Texas: Bigfoot sighting along Neches River? - via Chad Arment

Bigfoot sighting along Neches River?

Mary Meaux 

The Port Arthur News

February 19, 2013

PORT NECHES — Chill bumps rise on David Arceneaux's arms as he looked across Block Bayou at a line of trees about 100 yards away.

"I'm not crazy. I don't do drugs and I'm not a drinker," Arceneaux said before telling his tale of seeing not one but two Bigfoot-like creatures huddled together one December morning.

The Nederland native visits Oak Bluff Cemetery about once a month to clean the graves of a friend and a cousin, something he has done for years without incident. But on an overcast, windless day Arceneaux got the fright of his life.

"I heard a blood curdling scream and a lady nearby asked me if I was OK. I told her it wasn't me," Arceneaux said as he stood, uneasily, at roughly the same spot where he saw the creatures. "We walked over to the water and looked to the left then straight ahead."

What he saw next amazed him. Two Bigfoot-like creatures who had been throwing rocks in the water looked across at him and the unknown female. One was standing next to a tree, arms around the trunk and the other was squatted down. As the second creature rose from the crouching position Arceneaux estimated the creature was about eight-foot tall. So he snapped a photo with his phone, he said.

"All of a sudden they started walking then running through the woods," he said of the bipedal creatures. "When they began to run, the lady said `I'm leaving' and left. I stayed a few more seconds and then thought there may be a way for them to cross here so I left, scared."

Arceneaux said he could see the face of the creature "clear as day." There was hair from the mouth down like a man and when the creature turned he could see hair hanging down its arm.

Disturbed by what he saw, Arceneaux went home and watched an episode of "Finding Bigfoot" but had to change the channel when they played an audio recording of Bigfoot — it was too real.

"This is my first time back here since December," he said.

Arceneaux said he spoke to a game warden, describing the situation, and was told there had been other sightings along the Neches River. Calls placed to a local game warden was not returned by Tuesday afternoon.

There are a number of organizations throughout the state that researches and documents Bigfoot sightings. Groups such as Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy and Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization. These groups strive to find evidence to scientifically prove the existence of the creature.

Jerry Hestand of Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy said there have been reports of sightings in the Big Thicket area and he has had personal experiences at the Lance Rosier Unit in the Thicket.

Hestand said one of the creatures entered his camp and growled at one of the dogs. The dog, he said, growled back but by the time the men jumped up from their tents the creature was gone. Hestand said the group was part of an episode of a Travel Channel show called Weird Travels in which Bigfoot vocalizations were played.

"There is a sound on the Internet called the Ohio howl," Hestand said. "That's exactly what we heard clearly and distinctly."

Arceneaux said he did not come forward with his story sooner because he worried about what others would think of him. He has shown this photographic evidence — which was taken at a far distance with a cell phone — to friends and family and only had one person scoff. He will continue to research Bigfoot, he said, but remains wary of returning to the spot where the encounter occurred.

http://panews.com/local/x2056620313/Bigfoot-sighting-along-Neches-River

Could Escaped Animals Account for Bigfoot Sightings?

Last weekend a chimpanzee was seen rampaging through a Las Vegas neighborhood. It wasn't a hoax, nor a hallucination -- and it wasn't the first time.

The Associated Press reported,

A chimpanzee who rampaged through a Las Vegas neighborhood last month made a second escape from her backyard enclosure this weekend, but her caretaker thinks she had human help this time. Timmi De Rosa says the 13-year-old chimp, CJ, didn't get loose Saturday by bending steel bars without help. She thinks someone let CJ out of her cage. De Rosa says the 180-pound animal was captured quickly and was never a threat to neighbors. On July 12, CJ and her mate Buddy broke free and roamed the neighborhood, pounding on vehicles and climbing in an unoccupied car. An officer shot and killed Buddy when the animal frightened bystanders.

Continued:   http://www.livescience.com/22377-could-escaped-animals-account-for-bigfoot-reports.html 

Naches Ranger District worker has heard it all, including his own Sasquatch experience - via Chad Arment

When it comes to Sasquatch tales in the Cascade foothills northwest of Yakima, Doug Jenkins has pretty much heard it all at the front desk or on the phone at the Naches Ranger Station.

“You can pretty much tell the ones that are believable,” Jenkins says. “I’ve had people who saw bear and say they saw Sasquatch.”

