Finding Bigfoot: Video Evidence From Oregon
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on June 18th, 2011
Purported Bigfoot video that will be featured in this Sunday’s episode of Finding Bigfoot on Animal Planet June 19, “Fishing For Bigfoot In Oregon.”
Bob Welch
Register-Guard columnist
Before that day in June 2008, Caddis Fly owner Chris Daughters had guided his drift boat down the McKenzie River more than 2,000 times without seeing Bigfoot.
Nor did he notice a large, furry creature lumbering along the river banks on that particular trip.
But never underestimate the power of a mystery.
This Sunday, Daughters and his boat mate, Matt Stansberry, will be part of an hourlong “Finding Bigfoot” segment that’ll air at 10 p.m. on the Discovery Channel’s “Animal Planet” program.
Why? Because a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stretch of video taken of Daughters by Stansberry — neither of the two even noticed it until it was later called to their attention — shows what appears to be a Sasquatch-type creature on the far left side of the image.
If the Daughters-Stansberry footage hasn’t attained quite the same renown as the Patterson-Gimlin footage that triggered the Bigfoot debate in 1967, the pair’s YouTube segment has gotten more than 107,000 hits. In addition, Bigfoot-oriented sites that have attached the link have probably doubled that number.
“I think there’s something to it,” says Greg Hatten, a McKenzie River guide and winner of the 2008 McKenzie Two-Fly Tournament. “I can tell you this: I know guys who won’t run the upper McKenzie alone — and I’m one of them.”
“This one is reeeeeealllly interesting,” wrote someone at cryptomundo.com.
Others are skeptical. “There’s obviously another boat pulled up on the bank there with one guy standing by it,” opined someone else on the same site. “The other guy, ‘Bigfoot,’ is walking back to him from down the bank. They then begin speaking to each other. Bigfoot is even wearing a baseball cap.”
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so, it seems, is Bigfoot. But regardless of whether the video shows the real deal, the footage has only padded the McKenzie Valley’s burgeoning image as a Bigfoot hot spot.
All of which delights Daughters and Stansberry, who, at least off camera, remain skeptical that their video shows a bona fide Bigfoot but welcome the attention it brings to the McKenzie.
“Can’t hurt business,” says Stansberry, who maintains a fly-fishing blog (oregonflyfishingblog.com).
Wait, I suggested, some guides are already admitting they’re staying away from that stretch; couldn’t Bigfoot become to the McKenzie River what Jaws was to the tourist town of Amity — a reason to stay out of the water?
“If anything, more people will come because of it,” says Daughters, among the McKenzie’s most respected anglers and guides.
Like me, he’s a “ninety-five/fiver” on Bigfoot — 95 percent sure it’s a myth but 5 percent willing to be wrong.
“What surprised me was the number of people who, I realized, are highly interested in Bigfoot, like (UO golf coach) Casey Martin,” Daughters says.
Daughters, 40, and Stansberry, 33, were leading a group of other guides down the river on the day the video was shot. They were between Paradise and Ollalie campgrounds, on a Class 3 rapids known as “Fish Ladder,” when the camera caught the moving figure.
Not that either of them noticed it live or even after seeing the video. More than a year later a couple of guys at the Caddis Fly noticed the dark, moving image. The pair found a website for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and, almost as a joke, forwarded the footage.
Since then, the video has taken on a life of its own.
When first seeing the footage, “Finding Bigfoot” crew member Cliff Barackman of Portland found it “fairly compelling.”
The color seemed right — and so did the creature’s perceived lack of a neck. But after visiting the site and further analyzing the film, Barackman is more inclined to believe it’s a couple of guys, one of whom jumps up on a rock — perhaps to get a better view of the boat going through the rapids — and helps the other one up, all in two seconds, max.
“That’s the value of on-scene investigation,” says Barackman, who doubles as a sixth-grade teacher.
I reviewed the footage with Barackman’s insight in mind. I see more of a fleeting, dark figure than two guys on rocks, an image that — whether it is — certainly looks like a Sasquatch.
But, then, maybe that’s what darkens the shadows of the mystery, what perpetuates the Bigfoot debate: the uncertainty on both sides of the river.
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.
All you need to do to clearly discount this video as sasquatch related is look at the very last video segment where the film is slowed down. You then easily see that the so-called “auburn” colored BF is in reality clearly a man – who even looks like he is dressed like a typical fisherman. The second figure then must be a man but probably due to the time of day and angle of the video appears darker (black) because he is more in the shade. They also appear human sized to me so this video is absolutely nothing more than two men seen along the side of the river period. Anyone who doesn’t see that simply isn’t looking at this objectively.
I agree with William and Mr. Barackman, I think it is some curious fishermen wanting to see the boats shoot the rapids. However I applaud the Daughters and Stansberry for not jumping on the it’s a bigfoot bandwagon.
