The Theory That Dare Not Speak It's Name: The Tale of MKD; Some Peter Byrne Bigfooting Fashions; Oregon Sasquatch Symposium 2011

The Theory Formerly Known as "Massacre"

BIGFOOT'S BLOG, Early June, 2011 EDITION

Just when you thought it was dead and gone for good (or bad), a certain "Theory" has arisen again and endeavors to gnaw on the brains and brain power of all involved with Bigfooting. Despite factual debunking from numerous credible sources, as well as this blog, it persists in various places. The voice of this theory issues forth like a persistent subliminal message saying "Be Dumb, Be Dumb, Be Dumb" from a certain ArtistFirst Bigfoot Central "radio" station. A certain Southern-Fried Bigfooting Forum, the name of which is coded below, is like a kennel of attack dogs for this theory. Following on the conversion of one noted "Bigfoot-Is-Human" believer, an ex-cop from the southern Bay Area, another prominent long-time BFer has lent her prodigious imaginative mind to the slow contamination of the once reliable Bigfoot Encounters web site. Where once facts and documentation once meant something, even in this somewhat wacky world of Bigfoot, now people can just make stuff up from the raw boogers of the imagination, molding them into the shapes they prefer. We are on the record debunking this "Theory" (peruse our side links for past posts and interviews), but here we'd like to forewarn you that it is BAAAACK. And it is coming to a run-down, dumpy B-grade DVD theater near you. Yes, that's right, it's... MKD's Flying Circus: "Incident at Bluff Creek." View the trailer for the film below. You will be astonished, believe us.

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THE ADVENTUROUS TALE OF MKD....
(The following text was found buried in the sands of Bluff Creek, scrawled in blood on an old and weather'd parchment made of Sasquatch hide. Read on if you dare!)

Beckjord the Grey, disciple MKD, and a Bigfoot turning to leave.

Years ago in time out of mind a little man from the Southern Shires came forth from his hole-in-the-ground home bearing a bound manuscript volume of great Ideas of his own Invention, entitled, Bluff Creek Incident: There and Back Again. It was a great achievement in the mind of this diminutive, furry-footed, erstwhile picture analyst by trade. It made him a Name and great Fame among the townsfolk of Gcbro, and other hamlets throughout the Southern Lands. In it he vanquished the dark lords and their orc minions from the frigid, frozen North Lands, sending these "Canadians" back down into their subterranean cave lairs. This, then, is the brief telling of this tale of the great Hero, one Mrodo Kibbets Daggins, or as we shall call him hereby his popular name of repute, the Honorable Noble Knight of the Shire, MKD.

Gather round, hear the telling of the tale! Hear how around him gathered from far flung hobbitine holes the Grave Lord MonsterHunter, the stern White Queen BS, and the loyal Dark Duke Dave of Gilroy Province. Hear how he, the adamant MKD, was first set on the Path of Adventure by the wily wizard, Beckjord the Grey. Hear with thine own ear how he slew on the grand voyage that followed the grim and pitiless serpent, Giant Salamader. Hear how he righteously stole the honored Great Ring, signet of Footer of the Year, from Sir Danny of the Southwest, and how he gave it to his trusty footman, DonDon, for safekeeping lest he garner of it power too great (still, he secretively donned the ring surreptitiously, while up in his tower chamber at Castle ArtistFirst). Hear how he traveled far-flung trails to the holy site of Discovery in Bluff Creek, California Territory, a continent away from his humble home, and dangerously adjacent to the Dark Lord Green's Northern lair. Hear how MKD saw clearly that all other chroniclers were wrong, and only he the rightful and truthful heir to the truth, and the True Site.

Know that Truth descended in mighty Glory, being brought to him in grand visions of the mind (kindled by the sage herbal intoxicants given him in his tea by the sorcerer Beckjord). These hidden and cryptic truths were dispensed by him in fardels borne by myriad henchmen, lest He, MKD, be known as the Source of what to the Dark Lord Green of the North could only be taken as the Causative Slander of Great Battle. Know and see how wily MKD, like Odysseus of old, enfeebled the mind of the great warrior Cyclops of "Ape" (also known as Gigantopithius) and confounded his troops with the many-layered Onion of Conspiracy.

Yea, internally he received, and outwardly he saw, vast projections upon the landscape of the venerable Celluloid Called P-G. Famed MKD is, and rightfully, for showing in this Film the Beast of God, a human form with braided hair and stick in hand, big-footed, as she walked into glorious martyrdom and Sacrifice for all Folk of the Good South at the hands of Northern reivers, and their shadowy Wraiths of Washingtonia. She and her Relations were felled by the musket ball of the Evil Titmouse and the dread Dwarf warrior, Gimli. The grave consiglieri, Dahinde Rene documented and depicted it for All across the flat Earth to see. And they spent the wretched remainder of their days covering up their shame with fig leaf books and pamphlets on "Big Foot." Only the Noble MKD saw through the Great Lie, and only he, with the aid of his scribe, Johnny-John Grendel could decipher the mystery from the obfuscatory haze; and only they master the great technique of the Sacred rainbow DVD.

Great armies converged from all provinces upon that tiny sandbar of Bluff Creek! For yea, it was as prophesied of old, the site of End Times and Great Portent. Alerted by gaunt and raving logging company scouts in the Southlands, Lord Green with great stealth assembled his cadre of assassins to descend upon this last, Lost World tribe of Big Foot. Human they were, though hirsute, odoriferous, and of great bulk; and expert they were at avoiding all technique of fire, writing, possessions and homes. Full of Goodness they were, the bane of Lord Green. Terrible and grievous this Canadian was, and forth from his Castle Harrison Hot, poured forth his vile and sub-human, ape-like servants. Upon Bluff Creek they assembled, and there they made a large Hole upon the sandbar to receive the blood of the Sacrifice. The snare set, into the woods they dissolved, awaiting their prey.

