Bigfoot Days – Bigfoot Jamboree
I see Steven Streufert wrote something in his blog about Willow Creek’s Bigfoot Days celebration this last weekend.
Here in Happy Camp I avoided the Bigfoot Jamboree this year because there’s no Bigfoot content to it. I have gone in the past and enjoyed it but I’ve been in Happy Camp for nearly ten years, and so far as I know in all that time they’ve had only one Bigfoot presentation scheduled, and that was in 2006 when Dr. Matthew Johnson came here to tell us about his Bigfoot sighting at Oregon Caves.
Next year I’ll offer to speak at the Happy Camp Bigfoot Jamboree. I’ve been studying Bigfoot sightings around this community since 2005. I started my research because the town had numerous businesses named after Bigfoot, the statues, etc… but few stories about actual Bigfoot encounters. I wanted to know if there’s any basis for the Bigfoot hoopla here – the Bigfoot Jamboree and all.
During my four years of Bigfoot research I’ve heard quite a few stories about local sightings/phenomena and read many more on the internet. I’m ready to present my findings to the public… and so… if they’ll have me speak at the 2010 Bigfoot Jamboree, I’ll tell them about what I’ve found out, so far.
Without Bigfoot speakers, the events are just music and vendors. People trying to make money and other people spending money because it is the most exciting thing to happen in a small town in months. Stuff I can do without — but God bless them!
Steven Streufert has the same idea… that his town’s Bigfoot Days celebration needs Bigfoot speakers to be complete. He suggests a conference there next year. If that comes off, I will have to divide my time that weekend between my (hopeful) talk at Happy Camp’s Bigfoot Jamboree and Willow Creek’s Bigfoot Days. In any case, I hope that organizers of these events realize that Bigfoot research is a vital hobby for many of us and that we’d like to have this represented during the celebrations.
September 8, 2009
Creative and Useful Bigfoot Research Techniques, by Don Campbell
This is a series of emails I received this week from Central California Bigfoot researcher, Don Campbell. Because the information in the emails is valuable to all Bigfoot researchers I asked and received permission to put it online. You’re welcome to make comments or ask questions for Don, and hopefully he’ll come by to answer them.
By Don Campbell – © 2009
1.
Hi Linda
Just read my friend, Cliff Barackman’s blog and now have read your site. Cliff is trying out some of my bigfoot baiting techniques. I mentioned to Cliff and DB Donlon aka The Blogsquatcher that I had been using honey and sweet feed as an attractant to Bigfoot in the Carmel Highlands area of Monterey County.
You have undoubtedly read reports of people seeing bigfoot in berry patches. The rarest commodity in the forest or desert is honey. Bears and other animals will go out of their way to find it and risk getting stung to get it so I reasoned / theorized that bigfoot would do the same. My research area is near Mt. Pico Blanco. What I do is suspend a Honey Bee jar of honey in a burlap bag from a tree high enough up so it is inaccessible to the resident black bear population. I drip some honey on the lid of the jar to act as a scent factor. I also use a squeeze bottle of honey and go out in various directions away from the baiting area and periodically squeeze out a few drops leading back to the baiting area.
I know this works and bigfoot have discovered the the items I have been lacing in the burlap bag. I get the licked clean jar and lid replaced in the bag. A bear would rip the bag to shreds and damage the jar.
I also use glad containers with baklava or fruit filled pastry in them. I daub some of the contents on the lids which are snapped shut. Result: licked clean containers.
My fellow researchers have felt the sensation of being observed and have smelled the odors emanating from bigfoot. I think bigfoot is curious about us and tries to observe our endeavors. He / she might also be curious about me. I am 7’01″ tall and weigh 300 pounds with a size 17 shoe. My friends are much shorter — Pete is 5’10″ and Cuberto is 5’06″.
The reason for the sweet feed. It is extremely high in carbohydrates and vitamins. It is [if you aren't familiar with it] like catnip to all ruminants. It is made with alfalfa and molasses. Comes in a cake form similar to a fat brownie. Your report of the woman who saw a bigfoot in Santa Cruz who was eating cypress shoots suggested the ruminant / herbivorous aspect of bigfoot.
