Sylvanic – What’s The Real Story on the Twelve Seconds of New Bigfoot Footage?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on November 3rd, 2006
On April 10, 2005, I received a sighting report at TexasBigfoot.com from someone who claimed their name was Tom, aged 30. This is what it said in his words:
Hello i am the documentary author of sylvanic.com I don’t know what it was that we encoutered this winter but if you are interested in the evidence and interviews i conducted you can see it all on my website. What i would like to know is where do you go to get a hair sample analized. A friend of mine does foresic analasis for crime scene investigations and she could not identify the hairs i found as any know species within North America. She destroyed all the samples i had to conduct her test but i am certain i will easily be able to get more hair samples for the area i had a sighting. So whom should i get to analze the next sample i retrieve? You can reach me at [email protected]. And of course i am interested in any opionions you have about our sighting or documentations.
I replied to "Tom" with the following:
Tom,
You have an interesting story. We have sources to have hair samples examined. If they are determined to be primate in origin, we have a university laboratory that will do DNA testing. It seems strange to me that your friend would destroy all of the hair samples that you sent for her to examine. Did she give a reason as to why she destroyed them? As far as a sighting is concerned, I did not find a sighting mentioned on the website. The video is small and lo-res and I could not determine anything from it other than snow falling off of the trees.
"Tom" replied back on April 11, 2005 with the following:
Hello Craig. I guess i should have mentioned that although you cannot see them on the camera we could see several creators (creatures?) moving like dark shadows behind those trees in that video. We have no idea what they were but they where certainly moving on two legs and the one that made the sounds was very very large. We actually had footage on 16mm of the 3 creators (creatures?) as they emerged about half a mile down the cayon pass, and i took some 35mm still photographs but niether turned out.
I will be able to retrieve another hair sample when we go back to sylvanic in the summer so i will be more than happy to send you a sample. That little cave that was behind those trees had alot of hair so i will be sure to collect alot this time.
We never said anything on the website about the possible connection to biggfoot, just because we at this point are just not sure what to think. And the natives we spoke with called the guidians of the mountains, shadows, so we dont really know what that means yet but we intend to find out in a couple of months.
"Tom" again replied to my same email on April 21, 2005 with the following:
hello craig. So to answer your ?s, the reason the video is so low resolution is i had to have it downgraded from 46 MB to 6 MB so it would fit on the website. But the hair sample is one of the main reasons i put the website up. It was to find someone who had the abilty to have the sample profesionlly analyzed. And if you could agree to have that done for me i will agree to send you a sample. My friend that did the original tests worked for the Canadian RCMP back in the 80’s and i only had maybe 50 strands of hair and i did not know for her to test them against the north american data base, as she did, that she would have to destroy them to test them. And i told her i could get more, which i can, but she misunderstood what i said and though that i actually had more. The point is i am going back to sylvanic on my next vaction time off work at the end of July to the begining of August with a high resolution digital camera for 1 week. And in that time i will gather any and all phisical evidence i can. The only one thing i can guarentee is that cave behind those trees in that video on my website was full of hair therefore i will be able to easily get another sample. So if you can have it’s DNA tested i can promise you a hair sample in a couple of months. The friend of mine that gave me the map to sylvanic is going back there in June so hopefully he will be able to find the cave and bring back some hair. If not i will get it myself when i go back in August. Thanx
On May 8, 2005, Todd Standing posted the following to the Unexplainable.net website:
Mysteries of Sylvanic. Introduction
By Todd Standing
May 8, 2005 – 8:43:00 PM
Have we finally found a living missing link or is there some kind of Ghost haunting this valley? Is a wild man living out in the mountains or have we discovered a new species of primate. You decide.
What is Sylvanic? What we know for certain is Sylvanic is a hidden valley nestled deep within the North American Rocky Mountains. Sylvanic (as the natives now refer to it) is the name of the canyon pass that leads to an enormous valley, which is encircled entirely by an unbroken chain of mountains. This valley has remained virtually untouched by modern man. Within its boundaries pictures of wild free roaming bison have been taken and stories are beginning to surface of new species of animals that where either thought to be extinct or never conclusively proven to exist by modern science. Men have mysteriously disappeared and others claim to have been rescued by an illusive species the natives have revered and worshiped for a hundred generations they call the shadow guardians of the mountains.
