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| Bluff Creek Calf 1967. |
It’s the late 1800’s, two men meet around a campfire.
An older mountain man who spent his life hunting, trapping and exploring the
vast wilderness of the west. His hair is unkept, his beard is long, his skin is
weather worn, but his eyes are clear. His coat and pants are made of buckskin a
beaver skin cap covers his head. he carries a nine-and-a-quarter-inch by
one-and-a-half-inch razor sharp single edged knife and an old Hawkin Track of
the Wolf rifle. His name? Bauman.
The younger man is in his late twenties, a man that
knows the outdoors as well as any other. He wears a wide brim hat and glasses
and buckskin shirt, pants and gloves. He carries a .450 double barrel rifle, a
Colt .38 and goes by the name Ted.
The night is dark, the only light comes from the
campfire, when Bauman says, “Many years ago, when I was a young man, something
very strange happened.”
Taking a sip of his coffee Ted listens while Bauman
begins to relate the story of those few horrible days long ago. Here is
Bauman’s story.
“They struck out on foot through the vast, gloomy
forest, and in about four hours reach a little open glade where they concluded
to camp, as signs of game were plenty. There was still an hour or two of
daylight left, and after building a brush lean-to and throwing down their
packs, they started up stream.
They were surprised to find that during their absence
something, apparently a bear, had visited camp, and rummaged about among their
things, scattering the contents of their packs, and in sheer wantonness
destroying their lean-to. The footprints of the beast were quite plane, but at
first they paid no particular heed to them, busing themselves with rebuilding
the lean-to laying out their beds and stores and lighting the fire.
While Bauman was making ready supper, it being already
dark, his companion began to examine the tracks more closely…Coming back to the
fire, he stood by it a minute or two, peering out into the darkness, and
suddenly remarked, “Bauman that bear has been walking on two legs.” Bauman
laughed at this.
After discussing whether the footprints could be
possibly those of a human being, and coming to the conclusion that they could
not be, the two men…went to sleep. At midnight Bauman was awakened by some
noise…his nostrils were struck by a strong, wild-beast odor, and he caught the
loom of a great body in the darkness of the lean-to.
In the morning they started out to look at a few traps
they set…and put out some new ones. By unspoken agreement they kept together
all day, and returned to camp towards evening. On nearing it they saw, hardly
to their astonishment, that the lean-to again had been torn down. The ground
was marked up by its tracks, and on
leaving camp it had gone along the soft earth by the brook, where the
footprints were as plain as if on snow, and, after careful scrutiny of the
trail, it certainly did seem as if, whatever the thing was, it had walked off
on two legs.
They kept a roaring fire throughout the night, one or
the other sitting on guard most of the time. About midnight the thing came down
through the forest opposite, across the brook, and stayed on the hillside for
nearly an hour…Several times it uttered a harsh, grating, long-drawn moan, a
peculiarly sinister sound. Yet did not venture near the fire. In the morning
the two trappers discussing the strange events of the last 36 hours, decided
that they would shoulder their packs and leave the valley that afternoon.
On first leaving camp they had the disagreeable
sensation of being followed. In the dense spruce thickets they occasionally
heard brush snap after they had passed…At noon they were back within a couple
miles of camp.
There were still three beaver traps to collect in a
little pond in a wide ravine near by. Bauman volunteered to gather these and
bring them in, while his companion went ahead to camp and made ready the packs.
He took several hours in securing and preparing the beaver, and when he started
homewards he marked, with some uneasiness, how low the sun was getting.
At last he came to the edge of the little glade where
the camp lay, and he shouted as he approached it, but got no answer. The campfire
had gone out, though the thin blue smoke was still curling upwards. Stepping
forward he shouted again and as he did his eye fell on the body of his
friend…Rushing towards it the horrified trapper found that the body was still
warm, but the neck was broken, while there were four great fang marks in the
throat.
The footprints of the unknown beast-creature, printed
deep in the soft soil, told the whole story. The unfortunate man, having
finished his packing, had sat down on the spruce log face to the fire, his back
to the dense woods, to wait for his companion.
It had not eaten the body, but apparently had romped
and gamboled around it in uncouth glee occasionally rolling it over and over.
Bauman, utterly unnerved, and believing that the
creature with which he had to deal was something either half human or half
devil…abandoned everything but his rifle and struck off at speed down the pass.”
Many years later, around the campfire Ted being a man
of good judgement believed what the older Bauman had told him. To read the
entire account of Bauman’s encounter, Ted included it in his 1892 book, Wilderness
Hunter By Teddy Roosevelt.
Bigfoot, Sasquatch or Skunk Ape whatever you may call
it, this is just one account in human history of a large bipedal creature in
the woods, swamps and mountains of North America.
