Bigfoot Tales is coming back

Well, after a hiatus, mostly due to working and a somewhat catastrophic imjury, I'm heading back into the woods to look for Bigfoot evidence, and to start blogging again. Good to be back and I hope you'll continue to enjoy Bigfoot Tales!

On another note, I understand the hit show Finding Bigfoot is returning May 19thish with some all new episodes. I wish them luck.
https://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/finding-bigfoot/videos/all-new-season

Backwoodsman and Bigfoot 911

Well, the latest issue of the Backwoodsman magazine has hit the stands, and once again there is some Bigfoot content within its pages.

This time out we find a nice piece by John Bruner, founder of Bigfoot 911, and an avid Bigfoot hunter.

Bruner touches upon some of his Bigfoot experiences from childhood to today and also about his founding of the group Bigfoot 911.

It's not a very long read, but worth the time it takes to read the article, as are most of the articles Charlie Rich's Backwoodsman magazine presents to us every other month. I suggest you go out and pick up a copy before they're gone, or better yet, get a subscription so you don't miss any of the Bigfoot news shared through the readers.

The Power Line Bigfoot Incident

A fellow bigfooter and went out to examine a site for evidence today. We found a few itrms of interest, but nothing definitive. First though, I want to share the details of the sighting.

This story comes to me second person, and I wasn't able to interview the person who had th sighting. Over the weekend a person I know came to me to relate the tale.

His friend was driving home after a long days work and was approaching a certain powerline crossing. He glanced to his right and saw what he thought was a super sized bear standing up on its hind legs. The head of the animal towered over the brush on the side of the road.

He apparently didn't think much of it other than the immense size of this creature. Perhaps it was just a bear, bit I was still interested in the sighting.

So, we went to see what we could see. Arrived on the scene, we parked down the road and walked both sides of it to examine the brush for evidence. On one side, Jim, the other researcher found some matted grass, as though a large animal had laid or sat down.

We also found several small breaks and plenty of various food plants. We continued on up the powerline and found more of the same. I approached one point and got a strong feeling that something was watching us and didn't want us there.

We ran out of time and had to head back to town, unfortunately. While we found no conclusive evidence, we will be returning to the site for a follow up bisit. I'm also going to be producing a video and putting it up on my YouTube channel.  Happy Squatchin' folks!

The Jemez Springs Bigfoot Barbeque

Here's a link to a September 2nd event in New Mexico that sounds like a fun time for all...
http://krqe.com/2017/08/29/normally-elusive-big-foot-is-guest-of-honor-at-jemez-village-bbq/

Analyzing Bigfoot

There are many out there in the world of Bigfooting that feel compelled to analyze, or nitpick if you will, every up and coming video and picture claiming to be the million dollar shot of the big man himself. Granted, most of these videos and still shots are nothing more than easily explainable phenomenon such as peradolia or simulacra, but more often than not, just an imagined shape caused by a combination of shadows, lighting and blurriness fueled by an aggressive imagination.

Truth be told, I've probably taken hundreds of these shots, and thought they were pretty good ones. At least until I was able to get them home and run them through my software to see what it really was that I was looking at. But I do have some good ones, though not definitive in their quality and thus useless as providing truth of this creatures existence. This is where the difference lies with many of us out there. Some of us will examine what we have before we present our evidence, rather than letting our exuberance rule the day and running home to post our work as soon as we can.

However, this post is not about those of us who post our own work, but about those people who post the work of others under the guise of such loosely bandied about terms as "breakdown", "review", "analysis" or other names. Usually these sites and posts, whether in video or other format, are designed to sensationalize the video itself, rather than to provide an in depth analysis of the work in question. The big question here is: is it right for these videos to be made?

The obvious response is that of course they should, its a good way to expose hoaxers and scammers. But then, are they really exposing hoaxers? Or are these analysts really just taking advantage of someones exuberance?  Granted, the bulk of these videos do expose poor examples of proof, as well as outright scams, but they also provide a reason for those who may have some viable work to present from coming forward out of fear of ridicule.

A Kokomo Bigfoot

This video was published on December 14th of last year. A Kokomo Bigfoot is a study of two newspaper articles relating the captures of two “wild men of the woods.” The first piece, “A Wisconsin Wild Man” tells of the capture of a wild man said to be about 60 years old. What strikes me about this piece is the description of his strength and the way he gets around by leaping on all four limbs, much like a kangaroo, as the article’s writer puts it.

He was nearly able to escape, but the sheer numbers of men present at his capture defeated his efforts, and he was finally subdued and brought into the jail for keeping. Ostensibly a story of just a man gone wild, demented in his own right, but there are several questions that arise that give one pause to wonder if this might not really have been an odd encounter with the Sasquatch.

The second story, from Indiana tells of a similar wild man capture, again of an older man. He was said to have a herculean physique and strength, and was found moving about on all fours, and also was unclothed. Both of these men uttered unintelligible sounds, with the only word coming from either of them being what sounded like the word or name Jacobson coming from the Kokomo specimen.

