Features: Jeff Meldrum (footprint morphology), John Mionzcynski (naturalist) and Bill Munns (Patterson/Gimlin Film analysis)
It goes by many names-Sasquatch, Wildman, Bigfoot, but does it exist, or is it all a hoax?
In the last 50 years, over 3700 sightings have been reported in the US and Canada, more commonly in the Pacific Northwest
Other sightings have occurred in the intermountain northwest of Wyoming and Colorado.
The most famous sighting of Sasquatch is, of course, the Patterson/Gimlin Film
2 engineers and a pilot are called in to get to the film site to do measurements and take a digital map of the area
Doug Devine and Carlos Velasquez are the engineers in question
Russ Garrett is the pilot.
Since the year 2000, 8 helicopters have crashed in that area, so the journey is not without risk.
The team has brought cutting-edge laser mapping technology with them to do a 360-degree mapping of the site.
The hope is to make a digital 3-D matrix of the scene as it appeared on October 20, 1967
The results of the scan are quite dramatic, and certainly shows the filmsite in a whole new perspective
Enter Bill Munns and his analysis which will assist the engineers in inserting "Patty" into their 3-D world of the Bluff Creek filmsite
Munns did a complete digital restoration of the film, gaining rare access (and permission) from Mrs. Patricia Patterson
The process Munns is undertaking also eliminates those pesky artifacts and anomalies which only certain researchers can see in the film
Munns is using a 70-year-old Keystone projector hooked up to a state-of-the-art scanner which is systematically scanning the film
Next, the focus shifts to Jeff Meldrum and the footprint morphology.
Meldrum postulates as to whether or not Sasquatch is ape or hominid or hominin
A good question is brought up-if Sasquatch exists, where are the bodies and bones?
Dr. Herbert Maschner is brought in as the skeptic to throw cold water on the possibility of Sasquatch's existence
He says (and rightfully so) that thousands of archaeological sites have been excavated in North America for bones and no Sasquatch bones have been found to date
Meldrum disagrees with Dr. Maschner's assessment, citing that chimpanzee fossils were never found until just a few short years ago, so it is possible that Sasquatch bones have not been found, but this does not mean they WON'T be found.
Meldrum, who has well over 200 casts in his collection, discusses the mid-tarsal break which would make sense in a non-human primate
The Ray Wallace claims are brought up once again
Munns has done a remarkable job of restoring the film into a terrific digital copy
Meldrum, meanwhile, is headed to the mountains of Wyoming for an excursion with naturalist John Mionzcynski
The two are attempting to determine whether or not the mountainous region has enough sustainable food sources and cover for a large predator such as a bear or a Sasquatch
They do determine that it is possible
The only caveat is is there a sustainable population possible to continue the proliferation of the species?
Mionzcynski is of the opinion that the Sasquatch population does not number in the thousands, but rather in the hundreds
The P/G Film is returned to, and the digital Mapping is amazing.
Meldrum and Mionzcynski put a wire with metal barbs at a comparable height to try to snag hairs of a possible Sasquatch
Hairs have been analyzed over the years, and seem to compare favorably to primates, but are still inconclusive
Special Effects experts at the Jim Henson Creature Shop are also interviewed as to their impressions of the P/G Film. They are unsure whether it is real or a guy in a suit, but show modern ways that a suit could be created.
The claims that John Chambers made the suit and the Heironimus claims are examined as well, briefly.
I would rate this special a 4 out of 5, certainly much better than the first NG special.
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