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I am a long time poster and visited for several hours a week and that was at the height of the Finding Bigfoot show so volume of interest is drastically lower today as most other shows are completely faked and fabricated. I personally checked in to see what field research methods, techniques and ideas are being tossed around out in the woods. Couple other points to note. 1 - Forums are dying as human attention spans decrease due to overstimulation by social media. 2 - Video media as a format ( youtube, patreon, tiktok, live streaming ) is eating forums for breakfast, direct commentary and long format video scape covers most of the discussion points and theories. 3 - Field research efforts these days are ultra weak sauce compared to how " the community " use to address the subject, most now sit around and slip into " cant get them on camera, must be paranormal " or they simply do nothing of effort to get out and search for evidence. Bigfoot is a campfire hobby with very little actual pursuit these days. We do have a couple die-hard guys still here but the volume of activity has always been around PGF debate and field research and now post the lockdowns, people are preoccupied and distracted by seahawks games, vacations and what ever other primary hobbies people engage in these days. The vigor and thrill of walking around in the dark and looking for prints is gone for most or waved away by the embrace of weak minded woo " experiences " that are create insulated FaceBook groups for self worship. No red circles required to figure that out if you check in on all these media sites. I now check in like once every other month to see if anything is going on research related and it seems that the spring has dried up and personally, this drives me nuts because we have more tools today than any point in history. This concludes my rant, lol.

One of my best friends lives in the La Grande, OR area and has for many years. He's a former USFS employee and his wife is an emergency room RN. They are prolific outdoorsy people who have spent most of their lives camping, hiking, hunting, horseback riding, and working in the mountains of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington. Super great folks. My friend and his wife have been skeptics of Bigfoot and whenever the subject came up, we would joke and laugh about it. They were both respectful, but just didn't believe. They had spent decades in the woods with no encounters, so couldn't wrap their heads around the concept. That all changed for the wife on Sunday. Her husband and his Navy buddy were with me at my family cabin in Idaho for the weekend, while she stayed in Oregon to take care of their horses. On Sunday, she decided to go on a hike/run in the mountains. What happened and what she saw/experienced is not exactly clear. She messaged me and asked if a firearm was a deterrent to BF. I said it depends. In most cases, a person having one means they are more likely to avoid you, but not in all cases. She then said that something happened and she wasn't sure what, but she is terrified and traumatized, and very confused. I was at work, so couldn't call her, but we messaged back and forth and she left an audio recording explaining why she was being vague about what she saw/heard. This is the location she gave me of the incident: I'll try to share what happened, but it's still unclear. Her husband returned home while we were discussing it and she understandably unloaded everything on him. Hopefully I can get more details after she recovers from the incident. Basically, she was in a pretty remote area doing a hike/jog as she is a fitness fiend and very active. She was wearing brightly colored athletic shorts, and a bright athletic top. She said she suddenly became aware of something large in the nearby trees/brush due to a vocalization that she described as both far away and at the same time, also nearby. She also indicated that there was some brush/trees being disturbed; something large was crashing through the trees. Her first thought was that she had surprised an elk. Whatever it was, it was very large and moved very quickly. Her words... "I think it was an elk crashing and then wolves but everything happened at once and I've been scared before, but never shaking head to toe... I heard grunting/growling but it was a ways away. At first I thought it was an elk, then crashing, then two howls or something. I realized by the second one it wasn't an elk." "I thought it was wolves but knew something wasn't good and I've had cats stalk me and other weird stuff but the fear I felt was weird." She indicated that she got into a stranger's pickup that came along, which she said she would never do unless she was terrified. Then she added this... "The weird part is its all confusing, I just remember crashing, grunting, and 2 howls and total body shaking lol like I don't remember it all which is also weird... all of the noises close and far... the guy that picked me up said I looked not OK." She then left an audio message that went into more detail about the strangeness of the incident due to the emotions she felt and a weird "connection" to whatever was in the woods. She was much more articulate and intelligent sounding in the recording than in the texts. I've known her for 15 years and she is extremely intelligent, rational, calm, and afraid of nothing. Current ER nurse and former rodeo queen who does horseback trips into the wilderness. In the audio file, she describes feeling like whatever was out there knew exactly where she was and what she was thinking. She stated that the sounds she heard were felt in her body, and she felt completely exposed and helpless. She also reiterated that she has had numerous encounters with predators over the years in the woods and has never felt anything as terrifying as this. She also says she may have seen something, but so much of the encounter is "missing" in her mind. Her reaction to anything disturbing in life is to research it. She does a deep dive on a subject until she feels properly educated about it. She was in the middle of this while we were messaging. I told her about infrasound and the effects it has. She said she found references to it and confirmed that's what she felt, but at a deeper and more psychic level. She said she was on the BFRO website and looking for encounters in her area. I encouraged her to make a report. She wanted to be sure it was anonymous. I assured her it was. I showed her pics of the tree I discovered the day before her encounter and she said she had seen the same thing. And she had seen the weird tree stacking and trees shoved into the ground with the roots sticking up. We ended our conversation with her apologizing for not believing me before. She said she believed deep down, but didn't want to acknowledge it because she didn't want to be afraid to run in the woods alone. Now she is. I hope she filed a report and I am planning on going down to visit soon and check out the site. It's great that now I have another friend that also believes, but I feel bad for her and her husband. Her love of the woods and her perception of the wild has been completely changed for the rest of her life.

