Ok,first let me say up front that from probably around 5th or 6th grade up til my early twenties I was quite interested in the Bigfoot phenomenon. I read everything my school and local libraries had to offer on the subject. Most of the earlier books I read were of 1970's vintage back in grade school. The titles of these books allude me at present but most of them as I recall covered all the pertinent early info on Bigfoot, that Ostman guy who claimed to have been kidnapped by a family of Bigfoot, the Ape Canyon stuff,Willow Creek construction site prints, and truckers seeing bigfoot run along side their rigs et al.
Over time though the Bigfoot books became few and far between and as I grew older my interest wained. That is until I read Grover Krantz's book which as I recall was titled BIG FOOTPRINTS or something to that effect. The book was an interesting enough read although I can't help but believe it made some wild "assumptions" in the areas of habits, diet and estimated population etc etc but none of this is the point of my post I'm just trying to portray myself as someone who has/had a general interest in Bigfoot.
So what is my point? Well,allow me to digress just once more and than I'll get to some semblance of one I promise.
I think the one thing that above all others caused the Bigfoot phenomena to lose points with me was the A&E Unsolved Mysteries documentary. How so? Stay with me I'll get to it soon, really,this time I mean it. Admittedly when I saw the TV listing for this show back when it first aired I was stoked. Not since the days of IN SEARCH OF or Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World had a show on Bigfoot amped my enthusiasm so, I couldn't wait to see it. After watching it though my enthusiam for Bigfoot was never at a lower ebb.
Which brings me to my point,remember the two hikers in that program who set out to get some footage of Bigfoot and came away with video of a relaxing Bigfoot,ALLEDGEDLY? Well that footage had me flummoxed and flabbergasted and still does to this day. I have the show on tape and after watching it again recently I still think the relaxing bigfoot in question is where I thought it was back when I first saw the show which,unfortunately just so happens to be...NO WHERE NEAR WHERE THESE TWO GUYS SAY IT IS!!
I must have rewound the segment of that program where they show the footage with and without that keen little highlight circle around where there ALLEDGEDLY lies a bigfoot hundreds of times and to me it's still a little left and lower.So I'm saying now what I yelled at the screen back when I first saw the show...
SOMEBODY THROW A ROCK AND GET THAT THING TO MOVE!! Or better yet fire off a round and get that thing to move off at a PATTERSON/GIMLIN like pace so we can get some acceptable footage, geeeeez!
Good grief somebody explain to me in anything other than Grizzly Adams speak why it's deemed totally verboten to bring along a sidearm when doing some Bigfoot filming and why if you do bring a weapon that you should make a pact with your buddy not to fire the damn thing, or for that matter why everyone seems to think that fecal matter,hair samples and plaster footprint casts are somehow going to cut the mustard if the mission is to prove the existence of the missing link when in reality what is required is a stiff, a corpse, a dead specimen?
Every Bigfoot related site I go to that organizes any type of search usually strongly dissuades anyone from bringing a weapon larger than a sidearm and than admonishes anyone who does bring one to use "ONLY IN THE CASE OF AN EMERGENCY".Well I'm hear to tell ya that these types of things are what loses people like me quicker than any ALLEDGED bell shaped object in fur, or John Chambers rumor could ever do. Why is that?
Well at the risk of sounding like some simple enflamed argumentative type (which I'm not trying to be, really) The Wild Forest Man....it's his woods....leave them alone...Spirit Ape...mularkey is best saved for...AFTER you've proven the thing exists with the aforementioned stiff,cadaver,corpse,dead specimen.For some illogical reason Bigfoot enthusiasts are of the opinion that if we snap a polaroid of Bigfoot taking a dump everyone will suddenly believe it's real. NOT VERY LIKELY, the Patterson/Gimlin film notwithstanding.
Listen, I'll use an example with one of Bigfoots own relatives....the Gorilla. No one believed it existed outside of it's native Africa till one was shot,killed and studied by western civilization so at the risk of repeating myself I say again..somebody will need to shoot a bigfoot before I or for that matter the rest of the free world believes it exists.
Oh and while were on the subject.. why is it thought of as such a bad thing if we shoot One Bigfoot? Just one, not a family group or a wholesale slaughter of the species. Just shoot one, study it, release the findings, than slap Bigfoot onto the endangered species list quicker than you can say Sumatran Rhino and Voila everyone's happy right? Well apparently not.
For some reason every Bigfoot enthusiast seems to become a Trapper or a Mountain man whenever Bigfoot is brought up. They get all "Natural Order of Things", or "God's creatures great and small" which causes me to believe that no one really ever wants substantial,concrete proof in the form of an actual specimen that would be studied subsequently settling the whole thing once and for all. They would rather offer up grainy footage which will never be believed to be anything other than a hoax by most (although I for one am not convinced it's in anyway a hoax)or hair samples or DNA tests or ziplock bags full of dung none of which will be bought by the average American just so they can keep hope alive as it were.
Which brings me to my final point I firmly believe that most enthusiasts are afraid for it to be proved a hoax (not that I'm saying it is mind you) They are afraid that someone in a hairy suit will be shot and the whole thing will be debunked as the work of hoaxers. I say Kill one and lets settle this once and for all. Why not hit the woods with alot of big, big guns and drop a hairy biped of unusual size where it stands and lets see if it's the real deal huh?.To be taken seriously as an actual zoological interest someone is going to have to unwrap their arms from around the tree their hugging and bust a cap into a Bigfoot post haste because really,It's this simple folks Kill one and the world will believe,don't kill one and everyone will laugh when the subject of Bigfoot is broached in conversation, prosecution rests.
PS- I apologize if I offended anyone during my post, I can't stress enough that I really do hold an interest in the phenomenon but I'm entirely on the fence where Bigfoot is concerned. Furthermore I consider myself a logical enough guy who requires evidence in these types of matters, the kind that definitely could not be hoaxed the way film or prints or noises possibly could be.
Sincerely,
Paul Schmidt,Arizona
Posted on Mar 13, 2002, 2:35 AM from IP address 205.188.192.172