Media

Friday, July 31, 1998

St.Louis Post-Dispatch

Kevin McDermott

On the Iron Horse Triathlon Web page the conversation lately has been more medical
than athletic. “Thought it was a sinus problem and ended up on my back for six days
with massive frontal headaches, chills . . . 103-degree fever,” reads one athlete’s
message on the Springfield-based Internet site. Another: “Six days without food has
left me extremely weak. . . . My liver enzymes are still off the charts.” And
another: “Severe backache, high fever, nausea, extreme fatigue, etc. I tried to
treat the fever for three days while laying in bed the whole time. . . . This has
been an alarming last two weeks.”

Health officials say those victims and scores of others are part of what might be the biggest outbreak recorded in the United States of leptospirosis, or “swamp fever.”

The infection apparently began in Lake Springfield and has hit victims from all over the country who swam there June 21 as part of the Iron Horse Triathlon. No one has died, but 84 people in Illinois have reported symptoms, with at least three more in St. Louis County.

Officials know the waterborne _Leptospira_ bacterium originates in the urine of animals, and that it can infect humans by seeping through the membranes of the mouth and eyes. But how it got into Lake Springfield in high enough concentrations to cause an outbreak is a mystery. “It’s the largest point-source of leptospirosis that we’ve ever seen,” said epidemiologist David Ashford of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, which is coordinating the effort to track everyone who might have been infected.

Ashford said that each year about 80 to 150 cases of leptospirosis are reported nationwide, usually from many limited, unrelated infections caused by small ponds or swimming pools. (The infection cannot be spread by humans.)

It’s still unknown how many might have been infected in Lake Springfield – “That number is changing every hour,” Ashford said – but officials have found symptoms in about 12 percent of the people who were exposed to Lake Springfield last month. There were more than 850 registered participants from 42 states in the triathlon, including 72 from Missouri, 19 of those from St. Louis. That means more than 100 participants might be infected, based on the CDC averages. [Note: 87 have reported symptoms which would be within the standard error. MHJ] And that doesn’t include people who swam in the lake but weren’t affiliated with the event.

Lake Springfield remains under an advisory to residents to refrain from swimming, and most of the beaches are closed. One test by the CDC has indicated some presence of Leptospira bacteria in the lake, but it’s still unclear whether the concentration is higher than normal. Among the mysteries facing investigators is how an infection usually associated with small, stagnant bodies of water could occur in an open, free-flowing lake. They’re also wondering why a recreational lake that has been heavily used for years with no reported health problems suddenly would spawn such a widespread infection. State health officials have been testing the tributaries that feed the lake but have been hampered by dry weather. A moderate rain early Thursday might have helped the investigation, said Clint Mudgett, environmental health chief for the Illinois Department of Public Health, because it allowed scientists to finally gather watershed runoff samples in conditions similar to those on the morning of the race.

One focus of the investigation is to try to link the infection to a specific kind of animal urine – a daunting challenge, because the bacteria can be transmitted by both wild and domestic animals, and the lake is surrounded by wildlife and farmland.

“There’s no shortage of theories,” said Mudgett. His own theory – centered on a large dose of unlucky coincidences – goes like this: “This year, the wild animal population around the lake is reported to be heavier than it’s ever been. Then you have (almost) 900 swimmers in exactly the same part of the lake at the same time. There was a very heavy rain that morning (possibly washing unusually high levels of animal waste into the lake all at once). You might have just had all these factors coming together.”

The triathlon organizer said Thursday there is a new element to the case: a civil suit by one of the leptospirosis victims, naming the event “and others” as defendants. “I was served (with notice of a suit) yesterday,” said Paul McDevitt, who is in his first year as director of the 13-year-old annual triathlon, in which amateur athletes bicycle, run and swim.

“At the very first sign (of an outbreak) we moved quickly” to work with health officials, McDevitt said, but added: “The whole tenor of the thing has changed (with the lawsuit). I have to be careful what I say from here on out.” McDevitt said he couldn’t provide more details about the suit. An employee of the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office couldn’t confirm that it had been filed.

The CDC also is investigating whether a lake used for a Wisconsin triathlon July 5 might have been another source of infection. Many of the Springfield triathlon participants who have reported symptoms swam in both lakes. But officials haven’t confirmed that any leptospirosis cases originated in Wisconsin.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Bear Out There?  Hikers say Creature Spotted Near Kaolin

Anna Gazette-Democrat

A midday hike on Tuesday led two Union County residents to a surprising and totally unexpected discovery.

Cole Kilman and Carla Chackleford, both of Anna were hiking near the Kaolin Pit when they met up with an animal not normally associated with Union County.

“There was no doubt. It was a bear,” Kilman said during a telaphone Tuesday afternoon.

Kaolin Pit is located in a very isolated area west of Cobden. The area is popular among those who like to hike.

The two hikers were looking for an old cemetery. they had been hiking for about 45 minutes.

