Abominable Chicken Man

My daily commute takes me straight through downtown Bishopville, SC. If that name sounds familiar to you don’t be surprised. The town was made famous, more or less, back in 1988 with the alleged sightings of the Lizard Man at the Scape Ore Swamp. I’ve written about the Lizard Man in the past here, if you need a refresher. Last week on my way to work, I had to stop my car as a chicken crossed the road. 

Recognizing a golden opportunity for a joke, I quickly went to twitter to announce this. I suppose that’s a commentary on our current social media obsessed society, but I digress. Because of my extremely witty joke, Theo Paijmans, linked me to an interesting newspaper report which I had not heard of before. It’s the strange tale of the “Abominable Chicken Man”. A primate of unknown origin which apparently had a craving for chickens and was roaming around the Oklahoma country side in the late 60’s early 70’s. 

Probably not what was seen

The story was reported in The Spokesman-Review by Dennis Montgomery on March 1st of 1971. This encounter had occurred the previous December. Montgomery relates how a local farmer located in El Reno, Oklahoma suffered some loss and damaged property at the hands of this “Chicken Man”. Montgomery writes:

An El Reno farmer walked out to his chicken coop one day in December and found its door on the ground, apparently thrown there after being ripped off the wall.

On the surface of the door, and inside the coop on the walls, were a number of strange hand prints - like none he’d ever seen before. They were about seven inches long and five inches wide.

The farmer initially contacted a local game warden/ranger who was also at a loss to explain the origins of the hand prints. So the local zoo was contacted to see if they could offer any insight on what may have attacked the farmer’s chickens. Montgomery tells us:

Zoo Director Lawrence Curtis says the prints appear to be like those of a primate. A primate is an animal like a gorilla or a man that can stand erect. The thumber of the print is unusual. Curtis says it crooks inside, as if it were deformed or had been injured.

‘It resembles a gorilla,’ he said, ‘but it’s more like a man.’

‘It appears that whatever made the prints was walking on all fours. There were some footprints on the ground outside,’ he said. Whatever it was was barefoot. Barefoot in December.

This farmer was not the only one person to have come across similar prints. Montgomery notes several other individuals across Oklahoma who were said to have discovered the same, or similar, hand prints as the original farmer did. As to what this creature could have been, Montgermery relates:

Oklahoma has only for native animals big enough to leave such prints: the black bear, the mountain lion, the wolf and man. Curtis has ruled out all but the last.

‘We’ve shown it to several mammalogists and several wildlife experts in Oklahoma and some passing through. All agree it is a primate,’ he said. ‘These prints were made by some sort of a man, perhaps looking for chickens,’

Check this link in order to read the full article. Montgomery goes on to draw parallels between this “Chicken Man” and other Bigfoot creatures seen throughout North America. The chicken farmer never claimed to have seen the creature, only the devastation it left in it’s wake. There are a number of sightings of bigfoot-like creatures reported in the area in and around El Reno, Oklahoma. Did this famer have an encounter with the Bigfoot? It’s possible. Those hand prints certainly do sound quite large and the fact that the creature got around on all fours could possibly rule out a human culprit. Unless they were up to trickery, a possibility which I can’t deny.

The ‘Abominable Chicken Man’ never seemed to show back up. Maybe he had enough chicken? Maybe he went on a diet? Who knows? Either way, it makes for yet another interesting wrinkle in the Bigfoot story.

Further reading:

El Reno’s Dermals - Cryptomundo

Oklahoma - a Bigfoot Hotspot - From the Shadows

Bigfoot musings

The twitterverse (or at least the very tiny sub-section of people that are interested in weird things) was all a buzz today over the news that Justin Smeja, the guy who claims to have killed a Bigfoot, had successfully passed a lie detector test. According to the person that administered the test, this meant that Justin Smeja was telling the truth. Or at the very least believed that what he was saying was true. For many in the Bigfoot/Cryptid community this brought up a whole host of issues. Guy Edwards, writing on both Bigfoot Lunch Club and Cryptomundo, asked a very pertinent question with his article entitled, “Bigfoot Killer Passes Lie Detector Test. What Does it Mean?”. Personally I'm not sure that it means a whole lot of anything. Allow me to elaborate just a little bit. It seems to me that all the polygraph indicated was that there was “No deception detected” in response to the questions asked of Smeja. This tells met that Smeja certainly believes he killed a Bigfoot. However this is not the same thing as actually killing one. As a background to this whole issue Smeja claims to have shot and killed not only an adult Bigfoot, but also what appeared to be a juvenile Bigfoot. For a more in-depth look at this event you can read Jeffery Pritchett's interview for Examiner.com with Smeja. 

I'm not here to pass judgment one way or the other on this issue. In fact, this news got me to thinking about Bigfoot and the fact that I've never really had a chance to sit down and organize my thoughts on the big hairy hominid. And so I would like to take a moment or two of your time tonight and try to put down in writing were my opinion on Bigfoot is at the moment. As with any of my opinions on fortean topics, this is subject to change anytime, assuming new evidence comes along that causes me to re-evaluate the issue. Without further delay let's get started!

