TWO MEN IN INDIA CLAIM 'INDIAN BIGFOOT CAUGHT ON TAPE' (3/21/2002): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/2892 Ananova Wednesday, March 20, 2002 http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_548934.html Two men in northern India claim to have seen the region's equivalent of 'Bigfoot' building a nest. The witnesses say they saw the beast on separate occasions and one says he filmed it. Wildlife experts say the animal was probably a bear and officials have been sent into woodland to track it down. The Straits Times reports the so-called Mande Burung was first spotted by Nebilson Sangma while hunting in the state of Meghalaya. Sangma said the animal walked like man, had built a "house-like nesting place" and lived off bananas. He said: "After overcoming the initial shock, my brother and I observed this gigantic hairy creature for three consecutive days from afar." His reports were backed up just days later by Dipu Marak who says he filmed it near its nest. Footprints which measured 20ins long were then found in the same area around the foothills of the Nokrek National Park.

AN AMAZON ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (1/7/2002): HOWLING AMAZON MONSTER JUST AN INDIAN LEGEND? By Axel Bugge Reuters Tuesday, December 18, 2001 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20011218/sc/brazil_monster_dc_1.html BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Imagine this: a hairy, six-foot monster, howling and stinking of death, crossing your path in the semi-darkness under the canopy of the mighty Amazon jungle. Among Amazon Indians, legend has it that such a creature stalks the forests like a tropical Abominable Snowman -- never photographed or captured. The animal species called "Mapinguari,'" or giant defenders of the forests, by the Indians, is also known to the thousands of hunters that brave the forests every year. One such person, Joao Batista Azevedo, says he saw a Mapinguari 20 years ago after a 45-day canoe ride from the nearest village. "I was working by the river when I heard a scream, a horrible scream," the now 70-year-old Azevedo told Reuters by telephone from his remote Amazon village. "Suddenly something looking like a man came out of the forest, all covered in hair. He was walking on two legs and thank God he did not come toward us. I will always remember that day." Veteran Amazon ornithologist David Oren takes such stories very seriously. So much, in fact, that since 1988 he has been on a quest to find one of the creatures in the name of science and has led several expeditions into the depths of the world's largest rain forest to hunt for it. "It's still being sited regularly. Several people think they came face to face with the Devil in the forest," he says of people like Azevedo who have helped guide him on his search. He believes there are dozens left. Oren's theory is that the beast could be the world's last living giant ground sloth -- a distant relative of existing tree sloths -- that became extinct more than 10,000 years ago. That belief has cost him dearly, he says, in the often conservative scientific community where reputation is everything. The National Geographic Society turned him down and he has funded his expeditions largely with his own money. Paul Martin, a Meritus Professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona and leading expert on the theory that humans were responsible for the extinction of such animals as the giant ground sloth, is one skeptic. 13,000 YEARS TOO LATE? "I think he is 13,000 years too late. This sure does sound like the hunt for a Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster," Martin said. "The part of me that is completely romantic is rooting for David Oren. But where the science part of me is concerned I don't give him a chance." Oren argues that a kind of giant ground sloth could still be alive in the Amazon because the forests offer huge, remote areas providing the necessary isolation to survive. Thick and impenetrable, the Amazon's continuous forest covers an area larger than all of Western Europe and is home to up to 30 percent of the world's animal and plant life. Scientists say giant ground sloths were in abundance across the Americas, evidenced by fossil finds of such creatures in places as far apart as Patagonia in the south to the northwest of the United States. The beast could have moved to the Amazon to escape hunting and encroachment of man on its natural habitat elsewhere. Claudio Padua, a doctor of ecology who teaches at the University of Brasilia, is one of the few scientists prepared to believe Oren because the Amazon is still hiding thousands of undiscovered species. "It would be the find of the century, it would have an extraordinary impact" if found, said Padua. He points out that 10 species of monkeys were discovered in the Amazon in the last decade. "As a scientist I accept that everything is possible until there is proof to the contrary," he said. FOREMOST RESEARCH CENTER Generally a well-respected scientist, Oren is originally American but now carries a Brazilian passport. He first came to the Amazon in 1977 and for years worked for the Emilio Goeldi Museum in Belem -- one of Brazil's foremost Amazon research centers. While he plugged away mapping the biological makeup of the Amazon, his fame may be best-connected with the Mapinguari. Oren moved this year from Belem to take up a post with U.S. environmental group Nature Conservancy in Brasilia, thousands of miles from the Amazon, making it very difficult for him to hunt the Mapinguari. So has he lost his belief? Not at all, he says. Indeed in June, just after leaving, he wrote his second scientific article in a decade on the beast, presenting all his evidence. "When I wrote the 1993 paper, I had never interviewed anyone who had claimed to have killed one of these supposed animals," he wrote in the newsletter of the World Conservation Union's Edentate Specialist Group. He has now talked to seven hunters who claim to have shot the animal and another 80 people who have seen it, he says. "What they describe: a creature approximately two meters (six feet) tall when standing upright; a very strong, unpleasant smell; extremely heavy and powerful build; capable of breaking thick roots with its footsteps," the article says. Most likely a defense mechanism, the smell is described by some witnesses as a mixture of feces and rotting flesh. Oren says the beast has long coarse fur, four large teeth and that it moves on two or four legs. It also has an "extremely loud, roaring vocalization ... similar to a human calling loudly, but with a growl at the end." In fact, on his expeditions, Oren says he himself yelled into the darkness and it howled back to him. In his Brasilia villa, Oren keeps more evidence that includes a clay mold of a footprint, about an inch deep, with three large toes. The toes face backward because the creature walks on its knuckles, he says. A series of pictures includes a photo of claw marks on a tree, eight of them about a foot long and an inch deep. But there are big holes in the story. For one, the hunters who say they shot it did not keep any fragment of the creature, apparently throwing the parts away due to the strong stench. Oren remains convinced though, arguing that the story needs to be widely published to ensure that if one is shot again its remains are inspected by scientists. And despite the skepticism of many, there's no doubt scientists are fascinated by Oren's hunt. "I'd be thrilled out of my mind if he (Oren) succeeded, it would be in my wildest dreams," said Martin. "We (humans) resonate with these large animals, so everybody in town is going to feel the emotion of such a find."

'Indian bigfoot caught on tape' claim From: http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_548934.html Two men in northern India claim to have seen the region's equivalent of 'Bigfoot' building a nest. The witnesses say they saw the beast on separate occasions and one says he filmed it. Wildlife experts say the animal was probably a bear and officials have been sent into woodland to track it down. The Straits Times reports the so-called Mande Burung was first spotted by Nebilson Sangma while hunting in the state of Meghalaya. Sangma said the animal walked like man, had built a "house-like nesting place" and lived off bananas. He said: "After overcoming the initial shock, my brother and I observed this gigantic hairy creature for three consecutive days from afar." His reports were backed up just days later by Dipu Marak who says he filmed it near its nest. Footprints which measured 20ins long were then found in the same area around the foothills of the Nokrek National Park. Story filed: 10:52 Wednesday 20th March 2002

BRITONS CLAIM TO HAVE FOUND 'YETI' Ananova October 30, 2001 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_437043.html A group of British explorers claim to have found irrefutable proof of a "Yeti-like" creature on an Indonesian island. The team has discovered a footprint and hair samples of a primate which has long lived in the mythology of tribes people in Western Sumatra. A cast of the footprint and strands of coarse hair are being sent to research institutes at Oxford University and the University of Canberra in Australia for verification. If the finds are substantiated, they could provide valuable scientific clues to an unidentified creature which could hold the key to the missing link between humans and apes. Andrew Sanderson, Newcastle upon Tyne, Adam Davies from Stockport, and Keith Towley from Macclesfield, spent three weeks in the rainforests tracking a creature called Orang Pendek -- meaning 'Little Man of the Forest'. Sightings on the island describe the creature as being 5ft tall with chocolate-brown, orange hair. It's distinguishing feature is its humanlike gait - walking upright on its back legs without the aid of its front fists. Crypto-zoologist Mr Sanderson said: "Over the years there have been many sightings of the yeti, but no one has actually come up with any concrete evidence. We seem to be the first people to do that. "We didn't see the creature ourselves but we tracked it for several weeks and we managed to make a plaster cast of one of its footprints. It is absolutely perfect and experts are already beginning to get excited about it." A digital re-print of the footprint has been sent to Colin Groves, a professor of primatology at the University of Canberra. The hair samples are being sent to the micro biology unit at Oxford University. The group hope that DNA testing will prove the existence of a previously undiscovered primate. Despite the potential scepticism for such a find, the team remain confident that their discovery is unique.