One of our experiments regarding bigfoot is to use Ozium Industrial Room Deodorizer to act as a scent diffuser when we smell the presence of bigfoot. Ozium is made from orange rinds and it is used in large enclosures like warehouses or stadiums to eliminate noxious fumes. Ozium can/will cause nausea and headaches in unventilated places. I figure that if bigfoot uses scent to intimidate he should be prepared to get it back. Result of spraying is the occasional howl or grunt.
We are also trying to acclimatise bigfoot to camera traps by photographing ourselves and the animals of the area then posting blown up pictures [8 x 10] on a large board. Below the board we have placed soft soil to get footprint impressions. It seems to work as we have been getting some partials — mostly toe impressions and half foot.
I also had a sighting of bigfoot (2) on May 2nd, 2009 near Aptos, California. I have reported this to Mike Rugg who told me that his group had seen 2 bigfoot in the same area within days of my encounter. A friend and I were in Nisene-Marks State Park near Aptos, California. We were planning on walking to a defunct ghost town called China Camp or Hoffman which is in the park. We had barely gone in 3/4 of a mile when we saw some strange grave like cairns of piled river stones in a copse of redwood trees. The graves were in an out of the way place and there were no creeks nearby which struck us as being strange. As we were measuring the cairns we had some stones thrown at us. I thought I saw a dark figure moving away through the nearby brush and started after that person to confront them. Thought it was a homeless person but before I had gone ten or fifteen steps after the figure more stones were tossed at me from behind. The stones landed all around me so I returned to the trail. Since the stones kept coming we decided to forgo our journey to China Camp and walk back to my parked Chevy Tahoe. My friend thought he saw someone and he left the trail only to have stones tossed over me and near him. I yelled out a phrase in a First Nation language that I speak which basically means knock it off and the stones subsided for a bit.
We got back to the parking area around 4pm and heard a horse’s snort like sound which made us turn around. What we saw were two tall creatures standing behind some bushes about 20 yards away. We could see their heads and shoulders as everything else was obscured by the bushes. One was black haired and about 7′ tall. The other was a little shorter and reddish brown in coloration. We could see their faces which weren’t hair covered. The thick brow ridge, the large dark brown eyes, nose and slit for a mouth. They were heavyset with no necks. Didn’t see any ears. We looked at them and they looked at us for about two minutes then they turned and walked away. My friend just said, “Shit, they do exist.”
We went to a bar and had a couple shots of tequila to calm down. In hindsight, we had been looking for ghosts and something we weren’t looking for found us. I want to go back but my friend doesn’t and won’t talk about it. He told me he had migraine headaches for 3 weeks afterwards. I had nightmares.
I later contacted Mike Rugg and told him of our encounter. I had the impression that the smaller one was a female. Mike wants me to go with his group back to the park. He wants me to try calling out to these creatures in the other language I speak and he thinks that my size may draw them in out of curiosity. Might work.
This was my second encounter with bigfoot. The first happened in your town of Happy Camp in 1975. It was a face to face encounter and we were both separated by the thickness of a sliding glass motel door. After seeing that creature which puzzled me I had nightmares and haven’t been back to Happy Camp since. At the time I hadn’t heard about bigfoot and didn’t find out about them until a few months had passed. The motel I stayed in had small patios that opened up to the forest behind the rooms. The desk clerk at the time warned me that they were having troubles with wild creatures roaming outside the rooms at night like coyote and not leave the rooms after 10pm. It wasn’t a bear as I had seen bears before in a previous job. Besides bears don’t have five fingered hands with opposable thumbs and then walk away for long distances on two feet.
Don Campbell
2.
Go ahead. You may be right about Thompson Cabins as I found my old sales log and it mentioned that I stayed in some cabins near Happy Camp. At the time I was a traveling salesman selling rebinding to school libraries in the western U.S.. What happened back then I was up late rewriting my orders and it was around midnight when I heard an odd noise outside my room so I opened the drapes and ducked down a bit to look outside in order to see what was making the noise. I looked directly into a face of a tall dark haired creature standing on two legs that was ducking a bit to look inside at me. I think we startled each other as his eyes were or seemed to grow wide — heck I was startled too. We stared at each other up and down and then it put a large hand up against the glass as if to steady himself and I did the same. Why, I don’t know, but my bare hand was a few inches from his bare hand and we both looked at each of them. His fingers and thumb were fatter then mine but the length of the hand was similar. After a while he turned away and walked off on two legs. I closed the drapes and went to bed and promptly had a nightmare. We were about 18″ apart. I always wondered what it was thinking as it walked away.
