Is There a Bigfoot?

[From “American Way”. October 1981.]

You listen to the tales and you take your choice. Despite many reported sightings, no one has made a photograph of any big, hairy monster. But Tennessean Rex North is among those who steadfastly believe irrefutable evidence soon will be produced.

Most scientists, biologists, and naturalists will tell you that Bigfoot doesn't exist if they tell you anything at all. Many decline even to discuss the subject.

There is no such creature alive in the U.S. today, says one veteran wildlife biologist. Period.

Then there is Mrs. Bertha Seagraves. Granted she holds no degree in biology, mammalogy, zoology, or any of the animal sciences. And as far as Bigfoot is concerned, she confesses she had never heard the name before. All Seagraves knows is what she saw, heard, and smelled one fall evening in the backyard of the family farm in middle Tennessee.

It was just getting dark when the chickens began fussing and carrying on, she recalls. I flipped on the back‑porch light and started out to see what was going on. I figured a possum or something was prowling around,

The porch light cast a dim circle of illumination around the yard. Seagraves stepped off the porch and immediately was met by an overpowering odor that made her gasp and stop in her tracks. Like to take my breath‑away, she says. It was just awful. Then about that time, I saw it. It wasn't that far away [she gestures toward the center of her living room], just standing, there, looking right at me.

It.

She continues, ?Something about eight, nine feet tall with black hair all over it, just standing there kinda stooped over. Its eyes were shining in the porch light [human eyes do not reflect light], and I just stood there for a minute, sort of frozen. Then I stepped backwards, trying to get back up on the porch. When I moved, the thing growled and turned and disappeared. I could hear it running off into the dark. And I could still smell it after it was gone.

Seagraves relates her story calmly and matter-of-factly. She also has a reply for those who ask for her story and then express doubts: You wanted to know what I saw and I just told you. I've no reason to make something like that up. That thing was as close to me as you are right now.

Several hundred miles away from the Seagraves farmhouse, two Indians were strolling along a path near Little Eagle, South Dakota. Darkness was rapidly falling as they made their way down the sagebrush-choked trail. Suddenly they heard a strange grunting sound. Almost simultaneously a sour, foul aroma permeated the area. They beat a hasty retreat and so did the thing in the brush, bellowing and shrieking they told the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Later they returned to the area and discovered footprints measuring between 16 and 18 inches in length and 7 inches in width.

In Rice, North Dakota, a rancher was searching for stray cattle when he spotted a creature. He says it was eight or nine feet tall, like a big monkey. The rancher adds: I took off after it in my pickup and it ran like a horse. It jumped a creek and disappeared into the brush.

In Ocala, Florida, a Baptist minister sighted a mysterious hairy creature lurking in the shadows of a palmetto grove; it was at least 7 1/2 feet tall, maybe animal, and maybe human.' Whatever it was ran into the Ocala National Forest and disappeared.

Near Memphis, Tennessee, two duck hunters entered a marsh on a cold December predawn and heard what one described as the most uncanny sound of my life; it was kind of a screaming and growling, the kind of sound that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Then he saw it: A big, hairy creature, standing upright, moving through the marsh. It wasn't a bear, and I don't know any other animal that big.

The foregoing are a scant handful of more than 800 reported sightings of what Newsweek magazine called 'the foul‑smelling mystery-beast. Sightings have been reported by people from all walks of life. Even certain wildlife experts who once pooh‑poohed the existence of any such creature are beginning to grudgingly concede there may be something more than overripe imaginations to the Bigfoot legend.

There have been too many reports by too many people whose descriptions are too similar for there to be nothing to it, say one. Exactly what they're seeing, I won't speculate on. But there's definitely something out there.

Something, yes. And, taking the reports at face value, far more than one. But what. For centuries natives have told tales of the yeti the Abominable Snowman that they say roams the Himalaya Mountains between India and Tibet. Yeti has been translated as all-devouring creature.

North American Indian tribes passed from generation to generation accounts of confrontations with a great, shaggy, manlike creature they called Sasquatch. The Indians also referred to the monster as Bigfoot for obvious reasons. Footprints supposedly left behind by the beast measure from 16 to 19 inches in length and from 7 to 9 inches in width.

In Florida a reported creature fitting the same description has been tabbed the skunk ape for obvious reasons of odor and appearance.

While scientists and biologists generally remain skeptical, one group in Nashville, Tennessee, has been busy compiling Bigfoot data for more than five years. The group, composed of a dozen men, calls itself the Southeastern Wildlife Research Association (SWRA). That's a fancy name for a Bigfoot search party. The members are adventurers who are attracted by the aura of mystery that surrounds the reported beast sightings.