TRACKING THE BIGFOOT TRACKERS (6/14/2001): They're dedicated, they're picky and they're an endangered species. By Phil Busse Salon.Com June 8, 2001 http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/06/08/bigfoot/print.html Three concrete molds of large feet lie in the grass at the base of Richard Knoll's truck. They're about the size of a frying pan, and stand out distinctly against the dry, brown grass. Knoll says they are impressions left behind by Bigfoot as it walked alongside a riverbank somewhere in the dark recesses of the Pacific Northwest. He won't say exactly where. It's claimed by believers like Knoll that Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a living species of giant primate. The annual Bigfoot Daze conference, held on the fringes of Carson, a small town in Washington state, is a gathering point for a loose community of Sasquatch enthusiasts. Knoll arrived the day before and, in the late afternoon, explained to a group of about 50 believers how to determine whether a footprint is a hoax. Like hundreds of other Bigfoot enthusiasts, Knoll is fiercely independent, but at the same time drawn to a community that provides a stage for him to express his unwavering belief that Bigfoot is out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered. "It would be kind of sad if we found Bigfoot," Knoll says suddenly, unexpectedly. "Without the possibility of Bigfoot there is no wilderness left." He pauses again and adds, "The possibility of Bigfoot is the possibility of wilderness." Whether it's a shadow in the wilderness that can't be explained, or a strange noise in the dark, Bigfoot is about believing. A smattering of Bigfoot enthusiasts have coalesced into a small but energetic group of believers over the last 15 years. There were 15 bona fide organizations around North America by 1998, with an estimated 2,000 self-proclaimed Bigfoot seekers -- almost as many as the number of Bigfoot supposedly roaming the backcountry. There's a group of neighbors in Placerville, Calif., who routinely meet and talk about Bigfoot's whereabouts in Northern California. In Washington, a man named Cliff Crook signed up his wife and son to form Bigfoot Central. Even in Maine (about as far away from Bigfoot in the U.S. as one can get), a group of so-called crypto-zoologists pour over hair follicles, footprints and a grab bag of evidence. Here in Oregon, the self-proclaimed largest Sasquatch organization in the world, the Western Bigfoot Society (WBS), meets for lunch every Tuesday at the Lighthouse Café in the blue-collar town of Linton, about five miles north of Portland. The numbers attending vary from 4 to 15. "I don't know why we started meeting on Tuesdays," says WBS director Ray Crowe. "I think it started because I had something to do the other days of the week." At the lunch meetings, the subject of Bigfoot is almost as elusive as the creature itself, bobbing in and out of conversation about the members' grandchildren and the Lighthouse lunch specials. About 10 people are seated around a heavy oak table at my first meeting with the WBS. "I'm not a believer or a nonbeliever," claims Lloyd, a retired veterinarian. He wears a wide-brimmed hat and has the personality of a kind uncle who pulls quarters from your ear. He goes on to tell me that for centuries, there were rumors about giant black-and-white bears roaming the alpine hinterlands of China. Then, in 1936, the first panda bear was captured. "It was all bullshit until then," he says. "There is new stuff out there all of the time." Lloyd jerks a thumb toward the densely green hills flanking the restaurant. "There are millions of acres of forest," he says. "You could hide an elephant up there." These people are chummy -- Bigfoot is both a reason and an excuse for meeting. While the reality of the beast may be a bit hazy, the idea of it remains enough of a core for this motley subculture. "This is the last, greatest hunt in the world," says Sam. "It gives us a reason to look at the hills differently." In 1993, Sam (who prefers not to use his real name) spotted what he believes were three Bigfoot standing in a quarry at the base of Saddle Mountain, near Seaside. But even he has his doubts. "To a lot of people I have to ask: Are you really trying to find this thing or are you just enjoying a mystery?" Paradoxically, as long as Bigfoot is never captured, these groups will have a reason to exist. Until then, there are no absolute answers for those attending these meetings, only speculative questions: Is Bigfoot a herbivore or a carnivore? Friendly or mean? And, well, does he even exist? Any gathering of humans develops its own invisible hierarchies and rules for belonging, from sorority girls to NASA. The interior dynamics of the Bigfoot community are no different, with gripes ranging from petty personality conflicts to serious theoretical disputes. Even the amiable and polite Crowe has his detractors. They believe that putting an open and public face on the Bigfoot community plays too much into the general public's perceptions about the creature. After years of ridicule, from tabloids claiming that Sasquatch has taken Marilyn Monroe as his bride to Nike using the elusive beast as a foot model for a national television campaign, there is a discernible opinion that the community should shield itself from the public and shape its image. One longtime tracker stopped attending the annual Bigfoot Daze after Crowe organized a wedding ceremony two years ago, where the groom wore a gorilla suit. "He's playing into the parody factor," said the detractor, who preferred to stay anonymous. Knoll, a globally recognized engineer from Edmund, Wash., bemoans that Crowe "just collects information." To Knoll, who painstakingly tries to filter reliable accounts from the hoaxes and "crazies," such an approach is undisciplined. "He just presents what he gets and doesn't analyze it." There is no common profile of a Bigfoot enthusiast, but most are earnest, over 40 and financially stable. Many have advanced degrees and enjoy the outdoors. Some have a military background. What's more, simple "willingness to believe" is not necessarily a ticket to join this group. "There is no clear policy," concludes one insider, referring to the unspoken rules that govern admission. But clearly, he continues, some people get "cold shouldered." Among the cold-shouldered are UFO "weirdos" ("they give the whole thing a bad name!" one WBS member exclaims) and the greatest pariahs of the community, "the hoaxers" -- those who plant phony footprints in the wilderness or claim sightings. Some hoaxers are simply pranksters; others are current members looking to gain favor from a community that, to a large degree, ranks its members on the amount of information one possesses about Bigfoot. Last July, a psychologist from southern Oregon, Dr. Matthew Johnson, was hiking with his family along the coastal bluffs of Cave Junction National Monument. Suddenly he heard a low chirping noise and caught a whiff of something rank. He claims the peculiar sound startled him so much, he was almost struck incontinent. Instead, he scurried to a nearby bush and from there, with his trousers around his ankles, Johnson says that he caught an unobstructed view of a 7-foot-tall Bigfoot, which, at the time, was watching his family. Johnson's story is the type that fuels the group's enthusiasm, the seemingly sincere conversion of a nonbeliever. But these sightings also carry a vexing dilemma. Where does this new person fit into the group dynamic, where information and reputation are the measurements of social rank? "All it takes is a sighting to put you at the top of the pyramid," claims one tracker. "And that pisses a lot of people off." Johnson was catapulted to the summit of the Bigfoot community within days. He conducted upward of 100 interviews with newspapers and TV stations. No more than a week after the sighting, he posted a Web site explaining the alleged event. He was, in this community, an overnight sensation. Two weeks after Johnson's sighting, someone posted an inquiry on one of the more active Bigfoot chat rooms. The question was subversive: "When did Dr. Johnson register his URL?" The insinuation was that Johnson might have requested the domain name before his encounter with Bigfoot. A barrage of messages jumped to Johnson's defense, proclaiming that his Web site was testimony to the new inductee's desire to help validate Bigfoot sightings. "He wants to create a paradigm shift," said one supporter. "He wants to get rid of the stigma and get credibility." Without proof and despite this outpouring of support, the damage was done; Johnson's reputation in the Bigfoot community had been sabotaged. At a mid-July lunch meeting of the WBS, speculation ran rampant. Clearly, even if Johnson was bringing good news, the group was uneasy about a newcomer. "He started selling T-shirts," says one skeptical member. Big money is rare in the Bigfoot community, whereas UFO sightings can yield tens of thousands in honorariums at conferences or book deals. The lack of monetary incentive seems to lend credibility to the Bigfoot sightings. Theata Crowe, Ray's wife, joked that she had only made $7 from her book, "How to Cook a Bigfoot." "As far as I'm concerned," says Theata, "that moves him to the back of the bus." "That was Cave Junction's doing," Crowe interrupts, referring to the concession stand at the National Park that immediately began selling T-shirts after Johnson's sighting. All heads turn to him. "I've talked to him a few times now," Crowe tells the group. He pauses. "I think I believe him." His statement stops the conversation. There are two roads to belief, and ever since Galileo proclaimed that the earth was not the center of the universe, these paths have taken different routes. One road is less an actual pathway than a single leap of faith; the true, unflinching believer starts with the premise that God, reincarnation, Santa Claus or Bigfoot exists. From here, true believers cast their belief backward, lining up bread crumbs to show how they reached this point. Unexplained twists of fate, miracles, weird noises in the dark, broken tree branches and the unexplained suddenly add up to a graspable reality. A handful of members begin to talk at another BFS meeting about some of the people who have cycled through their organization -- and why those people aren't around anymore. One member was upset about a tracker who had borrowed his camper about a year ago for a backwoods Bigfoot excursion. "He must've gotten drunk and walked on the roof," the member said. "The damn roof leaked after he dropped it back off." His wife quickly adds: "And, he left the thing without any gas!" The members at the lunch table then begin to discuss other former members whose credibility fell short of the group's standards. "You can tell the guys who will eventually see Bigfoot," says one member. "They talk themselves into it," adds Theata, from the far end of the table. Lloyd, the retired vet, leans toward me and says, "More like smoke themselves into it." He smiles and winks at me. Although popular conception may categorize Bigfoot enthusiasts as easy-to-please believers, the serious Bigfoot enthusiast spends four to six days a month on the ground, hiking through remote Pacific Northwest forests, pawing river banks for footprints and combing tree branches for shreds of evidence. A man sitting next to me claims he spends four to five days a month in the Pacific Northwest backcountry looking for Bigfoot. He has thick forearms and says he's a bear hunter. He finishes his sandwich in a blink of an eye. Four summers ago, he was camping with his son at Squaw Mountain in southern Washington. In the late afternoon, just as the hard edges of the sun were softening, they pitched their tent on a bald spot of the mountain. His son had brought his bugle and was practicing on a perch overhanging the wooded valley below. After a few minutes, they heard a noise from the dense foliage returning their calls. The man grabbed his video camera to capture the sound. "I know elk vocalization," he says. "This was something else -- something with huge lung capacity." Returning home, he sent the tapes to several local colleges. The University of Washington returned the tape, saying that the sounds were inconclusive. The urge to document Bigfoot has been a central force in the community for the past three decades. In 1967, two amateur Bigfoot enthusiasts, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin, ventured into the Bluff Creek National Forest, a remote patch of land just south of the Oregon-California border. Only 10 years earlier, the area had been accessible only by a two-day hike. When a logging road was constructed in 1958, the crews allegedly found scores of oversize footprints in the soft sand. A press release referred to the creature's "big feet," saddling the elusive beast with its current popular name. While riding on horseback through the area, Patterson and Gimlin claim to have spotted a Bigfoot. They filmed it walking across a gray sandbar. Lasting a mere 4 seconds, the film shows a languid creature calmly swinging its arms as it moves back into the woods. Shot on an old 16 mm camera, the footage is out of focus and muddy. The image is distant and looks a lot like a person dressed in a gorilla suit. The so-called Patterson film sparked a powder keg of boyhood fantasies and would-be big-game explorers. Countless amateur scientists set off into the Pacific Northwest woods over the next decade, hoping to snare the first irrefutable evidence that Bigfoot exists. It is the ultimate romantic search, the type that promises to change the way we think, to provide a solid pathway -- not a leap of faith -- to the Truth. It was an era that molded a new mentality and set the challenge for Bigfoot enthusiasts. Perhaps the person who most shaped this era -- one that lasted from the surfacing of the Patterson film until three years ago -- is Peter Byrne. Byrne is a contemporary Indiana Jones, polite, charismatic and well-respected in and out of the Bigfoot community. Byrne had established a top-notch trekking outfit in Nepal long before hiking the Himalayas was a yuppie coming-of-age ritual. Then, in 1960, Byrne moved to the Pacific Northwest. From then forward, he was a Bigfoot enthusiast. In the late '70s, after publishing "The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Myth, or Man?" (Pocket Books), Byrne established the Bigfoot Research Project. For several years, this outfit was headquartered in The Dalles, Ore., and became a familiar sight for travelers along I-84. On average, he maintained a half-million dollar flow of contributions each year, from benefactors as diverse as the Boston Institute of Science to former trekking clients. One major contributor, Texas oil millionaire Tom Slick, also currently funds a hunt for giant salamanders in the California desert. "If the Pacific Northwest was the closet of America," says one current tracker, "then Peter Byrne brought us out." Byrne used his reputation as a big-game explorer and respected trekker to lend a certain degree of validity to the Bigfoot community. About half the Bigfoot seekers interviewed cite Byrne as an inspiration. His research methods inspired others to follow suit, giving a certain scientific rigor to the chase. Then in 1997 Byrne retired from Bigfoot hunting and moved to the Los Angeles area. He left behind a trail of Bigfoot researchers -- believers who now had the advantage of online research and communication. At first it looked good for the community, but in fact, the Internet explosion coupled with a marked increase in the public's appetite for outdoor activities may actually send Bigfoot enthusiasts scurrying back into the shadows. Late last summer, a Portland chapter of the Audubon Society sponsored a five-day "Bigfoot" camp for 12- to 15-year-olds. The century-old environmental organization, typically more associated with bird-watching and quiet strolls through the woods, used Bigfoot as a sales hook to interest adolescents. The teenagers camped near Mount St. Helens, where there have been hundreds of sightings, and learned tracking techniques, but ultimately the Audubon Society distanced itself from any serious pursuit of Bigfoot. It's just a way to get kids into the outdoors, said Steve Robertson, education director at Audubon. "We don't want to give people the wrong idea that the Audubon Society believes there's a Sasquatch," he explained. Many members of the Bigfoot community believe that such half-serious outings threaten to co-opt their personality. For a group of outsiders, who take pride in being as elusive as the creature they are hunting, such acceptance may ultimately corrupt their tightly knit community. This and the rise of the Internet have diminished the need for organizations like the Western Bigfoot Society and annual conferences like Bigfoot Daze. By providing a virtual, year-round swap meet for information and Bigfoot data, the Internet has swiped one of the primary purposes of these Bigfoot organizations and events. A longtime Bigfoot conference in British Columbia was canceled last winter and attendance at last summer's Bigfoot Daze in Washington was poor. Several speakers failed to show. Another "celebrity" said it would be his last. "These events are dying," he claimed, asking that his name be withheld. "There is no need to get together." Standing over a table of books, tracking records and Bigfoot postcards at a recent Bigfoot conference, Crowe brushes aside such speculation. "No," he says, "people want something that they can hold onto." "Well," quips one attendee, referring to the potential demise of such events like the weekly Western Bigfoot Society lunches, "at least we won't have to waste our Tuesday afternoons anymore." "We'll just move on to Loch Ness," his wife adds. ........... About the writer Phil Busse is the managing editor for the Portland Mercury, in Oregon.

