Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and other iterations

[American Patriot]

Legend or myth? High Desert Bigfoot hunt set

KTVZ.com ^ | 17 Jan 2007 | Barney Lerten




Week-long campout aimed at gathering evidence


The Central Oregon Cascades are an inviting place to visit for all the traditional spring and summer activities: hiking, fishing, sightseeing, Bigfoot-hunting...


Huh?


Glum news for those hoping to join the 25 to 45 or so Sasquatch hunters who will be looking for a week in June for signs of the elusive, legendary beast: the Bigfoot Field Research Organization's (http://bfro.net) Central Oregon Expedition is already sold out.


So is a May event in North Carolina, but if you'd like to join the crowd in Michigan's Upper Peninsula or northern Utah, those July expeditions still have room to register. And you can get on a waiting list for the Central Oregon expedition, if you'd like, in case there are dropouts.


The cost: $300 per person, $600 for two or more in the same vehicle. That covers only "the overhead costs for organizing the expedition," so you have to arrange and pay for your own food, camping gear and whatever else you need to go Bigfoot hunting.


Participants will meet in Bend before venturing out on the four-day campout and hunt for evidence in the Cascades, June 14-17, timed for a period when there's "almost no moonlight," organizers said on the Website.


"These animals seem to be more bold and approach humans closer at night, when it is very dark out and no moonlight," the group states. ‘Nights around the new moon may be their most active hunting periods."


The group, founded in 1995, chooses "territories that have a history of reports." There are a dozen reported sightings listed in Central Oregon, the most recent in June 2005, and almost 200 in Oregon.


That might seem like a lot, for a mythical beast, but the organization notes the Website reports "are only a fraction of the information we have. They are only the first-hand reports, and the ones that witnesses have allowed us to post publicly on the Website.


Those who assemble at base camp are divided into teams of three to five people, led by guides who have surveyed the terrain and studied satellite-aerial photos to "figure out the best places to listen for their echoing vocalizations at night."


"It sounds easy, but you need to have a lot of information to know confidently where to be," the group states. "You also need to know the various types of sounds they make, and how to provoke them into making those sounds, to both confirm their presence and lure them toward you."


"What happens after that needs to be experienced in person," the site goes on to say. "We don't like to describe that aspect of these expeditions in writing, partly because we do not want to influence the perceptions of fresh observers. We want to ask them what they saw (and) heard, etc. With every new person who bears witness to these animals and their behaviors, we are more sure of certain things ourselves."


Those interested in participating should know, it's not a very regimented experience. The group says some teams choose to camp the entire time away from base camp, and others stay at the central location. "You will be able to decide what you want to do," they said. "No one is forced to go anywhere, or stay out all night."


"Safety is a top priority," the group states, with no known injuries during the expeditions - "not even a sprained ankle." Participants are allowed to retain their own photos, videos, footprint casts, "hair samples, etc."
The hunt is on!

[American Patriot]

Links for Bigfoot:

http://www.bfro.net/

http://theshadowlands.net/bf.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot

http://home.clara.net/rfthomas/bigfoot.html

http://www.unmuseum.org/bigfoot.htm

http://www.bigfootencounters.com/

http://www.bigfootencounters.com/

[American Patriot]

Bigfoot in S.C.? | Experts: ‘it’s the real deal’
The State ^ | 13 Apr 2008 | RANDY BURNS

‘It’ attacked a van in Bishopville and attracted a Bigfoot-hunting team to the state

BISHOPVILLE — Something apparently attacked Bob and Dixie Rawson’s van in the early morning hours of Feb. 28.

The Rawsons live about two miles southeast of downtown Bishopville. They woke up Feb. 28 to find the front fender of their 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan chewed up, bite marks through the front grill, wheels on both sides bitten and metal crumpled in a wad. There was also blood on the front and sides of the car.

While there has been no “official” sighting of the Lizard Man since July 1988, the Rawsons’ evidence has created a stir, not just locally but nationwide.

After the Rawsons contacted a Columbia TV station, the story was aired on CNN. In March, filmmaker and self-proclaimed Bigfoot hunter Tom Biscardi and his five-man team visited Bishopville to discover the truth of the Lee County incident.

Equipped with thermal imagers and high-tech cameras, Biscardi conducted initial forensic tests and sent the evidence to California. The team also planned to use its cameras overnight in search of the creature.

The initial evidence found by Biscardi’s team is compelling, he said. “You’ve got the real deal here.”

While Biscardi hasn’t ruled out it was a bear, he thinks it was more likely a Bigfoot. “They’re called different names in the different communities,” he said.

The creatures have three toes, Biscardi said. They range in height from 6 to 9 feet and weigh 300 to 800 pounds. They are hairy. They climb trees and move around by doing what Biscardi describes as knuckle walking.

More than 3,500 Bigfoot creatures exist nationwide, Biscardi said. “They’re nocturnal creatures and they’re migratory,” he said. “They move from south to north this time of year.”

Biscardi said he doesn’t know if Bishopville’s latest incident is related to the 1988 sighting of the Lizard Man.