Undiscovered primate or Inter-dimensional traveler?

One last note, my thoughts on Bigfoot actually encompass all hairy hominids from around the world. So, although I will only be referring to 'Bigfoot' or 'Sasquatch', please understand that I also mean any other similar creature you can think of. Including, but not limited to, the following; Almas, Amomongo, Bukit Timah Monkey Man, Yeti, Yowie, Abominable Snowman, and so on. Thank you!

It seems likely that the most basic question to deal with first is whether or not Bigfoot is an actual flesh-and-blood creature or some etheric denizen from some other place. From the many reports I've read (and some of which I will be including below), I'm currently of the opinion that at least some (if not the vast majority) of Bigfoot encounters can best be explained by a creature that is altogether more paranormal than physical. We certainly don't seem to have much in the way of physical evidence for this creatures existence and as I said some of the reports can be quite bizarre. Please understand I said we don't have much physical evidence, not that we don't have any evidence. I know there are cases of hair, scat, and other very physical samples being collected from something that would seem to be quite physical in nature. However, most of these have turned out to be inconclusive at best or mis- identifications at worst.

So for the time being I'm content with having the opinion that there is a paranormal aspect to Bigfoot that is not typically taken into consideration, especially when people make claims of shooting one. As an example, here are just a few of the more bizarre/supernatural Bigfoot encounters that I was able to locate. Both of the following were found from a Google Groups post. The first example is from a Val Power, an anthropology undergraduate from Vancouver who wrote of her alleged Sasquatch encounters.

Too much has been written on too little direct observation. The focus of this report is the phenomenal aspect of the Sasquatch based on my two encounters in British Columbia.

REPORT #1

As we entered the forest via a well worn path, we both noticed and remarked that we could feel a pressure on the top of our heads. It was not uncomfortable but quite noticeable. The trail we were on led to a gulley and I knew this area very well as I was raised only three blocks away from it. Miriam and I would come here often on walks.

Once in the forest we did not walk more than one and a half city blocks. We spent time looking at the variety of vegetation and sitting on a log talking. This is not an area of thick undergrowth.

As we got up to continue our walk along the path, I noticed a log by which appeared suddenly, a Sasquatch laying on the ground facing the log. Its knees were slightly bent. Its fur was black. Miriam didn't seem to notice it and continued down the path. I got on my hands and knees because I wanted to get a good look at this creature.

I was only about a foot away from it at most, and close enough to comfortably reach out and touch it. Between the Sasquatch and myself was a visible, clear barrier. The bottom edge was approximately three to four inches from the ground. I did not look to see the height of the barrier nor the length, nor did it occur to me to see if I could walk around to see its face.

I wanted to reach out and touch its fur but didn't because I was unsure if the barrier would have an affect on my hand or my physical being.

As I knelt on the ground I heard a 'metallic' like 'click-click' and my eyes became as a microscope. Looking through this new heightened lens I could examine with clarity a single hair and how it fit into the light, creamy colored skin. Without touch, I could move aside a hair to examine it and know the thickness of its fur. There was no sound.

As I knelt on the ground, I was given a message or a knowing, "When the barrier touches the earth, the worlds will blend, and chaos will result".

As suddenly as it appeared it disappeared. I stood up and saw Miriam walking towards me. I asked her what she had been doing to which she replied, "Looking at a house in the trees". The house was small, on a branch approximately ten to twelve feet up in a tree. I didn't see the house and she didn't see the Sasquatch.

Later on in the article, Val analyzes what she believes happened to her and her friend during the events. It's a fascinating read and I suggest you check out the link to give it a glance yourself. The same Google Group post also has an excerpt from the book The Psychic Sasquatch by Jack “Kewaunee” Lapseritis.

[p. 27] This story was related to me over a six-year period through a series of letters, numerous telephone calls, and personal interviews. The account took place west of the Rocky Mountains; the names and places are changed to protect the family involved. These events occurred in the latter part of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Mr. Jeffrey and family are well established members of their community.

[p. 29] On the first night, they [the Jeffrey family] decided to walk along the lake after dark thinking they might see a Bigfoot further away from their trailer. After a while, they heard a banging of sticks on a hollow tree. Then loud thumping noises at a distance, as if something with huge feet was carelessly stomping the ground as it ran.

The banging on trees seemed to be coming from different directions, evidently by two separate individuals. The noise was heard repeatedly, which greatly perplexed them.

The Jeffrey family decided to hide in the brush in an effort to catch a glimpse of a Bigfoot. Before long, they were astounded by an ungodly cry [p. 30] unlike anything they had ever heard before.

What they observed in the moments that followed was beyond their wildest imaginations. They reported that the Sasquatch stepped out of the forest holding a flashlight device, and directed the beam up in the air while howling upwardly.