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6.27.01 Sasquatch/yeti: Scientific, other proof shows creature is REAL No wild tales here. The latest scientific data, along with personal testimony and other HARD evidence, gives every indication that the "abominable snowman/sasquatch/bigfoot/yeti" creatures are as real as you and I... which I guess is more or less pretty real. Right? (Thanks to Jeff Rense for publicizing this information.) http://rense.com/general11/yhet.htm Yeti Hair Defies DNA Analysis http://english.sohu.com/20010403/file/0887,246,100034.html 6-26-1 LONDON (dpa) - British scientists on the trail of the Yeti have found some of the best evidence yet for the existence of the mythical Himalayan creature a sample of hair that has proved impossible to identify, according to a publshed report Monday. Genetic tests on the hair, which was gathered from a tree in Bhutan, have failed to match its DNA to that of another animal, said the report in The Times. The findings, which have surprised sceptical researchers, raise the strong possibility that the sample belongs to an as yet undiscovered species. In Bhutan, an expedition team was led by an official Yeti-hunter" to a forest in the eastern part of the country, where he was convinced that an animal was at large. He told us that he had found evidence of the Yeti in the hollow of a cedar tree," Rob McCall, a zoologist who was part of the expedition, was quoted as saying. Dr. McCall's team removed strands of hair from the tree and returned to Britain to have them analysed. Bryan Sykes, professor of Human Genetics at the Oxford Institute of Molecular Medicine, one of the world's leading experts on DNA analysis, who examined the hair, told The Times: "We found some DNA in it, but we don't know what it is. It's not a human, not a bear nor anything else we have so far been able to identify. It's a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldnt recognise before." (c) 2001 Deutsche Presse-agentur All rights reserved Copyright (C) 1998-2001 Internet Technologies China. All rights reserved. http://rense.com/general11/bigf.htm

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James Aiken sent photographs of a Skunk Ape to Art Bell. The photographs were taken near Sarasota, Florida by an elderly woman who did not want to be interviewed. The creature was in her backyard late at night. She didn't realize the creature was there until after the photos were taken. This is not considered a Bigfoot, but an American Ape. It is estimated to be 7 to 8 feet tall. Apples were cut up and left out for the creature as bait, but it would not eat the cut apples, but did eat a whole apple, which is a sign of intelligence as the cut apples were been contaminated by human smell. The website with further information is http://www.ifrs.com - (The link isn't working but might later in the week) The man who originally contacted the eldery woman is named David Barkasy. (Experts said that the Skunkape is not considered to be a Bigfoot. The difference between a Skunkape and a Bigfoot is rather obvious if one could see their feet. A Bigfoot 'foot' is large but humanoid. A Skunkape foot is more like a Chimpanzee and rather more like a hand which spreads out ... much different than a 'foot'. Fortean Field Guide on the Skunkape - Florida Lauren Coleman photo enhancements

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Anderson County Texas Palestine, 75801 "On August 5, 2001 at 0313 CDT, on US Hwy 287, which is 31 miles west of Palestine, Texas, I was traveling westbound at 65 mph when I saw what looked like a bear cub or a very large dog sitting in the middle of the road. I slowed down to 15 mph; I hit my high beams and stopped about 20 yards away from the animal. I put on my 4-way flashers, turned on my interior spotlight. As I looked up I saw a huge bipedal creature that I will call Bigfoot. It walked from the soft shoulder of the road to the animal in the road. As he (I am pretty sure it was a male) walked in front of my tractor he shielded his eyes, not seemingly out of shyness, but more as an effort to protect his eyes from the bright lights. I reduced my headlights to low beam, but decided not to turn them off as I was in the middle of the highway. I was doing my best to protect them by blocking the road with my tractor-trailer. The big male went over to what I realized was a 'toddler.' "He" grabbed its shoulder and attempted to grab the little one's arm. The little one "scooted" away like a child trying to get away from a parent that wants the child to go somewhere and the child doesn't want to go. The little one had greater agility than the big male. The little one squirmed, scrambled, and scooted further up the road from where they were. Then something caught my eye and ear directly next to my driver's window. I casually looked over and within two feet of my face was a female. No doubt female, she had "nursing breasts" (extended nipples). Her eyes were almost even with my eye/level. I measured from where the top of her head came up to my mirror; it was 7' 4" tall. The male was at least one foot taller than her, plus some. She had a "gamy" smell but didn't stink. Immediately upon seeing her, I smiled with all the teeth I have. From the interior spotlight, which was pointed down toward my lap, I am sure she was able to see me clearly. I certainly saw her clearly, so clearly I could smell and feel her breath. I particularly noticed the volume of air that she breathed. Not out of breath, or even heavy breathing, just a large volume of air with each breath. I again smiled at her and asked, "Is the baby okay?" She slowly "smiled" back at me. I noticed a dental anomaly...either she had a double row of teeth or the crowns of her teeth were split on the top center to give the impression of two rows of teeth. She then reached into the tractor and stroked my beard (like I do when I'm thinking). My beard is mid-chest length and multi-colored. It was then I realized the large male's head was identical to mine, although his beard was shorter. The female had thin facial hair on her chin. The rest of his hair/fur was dark brown with traces of gray/white on his shoulders, back and chest. She was a mixture of brown and reddish-brown hair/fur, mostly reddish-brown. As she took her hand off my beard, and took her hand out of my tractor, I extended my hand out to her. She sandwiched my hand between her two hands, her hands were 2x-3x larger than mine. Her hands felt like roughneck work gloves (rough leather). At this point she gave me a "soulful" look. From her facial expressions and her watery eyes, I took it that she was saying, "thanks for not running over my baby". The eyes were not dead eyes, they were bright and moist, just very dark brown, not black. The large male had the "child" under his left arm like a sack of potatoes. He never looked directly at me as I watched him walk back into the treeline. I noticed at least 3 more (I suspected even more) at the treeline. They ranged from the height of the female to slightly shorter, but none came close to the size of the male. **Please do not use my name. I have no objections to your use of this report, but please do not use my name. As I told you on the phone, I am not a fan of the paranormal (UFO's, Aliens, Time- travel, etc.). I had no belief in what I saw, until I saw it. I had no fear of these creatures (as I explained on the phone). ** I believe any use of deadly force would have been borderline homicide (no doubt in my mind). Twenty-one years of investigating experience teaches you to observe, remember as much as you can, and immediately write it down. That's what I have done. The encounter ended at 0317. I have thought of ten million things that I coulda/woulda/shoulda done, if given the opportunity again. I know, however, this was a once in a lifetime event." Use this report, I don't care how, just please don't use my name. I'm not seeking publicity or monetary gain from this experience. Credit report sent in by investigator Tim Olson Witness details not available per request of witness !

MORE ON 'BIG FOOT' HUNTER, RENÉ DAHINDEN (4/30/2001): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/1437 TRAIL ENDS FOR BIGFOOT'S BIGGEST FAN B.C. man's 50-year search: A disputed film, a few footprints and a beer ad - but no sightings Mark Hume National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20010427/545558.html VANCOUVER - René Dahinden, the world's leading authority on Sasquatch, has died after spending nearly 50 years searching for the legendary beast. He never saw one, but right to the end he believed an ape-like hominoid was haunting the forests of British Columbia -- even though a few doubts had started to creep into his mind. Mr. Dahinden, who was 71, collected hundreds of footprint casts and traipsed all over the Pacific Northwest investigating sightings and interviewing everyone who had a breathless story to tell about a hairy encounter with Bigfoot. He spent "years and years" in the bush by himself, trying to find one piece of solid evidence that would convince the scientific community to take the legend of Sasquatch seriously. "His quest, his mission, was to have the government put some money into research and to convince the scientific community to do something about finding it and protecting it," Christopher Murphy, a friend of Mr. Dahinden's, said yesterday. "It never came about, because nobody ever found any proof, other than footprints. He thought most of the footprints were fake, the vast majority, but he believed in some of them. He put faith in the footprints because he said, 'They couldn't be left by the imagination.'" His pursuit of Sasquatch made him so famous that a few years ago the brewers of Kokanee beer asked him to play himself in a television commercial. Even then he didn't get to see the Sasquatch. Facing the camera, with the modest trailer he lived in as a backdrop, an off-camera voice asks if he ever used B.C.-made Kokanee beer to lure a Sasquatch. "Do you think I'm crazy or something?" asks Mr. Dahinden, unaware that behind him a Sasquatch is sneaking into his trailer to make off with a case of beer. If it had happened as depicted, you can be sure Mr. Dahinden would have poured a puddle of plaster goop on the ground to make a cast of the footprint. Wherever he travelled, Mr. Dahinden had a collection of footprints with him. They were his touchstone to reality in a world where people armed with little more than absolute faith try to prove the existence of a mythical creature. Dmitri Bayanov, in his book, America's Bigfoot: Fact, Not Fiction, writes that in a 1971 visit to Moscow, Mr. Dahinden was challenged at a public meeting to produce evidence. "Dahinden held up a weighty plaster cast of a huge footprint and quipped: 'If anyone finds this kind of evidence immaterial, let me strike his head with it'." The Russian author and Sasquatch hunter wrote that Mr. Dahinden had a considerable impact in Moscow, where he presented a film that purportedly shows a Sasquatch running into the woods near Bluff Creek, Wash. The film, shot by Sasquatch hunters Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in 1967, was called a fake by many. But Mr. Dahinden, who bought the rights to some of the footage shortly after it was shot, believed in it. In Moscow, he showed the film in the boardroom of Izvestia, the national newspaper, to the Union of Writers of the USSR and to the Central Scientific Research Institute of Prosthetics and Artificial Limb Construction. "As the meeting at the Institute began, over one hundred scientists and technicians, wearing white coats, assembled to watch the film. In Dahinden's words, 'the whole joint came to a standstill,'" wrote Mr. Bayanov. Mr. Murphy, who is writing a book about the film titled Circumstantial Evidence, said Mr. Dahinden was skeptical of many Sasquatch sightings, but he defended the film, even after it was widely dismissed as a hoax. "For a long time I was never really able to nail him down on his view of the film. But towards the end he said: 'It's definitely real,'" said Mr. Murphy. Mr. Dahinden sold rights to the film several times to television producers, and used stills to produce Sasquatch posters, but he never made much money. To support his Sasquatch expeditions, Mr. Dahinden worked on the grounds of the Vancouver Gun Club, where he collected lead shot from spent shotgun shells. "He worked really hard," said Mr. Murphy. "He'd go out and salvage the lead. He'd clean it off. He'd end up with hundreds of pounds of lead. He worked with his bare hands ... I don't think it could have been too healthy. He'd put it in bags and sell it back to the people who manufacture shotgun shells." Mr. Dahinden was born in Switzerland, but immigrated to Canada in 1953. Just a month after he arrived, he heard a radio report about a Daily Mail expedition to the Himalayas to search for the legendary Yeti, a hairy beast that supposedly wanders the mountain wilderness, high above the tree line. Don Hunter, who in 1973 co-wrote the book Sasquatch, said that on hearing the report, Mr. Dahinden turned to the Alberta farmer he was working for, and said: "'Now wouldn't that be something; to be on the hunt for that thing?' And he said, 'Hell, you don't have to go that far; they got them things in British Columbia.'" And so the mission began. He promptly moved to B.C. and began his life's quest. Mr. Hunter said Mr. Dahinden "investigated with an exhaustive thoroughness countless stories of Sasquatch sightings, thousands of footprints -- and not a few Sasquatch hunters themselves. He has badgered every branch of science in North America that could possibly relate to the existence of a hairy bipedal giant hominoid, with little success. For the most part he has met with responses that ranged from vague expressions of 'cautious interest' to the attitude of: 'It can't exist, therefore it doesn't exist.' ... He has never seen a Sasquatch; he is not easily persuaded by those who say they have seen one ... He says: 'Something is making those goddamn footprints and I'm going to find out what it is.'" He never did find out -- but his unwavering belief inspired others to take up the cause. "He got calls from absolutely everywhere," said Mr. Murphy. "And he went everywhere. He spent years and years in the bush," he said. "He never, ever found anything when he was out on his own. But when he responded to others, to reports, he'd scout the area, and he'd find footprints. He'd take statements from people, he'd interview everyone. "His passion overwhelmed him. But one day he said to me: 'You know, I've spent over 40 years -- and I didn't find it. I guess that's got to say something.'" That's as close as he ever came to admitting defeat. Mr. Dahinden died last week of natural causes. His memorial will be held at the Vancouver Gun Club, in Richmond, tomorrow. ------------ DAHINDEN LEFT HIS OWN IMPRINT Ad people marvelled at his off-the-wall yet down-to-earth aura By Patrick Allossery Financial Post http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20010430/547531.html Before hiring a celebrity spokesperson, advertisers will often search far and wide to find the candidate who exhibits just the right mix of star wattage and natural brand fit. Sometimes, however, the stars align on their own, and the ideal person simply appears out of nowhere. In the case of René Dahinden, the spokesman for an enormously successful Kokanee beer campaign in the late 1990s, that is precisely what happened. To say the least, Mr. Dahinden, who died April 18 at age 70 after a brief illness, was a colourful character. Shortly after immigrating to Canada from Switzerland in 1956, he became enthralled by the mystery of the Sasquatch, and he set off in dogged pursuit of the mythical beast. It was to be a quest that lasted 45 years and, by all accounts, came to define his existence. In 1997, Scot Keith, then an account director with Vancouver agency Bryant Fulton & Shee, which at the time handled the Kokanee beer account, was looking for an angle to revive a campaign already based on the myth of the Sasquatch. By chance, he read an article about Mr. Dahinden in a newspaper, which led in turn to a number of phone conversations between the two. The rest, as they say, is history. "Our talks formed the basis of an ad featuring René that tested through the roof," said Mr. Keith, who now works as an account director at the Vancouver office of MacLaren McCann. The 60-second spot shows Mr. Dahinden (who is dressed in his own clothing because wardrobe could not make him look more authentic) responding to questions from an off-camera interviewer. Toward the end, the questioner asks him if he has heard the talk that the Sasquatch prefers Kokanee-brand beer. Mr. Dahinden dismisses this as a myth, but as he is speaking, the viewer catches a glimpse of a large furry animal exiting his trailer with what look suspiciously like a case of beer. "One of the great things about René is that he was serious about what he did, but he could laugh at himself," Mr. Keith said. "He knew what people thought of him, but he didn't care." It was precisely this combination of the down-to-earth and the off-the-wall that made Mr. Dahinden the perfect spokesperson for Kokanee, said Rick Kemp, the creative director of the spot. "Essentially, our idea was to send up his life's work, and he was okay with it." Mr. Dahinden's attitude and the situation fit Kokanee's brand like a glove, said Mr. Kemp, who is creative director with J. Walter Thompson in Toronto. "I don't think you could have invented him. What made it work was that he was a real person. That, to me, was the magic of the campaign."

