| Bigfoot
Encounters BIGFOOT STILL ON THE MARCH AS 'EXPERTS' TRY EXPLANATIONS By Betty Allen, Times Correspondence |
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Friday
October 31, 1958
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In this northern area of California, there is considerable speculation as to just what or who is making the great tracks. "They say" --is a favorite expression and the "they say" authorities are filled with theories. Many of those who have actually seen the tracks taking off down the roadway are split into two camps. There are those of the "confirmed school of thought" -- that the whole thing is a hoax, a wonderfully conceived hoax. On the other hand, there are those who "have been converted" to the side of the room which believes that the tracks are as read as the shoes they have on. So far the whole thing is fraught with mystery --those who believe in a hoax and those who think the tracks are real --are deadlocked. "They say" (the source of the authority who isn't sure, but talking) that the tracks are made by spacing carved feet a certain distance apart on the treads of a tractor or on a roller used to smooth the road. Is that possible? Individual measurements show some tracks to be sixty inches apart, some fifty-two inches and others at 40 inches apart. Here and there they show on one side and the other, sometimes a small mound of dirt. Sometimes the tracks step easily up or down the rough terrain. It is not necessarily in the path of a roller. In other places, the tracks are within inches of the edge of the road --in others in varying distances from the oiler rigor trucks. The ground may be that which tractors have run over. Sometimes the surface is perfectly smooth. The weight of the entire foot track varies in depth and according to the surface on which Bigfoot has been walking. It doesn't respond to the 'mechanical' explanation." The case of the wooden feet that "they say" are in existence --if true, they must be magnificent models of workmanship. Each toe is separate, tiny lines of the human foot are visible. Then one asks if the toes are hinged to give the startling realism of action, observed in the big tracks --there are those who answer with a "yes." On Thursday Morning the latest evidence debunks a lot of "mechanical" claims. That morning, the big tracks of Bigfoot were observed plunging down the side of a hill in the roughest of shale. The huge dug in, the weight --caused the feet to slide. What a way to treat someone's carefully developed mechanical handiwork? There is $1000.00, which could go to the fund for the badly needed hospital project of the Community Health Association at Hoopa, if the "wooden feet" could be located, proven to be wearable, to produce Bigfoot's tracks. So far, as quest for them has been as fruitless as Coronado's search for the fames "Seven Cities of Cibola." "They say," the men working on the construction project in the Bluff Creek area are carry rifles. The rugged mountain wilderness with its known population of bears and panthers would make it appear only good sense to have a gun nearby. "They say" no proof is available that the men working there either believe or disbelieve in the existence of an outsized man or animal. But it is always nice to have a rifle nearby. To say you believe the tracks are genuine or that you have heard or seen anything unusual in wrong company only brings a chorus of head shaking and ridicule. There should be some serious investigation to definitely determine the status of the mystery of Bigfoot. It should be solves if an answer is at all possible. Until then, "they says" and the doubters will have a picnic poo-poohing the convinced. Of course, this won't stop Bigfoot from making his tracks because he is out of earshot anyway." Article courtesy Rene Dahinden, December 1999 Portions of this website are reprinted and sometimes edited to fit the standards
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