The Search For Bigfoot; An Expert's Perspective

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Bigfoot Chicks, Melissa Adair. As serious researchers, the Bigfoot Chicks are commited to seeking the truth regarding the Bigfoot mystery. You can visit their blog at bigfootchicks.blogspot.com.

An informative article about Peter Bryne, arguably one of the first to dedicate his life in pursuit of Bigfoot. Very interesting accounts of Bigfoot sightings mentioned as well as insights from Dr. John Napier, British anthropologist, and authority on ape and human feet.

Wednesday, June 30, 1976
The Post Crescent
Appleton Neenah-Menasha, Washington

The Search Goes On For Bigfoot
By Boyce Rensberger
New York Times news service

The Dalles, Ore. - Within the vast forest wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, there may live a species of shy, furry manlike creatures, perhaps declining survivors from a time before modern man evolved.

And, then again there may not.

A remarkable body of evidence has been gathered over the last few years that points either to the reality of a species of large primates known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch that walks on two legs or to a long series of hallucinations and extraordinary hoaxes executed with anatomical and ecological expertise and with unusual restraint.

The evidence has persuaded at least one physical anthropologist of international standing that the Sasquatch phenomenon of footprints and sightings is real and in need of further study.

There is even speculation that a presumably extinct form of giant ape or ape-man known as Giantopithecus, whose fossils have been found in Asia, may have been an ancestor of a Sasquatch that migrated across the Bering land bridge to North America long before true men.

While the existence of such a surviving species seems wildly improbable and is discounted by most experts in primate evolution, a genuine find of such a creature would rank as one of the most significant discoveries of modern times.

To most Americans the idea that a giant ape-man could be living in the United States in 1976 and remain so elusive is far less credible than the idea that a creature could dwell in Loch Ness, a faraway, mist-shrouded Scottish lake, or yeti, could exist in the remote Himalayas.

And yet, at a time when increasing sums of money are being spent by reputable scientists to investigate Loch Ness, America's own "monster" with at least as much suggestive evidence behind it , is pursued by little more than weekend amateurs, riflemen vowing to bring one back dead, an assortment of eccentric or unreliable individuals and obvious perpetrators of fraud.

One of the few exceptions is Peter Byrne, a 50 year old former professional hunter in Nepal, who switched from tiger shooting and yeti hunting to tiger conservation and Bigfoot hunting.

He operates the modest Bigfoot Information Center here in the Dalles, a small town in the heart of Bigfoot country and he describes himself as the "only man alive who has made a profession out of this extraordinary search."

He has been doing it for five years, supported by admission fees to a small exhibit here and by small donations from various sources, including the Academy of Applied Sciences.

The center receives reports of Sasquatch sightings of 16-inch footprints from all over the Northwest and investigates each report using a network of volunteers.

Most are eventually discounted as insubstantial or faked, but a handful hold up and are given high credibility. So far, Byrne, though he has never seen a Bigfoot himself, has collected the details of 94 reported sightings that seem believable. There are many more reports of tracks.

An example was that of Jack Cochran, a logger from nearby Parksdale, who on May 12, 1974, was working with a crew in the Hood River National Forest. Cochran, who operates a crane that picks up logs, was taking a break in the cab of the crane and happened to look across the clearing. Fifty yards away he says he saw "this big, hairy thing" standing silently.

"A chill went up my back," Cochran recalled.

When he determined that it was not one of his co-workers, Cochran, a hunter and amateur artist who sketches wildlife, studied the creature. He said it was covered with think, black hair and stood about 6 1/2 feet tall and had massive shoulders. He immediately assumed it to be a Bigfoot and not any of the other forest animals that he knew well.

Then it walked away "gracefully, like an athlete," and disappeared over a hill into the trees.

The next day, May 13, about the same time, 10am, the same loggers were again taking a break. Cochran's two companions said they were startled to see a big creature rise up out of the bushes and stride quickly away on two legs. One of the two men, Fermin Osborne, gave chase.

Later, investigators from the Bigfoot Information Center conducted a through search of the area. They found the creature's track - indistinct impressions of a soft but heavy foot leading from the edge of the clearing off across some wooded hills.

As in virtually all Sasquatch reports, the creature does not charge or roar or act ferocious in any way. In report after perport, the animal simply walks along or watches people until it senses it has been seen, and then it walks away.

Another group of sightings took place within a two-square-mile area just outside The Dalles. In 1967, four persons said they saw a Bigfoot. The following year four persons reported another sighting, In 1969, there was no report. In 1970 two persons saw one. And in 1971 there were four sightings by a total of nine persons,.

Tame or not, could a population of seven foot tall humanoids be living in the United States and remain unknown to science?

To those who have not seen the immense uninhabited and almost impenetrable forests that cover the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and British Colunbia, it may seem hard to believe that there are thousands of square miles of wilderness where hardly anyone ever goes.

Sasquatch reports, which date from 1840, all come from a large but well defined area that includes the mountains of southern British Columbia and the Cascade ranges of western Washington, western Oregon and northen California,

The area covers about 125,000 square miles and could easily hide thousands of Sasquatches, particularly if one assumes, as the evidence suggests, that they are nomadic. If the Bigfoot is only a fantasy, it is strange that with one or two obviously faked exceptions, no reports have come from other parts of the country, not even from other wilderness areas in the West that are similar to the Cascade Mountains,

Bigfoot believers say the creature should not be considered unknown. Most of the Indian tribes in the area have legends and stories about such creatures; Sasquatch is one tribe's name for the creature but there are many others,

Scattered reports of giant manlike footprints or of actual sightings also occurred in the early writings of white settlers and down through the years. There are scores of reports from the last decade, when people like Byrne started soliciting them.

While newspaper accounts frequently make it appear that a bigfoot report involves only a single, large, blurry footprint, the more typical discovery is of a long track of footprints that can sometimes be followed for miles.

Dr. John Napier, a British anthropologist who is a specialist in the anatomy of ape and human feet, has for 20 years studied yeti and Sasquatch footprints, many of which have been photographed or cast in plaster of paris.

Although it is often said that bears made the prints, the bears of the Pacific Northwest are too small to make a print more than half the size ascribed to the Sasquatch.

What about a hoaxer who carves big feet, straps them on his boots and tramps off through the woods? Napier says this would be easy to spot for the fake foot would not flex or conform to the ground the way a real striding foot does.

In Napier's view one of the most persuasive sets of footprints was found in 1969 near Bossburg, Wash. The half-mile-long track contained 1,089 prints, and the right prints appear to have been made by a crippled foot. At one point whatever made the prints stepped easily over a 43-inch-high fence.

In the deformed print Napier can see not only obviously abnormal outlines but also shifts in weight distribution from one part of the foot to another, all of which suggest that the creature suffered a crushing injury of the foot in youth. The prints look very human, Napier says, except that they are 17 1/2 inches long and 7 inches wide.

One of the most controversial pieces of evidence is an 18-second film that shows a furry creature striding along a creek bed in a California forest and then disappearing into the trees. It has been examined by various experts, and no one can conclusively prove that it is either a fake or authentic. Byrne has declared other film fakes, but he says of this one that he is 95 percent certain it is real.

After examining all the evidence for and against the Sasquatch, Napier, who thinks the film is phony, concludes: "I am convinced that the Sasquatch exists, but whether it is all that it is cracked up to be is another matter altogether. There must be something in Northweasten America that needs explaining, and that something leaves manlike footprints."

If the Bigfoot exists, why has no one reported finding bones? Bryne and others point out that the bones of any species do not last long on the forest floor. Scavengers quickly break them up, and the acid soil of the forest is not conducive to fossilization.