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Not correct. The trap was made by Ron Olson, a bigfoot researcher of decades past. He was a member of a research group out of Eugene, not a "local." It is not made of logs, it is made of sawed timbers with a sliding trap door. Here's a link to a newspaper article in case you wish to read up on it. (I've been to the trap and drive by the parking for it a few times a year. It's a nice walk if you are in the area.) The trap's door has since been rendered inoperable / open. Interesting (to me) stuff about the location ... the trap was built prior to the construction of Applegate Dam / reservoir. Since construction was completed in 1980 the location of bigfoot activity nearby has shifted. My personal best guess reviewing the terrain is that the trap was built on a ridge which was part of a route they'd use through the area. The lake now cuts off that path. Though BF can swim, getting to the water's edge requires exposing themselves to view. I have investigated one report from the upstream end of the lake which seems potentially credible. Beyond the lake is the OR/CA state line; the headwaters of the Applegate are on the California side. It is incredibly rugged country. Just a little west, also in the headwaters, is Red Buttes Wilderness, and beyond, connected, you'll get into the Oregon Caves country. All of this is in fairly close proximity, and mostly with cover, with Bluff Creek and the G.O. Road of PGF fame, Willow Creek, etc. If a person wanted to put some "sweat" into figuring out something useful, they could try to figure out how the BF's are getting from the Siskiyous west of I-5 to the Cascades east of I-5 .. there are essentially NO reports but they have to be getting across that freeway somehow / somewhere without being seen. I've pondered use of railroad overpasses, I've pondered underpasses where roads go under the freeway. These are on private land. No reports. Question .. unanswered .. is someone helping them by deliberately providing a covered crossing point? Sorry .. rambling. This area is personally fascinating, I spent over 20 years living adjacent to it trying to puzzle it out (unsuccessfully) and it remains a bit of an obsession.

When I was younger, I had a dream Landscape Architect job with the Forest Service designing a large RV campground and a recreation park along the Applegate River in southern Oregon that took a year to do. I'm 79 now and want to be truthful about memories. After this was completed, my job became irritating and boring. No more parks were on the horizon, and my new job was to fool the public about logging! It was a clever plan that I've kept secret until now. My job was deception and to drive the main national forest highways and mark all the forest areas on a map that one can see from the road. I also marked forest areas behind mountains that were not seen. Can you guess where the plan for public deception is headed? The hillsides marked as unseen while driving the highway were going to be clear cut of all trees which upsets the public because Bamby the deer's forest was going to wiped out with logging and clear cutting. The refreshing forest seen from the highway were going to be preserved and all is good in nature land ................ so the public thinks. Needless to say, I became out raged, quit, and went to a different landscape architect job. My point is deception by the federal government that is also taking place with bigfoot. The forest service hires credentialed wildlife biologist and how many bigfoot reports have you read from one of these biologist? They spend hours driving remote forest roads, and hike on trails and a few of them must have seen bigfoot. Lots of people see them. I have two friends that saw one and I saw one too. See my eye witness sketch is below. Do some internet searches and find even one report by a forest service biologist that mentions or even focuses on bigfoot. One of the forest service's duties is to study and protect wildlife during logging operations. You as a taxpayer are still being kept in the dark when if comes to bigfoot? How do you feel about this dilemma? What is your opinion? Should I have quit the forest service? Are we being kept in the dark? My sighting is below.

When I worked for the Forest Service back in 1974 and 1975, I had no concept of what the agency's stance was on bigfoot. While on the job, if I had a sighting, I would have reported it to my boss who was higher up in the district office of the Rogue River National Forest of Medford, Oregon. He probably would have told me to not report it to the wildlife officer since this would put my job in jeopardy. My annual job performance review was coming so I would not have reported it to those higher up in the chain of command. Since my annual review was coming up, and if I reported the sighting to the wildlife officer, I probably would have been fired for disobeying my immediate boss. I would guess the Forest Service has not changed their stance presently, and they call bigfoot a mythical creature for a reason. This means they are not real, so they have no effect on Forest Service policy. Work someplace else if you don't understand the policy.

