Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Archive for the ‘Bigfoot’ Category

In my previous post about Oregon columnist Bob Welch’s piece on praising The Lord before partaking of bison, wild cow, nutria, lemon peppered cougar and bear, I mentioned that Welch had written a column about Bigfoot. The column is reprinted on the Bigfoot Encounters website, with comments about Welch’s column. Here it is, from March of 2002:Bob Welch: Tall, tall tales equal Bigfoot The column, inspired by Welchs reading Bigfoot at 50: Evaluating a Half-Century of Bigfoot Evidence. in theSkeptical Inquirer. Welch basically follows the uber skeptic mindset concerning Bigfoot and basically parroting their stand on Bigfoot. Commenting that one almost wants to be a “dreamer” and believe in Bigfoot, it just can’t be:

But you can’t.

Why not? Because the idea is so bizarre? Nope. Bizarreness shouldn’t preclude belief in something. People believe in all sorts of bizarre concepts, from God to gravity to Oregon’s home football uniforms.

No, the real reason you can’t believe is because most of the “water-tight” evidence leaks like your 25-year-old gutters. To wit:

And then he lists the skeptic response of, basically “no evidence” and quotes skeptic Benjamin Radford.

Bob Welch is a columnist for the Register-Guard, Eugene-Springfield area’s local newspaper. It’s a mainstream column; Welch likes sports a whole lot, and writes about so-called human interest type stories in the area. He isn’t out there at all, (I remember a column he wrote some years ago where he made insipid fun of Bigfoot witnesses, yuck yuck) so it’s that kind of thing.

He had an little moment of synchronicty the other day which inspired him to ask readers to share their interesting odd moments involving synchronicty.(Mysterious, magical or just weird? ) In his recent column Mysterious, eerie events remembered
he shares some of those responses. My favorites: the story about feral cats in Hawaii, and the coach in Harrisburg who had a ghostly encounter with his mother.

Not to pick on Welch (though I’m not a fan particularly) but in another column, as well as a very different kind of column, he writes about a wild game feast in Potluck’s food is, well, a little wild At no point during the article does he address the ethical issues; it’s simply a golly gee kind of piece about, in a surreal juxtaposition, a local country church’s annual game meat fest:

The setting is beautiful, quintessential Americana, a white church steeple rising into the sky amid trees, fields and rolling hills about five miles northwest of Monroe.

The dress is primarily, well, camouflage.

And the décor is what I’d call country fish & game: guns, pelts, poles, antlers, traps, duck decoys and two giant elk mounts, including emcee Scott Ballard’s world-record “8 by 9” Roosevelt elk — eight points on one side of the rack, nine on the other.

After the prayer, we head through the kitchen to go through the potluck line.

The whole scene is bizarre; prayer, camouflage, dead animals on the walls as well as on plates, and the contrast between the country and the gun toting hunters.

Among the food offered: bear, bison, wild cow soup, Nutria, elk, and lemon pepper cougar. And among the door prizes for the event: waterproof Bibles.

Alien Art Genre: Drawings, paintings, and other artistic renderings of aliens, entities, UFOs, and other strange things experienced — whether literally or by inspiration — by creative witnesses. If you have an image to submit, email Regan Lee at rlee@orangeorb.net with image, medium, title and brief description (direct sighting or encounter, inspired by _____, etc.)

Linda Newton Perry’s Bigfoot Ballyhoo is a blog I’ve posted about here recently; I also had turned on the “follow” feature to her blog. I say “followed” because she’s removed me from the follow option.

Newton-Perry is a Christian and has said her religious views don’t allow her to condone the paranormal. Because I have a Bigfoot blog that focuses on the high strangeness aspects of Bigfoot research, linking to my blog or supporting it, even by mentioning it I guess, conflicts with her personal beliefs.

A few days ago, Newton-Perry responded to the e-mail I had sent her by reposting it her blog:

Thank you for the good words….Regan, I , however, can not list paranormal sites. My Christian beliefs prevent me from delving into that subject. I do not believe Bigfoot is in anyway paranormal. I believe he is flesh and blood and placed in the animal kingdom for a purpose. I respect your right to believe as you wish and I ask that you respect mine. Thank you for participating on this blog and I look forward to hearing more from you.

Seems she’s changed her mind about looking “forward” to “hearing more from” me.

This is a sensitive subject for researchers. If you put yourself out there as a researcher, you have an obligation to be honest to the data. As I asked in my previous post: if your religious views conflict with data, where does your responsibility end? If you reject, hide, or ignore data you don’t like because it conflicts with your views, are you an honest researcher? I don’t know, I’m asking. I asked that question in a spirit of discussion. I had asked in my previous post, what would Linda Newton-Perry do with, say, the recent BF report from the Oregon teacher who had a recent Bigfoot sighting on the Oregon coast if that teacher had included some weird detail like, BF dematerializing in front of her? Or a UFO appeared next to it? Or any other of the high strangeness things that have been reported by some Bigfoot witnesses?

