Times-Standard Building

The office of the Eureka, California Times-Standard where first word of the Patterson-Gimlin film of Bigfoot got leaked to the world.

Travis Cover

Travis Cover, 6 feet 7 inches tall, from Brookings, Oregon, showing the sign where he saw Bigfoot on September 22, 2005 in Northern California. The top of his hand is approximately how tall the subject was. That measurement would be roughly 8 feet 6 inches tall. To the right of him and down the mountainside is the Smith River. This picture was taken by Bigfoot investigator Daniel Perez on June 2006, during a follow up investigation. I have no reason to doubt the story of the witness. Click on the image for a larger view.

OUTTA THERE!

"E.B." on his way out of the Idaho Bigfoot Rendevous following security. This photo is courtesy and copyright of Matt Crowley, 2006. Click on the image to view larger size.

Views On Daniel Perez

If I could pick my enemies, Daniel Perez would not be among them.
Mr. Moneymaker may well feel as if he's just been dropped into one of
the old Saturday Night Live "Bass-O-Matics" and pureed into a chunky
soup by the time Perez is finished. Also, given the number of folks who
have dark tales about associations with Mr. Moneymaker and the BFRO in
general, it might be some time before Daniel is done with them. Perhaps
I should write Daniel about the remarkable researcher they sent to one
of my contacts, the man who was so scared of the dark he refused to
venture outside their home after sunset.

I had the somewhat exhausting pleasure of working with Daniel in
the early '90s for a day. Several of us were out at the
near-Newcomberstown, Ohio film site where a videotape of a white
bigfoot
had been taken accidentally, appearing only in the corner of the screen
for a few fleeting seconds. We had the original photographer, a camera
similar to the one he used mounted on a tripod and adjusted to his
personal eye level, and we had the gentleman lead us to his best guess
of the exact spot where he was standing when he took the film. The
bigfoot was clearly walking down a road, then turned to his right and
dropped down a ravine into the thick forest of the area. That was the
end of the film, although several witness would come forward and state
they had seen the white bigfoot repeatedly both before and after the
film was taken. Therefore, there was obvious interest in the integrity
of the film itself, and the dimensions of the creature it portrayed.

Since I was only visiting the Ohio group, I merely stood around and
watched them set up the camera, trying to stay out of everyone's way.
They found almost immediately that human beings on that road had to
hold
their arms up to be seen from that spot, or jump up and down. They were
radioed to move up and down the road, and the curvature of the land
allowed them to be partially seen from some points and to be invisible
at others. This coincided with the bigfoot film, as the creature was
walking and as it did so it was mostly only visible from the knees up,
sometimes the chest up.

Using step ladders and tape measures, some of the prominent tree
branches in the film were measured for height, as well as a county road
sign. This gave Perez fixed points of known height in the film and it
was his hope to be able to match these with the filmed animal and
determine its height. But the people on the road were simply too short
(normal human sized) to see through the viewfinder and re-film for a
side by side comparison.

Daniel backed away from the camera viewfinder, thought for a
moment, and then shouted, "Does anyone have a 2x4?" One man remarked
there were a couple in the back of his pickup truck. Perez saw me
standing nearby doing nothing, grabbed me by the arm, and asked if I
would volunteer to "be the bigfoot" for a while? Before I could answer
yes, we were off at a fast-paced walk as he explained what he wanted me
to do. If you have never met him, Daniel is a rather *intense* man,
biting into ideas like a pit bull and thinking about two hundred and
eighty miles per hour. He is one very focused individual. Friendly and
unfailingly polite, but *focused*.

Shortly we were on the road. The distance from the top of my belt
buckle to the ground was measured, then the 2x4 was measured and marked
off at various lengths. Eventually I was on the road vertically holding
a 2x4 that had been wrapped at the top with a bright white rag. A radio
was stuffed into my shirt pocket, Daniel gave me a few brief directions
for my little acting job, and then dashed back down to the video
camera.
Presently the radio cracked, "Go!" and I walked briskly down the road
towards the culvert where it had already been established the bigfoot
had turned to move downwards into the woods and out of camera sight.

The radio crackled again. "Too slow. Walk faster."

I returned to the starting point and waited for the go signal
which
came in just a few seconds. We repeated this several times, Daniel
periodically warning me against bouncing the 2x4 too much as I took
longer and longer steps, faster and faster. Also different very fast
walks were made with me holding the board at different marked-off
levels. I eventually became adept at holding the 2x4 more or less level
as I practically jogged down the road, trying to match the bigfoot's
walking speed. They knew exactly where it was when it appeared on the
film, and exactly how long it took the big critter to move from Point A
to Point B by timing the film. If nothing else, I was certainly getting
a good idea what it would be like for a human being to keep up with a
bigfoot as it walked along. We'd be winded in a fairly short time. They
move pretty rapidly on those long legs. At that point in time, this had
never occurred to me. It was certainly occurring to me on that day as
the sweat was dripping off me and it's been a lesson I've never
forgotten.

