I have no clue, but I thought that was a good post title.
Many years have I swatted mosquitoes and pinched loafs in the field looking for tracks, listening for wood knocks and sniffing for putrid stinks, other than mine, that are said to accompany these elusive man-beasts. Yet I have found nothing. Nothing!
Photos from a bank of trail cams hidden in the wilderness surrounding my remote cabin have revealed nothing but the normal wildlife one would expect: deer, bear, bobcats, foxes, dogs, Elvis, you name it. A barn owl took a close-up selfie while sitting on a branch near one of my cameras. Scared the crap out of me when I first saw it. Those things are creepy looking.
Anyway, Bigfoot. Big ol’ Bigfoot. What is going on people? It would be one thing if we could all just enjoy these mystery stories and legends without actually thinking there is something to go find, but we are intrigued. These stories rekindle that sense of adventure we had in our youth. Truth be told I’d love for these creatures to be real, but just as I type that sentence I realize that actually discovering a real creature like this would ruin all the fun. The mystery would be destroyed.
So we fool ourselves in a sense. We enjoy the stories of sightings and encounters, and we enjoy venturing out on our own or with friends to take part in the adventure of it all. It’s an escape. Fooling ourselves doesn’t make us stupid, there are a great number of smart people in this world who believe creatures like Bigfoot are real.
The late Grover Krantz for example. Here was a smart man with an impressive scholarly track record and a few books to his credit. Krantz, at first a skeptic, eventually turned believer and became an outspoken advocate for the existence of Sasquatch. His theory was that sightings of these creatures could be credited to a small surviving population of Gigantopithecus blacki.
His turn from Bigfoot skeptic to “believer” came through his examination of the “Cripple Foot” track casts made in Bossburg, Washington in November of 1969.
Let’s instead use the term “cast” in the singular form. The claim is made that Krantz, along with René Dahinden, examined all 1,089 tracks in the snow, yet there is only a reference to, and a cast of, one (1) alleged cripple foot. We don’t even get to see any pictures, not even two, of the other 1,089 purported tracks found.
It would also make sense to note that, in the book Sasquatch,
You know what my first thought is when I look at that “cripple foot” track seen in the photo? It looks like a boot heel with a gloved hand print over top of it. The two impressions did not have to be made at the same time, and they may not be an intentional hoax, but it’s something worth considering. That’s just my observation.
Do you know what Krantz had to say about the possibility that someone hoaxed the cripple foot tracks?
From a John Yager, KXLY-TV interview with Grover Krantz, quoted by Michael Dennett in “Bigfoot Evidence: Are These Tracks Real?” Skeptical Inquirer 18, no. 5 (1994): 499-500, and referenced from Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids
with all the subtle hints of anatomy design, he had to be a real genius, an expert at anatomy, very inventive, an original thinker. He had to outclass me in those areas, and I don’t think anyone outclasses me in those areas, at least not since Leonardo da Vinci. So I say such a person is impossible, therefore the tracks are real.
Who says stuff like that? I say so, therefore it must be true! That’s an illogical statement for a scientist to make, if you ask me. But what the hell do I know?
Anyway, let’s get back to the original topic of smart people persisting to entertain the idea of Bigfoot as a real creature. I will stop using the term “believe.” With abundant evidence to the contrary, and a huge absence of real solid evidence — which, to be sure, is not evidence of absence! So I have heard — why does it continue?
Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum is a smart guy, no doubt about it. The man is Full Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology and a Professor of the Department of Anthropology at Idaho State University. You don’t get there being dumb. I will emphasize, to save my ass… Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum is not dumb! He is a very smart man who has worked his ass off to be in his position. So, why does he continue to assert that the existence of Bigfoot is a real possibility?
Dr. Meldrum, in his study of casts of alleged Sasquatch footprints, has become convinced that enough similarity is found between many track casts far and wide to warrant serious investigation into the possible reality of these creatures.
On one hand I kind of agree with him. As I mentioned earlier, I’d love Bigfoot to be real. But on the other hand I can’t help but think that maybe Dr. Meldrum, like many other Bigfoot proponents, is conveniently ignoring some details that may suggest the contrary to that which is desired.
Granted I have not studied track casts like he has, but for years I wanted Bigfoot to be real. I poured over books, watched TV shows, documentaries, read stories of encounters, and went into the woods hoping for an encounter of my own. It never happened, and over time I began to see it for what it is. Strip away all of the so-called evidence, the blurry blobsquatch photos, all the hearsay and anecdotal accounts, and what you have left is a cult of want.
We watch the shows, read the stories, and are entertained by the mysteries. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Dogmen (yes, Dogmen), UFOs, Aliens, conspiracies.
Finding Bigfoot, MonsterQuest, Mountain Monsters, The X-Files, Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, In Search Of… all of the books, films and TV shows, past and present, with all of the mysterious things they present reveal only one truth: people love a mystery.
I will leave you with that. Gotta go, my hotline is ringing.