[pct-l] Big Foot Hunt

[Tortoise73 at charter.net (Tortoise)]

from a friend:



Some years ago my father-in-law, Pinky Mathews, was manager of the Scott 
Valley Bank in Happy Camp. It was in a double-wide mobile home. He told 
me how the locals would periodically have a ?Big Foot? sighting when 
business as slow. Some of the best Happy Camp story-tellers would put 
out the sighting story and the community would be inundated with 
professors, journalists, tourists, hunters, scientists, writers, 
anthropologists and just plain tourists. Before putting out the story 
the local merchants would order extra supplies for the restaurants, 
bars, motels, gas stations, etc. Now, there?s almost no community as the 
eco-freaks have shut down the only source of employment, logging and 
milling. There is only one restaurant and bar, a card-lock gas pump, one 
grocery store, and one motel. But this movie maker has found a way to 
milk more out of the fantasy than Happy Camp ever did.

If anyone ever stopped to think about it, we?ve found bones, scat, dens, 
hides, and artifacts of just about every species that has ever existed 
on earth, from dinosaurs to Neanderthals to last year?s kills. But no 
one has ever found anything even possibly related to ?Big Foot.?




Expedition casts wide Net for Bigfoot

By Alex Breitler, Record Searchlight
August 11, 2005

HAPPY CAMP -- Tom Biscardi is on the hunt for Bigfoot, and you're 
invited to join him.

For a fee, that is.

The controversial Sasquatch sleuth has embarked on yet another 
expedition, this time in western Siskiyou County where a flurry of 
sightings has been reported in recent weeks.

This time, Biscardi is broadcasting his search on the Internet, saying 
he hopes to bring viewers around the world a genuine Bigfoot encounter 
-- like the one he claimed to have had near Burney earlier this year.

Happy Camp has mixed feelings about this Bigfoot business. Some boldly 
back Biscardi while others skewer him for inviting ridicule into their 
community.

"There's the old-timers that are saying, Yeah, there's something up 
here,'" said Vickie Schmalzbach, who owns JavaBobs Bigfoot Deli with her 
husband, Bob. "And then there's the group that says, Oh, brother.' "

Three cameras are documenting the 90-day expedition around the clock. 
The cost to viewers is $14.95 for a se-ven-day pass and $59.95 for all 
90 days.

Biscardi, a former show producer from Las Vegas, said he's been 
exploring the woods since Saturday. Braving triple-digit temperatures 
and swarms of mosquitoes, he's been busy clearing brush, positioning 
cameras and riding ATVs along what he believes to be a Bigfoot migration 
route.

He said he thinks two creatures living in the area are responsible for 
recent sightings, at least two of which involved motorists on Highway 96.

"We're very, very close," Biscardi said last week. "This is one of the 
hottest areas I've ever seen in my life."

Besides footage from his jaunts through the woods, the video feeds also 
feature locals sharing breathless accounts of Bigfoot encounters, 
re-enactments of those sightings and interviews with primate experts, 
Biscardi said.

Why charge the viewing public? Biscardi pegs the cost of the expedition 
at about $400,000 so far. He said he needs the money to pay his 
16-member crew and to purchase the equipment needed to hunt the beast 
and broadcast the adventure.

"This stuff didn't cost 20 cents," he said.

Biscardi, 57, has made ambitious plans to track and even capture Bigfoot 
in the past, including the use of net grenade launchers or even "sleep 
bombs" that would be dropped on the creature from the air.

This time he has a "secret weapon" that he won't discuss.

He will say that his broadcast has more than 40,000 subscribers, some 
from as far away as Ireland, Russia and Poland. Many likely found out 
about Biscardi's mission during recent coast-to-coast radio broadcasts.

He has already gained some notoriety for claims that he's spotted 
Bigfoot five times in more than three decades of searching.

Back in Happy Camp, some residents say their town shouldn't embrace the 
expedition, arguing it promotes the region for the wrong reasons. On 
Tuesday, a television news crew from the San Francisco Bay area toured 
the area with Biscardi.

"Those in town supporting this idea that Bigfoot exists are doing it 
simply to make money," wrote John Goodwin in a recent letter to the 
online Happy Camp News. "Guess what? Happy Camp looks ridiculous as a 
result."

Even some Bigfoot believers say Biscardi is a big faker.

"It's the phoniest thing I've ever heard of in my life," said longtime 
Bigfoot enthusiast John Green.

Green, who lives in British Columbia, won't be subscribing to the 
pay-per-view service.

"It's just a scam," he said Tuesday. "I don't think he (Biscardi) is 
even interested in looking for Bigfoot."

Green's skepticism is rooted in the fact that Biscardi has ties to Ivan 
Marx, a Burney hunting guide who claimed to catch Bigfoot on film in 
1970. The film was later deemed a hoax.

But Bob Schmalzbach -- whose deli offers "sandwiches that can satisfy 
Sasquatch" -- says Biscardi seems to be on the level. Heck, the 
56-year-old Schmalzbach has joined in the search.

His deli serves as headquarters and has become a clearinghouse of 
Bigfoot info, offering a place for residents to share their sightings in 
secrecy.

Happy Camp, population 1,100, hosts a Bigfoot Jamboree each Labor Day. 
"We have statues of Bigfoot," Schmalzbach said. "Everything's Bigfoot 
this, Bigfoot that."

But Schmalzbach guesses many residents who've seen the mythical monster 
don't want to come forward.

Biscardi said he hopes to add to Happy Camp's legacy. Folks can sign up 
for the Bigfoot broadcasts on his Web site.

Buyers, beware. The fine print offers this unusual disclaimer:

"This subscription does not guarantee that you will personally witness a 
Bigfoot encounter."


On the Net: For more information about Tom Biscardi and his pay-per-view 
Bigfoot operation, visit www.findingbigfoot.com.


Reporter Alex Breitler can be reached at 225-8344 or at 
abreitler@redding.com.