We need not say more to the believing Public, need we? Into the Bloody Hole their bodies fell, the hairy ones, and they were skinned, beheaded, and buried with the sinful, black fume belching Backhoe of Whitson. Red flowed the creek's waters, and red the sand with the prints of the Hounds of Moffit. Buried were the bones, lost the true tale of the extirpation, and watched over it was by the dragon Salamander. Flood and Clear-cut took their tolls, time washed away the traces of the Crime, and lo, even the roads began to be taken back into Nature until even the site was lost.

One dark apostle, Patterson the Short, was sent forth to beguile and dissimulate among the People, false prophet of Lord Green that he was, accompanied by Gimli. His film, infernally wrought upon a mystifying strip, clipped and trimmed of all but one bloody image at its start, was soon shown upon every wall and magic glass within the known boundaries of the world circle. So great was the enchantment that no one save MKD (protected from the sleep of reason again by Beckjordian Art) knew of the baleful, sinister, exsanguinated but also redemptive Truth. Across plain and vast pinnacles, crossing, past demon and hideous guardian beasts alike, MKD traveled. To Bluff Creek he came, and to the Site he walked through wood and water, until there he found the holy relics, a metallic wire, a piece of bone. Femur of Sasquatch held aloft to the wrathful Northern skies, MKD howled and raged, imperious he stood in the canyons shadows. I shall go forth now to the world and proclaim this Terrible Mystery, he proclaimed. And a Voice came from on high, saying, "This is my prophet, and he shall be the only One in the Land who shall see, who shall know, and let all others be blinded by Science, History, and Reason."

Returning to the Southern land of Miss Is Ippy, MKD built the lone tower of Bigfoot Central, and began his arduous task of discovery and  proclamation. Long days and nights he spent poring over every frame from the Film, his eyes blear and crossed, until from the still images forms began to emerge, to move, to speak to him of forgotten lore and fable. Though Massacre it was, and Murder as Big Foot was Human, MKD made firm his resolve that No Name would his Theory have. It Dare Not Speak Its Name, as such words would slay the minds of men, rendering them irredeemably lost to the realms of Day. Finally, Truth was his, and alone his, the Account of what no one else had Seen and Known, that only He, MKD, could know and see, as he was blessed with second sight, and third sight, and....

[Here the manuscript abruptly ends.]

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OK, maybe not. Let us stop this already. MKD has threatened us with retribution, anyway, from his faraway castle in the South.
Lest we further incur his wrath, pleased be ye to view the following occult and mystic document, smuggled out of the Southern district of YouTubia by an intrepid messenger.

Did that work? If not, click this link to the INCIDENT AT BLUFF CREEK trailer YOUTUBE, or try it here on BF ENCOUNTERS.

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Look! There are UFOs, "Rods," Bigfoot Bones, and Space Worms in the PGF, too!

THE THEORY THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME!!!

Recently, on BIGFOOT ENCOUNTERS, Bobbie Short posted a very lengthy article analyzing film splices said to have been done to John Green's copy of the PATTERSON-GIMLIN FILM. It was a cryptically worded essay, hiding very strange implications and assumptions behind a distracting wall of technical jargon. What was she saying? Basically, first, that the "real" PGF was only thirty seconds long, and not the near minute it covers today. Huh? The other thing, which the whole essay built up to in an agonizingly long crescendo, was that there was SOMETHING in the "hole" seen at the beginning of the film, in its earliest frames. This echoed something another researcher (on Artist First) had said over and over again: there was some "thing" in that "bloody hole" at the start of the film. What WAS it, we asked. We looked at the last image for a long while, our eyes grew crossed and tired, and then, like one of those strange 3-D hidden-image books and posters, the image emerged. Here is what we saw, and now we know what these "researchers" have been talking about for all this time. Ha! Have a look below. The last few images were sent to this blog by an anonymous source; the first image is from the BF Encounters page (now removed from the site, in cowardice, we suppose), with text we added.

See the bottom of this blog post for more supplementary "Bigfoot Corpse" and early PGF images that will help place the above absurdity into context.

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BIGFOOTING FASHIONS....

Paragon and Icon of the Well-Dressed Bigfooter. Peter Byrne.

PETER BYRNE, who will be appearing as a special guest at this June's upcoming 2011 OREGON SASQUATCH SYMPOSIUM, has always been a paragon of Bigfooting fashion. He is the link between the old British Colonial "Great White Hunter," and today's decidedly less civilized, but much more practical, Bigfooting attire and image. Recently, thanks to long-time Squatch Historian, Larry Lund, we received these very interesting and significant pieces of Bigfoot history... Mr. Byrne's garb and Jeep logos.

The door panel from Byrne's BIGFOOT RESEARCH PROJECT Jeep,
a million-dollar-funded unit with several cool safari vehicles, paid
employees, and a lost filing cabinet full of extensive sighting reports.

Signed by Byrne, the Jeep spare wheel cover, front and back.

A weathered pith helmet, signed by Byrne, which has seen many an
expedition. One never knows when a Yeti may hurl a rock at one's noggin.

Another, newer pith helmet, signed by Peter Byrne.

A true icon of Bigfooting: the Peter Byrne safari/hunting vest.
How many rolls of film with photos of Bigfoot on them were lost in
those myriad pockets, never to be retrieved?

Interior of the vest, signed by Peter Byrne.
PHOTOS ABOVE BY AND COURTESY OF LARRY LUND.
Used with his Permission.

Of course there are always alternatives....

Or, you could always dress like this, the modern
para-military Squatcher image as modeled by Steve Kulls.
http://squatchdetective.com/

How NOT to Squatch

We have seen James "Bobo" Fay wearing camouflage flip flops at Louse Camp in Bluff Creek. Now THAT might be going just a little bit too far!