In the fall of 2006, I was doing location scout work for a motion picture company and was asked to get some photos of bigfoot footprints for a movie that was in production. I went up to the Hupa Reservation and spoke to a few friends and to a Tribal Elder. They showed me some footprints near a creek. Being skeptical I took off my right boot and sock and stepped down next to the footprint. The length was about the same as my size 17 foot but the width was much wider at the ball and heel. As I was putting my boot on we heard a long drawn out whoop type call and my friends got agitated and started saying that Omah was near so we left. We came back a few hours later and there were other bare footprints around mine of various sizes and there was what I thought a large finger hole in the middle of my footprint. The Elder thought I had issued a challenge to Omah and felt that Omah had seen me with the much shorter Hupa. He speculated that Omah must have thought that “OK if those are humans [indicating the Hupa] then what is that? [indicating me]” and he later called me to tell that they hadn’t seen many Omah since.
The howl I heard kind of reminded me of the Howler Monkeys I heard in Belize and Guatemala but it also was coupled with the screaming eeriness of the mountain lion. Some monkeys will whistle and whoop as will some species of parrot. I think bigfoot’s whoops and whistles are much louder and longer in duration then what a monkey or parrot would make. Cliff thinks the knock sounds that are attributed to bigfoot may in fact be loud claps of slightly cupped hands. Bigfoot may do this as a way of announcing its presence and will search out the maker of the sounds. It could be a recognition signal among family members.
Don
3.
Ha’yu Linda
That ha’yu is a Hopi First Nation greeting which means “hello” and is pronounced phonetically like hahheh. The Hopi, by the way, have a name for bigfoot which is rather descriptive and seems to fit them quite well. The word is kononpaiochi pronounced phonetically as kono silent n pie ouch ee. It means the people of the north who don’t cut their hair. It is a much better name for bigfoot instead of sasquatch.
The Esselen Indians who once roamed the Big Sur area of California referred to bigfoot as: the great hairy forest watchers. To the north the Costanoan and Rumsen Indians who lived near Carmel called them: the forest watchers who came to put out the fire. In my research studies that latter name was mentioned repeatedly in the early records of the Spanish Ejercito [army] explorers. Cabrillo and Portolla used this term.
…
If you are going to hang honey pots you need to suspend the burlap bag from a tree that is at least 12′ off the ground. I figure a black bear can reach up to 8 1/2 feet. Also dribble some of the honey on the burlap bag too as an attractant. Where we do our research is three miles from the nearest neighbor and ten miles as the crow flies from Highway One. The area is very rural and out of the way for hikers. The only problem that these rural mountain areas have is the marijuana growers. You need to go armed and be very vigilant. The animals and snakes are the least of your worries when these people are present.
Don
4.
You probably have wondered why I am willing to pass on what my group is doing vis-a-vis bigfoot. We couldn’t care less about notoriety or making money as we are curious and want to share what we have learned with others. If we can help some researcher find bigfoot that’s great. Here are some other helpful tips:
SCENT
All animals [man included] produce a scent that can be smelled. To counteract or neutralize that scent there is a simple and fairly reasonable scent killer method:
1] Mix two (2) cups of 3% hydrogen peroxide and two (2) cups of distilled water [if you don't have distilled use boiled water] with 1/4 cup of baking soda and 1 ounce of an unscented shampoo. Pour into a one gallon plastic jug and cap it loosely. Let it sit for three (3) days.
a] if you tighten cap it tends to explode.
2] While the mixture is marinating fill a small lidded tub with brown or blue multifold paper towels [the kind that come in stacks].
a] available at Costco, Sam’s Club and chain drug stores or auto supply stores.
3] At the end of three days pour the mixture onto the paper towels and mush them down so the paper towels absorb the mixture. Squeeze out excess scent killer and replace the lid. You can now use these scent killer paper wipes to wipe down your body, your clothes, your binoculars, tape recorder, etc.
MUSIC
We have noticed that bigfoot is attracted to instrumental music. How — my friend/associate Peter plays piano at night and sometimes gets his cabin’s walls pounded on when he stops. He noticed that this also occurs when he has his friends over and they play their instruments. We have been experimenting with New Age Jazz, acoustical recordings; a tympanum drum or kettledrum which is beat in a rhythmical pattern; a didgeridoo; an aboriginal communication device [take a leather thong about three (3) feet long and tie a small board [eight inches long by four inches wide by 3/4 inch thick] to one end then swing the contraption in a circular motion by holding the thong at the other end — noise sounds like an airplane’s propeller engine revving; and a length of cut garden hose which is also swung. We get responses in howls or screams. I know this sounds wacky but it works for us.