“I smelled something.” Kilman recalled. Initially, he thought what he smelled might have been a skunk.

Then, he saw something ahead. “I wasn’t exactly sure what it was,” Kilman said. Initially, he said, “I didn’t know it was a bear.”

“I thought it was a dog at first, Kilman said. As they got within about 30 to 40 feet of the animal, Kilman said it became clear what they were seeing: “It was a black bear.”

“It  got close enough for me to know it was a bear,” Kilman said.

“We took off running,” Kilman said. At one point, Kilmas said he hollered and clapped his hands in an attempt to scare off the animal.

The bear was about 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall, Kilman siad.

Kilman said he contacted the U.S. Forest Service’s Mississippi bluffs District Ranger Station in Jonesboro to share his story.

Representatives from the U.S.Forest Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources have been contacted about the sighting.

Friday, September 5, 2008

 Southern Illinois Bear

Southern Illinois Outdoors

Rasputin

 An Article in the Gazette Democrat (Union County Illinois) indicated that two hikers spotted a black bear in union county. They were apparently hiking in the Kaolin Pits area looking for an old cemetery. They indicated they smelled something musky and initially thought it was a skunk and continued on . When they saw the animal they mistook it for a dog initially. They walked to within 30 feet of the animal before they realized what it was.

With all of the sightings in South East Missouri I knew it would just be a matter of time before they found their way across the river. just didn’t think it would be this soon.

ckilman5

That was me and my cousin that seen the bear.When your fourty years old and youve never seen a bear out side of the zoo its hard four your brain to believe what your eyes are telling it its seeing. I really thought it was a dog but why is it so tall, I told myself.

We were hiking looking for the old cemetary at kaolin pits, thats in between Anna and Cobden on Kaolin rd.. We found the cemetary about a half mile up the trail.The trail goes up the old Iron Mountain Ridge, after checking out old headstones we continued on for about another half mile. We smelled a strong odor before we seen it, I thought it was a skunk my cousin said no I dont think so. When we seen it up ahead in the trail we wernt sure what it was at first. I put my arm out to stop my cousin from walking any farther and we kept trying to figure out what it was. It was standing so still, my cousin said is that a cut off tree that someone did a cool bear carving on and started to walk towards it and i stopped her and said no something aint right.. I said no I think its a big dog, but it still didnt make sense to me, it was so still. at that time all we could make out was the black image with two small ears. I looked down to find a big ass stick and here it come . It charged us, my cousin took off running saying run its a bear, I started hollering as loud as I could and clapping my hands together which is pretty loud early in the morning in the woods. When my cousin seen I wasnt running she stopped and slowly walked towards me. It got pretty (I’m an idiot for swearing)(I’m an idiot for swearing)(I’m an idiot for swearing)(I’m an idiot for swearing) close to us about 15 feet before it stopped and ran back to where it was originally turned sideways in the trail looked at us and took off into the woods. My cousin was still hollering at me to run. We were so scared that as we were running we made a video on our phone saying what happened, for our family just in case.we knew that bears can track you. We ran all the way to the car and didnt feel safe till we shut the doors.

We wanted to warn people for there safety, Kaolin pits is a popular fishing,swimming and hiking area in southern Illinois. I called the local newspaper and forest ranger to post a sign at Kaolin Pits “BEAR IN AREA” but everyone I talked to seemed to be in disbelief. Nothing was posted, an article was posted in the local paper that we were thankful for.

Wednesday, Feb 04, 2009

Neponset Bear Captured; May Be First Ever Caught In Illinois

Star Courier

Neponset — The seven-month saga of Bureau County’s black bear came to an end, Tuesday, when authorities tranquilized the animal after it was found sleeping in a drainage ditch east of Neponset.

The sleeping bear was spotted about three weeks ago by Lee Bennett who was riding a four-wheeler on a farm owned by his brother, Robert, east of Neponset, where it had been spotted in late December. The Bennett’s notified authorities who went to work figuring out how best to handle the bruin.

According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, a wildlife expert from the Quad Cities was called in Tuesday to tranquilize the male bear which was estimated to weigh approximately 200 pounds.

The animal was reportedly in a state of semi hibernation, according to an IDNR statement released Wednesday, which explains why it hadn’t moved from wher Bennett spotted it three weeks ago.

Photo Courtesy Of Cheryl Balensiefen.  Cheryl Balensiefen photographed this black bear southwest of Buda in Bureau County. The bear has been spotted numerous times since it was first sighted last June near Neponset.

The bear was transported to a USDA-licensed wildlife rehabilitation center in southern Illinois that is permitted to possess bears. The origin of the bear is unknown, but it is suspected to have been in human care prior to its release or escape.

The bear was first sighted during the last week in June three times in the Sheffield area. Then, in early September, Ron Miller, of Neponset, spotted the bear along Kentville Road. At the time, it was apparently using standing corn as cover.