During this time, other unseen creatures hit their sticks against hollow logs making a loud drum-like thud. There were three bangs, then a pause; three bangs, then a pause – always three.

Within minutes, a round, saucer-shaped glowing object appeared on the horizon and hovered over the trees directly above the Sasquatch. The frightened family huddled in the bushes, observing the peculiar ritual.

There is a little bit more to the excerpt to be found on the Google Groups post, but of course to get the full story you'll have to check out the book. This particular account doesn't necessarily rule out a physical creature, but it certainly doesn't sound like an unclassified species of hominid. At least not in the classical sense of some kind of animal. This creature seems to have a pretty healthy grasp of technological understanding. Again, doesn't mean that the beings aren't from around here but that they are certainly stranger than we may know.

Just like any other fortean topic, my mind isn't entirely made up on what Bigfoot is. I do tend towards the explanation that there is some paranormal/supernatural aspect to Bigfoot that makes it far more than just another member of the hominid family. Cases such as the ones sighted above have definitely led me to this tentative conclusion. But like any good Fortean, I haven't completely settled into one camp or the other.

This makes my opinion on this whole Smeja/Bigfoot killing issue a little hard to pin down. Assuming that he isn't lying, as indicated by the polygraph test, then what does that mean exactly? It makes me wonder what he actually shot and killed. If the creature related in the above accounts is indicative of a Bigfoot, then how in the world did Smeja shoot them? Maybe he shot one of the biological Bigfoots (Bigfeet)?

These are just some of my random thoughts on Bigfoot. I realized that this post was getting a bit long so I'll be wrapping it up for now, but rest assured I will be returning to the Bigfoot issue from time to time in the future. As usual be sure to follow the links below for all of the additional information. Also let me know what you think in the comment section below. Do you think Bigfoot is some kind of inter-dimensional traveler or a surviving member of some long thought to be extinct member of the hominid family tree?

Additional Info:

Bigfoot Killer Passes Lie Detector Test. What Does it Mean?

'To Kill Or Not To Kill' Interview with Bigfoot killer Justin Smeja 

Supernatural Bigfoot UFO Connection - Google Groups 

The Psychic Sasquatch

Momo the Missouri Monster - 40 yrs On

I've been on a decidedly UFO-centric bent the last few weeks of posts and so tonight I thought I would leave that topic behind and head back over to the harried (or hairy pardon the very bad pun) world of cryptozoology. It would seem that no place in the world was safe from large hairy hominids. Australia has their Yowie, the Himalayas their Yeti, and the Pacific Northwest of North America has Bigfoot. Apparently not to be outdone it seems that the town of Louisiana, Missouri also has a hairy hominid that popped up for a time and then seemingly vanished back into whatever ethereal dimension these creatures call home. So let's travel back in time to July of 1972 and meet with Momo, the Missouri Monster. The first reported sighting of the creature occurred on July 11, 1972. According to The Kansas City Star:

The Harrison family lived in a house along what was then known as Marzolf Hill. On a hot summer day, 8-year-old Terry Harrison and his 5-year-old brother, Wally, were chasing their dog through the woods.

Suddenly, 15-year-old Doris Harrison, who was inside, heard her brothers screaming, ran to the window and saw a creature she described as perhaps 7 feet tall with dark hair covering its face. It held a dead dog under its arm and blood – apparently from the dog – flecked the dark hair of the beast. And, ooh, that smell!

“It wasn't a man and it wasn't a bear,” said Doris Harrison Bliss, now 55. “It was something …”

“Something you'd never seen before?” she was asked.

“Exactly!”

Something not seen before

It's at this point that I would like to point out a few interesting details about this case. First, in keeping with the hairy hominid tradition, the creature was quite tall and also had a fairly unpleasant odor to it. Anyone who is even cursorily aware of other sasquatch reports knows that both of these facts are in keeping with the party line, so to speak. However I'm sure many picked up on the fact that Momo was apparently feasting on someone's dog. Now I don't know about you all but I probably would not have stuck around much longer in the presence of an apparently carnivorous 7 ft tall creature. That's just what Doris and her brother's did, they got out the area and fast! This was not to be the last time that Momo would wield it's (probably) blood covered head however. With an apparent attraction to the Harrison family we find this piece of information from Prairie Ghosts:

Everything was quiet until three days later, on July 14. That evening, Edgar Harrison (the children's Father) conducted a regular prayer meeting in his home and about 45 minutes after it ended, heard ringing noises that sounded as though someone was throwing rocks into the metal water reservoir on top of Marzolf Hill. The reservoir was an attraction for neighborhood children but it was unlikely that any of them would have been playing there at that hour. As he listened closely to the sounds, he heard one especially loud ring and then an animal-like growl. The sound came closer and closer and was so loud that his family came running out of the house. They urged him to leave the neighborhood but Harrison wanted to see what was making the sound.

