"Many long and slimy beasts from forests, swamps and the depths of rivers must be essentially nightmares, whose true home is the unexplained terrain of the unconscious mind."
-Bernard Heuvelman, On the Track of Unknown Animals
The idea of Sasquatch has always been intriguing. He acts as the monster in North America's closet, peaking out when we believe ourselves to be in the midst of solitude, in our most private moments. He (and I use "he" as a matter of simplicity, though it could be really "they" or "she") is our primitive twin, lodged in cities of trees and highways of shrubs. He is known by many names, in many parts of the world, since the beginning of time. Native Americans have called him the boss of the mountains, while others have called him merely cursed, a left-over remnant from Adam and Eve who will never die. He remains a symbol, in which individuals may tack on their own anxieties or magic.
The existence of Bigfoot is not what this project will prove or disprove, and is not of interest to me at this point. Instead I hope to discover the meaning of Bigfoot, to understand his perceived intentions and how that reflects on a modern people who have become more and more divided from the fabric of nature.
I would like to deeply thank all the people who have taken time to answer all my questions and have shared their stories with me. A special thanks to Josh who tagged along with me for the whole ride.
Bigfoot: A Sketch
Bigfoot also known as Sasquatch, is generally found in areas of the Pacific Northwest (especially Washington State). This creature, as many cryptozoologists (people who study yet to be discovered animals) hypothesize, is a member of the presumed extinct primate group, Gigantopithecus, as evidenced from the Pliocene and Pleistocene fossils found in Southeast Asia (Pyle 4). The theory runs along the line that the Yeti of Asia and the Sasquatch are actually the same species, only the Sasquatch migrated across the Bering Strait to settle in North America.
Bigfoot legends have been circulating in North America for quite some time. Along with reports of a newly discovered continent, Leif Erickson, also brought back stories of a species of hairy, ape-like creatures. Native Americans have a rich tradition of Bigfoot, as well. The Kwakiutl call it Bukwus and Dzonqua, meaning "wild man" and "wild woman" respectively. Both Bukwus and Dzonqua haunt the woods, waiting to ingest souls or steal children (Pyle 7). The Hopi of the redwoods call him Ohmah. The word "Sasquatch" itself stems from tribes in British Columbia, meaning "wild man of the woods" (A&E).
Data taken from collective encounters of Bigfoot suggests the bipedal creature ranges from 6-10 feet in height, weighs around 400 pounds to a half ton. Females are about half the size of males. The feet, its trademark, range in size from fifteen to eighteen inches. Fur, which is about 4-6 inches long, can be an auburn, dark brown, to black color. The arms are quite long, but do not extend to the ground. Many people have described Bigfoot as having a strangely human face (Bigfoot Research Organization). According to one informant, this meant he had a human nose, not a flattened nose like other primates.
Many assume there is only one Bigfoot that tromps about the country in his misery. Yet this assumption has not been upheld in my research, Bigfoot is most often seen as a species. There are families of Bigfoot, though the social structure is not deeply understood.
Bigfoot folk
The concept of ethnography-making the strange seem commonplace and the commonplace seem strange-certainly applied in my research for this project. As a researcher I tried to check my own biases at the door, and let the stories unfold however the teller wanted them too. The tellers mainly consisted of two groups, those who I know or solicited help from in different classes at school, and those who have devoted their life to researching Bigfoot. The first group, which I will call the "eye-rollers", was made up of fellow-students, friends, and professors. This group did not have any first-hand Bigfoot stories and instead shared stories that they had heard from someone else. This "eye-rollers" scoffed at the idea of a real Bigfoot roaming the mountains, and chuckled when telling the stories.
The second group, in contrast, took the topic of Bigfoot very seriously. Almost all in this group had at least some first-hand experience with him, and some have devoted a significant amount of time in researching. This second group mainly consisted of informants I had found through the internet, involved with the Utah UFO Hunters, which investigates almost all paranormal activity in Utah that they can get their hands on. This group was extremely helpful, especially Darrell Smith.
Darrell who is not an actual member of the UUFOH group (rather an acquaintance) has been researching Bigfoot activity here in Utah for the last thirteen years. He has never come face-to-face with Bigfoot, but loves doing fieldwork anyway. Darrell, who calls himself a Bigfoot hunter (which strictly means tracking Bigfoot, shooting the creature is very, very taboo with this group----they consider it killing one of their own species) and his partner, Ryan Layton, have collected over 160 reports of Bigfoot, which they keep on three by five cards. He became one of my main informants.
This second group shared a common interest in almost all paranormal activity. The topic of Bigfoot easily bleeds into conversations about anything from aliens and skin-walkers to ghosts and chem.-trails. To put it simply, many informants boiled down to either being a believer in the supernatural or not. I didn't find one person who believed in Bigfoot and not aliens, ghosts, or some other paranormal phenomena.
An interesting point of conversation with Darrell was when he spoke of a ranch in Duchesne, UT where almost all the paranormal activity one could ever imagine occurred. It was literally a supernatural free-for-all. On this ranch UFOs would come and go as they pleased, at one point the rancher's son saw an alien step off the craft, who had the exact form of a Bigfoot. This item bridged the gap between the aliens and Bigfoot.
Patterns
There are three common physical elements in Sasquatch sightings which include: footprints, screams, and an ungodly smell. The visual, the audible, and the olfactory. Generally only one or two of these elements appear in each of the stories I have collected. Most of the informants I contacted did not have direct experience with the creature. The footprints encounters ranged from tracks in the snow, to a four-year old boy recruiting Scooby-Doo and Velma to investigate large tracks in the backyard. Other informants told of shrill screams, while pulled over on lonely canyon roads Another key element is the primal smell that wafts through the air which Bigfoot envelopes.