Durng a mild spell in late December, cousins Tim and Matt Bennett captured some of the first pictures of the elusive animal as it roamed through a field on the Robert Bennett farm east of Neponset. By that time, several people in the Sheffield, Neponset and Buda reported seeing the bear and indicated that it may have an injured paw.

The Bureau County Sheriff’s Office took an active interest in finding the bear, for the protection of the public, and the bear, itself, and asked anyone seeing the animal to avoid contact and call them so it could be safely removed from the area.

Once they knew where the bear was hibernating, IDNR Conservation Police consulted with federal, state and county wildlife and law enforcement agencies to formulate a plan of response to the bear’s presence. After reviewing several options, officials decided it was best to take the bear alive and place it in an approved facility. Upon arrival at the southern Illinois wildlife center, the bear was reported to be in good health and will receive proper food, shelter and veterainarian care. An investigation is underway to determine the bear’s origin.

Conservationists believe this to be the first documented sighting of a black bear in Illinois in more than 40 years and may be the first documented capture of a black bear in state history.

Monday May 17, 2010

Bears in Illinois? Sighting Means It’s Possible

Springfield – State Journal-Register

Tiskilwa — Officially, there are no Bears loose in Illinois aside from the ones who wear helmets and shoulder pads eight Sundays a year at Soldier Field.

Unofficially, Bureau County Deputy Sheriff Sherry Barto believes she saw two of the wild, fur-covered variety Saturday morning in a field near Tiskilwa, about 50 miles north of Peoria.

People who live in the area reported seeing a mother and cub, and Barto, sure enough, saw what looked like a pair of bears about 10:30 a.m.

The animals were moving into some heavy brush, and she didn’t have a chance to get a photo, she said.

Illinois Conservation Police Sgt. Robert Frazier has heard all kinds of reports about sightings in areas where wild animals shouldn’t be.

“People see mountain lions. They see bears,” Frazier told the (Peoria) Journal Star. “And I’ve always halfway dismissed them. But then we find a mountain lion in Chicago. We find a bear in Bureau County. You can’t dismiss them.”

The mountain lion he referred to was found in Chicago in 2008, and the bear was found last year. It was hibernating in a drainage ditch near Neponset, less than 20 miles from Tiskilwa.

Frazier helped catch that bear, which was sent on to a zoo in Coal Valley in western Illinois.

A mother bear, he warned, could be aggressive.

“I would think her nurturing instinct would be to protect her cub,” Frazier said. “I wouldn’t be traipsing around in the woods looking for it.”

And he wonders, given the proximity to last year’s bear find, whether that bear and these two — if the animals spotted Saturday really were bears — were kept by someone on their property.

“People sometimes take wild animals from the wild,” Frazier said. “They think they’re cute, and then the darn thing gets bigger, does damage to the home, gets out, and it’s not such a good idea.”

Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008

Black Bear Resurfaces Again East Of Neponset

Star Courier

Neponset, Ill. –

Bureau County’s elusive black bear has surfaced once again, and this time someone got pictures.

Sightings of a black bear were first reported in June near Sheffield. Then, on Sept. 5, Ron Miller of rural Neponset saw the bear along Kentville Road.

Last Saturday, as snow cover rapidly melted from rising temperatures and rain fell in the area, the bear was spotted about two miles east of Neponset on the Robert Bennett farm by his brother Lee Bennett, who was taking a ride on his four-wheeler in a field near the house.

After spotting the bear, which had gone to cover in underbrush, Bennett’s nephew Tim Bennett of Kewanee arrived and began to “shadow” the large animal after it became wary of the human presence and left the ravine. Tim, accompanied by his cousin Matt Bennett, shot photos of the animal as it lumbered across a field and across a creek that was swollen from the heavy rain and melting snow.

The black bear which has been reported in the Sheffield and Neponset area was captured on film last Saturday in the photos above, one of several taken by Tim Bennett as he and his cousin, Matt, followed the bear as if traveled across his father Bob Bennett’s farm east of  Neponset.

“We got within 20 yards of the bear,” Tim said. Then it lumbered to an adjacent field.

The sighting on the Bennett farm was about three miles from where it was spotted in September by Miller. In June, the bear was seen in the Mautino State Fish & Wildlife Area, south of Sheffield, on the west edge of Sheffield near the railroad tacks, and near a landscape waste dumpsite on the west side of Sheffield.

Bennett said he has heard of several other sightings in the area including one recently by a trucker near the Macon Township maintenance shed on Route 40 south of Buda.

In September the Bureau County Sheriff’s Office said it would like any sightings of the black bear to be reported. Ultimately, authorities would like to tranquilize the bear and relocate it to a more suitable habitat.

Sunday, May 16, 2011

Black Bear And Cub Spotted Near Tiskilwa

Peoria Journal Star

Thursday May 5, 2011

Has Madison County Been Visited By Sasquatch?

By Steve Rensberry, Reporter

Troy Times-Tribune

Madison County has had its share of mysteries over the years, from UFO sightings
to ghosts to black panthers.