Newton-Perry didn’t answer, either directly to me, or on her blog. She preferred to ignore the question and remove me from the follow feature. Certainly her right to do so; but I wonder where that leaves the Bigfoot reports that are coming her way? What if, as I asked previously, one of those reports she’s posted on her blog contained “weird” data? Would Newton-Perry lie about it? Hide it? I think these are legitimate questions.

Since Newton-Perry writes for two newspapers about Bigfoot, has a Bigfoot blog, and has published books about Bigfoot, these questions are valid and assuming her participation in this discussion is sensible.

Newton-Perry said her beliefs don’t allow for paranormal Bigfoot beliefs but as I pointed out, not all Christians share that opinion. For example Stan Johnson (deceased) was a Christian who had many so-called paranormal encounters with Bigfoot including telepathic communications and rides on space ships.

Like the UFO subject (sans Bigfoot) religious beliefs come into things, and there’s a variety of beliefs and opinions within any particular religion. I know Christians who believe UFOs and related entities are demonic, and don’t want to have anything to do with the topic. I also know Christians who don’t believe that at all. And everything in between.

On the one hand, if Newton-Perry believes, as she says, Bigfoot is strictly flesh and blood, and not paranormal, that’s fine. Many BF researchers, as we know, believe that, regardless of their religious beliefs. But again, the question is, what would a researcher do — Christian or not — with a ‘weird” BF report that came their way?

This post of mine isn’t to pick a fight or become one of those self appointed gurus of UFO or Bigfoot research. Not me! This field, like the UFO field, has its share of the pompous, arrogant, and self-important. This field is also full of just plain mean people who have no problem openly insulting others. This isn’t about insulting anyone, making fun of anyone’s religion, or picking fights. It’s about sincerely asking questions concerning research. If you can’t participate in that then should your work be taken seriously?

To be fair, we all have our buffers and lines we won’t cross. Concerning Bigfoot, I haven’t found mine yet. (UFOs and related subjects, maybe, but that’s another blog and another post entirely.)

I wish all researchers the best, except, those that promote a kill policy. I just can’t get past that, and well, that’s the way it is.

But as always, the question that’s been asked many times by many a Bigfoot researcher, what to do with those high strangeness reports? Not a new question, but one that won’t go away.

A Bigfoot blog that I’ve recently become aware of is Linda Newton-Perry’s Bigfoot Ballyhoo. A lot of activity there, the latest concerning news of Bigfoot sightings in the coastal areas of Waldport, Siletz, etc. Exciting for me personally (I live vorcariously) since I often travel through those areas, in fact I hope to relocate there soon.

Newton-Perry is an author who writes a couple of Bigfoot related columns for local newspapers, and has written a few children’s books about Bigfoot.

About the above sightings in that area; aside from the Bigfoot sighting reports themselves, is the discussion about the treatment of reports and witnesses from the local police, which is very negative, even heavy handed. I find that interesting; why are the police (and other authorities in the area) so reluctant to accept such reports, and why are they going so far as to be rude, almost libelous, in their treatment of witnesses?

Linda Newton-Perry’s blog Bigfoot Ballyhoo has a small report on a recent and possible Bigfoot sighting on the Oregon coast.

“The Chetco County Oregon Monster”, Marian T. Place, “On The Track of Bigfoot,” by way of Bigfoot researcher Bobbie Short and the website Bigfoot Encounters.

This story is an 1898 account of “man-animals’ (Bigfoot) in the Willow Creek area in California near the California Oregon border.

About two weeks ago news items appeared about mysterious cattle and chicken killings in Virginiashowed up in the on-line Fortean realm.

Out west, in the remote area of eastern Oregon, cattle rustling is a major problem for ranchers and law enforcement. These cattle rustlers know what they’re doing; really quite an endevour given the remote and inhospitable area. See
Modern-day cattle rustlers hit ranches in southeast Oregon for article. Really something to know that the area they’re talking about is the size of Conneticut and Rhode Island combined, with a human population of 600. The article says that the rustlers know the area well; outsiders could never navigate, and so quickly.

Cattle mutilations have made the mainstream news the other day: Creepy string of calf mutilations mystify Colorado rancher, police This item seems to be making all the rounds; it appeared in our local paper, Eugene’s Register Guard, Friday.

The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.

But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools or blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.

“There’s nothing really to go by,” said Sanchez, who’s ranched for nearly 50 years. “I can’t figure it out.”

Colorado’s San Luis Valley has been the home of supreme high strangeness for literally hundreds of years. Cattle mutilations, UFOs, even Bigfoot, and a whole lot of other Fortean and weird events. Paranormal researcher Chris O’Brien has written three books on the strange happenings in the area in his “Haunted Valley” series: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, Mysterious Valley, and Enter the Valley. (O’Brien’s Stalking the Tricksters: Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Dark Adepts and 2012 is his recent work, released about a month or so back.)

O’Brien isn’t mentioned in the news item but Chuck Zukowski of UFOnut.com is. On Zukowski’s site there is a report, along with graphic photos, of the Colorado mutilations.

In the news item references are made to UFOs and aliens and the odd history of the place:

When something like this happens, there’s always talk of UFO’s and alien visits. Neither believe in that, either.