Singing gets no response.
Remember the old adage of “Curiosity killed the cat?”
FOOD AS BAIT
Sweet Feed; fruit filled pastry; baklava; rice krispie balls; honey soaked fruit such as apples; orange sections; salted peanuts in the shell or loose; peanut butter with nuts or just plain smooth; grapes; dark chocolate.
We tried bananas — a failure. Only worked when we sensed that we were being observed and had to demonstrate peeling and eating them then they worked.
We also tried whole oranges — another failure. Had to use same method as bananas and demonstrate peeling and eating technique.
CAMERA ACCLIMATIZATION
We set up a display area with a 4 foot by 4 foot sheet of plywood [marine ply works the best as it doesn't warp as fast as regular plywood when subjected to moisture]. We took pictures of ourselves and the local animals both domestic and feral. We enlarged the photos to an 8″ by 10″ size and posted on the board. Below the board we prepared the ground by digging down four inches and replacing soil with sand. The area in front of the board was dug out six (6) feet and two (2) feet to either side of the board. RESULT: toe and half foot impressions. In another area we set up a camera trap about six (6) feet off the ground. Too low attracts bears and deer. DO NOT FORGET TO USE YOUR SCENT KILLER ON CAMERA AND STRAP.
Also experimenting with a mirror and a heavy comb or cheap hair brush. Mirror to get reflection. THEORY: if we can get bigfoot curious about reflection in mirror camera won’t scare it. Hair brush and comb — we demonstrate use when we sense we are being observed. Camera trap focuses on mirror area. If nothing else we are getting bigfoot into good grooming habits —LOL. Did note that a lot of brushes have gone missing. 1] we get small colored stones or feathers as payment for hair brushes.
LANGUAGE
Experimenting with greetings in First Nation Languages [American Indian]. We only do this when we sense that they are nearby. We have been calling out in Hopi and Navaho:
Hello in Hopi is: Ha’yu pronounced like HAH HEH
Hello in Navaho is: yatehe pronounced like YA TEY HAY
Results — inconclusive but we have hopes. I have read some reports that bigfoot speaks a form of ancient Algonquin or Salish language. Stan Courtney [stancourtney.com] has recordings of their murmuring language — you might want to listen. So does the BFRO [bfro.net].
Linda — hope this helps your readers.
Don
5.
Back in 2006, I read a now defunct bigfoot site called Central Ohio Bigfoot Research Group. They mentioned that if you have a group of people and suddenly get the sensation that a bigfoot is nearby to loudly laugh out loud then abruptly stop. Result you may get a chuckle from the nearby bushes as if bigfoot had enjoyed the joke. Being skeptical about this I mentioned it to my research partners, Peter and Cuberto. We tried it and darned if it doesn’t work. The chuckle we heard was brief and loud.
The same site mentioned that if you play a tape recording of children laughing and playing you will attract bigfoot.
Something more for you to pass on. I figure that the researchers who are looking for bigfoot aren’t using their imagination. They hear of the basic techniques and follow them. If bigfoot is an intelligent creature you have to use just as much intelligence to find him and that means use your imagination. The researchers I told about the use of honey and sweet feed laughed a lot and thought I was nuts but now they are trying it. They obviously have forgotten that it was innovative / imaginative thinkers that created the every day gadgets that most people use otherwise a string and two tin cans would still be our cell phones. As an aside from this, when I was a traveling salesman selling tools my boss was mad at me for selling to the competition. He changed his mind when it proved successful. My reasoning was that the competition had to buy it from somewhere. If I had a product that they couldn’t get and which they wanted then why not. My use of my imagination catapulted me from just one of a hundred salesmen into the top five of salesmen within one month on the job. I stayed in that monthly sales position for eleven years.