Daniel then reappeared on the road and explained that since we
could
not see the animal's feet, we could not be sure if it walked along the
side of the road or right down the middle. He knelt down and looked at
the road's surface along with several others and it was generally
agreed
the road had been sloped to allow rainwater to flow off it. The drop
was
roughly measured at six inches from the crown of the road to the side
ditch. Daniel asked me where I had been walking, and I told him along
the very edge of the road. "Great! Now, do it right down the middle!"
Everyone ran back to the camera and I took a long gulp from a canteen.
The 2x4 by now felt like I was carrying a cast iron lamp post. I don't
know the temperature of that summer day, but it was hot. Way hot. Too
hot.

The radio told me to go again, and I sat off down the very middle
of
the county road at my half-jog, careful to keep the 2x4 level. We did
several takes of that at ever-increasing forward speeds and various 2x4
heights. When Daniel said I had eventually matched the bigfoot's timing
he radioed me that they were finished. I propped up the 2x4 against a
tree along the road and sat heavily on the bumper of a car, draining
the
canteen, and giving serious thought to what kind of body-cooling system
an animal at least four times my mass and covered in hair would need to
remain active on a day like that one--and how much water it would take
to sustain them.

Daniel thanked me for my efforts and we shook hands. He laughed and
said that by looking through the viewfinder of the camera, once I had a
little practice I made a pretty good bigfoot, the highly visible
wrapped
white rag at the top of the board moving up and down almost not at all,
certainly no more than the normal head-bobbing of a walking bigfoot.
Several of my walks had been filmed, some from the edge of the road,
some from trotting down the middle of it. Folks down at the camera site
told me that for the most part they could never see me, but that the
white rag was always easy see against the deep green of the trees on
the
far side of the road.

I eventually saw the original white bigfoot film. I never saw any
of the films that I had taken part in. I do not remember now the height
that Daniel finally settled on as being the most likely for the bigfoot
in the original film, but I do remember it was in excess of nine feet
regardless of which portion of the road it was walking on.

This left me with a profound respect for the ability of a bigfoot
to walk far distances in the hot summer daylight, and I reminded myself
they appear to be a primarily nocturnal animal. Much of this might be
simply because it is cooler at night. Even so, they must have some kind
of bodily cooling system that would chill a human being to death. Loren
(and many of you folks) would know the exact formula, but roughly when
an animal's size is doubled, its mass does not double--it *squares*.
This means that one animal that is twice the size of another does not
have twice the mass, but *four* times the mass. And every inch of skin,
every internal organ, every brain cell, and every strap of muscle
tissue
must be cooled or the animal will simply overheat. If we can assume
similar effects of overheating in bigfoot as in humans, this is
extraordinarily dangerous and would require a wonderfully developed
means of self-cooling in animals that size. This is one portion of
bigfoot research that I've never seen mentioned before, but one I think
that would be of great value to study if the opportunity ever arose.


Kent Ballard
Brazil, Indiana

"E.B." as he is widely known, or should we call him Mr. Beckjord. Here he is seen at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 1998. Photo copyright of Todd Neiss

A reporter shot this image of what may well be Bigfoot. This picture was taken in the woods near New Meadows, Idaho in 1972. New Meadows is roughly 60 miles north of Boise, Idaho.

"E.B" as he is widely known, this photo was shot in 1998 at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada by Bigfooter Thomas Steenburg. Or is "E.B." really "E.T." You be the judge. Looking into my crystal ball, I see trouble with the law in the days ahead for Mr. "E.B."

Not just all Bigfoot, editor and publisher Daniel Perez, seen in Athens, Greece, Summer 2004 for the Olympic Games. I have been to all Summer Olympic Games since 1984, when they were staged in Los Angeles.

Here is an original newspaper clipping, the Eureka, California Times-Standard, October 21, 1967, pages 1-2, which broke the story to the world that a Roger Patterson obtained color movie film of Bigfoot. The author of this most historical and storied piece is AL TOSTADO, who also authored another article for the Times-Standard on November 5th, 1967. This copy courtesy of Chris Murphy.

Bigfoot Belt buckles. Excellent gift or something for yourself. Impress your friends, and if they are not impressed, impress yourself. Postpaid $10 each. You can use Paypal to rush your order. Limited supply on hand.