Legend of Bigfoot Put to Test! 1/15/2001 http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0114a.htm (link may not work) Legend of Bigfoot put to test By Theo Stein Denver Post Environment Writer Jan. 14, 2001 - All things considered, 2000 was a rather big year for Bigfoot researchers. In April, two fly-fishermen reported huge, humanlike footprints 7 miles apart along the banks of Colorado's Eagle River. Bill Heicher, a wildlife biologist at the Colorado Division of Wildlife, evaluated the evidence and drew two conclusions: The tracks weren't faked, and they weren't made by a bear. Says Heicher: "It's no animal that we know of." In August, two hikers forced by a storm to camp in high wilderness north of Crested Butte emerged with quite a tale. They said they had been shadowed for two nights by at least one Bigfoot that peered into their camp and approached their tent. On Sept. 22, a team of researchers found a huge body imprint in a mud wallow in the Cascade Range of western Washington state. Several researchers, including a physical anthropologist at Idaho State University who examined a plaster cast of the Cascades imprint, said the impression - of a hairy forearm, thigh, buttock and heel - was not made by any creature known to science. Of course, claims of encounters with an elusive, hairy giant have been the stuff of legend for more than a century. Could such a creature exist? An eclectic assortment of scientists and academics is testing the proposition that Bigfoot isn't a myth but an ice age survivor that has managed to persist just outside the vision of Western science. Drawing on each other's disciplines, these researchers are sharing information and applying sophisticated forensic techniques as never before. Many experts want conclusive evidence Still, their work is greeted with skepticism - if not outright hostility. For most biologists and anthropologists, no evidence short of a carcass or bones will suffice. "Most people in my field would need the beyond - the - shadow -of-adoubt kind" of proof, said Walter Hartwig, an anthropology professor who is editing a book on primate fossils for Cambridge University Press and who studies extinct South American monkeys. "They want to see the body. I'm confident enough that it's not going to happen. We're not naming new mammals in North America, and that's because we've exterminated most of them." Michael Shermer, publisher of the magazine Skeptic, is even harsher. "If you believe in Bigfoot, you most likely believe in the Loch Ness monster, the lost continent of Atlantis, whatever." Despite such views, a few investigators are expanding their efforts in the wake of new discoveries, using scent, sound and food baits, thermal imagers and remote camera stations to gather more convincing evidence. Last year, they received support from an unexpected source: a Texas police fingerprint expert who has worked on more than 300 cases for the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency. He says he has no doubt that at least some alleged Bigfoot footprints were left by a large primate unknown to science. "Being a crime-scene examiner, I have to be very careful about getting the facts right," said Jimmy Chilcutt, a Conroe, Texas, police forensics investigator. "But I knew after examining the prints that there's a real animal out there. The skin pattern is unique and consistent with itself. There's no doubt in my mind." One of the few academic Bigfoot researchers is physical anthropologist Jeff Meldrum, an Idaho State University professor who has examined hundreds of claimed footprints from Bigfoot, also called Sasquatch in the Northwest. Many he has rejected as hoaxes, others as misidentifications. But more than 100, he said, represent the trace of an unknown animal with a big, flat foot and five toes. Meldrum's lab in Pocatello is crammed with typical academic paraphernalia. Posters of evolutionary trees festoon the walls, rubber models of ape feet and hands sit in a cabinet. Bulging bookshelves, charts and cabinets sit full of papers relating to his main area of study - how our stiff, stub-toed running foot evolved from the flexible, grasping ape foot of our distant ancestors. Long study convinces researcher of possibilities Rather than simply an enlarged human foot, Meldrum said, the Sasquatch foot displays a unique combination of recognizably different anatomic features to solve the problem of two-footed locomotion. The result is a proportionally wider, flatter appendage with long, flexible toes and a spring-loaded, ape-like hinge in place of our stiff arch. "This animal's little toe is about the same length as my little finger," he said, holding his hand up against the side of one of his casts. "This toe probably has the same grasping ability as my finger, too." So far, Meldrum's theories have failed to gain even a toehold of acceptance with the anthropological establishment, which regards talk of Bigfoot as heresy. A reporter's question about Bigfoot so upset one prominent academic that he sputtered into a rage and quickly ended the conversation. Others politely decline interview requests. But a few of Meldrum's peers admire his work and his pluck. Forensic anthropologist George W. Gill, a professor at the University of Wyoming, studied the Bigfoot phenomenon in the 1970s. A former director of the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists, Gill said the argument is simple: Either the most sophisticated hoax in the history of anthropology has gone undiscovered for centuries, or the big ape exists. Another is Hartwig, who vouches for Meldrum's "rigorous" methods even as he questions his conclusions. "Jeff has executed the model approach," said Hartwig, who is editing a book on human evolution to which Meldrum is contributing a chapter. "He's weeded out what he believes might be hoaxes or misidentifications. And for the ones he can't exclude, he's devised a theory for what those footprints represent. In a sense, it's beautiful and well-controlled, inductive science. You may think it's far out, but methodologically speaking, he has toed the line very strictly. And he's bold enough not to allow any outside pressure to direct his science." What Meldrum and other researchers, professional and amateur, suggest is bold by any standard. They believe a few thousand of these powerful and intelligent creatures live widely dispersed in mountainous forest from the Pacif ic Coast to the Colorado Rockies and beyond. They believe the big apes are opportunistic omnivores, eating roots and berries when available, preying on deer and elk whenever possible. And they think Bigfoot are curious apes, often sneaking into the camps of people who have intruded in their territory, even stealing camp food when they can. So where's the body? Bigfoot advocates say the main reason no one's found a body is that a dead animal decomposes quickly and completely. The carcass of a rare animal with no known predators would be almost impossible to find. By way of example, Colorado Division of Wildlife bear biologist Tom Beck says he's never found the remains of a bear that died a natural death. Most anthropologists argue no Bigfoot corpse has ever been found because the animal doesn't exist. Convincing his peers to look at his collection of more than 100 footprints, knuckle prints and other trace evidence has been "without question the biggest obstacle," Meldrum said. "If someone takes the time to visit the lab, they are almost uniformly overwhelmed by the amount of data. Usually, they have no concept of the amount of evidence that's been collected." Gill, the Wyoming professor, chides his colleagues for not taking a close look at research like Meldrum's. "Even if there's only a remote chance this animal is alive today, to think that anthropology is basically blowing off this stuff is disheartening." Ron Westrum, a sociologist at Eastern Michigan State University, has studied how scientists have historically grappled with anomalies, or observations that are "contrary to law." "Scientists who make these observations learn to shut up because other scientists will punish them," said Westrum. "These are really taboo topics in science, which is a reputational business. Your reputation is your career." For those reasons, Westrum thinks Meldrum's footprint research, the alleged Sasquatch body imprint and any other evidence will continue to be ignored. "Scientists don't see this as a problem," he said. "As far as they're concerned, the evidence has never been recorded." Said Meldrum: "But the bottom line is, these casts are taking up drawer space. These are points of datum. You can't simply sweep them under the rug. Well, you can, but you end up with a pretty lumpy rug." In addition to Meldrum's footprint research, Henner Fahrenbach, a primate researcher at a private lab in Oregon, has identified a dozen hair samples, collected from four Western states, that he believes came from an unknown primate. Fahrenbach identified a fragment of similar hair that was plucked from the so-called Skookum Cast, a cast of the body imprint found in September. Others have recorded incredibly loud, bellowing vocalizations from an undescribed animal, calls which when broadcast at night near reported Bigfoot sightings have produced identical replies. And then there are sighting reports - literally thousands of them - made by foresters, biologists and geologists, as well as campers, hikers and motorists. All tell of a remarkably large, hairy ape that covers rough ground with a strange, fluid motion not unlike a cross-country skier. What's significant, said Meldrum, is that the evidence attributed to Sasquatch is consistent with what people report. "The long and short of it is, there's a beautiful orchestration between what I'm seeing in my footprint analysis and all of the anecdotal reports of its gait: the forward lean, deeply bent knees," he said. "It's all a strategy for supporting a heavier, bulkier biped. And it's a very elegant adaptation, I think, in the context of its very broken and rugged habitat." Film most famous anecdotal evidence In 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, two Bigfoot enthusiasts, filmed what Meldrum and others believe is a female Sasquatch, complete with hairy breasts, striding away across a loamy streambed on Bluff Creek in Northern California. While some have since claimed that the film is a hoax, longtime Hollywood special-effects creator Bill Munns said it would have been impossible in 1967 to fake a creature suit like the one depicted in the film. "With today's technology, yes, you could fake a fur suit like that," said Munns, who did just that when he built a life-size model of the giant fossil ape Gigantopithecus blacki - a possible evolutionary link to Sasquatch - for University of Iowa anthropologist Russell Ciochon. "But in the 1960s, short, dense stretch fur was nonexistent." Meldrum thinks that, at a minimum, fossils of Gigantopithecus show that evolution could have produced a Sasquatch-size ape that lived in temperate forests. "It's tempting to draw the line between the two, but so little is known about either," Meldrum said. If Giganto still exists, then it has been a successful line. Fossils of the creature were discovered in cave sediments dated to a million years. The last fossils date to 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, a time when Homo erectus still populated Asia. Ciochon, who has studied Gigantopithecus sites, rejects the link between Gigantopithecus and Sasquatch. He believes Gigantopithecus was a slow, sedentary knuckle-walker like the gorilla, not a wide-ranging omnivore like the bear. Ciochon believes Giganto went extinct because of climate change, bamboo die-offs, and perhaps human hunting. Ciochon declined to be interviewed for this story. For Meldrum, the PattersonGimlin film is doubly significant because several frames provide the only existing images of his study object, the creature's foot. A plaster cast of tracks left by the creature shows an apelike, midfoot hinge that he says is a defining characteristic of the Sasquatch foot. Lyle Laverty, until recently the top Forest Service official in the Rocky Mountain region, started his career as a timber manager in northern California during the late 1950s and 1960s. He investigated the Patterson-Gimlin sighting the day after the film was shot and photographed several footprints left by the animal. Laverty says the film site was so close to a logging road that he still worries the film might somehow have been faked. Laverty But Laverty refused to rule out the possibility that Bigfoot exists. Starting in 1958, his logging crews reported finding hundreds of gigantic footprints around their new logging sites. Whatever left the prints was powerful enough to tumble logging equipment and toss 450-pound drums of gasoline, he says. "You never want to count it out," said Laverty, who was recently tapped to head the Forest Service's national fire plan, with its $1.2 billion annual budget. "Some of these crews really felt something was up there. And anything that can pick up a 55-gallon drum of fuel is a big dude." Meldrum's skepticism vanished in 1996 when he investigated a freshly laid line of alleged Bigfoot tracks in Washington's Blue Mountains. After analyzing the tracks, he determined the animal that left them had proceeded out of a remote drainage along a soupy farm road, then turned and sprinted for the woods, as if it were fleeing something or someone, Meldrum said. "In order for someone to have faked that, they would have had to walk out of that drainage carrying three or four different sets of feet, which they changed intermittently in mid-stride without any obvious breaks," he said. "It just becomes ludicrous to suggest that." Last year, Meldrum received unexpected support from Chilcutt, the fingerprint and forensics expert who's also one of the world's few authorities on primate skin patterns, or dermatoglyphics. When Chilcutt saw Meldrum on television talking about apparent skin impressions on some plaster casts of alleged Sasquatch footprints, he offered to examine them, expecting to find Meldrum's claims were inaccurate. Chilcutt developed an expertise in primate skin patterns as an offshoot of his ongoing study of the human fingerprint. His archive of more than 1,000 ape-skin impressions - prints he collected from tranquilized orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas - is the largest such collection in the world. When Chilcutt visited Meldrum's lab, it seemed his hunch would turn out to be accurate. He quickly determined that the ridges he found in the first track Meldrum gave him were from a human finger. But when he examined the rest of Meldrum's collection, Chilcutt found two casts with coarse ridge patterns similar to each other but different from humans or known great apes. One cast of a footprint discovered in Washington's Blue Mountains in 1985 astonished him with the distinctive puckered scars of several healed wounds. "When primate skin heals, the ridges curl inward toward the wound," he said. "Someone would have to know a real lot about biology and dermatoglyphics to know that. Anybody that smart wouldn't be messing with fakes." While Chilcutt allows that any single track could be a hoax, he said the skin impressions he has identified in the Blue Mountains track were consistent with those found in a Bluff Creek track from 1967. "We're talking about 18 years and 700 or 800 miles apart," he said. After he spoke about his finding on National Public Radio, a sheriff's deputy sent in a cast of a track he'd found in Georgia in 1977. Same pattern. In mid-November, Chilcutt examined skin impressions from alleged heel impressions from the body imprint discovered in Washington. He said they match the other four examples he's identified. Unlike other Bigfoot researchers who are often the object of professional scorn, no one has stepped forward to contradict Chilcutt. "I'm so well entrenched, my reputation as a latent fingerprint examiner is secure," he said. "So I don't have that problem. Knowing my background and expertise, they accept my findings." Chilcutt said he's encouraged Meldrum to continue his research. "I tell Jeff, "There's no question this animal is out there, so don't give up,'- " Chilcutt said. "I want him to not give up on this. He's on to something." Copyright 2001 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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BIGFOOT'S BUTTOCKS? (12/22/2000): By Kurt Kleiner New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns227015 The imprint of a hairy backside in the mud of Washington state is the strongest hint yet that Bigfoot is roaming the North American far west, according to researchers who made the discovery. Many people doubt whether the giant primate, commonly known as Bigfoot, actually exists. Hundreds of its supposed footprints have been photographed and cast, but this is one of the few body impressions of the hypothetical creature. "If we can just get other scientists to look at this with an objective view, I think they'll say there must be something out there," says LeRoy Fish, a zoologist and retired wildlife ecologist who took part in the expedition that discovered the imprint. Most stories of the bipedal apelike creature are dismissed as misidentifications or hoaxes. But Fish and others think Bigfoot, or Sasquatch as it is known in Canada, may be living hidden away in remote wilderness areas. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), which includes some trained scientists, sponsored a 13-person expedition in September to look for evidence in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southern Washington state. To attract one of the creatures, the team set out food, spread pheromones and played recordings thought to be the calls of other Bigfoots. After placing apples in a muddy spot one evening, the investigators returned the next morning to find an impression which, they say, shows the left forearm, hip, thigh and heel of a large primate. They believe the impression was made as the creature sat down and reached over to pick up the bait. Anthropologist Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University says the imprint seems to have been made by a large, hair-covered hominid more than 2.5 metres tall. Meldrum says he found markings that look like human fingerprints on the heel print. "All we're trying to say at this stage is that there's evidence that justifies objective consideration," Meldrum says. The BFRO is inviting outside scientists to examine the casts, but has so far had no offers. "It's been a challenge," says Meldrum. "For most people, you just mention Bigfoot and you get a snicker." Benjamin Radford of the Skeptical Inquirer magazine agrees that mainstream scientists are wary of the subject because of a history of fakes. "After a while they just get tired of wasting their time on hoaxes."