The whole point of looking for a supposed intelligent creature is to use your supposedly technologically superior intelligence to either find him or attract him. 99.9% of the bigfoot researchers in the world use the old tried and supposedly true methods ie hitting a tree with a stick or bat to make the wood knocking sound. They forget that all trees are different [this includes trees of the same species] and make different sounds when struck. The knocking you hear in the forest is usually consistent in sound. Cliff Barackman believes it is from clapping but like many innovators he is getting laughed at even though he is dead right on the subject. See northamericanbigfoot.blogspot.com for his clapping article.
Don
6.
Speaking of South American music we also tried using a rain stick. What it is is a piece of cactus in which the thorns have been removed then re-driven back into the cactus and small stones are added. When upended it makes the sound of rain or water rushing. Supposedly the indigenous shamans of the Peruvian highlands shook their rain sticks to attract thunderstorms so their people would get water.
A better way to get water in a drought area is to hang sheets of fabric from two poles and collect the dew that develops. It can also be used in foggy areas to collect the moisture in the fog.
Don
7.
Just read your posting about clapping by bigfoot and it made me think of an alternative method for you to duplicate the noise consistently.
Years ago I taught a music class as a substitute teacher and there were a bunch of two blocks of polished mahogany sets about six inches square and three inches thick. We used these in class to make a clapping noise. The blocks had finger grooves in the sides so one could hold them. They were slapped together. Some of the blocks had leather straps on the back so one could slide their hands inside them. The finger groove method was tiring after awhile.
I think that this might be a method for making a consistent noise similar to clapping. What do you think? The noise equates the clapping of two hands and equals the wood knock.
Don
September 2, 2009
How to Find Bigfoot
I’ve seen a lot of people come and go here in the Klamath River Valley — Bigfoot researchers looking for Northern California Bigfoot action. It saddens me that they can stay only a few hours or days — then must return to their city jobs in other parts of the country.
Yes, the Bigfoot Scenic Byway is prime Bigfoot territory and home to the Patterson-Gimlin film site, but let’s not forget that Bigfoot can be found in almost every state.
Do you want to find Bigfoot?
If you live near a forested area, consider spending more time there on a regular, hopefully daily basis. Check Bigfoot sighting databases online to see where Bigfoot has been seen in your state. Choose a nearby sighting location and make it your home away from home. The regularity of your being there will be a possible draw for a curious Sasquatch.
Bigfoot Encounters State-by-State Sightings List
Bigfoot Information Society Bigfoot Sighting Database
Oregon Bigfoot National Sightings Database
BFRO Geographic Database of Bigfoot/Sasquatch Sightings and Reports
What to do while you’re there
Offer music and food. Look for footprints and broken tree branches. Do some howling and wood knocking and rock pounding. Announce your presence as well as you can, then show yourself as a harmless, nature-loving companion that Bigfoot might consider visiting. If you play acoustic guitar or flute, take your musical instrument with you. Maybe Bigfoot will be curious to see where the beautiful sounds are coming from. A dulcimer, recorder, or djembe would work well too.
I find that a few hours alone in the woods can be a profoundly peaceful experience. I usually take my journal to write in and a comfortable chair to sit in when I’m not hiking around, looking at things. I don’t take food — at least, not for myself — because I’m not there to attract bears. Many researchers leave food in the forest hoping Bigfoot will discover and appreciate it. You might like to read Ray Crowe’s article on baiting. Be aware that some counties have ordinances against feeding wildlife. Stay on the safe side of the law.
Don’t forget, Bigfoot are nocturnal. If possible, spend the night in your research location every now and then. Take a night vision scope if you have one.
Psychological considerations
I believe that motivation is a big factor in whether or not you’ll attract a Bigfoot to your research area. If your motivation is to capture or kill, they may sense that and stay away. I know many researchers have the desire to prove that Bigfoot exists, so they think only a body (dead or alive) can do that. Purify your motivations and you may have a better chance of connecting with a Sasquatch. Many people believe that Bigfoot has eluded captivity for so long because they are wise and possibly quite psychic.
Your intention to have contact with a Bigfoot may work to draw them to you. Have faith that it will happen! Put yourself in the right place on a regular basis and you’re more likely to see one than if you stayed home in front of your computer or TV.
One more thing — if you’re full of fear, will Bigfoot sense it? Be emotionally prepared for what you might see!
Establishing your own nearby Sasquatch research area is much more practical than a trip across country to see the place where Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin saw one. Of course, you’re welcome to come check it out, but Bigfoot research doesn’t have to be an occasional thing. You’ll have a better chance for a sighting if you put yourself out there every day, and that means doing it close to home.