Tostado, Al. “Film Of ‘Bigfoot’ Spurs Expeditions For Capture.” Eureka, California, Times-Standard, Sunday, November 5, 1967, page 28. [Poor photocopy of newspaper from microfilm. On file with Daniel Perez, Center for Bigfoot Studies. Photo reproduction is of poor quality. Transcription is letter for letter].
“Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch” -- by these or any other name, the quest for the true or false answer to the question of the reality of giant humanoid creatures on the North American continent has re-emerged to provoke thoughts anew in recent days with the showing of a short strip of colored film said to have been taken in the wilds of Northern California, Humboldt county to be exact, and purporting to portray a female of the species.
A young and avowedly dedicated Humboldt State college zoology major was the latest to return last weekend from a showing of the film to scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., where he says his conviction that the creatures really do exist has been reaffirmed.
FURTHERMORE, Jim McClarin, a 21-year-old senior from Sacramento, told the Times-Standard his conviction is so much reaffirmed that he now plans to solicit support for an expedition of his own into the primitive area through the coming Winter which he hopes will lead to the successful capture of one of the creatures.
Actually, McClarin’s proposed venture would be an intensified extension of the expeditions he’s already made in the area the past two summers, and which have been among the highlights of his four-year devotion to the widespread search for the answer.
Additionally, McClarin says he’s come back with the feeling that the Canadian experts who viewed the film expressed opinions “that were in a high state of fluctuation” with each succeeding showing.
Scientist who said they remained unconvinced that the legendary giant really exists following the first showing Thursday, later continued to hold that stand, but did acknowledge that the film now serves as a respurring of interest in the search.
McClarin said that there was also mixed feeling among newsmen who saw the film. Reporters for one of the major Vancouver dailies shared the skepticism of the several experts while writer for another newspaper in the city, while not completely unskeptical, tend to be at least a little more open-minded.
FIRST WORD of the film emitted Friday, Oct. 20, when Roger Patterson, an amateur photographer from Yakima, Wash., came out of the primitive Bluff Creek area to give the Times-Standard a breath-catching account of his incredible experience earlier that day.
The 34-year-old Patterson, who says he has been engaged in the seach for the answer the last eight years, told of how he and his Indian tracking aid, Bob Gimlin, also of Yakima, were suddenly confronted by “a giant humanoid creature” at about 1:30 p.m.
Some eight hours later when he recounted the experience Patterson was still in a high state of excitement as he told of how their horses shied, rared and bolted and of how, with no time to think of lens speeds and shutter settings, grabbed his camera from a saddlebag and shot some 20-25 feet of colored 16mm film of the creature while Gimlin covered him with a rifle.
PATTERSON described the creature as being about seven feet tall, weighing between 350 and 400 ponds and that it was standing upright with arms that hung almost to its knees.
He said he was able to tell it was female “because when it turned toward us for a moment, I could see its breasts hanging down and they flopped when it moved.”
The creature had silvery brownish hair all over its body except on its face. The hair was two to four inches long of a light tint on top and a deeper color underneath.
Patterson said the creature’s arms swung at its sides as it ambled along for some 200 yards he had it in sight “and she stunk, though her odor didn’t last long where she’d been.”
PATTERSON’S ACCOUNT was published the following morning which was also when McClarin first heard of the experience and promptly left for the area where he hoped to contact Patterson, whom he has known for nearly a year.
McClarin said he was unable to make personal contact with Patterson though he found where he and Gimlin had camped and later learned the two men had flown to Yakima to process and look at their film.
The zoology student returned to Eureka where he was joined by Rene Dahinden for the bus trip to Vancouver to look at the film. Dahinden is a San Franciscan who has also been seriously engaged in the search for the last 14 years.
John Green, editor of the Agassiz-Harrison Daily Advance, joined them to the the Patterson film and the three of them went on to Vancouver for the B.C. showing. Green also has been long interested in the work, making a personal trip to Humboldt county some nine years ago at the height of the “Bigfoot” reports then.
“PROVINCIAL MUSEUM experts who looked at a film of “Sasquatch” Thursday remained unconvinced that the legendary hairy giant really exists.

