The New Crop of Bigfooters: What’s Up?

What kind of member of the next generation of Bigfooters are you? What’s up with the present crop of Sasquatch seekers?

Let me shout out a challenge to the Bigfoot hunters and researchers here who are 40 years old and under. I usually don’t say things so strongly about this subject, but in this case, allow me to make some observations through the gray hairs flickering in front of my eyes on this windy and cold day. Is there a Bigfooters Age War developing?

As some of you know, I run a few group lists (although they appear to be dinosaurs, in many ways, on the internet). Today, a young man who is an artist and turned 40 last year, who recently started a local Bigfoot investigation club on the East Coast last year, got into a bit of a debate with some members of the list. He made a statement about there only being one species of a certain animal in a West Coast location, then some people corrected him, he got in a huff, and left the group.

I found it unfortunate that someone who is interested in the pursuit of the reality of Bigfoot, puts forth a thought, then is given some feedback on some incorrect zoological information, would so quickly retreat when challenged. It reminded me of some other recent incidents I’ve seen happening in the Bigfoot community.

Why is this the reaction? Are youthful researchers routinely displaying a thin skin or inflexibility? Please tell me there is hope out there. Please tell me I’m wrong.

We all come under scrutiny, we all get our facts wrong once in awhile, and we all should be able to defend our stances with complete information or accept reversals and move on. Am I seeing a trend developing on this front?

Is this really the sad state of affairs among some younger members of the growing Bigfoot community?

I found today’s developments disappointing, especially when I began to reflect on it more broadly.

The inflexibility of a whole new group of Bigfooters is further compounded by hearing some rising young stars and some really fringe people in the field complain in articles and on forums about people they feel aren’t doing fieldwork, when, indeed, some of the individuals were doing fieldwork when the comment makers and their peers weren’t even born or were in diapers. Frankly, making such statements to the media, dismissing the contributions of the diversity of those involved in Bigfoot research, reflects badly on the whole field.

People change. People fill different roles as they grow older. Many investigators back in the 1960s-1970s doing fieldwork weren’t going to the media, internet, and yahoo lists with every weekend field excursion they were taking, talking to the papers whenever they rollled into town to interview eyewitnesses, or appearing on radio shows about every planned trip to such and such state. There’s the misconception today that, besides a handful of prominent personalities, there was no fieldwork being done before the current generation was born.

My gosh, talk about trying to create a generation gap and not appreciating those who have come before. I’ve long ago laughed off all these attempts to demean the earlier Bigfoot searchers as being “less than” for “not” doing fieldwork when I know better. It is incredible to hear such criticisms from within, more and more.

The way I figure it, time will catch up to today’s crop of new seekers too. The next group of young Turks appearing in 2057 will be wondering why all the end of the 21st century’s old greazers (who were so significant in 2007) are merely doing whatever people in their 80s and 90s are doing then. And enjoying it!

Loren Coleman 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.

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