Hopefully, given some time to process, that change won't be a bad change, just awareness. It was a similar concern .. what's my risk level here? .. that got me into research in the first place some years before I ever heard of BFF. Proving / disproving existence, validating / invalidating the PGF, blah blah blah .. means nothing to me. What matters is living vs dying and from what I've learned, dying is more likely on the highway driving to the trailhead than it is from hairy bipeds in the woods. Good enough. I hope she'll come to a similar conclusion, find peace with sharing the woods, and not be deterred from her regular activities.

A couple of years ago, our group was putting on a conference in north western Wisconsin. We had Dr. Meldrum lined up as the keynote speaker, and I weaseled my way into picking him up from the Minneapolis airport and was to drive him to the venue. I was so excited because I would have him entirely to myself for several hours. I had so many things I wanted to talk about, but alas, Covid hit and the conference was canceled. I never got the opportunity to delve deep into my favorite topic with him. Fast forward to 2023, I got a call 2 weeks ahead of the Minnesota Bigfoot conference asking me if I could be a presenter, as Dr. Meldrum was scheduled to appear, but had the health episode TD-40 mentioned. I said yes, and made sure everyone at the conference knew how much I admired the man and honored him during my presentation. Sad day, all around.

I have. That ain't it. Seems to me it would be useful to move away from Standing's already-demonstrated hoaxes. Find something new to beat each other up over. Hoaxers CAN potentially see / report something real, what he says is not automatically null and void, it is merely that he's dug a hole and whatever he produces has to be of greater verifiability than what a person with a clean reputation has to produce.

I agree. I'm thinking the good doctor is truly a "knower" at this point .