The location in many of the stories is generally remote. People who thought they were tucked away in the pockets of solitude, either fishing or sleeping under the stars, will suddenly realize they are not alone. I haven't heard any stories of Bigfoot hanging out in the midst of asphalt and Seven-Elevens drinking a Pepsi. But they may exist in some form or another.
My favorite element to Bigfoot lore centers on the feeling of being watched. An intuitional communication with the "other" occurs; an almost religious experience is underway. It is here where one's conception of reality comes under scrutiny. It is at this moment where the person in the story decides how to interpret mystery, either with fear (by getting out the gun), or with peace (by simply going back to sleep). This is the point where the individual is faced with the fact of the unknown. It is at this point in the story where the listener may get chills, and the teller will slow down, drawing out every word.
The Functions
According to Bascom's four functions of folklore, Bigfoot stories can fit into two main categories, education and reinforces/maintains worldview. Though the education component is not as practical as coral snakes proverbs and the like, it does exhort listeners to have common sense when camping or hiking. Bigfoot stories provide information on what to do if you come across a Bigfoot, (don't panic, generally Bigfoot will just walk away), what not to do (Bigfoot hate dogs) and so forth. Also Bigfoot, as Darrell told me, will only be aggressive if provoked. These stories also provide a blueprint of whom and what Bigfoot is which the public is generally not aware of. Aside from the large, hairy ape many know of, Bigfoot can be found in pairs, these stories provide us with more obscure facts, such as family life, their diets, their athletic abilities, and even their social aspects.
Besides the practical information that can be gained from Bigfoot stories, there is also the "take-home" or moral part of the story that helps to maintain a worldview. In this group, there are some anti-hunting stories in which a hardened hunter finds himself unable to shoot the arrestingly human-like Bigfoot. After his encounter the hunter reforms, and no longer practices shooting for sport. Darrell told me one such story (not included in the items) in which a man who had lived for hunting, much to his friend's shock, gave it up completely after a harrowing encounter with Bigfoot, which he won't talk in detail about to anyone. Subsequently, a few weeks after the incident his hair turned completely white from the shock of what he had seen. In these groups of stories, the hunters are in a way, scared straight.
The general American view of class structure was also challenged, one which states that highly educated people would never believe in Bigfoot. In one story ("Stanford professors meet the man") a group of esteemed, well-respected men, go on their yearly hiking trip and meet a Bigfoot who is shaking his fists at them, as if to say they ought to leave. This story is interesting because it contrasts the expectations of folklore as something that many falsely associate with the uneducated, lower-class, strata of society with the experience of the PhDs, (Stanford educated at that) as almost a validating formula. Perhaps, because these men were PhDs running into Bigfoot, a supposed figure of the superstitious sect, they were not welcome into the world of Sasquatch and along those lines, nature itself.
Other stories also had a theme along those same lines, including "Rag doll tree" and "The top-speed language of Bigfoot". Both of these stories have people in Sasquatch's realm, but not belonging there. These stories speak of the dangers of leaving your comfort zone and creeping into the bowels of nature. If one is not careful, they may meet up with the boss himself. Bigfoot, in these stories, acts as the protector of the forest. He enacts a defensive, territorial manner. Instead of extolling his human qualities as other groups of Bigfoot stories do, in these items he is portrayed as a large grimacing character, very savage and animal-like.
Along these same themes of invasion, many stories spoke of the dangers of Bigfoot coming into the human sphere. In these stories Bigfoot is found at doors and windows, in the backyard, or even a pig-pen. These stories generally give us a more curious, gentle image of Bigfoot. Either he is forced to come down into our human realm in search for food (such as pigs or kittens) or he simply wants to know who we are and how we live. The protector role is then given to those who occupy the invaded space, humans. Some stories involve trying to shoot Bigfoot down ("Supa' fly Bigfoot), others simply run away ("Hairy voyeurs"), and some hide ("Something's outside").
Bigfoot's reliance on humans for food may be interpreted in two ways: either we are taking up too much space (humans are greedy and selfish) or that Bigfoot, being our sort of primal twin, must still depend on us for existence, that we can't be completely separated. Perhaps, it could mean both, but what remains is the idea of connection with some relic of our DNA. There is an element of study in both these groups of stories, a quest to see "how the other half lives" so to speak.
Conclusion
Bigfoot stories are really about borders converging, borders which are not clearly marked but mentally understood. Bigfoot exists as the symbol of what we could have been if we were left in the forest. He is a marker from which we can track our progress and our distance from the dark world of nature. He has been described as savage, brutal, naked, curious, tortured, and gentle. Darrell told me a story of a woman and two children who had an encounter with a female Sasquatch. In the midst of the shock, came a gentle voice inside the mother's head telling her to stay calm, and assuring her neither she nor her little ones would be harmed. Despite these calm words, the woman took off, carrying her two children with her.
In this story Bigfoot takes on a spiritual element, almost a type of rugged guardian angel, and it is this image I will end with. Though in some stories we see a territorial, angry beast, in almost every encounter, the informants have spoken of the mystical, organic familiarity that surrounds a Bigfoot encounter. Though we may run from it, we can never truly escape the unknown. No matter how many cities and subdivisions we construct, we can never completely hide from our naked, hairy, primal self. Bigfoot is an integral part of us; these stories are told and re-told as a reminder of what we still are and of what we try to hide from.
Dave Rosenfeld November 5, 2002 Salt Lake City, UT (via email)
Memorate
Bigfoot at Moon Lake
Informant Data:
Name: Dave Rosenfeld
Gender: Male
Birthplace:
Home Region:
Age:
Relation to Collector:
Occupation: Self Employed
Avocation:
Religion:
Other: The informant will remain anonymous on more personal data.
Contextual Data:
Social: N/A
Cultural: I collected this story through emailing Dave, who is the president of the Utah UFO Hunters here in Utah. Besides UFOs, this group also tracks other paranormal activity, including Bigfoot, Bear lake monster, and other phantoms throughout Utah. This group gets together every month to discuss different supernatural phenomena in Salt Lake City, UT. Actual field work is performed by members, including an investigation of Bigfoot activity in Marysvale, UT. The evidence came up inconclusive. Though Dave specializes in Bigfoot activity, he has had a Bigfoot encounter as well.
Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a bi-pedal primate that is said to populate the Pacific Northwest of North America. Though this area seems to be the concentration of most Bigfoot sightings, there have been reported sightings in every state of the Continental US, and Alaska as well. Despite numerous sightings, concrete evidence of Bigfoot has not been forthcoming.
Item:
This item was collected via email. Neither spelling nor grammatical changes have been made.
Text:
My encounter with what I perceived to be two Bigfoot, was in the Moon Lake area of the High Uintahs in 1994. Walking back down the Brown Duck trail after a very long hike in the area. Me and a friend were making our way back down the mountain when we heard a "Barking" kind of sound. a low grunting like bark. We heard it but didn't think much of it at first.
Continuing down the trail we suddenly got this feeling that we were being watched. We both mentioned it, and looked around as we talked and hiked down. We kept hearing this soft "Bark" every so often about every 5-10 min. And the feeling of being watched grew. Muffled sounds were now being heard as well. about 5 more minutes went by... then a loud snap, like a tree limb breaking, as I heard the sound, I was instantly looking in the direction of the sound. As I looked into the thick pines were the sound came from, I saw two dark, hairy, head and shoulders, moving quickly away at about 40-50 feet away. Disappearing into the trees. It was brief, about 5 seconds. Now being that close I was certain it wasn't human, or a couple of bears. One was smaller than the other. They were quite silent while they were moving. except for the one loud snap, which came from their direction just before I seen them.
Looking back on it, I feel that they were possibly following us, just out of site. We heard the "Barking" for quite a while as were hiking down. And seemed to be just off to the side the trail, every time we heard it. I think maybe one of them stepped on a branch and made the loud sound, giving away their position, and they retreated. (Possibly?)or....?
I didn't see a face, or a whole body, just the back of their heads and upper torsos. They had a reddish brown color, long hair. muscular, and very quiet as they moved smoothly and purposely. We didn't smell anything, like some say, they smell real bad. (Maybe the wind was not in our favor) We had no intentions of going after them for a better look. We were pretty spooked but not really scared, and made our way quickly down the trail, we didn't talk about it on the way down or for the rest of the weekend. I think the only thing that was said was, "Did... Did you see that?" - "Yea" just after seeing them. I know every time we looked up at that mountain, during the rest of our stay, we felt uneasy and went quiet. Years Later, my friend still didn't talk about it, and we have lost touch since. I have never been back to that area. And to this day believe what I seen was two Bigfoot.
Darrell SmithDecember 5, 2002 Sandy, Utah
Legend
Hairy voyeurs
Informant Data:
Name: Darrel Smith
Gender: Male
Birthplace: California
Home Region: Sandy, Utah
Age: 58
Relation to Collector: Volunteered to talk to me
Occupation: Owns life insurance agency
Avocation: Hunting Bigfoot
Religion: LDS
Other: Darrell has been hunting Bigfoot for thirteen years (all in Utah). Though he has never had an encounter with the creature face-to-face, he has had come in contact with second-hand evidence, such as footprints (of which he showed me photos of) and hair samples. I met Darrel through Ryan Layton who is the Bigfoot researcher for the Utah UFO Hunters, though Darrell is not a member of the group, he and Ryan have been hunting Bigfoot together for a long time.
Contextual Data:
Social: All of the items collected from Darrell are from a two-hour conversation we had at a Denny's. Darrell seemed pretty relaxed in the presence of the recorder and seemed to enjoy telling the stories. He was a very animated, and knowledgeable about Sasquatch. Through his own research he has collected over 160 reports of Bigfoot encounters (either face-to-face or other evidence) which he keeps on three by five cards wrapped together by rubber bands and kept in a special leather purse. As he informed, you know a Bigfoot hunter by his macho "purse". Though I had never met him before, he was very friendly and willing to talk.
Cultural: Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a bi-pedal primate that is said to populate the Pacific Northwest of North America. Though this area seems to be the concentration of most Bigfoot sightings, there have been reported sightings in every state of the Continental US, and Alaska as well. Despite numerous sightings, concrete evidence of Bigfoot has not been forthcoming.
Item:
This item was collected via mini-recorder and transcribed keeping as close to the story as possible.
Text:
At the trout farm up there in North Ogden, after a lot of experiences around the trout farm, and their neighbors were having experiences and so on, these two boys were sitting in this little house, about thirty feet long, watching TV. And all of a sudden they both turned to each other at the same time and they said, "He's back." They could feel him outside the house, like maybe looking in the window possibly. They both felt him at the same time and they were afraid. After a while they said that one of his sisters would be coming up the lane pretty soon and the Bigfoot is right outside the house, they knew he was there, even though they didn't see him, smell him, or hear him. They knew he was there, they could feel him. So they went outside [explains dimensions of house using a napkin] let's say this is the house like this, it's only thirty feet long, they walked out the back door here, front door's over here, they walked out the back. As soon as they got outside they could smell the stench of the Bigfoot. They walked around to this corner of the house and looked toward the front door, which was thirty feet away, and he was standing there, eight feet tall, reddish-brown hair, big brown eyes, human mouth, teeth and so on. But this one didn't turn around and walk away; now this was thirty feet, that's like from here to the wall okay. Small house. He was standing there looking in the front door cause the wooden door was open, but the glass storm door was closed. He was standing there looking in the door at them watching TV.
And, anyway, but the Bigfoot instead of turning 'round walking away, swinging the big arms you know, like they do when they walk, this one just stood there looking at them, and the two boys stood there looking at him. And they said it's almost like we're hypnotized it's like they're frozen there. They are afraid but they couldn't move. But, him, the Bigfoot didn't walk away, it just stood there. So the two boys, Brandon and I can't remember the other one's name, I think they were about sixteen at the time, and this was after a lot of sightings had been happening at the trout farm there, they said we got to get outta here and their car was behind them and so they started walking backwards, keeping their eye on Bigfoot to make sure he didn't come at them.
