38 years ago, two men, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin of Yakima, Washington, were in the Bluff Creek area of northwestern California in the Six Rivers National Forest on a sojourn to find tracks of Bigfoot which frequented the area. Patterson had a 16-mm film camera with him for shooting a documentary with recreations of actual sightings. On the morning of October 20, 1967, Patterson and Gimlin were at a campsite when Gimlin went out and rode around a certain area. When he returned Patterson was not in the campsite, so Gimlin tacked a shoe onto his horse. Patterson returned and asked Gimlin where he had ridden to; Gimlin told him and suggested it would be a good area. Patterson and Gimlin saddled up their horses and rode to this area. At a bend in the trail there was a pile of logs and a downfalled tree jammed together like a crow's nest. Riding around this, Patterson and Gimlin were surprised to find a large, hairy creature standing by the creek. Both men's horses reared and Patterson was thrown to the dirt. Gimlin attempted to steady his horse, but Patterson's horse and the pack horse took off on him, but not before Patterson grabbed his movie camera out of his saddlebag. He took off running after the creature which was casually walking away from both men, filming as he ran. Patterson apparently stumbled a few times as he ran, but the film kept rolling. He got to a certain point, and the creature, hearing Gimlin ride across the creek on his horse, turned and looked at both men as if to say, "Back off." She turned back to her path of direction and kept walking off into the timber. Patterson caught 952 frames of color film of this extraordinary creature (a Bigfoot, of course), 24 feet of film which has been hotly debated for many years. Many have come forward as the so-called "man-in-the-suit"; most recently a Yakima man named Bob Heironimus claimed he was the man in the suit, and told this to author Greg Long, who seemed to believe Heironimus' story and wrote a book called The Making of Bigfoot: The Inside Story. Unfortunately, Heironimus has told many conflicting stories as to the origin of the suit, not to mention little details here and there wrong. Now, here's where my commentary comes in-I am 95% convinced the film is real, with a 5% margin allowed for a hoax or the possibility of a hoax. I feel that the technology to create a suit like that in 1967 was very remote if not impossible. Do I think it could have been hoaxed? There is a chance, yes, but a remote one at best. I feel there will not be resolution to this problem one way or the other until a body is brought in to examine. That's just the bottom line. 38 years later, this film still evokes great emotions in people, especially Bigfoot witnesses. I just hope that the body will match up to the expectations put forth on the film.
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