Traverse the state and you'll come across the legend of the Gooseville Bear, the
Stump Pond Serpent, giant Thunderbirds, the Cole Hollow Road Monster, the
Murphysboro Mud Monster, the Enfield Horror and the Farmer City Monster.

Then there's Bigfoot--or Sasquatch if you prefer.

Missouri's Momo, the Yeti or Abominable Snowman of the Himalayan region and a
few other stealthy creatures of lore bear some similarities.

Before you brush it off as just another tale, on par with seances and alien
abductions, consider that the legend of Bigfoot hinges to a large extent on
simple eye-witness reports and basic science.

The legendary creature is considered to be what's called a bipedal cryptid and
the subject matter of a field of study known as cryptozoology, loosely defined
as the study of relatively hidden animals for which evidence is primarily
circumstantial and anecdotal.

"Photo Courtesy - Troy Times-Tribune"

Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization Investigator Stan Courtney stands next
to Silver Creek, near where it crosses Illinois Route 4 and close to the alleged 
sighting of a Sasquatch that took place in 1980. 

According to one local source—who asked to remain anonymous for fear of
reprisal—evidence for the elusive hairy giant may be scarce but sightings in the
Troy and St. Jacob area, and in other parts of Madison County, are not unheard
of. And while he himself has never seen one, he has his suspicions.

One source of reports is the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO),
founded in 1995 and headquartered in Orange County, California. Its director and
co-founder is a man by the name of Matthew Moneymaker. Another is the
Texas-based Gulf Coast Bigfoot Researchers Organization.

Both organizations publish online databases of sightings around the U.S.

"I have a friend who recently had a sighting within about 50 miles of Chicago
and this spring there was a sighting 15 miles from the St. Louis Arch. I hear
about lots of reports that never get published," BFRO researcher Stan Courtney
wrote in an online post dated September 2009.

One of the closest reported sighting allegedly occurred on Christmas Eve in 1980
along Illinois Route 4 near Silver Creek, approximately one-quarter of a mile
north of U.S. Highway 40. The report was submitted to BFRO.  

"The witness stated that the animal was very muscular with a neck like a
bodybuilder and a large head. Facial features were very ape-like, the entire body
was covered in a two-inch long dark and shaggy hair. This location is next to an
intermittent stream running into Silver Creek which runs into the Kaskaskia River
near New Athens."

According to the report, the subject (who remains anonymous, as in all BFRO
reports), had just turned onto Route 4 and had begun picking up speed when he
saw the creature in the middle of the roadway. He then turned on his bright
lights and hit the brakes.

"I came within inches of it and was looking at it the whole time. It was
standing up but seemed to be kind of bent over at the waist and it was holding
its right arm up against its chest (like if you would have your arm in a sling).
I estimate it was well over seven foot tall," the witness said.

Another BFRO report details an incident in June of 2006 in Pin Oak Township not
far from where Illinois Route 143 approaches Edwardsville. This one involved
both an eye-witness claim and a suspicious footprint measuring about 14 inches
long by five inches wide.

The report was submitted by the husband of the woman who allegedly saw the
creature, which she said was about 10 feet away from her as she pulled into
their driveway.

Courtney paid three visits to the site.

"After our first conversation, the witness called and stated that a footprint
was found in the woods behind the house." Courtney noted. "I asked that the
footprints be covered to be protected and I would visit the property."

His report describes a tall, thinly-built creature with narrow shoulders and
weighing approximately 250 pounds.

"Although the witness saw the face, it was so hairy that she was unable to make
out any details," he said. In a recent interview with the Times-Tribune,
Courtney, 62, said he is one of about five BFRO field investigators in Illinois
and that Missouri has about six, though he is one of the most active. Courtney,
who comes across as straightforward and down-to-earth, lives near Litchfield and
retired in 2009 after 35 years with St. John's Hospital in Springfield. He has
been a member of BFRO since 2004.

"It's really a complex subject, and one of the things that makes it complex is
you're dealing with people," he said.

One of Courtney's specialties is wildlife audio recording and analysis. He also
maintains a comprehensive listing of reported Bigfoot encounters in Illinois on
his website at www.stan-courtney.com, in addition to a Facebook page. He gives
presentations before any number of groups, from those interested in the
paranormal to UFO groups to those of a more scientific persuasion.

On April 17, Courtney was a guest speaker at a Springfield Ghost Society meeting
. Another pending engagement is with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Illinois ranks number seven nationwide in the number of Bigfoot encounters, with
reported sightings in 76 out of 102 counties, Courtney says on his site.

He estimates that the State of Illinois has more than 87,000 miles of wooded
streams and rivers and said a sizable amount of its total land area consists of
woods or forest areas.

Although he believes only a small percentage of possible Sasquatch sightings are
ever reported, as much as 50 percent turn out to be hoaxes while another 35
percent involve "something" but do not contain enough information to say what it
was, he said. That leaves only about 15 percent of reported encounters that have
some measure of legitimacy.