He finally gave in to his family's pleading and as he drove down Allen Street, he met about 40 people, some of them carrying guns, who were on their way to investigate the sounds at the reservoir. For some reason, Harrison shouted "Here it comes!" and the entire crowd turned away and ran. A number of people reported hearing the strange cries and screams that night but by the time that police officers Jerry Floyd and John Whitaker arrived on the scene to investigate, they found nothing out of the ordinary.

Later that evening, Harrison and several friends explored Marzolf Hill and found an old building from which a strong and unpleasant odor lingered. Harrison described it as a "moldy, horse smell or a strong garbage smell." In the days that followed, he and others would experience the same smell around areas where the bizarre sounds were heard.

Once again we have Momo conforming to some of the standard Sasquatch behavior. Many people have reported rocks being thrown around in areas that Sasquatch have allegedly been sighted in. After a few other people in the town began to have run-ins with Momo, the media (both local and national) picked up a whiff of the story (or of Momo, it's hard to tell which). As a small sample of some of the reports, The Kansas City Star says:

Reports of encounters began to pile up. A man claimed he was chased by a big hairy beast with red eyes. School kids said they saw it from their classroom window. Two women picnicking near the river said Momo chased them to their Volkswagen, then displayed the human-like intelligence to try and open the door before a blast of the horn scared it away.

Prairie Ghosts has an account of the last sighting of Momo that has been reported:

During the last week of July, a series of mysterious three-toed prints appeared on the Freddie Robbins farm, about eight miles south of Louisiana. No casts were made of the prints but they were protected until investigators were able to make diagrams of them. They would turn out to be an almost exact match of prints found a few days later. More tracks were discovered on the early morning of August 3 at the farm of Mrs. and Mrs. Bill Suddarth, who lived just northwest of town. In the middle of the night, they heard a high-pitched howling in their yard and ran outside with flashlights to see what was going on. In the middle of their garden, they found four prints from a three-toed creature.

Suddarth quickly called his hunting buddy, Clyde Penrod, who drove over and made a plaster cast of the print. Penrod, who was an avid outdoorsman, was puzzled by the whole affair. With the tracks being 20 feet away from anything else, he couldn't understand how they could have been made. They began abruptly in the center of the garden and ended just as mysteriously. It looked as of the three-toed creature had just appeared in the center of the garden and then vanished. No tracks were found anywhere else on the property and there was no sign that any prankster could have made them either. This was the last encounter with the creature and perhaps it is fitting that the "monster flap" ended on such an inexplicable note.

And with that Momo seemingly vanished back into the woods whence it first came apparently never to be seen again. What exactly did the people of Louisiana, Missouri experience back in the summer of 1972? It's hard to say for sure. The accounts all have the typically bullet points of a sasquatch encounters including; the overwhelming odor, the height, and the rock throwing. I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, at least to my knowledge, this is the only incident I'm aware of wherein a Sasquatch was reported to have killed and eaten something. If I've missed another report or account that I should be aware of please feel free to leave me a comment below.

Before I go I wanted to leave you all with one last piece of Momo-mania. A musician by the name of Scott Cooper composed this amazing masterpiece that was inspired by Momo. It's actually quite a catchy little tune, you can give it a listen here. With that I leave you for another night. Have a good one Forteans!

Further Reading:

The Kansas City Star article

Prairie Ghost Post

Obligatory ATS Thread

Yeti DNA to be probed

Yeti DNA is back in the news once more as Wired.UK is reporting that a new study is being designed in order to collect samples of the elusive cryptids DNA. According to the article, the Oxford University and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology are combining their efforts in order to find the best sample of Yeti remains that can be tested for DNA. As a part of their goal;

The Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project has been created to try and entice people and institutions with collections of cryptozoological material to submit it for analysis. Anyone with a sample of organic remains can submit details of where and when it was collected, among other data.

Once a reasonable database has been collected, the team will select the most interesting samples (hair shafts are particularly desirable, apparently) and ask the owners to submit them for rigorous genetic analysis. The results of these analyses will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

A member of Wolfson College, Oxford was interviewed by Wired.UK for the article and he seems to be far more optimistic than I am about their chance of determining anything meaningful. Bryan Sykes said quote:

"Mainstream science remains unconvinced by these reports both through lack of testable evidence and the scope for fraudulent claims. However, recent advances in the techniques of genetic analysis of organic remains provide a mechanism for genus and species identification that is unbiased, unambiguous and impervious to falsification. It is possible that a scientific examination of these neglected specimens could tell us more about how Neanderthals and other early hominids interacted and spread around the world."

If you happen to be a group or individual that has what you believe to be Yeti DNA you can go to the Project's website to find out how to submit your sample for testing. I wish that I could be a little bit more excited about this project and in some ways I am. It's great that a scientific body is taking an aspect of the paranormal seriously. Although I do have a couple of issues with this kind of project. I'm not a scientist by any means, but it's my understanding that at best in these kinds of DNA testing situations they will only be able to tell what the sample isn't. In other words, this isn't the first time that supposed Yeti, or Bigfoot, DNA is going to be tested. The results usually end up being that the sample isn't human, bear, or any other known large animal. Which I suppose is something. But it doesn't really tell us anything for certain.

