Cryptic News from the Willow Creek View. Transhuman Sasquatch Strangeness from the Middle of Nowhere.
A Voice Howling out from the Klamath-Trinity-Siskiyou Wilderness. This is the Megaphone of Steven Streufert and Bigfoot Books, a Used Book Store in Willow Creek, Humboldt County, Extreme Northern California.
Site Survey Draft 3 compared to a page from Christopher Murphy's book
showing the 1971 PGF site "aerial" photo. Red marks show I think very
clearly that a high level of correspondence exists between features found
on the site today and in 1967.
RIGHT CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW IN MEDIUM SIZE.
Map and marks COPYRIGHT Robert Leiterman, Bluff Creek Film Site Project.
THIS IS THE TRUE PGF SITE.
After four years of investigation, two seasons of serious on-site research and filming, having looked into this mystery of geography and history since 2001, I am very, very convinced that we have finally found and documented the site of the filming of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot Film in Bluff Creek. Though the proof is not officially final and professionally analyzed yet, and one member of our team still has some reservations (this is Ian, who was unable to attend this year's work on the site save for one appearance before our site survey work was begun), we have found enough correspondence to offer this to the world with very high certainty that we have indeed found the site and are able to show it.
The November 1st corrected and revised map, drawn by Robert Leiterman.
Copyright. Right Click to Enlarge and Save, for Research Only Please.
Large, half-size image of our map, drawn by Robert Leiterman and copyright.
Right Click to Enlarge and Save, for Research Only Please.
Large, half-size image of the 1971 (or '72) Dahinden "aerial" shot, matched
with our map. Red pen features drawn by Robert Leiterman and copyright.
Right Click to Enlarge and Save, for Research Only Please.
We did a full (though admittedly a bit amateur) survey grid of the site on the upper sandbar of what we'd been calling the "General Consensus Site Area." Having ruled out so many other untenable "theories" of where the site was, we had determined to give this area good, full and true look. The upper sandbar was the only spot that even came close to having the features found in the film, despite its modern-day appearance as a temperate jungle. This summer we'd found that the lower sandbar area did not match our current information, and ruled it out. However, on the upper area we found a very large tree, one that bore an uncanny likeness to the one seen the the PGF. This last month we determined a true north-south axis from the spot Gimlin had noted as that of the first sighting, and then gridded out the entire sandbar in ten-yard increments, noting all features found in those grids. Lacking Ian, we found Rowdy Kelly, whom we had met during the filming of the Animal Planet series, to be of immeasurable help and film intelligence. This data, all of the older features found on-site, along with the big trees in back and the creek position, was then translated onto a to-scale ten-foot per square map by Robert Leiterman. Folks, this is the PGF site.
The Big Tree, directly north of the Gimlin first sighting spot on our grid map.
It sits right on the sandbar level, and is the biggest tree in the area.
Note that it bears a large number of woodpecker holes, as recalled by Peter Byrne.
Photo by Steven Streufert, 2011. See very top of map grid for location.
Comparative image from the BFF, my photo is from an angle
slightly to the right.
Some, such as MK Davis, have made claims to the contrary over the years since the 1977 Rene Dahinden/Barbara Wasson/Walter Leeds photos were taken. They are wrong. These photos, provided to us by Daniel Perez (not publishable here until we finally get his permission to do so) are the last images that we have been able to find showing the site recognizably before it became an overgrown jungle of new forest. Since then, no one has to our knowledge demonstrated the location of features readily seen in these images and in the film from 1967. Many have tried to show the location on Google Earth, with flawed GPS coordinates, and photos on web sites and in books that bear no resemblance at all to the site as it was in 1967. We, in the course of our studies on-site, were able to rule out all the sites proposed by other researchers, save for one, the area identified by Bob Gimlin to James "Bobo" Fay, first told of to us by Cliff Barackman. This is the spot marked by Rene Dahinden on Daniel Perez' map.
Detail of 1971 photo showing the site before it became an overgrown jungle.
These stumps and large logs are still to be found on-site. We documented
all of them that could be found.
Big Trees cluster detail. Note the leaning tree behind the middle tree, as well
as the spiky snag beside, both still present and documented on-site today.
Rene's "X" in Daniel Perez' booklet BIGFOOT AT BLUFF CREEK.
The compass shows magnetic north, explaining again the diagonal course
of the film action across the sandbar area.