And he still just stood there looking at 'em, and they knew he was eight feet tall because right at the side of the door is a seven foot tall evergreen tree and it just came up to his shoulder. So it had to be at least eight feet, if not more. But they were backing up to get into the car, cuz they're afraid and Brandon says when he was most afraid was when he had to turn around and put my back to the Bigfoot to put my key in the door. And then they opened the door and they both climbed in the same driver's side and they got in there and they sped down the lane. . . But they saw him, his brown eyes, his nose, his teeth, his genetalia, long brown, reddish-brown hair.
Miriam Bjork November 15, 2002 Provo, Utah (via email)
Legend
Bigfoot surprise
Informant Data:
Name: Miriam Bjork
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Bellingham, Washington
Home Region: Same
Age: 29
Relation to Collector: Friend's sister-in-law
Occupation: Homemaker
Religion: LDS
Other: Miriam is the person who initially got me interested in Bigfoot, as she is from the Pacific Northwest, she is a true-blue believer. On a trip home this summer we stopped by her house where she entertained us with Bigfoot stories all night. The stories I have were sent via email.
Contextual Data:
Social: n/a
Item:
I emailed Miriam and asked her to email me a few of her more personal Bigfoot stories. The item that follows is one of the stories, I have not made any corrections to it.
Text:
When I was 11, I went with my class at school and stayed overnight at
a "conservation site" in Whatcom County, Washington State. It was a place located in the forest, and it had a recreated late 1800's-style settler's cabin and logging mill, along with other things. The girls all slept in the settler's cabin at the site, and we had several mothers chaperoning us. That night, one of the mothers, Mrs. Frederick, told us a story of when she saw a sasquatch.
I don't recall how old she was when it happened, but she was old enough to be doing housework, like laundry or the dishes. She was in a house at the edge of the woods, somewhere in Washington state. The room in which she was working had a window that was about five or six feet off the ground. It was nighttime, and she smelled something bad, and heard a noise outside. She looked up at the window, and saw a very large, hairy head peeking in the window. She could see the face of the creature, and the hair was a reddish color. There was hair all over the face. As soon as she saw it, it ran away. She ran to the window, but it had already run off into the woods.
That was the end of the story, and Mrs. Frederick was a lady who liked to joke around, so I didn't know whether she had just made the story up or not. But you better believe none of us wanted to go out to use the outhouse that night!
Other: Miriam is the person who initially got me interested in Bigfoot, as she is from the Pacific Northwest, she is a true-blue believer. On a trip home this summer we stopped by her house where she entertained us with Bigfoot stories all night. The stories I have were sent via email.
Contextual Data:
Social: n/a
Cultural: Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a bi-pedal primate that is said to populate the Pacific Northwest of North America. Though this area seems to be the concentration of most Bigfoot sightings, there have been reported sightings in every state of the Continental US, and Alaska as well. Despite numerous sightings, concrete evidence of Bigfoot has not been forthcoming. The location of this item is interesting because the term "Sasquatch" actually comes from tribes of British Columbia.
Item:
I emailed Miriam and asked her to email me a few of her more personal Bigfoot stories. The item that follows is one of the stories, I have not made any corrections to it.
Text:
When I was 16 year old, in 1989, I went on an overnight hike with some other girls my age, plus two adult women and one man. We were hiking in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, and I believe we were in Eastern Whatcom County.
That night, the man who accompanied us told us a story about his encounter with sasquatches that had happened about 20 years earlier.
He and a companion were hunting on horseback deep in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia. It was something they had done before. This time, though, they were met by a group of "hippies" who were hiking out of the area. The hippies were not pleased that this man and his friend were hunting, and let them know so. A little while later, the two hunters heard the hippies yelling and howling on the mountainside as they hiked out, presumably to scare away any game. It was annoying, but they went on. Later on, (or perhaps it was the next day) they assumed the hippies had left, and went out to hunt on their
horses. This time, they heard howling again, but it did not sound human, or wolf-like (and it was daytime), or like any other animal they knew. It did sound like whatever it was, it was imitating the howls of the hippies of the day before.
After a while, they started to think that it was perhaps a sasquatch. Actually, it sounded like more than one, like they were howling back and forth as the hippies had done. But they never saw what was making the howling noise.
That night at their camp, the horses became very restless. They went out to investigate what was bothering them, and they smelled something awful, but they didn't see anything. They thought of sasquatches again, because they knew their
reputation for smelling foul. They brought the horses in closer to their tents, and they were able to settle down for the night. The next night, the horses set off an awful racket, and when the hunters went out to look, they smelled the bad smell again, and they also found some very long hairs on surrounding brush. They presumed they were sasquatch hairs. After setting up some lights around the camp and the horses, they were able to rest that night. They gave up hunting soon afterward, though, and left before they actually saw the sasquatch they thought lived nearby.
Alan Meyer November 6, 2002 Provo, Utah
Memorate
Bigfoot: a silent communication
Informant Data:
Name: Alan Meyer
Gender: Male
Birthplace:
Home Region:
Age:
Relation to Collector
Occupation:
Avocation:
Religion:
Other: The informant will remain anonymous on more personal data.
Contextual Data:
Social: n/a
Cultural: Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a bi-pedal primate that is said to populate the Pacific Northwest of North America. Though this area seems to be the concentration of most Bigfoot sightings, there have been reported sightings in every state of the Continental US, and Alaska as well. Despite numerous sightings, concrete evidence of Bigfoot has not been forthcoming.
Item:
Alan was a guest speaker for a Utah UFO Hunters meeting, though I was not able to meet him personally, I found out about him through the UUFOH website. I emailed him a request for his Bigfoot story and he emailed me the link to the following item.