Some callers, though, have a tale worth listening to.

Several years ago, Jenkins — the district spokesman — took a call from the wife of a man who, while hunting on National Forest land off State Route 410, “saw what he described as a large, ape-like creature going through the woods,” Jenkins says. “He said it looked like an upright, hairy monster, basically.

“He got in his rig and apparently told (his wife), ‘Don’t call anybody because they’ll think I’m crazy.’”

Two hours after that woman’s call, Jenkins said, “I had another woman calling and saying her husband had seen the same thing. This was about a mile away. Huge, hairy upright animal. And it was the wives who called. The men wouldn’t talk about it.”

Two years ago, Jenkins took a call from a Seattle man who said he and his teenage daughter and her boyfriend were hunting south of Bumping Lake when “they’d heard this really bizarre noise (the caller) knew was not elk.”

“He kept saying ‘You probably think I’m crazy but I’m not the kind of guy who reports this kind of stuff,’” Jenkins recalls.

The man’s daughter and boyfriend were on their way back to the truck when she stopped behind some bushes to urinate. “Apparently, behind this girl, the bushes started shaking violently and she heard this funny noise again.”

The two teens hurried to the truck to wait for the girl’s father. After a while, Jenkins says, the girl left the truck and went over to the side of the dirt road where, in the gully below, a large, hairy creature rose from its crouching position to full height in front of her.

“So they’re basically eye to eye,” Jenkins says. “She said it had a massive forehead, big, brown eyes, massive biceps and a massive chest. She said she screamed, it let out this scream, she ran back to the rig as (the creature) came up on the road and ran down the road. The boyfriend saw it, too.”

Jenkins has listened to numerous calls about incidents like that. Some he dismisses. Others he does not. But he always listens, because Jenkins has a personal reason to take them seriously: He’s had his own encounter.

In the early 1970s, Jenkins was snowmobiling at night with two friends at Darland Mountain. When Jenkins’ sled broke down, he began “monkeying around with it” while his buddies went on ahead. And he heard the crunching sound of what sounded like something walking slowly in the snow toward him.

“I’m thinking, no, not elk, not bear,” Jenkins says. “Nobody else is up here, and they wouldn’t be walking in the snow anyway.”

The snow-crunching sounds stopped and Jenkins went back to adjusting his carburetor — until he picked up an awful stench — “It smelled really horrible in the breeze,” he says — and began hearing the crunching noise again.

“I’m sitting there working frantically, because I’m scared by this time,” he says. “And then I hear this heavy breathing. And I can smell it.”

Nothing happened. Jenkins got his snowmobile going again and motored away. He caught up with his friends and didn’t say a thing to them about it.

“I’m sure there are a lot more people out there that have had experiences but don’t want to say anything,” he says, “because people will think they’re fricking crazy.”

http://sportsyakima.com/2012/07/nachaes-ranger-district-worker-has-heard-it-all-inccluding-his-own-sasquatch-experience/

BFRO Releases 2011 Fish Lake Thermal Videos

"During the last evening of the 2011 Fish Lake BFRO Expedition, five of six individuals reported seeing a figure through a hand held therm" --BFRO.Net

In 2011 BFRO lead an expedition into the Fish Lake area, Fish Lake is near the Bluff Creek area in northern California. During this expedition 5 of the 6 members were able to spot a figure on a thermal camera for a full fifteen minutes.


Continued:  http://www.bigfootlunchclub.com/2012/05/bfro-releases-2011-fish-lake-thermal.html

Doubts about Bigfoot in Saltville

ABINGDON, Va. -The news spread like the proverbial wildfire recently. There allegedly had been a sighting of a Bigfoot near Saltville and some of the pros were coming to hunt the critter and film a TV program about it. The beast was the buzz of local gossip.

For anyone unaware of what a Bigfoot is let me set the record straight. No, I am not talking about my youngest brother, Ron, nor either of my cousins Buzz or Wayne Smith. Nor am I referring to either Gregg or Tim Sholes, all five of whom take about a whole steer hide to make them a pair of shoes. I am referring to the mysterious man-like beast referred to by numerous names in numerous cultures throughout much of North America and in the rest of the world as well. In the mountainous regions of Asia a similar creature supposedly exists in the Himalayan mountains where it is called the Yeti or Abominable Snowman.