Will we ever know the truth? Do the alleged Bigfoot sightings in Madison County
involve the same species as those reported elsewhere?

Until someone actually captures one, either with high-definition photo equipment
or in real life, we won't really know. What we do know is that reputed sightings
of large, hairy creatures similar to Bigfoot have been around almost as long as
humans have—a fact which Courtney suggests adds to its credibility.

The famous Patterson/Gimlin film captured at Bluff Creek, California in 1967 is
still considered by many people as the best evidence to date of a real, live
Sasquatch—despite its controversy.

Before you get primed for your own Bigfoot search, here's one more report, this
one from neighboring Bond County and listed in the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Researcher
Organization's database.

Entered on October, 1985, the database entry cites a breaking daylight encounter
where a hunter, safely hidden within a deer stand, heard something the likes of
which he'd never heard before.

As told by an acquaintance:

"After he was in his deer stand for about 10 minutes . . . something that sounded
like a man walking walked in the same way he did and walked right past his stand
about 50 yards past. It started beating on its chest and got evidently very mad
and started tearing up trees and stuff. It was growling and stuff, making mad
sounds. When the horizon in the east just started to show, it ran down towards
the creek in about 10 leaps, estimated speed about 40 miles per hour or faster.
No footprints, no hair, just this freaky ordeal."

The report cites two other people who claim to have heard strange sounds,
including on one occasion a "terrifying scream," coming from the same area, once
in 1967 and again in 1988.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Bears sighted in Illinois?

Bigfoot Sightings

Date: 20-Mar-05

For those interested in looking for sasquatch sign in New Mexico, a winter hotspot seems to be around San Antonio peak. Two sets of fresh and pristine tracks were documented there by law enforcement in 1993. One set was 19 inches long, and the other set was 21 inches long, found in mud and snow and followed for quite some distance. The two that left the tracks were evidently traveling together. The officer that documented the tracks is now the sheriff of Conejos County Colorado. The set of tracks that I found was also in 1993, but in summer, and was found up in the South San Juan Wilderness (17 inches long). A couple more sets of these outsize tracks have been found in the Platoro area since the early 80’s. The first report of a sasquatch by a white man in the South San Juans was a sighting by a bear hunter in the 1870’s. He did not know about sasquatch and evidenty thought the sasquatch was some form of giant upright walking species of bear that made screaming noises, as detailed in his memoirs. History of sasquatch in northern NM go back to at least the 1500’s, when the Jemez moved into that area. The Jemez have lots of oral history of the creature there, and named a Pueblo in circa 1520 “Place Where the Giant Man Stepped”. The Pueblo is located there on Jemez land south of the Colorado border. The Jemez traditionally thought the sasquatch were some form of giant hair covered men who lived without tools or clothing in the high elevation ponderosa forests who sometimes killed people and ate them. If the Jemez’s giants really did kill and eat people back then, they have evidenty given up their man eating ways fortunately. When I, with local officials, investigated a set of tracks found on the Eagle River in central Colorado a few years ago, we were pretty much in agreement that the creature who made the tracks put about the same weight per square inch of foot bottom surface as a bare footed human. The tracks were 19 inches long and the weight distribution indicated an animal weighing about 900 pounds. That is as heavy as a well fed adult coastal grizzly bear, so it would probably have no problem killing a person if it wanted to. They are evidently usually shy and retreating, rather than aggressive toward humans.

Modern sightings and track finds in the border area of Colorado and New Mexico seem to indicate an association with elk in seasonal migration by elevation and location. So the best chance of you finding tracks or seeing one yourself might be to search in areas where elk density is greatest at any time of year. Tracks in snow would be much easier to find than tracks in the hard rocky ground. I spent over 300 days in the area of the SSJWilderness and only found one set of tracks by accident across a dirt slide, so finding tracks in snowless terrain is probably nearly impossible. Members of the Round River Conservation Group found one sasquatch track in an elk wallow in the south part of the SSJWilderness in 1980 while systematically searching for grizzly bear tracks. They found no grizzly spoor. I think it is very interesting that they organized the group to look for grizzly sign and find something completely unexpected instead. We found fresh grizzly diggings with tracks in the upturned soil while hunting elk near the Divide about straight west of Platoro Reservoir in 1975, but have seen no definite sign of grizzly bears since then. I fear grizzly bears are extinct in that area, but one never knows I guess.

I really have a very hard time believing sasquatch are real, but I do know that their tracks are very very real. I see no reason to think that someone faked the tracks where I found them, where the RRCG found them, or where any of the other outfitters or law enforcement have found them in southern CO and northern NM. Something is making those tracks and has evidently been making tracks there since at least the early 1500’s. We just need to have a truck hit one of the track makers on some highway down there to have an answer to what exactly the track maker is.

If it’s foot shape is any indication of the creatures shape, it is too human-like to shoot I would think. I would have a hard time shooting some creature that looked like a man, no matter how hairy it was, even if it is no smarter than a chimpanzee. Chimps are pretty smart in many ways.