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PETER  BYRNE... his "resume":

Peter Byrne's life story is the fabric from which legends are woven… and reads like one of the epics handed down to us by men like Hillary of Everest,  Livingstone of Africa and Shackleton of the Antarctic. Exploratory white-water river runs in the Himalaya, China and East Africa, high mountain expeditions in search of the Abominable Snowmen, an investigation of the Loch Ness monster, a best-selling book about the Bigfoot mystery of the Pacific Northwest, five years as a tea planter in north Bengal, two decades as a professional hunter running his own big game safari company, designer and creator of the beautiful White Grass Plains Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, discoverer of the largest elephant in Asia … these are but a few of the facets of an extraordinary life of challenge, adventure and achievement.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was raised in the country educated there (St. Mary's College, Dundalk) until he was eighteen. He then joined Britain's Royal Air Force and served for four years with its Air Sea Rescue service, 1943 to 1947, with World War 11 combat zone service in South East Asia, mainly in the Cocos Keeling Islands of the Indian Ocean, where he was part of the top secret Operation Pharos, planned for the invasion of Japan. He was awarded three campaign medals. 

Upon leaving the RAF, he joined a British tea company, the Dooars Tea Company Ltd, with offices in London and estates in north Bengal, India, where, through the last days of the British Raj, he spent five years in the tea growing business in managerial positions. 

In 1953, he resigned from his tea company and walked from Darjeeling, India, to Katmandu, Nepal, a distance of 350 miles. There he obtained a big game hunting concession of 200,000 acres from the government, in the White Grass Plains, (the WGP) a remote and untouched area in the far southwest forests of Nepal.   He formed his own company, NEPAL SAFARIS, and personally operated it as a full-time, professional hunter, running big game, trophy-hunting safaris for rich and famous clients … for tiger, leopard, buffalo, bison, wild boar, deer and crocodile, through to 1970.

In 1968, concerned with the decline of wildlife in the Indo Nepal region, he gave up hunting, returned the lease of his safari concession to  the government of Nepal and recommended that it be converted into a protected wildlife park. In that year he also established, in Washington DC, the International Wildlife Conservation Society Inc., (IWCS) a non-profit organization and using this to generate funding, designed and created a new park from his old hunting concession.  The result, today,  is the beautiful White Grass Plains Wildlife Reserve (Sukila Phanta), a 200,000 acre sanctuary that is one of the finest of its kind in southeast Asia.

When the park was completed, before returning to it to operate eco tours and photo safaris, he formed one of the first high-mountain, white-water river running companies and opened up, with exploratory descents, four of Nepal's unknown Himalayan rivers to this dangerous and challenging sport. He also organized and led the first descents of the Galana Sabaki River in the Tsavo Park of southern Kenya, and the Li River in China.

Peter Byrne is a contributing writer to SPORTS AFIELD magazine. His published books include TULA HATTI, THE LAST GREAT ELEPHANT (Faber & Faber, 1980) the story of his discovery of the largest elephant in Asia, with an introduction by Jimmy Stewart. THE SEARCH FOR BIGFOOT, (Simon & Schuster, 1990) an account of the Bigfoot mystery of the Pacific Northwest and his own experiences investigating it. GONE ARE THE DAYS, (Safari Press, 2002) an account of his years as a hunter in north India and Nepal and his transition from hunter to wildlife conservationist, with an introduction by Charlton Heston. SHIKARI SAHIB, (Pilgrims Press, 2002) a collection of stories about man-eating tigers including some of his own experiences with man-eaters. GENTLEMAN HUNTER, a detailed account (the result of many years of field work) of the history of man-eating tigers and leopards in north India and southern Nepal, published by Safari Press, Huntington Beach, Ca. And two novels, RAIN FALLING AT CASCADE LOCKS, a love story based in the Pacific Northwest and THE GREEN EYE, an action adventure saga set in India and Nepal.  

His latest releases (2009) are, A.,  a reprint of his book, TULA HATTI, THE LAST GREAT ELEPHANT and, B.,  his new FIELD GUIDE TO THE WHITE GRASS PLAINS WILDLIFE RESERVE,  a guide and listing of all of the mammals, birds, fishes, snakes and reptiles of this unique 200,000 acre park where he as spent so many years. And planned for 2010 are two more books …the second part of his autobiography, to be titled TALES FROM THE CAMPFIRE and a second book on the Bigfoot mystery of the Pacific Northwest of the USA.

Peter presently (2009) serves as the Executive Director of the International Wildlife Conservation Society (www.internationalwildlife.org) and designs and implements wildlife conservation programs for the government of Nepal. These include elephant and tiger studies and wetlands reclamation and to this end, until recently, he spent up to eight months of each year in Nepal. He is presently building a private, not-for-profit safari lodge in south west Nepal, adjacent to the WGP, which will be used as a base for scientific research to support these and other programs. 

He is fluent in Hindustani, Taru and Nepalese. He is also a Member Emeritus of the Explorers Club of New York and a Member of the Academy of Applied Science of Boston, MA. His hobbies and interests, beyond writing, include big game photography, mainly of tiger, which he likes to stalk on foot; he is one of the very few men in the world with the ability to call up tiger. He was recently featured, (November 2004) as being unique in the world of adventure and  exploration, on the prestigious Outdoor Channel’s Circle of Honor program. And as of June, 2005, he was been invited, as a Guest of Honor and War Hero,  by the Australian government, to attend ceremonies in the Australian owned Cocos Islands in connection with his WW 11 wartime service there with the Air Sea Rescue branch of the Royal Air Force.

Many young men dream of adventure and challenge, of living among primitive peoples, of crossing unknown deserts, exploring tropical jungles and making the first descents of  unknown rivers.    Peter Byrne has lived, and continues to live this dream.   

We just have to say... if it is true that he has done only 10% of these things listed above he would still be considered a real-life Indiana Jones. Too bad he can't add: SASQUATCH CAPTURED at the end of the list, eh?

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SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Image from X-Creatures, John Green's PGF copy, showing early frame
spliced in the wrong way. See comparison merge below.

Here is another version of the early frame. R U Serious, B.S.?

This, et seq., showing stabilized frame-by-frame screen captures we did.
Do YOU  see a "bloody hole"? Do YOU see a "Bigfoot Body" there?
We sure do not.

John Green's Film Copy. The two frames merged, corrected and flipped,
and slightly side-shifted after film break/splice, showing that there
was one sequence with nothing cut out, just two mis-spliced frames.

THREE OTHER "INDEPENDENT VIEWS" OF THE SAME PAREIDOLIA EFFECT...

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Come to the OREGON SASQUATCH SYMPOSIUM, 2011.

http://oregonsasquatchsymposium.webs.com/oss2011.htm

We will be there!

Click to Enlarge and Read Images

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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS! 

OMG. WTF. Me no know what to say. STFU, MKD, me guess? ROTFLMAO, LOL!

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This blog is copyright and all that jazz, save for occasional small elements borrowed for "research" and information or satirical purposes only, 2011, Bigfoot Books and Steven Streufert. Borrowings for non-commercial purposes will be tolerated without the revenge of Angry Bigfoot, if notification, credit, citation and a kindly web-link are given, preferably after contacting us and saying, Hello, like a normal person would before taking a cup of salt. No serious rip-offs of our material for vulgar commercial gain will be tolerated without major BF stomping action coming down on you, hu-man.

Introduction to THE BLUFF CREEK FILM SITE PROJECT; Leiterman's Mission Statement; BIGFOOT BOOKS Now on YouTube

BIGFOOT'S BLOG, Late-October--Ooops!--Wait, NO! ...Mid-May 2011 Edition.

NOTE: THIS IS AN OLD BLOG POST WE NEVER GOT AROUND TO FINISHING. 

THE BLUFF CREEK FILM SITE PROJECT STUFF JUST OVERWHELMED IT SOMEHOW.  As the summer and the re-opening of the Bluff Creek roads are rapidly approaching, we're just going to give you this piece now as it is, unfinished. It covers the early stages of and introduction to the Project.
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ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Bluff Creek Film Site Project's videos may be viewed on the NEW BIGFOOT BOOKS' YouTube Channel, or on the BFRO-Videos account.

Go to Bigfoot Books on YouTube!
Currently featuring the audio of our Al Hodgson Interview, in progress.
You'll also find some cool PGF clips and a
walking tour of Willow Creek BIGFOOT iconography and kitsch.
http://www.youtube.com/user/bigfootbooks

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THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BACK IN OCTOBER...

As you may have noticed by the two previous posts, we're finally getting all of these Bluff Creek ducks in a row. Yes, we admit it, too--we have betrayed you all (a little bit) by leaking information first and generally spending way more time than we'd have liked for a while on the BFF (Bigfoot Forums)... read our posts/threads there: EXPLORING BLUFF CREEK BIGFOOT HISTORY and WHERE IS THE PATTERSON-GIMLIN FILM SITE?  (We've posted a lot more extended information up there, so go look into it.) We also got drawn into one of Kitakaze's threads... apologies all around. The good news in all of this is that we have a tremendous amount of unpublished and quite fascinating material coming up for you, and soon, we hope. Bear with us--this post is just the first in a series on what we have investigated and discovered. See our two previous Preliminary Information posts for info. on the background to our Bluff Creek travels.

"There can only be one Film Site."

--Robert Leiterman

Lonesome Ridge, Bluff Creek, centered near the PGF site.

During the summer now passed we were up in the Bluff Creek basin many a time. In mid-September and early October we focussed upon locating the exact spot (to the best of our ability) of the Patterson-Gimlin film site. It may come as a surprise to some, but the site is not absolutely established any longer. The exact location and track-way WERE once known, and it was repeatedly documented by researchers such as Bob Titmus, Jim McClarin, John Green, Rene Dahinden and Peter Byrne, among others including many locals and those working up there on logging and road building crews. There is no doubt about that, as can be seen in the most notable film site photos from the early days. However, in the years since the site was studied most closely, it seems to have been lost to time, buried in dense overgrowth of alders and maples, and at least partially eroded away by landslides and creek flows. We were shocked at first to find out that there were several different locations being pointed to, by the old-time researchers and the internet Google-earthers. We found five different, but mostly very close, locations and a wide array of divergent GPS readings. Not all of them could be true and accurate. Read on, and you will see our process of "rediscovery." So as not to be redundant, we refer you to our many previous blog posts on Bluff Creek and the PGF site--just type those terms into the "Search This Blog" box to the upper left if you're interested. From here in this entry we will assume a certain basic familiarity with the site and the events that happened there. We do NOT question the validity of the PGF and its subject here; we are going on the presumption and evidence, as well as the gut feeling, that it IS REAL.

Photos by Steven Streufert, or video captures from Robert Leiterman's video (black borders or with text in image). All others are historical or maps for reference.

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 Perhaps a little personal research history is in order here, briefly. Sometime around the year 2001 we first went camping up in the Bluff Creek basin. Being there at historic Louse Camp brought back the old childhood memories of reading the Bigfoot books at the public library, of having seen the P-G Film sometime around age 10 or 11, and being fascinated with the possibility of such a creature existing. At the time of that trip we had in our possession John Green's On the Track of Sasquatch, and we vaguely decided to try to find the site of the film. Well, it wasn't easy. After trying to hike up the creek we made it maybe a mile and a half, but found only one promising sandbar that didn't seem to come close enough to the mark on Green's map. It was all rather vague, as that mark was on a map without a scale close-up enough to see real detail. We prowled the old, now-closed forest roads along the west side of the creek. We tried hiking down to the creek, only to find ourselves stuck at huge log piles and near-vertical cliffs. We didn't make it up there after the 2003 Willow Creek International Bigfoot Symposium; but then we were a bit glad we didn't pay the $75.00 to go. The group had gotten there, with luminaries such as Green, Bob Gimlin, Al Hodgson, Daniel Perez, Christopher Murphy, Matt Moneymaker, Autumn Williams, Jim McClarin, and many more; and still they could not all agree on where the site of the exact track-way was. This problematic situation was documented in the Doug Hajicek TV show, Mysterious Encounters.The site had changed so much that those who had been there back in the day could hardly even recognize the general area, let alone the actual site of the sighting and film. We are told that even  Bob Gimlin, who was there that day of October 20th, 1967, could not recognize the place at first, and was taking cues from Perez as to its location.

A file photo from 2007, Steve at Bluff Creek.
(Photo by Scott McClean)

 When at last we finally met up with the folks at the 40th Anniversary PGF Celebration, again in Willow Creek, we had been reading more avidly, and had better ideas of where the film site was. Based on advice from James "Bobo" Fay and Cliff Barackman, we headed on down to the site led by Tom Yamarone, with Scott McClean. So there we were, at the bottom of two miles of steep, nasty bushwhack driving, standing down at the creek-level landing, finally at the claimed area of the film site, and then it struck us, looking around at the unfamiliar territory--no one could take us right to the spot and prove it to be the spot. It turrned out that we did make it to the basic area most agree is the right one, but the sense of lingering doubt persisted as we gazed upon a vastly altered and unfamiliar landscape. Nothing looked the same, and no one could give exact directions. Some even think it is downstream, we were told by Yamarone. It became a bit of an obsession with us to discover the truth, especially as it is precisely uncertainties like this regarding the PGF that are exploited by the debunkers as supposed proof of a hoax.

The Crucial Transitional
Guidebook, by Daniel Perez

 In the three years following that conference, we've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to ascertain the history not only of Patterson and Gimlin's time spent in the area, but also the Bigfooting, logging and road-building history of the area. Much of this history seems to be lost to time. Other aspects of it seem vague or contradictory in the memories of many locals who worked up there and many Bigfooters who had been there over the time since the late 1950s when the area became famous for its hairy-hominoidal activities. Though stories were recalled, the exact locations of those events seemed either lost or poorly recalled. This a fact of human memory. So concerned were all involved with viewing the creature in the film, that many neglected to remember the site itself. It was once known well, and was visited and documented regularly by Rene Dahinden, the Swiss-Canadian who perhaps knew the film and its history best. But with the passing of Rene we were left with stories, old photos, an arrow on a topo map in Daniel Perez' Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, but apparently no one who could walk to the site and with absolute confidence put their foot down where Patty had walked. However, many claimed to know, without proof. We are lucky that Dahinden marked the map for Perez, and that Daniel was assiduous enough to preserve and publish it, or we might have lost the site forever.

The Crew at Louse Camp. Yours Truly, "C.I." and Robert Leiterman,
ready to get rained upon.

It was frustrating, surely; but studying this history put us in touch with a good portion of the major Bigfoot researchers who were involved with the Bluff Creek site itself, including most of the aforementioned figures and some newer contacts such as Peter Byrne and Jim McClarin. Armed with their statements and advice, we felt prepared to try a series of expeditions to the mysterious creek basin to find out the truth. It was going to take a lot of Sherlocking, however, as we found with our research associate since 2009, "C.I." (name to be kept anonymous), when interviewing Mr. Hodgson and trying to dig the nuggets of certainty we'd need from the Bigfoot literature... it just wasn't there in a complete form. Maps, logging plans, contemporary roads, dates and other pertinent details were obfuscated by time. 

Various Site Locations, as per various researchers.
Sites identified by Steven Streufert via inquiries. Click to Enlarge!

The history was fragmented, often conflicted, even sometimes intentionally hidden by certain researchers. Luckily, we got involved with CA State forest ranger Robert Leiterman (BFRO), of Fortuna, CA, who was making field videos for the BFRO YouTube site. A project was conceived between the three of us and, we feel, has nearly been completed. We are on the verge of proving tthings... but the full elaboration of that will have to wait for future installments and an early spring day when the site may be photographed without obscuring deciduous tree leaves. We've made what we think are major and fascinating discoveries and conclusions which we feel are pretty darn close to absolutely proving the true and exact location of the film site and track-way, otherwise cloaked in mystery and disagreement for these many years.

Topo map of route down to P-G Film site showing road closures and con-

struction spots. The spur down stems from FR 12N13. Click to Enlarge.

We decided something needed to be done. Before all of this was lost to time and fading memory, before all the old-timers were gone, we were determined to find the actual site and rule out the false ones, all while documenting it on video for presentation to the world of Bigfooting. For now, let us recount the first day and some preceding interviews. Part One of our first summer 2010 trip around the area has already been covered in travelogue form with maps and guides HERE, so check that out (there are plenty of links there covering our previous Bluff Creek trips). I'm going to skip part two of that for now in order to get started on this PGF site investigation series. 

Louse Camp, on Bluff and Notice Creeks

This current entry will cover our second trip, which was partly rained out, but still succeeded in producing many hours of footage to be used in YouTube presentations via the BFRO-Videos page there. See BELOW, where we will present certain supplemental material as APPENDICES. These include conversations with John Green and Peter Byrne, and some of the stuff we posted on the BFF (HERE, if you want to view the whole "Where is the Patterson-Gimlin Film Site" thread). Armed with all the known film site photos, topo maps, and extensive notes and books, C.I and I met in Willow Creek and readied ourselves to set off for the famous Louse Camp to meet Robert Leiterman, who had been up there already for a couple of days preceding us. Of course, right as C.I. arrived in our humble Bigfoot Capital of the World, it stated to rain in a light deluge. 

Pacific Northwest Expedition, 1959. Tom
Slick, Rene Dahinden, Bob Titmus, etc.

PART ONE: LOUSE CAMP TO THE BLUFF CREEK BRIDGE

Undaunted, but skeptical of our prospects, we headed up to the hills above the Klamath River. Louse Camp is located right in the heart of the Bluff Creek basin, and is famous for being the location of a myriad of Bigfooting expeditions, including the famous Pacific Northwest Expedition (1959) that had Green, Byrne, Dahinden, Bob Titmus and Tom Slick, it's financial backer, among its members.

Bluff Creek flowing behind Louse Camp,
refreshed by the influx of Notice Creek just above.

We were lucky to get up there without being trapped by the kind of meteorological attack from the skies that nearly stranded Patterson and Gimlin back in 1967. The rain became light and sporadic throughout the night. The next day was another matter. Leiterman had just returned from a long, exploratory hike up the creek to the film site area and back. We heard his tales of adventure over a sputtering camp fire. He told of having found the M.K. Davis-identified "film site," downstream some 500 yards from the "bat boxes" landing where nearly all others agree is the real area of the site. He said he found the site implausible on a number of counts, based upon our previous discussions. This aspect will be discussed more thoroughly in State Two of this blog's presentation. Suffice it to say, the MK site is way too wide to fit what is known about the P-G site, and the trees were too far back to be acceptable as the ones in the film.

Bluff Creek Bridge, up 1 mile from Louse Camp

The next day, our first order of business was to try to figure out exactly where Patterson and Gimlin had set up their Bluff Creek base camp before capturing the creature on film. It has been said and rumored for years that they camped "somewhere" above Notice Creek, which flows just up from Louse Camp. Al Hodgson, when asked about this, told CI and I that it was true, and that there was a ford across Bluff Creek, where one could cross and then head up the creek. He also spoke of the bridge over the creek, up from Louse Camp about a mile, which had not been there in 1967. Heading up from Louse we observed that the road quickly ascended up above the creek along the hillside, with radical steep descents down to the creek below. Tracing this idea all the way to the bridge we found the truth: this bridge was the ONLY place after Notice Creek where one could possibly have forded the creek. So, Patterson and Gimlin must have forded here, to the east side of the creek, and then headed up the creek to find a suitable camping spot. Indeed, we found clear evidence of the old road cuts under the bridge, on either side of the creek.

Wasson's source:
Rene Dahinden!

We knew from Barbara Wasson's book, Sasquatch Apparitions (pg. 68), that the following was the case, in this slightly grammatically ambiguous sentence:

"Bob Gimlin awoke [on October 20th, the day of the filming] one sunny day in their camp some one half miles or so north of where the bridge ABOVE Notice Creek crosses Bluff Creek." 

Deciphering that sentence we knew it could not be referring to the Notice Creek Bridge, but rather this one. The bridge ON Notice Creek does not CROSS Bluff Creek, but rather Notice Creek. So, we took it that the bridge ABOVE Notice Creek HAD to be the one that is one mile north of Louse Camp. Confirming this, and comparing it with Robert Leiterman's GPS reading from the previous day we found that the half mile up Wasson mentions, combined with the 2.5 miles up from their camp to the film site generally mentioned by Bob Gimlin, made a perfect match with Robert's apprx. 3 mile result. Hence, they could not have camped at the Louse Camp area--that would have made it a nearly 4 mile ride.

Under Bluff Creek Bridge, showing old road cut and ford to opposite side.

Down under the bridge we could clearly see the old ford's road cuts on either side of the creek, with an old roadbed heading up the east side of the creek, then fording across up a little bit to the west side. Already we knew that the road was just as we suspected: a winding logging access-4WD track that crossed the creek where needed, not the clean road cut up all the way on the east creek side as has been commonly assumed. The bed of the creek is just not wide enough to accommodate the latter, and it often cuts up against steep, hard rock faces. It is shallow enough most of the year, though, to allow for a multitude of needed fords. Again, as Al Hodgson had told us, the old dirt and gravel road had been washed out in the massive 1964 flood, and had then been re-plowed upstream to allow for salvage logging in 1965 and 1966. Despite all of these years gone by, we could still see remnant signs of this road cut, as well as many sawed off tree stumps and root-balls in the creek's course. Since 1964 there has not been a comparable flood to alter the major features cut out by the one in 1964, which also constructed the famous PGF sandbar upstream. We noted these results, and planned to investigate up the creek once we had returned from our drive up to the PGF site. Our plan to hike up there this day had been dampened by the rain, now again lightly drizzling down. It was clear to us, however, even at this early point, that we were on the right track to finding the Patterson-Gimlin 1967 base camp. In our Stage Two trip we discovered what is almost certainly the right site. More on that next time, though.

Lovely misty view down to Scorpion Creek,
from about 2/3 mile up from the site.

PART TWO: UP TO THE RIDGE, DOWN TO THE FILM SITE AREA

Warning sign of things to come on 12N13H.

Heading up Forest Road 12N13 from the bridge, up to the top of the ridge where it meets with the "H" spur road, we expected an easy ride down the recently cleared, trimmed and graded dirt road. However, the rain gave us concern... that dirt could easily turn to mud. Sure enough, it did. We found that the formerly nicely flat roadbed had been roughed up by tractor trails of some large, heavy equipment. Down the way just over a mile the road got worse and worse until it became a muddy slurry and mess in places. We had to stop, park the truck, and walk on down, a distance we knew would be about a mile through the muck, and a deadly slog back on up, too. Walking down the road, though, provided us with a slow-motion way to view down into the creek basin above the site and from the east heading down. This was, later, to give us the real, best clue we needed to locate the true site.

Once a rock slide, always a rock slide.

One bit of good news (temporary, see latest developments in State Two) was the plowing through done on the infamous rock slide. This slide has notoriously been the bane of PGF site visitors, especially those without high-clearance four-wheel drive vehicles. Last summer this was the spot of the near-death experience of Craig Woolheater and Sharon Lee (see our previous posts on the Believe-It Tour visit), as their rental van got stuck spinning its wheels after a photo-op and nearly slid off the side into the precipitous near-vertical drop down to the creek.

You Shall Not Pass. Robert at the
end of the PGF road's line.

Now, to die on the P-G film site may seem a glorious way to go, but we assure you no one feels that way as the wheels slip and slide on those jagged Bluff Creek rocks, and the world slips gut-wrenchingly sideways. Anyway, for this one moment, we thought the problem was solved; but as we found out later, the US Forest Service had a decidedly different idea.

Leiterman considers the impact of
man upon nature and geology.

Down the road a bit we found the culprits of this mayhem--two tractors, a bulldozer and a huge Caterpillar. They dozer was actually parked IN the road, blocking it entirely for any prospective intrepid motorists. From here on down it would be on foot for everyone. Down farther, in the formerly marshy bog formed by a culvert-diverted creek that flows down into the film site area's gulch, we found they had torn out the culvert and torn the hell out of the spot.It was not clear to us what they were up to, but it appeared at this time that they were simply upgrading and replacing the culvert. Little did we know! But more on that later, too.

Once the road crossed here; now it
is returned to its natural state.

After the creek one descends down to the old landing where the "bat boxes" are. This used to be the easy park-and-camp option for PGF site pilgrims--no longer, unless you pack it in. This is where Peter Byrne said to look in my recent email correspondence with him (see Appendix B below for full discourse). The rain increased, saturating us and our gear. You'll note a fogginess enters the photographs here as my camera got wet. Darnit, so did my tobacco. Anyway, here at the bottom we were at our first on our list of prospective film site locations--and it really seemed almost too convenient, here where one could once just get out of the car and gaze at Bigfooting Mecca.

The toppled science experiment's bat
houses lay beneath these trees.

SITE ONE: THE PETER BYRNE SITE:

The Famous "Bat Boxes," across from the claimed
Peter Byrne film site.

In preparation for this expedition I had sent out email inquiries to many of the major first generation players in Bigfooting still living. We received a very cordial response from both John Green and Peter Byrne. John Green, who said he had only been to the site twice, in 1968 and in 2003, stated that when he was last there he could not even recognize the place, and could not spot the "Big Tree" seen so prominently in the film. So, despite the fact that the place was clearly well known and documented at the time, it was lost to at least one of its major researchers. Hence, we had high hopes in hearing what Mr. Byrne had to say. He'd been there many times, though not as many as the late Rene Dahinden.

Watch for the full series featuring our expedition on the
BFRO-Videos site on YouTube, or through BFRO.net.

Brief Summary:
Laser reading 97-98 yards across south to north, 100 yards in bat box camping area.
Trees that match Byrne's distance are way too high up the bank.
The creek is on the north side of the sandbar, not the south.
Though the area's dimensions match almost enough to the known film site (using a shoe horn to fit it, as C.I. likes to say), the creek and sand bar are in the wrong places, there is no "big bend," no "rootballs," and no level bank or sandbar at all where Byrne indicates.

Photos with black borders or titles are screen captures
from Robert Leiterman's first edit video results.

We found the tree described obviously by Byrne, pockmarked somewhat unusually with woodpecker holes, but it was at most 100 feet, not 100 yards across: too close; and the stumps he described are right next to it, not at the greater distance measured by Dahinden.  To reach up to the larger trees on the hill above the creek and sandbar would have had to have been some 30 or 40 feet higher--just not plausible, and exceeding the already high level of subsidence mentioned by Byrne in his email. The creek is in an old, established bed, at the lowest point of flow, and there is no indication of any major event that could have changed this geological fact.

The 300 feet or so needed to fit the film site in is here, but the creek would have had to have flowed way up against the south edge of the bat boxes landing, an area that is significantly raised up from where the creek is flowing.

SITE TWO: THE CHRISTOPHER MURPHY SITE

The site is still too narrow, if we assume that the big tree here is one of the ones in the film. The creature would have had to start its walk down in the narrow gulch seen to the left. There is no "big bend" in the creek below that site either. In fact, the bend with rootballs is seen ABOVE the site located in Murphy's book, followed by a straight line in the creek headed west and downstream.

Lower Gulch below the Big Bend. For Murphy's site to
work the first sighting would have to have been in here.

In this narrow part of the creek there ARE a lot of big old firs that have fallen down across the creek due to erosion and rock slides on the north bank. However, if these were the trees in the film, as proposed by the Murphy site location, they are simply too close to the creek to allow for the big sand bar seen in the PGF. Also, there is no logical way the creek could have flowed some 200 feet or so to the south, as that direction features and upgrade and the start of some low hills. A creek cannot flow up on a higher course if there is an unobstructed lower course it can access.

C.I. using his trusty laser sight to measure the dimensions
of the proposed Christopher Murphy film site location.

Laser readings 55 yards from creek to back trees, some 60 yards to the trees on the south bank. Again, this site fits "with a shoehorn," but the creek is way too far to the north, and there is no room at all for any of the known features of the old sandbar, the big bend or the root balls described by Gimlin. The big trees identified with this site are high up on the bank at least 20 feet up the hill--way too high, even allowing for sandbar subsidence. Most crucially, there is no hill going up high enough on the south bank, and yet close enough to the site, to allow for the angle of view seen in the 1971 Rene Dahinden photo which we used constantly for comparison on these trips.

Clip from Murphy's book, showing
where he thinks the site is supposedly located. In
actual fact, this is WAY off from Dahinden's mark.

There IS one big tree behind this spot, as can be seen on this blog (picture link HERE), but this tree is way too close to the fairly narrow sand bar at the bottom of the big bend that centers around a small feeder creek that flows down into Bluff at this point. It sits down on the sand bar near the current creek's bank, but there just isn't enough room to place this as the main "big tree" in the film. This spot, by the way, is where the National Geographic filming team landed their helicopter in 2009 to film and scan the site. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be the right location, and we tried to tell them that when we were down there then, to no avail. On this year's trip we even found their flagging tape wrapped around a rock, still there right in the creekbed, despite a whole winter's raised water.