Add to that the fact that I haven't been convinced that the Yeti, or any of the giant man-apes for that mattter, are necessarily a physical flesh and blood creature. After all there are some very paranormal reports of Yeti's that have been encountered over the years. It may be that we aren't dealing with a truly 'real' creature in some sense of the word. In which case DNA testing may not be all that easy. That's not to say that I don't think the project should not still go through with it. I could very well be wrong and there could in fact exist an undiscovered large species of primate that lives in the remote wilderness of the world. I wish them luck. At the very least they could rule out some spurious evidence. 

I for one hope that Jeffrey Gonzalez of the Sanger Paranormal Group submits his Bigfoot DNA evidence for testing. After my slightly negative review of Gonzalez's conference held last year to discuss his findings, I spoke with Greg Bishop who interviewed Gonzalez. In that interview Gonzalez told Bishop that he was looking for a place to send his sample in for testing and it sounds as though this could be his best opportunity to do that. You can listen to that interview at this link.

I'll certainly keep my ears to the ground on this story because it will be interesting to see how it develops in the coming days and months. Feel free to head over to the Project's website for more information about how to submit a sample if you feel you have one. Until next, this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying “Good night and good luck!”

Looking in from the outside

The following post is courtesy of Ashley Ruff:

During the three and a half years that I have been dating Tony I have had the joy of watching him explore the world of forteana, hopping around from theory to theory. While observing Tony research, I have learned that the majority of people involved in this field are extremely immature. Are they childish for believing that the moon may be a hollow satellite? No. Are they silly for thinking that a giant dinosaur might live in Loch Ness? Not at all. The majority of the people involved in this field show a lack of maturity by not working together AND for not picking up where the last generation of researchers left off by exploring new theories or evolving those theories further.

I don't know how many times Tony has come to me and showed me some website where one guy shared a new/evolved theory about God knows what and a million people tore that guy's theory apart, instead of bothering to entertain it or waisting time pointing out something silly like grammatical flaws-looking past the theory and dissecting the man. Tony has told me about countless arguments where people waist valuable time fighting over pointless details instead of using that time to work together. AND don't even get me started on the politics involved. Debating theories is one thing, but I couldn't believe how these grown men and women would argue a theory by typing stupid insults (some veiled and some not). I'll never forget when one of Tony's friends and mentors was verbally attacked via the listeners' comment section on a website due to his “rebellious” opinions. It wouldn't be so bad if these people were debating theories like adults, but they act like children with name-calling and completely unrelated insults. These people are too busy promoting their pet theories and defending them like their religion than to come together. Aren't they all suppose to be working towards the same goal? Uncovering answers or something?

I've learned that they choose not to work together: finding it more effective to bring each other down, laugh at the theories of others, and generally act like a group of preschoolers . Fine. It's easier for the alien guys to stay in their own group and for the cryptozoology guys to stay in their corner and then the paranormal ghost guys are off in some abandoned building looking for a ghost or something. Maybe all of these weird events have connections (or maybe they don't), but since these groups choose to do their own thing we probably won't know.

They can choose not to work together, fine, but for God's sake get some new material. It's sad that these people spend their lives researching theories only to come to the same conclusions that the generations before them came to. Pick up where they left off! Use their theories as a launching point! Obviously they didn't find the answers, right? So use what they know and keep going. Very few people that Tony has told me about (or that I have heard) have been able to move on. I don't know much about this stuff but I've learned that MacTonnies, for example, was able to move past the standard ETH (alien crap) and go on to the Cryptoterrestrial Theory. Even Tony has been able to move past the cafeteria tray of forteana and begin attempting to find the connections.

It's not that I'm trying to offend anyone, but maybe they need a little offending. I thought it was typical that people working towards a common goal would work together. I'm not even saying that people shouldn't disagree, but don't put a theory on a pedestal. It's a THEORY for a reason. And maybe they could argue their points of view like adults, and really would it hurt to entertain a new theory? As far as we know none of the other theories have proven to be true so why hold fast to any?

I'm a senior in college, one of those artsy-fartsy kids that always has paint on their jeans. Before I met Tony I had little interest (and still have little interest) in this paranormal stuff. I enjoy a WhoForted? article now and then, I've been known to listen to MysteriousUniverse, go on a supposedly haunted road, etc., but I think it's sad that it takes an outsider, someone with no real stock in this field, to point out these two, seemingly obvious, flaws. And yet so few people are rocking the boat by stepping outside of their comfort zones, including their pet theories, by collaborating. Perhaps if (and when) a Bigfoot guy could sit down with a UFO guy and compare notes, something NEW could happen for a change. But, hey, I'm just an outsider. - Ashley R

Bigfoot Dietary Habits

Following on the heels of my recent Interview with some Forteans, and in light of the upcoming premiere of 'The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching' film (see my review here), I'm going to try and bring you dear readers a Bigfoot related story every night or every other night. Tonight's entry is on the apparent dietary habits of the elusive cryptid. A woman from Michigan claims to have fed Bigfoot, among other things, blueberry bagels.

