By Tony Eberts, from unknown newspaper
October 25, 1967
The Sasquatch is not dead; it is alive, and living in Northern California-according to a Yakima man who claims to have the first motion pictures of one of the legendary creatures. The film, said to contain a clear, 30-second scene of a hairy female Sasquatch, will be shown at the University of B.C. Thursday night to a select group of Pacific Northwest anthropologists and zoologists. Despite suggestions that many people have been known to go hairy in California, or that the film star may be only a hippie that went too far, amateur photographer Roger Patterson, 34, is convinced he has finally proved existence of wild, furry mountain giants. Don Abbott, an anthropologist with the provincial museum in Victoria, said Tuesday he has some evidence to support the film-plaster casts of huge footprints found in the same California region in September. "I went down there (it's a remote region about 100 miles northeast of Eureka) two months ago and examined many of the footprints," he said. "It's either a highly elaborate hoax, or some of these hairy humanoids exist. Like everyone connected with the provincial museum, I started out completely skeptical; I just laughed at the idea. But now I'm not sure at all. If the idea of Sasquatches weren't so fantastic I'd be prepared to believe it now." Rene Dahinden, another Sasquatch enthusiast of Vancouver and Lumby, has made a plaster cast of what he claims was a giant Sasquatch footprint in Northern California. Contacted at his home in Yakima, Wash., Roger Patterson told The Province the story of his epic film-making trip: "I've been chasing down reports of these creatures for years, and was attracted to the Northern California region by repeated findings of fresh tracks on road projects. Last Friday my companion-Bob Gimlin, a part-Apache fellow who's good at tracking and so on-and I started up an old logging road where a particular lot of big tracks had been seen. Some of the tracks were 17 inches long. We rode horses, and I had a 16-millimetre movie camera in my saddlebag. We both had high-powered rifles, but we agreed that if we found a Sasquatch we wouldn't shoot unless we absolutely had to. About 1:30 in the afternoon, as we rounded a bend in the road, we saw the creature. My horse reared, and then fell as I tried to control it. But I got the camera out and yelled to Bob to cover me with his rifle while I tried for pictures. The thing was across the creek beside the road, about 50 yards away. I ran down to the creek and got on a high sandbar to film it. It was obviously a female, for although it was covered with hair you could see it had large breasts. It stood about six feet tall, maybe more, and was very broad. We figured the weight at somewhere between 350 and 400 pounds. She stood there for maybe half a minute and then started walking away, still upright. She crossed the creek, got back on the logging road up ahead and moved out of sight. Bob started to follow on his horse, but I called him back. The tracks we'd seen earlier indicated she was part of a family group, and that could be dangerous. I was shaking quite a bit, so the film isn't too steady, but it shows the thing clearly. I've believed they existed for a long time, just from talking to many eye-witnesses. Now there's no doubt at all." Patterson, who said he makes his living devising farm machinery improvements, hopes to get up a full-scale Sasquatch safari soon, with a view to capturing one of the creatures. It isn't a new idea for B.C., where various such expeditions have been attempted with a notable lack of success. But Patterson is pinning his hopes on the tangible evidence of 16-millimetre movie film, in color. "If the film convinces the experts at UBC Thursday night," he said, :there'll be no stopping me." There have been scores of Sasquatch reports and sightings in B.C. over the years, with most of the tales emanating from the Harrison Lake area. John Green of Harrison, a B.C. Sasquatch expert and newspaper editor, said he had already seen the film. "It's definitely a film of a Sasquatch," he said. "I don't believe it can possibly be a fake." Green said he has seen many Sasquatch footprints in Northern California and the Harrison area, up to 17 inches long. "Anyone who has had a good look at these prints doesn't go away believing there is nothing to it," he said. Green added that scientists have been reluctant to investigate the subject for fear of their reputations. "We have succeeded in deluding ourselves that these creatures don't exist." He seriously believes a Sasquatch can be captured if there is a concerted effort. "Up to now the subject hasn't been taken seriously," he said.
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