Olympic Project Adds Biologist John Mionczynski to the Projects Research Team

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Damian Bravo, a Sasquatch believer. You can join Damian's group Sasquatch Lives? on Facebook and the group's official page at www.sasquatchlives.com.

An announcement from Derek Randles:

“The Olympic Project is very pleased to welcome field Biologist John Mionczynski to our research team. We are looking very forward to working with and learning from this amazing man.”

In 1972, John Mionczynski went camping in the Wind River Mountains and he had a strange encountered with the creature known as Sasquatch. He was camping alone when he awoke to a large hand pressing on the top of his 6-foot-high tent. At first he thought it was a bear but could distinguish fingers rather than a clawed paw. The creature collapsed the tent and fell across Mionczynski’s legs. He scrambled out of the tent as the animal disappeared into the forest nearby. Mionczynski started a fire and stayed awake next to it through the night. He said he could hear the animal breathing and moving nearby for two and a half hours. For 45 minutes it threw pinecones at him, as if it wanted him to leave.

He reported the incident to the Game and Fish Department. Several others also reported sightings in the Wind River area that summer. People were going to the Game and Fish asking for information about the sightings in hopes of finding the creature and shooting it. At first the agency suspected someone in a monkey suit was in danger of getting shot and wanted more information, Mionczynski says, but as things simmered down they dropped the investigation. Since this event, he’s searched for further evidence of these Hominoids in the forests of western North America.

Mionczynski is well respect by his peers and is consider by his colleagues a “top-notch” scientist. He is very meticulous and likes to take great notes, so he can look back on them and draw things for future references.

John Mionczynski with Serendipity, his custom-built motorcycle.
(Photo by Brad Christensen)

Like a mad scientist, Mionczynski keeps himself busy with hundreds of projects. Mionczynski was born in 1947 in Long Island, New York. In his youth he was always interested in science and natural history. As a young boy he received a book of Entomology as a gift from his grandfather. Being such an enthusiastic youngster, he memorized the Latin names of all the insects in the book after just one read-through.

Mionczynski attended the Southampton College on Long Island where he considered majoring in music, but later he decided to major in Biology and graduated in 1969.

John Mionczynski discusses the healing properties
of comfrey in his greenhouse. Among the swaths of
fruits and vegetables grown there are his strawberries.
He picks a bowl for breakfast every day.
(Photo by Brad Christensen - click to enlarge)

Mionczynski’s uncanny knack for retaining information has served him in his work as a professional wildlife biologist. In the early 1970s he was hired by the U.S. Forest Service to track and radio-collar bighorn sheep. In 2007 and 2008, he co-authored three scientific papers on selenium uptake in plants and its presence in the diet of alpine wildlife. In the mid-1970’s he participated in a Grizzly Bear Study, live-trapping grizzlies to affix radio collars and tracking them in Yellowstone National Park. The U.S. Forest Service acknowledged his contributions and awarded him a plaque of service for his dedicated work.

After his own encounter with Sasquatch, he has collected several plaster casts of footprints over the years. Two of his casts show very interesting characteristics; one you can see where toes slipped in the mud as the heel lifted, the other shows a huge handprint collected from mud in a pond. The cast shows were apparently a creature rested on one hand as it reached out to feed on aquatic plants.

In the late 1990’s he became acquainted with Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum and they both teamed up and acquired funding to travel around North America, collecting data and evidence about the particular sightings. In 2010, National Geographic television did a special on Bigfoot and interviewed Mionczynski.

In the past four years, John has worked on Sasquatch research, traveling in the summers to assess habitat and potential foods for the creature and collecting DNA samples. He brings years of experience and a vast knowledge of Biological research.

Damian Bravo
www.sasquatchlives.com