September 1, 2009
North American Bigfoot – Cliff Barackman’s Site
Cliff Barackman’s website is fairly new, but packed with fascinating information. For example, he’s installed a unique index of Bigfoot footprint casts giving the specs on each including the place it was found, the size, the date, and the name of the person who discovered it. There’s so much to see on this site I wasn’t able to read it all in one day… but I’ll be back. There’s an ongoing Bigfoot research blog associated with this site that I’ve only read a few entries of. I may feature that separately in the future, because I really want to read it all.
Cliff Barackman has been involved with Bigfoot research for at least fifteen years and currently has three ongoing Bigfoot study areas in Oregon. His comments about the kinds of things that go on there are fascinating. He’s also got articles on the site — I couldn’t read them all today but went down the list until I saw A Place for Amateurs and figured that was the article for me. It was very encouraging, giving practical suggestions for a scientific approach to Bigfoot research.
Speaking of encouragement, I met Cliff during the summer of 2008 when he came through Happy Camp (you can see the photograph on my blog post about Tom Yamarone) and he said something that was very encouraging to me. I was wondering how I should develop my approach to Bigfoot research and he said something to the effect that my blog was fine as it was – as being someone in the Klamath River area commenting on local sightings. A little bit of encouragement is very helpful, and Cliff, if you ever read this, I want to thank you for that!
Other articles on this site will appeal to more experienced Bigfoot researchers: Thermal Imagers in Bigfoot Research and A Case for Infrasound are a little too high-tech for me but may be exactly what you need to read about. More my speed, The Ten Essentials of Bigfoot Data Gathering lists practical items like a tape measure and latex gloves — things I can afford and know how to use.
Cliff included a section on the cultural impact of Bigfoot, recommending books, movies, artists, and musicians. Take a walk on the wild side… and if you have questions look at the Bigfoot FAQ. There are some Bigfoot videos on the site you may not have seen before. There are also Bigfoot sound recordings he’s collected during his Bigfoot research activities. For a new site, this is very comprehensive, but that is a reflection of his years of experience. If you want to be involved in Bigfoot research, this is definitely a site worth taking the time to read.
August 23, 2009
Bigfoot Songs – Tom Yamarone
Tom Yamarone’s blog, Bigfoot Songs, chronicles his many squatching expeditions, participation in conventions, fortuitous meetings with Bigfooting friends, . . . and music. Tom is Bigfoot’s bard so there’s music throughout this blog. We’re talking lyrics, photographs of his performances, music videos, and sound files. He even plugs other Sasquatch singers and songwriters.
After reading the entire blog this afternoon I’m left with the impression of a busy family man who likes to get away on back-country adventures with his Bigfooting buddies, and who stays busy in the Bigfoot community by helping to organize conferences, large and small.
Some of my favorite articles in his blog:
A Visit With John Green in 2005 – and a photo of a reverse copy of the Skookum cast.
A Virtual Tour of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, CA – Tom has done a lot to promote this museum!
Operation Odyssey II July 20-22, 2007 – a weekend of practicing field techniques.
Jerry Crew Knew What To Do – in which Tom tells us how he got to talk to Jerry Crew’s son, and what he said.
One more cool link – Tom’s YouTube archive: Bigfoot Songs
Months ago I visited Bigfoot Songs, then saved my pennies and bought Tom’s CD, which is a trip into Bigfooting history. You can listen to a few clips at his site: Songs For A Bigfoot World – CD. Through the songs you’ll learn about Albert O., the Skookum Cast, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, and Bigfoot himself!
In mid-June 2008 I got off work and went to Parry’s Market here in Happy Camp for something cool to snack on (Sweet Nothings – they’re organic and I’m addicted to them during the summers.) When I got to the checkout counter there was a young man in front of me – someone I didn’t know. Roberta, the cashier, said, “Linda, someone was just asking about you!” She started calling for this unknown person and he emerged from the produce aisle. It turned out to be Tom Yamarone, who I’d never met until that day. The man in front of me at the checkout counter was Bart Cutino.
Tom knew of me from this blog, and I am so happy that he thought to ask Roberta about me. Obviously there was some synchronicity going on or I wouldn’t have crossed paths with Tom and his friends, but fate directed me to go to the store at just the right time for this happy event to take place. The others who were in the store with Tom and Bart were Wally Hersom and Cliff Barackman. What a wonderful thing for me, to get to meet all these outstanding Bigfoot researchers all at one time. And it was totally unexpected!
