Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 13:38:02 EDT
From: SHnSASSY1@aol.com
To: SHnSASSY1@aol.com
Subject: [SO] *Bigfoot Believers and Sasquatch Skeptics  

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http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf?/news/pd/cc10foot.html

*Bigfoot believers and Sasquatch skeptics 

Monday, April 10, 2000

By BRIAN ALBRECHT 


PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

NEWCOMERSTOWN, Ohio - Bigfoot stomped through the West Elementary School 
gymnasium on Saturday, leaving his size 17-EEEE imprint in plaster casts and 
lollipops, his supposedly haunting howl on compact discs and likenesses of 
his furry face peering from sweatshirts, hats and fuzzy videos.

Believers were thrilled, skeptics confounded and the just plain curious were 
challenged there by the 12th annual Bigfoot Conference/Expo 2000. Nearly 200 
people, including Sasquatch experts and eyewitnesses from across the country, 
gathered at the event, sponsored by the Tri-State Bigfoot Study Group. The 
group covers an area (Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) that has had as 
many reported sightings as the Pacific Northwest of this 7-foot-tall, 
900-pound, furry, ape-like creature that supposedly haunts the deep forests 
and remote mountains.

Don Keating, conference organizer and longtime local resident, said he had 
videos of two possible sightings in the dense woodlands around Newcomerstown, 
the birthplace of sports greats Cy Young and Woody Hayes, and the retreat 
home of Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White.

Keating reported local Delaware Indians are said to have cautioned early 
settlers to put out food offerings for the "wild ones of the woods."

Today, the legend persists, largely on faith. When Keating asked how many in 
the audience believed they had seen Bigfoot, only seven raised their hands.


But itâ^À^Ùs a growing belief, according to Keating, who said the conference had 
steadily grown from the first, which attracted only 42 people. The 
conference, he said, is not intended to sell the idea that Bigfoot exists, 
but to bring investigators, eyewitnesses and enthusiasts together to share 
information and improve study in the field, with the eventual goal of making 
a proof-positive discovery.

Some conference attendees included Bigfoot as part of a general interest in 
the unexplained, mysteries encompassing everything from UFOs to the John F. 
Kennedy assassination.

Brian Seech and his wife, Theresa, were among a group of conference visitors 
from Aliquippa, Pa. They said their interest in the paranormal was prompted 
by their own UFO sighting five years ago. Seech said they came to the 
conference to get some tips before embarking on a planned Bigfoot search this 
summer in West Moreland County, Pa., an area of previous Sasquatch sightings.

Sue Juber, 45, of Alquippa, wasnâ^À^Ùt as ambitious - yet. "Iâ^À^Ùm not sure if I 
believe in Bigfoot or not," she said at the onset of the conference. "Thatâ^À^Ùs 
why Iâ^À^Ùm here, to find out."

But Jim Davis, 52, of Akron, said he had been a "Bigfooter" since 1967, when 
he lived in Streetsboro and was driving on Ohio 14 late one night and saw an 
elderly, panic-stricken couple running down the road. Davis said the couple 
had been lantern-fishing at a local lake when they encountered a creature and 
fled. Visiting the site, Davis said he found huge footprints and ungodly, 
unimaginable stench.

Davis said the conference was a way he and others could "talk with other 
people who understand what theyâ^À^Ùve seen or heard, and not be ridiculed."

"Itâ^À^Ùs almost like a support group, letting people know itâ^À^Ùs OK to see a 
Bigfoot. You donâ^À^Ùt have to be embarrassed," said Canadian wildlife ecologist 
John A. Bindernagel, one of the conference speakers who believes Bigfoot is 
North Americaâ^À^Ùs great ape.

On the frontiers of Bigfoot technology, William Dranginis, of Manassas, Va., 
brought a prototype of a $5,000, four-camera, 360-degree video surveillance 
system he hopes to deploy next year in an area where he spotted an unknown 
creature four years ago. When triggered, the system pages Dranginis, who can 
then monitor and control the cameras remotely with a laptop computer.

Bob Daigle, 56, of Detroit, baits his Bigfoot videocamera "traps" in northern 
Michigan with fish (canned and fresh), but is reluctant to meet Bigfoot, face 
to fur.

"All reports say they tend to be benign," he said, "but theyâ^À^Ùre still capable 
of killing a human being at any time."

Conference exhibits featured plaster casts of Bigfoot footprints, and 
Sasquatch artwork and figurines - some probably a bit too similar to 
Chewbacca of the "Star Wars" movies to make dedicated believers happy. 
Souvenirs included shirts, hats, bumper stickers, keychains, footprint-shaped 
suckers, CDs and videotapes.

Snatches of conversation swirled like markers on a trail of the bizarre: "If 
you ever see one, you got to stand still,â^À^Ùcause if you move, they move ... I 
shouldâ^À^Ùve tracked it. I probably wouldâ^À^Ùve had my arms torn out of my 
sockets, but at least I wouldâ^À^Ùve had something."

Bigfoot fans hunted down autographs of visiting celebrities like J.E. 
"Smokey" Crabtree, whose Bigfoot sighting in Arkansas was the basis of the 
1975 movie, "The Legend of Boggy Creek"; or Larry Lund, "The Sasquatch 
Sleuth," of Vancouver, Wash., who presented a session on Bigfoot video fakery.

He does not include the so-called "Patterson film" among them. That grainy 
1967 footage - the most widely aired and recognized image of the alleged 
creature lumbering near a forest - "is what keeps us going, makes us think 
weâ^À^Ùve really got something here," Lund said.

But many at the conference said nothing less than a Bigfoot body would 
convince skeptics.

As the six-hour conference closed, after all the speakers and exhibits and 
videos, Dale Reed, 57, of Carrollton, Ohio, was still unmoved. "When I see 
one come through my back yard, thatâ^À^Ùs when Iâ^À^Ùll believe it," he said.

Sue Juber, however, was a converted skeptic, and plans to join her Aliquippa 
neighbors on their Bigfoot search this summer. "I came, reluctantly, but Iâ^À^Ùm 
glad I did," she said. "By showing how much [purported evidence] wasnâ^À^Ùt real, 
I was able to understand how much out there does seem real."

Bigfooters hedge their bets. Nobody at the conference said the creature 
absolutely, positively exists. They believe it does. And even if it doesnâ^À^Ùt 
...

As Carolyn Mack of Detroit said with a shrug, "Itâ^À^Ùs a mystery. You always 
hope thereâ^À^Ùs something out there. But if nothing else, it sure makes life 
interesting."


E-mail: balbrecht@plaind.com

Phone: (216) 999-4853 


©2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.

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