I did a day long Jeep trip over the Freezeout pass in Idaho last week. Dang close to grizzly country on the Montana border. I took a picture of the two guns I brought with me... A Marlin 1894 carbine and a S&W Model 686. Both in .357 Magnum. I did not feel under-gunned at all. I have spent nearly 50 years in the Idaho wilderness camping, fishing, hunting, shooting, exploring, hiking, ATV riding, off-roading, and just plain relaxing and enjoying nature. All of those activities were done while being armed. In all those years, I was threatened with violence, or felt threatened maybe 4-5 times. Twice was by animals/Bigfoot and the others by people. The worst was a few years ago when me and my dog Rowdy camped at a remote spot on Bonami Creek in a pop-up camper, and a pack of wolves came in and surrounded our camp at night. I was blissfully unaware of the threat having downed a couple or a few 7&7s while listening to satellite radio by the fire. Rowdy was a 105lb Lab/Great Dane mix who was afraid of fire and nothing else. He normally stayed away from it and would lay down behind me as I sat near the fire and drank. But that night, he decided to lay very close to the fire and my rifle... The next day, I awoke with the worst hangover I have ever experienced. I thought I had been shot in the head with a .22. I poured out the remaining Seagrams 7. After I drank a bottle of water and downed a few aspirin, I stumbled outside to the camp and observed Rowdy diligently walking the perimeter of camp, sniffing and marking his territory. I got dressed, grabbed my rifle, and headed up the crude trail behind our campsite. Rowdy was busy peeing on everything and sniffing furiously... I followed him about 25yds from camp and suddenly realized why he had acted so strangely the night before by staying close to the fire, and why he was so obsessed the next day with marking his territory. I found a piece of wolf scat that was very fresh and left while the wolf was in motion and moving away from our camp. It had to have been left within the past 8 hours. I began doing a search of the area around our camp and found sign that a pack of wolves had come in the night before and walked around the perimeter of our camp. No wonder Rowdy was acting so strange the night before! The rifle I had was a Marlin 1894 in .45 Colt, with a Surefire weapon light attached, 6 extra rounds in the butt stock pouch, a green dot optic, and smoothed action. Pretty much the perfect weapon to be holding when a pack of wolves comes in.

I watched it. There is way less “con” going on with the 411 books…. Than trying to convince the Canadian government THIS is a real animal.

Yep. Unless of course one is forgiving the many hoaxes. I believe that is called naive. The Muppets is the most laughable. Of course if one takes the subject serious probably best to move on from any and everything Standing.

I also did a one day 185-mileJeep trip through some very remote Idaho backcountry. No BF sign, but some beautiful country...

Todd Standing =Red Flag.

The article bot caught this story from a number of news outlets. https://www.syracuse.com/statefair/2025/08/searching-for-bigfoot-at-the-2025-nys-fair.html It caught my eye when perusing the list of vendors, considering entering our car club next year to raise interest in classic cars of the little British variety. Charles "Snake" Stuart has an exhibit at the state fair featuring a preserved "Bigfoot corpse" behind plexiglass. Includes a paid appearance by William Shatner on an old TV. Charles certainly sounds like my kind of weirdo and I hope to meet him and his clearly fake body of a Bigfoot. (Sorry, Charles.) I haven't visited yet. But I'll certainly report back if I do. The fair runs through to Labor Day, Monday the first of September in Syracuse, NY. If you do attend, grab some local delicacies, salt potatos, speedies, garbage plates, chicken riggies, etc.

Yeah, don't get used to that from me... Healthy skepticism is warranted and needed in this field or else people will be thinking that we'd all buy that bridge in Brooklyn they want to sell us.

I'm a follower of Stefan, but he gives short shrift to the Cerutti mastodon evidence. I appreciate his skeptical nature. I'm not knowledgeable enough to render a decision on the Cerutti mastodon evidence, but lean towards its authenticity.

No, times have changed. Photographic evidence isn't going to cut it.............

I represent that remark!

I was just listening to episode 180 of Bigfoot & Beyond. Can't give you a time mark as I was otherwise engaged, but the guest, Joe Perdue, discusses being an employee of a West Virginia government agency (probably state parks or DEC) and discusses his supervisors' reaction too, and limitations on, Bigfooting on the job. Basically, he could not initiate any Bigfoot discussions and if sightings were reported to him, he could take the reports for his own personal use, but they didn't want them as official records, such as injury reports at the park, bear sightings, etc.

I don't believe that. Norse is 100% correct: It has to be a carcass, and delivered........to somebody........ Photographic evidence is as worthless as testimony. If the Patterson film, complete with casted footprint evidence, site visits by several independent parties afterwards, and in a location with a 12 year history of footprints (that exact size and shape) and sightings isn't enough to get government or Science to invest a hoot, forget photography.