We walked out in front of the store and asked Virginia, another of the Parry’s Market cashiers, to take the photograph (below) of the five of us using Tom’s camera. At the time I asked his permission to use it on my blog, and he assented, then sent me a copy in email. Then my computer crashed. I was thrilled to find it again in a slide show on his blog’s June 2008 page.
From left to right: Cliff Barackman, Bart Cutino, Linda Martin, Wally Hersom, and Tom Yamarone. They were on their way home from a BFRO expedition in Oregon. I should call this photo “My Lucky Day.” I hope I’ll get a chance to see them again soon. In the meantime, a visit from Bigfoot would be welcome…August 19, 2008
Life in Bigfoot Country: Happy Camp, California
Because I live in a place where there have been many sightings, I am fortunate to be able to meet a lot of the Bigfoot researchers who come into town. During the next couple of weeks I’ll be writing about some of the Bigfoot research people I’ve met here over the last three years since I started this blog in 2005.
In the meantime I’ll tell you more about my small town, what I’m doing here, and how I decided to start a blog about Bigfoot.
Happy Camp, California
Bigfoot Country!
Klamath National Forest
Happy Camp is a very small town in the center of the Klamath National Forest. There were 1211 people living here during the year 2000 census. Even though I’ve lived in Happy Camp over eight years, I still don’t know everyone in town. Plus there are always new people moving in. I can’t keep up with them all.
During the summer we get lots of tourists. Mainly we get several hundred gold prospectors and their families. These are people who join the New 49ers gold prospecting club, of which I am a member. Though I love gold prospecting the membership is mainly used by my boyfriend, Bob.
The Happy Camp Post Office Bigfoot Statue
Most of the other tourists are rafting groups stopping off in Happy Camp for food and supplies.
We also have hundreds of firefighters here during the summer. Almost every summer there’s a fire nearby, and firefighters are stationed at the base camp at our local elementary school. Thanks to firefighters and rafting groups, the restaurant I work in can get very busy!
Bigfoot researchers visiting our area are few in number, but I still have been able to meet quite a few… mostly by way of pure luck since these meetings are usually unplanned. If you’re going to be in town, it wouldn’t hurt to send an email first.
Scotty’s Bigfoot Towing
I moved here in January 2000 because I wanted to raise my two youngest children in a rural area. When I pulled into town and saw the wooden Bigfoot statue in front of the post office, I was pleased. I’ve always wanted to see a Bigfoot, and I knew I was moving to the right place.
Around town many of the businesses are named after Bigfoot. There’s Scotty’s Bigfoot Towing, the Bigfoot Apartments (what’s left of them after the big fire), the Bigfoot Car Wash, the Bigfoot RV Park, and of course there was JavaBob’s Bigfoot Deli but that’s been closed now for about two years.
The Bigfoot Statue
and its creator, Cheryl Wainwright
at the sculpture’s dedication ceremony.
About a year after I moved here a local artist started a Bigfoot sculpture project. She invited every Happy Camp citizen to donate metal to be used in creating a large metal Bigfoot sculpture. It is placed prominently at the corner of Davis Road and Highway 96. That’s also the eastern edge of the Bigfoot Scenic Byway. The other end of the Byway is in Willow Creek, where the Bigfoot Museum is.
There’s another wooden Bigfoot statue in front of Evan’s Mercantile now too.
While we’re talking about artwork, I need to tell you that a local friend of mine, Dennis Day, created what we believe is the largest dreamcatcher in the world. It is on the other end of Davis Road, not far from the metal Bigfoot sculpture.
In 2001 I founded Happy Camp News – which I’ve now sold. The first story I did for the news was on the celebration we had for the grand opening of the Bigfoot Scenic Byway. That took place on April 1, 2001. I wonder if the Forest Service chose April Fool’s Day intentionally for that event. At the same time we celebrated and cut the ribbon over the highway, there was a similar celebration down the road in Willow Creek.
My daughter was
a Happy Camp
Bigfoot Princess
Willow Creek and Happy Camp also have twin Bigfoot celebrations. Willow Creek has Bigfoot Days and Happy Camp has the Bigfoot Jamboree. Each year we have princess and queen contests, raffles, music, vendors, and a parade. It is a lot of fun. There are contests for the kids, and often a Forest Service demonstration of rappelling from a helicopter. The Karuk Tribe sometimes does a salmon bake dinner.
