November 9, 2006

Sasquatch Not a Mystery to Some

Sasquatch Not a Mystery to Some

By Seabury Blair Jr. | Mr. Outdoors
November 7, 2006

Sasquatch Not a Mystery to Some

Last week, I mentioned the Idaho State University professor who is attempting to bring the mythic Sasquatch into the world of science.

Then I read an article about him in my favorite daily newspaper last weekend. His name is Jeffrey Meldrum, a Ph.D. and tenured professor who has written a book about the big, hairy "American Ape" that supposedly lives in the wilderness forests and mountains of this continent.

I was only trying to scare up a Halloween column, but it appears there are a bunch of folks who are better acquainted with Bigfoot than me.

I heard from a number of readers with new Sasquatch stories and — having little to write this week that could be considered socially or culturally redeeming — I thought I might share some of the new tales with you.

First off, I got an e-mail from a reader who sent me a number of photographs purporting to show a Sasquatch near a camper in the forest. Like every other photo of a Bigfoot I’ve seen, it’s difficult to tell what the picture actually depicts.

It could be a Sasquatch, or it could be a seagull. It’s hard to tell because of the distance from the object in the picture and my observation that not a single person who has ever taken a picture of a Sasquatch knows how to operate a camera.

There’s this thing called "autofocus" on most modern cameras, see. It’s a piece of technology obviously lacking on the equipment used by Bigfoot photographers.

Then I got an e-pistle from Scott McDonald, who is a member of the Washington State Bigfoot Research Group.

"I have seen two of these creatures myself," Scott wrote. "One was over in the Olympic Mountains while deer hunting in 1997, and the other one that I had seen was over in the Blue Mountains in 2001."

Warren Lewis of Seabeck also e-mailed me three stories of Bigfoot sightings by several Kitsap pioneers, including his father, who was born in Crosby in 1891. Lewis said his dad was driving down the Hite Center Road in 1932 when he saw the road’s namesake, Ashland Hite, standing in the road.

"Dad offered him a ride back to his house," Lewis wrote, "but Ash was beside himself about something, and just stood outside the car gesturing wildly …"

"He left his house with a rifle and spotted a tall bear-like creature on the narrow dirt road. Ash said it was the tallest ‘bear’ he had ever seen and when it saw him it ran off.

"But what made Ash so excited was that ‘that bear ran into the woods on his HIND legs!’"

Lewis also told of a Bigfoot encounter his brother and Don Curtis of Crosby had at Mission Lake, and of a blood-chilling scream he heard one night at Frenchman’s Cove that frightened his horse into the woods, which he had to chase with a dimming flashlight.

"Cougar? Bigfoot? I guess I’ll never know," wrote Lewis.

At least he didn’t try to take a picture.

Keep those cards and letters coming!

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Media Appearances, Sasquatch