They take sasquatch seriously

By Blair Anthony Robertson

They are tall, heavy, hairy, stinky — at least to us — and surprisingly nonaggressive. People say they must have excellent eyesight and a keen sense of smell.

They are very shy — either that or they roam and forage mostly at night. On the off chance they are spotted, they are almost never in a group setting. Same goes for the people who say they've seen them.

Whenever they leave behind footprints — big ones — people invariably rush out with plaster of Paris and make clunky castings. These creatures are the subject of books, Web sites and scientific papers and yet no one knows what they eat, how they socialize, where they live or if — and it's a humdinger of an if — they exist at all.

Snicker if you will, but Bigfoot is still a serious subject in some quarters, especially in Northern California, outliving the label of urban myth and withstanding all the mockery.

Beginning today, Willow Creek will host the International Bigfoot Symposium, attracting everyone from crackpots to tenured professors for two days of scientific findings, pseudo-scientific theories, spirited debate and the appropriate dose of folklore. Organizers say nearly 200 people had registered for the $125 conference as of midweek.

One of the most heated topics in Bigfoot circles is whether someone should actually kill one, present it to the scientific community for study and end the mystery once and for all.

Some say they have heard of people who have had a sasquatch in their gun sights but could not pull the trigger: The thing looked too human.

David Walsh, a longtime psychology professor at the University of Southern California, reported seeing a Bigfoot in 2002 while hunting wild pigs in Monterey County. Too surprised in the twilight to react as the creature disappeared into the woods that day, Walsh knows what he'll do next time.

"I have a rifle in my gun case specifically bought for that purpose," the professor said of his $2,500 .378-caliber Weatherby Magnum.

"I think every fish and game department in the country should sell lifelong licenses to hunt Bigfoot, and the minute one is killed, void all of the licenses and protect them. It wouldn't be too long before we had a dead sasquatch."

"I'm against killing one," said 79-year-old Al Hodgson, who used to run a general store in the Humboldt County town. "But you know something, they've done an awful good job of protecting themselves so far."

So good, in fact, that Bigfoot sightings in California appear to be drying up. Is it possible that Bigfoot will become extinct before one is even found?

"I haven't heard much. It just seems like a quiet year," said Daniel Perez, publisher of the "Bigfoot Times," a monthly newsletter.

Regarding the debate over killing a Bigfoot, Perez, whose newsletter has 531 subscribers, says: "What's the objection? Here's a chance to solve one of the biggest questions the world may ever know."

Willow Creek residents are divided on the overall issue. Some say they're reluctant to have serious conversations on the subject, fearing hurt feelings and heated tempers.

"I've been made fun of," Hodgson said.

But no one denies it's good for the small town's bottom line.

"I firmly believe in the economic impact of Bigfoot," said Jo Ann Hereford, a volunteer at the Willow Creek-China Flat museum, which has a popular Bigfoot display.

Interest in Bigfoot is such that the museum recently began operating five days a week, up from three.

Bigfoot enthusiasts are still smarting from Ray Wallace's death in 2002, when his family revealed that the famous footprints "discovered" 40 miles north of Willow Creek were a hoax, made with feet carved out of wood.

Believers say that although the hoax was bad publicity, it doesn't affect the numerous other sightings, credible footprints and other evidence.

Still, skeptics wonder why no one has found a bone, a carcass, an encampment, feces — anything that can be tested for DNA.

"Many prominent people in town don't believe," Hereford said. "We have business people who push everything Bigfoot, but the evidence hasn't persuaded them to believe."

One of those is Norm Evans, who has a Bigfoot mural on the wall of his Union 76 gas station and a 4,000-pound chain-saw carving of the creature out front, along Highway 299.

"It's a lot of fun, but I don't think there is a Bigfoot," Evans said. "There would have to be a Mrs. Bigfoot and junior Bigfoot, too. This country is remote, but people go into the woods hunting or growing marijuana, and no one has ever seen one."

That statement might be heresy at the International Bigfoot Symposium. Attendees would point to the landmark "Patterson-Gimlin" film shot in 1967 or the recent work of Jimmy Chilcutt, a fingerprint expert with the Police Department in Conroe, Texas, who says footprint castings he's examined have distinct dermal ridge patterns that are not human.

Chilcutt, 58, whose work is seen as giving the Bigfoot quest a badly needed shot in the arm, will be one of the symposium's most anticipated speakers.

"We just want to know what the truth is — with no fanfare or flash," Chilcutt said. "I have no interest one way or the other. I'm just telling the facts. The evidence I have examined shows there is a North American primate out there somewhere."

But where?

That's the question no one seems able to answer, and the reason for the growing call to bring in a Bigfoot dead or alive.

"When I was in the jungle in Vietnam, we wouldn't make contact with the Viet Cong unless they wanted us to," said Chilcutt when asked for his explanation. "I'm kind of proud of this guy. He has managed to evade capture for a long time."

Jeff Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, is one of the few in Bigfoot circles with serious academic credentials in the field. He has a collection of more than 150 plaster footprint casts.

"My interest and involvement have certainly raised some questions (among his colleagues), but my work is solid," he said. "I speak from a position of some credibility. At the very least, we owe it as scientists to give it a fair and objective hearing."

Walsh, the 56-year-old USC professor, says he didn't even think about Bigfoot initially when he saw the huge, hairy creature sauntering through the forest 18 months ago. At 6-foot-6 himself, Walsh says the creature stood 7 to 8 feet tall and weighed about 1,200 pounds.

When he met up with two hunters later that evening, "I wasn't about to say anything to these guys. They would have thought I was a raving lunatic."

But the professor is no longer afraid to talk about it. His brush with Bigfoot prompted him to read and study the topic in detail.

"I would say the odds are 99 percent that there really is such a creature living in the wilderness of North America," Walsh said.

And if that creature is discovered near Willow Creek, everyone there agrees it will be good for business.

From: Sacremento Bee, 12 September 2003.