Getting Bf Information From People Who Work In The Woods.

[georgerm]

There have been many times when I'm in the company of people who work in the Oregon woods, and I want to know if they have seen BF or BF evidence, but don't ask due to the ridicule factor. Well there are some techniques to use and remain ridicule free when the conversation is one on one. Try this:

1. Just make up a statement like "I heard a rumor about someone seeing a bigfoot in your area of the woods and do you think this is true? Let them answer, and if no then drop it or you will be labeled. If yes, then try to get their observations and events witnessed. This has worked for me several times and I have obtained information about BF in areas that I frequent.

2. Another way is to say, "Do you think there is anything to this Bigfoot Stuff?" Kind of act like a skeptic and see what they say. Do this on a one to one basis. If yes, then provide some clues as to what BF evidence looks like. Let them elaborate but cut it off at some point. My road builder friend was receptive and later told me about foot prints that he found on one of his jobs. He is a skeptic and will avoid ridicule like the plague, so one on one conversation is the best.

Tell us what information that you have obtained?

Have you gone too far and become the focus of ridicule? Tell us what was said.

[Guest Cervelo]

I asked a hunter who was tending to his dogs at thier hunt club, which was next to an entrance to the Dismal Swamp. What was the strangest thing he had seen in the swamp when they had to retrieve dogs from the interior.

He was a life long resident and said he wouldn't go in there but his brother did and twice saw a black panther.

He then joking volunteered that even Bigfoot could be in there!

I think if you sort of ask around the subject you will be shocked at what people will tell you especially if it's just the two of you!

[Guest]

I camped with my family in a state park campgrounds. Not my usual preference, but it was what it took to get my wife and daughter out with me.

The park was know for Black Bear activity.. and sure enough, some drunken camping neighbors left out a table full of goodies, and the bears did come in. I was awoke at around 1 AM by people, shouting and flashlights everywhere. A while later, a park ranger showed up with a flatbed truck with a couple large cylinder shaped bear traps. I watched him, as i couldn't sleep, and eventually walked up and offered to help him unload one, as i was interested in how it worked and was set up. During our conversation, and him telling me about the usual nightly summer escapades.. I mentioned that he probably had heard some real good stories, while working in the park. He asked me if I wanted " to hear a real beauty "? I said sure, and he told me about an older couple with a big RV, that called the office in a panic about a cooler being stolen. The ranger arrived at the site (at first light), and the man described a "bear" that walked on two legs, and carried off his large chest cooler full of meat, drinks, and other goodies. At that point I became very interested, but hesitated for a bit, but than thought .. what the heck. I asked him if he considered it could be something other than a bear ?. The ranger stopped what he was doing, and looked up at me real serious, and said "like what ?" I said " like maybe a sasquatch". He proceeded to quickly finish the trap and bate setup, and our conversation quickly went south, and he clammed up for a while. I continued to talk to him, and asked if the older couple described the "bear" in detail. He finally stopped and looked at me again, before he got into the truck, and told me

"I walked a ways into the woods, and found what was left of the cooler. It was all smashed to pieces, and there was no trace of any of the food. I never seen anything like it , but I still think it was a bear.. but don't know how it pulled it off. It must of dragged it a quarter mile. The old couple were just upset, and shook up, is all".

I asked the ranger for the couple's contact # if he could give it to me, and told him I investigated such incidents, and would like to ask more details. I tried, but he just shook his head, and told me I was asking for too much, and that it could not be done.

I think the ranger knew more than he was telling me, but soon realized he better not say anymore.. as I did not hide my interest, very well... lol.

I also asked a forest ranger.. on another occasion (about if he had heard of any sasquatch sightings), when he visited our primitive camp, on an outing. He just smiled, and drove away.

edited for typos

Edited March 18, 2012 by imonacan

[Doc Holliday]

There is value in interviewing the potential witness one on one.

kind of funny ,but I've noticed when BF talk comes up in a group, folks will laugh & everyone's a skeptic.

But sometimes,on a one on one level, the same folks will open up & admit there could be something to the BF scene.

Maybe they'll even tell you of their own experiences that they would never bring up publicly.

Then again, they could be setting you up for a wild goose chase too,lol.

[Guest Waynescod]

I also asked a forest ranger.. on another occasion (about if he had heard of any sasquatch sightings), when he visited our primitive camp, on an outing. He just smiled, and drove away.