The folks coming to hunt the critter were from Animal Planet. Generally I enjoy Animal Planet programs. They normally are professionally produced and scientifically backed. They tend to be well done educational programs about various types of animals inhabiting our planet. For that reason alone I was looking forward to the Animal Planet crew coming to Saltville to investigate a supposed "Bigfoot" sighting in the Saltville area. I had not really heard much about it, just that someone, somewhere in the Saltville area had allegedly seen what they believed to be a Bigfoot, the mysterious ape-like animal that turns up here and there. I had heard from someone that the critter was seen on Flat Top Mountain near what is called Aistrop Hollow. Flat Top Mountain has (I believe) 50,000 plus acres of wilderness. So it would perhaps be a suitable hiding place.

Read on:  http://www2.swvatoday.com/news/2012/feb/17/doubts-about-bigfoot-saltville-ar-1697601/

Knobby legend lives on: History of bigfoot sightings brings the curious to Casar (via Chad Arment)

Calvin Thompson
Monday, Aug 29 2011

CASAR — It's been five months since Knobby, the legendary bigfoot of Cleveland County, was last sighted, but many of the residents of Casar and the surrounding area are still feeling his presence.

"People think I'm more of a kook, is all," said Thomas Byers, who reportedly saw Knobby on March 22, and managed to capture grainy video footage of an apparently furry, brownish humanoid. At first, Byers was bombarded by news agencies and people looking for more information.

Byers claims he has since seen additional signs of the creature, and said he has a friend who has seen it multiple times while hunting.

Casar resident Tim Peeler says he saw another, taller hairy beast back in June of 2010, but has since grown tired of the publicity and the media attention.

"I don't like to talk about it no more," Peeler said, recently.

Byers said he has not let the media attention get to him because he is certain of what he saw, be it a real sasquatch or a hoax.

`It's good for the economy'

Casar store owners have capitalized on the creature's popularity.

"We need to be on the map somehow," said Tim White, owner of White's General Store in the Casar town square.

White's is one of the Casar stores that churns out Knobby memorabilia for residents and tourists alike. White sells Knobby T-shirts and "Git" sticks and said his store gets occasional visits from travelers from across the country.

Tourists interested in Knobby have actually garnered a lot of business, leading White's General Store to open the "Knobby Store" each year at the Cleveland County Fair.

"It was real good last year," White said. "Now it's not booming like when Mr. Peeler saw it."

He also holds two of the items which have achieved near-legendary status in Knobby folklore- the "Knobby Trumpet," a homemade device used to call Knobby, and the original "Git" stick, which Knobby witness Peeler said he used to ward off the creature. White said that the objects are the originals used by Peeler.

"It's good for the economy, if nothing else," said J.R. Smith, another Casar resident, and friend of White's. "There may be something out there; I ain't gonna say."

White is also undecided about what lurks in the forests around Casar.

"I believe he (Peeler) saw something," White said.

http://www.shelbystar.com/news/casar-57939-history-knobby.html

Bigfoot in Banff?

If nothing else, the news is bound to make big strides with the Banff tourism industry.

No longer will Alberta's best-known mountain park depend solely on breathtaking scenery and abundant wildlife to impress visitors and lure overseas tourists.

And no more envy towards other famous vacation spots like Loch Ness and Lake Okanagan, where legendary creatures are rumoured to lurk.

Banff now has Bigfoot. Lots and lots of Bigfoots, in fact.

Yes, it's an allegation that would have Ripley wondering whether to Believe it or Not, and P.T. Barnum reaching for his cheque book, but the mountains are a hotbed for the huge-footed primates.
That's the assertion of a dedicated bigfoot research organization based near Calgary, which claims not only to have video and photo evidence of the mythical beast, but DNA proof as well.

"When I first started, I was a skeptic, but not anymore — now I'm a wholehearted believer in the species," said Todd Standing, spokesman for the Sylvanic Bigfoot group.

Standing's allegations of a Bigfoot colony living near the border of Banff and Kootenay National Park will raise many eyebrows, but his evidence has piqued the interest of the Discovery Channel.
This week, crews from "Finding Bigfoot," a hit show on Discovery's Animal Planet channel, are filming in the Calgary area, and Standing says the upcoming episode will be centred upon Sylvanic's discoveries.