Text:
A dark humanoid form was observed standing in the woods, just outside the campground clearing. Four of us were camping in sleeping bags, no tents, in a clearing recently cut by the Forest Service to develop a campground. No one else was in the area. It was in the early morning hours, perhaps 3am. My best friend and I had been talking about the strange atmosphere of the place and our wives were asleep. I was just dozing off when I suddenly felt myself jarred awake by a powerful feeling of a nearby presence watching us. I sat bolt-upright and looked directly at a large, humanoid form standing at the edge of the woods, about a hundred feet way. He/it was totally black. I could see no features, but the form was perfectly clear. At this point, my friend sat and looked in the same direction. "Do you see what I see?" I asked him. "I sure do," he replied. We continued staring at it, and it at us, for several minutes. Then I somehow got the "message" that it wasn't going to bother us, if we didn't bother it. I told my friend we should just lie down and go to sleep. He agreed -- and this may be the strangest part -- we both fell instantly asleep. At the time, I'd never heard of Bigfoot. I don't know what this being was and still don't. It could have been a Bigfoot. There are a lot of limestone caverns in the area and it was still very wild then. We didn't smell anything or hear any unusual sounds.
K. Michael Wright October 23, 2002 Provo, UT (via email)
Memorate
Rag doll tree
Informant Data:
Name: K. Michael Wright
Gender: Male
Birthplace: Ogden, UT
Home Region: Salt Lake City, UT
Age: 55
Relation to Collector: Kim is my father
Occupation: Computer Net worker
Avocation: Writing
Religion: None
Other: Kim writes in his spare time, mainly fantasy and fiction. He received his Master of Fine Arts in screenplay writing in 1988 from Brigham Young University. He also received his BA from BYU.
Contextual Data:
Social: My dad is known in our family as an animated storyteller. While we all have our doubts as to the validity of his tales, we have always been entertained. He would tell us (my brother and sisters) stories such as these when our family would go on camping trips. They were especially eerie around the campfire. As a little girl there was no doubt in my mind that this story was true, and my dad still stands by it to this day. This item is just one of the many stories my dad would tell and re-tell. These groups of stories were always saved for specific occasions, either road-trips or camping.
Item:
This item was collected via email (since my dad now resides in Boston, MA). I simply asked my dad about the story and he emailed it to me, I have included it without any corrections made (i.e. spelling and grammar). My dad has written this fairly close to the way he talks.
Text:
Okay, here's my big foot monster story--it really happened.
I'm driving down I-15, heading for LA, but I got a few personal problems on my mind. I decide I need a quiet place to pull over and think. It's just after dusk. I pull off into one of those southern Utah canyons, the one with the strange name, I wanna say Kobold Canyon, but it's been awhile so I can't remember for sure. Anyway, I find this place to park near some tall pines and I kick the seat back to think on my problems a time. I'm alone there--maybe there was another car in the scenic pull-out, but the car was empty. Awful quiet. No wind. I'm just fine about things though, needing to be alone, when I'm pretty sure I hear
this roar. It doesn't make me think of a bear or a mountain cat or anything I'm familiar with. To best way to describe it would be to say it was just--inhuman. Something inhuman. Being younger than I am now, and not as bright, I pop the glove box pull out my .41. Now, this is a Ruger .41 magnum and it's a fairly big horse pistol and can blow a real big hole in just about anything. So, I step out of the car, being curious and figuring if I find myself in peril, I have my good friend Mr. Ruger to back me up. Then I hear a roar like nothing I've ever heard, and this time it's not maybe a roar--it's RIGHT behind me and it's massive. Whatever made that sound had to be huge. Okay, now I'm the only thing out here, just me and whatever made this inhuman roar and I no longer feel brave. I turn, and just across from me, maybe sixty feet away, one of these tall pines is being shaken violently. This isn't the wind because only the one pine is moving. The top is just whipping back and forth, and I could hear it, whoosh, whoosh. I glanced at my .41 and it looked like a cap gun compared to what I was hearing and seeing.
Though I have not seen what was shaking this tree, I decide I have all the information I need about this particular beast and I slipped back in my car and got the hell out of Dodge. I didn't even dare look in my rear view for fear it would follow. It's one of those times when you really wish there was someone else around to witness what happened because no one's ever really going to believe this. And in LA, everyone who heard the story went "nahh." Looking back on it, years afterward, it's almost
like that couldn't have actually happened, but it truly did and I have absolutely no idea what kind of creature can grab a 40 ft pine and shake it like it was a rag doll.
Daniel Kimball SafstenNovember 21, 2002 Provo, UT (via email)
Memorate
Sasquatch checks out the Troop
Informant Data:
Name: Daniel Kimball Saftsen
Gender: Male
Birthplace: Bellingham, Washington
Home Region: Same
Age: 21
Relation to Collector: Miriam's brother (or my friend's sister-in-law's brother)
Occupation: Full-time student at BYU-Idaho
Religion: LDS
Contextual Data:
Social: n/a
Cultural:
This story takes place in Whatcom County where Bellingham is located.
Item:
This item was collected via email. Miriam emailed her brother, who then emailed her back, after which it was forwarded to me. This item has not been edited.