I did the same thing once and the ranger gave me the funniest look I have ever seen and shook his head. I kept a straight face and walked out of the office, when I got to my truck I burst out laughing. My only regret is that I didn't have a video to record that look he gave me. I highly recomend trying it with the most serious officials for a good laugh.

I do think that some of them have seen things and they aren't aloud to talk about them.

[Guest]

kind of funny ,but I've noticed when BF talk comes up in a group, folks will laugh & everyone's a skeptic.

A valid observation, and I've noticed the same thing. You can even notice this in groups of people that post ..on the internet

[Guest]

Back home in Australia, one way i would ask people (not just people who work in forests etc) would be to just tell them a true story I have.

I would never mention that I myself was a believer but would tell a story of how I worked with this guy who was a normal Aussie guy, go to the pub evey Friday, played football, had a wife etc just that he was a normal guy BUT at least one weekend a month he would go solo camping in the blue mountains with the intent of finding/seeing a yowie.

I would tell this story about how the guy was so "normal" except for this one thing and then go on to tell how that now, while I may not think it's 100% real, i feel the urge to go out with him one weekend just to see if it was real.

I have had taxi drivers, random people at the pub, army helicopter pilots come out and tell me about their experience or someone they know close, granted its all second hand and I never really did investigate other than listening to their stories but it always worked for me.

[Guest BlurryMonster]

I used to regularly ask park rangers if they'd seen bigfoot (or if they thought they existed back) when I used to think they were real and looked for them. Every single one told me no. I was really frustrating at the time; one at Mt. St. Helens, pretty near to Ape Canyon, even laughed at the suggestion and told me I was wasting my time.

My dad had a friend who worked in forest maintenance (and who also happened to be on the board of cultural affairs with the Puyallup tribe), and he also told me that bigfoot didn't exist. His exact words were something like "We had a boogeyman, and white people turned that into bigfoot. I haven't seen anything, but it's a fun story."

[Guest]

One of my brother in laws works at a lumber mill in here in Oregon. Years ago he told me the official unofficial policy was that there is no such thing as bigfoot and if you said anything other wise you would be looking for other work. This policy may have relaxed a bit over the years, however I've never gotten anything other than rolling eyeballs when ever I've asked any forest worker (ranger, lumber, road crew...etc).

[Guest]

I helped Dr. Bob Walls with his theisis paper "Sasquatch and the Logging Subculture of the Pacific Northwest". We often talked about this subject. This was way before their livelyhoods suffered from the Spotted Owl crap. But it was during the Judge Bolt era. You can ask the question but until you know the threats they percieve to the way they live, they wont open up. We went as far as going to Werhauser and using their internal newspaper to ask field techs if they had encounters. These people are wary of publicity that will portray them as something other than what they are.

I once talked with one logger for a couple of years before he felt me out, knew where I stood on his type of work and the things that threatened it. He told me that one year in an off season, he was out picking pincones, had quite a bit in a burlap bag in fact when he came up on a Sasquatch doing the same kin d of thing. It was gathering them in his cupped arms.

The two saw each other and he dropped his bag and ran off. He was quite a ways away when he finally stopped running, turned and could still see the creature. It was lifting his bag and dumping out the contents. It picked through the cones and selected a few and put them in his arm cup as well, then walked away. Kind of interesting behavior shown. The story never went any further than Bob Walls or I.

Derek Randles, LeRoy Fish and me came up on a logging site security man who told us of his native american wife having a run in at the Sawtooth berryfields while on the Skookum Expedition. Said she was on one side of the berry field and the animal was on the other, both picking away. Apparently they both respected their sections of use.

I have also come across some complete nuts and can only wonder if they were not abusing drugs of somekind during their encounter.

My feeling is if someone has a story to tell and they want to tell it... OK. I don't usually ask... they ask what I am doing and then they tell there story. I have had many officals do just that. I don't come across as a reporter for a story, but as someone out there looking to take pictures. All that changed though... Unfortuneately I regularly get recognised out in the field by DNR, Fish and Game, even some loggers.

I am not a kiss and tell kind of guy and a lot of them sense that I guess, cause they tell me some pretty scary and cool things sometimes.

Bolt brings up an interesting thing... never heard anyone else bring it up though. Judge Bolt decreed that native americans had the right to fish any river with nets. Tribes began doing just that and low and behold they started making reports that they were encountering Sasquatch in the rivers they were netting. Usually late at night these creatures were spotted in the rivers near their nets and boats.