Is sasquatch real? I don’t know. We will probably have to wait until we have a body of one of them to study at liesure. The tracks found and documented by many different people are intriguing however. I always just thought that bigfoot tracks were just fakes made by hoaxers with nothing better to do, until I found a set myself. Actually I never gave the subject any thought, as it was not really worth even thinking about. I am pretty sure now that I had the wrong attitude about sasquatch, but I can’t blame the complete skeptic for being skeptical. As probably no one was more skeptical than me. After I found the tracks and heard some awful loud screaming sounds of unknown animal origin from that area of the SSJWilderness, I began digging into the subject in that area and was surprised as anyone to find so much history of the creature there that went back to the 1500’s. I had never heard of sasquatch being in the Rocky Mountains, thinking it was only a ridiculous anomoly of the Pacific Northwest. Evidently the Jemez were right and that area really is a “Place were giant men step”. Hope you all get to find your own set of those giant tracks some day. It changed the way I viewed the area for sure. If they really exist, I hope we find out what they are before they go extinct.

Since three different size sets of tracks, 17″, 19″, and 21″ were found in 1993, maybe that means that at least three sasquatch were in that general area in that year, so maybe there is hope that they are still of breeding population numbers. The tracks found by the Round River group were 15 inches long in 1980. Another set found by an outfitter west of Platoro on the upper Rito Gato in the early 80’s was also 15 inches long. Smaller tracks, if they exist, might be mistaken for human or bear tracks, so evidently have not been reported that I know of.

Date: 20-Mar-05

Most people in the general public do not know that at the location of the Patterson film of a possible bigfoot that people went back to the same location later and took photos for scale. The young man in this photo is over 6 foot tall, and the frame from the Patterson Film are overlayed with the photo of the young man, scaled exactly to each other by sizing the dead trees in the background of both the film and the photo. This gives us exact size of the creature in the Patterson film. It is built huge and left only 15 inch long tracks. Wonder what one that leaves 20 inch long tracks looks like?

Date: 20-Mar-05

Here is zoomed in a little for better view of comparison of size of the Patterson Film subject

Date: 20-Mar-05

Here is Patty, the young man, and Shaq all scaled to height and size. Notice how huge the Patterson film subject is in comparison to Shaq, even though they are about the same height. Her thighs are about the same diameter as Shaq’s waist diamenter and her arms are about the same diameter as Shaq’s thighs. Notice arm length differences.

One thing that is interesting is that in the film, the creatures arms hang straight down as it walks, which means that the rotation of the arm at the shoulder joint is very much wider than any known human that ever lived. You might be able to put a 7 foot tall person in a gorilla suit of similar size, and build it up to look massive with padding, but you can’t change the width of the chest without having the guys arms angle outward awkwardly.

Whatever it was that Patterson filmed, these photo comparisons show the exact size of it for you to decide. No one has been able to show that the film was a hoax, quite to the contrary. So far 7 people, 6 men and one woman have said that they were the person in a gorilla suit that Patterson filmed that day, and each time the media has accepted their tall tales. None of them were even close to 7 foot tall, and none of them were anywhere nearly as wide through the chest as the real film subject.

Date: 29-Mar-05

7 people have admitted to being the person in the gorilla suit that Patterson filmed in California, which proves that the film is fake, as told to us by newspapers and television news reports. However, none of them were around 7 foot tall, nor did they have such extremely unhumanly wide shoulder rotation joints. That the film is proven to be fake is only in the minds of those who want it to be fake. True scientific study of the film differs, and says that the filmed creatures skeletal size is far outside known human possibility.

True—Very many thousands of backpackers, hikers, hunters who spend alot of time in roadless backcountry have never seen anything like bigfoot, including myself. What about the many thousands of them who have reported seeing something EXACTLY like bigfoot? Some 6000 sighting reports are now on record. That includes at least 6 professional hunting guides/outfitters in Colorado who have reported seeing sasquatch or finding clearly sasquatch tracks in that state while hunting. What about them? Just because I have never seen a sasquatch does not mean it does not exist. I have never seen a cougar in Colorado. Does that mean cougars do not exist in Colorado?

Why has no one shot a sasquatch and actually brought in back to civilization? Would you shoot a man shaped form while hunting in New Mexico for elk? I hope not, it might be me. Only murderers shoot at other people, no matter how hairy or how big, not hunters.

Could you hide in a 1 square mile block of old growth forest in Colorado and avoid being seen by someone looking for you if you wanted to hide from them? I could. We send hundreds of people out looking for lost children who want to be found and they are usually rarely found. Why? Is it because the lost child never existed in the first place? Surely if thousands of people including trained search and rescue people were out looking for the lost child in a relatively small area of forest that the child would have been found if they ever really existed. If the sasquatch naysayers are so good at finding anything and everything that walks in the woods, why don’t they contribute their extrordinary woodsman skills and find those lost children for us? There are also a couple hundred airplanes that have gone down in western North American forests that have never been found in spite of organized efforts to find them. Where were these exceptional woodsmen when they were needed to find those airplanes? After all, it is impossible to hide a big-O bright metal airplane in a forest from them. What about hiding something smaller than an airplane that moves around and doesn’t want to be found? Like sasquatch.

