North Bend… Part II

The men were clearly excited about the events here and in their enthusiasm decided to try and impress us with statements like they had 300 Bigfoot casts at their home and that they worked with THE John Green. One of them even pulled out a tape recorder and asked if we had ever heard a Bigfoot before. At first I thought it was a joke, like one of those fake furry animals in a small box with a trap door and chicken wire on it. But then they played a tape for us. I immediately recognized Jay Bartholomew’s voice introducing what sounds were about to be heard…the Puyallup Screams.

I told them that we had been working with Jay, knew all about the sound recordings and that my own voice was even on those tapes. They quickly got cold towards us and put the machine back in the vehicle and went back to work on casting the track.

Dave and I backed away from their claim and let them do their casting. We noticed some other tracks with trash nearby and walked over to them. Someone had tried to cast this track and destroyed it. It looked like the pieces of the cast were just left around the disturbed soil. We then noticed more trash in several other places.

Just then Lynn drove back in to the campsite. He got out with a smile on his face. Told us that Peter would be in later that afternoon and then motioned towards the others and asked what was going on. Told them what we knew and then walked back over to check on their progress.

Dennis and Dick were the only people we saw there trying to cast so we’d just assumed that this mess was theirs. Later we found out that the original discovers had also made casts of what they thought were the best ones, but right then we didn’t know so confronted these two about the mess. They pretty much told us to butt out of their business. Then they went on a rant about Peter Byrne, quickly talking to one another like as if we weren’t even there. Then they talked about a guy camping out here who had made the mess, left all the trash. They mentioned that it was some guy named Lynn, who worked with Peter Byrne. Not once did these guy’s ask for introductions… I mean Dick knew me but…

We left them alone and proceeded to follow the tracks from the beginning to the end again taking measurements and more pictures. We did notice that another man joined them later on, a Chuck Martin.

Getting hungry later on we went into North Bend proper and stopped at a roadside café for a bite to eat. We met up with Peter Byrne and Celia soon afterwards. We discussed all that had been found so far and the other players involved. Peter wanted to get to the site so we headed back up.

No one was there when we arrived. We once again looked at all the tracks and then Peter said we had a meeting scheduled with Joe in a little while so we should be heading down there.

We got to Joe’s place and introduced ourselves. He went over the story and showed us his casts. This only took a few minutes but Peter looked hard at the casts, shooting the breeze a bit when there was a knock at the door. Joe called out for who ever it was to come on in. The door opened and there stood John Green. I was shocked. Never met this man, this legend before.

Peter looked up towards the door and then back at us. He then thanked Joe for his time and got up to leave. Not a word was said between John and Peter as they passed each other near the doorway. Dave and I stayed rooted to our chairs. We weren’t about to give up hearing John interview Joe. Peter walked outside and closed the door.

We listened to his questions and wrote down some more of Joe’s answers. All too soon it was over and we all walked outside. John approached Dave and I and asked about our involvement in all of this and wanted to know if we would be interested in staying at a house in the Puyallup area that he would pay for to investigate the sounds in the area more. We told him we would get back to him about it but right now we had to get back to Peter. I don’t think that went over too well. Never heard a word about this house again.

After the meeting we all stood around our vehicles outside Joe’s and discussed what we should do next when a truck drove up. John was still in the back of Joe’s house talking.

NOTE: If you are wondering what all the references to musical groups and particular songs mean in my blogs, it’s just what I was listening to when I wrote it. I don’t think they have any hidden or special meaning behind them, but there may be something subliminal in their mention and so with that said…

Rick Noll About Rick Noll
Rick Noll has been actively searching for the Sasquatch since 1969 and continues his pursuit with extended field trips into the Pacific Northwest's most remote regions. Rick has worked with Peter Byrne, René Dahinden, Grover Krantz, John Green, Jeff Meldrum and the BFRO during all this. He helped with many documentaries on the subject including Animal X: The Skookum Expedition and Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.

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