N A W A C - Field Study Discussion

[Drew]

Have you asked the landowner if he collects and crushes hickory nuts while out in the woods?

[WSA]

To just add my $.02 on the hickory nut evidence.  I would not want to believe this finding "clinches" anyone's position, and I think Bipto is making that clear.   Still, it is does offer up some intriguing possibilities to pursue, doesn't it? 

 

Native cultures exploited hickory nuts as a huge repository of fats and calories. I've been deep in the AL woods (on roughly the same line of latitude to the probable location of X) and found rock shelters where you can still see the pestle holes in the adjacent rock ledges, drilled out over probably centuries of pounding these nuts, and others. The process involved boiling the crushed nuts and skimming off the fat and meat that floated up. This primitive marzipan packed quite the calorie punch. I've sampled some of it at a Creek pow-wow many years ago. 

 

My point being, any large creature would be sure to exploit this resource in good mast years (which don't happen every year).  If it were happening, you'd expect to see PILES of nut hulls, in concentrated areas, I'd think. The amount of meat in your average hickory nut is not great. You need to process a lot of them to get a meal.  Evidence of  a nut or two cracked would only be a minimum indicator, probably.  And yes, squirrels and chipmunks will put nuts on a stump or high rock to work on, but this appears to be crushed nuts UNDER another rock. That is going to take thumbs, right?       

[Guest DWA]

Have you asked the landowner if he collects and crushes hickory nuts while out in the woods?

...and tell him if he keeps wearing the suit and storming the cabin with his buddies you are gonna plug ever' las' one of 'em.

Edited June 27, 2013 by DWA

[Guest]

Have you asked the landowner if he collects and crushes hickory nuts while out in the woods?

They do not.

[Guest DWA]

Don't think there would be any liftable prints, do you?  Just making sure folks have thought of stuff.

[salubrious]

Bipto, do you have any trackers on the team?

 

I would think that if there is nut cracking going on, that there would be compressions (tracks left in forest debris) as well.

[Guest]

Don't think there would be any liftable prints, do you?  Just making sure folks have thought of stuff.

 

We asked Jimmy Chilcutt that a one time. He said rocks were very bad surfaces upon which to record a fingerprint. 

[norseman]

Miles. I don't know exactly, but I'd say less than ten. Keep in mind, one mile of Ouachita jungle is worth five miles of PNW forest if you're ******* it cross-country. This is obviously a place people can get to (because I did) but I only got there after pushing though much brush and crossing water several times. It isn't the kind of place someone would find themselves after a casual hike.

We have not tested anything for DNA after the hair we sent to Sykes last year for various reasons. In this specific case, it didn't appear to be fresh so, presumably, any ape DNA would be gone.

Bipto yanno I love what you guys are doing but take the Ouachita leave it as dense add devils club and vine maple and then tilt it on anywhere from a 30 degree angle to a perfect vertical wall all the way from sea level to 14000 feet.Then sprinkle in moose, elk both bear species, wolves and cougar and then recompute!

I was packing in central Idaho one year and as I approached the trail head coming out we kept seeing a helo flying around. come to find out two families had been back packing and the two teenage sons were cutting switchbacks way out ahead. The lead boy was trying to push his way through a wall of brush and literally did a superman off of a 1000 ft cliff.....never saw it and could not recover.

I will grant the south one thing though you have an endless variety of poisonous snakes!

[Guest DWA]

 

Don't think there would be any liftable prints, do you?  Just making sure folks have thought of stuff.

 

We asked Jimmy Chilcutt that a one time. He said rocks were very bad surfaces upon which to record a fingerprint. 

 

Remove the pounding rock and replace it with a huge, paperweight-density replica, coated in a layer of material that takes prints well.

 

Brainstorming, gotta do it.

 

And put a trail cam near that rock!

"This rock appears to be the murder weapon, sir."

 

"Run a make on all bigfoot researchers in the tri-state area..."

[MarkGlasgow]

Enjoy the threads very much Bipto but the crushed nut pile isn't doing it for me.

[southernyahoo]

Ahh just put a jar of peanut butter on the anvil and under the hammer. Collect fingerprints from the container if that's what you want. I suppose bears might get to it first, so should be done while the action is going on. 

[norseman]

Enjoy the threads very much Bipto but the crushed nut pile isn't doing it for me.

What does do it for you then drew?

[Guest]

Remove the pounding rock and replace it with a huge, paperweight-density replica, coated in a layer of material that takes prints well.

 

There's thousands of those kinds of places for them to use around there. 

Enjoy the threads very much Bipto but the crushed nut pile isn't doing it for me.

 

Sorry to hear that.

[Guest]

Enjoy the threads very much Bipto but the crushed nut pile isn't doing it for me.

What does do it for you then drew?

 

I can just imagine his profile on SDate (the Skeptics dating site).

 

My name is Drew, I enjoy long walks on the beach, asking Bipto "How can you be sure it isn't hikers?", and suggesting NAWAC guys are shooting at each other.

All in good fun Drew, all in good fun. I do enjoy having some opposing views around here. Guys like Saskeptic and Dmaker regularly post some very valid points.

 

Nobody said the nuts were definite proof, but as described, it is a very curious find. If I were that far out in the underbrush and came across that, it would certainly be a WTH? moment. I don't think a single body on a slab would be enough for Drew to believe that a population existed. He's the guy who repeatedly insists that every single large mammal in Oklahoma was wiped out at one point. A ridiculous claim in its' own right.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Irish73

[dmaker]

Thanks Irish.

I do have to say that as much as my position is pretty clear and my skepticism pretty stoic on all things BF, I can admit if there was such a thing as a Wood Ape and they were in that area, that the nut find would be something one would expect to find as an indicator of their presence. Does it indicate that conclusively? No, of course not. No one can absolutely rule out a human through either outright third party hoaxing, or hoaxing from within Bipto's group or some bored hunter muching on some nuts. But it's still interesting.

Edited June 27, 2013 by dmaker