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.”
Comments
bigfoot has a way of following the money
Why-people-still-choose-to-ignore-all-the-proof-is-a-mystery.
To report a sighting go to BFRO.Net
To report a sighting go to BFRO.Net
To report a sighting go to BFRO.Net
Please spell check the article. Have some journalistic respect for your craft...
Like aliens, until I see one strapped to the hood of a Jeep, I'm a sceptic.
Torch, there is a vast body of irrefutable scientifc evidence of the existence of sasquatch, you don't need a body to prove it.
They should get solar powered trail cams put up that automatically send images to a base computer (year round) to solve this mystery once & for all.
Good lord, invest in a copy editor. There were so many grammatical mistakes in this article, it made reading it a chore. Thats the problem with all these pseudo-news sites; anyone that can barely string a sentence together can call themselves a "journalist."
Exactly right sir. Its just hilarious how they take themselves so serious, while the rest of the world just goes on with their live and actually do things that matter.
Who cares about Bigfoot. Even if it existed, who cares. Do people forget that people are in fact crazy enough to go around and pretend to be a Bigfoot? Havent you guys seen the numeral videos where its clear some moron in a suit is just messing about? Grow up, get real, and again, who cares...
Disturbing inhuman howls from the woodline eh, hmmm I would suppose a burst of high powered rifle bullets in that direction would settle the hideous man beast down some. I'm tired of these ape men terrorising the locals, maybe if one were caught and skinned and made ashtrays and rugs out of, they would be a little more considerate.
A "Fowl" odor - Like a chicken, or maybe a pheasant?
Agree with Jan, this article is a mess. I would never write anything ever again if this was the best I could do.
With the spelling and grammar checkers that exist today, articles like this should never happen.
Do us all a favor, keep your day job.
Bigfoot is not an animal, at least in the traditional sense. I've had numerous experiences with bigfoot just outside of Cottage Grove. I have seen it shapeshift into other animals and disappear into shadows or blend with the flora like a chameleon. It also has the ability to read your mind to some extent, and tended to make its presence known when I was most emotionally vulnerable. This makes the sightings difficult to understand at best, and led me to believe I was going crazy until I moved back into the city and all the interactions stopped.
These are vegetarian creatures. Why would anyone want to shoot them if they are endangered? That would be extremely uneducated and low class.
They are all over up here along Hood Canal and the Olympic Mountains of Washington, especially Lake Cushman, Dosewallips, Indianola, Green Mountain. There is a family of them that migrated through Indianola.
And NO, they aren't vegan. They eat shellfish (up here and along places like Tillamook, OR/Cape Kiwanda area), have seen picking crushed frogs off the road out by Ocean Shores and hunters in tree stands have spotted them chasing down herds of deer and elk (they migrate with the herds). The hunters say they chase down the "slow weak one" in the herd, tackle it and break their hind leg. Then eat it. They have also found deer hides in the caves (these things live in old abandoned mines and caves) and they use them for bedding and such just like the Native Americans who lived in the woods and lived off the land.
They are nocturnal, shy but curious, hang out in the tree lines and are adept at hiding behind trees and peaking out. They are naturally drawn to children and some of the females have actually tried to mate with humans.
They also have the DNA of one from a remote cabin in Canada that is 150 miles from any people. You have to fly with a bush pilot and land on the lake. After the cabin was trashed, they set a "boobytrap" of screws through wood to hopefully "poke through the foot of the human" doing the vandalizing and what was left was a massive, bleeding footprint longer than 18 inches. The boys in Canada are HUGE, some as big as 12 feet tall and pushing 1000 pounds.
A hunter and son spotting deer up along Hood Canal in Washington just got footage of a 10 footer on a cell phone. Derek Randles and those guys from the Olympic Project (they are professional trackers and hunters who used to find their prints in the middle of nowhere and where they knew no human had been), they have trail cams all over and have got photos. They are naturally curious and actually mess with the trail cameras.
There also was one out at the Copalis area (north of Ocean Shores, WA) that so terrorized a family, they had to move.
Even the bravest of dogs and bear are terrified of them. The bears clack their jaws at them as a warning.
On Mount St. Helens, the early loggers named an area "Ape Canyon" because of all the sightings and there was an attack on a bunch of them in a cabin one night. When the mountain blew up in 1980 or whenever, they retrieved thousands of dead animal carcasses from the blast, including sasquatch.
They are on the protected military bases too, most notably Fort Lewis, WA (where night patrol training personnel used to run into them routinely) and at I believe Edwards Airforce Base in California where they have infrared security systems that pick up their body heat as they scurry about at night. It is such a common occurence because they trigger incursion security monitors almost nightly.
These things are real.
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