Jim Vincent, manager of a school supplies company, and Rex North, a prominent Nashville musician, founded the SWRA. Their convictions are simple and steadfast: We know Bigfoot's out there, says North. There is absolutely no question about it. Anybody who will look at the evidence with an open mind can't dispute the fact.

Reminded that the bottom line is still that the creature hasn't been captured, North concedes: No, we can't produce him. Not yet. But we do have plaster casts of his footprints, samples of his hair, and a tape recording of his cry. We know where he lives, what he looks like, what he eats, and even certain things about his temperament. We have interviewed literally hundreds of people who have encountered the animal. We feel we are pretty thoroughly acquainted with our quarry.

This store of Bigfoot lore wasn't accumulated overnight. For five years SWRA members have been conducting excursions into suspected Bigfoot stomping grounds, camping for days at a time, checking reported sightings, interviewing witnesses, combing the brush for clues.

Their conclusions, based on the evidence the group has compiled: The creature, when mature, weighs between 500 and 800 pounds. It stands between 6 and 10 feet tall: It has long, dangling arms, huge hands, and a barrel chest. It walks in the primate position, stooped at the shoulders. It appears to have little neck, and the head is rounded and slightly peaked at the back. The eyes are small, deep-set, and reflect light at night. The hair is coarse and thick and varies in color from black to brown and even white and gray. (North theorizes that the hair color progresses from blond to black to gray as the creature ages.) The casts that SWRA says are of Bigfoot footprints measure 16 2/3 inches long and 6 1/2 inches wide.

Bigfoot's diet is said to be varied and it's not a picky eater. We have found bark, leaves, and berries in his stool, as well as small animal bones, fur, and feathers, says North. We believe he is like man, both vegetarian and carnivore. We believe he will feed on whatever is available.

And about the rank odor that envelopes Bigfoot: We suspect that the smell emanates from a gland, possibly a musk gland related to the reproductive system, says North. Many animals give off a musky, unpleasant odor during their rutting seasons and it's reasonable to believe this could be the nature of the infamous Bigfoot aroma.

North further theorizes and stresses that it's pure theory that Bigfoot is a nomadic, family-oriented creature, moving about in small groups. He believes the creature's natural cunning and retiring nature have prevented its destruction by some overzealous hunter.

North realizes not everybody buys his theories. He shrugs: Sure, we're ridiculed, made fun of. This is the space age when men are going to the moon and orbiting around the earth. Scientists have every thing all figured out, know all the answers. Then all of a sudden people start reporting giant, hairy monsters prowling around . . . the same sort of tales that used to scare the cave men a million years ago. Modern man likes to think he's too sophisticated to believe in anything like that. Well, the simple truth is there is something out there.

North doesn't want to harm the creature whatever it is. Once one walked right up on us on a moonlit trail. We had a rifle and could have easily shot it, but that's the last thing we want to do, he explains. What the SWRA would like to do is get clear, unimpeachable photographs of Bigfoot or get close enough to fire a tranquilizer dart at the creature. Two members of the group are doctors and they are licensed to carry tranquilizers.

The SWRA keeps most of its information secret. North says that is for two reasons: First, we want to protect our sources. Lots of people won't tell us anything if they think we might reveal their names. It's kind of like reporting a flying saucer; they're afraid their neighbors will make fun of them. Then, too, we want to protect Bigfoot. A couple summers ago word spread about a sighting in northern Alabama. In no time at all the place was crawling with people, most of them armed. I was afraid somebody was going to be hurt, most likely one of the so-called 'hunters' but perhaps even Big Foot himself. I personally can't understand the thinking of someone who would intentionally shoot what has to be the most rare, intriguing creature on earth, but that kind is there.

There is a move afoot to have Bigfoot classified as an endangered species, thus affording it the same federal protection enjoyed by bald eagles and other scarce fauna. The drawback, of course, is that Bigfoot is so scarce that only a relative handful of people seriously believe it exists.

Let 'em doubt, says North. It may be tomorrow, or it may be next week, or it may be next year. But it's just a matter of time until we produce Bigfoot. He's out there and we're going to keep looking until we find him.

Then, with Bigfoot properly identified, neatly labeled, and biologically classified, it will be just another species of North American mammal instead of a howling, glowing-eyed mystery monster.

I've thought about that, says North. We're closing in on him and we're going to corner Bigfoot before long. And that'll really be sort of a sad day, won't it.

WCSRO, 2006.