Bigfooting with Roger and Bob -ÊÊÊÊÊÊ
The Buddy Knox Story
ÊBy Tom Yamarone
One of the best things I took home
from the Bellingham Sasquatch Research
Conference in May was a CD of Sasquatch
songs that included an amazing bigfoot song
by rockabilly star Buddy Knox. It also
included an interview with him in which he
talks about the time he went out “bigfooting”
with Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in the
late 1960’s. I had heard this story a year ago
as it was told to me by Bob Gimlin while we
were out on expedition with the BFRO in
Washington. It was the “small world
syndrome” to have a very good friend tell me
he had an interview with Buddy Knox and an
unreleased demo of a song he subsequently
wrote after being out in the woods with the
dynamic bigfoot duo. Wow! Here’s how it
goes….
Buddy Knox was in Yakima,
Washington performing for two weeks at a
local lounge. His band leader was a man
named Jerry Merritt, a guy who had known
Roger and Bob for many years in Yakima.
Roger stopped by after one of the shows and
started talking about bigfoot with Buddy and
the next thing you know, they’re on horseback
in the Cascade Mountains looking for our
elusive friend. The interview is full of
incredible insight into the world of Roger
Patterson and Bob Gimlin. These were two of
the most determined “field researchers” of the
time and you get a feel for their enthusiasm
and die-hard nature as Buddy recalls the two
days they spent out in the woods.
Here’s some of the interview which
took place near the end of Buddy’s life while
he was residing in Victoria, British Columbia.
A.F. (Alex’s Friend): I’ve heard this story once
before, but you’ve got to tell me the sasquatch
story….
B.K.: Oh, the bigfoot story. Well, Jerry
Merritt, an old friend of mine – I think you
know who Jerry is; he’s in the Rockabilly Hall
of Fame, too – he was my band leader a lot of
times over the years and a friend of mine, he
was living in Yakima, Washington and, uh,
Jerry booked me into a place called the
Chieftain Hotel in the lounge. We sold that
lounge out and the guy decided he wanted to
keep me over for another week. So I stayed
there two weeks in the lounge, you know, and
he gave me another thousand a week.
So, in the meantime, I ran into a guy named
Roger Patterson. He was a little, small cowboy
and all that was on Roger’s mind was this big
thing living out in the woods that he called
bigfoot. And I said, “What the hell is a
bigfoot?” and Roger – that’s all it took for him
to start talking and boy, he went to work
talking! He always ran around with an Indian
boy named Bob Gimlin. (Note: In complete
deference to my good friend, Bob Gimlin, I
would say that this term was commonly used
back then and it was a point of pride, very
much in the manner of the Lone Ranger and his
sidekick, Tonto. No kidding. Buddy also uses
the same terms in the song lyrics. Where we
might cringe today hearing this, I am sticking
up for Buddy Knox as this was acceptable at
that time.) And, uh, the Indian boy was always
with him – everything they done!
So, we sat down in the lounge area there and he
(Roger) told me about bigfoot which, uh, in
scientific terms is called sasquatch which is the
same thing as a yeti over there in – where is
that? – Tahiti or someplace in the mountains
over there. (Note: Tibet was obviously the
country he was trying to think of…) And it’s the
same thing as the Abominable Snowman but
over here he’s called bigfoot or sasquatch. And
Roger Patterson was just totally taken with this
thing. And Roger owned a large ranch quite
aways out of town and he says sasquatch is on
his ranch! And I said, “Hah! I got to see this!”
(chuckles) So, one Sunday Roger come rolling
in and he had a little Volkswagen Bug van and
he had this horse Peanut in it. It was a small
horse, but it was in his damn van! And he
brought over, Bob Gimlin, he brought over a
truck with three other horses in it, in this big
truck and we commenced to go look for
sasquatch. We was headed out of Yakima into
the Cascade Mountains….
(edited for brevity)
We climbed on these horses and we were going
to go out there all day and stay – it was
Sunday; we had Sunday off and we didn’t have
to go to work until Monday night…we didn’t
have a matinee on Monday – so, I thought
we’re going to be out here riding these horses
all day Sunday and all night and all day
Monday. So, I just decided to enjoy a good
horse ride, you know, but he (Roger) was hellbent
to catch sasquatch ‘cause he had a gun
there that shot a net thing out on this saddle and
he carried it right behind his saddle. And it shot
a net out there and he was going to capture a
damn sasquatch.
