Is The Skookum Cast Still Considered To Be A Potential Bigfoot Lay?

[Guest Maxtag]

Other than the great area this was cast i still dont see much worthwhile. This one borders on stupidity.

[WSA]

Respectfully...are we ready to"86" this topic? I would so move. Lots of good analysis, but it is played.

Edited October 17, 2015 by WSA

[Guest Crowlogic]

^^Once upon a time a bunch of bigfooters needed some evidence to enhance the media project that they were partaking in.  Classic evidence of tracks were not forthcoming and it didn't look promising any would.  Then they came upon the big mud patch and their fortunes changed.  The imprint in the mud was pronounced  that a bigfoot made it and the plaster came out and they had their cherry to put on top of the media effort cake.  Skookum was evidence of sorts nevertheless.  It demonstrated that plaster is heavy and it demonstrated that bigfooters are willing to grasp at whatever straw needs to be grasped in order to perpetuate the mythology.  For these reasons Skookum needs to be retired.  However it'll never die.  You can bet than in the next decades there will be stories of the famous body cast and how it was confiscated by the government or whatever is the current flavor of the month to pin  conspiracy to.

[WSA]

So that would be an agreement?^^^^^^

[joebeelart]

With all due respect, elk cross roads and use them for transit if people are not around.  And, I have no doubts other animals do so too.  So, an elk kneeling to bite an apple is reasonable.

 

I make this respectful comment with two exceptions in mind:  {1}  I'm the one who drew the road intersection map accurate to 1/10 of a mile the expedition used.  {2}  With a high degree of certainty, I think partner Steve Kiley and I knew the area as well as anyone on the expedition and even more.  So, no surprises our way.

 

Due to personal considerations Steve Kiley and I declined to attend the expedition.  However, at Thom Powells' house on Sunday {cast taken on Friday}, I was able to point to exactly where the cast was made on a map.  This gives you an idea of my knowledge of the area, and the creatures within it. 

 

Thom Powell, who is a scientist, said the cast was the real deal.  He and someone else put out the apples late at night and then in the morning, they were gone and so on ...  Thom was of the strong opinion upon seeing the cast in early daylight, with earlier elk hoof prints in the immediate area, that the imprints were not elk. 

 

And, there was one other little thing all the learned scientists, researchers, and field investigators -- except for Richard Knoll and Thom Powell-- over looked.  That was the hair patterns in the Skookum cast.  Guess what sports fans?  No you can't, I know that.  Just joking.  They exactly matched hair patterns in a photographic imprint site I found in the upper Clackamas as witnessed by Cliff Olson, Ray Crowe, and a gentleman visitor from France who I will leave nameless at this moment.  Exact ! 

 

And guess what else??  Come on -- guess -- TRY?  The hair imprints did not match any taxidermy samples we could find of elk hair.  We tried bull, cow, calf, various times of the year {legal taken} etc.  Then comes the Bellingham Conference in about 2002.  I had never gone to a conference outside of the Portland area.  We decided to go up and see the happening, and for me, to especially listen to Dr. Jeff Meldrum for the first time.  It was a big deal, especially since I didn't hear him speak in person until 2015 in Portland 

 

Conference day:  First, next to the Skookum Cast, I endeared myself to a BF group with an interest in the cast with many depreciative remarks aimed my way.  Since I was very cool about it a tall professorial man took notice and after the groupies left to hear Dr. Meldrum, engaged me in conversation about why I knew what I knew. I, not thinking, produced my photograph enlargement folio and compared hair imprints from the upper Clackamas to those in the Skookum Cast.  The professorial type, who I soon learned was Dr. Leroy Fish earnestly engaged me in deep converasation and ...  guess what again?  Come'on.  You're smart lads and gals ... Yes!  Right!  I missed Dr. Meldrum's lecture, the reason I made the trip.

 

But, I must say Dr. Fish became intensely interested in the upper Clackamas, especially when I compare it to the upper Wind River basin.  He encouraged me to outline a book, which I did.  He reviewed the concept and sample articles and wanted to co-author a volume with Cliff Olson and me.  Then he had a heart attack way too soon.  That was shocking.  Anyway, without his guidance, we finally managed to get Oregon Bigfoot Highway published. 

 

So, that is a very long story of why I think the Skookum Cast is the real deal:  Thom Powell, a scientist, says it is real.  The area is rife with BF sighting reports, track finds, etc.  And finally, the hair patterns match the upper Clackamas hair patterns, which we did not find after buying samples from several independent sources.

 

Sincere regards, Joe Beelart, West Linn, Oregon 

 

Ps:  Sure, in science, the easy answer is always the best, but probably not in the case of the Skookum Cast.

 

PsPs:  Sure, I'll attach clicks tomorrow.  Done with Mr. Computer for the day. 