As beautiful as it is mysterious the stories and legends of Sylvanic are both terrifying and awe inspiring. This column will explore beyond the mysteries and legends of Sylvanic by evaluating the sightings and real life encounters in an attempt to sort fact from fiction.
More and more people are coming forward every day with stories of unexplainable encounters and miss happenings surrounding Sylvanic at www.sylvanic.com. The physical evidence is becoming indisputable with hair samples that forensic experts are unable to identify and video footage that will leave you speechless. Our ultimate goal is an expedition into Sylvanic where scientists will gather more physical evidence and a documentary crew will record any strange occurrences. Planning for this expedition is currently in the works. Until then letters keep pouring from men and women that have crossed the guarded passageways of Sylvanic and have come back with a story to tell. Every week we will be posting a documented incident that relates specifically to Sylvanic as well as continuously updating the public with our ongoing scientific investigation as the facts present themselves.
On May 27, 2005, someone with the handle toddster posted the following on Bigfoot Forums:
Hey, i have finally made it to the forums sections of this website. Literally thousands of people from this website have been asking me quistions about my articles on sylvanic and my website ww
w.sylvanic.com. So instead of answering the 6 thousand email quistions i have received i thought i would just get out here to the source of all this attention i have been getting and talk one on one. My name is Todd Standing and i documented the majority of chronicles on the website as well as led the expidition that shot the video that is currently getting so much attention, and collected the hair sample that foresic experts identified as an unknown species. What is new is a botanist that visited sylvanic last year seems to have found a new species of plant life. And the video from the website has been profesionnally enhanced to show an set of eyes lurking behind the trees and a enormous bipedal dark figure running in the background.
Today however the main reason i am here is one of my readers said there was a person they met here on this website that recognized the missing person composite drawing on my website. That person was trying to email me but my mail box is constanly overfilling. That police composite drawing on the website is real. I know it looks like a 14 year old artist drew it but that is what police composite drawings looked like in the 1930’s. If you think you might now that person please keep trying to send me an email through the website and mark it Missing Person. I have the fingerprints of that person and if you know someone that fits that description that went missing around that same time then perhaps i can help you find out what really happen to them. The native elders that told me the story of how that man went missing(Which is documented on the website) is very certain those three men went into sylvanic and never came out again.
Of course i would love to hear from everyone with your quistions, comments, thoughts, and concerns reguarding Sylvanic.
Apparently, this was a form email that was sent out to message forums that dealy with Bigfoot, cryptozoology and the paranormal. It was posted on these other forums as well.
After several people commented to the above at Bigfoot Forums, toddster weighed in with this gem:
Thanks for all your comments. I am a little suprized to see most of you have never heard of sylvanic. The majority of hits i recieve on my website come from this website so i was hoping to speak with people that where interested in knowing more about sylvanic.
To answer 1 ? about where sylvanic is… The best estimate i can give is northern US, southern Canada. When i go back this summer we intend to use GPS to map out its location.
The Sylvanic website has changed quite a bit since I have last visited the site last year when these emails were sent out. The domain, sylvanic.com was created on November 29, 2004 and is registered to a Todd Standing of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The video mentioned in the initial email above is no longer linked on the site, however, it is still hosted there.
You can download the video to your computer by right clicking on this link and saving the target as. I would recommend that versus trying to play it from the site. It is a 5.5 MB download.
The still below is taken from the 12 second video clip that may or may not be the clip that Loren mentioned in yesterday’s post Twelve Seconds of New Bigfoot Footage.
Click on image for full size version
Below is a cropped view of the image, with the subject of the video enlarged.
And even tighter crop.
And finally, just when you thought that it couldn’t get any better, here is the link to the 12 seconds of video. It may or may not be the clip that is mentioned in the Edmonton Sun article. If and when we find out, you can be assured the news will be posted here on Cryptomundo. Once again, I would advise right clicking and saving the video to your computer and playing it from there. It is a 4.2 MB download.
See, Loren won’t have to go to Edmonton to authenticate the video. He can watch it from the comfort of his own home, errr, Cryptozoology Museum.
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.
A few interesting points of consideration, the video itself aside:
1. Todd Standing was a contributing “columnist” to a website, Unexplained-Mysteries.com (if you google his name, that site comes up in the results, though the the site itself doesn’t seem to be up any longer)
2. Let’s look at what’s on the Sylvanic website. First, the two stories that claim to be from “Native” elders. “Native?” That causes me to question the authenticity of the account right there. From which nation are these elders? If he could at least name the nation, that would substantiate the claim (ridiculousness of the stories themselves aside — make no mistake, I’ve read my share of native folklore, been an interest of mine for years).
