Is Bigfoot lurking on the Hoh Reservation?
Thursday, June 29, 2000 - By Nick Haney
For the past week, the normal tranquility of the west end community has been disturbed. Residents are locking once-opened doors, shutting blinds and closing windows.
Something has been lurking in the woods behind Gene Sampson's and Steven Penn's homes on the Hoh Indian Reservation. Some Hoh natives believe this ``invader'' is the elusive Sasquatch. Others remain skeptical and prefer not to believe. Westerners have recorded encounters with Bigfoot for only a couple of hundred years, but American
Indian folklore about the hairy being is much older, having been passed down orally for many generations, Sampson said. Most reports regarding the creature include the same description: a tall human-like being, averaging 7 -- feet in height, weighing from 500 to
800 pounds and covered in hair. For the past five days, Sampson has found two sets of footprints, which he measured at 14 inches and 17-- inches in length, 7 and 8 inches in width -- and a big toe measuring 2-- inches wide for the smaller creature and 3-- inches for the larger. Along with footprints, he also found trampled trails in a heavily wooded area, and branches and bark broken off trees about 20 feet high.
© Peninsula Daily News, Port Townsend, Washington,
Caption of photo: Thursday June 29, 2000 - Is Bigfoot lurking on the Hoh reservation?
Gene Sampson of the Hoh Indian Reservation measures what he believes is a Bigfoot footprint, one of many left in his yard. This print measures 17_ inches by 8 inches. --Photo by Nick Haney/Peninsula Daily News - 06/29/00
Two of three similar articles on the Hoh Reservtion:
Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, assistant professor of anatomy and biology at Idaho State University, concluded there was not enough factual evidence to continue an investigation.
The other, self-proclaimed Bigfoot tracker Cliff Crook, believes the evidence is so great he is headed back to gather more data. Crook, who was on the scene a day before Meldrum, said he found many clues leading him to believe the tracks were created by a Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, a large, hairy creature that has been reported around the world but is most closely identified with the Pacific Northwest.
"I went expecting to find bear tracks, but on June 30, my initial investigation led me to believe this was not a bear or a human prankster.
This was for sure a Bigfoot," Crook told the Peninsula Daily News. On June 30, he added one more track from the Lower Hoh Reservation, along the coast in the extreme northwest section of the state. "This year, we already have had 19 reports from the Pacific Northwest alone. Of those we have thoroughly investigated nine of them and learned a lot," Crook said.
Crook estimates the animal on the Hoh Indian Reservation stands about 8 feet, with feet 17 inches long and 7 inches wide. With the imprint that was left in the ground, he estimates its weight to be about 600 pounds. Crook, 59, is a co-editor of the journal Bigfoot Trails.
He's a Bigfoot tracker, a Sasquatch detective, an assembler of some 400 plaster footprints. He and his wife, Carol, teamed as technical advisers for the Bigfoot film, "Harry and the Hendersons." Meldrum, who has studied the Bigfoot phenomenon for four years, sent a researcher out to investigate the area where Gene Sampson and Steven Penn first reported seeing tracks.
Meldrum's crew did a thorough search of the land, looking for any physical signs of Bigfoot such as hair and footprints. "Our general take was that there was something going on on their properties, but it was not attributable to research of Bigfoot we have seen in the past," Meldrum said.
Crook is setting up a base camp outside of the Hoh reservation in hopes of gathering more information. "I have been in this for 44 years, longer than anyone else, and I think that this is one of the most interesting discoveries. It involves hundreds of footprints and trails," Crook said.
Posted 7-8-2001
and this article: "A Sasquatch alert in the Hoh Rain Forest"
Saturday, July 1, 2000 THE AP
PORT ANGELES -- Gene Sampson doesn't know what's been lurking in the woods behind his home on the Hoh Indian Reservation. But he knows what he's seen -- he describes them as giant footprints -- and what he's heard: "Bam, bam, bam, stop, bam, bam, bam, stop, bam, bam, bam," Sampson said this week.
His tales have residents on the reservation, near the Hoh Rain Forest on the Pacific Coast, locking their doors, shutting their blinds and closing their windows. Sampson said some Hoh natives believe the invader is the elusive Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, the large, hairy creature that has been reported around the world but is most closely identified with the Pacific Northwest.
Sampson says he found two sets of footprints, which he measured at 14 inches and 17-1/2 inches in length, and 7 and 8 inches in width. He also says he found trampled trails.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs investigated and is skeptical. "I saw some big indentations that looked like footprints, but they were not that recognizable," said the bureau's Scott Small. "There is something big going through their yards, but it's most likely a bear." Grover Krantz, a retired Washington State University anthropology professor and author of a book called "Big Footprints," said he believes the evidence on the Hoh reservation indicates one male and one female Sasquatch.
Richard Greenwell of the International Society for Cryptozoology calls evidence of such creatures inconclusive. "On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I absolutely believe in Bigfoot, after I evaluate all the data and read all the information," Greenwell said. "On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I think it's all nonsense."On Sundays, I rest."
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