And he showed me before we went, he showed
me this film that you’ve seen a thousand times
on television of this female sasquatch walking
along and stepping over a log and turning
around and looking and you see these breasts
sticking out there, so you know it’s a female,
you know. He took an 8 mm picture of this
thing just when he was out hunting one time
and, uh, he never thought about shooting it
‘cause he didn’t know if it was a human
dressed up like that and he said, “Shooting it
never crossed my mind.” So, he said, “I
grabbed my camera.” He had his camera with
him and he took about 13 to 14 minutes of the
sasquatch walking around this little horse-shoe
curve and it disappeared in the woods, you
know.
(Note: We all know the Patterson-Gimlin
footage is just under a minute long with the
classic 12 stable seconds somewhere in the
middle of it…perhaps Roger was showing a
loop of the footage or Buddy watched it for
what seemed like “13 to 14 minutes.” Doesn’t
matter. What does matter is that he got to
experience the bigfooting world of Roger and
Bob sometime after the film was taken!)
And we rode up to this log and I saw the
sasquatch step over this log like it was a little
stump, and this damn log was this high! (I
assume he’s pointing somewhere chest high 
or above.) There was no way in the world I
could hardly even jump over it, you know, so
the sucker had to be 7 or 8 feet tall – had to be!
(Note: I think in the course of the many bigfoot
encounters Roger had investigated, he was
telling Buddy about some of these on top of
showing him the film. Then, they went out in an
area where Roger had followed up on a
sighting and/or found tracks – later we hear
about Buddy seeing a place where Roger had
cast some tracks. So, I’m sure Buddy over the
course of the day – or the years since then –
has confused some of these details. He thinks
he was at the film site and we know he wasn’t.
In some similar creek watershed in the
Cascades, Buddy thought he was seeing the
downed logs and stumps visible in the film.
Still, what a great two days to recall!)
And, uh, he (Roger) said, “Yeah, that thing was
about 7 and ? feet tall – easy! And he said, “I
don’t know how much it weighed but I’d guess
500 pounds or 600 pounds,” and he said it was
big and (there) was hair all over it. He said he
never got a good look at the face – couldn’t see
a look of the face in the camera – and a little
later on, I saw him on Johnny Carson and he
showed that same film on Johnny Carson. And
he interviewed Roger and I saw him just again
on TV on a show about sasquatches and he’s an
older man now, not a young, skinny cowboy,
you know.
(Note: Now back to the bigfooting that Sunday
and Monday…)
2
Now
And he found these prints when he was out
there hunting and he went back to town and got
some plaster to come back and make some
plaster casts. And I saw these damn prints and
these things were an easy foot and a half –
close to 2 feet long! – and the imprints and
everything was there. I don’t see how he could
have falsed (sic) them up so easy, you know.
One print was a little rough – he had 4 or 5
prints, you know, plaster casts of these. So, he
brought plaster and everything along with him
on another horse. And net guns and the whole
works on this other horse. So, I could tell he
was either planning an elaborate joke or he was
deadly serious about this. And I found out later
that he was deadly serious.
(edited again….)
So, we done a matinee and a show that
(Saturday) night and the next morning he come
and got me in the hotel and he said, “Load up!
We’re going!” So, we cut out and Roger
Patterson got the horses and we started looking
for sasquatch. And we looked all day long and
we looked on up until it got dark and we
decided to set up a camp site. So, and I said,
“What are we gonna eat?” and Jerry said, “Oh,
Roger brought some food, yeah.” And he
brought out this little sack of trail nuts and stuff
and raisins and you know, like not even a hand
full – oh, just about a hand full – for all of us to
eat! This was our supper. So, I lived on trail
nuts and stuff for two days, you know. And the
next morning we crawled out (from under our
blankets) at first day light and Roger’s out
there and loaded up, ready to go. And he had
the horses already saddled and everything. We
just slept on the ground, you know. I just slept
in my clothes and folded up one of those little
rolling things behind the saddle and used it as a
pillow. And it was warm, so we weren’t cold or
nothing. And we hunted until about 5 or 6 the
next afternoon – never saw prints, never got a
smell. He said they smell horrible! And he said
once we smell that smell, we’ll follow the
smell and see if we can find him.