Science said very matter of factly and with no doubt whatsoever that no hominid or primate species migrated south of the Wallace Line in the Indonesian chain that sprawls from Asia to Australia prior to invention of the boat by humans. Their proof was that no fossils of such primates had been found south of the Wallace line. When the diminutive homo erectus type homo florensis fossils were recently found there south of the Wallace Line they said it was impossible that it was a decendant of homo erectus and that the first fossil skull found was only a skull of a microcephalous suffering homo sapien who came later. After finding more of the skulls and skeletons of these 3 foot tall micro sized homo erectus type hominids there, those naysayers are eating crow once more. Interestingly, those 3 foot tall, 12,000 year old fossil hominids with beetle brow, chimpanzee size brains and receding forehead found in Indonesia recently exactly fit modern descriptions by natives living there of some creature that still lives there. Now scientists believe that these creatures had to have lived in those island chains for well over 200,000 years, yet why didn’t we have any fossils of them until now? Very many millions of those hominids had to have lived on those islands over the last 200,000 years to have survived and passed on their genes, so where are all their fossil bones. Saying that sasquatch fossils have not been found in North America proves their nonexistance is ludicrous by comparison. North America is huge by size comparison to those islands as a place to hide rare fossils. If scientists are so good at finding fossils, why can’t they find the ancestors of homo florensis who lived by the millions in such a small area for over 200,000 years?

I just love the argument that if sasquatch was real, some hikers, backpackers and hunters would have seen it. I guess the many thousands of hikers, backpackers and hunters who have reported seeing sasquatch don’t count. Shouldn’t your argument be that, since you have not seen sasquatch or its tracks that it does not exist?

Date: 29-Mar-05

If you can find a copy of the Nov-Dec 2000 issue of Bugle Magazine, you will find a couple of articles by fellow hunters who also happen to be fairly well known outdoor writers who have very seriously seen sasquatch or tracks of it in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. What about them? You read their articles to learn how to hunt elk, you pay them to take you elk hunting, and you trust their judgment to help you succeed at elk hunting, then when they tell you they saw a sasquatch or found it’s tracks you call them liars, insane or poor in animal identification. That is very kind of you indeed.

Even though I have never seen a cougar in Colorado, I have seen a cougar in western Kansas while hunting antelope, where they are not supposed to exist. Interestingly, I have killed very many Pope and Young qualifying deer of both species in Kansas over the last 25 years. I recently helped a neophyte bowhunter select and set up his bowhunting equipment, taught him how to shoot, taught him how to tune his equipment, took him out hunting several times and rattled in two different P&Y qualifying whitetail bucks to within easy bow range for him which he promptly missed in both cases. When I told him I saw a cougar at 40 yards in ankle deep grass of a CRP field in broad daylight in western Kansas he thinks I am full of ****. Gee, he is so happy to have me give so many hours of archery and bowhunting training and give up my own bowhunting time to take his sorry inexperienced ass out hunting to teach him how to hunt deer but when I tell him what else lives out there in the wild he flat thinks I’m either lieing or don’t know how to identify cat species. Geez.

I know two professional Colorado bowhunting guides with more big bull elk under their bowhunting belts than most bowhunters will see in a lifetime who have seen sasquatch very clearly and distinctly in plain sight in Colorado. One of them had an 8+ foot tall sasquatch come to within 30 yards of his hidden location and step fully into an open meadow while bugling elk. The other sat and watched for over 10 minutes a huge sasquatch sunning itself in short grass beside a beaver pond from 100 yards through $2000 binoculars from uphill of the sasquatch’s location, with no doubt about what he saw. Yet I am sure when they each tell their sorry ass inexperienced bowhunting clients about the sightings that the clents think they are both nut cases poor in animal identification.

When the famous Bristish Columbian grizzly bear hunting guide Clayton Mack told his accounts of his two sightings of B.C. sasquatch to his city slicker clients, I am sure he was treated the same way too. After all, if some dude from New York City paying to be guided to a grizzly bear in B.C. has not seen a sasquatch, it can not exist there or anywhere. When you have walked as many backcountry miles in B.C. as Clayton Mack and not seen a sasquatch, then come back and give a more learned opinion.

