay Sturgeon goes through many changes during the course of this 211-page novel. The first-person narrative is highly entertaining though a bit crude, in some passages. That in itself should tell you a bit about who Clay is and why he needs change in his life.
Clay Sturgeon started the novel as a good for nothing, do almost nothing, near waste of human life.. but found himself through squatching. In the end he’s a somebody… thanks to “The Man.” Clay has enough redeeming traits to make the reader care about his squatching adventures. He takes form, morphing from a ball of human ooze into a person of stature because of his contacts with a couple fairly decent Sasquatches. Other characters in the book as are similarly well drawn. The author created a cast of realistic characters whose faults are substantial and must be believed. I’d have to say that the most likable of the bunch is Pickerel, the cat, though in a strange twist of fate he too is greatly changed before the novel’s final pages.
The weak point of the book is, in my opinion, description. This is also a weak spot in my fiction writing so I’m not saying I’m a description expert. Descriptions are there, but they are sketchy. Some would consider this a good thing. This book is action oriented, a psychological thriller of sorts. You get to hear what Clay does and thinks. Apparently Clay wasn’t big into nature study and appreciation, other than for his desire to see and interact with “The Man.”
There are some utterly weird and unexpected plot twists. I thought at first I was holding a fairly predictable novel, ie: “Man meets Sasquatch, gets into squatching, and has another sighting.” Though that would thrill most Bigfoot researchers, that’s not the plot of this novel. It gets fairly strange in places. You would be surprised. I certainly was!
The perceived theme of the book may vary depending on personal perspective. To me, it was that a young man discovered his self worth by pursuing an issue most people would avoid. Through his unique persistence, he discovered that he too could be more than a worthless degenerate. You see what squatching can do for people? If this novel makes it to movie status they’ll need a few good fur costumes and someone who looks like a total socially incompetent nerd to play the lead character. Add a few wooden ducks, and there you’d have Clay Sturgeon!
I’m a novelist too, so naturally I think Bigfoot fiction is awesome, even if it isn’t written the way I’d have done it. I’m into writing mostly for children and teens, whereas Durgee’s novel is definitely for adults and not for kids. I applaud Shane Durgee on the development, plot, and especially the fine characterization work in his first novel, and for getting it edited and into print. Well done!
If you want some fictitious Bigfoot entertainment, North American Primates is well worth the read. Keep an eye on the Red Weaver website – the book should be published during October 2009. If you’d like to be further impressed, check out the colorful illustrations at ShaneDurgee.Com.
September 25, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
Re: Chapter Nine of Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, “Del Norte County”:
The Del Norte County chapter of Tribal Bigfoot is a montage of fascinating Bigfoot sighting accounts. In this chapter you can read about a tall, thin, golden-haired Sasquatch, a group of six Sasquatches that surrounded a pair of hikers, and many others. There are fourteen interviews featured in this chapter. All worth reading. You’ll also find some of Harvey Pratt’s fascinating forensic sketches illustrating sightings found in this chapter. The golden Sasquatch was especially believable because it is so unusual that someone would report seeing a Bigfoot with that shape and coloring. There are many very credible witnesses profiled in this chapter.
One of the sightings involved two young hikers in the Siskiyou Wilderness. They were on a hillside overlooking a lake in the remote backcountry when they became aware of two Sasquatches playing in the lake below. The creatures splashed water on each other, and had a grand time until they suddenly became aware of the two young men. Then they ran to get out of the water and to disappear in the forest near the shoreline.
Another man accompanied friends to the Siskiyou Wilderness. His friends hiked into the wilderness to climb Preston Peak while he stayed near Raspberry Lake. He decided to take a hike and walked for nearly an hour. Just as he turned back he started hearing vocalizations. First there was the sound of a goat. These men had two goats tied up back at the lake – goats intended to be pack animals. The goat sounds were followed by a loud, long scream, some guttural sounds, and some gibberish which may have been a Bigfoot language. Next he heard “Hey, hey,” as if one of his friends was trying to get his attention. Startled and fearful, he raced back to camp to find the goats still securely tied up there.
This particular experience excited me because my goal is to be able to communicate with Bigfoot, and so the linguistic abilities of Sasquatches intrigue me. This one apparently had eavesdropped on the group, hearing them call to each other using the word, “hey.” The creature also mimicked the goats! It is extremely hopeful to know that they’re able to vocalize in imitation of others. This could eventually lead to an exchange of languages, once contact is made. Then we can find out what it is really like to live as a Sasquatch, to experience nature as a highly intelligent species living in the woods. I would love to know what they think about us!