^^^ Answered on p.25, 15 pages ago. "A Green Beret presence for a missing child is unprecedented." This is why I like primary sources – the Wikipedia article on the Dennis Martin disappearance has several links to contemporaneous newspaper articles on this case and the Case Study at fn 17 talks about the Green Berets as well. The SF Soldiers were already in the area for training. Could have been a Q course class (don’t know where they did those in the 60s) or it could have been a Group just training in the deep woods, but it does not appear that they were sent there to look for DM. They were there, and in an on-the-spot decision, decided to train by searching from what I can see in those reports. Unless there was a government coverup to hide why they were .... oh wait, wrong thread!!

... they're lying by omission.... Man, you just dated yourself!! :-) Young'uns should brace for seeing the world in black-and-white... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9H_cI_WCnE

Glad to see the BFforum back, was getting worried.....will start posting some back logged photos, here are some interesting impressions, from small to large.

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

Yes, it does. No, that isn't accurate at all. Sasquatches stealing women and children is an old story among the aboriginal people. The story of Muchalat Harry, an indigenous man of the same era as Ostman, also exists. I'm not going to deny that sasquatches are cannibals or not, because I don't know, but chimps and Homo sapiens are (and Neanderthals accused of) ............sometimes. Therefore, I would speculate that if sasquatches exist, they might be cannibals............sometimes. But the kidnappings might happen for other reasons. Ostman himself (I believe) opined that he may have been brought as a suitor for the young female.

My understanding is that Gimlin had a 30-06, which would offer plenty of power to kill a sasquatch with a single round if it was shot through the boiler room.

We sure are. Veteran BFF troopers. I'm thoroughly fascinated by the subject, but as a Plainsman, have had no personal experiences. Thus, I don't really have much of value to add. I commented on your posting because in this day of the internet, it's generally understood that all caps posting denotes "shouting." 😉

I've been remiss in not reporting my field trips for the last couple of months, so I'll try to get back into it. I've made a number of outings, but had some problems with making my phone upload photos to the computer and got frustrated with trying to make it work. This evening i made a run up one of our local research areas that had been gated for active logging for almost a year, and took Thomas along for the ride. I'd heard that the gate was now open, since the logging had ended for the season, and we found the gate was indeed open. However, the contractor had obviously just completed cutting drainage cross ditches on the road, and did it very thoroughly! The new trenches were aggressively steep and very frequent, slowing progress to a crawl to avoid suspension damage or noggin bonking on the roof! We only got about 2/3 of the way to the summit before we decided that the effort to reach the top wasn't worth it. Here's a video that Thomas shot on the trip back down: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1WbkQxebhb/

Government silence: There was an old skit from Saturday Night Live back in the 1970s where President Carter becomes giant from a Pepsi spill on the control panel at a nuclear energy factory. Once President Carter becomes nearly 100Ft tall (from radiation poisoning) reporters ask the government questions. Here is the governments answer: Female Reporter #1: Yes, is it true that the president is 100 feet tall? Ross Denton: Nooooo! Absolutely not! Male reporter #3: Is the president 90 feet tall? Ross Denton: No comment. OK, maybe a non- answer IS an answer after all. :-)

Are you angry?

I was down at the family cabin and came across this broken tree. This is the third such tree I have come across in the Idaho mountains that had no rational explanation for why it was twisted and broken off at 8' above the ground. Grass around it was clearly crushed. No prints since super dry this time of year. I know these tree breaks have been attributed to Bigfoot, but can't remember the reason, or theory.

Sorry. I hadn’t refreshed the page to see that you had already responded

I think we have discussed the Dennis Martin case enough in this thread. Go back and reread the OP and go from there. 👍

I don’t think it would ever make it to the fair without being sold off to some government agency.