Probably just a couple of tales of strange men, but what if these were really stories of Sasquatch, or Bigfoot people encounters. They were of similar mien, and were found less than 500 miles apart, and in the same year. These two articles pose lots of questions. Maybe someone from those areas can take the research further and find some answers.

Sorry about the audio in this video, by the way, but I do need to invest in some new equipment which will have to wait. Also, the images at the end of the video are cuts of just a few of the headlines I have found dealing with the wild man of the woods enigma. Hope you enjoy, and don’t forget to subscribe, like and share if you do. And don't forget to visit Bigfoot Tales on Facebook!

The Yellowstone Bigfoot

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I'm going to try to remedy these lapses as best i can, especially in the Bigfoot/Sasquatch arena. In addition to having to work seven days a week at multiple jobs, I've also had to endure a fatal crash of my computer, resulting in the loss of most of my work. Backup will restore most of it, but it will take time to restore programming and drivers. But for now....

By now most of you have heard about and seen the many versions of the video coming from out of Yellowstone Park. It's a nice (b-roll) video, but does it really show what is purported to be a Bigfoot? In my opinion no. For one thing, if that was a real Bigfoot in the background behind the bison, the bison wouldn't be casually grazing as they strolled around.

From all accounts I have read about or seen on the tube, animals flee in terror when the Sasquatch people are in the neighborhood. Furthermore, the figures in the background appear to be more human in stature. They seem too thin, and don't appear to be overly tall in comparison to many height reports. They seem to me to fit within the parameters one would expect an average human adult to fit within.

I say "they" because it has been claimed that this is a family unit of Sasquatch. To me, it looks more like two adult couples out for a snowshoe hike in the snow.There are only a few seconds of the figures shown, bit it looks to me like the last one on line as a lighter colored jacket on, and as soon as this fact becomes apparent, the videographer zooms back out to a panoramic or wide view of the scene and we loose sight of them, whatever they are.

The usual breakdown kings and queens have all issued their proclamations as to the veracity and usefulness of this video to we Sasquatch researchers and fans,but I merely find it to be just another distraction in my search for the truth.

I've attached a YouTube video here so that you can take a quick look if you want to, but again, I find it useless as evidence, and shiws nothing Squatchy at all about the figures in the trees. Feel free to come to your own conclusions, and remember, everyone is entitled to have an opinion, bit we're not always in a place where sharing that opinion is allowed, and as always, facts are facts.

Connecticuts Cotton Hollow Bigfoot

A wild man story from Connecticut. Ostensibly, four men reported coming across a nine foot tall creature that weighed at least 500 pounds, and had 18 and 1/2 inch long footprints. Follow along as we share the article and find out whether this was just a simple wild man tale or if was really another Bigfoot encounter. This story comes to us from June of 1898.

Romance and Reality of the Wild Man

In this video we look at an article from 1908 that looks at the then popular legends of what were called wild men of the woods. Many times the descriptions of these wild men seem rather more like what we call a Bigfoot today, and I have to wonder, home many of these wild men tales are actually encounters with the Sasquatch of North America?

Follow along as we look at and discuss the history of these sightings and the world of the search for the wild man of the woods from the turn of the century viewpoint...



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Was An Orang Pendek Captured in 1885?

This story comes from the newspapers of 1885, and relate the story of the capture of three members of a hairy, tree dwelling tribe from the depths of Laos. Were they simply hairy people, or were they what we now call the Orang Pendek? Follow along as Bigfoot Tales shares the story of these strange jungle people.

Was this really a story of the capture of the Orang Pendek? We cannot tell for certain today, but from the details of the story, it certainly seems possible. Much of the description of these creatures suggest something other than a conventional human being as being captured. Could these creatures have been a throwback to some former race of mankind, long forgotten in the jungles of Asia?

Follow along with Bigfoot Tales as we explore the possibilities...

http://youtu.be/j85lSlUWNNk

A Possible Bigfoot Capture in Mexico?

I came across an article in the 23 Jan. 1907 issue of the Telegraph-Republican newspaper titled “Hairy Wild Man Is Captured in Mexico. As usual, I am immediately drawn to all stories about wild men, and in reading through it, found a few morsels that suggest this may have been another encounter with what we call a Bigfoot today.

A couple of points that I want to draw attention to in this piece is the suggestion that it may have been a human gone demented for one, and the location of his capture in Mexico for two. Frequently we will hear stories of wild men that turn out to be simply men who had gone wild in response to some catastrophic event, usually the rejection of some women. However, there are some where these stories cannot be corroborated, and the details of these stories compel me to give great consideration that the events may actually be depicting encounters with that race of people we call Bigfoot today.

This one in particular suggests the being had no language, at raw food, utilized no fire, and was covered with long shaggy hair, superseding the need for covering of any kind. Many of the wild men caught in the past had at least some kind of covering, if not against the weather, then for modesty’s sake. These stories I place in the pile of wild human class encounters.

The other interesting this is the location of capture, which was in the state of San Luis Potosi, which is located in south central Mexico. An area of little renown, poor in value as well as culture, I find it interesting in that this area is just a few hundred miles from the state of Sinaloa, which is where the famous Julia Pastrana was discovered. Ms Pastrana was exhibited in Europe as a wild woman exhibit. She too was covered in hair. There are some  other details, but we will look at that story some other time.

The point of the potential connection is that this wild man may well have been related to Pastrana. A few hundred miles was a long distance in the 1800’s, but it is still possible for related families to be separated by such a distance as people moved to find a better life elsewhere. Ms Pastrana was found as a slave at a moderate Mexican farm, and her actual parentage was unknown. Supposedly, as the story goes, she was found wandering in the desert by her owners.

However, as usual, I will simply share the story here and let you come to your own conclusion in the truth of this story of the maybe Mexico Bigfoot encounter.

HAIRY WILD MAN IS CAPTURED IN MEXICO

Eats Only Raw Meat and VegetablesAnd Possesses Low Order Of Intelligence.

San Antonio, Tex.^__ A wild man, such as has not been seen before, has recently been captured in Mexico.  A miner who recently arrived from Xilitla, a small village in the southern part of the state of San Luis Potosi, tells of the capture alive of a most remarkable creature.
   The wild man is now detained in Husteen, and will be transferred to some museum if his life is preserved. He is about six feet tall, vigorous, covered with long hair, and has blue eyes and a ruddy complexion. He eats raw meat and uncooked vegetables, but will not touch cooked food. He has no apparent language, but seems to possess intelligence above that of dumb brutes.
   Travelers in the remote mountains of El Apio a month ago saw the wild man and gave chase on horseback. The creature was run to earth in a natural cave in a hillside. There he was overpowered only after a fierce fight.
   There was no furniture in the cave nor any appearance of there ever having been a fire. Bones and portions of roots and fruits were scattered about the place, which presented the appearance of having been inhabited by the wild man for many months.
   There was a fragment of calico in the cave, which may have been a part of a garment. The wild man wore no clothing at all, being well covered with shaggy hair.
  After the people of the valley below were informed of the capture, they related the disappearance of a young woman from the settlement a year ago. Some of the captors thought there might be some connection between the rag found in the cave and the disappearance  referred to.
   Some persons advance the theory that the Wildman is really a human being, who has become demented, and from long exposure and rough living reverted to animal methods, even to the long hair.
   No signs can be found of any other specimen of the sort, although there is considerable unexplored territory that might cover a few more of his kind without discovery.

On The Bigfoot Trail

Let's face the facts here, Bigfooters bear the brunt of much humor from the world today. But there is good reason for that. A large part of that reason is because we run away from the "scientific" aspect of this field of interest. Because we (at large) refuse to accept the procedural demands of the scientific community, our discoveries and theories rest within the world of fantasy and science fiction.

If we are to change the perception we have created of ourselves we need to learn a few things about the realities behind scientific research. One of those realities is that there actually is a difference between a fact and supposition. What is a fact? A fact is something that can be demonstrated, and repeated with the same results. Supposition is an idea, and while it may be a valid idea, it is not supported by fact.

Most of what we see and hear about the world of Bigfoot research is mere supposition. There are a lot of theories thrown about as fact, but there is no supporting evidence to support and prove these theories. Therefore, when we present these unsupported claims as fact, the scientific community simply chuckles at us and carries on with their own work of trying to find facts that support the suppositions they wish to present as fact.

An observation here is that more often than not, belief in unsupported suppositions presented as fact is equated with religious belief. This is a correct observation. Belief in something that cannot be proven by empirical evidence is supported by faith, and faith alone. But it is unfortunate that so many people take belief in unsupported theories and accept them as fact.

Take the issues between the creationist and evolutionist belief systems. Neither one is necessarily supported by what we call empirical evidence, but many consider creationism an unsupported belief, and evolution as a fact. This of course is not true, and can be demonstrated by the "fact" that evolutionism is actually supported not by empirical evidence, but pure supposition. Evolutionists claim that we descended from the apes, or with the apes or many other sub-ideas that try to prove that humans evolved from a lower form of life, but where is the proof of that claim?

There really is no demonstrable proof aside from suggestive manipulation of the fossil record. No one saw mankind develop from a lessor form of creature, and so the claim is unable to be demonstrable. No one can demonstrate the claim by showing that it can be repeated with the same results. Belief in evolution is a faith, not a scientific fact. A demonstrable fact is that, for example, if you tip a glass full of water over ten times, the water will respond to gravity by falling to the floor. Gravity is a fact.

And so, to get to the point of todays video, if we want to begin the transition of Bigfoot research from a fantasy game to a realistic research endeavor, we need to start following the regimen that scientists cling to. We need to learn to support our claims with demonstrable and repeatable evidence.

On the Bigfoot Trail shares some evidence that suggests that maybe there is some reality behind these assemblages of trees and such that we call Bigfoot stick structure and sign. I have observed in three separate locations repeated structure forms that, when plotted on a map, indicate that these structure could very well serve to act as trail markers. A sort of Bigfoot road sign.

The se structures include V shapes, bends, teepees and II type structures. In the example I share here, a bend signals the start of a trail diversion. If we were to walk in a straight line from this tree bend, we come to a V shaped structure made by two trees being pushed over and propped by other trees.

Continuing on in a straight line from that V, we come to a three legged teepee structure. Two legs are close together, the third extends further out, sort of like an extend arrow if viewed from above. By diverting from the straight line at the same angle as this single leg is propped at, you can go in a straight line to a second V shaped structure. The one in this video was destroyed over the winter by storms, but you can see it by going back to some of my earlier research videos.

By going straight through this V, you come to a natural growth where two trees grow close together to look like this II, or a sort of door frame. These two trees grow on the edge of a steep stream bank. Across the streambed, which has little water in it but is always quite muddy, lies a log anchored in place by sticks. You can scramble down the bank, and walk along the log to the opposite bank without leaving footprints in the mud. The trail clearly continues on from that point.

There is more in the video, but the bottom line here is that by following this trail instead of the well worn and groomed trail in a public area, one can avoid being seen from a ridgeline in plain sight of the highway and some houses, as well as avoiding having to jump across a cut through a bank that is some thirty or so feet across. This cut is more canyon like and cannot be navigated without leaving clear evidence of having been there.

This still does not provide valid proof of Bigfoot, so I present this as a mere supposition. This could be just a random sequence of events, but what I find most intriguing about this supposition is that I have also seen structure laid out in similar fashion in two other locations. Enjoy the video and keep on Squatching!

LIfe Cycle of the Bigfoot Legend

Does Bigfoot Exist?

First posted on my Wordpress blog on March 5, 2014          

Recently, there has been an uptick in the numbers of people calling foul play in the greater Bigfoot community. Why is that, some of us tend to wonder. Then there’s other folks who really don’t give a rat’s ass about it, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their stage time. And there in a nutshell is the biggest impediment to finding the answer to the question of whether there really is a creature we call Bigfoot. Stage time.

For those of you who have been following me for a while, and actually paying attention, my interest in the Bigfoot phenomenon extends to the folklore behind this so-called urban myth, not just to the modern day vagueness of the current slew of reported sightings and encounters. In my book Sasquatch; searching for the answer, I delve into the chronology of some of the phenomenon that have dotted the folklore of many nations since the beginning of written history, with special emphasis on the sea serpents bracing the early to mid nineteenth century literature. It turns out that Maine in particular, or to be more precise, Casco Bay, has quite a little history of that particular creature.

My findings of the time period mentioned is that the phenomenon of the sea serpent has much the same chronological history of the Bigfoot phenomenon we are enjoying today. in short, the life cycle of the creature ebbed and flowed in much the same way as the life cycle of this current crypto-zoological  entity seems to be ebbing and flowing today. Stories of monsters an mysteries have always been present through the ages, and many of these stories keep resurfacing every so often with surprising regularity, and their life cycle follows the same pattern, century after century.
In short, the chronological histories of these creatures goes like this:

• A myth, legend, or fairy tale from a prior generation is revived, often by someone claiming to see the creature.
• The story is laughed at, and the believers are ridiculed.
• Other people show an interest, and the numbers of people involved in this creatures study or research increase.
• The believers move from the category of being lunatic fringe to “maybe there is something there.”
• Some people see the trend and decide to take advantage of an opportunity to gain easy money and reputation.
• The belief that this creatures existence becomes more widespread, involving a much wider audience.
• Aficionados and sideline believers become more intensely involved with searching for the answer, and subsequently divide into groups or categories of varied levels of belief or acceptance of the creature. These categories range from the outright skeptic to the adoring believers with an almost religious fascination to the creatures existence.
• The scientific community becomes involved, and disputes arise over the facts of this creatures existence.
• Further splits arise amongst those following the creature, resulting in diametrically opposed factions, one side only interested in empirical evidence, the other insisting they have presented the evidence but nobody believes them.
• Interest begins to wane, and the people interested in earning  the fame and fortune of this creature opportunity formulate new ways of stirring up interest.
• It finally dawns on most of the believers that there really is nothing to see here and move on to another interest, usually a different mythology.
• Interest simmers, kept barely alive by a faithful few until another generation comes along and renews the cycle of the mythological creature in its many forms.

Bigfoot is not a new phenomenon. We are now in the waning stages of this current generations interest of what we call Bigfoot. Prior to this, in the early 1900′s, there was the commotion over what were called “ape-men.” In the mid 1800′s there was a flurry of activity over the “wild-man of the woods.” Before that it was the “wild-man of the mountains.”

Even before that, there were other names and vague descriptions, but in the end, we have always come to the same conclusion that this mythological creature walks like a man on two feet, is covered with hair, cannot speak as we do, hides in the darkness of the forest, and sometimes is even a cannibal. For thousands of years there has always been, as Linnaeus called him, a Sylvestri hominie, or wild-man.

So, to get back to the question, does Bigfoot exist, I believe I can say with absolute certainty that yes indeed, Bigfoot does exist. Do I have proof? Not one shred, but that doesn’t really matter in the long run, because like religion, existence of this creature depends more upon faith than it does facts. There is something out there in the dark forests of the world that leaves tracks, drops piles of scat, cries in the night and creates lovely artwork with interwoven piles of sticks.

Most of the time, we can easily find an alternate attribution to the reasons these things exist, but every now and then, we come across something that makes us truly ponder the possibilities. Bigfoot does indeed exist, even if it is only in the resources of our mind, and it exists for very simple reasons.
For one thing, throughout the ages mankind has always had something to fear. There are lots of things for us to fear, but for the most part, what we fear most is the unseen. The forms that lurk in the shadows of our mind. And because we haven’t the courage to confront those shadows, we also need a hero to battle those fears. Every so often, we come across a mythology that accomplishes these two things all at once.

The wild-man of the woods, Bigfoot as we call him today, is indeed a creature that lurks in the forests of our minds, and at the same time becomes the hero we need to overcome those fears of the unknown.

Happy Squatching!

The Butte Bigfoot Exhibition

While I have titled this a Bigfoot exhibition, it was back then labeled as a "wild man" exhibition, as the term "Bigfoot" did not exist until the late 1950's time frame. Nor was it referred to as a wild ape or monkey display as at the time, the trend to label these wild men as ape-like creature still had not gained momentum. It really wasn't until Fred Becks encounter with the wild men in 1924 that the reference to the simian world took hold.

For thousands of years, wild men were always simply that; wild men. For the most part they were covered in hair, wore no clothing, and lived beyond the grip of normal society, mostly hidden in the backwoods and jungles of the world. So, when we are researching the history of this phenomenon, we are required to forget the monstorized version of this creature and look for other names. This is where research gets tricky. Mostly because not all wild men were of the sort we call Bigfoot today. And even then, the ones that do come close to a Bigfoot description were still not of the common monster(by today's terms) variety.

I'm really not certain as to the exact time frame that Bigfoot developed into the monster we consider him to be today, only that it seems to have followed the popular entertainment trends over the last 100 years or so. As the literature and theatrical presentations of this creature became more and more garish, more beastly and evil, our perception of what this creature is has likewise changed. The end result has been, of course, that instead of looking for what was once simply a wild man of the woods, we are now looking for a monstrous beast that can be over a dozen feet tall, and possesses magical abilities.

We'll continue with that thought in another blog post, but today I want to share the story of this exhibition that took place in Butte Montana back in 1895. It is an interesting story, and turns out to be true, although not quite as exciting as originally presented in the first reference I read regarding this creature.

The story, from an autobiography by James Wardner, of Wardner Idaho fame describes the exhibited subject thusly:

This creature was short, well built, and his body was covered with hair of the length and shade of a black bear's. The hair of his head was in clusters and mats as big as your hand, lying plastered on his head and dangling on his neck...he had eyebrows fully four inches long, sticking nearly straight out, behind which glistened as bright a pair of round, quick, glittering brown eyes as were ever seen in ape or chimpanzee.

 

 

Certainly sounds like it fits the Bigfoot bill, although the height was a little lacking. But maybe it was a younger Bigfoot, not fully all grown up? Was this story a hoax, was it a real Bigfoot, was it just a wild man? Follow along on the video and find the answers as Bigfoot Tales shares the story of the Butte Bigfoot Exhibition...

Baumann's Bigfoot Tale

Most avid Bigfooter's are familiar with the story told by Theodore Roosevelt in his book "Wilderness Hunter'" but many haven't actually read the entire tale. Follow along with me as I share this intriguing story that some have come to consider as a Bigfoot attack on a trapper in the wild west. Was it a Bigfoot, or was it a bear? Come to your own conclusions with this story and a little bit of the backstory behind the tale.
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For more Bigfoot tales:  http://bigfoottales.wordpress.com/
For more Maine Bigfoot discussion: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MaineBigfootResearch/
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Photo of a Bigfoot Kill?

I thought I'd share what has become my most viewed video today. I won't say most popular because it has in fact attracted the most numbers of dislikes, and some of the most acerbic comments I have read on any of my videos. In fact, this video is the main reason I simply turned off the comments of all my videos.

With over 130,000 views to date I have some interesting stats to glean from its record, as well as the ability to quantify some of my opinions regarding the Bigfoot community at large. For instance, the video is nineteen minutes long, but the average minutes per view is only 2.9 minutes. that means a ton of people have clicked onto it, only to realize that while the photo analyzed in the video is not really a Bigfoot kill. Duh, you think maybe? Common sense says that if there were ever to be a legitimate Bigfoot killing, it would be plastered all over the front pages and the evening news.

So why do we keep going to these videos expecting to see a real dead Bigfoot? Well, that gets us embroiled into a sticky situation that will just piss people off because no one likes to be wrong. That would be like bringing up a study that was done a while back that showed that the majority of people that believed in things like UFO's, government conspiracies, alien abductions and yes, Bigfoot, were all people of what are commonly termed, lower ability.

But I guess that's neither here nor there. There is a lot of crap on the internet that isn't true, and yet we continue to get suckered into clicking onto link after link, only to be disappointed with the product offered us on the other side. So what does this video have to do with all that?

Well, it is an example of the classic situation of fooling some of the people some of the time paradigm. Yeah, it's a little bit on the mystical side here, so lets delve into a little backstory of the video here.

About a year ago I got a message from somebody regarding this picture, and wanted to know if I knew the story behind it. (And no, I'm not going to name names here, so stop wondering who.) I did not know the story behind it, but I had seen it before and already knew that while it looked historical, it was obviously a fake photo.

The advent of editing software has birthed a plethora of hoax minded individuals who seem to thing that changing reality around a tad is a fun thing to do. And I don't really have a problem with that, provided the hoax is presented on the right type of platform, and done in a way that people are not so easily taken in on the hoax.

A couple of publications here come to mind as examples. One of them is the Weekly World News. Interesting rag that it is, there is no real news about it. Well, almost none. Once an incredibly newsstand product, the WWN has become just another seedy online sideshow, still disseminating the same old hoaxes packaged as real news. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that buy into these faux articles hook line and sinker. These unfortunate souls really believe what comes out of WWN is true news.

Another site, which I personally find rather disgusting, is the Ringsider Report. But at least these clowns don't attempt to deceive people into believing the crap they post is real news. They publish their stories as though it were real news, but reading the stuff they sell is enough to convince all but the numbest among us that it is pure garbage. But still people read on.

But lets get back to the video. The picture of this Bigfoot kill has been around for quite a while, and every so often gets the joy of having some hack hoaxer latching onto it and presenting it as some kind of a new historical find. Yeah, right. Except that there are a few facts that really makes me ashamed that as a group of people, we allow these jokers to continue on with hoax after hoax. What's worse is that there are more and more of us that buy into the hoaxes, hoax after hoax.

This particular photo I look at was actually done as an entry to a photoshopping contest, and as such, and in the context presented, I do not consider the photograph itself as a hoax. It is actually a historical photograph of some hunters with a deer kill. The deer was expertly removed from the picture, and a composite of some other images were inserted in such a way as to present what the editor though a dead Bigfoot would look like.

A quick casual glance at the photo doesn't reveal that it is an edited photo. However, anything longer than a quick glance immediately begins to reveal flaw after flaw, showing itself to be the false image that was created in the eyes of the beholder. But enough of all that. Let's move on to the video...

The First Bigfoot Hoax Prosecution

It is interesting to see the changes that have occurred over the centuries as I research this phenomenon we call Bigfoot today. Of course, we have only known this creature as "Bigfoot" since the latter 1950's, but he has been skulking around the shadows of our imagination since time immemorial. Prior to that he was commonly known as Sasquatch by some. Other peoples have had different names, but the bottom line here is that  for centuries it was simply referred to as "the wild man of the woods."

Up until the latter part of the 1800's this creature was accepted as being a primitive human sort of being. Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book" began the name change when people started referring to him as a "Mowgli." Kipling's stories first ran in several newspapers as a serial column (1893-94), and Mowgli himself became a widely known character with the dissemination of these stories.

Mowgli, of course, as we all know was a fictional character that had supposedly been abandoned by his parent(s) in India, and was adopted and raised by a pack of wolves. The fascination we had with the wilderness areas of the world fueled the imagination of his readers, and the term became a somewhat popular term for any person that was considered wild, or lived outside of the norm.

Edgar Rice Burroughs further enticed the imagination with his stories of Tarzan, and his description of "ape men" was transferred onto these creatures. At the turn of the century, many fanciful tales of these creatures described them as being ape men, and so began the transformation of these sasquatch people into creatures that were now considered to be man-like apes. This unfortunate chain of events exacerbated any logical attempts to normalize these creatures into what they really were, and still are; wild men of the woods.

While they may have some characteristics in common with the gorillas of Africa, they certainly are not of a simian species. If they were, we would have little difficulty learning about them. Through the years, many have attempted to hoax the public by portraying men as wild men by exhibiting them in sideshows.

One of the most famous, Herbert Asbury, better known as "The Wild Man of Borneo" was a short-lived success. He was coated with tar and horse hair, placed in a cage and fed raw meat. His tenure only lasted a week as he became ill from being coated in such a fashion, and had to be admitted to a hospital. However, history treats us to a long list of sideshow attractions that featured these faux wild men.

Generally, people realized these were fake characters, but that did not stifle the success nor the numbers of these attractions. For the most part they were enjoyed by the willing shills who put down their nickels and dimes for admittance to the show. But occasionally, there was a rube or two that sincerely thought they were going to be entertained by a true wild man, ape man, or whatever they wished to call them

One case in particular comes to light in what may well be the worlds first hoax trial. This was reported on in some of the May, 1891 issues of the Deseret Evening News, out of Salt Lake City.

Follow along in the video as we share what well be the worlds first wild man, or Bigfoot hoax trial and learn the outcome. Believe it or not, this trial actually sets a precedence in law regarding these sorts of lawsuits, and why we don't see many of them occur even today.

The bottom line is that while these wild men, or Bigfoot today, may be displayed as an attraction, since there is no valid proof they exist, how can any reasonably intelligent person claim they were defrauded. In other words, one cannot hoax what does not exists. At any rate, enjoy the video, and don't forget to subscribe for more Bigfoot Tales.

The Bigfoot face Syndrome

This will be the last of my Bigfoot how-to photography series. I find myself tempted to drift far too distant from my core mission of sharing Bigfoot Tales and hunts. I'm not an instructor, never have been, and have no desire to be one. So, before I get too deeply immersed in what is wrong with Bigfoot research and photographic evidence, I'll leave you with this video I did on what I call the Bigfoot Face Syndrome.

This is an ailment that all Sasquatch hunters suffer from, some to a greater degree than others, mind you, but we all suffer from it. This ailment becomes detrimental when we let it control our research activities. Why? Because instead of looking for the truth, we allow ourselves to become dependent upon the tendency we have to cherry pick the data in front of us and choose what suits our desires.

In short, we see Bigfoot when there isn't any, and todays digital cameras only exacerbate the situation. In the following video, I share a face in the woods that I came across one day. It looked pretty cool when I first laid eyes upon it, and I could have simply kept the image and shared it as a possible Bigfoot image.

But I resisted the temptation to satisfy my urge to share my findings in favor of my deeply seated need to know the truth of the matter. I examined the situation carefully, and discovered that there was no face, only the forest. The face was fabricated in the camera by its ability to discern facial features. It is actually a pretty cool piece of video, and I hope you do learn something valuable from it.

Enjoy the video, and don't forget to subscribe!

http://youtu.be/HVOmjRwim00

Bigfoot Faces in the Dark; part 4

In the last installment of this series, we looked at a couple of the terms that relate to our subconscious ability to see things that are not there when we are out searching for the elusive one. This is one of the greatest obstacles to providing effective data in our search for this creature we call Bigfoot. In some ways, we could even go so far as to say that our earnest desire is actually crippling our efforts to a great degree.

If you have been hooked on Bigfoot for any length of time, and if you are reading this, you are hooked on Bigfoot, then you will likely have seen hundreds if not thousands of photographs and videos presented by people that claim that their particular photo or video is the proof positive shot of the truth, the image that proves Bigfoot exists.

But there really isn't anything there to see. It's just a picture of trees and shadows dotted with occasional flashes of light. Don't get me wrong here, I am not saying all Bigfoot photos are made of the stuff we call imagination. I have seen plenty of good images that depict what we call Bigfoot today. There are some good photographic and video evidence that are more than compelling. But we'll get to those at some other time.

What I am saying here is that more often than not, the Bigfoot we see are mere reflections of our imagination. We see something moving in the woods, and because we so badly want to see this thing we call Bigfoot that whatever is really there becomes this creature. So, for my second piece of advice here, (my first was to try to buy a camera with an optical viewfinder), I strongly suggest that you learn to keep your imagination in check at all times.

 A  lot of people go into the woods and call themselves Bigfoot researchers, but are they really researchers? Not really. That would be like a casual birdwatcher calling themselves an ornithologist, in a way. You are not really researching if you are just blindly walking around hoping to stumble upon some valuable piece of evidence.

When it comes to the photographic or visual component of data, we very often make some fatal errors when we examine the picture in front of us. One component is the three dimensional, or 3D aspect of what we are looking at. When we look at the real world, we are viewing it in three dimension; width, height, and depth. However, when we look at a reproduced image, we are only looking at two dimensions, width and height.

Granted, there are cameras today that can provide us with a stereoscopic image that we call 3D, but how many photos have you seen of Bigfoot that were made with one of those cameras? I'm guessing probably none. Therefore, when we look at one of these images, whether it be a photo or a video, we are looking at a reproduction of what someone else saw, but it is missing that third dimension of depth.

Because we can only see images in two dimensions, we are not seeing what the person who took and shared the image with us, exactly. Things look flat, in a way. However, this causes us to see the image in a different way than someone who was actually there, and we can easily dismiss what we are seeing as a hoaxed photo, or chalk the image up to a fantastic imagination.

