Criticism
Recently I came across this quote from Teddy Roosevelt. I think it appropriate to remember those field researchers who quietly go about their business of recording sounds, casting footprints and looking for evidence. Many of these individuals are unsung heroes not spending much time on the forums, chats or facebook. Instead they spend their spare time and vacations in the great American outdoors knowing that whatever they find or uncover will ultimately move the discovery of the last great mystery one step forward.
The Official White House portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt
John Singer Sargent — American painter – 1903
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Citizenship in a Republic,”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
Poll # 3 What category do you think best describes Bigfoot?
[poll id=”6″]
Writing by Minister_of_Information
Pongid Bigfoot
Pongid Bigfoot is the prevailing paradigm, that espoused by John Green, Rene Dahinden, Grover Krantz, and Jeff Meldrum. The characteristics of Pongid Bigfoot are:
* Descendant of Gigantopithecus blacki, generally a more distant relation of mankind than chimpanzees and bonobos
* Extremely rare, presumably endangered
* Restricted in range to the montane Pacific Northwest (including portions of Canada)
* Solitary
* Ape-like in intelligence and behavior
* Share few behavioral traits with humans
* Incapable of language or proto-language
* Generalized omnivore with heavy reliance on forage
* DNA samples from hair and scat are difficult or impossible to obtain
* Elusiveness explained by extreme rarity, nocturnal lifestyle, and a retiring temperment
* Preferred method of scientific documentation is capture or kill
* Genuine evidence of Bigfoot is rare, with hoaxing both ubiquitous and insidious within the body of evidence
* Supporters of this theory tend to be more skeptical of new evidence and less certain that Bigfoot exists
Hominid Bigfoot
Hominid Bigfoot is a minority view, espoused by Bayonev et al. The characteristics of Hominid Bigfoot are:
* Part of the hominid line, perhaps as closely related to mankind as Homo heidlebergensis
* Cunningly elusive rather than rare
* Ubiquitous across North America
* Social, but with solitary periods during the life cycle, especially for males
* Human-like in intelligence and behavior
* Share many behavioral traits with mankind with the notable exception of a technological culture
* Capable of language / proto-language, often thought to speak Native American tongues
* Specialized omnivore with heavy reliance on socially cooperative hunting
* DNA samples from hair and scat closely resemble human “contamination”
* Elusiveness explained by human-like intelligence and cunning, nocturnal lifestyle, retiring temperment, and possible culture-of-concealment which includes the active concealment of sign
* Preferred method of scientific documentation is habituation
* Genuine evidence of Bigfoot is more common than assumed by the Pongid camp, and hoaxing is a minor annoyance rather than a signficant problem
* Supporters of this theory tend to be less skeptical of new evidence and more certain that Bigfoot exists
Paranormal Bigfoot
Paranormal Bigfoot is a minority view, espoused by Jon-Erik Beckjord et al. The characteristics of Paranormal Bigfoot are:
* Uncertain lineage accompanied by possible alien genetic manipulation
* Extra-dimensional rather than necessarily rare
* Ubiquitous across an unknown range
* Social but with unknown aspects
* More than human intelligence
* Share behavioral traits with alien “grays”
* Capable of language and mental telepathy
* Unknown survival economy
* DNA manipulated by aliens
* Elusiveness explained by ability to shift dimensions and/or interact with UFOs
* Preferred method of scientific documentation is recognition that Bigfoot is a higher order being than mankind and the question of documentation is irrelevant
* Difficult to quantify the attitudes of the supporters regarding new evidence, except that they feel that the other camps are extremely misguided
Psychic / Imaginary Bigfoot
Psychic / Imaginary Bigfoot is a minority view, albeit one which seems to occupy a lot of space within the old guard of mainstream science. The characteristics of Psychic / Imaginary Bigfoot are:
* Not a physical entity
* The phenomenon is psychic or imagined in origin
* Reports are evidence of mass delusion
* BF characteristics are projected reflections of our ‘inner wildman’
* Physical evidence is wholly hoaxed or the result of wishful thinking
* Preferred method of documentation is evidence of mental instability and/or charlatanism among witnesses
* New evidence is yet more fakery or wishful thinking
Obamicon.Me
Created using Obamicon.Me
SquatchMarks – Revised
It has been a year since I first posted SquatchMarks. There are many new researchers entering the ranks of bigfoot/sasquatch research every day so I am reposting this in hopes that SquatchMarks can be of some help. I am constantly updating, making corrections and hopefully improving the general layout. I wish to thank all the wonderful people who continue to email me additions and corrections.
SquatchMarks attempts to include links to all websites, blogs, chatrooms, forums, internet radio, podcasts, Myspace and YouTube.