Well, we never got a smell of the smell and we
never saw any footprints or nothing like that ,
but Roger showed me where he found the other
footprints and you could tell – there was plaster
all over the ground and you could tell he had
made something plaster there. And , uh, so I
just took it that he was telling the truth and you
know, I didn’t think he was a liar or nothing…
(interview ends here…)
---------------------------------------------------------
There’s more to this story that I’ll save for
another edition of the newsletter. Suffice it to
say, I find this to be a wonderful glimpse into
“bigfooting” with Roger and Bob. The song
which accompanies this interview was folkstyle
ballad and a lot of work was done on this
acetate by Alex Solunac of Victoria, B.C. to

make it “listenable”…It was the hit of the
Bellingham weekend as we listened to it over
and over. We’ll have to find a way to post some
of it on the one of our websites, but for now,
here are the lyrics.
The Bigfoot Song
by Buddy Knox
Way up in the north woods an’ deep in the dark
pines that blacken the mountains of the
Cascade Range,
They still tell the tales of an Indian legend,
Sasquatch is the legend, Bigfoot is the name.
The Indians claim he’s the missing link that fits
in the gap of the evolution chain.
You can make your mind up when you’ve
heard the stories,
Sasquatch is the story, bigfoot is the name.
(chorus)
You can ride from Canada to Northern
California,
All up and down the Cascade Range,
But if you go alone, friend, I’m here to warn
you,
Look out for the thing with the bigfoot name,
Look out for the thing with the bigfoot name.
From out of the Yakama Indian Reservation a
young cowboy and an Indian came,
To hunt in the mountains of Northern
California, truth was the purpose, Bigfoot was
the game.
Now young Roger Patterson ran a small string
of horses,
And he lived in the foothills in a cabin with his
wife,
He knew that many secrets were hidden in
these mountains,
And he had heard the legend of bigfoot for
most all his life
(chorus)
Nine years ago while running wild horses, deep
in the mountains with an old Indian friend,
He ran across a huge, a very huge footprint and
this is where the hunt for the bigfoot man
began.
To town and back they went and they made a
plaster cast 18 inches long from heel to the toe,
And from the print that it made, they guessed
that it must have weighed 700 pounds or so.
(chorus)
Now the facts they put together sent chills right
up their spines and the search for a lot more
information began,
And when they told the story and showed these
plaster prints, they only drew laughs from
strangers as well as friends,
Now up through the years they found a lot
more footprints and they gathered sworn
statements from a lot of decent minded folks,
But when they took these facts up to the
educated experts, it was all disregarded and
branded as a hoax.
(chorus)

Now it become a challenge to Roger and the
Indian to gather more proof and to bring it all
forth,
And show the whole wide world that this
bigfoot man is alive today and living in the
mountains to the north,
And for years they gathered a lot of signed
statements and tapes from people who had seen
bigfoot or his tracks,
But still no sightings and no film photographs,
and they knew they must bring a lot better
proof back.
(chorus)
From out of the Yakama Indian Reservation a
young cowboy and an Indian came,
To hunt in the mountains of Northern
California, truth was the purpose, Bigfoot was
the game.
Now young Roger Patterson ran a small string
of horses,
And he lived in the foothills in a cabin with his
wife,
He knew that many secrets were hidden in
these mountains,
And he had heard the legend of bigfoot for
most all his life
(chorus)
Nine years ago while running wild horses, deep
in the mountains with an old Indian friend,
He ran across a huge, a very huge footprint and
this is where the hunt for the bigfoot man
began.
To town and back they went and they made a
plaster cast 18 inches long from heel to the toe,
And from the print that it made, they guessed
that it must have weighed 700 pounds or so.
(chorus)
Now the facts they put together sent chills right
up their spines and the search for a lot more
information began,
And when they told the story and showed these
plaster prints, they only drew laughs from
strangers as well as friends,
Now up through the years they found a lot
more footprints and they gathered sworn
statements from a lot of decent minded folks,
But when they took these facts up to the
educated experts, it was all disregarded and
branded as a hoax.
(chorus)
Now it become a challenge to Roger and the
Indian to gather more proof and to bring it all
forth,
And show the whole wide world that this
bigfoot man is alive today and living in the
mountains to the north,
And for years they gathered a lot of signed
statements and tapes from people who had seen
bigfoot or his tracks,
But still no sightings and no film photographs,
and they knew they must bring a lot better

proof back.
(chorus)