Thank you for your reply Firefighting is a noble career and I'm sure that you've made a lot of people's lives better and safer, but I don't see how that's relevant to this particular discussion. I should say, I'm from the UK and nothing in our fire service's experience would necessarily be relevant but I accept that your services are different so I may be wrong. You seem to accept that there wasn't a kidnapping ( I say "seem" because it looks like your paragraph may be a case of "even if you accept this is true, how do you explain this?" and I don't want to put words in your mouth or suggest you accept/concede something that you don't). That said, I disagree completely with your evaluation. You say 'you're telling me there is nothing strange about 1000s of people searching for a 5 year old boy that had a five minute head start and cannot find him?' but that's not what happened. He went missing at 4:30pm. His father and a few other people started searching for him within 3-5 minutes (the details are sketchy). They were searching in terrain that, outside the field and off the trail, which is the terrain he went missing, is reported as being dense forest ('so thick is the green growth of trees that a squirrel could go from Gatlinburg to Cherokee, N.C some 30 miles over the mountain, without ever having to touch ground' - The Tennessean 6.20.1969), ('[Dennis] became separated after plunging into the thick tangle of forest and underbrush, home of black bears, wild hogs, and snakes' - Kingsport Times 6.16.1969) He wasn't reported missing to the Rangers for 4 hours, at 8:28pm. Some few people (no reports I have found state a firm number) searched during the night, during which there was significant rainfall. The first actual, co-ordinated search started at 5am the next day. According to the NPS report, this consisted of somewhere between 50 and 80 people (it's not clear whether 'leaders' were included in the count of searchers or were additional). In any event, some 12+ hours after he went missing, fewer than 100 people were looking for him (assume the higher number of 80 and add in family, who let's assume weren't counted as 'searchers' by the NPS). This is a million miles away from 1000s looking for him within 5 minutes. Assume he could move a conservative 1mph, over 12 hours, that would give a potential search area of 452m2. Slightly smaller than Los Angeles City limits, but covered in dense forest, rivers, caves and crevices. It would be a minor miracle if they did find him! The number of searchers for 6.16.1969 was approx 300, 6.17.1969 was 365 etc. The only day over 1,000 was 6.21.1969, a full week after his disappearance. As for the Green Berets - from the NPS report '[Ranger Mike] Myers also contacted U.S. Forest Service District Ranger on the Nantahala, who in turn made contact with Col. Kinney, commanding the Special Forces troops in that area. Col. Kinney requested and obtained permission from the Third Army Headquarters at Ft Benning, Georgia, to transfer 40 Special Forces to the search area. - 6.15.1969 I can't see anything suggesting that the Green Berets 'kept adding to their force.' They seem to have added 22 men on 6.18.1969, although I admit the seem to have had 71 by 6.25.1969 33 left the search on 6.25.1969 with the remaining 38 leaving the next day. It is mentioned in the NPS report and news papers that they were 'in the area' and familiar with the type of terrain in the area due to having been deployed in Vietnam. I understand that Green Berets don't get involved in SAR on a regular basis, but if they're available, and if this, as was obviously the case, caught the public imagination, why not? Are you willing to suggest why you think the Green Berets were involved? Absent another, better, theory, I don't see why the logical reason put forth shouldn't be accepted.

I meant to say thank you also for going to the trouble of finding and attaching the clippings. Sources are immensely important and people who are willing to engage cogently with rational, well thought out ideas are the reason I joined (and the reason i believe- (tip of the hat to bill munns))

^^ Yep, retired Army, both because I had a decent CYA reflex and I listened to my civilian employees as my career went on. You are absolutely correct, all of this would be a Garrison Commander problem, not a 2-star or higher problem. Boy would I have love to be sitting in on that conversation between the Garrison CO and whoever was the major command commander. ("Well, sir, I"m not saying its "Bigfoot," ... but it's "Bigfoot.")