"We've had exceptional results and we're working with people doing DNA analysis," said Standing.
He says preliminary results from hair samples sent in for testing suggest an unknown species of primate, while video and photographs suggest a creature larger than a gorilla, with human-like features.

Of course, it's that latter evidence that's bound to have the skeptics taking sasquatch-sized swipes at Standing, particularly the photographs he says are proof of Bigfoot.

Paranormal footage, as a rule, is supposed to be grainy, badly-focused and jittery, as if the camera was assembled by Fisher-Price and mounted to the bumper of a gravel truck.

Not Sylvanic: Standing boasts a collection of sharp video clips and crisp photographs of Bigfoot, showing far, far more than the usual hirsute primate dashing behind the nearest bush.

Instead of blur, we get full-face portraits of the creature, peering from behind trees.

"I've had multiple interactions with them, and I've filmed them and photographed them on many occasions," said Standing.

"It's a real, living breathing animal, which I got within 60 or 70 yards of."

What the producers of Finding Bigfoot make of all this remains to be seen, as their quartet of sasquatchologists examines the Alberta evidence to see if it's on solid footing.

The show has gone across North America investigating sightings of the creature, with the network "committed to looking for the Bigfoot until it's found."

Standing says he has — though he knows his belief in Bigfoot and the proof he produces from the Banff backwoods opens him to mockery, derision and the suggestion he should sober up.
But he accepts the skepticism, because he originally joined the Sylvanic team with the intent of disproving the ancient story of an ape-like creature hiding in the wilderness of North America.

"I thought it was a combination of hoaxes and mistaken identities, and I wanted to prove it wasn't true," said Standing.

Now, he says Bigfoot is a fact — and within weeks, he hopes to have the DNA evidence to prove it.
"We hope to have results by October," said Standing.

If that's the case, tourism officials in Banff will surely be thrilled. As it is, they welcome the attention of the popular television show, saying any link with Bigfoot is a bonus for visitors.

"Anything interesting that attracts people is a good thing — it seems like some harmless fun," said Mary Morrison, manager of travel media relations for Banff Lake Louise Tourism.

"I mean, who wouldn't want to see a Bigfoot?"

Michael.platt@sunmedia.ca
http://www.banffcragandcanyon.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3280492

Bigfoot Sightings: Spokane River, WA / Green Mountain Falls, CO

Click for video

It's not wreaking havoc like the Mississippi River by any means, or all those little creeks in southeastern Montana that are really screwing people on the Crow reservation, but the Spokane River has officially topped flood stage, and may just have flushed one of nature's most (only?) elusive (fictional?) man-apes into the open.

Yesterday, a YouTube user with the handle Samantha13950 posted a video that shows hikers wending their way down to the river. The video then goes dark and asks, "did you see it?" The video resets and plays again, in slow motion. Yep, sure enough. In the upper right corner — conveniently and beautifully illuminated by a ray of sunlight — a black, hulking man in a gorilla suit real effing sasquatch!!!???!! figure of unknown provenance walks through the frame:

Samantha13950 says on the post that no one noticed Big Foot until after they got home and checked the video (if they taped the entire lumbering hike that must have made for a less than exhilarating editing room sesh).

The Inlander has a team of 80 forensic videographers checking on the authenticity of this. In the meantime, though, can I just make a plea, on behalf of Big Foot, for humanity to step up its game?

The sasquatch have been playing hide and seek with us for millenia, and it's pretty obvious who's winning. I mean, they're always right there, crossing into a clearing — dappled sunlight creating a halo of light that may as well be a flashing "Big Foot here" sign — just as there's a camera rolling. - inlander

UPDATE: Samantha13950 says she isn't interested in "[getting] involved in a news story," but she did tell us where the footage was taken, and with what:

"I will let you know that we were in downriver park where the big hill starts to flatten out down by the river. The video is from my iphone. I was filming my friends slapping at ginormous mosquitoes and trying to get through some thick weeds."

There's no visible slapping of mosquitoes in the video, but it would be reasonable to edit that out when the focus of the video shifted from insects to a giant lumbering figure in the woods. The comment string on the video is already full of cryptid hunters debating the merits of the video, so we'll leave the analysis to them. (The best conversation happens between someone named BFResearchSE and someone named DistendedPerineum, for what that's worth.)