It was not, ironically, the site chosen by Daniel and others present on the general site area in 2003, with the group from the Willow Creek International Bigfoot Symposium. At that event NO ONE could agree. Christopher Murphy published images of the wrong location in his books, John Green could not recognize the site at all, even Bob Gimlin had trouble remembering it, so changed was the appearance of the vegetation in the creekbed. At the end of that trip, however, Gimlin turned to James Fay and said, "This is the spot, Bobo. This is where we first saw her." He had recognized the canyon walls, and settled in his mind that he was in the right spot. Still, no one could agree; and at that point no one could walk up and touch the true "Big Tree" of the film. Well, finally, we have.
Middle Tree and what is left of the "spiky snag" fir, missing its top.
Note how the tree on left sits higher on the hill, as in the image below.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October 30th, 2011.
Frame 352, showing the Big Tree, the yellow-leafed maple, the middle tree,
the "spiky snag" and then the "ladder tree," from left to right
The "spiky snag," "ladder tree," and background tree clusters.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October 30th, 2011.
Crucially, we came to realilze, someone had to find the big trees as seen in the film; but not only that, given the long endurance of stumps and large logs on the ground, one should be able to locate those as well. Many, during the course of our investigation, uttered assumptions such as "You should be looking for stumps of those trees, not the trees themselves." Well, we found that the last logging that had been done in the actual creekbed of Bluff Creek in the area where the film was shot was done after the 1964 flood, salvage work conducted in 1965 and 1966. Investigating, we found clear signs of this, with old stumps still there in the ground since that time. No site, however, had the stumps in the right configuration, along with the big, old-growth Douglas fir trees as seen in the film itself, save the upper sandbar of what we've been calling the General Consensus Site. Due to a couple of observations this summer I, with Robert Leiterman, was able to ascertain that the lower and middle sandbar area simply did not match new information and images that we had received since our first season of investigations the previous year. We set our sites on finalizing our site investigations, and finally spending enough time on that overgrown upper sandbar to measure and document it properly.
The so-called "ladder tree," still showing its retained lower branches, not
a common trait in old-growth Douglas fir.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October 30th, 2011.
The same tree, in 1972, with the "spiky
snag" to its left.
Having had Bob Gimlin return to the site this last summer and reconfirm his 2003 feelings about the location added fuel to our suspicions that he might just be right, even after all of these 44 years since the filming. Then the digital site model work of Bill Munns came in, and my mental image of the site and camera perspective in the film was changed forever. Like an epiphany, old images of the film site fell away, and we were able to look at it as it really was. The camera position had changed greatly during the course of the film, as did that of the moving subject. We realized that the film was shot diagonally ACROSS the sandbar, and it was a moving viewpoint that one sees in the film. It was not as if within a square box, as Christopher Murphy's fine but limited site model diorama represented. One had to overcome the optical illusions of camera perspective and film image flattening. At one point MK Davis published a completely incorrect image with lines drawn to represent the film perspective from Frame 352 superimposed upon the 1971 Rene Dahinden "aerial" photo of the site. I was able, with knowledge of the site, and a little common sense (I am certainly not a "film expert"), to draw in the proper perspective lines (as seen below).
The Incorrect Perspective as represented (and later retracted) by MK Davis.
Perspective corrected by Steven Streufert. Image overlay altered by MKD,
upon Rene Dahinden's original 1971 "aerial" photo of the known PGF site.
Confirmed by Bill Munns.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
Bill Munns, film professional and PGF researcher, fully confirmed this understanding. Hence, we were ready to return to the site with a new mental image. And lo, upon returning to the site with my daughter during the summer, I was able to look to and consider trees way off to the "right hand" side of the site as true and viable candidates for the "Big Trees." We had written off these trees in the past, as they seemed way too far east of the main action of the film, considering the location of the creek and the size of the sandbar. Given our new understanding, it was very clear to me that this site WAS indeed big enough. All we needed was 400 feet from sighting to the end of the film, about 300 feet of actual film action, and that was readily apparent as possible within this spot (and was confirmed by our grid map). Conferring with Robert and Rowdy Kelly, it was decided we would return to the site and not only measure these rough distances, but also do as accurate an amateur survey, grid and map as we could. The map images seen in this blog entry were done from our initial ten-yard grid and flagging work, done with a correct north compass reading for each square, translated into a ten-foot per square map describing the older items present on the sandbar, things that could plausibly have been present in the 1967 film. We were, in effect, removing the new-growth forest, and were able at last to "see the trees from the forest." We were stunned at what we found.
Bill Munns' digital site recreation, as seen in screen captures from his
YouTube presentation. These were derived solely from data contained in
the film itself, showing the curious starting point and creek position that
has puzzled seekers of the site for decades.
The animation by Munns showing the postion of Frame 352 against the
background trees, with the subject paralleling the creek.
The later part of the film as depicted by Munns. Note how much the positions
of both subject and cameraman have changed through the process of this film.
When Leiterman took the data home and made two drafts of the map, we saw that nearly every major stump and debris pile we marked as presently on-site could be found in the 1971 Dahinden "aerial" shot. It was simply too much confirmation to be coincidence. The first line we drew in the survey was a direct north axis from the claimed Gimlin first sighting spot. this course led directly to a cluster of old trees, and most notably the biggest darn fir we had found up there at the creek level. Upon consideration, with the photos of the film site in hand, we found the middle tree, the "ladder tree," the spiky fir snag seen between them still standing though with a broken top. Many other features were found. The scales of history fell from my eyes and I was able to clearly see: this WAS the spot. So, we finished our grid, marked out all that remains on the site, and now we feel that we will soon be ready to show more or less exactly where the creature in the film walked, and where Roger Patterson, ran, stumbled, stabilized and filmed the subject.
The sloping hillside behind the big trees, letting the light come through.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October 30th, 2011.
The same feature as seen in the 1972 Dahinden photo.
Bill Munns has our full data set and images. Much of this has been posted by me on the Bigfoot Forums (BFF), in the Munns Report thread, under "Film," and the "Patterson-Gimlin Film" subcategory. While he is busy on a job, we await his professional analysis. Should anyone out there with professional qualification wish to aid us in truly confirming and proving that this is the actual site, we'd be happy to establish a working exchange wherein the full, high-resolution images of our map and map details, complete with measurements and GPS coordinates will be provided. We don't want to "own" this data, but rather are eager to share it with the world. We are hoping that professional analysis will be undeniable and FINAL, at last proving the site location and verifying this special spot on the earth for all of time and history into the future.
Stumps and old sawed log debris, remnants
of the 1964 flood and post-flood salvage logging,
as may be seen in the PGF. Still there today.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October, 2011.
Stumps that were there when Patty walked, still there today. These are the
sort of durable features that we sought to place on our survey map.
Photo by Robert Leiterman and copyright.
One thing I'd like to say: BOB GIMLIN WAS RIGHT.
Gimlin on the first sighting area, with Finding Bigfoot cast.
From promotional trailer.
Next time on this blog we will have a lengthy guest blogger appearance by BLUFF CREEK FILM SITE PROJECT member and videographer, ROBERT LEITERMAN. He has written a fine piece on the whole process of our "Journey of Re-Discovery," and the frustrations, excitement, controversies and fascinations all along the way. This blog entry today is just the first step, the tip of the iceberg, in revealing all of the data we have gathered.
Bill Munns' PRELIMINARY study based on our first generation grid map.
CLICK TO ENLARGE.
Another Munns' PRELIMINARY study based on our first generation grid map.
CLICK TO ENLARGE.
We would like to thank especially Bob Gimlin, Cliff Barackman, James Bobo Fay, Daniel Perez, Christopher Murphy, John Green, Jim McClarin, Thomas Steenburg, Peter Byrne, Rip Lyttle and Al Hodgson for their help along the way in this research. Thanks to Tom Yamarone and Scott McClean, too, for being the ones who first showed me how to use 12N13H to access the PGF site (else I'd have been lost on Lonesome Ridge Road!). Also, we'd like to extend a full, spitty raspberry to Mr. M.K. Davis, who was of no help whatsoever, would not provide us with his claimed site location, and who generally has spread more mystification and stupefaction than knowledge on the PGF since he veered from his fine original work. Also, to Bobbie Short, sorry, but you were just plain wrong, but it would have been nice to have that map you promised us. Oh well. To all the anonymous commentators along the way, thanks for your input, too.
Old firs, to right of PGF big trees.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October 30th, 2011.
A full new set of our BLUFF CREEK FILM SITE PROJECT videos will appear soon on YouTube. We'll have the links for you here, and through the blog's Facebook wall. These videos will not number up to 45 like the last set, so tune in to see all the things described here and in the maps we've made as they are now, on the ground, in reality and not in myth and human imagination.
Leiterman's camp, right about where Patterson filmed Frame 352.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October 30th, 2011.
The "jungle" of the film site, right in front of the "Big Tree."
Here is Robert shooting the BLUFF CREEK FILM SITE PROJECT videos.
Photo by Steven Streufert, October, 2011.
(Click the link above or the one below to view all the previous videos we've done on the Bigfoot Books YouTube page. Look under "Favorites" and "See All.")
Best to all ,
Steven Streufert,
Bigfoot Books, Bigfoot's bLog, Willow Creek
Vine maples, the source of the red color seen in the PGF, still not turned red,
and this on October 30th. So, naysayers, how was it that there was red in the
film if it wasn't shot in mid to late October, or even later?
Autumn on the hill behind the PGF big trees.
Some orange-ish red starting to show.
Photo by Steven Streufert, 2011.
PS--Mr. Marlon Keith Davis, in obvious response to our work, has posted a blog trying (futilely) to make the case for his utterly incorrect film site. Read it HERE.
Here is my response to him: "Au contraire, MK. We have found the true site, upstream from your location. The proving is ongoing, but the documentation is done. We surveyed and gridded out the sandbar and found not only all the main trees, but also the majority of old stumps and aging log debris piles. What is more, we have made our grid map starting at the very spot Gimlin himself identified in 2003 and again this summer. Having pursued this since 2001, and living near the locality of the filming, I am hardly a "debutante." Not one "expert" has, in our lengthy investigation, been able to identify extant landmarks as seen in the film. Now we have, and there is no doubt remaining."
Measurements taken by Robert Leiterman and Steven Streufert on-site.
These show the distances between the big trees, with spiky snag, bent
maple, middle and ladder trees and leaning tree in back.
CLICK TO ENLARGE. Drawing is Copyright Robert Leiterman.
EXPLORE FURTHER: There is much on the BFF through this link to the... Munns Report Thread. We've been working with Bill on this, and he has allowed us to post some preliminary analysis here. The images above were done using the uncorrected first draft of our site grid map. Robert Leiterman has since refined, confirmed and in minor ways corrected the map to the versions seen above. As I said above, we are currently working with Bill, but we will consider a working relationship in the future with anyone out there who would like to work with our images and data.
James "Bobo" Fay, a vital link in the PGF site rediscovery process, is seen
here walking in front of the Bluff Creek sandbar. They filmed their recreation
there as they could not get good lighting for the cameras up on the actual
film track-way location. Bobo knows this, but its what you have to do for TV.
(I think this image came from the Finding Bigfoot video, but if you took it,
do notify me and I'll give credit.)
**********
In case your didn't see it, "Bigfoot Books" and myself appeared on a recent episode of FINDING BIGFOOTon Animal Planet. Here is a video clip of that segment someone made.
Me glad hu-man finally learn to look, like hu-man Sherlock Holmes, and find one real place in woods. Me tire of trying to trick them and them lead to wrong spot. Me think now that they done, a Sasquatch might get some peace and quiet at my Bluff Creek home.
**************************************************** 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, with some images copyright strictly by Robert Leiterman. Borrowings for non-commercial RESEARCH purposes will be tolerated without the revenge of Angry Bigfoot, if 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.
Rogues Gallery at the Museum: James Fay, Bob Gimlin, Al Hodgson,
Tom Yamarone, Cliff Barackman and Steven Streufert.
Photo snapped by a crew member whose name we didn't catch.
BIGFOOT'S BLOG Mid-Late August 2011 Edition, Updated for Late October... and RESTORED
NOTE: This is an older blog entry that we decided to expurgate so as not to get my friend, Bobo, into any trouble with his Animal Planet employers. The producers felt that this blog had revealed too much about what went on during the production of the show, and was giving away its secrets. I took those parts out of it, not so much for fear of a massive lawsuit from the Network, but really just for our friends on the show. NOW we may speak. I've got a ton of other stuff from the nearly two weeks the FINDING BIGFOOT crew spent up here in the Willow Creek area, and you'll see much of that here on this blog. For now, suffice to say it was a wild time, indeed. Bob Gimlin's return to the film site was a highlight, and helped us in the Bluff Creek Film Site Project focus in on the area we've been seeing as the most promising. Let me just say it now: BOB WAS RIGHT.
It is very weird to see one's friends on TV. It is even weirder seeing oneself on there! More on that coming up soon. The new season's episode aired last night on Animal Planet, and so far has gotten really good reviews. Kudos, guys, and gal! Personally, I saw it right after I rolled in to Hoopa, at the local casino, after a busy afternoon at the Bluff Creek Film site with Ranger Robert Leiterman. I could barely hear the episode due to the jingle-jangling of slot machines, but it was fun nonetheless to see it with the real Locals.
And, by the way, we have REDISCOVERED the PATTERSON-GIMLIN FILM SITE, or so it seems, and we have documented it. Yes, that means we have found the big trees and the stumps, and will almost certainly be able to re-trace the creature's track-way as in the film. That news is going to be coming out slowly here on this blog. I've also been posting on the MUNNS REPORT thread on the BIGFOOT FORUMS. It looks absolutely certain, to me anyway, that we have indeed found the site. So, stay tuned for yet more BLUFF CREEK FILM SITE PROJECT. (See under "Favorites" through this link.) It should be said here and now that the film crew were on the right spot, as identified by Bob Gimlin, but the recreation shown in the show was done down on the gravel bar edge of the creek for better filming. The ACTUAL film site is back on the elevated sand bar BEHIND where you see Bobo walking. That is not the true track-way of the creature seen in the PGF.
For now, read on with this little blast from the past....
*******
This sleepy little hamlet of Willow Creek often bustles with Squatching enthusiasts, but the last month or so has been simply ridiculous. What Mecca is to Islam, what Jerusalem is to those other religions, this place seems to be for Bigfooters. On top of the usual parade of Bigfoot-interested tourists, the BFRO came to town to hold an expedition up in Bluff Creek, and then another down in the coast redwoods area. After that the four stars of Animal Planet's FINDING BIGFOOT came knocking on our door, trailing behind them a vast retinue of camera people, boom mikes, lighting arrays, producers, location scouts, managers and a large U-Haul trailer. The Bigfoot Motel read "No Vacancy" for nearly two weeks, and the townsfolk woke up again to the fact that they are, indeed, living in the "Gateway to Bigfoot Country," whether or not they even care for a moment about the hirsute legend.
Bob and me at the Willow Creek-China Flat Museum.
BREAKING NEWS!:
BOB GIMLIN RE-CONFIRMS PGF SITE LOCATION.
Indeed. But we'll blog about that next time, okay? The location has been under the consideration of the Bluff Creek Film Site Project for some time, and will be thoroughly documented and filmed by us in mid-October.
Yes, indeed, we did have lunch with BOB GIMLIN and AL HODGSON. With only Tom Yamarone and Paul Graves along, we somehow managed to escape from the TV production circus to have a genial conversation at Gonzalez Mexican Restaurant. Questions were asked of Bob, but we did try to honor Bobo's request to "not go getting all Danny Perez on Bob, now!"
Real Bigfoot old-timers, still sharp: Bob Gimlin and Willow Creek's
Al Hodgson. Out in front of the Museum.
For those few of you who do not know, FINDING BIGFOOT is a new television show on Animal Planet, featuring BFRO director, Matt Moneymaker, Cliff Barackman, James Bobo Fay and a woman known as Ranae (why doesn't their website tell us her last name?). Okay, her last name is Holland (but why did we have to look it up?) "MEET THE TEAM": http://www.cliffbarackman.com/finding-bigfoot-meet-the-team.php
It's weird to see your friends on TV.
We were somewhat involved in helping out the producers in coming to Willow Creek and finding the Bluff Creek PGF site, and we were allowed to hang out at a bunch of their filming spots, so this blog is going to try to respect their wishes not to reveal things that would act as "spoilers" for the show. We'll try to skirt around that by showing a few things that happened off camera, such as the above. Since we are friends with Bobo and Cliff, and Matt to some extent, such hanging out also involved a certain amount of after-hours beer drinking. Best not to talk too much about that, either, we guess.
It all started in late July when the BFRO invited us (me, that is) to give a talk at their expedition up in Bluff Creek. That public speaking prospect was unnerving, but we've been told it was pretty good. The topic was The History of Bigfoot in Bluff Creek. We met some very cool folks there, including a family from Utah and a fellow all the way from England.
Fish Lake, just up off Bluff Creek, base of the BFRO expedition.
It is known for its civilized campground, as well as a whole heck of a
lot of Bigfoot activity around the area.
The expedition base was at Fish Lake, but branched out all across the Bluff Creek basin, with some interesting results (details private to the BFRO, save if you can find the report on their page, www.bfro.net). We noticed that these folks hardly ever sleep. They're up into the wee hours of the morning sitting around in the dark woods with night vision and thermal imagers, and the seem to arise at the crack of dawn.
After a night of very little sleep indeed, we and fellow Bluff Creek Film Site Project member, Robert Leiterman, led a big group of expeditioneers up the creek from the Bluff Creek bridge some three miles to the Patterson-Gimlin film site area. During all of this we met Animal Planet producer Jen, and location scout Rowdy (last names withheld here). From there the Bigfoot thing snowballed to take over nearly the entire next month.
READ THE REST OF THE EXPEDITION REPORT... HERE.
*******
And then, shortly afterwards, Finding Bigfoot came to town....
Though we're not going to give it all away, here are a few pictures around about before and after the filming scenarios.
Before a visit to Bigfoot Books some interviews were done at the Early
Bird ("Bigfoot Burger") Restaurant. Here Al Hodgson, Willow Creek elder
of Bigfooting hangs out, Matt and Bobo get prepped by head honcho.
Before the familial Bigfoot 'n' Donuts mural, Bobo devours his
Bigfoot Burger, Ranae gets in the groove. After this the crew came over to see
us at the shop, and we had to pretend we were meeting them for the first time.
On the second day they were in town a full house assembled at the Willow Creek Veterans' of Foreign Wars Hall to tell their stories of Bigfoot encounters. Word of mouth around town was enough to gather the crowd, and surely many more would have flooded the place had the event been formally advertised. A few historical notables showed up, as well as some noted Bigfoot Researcher types. We were happy to encounter Tom from Jefferson State Bigfoot Research, veteran but now-retired BFer Rip Lyttle, and some others.
Sign announcing the Town Hall Meeting, outside Veterans' Park.
VFW Hall, Al Hodgson meets for the first time in ages with
Jon and Wade, sons of Jerry Crew. Local, Ranger Jim, also converses.
Al knew Jerry quite well back in the day. It was Crew who made the
1958 track casts up in Bluff Creek that made Bigfoot a front-page name.
In this photo before the meeting began one may see Al Hogson and some
other locals including Ranger Jim and Denali, who was quite excited
to hang out with the TV people and her friend, Mr. Bobo himself.
The meeting getting going inside the Willow Creek VFW (Vets') Hall. Cut!
Bobo's dog Mountain Monkey was a prominent figure playing with her ball
at the feet of the stars of the show all during the filming of the meeting.
Bigfoot bros... Bobo Fay, Matt Moneymaker, and researcher Rip Lyttle.
At the FINDING BIGFOOT town hall meeting in Willow Creek August 10th.
After the meeting it was a great honor to finally meet the sons of Jerry Crew.
Here Wade and Jon are showing a display they made with an article about
their father and the ORIGINAL, slightly fragmented 1958 Bigfoot track cast.
Tom Yams poses with the Crew Bros. and Jerry Crew's track cast. History!
"The Foot Fetish is strong in this one..."
Thomas Graham of Jefferson State Sasquatch Research, with Folksinger
and researcher Tom Yamarone, whose song about Jerry Crew helped
facilitate the sons getting back into the Bigfoot world.
Photo provided by Tom Yamarone.
Afterwards it was beer with Bobo at the Forks Lounge.
Bobo actually defeated an arm-wrestling champ here that night.
And here is a clincher, perhaps of of the true Holy Grail items to emerge from the historic return of the Crew brothers to the world of Bigfooting. While the brothers were getting their photos taken with some fans, the wife of one of the brothers showed us the binder of materials they had brought with them to the event. Inside was an old brown paper note which I noticed was signed "Bob" and addressed to "Jerry."
Bob Titmus' map and note to Jerry Crew, detail.
It turns out that this was the ORIGINAL grocery sack note that Bob Titmus had slipped onto the window of Jerry Crew's tractor up in Bluff Creek sometime in late September or even early October, 1958. The note tells Jerry that Bob is leaving some plaster in the cab, and tells Jerry to make casts of the best footprints. On the other side of the opened grocery sack paper Bob Titmus drew a MAP of the Bluff Creek area, leading along the new road construction, up towards the area surrounding Notice Creek. Get this: THE MAP SHOWS THE LOCATION OF THE FOOTPRINT FINDS! Along the road and creek, beside such notable items as "Dump Truck" and "Logging" sites, one sees little hash marks where Titmus found additional tracks that Jerry Crew had apparently not known about. This historical relic shows the incredible and fundamental importance of BOB TITMUS to the history not only of Bigfoot in Bluff Creek, but of the entire field of Bigfooting. For now we'll publish two photos we took of the original in its binder. Next time we will publish the four-page photocopy of the Titmus-Crew map and note, once we get around to scanning it.
Bob Titmus' note to Jerry Crew. Click to Enlarge and Read.
Disclaimer: Though this blogger is affiliated in a friendly, non-formal way with the BFRO, and we are indeed friendly with a number of members of that organization, we'd like to say that we have never actually signed the NDA, and are in no way obliged or beholden to follow any rules or censorship from that organization. Neither are we "an informant" for the BFRO. That having been said, we spent a good bit of time hanging out with Mr. Matt Moneymaker, head of the group and quite a controversial figure, and we found NOT ONE moment of displeasure in doing so. The conversation was good, and fair, and nearly entirely free of judgment of other researchers. We understand that there are a lot of you out there who have reason to feel otherwise, but it has been our own experience over the last few years that Matt is really a cool dude. Strange, you might say, but true.... Go figure. Maybe it is because this blog has nothing to prove to ANYONE.
A slightly melodramatic promo pic from Animal Planet. Enough techie gear to
scare off the biggest squatch. Bobo, what is there in that "Evidence" bag?
We were interviewed for a story by the Hoopa Valley tribal newspaper on the topic of the TV show coming to our area. If you go to the bottom of the online article you can even read the reporter's sketch notes from the talk, for some reason also published. Read it here: Shooting Bigfoot with Film not Bullets.
For the rest of the story, tune in to Animal Planet in October. We've heard the special two-part episode on the Klamath-Trinity area is supposed to air on Halloween. After that we will surely have yet another blog entry to write.
Hanging out with the rest of the gang, especially our friends Cliff, Tom Yams, Paul Graves, Craig Flipy and Rowdy from the production crew was also quite fun. It involved a lot of great Bigfoot discussion, endless planning sessions for the filming (which we were not really part of, by choice), and lots of sitting around while the filming sessions were going on. Much of the time Cliff and Craig were out in the field doing "real" squatching activities. A rather extensive day was spent with Bob Gimlin at the WILLOW CREEK-CHINA FLAT MUSEUM. Here are a few more photos from there. We'll leave the rest for later.
Ever quizzical and inquiring, Cliff Barackman considers the Evidence.
Willow Creek Museum Gift Shop.
Next blog entry we will have some more detailed TALES OF BOB GIMLIN'S VISIT, and we'll tell what we can of his return to the BLUFF CREEK FILM SITE. Sorry to leave you all hanging a bit, but there's only so much we can put into one blog entry, and there is only so much we can tell you out of respect for our friends involved with the FINDING BIGFOOT TV show. You'll see it all soon enough; and after we'll tell you about all the stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor.
At the start of a filming day, here are Bob Gimlin and Tom Yamarone entering
the Museum. Tom drove all the way to Yakima and back to bring Bob here!
Until then, see ya....
Bobo, Bigger than Bigfoot.
Go to the web page for the show for updates, here:
**************************************************** ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS! Me HATE the hate. Me "Angry," that true. But Bigfoot not like be cause of all hu-man hate each other. You KNOW me? No. You know ABOUT me? Not. Me still laugh at hu-man in woods with silly headlamp and goggle on face. But me not hate them. They like TV to me. But when me see them use me to hate other, then me say, phooey. Me not EVER let you see me. Me not EVER let you even come close. Me go far away so you not EVER even hear me laugh, and me laugh harder and harder every day, hu-man.
**************************************************** This blog is copyright and all that jazz, save for occasional small elements borrowed for "research" and information or satirical purposes only, 2010, 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.
ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!