^ This. ^ Moreover, even within certain agencies (like the Army), few have the odds of encountering these creatures. But some do. I've used the example of Ft. Lewis, Washington. It's right on ground that is surrounded with regular sightings, is actually on ground that looks like a migration/movement area, has plenty of recorded sightings itself, and has been an Army post for over a hundred years. If sasquatches exist, and if that area is as density rich as reports indicate, and with the Army being there for a century, there are people within the Army family who know about it. I was an Army soldier (engineer), and then an Army civilian on Ft. Richardson, Alaska, for 35 years. I worked for the engineering organization that literally owned the post. We signed off buildings and lands to commanding officers of various units, but we were ultimately responsible for them (and we held the tenants responsible for proper use and damages). I was an "outside" engineer. Roads, grounds, railroads, bridges, etc. We had an environmental branch which included a Natural Resources Officer, who was responsible for wildlife. He set the hunting regs on post in cooperation with the state fish and game agency. Ft. Lewis has/had the exact same organizational structure. If sasquatches exists, they exist there at least in movement through the place leaving sign and encounters with soldiers and Range Control. Eventually, the Natural Resources Officer is going to know and share that knowledge with the Public Works Director, who will then share it with the Commanding General's Chief of Staff. Where the knowledge goes from there is certain to vary. But my experience is that's how it looks at the lower, local end. I'm also pretty well versed in what we call "unofficial lines of communication". All of us civilians, unlike both the enlisted and commissioned active duty personnel, worked there for decades. We didn't come for a three year tour, and then rotated out. We owned the place. Literally. And we worked together for decades. We were like brothers and sisters. We still are. And we talk to each other. Some word gets around. Some is hush-hush. Depends on what it is, and who you trust. On Ft. Rich, we talked openly about the wildlife. Those of us in the exterior trades and activities had regular contact with the bears, wolves, and moose. Lots of it. And we shared those experiences with others. If I saw a sasquatch, would I have talked? Yup........to a few folks. Certainly not all.

Based on my reading of hundreds if not 1000+ reports, I am a firm believer that the Federal Government as a whole fully understands BF and for reasons you can only guess feels it is best not to reveal them and even protect them where possible. For instance, what are the legal or even constitutional issues if they are some form of relic hominem? Even worse, what if they have an alien origin (which I do not believe but there are plenty of BF/UFO related reports). I have seen them and ran in to them multiple times over the last 30 years in NC and NJ (and may have a den/hunting blind build by them 100 yards from my back yard) and no longer care to get proof of their existence. I doubt I would reach for my camera or phone if one posed for me. Just leave them alone like they leave me alone when wandering through the woods.

In terms of the impact of the arrival of europeans, you can't diminish the probable damage done by the foreign antigens, which may very well have killed off the the vast majority of sasquatch, at least those within close enough proximity to the natives as they became afflicted. The Europeans practice of laying blankets infected with yellow fever and the like across trails could have transmitted these diseases to the Bigfoot just as they did to the native americans. It may have taken longer to pass between them due to their more widespread distribution. There's estimates of 90% mortality rates amongst natives (even higher in south america) if this applied to the sasquatch, perhaps their rebound was slow, then as whites killed off the majority of upper level predators, and deer populations began expanding, eventually to the point of overabundance, then the sasquatch had plenty of prey, little predator competition, and more empty land to move into, reclaiming old turf, thus expanding their numbers once again.

Well, I have two historical newspaper articles that were scheduled to come out later, but I just changed that to 1 minute after midnight. Apparently, once I set them for delayed publication, I can't change it back to "publish immediately." Be sure to check in first thing tomorrow (or later today for those in time zones further west) at https://bigfootforums.com/forum/203-more-historical-newspaper-archives/.