http://www.king5.com/localnews/storydetail.html?StoryID=7292 First-of-a kind Bigfoot discovery has skeptics taking notice October 2, 2000, 08:30 AM MASON COUNTY – One of the Northwest’s biggest mysteries, the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, is no longer a legend – it’s alive, according to researchers who have discovered what they say is its imprint. REPORTED BY Eric Wilkinson RESOURCES • The Bigfoot Researchers' Organization Deep in the northwest mountains, a team of 14 researchers tracked the elusive primate-type beast for a week deep in the mountains of the Gifford Pinchot national forest. The imprint appears to be a hair-covered body lying down on its side, reaching over to get some fruit, the researchers said. Thermal imaging confirmed that the body print was only hours old. From the imprint, they created a 250 lb. plaster cast of what they say is the lower half of the Sasquatch. "We actually almost missed it,” said researcher Derek Randels. “It dawned on us all at the same time, and it was overwhelming." "These heel impressions weren't made by a person getting in the mud wallow and squirming around," said Dr. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University. The trackers gathered hair samples that will be analyzed by DNA testing. They also made voice recordings of what they think is the Sasquatch wailing, also being sent off for analysis. The creature is believed to be 7 to 8 feet tall, weighing 800 to 1,000 lbs. The researchers believe there are hundreds just like it throughout forests in the Northwest. There are a lot of sightings, they added, but estimate that more than 90 percent of sightings go unreported for fear of ridicule. “This cast is very hard to argue with,” said Randels. “We have had a lot of very intelligent people looking at it in the last two days and I think it’s just going to be a heck of a shot in the arm for the credibility of the creature’s existence.”

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Subj: [SO] Sasquatches? Sea serpents? They're here in Kansas Date: 12/21/2000 From: SHnSASSY1@aol.com http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2000/12/18/kansas/bigfoot1218_txt.htm Sasquatches? Sea serpents? They're here in Kansas By Beccy Tanner The Wichita Eagle In 1869, Crawford County residents spotted a gorillalike wild man. And in 1886, a newspaper reported that a hair-covered "wild family" had been captured by a search party in Washington County. Bigfoot in Kansas? Well, maybe. Through research, a Kansas author has discovered that in nearly every decade in every Kansas county, there is a story of weird, bigfoot-type creatures, or Sasquatches, as they are sometimes called. Consider these Kansas reports: In 1978, the chief of police for Chetopa, in Labette County, reported finding 2 1/2 miles of animallike tracks with footprints measuring 17 inches long and 55/8 inches wide. And in 1984, a Sedgwick County woman and her daughter reported being followed by a large animal as they walked along a dark, country lane. Topeka resident Lisa Hefner Heitz, author of the 1997 book "Haunted Kansas," is working on a book of strange and unusual sightings in Kansas. "It seemed like a natural progression from ghosts," Heitz said. "As I was collecting all those stories, people also started telling me stories of other creatures, UFOs and even sightings of a sea serpent in a sinkhole by Inman." "Just as I am a ghost agnostic," Heitz said, "I am a bigfoot agnostic. I can't tell you why these stories exist. I don't know what these people are seeing. But there is a sort of eternal fascination about the mysterious creatures that reside in dark areas. Things that normally exist in our imagination, when they show up in reality, are not only frightening but fascinating. These types of hairy humanoids are reported all over the world." Could it be that Sasquatch is in Kansas? Go back to an Aug. 15, 1869, article in the St. Louis Democrat. The newspaper reported that nearly every resident of Crawford County had seen a beast nicknamed "Old Sheff." "Several times it has approached the cabins of the settlers, much to the terror of the women and children.... It has a stooping gait, very long arms with immense hands or claws; generally walks on its hind legs but sometimes on all fours." In October 1978, The Wichita Eagle reported that an 8-foot-tall, bigfootlike creature was seen twice in three weeks roaming by the Kansas Turnpike near Lawrence. Heitz said her collection of Kansas stories won't be limited to bigfoot tales. For instance, in the 1950s residents near Inman developed a fascination for "Sinkhole Sam," a rather large snakelike creature that inhabited a local sinkhole. "Folks speculated that Sam could have been living in an underground cavern and, when the sinkhole filled with water, crawled up and made his home in the big sink," Heitz said. "They said he looked like a big snake or eel and was reported to be 15 feet long and 21 inches in circumference." Heitz has already collected more than 350 stories for the book, and she is looking for more Kansas legends and strange creature stories to research. "This is part of our folkloric traditions," she said. "And besides, these stories fascinate people.You don't have to be a believer to be fascinated." Reach Beccy Tanner at btanner@wichitaeagle.com. © 2000 The Wichita Eagle

