Bobo
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 6th, 2012
The fan favorite of Finding Bigfoot is captured in…
…a new painting, entitled Bobo, by Andy Finkle.
Mr. James Fay, known more commonly as “Bobo” on Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot, is one of those surprises of the modern media age, an instant popular celebrity.
James Fay, or Bobo, was born and raised in Manhattan Beach, southern California, and has been interested in the Bigfoot mystery for as long as he can remember. In junior high school, Bobo became an avid surfer, a skill he eventually would combine with his love of squatching, surfing to remote Bigfoot locations along the Pacific Northwest.
Bobo attended Humboldt State University in the 1980s, allowing him to explore nearby Bigfoot hotspots, including Bluff Creek and Willow Creek areas. While in college, Bobo spent his downtime in the woods attempting to locate a Bigfoot.
Following college, he took logging jobs on Native American crews to absorb their knowledge of the Sasquatch. In addition, he increased his Bigfoot knowledge by taking jobs building roads and commercially fishing in Northern California, some of which gave him time off to explore high frequently Bigfoot areas.
In 1989, Bobo recorded his first investigation of multiple Bigfoot sightings. But it was a latter initial closeup sighting that increased his passion for Bigfoot the most. Bobo says that he really saw his best “first” Sasquatch while on an investigation with veteran Bigfoot researcher John Freitas in 2001. Since that sighting, Bobo claims to have glimpsed Bigfoots on a few other occasions, but it was this first visual sighting that moved him the most.
Today, Bobo makes a living as a commercial fisherman out of Eureka, California. He also runs a fire-prevention brush removal service that takes him into remote mountain properties in the heart of Bigfoot country. His close relationship with the community in which he lives helps him keep his “ear to the ground,” and he collects scores of local Bigfoot sighting reports each year.
The artist Andy Finkle recently finished the commission on the above painting of Bobo for Guy Edwards’ personal collection. He will be adding another portrait of Bobo to the International Cryptozoology Museum’s “Hominology Series” that profiles the seekers, chroniclers, and researchers of Bigfoot, Yeti, and other unknown hominoids.
Bobo Fay. Photos: Animal Planet.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
actually 2001 was my first sighting. 1989 was when i did my first investigation where i got the report first and didn’t get it from the news or other people. i actually got it from the witness that day. as far as the picture above with the scowl that was at the direction of the photographer. bobo!
Thank you Bobo, for the clarification. I updated the date confusion above to reflect what you have noted.
Thanks for posting this picture Loren!
Bobo, hope it is OK with you.
Bobo, you’re in Eureka? You like it up there? I have an interest in Mendocino and Humboldt county. I’ve been checking out the libraries over there for employment opportunities.
-Andy Finkle
jimbo mccoy was an alias/stage name. me and my bros adopted the last name mccoys when trying to put together a band while working for mccoy forestry.
lots of great squatching in beautiful locations in humboldt/mendocino. still some good pockets that aren’t blown out. private property limits a lot of access in certain zones though.