In this chapter David Paulides stated several times that the Siskiyou Wilderness area is a prime area for Bigfoot research because it is between Highway 199 (which runs between Crescent City, CA and Cave Junction, OR) and the Bluff Creek area. He wrote: “The Siskiyou Wilderness Area sits in probably the best location in the world if you want to study Bigfoot. It is located between Bluff Creek and the end of the Go Road (the location of the Patterson-Gimlin movie) and the region in Del Norte County of Gasquet and Crescent City. This region is remote. There are no vehicles allowed and I have personally never seen anyone take horses into the region.” (Pg. 247)
I had an experience back in the summer of 2000. At that time I was exploring local swimming holes. My neighbor suggested a swimming hole eight miles into the wilderness on Clear Creek. To get there I had to drive six miles south from Happy Camp to the Wingate River Access. From there I turned right on 15N32, also called Clear Creek Road. Staying to the left at the fork in the road I drove eight miles west. At the end of the road there were a couple campsites and a sign installed by the Forest Service. There, we parked and hiked along a trail which was at least a mile long, to a place where there were some very beautiful swimming holes.
The swimming hole where the teens were playing.
A large group of teenagers were at the last swimming hole just before the bridge. The young people were jumping off a rock, laughing, and in general making a lot of noise. We crossed the bridge into the Siskiyou Wilderness. From that point there’s a trail (Clear Creek Trail) that crosses the wilderness. We looked at the creek over there, and hiked a little further in. I remember a Forest Service sign there that was shattered and splintered. My first impression was that a Sasquatch had done it because they didn’t want people in their territory. This was five years before I started my Bigfoot research.
That’s me, hiking on the Clear Creek Trail in 2007.
I started walking uphill on the trail leading further into the wilderness and got a very distinct feeling that something didn’t want me going there. The feeling was overwhelming and I decided to stop and go back downhill.
Now, while reading this book, the memory of this experience came back to me. Was a Sasquatch there guarding the wilderness? Was he watching the teenagers playing in the swimming hole? Did he send me a mental “stay away” message? I’ve been back several times since then and have not received the same mental warning. Maybe a Sasquatch was on the hillside, worried that I’d see him if I continued further along the path.
I’ve always known that the Siskiyou Wilderness is the place to go if you want to be near Bigfoot. It isn’t used as frequently as the Marble Mountain Wilderness. You can read more about the Siskiyou Wilderness in The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution
David Rains Wallace mentioned Bigfoot in his manuscript. In the epilogue he wrote:
The main such experience was my sudden illness on Clear Creek in the Siskiyous. Exhaustion or a backcountry microbe may have caused it, but the mental effects were more striking than any other illness I’ve had. They included not only the terror and historical visions I described in the book, but something I didn’t. Lying in the dark, I couldn’t close my eyes because intensely vivid faces would appear, mouthing incomprehensible words. The faces seemed so real that I had trouble reassuring myself that they came from my mind, and I afterward saw them at other camps, as though I’d been sensitized to something. The rational explanation was that I was sensitized to my experience in the forest, but I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that I was sensitized to something in the forest. It made me wonder where the mind ends and the forest begins.” Epilogue to The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution, Twentieth Anniversary Edition
, pgs. 146-7.
 Another Clear Creek Swimming Hole |
 A rattlesnake next to the Clear Creek Trail |
Clear Creek, February 2006
…
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter One: “Historical Bigfoot”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Two: “The Bigfoot Map Project”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Four: “Extreme Sighting Locations”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Five: “Santa Cruz County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Six: “Amador County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Seven: “Trinity County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Eight: “Siskiyou County”
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Nine: “Del Norte County”
…
August 22, 2008
Pennsylvania: Footprints Found In Luzerne County
Scott Snook of Lewistown, Pennsylvania, hasn’t seen a Sasquatch but he found 15-inch tracks in an undisclosed backwoods location in Luzerne County. He told a reporter for the Standard Journal that he found them in a patch of poison oak where it is unlikely that anyone would intentionally plant them.
He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society and investigates reports in that state. He’s also passed on his hobby of Bigfoot research to his 12-year-old son, Jared.
His interest in Bigfoot started in the mid-seventies when he saw the movie, Sasquatch, the Legend of Bigfoot. In that movie, which I recently rented from Netflix, a group of men ventured into the backcountry in search of Bigfoot. It was fictionalized but based on what looked like an actual Bigfoot research expedition. (You’ll find this as part of The Sasquatch Horror Collection Triple Feature.)
Source: Is Bigfoot Roaming The Valley by Kevin Mertz of the Standard Journal, published on August 22, 2008.
Can you remember what first inspired your interest in Bigfoot? I confess, I cannot. I’ve been fascinated by Bigfoot for many years and have no idea what got that started. Maybe it is that I love a good mystery, and so long as we don’t have contact with Bigfoot, the mystery remains. Of course, once we do have contact with Bigfoot, that will open up even more paths to explore.
May 29, 2007
No Real Bigfoot Sightings at “Our Bigfoot”!
Don’t get sucked in by this one: Our Bigfoot. Read the small print at the bottom of the page:
Our Bigfoot: “This website is intended for entertainment purposes only. It is for fun, and fictional at best.”
March 31, 2007
Bigfoot Mind Probe Experience
A blogger reported that in 1983 he was camping when a female Sasquatch held him captive and probed his mind. Then he probed hers. I don’t know if this is a fact or if it is great fiction, but I’d like to know more.
My most recent methods for seeking Bigfoot involve following instincts and vibes, and using psychic contact, so call me a believer; I think this could have happened.
The posting I’m referring to can be found here: Tragic