NOTE: another day...another Blobsquatch. What are your thoughts? Lon

**********

Caught On Cam: Bigfoot In Colorado?

Is Bigfoot real? It’s a question that many have asked since the first sightings back in the 1800s when explorers began talking about an ape-like creature that walked like a man. Many scientists have brushed off reports that the creatures exists, and so far no real proof has been presented.

Daniel Masias hopes to be the one to prove Bigfoot’s exists. His fascination began in 1982 when he claimed to have seen two of the creatures near his Green Mountain Falls home one morning.

“In the winter, when there was snow, we noticed there were footprints. The prints didn't have shoes on them; they were just bare feet," he recalled. Masias described the creatures as hairy and less than 6 feet tall, but the footprints they left behind were not human-like. Masias said one creature has a foot span of about 12 inches, the other about 7 inches.

”So, not really big, about average human size," he said.

When asked why no one has seen these creatures or taken pictures with current technology, Masias said he thinks the creatures are coming through a wormhole, an intergalactic travel portal from one galaxy to another.

Masias isn’t the only one to have claimed to have seen Bigfoot. Ken French, a ranger for the Pikes Peak District, remembers seeing a strange creature near Centennial Point, near the summit of the peak. “I saw a dark uniformed color individual walking on the snow, and I stopped my tour bus and ask for binoculars,” recalled French.

He thinks the creature was about 1,000 yards away. "It was big and dark and it had a big gate, so it looked unusual to me.” French remembered that it walked like a person, but he felt it was odd at the time.

"It's not unusual to see people on a snow slope, usually on a ridge line walking, but you do see people up there occasionally, but it's usually a couple of people,” said French.

After the numerous sightings on Pikes Peak, ranger put up a Bigfoot crossing sign to warn visitors of what they could be in store for when they drive up to the 14,110 foot summit.

Masias is convinced he will get a picture of the creature, he thinks is Bigfoot. His motion-sensor camera already has snapped pictures that no one can explain, including one he said is an alien. - krdo - video available



http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2011/05/bigfoot-sightings-spokane-river-wa.html

Mysterious tall creature reported In Pennsylvania

March 29th, 2011 9:15 pm ET

Roger Marsh
Paranormal News Examiner

A new Bigfoot case was made available March 29, 2011, after paranormal investigator and author Stan Gordon interviewed a witness from an incident that occurred in Butler County, Pennsylvania, March 18, 2011, between Chicora and East Brady.

Gordon investigated the encounter March 21. Chicora is a rural area about 45 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Gordon is the author of the recently released Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook - the incredible case notes and investigator's behind-the-scenes look at the hundreds of UFO and Bigfoot reports that were reported primarily in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1973 and 1974.

The new case Gordon reports on today is very similar to accounts received throughout the Pennsylvania region over many decades - an unusual creature crossing a roadway and seemingly not interested in the motorist who happens by and watches.

From researcher Stan Gordon - in his own words.
www.stangordon.info

On March 21, 2011, I was contacted by a witness who reported having an encounter with a very strange creature during the early morning hours of March 18, 2011. The incident occurred on a rural road in Butler County between Chicora and East Brady. The witness, a businessman passing through the area, stated that “this was the freakiest thing I ever saw, and it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.”

The man told me that he was driving down the road when from about a qurter-mile away, he observed something on the right side in a grassy area. His first thought was that it was a deer. The driver stepped on the gas to move closer to get a better view. From about 50 yards away, he observed something that appeared to be hunched down, and then stood up. The driver then observed a very tall muscular creature.

At this point, the driver had his high beams on and watched as the creature walked in front of a yellow reflective road sign, then crossed the two lane road in three long steps and continued into a wooded area. What he saw was a humanoid figure that stood at least 8 feet tall that appeared to have smooth leather-like skin that was of either a darker tan or light brown color.

The creature never looked at the witness, and was only observed from its side. The head appeared to be flat in the front section, and then rounded out. “At the top back of skull, it was like one of those aerodynamic helmets. The top was not quite a point, but looked like a ridge on top of the head.” The face was flat, and the eyes were not clearly defined, but the man thought that they might have been pointed in the corner. The ear that was observed on the left side was long and flat, and came up and back and was pointed backwards like a flap.

