Major Misquote of Me in the News!
My face is red… OMG I didn’t say that! I love the publicity but I wish it said something I’d actually said rather than something that sounds to me like a grandiose delusion.
Here’s what I’m quoted as saying: “There have been more Bigfoot sightings here than anywhere in the world,” said Linda Martin, who operates the blog bigfootsightings.org. “Happy Camp is surrounded by wilderness. It’s one of the only areas left where they can survive.” See the Article!
I personally don’t believe there are more Bigfoot sightings in the Klamath River Valley than anyplace else in the world, so I’m sure I didn’t say that. Sorry if I gave that impression, but reality is that there are probably more sightings in other areas, such as in Washington and British Columbia.
And as for the Happy Camp area being one of the only places where they can survive, I’m sure I wouldn’t say that either. There are Bigfoot sightings in many countries and 49 of the US states (not in Hawaii).
The reporter might have gotten the wrong impression because I am concerned about how Bigfoot’s world has shrunk. 150 years ago they lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Joaquin Valley. But now they’re shoved back into the forested mountains. As humans pave over more of the planet our forest cousins are forced to retreat.
Yes, they’re here in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains, but that’s not one of the only places. There are many areas all over the USA and world where they’ve been seen.
So, I’m posting this here, blushing, because I sure didn’t say what was quoted and I think the reporter may have misunderstood because of the noise level around the booth where he spoke to me. The interview was in the middle of our Bigfoot Jamboree celebration.
Being a reporter is a tough job. The man was very busy gathering information for his article, and the pressure to get these articles out quickly without fail is enormous. So I am not angry that I was misquoted, but just a little embarrassed because any Bigfoot researcher would immediately know that what I was quoted as saying is simply not true.
This just goes to show how easy it is for a reporter to get the wrong idea about what’s being said.
March 12, 2010
Do Bigfoot People Research Human People?
Bigfoot people will protect their families.
I’ll bet they sure do…
In fact, I’m guessing that a lot of our sightings happen when curious Sasquatches come into our territory to see what we’re up to.
A good example is Dr. Matthew Johnson’s sighting at Oregon Caves. He and his family were innocently walking on a trail behind the caves when a Bigfoot started tracking them, while standing behind trees for concealment. The only reason he was seen was that Dr. Johnson climbed the hill. Because he was off the trail in a place the Bigfoot didn’t expect him to be, he got a glimpse of the Sasquatch looking down at his family.
According to Dr. Johnson’s report, this Bigfoot was keeping an eye on passing humans – possibly as a protection for his family or tribe.
Happy Camp, California – surrounded by wooded hills.
I live in the Klamath River valley near a small town, Happy Camp, that is surrounded by hills. Every hill is covered with trees. There is plenty of space for ridge-walking Bigfoot people to look down at the town and keep an eye on our activities. There is no need to wonder what their motivations might be.
For the last two centuries European-Americans have encroached on Bigfoot territory here in the US Western states. Old newspaper accounts place Bigfoot people living in the areas of Central California and even the San Francisco Bay Area. These Bigfoot habitation areas have, for a long time, been taken over and settled in by humans, and our modern civilization has no doubt caused many thousands of Bigfoot people to have to resettle into more remote locations.
Do they communicate with one another? You betcha! There have been sightings of Bigfoot people chattering away at one another. Even without those reports it is common sense. All species of animals can communicate with their kind. Ever seen a flock of birds all change direction together at one simultaneous instant?
Recently a new site, BigfootHub.Com, posted a fascinating report of a Bigfoot who spoke English. Is this so hard to believe? If Bigfoot people are hyper-intelligent (and they must be, to avoid humans so well,) surely they have brain power enough to learn our language.
And surely they have brain power enough to watch our activities and … research us!
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.
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 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.
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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.