Text:
I was around 13 years old. I went up to Mt. Baker just below the glacier where we can camp. WE were the only people up there. We were getting our camping merit badge and we had gotten up to the camp kinda of late so we had to find a spot quickly. Two of my buddies and I were walking through the woods when we found a nice "hill". It was around 5 feet off the gound and about 20 feet across. We climb to the top and find a very nice piece of ground, which was kind of a shallow bowl shape, surrounded by small trees. We were amazed at the ground because it was totally soft dirt and there were no sticks and no rocks anywhere in a 15 ft diameter. We were stoked to have found just the perfect place. Well, the rest of our group hikes parallel to us about 300 yards and finds a nice place to camp. After we had gone to bed, my companions and i were
talking for about an hour, when we heard movements around us. We all became wired and were expecting an onslaught by our fellow troop members. We waited and waited but it never came. One of the boys and I were convinced it was our troop
leader. And we setteled down and just continued talking softly. My friend however was very nervious, he slept at the edge of the tent and could here the movments and sounds the best and he was scared out of his wits. He was always telling us to be quiet and to not move. He even started looking out the tent window to see if he could see anything. Eventually we all just look out the window casually. We saw a silhouette move across our line of vision but it wasn't worth jumping to conclusions. Myself and My other friend, who wasn't scared, evnentually fell asleep just because of lack of interest. But my other friend was still scared. You see the thing that was moving around us was moving around the base of the mound and was still quite a bit taller than the crest and my friend in the morning told us is was moving around the tent for at least 2hours. Well, in the morning, around 5am we had woken up and we had to use the restroom. My friend steps out of the tent and relieves himself when hurridly he calls back to us. "You guys, get out here now!" We get our shoes on and look up the hillside. About 150 yards away across a meadow and at the egde of the tree line was a large figure. It was dark and had the structure of a human. Since the distance was great we didn't see complete features such as hands or what not but we knew it wasn't a man because it stood completely still and was facing us. As i was staring i noticed somthing in front of my face. I pulled it of
the limb of a tree. It was a long hair around 4 1/2 to 5 in long and was not a girls hair. I showed my friends and they were all stunned, "What should we do??" My friends and i said, lets go get the scout leader and show him what we've found. We
bolted down the little mound and ran to the closest tent. We got our scout leader up and showed him the hair. We asked him if he was around our tent last night and emphasised that we needed total seriousness. He said that he, nor any
of the other boys had been around our tent. Then we told him to follow us. As we ran back to the place of our tent and look up the hill Nothing was there. There was nothing standing where we had seen the figure. In the commotion i lost the hair and I always kick myself that I lost it.
Thats it, I really feel I saw Bigfoot. There is no other way to explain a massive human-like figure up on the side of the mountain, the hair, and the harrassment the night before.
Brother Mineer November 18, 2002 Provo, UT
Legend
Scooby and Velma Investigate
Informant Data:
Name: Brother Mineer
Gender: Male
Birthplace: Midvale, Utah
Home Region: Provo, Utah
Age: 55+
Relation to Collector: Brother Mineer is my Doctrine and Covenants instructor.
Occupation: Teaches Doctrine and Covenants part-time at Brigham Young University. He is also a retired physician
Religion: LDS
Contextual Data:
Social: This story was told after class in a fairly informal setting. I had asked people in the class if anyone had any Bigfoot stories. No one did but Bro. Mineer. I just set up a time with him after class and he told me the story.
Item:
This item was recorded and then transcribed. I tried to keep it as close to the original as possible.
Text:
My grandson Zachary came in and told his grandmother that there were bear tracks in the yard, big bear tracks and uh, he wouldn't sleep. So I came home, he was quite concerned, grandma was concerned so I took him out and he showed me a track or two in the yard which we couldn't explain. So I asked him, "How did you figure these tracks came from some animal?" and I said did it come from, uh, he said it was a big bear like and ape, and I said, "Well was it Bigfoot?" and he says, "Yeah it had a really big foot." And I said, Zachary is four, and I said well tell me about it, and he said well, he was sitting in the house, and he said, "Oh my gosh I heard something" (this is a four-year-old saying, oh my gosh I heard something) "and so what I did is I got Velma (who is in Scooby-Doo) and Velma and Scooby-Doo went out with me in the yard and we saw those foot-prints and Scooby-Doo and Velma were scared too." And I can't talk him out of that, not only were those prints made by some big animal or some Bigfoot or a bear, but the cartoon characters from Scooby-Doo were with him, he swears it. So that's verified.
Lorraine Bolt November 11, 2002 Provo, UT
Legend
Stanford professors meet the man
Informant Data:
Name: Lorraine Bolt
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Salt Lake City, UT
Home Region: Orem, UT
Age: 55
Relation to Collector: Fellow student in an advanced writing course
Occupation: Self-employed
Religion: LDS
Contextual Data:
Social: Lorraine shared her story with me after I asked the class if anyone had any stories. The story was told in the classroom after the rest of the students had emptied out. It was pretty informal, she seemed a little nervous about the tape recorder at first, but became more relaxed as she told the story.
Item:
This item was collected using a mini-tape recorder, I then transcribed it. I have tried to keep it as close to the original as possible.
Text:
Okay I heard this story in 1965, I was a freshman at BYU and I was taking a speech and drama class and we all had to give a five-minute dramatic presentation which we were graded on and as I recall the teacher of the class, the Professor was Preston Gludhill, but that is neither here or there, he's not here anymore. I don't even know if he is still alive, but, a friend of mine whose name is Mindy Bois, and she was from California got up to do her presentation. She turned off the lights in the room and we only had light from the doorway coming in. And this was in the basement of the HFAC. And she started telling this story that she had heard from her father, she said now you have to understand my father is a professor at Stanford University and he has a group of friends who are also college professor, well-educated people that like to take summer camping trips together and go hiking. And so it wasn't like a lot of guys going off in their truck that had only a high school education. Her father was a professor at Stanford and he and his friends hiked in somewhere, and I think it was . . . it must have been in California. I don't know what mountain range it was or where the location was, but she told this story that was so creepy. But, (laughs) but I remember the feeling of that . . . it being really creepy. And that she told all these details about the preparations for the trip and, and how these men always take these trips but they hiked and hiked up a ridge. They hiked almost all day and then when they came to the top of the ridge they looked down, below them they could see a lake with an, with an open space where there were no trees where there was a shoreline of open space. And so it wasn't like they saw something in the trees, it was, they were high above. They had clear vision, it was still daylight and they could see down on the shore of this lake there was this creature that was walking back and forth along the shore, that had no clothes on, that looked really hairy and it was rather large and they thought that it was shaking its fist at them or making some kind of gestures of being of angry with them, like . . . "get out of my space" kind of thing. And, um, they couldn't believe what they saw, but they all saw it, they all checked with each other later and said, "you know, you weren't drinking, I wasn't drinking. We saw this thing," and they didn't know what to make of it other than, you know, that, there's always been those reports of sightings of Sasquatch or Bigfoot in, in the, you know, back in the woods somewhere and, uh, and then they have photographs that people say have been doctored, but these were just university professors on a hiking expedition and they saw this in broad daylight.