The Bigfoot Scenic Byway
Highway 96 from
Happy Camp
to Willow Creek
With all this hoopla about Bigfoot in this little village of Happy Camp, I was curious about whether there was any true substance to the idea that there were Bigfoot in the forest near our town. During the Bigfoot Scenic Byway grand opening celebration a local Karuk (Native American) man gave a short speech about Bigfoot sightings here. Unfortunately he didn’t have much information to share. He said it started with a group of Chinese miners who had a sighting over 100 years ago near Thompson Creek. Soon enough I discovered that most of the people in town were totally clueless about sightings near here – so I wondered why people were naming their businesses after Bigfoot and making such a big deal over it.
Little Grider Creek
South West of Happy Camp
The next specific information I got about a local sighting was in 2003. A member of the Chamber of Commerce came to a board meeting (I was a member of the board of directors at the time). She said a local teenager had a sighting near Little Grider Creek but that he didn’t want to talk about it or be identified. It was another couple of years before I finally figured out who that teenager was, but I knew Little Grider Creek. It is less than a mile from my home, and on many occasions I’ve walked down there. Once I got in the creek and walked upstream for about a mile. I also had a habit of sitting on the rocks under the highway overpass, reading a book on a hot summer day or finding protection from a winter rainstorm. So to hear that a sighting took place there shook me up. That’s so close to home!
For details of this and other Bigfoot sightings near my home, see my Squidoo lens: Happy Camp Bigfoot Sightings.
In 2005 the Chamber of Commerce had a meeting with two women who were marketing specialists working on regional travel magazines. One suggestion one of the women shared was to choose a theme and direct most of our marketing efforts to that group. For an example, she suggested marketing Happy Camp to rafting companies and giving them reasons to want to stop here rather than float on by.
That got me to thinking. Happy Camp already had a theme. Bigfoot. Yes, Bigfoot businesses, Bigfoot statues, a Bigfoot Jamboree… and even Bigfoot footprints painted on the sidewalk in front of our hardware store. Yet nobody here wanted to talk about Bigfoot. Nobody knew about local sightings. Suddenly I knew I had to change that. I decided to do a Bigfoot research project to find out if this little town in the center of the Klamath National Forest had any reason to be claiming that Bigfoot lives in the area. That’s when I bought my domain name, BigfootSightings.Org. I also bought the domain, BigfootHunt.Com, but later discarded it because I don’t believe in hunting them… it brings up connotations of killing and I definitely don’t believe in killing Sasquatch.
My first blog posting here at Bigfoot Sightings happened in the spring of 2005. I think it was the very first Bigfoot themed blog, and I’d like to know if anyone knows of one that started before mine did. At the time I didn’t know much about Bigfoot but I was already into blogging. I’d been doing it since 2000. I unfortunately lost all my early Bigfoot Sightings postings in a site crash in 2006 or 7… but maybe that’s a good thing. I started over and am happy it happened.
In the last three years I’ve discovered that there have been many recent Bigfoot sightings around Happy Camp – so our theme of Bigfoot-mania is definitely valid. I’d love to get more reports of Bigfoot sightings around here but I’ve also discovered that most people who have sightings don’t like to talk about them.
The Eddy on Indian Creek
For those that do want to share, I’m willing to maintain anonymity while sharing the details with others. The sooner we find out about Happy Camp Bigfoot sightings, the sooner my partner and I can follow up. If we get a report within a few days of the sighting we can go look for footprints and other physical evidence.
Suggestion: If you come here during the summer, be prepared to jump into one of our many local swimming holes. There’s a lot of clean, cool streams here with areas worth swimming in. With all that available water, you can understand why the region is ideal for Bigfoot too.
Dr. Matthew Johnson of Grants Pass
speaking in Happy Camp
in September 2006
Happy Camp is only fifty miles from Bluff Creek where the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was taken. We’re also about thirty miles south of Oregon Caves where Dr. Matthew Johnson had his sighting in 2000. He came over the mountain to tell us about it once, and was a featured speaker at our Bigfoot Jamboree.
Any questions or comments about Happy Camp and local Bigfoot sightings will be welcome here.