A few bigfoots in America are lucky since there is still plenty of undeveloped land such as many areas of Alaska and a few states below Canada. The bigfoots in these areas can avoid interacting with humans if they choose to do so and carry on their daily lives without seeing humans. The bigfoots in other states seem to depend on humans since there are reports of them taking cows, raiding chicken coops, or showing up at night on rural properties. Even though there is plenty of wilderness for them, some congregate on developed property which seems to attract some Sasquatches. Mavbe these Sasquatches have been pushed out of the wilderness by dominant Sasquatch families, and they depend on rural folks for their food and shelter. We just don't have the answers to these questions since we haven't allocated funds to do quality unintrusive studies of bigfoots. Maybe we should develop better ways to determine how we can help sustain bigfoot populations if needed. Many of us cringe when we see animal species going extinct and feel guilty for not doing more to protect a species. We just haven't developed adequate methods to study bigfoot populations so we can determine if their populations are stable or do we need special methods to ensure bigfoots can raise families and keep stable populations? The picture below shows me in my drift boat exploring bigfoot's habitat on the Rogue River of Oregon.

The forest service designs and use to hide timber sales that helps remove fuels that build up in old growth forest and provides fuel for forest fires. Areas to be logged must be in proportion to the size of the drainage basin where the logging will occur. If a drainage basin is over logged then massive erosion will occur that floods creeks and rivers with brown sediment that can wipe out trout, salmon, and steelhead. Each drainage basin can have limited and planned logging which may need to be in public view, so fish are protected and wildfires are kept to a minimum. After a planned clearcut, grasses, brush, and small trees begin to grow back which supplies deer, and elk fresh leaves to brouse on. Bigfoots ability to raise a family and to find food is improved since deer and elk survive on the new growth springing up on clear cut land. However, during hunting season, Bigfoots ability to feed its family is reduced since bigfoots must evacuate prime hunting grounds to avoid regular hunters and hound hunters which forces bigfoot to hunt at night when hunters are absent from the woods. During hunting seasons bigfoots may need to hunt higher in the mountains where deer might be less prevalent and access roads are nonexistent. In general, the lives of bigfoots were probably more difficult during time when pioneers flooded lands throughout America. Bigfoots obvious desire to avoid humans has increased since the pioneer days which could have made them an endangered species that could go extinct. Since bigfoots are so difficult to find and to gather evidence on how they live, it becomes nearly impossible with present means to study them so they can become a documented and proven species. How we avoid killing a male and female bigfoot to prove their existence is a topic for another paper that could include hiring a massive forest workforce supplied with tranquilizer dart guns. Once proven, bigfoots and their habitat will probably receive national protection. Areas close to their nesting grounds will probably need laws to reduce hunting in these areas, build roads away from their homes, and supply food during winter months to prevent them from going extinct.

And here is a chew.....gotta have lots of DNA.

I don't think it’s magic. I think it’s evolution. They stay away from their cousins that organize into large groups and kill and chop up all prey and haul back to the cave. Like a Army Ant colony. We are the opposite of inept. We are ruthlessly efficient. So they hide. But now us the tool man has walked on the moon, has thermal drones and surveillance cameras everywhere. They are running out of places to hide.

I've pondered this as well. There is, however, one (somewhat humiliating) option .. maybe, rather than them being "magic", we're just more inept than we give ourselves credit for.

Yep. I would probably eat it if I had to. It's legal to eat road-kill here although, I usually just go to the store. Although, with the cuts in food-safety (including a 19% reduction to the FDA work-force) a squished squirrel or, a drowned rat doesn't sound too bad right now.. "No doubt, but Norse is correct that Science as an industry will simply not play ball until somebody delivers a carcass and essentially rubs their noses in it." I agree that Universities, most private companies, governments, etc. are not going to really get involved until Joe six-pack, wife and kids are convinced that they exist. 'Science' is often done by people who are unencumbered by those institutions. I don't know the best way to prove Bigfoot. I think one (or two, if Norse insists ) could be captured alive. I mean if we can capture elephants and whale sharks?? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm pretty confident that it would be absorbed, and I wouldn't hear squat about it again. Almost universally, sensitive information that I was involved in was absorbed by management, dealt with confidentially, and it remained quiet. And I remained quiet about it as well, and that confidentiality served me well with management.