“I am going to talk with Liston Truesdale, who was the sheriff 20 years ago,” Biscardi said. “But I’m mainly concerned with what happened to the Rawsons’ van. I haven’t fallen off a turnip truck. I’m a firm believer that what you have down here is unknown.”

Biscardi doesn’t buy local authorities’ theory that a coyote damaged the Rawsons’ van.

“You can look at the jaw pressure that it took to do this damage,” he said. “It wasn’t a coyote. I think what you have here more than likely is a Bigfoot creature.”

Biscardi said the Rawsons are good, straight-up people.

“I wouldn’t have come 3,100 miles here from California if I didn’t think there’s something here,” Biscardi said. “My main concern is to find out what’s happened here now. This woman (Dixie Rawson) is afraid. They have cats who haven’t come around since this happened.”

More than a month after the incident, Dixie Rawson said she is still concerned about what might be lurking near her home. “Let’s just say that when I go outside, I have my gun with me,” she said.

Biscardi said he works with state and federal officials in many states whenever there’s a sighting.

“I have to admit I have a problem here in South Carolina,” Biscardi said. “What is law enforcement doing to protect these people? Where is the Department of Natural Resources? Where are the game wardens? What is going on here?”

Biscardi’s 2007 film “Bigfoot Lives” won several awards, including best documentary at the Pocono Mountains Film Festival. The documentary includes videos and interviews that show evidence of Bigfoot sightings in Texas, Minnesota, Ohio and Arizona.

Lee County Chamber of Commerce executive director Beth Hedegor said the chamber is embracing the Lizard Man.

While she personally believes the creature that attacked the Rawsons’ van was some type of known animal, probably a bear, she said the publicity is a positive opportunity for the community.

“We are not fighting this,” she said. “This doesn’t have to be a negative. We consider this an opportunity.”

“Lizard Man is Back” T-shirts are for sale at the chamber office on Main Street, Hedegor said. Hedegor gets the T-shirts from Vickie Moniz, owner and operator of the Blossom Shop on North Main Street.

“We have sold more than a hundred so far,” Moniz said. “And we are ordering more.”

Moniz welcomes any publicity about the Lizard Man. “I think I’ll go out there (to the Rawsons) and give this team from California a free Lizard Man T-shirt,” she said.

[Backstop]

Figured there had to be some pics somewhere of Bob and Dixie Rawson’s car…and what do you know…

Gotta be pretty hungry to try and eat a Caravan.

http://www.reptoids.com/Vault/dixierawson2008.htm

These photographs are of the vehicle belonging to Bishopville resident Dixie Rawson and her husband.

They were recently taken by Liston Truesdale, former Lee County, SC sheriff.

[Ryan Ruck]

Wow Backstop! Nice find!

Seeing as that looks so pink, is that Klingon blood or what? (My fellow geeks know what I'm talking about! )

[PsycoJoe]

Must have confused quarter pounder with quarter panel.

[American Patriot]

Holy CRAP!

[Ryan Ruck]

Must have confused quarter pounder with quarter panel.

It's either Bigfoot or ManBearPig!

I'm super cereal!

[Brykovian]

From what I've run across, the DNA testing from the NC car attack came back as canine. And, from the location of the bite/scratch marks, that makes plenty sense to me ... although I don't think I'd care to get too close to the pooch that went crazy on that vehicle.

I could never figure out why they'd start with "bigfoot" on that case anyway.

btw, I have been keeping an eye on the BFRO site for a couple of years ... I like their approach to things, although their sign-up fee for the scheduled trips is a bit too pricey for me.

-Bryk

[Toad]

I guess a primary problem I have with Bigfoot is there can't be just one or two, or a couple. There has to be a sufficiently large breeding population to exclude inbreeding to keep the species viable and ongoing. In a large mammal, a sufficient breeding population size... how is it possible we haven't stumbled upon dens, nesting sites, feces, new, old, fossil bones, corpses, crude tools/artifacts, offspring, anything... A creature smart enough to elude us for this long, surely is smart enough for crude tools? Socializing, even minimally, among it's community?

In just about any species you can find evidence of it's existance completely outside the animal itself.

Having said that, I keep an open mind, but the physical lack of evidence is tough to get past.

[Brykovian]

I'm in a similar camp, Toad. I'm sceptical about lack of bones.

BFRO estimates a population of 2000 - 6000 for all of North America. They feel that progress is being made on collection of physcial evidence (footprint casts, dung, hair, nesting sites & other environmental markers, etc.).

I do like their approach of study to the subject and I think going on one of their expeditions would be an interesting thing. I enjoy spending time in the northwoods anyway -- so, at worst, this would be a few days camping & hiking in nice territory.

-Bryk

[American Patriot]

I've actually participated in a larger-scale (more than 10 people) big foot hunt many years ago, and was one of the primary organizers.

I think that I can answer some of your questions. We have come across "dens" or suspected dens of such creatures before. There is scat evidence and there also has been several examples of hair samples so far.

