Is Bigfoot Real?

Cryptozoology Debate Rages On

© Kate Barthel

Dec 1, 2008
Patterson Gimlin Image of Bigfoot, Roger Patterson
Evidence gathered at Snelgrove Lake is further assessed for documentation of the purported Sasquatch.

Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, has been chased by researchers through the North American wilds for over 70 years now, but interest only seems to grow and sightings of upright walking hair-covered creatures and very large human-like footprints continue to be reported with heightened furor. A recent case, reported on by the New York Post, tells of an incident in Northern Ontario, Canada where a group of Bigfoot researchers were “attacked”. The attack was said to consist of rocks being thrown on the roof of the cabin where they stayed.

Snelgrove Lake Incident. On History Channel's “Monster Quest”, the Snelgrove Lake reports span four incidents between 2003 and 2008. Touted as an extremely remote outpost, the fishing cabin on Snelgrove Lake stands there alone and is only accessible by flotation plane, with the owner of the cabin stating that the nearest town is 200 miles away. However, the Slate Falls First Nation Reservation is about 10 miles from the cabin where over 100 people live. Bamaji Lake is nearby with fishing cabins there and Sioux Lookout, a small town of 5,000 is only 72 miles from this site.

Nonetheless, the incidents reported are numerous and concentrated for this area. The first occurred in 2003 with the researchers at the cabin “under attack” and eventually gathering blood, tissue and hair samples from a “bear trap” they had set on the porch of the cabin, consisting of screws stuck point up through a board. Run through several analyses, some of which showed no results, eventually it was reported that the DNA sample showed a one in 5,000 chance that it was human. As Loren Coleman, of Cryptomundo.com, states, with its one deviating base pair, this sample is “almost human”.

Another guest of the Snelgrove Lake cabin claims that in 2006, whilst asleep inside, the porch table was overturned and a fishing pole case was thrown against the cabin. In the morning he found a long hair on the case and saved it for analysis. Eventually it was determined that the hair had been treated with bleach to lighten it, and therefore is assumed to be human hair.

Sighting by Local Women. Another group of searchers visited the Snelgrove Lake cabin in 2008 to attempt to gather further evidence, some of the group being seasoned BFRO (Bigfoot Research Organization) veterans of many expeditions. They are of the mind that there is enough evidence in existence to suggest that this creature is an animal, likely a primate, that has developed the ability to avoid humans to an extraordinary degree. They rely on the archetype of a hairy, upright walking creature in most Native American and First Nations oral histories as further evidence. Thus, when the group at Snelgrove in 2008 had no action and got word of a sighting at Grassy Narrows 100 miles away by two Anishinabe women, they went to check it out.

While picking blueberries the women told of seeing a non-human creature that was about eight feet tall and “pitch black”. Jeff Meldrum, BFRO, stated that the lack of ripe berries in the vicinity of the cabin may be the reason they had no luck, that this creature they sought would likely migrate to follow the food source. They were brought to the site by another family member and did find one print that seemed not to be from a bear, and too large to be human, but too obscured to make out clearly.


The copyright of the article Is Bigfoot Real? in Cryptozoology is owned by Kate Barthel. Permission to republish Is Bigfoot Real? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.


Patterson Gimlin Image of Bigfoot, Roger Patterson
       


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