When I say Government, I mean the people who control it. Whom ever has the power to stigmatize a subject. Project Blue Book claiming a UFO is nothing more than swamp gas. People who make April Fools jokes on the official U.S. Forest Service website about Bigfoot. Etc. This isn’t the actions of low level people. This is an active decision by the people who run the show.

The first fossil of a chimpanzee wasn't discovered until 2005 in the Rift Valley of Africa by Nina Jabloski and Sally McBrearty. This discovery only unearthed three teeth in spite of billions of chimpanzees having lived in Africa. If we all agree there are fewer sasquatches than chimpanzees, then the odds of finding sasquatch fossilized remains are likely one in many trillion. Better time spent doing other things, mathematically speaking.

Cryptids don’t exist but they found 125,000 Gorillas……🤔 Great post! Thanks!

If I was young and loaded with money.................... that would be a great adventure. I would hire some zoologist, a camp buckaroo, a medic and go for the discovery in East Africa! I think an Australopithecus is running around in the jungle there!

So it looks like there were human living and killing Mastodons 130,000 years ago located in the California area which is astonishing.

The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management rule over federal forest lands with a primary goal of providing lumber for the nation's building industry and for sustaining a large work force. They have hired top wildlife biologist, yet bigfoot remains a mythical creature. They also know that if bigfoot becomes a scientifically proven primate species, large areas of present and future timber production will probably be shut down in the same manner as what happened with the Spotted Owl but at a much larger scale. Is there a reasonable solution for this potential problem or should there be no effort to prove bigfoot as a new species?

I agree. It's like grizzly bears and wolves co-existing with large populations of humans. If we aren't willing to accept human and livestock losses, it won't be happening successfully.

I think it’s never ending cycles of overlap. If they yield to us the “good ground”? I don’t think their numbers could be high coexisting with us. This may not have always been the case. The Cerutti mastodon find is pre Homo Sapiens in my opinion. They may have had full reign of the new world until we showed up. What we see now is pockets of survivors from the Homo Sapiens apocalypse? Just a thought. And it didn’t just happen here. It happened to many species in our genus in Africa, Asia and Europe. Homo Sapiens are the last man standing.

That's why it's key to determine their genus after discovery. There is currently no other living species within the homo genus recognized as extant. But if one is discovered, presto!: another human species exists. Their legal status then gets negotiated and legally established worldwide by Science, the lawyers, the anthropologists, and the United Nations. *Hmmmmmm..........maybe it would be better for all if they remain mythical, huh?.......*

If it is classified as in the genus Homo, it would be *human*, so killing one would be *homicide*. But remember, more primitive bipedal apes (Australopithecus, Ardipithecus, Sahelanthropus, Oreopithecus, Danuvius, etc) lived at least several millions of years ago. The earliest homo species was 2.5 million years ago. It is definitely homicide, but not necessarily murder. Murder is defined as an illegal and intentional homicide. Self defense is a legal justification for homicide. But if a sasquatch decides to kill a man? It is almost certainly not possible to legally prosecute the sasquatch for murder if he is also a wild animal.

Does the forest service deal in delusions, myths, and magic, making bigfoot disappear in a cloud of smoke? After getting my bachelor's degree in park planning and Landscape Architecture from the U or Oregon, Bigfoot was never discussed. I worked in the main office of the Rogue River National Forest during 1974 and 1975 centered in Medford, Oregon. We never spoke about bigfoot even though it was filmed in 1967. Some of our workers who drove the back roads to manage timber sales probably saw bigfoot and it could have been a tabu subject. We had biologist in the main office, and they probably didn't see any bigfoots. I was born in Oregon and spent lots of time in the forest and never saw or spoke of bigfoot. We had suboffices all over about 30 to 60 miles out in the timbered lands. The Forest Service is divided into what they call Forest which are huge areas for logging and parks that are controlled from these locations. We were centered in Medford, Oregon and the next forest was about an hour's drive away in Grants Pass. It took me a year to design a major RV park and campground along the Applegate River then I got into helping design major logging clear cuts. I would drive the major highways of our forest in Oregon and mark large forested to be logged on the map. Again, didn't see a bigfoot. I marked large swaths of Forest Service timber for logging that tourist COULDN'T SEE from the highway. We called these UNSEEN AREAS. Can you see the big deception forming? The foresters would take this map and design clear cuts in these unseen areas that were not seen by tourist giving the illusion that the whole forest was timbered. This is the big delusion and keeping Oregon green was the motto. The big delusion now is bigfoot is a MYTH. Tourist could only see half of the mountains since the back side was out of view and clear cut down to the last tree. I was so disappointed and bumed out, that I quit after a few months of "seen area mapping." At that time, we never discussed bigfoot and the foresters never mentioned bigfoot. After 13 years went by, I finally saw a bigfoot and can't keep the critter off my mind. The forest service still calls it a myth and I don't know if they are still creating the delusion of "seen area mapping."