Missy Sourwine November 15, 2002 Provo, UT
Legend
Mom and Baby Bigfoot
Informant Data:
Name: Missy Sourwine
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Reading, PA
Home Region: Reading, PA
Age: 25
Relation to Collector: Roommate
Occupation: Nursing Home Aide
Avocation: Watching soaps and Disney movies
Religion: LDS
Other: Though Missy is from Pennsylvania, she calls her second home Blackfoot Idaho.
Contextual Data:
Social: This story was told to me in our living room, in a casual setting. Missy knew I was doing a project on Bigfoot so she related this story to me from her "Uncle" Pendlebury. She seemed pretty nervous on tape, as most people seem to be.
Item:
I recorded the following item and transcribed it. I have edited parts for clarity's sake, but have tried to keep it as close to the original as possible.
Text:
Okay, um, my friend Jenna, her dad's uncle, well, call him Uncle Pendleberry, heard that they smell, you could hear 'em, or yeah you could hear 'em. And you can smell them for like, miles away. They are located up in the Blackfoot/Wolverine area. He told me that there was a mother and a child in a trailer one day, and it was late in the evening, towards dusk, and they heard some noise outside and they were scared so the child and the mother stayed in the trailer as quiet as can be. Whatever it was outside, they didn't know what it was, so they stayed there. And the next morning they went out and they saw footprints of Bigfoot (small and big). Probably a mother and a baby, and they figured it had to be Bigfoot cuz of the size of footprints they saw. And that was up in the Blackfoot area.
Paul CannonNovember 18, 2002 Provo, UT
Legend
Giant footprints
Informant Data:
Name: Paul Cannon
Gender: Male
Birthplace: Fairfax County, VA
Home Region: Provo, UT
Age: 22
Relation to Collector: Cousin
Occupation: Full-time student at BYU
Avocation: Tele-marking
Religion: LDS
Other: Paul and his friends (Derek especially) spend a lot of time up in the canyons, specifically the Uintahs.
Contextual Data:
Social: This was told to me in the hallway of the cafeteria at BYU (the Wilkinson's Center). The setting wasn't very relaxed as there were people walking up and down the hall, chatting and whatnot. Paul also seemed a little intimidated at the sight mini-recorder, and even had to restart his story at one point.
Item:
This item was collected by a recorder and then transcribed. I took out excessive umms and uhs, for clarity and sanity purposes. Also I edited out a false start at the beginning.
The "they" in the story are Paul's friends Derek and Matt.
Text:
Okay, all right, well this was about four years ago. Ummm, yeah about, it should have been early winter, and umm, they were driving up to Matt Spark's cabin up by Sundance they were driving up there getting pretty high up and there was a lot of snow, and it was snowing. And they were in Derek's Suburban and it started to get a little too deep and they got out of control and they slid kind of off the road, so they got stuck. So they all got out and were trying to dig, dig 'em out, and push, push out the Suburban and everything. The headlights were shining into the woods and uh, Derek took off to go relieve himself and umm, and he saw these footprints in the freshly fallen snow, they were really fresh. And they were huge, like way bigger than a person foot. And he got freaked out and he screamed to his friend, Zach, and Zach came running over and um saw the footprints and he kinda like went out to try and see where they came from. And um, they just, they were just like a few yards away from the road. Umm, they just started from nowhere and they were just huge footprints. And like he was standing there watching them dig themselves out. And uh Derek and Zach started freaking out and they ran screaming back to the car where they were diggin'. And they got back just in time, you know, they jumped in the car and locked all the doors and went home crying. And all that good stuff, and it was freaky but umm, yeah. Giant footprints.
Darrell SmithDecember 5, 2002 Sandy, Utah
Legend
Supa' Fly Bigfoot
Informant Data:
Name: Darrel Smith
Gender: Male
Birthplace: California
Home Region: Sandy, Utah
Age: 58
Relation to Collector: Volunteered to talk to me
Occupation: Owns life insurance agency
Avocation: Hunting Bigfoot
Religion: LDS
Other: Darrell has been hunting Bigfoot for thirteen years (all in Utah). Though he has never had an encounter with the creature face-to-face, he has come in contact with second-hand evidence, such as footprints (of which he showed me photos) and hair samples. I met Darrel through Ryan Layton who is the Bigfoot researcher for the Utah UFO Hunters, though Darrell is not a member of the group, he and Ryan have been hunting Bigfoot together for a long time.
Contextual Data:
Social: All of the items collected from Darrell are from a two-hour conversation we had at a Denny's. Darrell seemed pretty relaxed in the presence of the recorder and seemed to enjoy telling the stories. He was a very animated, and knowledgeable about Sasquatch. Through his own research he has collected over 160 reports of Bigfoot encounters (either face-to-face or other evidence) which he keeps on three by five cards wrapped together by rubber bands and kept in a special leather purse. As he informed, you know a Bigfoot hunter by his macho "purse". Though I had never met him before, he was very friendly and willing to talk.
Item:
The tape used for recording this conversation was ruined, except for a few of the last stories, so the beginning of this story is taken from my own recollection of the conversation (as indicated by the brackets) and then the rest is in Darrel's own words, which I have transcribed verbatim.