According to University of British Columbia anthropologist Don Abbott, more evidence is needed to authenticate the film shown by Roger Patterson --” reported the Vancouver Sun.
“The Legend of the Sasquatch took a giant, hairy step closer to reality Thursday night.
“A group of B.C.’s leading zoologists and anthropologists examined a movie film purporting to show a female Sasquatch -- or Big Foot as the creatures are called in the U.S. -- and not one scientist called it a hoax.” --wrote Tony Eberts in a by-line page-one story for The Province.
THE PROVINCE also reported that Dr. Ian McTaggart-Cowan, dean of graduated studies at UBC and the province’s leading zoologist, summed up the more cautious opinions when he said: “The more a thing deviates from the known, the better the proof of its existence must be.
McClarin disclosed that Dr. McTaggart-Cowan saw the film twice “and his actions on the first showing, with only a few colleagues present, was to study the film very closely.
“He measured a foot in the frame while it was stoped and measured the height of the creature as it appeared in the frame and then, using the length of the plaster cast of a footprint he determined that the thing was 6’9” tall in the frame, and that particular frame, it was leaning forward from the waist, and that if it were straightened up it would be about seven feet tall.
McLarin said that on the second viewing, Dr. McTaggart-Cowan “said almost absolutely nothing, but after the film he made several statements which he said he would not make to the press and would not make them if anyone present had tape recorders, asking to shut off their recorders.”
The Vancouver Sun repoted Dr. Taggart-Cown and other university scientists as refusing to comment on what they had seen.
HOWEVER, McClarin cited Dr. McTaggart-Cowan for a subsequent assertion that those looking at the film were looking at a male and not a female because the thing walked like a man, commenting it had a typical gorilla-like head and upper body.
The anthropologist, according to McClarin, also said he did not suspect Patterson of making a fake film, and when Dahinden asked him how he explained the tracks, the scientist answered that he had no explanation for the tracks.
McClarin said he asked the professor what about the creatures breasts and the answer was that he could not see them distinctly enough to say that they were definitely mammary glands.
ABBOTT was additionally quoted by The Sun as declaring that further information is needed before the B.C. government will aid in the search for the animals.
The Province described Abbott as speaking for the dozen or more scientists who appeared remarkably closed to being convinced.
“It is about as hard to believe the film is faked as it is to admit that such a creature really lives, “ Abbott was quoted. “If there’s a chance to follow up scientifically, my curiosity is built to the point where I’d want to go along with it.
“Like most scientists, however, I’m not ready to put my reputation on the line until something concrete shows up -- something like bones or a skull.”
FRANK BEEBE, well-known naturalist and Provincial Museum illustrator, told The Province “I’m not convinced but I think the film is genuine. And if I were out in the mountains and I saw a thing like this one, I wouldn’t shoot it. I’d be too afraid of how human it would look under the fur.
“From a scientific standpoint, one of the hardest facts to go against is that there is no evidence anywhere in the Western Hemisphere of primate (ape, monkey) evolution -- and the creature in the film is definitely primate.
“So either a large primate got stranded in North America -- or the film is a fake.”
McClarin said some 25 to 30 newsmen from Vancouver and Victoria where shown the film later in a room at the Hotel Georgia in a downtown Vancouver. The Humboldt State senior said they asked quite a few questions but appeared that they did not feel that they had to give an opinion.
PATTERSON said he shot the film in the Bluff Creek area, some 65 to 70 miles north of Willow Creek, were Notice Creek comes into it and about two miles into a canyon. He said it was intended for just a part of a documentary based on his eight year hunt for evidence of hairy, man-like giants reported to roam the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
The film begins with scenes of Patterson and Gimlin starting out with their horses on an expedition on a logging road-- a trip spurred by the finding over the last nine years of strange track in the area, including some investigated by Abbott early this past September.
Suddenly, the film starts to bounce as Patterson, who had been thrown from his horse, runs to get closer to the thing he has sighted. The it settles down and, at what appears to be a distance of about 30 yards, the animal appears clearly.
McCLARIN REPORTS that he looked at the film four separate times. This is his account.
“The first time I saw it, when I saw a sequence which was fairly steady, the thing appeared to be too bulky. It had large thighs, and also my first reaction was that it was someone dressed up in a gorilla suit because it was walking too human-like.
“Of course, I was very excited while I was watching this. Then they ran it through several times and reversed it and played back through the better scenes.
“And while I knew then that the film was not faked, it left me kind of stunned so that I couldn’t really make up my mind how to react to it. This was probably because I had quite a vivid pre-impression of it. (McClarin has carved an impression of “Bigfoot” out of a stump log as a gift to the people of Willow Creek.)
“But in the subsequent showings, I got used to looking at it and was now thinking in the terms of the anatomy which was portrayed in the film.
