"Notes From the Field: Tracking North America's Sasquatch" by William Jevning

No history of the Sasquatch, no matter how brief would be complete without a discussion of the film taken by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin on October 20, 1967. Much has been written about this incident during the nearly 40 years since the filming. Often times, however, the facts presented are incorrect or have been changed on purpose to help support negative agendas attempting to prove the film was a hoax.

The following is from "Notes From the Field: Tracking North America's Sasquatch" by William Jevning. You can purchase the book here.

One individual even went so far as to make a claim that he wore the suit of the creature on the film footage. Another individual has claimed that his father wore wooden feet that made the footprints that were cast in plaster at the film site. Neither claim, however, can stand up to scrutiny. The supposed suit cannot be produced, nor can any documentation regarding where or who made it or the cost of such a production. As for the wooden feet supposedly used to make the footprints at the film site, I have copies of the original plaster casts that Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin made of the footprints that day in 1967, and the wooden feet don't even remotely compare to those plaster casts. Claims of a hoax are nothing more than fabrications themselves.

It is important to understand the circumstances and background leading up to that day in October 1967. The subject of the Sasquatch and what was known about it then has little resemblance to it today. As discussed in the previous chapter, reports of people encountering these strange creatures have been documented in newspapers for well over 100 years. Yet the events remained localized, and it seemed there was virtually little or no interest by anyone to learn more.

It wasn't until Rene' Dahinden immigrated from Switzerland to Canada in the 1950s that interest on the subject began to change. For the next decade, the few people who really began researching the subject actually believed they were investigating separate species of creatures. In British Columbia, it was the Sasquatch. Along the Cascade Range through the states of Washington and Oregon. it was the Mountain Devil or Giant Hairy Ape. In California, it became Bigfoot. There was little information exchanged from one region to another for some time, and separate, disconnected investigations continued. For example. John Green and Rene' Dahinden were primarily concerned with the Sasquatch in Canada, while in northern California. few people outside of those who worked on the road or logging crews knew anything about the thousands of strange footprints showing up in pristine forest areas.

At about this same time. two other men from Yakima. Washington, began their own investigative efforts. Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin met and became friends sometime in 1958 or 1959. However, they didn't become interested in the subject of the Sasquatch until the early 1960s. Roger Patterson was the most interested of the two, and he talked frequently to Gimlin about the subject. Gimlin wasn't particularly a believer, but he trusted Patterson and his knowledge and thoughts on the subject. The two decided to search the nearby mountains for evidence. With Mt. St. Helens being relatively close to Yakima, they decided to begin work there.

Of all the places along the Pacific Coast, Mt. St. Helens was the area from which most of the sightings and stories of these creatures had been reported. This made it an ideal location for them to search. If you recall the story in the last chapter about miners at Mt. St. Helens being attacked in 1924 in their cabin—this report drew much attention to Mt. St. Helens as the primary place where such a creature might be found. In fact, incidents and sightings in that area had been recorded since the 1840s.

Patterson and Gimlin traveled through this region periodically until the mid 1960s, spending time searching the forests on horse back looking for evidence of the Sasquatch. At this same time, but unknown to either man. the events in northern California associated with the incidents near Bluff Creek were becoming known to the outside world.

Also around this time, another acquaintance of Jerry Crew, Betty Allen, who was a columnist for the Eureka newspaper, the Humboldt Times, heard about the odd footprints seen by Crew and his fellow workers. She began writing articles about these findings, and when John Green and Rene' Dahinden saw her articles, they learned of the Sasquatch activity in northern California.

The footprints in northern California were not found on a regular basis, in fact. findings were sporadic at best. Documentation of footprints are recorded for 1957 to 1958, 1961, 1963 to 1964. and in 1967. Green and Dahinden traveled to northern California several times through the 1960s. whenever new footprints were discovered by work crews in Bluff Creek, and they documented thousands of footprints during that time-frame.

By the time Green and Dahinden would arrive at the site, however, most of the tracks were wiped out by trucks and other work equipment. Still, thousands of footprints were photographed, which is contradictory to what many newspapers report today as a few tracks being found—it was really quite the opposite.

Even after all the attention shown to Bluff Creek by Green and Dahinden, the region was yet to become the dominant focus for those interested in the Sasquatch.....

NOTES FROM THE FIELD, TRACKING NORTH AMERICA'S SASQUATCH 

From the most ancient time of human existence, stories of strange F • man-animals have been passed down in legends and myth. These stories have been told in all parts of the world, and accounts from around the globe are all remarkably similar. How could such stories be created, and why? " Could the collective unconscious memory of humanity hold within it lurking shadows of creatures we once knew? Fossil records firmly establish that once there did exist. a species of giant ape-like creatures called Gigantopithecus. Scientists have determined that these creatures grew to be 10 to 12 feet in height and weighed up to 1,200 pounds, this makes the possibility of giant ape-like creatures today seem possible. Notes From the Field, Tracking North America's sasquatch examines this issue from ancient accounts and legends, to present day discoveries and evidence from field expeditions.

William Jevning first found strange manlike foot-prints near his home in Graham, Washington during the winter of 1972, in the fall of 1974 he came face to face with two of the creatures that made those foot-prints. In 1975, world famous sasquatch hunter Rene' Dahinden met Jevning and the two became life long friends and Jevning conducts field research in the mold of Rene' Dahinden and continues the search for these enigmatic creatures.

The following is from "Notes From the Field: Tracking North America's Sasquatch" by William Jevning. You can purchase the book here.