[pct-l] Bigfoot

[wandering_bob at comcast.net (Bob Bankhead)]

Throughout history, mankind has had only two reactions to the unknown:

    Investigate it
            OR
    Fear it  (aka deny it, destroy it)

Wandering Bob




----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Bighummel@aol.com>
To: <pct-l@backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 3:29 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Bigfoot


> Halloween is coming up and apparently Monte has been out in his costume
> already, again.
>
> >From National Geographic News;
>
> "Given the scientific evidence that I have examined, I'm convinced there's
a
> creature out there that is yet to be identified," said Jeff Meldrum, a
> professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University in
Pocatello.
>
> Thousands of Sightings
>
> Sasquatch stories go back centuries. Tales of mythical giant apes lurk in
the
> oral traditions of most Native American tribes, as well as in Europe and
> Asia. The Himalaya has its Abominable Snowman, or the Yeti. In Australia,
Bigfoot
> is known as the Yowie Man.
>
> Bigfoot advocates hypothesize that the primate is the offspring of an ape
> from Asia that wandered to North America during the Ice Age. They believe
there
> are at least 2,000 ape men walking upright in North America's woods today.
>
> An adult male is said to be at least 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall, weigh 800
> pounds (360 kilograms), and have feet twice the size of a human's. The
creatures
> are described as shy and nocturnal, and their diets consist mostly of
berries
> and fruits.
>
> Matt Moneymaker had been searching for Bigfoot for years. In the woods of
> eastern Ohio, he claims he finally came eye to eye with the elusive
primate.
>
> "It was 2 o'clock in the morning and the moon was a quarter full,"
recalled
> Moneymaker. "Suddenly, there he was, an eight-foot-tall creature, standing
15
> feet away, growling at me. He wanted to let me know I was in the wrong
place."
>
> Moneymaker, who lives in Dana Point in southern California, is a lawyer
who
> runs his own marketing agency. In his spare time, he leads the Bigfoot
Field
> Researchers Organization, a network of more than 3,000 people who claim to
have
> seen the Sasquatch.
>
> Unfortunately, no one has been able to snap a clear picture of the beast.
>
> Perhaps the most compelling photographic evidence of Bigfoot is a
> controversial short film shot by Roger Patterson in 1967, which appears to
document a
> female Bigfoot striding along a riverbank in northern California.
>
> "It certainly wasn't human"
>
> Now, Bigfoot advocates are increasingly turning to forensic evidence to
prove
> the existence of the giant creature.
>
> Investigator Jimmy Chilcutt of the Conroe Police Department in Texas, who
> specializes in finger- and footprints, has analyzed the more than 150
casts of
> Bigfoot prints that Meldrum, the Idaho State professor, keeps in a
laboratory.
>
> Chilcutt says one footprint found in 1987 in Walla Walla in Washington
State
> has convinced him that Bigfoot is real.
>
> "The ridge flow pattern and the texture was completely different from
> anything I've ever seen," he said. "It certainly wasn't human, and of no
known
> primate that I've examined. The print ridges flowed lengthwise along the
foot,
> unlike human prints, which flow across. The texture of the ridges was
about twice
> the thickness of a human, which indicated that this animal has a real
thick
> skin."
>
> Meldrum, meanwhile, says a 400-pound (180-kilogram) block of plaster known
as
> the Skookum Cast provides further evidence of Bigfoot's existence. The
cast
> was made in September 2000 from an impression of a large animal that had
> apparently lain down on its side to retrieve some fruit next to a mud hole
in the
> Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington State.
>
> Meldrum says the cast contains recognizable impressions of a forearm, a
> thigh, buttocks, an Achilles tendon and heel. "It's 40 to 50 percent
bigger than a
> normal human," he said. "The anatomy doesn't jive with any known animal."
>
> A few academics believe Meldrum could be right.
>
> Renowned chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall last year surprised an
> interviewer from National Public Radio when she said she was sure that
large,
> undiscovered primates, such as the Yeti or Sasquatch, exist.
>
> The Skeptics
>
> But the vast majority of scientists still believe Bigfoot is little more
than
> supermarket tabloid fodder. They wonder why no Bigfoot has ever been
> captured, dead or alive.
>
> "The bottom line is, they don't have a body," said Michael Dennett, who
> writes for Skeptical Inquirer magazine and who has followed the Bigfoot
debate for
> 20 years.
>
> Bigfoot buffs note that it's rare to find a carcass of a grizzly bear in
the
> wild. While that's true, grizzlies have not escaped photographic
> documentation.
>
> Hair samples that have been recovered from alleged Bigfoot encounters have
> turned out to come from elk, bears or cows.
>
> Many of the sightings and footprints, meanwhile, have proved to be hoaxes.
>
> After Bigfoot tracker Ray Wallace died in a California nursing home last
> year, his children finally announced that their prank-loving dad had
created the
> modern myth of Bigfoot when he used a pair of carved wooden feet to create
a
> track of giant footprints in a northern California logging camp in 1958.
>
> Dennett says he's not surprised by the flood of Bigfoot sightings.
>
> "It's the same kind of eyewitness reports we see for the Loch Ness Sea
> Monster, UFOs, ghosts, you name it," he said. "The monster thing is a
universal
> product of the human mind. We hear such stories from around the world."
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