It's an interesting thought exercise to consider how the sasquatch species was affected by the arrival of non-indigenous people. First, native Americans lived in groups and villages that were mostly nomadic, and their weapons were close ranged. When Europeans arrived, the Homo sapiens population numbers exploded within a very short period, they established towns and cities that remain and some of which have grown into metropolises, and we now have the capability of shooting them from a quarter mile away. Sasquatches have shared this continent with native Americans for at least 12,000 years, but the past 200 years have changed everything. Indeed, we can even categorize the past 200 years: 1825-1925: Occasional contact with European explorers, trappers, and prospectors 1925-1955: Increasing contact, and the beginning of mass media exposure of the species to humanity 1955-today: An explosion of sasquatchery in the Homo sapiens consciousness, beginning with contact from people penetrating the Six Rivers National Forest timber sales and the modern media

If your right? That was pretty ballsy behavior. Bob Gimlin pulled a .30-06 rifle from his scabbard. And most Cowboys would have dumped her where she stood in 1967. Bob certainly could have if he had wanted to. And I am not trying to throw shade on anyone’s experience. But I don't think it’s a either or question. I think they are curious and I think they are masters of the woods. But I also do not think they are infallible either. Just my .02 cents.

The mass delusion that big government is always right is a fact that we depend on ...............remember Dr. Fauci? The Navy, Forest Service, and State Police are part of big government that we need to find truth in. It's not unreal or a hallucination but a firm reality that big government is not always right. We believe that when big government tells us that bigfoot is a mythical creature. We are supposed to agree with this premise or statement. This means big government ........ the forest service won't spend a dime on researching and writing reports about this mythical creature. How many bigfoot reports are written by senior forest service officials that you can find on the forest service's publications or in the newspaper? Big government's top wildlife biologist must believe all the eyewitnesses on BFRO are mistaken or even more insulative........ crack pots to be ridiculed. Find one BFRO report by a top forest service official or university professor that describes his or her sighting of bigfoot in all the BFRO reports. Jeff Meldrum is the exception, and the big college government tried to take him down. What would happen if forest service employees who spend 4 hours a day driving forest service roads and going to and from official duties wrote articles about bigfoot and make claims to have seen one. Chances are many have seen bigfoot. Research and find out how many bigfoot sightings are written about by forest service employees such as wildlife biologist or even your average worker. They know this is a career ender that would be bad like a hallucination as MIB puts it. However, it's real and not a hallucination or a figment of the imagination.

No. I work alone. The trade that I worked in is not exactly one for scientific discovery. My BS meter is finely tuned.

That depends on what you count as "discovery." They are not acknowledged by mainstream science. Lacking that, I don't count them as "discovered." It doesn't matter what I've seen or experienced. My knowledge that they exist is irrelevant. Someone else's belief they exist is irrelevant. Until we have proof of existence accepted by mainstream science, the notion of discovery is as mythical as bigfoot is.

Those are great points to be sure. Yet, they seem to still be hiding, perhaps better than ever. Is there really any indication that we are closer to discovery than say, 59 years ago? Right now, Humans don't seem particularly efficient at long-term survival (which could be considered the ultimate intelligence.) Yeah, we can go to the moon and beyond, we have Environment ending weapons and even AI but; I am 99.999% sure that many of the lowest intellect animals on Earth will survive us. And, I don't think it is a given that we will ever, officially, discover Bigfoot.