The fishermen would fish all night from a boat with a net set out. They would stand watch but often fell asleep out there. They usually fished with family members. Some of the fishermen would here splashing in the water, thinking it to be otters they would grab their rifles and flashlights and try to find where the splashing came from. Some of them got to see the creature as it lumbered out of the river, sludging through the muddy banks with a fish in hand.

Now that I think of it... its not who works in the woods that have most of the encounters that may go unreported... its the ones who live there.

[Guest]

I rented an RV several summers ago to take my kids camping in SW WA, a part of the state I had yet to explore. I had an atlas of topographic maps of the state that, every so often, displayed a bigfoot-type icon at certain locations. I never could find an explanation of that symbol in the map legend.

One afternoon we pulled into a campground, to the SW of Mt. St. Helens, that is run by a utility. The campground had one of the bigfoot icons plotted nearby. When checking in I told the woman who took our fee about the symbol and asked if it meant that there were a lot of bigfoot encounters nearby. Having posed the question in a light-hearted manner I was expecting a similar reply in the negative. Interestingly, she instead said something like, "Well, last night a couple camped here reported some suspicious activity near their trailer."

[georgerm]

Many people want to talk about BF if they have information, and they are in the right setting where others won't hear and judge them. If the question is posed directly, many times they will clam up so the way the question is brought up can make a difference. Sometimes their jobs depend on their reputation and spouting off about BF can damage their standing. I usually pretend to be a skeptic and even one who thinks BF is a joke just to get some story telling going. One public forest worker told me of a secret map they have in the office marking BF sightings. This was really hush, hush and I still want to know more about it.

[Guest Peter O.]

I don't know anyone who actually works in the woods, but I've done a lot of hiking and so have many of these folks:

http://www.trailspace.com/forums/backcountry/topics/74616.html

http://www.trailspace.com/forums/backcountry/topics/110499.html

It certainly can be instructive as to the type of reception to expect. Don't say I sent you! ;-)

--Peter

[Guest Sean V]

I also asked a forest ranger.. on another occasion (about if he had heard of any sasquatch sightings), when he visited our primitive camp, on an outing. He just smiled, and drove away.

I stopped asking Forestry officials about Sasquatch years ago, it seem to be "company" protocal not to talk about that kind of stuff & outright deny it ever happens. A couple of rangers I asked made a point of watching me from their vehicles as I set up camp and unpacked my equipment.

The only ranger I ever recieved any information from retired in the late 1990s-early 2000s, so I think he was past the point of caring what the government thought of him talking about this type of thing. The reports he passed my way were all older ones, and he never knew (or said he didn't know) the names of the people who reported them originally.

[Guest]

I camped with my family in a state park campgrounds. Not my usual preference, but it was what it took to get my wife and daughter out with me.

*snip for space*

I also asked a forest ranger.. on another occasion (about if he had heard of any sasquatch sightings), when he visited our primitive camp, on an outing. He just smiled, and drove away.

edited for typos

reactions like this (along with stories such as those told by the ranger at yellowstone) are why I firmly believe that the Forest Service knows perfectly well they're out there, but won't talk about it.

Many people want to talk about BF if they have information, and they are in the right setting where others won't hear and judge them. If the question is posed directly, many times they will clam up so the way the question is brought up can make a difference. Sometimes their jobs depend on their reputation and spouting off about BF can damage their standing.

This happened to a friend of mine. He got in big trouble at work after contacting an investigator for help with a problem he was having with a BF and the guy called his workplace looking to make contact with him and told his boss WHY he was looking for him. My friend got called on the carpet for that because the firm didn't want it's reputation tarnished by having it's name associated with BF in any way, shape or form.

One public forest worker told me of a secret map they have in the office marking BF sightings. This was really hush, hush and I still want to know more about it.

That is an oft-repeated claim. It wouldn't surprise me.

I would also expect that some police/sheriff departments probably have some interesting cases in their files that they refuse to talk about.

I don't know anyone who actually works in the woods, but I've done a lot of hiking and so have many of these folks:

http://www.trailspac...pics/74616.html

http://www.trailspac...ics/110499.html

It certainly can be instructive as to the type of reception to expect. Don't say I sent you! ;-)

--Peter

I didn't get further than the first page of the first link and I saw the fallacies (and flat out inaccurate statements) all over the place. "whomeworry" in particular stated as fact that we had never found [laundry list of types of sign] and I know from my own research that we have found, examined and debated virtually every item on that list.