Why A National Bigfoot Organization

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Tom Fonner. He has been exploring the backcountry of Arizona for over 30 years. He enjoys the solitude and peace of the outdoors with a passion for wildlife, nature, and landscape photography, tracking, hiking, camping, and fishing. You can visit his blog at swbri.blogspot.com.

Recently a segment of the Bigfoot community has taken a stand against new investigative and research organizations in the United States. They have based their position on a premise that new groups have a lack of credibility and integrity in their quest to verify the existence of Bigfoot. They specify that new groups are emerging to cash in on the rise in popularity of the Bigfoot phenomenon. This segment of the community uses their recognition as an arena to spread falsehoods about many groups who proceed honorably in the investigative process.

There have been many points presented as warning signs for the Bigfoot community to be aware of prior to trusting or accepting the new groups in this field. Most of these revolve around a drive for financial gain and fame rather than the goal of verifying the existence of Bigfoot. This segment of the community counters this by promoting those research and investigative groups that have had recognized operations over the past decade or longer. They stress that the longevity of these groups and their efforts to find Bigfoot places them in a position of trust.

The problem that exists in the Bigfoot community is the drive for financial gain and fame as a priority, and this problem exists with all segments young and old. There are many established and recognized research organizations that promote themselves extensively through the sell of books, videos, membership fees, charges for expeditions, and gains from television and other media. Some of these organizations claim that they need the financial backing to continue their extensive investigations, and this claim should also be treated with skepticism. There should be equal standards of trust and acceptance of investigative groups regardless of longevity.

Those interested in the verification of Bigfoot have a difficult task of deciding who they can trust. The vast array of information available has created a lack of trusting due to those that have self serving interests. All individuals or groups involved in this process should be looked at with scrutiny and many questions should be considered before trust is given to anyone. This is a problem that must be resolved, and the need for consolidation of efforts by those trusted in the community has become a priority.

There has never been a better time to strive for the formation of a National Bigfoot Organization. Trust is imperative for the study and verification of Bigfoot to move forward without the consistent infighting that currently plagues the community. The majority in the Bigfoot community want a network of groups and individuals that can be trusted with evidence and with the dissemination of information. Their are those that have established themselves and can be trusted to develop and organize this over time. The first step to the process is to create an evaluative system for selecting those put at the center of a national organization. These steps should be made public to gain acceptance, and guidelines should be put into place for the organization's role in the Bigfoot community. Hopefully there will be those who will take the initiative to promote and establish a national system of evaluation, verification, and trust that will be accepted by all those involved.