From the news article:

"They get fish every day, a bucket of fruit, a bucket of dry dog food," said Robin Lynn Pfeifer, a 47-year-old resident of Newaygo County, north of Grand Rapids. "Their favorite thing is blueberry bagels. If I'm not baking them, I go to different stores to buy them."
She said she has collected casts of many large footprints, but says the creatures are too shy and too clever for her to get a photograph. She describes the Bigfoots as ranging from six to nine feet tall and looking like humans, except for hairy coats and broad noses.

Even the famous cryptid can't resist this delicacy

Honestly, if you had asked me to guess I would have pegged Bigfoot as more of a blackberry bagel eater but what do I know right? More than just feeding the creatures however, she also is able to get castings of the creatures. But is unfortunately able to take a photograph of the elusive creature.

Be sure to follow this link for the full news article. And be sure to stop by The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching's Facebook page, especially if you live in the New York/Pennsylvania area to get tickets for this coming Saturday night (Oct 22) to see the second night of the world premiere of this soon to be classic film.

Until tomorrow night, be sure to keep those Bigfoot traps baited with all the blueberry bagels you can get your hands on!

Interview with some Forteans (no garlic required)

This past Saturday (Oct 2, 2011) I had the distinct honor and privilege to talk for an hour and a half with the always entertaining and enlightening Greg and Dana Newkirk of Who Forted? mag. The topic of the interview was essentially; Why Forteana? But more than that, it was a chance to get to know some fellow Forteans that are fighting the good fight against the way too serious Believers and Skeptics who, more often than not, muddy the proverbial waters with all of their posturing and ego stroking. While we had an amazing talk, due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to actually record the conversation that we had. But fear not dear readers for I took copious, at times confusing, notes of the interview. So if are willing to stay with me, come as we journey inside the minds of some “Gen-x debunkers”.

Both Greg and Dana's interest in paranormal phenomena grew out of the 'Ghost Hunting' craze that struck television in the late 90's early 00's. Greg's group GHI (Ghost Hunters Incorporated) came about through the efforts of a prank on a friend and contributor to Who Forted? Nick Foust. Meanwhile Dana was busy with a ghost hunting group of her own, the Kitchener-Waterloo Paranormal Research Society, which would eventually become known as The Girly Ghost Hunters. Under this incarnation Dana's group went on to have an internationally syndicated TV show. After a fallout between the two groups, I know shocking that in the paranormal field people can't get along, Greg along with members of GHI and Dana joined forces to create the Who Forted? that we all know and love. (For those of you at home keeping, it was Dana that came up with the amazing name “Who Forted?” rather than Greg's “The Knights of the New Fortean Right”)

Greg's interest in the paranormal grew out of a desire to scare one of his friends in a graveyard, but quickly became more than that. For Greg, even today, there exists a reality to the Ghost phenomena. What that reality may ultimately prove to be exactly? Well, Greg is the first to tell you that he remains unconvinced that “ghosts” are in fact the disembodied souls of Aunt Linda or Uncle Keith. Yet something is still going on in some of these cases. Going quickly from  this, Who Forted?  became (in)famous for their not always so serious approach to the paranormal. But honestly that's what I find so refreshing about them .While they realize that there is some reality behind the phenomena they investigate, they don't get bogged down by being too serious. Nor do they have any time or patience for all of the posturing and grandstanding that many in the field have made their livelihood off of. Best of all they are still looking for the story behind the story, or the human element that comprises it.


One of the topics that we spent a good amount of time discussing is the height and popularity of the so-called “Paranormal Media”, i.e. Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters International, et al. The show that dominated this portion of the conversation, wasn't one of these however. It was Paranormal State. The show has definitely been a polarizing entry into the paranormal world. As both Greg and Dana were quick to point out it definitely lead the way in the possible exploitation of persons who were likely dealing with serious issues, paranormal reality aside. Many of the people whose homes the investigator's entered needed some actual help, but from psychological professionals and not some undergrads from a college.

The main topic, however, was what exactly is important in paranormal research or the Fortean field. The shows that we discussed and the “field” in general, all seem to suffer this need for proof and perhaps, most depressingly, a lot of it is politics or a “pissing contest”. But they may be missing the most important part, namely the person at the heart of the incident. All too often people in this field are more worried about catching Bigfoot, seeing ghosts, or stroking their own egos, when maybe what's equally (if not more) important are the people involved. After all when I asked how much they thought any of these things were real, Greg said that the event is a real as the effect it has on the person. More often than not the story is the only thing that investigators have to work with. Hard evidence is often just as elusive as the phenomena itself.