I would go so far as to suggest that if one were to throw the word “suvanic” as the website says to some of the local Siksika (Blackfoot) or Cree speakers, they’d probably look at you the same way as if you’d just used the term “wagonburner” in front of them.
Then there’s the name itself. Didn’t take a lot of creativity to come up with that. Let’s see… sylvan = of forests from — where else? one of the ancestral languages of all European tongues — latin, id est, ‘Sylvanus’, god of forests. What an astounding leap!
While there’s a lot of unexplored land out there; there’s not a lot of unnamed territory. He would have done better to attribute it to Pickle Lake or Pickle Crow in northern Ontario, where there have, incidentally, been sightings.
I have to confess that I am surprised to see this getting attention, but hey, good for a laugh, right? I think Mr. Standing should add a disclaimer a la ourbigfoot.
Just my two cents.
I try to remain optimistic with stories like this, but those photos really look like a grizzly walking away from the camera and up the hill….but hey, who knows.
That guy’s spelling is atrocious! đ
We already have our first aggravated viewer. Remember the plaque YourPTR!, remember the plaque. I really doubt the validity of this man’s claim, but I could be wrong.
elsanto,
the website should be http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com right?
Still up and running. I’m a regular there.
Why can’t the camera be still once?
Just once?
That’s a lot of build up for a 12 second video.
I have to agree with elsanto’s opinions. Seems awfully odd that the local native Americans would have been speaking Latin a few centuries ago.
Sorry, but I read the whole ‘hidden valley’ story years ago in an issue of Doc Savage.
Sharm,
I encountered the same thing as elsanto. When I googled Todd Standing & sylvanic last night, I found several links to the UM website. However, all of those links were dead.
I believe that I then tried to pull up the homepage, and it was also not found.
Going to the site this morning, there is the following message:
Unexplained Mysteries is currently undergoing extensive maintenance and will be back soon
Please bear with us !
I don’t know if I would call that still up and running, but then again, I don’t know how long they have been undergoing extensive maintenance.
I don’t get it, the still is taken from the video footage? I downloaded the video footage and nothing like this shot appears on it. Just a lot of snow and trees and a little stream between the camera operator and the snowy trees. She sounds unconvincing in her “spontaneous” reaction to what would be a pretty starteling noise-IF it wasn’t something you had planned. Man!, we really miss Roger Patterson…No one seems to be able to do what he did- Get convincing footage.
But this isn’t twelve seconds. More like two or three. Craig,
a) how did you score this video file (if it’s supposedly being kept under wraps till its November 9 release) and
b) are you sure this is what they are claiming to be THE earthshaking footage?
Can you explain?
P.S. Thanks for keeping and sharing all this archived Todd Standing material. He comes off sounding like quite a ding-dong.
I haven’t been able to get the video to play here at work, but the stills are interesting. The thing in the stills is not a bear, and does not look like a suit. But with stills its hard to tell.
sasquatch,
The still is taken from the 2nd video footage linked above. The one with the snow and trees is the first video footage linked above as well.
I was under the impression that there is a third piece of footage that they will be showing at the theatre… am I wrong?
I have just downloaded and watched the video. I will not try and over analyze the clip or speculate on the creator of it. I think that it very important that all who believe that they, in good faith, have taken photos or videos of this extraordinary creature feel welcome. That is not to say that hoaxers and charlatans should not be exposed however as long as someone is willing to identify themselves and can explain the origin of the material we should let the event play out.
Having said that, in reviewing the video, it appears that the photographer hesitated when panning to the animal. It was as if they were aware that it was there. If I had been taking the pictures I would have held the camera on the subject, done close ups, and kept the video running until the batteries died or I had to run for my life. Is this the whole video or is this a teaser leading up to the full footage on Nov.9? I only time the actual full speed view at 5-6 seconds not 12.
Best regards
I found this video about a month ago and was not impressed. I started a thread on it over at the ATS crypto forum and it got little attention there.
Suffice it to say, another dissapointment.
As pointed out by a Cryptomundo reader, there is a myspace page for Slyvanic and Todd Standing.
The video, along with commentary from Todd Standing is available on myspace here.
