Bigfoot Bounty: A Year Later
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 16th, 2006
Bigfoot Bounty
A year after the one million dollar short-lived bounty for a Sasquatch photo, here’s a look back.
Hasbro produced this set in 1973, demonstrating a lengthy awareness by the company into Yeti hunts.
During mid-October 2005, a proposed $1 million reward for a photograph of evidence leading to the live capture of Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman (Yeti) or the Loch Ness Monster was discussed by the media, and caused quite a stir. Initially, the Bigfoot Bounty was to be used to announce Creature Appreciation Week later in the month, by the producers of the Duel Masters Trading Card Game.
However, some concern was raised by attorneys at Duel Masters/Wizards of the Coast. The Hasbro Toys subsidiary feared some cryptozoologists-in-training could get hurt in the frenzy to find and photograph one of the creatures or the evidence of one of them. Therefore, on October 16, the company had the Bigfoot Bounty withdrawn even before it was formally offered.
As I, Loren Coleman, was quoted by the Associated Press: “The media story on this bounty has caused an unprecedented worldwide frenzy in which, apparently, Duel Masters felt a monster hunter could have gotten badly hurt in the race for the million dollar bounty. No one wants that.”
Rather than offering a reward for what was being misunderstood as the capture of one the cryptids, Wizards of the Coast’s Duel Masters then launched a photo contest on October 24, for either photographs of the creatures or evidence of creatures, such as footprints, not tied to any capture requirement. The grand prize, to be awarded in February 2006, was $5,000, with other levels of prizes totalling another $4,000.
The story had many positive benefits and raised awareness regarding the protection of cryptids around the world, including reviews of old laws against the hunting of Bigfoot and Nessie. Furthermore, an old Swedish law against capturing lake monsters was declared no longer valid.
On April 17, 2006, it was announced that 13-year-old cryptozoologist-in-training Erik Starn of Wayne, Pennsylvania, won the top prize with his photograph (see below) of “Mothman.” Starn was awarded the $5,000 first prize in the Duel Masters Photo Contest sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS). While Duel Masters had originally promoted me as on a “panel of judges,” I was merely used to get people to submit photos. The judges were all Wizards of the Coast folks.
In addition to Starn’s first-prize-winning entry, which showcased a lurking Mothman in an ominous and vacant dwelling, Wizards awarded cash prizes to four other individuals: Nathaniel Hahn, 25 – second prize ($2,500); Rod Snider, 76 – third prize ($500); Beau Sedivy, 25 – third prize ($500); and Gary Rex Walters, 58 – third prize ($500). (I wonder what any of these people did with their prize money, and a followup someday would be intriguing.)
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Wizards of the Coast is a worldwide leader in the trading card game and tabletop roleplaying game categories, and a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast website.
DUEL MASTERS is a trademark of Wizards/Shogakukan/Mitsui-Kids. ©2006 Wizards/ Shogakukan/Mitsui-Kids.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Thanx Loren, I had heard of the supposed million dollar reward, but never could find anything about it that was concrete.
That’s a great photo! 🙂
Where is yhe pumpkin in the photo.or the Witch on a broomstick?
Does anyone know where I could view the other winners online?
that’s alot of money to give to someone for a picture of a person and a dog in an abandoned building.
Thanks Loren. I wondered who would win the consolation prize and the winning photo does look like a possible hoax.
However, Loren is right about the fact that someone could offer a large reward for a legitimate photo or video of Bigfoot. It could be done in such a manner via the web that submissions were done in a safe manner with little risk to the photographers.
This should be done in concert with Outdoor Photographer, National Geographic or another well known and respected magazine. This will reduce the chance of hoax photos as anyone involved in such a thing faces a long stretch in jail for felony fraud.
I’ve made several attempts to get different parties involved without much success but we’ll keep trying and who knows, maybe it will happen. Later gang,
LL
I don’t want to be spoil-sport, but it seems to me that there is something a bit distasteful about commercial companies getting lots of cheap advertising of the back of attention grabbing prize offerings (which they probably are convinced they will never have to pay out on)- the fact is I don’t think we need a reward to stimulate the attempt to document sasquatch et al. For a start, anyone who did capture such a creature would get all the fame and fortune they could ever want. Secondly, surely most of the serious researchers are not in it for the money (or an i just being naive?). And lastly, surely it really isn’t in the best interest of the animals (and probably wildlife generally) to have loads of bounty hunters roaming around the wilderness.
Things-in-the-woods,
I’m betting that most serious researchers are in it largely because the subject fascinates them, but definitely most searchers are also in it for other motives. Professionals like Grover Krantz or Jeffrey Meldrum for the fame and notoriety that would come from being vindicated in such a venture, and many others for fame also, and then a number for money.
Also, I doubt there would suddenly be “loads of bounty hunters” roaming around the wilderness. Many of the same people who would be lured by such a reward are those who could not be convinced such creatures exist. Why would someone waste time searching for a creature they don’t believe in. This vocation features very few people who spend any real amount of time in the field.
This also touches on the popular myth of hunters as drunken oafs blasting away at anything in the woods that moves. I’ve never hunted, but know people that do, and it’s a highly regulated, licensed, orderly process. You don’t just grab a gun and go a-huntin. There are distinct seasons, licenses, caliber of weapons you’re allowed, as well as hefty fines for disobeying the rules.
Seeing as the DOW officially disavows the existence of sasquatch, you can’t get a license for one. And since you can’t go hunting into the woods without a license for SOMEthing, it would seem, in effect, legally impossible to shoot one. Would bigfoot hunters really pony up the dough for an elk or bear license just so they could legally carry a huge rifle into the back country to get a crack at a squatch?