Those who have seen <adjective> evidence for themselves know that sasquatches exist. They might not know exactly what they are or how Science would/will taxonomically categorize them, but "discovery" is a done deal for them.

The opposite happened in the Bluff Creek area of Six Rivers National Forest where the PGF was shot. Now, in winter when Bigfoot tracks can most easily be found, the area is closed "to prevent the spread of Phytophthora lateralis, a non-native pathogen that causes Port-Orford-cedar root disease. See my point #2:

If government will go to these lengths to protect certain trees (especially just maintaining the secrecy/remoteness strategies), would they do likewise to protect a rare human sub-species? I think so............

Ever hear of Bush Meat?

No doubt, but Norse is correct that Science as an industry will simply not play ball until somebody delivers a carcass and essentially rubs their noses in it. And I submit that is just one of the reasons why government has decided that the best thing for them as a species is to remain a myth. And frankly, it's my opinion that aliens are science fiction, and Science (as an industry) is playing ball on that field because every base hit equals Big Money, government is managing game for spinoff technology, and the taxpayer plays because they have no choice.

Homo sapiens are primates, too. There is evidence that they do, and if so, that would pretty much narrow them into the genus Homo.

There is the possibility of it being just a spiritual entity from Native Americans teachings. Then of course the possibility of being a living relic that survives in the here and now. One of our distant ancestors. Therefore not monster or mythical.

I believe 90%-95%+ of the Bigfoot eyewitness reports are seeing something real with only about 1-5% being outright liars and hoaxers. What I struggle with is not being sure what they saw. Is it a bear? Is it some other misidentification? That part of my brain I will call the BAD COP Then the GOOD COP part of my brain tells me, "Do you really think ALL of these people- every single one is wrong? Are they all mistaken?!" The GOOD COP part of me understands there only needs to be one of these reports to be real for Bigfoot to be real. Just one single report. For those who have had an encounter please forgive my struggle between the GOOD COP and BAD COP. I have never had such an encounter and honestly would never want to until Bigfoot in the public is a well-establish universal fact.

Thanks for approving my profile! I’m actively exploring a vast farmland in Southern Middle Tennessee. Hopefully I’ll have some findings to share here.

While the earliest version of this story was published in The Daily Oklahoman of Oklahoma City (OK) on August 21, 1977 at the height of the Adair County Monster scare, that article was scanned badly, making it hard to read. This story was published in the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune on August 30, 1977.

Published in the Henryetta (OK) Daily Free-Lance on August 18, 1977; this fills out some more of the stories found by former Forums member Tirademan (RIP) and posted elsewhere by Forums member Gigantor. The headline was probably meant to read "Bear" rather than "Dear."

We do not have proof of bigfoot. We have evidence for the existence of bigfoot. The difference matters greatly. The absolute and unavoidable "math" is this: we will not have PROOF of bigfoot until modern science accepts the existence of bigfoot. These are exactly identical. We have some pretty cool evidence. Some is easy enough to dismiss even if it is incorrect to do so, some is pretty hard to rationally dismiss even if a scoftic would do so.

From The Oregonian, Portland (OR) on July 23, 1924.

Totally shocked. Had the honor to eat supper with him in Gardner, Montana one night during a tracking course he presented with Jim Halfpenny. He was such a gracious and humble man. May he rest in peace.

One day the public will have definitive proof of Bigfoot. If this happens Jeff Meldrum will be viewed as a visionary. It will be mentioned how he was ahead of those colleagues who lived in his times. He became respected even among those who were skeptics and essentially modernized the study of Bigfoot. There will be a Meldrum- Patterson wing of the Smithsonian. RIP

Hello I'm Jim from Illinois. I've taken an interest in big foot after listening to the sasquatch chronicles podcast. My goal is to learn more and pass the time at work. Thanks to the community