For more than a year I lost interest with Bigfoot Forum since I was spending lots of time commenting, and I had outside work to do. I began missing the forum and took up where I left off recently, and I'm very surprised how much the forum has changed due to lack of active posters. Many former members have lost interest and are no longer posting. The older forum had topics that received constant replies and active discussions on a variety of topics. I'm sure some of the regulars have noticed this trend and if something is not done soon, the whole forum may disappear due to lack of interest. What can be done to rejuvenate the forum? One suggestion is for long time members to make newcomers feel more welcome by noticing and replying to their comments in a positive way. What about all members reaching out to former members, foresters, college biologist, forest road builders and others who live and work in the forest and may want to share a sighting and join the forum? What do you regular members with some stars that you earned believe will help? Bigfoot is still out there, and the forum helps add to public knowledge and eventual protection of bigfoot. It's just a matter of time before a bigfoot is brought in live or dead and proven to exist.

We have tested for ultrasonic and EMF and have got them damn near zero registration, we have not tested for infrasound. The only sound we know the system makes is a small mechanical click once every 45 minutes as the sensor refresh takes place. The only times we have had animals become aware are by scent ( always bear ) and feeding directly next to the camera lens and likely hearing the sensor refresh. We do occasionally highlight in stills the animals looking in the general direction but they do not actually seem aware of the system. We have videos up that seem to demonstrate they are oblivious to it in 99% of cases.

I full believe that our government knows full well what these beings are. I don't believe for a second that has anything to do with shutting down commercial forestry or access to the forest. Biologists only know about the animals they have studied. This has more to do with religion, social upheaval and the government maintaining control.

A skeleton of a boy around the size of dennis martin was found in the 80's by ginseng poachers. The skeleton was found in the general vicinity of where he was reported missing. If i recall he disappeared in 1969. I'm not saying it was an open and closed case but if a skeleton of a boy that was around the size of dennis martin was found in the area that he went missing it kinda looks less likely that sasquatch abducted him. To be fair tho, it was never proven to be dennis martin. Heres Googles gemini overview. Again, if i recall, it was a skeleton and not just remains. No, the skeletal remains found in Tremont's Big Hollow in the Great Smoky Mountains were not those of Dennis Martin. In 1985, a ginseng hunter reported finding the remains of a small child, but a search of the area yielded nothing. The remains were never identified as Dennis Martin, and the mystery surrounding his 1969 disappearance remains unsolved.

Not "most." About 50/50. The other half allow you to shoot, at any time, anything not specifically regulated. My state is one of these.

^^ My understanding is that in most states, hunters are only allowed to take "permitted" animals - that is, animals that the state permits you to shoot, trap, or catch. Like what happened in Canada (discussed elsewhere in another thread) - hunters were permitted to take polar bears, and permitted to take brown bears (grizzlies?), but not permitted to take hybrid brown/polar bears. So, if I recall correctly, an American hunter got a huge fine for shooting a bear that was virtually indistinguishable (to the naked eye) from a bear he was permitted to take. Presuming one lives in a reasonable state - and that the shooting has been highly publicized so that it can't be swept under the rug - whomever first shoots and kills AND makes it out with the body could be reasonably safe.

It gets worse. The California state AG's office has the authority over the return of all stolen guns statewide, and they require the gun owner to apply to get recovered guns back. Part of that application is providing the police report of both the theft and the recovery..........as if the AG's office can't just punch it up on their computer. I have the reports (two) on theft, but have been held with no info whatsoever on the recovery(s?) in one city. Frankly, I bet the evidence locker employee probably broke protocol in phoning me to inform me of the recovery.

What are the odds of some Soldier or Marine or Border Patrol or DEA agent, etc., seeing one? Probably very high. But even reported, it likely stops at the first level chain-of-command because its not relevant to each agency's specific statutory missions (national defense, border security, or stopping illegal drug activity) and, as noted in another thread, even if reported to the correct agency (National Fish and Wildlife?), still not sufficient to establish that a species exists. Even if the witness was the offspring of George Washington and Mother Theresa and genetically could not tell a lie, and was hit with truth serum, and passed multiple polygraph exams, its just not enough. Sadly, unless and until John McClane tosses the dead body of a Bigfoot out of a window at Nakatomi Plaza onto a police car below, efforts to prove existence will be futile.

