Page 51 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

Bigfoot Hoaxes 51

Bigfoot Hoaxes

www.hoaxes.org

As early as the 1830s European settlers reported
seeing a large, hairy biped roaming the Pacific
northwest. Even before that Native-American
legends told of a "Sasquatch" (meaning a "hairy
giant") that lived in the region. However, no
concrete evidence exists to suggest such an
animal exists -- "concrete" here meaning
tangible physical proof such as a body, or body
part.
If a Bigfoot species did exist, it would
seem likely that at some point one of them
would die and leave a skeleton, or get run over
by a car. But that apparently has never
happened. What we have instead is a mountain
of anecdotal evidence: eyewitness accounts,
blurry photos, recordings of strange noises, and
footprints. The problem with this anecdotal
evidence is that much of it could have been
faked. Even the most ardent Bigfoot believers
admit that some of it was. Whatever wasn't the popular imagination as the name for North Bride of Bigfoot (1976)
deliberately faked might be chalked up to America's legendary ape-man. It was long Cherie Darvell was a member of a film crew
wishful thinking. suspected that Crew's prank-loving boss, Ray searching for Bigfoot in the woods outside
Wallace, had created the prints by strapping Eureka, California. Unfortunately for her, she
Hoaxes (and suspected hoaxes) carved wooden feet to his boots and stomping found Bigfoot and he abducted her. Or so she
around in the mud. This was confirmed when claimed. Humboldt County organized a search
associated with Bigfoot
Wallace died in 2002 and his family came clean party to find her, but without success. (Total cost
with the whole story. (Bigfoot believers, for the search: $11,613. Humboldt County tried
The Battle of Ape Canyon (1924) however, continue to insist the prints were to sue Shasta County to make them pay a portion
A group of miners claimed that gorilla-like legitimate Sasquatch tracks.) of the cost, but a judge struck down their suit,
creatures (which they called "mountain devils")
ruling that the search for Bigfoot had been an
attacked them in the woods near Mt. St. Helens. The Bluff Creek Bigfoot "exercise in futility.") A few days later, Darvell
The miners retreated into a log cabin, but their Shown above is frame 352 of the Patterson- walked into a nearby resort, looking none the
attackers threw rocks down onto them Gimlin film. It is the most famous frame of the worse for wear, despite her experience as a
throughout the night. The story was reported short film, appearing to show a clear view of a Bride of Bigfoot. When reporters tried to ask her
widely. However, a local game warden declared female bigfoot striding along a riverbank in questions about her ordeal, her only response
the story was "bunk." A search party found no northern California. was to scream. Her fellow filmmakers, Ed Bush
evidence of any gorillas or devils. The rocks Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin had and Terry Gaston, later released a movie
may have been the work of teenagers at a nearby set out on horseback into the Six Rivers National showing her being carried away by Bigfoot. It
YMCA summer camp who had a tradition of
Forest, intending to make a documentary about crossed the minds of a few people that the
throwing stones down the hill. Decades later, Bigfoot. By a stroke of good fortune (or "abduction" had been simply an elaborate
one of the miners, Fred Beck, wrote an account orchestrated fortune) they encountered a publicity stunt.
of the incident titled I Fought the Apemen of Mt. creature at Bluff Creek
St. Helens. [wikipedia] The footage they took has been the focus Bigfoot Crosses Highway (1977)
of intense debate. Skeptics insist the creature is On the morning of May 15, 1977, a busload of
Abducted by Sasquatch (1957) simply a person in an ape suit. Supporters people watched a Bigfoot cross Highway 7 east
In 1957, with interest in Sasquatches growing on counter that special-effects techniques were not of Vancouver. But a few days later a trio of
account of the Yeti crazi, a former logger, Albert good enough in 1967 to have created such a young men confessed that the Bigfoot was their
Ostman, came forward with a strange story
convincing costume. The quality of the footage work. It had taken them weeks to prepare, since
about how he had been abducted by a Sasquatch is too poor to allow a definitive decision to be they had fashioned resin-cast Sasquatch feet to
back in 1924. Ostman claimed that he had been reached based on the film itself, but given that make convincing footprints. They also planted a
on a prospecting holiday in Toba Inlet (British Bigfoot continues to elude detection, odds are phony witness on the bus to see the Bigfoot first
Columbia) when a Sasquatch carried him off that the skeptics are right. and get the other passengers excited. Strangely,
and forced him to live with its family. the people on the bus described seeing a 7-foot
Apparently the Sasquatch wanted to use Ostman The Minnesota Iceman (1968) Bigfoot with a strong smell. But 24-year-old
for breeding purposes. After six days Ostman Showman Frank Hansen claimed to have a Ken Ticehurst, who wore the gorilla suit, was
escaped. Ostman's story stretches credibility, bigfoot-like creature frozen in a block of ice and only 5-foot-11 and weighed 165 pounds.
and the fact that he supposedly waited 33 years
was exhibiting it at carnivals throughout the
before telling it makes it even harder to believe. Midwest. In 1968 the creature came to the (Continued on Page 52)
Even some prominent Bigfoot adherents dismiss attention of the cryptozoologists Ivan Sanderson
his story as a tall tale. and Bernard Heuvelmans, who became
convinced the creature was real. Sanderson tried
The Birth of Bigfoot (1958)August 27, 1958: to get scientists interested in the "iceman," and
While working on a construction site in for a brief time the Smithsonian Institution
northwest California, a tractor operator named expressed interest in acquiring it. But as
Jerry Crew found a series of massive, 16-inch pressure mounted on Hansen to let scientists
footprints tracked through the mud. Due to the
examine the creature, he claimed that the
size of the prints, the media began referring to original creature was gone and what was now in
the creature that created them as "Bigfoot." The the ice was just a replica. It has since become
name stuck, eventually replacing Sasquatch in clear the creature was a fake all along.