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Subj: [SO] Bigfoot Lives - Online! Date: 12/20/2000 From: SHnSASSY1@aol.com http://www.herring.com/mag/issue87/mag-hot-87.html Hot pursuit - Bigfoot lives -- online. By Samantha Martin-Evans From the December 18, 2000 issue Who knows what our vast forests are bearing silent witness to at this very moment? Bigfoot could be out there swinging from the treetops, and we would never know it. Until now. If Thom Powell and the other curators of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization have their way, Bigfoot's days of stealth are numbered. Mr. Powell is head of the BFRO's Wireless Wilderness Project, which seeks to install wireless Webcams and microphones in areas where Bigfoot sightings have been reported. The BFRO's team of researchers is trying to attract sponsors to finance an arsenal of strategically placed Webcams that would allow the public to tune in to remote locations, 24 hours a day, by PC. Mr. Powell and his associates are not asking people to believe. "We're just asking [them] to contribute to the pursuit of better evidence," he says. Mr. Powell says images captured by motion-triggered digital video cameras would lend the project the credibility it sorely needs. "The impact that such evidence would have on cryptozoölogy would help sway certain scientific parties," says Mr. Powell. "[Bigfoot researchers] are tired of being the point men on the 'does it exist?' debate." They just long to solve what the BFRO says is one of the most important scientific questions of our time. Maybe the Webcams will help these mocked researchers get some respect. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Link towireless wilderness project. BFRO Geographic Database of Bigfoot/Sasquatch sightings and related reports. ©1997-2000 Red Herring Communications. All Rights Reserved

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12' Tall Bigfoot Seen By Four Workers And Officer In Maryland From Kenny Young Special thanks to researcher George Clappison for informing of the two news items enclosed below. 'Mysterious Creature Spotted In Maryland From WMAR Channel 2. Baltimore Maryland newscast http://www.insidebaltimore.com/news/maryland/index.shtml 8-2-00 HANOVER -- Move over, Pacific Northwest. Maryland now has its own version of the legendary Bigfoot. Construction workers fled the Arundel Mills mall construction site early Tuesday morning after they reportedly spotted a 12-foot-tall creature that left abnormally large footprints. The sighting has peaked the interest of state officials, residents and even the television show ``Unsolved Mysteries.'' Three workers say they were sleeping in their van when they were awakened by a towering animal running on two legs, Anne Arundel Police Sgt. Joseph E. Jordan said. They retreated to a nearby restaurant and called police, who sent an off-duty officer to investigate. Officer Nicholas DiPietro persuaded the workers to return to the site, where they discovered a 15- to 20-inch-long footprint, Jordan said. But when they caught another glimpse of the creature, the workers again ran away. DiPietro said he later spotted a large animal on a hill. The officer said he blew an air horn, but the creature sat motionless and silent, glaring at the officer for nearly a minute. It then ambled down the hill and disappeared. Department of Natural Resources searches have turned up no sign of the creature. DNR spokeswoman Susan O'Brien said it may have been a bear, which would have been about 5 feet tall and 300 pounds. She said poor lighting and the workers' fear may have made the animal seem larger to them. The unusually large footprint could have been made by an animal that slipped in the mud, O'Brien said. County ExecutiveJanet S. Owens expressed concern that the sighting may slow the mall's construction. It is scheduled to open November 16. 2000 Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. ====================== Tales Of Creature Tall On Interest, Short On Details Animal sighting lures media to Arundel Mills By Laura Barnhardt - Sun Staff SunSpot Online Archives http://www.sunspot.net/news/maryland/ 8-2-00 The sighting of a 12-foot-tall, black, mystery creature seen lurking in the dark of night near the Arundel Mills construction site sparked a media frenzy yesterday in the light of day. The report of the "strange sighting" was checked by police early Monday morning and quickly became a joke about the sighting of an imaginary Loch Ness Monster from the Severn River. State wildlife officials were called in to search the area yesterday, where the large, unidentified beast that walked upright had scared several construction workers. The workers said they were awakened just past midnight Monday while napping in a van at the mall site in Hanover. Yesterday, reporters from television shows questioned police and Department of Natural Resources officials as they gathered in the area. County workers laughed about the tourism possibilities for the county's sasquatch. But County Executive Janet S. Owens' spokesman remained serious, expressing Owens' concern that Arundel Mills mall open Nov. 16. 2000 The frightened workers said the "thing" ran past them so fast they weren't sure what it was. After fleeing to a nearby fast-food restaurant, they called police, who dispatched an off-duty officer working security at the site. He had trouble persuading the men to return to where they say they first spotted the animal. Later, when the officer and the workers caught another glimpse of the creature, the workers ran away again. Hours later, the officer spotted a large animal in the dark with his floodlight , but it was unclear whether it was the same beast spotted earlier by the workers. DNR sent a regional wildlife biologist to the construction site, but the search for the animal or its prints came up empty, said Susan O'Brien, a department spokeswoman. "It was most likely the bear spotted on [Route] 295 not two or three miles from that site," O'Brien said. The female bear, which had been with a small cub killed by a car on the road, would have weighed at most about 300 pounds and would be about 5 feet tall if it stood upright, she said. She said the animal might have looked much larger - distorted by the witnesses' fear and horror and by poor lighting. That is, if the bear was the same animal that terrified the construction workers. The officer reported finding a 15- to 20-inch-long print and seeing a large animal near a pond on the construction site about 3 a.m. Although the print would have been too large to be from a bear - even a large one - O'Brien said it was possible that the animal had slid in the dirt, creating an elongated print. Bears have been sighted by residents in the Baltimore area recently, she said. If confronted by a bear, residents should make their presence known by standing straight, talking and then backing away slowly in a nonconfrontational manner, said O'Brien. UFO Research http://home.fuse.net/ufo/

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/06/15/state2 030EDT0271.DTL *Big hopes riding on Bigfoot exhibit MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer Thursday, June 15, 2000 Breaking News Sections (06-15) 17:30 PDT WILLOW CREEK, Calif. (AP) -- Some people believe in Bigfoot. Most don't. Some aren't sure what might be tramping around California's backcountry. Margaret Wooden is skeptical, but she knows one thing: Bigfoot could be good for business. ``He's quite a drawing card,'' says Wooden, who helped organize the Willow Creek-China Flat Museum's new ``Bigfoot Wing.'' The idea: put some local history on display and see if this struggling ex-lumber town can jump-start its economy with a big hand from Bigfoot. ``It was a natural,'' says Jo Ann Hereford, another in the squadron of volunteers who keep the museum going. Bigfoot goes back a long way in Willow Creek, an old Gold Rush town about 300 miles north of San Francisco. Tracks were reported in 1958 at Bluff Creek, a remote spot about 50 miles north. Newspapers quickly took up the story. ``Huge Foot Prints Hold Mystery of Friendly Bluff Creek Giant,'' reads one headline preserved in the Willow Creek exhibit. Seventy-six-year-old Al Hodgson remembers it well. He was running a general store in Willow Creek when a reporter for a local paper talked him into giving her a ride up to remote Bluff Creek. Soon, he was making regular trips into the woods, Plaster of Paris at the ready. Hodgson never found Bigfoot, although he did make casts of some prints. But he was there the night in 1967 that Bigfoot hunter Roger Patterson came into town saying he'd just captured his elusive quarry on film, the much-debated grainy footage that shows a shaggy ape-like creature walking. ``I really personally think he absolutely did see Bigfoot,'' says Hodgson, recounting the story, country fashion, in a laid-back drawl. ``I've had my doubts at times but I just don't see anything else really. I just don't think he faked it.'' The scientific community hasn't exactly embraced the concept of Bigfoot. But that hasn't quenched amateur enthusiasm. Sightings have been reported all over, although the Pacific Northwest is a favorite. This July, explorer J. Richard Greenwell will lead his fourth annual Bigfoot expedition into the forests of Northern California. Greenwell is a research associate with the International Wildlife Museum and secretary of the Tucson-based International Society of Cryptozoology, a society dedicated to the scientific evaluation of evidence for ``unverified animals.'' His first and third trips turned up some strange prints, weird howls and mysterious nighttime visitors who sneaked food; the second year's outing was a month of ``absolutely nothing.'' ``A lot of scientists think the thing cannot exist, it's impossible so why waste time even testing the hypothesis. ``In real science ... you start off with, 'Let's examine the evidence.''' Greenwell says. ``If you start off by saying it's impossible, then what you're doing is you're taking the short-cut.'' Greenwell thinks the Willow Creek exhibit is ``fairly well done. It's not like the Smithsonian, of course, but for the resources they had I think they put a lot of thought into it.'' The bulk of the memorabilia was willed to the museum by Bigfoot enthusiast Bob Titmus, on condition it be put in a worthy setting. Town boosters, looking for something to replace the dwindling logging industry, went to work, getting $9,000 in federal grants, stirring up chili cook-offs and putting sweat equity into a new, two-story addition. The main part of the Willow Creek-China Flat (the latter is the town's original name) Museum consists of a lovingly tended collection of regional artifacts -- from antique baby booties to gold mining mementos. The Bigfoot room is dominated by casts of -- you guessed it -- big feet along with the stories and pictures of the people who found them. There's also a fun case filled with Bigfoot toys and books. The exhibit, which is free although donations are accepted, is attracting ``all kinds,'' says Hodgson, who serves as one of the volunteer guides. ``Some of them are really the person who takes it up on the weekend and there are people that are really sincere, down to looking for anything they can find.'' Drive into Willow Creek and it's not hard to tell you're in Bigfoot country. You can snack on a Bigfoot burger and play a round or two at the Bigfoot Golf & Country Club. You can even take a spin on the Bigfoot Byway, a scenic stretch of road that ends in Willow Creek. Looming large in front of the museum is a two-story high statute of the local legend, sculpted by chain saw from a fallen redwood. Sometimes Hodgson gets a little good-natured chaffing about his conviction that the statue's real-life counterpart is out there somewhere. ``I tell Al, 'Well, I am from Missouri,''' -- the ``show-me state'' -- says Wooden with a smile. Others aren't so sure. ``My position is there's something -- there had to be something,'' says E.B. Duggan, who with wife, Dallas, is a staunch museum supporter. ``People that I really believe in have done the collecting of the evidence. I have to believe that there's something out there. What it is I'm not really sure, but I know it sure as heck isn't no bear.'' Eds: The Willow Creek-China Flat Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday-Sunday and holidays through the first week of October.

