40 Years Ago Today...
By Henry May, Based On Information Gleaned from Sasquatch: The
Apes Among Us By John Green, Meet The Sasquatch by Chris
Murphy In Association with John Green and Thomas Steenburg and
Personal Testimony From Bob Gimlin
Roger Clarence Patterson and Robert Emory Gimlin, two
cowboys/ranchers from Yakima, Washington, were riding through Six
Rivers National Forest in Del Norte County, California, 150 miles north
of San Francisco, shooting a documentary on Bigfoot. At around 1:20
P.M. Pacific Time on Friday, October 20, 1967, Patterson and Gimlin
encountered a tree root system in the dirt, almost like a crow's nest
with logs jammed together. They rode around this, and encountered a
large, hair-covered creature standing by Bluff Creek. The creature,
startled, began to walk away. The horses went absolutely ballistic, and
began to buck. The packhorse ran away, as did Patterson's steed,
after it either threw Roger off or he jumped off, but not before
Patterson grabbed his movie camera out of his saddlebag. Gimlin was
able to maintain control over his horse eventually after a mighty
struggle. Patterson, on the chase after the creature with the camera,
stumbled several times and even fell on the uneven terrain, which
caused him to have to switch his camera off a couple of times (those
who have watched the film in slow motion have noticed at a couple of
junctures blank spots in the film, which indicate the film was stopped
because either Patterson's finger slid off the trigger or he was
conserving film). Patterson finally steadied himself on a log, and
filmed the creature walk across his field of sight. Gimlin had by this
time established control over his horse, and crossed the creek on his
horse, at which point the creature turned and looked at him, revealing
two large, pendulous breasts swinging and undulating (as seen in
Frame 352, shown here). The creature gave Patterson a look he
described as a look of contempt and scorn, as if, in his words, "You
know how it is when the umpire tells you 'One more word and you're
out of the game!' That's the way it felt." (He told this to John Green,
who quoted Patterson in his chapter on the Patterson/Gimlin Movie in
his opus Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us). Gimlin dismounted and
removed his rifle from its scabbard, but did not point it at the creature.
The creature kept on walking, being filmed by Patterson, until
Patterson ran out of film. Gimlin intended to chase the creature down,
but Patterson called him back, not wanting to be left alone out there
without his horse or rifle in case of attack. Patterson and Gimlin then
cast a couple of the creature's tracks, and then reloaded his film
camera and filmed the trackway. Patterson and Gimlin remounted
their horses, went and retrieved the packhorse and followed the
creature's tracks for several miles until losing them among the rocks.
Later, Bob Titmus investigated the site and found tracks leading to the
hillside above, where it appeared that the creature had sat down and
watched Patterson and Gimlin. Patterson and Gimlin then went to
Willow Creek and called Al Hodgson, with Patterson excitedly
exclaiming "Al, I got a picture of the son-of-a-buck!" They met Al at his
general store and went to Hodgson's home to discuss the events of
the day. After that, they went to a local airport and had the film flown to
Yakima to Patterson's brother-in-law Al DeAtley to be processed in
Seattle. Then the pair went back to their camp, but were surprised by
a late-night torrential downpour. All of their equipment got wet, but
Gimlin remembered the tracks left out on the sandbar and went and
covered them with pieces of bark. Patterson and Gimlin, in Gimlin's
truck, left the area as quickly as possible, encountering mudslides
which threatened to push them off the mountain roads. They reached
Yakima on Saturday the 21st, and Gimlin went home to rest as he
caught a bit of a cold in the rain. Patterson also went home to rest.
The next day, October 22nd, a Sunday, Patterson, along with John
Green, Rene Dahinden and DeAtley all studied the film in DeAtley's
basement (Gimlin was still at home resting). Many anthropologists and
specialists studied the film, and most called it a hoax, but could never
figure out how it could have been hoaxed. Lyle Laverty went to the
filmsite Saturday the 21st, and took a rather famous photo of a track
with what was described later as a mid-tarsal break, and Titmus went
there about 9 days later and cast some of the best tracks of the film
subject, including the one with mid-tarsal break. 40 years later, it is still
the center of debate, whether it is called the Patterson Film, the
Patterson Movie, the Patterson footage or (phrases coined by Rene
Dahinden) the Patterson/Gimlin Film or Movie. Roger Patterson died
of Hodgkins' Disease on January 15th, 1972, going to his grave
swearing to the authenticity of this film. Bob Gimlin still lives in
Yakima, quiet and private, reticent to give interviews, still attesting to
the authenticity of the film. The most prominent current investigators of
this film are M.K. Davis, Chris Murphy, Daniel Perez and Roger
Knights. We celebrate this amazing footage today and every day.
Happy 40th, "Patty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