At the end of the day, the time I spent with Greg and Dana was equal parts riveting, entertaining, and at times downright hilarious. They are some of the most level-headed people that I've had the pleasure of interacting with in this crazy field. I asked about their plans for the future; for the site, for their group, and ultimately for themselves. They want to continue producing better and better products, and most importantly continue entertaining other's and themselves. Before the conversation was over, Greg and Dana left a few words of wisdom for the rest of us. For Dana, success in this community is to always continue being curious. Greg wanted us all to remember that something is only paranormal until someone explains it.

The interview with Greg and Dana of Who Forted? was a nice change of pace. It's good to know that there are still some people out there who can walk that thin line between looking at something humorously, while not outright mocking it. Be sure to check out their site daily for some of the best commentary on the Fortean this side of Charles Fort himself. Additionally, be sure to check out their latest project that will be debuting soon, “The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching”. You can find my review of the film here, but be sure to head over to the Facebook page to keep up to date with all of the latest news about the film. 

Promotional movie poster.

 

The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching - review

Paranormal documentaries are just about a dime a dozen in todays world and finding a good one can be quite difficult. Luckily I had the opportunity recently to check out an early screening of the excellent film The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching. The documentary tells the story of Timothy Holmes founder of Southern Tier Bigfoot Watch and the Who Forted? Gang, in an earlier incarnation known as GHI or Ghost Hunters Incorporated, who joined him in the woods of southern New York in order to hunt the elusive cryptid.

Official movie poster

When the group first meets Mr. Holmes they are more than a little skeptical of him. Its pretty funny the first time one of them sees that Holmes is carrying a gun, and seems genuinely frightened of this prospect. But to Holmes, the gun is a safety measure to protect you from an angry Bigfoot. Also early on the viewer is introduced to Holmes's sometimes partner Becky Sawer of Searching for Bigfoot, who joins GHI and Holmes as they head up to the area known as Connecticut Hill.

It's at this area that Sawer and Holmes have had the majority of their Bigfoot encounters, so much so that Holmes believes the area is a paranormal hot spot. The Who Forted? gang spend quite sometime with Holmes and Sawer but ultimately end up empty handed in the evidence department. But that's not really what this movie is about.

Holmes is clearly the main subject of this film and as well he should be, he is a very entertaining individual. And often in the paranormal field, the personalities that are in it are just as, if not more so, fascinating than the mysteries themselves. The film is ultimately about one man's never ending quest to find the elusive Bigfoot, whether or not the evidence is out there to be found; Timothy Holmes will always be “Still Searching”

I can't recommend this film enough, it's so rare to find a documentary in the paranormal field that isn't either trying to debunk the subject entirely or worse looking for evidence under every rock and tree. The film strikes a happy balance between the two. Below is the official trailer for the film.

For more information about the documentary, such as release date and where to see it, please check out the Who Forted? Website. You can also follow them over at the Twitter.

Monday night blues

Well dear readers allow me to apologize for tonight. For whatever reason I can't seem to get focused enough in order to do a proper post. I will most likely be going to bed now as I am quite tired. Between work, class, the blog, and working on that magazine article (yes that is still in the works believe it or not), I have just about run myself completely down. It's possible that either tonight or tomorrow night there will be a guest blog by another blogger. I will be giving her the chance to write a post for you guys.

Other than that I don't have too much to say, today is definitely one of my off days. They happen every now and then. You know where its really hard to focus on anything? Yeah one of those. Oh and as a follow up to this post here, Greg Bishop interviewed Jeffrey Gonzalez on his Radio Misterioso show yesterday. And now the podcast is up for you to check out here. I suggest giving it a listen and then deciding for yourself what to make out of Gonzalez group's claim about their Bigfoot 'evidence'. Well that's all for tonight, until tomorrow night remember "No mystery is closed, to an open mind." Tim White (the sign off from Sightings)

Black Bear ur I mean Bigfoot Evidence Press Conference

Earlier this evening I had the 'wonderful' opportunity to watch the Sanger Paranormal Group's Bigfoot Press Conference via Live Stream. This was actually the first time I had watched any event by using Live Stream. I was actually pretty impressed by the site it's really cool idea. Basically it allows a person to give a live view of whatever event that they wish to show. As a matter of fact, I know of some podcasts that use Live Stream to allow you to watch them record. Anyway back to the actual press conference itself.

It was scheduled to begin at 7 pm EST, or 4 pm PST as the actual press conference took place in California, and since I had had a test tonight in my class I was able to get out early. I arrived home about 6:45 pm and noticed a tweet from Lon Strickler of Phantoms and Monsters (which is a pretty cool blog) mentioning that the Sanger Paranormal Group Bigfoot Press Conference was starting. So I dutifully followed the link to the live stream so that I would be able to relay to you dear readers, who were unable to view the conference, exactly what was going to go down.