The myspace page states:
For the past 2 years I have been conducting expeditions, documenting chronicles and interviewing people about a relatively untouched region nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains the natives call Sylvanic. But as incredible as my experiences have been they are only the precursor to the most shocking turn of events I could have ever possibly imagined. My team and myself have compiled undisputable (indisputable) documentation of our struggle to prove the existence of the most controversial anthropological issue in the history of North America. But more importantly expose the malicious cover up of what might be the most significant scientific discovery of our time, before it is too late. Our website is continually be crashed by hackers so we are rebuilding it. We hope to have it done in the next few days. http://www.sylvanic.com. Photo from our best footage (video 3) I will have posted this weekend.
I saw this one linked from J. Colemans site, a couple weeks ago, which I thought at the time was a link to youtube. I could be wrong, and will go back and try to find it. However, along with the video on that link was the fellow, I assume, that made the footage. He seemed very credible, and not sounding as if he wanted money. I am sure it is the same video. It may have been a myspace link, I will go back and try to find it.
This whole thing reaks of Blair Witch Project. I think it’s nothing more than an amateur filmmaker hoping to create some buzz.
I agree with fredfacker: This seems like the Blair Witch Project revisited.
I mean, it is all just a bit *too* neat and packaged and totally activates my hoax sensors!
I wonder if the malicious hackers who are supposedly crashing Sylvanic.com in an effort to keep Tom from getting his evidence out are also responsible for destroying his spelling, grammar, plot points, and historical accuracy!!!
It’s all fiction guys.
Oh well, it won’t play on my pc. From above comments I guess I’m not missing too much đ
Craig,
So let me get this straight. The link you gave us and say is THE twelve seconds of footage touted by Todd Standing as the “best footage” included in the movie (to be premiered on November 9) is Video 2, whereas Standing says that this “best footage” is Video 3, NOT yet available for public viewing.
Can you please clarify this apparent discrepancy?
Shawshank,
I can attempt to clarify. I have no inside knowledge of which video clip is which. The only inside knowledge I have is from the emails that I shared in the post above.
As the video clip is 12 seconds long, I assumed that it was the clip in question. Apparently, that MAY not be the case.
Shawshank,
Since you asked earlier and I haven’t had a chance to respond until now, I found the video file on the Sylvanic website. Apparently, as I said, the site has been recently redesigned.
Coming in through the links to the pages from the old site, you can access the navigation for the old site.
Such as by entering the site through this page, which contains the link to Video 2.
Until I read what Mr. Standing had posted on his myspace page regarding Video 3, I assumed that Video 2 was the video that was referenced in the Edmonton Sun article.
Fair enough, Craig. You may want to be careful to reflect this uncertainty in your headline and in the body of your post. Thanks for the good work.
Shawshank,
I revised the wording about the video clip in the body of the post. I left the headline as it was, as it is asking a question about the footage, not stating anything.
Your rewording in the post now takes proper care, but the headline still promises that visitors can “See THE 12 seconds of video here” (emphasis mine), which implies that this is the footage in question, the supposedly high-quality footage in the upcoming film. It’s misleading, and I want Cryptomundo to be above that.
Sylvanic ? Sounds to me like some one has found a way to kill some time until the next expansion for World of Warcraft comes out. But hey, who knows, it could be true. Also, my grandfather was a cop in L.A. in the thirties till the fifties and I have seen some of the police sketches from that era. They were much like they are today, not at all looking like the one they claim is from that time frame.
I consider all text on the home page to be (in the broad sense) part of the “headline” (what draws readers in, tells them what to expect), as opposed to the body of the post that one can click on.
Something he mentions on his website doesn’t make much sense to me. Here is a quote,
“None of the 35mm still photographs or 16mm motion camera shots turned out. They where somehow overexposed in a way that no person I have met with can account for. The most plausible expert explanation I was given seems to be our film was exposed to some kind of strong magnetic field.”
As I understand it, film is a chemical process, whereas digital would be more likely to be adversely affected by a “strong magnetic field”. Not that this really means anything in terms of Bigfoot, or sightings, but it might mean something about his “experts”, and his âexpert explanationâ. Surely his film could have been overexposed, but it’s a HUGE jump to conclude that it was due to some kind of magnetic field. This kind of conjecture makes the skeptic in me win over the believer.
Let’s see, the “Natives” call the area “Sylvanic”. Well first of all Mr. Standing is an immature racist. The “natives” !!!!! His “Blair Witch” wannabe project is off to a poor start if he can’t understand how offensive his language is. I believe that other commentators have already pointed out the linguistic problems of an area named “Sylvanic” causes. I would be more intrigued if the area had some Cree, Souix or Nez Perce name attached. I think I’ll sit this debate out.