Do you believe in Sasquatch? Or is Bigfoot a centuries
old hoax? If bigfoot is real, where is all the evidence? Where are the bodies
of the dead? When was the last time you came across the carcass of a deer in
the woods? Maybe like the elephant, the bigfoot community bury their dead. If
they don’t, nature has a way of disposing of the body rather quickly. Without
the help of scavengers that will scatter the bones and body parts, in as few as
twenty days the body would be gone.
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| Plaster Casts |
What evidence do we have in favor of the existence of
a large bipedal creature living in North America? First and foremost, we have
the footprints. Some have been ruled out as hoaxes, while hundreds of others
cannot be explained. We also have clear pictures and videos. The best being the
1967 Patterson-Gimlin film. We have sightings. How many sightings do we have?
The Oregon Bigfoot Sighting Data Base has 2,535 registered sightings with
Washington state leading the way with 522.
Josh Stephens compiled sightings over 92 years in
North America. In the lower 48 states there were 3,313 from 1921-2012. People
from all walks of life have reported seeing a large hairy bipedal creature
roaming our woods. First responders, business owners, sportsman, politicians
and the list goes on. How many people do not report a sighting out of fear of
ridicule?
Just how long have bigfoot sightings been recorded?
You might be surprised to know that the first recorded sighting was in 1792. On
an expedition of the Pacific North West that was ordered by New Spain, was Joes
Mariano Mozino, a naturalist from Mexico. In his journal, he describes a wood
dwelling creature that the natives considered a demon. This creature was
monstrous in size, covered in black bristled hair a large human shaped head
with large fangs protruding from its mouth. The creature had long arms and commutated
with laud howls.
Does all the evidence of Sasquatch come from the
Pacific North West? No. Florida and the South East have a lot of sightings as
well as the North East and Midwest.
On August 27, 1958 Jerry Crew found and cast large
humanoid footprints. These prints were 16 inches long with a stride form 46-60
inches, depending on the terrain it was walking on. Mr. Crew was a Caterpillar
operator on a construction crew in Bluff Creek California. When Jerry’s story
and pictures hit the local papers, the creature was introduced to the world as Bigfoot.
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| Jerry Crew news paper article |
Sasquatch comes from the Salish Indians of the Pacific
North West. Their word Se’Sxac (sasquatch) means
Wild Man.
The name Skunk Ape comes out of Florida. This cousin
of the western bigfoot tends to spend most of his time in the swamps and emits a
horrible odor. Sightings of the Skunk Ape have been reported for hundreds of
years.
Every region in the country and around the world have
a history of sightings. The only continent that hasn’t had a sighting is
Antarctica. If Sasquatch doesn’t exist, are we experiencing world-wide mass
hysteria?
Theories abound about what Bigfoot might be, from an
alien transplant, shapeshifter, an undiscovered ape species or a distant cousin
to an ancient humanoid. I personally don’t believe that Sasquatch is from outer
space or that he might be a shapeshifter. If it were a shapeshifter, why would
it take the from of a cryptid?
Could Bigfoot be an undiscovered species of ape?
According to several government agencies including the Bureau of Land
Management, there are 109,478,939 acres of wilderness land in the lower
forty-eight states. That’s bigger than Florida, Michigan, Vermont and Connecticut
combined. That’s a lot of land for North American ape to hide.
Another theory is that Sasquatch is a distant cousin
of Gigantopithecus Blacki, Giganto for short. Many believe that Giganto may
have migrated from China across the land bridge with the early humans and other
animals. It is speculated that Gigantopithecus Blacki has evolved into today’s
North American Bigfoot and the Yeti in Asia.
Most of the Indian tribes in North America have
folklore of a strong, hairy, strange smelling wild man, who wanders the woods
at night. Some of these creatures are of a supernatural origin and have various
powers. Legends from other tribes are dangerous. These “Stick Indians” or “Bush
Indians” live in villages and wage war on neighboring tribes. These Bush
Indians also take childern and eat humans.
Other tribes see Sasquatch very differently. They see
the Bigfoot community as shy helpers, who might take a few things from the
tribe that they need, but they are considered guardians of the natural world.
It is said that these guardians may also take a human bride.
We have discussed the facts and folklore of the
elusive Sasquatch. Native people from all over the world have cave drawings,
stories and folklore about a big hairy man living in the wilderness. Can all
these tribes be mistaken? There is always truth behind the legend, the question
lays in where does the truth end and the legend begin?
The next time you are
out in the wonderful world of the outdoors and have a feeling that you are
being watched, or smell a horrible scent, you might not be alone. Let’s not forget
about their communication skills of wood knocking and vocalization. Earlier
this year my wife and I were sunset fishing from our canoe on the Withlacoochee
river in North Central Florida, when we heard four howls. After these howls the
forest was quite for a few minutes. It wasn’t coyotes or anything like I ever
heard before. I’m not saying that what we heard was the Skunk Ape, but there is
some truth to every legend.
