Habitat For Hominanity
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 25th, 2006
The Bigfoot Trap built in Southern Oregon in 1974 was party to some sprucing up recently courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service’s Passport In Time program.
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Volunteer Dave Enge, left, and forest archaeologist Jeff LaLande work on the 32-year-old Bigfoot trap near Applegate Lake, a project for the U.S. Forest Service’s Passport In Time program. (Mail Tribune / Jim Craven)
Located along the Collings Mountain Trail a half mile west of Applegate Lake, the trap was built by the long defunct Eugene-based North American Wildlife Research Team with a special use permit. The group was attracted to the area after a miner named Perry Lovell found 18-inch human-like tracks in his garden near the Applegate River. The creature reportedly had a 6-foot stride.
The trap caught no Bigfoot in its six years of operation before the Forest Service bolted it open in 1980 because of safety concerns.
When the trap was built, the Applegate Dam was yet to be built and the road was on the opposite side of the river, LaLande said.
"They were very serious about it," he said. "It wasn’t a joke to them. It was the real deal. They had the Bigfoot fever and wanted to catch one.
"They hung a rotting deer carcass or something up in the back of the trap," he added. "When Bigfoot grabbed it, the trap door would fall and send an electronic signal down at the cabin."
He was referring to the "watchman’s" cabin several hundred feet back down the trail. The moss-covered wood shelter is now settling into the forest duff.
"It seems a bit too close for comfort if you expected Bigfoot to show up," LaLande quipped.
Although nothing was caught except for a couple of bears, LaLande knows there are still believers out there. Moreover, the trap draws hundreds of curious people each year.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Just goes to show that Squatchy remains elusive because he is ‘smarter than your average bear’.
I don’t know why the so-called researchers wouldn’t continue to occasionally hang deer carcasses, surrounded by an appropriately placed array of hi-def game cams; forgetting the wooden enclosure altogether.
That way, if BF does turn up, he might be encouraged to return again, instead of having to escape entrapment. One tends to catch more bees with honey than vinegar.
Neat article.
Rotting deer? Why not a barrel of apples? Or carrots.
Maybe a nice pot of pork and beans — NOBODY can resist pork and beans!
I always thought that they went too small for their bigfoot trap. They should have built a life size travel trailer trap, with lights, tv, people, sounds, the works.
It should have pin hole cameras and a monitoring station at least a half mile away.Lleave the doors partly open with lots of food and meat laying around.
It would need to be moderately reinforced and have locking doors triggered by the monitoring station. Basically a bigfoot comes inside you hit a button and wala trapped bigfoot.
Think about it. So many remote trailers that people live in or use as hunting cabins are frequently visited.
You could have nets suspended in the trees to be fired at targets near doors and windows in case the visitor didn’t come in. Who knows? Maybe the nets aren’t a good idea as if you fired it at a visitor who didn’t enter he wouldn’t return. This place would definitely have cameras aplenty.
We can’t forget to have some traps or recording equipment around the monitoring station. Whether it be a separate UPS sized van or even another trailer.
All this could be installed under the guise of loggers in the trees for cameras or campers setting up camp, etc.
I think this would also mitigate the theory that the creatures can hear the high frequency sounds associated with electrical equipment. While, if this is true, a recording device would be out of place in the middle of the woods, such equipment would not be out of place in a residence.
I truly believe that this would be an excellent trap. It could easily be made mobile to be moved to any hot spot.
Did these people forget just how strong bigfoot is supposed to be? Given enough time and rage (for being trapped in something so small) I think even I could get out of that one. If the man on the ground is 6ft (hopefully for bigfoot he’s a little taller) then bigfoot would have to duck to enter and remain crouched the whole time. That’s one reason that didn’t work. Another is that bigfoot could probably smell human scents all over this thing, probably watched them build it.
Yes I agree should have built it a lot bigger but at least they took the chance and tried.
A pity it didn’t work, for while I understand the need for a body for proof. I am not all that sure it must be a dead body.
There’s no way a sasquatch would fall for that trap. I just can’t imagine it.
it’d be hilarious if someone found a giant armadillo caught in that thing.
shumway10973, I totally agree that outhouse couldn’t hold a roped-off Bigfoot for more than a few minutes. He’d also call for help.
Wow, chrisandclaudia’s idea was really impressive. Too bad I don’t have a few hundred thousand dollars just laying around to do this. Where are millionaire sponsors when you need one?
This trap would be a good setting for a Playmate shoot! Think of it… Beauties and The Beast! That is if the guest of honor makes it? Were I a BF, I’d come a runnin…
Or the trap could be used for ceremonial yearly BF staged captures. For a small fee, people could come and camp out nearby. Sometime after dark while all are huddled round the campfire roasting marshmallows amd whatnot, Bigfoot would come and get trapped. What a show! What excitement and all the funds could be donated towards BF research.
I’d say cameras too, cameras and maybe a banana on a string in stead of the rotting deer. Why would they want the deer to be rotting?
So you think that Bigfoot is rather a herbivore, than a carnivore?
That’s interesting to me.
I think that BF must be more intelligent than going into a trap like that.
Don’t think they’re herbivore, but there’s plenty of reports on sasquatch huntin, which they wouldn’t bother to if they preferred rotten meat, would probably just go for roadkill and such. If you’re not into rotten meat, wouldn’t you prefer a nice banana?
Yeah, why a rotting carcass? Unless bigfoot is a scavenger. And I also find it hard to believe an obviously intelligent creature such as this, which has eluded capture, indeed even decent photographs and video footage for so long would just blunder into this big, clunky trap. Even if it did, that thing looks a bit too flimsy to hold it for long. It’s a nice gesture though.
I also believe Bigfoot is probably an omnivore leaning towards eating plant matter. Most large primates are mostly herbivores and although they occasionally eat meat (chimps have been documented hunting small animals), it is certainly not the mainstay of their diet. Gorillas are almost wholly herbivores except for the occasional grubs and such.
“rotting meat” may be poetic license, if you will, on the part of the spokeperson for the parks. And, then again, one man’s “rotten” is another man’s “seasoned”. We always hang deer carcasses for at least a few days (up to a week in cold weather) to let it season.
If you ask me, the best and safest way to bag a big guy is with a good ole trusty tranquilizer dart. That is unless he yanks it out and throws it right back at you.
Wayne