Million Dollar Colorado Bigfoot Hunt A Hoax?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on May 20th, 2010
I had contacted the individual named in the below article to inquire about this event late last year.
At least I can only assume that it is the same person, as I sent an email to the contact email address listed on the “event” website.
I was inquiring about info for the Kendall Mountain Resort in Silverton that was listed as the location of the festivities. I couldn’t find any info and I wanted to know if there was lodging at the resort.
Per the “official” website:
Information
The $1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot will be held in the San Juan Region of Colorado on July 10-14, 2010 with Hunt Headquarters located at Bigfoot Central in Silverton, CO. approximately 50 miles North of Durango, CO. on Hwy. #550. Many sightings of Bigfoot have been reported in this area over the past 200 hundred years, with recent credible reports of sightings and personal encounters during 2009. Registered participants will be given (96) hours to locate and photograph a live Bigfoot within the Designated Hunt Area of a 100 mile radius of Silverton, CO. The first photograph presented to the Promoter and authenticated by it’s designated specialists, will win the $1,000,000.00 reward. Additional prizes will be awarded for photographs of Bigfoot Physical Evidence, i.e. tracks, shelters and the like as well as for Best Photographs of selected animals in the wild.
Check-In for registered participants will begin on July 10th., between 7-11 AM at the Kendall Mountain Resort Complex in Silverton, CO. The $1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot will officially begin at 12:01 PM on July 10th. and end at 12:01 PM on July 14th. The “$1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot” closing party will be held on the evening of July 14th. between 8 PM and 1 AM at the Kendall Mountain Resort Complex, with a catered Buffet Dinner, Drinks, Live Music and Dancing, and a noted Guest Speaker (to be announced), Bigfoot Swag and Door Prizes, Vendor Expo, and lots of fun for all. Bigfoot Central and the Legend of Bigfoot Museum will be open for viewing each day from 9 AM till 6 PM.
Registration
Registration is through this website. The $1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot is limited to the first (400) entries and Registration will close when available entries are filled. Entry Fee is $250. for (1) Designated Hunter. Additional T-Shirt/Museum/Party tickets are available for Family Members/Friends at $75. per person. Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover Card are accepted through our secure Google Check-Out.
Entry Includes
Maps indicating most recent sightings of Bigfoots within the Designated Hunt Area.
Official “$1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot” T-shirt.
Complimentary visit to the Legend of Bigfoot Museum at Bigfoot Central.
Dinner and Dance with Live Music at our “$1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot” closing party (supervised party for kids at adjoining location).
Bigfoot Swag and Prizes.
Bigfoot Memorabilia and Bigfoot Collector Item Vendors.
Noted Guest Speaker (to be announced)$1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot
In the email reply, I was told:
Craig;
No, but there is RV space available or several motel/hotels in Silverton.info@hunt4bigfoot.com
It sounded rather fishy, so I didn’t pursue it any farther.
Good thing I didn’t send my registration fee… 🙂
Town distances itself from million-dollar Bigfoot hunt
SILVERTON – For $250, photographers can enter to win $1 million for snapping a photo of Bigfoot in the mountains of southwest Colorado. The problem is the event’s supposed sponsors and host have never heard of such a thing.
The hunt, advertised through the website www.hunt4bigfoot.com, is the brainchild of Silverton-businessman Rick Lewis. He owns Bigfoot Central, a gift shop and “museum.”
Lewis is also the recent target of several cease-and-desist letters from companies and government organizations that he implied were sponsors of his event.
The $1,000,000 Hunt For Bigfoot offered a chance for 400 participants, for $250 apiece, to win the bounty for catching Bigfoot in a photograph during a July 10-14 event at Kendall Mountain Resort in Silverton.
However, the event appears to be about as real as the mythical hairy forest-dweller itself.
Silverton town administrator Jason Wells says the Kendall Mountain Resort, which is owned by the town, has never been scheduled to host the $1,000,000 Hunt For Bigfoot. Wells says the resort is booked with a different event that weekend.
“I just want to make sure that we’re not somehow tied into this whole affair,” Wells said. “I don’t want a bunch of people showing up here who have paid $250 for there to be a lack of an event that’s got the town’s name in any way attached to it.”
Wells says Silverton is known for colorful characters, but he said this “dubious” hunt was “bizarre even for here.”
After being confronted by town officials over the false booking claim, Lewis says he was moving the contest to a town in Northern California but refused to say where, according to Wells.
A string of official-looking logos on Lewis’ website implied a number of companies and government organizations were behind the event: the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Nikon, Kodak, the City of Durango, Rocky Top RV Park and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum.
All told 9Wants to Know investigator Kyle Clark they had never heard of the event. Several immediately contacted Lewis demanding he remove their logos from his website.
It is unclear how much money, if any, Lewis had collected.
Responding to several requests for comment, Lewis left a late-night voicemail claiming he had only gotten about half the interest in the event he expected and he was canceling the contest with plans to hold it next year.
It was unclear from the voicemail if he was canceling the Silverton event and moving it to California, or just canceling it all together.
Lewis had written online that he expected up to 400 participants who, if each paid the entry fee of $250, would have generated $100,000.
Additional requests for comment placed by phone and e-mail were not returned.Kyle Clark
KUSA-TV
About Craig Woolheater
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.
Figures.
Maybe it’s worth pointing out (?) that the last frost date for Silverton is July 10….
“The $1,000,000 Hunt For Bigfoot …. appears to be about as real as the mythical hairy forest-dweller itself.”
Thus spake the owner of Cryptomundo.
Move along now folks – nothing there, nothing to see!
My good man (or woman) wuffing, I did not spake anything.
I merely quoted the above article directly.