As to bones, have you ever wondered why we don't come across regular findings of bones in known animal instances, like deer, elk, mountain lion and wolves or coyotes?

Because those things are returned rather quickly to the ground by rodents and other small animals that gnaw the bones for calcium content. Most bones do not last more than a couple of years on the ground. They tend to rot and decompose with other softer tissues in most of the warmer climates, and even here in Colorado it's rare to stumble upon bones of some long dead animal. However, I have found elk and deer bones here, and usually they are soft and gnawed heavily by small rodents, including rabbits.

So - given that we didn't really "discover" Mountain Gorillas until 1902 amid total and compete skepticism I simply don't find it remarkable (yet) that we haven't gotten more than a few small pictures and a couple of (apparently now) faked videos.

[Backstop]

We have come across "dens" or suspected dens of such creatures before. There is scat evidence and there also has been several examples of hair samples so far.

NO KIDDING?!?!

Man, I certainly like to read any info you gathered - pics, lab results, etc.

Very cool...

[American Patriot]

Unfortunately, that was in 1977 and I have probably nothing but a few 35 mm negatives of a few things. I don't know for sure where I have that stuff stored and my cataloging skills weren't then what they are now (and they aren't ALL that much better! LOL!)

The group I went with was all military personnel and their spouses. We actually tracked a large creature on one of our teams over a 3 mile area. We "Saw" something move in the distance and the prints weren't a bear print.

This took place in SE Oklahoma in a large national forest. The closest buildings to where we were camped out were about 9 miles distant and abandoned. We were very deep into the wilderness and hiked the last 3-4 miles into our site.

We had several children with us as well, mostly boys, whom were intent on making a lot of racket so we didn't see anything near our camp and only when the teams took off and hiked several miles away did we start seeing and hearing signs of something out there.

Prior to our "expedition" there were about 20 or so reports of big foot sightings in the area so we planned our actually trip to "the middle of the reports" which took us directly into a large, national forest.

Essentially, we took a map, plotted all of the news reported sightings and they were in a kind of large circle (around the edge). As it turned out the circle was in SE OK in the hilly and forested terrain. We went as deep as we could go using US geological survey maps.

One odd thing that came out of the trip was an encounter we had with an old, bearded man who had an old beat up truck driving through the forest. Apparently he was living out there like a hermit and had a rifle. He tried to "scare us off", but there were like 20 of us out there, mostly all armed so he left when he realized he was way out-gunned.

About a week after we'd all gotten home there was a television news report of the military "capturing a World War II deserter" who was "armed and dangerous".

It was that same guy. He'd been living in those woods since the 1940s apparently. They "captured" him because he'd come out and was brandishing his gun at some kids and they went after him. I don't think they ever actually charged him with anything else though - but it goes to show, if some human can live there for that long, perhaps there are animals or other creatures hidden in those forests.

[Brykovian]

That sounds pretty interesting, Rick ... sounds like you were doing in the 70s what the more serious researchers are doing today.

The BFRO site has a database of visual/auditory sighting reports, which are fun to read through.

This one is my favorite: http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_report.asp?id=12959



-Bryk

[Backstop]

Very cool Rick.

Thanks for sharing.

[eversman]

My thoughts are that given the locale of all the sightings and their remoteness, the thing that stands out the most is the lack of people around. point blank, these things are only encountered in the most random of chance events or when they seem to be scavenging for food.

The other thing that is really noteworthy is just how remote and uninhabited the places where these things are seen, really are.

They are nothing if not smart, because they tend to avoid contact with humans for the most part, and their natural habitat would seem to be very rugged and remote areas of forest, making them extremely difficult to find, and plenty of resources to live off of. i think their risk averse nature in regards to humans coupled with their own choice of habitat makes them likely not just to exist but i'd venture to say they are probably thriving due to their lack of interference or interaction with people.

ev

[Brian Baldwin]

Actually they've had unrelated groups report the same sighting but they're still ignored. As for the dead... It was decades before we found the first "Elephant Graveyard"... And any anthropologist/archaeologist will tell you that finding human remains anywhere but old cities and battlefields is difficult. So I'd think this would be even harder. My own opinion is that they probably exist and are some form of Ape like critter. I've seen one or two of them while living in the northwest as a kid, but that doesn't prove their existance anymore than Pharoah writing about his UFO encounter proves those out.

But lets say this... If they do discover them, then it will take less than 50 years for it to be considered bleh. No longer interesting. Just like the mountain gorrila was.

[American Patriot]

'Yeti hair' to get DNA analysis
BBC ^ | Page last updated at 11:19 GMT, Friday, 25 July 2008 12:19 UK | By Alastair Lawson

Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inconclusive.

Ape expert Ian Redmond says the hairs bear a "startling resemblance" to similar hairs collected by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary.

He told the BBC the Indian hairs are "potentially very exciting".

After extensive microscope examinations, the hairs will now be sent to separate labs for DNA analysis.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...

[Beetle]

I don't know about Yeti's and the like, but I do know there are bears in them woods: