The Track Record Update: Ray Crowe--Who Is This Guy, Anyway? The Bigfoot Bar and Grill; Sexsquatchploitation and Scatology in Human Culture; Nights with Sasquatch

So, who IS this Ray Crowe, anyway? In his time in the bigfooting field he was not just a bigfoot hunter, but an editor, event organizer, field investigator, and generalized paranormalist and Fortean. He co-founded The Western Bigfoot Society, but he was also interested in all things that go bump in the night or hoot and howl in the forest. Though Ray was a serious researcher of the Sasquatch, he also found time for literary pursuits, and as well for the pursuit of things that were just downright strange. It should be noted that Ray did not necessarily agree with every theory or sighting he published. He kept an open mind, but always "kept his skepticals on."

In the Index of the newly released THE TRACK RECORD on CD we find entries on Rip Van Winkle, Spam, Sea Monkies, Plesiosaurus, UFOs, Mothman, Men in Black (MIBs), Mars, Loch Ness, Little People, Adolf Hitler, Goat Suckers, Fate Magazine, Cyclops, Bob Dylan, Art Bell, Crop Circles, Crystal Skulls, Bubonic Plague, Alien Implants, and of course Bigfoot Tampons, Bigfoot Testicles, Bigfoot Telepathy, Bigfoot Sexual Abuse of Other Animals, Bigfoot Orbs, Multi-Dimensional Bigfoot, Bigfoot Marijuana Eating, the Bigfoot Army, Bigfoot Lost Time, Bigfoot Electricity Stops Functioning, Bigfoot Conspiracy, and let's not forget... Bigfoot Attracted Sexually to Humans. Far out stuff! But there is a lot of down-to-earth information in there, too... like Bigfoot Scat, and.... OK, I'll stop.

Besides The Track Record (see our Previous Post: now released on CD!), his apparently humorously-intended fictional work, "The Bigfoot Bar and Grill," tells the tale of bigfoot rape of a human female, the quest for revenge, along with a lot of strangely scatological humor at the expense of some redneck country folk bigfoot hunter characters. See the two scanned sample sections below, click to ENLARGE.

Image above, the book now in possession of Bigfoot Books, with sunfaded cover. To left, from a t-shirt of the Western Bigfoot Society. This image and others following of Ray Crowe had to be lifted from the fine video, SASQUATCH ODYSSEY. See our previous POST.

 [WARNING!: Some, or most, or all of the quotations that follow are of a GROTESQUE, SICKLY HUMOROUS and sometimes HORRIFIC nature, not to be read by young folks and the faint of heart, or adults who might just happen to have GOOD TASTE. They involve vast quantities of bodily excreta, as well as scenes of involuntary interspecies miscegenation. They are presented here for purposes of literary and historical analysis only!!! Note: Poooz, the character found below, is a member of a clan of Sasquatches.]

Sample quotes from The Bigfoot Bar and Grill:

"In some places that the Bigfoot visited frequently, a reek would fill the air, the stench so bad that humans almost needed a gas-mask to enter the area with... if you could find anybody foolish enough to enter the gut-wrenching stench anyway. Coming around the huge tree, Poooz almost ran into the female 'skin.' It startled him so much that he screamed in fear, 'Aiiiieeee!' dropping a handful of bear grass, turning in his fear to escape. Goldie surprised and terrified, screamed also, scared as much by the beast as its own surprised scream of terror. She had been bent over a log, doing her morning thing, and had just finished wiping; Levi's on the ground next to her, panties around her ankles, paperback romance novel in hand, when the monster appeared. She was so startled and frightened that she never screamed so loud in her life, running stocking-foot towards her tent, she left her pants, boots, and toilet paper on the ground. Realizing that the startling, screaming apparition was 'only' a skin, Poooz reacted in an instant... rushed over and grabbed the screaming and fleeing skin by her hair and an arm, kicked her feet apart, and jammed his organ into her from the rear end. She coughed and choked, then continued screaming, and wiggling to get away. The motion excited him all the more, and he hugged her closer, sinking even deeper into her. Goldie fought and scratched and bit and kicked, but soon found the harder she fought, the more the monster seemed to squirt into her. Going limp she slumped to the ground to play opossum, and she felt a final deep thrust, and a swelling between her legs... bigger and bigger. Poooz felt himself swelling, and knew that he was through. Later on, his engorged penis, almost the size of a small baseball... nature's way of insuring that an unappreciative female couldn't escape before the sperm impregnated her, would shrink again, and he could let the skin go free, of no further interest to him. Goldie felt the swelling and felt helpless. Starting to panic again at this evil smelling monster that was raping her, she again started struggling... harder than ever... and screaming louder... louder than ever." Hearing the ruckus and commotion, several of the clan wandered over to see what was happening. They quickly lost interest when they saw that Poooz was only relieving himself with a skin, and wandered off again, hunting for something more entertaining, or something to nibble. Poooz felt the skin start to try and wiggle free again. Knowing she was firmly impaled, he released her, and she fought even harder, and he found himself getting excited again. Grabbing her again, and pulling her thrashing body tightly against his swollen member, he could feel himself squirting again and again. He released her to thrash some more, which she did, and he squirted again. Never before had he squirted so much at one time. Exhausted, Goldie fell into a near faint, though still aware of the tremendous pressure in her crotch, she knew there was nothing she could do about it, but kept screaming anyway. Ramming his thing in harder and harder again and again, trying to make himself squirt even more, Poooz eventually tired after the skin fainted and quit moving. Forty-five minutes later he finally felt himself shrinking, and let Goldie tumble to the ground. Thinking nothing more of the skin, Poooz wandered off in search of the clan, completely satisfied. Tonight he wouldn't have to sing."

And then, later...

"Before Mary could hush him Joe burst out with, "a Bigfoot just raped Goldie." "No shit! So what's everybody waitin' for then... let's go kill the son-of-a-bitch," shouted Tom, crushing his empty Coors can, and pitching it at a cardboard cutout picture of a Bigfoot standing in the corner."

And there is this fine description, from a later page:

"There was another terrifying, hair-raising scream.... There was a twelve foot monster, screaming to high heaven, running at them from 100 feet away. Calvin stood, his mouth gaping. Steve and Jeff just sat there, cups in hand, staring unbelievingly. Hank reach for his rifle, but stumbled and fell over. Tom was more practical in his instant reaction. He turned and ran, brown blobs coming out his pants cuffs, hair looking like it had turned permanently white. Jeff turned to see that the commotion was, soup dripping from his chin when he turned too fast.

The monster leaped over the group, an Olympic jump of 25 feet, and chased after Tom, screaming in the most spine-tingling shriek anybody had ever heard. Mary calmly picked up her rifle before anybody else could react to the surprise attack, let the safety off, took and held half a breath, centered the sight on Poooz's back, and calmly pumped three rounds off. There were three puffs of dust and blood, all in about the space a saucer would cover, right in the center of the animals back. Poooz staggered, veered away from the frantically running and stumbling and pissing and shitting and crying Tom, and disappeared in the brush to the left. Mary said in a controlled voice, "he's hit bad... lets go before he gets away." Where the monster had been shot there was a large spatter of blood on the ground, and bits of lung tissue. Mary started off on the trail, Hank, Steve, and Jeff close behind. Calvin stopped for more samples. Tom was still helpless on the ground, rolling and groaning in his own shit. Noticing he was being left behind though, he crawled briefly towards the rapidly retreating group, then stumbled to his feet and followed, staggering along, his boots squishing from his own excreta and piss."

GHASTLY! TORRID! HORRID! Ray, what were you thinking? Maybe these were written with the intent of descriptive vérité, based upon encounters and sighting reports? We may never know... and do we WANT to?

(published June 1991, Western Bigfoot Society)

Click Text Images to Enlarge! Other text image: the Western Bigfoot Society info. sheet found in Bigfoot Bar and Grill.

Throughout the publication run of his newsletter Ray Crowe fielded information and letters from the infamous hoaxer and possible nutjob Bigfoot "contactee," Ray Wallace. He once said, ""Ray's contribution was study into the actual behavior of Bigfoot, what it eats, how it acts." David Paulides has said he may publish some of these letters, now in the possession of NABS. That should be very... interesting, indeed!

A very interesting article on Bigfoot and bigfooting at the time, the late 1990s or so, was written by Robert Sullivan and published in OPEN SPACES QUARTERLY, Volume One, Number Three. Read it HERE. There are some interesting bits about Ray Crowe and his Bigfoot group, excerpts following.... We quote:

"In many ways, the Western Bigfoot Society is typical of the Northwest's numerous grass-roots Bigfoot organizations. It counts about forty people as members and meets on the last Thursday of every month in the basement of Ray Crowe's store, Ray's Used Books, just outside Portland, Oregon. Ray has decorated the meeting room with a mixture of large footprint casts, oddly twisted willow branches, a 21.6 cm. strand of cinnamon-colored hair, maps of nearby wilderness areas, with pins marking recent Bigfoot sightings, and tabloid headlines that the group finds humorous ( "Beautiful Women Help to Lure Bigfoot," reads one. "Sasquatch Likes to Study the Ladies."). Lately, Ray has taken to putting up photos from the group's occasional field trips, like the one to the nearby Primate Research Center, in Beaverton, Oregon, or the one to the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, in Rainier, Oregon, where Ray thinks the buzz of the power lines may act as a lure.

In the past, speakers at the meetings have included a dog trainer, who addressed Bigfoot's fear of dogs (a phenomenon often mentioned at Ray's meetings); a member of a local search-and-rescue team, who said that the media had neglected to mention that a three-year-old boy whom he rescued in the summer of 1989 from the forests around Mount Hood had credited a "large hairy man" for keeping him company during the long night; and a former paramilitary officer with the National Security Agency, who, on a top-secret mission somewhere in the rainforests of Mato Grosso, Brazil, photographed what he now thinks must have been a Sasquatch, only to have the film confiscated by higher-ups. On one occasion Ray even invited a U.F.O. expert who is a vocal proponent of the theory that Sasquatches have come from another world--a postulate that the W.B.S. as a group opposes. "They may be full of poop," Ray said, "but I figure I might as well let them have their say."

Like most part-time Bigfoot investigators, Ray, who is now fifty-five, got into Bigfoot hunting by accident; he was doing research for a novel that included a Sasquatch rape scene and then decided to research the Sasquatch beyond the scope of the book. Shortly afterward, in 1991, he founded the W.B.S., and then began The Track Record, a monthly newsletter containing Bigfoot gossip, inspirational quotes, and the latest sighting information people have related to Ray. Once in a while, Ray publishes letters, like the one that Erik Beckjord, director of the U.F.O. and Bigfoot Museum, in Malibu, California, sent him, which complimented the W.B.O.'s work, or the letter that Ray himself sent to the United States Forest Service, citing the Freedom of Information Act and demanding to see the Mount Hood National Forest rangers' Bigfoot log book, if it exists. (Ray thinks the rangers may keep a log of Bigfoot sightings.) A few years ago, on a spring evening, Ray had his first Sasquatch "experience," as he calls it, which began when he accidentally scared an elk away from his camp, at the end of an old logging road. "I was getting ready for dinner and while I'm standing there I hear what sounded like these two giant birds arguing," he told me. "I say arguing, but they were chattering, really. And, anyway, I just assume that they were two Bigfoot, just arguing with each other-p.o'd at me for losing their elk for dinner."

For historical flavor, here is the SCHEDULE OF EVENTS from the year 2000 BIGFOOT DAZE celebration. See how much FUN they had back then!!!
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Friday Evening, August 25th:
Many people will gather to get camp sites for tents or RV?s ($5.00 night), some staying at nearby motels. We visit into the night. No fires though, fire marshal wont let us have them.

Saturday Morning, August 26th:

10AM - 12 Noon - trip to Stevenson?s Columbia River Interpretive Center Museum

(fee...group rate though). See geology and history of area and a history film clip that has Bigfoot included as local historical subject.

Following the museum, a short trip up Rock Creek in Stevenson to see the petrified forest....pick up some pieces of a fossil tree to take home.

Break for lunch - Browse for sale memorabilia tables.

Saturday Afternoon 2PM - Listen to Speakers at Bigfoot Campground. Several possible have been invited (WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A SPEAKER?), but confirmation is slow. Thom Powell will talk about the Bigfoot Research Organization (BFRO).

5 PM - Break for dinner.
7:30 PM - Cascade Trio Bigfoot Stomp Dance Contest.

Sunday Morning, August 27th:
10AM - Magician performs magic show for children along with bible school. Children's drawing of Bigfoot contest, visit, browse memorabilia tables. Rob Butler will have a family of life-size Bigfoot plywood cutouts to view, etc..

11AM - Larry Lund will demonstrate how to make plaster track impressions.

11:30 AM - Retired Fish and Wildlife Expert Jim Hewkin (not confirmed yet) will display a rare collection of seven plaster tracks made by a single creature from near Colton, OR, 1968. Many other tracks and hand prints of Bigfoot will be displayed also.

12 Noon - Sally Newcomer will have a Bigfoot Family in costumes. How they live, twist trees, stack stones, wood-on-wood. Her costumes were a hit last year as ladies got married to Bigfoot.?

12 Noon - Bigfoot Chili Cook-Off...prize to best judged chili entry.
12 Noon - (unassigned speaker...invited) will have a barefoot person walk across a sandbox and explain the physics of tracks...lift off, pressure ridges, and such.
Contest...prize to entry with the biggest foot (Sally has measuring board).
1PM - Bigfoot Potlatch Lunch (Pot-Luck)...Bigfoot burgers by camp hosts Harry and Donna Schumacher, Abominable Potato Salad and Yeti Spaghetti by Theata Crowe, Ray will bring a couple of watermelons...others, please bring some food items to share for the lunch. Thanks!

2 PM - Contest Bigfoot Yells/Screams...prize to best noise, judged and taped, prizes.

2:30 PM - Contest best homemade Bigfoot Costume prize.
3:00 PM - Bigfoot race...teams with giant feet strapped to feet will compete for various prizes.
5:00 PM - End of Bigfoot Daze.
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Ray Crowe images above: Ray on expedition; Ray at Mt. Saint Helens, looking for volcanically preserved Bigfoot remains cooked in solidified ash; Ray caving, exploring the possibility that Sasquatches live in old lava tubes; Ray speaking at Bigfoot Daze, WA, circa 1998.

The odd Bigfoot-human encounters depicted in Ray Crowe's fiction were part of the inspiration for the brilliantly bad film, Ape Canyon, by ex-Humboldter Jon Olsen. In fact, we obtained our Bigfoot Books copy from the filmmaker himself. Also influential for Olsen was The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats. Excerpts from the book HERE. See our brief Previous Post on this matter.

Let's not forget that Dave Paulides, in The Hoopa Project, has put forth the proposition that there has been genetic co-mingling between human and bigfoot, and not just in some ancient time, but fairly recently according to certain Native American accounts.

And now more, along the same lines, so long as we are talking about it and have surely offended nearly every reader at this point....

NOW READING: NIGHTS WITH SASQUATCH, a truly abominable, supposedly "true" tale, "An Explosive Ordeal of Rape and Revenge Beyond Any Woman's Experience," as the cover reads. This book is, as Joshua Blu Buhs (who sold us the book) says, is "truly skeevy." From the inside endpage, ""Does Sasquatch exist? The terrifying truth behind the ancient legend. A team of young scientists sets out to explore the Northwest Mountains. Both John Cotter and Judith Frankle were trained level-headed observers with liberated views on life and love. Until they confronted Sasquatch--a half-human monster who claimed Judith as his captive mate. This is the explosive novel of a woman forced to endure barbaric, sexual lusts beyond any human experience. And a man driven by revenge... The Sensational Shock-A-Page Novel." And, from the back cover, "Judith Frankle was a perfect specimen of the modern female, able to handle sophisticated lab data and lecherous young men with equal ease. She loved the wild freedom of roaming the mountains with her man, sharing the rugged pleasures of nature. But no woman, or man, could control the primitive terror that stalked her. A half-human beast whose brutal lusts stripped every vestige of civilization from her soul. Lusts that transformed Judith Frankle into a shameless savage desperately battling to survive her shocking... Nights with Sasquatch." In a Publisher's Note, in a desperate attempt to add  faux credibility to this otherwise base and horribly bad sexsquatchploitation: "For a complete technical report of the encounter described in this article the reader is referred to Dr John Cotter's "Pleistocene Man-Ape Link Survives in Canadian Wilderness," Journal of Mammology Volume MXIV June, 1976. Also a forthcoming treatise by Judith Frankle Cotter, PhD., in the distinguished British Journal, New Scientist: "Existence of Mythological Primate Confirmed." The following account is the first publication on the subject for General Readers."

EGADS! Take this one with a grain of salt, or at least some humor, if you can.

(Berkley Medallion Books, New York, 1977.)

It would seem that Bigfoot-Sasquatch bears, as a cultural motif, all that humans see as low and unbearable in themselves. It is a little unfair to place all this nastiness on the poor forest-dwelling hominoids. Perhaps it is we who are low and beastly, and they who are good, free and Noble? Bigfoot is like a scapegoat. We humans are the ones ruled by or at least deeply influenced by "base" impulses. Wild creatures cannot be said to be base; but we are conscious of our motivations, and have ideas and perversions surrounding them. BF just shits in the woods and moves on; he/she does not get a Freudian complex about it. We at once project outwardly and thereby deny deep and hidden truths about ourselves, all while using Sasquatch secretly as a means of self-knowledge. Or something like that. We are able to indirectly admit how odd and ape-like we are through the Bigfoot proxy. The real Bigfoot surely just laughs, and moves deeper into the woods. We'd write more of this now, but it would give away too much of our current back-of-the-mind book writing project.

ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!

"In that article human friend Steve read to me, when I come steal beer from him back porch, Peter Byrne, human guy who look for me for many years and never see me say (me use cut-and-paste here), 'There are a number of rivalries in the Bigfoot field. Their principal basis is of course the belief that at the end of the Bigfoot rainbow there lies a pot of gold. ...[h]ad they over the years projected a fraction of the time and money that they spend vilifying each other on Bigfoot research [they] would surely have solved the mystery by now.' Me also hear that Professor Krantz say, 'You have to watch out, because there's a lot of backstabbing.' Once me thinking of contact human, give up old game of hiding in trees, but then me hear them talk around campfire (me hear everything, you no hear me) about other human bigfoot hunter dudes. Me hear bad words, like 'liar, fake, fraud, not a real bigfoot hunter, non-believer, @#$%ing cult, boy scout type, city boy, effeminate, gay, nerd, internet geek, guano fanatical cult freak violence threatening footer geek loser thug'---stuff like that, mean, bad words. Me quote real human word me really hear. Me feel anger! Me want smash little human heads. Give ass whoopin'! Me decide never talk with human. They probably say me smell real bad, too, but me I like the smell of me. Me think human stink like bad milk and stinky fake flowery soap smell. Me say human get them shit together and maybe then me come and hang out at Bluff Creek Louse Camp. I talk about that poopy and sexy stuff I just see above in me next Bigfoot Speak.Watch out suckah hu-man!"

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Well, we tried to stop A.G.F. ranting like that, but he demands the truth or justice or something like that come out. Personally, I've found the BF community to be quite convivial and familial, one where one can make instant friends across vast distances. The BF world is full of smart, friendly, independent, fun-loving folks; quite the opposite, I've found, of the redneck stereotype. But like many (most?) families, there are dysfunctionalities which arise. Folks, these need to end. Keep your eyes on the prize! Keep the following in mind....

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"The gift of collaboration is greater than the gift of competition."

--Tracy Morgan, comedian, heard on NPR, "Fresh Air," 2009
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Read the interesting Sasquatch Odyssey film diary here: http://www.sasquatchodyssey.com/diary.html. Ray Crowe and the "Four Horsemen of Bigfooting" are all in there. If you don't have this documentary, get it now. It is very funny, but also documents the early generation of Bigfooters before that era ended and internet-influenced Bigfootology began.

We're just now starting the Daniel Perez interview process. Give us at least a week until it appears here!
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Also, Coming Soon: "The Not-so Good, the Truly Bad, and the Hideously Ugly": three awful Bigfoot/Sasquatch movies viewed recently, and somewhat reluctantly.

Interview with David Paulides of NABS, Release of Ray Crowe's THE TRACK RECORD Newsletter on CD

NEWS: THE TRACK RECORD Newsletter Reissued on CD!
A Discussion with DAVID PAULIDES of NABS.

David Paulides and North America Bigfoot Search (http://www.nabigfootsearch.com/) have just released the collected, complete 174-issue run of the newsletter of the Western Bigfoot Society and Ray Crowe, The Track Record (view it on Amazon through this link), on a computer-viewable CD (an Adobe Reader PDF format document). Bigfoot Books decided to have a talk with Mr. Paulides about this exciting new resource, Ray Crowe, his bigfooting work, and about Bigfoot topics in general. This interview was conducted by email in mid-October, 2009, and has been only very slightly edited for format.

Dave is the author of two notable and acclaimed, though also sometimes controversial books, The Hoopa Project and Tribal Bigfoot. The first was winner of the 2008 Crytozoological Book of the Year, awarded by Cryptomundo.com. The second one expands upon the principles of the first, extending its range to other areas of Northern California, Southern Oregon and beyond to Minnesota and Oklahoma. In both you will find new methodologies and sightings, as well as interesting theories on such matters as the possibility that the Bigfoot species is more human than previously thought, and not an "ape."
READ ON--this isn't just an advertisement!

Note: Dave specifically stated that he did not want to discuss certain "controversial" issues, and we have endeavored to respect that wish. He does, though, bring them up a bit all on his own.

Note, too: All colored text parts in this blog are tested and legitimate Bigfoot site links--check them out for more information, or just roll over them with your mouse to see the site address. Many of them are links to the fine Squatchopedia Wiki pages.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hello Mr. Paulides. The Track Record on CD is an amazing recovery of a lost resource for the Bigfooting field in the 21st Century. Thanks to you and NABS (North America Bigfoot Search) for doing it! Now, for those readers who may not know the man and his influence, could you tell us a bit about Ray Crowe and his Bigfooting organization, research and newsletter, and perhaps what his approach to Bigfoot research was?

DAVID PAULIDES: Ray established the Western Bigfoot Society out of his used bookstore in Hillsboro, Oregon. He had a lifelong interest in crypto topics and soon started a newsletter that he called, “The Track Record.” Ray was one of those people that got along with everyone and that served him well for making and keeping contacts throughout the world. His passion was bigfooting but he entertained items that included UFO's, chupacabras, Loch Ness Monster and many other crypto topics; but, his true love was bigfoot. He produced the newsletter for 16 years, 3000 pages that included information from all parts of the world and every state in the U.S. NABS saw the value in the document and when Ray decided to sell his research, we immediately bought that and all rights to his writings. Two years later and after hundreds of hours of documentation, we released The Track Record on CD along with an 80 page WORD document that is a master index of those 3000 pages.

Nothing compares to these documents anywhere in the crypto world. We knew this would be a valuable research tool for NABS but part of our organizational objective is to give back to the bigfoot world and assist researchers. There were actually several members of Ray's organization who heard what we were doing and tried to encourage us not to do it, they wanted to keep this to themselves...

 Ray had a policy to print just about anyone's sighting. He didn't go into the field and validate everything but he did go out and conduct field research. He was friends with many of the old time researchers and several of their reports included in the TR are very fascinating. I remember that when I originally met Ray and expressed my admiration for his work he told me "keep your skepticals on." I did ask him what his views on bigfoot were, meaning did they migrate, were there different species, did they have special abilities, etc. Ray looked directly at me and stated, "The more you read, the more people you interview, and the more time you spend in the field, the more you realize you really don't know much about our big friend." I think Ray was right! The Track Record is truly a bigfoot researcher’s encyclopedia of information. Ray painted the picture and NABS put the frame on it.

Image, David Paulides in his formally-attired author photo.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Yes, I've always been impressed with that “Wear Your Skepticals” slogan on every issue, especially as during Ray's time active in the field he was perhaps kind of like a bigfooting Art Bell (original host of Coast-to-Coast AM), operating a clearing house for information on things that otherwise people mostly would just not have heard about. In the few issues I'd read before seeing your new CD version it seemed to me that Ray was covering some of the “weird” side of Cryptozoology, often moving more into what we'd have to call the "Paranormal." But then, he was operating at a crucial time (when did he get started?), when the old hoopla over Bigfoot had faded somewhat, but the internet age had not yet begun to take hold. Groups like NABS and BFRO enable, like never before, sightings reports and information sharing, not to mention the myriad regional groups, blogs, conferences and online radio shows.

Also, there seems to be a much higher level of technology and scrutiny applied to reports now, for example with NABS using affidavits and BFRO (Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization) excluding a large number of unconfirmed or “strange” reports from what they will put on their public web site. In your view, aside from its obvious historical value, how does the Western Bigfoot Society research and newsletter hold up today? How has the field changed from the time of its founding until now? And how have views of and approaches to the Bigfoot phenomenon evolved? Also, what sorts of evidence or sightings did Ray Crowe himself have?

DAVID PAULIDES: Remember, Ray represented all views, researchers, etc. Example, John Green hates Peter Byrne and yet both contributed greatly to the newsletter. Ray was able to walk that fence line so well that all research was uniquely represented. Ray's newsletter was something that was greatly needed at the time. It was a method to dispense information across North America before the internet. There still isn't a bigfoot search engine anywhere that has a searchable internet database for sightings. There are several that exist for states and counties but, there isn't one single location where you can look-up "brown colored bigfoot" sightings… until now--the TR's index has this ability.

To the best of my knowledge Ray never actually had a sighting. He had many unusual incidents happen to him but I think the sighting always eluded him, as it has many researchers, including myself.

The sightings in The Track Record actually hold up better than almost anything we are currently reading. Most witness descriptions mimic much of what NABS has found today, there is a distinct human quality to bigfoot. The more we read the historical record of sightings, the more you realize that witnesses have stated that the biped is very human, and, this is much of what you find in the TR.

The bigfoot field has changed greatly since Ray first introduced the newsletter. Peter Byrne was the first researcher to enter the field with significant funding and brought a level of professionalism and protocol to the arena. Since Peter, there have been very few researchers who have been able to commit to the research on a full time basis and this is what is needed if you want to make significant contributions. Probably the one group that made significant contributions to research without any funding was the "Bay Area Group," headed by George Haas. Where Ray was the absolute expert at documenting and dispensing information, George and his team did some incredible research on a shoe string budget. Much of their research still is extremely credible and timely and we are shocked it didn't get more publicity at the time. NABS is posting all of George's Bigfoot Bulletins on our website.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Isn’t Haas’ and the Bay Area Group’s (B.A.G.) The Bigfoot Bulletin the first newsletter on Sasquatch, starting in the late sixties? Before that there wasn’t much being published aside from Ivan Sanderson, John Green, and Roger Patterson’s book. The seventies were a heyday for Bigfoot, but a lot of that was kitschy pop-cultural stuff--even though most of the early foundational Bigfoot books were published at that time. Arising out of this period and the lassitude of the 1980s we had Ray Crowe’s work arise, and then Daniel Perez’ The Bigfoot Times (publication starting in 1998, and still at it today, despite the internet). The Track Record can then be seen as an important transitional effort, bridging the past and its laboriously typed and cut-and-pasted publications sent to very small groups of the interested few to today’s slick and widely read web sites and glossy Hancock House-style books. Since the late 1990s there’s been a virtual explosion of these publications, and Bigfoot is seen on TV, with its myriad cable specialty channels, more than ever before. It is difficult to find anyone now who does not know at least the rudiments of the subject; even though what they often know is just the myths and stories of hoaxes.

By way of example, my own humble Bigfoot’s bLog has garnered over 7,000 site hits in only the first six months or so I’ve been monitoring. I don’t know the numbers of readers for Crowe’s original Track Record--do you? I would bet the circulation was fairly small, representing even more clearly how much dedication it took to produce it. Would you say, then, that The Track Record represents a kind of bridge to the current era? It seems significant to me that, as you say, the newsletter represented so many researchers from beyond the core group of the Western Bigfoot Society. I mean, John Green basically stopped writing books after Apes among Us. So it is important that he is represented in The Track Record during the time that preceded a work like Meet the Sasquatch, and his appearance at meet-ups such as the 2003 Willow Creek International Bigfoot Symposium.

Do you think that this semi-underground newsletter publishing, and the small groups that made them, kept Bigfooting alive during a period where serious interest and research could have been buried and lost in the somewhat foul wave of popular cultural exploitation? It seems that one can trace a lineage, from the early “elders,” to the newsletters and groups, and then a handing off to the modern period and new generation of the internet explosion and a sophisticated, new NABS/BFRO-type pursuit of the subject. Also, not having been able to read The Track Record until now, save in a strange photocopied book assemblage that has since been stolen from the Willow Creek Library, I wasn’t aware that so many notable Bigfooting figures had published in the newsletter. How much of it was Ray Crowe’s writings, how much reader and sighting submissions, and how much consisted of writings from the more known, professional-type researchers of the time?

And also, as you mention it, would you say that Ray himself would agree with your and NABS’ theories about the humanness of the Sasquatch? When you quoted Crowe saying the more we look at the Bigfoot phenomenon the more we realize how little we know about it (“him”?), does that imply that the more we look the more we see it as a being that is no mere animal, that it has mysterious or maybe even more human ways? And do you intend, perhaps, to publish the Haas newsletter in some non-internet way, like you have done with Crowe’s?

DAVID PAULIDES: Peter Byrne kept professional investigations in our field alive when he received funding for his project. There's been a long line of amateur and con artists that have entered the Bigfoot arena, but there have been very professional approaches to research. It's really not hard to understand why many stay away from our field of study. Just go to a conference, read newsletters and you see the amount of jealousy, back stabbing and outright lies that some people make about others, it's embarrassing. As I've told everyone who will listen, DO NOT believe ANYTHING you read about NABS or our people unless you read it on our website or you hear me say it. The last 9 months has been a continuous series of lies, fabrications and exaggerations about us by people who call themselves "researchers" perpetuating these myths. No, you won't hear us respond to these ridiculous accusations and we won't be intimidated into backing away from research into areas that need a professional approach. We have resources, personnel and access to technology and professionals that no other group has, and, with that, we have had many things given to us because of our approach to the topic and people's belief in our cause.

The Haas newsletters are posted on our website, free. They are only a fraction of the size of The Track Record so we have the ability to post them, http://www.nabigfootsearch.com/.
[Ed. note: GO HERE, they're great!: http://www.nabigfootsearch.com/Bigfootbulletin.html.

[Ed. note, paraphrase: And re. the question as to whether the B.A.G. newsletter was the first, Dave responds:] I'm actually not sure. [And re. the circulation stats for the original The Track Record newsletter, Dave responds:] Do you? No--don't know. [Re. the “humanness question” Dave responds:] I think this was explained fully in Tribal Bigfoot. [Ed. OK, folks! Go out and get yourself a copy of the book—it is quite interesting, and extends the unique approaches found in his great first book, The Hoopa Project. One thing: in an earlier email Mr. Paulides clarified that he proposes that the Sasquatch is possibly part of the human gene tree, a closer relative to us than to apes, but not exactly human in the same way we are.]

BIGFOOT BOOKS: A few more questions, then. Let's not forget that Ray is still alive and kicking. What is he up to now, and why did he retire? I know he had some health issues, but how can one get Bigfoot out of the bloodstream, so to speak?

DAVID PAULIDES: Ray did have some serious medical issues and I believe that he is living in an assisted living home in northern Oregon.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: On the “Squatchopedia.com” website there is a mention of Tom Biscardi funding and producing The Track Record newsletter for a while, in its last days. Do you know of this, and what was Biscardi's role in producing or directing the publication, if any?

DAVID PAULIDES: Ray was having problems funding the newsletter and Biscardi stepped in at some point and started to subsidize it at some level. I suppose it gave him more access but the newsletter and its content didn't change much.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: It’s so great that you've rescued these newsletters from possible oblivion! Comparatively, I always wonder what was in the Rene Dahinden archives, but we see next to nothing being released to the bigfooting community by his sons and whomever else may have inherited them. The Bigfoot Bulletin stuff on your website is a great addition, too. Thanks! What else besides The Track Record was contained in the Ray Crowe materials and archives? Was there any interesting evidence, footprint casts, hair or photos, cultural items and other stuff that might be released by NABS?

DAVID PAULIDES: We have dozens of letters from Rene and probably more from Ray Wallace. In the future we will release some of these letters as they give the reader quite an insight into the internal politics of this arena. We know that many have bashed Ray Wallace in the past, but I guarantee that the man knew things about Bigfoot that few at the time did. He surely had contacts and insight that few did at the time, to be as accurate on his sightings as he claimed. When you read what Wallace wrote in a time prior to the internet you can readily see that he knew this topic well and he gave much credit to the Native Americans, something that piqued our interest early on.

We also have many letters and sighting reports from John Green. John has always been on the ape side of the fence and has not given much credence to the human side of the genetic scale in regards to Sasquatch. If we do release these letters you will be able to see a very opinionated and sometimes gruff side of Mr. Green that many don't want to see or refuse to acknowledge. Some of these conversations have taken place recently.

This statement is not to bash John, quite the contrary. He entered this arena at a time few would, and, he developed the protocol of requiring affidavits from his bigfoot witnesses, a brilliant move. If a witness to a bigfoot event doesn't want to sign an affidavit, there should be a careful examination of the issue. Everyone who is watching should be asking, "why wouldn't the witness sign an affidavit to what they say they observed," and, I'm sure, this was john's mindset when he initiated that process.

NABS understands John's opinionated attitude; heck, he's been on this topic since before I was born. NABS does believe that every researcher should be open to developments garnered through technological advancements, and, if you haven't kept up with what technology can do, it may be hard to accept and appreciate.
Much of Ray Crowe's casts, hair and other evidence has been loaned for the past 6 months to the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, which they have put on display.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: So how did Felton (Bigfoot Discovery Days III) go?

DAVID PAULIDES: Scott Nelson is riveting. His evaluation of the Sierra Recordings is very, very convincing that our friends [Bigfoot] use language.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Yes, I found Nelson's cryptolinguistic presentation very interesting at the Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up this year. To many, on first impression, the Sierra Sounds might sound kind of silly, but under Nelson's analysis unique language-like structures and patterns do emerge that make it quite difficult to debunk and dismiss the recordings out of hand.

I'm sorry to have missed your presentation. I still haven't had the chance to see you at any of the conferences. Would you mind briefly telling we who were not there to hear what you talked about, and what new and interesting directions is your and NABS' research taking these days? Are there any other things you'd like to say to the bigfooting community, or at least the readers of Bigfoot Books' blog?

DAVID PAULIDES: NABS is continuing down the path of getting a complete understanding of the Bigfoot hair issue. The public has been collecting the hair for 50 years but little has been done to positively identify and extract DNA. This project is ongoing.

In the past 18 months NABS has been given affidavits and other evidence on a variety of topics that may be construed to be controversial. We do not believe that an individual would perjure themselves over a Bigfoot-related issue, so, we put significant emphasis when someone comes forward with a claim, signs an affidavit and names individuals. I think it would be a gross injustice to the community if we shelved this evidence and didn't investigate.

Many in our arena are not used to professional investigations. It appears that our world revolves around rumor, innuendo and finger pointing. We do not believe in this type of journalism or research. Years ago I was working a child molestation case where the victim named a high profile individual in the community. We worked the case for months without ever notifying anyone of what we were exactly investigating. If the allegation was found to be untrue, we didn't want to ruin the suspects name in the community. The last contact any professional investigator has in any case is with the suspect. The investigator needs to know more about the suspect than he knows about himself, he needs to know every possible answer that may be placed on the table and every excuse that could be used. In the case of the molestation, the suspect gave us information that could exonerate him. We later had the victim come in for a polygraph test. Just as they were getting hooked to the machine, they admitted the allegation was a lie. This is why you don't go public with allegations until you have proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

It would appear that some people in our community call themselves journalists yet they won't post what others send them, and they aren't interested in the facts. They like to bash people over innuendo and they have no belief in the statement, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." NABS has a policy that we won't cater to tabloid journalism, and we truly don't care what the people who have these sites think about us. We are privately funded, we are polite, professional, and will go deep where others will not.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Dave, for those who have not read your books (or for those who still wonder a bit), could you tell us about the seemingly unlikely course you took going from being a policeman and detective to a Bigfoot hunter and investigator? In the public mind these are seen as kind of... contradictory. What grabbed you and pulled you into the world of the Sasquatch mystery?

DAVID PAULIDES: I have never called myself a bigfoot HUNTER.... They are not contradictory. I made a career of telling the truth, digging deep for facts, building partnerships and respecting people's rights. I know that the background of myself and the people I work with has many in our community intimidated. Most researchers in the bigfoot community have never attended an investigations, interview, or even an evidence collection class; we've done all of this multiple times. Many have the wrong opinion of us; but, almost every one of these people have never met us. I would encourage anyone who wants a realistic view of our organization, go to Hoopa, Happy Camp, Forks of the Salmon, Bena (MN), etc., places where we have conducted research, and ask those people how they were treated. I just got a note today from a witness in Happy Camp who stated NABS was viewed very highly by everyone in that community.

My background in law enforcement and human resources has trained me well to treat everyone with respect. If you treat people the honorable way, they will do the same in return. In two years in Hoopa, word spread quickly that we could be trusted and witnesses were coming to us.

BIGFOOT BOOKS: I fully understand that you did not want to talk about those "controversial" topics. The the bigfooting world can be such a soap opera of gossip and rumors, so much that people seem to forget the REAL GOAL. I must agree, from what I've heard anyway, by my experience in the Bigfoot Books shop here in Willow Creek, from the locals and people from Hoopa--they say good things about you and NABS (as distinguished, especially, from their prior mostly bad experiences with Mr. Tom Biscardi's GABRO group!).

Do you think we are getting closer to proving to the world at large that the Sasquatch exist? And also, what do you think the ramifications and cultural impact might be, especially if the creature proves to be--as you have proposed--much more human than ape?

DAVE PAULIDES: I would hope that in the next year NABS will have clear resolution on the hair issue and DNA can readily identify where on the genetic tree the biped belongs. If the DNA comes back and shows that bigfoot is more human, I think the ramification is minimal. It will put a lid on many of the older bigfoot/sasquatch researchers--we won't hear from them anymore. But, it's obvious that the biped is doing well, sightings are up, the biped is seen across the U.S. and Canada; it's obviously not endangered. The findings will be a minor blip on the news, but, it may initiate universities across North America to take notice and commit funds to a long-term academic study, this would be beneficial to everyone. The most important aspect of a finding that it's on the human side of the tree--it might cause some of the trigger happy hunters who believe a specimen needs to be taken to think twice about killing one. The first rule that every hunter with any morals must abide by--you don't shoot anything unless you are positive you know what you're shooting, and, we don't know right now....

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Dave, those were great answers. And this has been a great interview. Thanks! I sincerely wish you the best, and hope you have further success in your bigfooting endeavors. I am hoping this interview will help make your Track Record CD known more widely, and that folks out there will realize the significance of it and what NABS has done in publishing it. 

---END OF INTERVIEW---
Read on for more, including ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!...

THE TRACK RECORD is available from NABS or on Amazon.com (just enter "track record bigfoot" in the Search box). List price is US$19.95. It is also available in-store or by email request from BIGFOOT BOOKS, in Willow Creek, CA.

 

DAVE PAULIDES' BIOGRAPHY, as entered on Amazon: "Dave Paulides received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of San Francisco, and, has a professional background that includes twenty years in law enforcement and senior executive positions in the technology sector. In 2004 he formed North America Bigfoot Search (http://www.nabigfootsearch.com/) where his investigative and analytical experience were invaluable in researching Bigfoot/Sasquatch sightings, encounters and behavior. He spent two years living among the Hoopa tribal members, listening to and recording their Bigfoot stories. The Hoopa Project is his first book, based upon his experiences in the Bluff Creek area of Northern California. David's second book, Tribal Bigfoot is a quantum step forward in Bigfoot research and allows for a common sense understanding of this elusive biped. These two books have been called the new standard for crypto research."

Image above by Harvey Pratt, NABS' amazing forensic Bigfoot artist, from the NABS website.

THE NABS "ABOUT US" (from their web page): "North America Bigfoot Search (NABS) is a privately funded organization that had its start in Silicon Valley, California. A small group of technology executives had prior incidents in the woods of Northern California and dedicated resources for the research and investigation of the Biped. One significant difference between NABS and every other Bigfoot organization is our dedication to stay on a regional project until every possible angle of every sighting has been researched, witnesses interviewed, locations and food sources understood, and an extensive list of variables answered. Our organization will stay in a community sometimes for months/Years and thereby develop the trust, integrity and contacts to make our research valuable and enlightening. The organization is interested in all regions of North America and can have a researcher dispatched to a specific area in your state in hours. We do appreciate information on any Bigfoot sighting anywhere in the world. Our researchers and investigators have extensive experience in their specific field and may have knowledge about your area that is unique. Our ability to keep a researcher on site to develop that "unique" knowledge has assisted our organization in developing advanced techniques in gathering information. Our ability to communicate and align with all facets of government, business, academics and various levels of society make our field personnel an unusual commodity in Bigfoot circles. The researchers we field may be from any one of a variety of academic backgrounds, private industry and university adjunct positions. We pride ourselves in being professional, discrete and open to all ideas and feedback.

An article about The Hoopa Project appeared fairly recently HERE, in Humboldt County's local paper, The Times-Standard.

Go to the NABS website to find loads of interesting materials. Not just the Bigfoot Bulletin, but David Paulides' own blog, and many other great features abound there: http://www.nabigfootsearch.com/. Explore the sidebar to the left of the page--you won't be disappointed.

An article about Ray Crowe's interesting fictional book, The Bigfoot Bar & Grill: HERE. We have a rare copy of it available here at Bigfoot Books. There is a REAL Bigfoot Bar and Grill, in Salem, OR.

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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!!!

"I quote human: 'Can't We All Just Get Along?' Bigfoot very angry. Too many humans think crazy human drama what really matters. Bigfoot hates human soap opera. Hate!!! Bigfoot says Ha Ha Ha! Human bigfooters argue, accuse each other of bad things, then they see blobsquatches, and Ha Ha! I get away into the forest. You never even smell me, not ever see me!"

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

Interview rights reserved, copyright 2009, Steven Streufert, but may be used with permission and by all rights at least a citation and reference, and a link to this blog. The proprietor of Bigfoot Books bookshop, Steve sometimes does other things besides Bigfoot/Sasquatch... MySpace, Facebook, Email.

COMING UP, we hope (if all goes well)!: An interview with BIGFOOT TIMES publisher and editor, DANIEL PEREZ.
The Bald Hills Road and Klamath Trip, not to mention the Leap of Skepticism and Blobsquatching blog entries are on hold for now--there's just too much going on!

The Buhs vs. Moneymaker Comment War, Dr. Jeff Meldrum Replies, plus My Meeting with Mr. Matt

BUHS INTERVIEW UPDATES!

Further investigation and conversation with author Joshua Blu Buhs (go to his own blog in this and the next colored text link) over his book, BIGFOOT: The Life and Times of a Legend (see our previous POST for a massive and I hope incisive 20-page interview) has unearthed a COMMENTS WAR between he and the founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), Matt Moneymaker.

For those of you in the bigfooting world who might think I went too easily on Mr. Buhs in my article (hey, I did want to keep him talking, and besides, he seems to be a truly good guy) might want to check out these two book review pages. BE SURE to look down to the comments field below the main text, and read the big one until the end. It's a full-on battle! And Moneymaker really takes him to task, even perhaps somewhat too far at the end, as the site moderator eventually shut down the comments thread. Buhs, though, does hold his own in the fray, and a few other interesting characters join in the debate along the way.

[Image above, a display projection from Dr. John Bindernagel's presentation at the 2009 Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up]

Here is the major one (click the LINKED colored text, folks; but DO come on back here): the review on the Laelaps blog, after a review by one Brian Switek. Moneymaker's comments start down at # 5 and finish at #44, and you'll find Buhs and others entering the fray all along the way.

Another review was previously published at the Washington Post web site, with a brief comments flap, too.

[Image, Matt Moneymaker speaks up defending the Skookum Cast at the Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up]

Some excerpts? OK, I give in. Here, I quote from the WaPo site:
MONEYMAKER: "Joshua Blu Bahs [editor: sic, sp., intentional?] is the type of author who embarks on a project like this with a marketing angle in mind, rather than a sincere desire to uncover the truth. Joshua knew what his conclusion was going to be long before he did any "research". Once he dreamed up an angle of argumentation, then his only "research" were his efforts in collecting material that would support his argument. The simple fact that he claims, among many other patently false statements, that "no tracks have ever been authenticated" and "no footage has ever stood up to scrutiny" basically reveals that Joshua Blu Bahs is a fraud. His angle was to write a book crafted to appeal to uninformed people [who] would tend to be skeptical. He assumed (just like another demonstrable fraud named David Daegling) that the skeptical audience is a larger audience than the "believer" audience. The fact is, the vast majority of people who tend to be skeptical about the existence of these animals... do not really care either way. Furthermore, anyone, even an ardent scientist-skeptic, who HONESTLY and FULLY investigates this subject, comes to the tentative conclusion that they do exist, just as Robert Michael Pyle did, after he had a legit Class B encounter while doing *honest* research and investigation for his book. The type of authors who honestly want to know the truth spend at least a *little* time in field. Whereas Joshua only did his selective research over the Internet. His research is dishonest, and his book is a marketing scam ... and I could prove all of that in court if I ever needed to."

To that Buhs had a reply.

BUHS: "I would like to state for the record that I did not embark on this book for marketing books. Second, I did not do my research "over the internet." As the reviewer astutely notes, 'Buhs's real mission is to track not the creature itself but rather its shadow in the popular imagination.' Which means I have little or nothing to say about those who have seen Bigfoot. My point, instead, is to look at the various meanings attached to the beast. In the course of six-years research I came to certain conclusions about the existence of the beast. Others come to different conclusions. We can debate the evidence, but that is not the point of the book at all. The exact same methods could have been used to analyze a creature of undoubted existence. Indeed, my first book did that. It was called The Fire Ant Wars and used the same analytical tools to understand how and why people have thought about Solenopsis invicta, the red imported fire ant. Before accusing someone of bad faith, it is always worthwhile at least reading the book."

And hey, that is just the START of the battle, which commenced May 5th of this year 2009. The thing really exploded on the Laelaps science blog starting on June 9th. You'll have to follow that one to the end by going there. I won't even try to cover it here.

[Images, the "hyper-cool" Buhs author-dude from the book's DJ flap, and the laid back California dad Buhs from his blog.]

To be totally fair and balanced, since I talked about Buhs a bunch in my last post, I should mention that we at Bigfoot Books had the honor of a Moneymaker sighting last month on our very own front porch. Contrary to all the crazy myths and legends about him spread by a few angry BFRO defectors and apostates, despite the competitive bigfooting jealousies that some feel about the BFRO, the man himself is a very open, friendly and savvy conversationalist, and quite intelligent. We talked for over three hours, and he answered all my questions without taking offense, even the controversial ones. Asked about the notion some spread that the BFRO is some kind of a cult, and he is the leader, Matt said, "There is no cult or cult of personality. If there is a cult it is about Bigfoot [not the BFRO or me]." I was very favorably impressed. I'd say anyone who doubts Moneymaker's sincerity and critical abilities is simply a fool, or misled. When I told him the story of my own possible bigfoot encounter he eyed me skeptically the whole time, like some Hercule Poirot-type investigator, but he grew excited when certain aspects of the story rang true and consistent with other bigfoot encounters and behaviors with which he is quite familiar. Contrary to some popular beliefs, there were no blood oaths nor satanic vows, nor pentagrams and infant sacrifice, no attempted CIA or MK-ULTRA mind control either--he just signed me up, without my even asking, to access the BFRO private database and reporting features. Does that make me a BFRO member? I guess so, and hey, my mind is still working freely! Matt's cool in my (bigfoot) book.

ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS:
And, by the way, accusations that the Yakima Round-Up was some kind of BFRO stage-managed event are really totally absurd (read about the "controversy" on Cryptomundo HERE and HERE, or go HERE to the JREF Forums to see how people's egos can really get inflamed over basically nothing: and yes, the last link contains the infamously misinterpreted Bobo's "Ass Whoopin' Letter"). I've talked that issue over up and down and all around with Tom Yamarone, James Bobo Fay, even Scott Herriott himself and others, and find it all pretty damn baseless. Whatever affiliations and debates might exist, Bigfooters are an untamed and individualistic lot, and surely will ever remain so. If we want to find Bigfoot, let's keep our eyes on the prize, folks.

Meanwhile, on the home front, we've received some comments from Dr. Jeff Meldrum, of Idaho State University whose review of Buhs' book in The Bigfoot Times got my interview with Buhs rolling in the first place. Here you go...

JEFF MELDRUM: Steve, I enjoyed reading your interview with Joshua. It was very enlightening and helpful in clarifying some of his positions. I had to chuckle at his familiar comment that the reviewer of his ant book /didn't get it/. Apparently, Joshua isn't having much luck making himself understood :-) I do think that had some of the substance of this interview been incorporated into his book, my review would have been quite different. I may not have /gotten/ his intent, but you certainly understood my disagreement with his approach and apparent conclusions. You did an excellent job making your points and drawing out of him, in my opinion, a clearer expression of his objectives at least. Thanks for sharing this! Jeff

[Image, a sun-fried Jeff Meldrum doing his presentation at the Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up]

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hey Jeff, Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, and that you could get through the whole thing (sorry, I tend to be a wordy writer, and so does Mr. Buhs sometimes). Anyway, I found Buhs to be a very decent, accommodating guy. He stuck with that interview for two weeks and never seemed to get his hackles raised. I came to feel that my annoyance was not with him, but really his FIELD of study: Sociology. For instance, right now I'm trying to read a friend's book (his doctoral dissertation, in Soc.), and man, it is fascinating, but it talks all around the issues, spends whole, large chunks of each chapter on explaining its theoretical apparatus, and then could possibly seem to slight the actual events and information that are ostensibly the subject of the book. I think it is this methodological bent, that and the need to adhere to a particular thesis/theory, that prevented Buhs from dealing with the subject in a more hands-on way. As one can see in the interview, he really ISN'T closed-minded.

JEFF MELDRUM: I think you put your finger on it. His approach/methodology did continually clash with my perspectives, and that is likely the reason for the dissonance. Every attempt to illustrate his points with an analogy seemed obtuse and evasive of the what I perceived as the real issue at hand. He seemed unwilling or unable to come to terms, in an empirical sense, with the fundamental question: Is there a biological entity at the root of the legend and all its sociological ramifications?

BIGFOOT BOOKS: Yes, I noticed the same thing in my graduate school years studying Literature and English. There is so much abstruse (and often ridiculous) theory that one feels at times that the actual text one is supposedly studying is lost in the works. It ends in obfuscation rather than explication. It seems to be obvious that the primary study in the Bigfoot field should start from the ground up, from physical and other evidence, and then only later the study of the "culture" of it. But heck, that ain't Sociology, so go figure. And this: Buhs has a Ph.D., but he is more a historian and sociologist than he is a scientist, I think. So, keep up the good... SCIENCE! BTW, your book, SASQUATCH: Legend Meets Science, is the #1 SELLER of all Bigfoot books in my shop. As a matter of fact, I just now sold another copy. Best, Steve, BF BOOKS.

Coming up SOON! An interview with author David Paulides, regarding NABS' new product, THE TRACK RECORD.

NEWS ALERT!: Don't miss The Bigfoot Times' DANIEL PEREZ on KSGV Radio's THE HERETIC SHOW on Friday, 8:30 Pacific Time. If you miss it, it should definitely be archived for online streaming under October 16th through the show link above.

[Images from Yakima taken and damn well kinda copyright 2009 by Steven Streufert, the rest are commercial product/public images. If you use them--go ahead, but--please notify us and give credit and a link to this blog.]

NOTE: "ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS" will now become a REGULAR FEATURE aspect of this blog, so watch out!