September 29, 2009
Oregon: Indy Film Maker Focuses on Sasquatch
The True Believer is finally in production after filmmaker/script writer Nathaniel Bennett and his wife saved for a year to be able to fund the project. In the film two brothers, played by Alex Warren and Thomas Shelton, will work together to try to find Bigfoot. They’ll also be attending a civic forum to try to stop logging in Bigfoot habitat areas.
The script is said to be ‘absolutely hilarious.’ The 30-minute indy film will be entered in Ashland and Sacramento film festivals, and other film festivals throughout the country.
Source: Indy film starts shooting locally: Jacksonville up first; 30-minute movie has Bigfoot as part of plot by Tony Boom, published September 28, 2009 in the Mail Tribune.
September 10, 2009
Tribal Bigfoot – Comments on Chapter Three: “Associations”
Book review by Linda Martin – © 2009
Reading group homepage for this book: Tribal Bigfoot
Re: Chapter Three of Tribal Bigfoot, “Associations.”
In chapter three of Tribal Bigfoot David Paulides shares the associations he’s made from his years of studying Bigfoot sighting reports. These associations are things that are common in Bigfoot sighting reports.
The first association he mentions is elevation. David Paulides says he’s documented an unusual number of sightings at or close to 2400 feet elevation. Why would this be? Is this where Bigfoot feels freer to roam because there are fewer human beings living at that elevation?
Happy Camp, for example, is at 1085 feet elevation, but we have roads that will take us to 2400 feet nearby. Nobody around here actually lives up there. Is this an elevation where humans would go on vacation and cross paths with wandering Sasquatches who thought they had the place to themselves?
My opinion is that David Paulides got it right in the first sentence of that section when he said that “Bigfoot can be found at any elevation at any time anywhere in California.” (Pg. 60) He suggests purchase of his Bigfoot Sightings map for a better perspective on why he makes an association with the 2400′ elevation. You can find the map at his website.
The second association is with Native Americans and their reservations. David Paulides believes “There must be some relationship between Native Americans and bigfoot that we are still struggling to understand.” (Pg. 64)
I don’t believe there’s anything magically different about Native Americans. I live among them here in Happy Camp. We’re all human beings no matter what color our skin is. The big difference – and why they may have more sightings – is that many Native Americans live closer to nature than other Americans do. Their reservations are in extremely rural areas – which are for the most part undeveloped. These are places the US government granted to them because conditions there may have been inconvenient or too rugged for settlers with European blood. Many of these reservations, such as the Round Valley Reservation here in Northern California, are not the actual ancestral homelands of the people forced onto them.
Sasquatch, like Native Americans, have had their territory diminished by the onslaught of our materialistic civilization. There may still be pockets of Sasquatch habitation here and there but for the most part they’ve been pushed deep into the woods where they are safe from men with guns. Yes, they know what guns are no doubt, and what kinds of men or women use them. They also know that when people see them, the people are often fearful. Fear begets violence. The choice of Sasquatches to conceal themselves is self-preservation in action. They may be bolder around Native Americans whose culture has traditionally been a safe haven.
I particularly appreciated Earla Penn’s sighting in Oregon. Earla Penn is a Quileute Indian. “She wasn’t afraid, and waved at it. It stopped to look at her, and then walked away….” (Pg. 63) I’ve thought many times about what I’d do if I were confronted by a Bigfoot while out in the woods. How would I react? What would I say? My greatest hope is that there would be no fear. I’d like to wave and say hello, just like Earla did! But one never knows what his reaction will be until the moment comes.
I think the reasons for associations with berries and water are obvious. We all need water to survive, and berries taste good. In summer months Sasquatch may need to migrate downhill to live near springs and creeks — and in winter may migrate back to known caves in the mountains where water can be had by melting snow. There’s a sighting mentioned in the book that indicates a migration pattern: “…every fall a family of 6 passes near his place…heading west from a hilly forested area east of him.” (Pg. 64)
There are quite a few other fascinating sightings recounted – mostly from Ray Crowe’s research which was published in The Track Record. Several other associations are mentioned as well.
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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”
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