The arms were muscular and a little longer than that of a human. The hands looked more like a claw, but the number of fingers was unclear. One physical trait that stood out was the extremely muscular legs. The witness stated that it was hard to explain, but the legs did not move like that of a human, and “looked like they bent backwards.” The witness also saw what appeared to be wings on its back which were tucked into its body, with the wing tips extending toward the side of its head.

No unusual sounds or smells were noticed during the observation which was estimated to have been about 7-8 seconds. As the motorist approached the location where the creature entered the woods, it could no longer be seen. The next day the witness decided to drive back to the location of the encounter to look for any evidence. The ground conditions were not suitable for tracks, and nothing was found. The witness did, however, measure the road sign that the creature had walked in front of. The sign was just over 8 feet high, and the head of the creature was estimated to have reached about 4 inches above the sign.

http://www.examiner.com/paranormal-news-in-national/mysterious-tall-creature-reported-pennsylvania

Winnipeg man claims Sasquatch sighting

By LAURIE MUSTARD, QMI Agency
Last Updated: January 8, 2011 6:30am

WINNIPEG - After a half century of nightmares, Winnipegger Archie Motkaluk, 70, has finally revealed the secret behind his decades of sleepless nights.

Christmas Day at home on Lipton Street, with all the family around him, Archie brought out a book containing handwritten notes and a drawing of the Sasquatch he had a very up close and personal encounter with back on December 29, 1960. One by one, the family took Archie's book into a room adjoining their dining room, and read details of the day Archie clearly remembers standing face to face, eight feet away from a female Sasquatch in the bush near Swan River, Manitoba, and wondering what was going to happen next.

Home for Christmas from attending school in Winnipeg, Archie was visiting his parents farm near Renwer, Manitoba (south east of Swan River) and had taken a team of horses and the sleigh to go chop some wood three miles or so into the bush back of the farm.

With the horses tied to some nearby brush, axe in hand, 10:30 a.m., Archie was chopping deadfall when about 400 yards across the clearing he was in, he spotted what he believed to be a man slowly heading his way, stopping every few minutes to examine the bushes. Wasn't quite sure what the guy was up to, but by the time the "man" got within a hundred yards or so, Archie realized his visitor was a Sasquatch, who, shortly after, confronted Archie in a manner that left him literally frozen in place till the fear subsided enough for both him and the Sasquatch to take a few steps back.

So why did he wait 50 years to tell his story? Seems Archie was recently watching a television program in which the guest declared there is no such thing as a Sasquatch, and Archie just couldn't let it go. He decided regardless of the outcome, it was time to share his experience.

His description of the event is fascinating, particularly when he details the physical appearance, and behaviour of his somewhat nerve-wracking forest friend.

Archie tells me the only person he ever told of his encounter was his mother upon arriving home that day, who got him to sit down and draw a picture of it, the same picture he displays at the front of his notebook, now featured beside a Sasquatch pic one of his grandchildren got online.

Following the interview with Archie, I called University of Manitoba Science writer Chris Rutkowski, to ask if he was aware of any other Sasquatch sightings reported from the area. He recalled Sasquatch sightings at Easterville in 1968 and 1970, one of them reported by a school principal.

Googling Manitoba Sasquatch sightings I also found another report, this one on video, from March of 2007 near Peguis.

So now, Archie's tale, as with all other reported sightings of Sasquatch/Loch Ness monster type experiences, is yours to believe, or not; dismiss or discuss; mock, or chock up as yet further proof that Sasquatch lives, and walks the woods of Friendly Manitoba.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2011/01/08/16810651.html

Bigfoot sightings return to Eugene, California and alarm residents

GARBERVILLE, California – It’s a big, hairy ape-like creature that has a distinctive fowl odor say those who claim to have encountered “Bigfoot,” or “Sasquatch,” as its commonly called. The creature is legend around the world, and especially in northern California where’s it’s been sighted on a regular basis for the past 150 plus years. Recent Thanksgiving week new sightings in Garberville and other redwood communities have concerned both residents and the California Department of Fish and Game.


At the same time, there's been recent reports of Bigfoot or a creature like it in and around the Eugene area. In fact, one local resident of the Eugene suburb of Alpine noted "seeing Bigfoot over Thanksgiving" while walking his dog in the woods near his home. Bigfoot has been a regular "visitor" to the Eugene area, say local U.S. Forest Service officials who've fielded hundreds of calls about Bigfoot in the woods of western Lane County.