Text:
[One day a pig-farmer up in Ogden heard a racket going on in the pen. Assuming that it was some hoodlums or a dog, he grabbed his gun and went out back. To his surprise there was a huge Sasquatch in the pen, palming a pig in each hand (like a basketball). He aimed right at him, and cocked the gun, but it didn't fire . . . ] which is about a one in a million chance of that ever happening. It would never happen to a hunter in your entire life. So I don't know how that, maybe God's looking out for Bigfoot, I don't know. But, anyway, then the Bigfoot turned and I think he might have kept one of the pigs and he was sprinting off like we would sprint, big arms and legs just pumping. Jumped a canal, jumped a fence like it was even there, they go over six-foot fences like there not even there, and then Jay [the farmer] says I can't believe how fast that thing would move. Anyway Jay took the next two days off, cause he was going up Coldwater Canyon to kill this thing. He's the only one I ever knew that actually tried to pull the trigger on him, cuz most people won't, I think he was pretty upset. And he spent two days on his horse up in Coldwater Canyon and he never did see it, but while he was up there he put the same cartridge back in his rifle and pulled the trigger, and the second time it fired. But you know the firing pin hit the primer in the center of the cartridge the first time, the primer should have gone off, but it didn't. The second time it did.
Darrell Smith December 5, 2002 Sandy, Utah
Legend
Kitty snacks
Informant Data:
Same as above
Item:
This item was collected via mini-recorder and transcribed keeping as close to the story as possible.
Text:
But if you go, if you go up Coldwater Canyon in North Ogden, and you look at any house, you talk to any house maybe ten houses south of the canyon, and ten houses north of the canyon. Every one of them will tell you Bigfoot stories because they come down to look at the windows at night they'll take the cats. Like they'll take a cat, kittens, and . . . well this one family up there, the mother cat had some kittens and they had some long logs up there, tree trunks that they were going to cut up for firewood. And the mother had her kittens under this pile of logs. These logs, three of us couldn't pick them up and move them very well. But the family already knew about Bigfoot in the area and they heard these logs being thrown around the backyard. And they didn't even go out there, cause, see they knew what it had to be. Anyway, he had taken kittens and he just grabs 'em like this [cups his hand] and skins 'em back like this [makes the hand motion of peeling a banana] takes one bite of them and what's left is the head and tail and he throws them down. But they found the cat and the remains of the kittens up and down the mountainside there as they went out looking for 'em
Darrell Smith December 5, 2002 Sandy, Utah
Legend
Bigfoot's speedy language
Informant Data:
Same as above
Item:
This item was collected via mini-recorder and transcribed keeping as close to the story as possible.
Text:
These three hunters, I think were in California, and there sitting in their camp and one of them brought a tape recorder, to tape-record birds and various sounds in the woods. And they could hear something big walking in the trees around their camp but far enough away that they couldn't tell what it was. And this thing, whatever it was out there, they could tell was mad. Bigfoot has a language, and they do communicate with each other, in a language, [edited] But, it's like if you, this Bigfoot was walking around their camp, and he was, it sounded like he was very upset. But he was growling, he was talking, he was in his own language. But it's like if you record your own voice and then play it back about three times as fast. That's what it sounded like. It sounded like: (makes a noise that sounds like he is being recorded on hyper-speed with a few low grunts added here and there) that's what it sounded like. It's almost exactly what it sounded like, I could play it for you sometime if you, but that's the actual recording of the Bigfoot around their camp. And they recorded about twenty minutes of this thing going around their camp.
Darrell SmithDecember 5, 2002 Sandy, Utah
Legend
Bigfoot land
Informant Data:
Same as above
Item:
This item was collected via mini-recorder and transcribed keeping as close to the story as possible.
Text:
Anyway I've talked to many people that's been in the mountains and the bird sounds stop the insects, the frogs, everything is just deathly quiet. And I know this person, I've known for a long time, and her and her brother and other people were up, they were hunting in the Uintahs somewhere and everything got really quiet and every one of them, I think there's three hunters there and every one of them could feel something behind them. They didn't hear it or smell it. They could feel it, and they all turned around at the same time, there's this big, dark brown, reddish-brown male Bigfoot standing down below them, at the edge of some trees watching them. But they could feel him before they even knew he was there and they all felt at the same time and turned around to see him. Well, they, most people walk the other direction or run the other direction when they see him even though they have rifles. But these three followed him into the trees and they found a campsite that they felt maybe was Bigfoot's. They found little cages made out of twigs tied together like with bark and things like maybe Indians might do. They figure that Bigfoot had tied these little cages, that they're like making little traps or something for small animals and they had grain at the bottom of these traps to trap animals. And there pretty sure that Bigfoot is the one that made these traps.
Also there's a barbwire fence there and they found this cowhide hanging over the fence, but the cowhide wasn't cut off the cow like we would do with a sharp knife, it was more like it was torn off the cow and laying over this barbwire fence. The main thing I am getting at is that they could feel it before, and it was a terrifying presence, I've talked to a lot of people that've been in the mountains and all of a sudden they are scared to death and they don't know why.
Autobiographical Sketch
I am currently a Junior at Brigham Young University, majoring in English. I became interested in Bigfoot this summer, when on a road-trip; I stopped at a friend's house who was from Washington State. During the stay at her house she brought up the subject of Bigfoot, telling bunches of stories, with eyes the size of pancakes. She renewed my interest in what makes people believe. Why do people believe in what they have not seen (at least in her case)? When starting this project, I was wishy-washy on the big, hairy friend in the forest. Being at the end, I cannot say whether I believe in it or not, but rather that I believe in belief. I believe my informants saw what they thought they saw. We have all got to have a little magic somewhere.
Bibliography
Bigfoot Research Organization. (www.bfro.net <http://www.bfro.net>)
Pyle, Robert Michael. Where Bigfoot Walks. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York, 1995.