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July 9, 2000 TIM LaBARGE /Statesman Journal BELIEVER: Salem native Matthew Johnson was hiking July 1 at Oregon Caves National Monument with his wife, Rochelle, and children Hannah, 7, Micah, 4, and Levi, 9, when he saw what he reported to be Bigfoot. Johnson hopes his discussion will give legitimacy to other sightings. Hiker fights Bigfoot denial The Oregon psychologist stands by his report that he saw the huge creature. ALAN GUSTAFSON, Statesman Journal Matthew Johnson confirms what Bigfoot believers have long said about the legendary beast: It stinks. “It was musky and rotten,” Johnson said. “It was putrid.” Besides having terrible body odor, Bigfoot is very large, hairy and frightening, according to his account. How large? “I’m 6-foot-9. I’m 280 pounds. Size 16 feet,” Johnson said. “This thing made me look small.” Johnson, a 38-year-old clinical psychologist who lives in Grants Pass, rattles off Bigfoot’s characteristics with an air of certainty. As he tells it, he recently got close enough to smell, hear and see the Pacific Northwest’s fabled apelike creature, also known as Sasquatch. Johnson, a former Salem resident, said the close encounter occurred July 1 while he was hiking with his family near the Oregon Caves National Monument. Since then, he’s described the incident to dozens of newspaper and television reporters. Though stung by lighthearted treatment of his story by certain television stations, Johnson said Friday that he’s not backing down. In fact, he talks about waging a campaign to counter “the ongoing denial in our society that Bigfoot exists.” “I’m a shrink. I’m not looney tunes,” he said. “I do parenting workshops, mental health workshops. I love public education. It’s a passion of mine. Now, we’ve had this encounter, so how can I not make this an issue of public education? To me, it’s not a risk if I tell the truth, and I am telling the truth. I saw Bigfoot.” There is no official confirmation of his story. Rangers who responded to Johnson’s reported Bigfoot sighting found nothing unusual when they checked the area, monument Superintendent Craig Akerman said. “I have spoken with Dr. Johnson, and he seems to be a very credible person, but that’s the only assessment I can make,” Akerman said. “I cannot either confirm or refute his story because I was not there.” Johnson said his brush with Bigfoot happened after he toured the Oregon Caves with his wife, Rochelle, and their three children, ages 9, 7 and 4. The family was hiking on one of the monument’s backwoods trails when they began to hear strange, guttural sounds in the distance. “I was a resident of Alaska for 20 years,” Johnson said. “We’ve done a lot of outdoor activities. Hiking, camping, fishing, hunting. I’ve come across grizzly bear, black bear, moose, caribou. I’ve never heard anything like that.” Family members kept hearing the same pattern of sounds — “whuh, whuh, whuh, whuh” — as they continued along the trail for about 10 minutes, Johnson said. He then hiked a short distance by himself and went behind some trees to relieve himself. Johnson said he was squatting in the woods when he spotted the creature standing upright about 60 feet away. “I turned my head quickly, and I saw this very tall, dark, hairy animal walk from behind one tree and over to another tree,” he said. The creature was watching his wife and children, Johnson said. Terrified, he ran back to his family and hustled them away from the area. “I didn’t immediately tell them what I saw,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want to freak my kids out. I didn’t want to freak my wife out.” When the family stopped along the trail for a water break, Johnson confided in his wife. “I said, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but I saw Bigfoot.’ She said, ‘I believe you.’” Bigfoot researchers, accompanied by a park ranger, later retraced the family’s path along the monument’s Big Tree Trail. Johnson said they found a large “impression in the ground.” He termed it a partial footprint. But Akerman said the finding proved nothing. “I wouldn’t call it a footprint, simply a disturbance in the soil,” Akerman said. “The woods are full of disturbances. They can be caused by other hikers. They can be caused by rolling rocks. They can be caused by a tree branch falling. Or it can be caused by a large animal. I would be going out on a limb to speculate unless we had an identifiable track, which we did not have.” Johnson said he was not discouraged by the analysis given by the monument’s top official. “The park is understandably saying the evidence is inconclusive,” he said. “But I know what the heck I saw. I also know that that footprint makes my size 16 shoe look pretty small.” Since going public, Johnson said he’s been contacted by other people who tell of their own Bigfoot sightings. He wants to compile those stories into a book that will feature his own experience. Meanwhile, Johnson has more interviews scheduled on radio and television. He’s far from weary of recounting his tale. “No, no, no, I’m not tired of telling the story,” he said. “In fact, I’m compelled to tell the story.”

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BIGFOOT ON THE PROWL IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA On Friday, June 9, 2000, at approximately 7 a.m., the female witness was driving to work on Route 30 between Jeannette, Pa. (population 11,300) and Greensburg, Pa. (population 16,400) four miles (6 kilometers) to the southeast, when she spotted a Bigfoot. "The lady had left her home earlier that morning and was enroute to her job. She had slowed down to look at a car that was for sale and was looking towards the right side." "Seconds later, her attention was drawn to a large dark manlike creature which was standing on a back road surrounded by woods." "While the observation lasted only 15 to 20 seconds, the witness saw the creature cross the road and enter into a nearby wooded area. The woman estimated that the creature stood about 6 to 7 feet (2 meters) tall and weighed approximately 300 to 400 pounds. The witness states that she slammed on her brakes as soon as she saw the creature, but it could no longer be seen." When the witness (first) noticed the creature, it was approximately 300 feet away. It was standing sideways in a 'hunched' position on the back road. As the witness watched, the creature turned its head and looked towards the highway, then took two or three long strides into the thick woods where it was lost from sight. The woman stated that the creature was covered with long back hair. While no facial features could be determined, the head seemed somewhat oval in shape, and their was very little neck apparent." Greensburg is located 30 miles (48 kilometers) southest of Pittsburgh. (Many thanks to Stan Gordon and Eric Altman, director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society for this report.)

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Monday May 1, 2000 SOURCE: International Society of Cryptozoology Society of Cryptozoology Scientists to Search for Sasquatch Evidence TUCSON, Ariz., /PRNewswire/ -- A team of scientific investigators are preparing to spend a month in a remote wilderness area of the U.S. Pacific Northwest in an attempt to obtain evidence for the Sasquatch or Bigfoot, a supposed 7-8 foot-tall, bipedal primate. The four-person team, headed by J. Richard Greenwell, secretary of the International Society of Cryptozoology, based in Tucson, Arizona, will be completely cut off from civilization as it uses special attractants to entice one or more of the supposed primates to its camp. Previous expeditions sponsored by the Society have produced track and ``bed'' finds, and loud, unidentified vocalizations. Cryptozoology is the scientific evaluation of evidence for unverified animals, the Sasquatch being the most famous in North America. The term ``Sasquatch'' derives from an American Indian name, while ``Bigfoot'' originated with 1950's California press accounts. The Sasquatch is dismissed by most scientists as mere folkloric creations or purposeful fabrications, although over 1,500 eyewitness reports and two films of the supposed primate now exist. The new field project will include a wide array of electronic equipment, including thermal and seismic detectors, night-vision binoculars, state-of-the-art photographic and video night-cameras, and a powerful broadcast system for propagating gorilla calls down canyon walls into deep drainage systems. ``We're not claiming the Sasquatch exists,'' states Greenwell, a mammalogist with the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson. ``What we are saying is that zoology has a duty to deal with these kinds of unresolved issues. Although difficult, this particular problem can be resolved, given enough resources. Simply ignoring the mounting evidence for 40 years is really not consistent with either the spirit of scientific inquiry or the principles of scientific methodology.'' The ultimate purpose of the project is to film the supposed primates. ``We recognize,'' adds Greenwell, ``that film footage in itself will never really constitute proof. What we are hoping for is that other scientists, and funding agencies, will be swayed sufficiently by any new evidence to support further investigation. That, in turn, could lead to the ultimate proving that such a primate exists.'' Technical preparations and fundraising for a late-July departure are currently underway. CONTACT: J. Richard Greenwell of the International Society of Cryptozoology, 520-884-8369, iscz@azstarnet.com or Richard White of International Wildlife Museum, 520-629-0100, ext. 252, rwhite@safariclub.org.

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http://detnews.com/2000/nation/0004/19/a18-39429.htm *Bigfoot Believed Living in China Yearlong trek yields traces of what some say is undiscovered species Yuan Zhenxin, a paleoanthropologist, is convinced that Bigfoot exists in central China and says that these plaster casts of foot prints prove it. By Los Angeles Times BEIJING -- Yuan Zhenxin keeps up his search for Bigfoot. Yuan is convinced that between 1,000 and 2,000 of the apelike creatures roam the forests of central China, particularly the Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province. Yuan dabbles in stories of abduction, including those of two farmers who say they were kidnapped by Bigfoot but escaped to tell the tale. Another person claimed to have spent two hours in conversation with the creature, who reportedly gesticulated and mimicked bird sounds. "They're very clever," said Yuan, a retired paleoanthropologist and member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences. Yuan describes Bigfoot as more than 6 1/2 feet tall, with reddish brown hair, long limbs and a rather nasty case of body odor. In 1976-77, the government sponsored a Bigfoot expedition to Shennongjia consisting of 100 people, including army personnel. That trip and others yielded numerous samples of what Yuan maintains are the hair, footprints and feces of an undiscovered species, possibly descended from a giant ape whose fossilized teeth can still be found in the region. "They're a cousin of humans," he said of Bigfoot, known in Chinese as "wild man." But money for such study has dwindled, because fewer and fewer of Yuan's fellow scientists are willing to approve funding without more conclusive proof. Yuan and his supporters have been forced to dig into their own pockets to keep three informal research centers operating. One of Yuan's colleagues even divorced his wife, sold his home and moved permanently to Shennongjia to carry on the work.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/apr00/foot05040400a.asp News Wisconsin Milwaukee Waukesha Wisconsin a new home for Bigfoot? Deliveryman says he saw huge, hairy beast carrying a goat in Clark County By Keith Edwards Special to the Journal Sentinel Last Updated: April 4, 2000 Granton - James Hughes was minding his own business, delivering the Black River Shopper last week when he says he saw something he'll never forget - an 8-foot-tall, two-legged, shaggy creature carrying a goat. Sasquatch? Bigfoot? Yeti? Abominable Snowman? Or justa really tall hairy guy carrying breakfast? Hughes isn't sure, and authorities are scratching their heads over the reported sighting. "He was all covered with hair, a real dark gray color, with some spots that looked a honey color. It was walking on two legs, and it was mighty, mighty, big," Hughes said in a phone interview Tuesday. "You better believe I was scared. That creature could have tipped that car upside down and thrown it in the ditch. It was that big." Hughes filed a report with the Clark County Sheriff's Department, and a deputy was dispatched to the scene but couldn't find any big footprints, said Capt. Mark Cattanach. "We have no goats reported missing, or any other types of small animals that may meet that description," Cattanach said Tuesday. "I'm not sure what we could do. I don't know that there's ever been any indication, at least that I've been told, that there's any danger to the public." Hughes, 57, was on his newspaper delivery route around 5:15 a.m. March 28 when he said he saw the creature at the side of the road, on County Highway H about 1 1/2 miles from his rural Granton home. At first, he thought it was a man, but as he got closer he said he realized it didn't look human - about 8 feet tall, 500 pounds and hairy with an ape-like face. After getting a closer look at the creature, which he said appeared to be carrying a goat or small sheep in its hand, Hughes said he floored his gas pedal and quickly drove away. "I didn't call it in (to the Sheriff's Department) until the next day, because people would think I'm crazy. And I don't drink, I don't use dope, and I was wide awake," Hughes said. Cattanach said Hughes gave a very detailed description, but without tracks or other evidence suggesting a creature was in the area, there's not much the Sheriff's Department can do. He also said the reported Bigfoot sighting is the talk of the community. "There's been a fair amount of joking around with this," said Cattanach. Journal Sentinel reporter Meg Jones contributed to this report. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 5, 2000. © Copyright 2000, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. All rights reserved.

