July 12, 2007

Bigfoot or big phony?

Bigfoot or big phony? Seekers pay high prices

They marshal dozens of searchers, lug backpacks with elaborate gear and stomp through the most remote forests in search of the legendary, elusive beast.

The manhunt moves to the woods of the Upper Peninsula today following a rash of purported sightings of Bigfoot, the camera-shy ape-man that has been the subject of folklore for centuries.

The group behind the pursuit, the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, claims that it has spotted evidence of Bigfoot in all of its roughly 30 searches across the country.

But some Bigfoot believers — the purists among them — claim they’ve spotted something else. They claim that the group’s founder, Matt Moneymaker, is, well, a moneymaker.

He charges $300 per person for a weekend hunt.

The attorney-turned-Bigfoot-tracker escorts ordinary people through the woods with thermal-imaging equipment, video cameras, scent blockers, binoculars and audio recorders to detect a supposed Bigfoot call — a mournful yowl like a siren that can last three minutes.

“It’s a pretty compelling experience,” said Ric Hjertberg, 57, of Seattle, a regular tracker for the group. “We have pictures, but none that I would call of the undeniable-proof grade.”

The group claims to uncover evidence on every trip — sightings, footprints, hair samples and spooky wails that could only come from any of the 2,000 to 6,000 Bigfoots it says are roaming North America.

But some Bigfoot researchers are skeptical.

John Freitas, of Napa, Calif., said that the group used to research reported sightings at no cost when he was a curator for BFRO. When Moneymaker began charging for searches, Freitas and others left.

“My feeling is that if I charge for it, it somehow would cheapen it and make it less of a scientific venture,” said the 52-year-old, founder of www.Bluenorth.com, which claims to investigate the unknown. It runs expeditions without charging for them. “I’m a little disappointed.”

A criminal investigator by day, Freitas said that he believes Sasquatch — another name for the creature — is out there, but it hasn’t been proven. All the so-called proof has been subjective, he said.

He questions Moneymaker’s ability to find proof of Bigfoot so often — not to mention his claim to have seen Bigfoot.

Another former BFRO member agrees.

“There’s a vast majority of researchers who think his expeditions are more of a profit-motivated venture as opposed to a scientific type of venture,” said Steve Kulls, 38, of Queensbury, N.Y., a Bigfoot tracker and licensed private investigator who now runs www.Squatchdetective.com.

Moneymaker couldn’t be reached for comment, nor could the roughly 50 people who signed up for this weekend’s hunt in eastern Marquette County.

But Hjertberg, a member of the group, said that the fees pay for Moneymaker’s travels and Web site, bfro.net, which stockpiles thousands of reported sightings and displays grainy pictures of blurry, lumbering beasts that resemble Bigfoot.

“Our job is to present undeniable proof,” Hjertberg said. “Together, the evidence tells a compelling story that Bigfoot exists.”STEVE NEAVLING and AMBER HUNT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptotourism, Cryptozoology, Expedition Reports, Eyewitness Accounts, Sasquatch