I will say that this is probably how we will get our next big piece of evidence. Someone just filming away and not even realizing what they just panned by. The fact that the camera didn’t immediately frame in on the subjects and continued filming the boat adds a lot of support that this is exactly what Daughters states it is. No one is trying to hoax anyone and they are leaving it up to people to decide for themselves.
If they are interviewed for Finding Bigfoot, I hope the post-production doesn’t slant this in a different direction. They both seem like level-headed, amiable fellows.
I thought this video was discounted some time ago.
I’m guessing that on the show they will state that it clearly is a bigfoot…then they’ll find a great footprint somewhere…then at night they’ll hear wood knocking or bigfoot sounds… yada yada yada…
I’ve never been able to take these blurry, fuzzy videos from a distance as credible in the slightest. Since most camcorders anymore take really high quality video…either all of these people have old camcorders or the videos are made to look fuzzy so people can spread some rumors and hype. My cell phone takes better quality video than what we see in videos like this.
Very interesting. The video is too blurry to draw an absolute conclusion, which is common with most supposed Bigfoot vids. You can’t really make out any physical shapes that would indicate a bigfoot or man-in-suit hoax (saggital crest, zipper, arms longer than they should be relative to human arms, and so on). I don’t really see the second black individual actually messing with the water when it bends down, though, and once again we are drowned with vids, eyewitness accounts, prints, and anomalous hairs but short of a body. We need to do better (assuming something is out there, or assuming that whatever Bigfoot is is not extinct. I don’t see the idea of Bigfoot as entirely a myth to be likely, considering the vast evidence, and sightings and other evidence is still collected, so I don’t think they are extinct. But we have to cover all bases)
I guess a skeptic might have this train of thought about this vid:
1. The film shows two blurry beings on a river (one at least is bipedal)
2. The film is too blurry to distinguish between humans (either hoaxing or misidentified) or Squatches
3. The only known Bipedal primates known in the world (let alone the area of Oregon) are humans
4. Sasquatch, if they exist, are rare, while their are over 7 billion humans on the earth
5. Therefore, the beings in the images are (most likely or absolutely) human beings.
It’s not a bad train of thought. I’m a little more open to the possibility of the vid showing Squatches, but not by too much to not be objective (Very well may be two people walking the river shore. Could explain why the boatmen didn’t notice them and go ape, pun intended). The only reason I haven’t fully discounted the vid is due to its blurry nature. However, due to such blurry nature, it cannot be used as evidence for Bigfoot.
Now, for the (Pseudo)skeptical folk, like those at the (Pseudo)skeptical enquirer, their train of thought would be more like this:
1. There is no Bigfoot, because we say so
2. Therefore the images are human
Or
1. There is no Bigfoot, because we rig research to show so
2. Therefore Bigfeet don’t exist
3. Therefore the images are humans
Who ever it is/was is only about 5 feet tall.
I don’t comment much, I am just wondering if I am looking at the same footage that everyone else is right? Where do you see a guy in a baseball cap? Or someone with a boat? Unless you all possess vastly superior computers, like defense department types I must be lacking? If you kindly see all this could you perhaps publish it on the site so I can glimpse it, it’s very easy to just say something like (a clear blob for instance) “the blob is actually two llamas involved in a mating ritual in one clearly is double striped while the other has violet colored eyes.”
I was wondering why there had been a recent boost of bigfoot videos. I guess it was so the show would have something to talk about and analyze.
This video was cleared up a ways back.
Seems where the part of the river figures were seen, was actually yards away from a campground and a road leading in.
There was even satellite images showing although remote, the area was accessible.
Maybe the economy being bad might have brought this video out of moth balls to drum up some summer tourist business, because there ain’t no “squatch” there.
I would hate to think that Finding Bigfoot would deliberately put proven explained videos on the show to increase viewers.
I remember taking a look at this footage when it first came out and examining frame grabs. While I can’t say for sure, I think the “auburn” colored one is a guy taking a dump on the edge of the river. The other one even looks like he’s got toilet paper in his hand. He even appears to be wearing a helmet. I wish I was joking. But I really think this is just a couple of rafters taking a break to answer nature’s call.
Of course it is either two bank fisherman or rafters taking a break. Unless juvenile Bigfoot are now wearing clothing like humans, this footage is nothing at all. It is a shame they cannot find something better than this to investigate. It’s not even a hoax, it’s nothing.
Not gonna watch the show, as usual, but I look forward to reading the comments posted here after it airs.
@CDC
Here’s what you wrote:
“This video was cleared up a ways back.”
WHO cleared this video up a ways back? Do you specifically know?
William, are they New Balance or Reebok? Which ones did he put on to fish w/ that day?