If you find a broken link, or know of a new website that you would like included please email me at stancourtney@hotmail.com or leave a comment at the end of this post.
From last years entry –
I have been on the internet for over 12 years now. During that time I have always struggled with a decent start page or set of bookmarks.
It is a very difficult undertaking to keep a current set of bookmarks. Every month there are many new websites that come on line as well as those that become broken links. I want to include all the websites, forums, podcasts, blogs and related sites.
This is my attempt to have a bigfoot & cryotozoology bookmark / start page.
http://www.stancourtney.com/squatchmarks.html
If you want to use it either bookmark it into your bookmark section, set it as your home page or save it on your computer and simple click on it when desired.
I am constantly deleting outdated links and adding new ones but it is a never ending job. I am always open to suggestions, if you find a page that you think needs to be added or a broken link just send me a note at stancourtney@hotmail.com or leave a comment at the end of this post.
Poll # 2 – How many sasquatches inhabit the United States and Canada?
There are just so many things we do not know about squatches. One interest I have always had is population studies. Whether birds or mammals I have always been amazed how living populations tend to stay stable.
Please take the time to vote in this poll, I am very interesting in your opinions!
[poll id=”5″]
Small Footprints in Remote Areas
My wife and I took our vacation this past summer with a trip “out west”. Having been raised on the Camas Prairie in Northern Idaho, every two or three years we make the pilgrimage to this area. We enjoy visiting the beautiful rolling hills and traveling down narrow gravel lanes. As has happened throughout most of America the farming areas have been depleted of a lot of their human population. In an area that was already sparsely settled today there are very few homes.
Photo taken 5th June 2008 looking NE from intersection of Meier & Keller Roads.
One of my favorite stops is the abandoned Meier School house four miles east of Melrose, Idaho. Our family lived for a year a mile east of this location. My father farmed property adjoining this acreage for almost twenty years. As children, my brothers and I spent many a happy afternoon playing around and in this old schoolhouse. I have always thought this is one of the loneliest places, with the wind blowing through the long grasses and the almost total silence.
Meier Schoolhouse, photo taken in July 0f 2000.
Looking due East down Keller Road. 5 June 2008
My wife and I had been in the Jeep for about an hour so we stopped to allow the dogs out to exercise. After getting out I headed across the road with one of the dogs. Immediately my wife said “Hey, did you see these footprints?” My response in disbelief was “Sure, who are you kidding?”
There in the middle of the road where another road met in a “T” were three footprints. My first reaction was no this can’t be, we were on a three week squatchin’ vacation and one of the few days in which we were just sightseeing we find something. I am not a tracker, I do not look or even think about finding footprints. I am basically interested in sounds, always listening for birds.
The mud puddles where the footprints were found at the “T” of Meier & Keller Roads.
Three footprints were in a straight line each placed about two feet apart. We were totally unprepared. No camera, no casting material and it was looking like more rain. The footprints were about nine inches long and looked human to me. We stood around about a half hour, letting the dogs exercise and then we drove away contemplating what we had just seen.
9 and 1/ 2 inch left footprint impression in the mud.
As we drove back to our motor home we discussed this unexplained find. The weather was chilly, about forty degrees and it had been raining for two days. Who would be walking around in this remote area in the rain barefooted. I remember as a child my brothers going barefoot, but that was always later in the summer, in warmer weather and not in the rain. These tracks were laid down in a very gravelly area, not the best conditions for a youngster to walk in. I walked several hundred yards in three directions from the “T” in the road, there was wet areas with plenty of soft mud to walk through. I found nothing. Whoever had walked there only left three footprints.
9 and 1/ 2 inch right footprint impression in the mud.
Could it have been the obvious, just a young human? It is possible for cars to stop at this location, just like we had. It just seems odd that someone would be walking barefoot in the cold and the rain. The next weekend we went to a family reunion where I asked my brothers and relatives about the possibility of a child walking on that road this time a year. They all gave the same answer, “We know the location and find it highly unlikely a child would go barefoot this early in the season and especially in the gravel in the middle of the road.”
Casting of the left footprint.
The next day we returned with a camera and casting material. The continuing rains had partially destroyed the prints. I made a little drainage ditch with my fingers to drain some of the water away. We went ahead and cast two of the footprints, kicking myself for not being better prepared.
Casting of the right footprint.
As we were traveling home the next week we stopped by Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho and asked Dr. Jeff Meldrum to look at my casts and give me his opinion. His answer was that he did not see anything to suggest that it was not a human footprint. I was disappointed but was still left with the nagging question of “Who would have been walking in the cold and rain barefooted?”
I have spoken with three other researchers from the Pacific Northwest who have found small human-like footprints in similar remote areas.