Bigfoot responding to increase in tourism
One local media report stated that Bigfoot tracks were spotted near Garberville on Nov. 27 with massive feces droppings that were and not from a bear. In addition, numerous residents of the back woods area of town called police after hearing “terrible human-like moans coming from the forest.”

While the California Department of Fish and Game and local and state police departments are responding to recent Bigfoot sightings by locals and tourists in and around Garberville in Humboldt County, there’s a view around here that “Bigfoot will be Bigfoot, and that’s what he does from time to time,” says Garberville resident Ian Halmrast.

Still, other locals say they’re scared for both themselves and their children.

One local film maker from the L.A. area recently made a film about the legend of Bigfoot, and noted “it’s not aggressive when confronted by humans. The film maker also found evidence of Bigfoot kidnapping children from camp sites, but not harming them.

“There was this sound of food being scraped from a plate, and then an unbelievably loud cry as if someone was in pain. We ran towards it, and heard the sharp and brittle crack of the tree branches. We could then see this big thing run into the forest,” says Halmrast while breathing an exasperated sigh after the story he told.

Halmrast and others in Garberville -- a former logging and mill town in Northern California that was named “Dogtown” by the first settlers who arrived in this towering region of redwood trees back in the mid-1850’s – said there’s good reason to believe “Bigfoot is still out there.”

Garberville sits high in the mountains at nearly 550 feet where, say locals, “Bigfoot likes to hang out.”

During the recent Thanksgiving week -- with thousands of tourists and other visitors stopping to enjoy the redwood trees -- the recent new sightings of Sasquatch began to unfold.

“We first heard that he (Bigfoot) was back when a told us about a police report of something scaring people in the nearby forests. We all thought Bigfoot right then and there because we know it’s out there somewhere,” explains Deborah Dorsey who works in a local café.

At the same time, Dorsey notes that her brother Steve works at a nearby redwood tourist center that “markets Bigfoot” for tourists.

“Steve says he sells more carved Bigfoot figures and signs than most anything else during the busy summer months. While the police and the scientists who come up here discount the existence of the big guy, we know different because the stories have been going on for so long,” explains Dorsey who notes her grandfather telling her about Bigfoot when she was a kid more than 60 years ago.

Bigfoot is a legend with a long history in the Pacific Northwest and California
Anyone conducting research about Bigfoot or Sasquatch will find hundreds of thousands of references to the creature’s existence. Even accredited researches such as ape expert Jane Goodall have noted believe in such a creature existing both in North America and in various other places throughout the world.

Still, Bigfoot remains one of the most famous and controversial creatures in science today.

Those who’ve reportedly seen Bigfoot describe the ape-like beast as ranging between six to 10 feet with dark reddish hair and the weight and size of a big bull or cow. Those who’ve alleged to have seen the creature say it has large black eyes and a sort of cave-man like features.

Here in Garberville and other small town in the redwood forest region of Northern California the main claim to fame that Bigfoot is about “always seems to center on his footprints,” says local forester Wayne Cruthers.

“You get the tourists telling stories about spotting these footprints in the woods, and you just smile because you know that so many others also see Bigfoot foot prints but they don’t tell the cops or report it. You see, they’re not sure are they. It could be a bear or something. I think if we had a regular way to report Bigfoot sightings than we’d catch the thing,” says Cruthers who’s made it “a hobby to track Bigfoot legends in Garberville.”

Likewise, there have been numerous sightings of Bigfoot in 2010. The California communities of Mt. Lessen, Mt. Shasta, Weed, Round Mountain, Elk Creek, Caribou, Happy Camp, Clear Creek, Trinity Alps, Weaverville, Crescent Mill, Mammoth Lakes, Bear Valley, Eureka, Yreka, Fort Bragg, Orick and Crescent City have all listed reports to police about a “big, hairy beast walking in the woods.”

“We’ve seen photos of Bigfoot tracks that have a sort of claw look like a bear’s footprint. You sort of look in disbelief that such a thing could be around your home and kids,” says Cruthers with a helpless wave of his hands.

Bigfoot advocates, such as the noted crypto zoologist John Willison Green, have said “Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon that simply won’t go away"