If grizzly bears did not live in southern Colorado for 25 years between 1950 and 1975 because no one saw them or found their tracks there, then why was a grizzly sow who had born cubs killed there in 1975. Some boar grizzly had to have lived there too during that time to breed her, how did he hide from you? After all, how can you hide a pee brained grizzly boar, sow and her cubs from so many hikers, backpackers and hunters running all over the SSJWilderness for 25 years. If it was there, someone would have seen one of them during that time. Maybe they did see one of them and you chose not to believe them. Wildlife authorities certainly thought any grizzly sighting in Colorado during that time period was a bunch of crap, no matter who reported it. A few long term hunting guides had seen sign of them, or seen them themselves, but then so have a few guides seen sasquatch in Colorado. But they don’t count, because hunting guides don’t know how to identify species anyway.

And we all know that Native Americans who reported seeing and tracking sasquatch in western North America for millinia are nothing but stupid redskins who don’t know how to identify wildlife too. We European decent intelligent humans are after all the only people who can truely identify wildlife in our forests. All the Native American tribes who lived themselves for thousands of years off the land in the forests of western North America are wrong and you are right because you have a superior European brain.

I for one think I will trust the peoples that lived right in the forests on their opinion of what lived in those forests. I am also getting more and more sure that those mysterious creatures still live there and still leaving tracks there and still being seen by the more experienced outdoorsmen who visit there. Maybe if I spend another 300 days in the SSJWilderness and wait real quietly somewhere remote I see a sasquatch there too. I don’t know though, there are lots of trees and brush for them to hide behind.

Date: 12-Apr-05

Quite a few people think the creature in the Patterson film is a man in a costume, except people with degrees in anatomy or someone willing to take the time to measure the creature scientifically. The media easily accepts it as a man in a costume along with joe blow public. Here is a recent letter to the editor of the Yakima Herald from a doctor after the Herald published an article claiming the person in the suit was a man named Bob Heironimus. Every true scientist I know who has truely studied that film comes away with the realization that it is not a man in a costume.

Letters to the Editor of the Yakima Herald, Re: Greg Long’s book and the Bob Heironimus claim that he was the man in a suit in the Patterson Film……. Dear Editor, I read the absurd assertion that some guy named Bob Heironimus was the bigfoot creature in the Patterson/Gimlin film of 1967. One of my colleagues, Dr. Phil Mortensen actually met this Heironimus; allow me to say that if you believe that he actually was in the film, you are a fool’s fool. I have had the opportunity to examine the film frame by frame, and no way, especially in ’67, was such a suit that exhibited muscle movement and contraction available. Nor would one be easy to create today. I have attached frame 72, and prior and subsequent frames show muscular contraction and expansion, as one would expect from an upright, walking biped. And I speak specifically, the latissimus dorsi of the back, the gluteus maximus of the rear, the semitendinosus and biceps femoris of the back of the upper leg, and the plantaris tendon and gastrocnemius of the calf area. Even if none of that makes sense to you, this Heironimus is not nearly big enough to fill the suit out. We have determined the creature in the film to be nearly 7 feet tall, and in the area of 450-500 lbs. I know you have to write books, and hopefully this is just a ploy to sell them. You can’t actually believe the guy-in-the-suit theory…Can you? The muscles I wrote of were, of course, those of the human (and some primate) anatomy. I too, was hugely skeptical about the possibility that the bigfoot existed. I am now 60, and didn’t actually view the P/G film closely until 2002. I remember seeing it way back, probably in the early 70’s, but didn’t get the chanc

Bowhunting is not about killing something, it is about being close to nature in a one on one way to my way of thinking. Sasquatch may be part of that natural environment that I go out to enjoy with my longbow in hand. I never think about KE, because I know my longbow will propel a heavy shaft plenty fast to go through lungs of anything that walks in North America. Since I have got so many reports from bowhunters of their personal witness to sasquatch in Colorado and New Mexico, I think sasquatch is very relevant to bowhunting. Eagles, wolves, and other creatures that I don’t bowhunt are also very relevant to bowhunting.

No one forces anyone to read any forums you don’t want to read. I may be from Kansas, but since we had two ranches (one in the hills and one on the plains) and a high country vacation property in Colorado, it is hard for me not to visit the nearby Rockie Mountains. Oh yes, another little ranch near Tucumcari NM, but it was so close to Roswell that we sold it in the mid-70’s for fear of alien attacks. Okay, I admit that we no longer pay property taxes in NM, so I won’t post here anymore.

I still say that if sasquatch is running around in your bowhunting area, it is very relevant to bowhunting. Bowhunting is not just about killing things with an arrow, in my book.

e to dissect it, as it were, until fairly recently. I truly can think of no way to replicate such proper muscular movement. The creature we see in the film is alive, and is NOT a human being. In fact, the concurrent contraction of two or more muscle groups that occurs during a human walk (leg and lower back, for example, or gluteus maximus and upper leg) is nearly impossible for a layman to comprehend, much less contrive. Now the trick is to catch one of these beasts to lay all skepticism to waste. However, if one IS found, do the masses flock to the backcountry to see for themselves? Is it better left an unknown? Is the thrill gone should a corpse or live creature be collected? Ah.. the mystique of it all. Best wishes, Dr. Lawrence Willard Foley, Orthopedist

Date: 15-Apr-05