While many sightings of Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, have been admitted hoaxes, that hasn’t stopped the true believers from maintaining the hunt for the elusive mythical creature.
On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people from Lewis County and beyond visited McFiler’s Chehalis Theater for presentations on both proven Bigfoot hoaxes and unexplained evidence and encounters. Presentations were hosted by the Lewis County Historical Museum.
Speakers included Bob Antone, author, historian and paranormal investigator from the Snoqualmie area, Vince Ynzunza and Tyler Bounds from the Pacific NorthWEIRD YouTube channel, and Cliff Barackman of the North American Bigfoot Center and Animal Planet television series “Finding Bigfoot.”
Antone spoke about his hometown of North Bend. There, Bigfoot sightings were something locals would propagate to bring in tourists eager to claim the possible discovery of the creature in their own name.
One local bar owner went even further than Bigfoot evidence, keeping a polaroid photo of a severed pig's head with deer antlers sticking out of its mouth behind the bar to show inquisitive tourists during the 1970s.
“When these folks from out of town would come in and they’re asking questions about Sasquatch, he would pull this photo off the mirror and with a straight face he would explain that there were wild, saber-toothed boars on Mount Si,” Antone said. “And he was such a good story-teller, (tourists) absolutely ate it up and believed every word. That year, rangers arrested a whole bunch of (unlicensed) hunters in camo on Mount Si. They were hunting for wild, saber-toothed boars.”
While North Bend locals would use wild stories of Bigfoot to mess with tourists, the native community in the area had different views of the mythical creature and uses for folktale stories.
In 1847, natives told an Irish immigrant painter named Paul Kane there were wild, cannibalistic creatures in the area. After the smallpox epidemic and the general treatment of Native Americans by settlers, they had plenty of reason to want to keep outsiders away, Antone said.
Similar stories were also told to native children to keep them from wandering off too far, much like stories of boogeymen in European folklore. However, Antone explained some tribes in the Northwest do believe mythical creatures exist.
Antone shared a folk tale he believed was simultaneously real and supernatural.
During the early 1900s, an agent of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs showed up at the Tulalip Longhouse and attempted to shut the Longhouse down unless tribal members could prove their religion was real.
As soon as the agent issued that challenge, a creature walked into the Longhouse. The agent described it as having the body of a man and the head of a cougar.
“This anamorphic, demonic, cougar thing came in the Longhouse and just looked at him and snarled and growled,” Antone said, later adding, “and that’s the reason that the Tulalip Longhouse has never stopped operating, because of that incident with that agent.”
Additionally, Antone has had three separate unexplainable encounters with creatures out in the woods, including one where he heard a type of bellowing scream in 1988 on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail.
As for whether or not the creature is supernatural, many in the Bigfoot community are divided on the issue. Antone currently leans toward the supernatural due to his work with tribal members and personal experiences.
“I’ve seen some things I cannot explain,” Antone added.
According to Antone, some tribes believe Sasquatches are guardian spirits who only appear when innocence is about to be lost. In the Chehalis language, the word for Bigfoot, “Siatco,” or “Seatco,” represents a fearsome man-eating creature.
Ynzunza and Bounds then spoke about the legendary Lewis County Bigfoot hoaxers and their feud, Rant Mullens and Ray Wallace. Mullens, from Toledo, originally carved a pair of “big feet” in 1930 to stomp around the cars of huckleberry pickers to try to scare them off.
Then, in 1958, Wallace was looking for a way to stop thieves from raiding his construction equipment during a job he was working on in Northern California. Being from Toledo and knowing Mullens, Wallace asked him to send him a pair of the “big feet” to use.
Mullens did originally provide Wallace with a pair of wooden feet which ended up sparking a Humboldt Times story coining the name Bigfoot, but the relationship between Mullens and Wallace fell apart.
After he admitted the hoax, Wallace was still getting national attention while Mullens was back in Toledo knowing the footprints featured in the Humboldt Times were a product of his handiwork. According to letters between the two men, Mullens also claimed Wallace owed him money for the wooden feet.
“Rant was claiming that Ray had begged him to sell him the feet, and carve him out six additional sets for the price of $1,500, which is a little over $16,000 today. Rant carved out the additional sets,” Ynzunza said.
Ultimately, Mullens never got his payment. Despite being known hoaxers, both of their names are now forever tied to Bigfoot lore.
Finally, Barackman took the stage at McFiler’s and talked about why he created the North American Bigfoot Center (NABC) and actively investigates reported Bigfoot sightings. He is convinced there are even “a few hundred” of them in Washington state right now.
“It sounds like a lot of (Bigfoots) but it’s not, they’re extraordinarily rare animals,” Barackman said.
Though he’s an ardent believer who wants to prove Bigfoot’s existence to the world, he was saddened by what it will require: a dead Bigfoot.
“I don’t advocate people shooting Sasquatches, but that’s what science demands. It’s called a type-specimen or a holo-type, and that’s what they dissect and do the anatomical paper and publish it in a journal, that’s how animals become ‘real,’” said Barackman.
He created the NABC as a depository for evidence, footprint castings and Bigfoot stories, as well as a museum where the public can examine those things for themselves.
“All of this pre-discovery stuff is going to be historically significant, even more so after the species is proven to be real,” Barackman added.
One key piece of evidence now housed at the NABC, Barackman said, was the only remaining copy of Chuck Edmonds’ handprint tracing he did while helping Fort Bragg, California police officers investigate a reported Sasquatch sighting outside of a local family’s home.
Originally, the family thought “the biggest bear they had ever seen in their lives” was outside the house on a cold, February day in 1962, but when someone went out to investigate, they saw something they could not explain.
“This guy, Robert Hatfield, went outside and said ‘where is this bear’, and then he literally bumped into the Sasquatch and fell backward out of surprise, and then scrambled into the house on all fours,” said Barackman.
The police were called to respond and discovered footprints around the house and giant, muddy handprint on the side of the house. While photos, sketches and an unidentified fingerprint were taken by investigators, Barackman added the actual investigation file had been destroyed by the department as “they didn’t keep records that old,” another reason he felt the NABC was vital to preserve the evidence that still exists.
Whether someone is a skeptic or believer, they’re welcome to examine the “evidence” for themselves by visiting the NABC, located at 31297 SE U.S. Highway 26 in Boring, Oregon.
Additionally, those who think they have seen Bigfoot or discovered footprints can report their sightings to the NABC by calling 503-912-3054 or emailing NorthAmericanBigfootCenter@gmail.com.
As for those who do believe, the hunt for Bigfoot is still on.