The whole thing strikes me as the sort of put-up job that bored high-school students might put together for the fun of it. Note, for example, how young the girl in the first video sounds, Todd Standing’s mangling of written English, and the unfortunate choice of name for the ostensible location.
The sounds in the first video are ludicrous and bear absolutely no relation to anything that might conceivably be uttered by a primate. In the late eighties while backpacking in Northern California’s Mendocino National Forest, I heard what after years of reflection I have only recently concluded was one or possibly two sasquatches. What I heard sounded nothing like the sounds in the video and was in fact quite consistent with what we know of great ape behavior and vocalization. (It was a series of grunting barks followed by slapping or thumping sounds as of something powerful striking a tree limb or trunk, these followed by two piercing yodel-scream-shrieks.)
As for the name “Sylvanic,” it is so ridiculous and seemingly transparent that I am tempted to think that when Todd Standing refers to it as that used by “natives,” what he means is that it’s what the locals call it, and not that it has anything to do with Native Americans. In fact, while I may be wrong in generalizing, my experience has been that most Canadians refer to Native Americans not as “Natives,” but rather, as “First Nations,” or “Cree,” or “Kutchin,” or “Inuit,” or “Athabaskan,” or what have you, depending upon the particular group referenced. On the other hand, being no more than kids, maybe it really didn’t occur to them that lots of people have at least a nodding familiarity with Latin. (Speaking for myself, the name “Sylvanic” seemed so obvious that it did not even occur to me that it was being put forth as a native American place-name.)
The second video has the potential to be more convincing, but the fact that it’s presented with the first pretty much botches the job.
Finally, the notion that there is an unexplored valley in the northern rockies that remains unknown due to peculiar magnetic properties, is manifestly one of the stupidest things I’ve heard in awhile. While there are places on the planet that have yet to be documented and surveyed on foot –parts of the eastern slope of the Andes and of Papua New Guinea are great examples– it is no longer true that as in the past, there are large geological features, such as valleys, that we do not know about through satelite imagery and the array of technologies therein available. Cut me a husk.
Again, my theory is that these are a group of bored high-school students.
Can somebody find this valley on google earth?
And I like the idea that this guy doesn’t know whether it’s in the U.S. or in Canada.
Wow! The first video’s bigfoot vocalizations sounds alot like someone trying to start up a 4 stroke dirtbike.
Hey, I know that place ! Isn’t it near Oceanic Island ?
I wonder who uses 16mm on vacation (even before digital video existed) ?
Hey I’m from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and I just got back from the showing of the “Sylvanic” film. It’s fake. All of it, they made a lame Blair Witch movie and told everyone it was a real documentary. You watch it for the first 5 minutes, and it seems real, then they show some “footage ” of a bunch of campers that went and it is poorly acted, edited and so on. They lied to all these websites and the newspaper The Edmonton Sun and they all fell for it. I am embarrassed that I fell for it as well. It is absolutely horrible that all these websites ended up getting this horrible fraud. This clearly is not good for Cryptozoology and will will no doubt set it back from from being taken seriously. Please spread the word to other sites and try to forget this movie even existed.
Thanks for the report Kaffie. Donât be embarrassed! I was curious as to what was going to be ârevealedâ on Nov. 9. You obviously approached this with an open mind. Many people are too quick to dismiss claims such as this without knowing the motivations of the claimants. Hoaxers usually expose themselves in short order. What if someone on vacation in the wilderness does get good video of a genuine Bigfoot? If they believe that they will be met with ridicule and scorn they may just come to the conclusion that itâs not worth sharing. Better to welcome 100 hoaxers than cause a genuine case to never see the light of day.
On the plus side those who perpetrate a hoax have in effect performed a reverse inoculation on themselves. Any claims they try to make in the future will be held to a much higher standard due to their tainted past. Thanks again for your input.
Best regards
Thank you Kaffie. Don’t be sorry. These things should be checked out regardless of what people think it “might” be. I think it’s just as important to investigate the “probable” hoaxes as it is to look into something that is supposed to be the “real” thing.
I’m actually disappointed in the Cryptomundo crew that a trip was taken to look at a dead dog by the road a while back, and the chance to look at new footage of a possible bigfoot was passed up.