Christopher Murphy's exploration of the film site he proposes, done in 2003, can be looked at here on Hancock House's site: FILM SITE ALBUM. We challenge you to compare his analysis, based on one visit, with the results we have come up with after some dozen visits.

See our videos on the BFROVideos site under "Uploads," as well as on THE BIGFOOT BOOKS YOUTUBE PAGE, under "Favorites." 

Watch for upcoming presentations to be done on this blog. "To Be Continued, Indeedy."

Steve, propounding again, upon the too-small dimensions
and missing features found on the Murphy site. Better than
Byrne's, but it lacks landmarks and proper orientation.

Above the Murphy site are found some big root balls, not
below the site, as Gimlin describes. No big trees in back either.

Pointing at Rene's Mark on the Map, upstream from the
Murphy site, for sure. Photo capture from Leiterman video.

*********************************

APPENDIX: STATEMENT OF ROBERT LEITERMAN ON THE BLUFF CREEK EXPEDITION MISSION
(As also sent to BIGFOOT TIMES' Daniel Perez, published in the October edition)

Leiterman, from his upcoming video release on our trip.

10-29-2010

Daniel,

Good talking with you on the phone yesterday. Thanks for getting back to me so soon. As you already know, I have been a subscriber to Bigfoot Times for several years now. My latest video project is on the Patterson/Gimlin Film Site entitled … Journey of Re-discovery- The Bluff Creek Film Site Project. I’ve been working mostly with Steven Streufert from Bigfoot Books (Willow Creek) and Ian from Northern CA over these last few months.  Our group’s motivations might be different but our goals are similar, relocating the film site 43 years later despite the environmental changes.

You have worked painstakingly hard over the last few years dealing with the film site subject matter. Your Bigfoot Times at Bluff Creek (1992) publication is excellent work, placing your self into a knowledgeable position on the subject. Despite your dedication and documentation there are a hand full of others, for whatever reasons, who still insist that the film site is either located above or below the area in which you have painstakingly established. I understand why you feel the way you do when you hear the echoes of doubt from a small minority vocalizing across the internet. I also realize that dumping even more documentation into their laps may not change their opinions either. With that said, the project I have taken on is a rediscover for my self, a journey for understanding. With the help of Steve and Ian, I’m video documenting the process. I feel the video footage will allow others with an interest in the subject, to join in with a discovery of their own.

As you know, there can only be one film site. While looking over the literature, interviewing those who were there, and examining what remains of the scene, we are looking forward to the outcome. The several days I have already spent with hunger and fatigue in the heat and rain: following what is left of the Bluff Creek Trail up the creek, pondering campsites, crisscrossing the alleged film site locations looking for the big trees, locations of old stumps, gravel bars (existing or not), deposits of alluvial sand, bends in the creek, woody debris, large root balls, and matching historic photos, has been an adventure in itself. And yes, I’m fully aware that 43 years have worked their magic. While I’m at it, I’m developing a better understanding of the historic event and the surrounding topography. I only wish I had started this journey years earlier.

 Despite all of my effort, some say I’m wasting my time, that the answers may never be found, erased forever by time, that there is nothing more to learn from rediscovering that moment. I disagree. Putting your self right there in the thick of it does something to you. To walk through the cool clear water, to hear the echoes in the creek canyon, to go back in time, to grab a hand full of alluvial sand and tell your partner … “Patty walked here!” To watch them grin ear to ear and nod their heads in agreement as they look curiously over their shoulders. And before you know it, you’ve taken one more step closer to imagining how Patterson and Gimlin must have felt that autumn day. For me, the bottom of the dark, forested canyon still has meaning. 

For those planning a journey of their own to the Bluff Creek Film Site be advised that the last mile or so of 12N13H has been permanently been put to bed. On the weekend of 09-18-2010 the road was freshly graded and the heavy equipment lay parked about. By the weekend of 10-09-2010, the heavy equipment was gone and the road had a new ending. With about a mile to the bottom, a enormous new earthen berm was there to greet us. The rest of what use to be the road had been out sloped, portions covered with trimmed vegetation to help protect the exposed soil from erosion, culverts were removed and the creeks reestablished back into their own channels. Give yourself more time for exploration. Avoid wet weather, the fresh graded soil turns quickly into mud. Be prepared to put in a little more effort to reach the film site. Think of it as a way of reconnecting.  Reaching the bottom will feel that much more rewarding … it’s the hike out that’s going to suck! ---Robert Leiterman

"Watch for Robert’s soon to be uploaded  Journey of Re-discovery- The Bluff Creek Film Site Project and his other video projects on the B.F.R.O.’s (Bigfoot Field Research Organization) video channel."

Some preliminary theories we've come up with, along with the
major proposed site locations and landmarks.

One Proposed Location. Photo aligned to creek, not quite to scale.
The cluster of trees in back, plus a downed tree on the sand bar, and
stumps in the right locations make this location promising. It looks
just about perfect as a match for the "aerial" Dahinden photo.
The first sighting would be just to left of the photo border.

****************************************************
ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!

Me so very happy you hu-man looking in wrong creek for me! Like NABS Dave say, you not find me there anytime more. You look in Hoopa, you find me. That right! Me hang at Golden Bear Casino ever night, and you not know! JHa Ha Ho Ho! They have good food all night, and not ever question how furry me are, not how stinky, so long as me have token for machine. See? Dave right after all!!!
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This blog is copyright and all that jazz, save for occasional small elements borrowed for "research" and information or satirical purposes only, 2011, Bigfoot Books and Steven Streufert. Borrowings for non-commercial purposes will be tolerated without the revenge of Angry Bigfoot, if notification, credit, citation and a kindly web-link are given, preferably after contacting us and saying, Hello, like a normal person would before taking a cup of salt. No serious rip-offs of our material for vulgar commercial gain will be tolerated without major BF stomping action coming down on you, hu-man.