I thought of it in the same way for decades, even though the Aboriginal American description of sasquatches has always been that of being "people" of a different race. I turned when considering the repeated phenomenon of DNA samples coming back "human", and the Sierra Sounds being a "language". It also fits the current theories of multi-human species of the relatively recent past with Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Hobbits. It all fits. And when I turned from manlike-ape to apelike-man, there was no turning back.

So, boring warning. Went to a woo location so no need bothering this forum with that. However great riparian area with at least one class a sighting. A cyclone blew up leading to cloud walls forming over highlands with dangerous winds for prolonged period and occasional explosive lightning. This area is known for this although it was leaving my area of interest. There seems to be an immense awareness even among th locals that there is something different up here. A lone sasquatch of immense powers (which is the woo part). Led to a prolonged sighting at close range elsewhere in the same season. He has been up there likely hundreds of years or, just that a lone male sas. is always living up there. Been up several times as I regained interest, East coast. Found clear evidence of something, this guy like to hide near a main artery and people watch. Somewhat degraded from way back when where I had an interaction. On a cycle trail with bluffs to hide under, over. I found 4-5 wide paths stamped into hiding locations near the trail (also lot of illegals patrols in the area, constantly) stamped into mud and dead ending about 25 to 35+ ft into rich riperian repasts. Also, a sleeping pad about 10X10 ft square, may have been machine cleared but smooth and not one twig, level right next to trail. Perfect for a large hominid to rest in unobserved but near traffic. Like to be out at night in the fields and woods under a full moon. Spring is probably the best time or late winter. Near another area as well even another in Whitehall NY, those are different and seem to be family subgroups seasonal traveling betwee ranges, upland and low land remote areas well protected.

Now, that right there is World Class wit! I salute you, and am jealous that I didn't come up with it. If you are not opposed, I think I need to add that to my profile signature........properly accredited, of course........ Nor do I, because I don't believe extraterrestrial aliens are visiting this planet. However, IF they were, I'm absolutely convinced that government would suppress that information from the public, and........ ..........they may very well be using the illusion that it is aliens flying around in secret military craft that they themselves are creating and experimenting with in our skies. Understood. You've done well to make that clear over the past few years that these questions have been discussed, and it's a very valid foundation of skepticism. However, I believe you are somehow missing the magnitude of another extant human species still sharing our planet, and which is nearing extinction. The worldwide political response to such news would be every bit as a concern (even if different) to national governments as the discovery of extraterrestrial aliens. There is no requirement for sasquatchery to rise to the level of fear that ray-gun toting aliens bring to the table to accept the possibility that government is suppressing the "discovery" of sasquatches. Indeed, I fear "human rights lawyers" MUCH more than I fear phaser-toting aliens, primarily because I KNOW "human rights lawyers" exist in numbers far, far greater than the numbers of sasquatches, I know what dangers they pose to both human society in the macro as well as to a dying race of primitive humans, and I don't believe phaser-toting aliens exist. Agreed, and back at 'ya. Think of our discussions on this an unqualified repeat of the Owens/Huxley public debates on Darwinism/evolution, which just happened to coincide with the acceptance (not "discovery") of the gorilla (imagine that co-incidence!)...........

I know a few state wildlife officials and forest service personnel, my take is some know ( those who have been a long time or need to know ) and some do not.

After reading through this thread, it strikes me that if sasquatch were "but a mere wood ape" and the government knew of it, as seems to be the concensus, it would have been acknowledged long ago. There would be no big deal if there was a large American forest gorilla species. Which then compels one to reason there must be considerably more to it. The foot morphology certainly seems to point to a far more human creature, as does the bipedal walking, and apparently opposable thumbs. And then there's its apparent cognitive abilities, as seen in their knack for stealth and existing on the periphery of our towns and cities. Then there's the evidence of language development, another indicator of a higher sentience. And that's not even touching on the elements of woo... But in light of the silence, its difficult to presume just how the feds view these creatures, but I'd hazard the guess that they know a good deal more about them than most of us do.....