 

Edited October 19, 2016 by joebeelart

[ShadowBorn]

Thank you Joe for clearing that up. I have always thought and placed it in my mind that it was an elk. That there was no way it could be these creatures or a creature that layed down like that to eat apples. Yes it makes sense that it could be an elk lay, yet it is not.  .

[Guest DWA]

Meldrum's book offers the executive summary; but considerable attention by very qualified researchers says an elk didn't do this.  One of the more prominent anthropologists of the past century went from skeptic to proponent on the basis of this cast alone; and I still haven't read a contesting opinion that explains how an elk stands up from here...without leaving its prints in the *middle* of the cast.

 

(Meldrum's book states that primates in zoos have been observed feeding in the precise way apparently indicated by the cast.)

[Cotter]

Great post Joe!
 

Thank you for the add'l info (never heard the hair imprint comparison before).  

[norseman]

Did you try Black bear hair samples?

[MagniAesir]

Elk tracks in the mud as claimed by witnesses 

But not an elk cast

 

No sasquatch tracks cast/found in the surrounding mud

But is a sasquatch cast

 

Seems reasonable to me

 

[BigTreeWalker]

Thanks for that info Joe. I mentioned many pages ago in this thread than surely hair imprints could be compared. It's good to hear that was the case. I've cast imprints of fur in cougar tracks so I know those kinds of comparisons can be made. 

[joebeelart]

Hello Norseman:  Good call.  No, we didn't try black bear hair.  We should have. 

 

I think maybe we discounted black bear because with four paws and claws on a 5 foot +/- body, there should have been some indication of one being there.  Plus, I've helped haul out a bear or three from that time of the year.  Their hair is longer and much coarser than that in the casting.  Still, a maybe.   

[bipedalist]

On 10/19/2016 at 6:25 PM, joebeelart said:

With all due respect, elk cross roads and use them for transit if people are not around.  And, I have no doubts other animals do so too.  So, an elk kneeling to bite an apple is reasonable.

 

I make this respectful comment with two exceptions in mind:  {1}  I'm the one who drew the road intersection map accurate to 1/10 of a mile the expedition used.  {2}  With a high degree of certainty, I think partner Steve Kiley and I knew the area as well as anyone on the expedition and even more.  So, no surprises our way.

 

Due to personal considerations Steve Kiley and I declined to attend the expedition.  However, at Thom Powells' house on Sunday {cast taken on Friday}, I was able to point to exactly where the cast was made on a map.  This gives you an idea of my knowledge of the area, and the creatures within it. 

 

Thom Powell, who is a scientist, said the cast was the real deal.  He and someone else put out the apples late at night and then in the morning, they were gone and so on ...  Thom was of the strong opinion upon seeing the cast in early daylight, with earlier elk hoof prints in the immediate area, that the imprints were not elk. 

 

 

 

......

 

Glad to know you are alot like me Joe, absent-minded professor type.  And I thought I was late to the party meeting Dr. Meldrum, lol. 

 

Great work, and great follow-up work with the hair patterning comparisons.  I always was fascinated by the hair patterns.

 

We still need to get out in the field together sometime......  at this stage, got some surgery planned in Dec. so it is looking a little like another season perhaps. 

 

I am going to the Sasquatch Summit in Ocean Shores next weekend though at Quinault.  Still got my Discover Pass maybe we can track in the state park next door.  Or, I hear the plywood Squatch on the road in are pretty easy to track ; > }

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by bipedalist
drama

[Night Walker]

On 10/20/2016 at 8:25 AM, joebeelart said:

And, there was one other little thing all the learned scientists, researchers, and field investigators -- except for Richard Knoll and Thom Powell-- over looked.  That was the hair patterns in the Skookum cast.  Guess what sports fans?  No you can't, I know that.  Just joking.  They exactly matched hair patterns in a photographic imprint site I found in the upper Clackamas as witnessed by Cliff Olson, Ray Crowe, and a gentleman visitor from France who I will leave nameless at this moment.  Exact ! 

 

Hi Joe - could you expand upon this a bit more?

 

What's a "photographic imprint site"? Are you able to share a pic of those hair patterns that match those of the Skookum cast so we can see the exactness for ourselves? Could you clarify whether Olson and Crowe witnessed a Bigfoot causing the hair impressions at that site or did they just see the site of the hair impressions itself? 

[MagniAesir]

On Wednesday, October 19, 2016 at 3:25 PM, joebeelart said:

 

 

Thom Powell, who is a scientist, said the cast was the real deal.  He and someone else put out the apples late at night and then in the morning, they were gone and so on ...  Thom was of the strong opinion upon seeing the cast in early daylight, with earlier elk hoof prints in the immediate area, that the imprints were not elk. 

 

Elk tracks in the mud as claimed by witnesses 

But not an elk cast

 

No sasquatch tracks cast/found in the surrounding mud

But is a sasquatch cast

 

Seems reasonable to me

 

And to be fair Thom Powell is a middle school science teacher with a degree in Environmental Education