“I think any rejection of the film at first was an entirely emotional thing. Before this, I was convinced that there are such creatures as this roaming around and I have more or less dedicated my life, or the rest of it, to trying to find these things.
“The thing gives you a feeling of immense power as it’s moving through and, even though it is female, it affected all of s to the extent that we felt that if we shot it, it couldn’t be stopped.
“It also impressed me as being ugly -- a repulsive looking creature. Not so much in the features as in its general outline and just the fact that it’s covered with hair. It’s a human-type form covered with hair.
McCLARIN SPOKE slowly and he marshalled his recollections. “During the film sequence, you could see bare skin on the soles of the feet and on the palms and a bare patch on the upper cheek and nose bridge. You could really see anything of the eyes in the film.
“You could see the ears or nostrils, but at one point, the creature was turned and it appeared to be opining its mouth slightly. You could see a white portion in that region which may have been teeth, but it could have been a reflection of wet lips, or what have you.
“The back of its skull rose up to a crest which, if authentic, would be homologous to the Lambdoid Ridge, which is prominent in apes.
“The arms came down about as far as a man’s arms -- perhaps slightly longer -- to about mid-thigh -- in proportion to its body. The skin on the exposed portions appeared to be dark brown.
“It shoulders did not come out completely straight while the neck was very thick and the shoulders were somewhat slopping.
“It was very wide through the hips and I looked for this clue in viewing the film to see whether or not the whole creature seemed to be moving instead or a smaller frame inside of a suit, and this appeared to be the case.
“The creature didn’t give the impression of hurrying, but at the same time it seemed to cover the distance quite rapidly and I think this was due to the fact that a thicker form moving at the same speed as a slimmer form looks slower.
“My feeling is that the film is genuine, but also that any film would be adequate for proof by the very fact that several of these scientists said that a film would not be adequate proof, but they would need a body in front of them.”
McCLARIN SAID he now hopes that “the film will serve as a catalyst to spark people to support an effort to find and capture one of these creatures.”
A NEWSMAN asked Patterson why he didn’t shoot the animal, since there is said to be a $100,000 reward for a Sasquatch, dead or alive.
“There are too many people, Indians mostly, who believe these things are pretty well human,” he replied. “My life wouldn’t be worth much if I killed one.”
Patterson had told The Times-Standard he and Gimlin had made a pact not to shoot one unless it was absolutely necessary.
Could someone have known he was coming and staged a show with some kind of fur costume?
“Well, it was hunting season in there. I doubt if anybody’d be up there in a fur costume...”
AT THE END of the film, the creature simply walks off, out of sight, glancing back over its shoulder several times.
Among the uninvited spectators was a UBC student who sat atop a neighboring building, peering through binoculars and shouting a description of the film to a group of students on the ground.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?...
“I’m going back and I’m going to capture me one -- if it takes the rest of my life,” says Patterson, impatient that heavy rains have washed out the roads in his “Bigfoot” stomping grounds.
No B.C. scientists are planning a “Sasquatch” safari, but some indicated they will be very interested in any more evidence is found -- especially if it turns up in B.C.
*************************************************************************************************************
End Text of article.
Three photos included with article with captions:
NINE YEARS AGO, on October 15, 1958, this picture of a cast made of the imprint of “Bigfoot” was published in The Standard. The 15-inch ruler at right indicates the print as being one inch longer. The picture was published in actual size in the newspaper as dramatic illustraion of the story that came out of the wilds of Humbodt county to attract world-wide interest.
JIM McCLARIN, zoology student at Humboldt State College and amateur sculptor, was so affect by viewing the Patterson movie of a supposed “Bigfoot” that he is planning his own expedition into the wilds of Northern Humboldt county. Here McClarin is shown last Summer working on his “Bigfoot” statue which he carved out of a redwood stump and present to the people of Willow Creek.
ALSO NINE YEARS AGO, Bill Chambers (L), then an ENI reporter, now clerk for the county Board of Supervisors, and construction workers Ed Schillinger (C) and W.R. (Shorty) Wallace, went to the scene of the find of the imprints to make the casts. Reports of similar finds have been recorded from time to time since, though with lesser degrees of impact on the community and interested experts and scientists until the report that a strip of colored film had been taken of a “giant humanoid creature” in the Bluff Creek area a little more than just two weeks ago.

George M. Eberhart, the author of the fantastic two volume Mysterious Creatures, 2002, doubles as the Bigfoot Times Index person. Have a look at the index to see how extensive it is and realize how much Bigfoot ground has been covered within the pages of the Bigfoot Times.

Bigfoot Times advertisement as seen in the European publication, Fortean Times.

Daniel Perez, editor and publisher of the Bigfoot Times, seen in a Los Angeles restuarant in October 2005.