The actual press event didn't begin until around 7:08 pm or so. During that time I logged into the Twitter chat that they had so that I would be able to live tweet what my reactions were to the “news”. So throughout this post I will be referring to those tweets so that you can get an idea of what exactly was going on during the event. Here was my first tweet:

Well that's debatable, the main guy just said we have the "best evidence" of bigfoot ever - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

The main speaker, I can't find his name, had made a reference almost immediately to the fact that they had, at the conference, the best evidence available proving the existence of Bigfoot. But rather than jumping right into that they spend the first 15 minutes or so showing footprints that could easily be a human footprint. After a couple of footprint photos they move on to footage of “Bigfoot”. I don't know exactly what a Bigfoot is supposed to look like however I will say that this image is clearly a black bear.

Clearly a black bear and not 'Bigfoot'

All the time that they were showing this footage of the “Bigfoot” the main guy continually made reference to the fact that this wasn't a guy in a suit. So much so that I actually made the following remarks during the event:

Me thinks he doth protest too much - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

"It's not a person in a suit" has been said more time than anything else thus far - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

It seemed pretty clear from the still photos and videos that they showed that their 'Bigfoot' was really nothing more than a black bear. So here we were not even 20 minutes in and already I was having some clear reservations about the whole fiasco. But hey, I'm an open minded kind of guy so I figured, “What the Hell? I'll keep watching” (soon I would come to regret this as we shall see).

At this point they just continued going on and on about the “Bigfoot” videos/photos from earlier. When it had gotten to that point I said this:

OK so we've seen the black bear, where is the Bigfoot? - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

The conference had been going on for about 30 minutes or so, so I decided to summarize everything that had taken place up to this point:

"Not a guy in a suit x 5, Black bear images x 6, and a bullshit story" Yep that sums it up - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

Finally at this point they graciously moved on to far more convincing “evidence”. Here is that convincing evidence:

Better than the Patterson-Gimlin Film?

Yep. In case you can't make it out, it would appear that the truck glass had been attacked by something with paws. At this point they handed the microphone over to a forensic expert who proceeded to give a a 15 minute explanation on how this smudge could have been a bear or a mountain lion, but it also could have been a gorilla. This was somehow proof that it was a Bigfoot, now to his credit the 'forensic' guy made it pretty clear at the end of his spiel that he hadn't ruled out that it was just a bear.

Get off my screen you damned dirty ape!

By this point I was getting ready to turn the thing off, it was obvious that there wasn't going to be any real conclusive evidence. (Not that I had suspected there would be, but remember this guy is open minded). But then my ears pricked up when I heard the word DNA sample. I have to admit I was a little excited. Not because the DNA could 'prove' a Bigfoot, after all you would need to have something to compare it to, but it would allow for them to show what it wasn't.

Now hang on to your hats because this is where things get too much for me to handle. Someone from the audience asked if they have had the DNA tested yet. The reason that they didn't do this yet was because of how expensive DNA testing can be. But never fear faithful Bigfoot aficionado, you can help them get this DNA tested. All you have to do is give them money!

Yes dear readers you heard correctly, they are asking for 'donations'. It was at a this point that my patience had been tried one too many times during this 45 minute conference. I actually left at this point. I would like to provide you a quote from Who Forted?:

Complete and utter waste of time. They've just asked for money. Accidental wide shot of empty chairs in hall. Game over. #BigfootPressCon

I closed the live stream window at this point, because I was done. Between the insistence that the figure “wasn't a guy in a suit”, the all too human “Bigfoot” footprints, and the request for money. I had had enough. Not surprisingly we are left with nothing more than what we he had before we began. So basically if you didn't catch the press conference, count yourself lucky. Now if you will excuse me I need to go look at some Billy Meier photos, at least the one-armed Swiss farmer tries a little harder than these 'Paranormal Investigators'. Good night fellow Forteans!

Bigfeet (or whatever the plural of Bigfoot is, Bigfooti?)

As I noted in one of yesterday's post, tomorrow evening on the east coast and earlier in the afternoon pacific time, Sanger Paranormal Group is set to release their 'evidence' of Bigfoot. Before the actual event, however, I would like to take a moment to point something out.

In their press release that Sanger Paranormal Group sent out to media outlets, I guess to stir up interest, they mentioned that their 'evidence' was the best the Cryptozoological community has seen since the Patterson Gimlin Film. So dear readers what I will be doing tonight is giving you access both to the Sanger Paranormal Group's 'evidence' and the classic Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot footage. My question to you will be, which do you find more convincing?

All I will say is this, if both are hoaxes at least Patterson and Gimlin put far more effort into their video. Without further ado here are the respective evidences. Let me know what you think!

First up is the Patterson Gimlin footage originally shot in 1967.

"Face print" of Bigfoot found by Sanger Paranormal

OK Forteans that is all for now, like I said let me know what you think about these two pieces of 'evidence'. 

Fortean Philosopher

-Tony