Those of us that take these pictures and share them with the result of insult and humiliation getting tossed back at us, often become discouraged and more often than not fade into the background of the Bigfoot world, if not simply exit the arena stage left. That's too bad, because many of these pictures actually do contain images of Bigfoot, even though most people cannot see them for what they are.

In the next installment we'll talk about the Bigfoot face syndrome, and how we can change the way we take and present these images in ways that will make them more appealing, agreeable, and better evidence in our search for Bigfoot.

Bigfoot Faces in the Dark; part 3

In part two I discussed a bit about the new wave of cameras that hit the market allowing people to take better snapshots with less skill needed. This tool loaded onto almost all, if not all, cameras manufactured today. Marketing is the driving factor, and since most people buy cameras simply to take candid shots of friends and family under many different occasions, the people part of the photography world is a main selling tactic. Better people shots means more buyers for your camera.

The end result is of course that instead of making people take the time to learn the art of composition and clarity in photography, all they have to do is push a button and the camera does the work for them. It is great for wedding parties and the baby shower, but for Bigfoot hunting, it causes no end of problems.

Time and time again we look at the digital image on the back of our camera body and are certain we are looking at a Bigfoot. The reality is of course that what we are really observing is a composite image that has been created by the software in the camera of light and dark spaces, lines and dots that it thinks is a face. Since we are looking for a Bigfoot, we think that image is a Bigfoot. If we were looking for Lizard Man, we would think it was a Lizard man. The same rule would go far any sort of anthropomorphic creature we were looking for. If it has a face, then that is what we see in the camera view screen.

The lesson here is that when it comes to equipment, whether that would be a video camera or a still camera, we really should be looking for a camera that has an optical view finder as opposed to strictly a digital screen for setting up our shots. This eliminates that tendency to over-trust the image we are looking at because what we are looking at is the real thing, and not simply that composite image created for us by the camera.

We will still see faces in the shadows of course, because our brains also come with facial recognition software installed by the manufacturer. This is where a couple of terms come into play for we Bigfoot hunters. these two terms are pareidolia and simulacra. They sound rather brainy, and in a sense they are, but they help to explain why we see the things that we see, that really aren't.

Of the two terms, pareidolia is the most used. Unfortunately it is frequently misused, misunderstood, and overused. The term has been around for ages, but for those of us in the Bigfoot genre, it came into popular use after it was used by Ranae Holland in an episode of the hit TV show, Finding Bigfoot. As in many areas of popular followings, whenever a so-called expert emits a fancy term, the adorants of the hero figure latch onto the word and use it unceasingly because it fills a vacuum in their vocabulary. Eventually the term gets worn out and falls into disuse for the most part.

So what is pareidolia? Simply put, and I won't launch into a detailed explanation here, pareidolia is the unconscious act of our minds combining various features into what we perceive to be facial, or other, characteristics. In other words, facial recognition software. We so desperately want to find a Bigfoot that we subconsciously create a Bigfoot out of thin air, sort of, to satisfy that need. We create our own optical illusions to satisfy a need. Where this term gets overused is when we look at a digital image and see these images that others can see.

This is where simulacra comes into play. Pareidolia is entirely from our minds, and has no physical representation in the real world. Simulacra, on the other hand, is a physical manifestation of those images that can in fact be reproduced for others to see, even without direction. Sometimes the image is too subtle for others to see, and become critical of the image. You can take a picture of a particular image that you know beyond any reasonable doubt is a Bigfoot, but nobody else can see it. Why is that.

Well, there are a few reasons for that, and the most common reason is that there really is nothing there to see. There is no Bigfoot in the image. But you know it was there. Pareidolia is driven by our imagination, and sometimes the need to see a Bigfoot will make us see a Bigfoot when nothing is there. We believe it in our minds so strongly that nothing can deter us from our claims.

Very often, someone else has presented a picture or video of what they claim is a bigfoot, but also is a picture of nothing but the forest. That same desire drives us to see what is not there, even though we did not see it in real life, and there really is no Bigfoot in the image in front of us. How do we correct that situation that we seem to get ourselves into so often.

The best way is to make certain of what we see. If you see a Bigfoot in your cameras view screen, then you should also see it when not looking through the view screen. If you can see it in your screen, but not with your naked eye, then you are probably not seeing a Bigfoot. You are seeing a simulacra, a simulated image, and others quite likely will not be able to see a Bigfoot when you show them the picture or video.

This problem also rests in our ability to view things in a three dimensional format. Normal cameras can only perceive and capture two dimensions, width and height, but we humans can also perceive depth of an image as well. I have seen very few purported Bigfoot images that contain all three possible attributes, but there are a few out there.

Next time we'll get into a little bit more about 3D images and how that can work to help you take a valid Bigfoot picture that you can share with others.