While no sightings of tall, hairy lumbering figures in the woods were reported in the area last weekend, Sasquatch researchers from throughout the region converged in Packwood for the Legends of the Mountains Townhall event at Longmire Springs Brewing.
Though researchers have yet to recover any solid evidence of the existence of Bigfoot — like capturing one alive or recovering the body of a deceased creature — they aren’t giving up on their search and continue to keep their eyes on the forests.
Researchers included Patty Valdez, of South Sound Paranormal Research; Scott Taylor, of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization; Mel Skahan, Yakama Nation member and Indigenous Bigfoot researcher; Barb Shupe, field explorer, Bigfoot researcher and filmmaker; and Thom Cantrall, former logger and forester turned Bigfoot researcher.
Skahan, who also runs the Yakima Valley Bigfoot Convention, contacted Longmire Springs about hosting a similar event in Packwood after a friend who lives in the area recommended it. Longmire Springs co-owner Amy Besunder said it simply made sense to host the event considering it was “Sasquatch country.”
An area resident herself who walks in the woods, Besunder said she hasn’t had any encounters, but she walks with her dogs, which she feels may be a Bigfoot deterrent.
“I have several regular customers who have seen Sasquatch, though, and had Sasquatch experiences,” Besunder said.
She added she hopes the event returns next year.
Residents from throughout the region were invited to the event in East Lewis County to share their own stories of strange things they’ve seen in the mountainous wooded regions they live in, and even sometimes in their own backyards.
The Chronicle attended Legends of the Mountains during its first day, when Valdez, Taylor, Skahan and Shupe were scheduled to speak.
While normally conducting investigations into reported hauntings or other anomalous activity with South Sound Paranormal Research, Valdez kicked off the speaker session with her own personal Bigfoot encounter story.
“I don’t believe in Bigfoot because I know they exist,” Valdez said.
Her story began back in 1974 when her family first moved to the region. While picking huckleberries with other families near Ashford during the summer, Valdez, who was 12 at the time, noticed a strong foul odor in the air.
Foul odors, often described as sometimes skunk- or swamp water-like, are often reported with Bigfoot sightings. Valdez yelled back to her dad about the smell. He responded by saying it was probably bear poop.
Then, she suddenly heard a loud grunting sound.
“I start to turn around and go, ‘Dad,’ and when I turned around and said that, probably in the distance from me to where Carol is at, in the purple sweatshirt, this thing stood up,” Valdez said.
She estimated it to be at least 6 to 7 feet tall from what she could tell, and both her mother and a family friend also picking berries saw it. Immediately upon standing, the figure began walking away from the berry pickers.
“Betty was a 6-foot-1 African American woman from North Carolina,” Valdez said. “And I heard, ‘What the hell’s is that?’”
Whatever the creature was, it was already facing away from Valdez when it stood it up and simply continued walking away even after Betty’s question. Then Valdez heard a loud whistle — her military veteran father’s signal for everyone to regroup.
“The three fathers walked back up there, and they stood around, ‘mhm, mhm,’” Valdez said. “And they came down — granted you have to understand we were only up there for maybe a half hour if that — and they were like, ‘Yup, let’s go!”
At the time, Valdez didn’t know what she saw, but she was sure it wasn’t a bear. Looking back, she believes what they encountered was a juvenile Sasquatch based on the smell encountered, its build, which she described as “linebacker-like,” and its color, which didn’t match any bears in the area.
“The color of it was the color of an Irish setter, that red color,” Valdez added.
Juvenile Sasquatch, along with entire families, can be quite common, according to Taylor. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and retired aerospace engineer, he shared some of the cases he’s helped investigate from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Many even involved cases of habituation, where people are discovering they have Sasquatch exploring their properties and looking for food after noticing weird things going on, he said.
“I’ll ask them, ‘Do you have a freezer or a refrigerator that’s accessible from outside the house?’” Taylor said. “It might be like on their back porch, or in their barn or in a shed or something like that … and they go, ‘Oh, I’ve been blaming my kids for leaving the freezer open, and the kids have always denied it!’”
From his research, Taylor believes that, like humans, Sasquatch are inquisitive in nature, and will spy on humans, observing daily habits and rituals.
“If you place your TV so they can see it from outside, there’s a good chance they’ll watch your TV with you,” Taylor said.
Leaving food out in elevated branches where only they can access it is also a common Bigfoot interaction tactic. Taylor advised those interested in trying to mix it up and try different foods each time such as berries, vegetables and nuts, as apparently the cryptids can be picky with what they like. And, according to Valdez, they’re a fan of donuts.
“Put carbs out there. Go to the donut store and get donuts. Put those out there. That’s different from what they can find in the forest. And all of us mammals love carbs,” Valdez said.
Peanut butter is also apparently very popular.
The juveniles are more inquisitive as well, often not afraid to get up close and personal with humans and their homes, he said. One even decided to relax in a woman’s hammock on her front porch, Taylor said.
“She comes walking out of her front door at about 8 o’clock at night on Dec. 26, 2012, and there’s a little one standing there holding on to the back of the rocking chair. It looked at her and took off into the dark, and they found out it was sleeping in the hammock. It left a mark there,” he said.
Aside from documenting and interviewing witnesses, Taylor also educates those who believe they may have Bigfoots in their backyards about the signs to look for, including scratched glyphs in wood, sticks arranged in geometric patterns and even signaling sounds like tree knocking along with what may be the cryptid’s own language.
One of Taylor’s colleagues, retired U.S. Navy cryptologic linguist R. Scott Nelson, said he has even slowed down and analyzed recordings of alleged Sasquatch calls and identified a phonetic alphabet they use.
“From that, it turns out they are passing information verbally twice as fast as we can. Their ears are attuned to picking up on it quick, so they’re really speaking quickly. They can speak in short little bursts that almost just sound like chatter, but it’s actually words,” Taylor added.
According to Skahan, the cryptids not only have established families but even entire networks of communication.
“Knowing that this advancement that I’ve gone through and the connections that you can make with them other than the physical, other than the hearing and other than the nasal, there’s a lot more to them. Once you’re accepted with one of them, you’re accepted with all of them,” Skahan said. “… If you’re kind to one, there is a network out there that they share, and they’ll pass on, like, ‘Oh yeah, Mel’s cool.’”
Having pursued a career in forestry, Skahan frequently camped, and noticed when more people began showing up to camping areas, the Sasquatches would stay away.
“Once you develop these relationships with them, even if you’re only out there for a little while, they know who you are,” Skahan said.
Saturday’s final speaker was Shupe, who shared multiple stories of encounters she has had simply camping out in her own backyard in Greenwater.
She regularly leaves snacks for her Sasquatch “neighbors,” and said she even has received gifts in return, including an odd yellow rock she found in the middle of her yard while cleaning sticks and debris. At first, she believed it to be a rock that was painted yellow.
“The third time I stepped over it, because I have no idea why there’s a rock with yellow paint in my yard, I picked it up and I realized it was not yellow paint, it was gold. This has been tested, and it is real gold. It’s only on the surface. I have no idea how they got it or where it came from, other than it was placed in my yard,” Shupe said.
Shupe also shared videos of what she believed to be Bigfoot sightings, where tall, looming shadows can be seen moving and ducking out of sight in the distance.