But some may look upward for an explanation. The San Luis Valley is a place where an unexplained horse mutilation maintains celebrity status 40 years after its death because of mysterious circumstances. It also has a UFO watchtower sitting on the roadside near Hooper.

Interesting this item made it into the national news stream, along with references to UFOs.

It’s no surprise Oregon has its share of Bigfoot encounters; including paranormal Bigfoot events. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the town of MIllersburg, Oregon, (about forty five miles north of Eugene) experienced some very strange events involving a white Bigfoot or “BHM” (Big Hairy Monster) with a lot of high strangeness surrounding the encounters.

The creature was called the “Creature of Conser Lake,” also the “Ghost of Conser Lake” (because of its white color) and the “Monster of Conser Lake,” the lake’s name was Conser at the time, but isn’t called Conser Lake anymore, the name has been changed and is on private property. I’m not revealing the name of the lake out of respect to the owners.

Reported as a bigfoot type creature; about seven feet tall, bipedal, white shaggy fur, the creature mystified Millersburg residents for over a year. The story begins with a story of a UFO or strange light crashing into Conser Lake in either 1959 or 1960. Soon after the strange light crashed into Conser Lake, a Millersburg truck driver was understandably startled to find a white, shaggy furred bigfoot type creature trotting along beside his truck as he was driving down the road. The driver, a mint farmer, was going about 35 miles an hour; the creature was easily keeping pace with the moving vehicle.

The creature was described as being about seven feet tall. The mint farmer described the creature as a “shaggy gorilla.” Local Bruce Hamilton remembers the creature in Conser Lake, and a story about a “young couple driving by the lake; a seven or eight foot creature ran alongside their car.”

As if the truck farmer’s experience wasn’t odd enough, another report of a tall, white furred shaggy Bigfoot type creature running alongside side a truck made its way into the news. This time the creature was seen in Telephone, Oregon, in Eastern Oregon. (I realize the town doesn’t seem to show up on maps or Google searches, as I have found, and a recent e-mail alerted me to. However, this is the name cited by several sources. Many small “towns” are not listed, also, it’s possible the name has changed, the area incorporated, or simply disappeared over time.) Witness C.A. Cissman saw a bright light approach, hover about 30 minutes, then disappear, shooting upwards and disappearing within seconds. Later, in Prospect, Oregon a logger was shocked to see a white furred, Bigfoot or Bigfoot type being, leisurely jogging alongside his truck on a deserted rural road.

Stories of Bigfoot running alongside cars aren’t new, either. A report from 1926 tells of a Bigfoot creature encounter in Yankton, Oregon: “Bigfoot following alongside a truck looking in. Sheep and children would disappear.” (UFO Casebook) It seems there was a history of bright zipping lights and white Bigfoot — or white somethings — following cars and trucks in Oregon.

Other reports of white Bigfoot creatures can be found; for example, Chris O’Brien writes in his Secrets of the Mysterious Valley about a “New Mexico cattle inspector” who told O’Brien:

he watched with binoculars a white bigfoot clamor up a rocky slope . . a witness in Washington “reported seeing a Bigfoot with large pointed ears” (p 231 Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, Christopher O’Brien)

The reference to “pointed ears” is interesting; Flix, our creature in Conser Lake, was also described as having pointed or “cat like” ears. A “ten foot white Bigfoot” was seen on the banks of the Ohio river in the 1960s. In fact, sightings of a white Bigfoot in the area were reported from the 1900s to the 1990s .(The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois, Jay Rath)

Peter Guittilla’s The Bigfoot Files contains stories of white BHM or Bigfoot like creatures that transcend the flesh and blood variety. Guittilla references an account from Fate magazine out of Peter Bottom, Arkansas. In 1966 reports of a “monster” living in the Bottom emerged. The creature was described as being nine feet tall with snow white fur. Aside from giving off a strong smell, the creature “made a sound like a radio signal . . . the signal sounded like ‘beep, beep, beep.” (The Bigfoot Files, p 86)

The synchronicity of the white bigfoots is intriguing, along with the mysterious lights in the sky. As far as the Conser Lake “monster” goes, witnesses reported feelings of disorientation, dizziness, severe headaches, and hearing loud thuds and running footsteps right by them but no source for the sounds. Some insisted they were in telepathic communication with the being, who said his name was “Flix” and was from outer space.

Flix was Bigfoot like in many ways, yet there were other characteristics described by witnesses that are strange. Flix was said to have claws and or webbed feet and hands and cat like ears.

There are some similarities with Bigfoot; the height, bipedalism, shaggy fur. As noted, there were other similar beings in Oregon scattered throughout the state. But enough high strangeness episodes take the idea of a strictly flesh and blood creature out its comfortable unknown animal category, and into the truly Fortean or esoteric. All the above noted incidences: UFOs or bright lights, telepathy, sounds with no visible source, feelings of disorientation, and the synchronicty of similar creatures adds up to something beyond a flesh and blood Bigfoot.

Notes
Janet Bord; Colin Bord: Bigfoot Casebook
Peter Guittilla: Bigfoot Files
Regan Lee: The Ghost in Conser Lake
Christopher O’Brien: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley
Jay Rath: The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois
photos by Regan Lee