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/big01.shtml *A Sasquatch alert in the Hoh Rain Forest Saturday, July 1, 2000 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PORT ANGELES -- Gene Sampson doesn't know what's been lurking in the woods behind his home on the Hoh Indian Reservation. But he knows what he's seen -- he describes them as giant footprints -- and what he's heard: "Bam, bam, bam, stop, bam, bam, bam, stop, bam, bam, bam," Sampson said this week. His tales have residents on the reservation, near the Hoh Rain Forest on the Pacific Coast, locking their doors, shutting their blinds and closing their windows. Sampson said some Hoh natives believe the invader is the elusive Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, the large, hairy creature that has been reported around the world but it is most closely identified with the Pacific Northwest. Sampson says he found two sets of footprints, which he measured at 14 inches and 17-1/2 inches in length, and 7 and 8 inches in width. He also says he found trampled trails. The Bureau of Indian Affairs investigated and is skeptical. "I saw some big indentations that looked like footprints, but they were not that recognizable," said the bureau's Scott Small. "There is something big going through their yards, but it's most likely a bear." Grover Krantz, a retired Washington State University anthropology professor and author of a book called "Big Footprints," said he believes the evidence on the Hoh reservation indicates one male and one female Sasquatch. Richard Greenwell of the International Society for Cryptozoology calls evidence of such creatures inconclusive. "On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I absolutely believe in Bigfoot, after I evaluate all the data and read all the information," Greenwell said. "On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I think it's all nonsense. "On Sundays, I rest." © 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Sunday, January 2, 2000 Village abuzz over sighting of 'mawas' By Hah Foong Lian JELEBU: A day into the new millennium, villagers of Kampung Chennah, 28km from here, don't seem to be too enthusiastic about the happenings around the world. They are engrossed instead in talking about a recent claim of a sighting of the elusive mawas (a big ape-like animal). The town is abuzz with the news that the local "Bigfoot" was sighted by villager Liong Chong Shen, who claims that he saw a couple of mawas when he was at his rubber small- holding and durian orchard a week ago. STRANGE ENCOUNTER...Liong relating to a reporter his `encounter' with the two `mawas' at his durian orchard in Kampung Chennah a week ago. Kampung Chennah is a small and remote town of 30 households where most of the villagers are smallholders. Liong, 50, claimed that the incident occurred about noon when he was working in the orchard. "Wild boars had been attacking my durian saplings in the orchard, located about 11km from Kampung Chennah. I went there to chase them away," he said yesterday. Liong said he was busy with the durian saplings when he suddenly sensed a strong animal scent. "I then heard a grunt near the young rubber trees. "My heart started pounding fast when I saw two mawas standing near the rubber trees as I feared they would attack me," he said. "I was about 10m away from the two mawas and I had a clear view of them," he added. Liong said one was about 1.83m tall with long, black and shiny hair all over its body, including the face. The other was shorter, about 1.52m tall with long and brownish hair all over its body. He said the two just stared at him and later walked away into the jungle. More Recent Northwest Bigfoot Encounters

CHINESE SCIENTISTS STEP UP SEARCH FOR MYSTERIOUS "BIGFOOT" (12/16/1999): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/18 Thursday, December 16, 1999 (Thanks to CNI News) http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=115788 BEIJING, Dec 3, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China has launched a new campaign to track down a legendary half-man half-ape creature dubbed China's "Bigfoot", official media reported Friday. A team of scientists from the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences are on the hunt for the mythical animal in the remote forests of the Shennongjia Nature Reserve in central Hubei, Xinhua reported. Wang Fangcheng, head of the Committee for the Search for Rare Animals and Plants, said that paleoanthropologists from the academy were determined to find proof of the "Bigfoot". "After repeated frustrations in previous searches, many people have become disappointed in finding Bigfoot, however, a few scientists believe the possibility exists that such an animal is still there," Wang said. A team of scientists, reporters and local officials entered Shennongjia in October this year after receiving reports of sightings of the animal from a hunter in August. According to the hunter, the animal was 2.5 meters tall, covered with long, red hair, and moved very fast. The scientists have discovered 40-cm-long footprints, brown hair and chewed corn cobs at the spot where the hunter said he encountered the strange beast. After examining the evidence, Yuan Zhenxin, an established paleoanthropologist from the academy, ruled out theories that the mystery animal was in fact a bear. "There are abundant forests, food and water in the Shennongjia Natural Reserve which have a warm climate that quite suits the Wild Man," Yuan said. Scientists have unearthed hundreds of fossilised teeth of an extinct giant ape in the area, proving that Shennongjia was a home to big primates, Xinhua reported. Some scientists have speculated that the "Bigfoot" might be a descendent of one of the giant apes, Xinhua said. Hundreds of local people have reported Bigfoot sightings over the past decades. China has organized several high-profile searches for the unidentified animal in recent years, but no conclusive evidence was obtained during the hunts. "CHINESE 'BIG FOOT' HUNT" (8/25/1995): http://www.nhne.com/newsbriefs/nhnenb09.html#bigfoot China's COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH INTO STRANGE AND RARE ANIMALS is preparing to launch a high-tech search for China's version of "Big Foot." Residents in Hubei Province have reported 114 sightings and collected hair and footprints from the Chinese Big Foot during the past 40 years. China's Big Foot has also been popularized by "The Wild Man From China," a documentary shown on American Public Television. While earlier searches this summer by the COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH INTO STRANGE AND RARE ANIMALS turned up nothing, now they plan to launch balloons equipped with infrared-sensing instruments 2,000 feet above the forest. Wang Fangchen, the leader of China's search team told reporters, "Any activities conducted by large-bodied mammals would be recorded by the apparatus." Source: Earthweek, August 18, 1995 --DS

. Honey Island Swamp Monster cast of footprint.

"The Honey Island Swamp Monster" which has been reported to have been seen in the Southeast swamp
areas of Louisiana. Near the town of Covington Louisiana, just above New Orleans.

The outside world learned about Louisiana's Honey Island Swamp Monster in 1974 when two hunters emerged from a remote area of backwater sloughs with plaster casts of "unusual tracks." The men claimed they discovered the footprints near a wild boar that lay with its throat gashed. They also stated that over a decade earlier, in 1963, they had seen similar tracks after encountering an awesome creature. They described it as standing seven feet tall, being covered with grayish hair, and having large amber-colored eyes. However, the monster had promptly run away and an afternoon rainstorm had obliterated its tracks, the men said.

The hunters were Harlan E. Ford and his friend Billy Mills, both of whom worked as air-traffic controllers. Ford told his story on an episode of the 1970s television series In Search of . . . . According to his granddaughter, Dana Holyfield (1999a, 11):

Harlan Ford continued to search for the monster until his death in 1980. Dana recalls how he once took a goat into the swamp to use as bait, hoping to lure the creature to a tree blind where Ford waited-uneventfully, as it happened-with gun and camera. He did supposedly find several, different-sized tracks on one hunting trip. He also claimed to have seen the monster on one other occasion, during a fishing trip with Mills and some of their friends from work. One of the men reportedly then went searching for the creature with a rifle and fired two shots at it before returning to tell his story to the others around the campfire (Holyfield 1999a, 10-15).

The most famous of the Southern Big Foot Creatures is the "Fouke Monster", aka "Boggy Creek Monster". This creature has been reported around Fouke, Arkansas. A small town in the Southwest corner of Arkansas, just a short distance from Louisiana and Texas state lines. It is best known from the movie created around it's existence, "The Legend of Boggy Creek".

From: http://www.gcbro.com/

Some say Fouke monster is alive; legend sure is

RODNEY BOWERS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE FOUKE -- The Fouke monster, a legendary bigfoot look-alike, still stalks the lowlands of Miller County, according to local residents. "There were 40-some sightings last year," said Rickie Roberts, Fouke's unofficial monster spokesman. "There were 22 sightings in one day. ... There's even one guy who swears there's a family [of monsters] who live behind his house."

Roberts, who owns the Monster Mart grocery on U.S. 71, said the latest sighting came July 17 when four people purportedly saw the creature walking along a dry creek bed about 5 miles south of town. Sightings of the Fouke monster have been reported since the 1940s, according to newspaper articles. In all that time, no one has photographed the creature or captured it.

For a time, the only evidence of the creature was a plaster cast of a 131/2-inch footprint taken from a local soybean field. The cast was destroyed in a service station fire in the late 1970s, Roberts said. "That was the only real proof you'd have around here" that the monster exists, he said. Though scores of residents have reported seeing the hairy creature, experts scoff at its existence. Frank Schamback, an archaeologist at Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia who debunked the footprint as a hoax in the 1970s, said he doesn't believe in the Fouke monster.

"They like mystery," he said. "It's just that. People like to have a mystery."

Residents would have proof by now if the creature existed, Schamback said. "There are people down there with dogs who would have run it down in two days" if it existed, he said. Toby Giles, Miller County's chief sheriff's deputy, said there haven't been any reported sightings in the past few years, but "we do [have one] every once in a while." The sheriff's office used to receive a few reported sightings when he joined the department about 14 years ago, Giles said. "But nothing was ever confirmed," Giles said. "It's still a well-talked-about subject." The town plays up its connection with the monster. Down the road from Monster Mart, a visitor can poke his head through a hole in a metal silhouette and have his photo taken as the monster.

Roberts, who sells monster T-shirts, caps and bumper stickers at his store, said the long-armed creature has been described as 6 to 9 feet tall with red, brown, black or black-gray hair covering its body. Roberts said he has never seen the animal, which he speculates might be a "swamp ape," and he wouldn't admit it if he had. "I wouldn't say a word," he said. "People'd think you're crazy." He has heard an eerie howl, possibly from the monster, that almost defies description, Roberts said.

"I've heard it twice. It's a different sound. I don't know what you would call it," he said. "It'd be a sound like a cross between a cow bellow and a panther screaming." The monster has never harmed anyone although it may have caused a few heart-pounding frights, Roberts said. "This thing has never attacked anyone," he said. The Fouke monster brought attention to the town in 1972. Film crews descended on Fouke that year to make the Legend of Boggy Creek and forever put the community on
the map.

The town of 614 is listed on the Internet as one of the top 10 places in the world to look for bigfoot, the name associated with creatures similar to the Fouke monster, Roberts said. "We get people in here every day" looking for the monster, he said. "We had a guy save his money for two years to come down from Indiana this summer."

Roberts' wife, Beverly, said too many credible people have seen what they described as the monster for her not to believe it exists. "I've got family members who firmly believe they've seen it," she said, noting that they moved away shortly after the experience. "Whatever it is, there is something." Tracy Nichols and Sue Page, who work at City Hall, said they have heard scores of monster tales over the years.

Nichols, noting that the creature is generally associated with "a bad odor,"
said a local man recently saw the monster twice, "but he won't talk about.
He's afraid of being ridiculed." Although uncertain of her own beliefs, she said, "I've heard credible people come through here who said they've seen it." Nichols admitted that the legend is fun.

"We went hunting for it the weekend before last," she said. Page, whose constable father appeared as himself in the Legend of Boggy Creek, said, "I don't know if it's true or not." "We have calls from way off [from people] wanting to know about it," she said. Fouke resident Lavelle Brune said she thought she saw the monster recently. "We saw it" while driving out of town, she said, but "we got to looking, and it was just a bush."

This article was published on Tuesday, December 1, 1998
Credit: Loren Coleman