In the field of Cryptozoology,there is no more important figure than John Green. What he did was assemble the mass of reportsand became the go to guy for such reports before the presence of the internet. He then published a thick book covering thesereports, much the same way Charles Darwin did Origin of the Species.
Thus when I and others wereprepared to sit down and consider the evidence for the Sasquatch, it becamequickly impossible to bypass the sheer weight of evidence. This led me to reconsider the formulation ofscientific method itself and to develop a fresh methodology allowing us toproperly describe such data and to effectively weigh it. It was the founding chapter in my manuscript‘Paradigms Shift’
Today, the internet is allowingothers to follow the same path in order to assemble the necessary mass ofobservations that provide a starting point for any effort to collect a sampleof the described cryptid. You willobserve in this blog many such streams of data associated with such observedcreatures. As the observations areassembled, the picture becomes clearer and attention to the ecological nichehelps establish its creditability and plausibility.
Seeking sasquatch
Local bigfoot hunter John Green honoured for his 50-year quest to findelusive biped
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON, THE TIMES APRIL 13, 2011 7:04 AM
John Green of Harrison Hot Springs has been gathering evidence,including footprint casts, of the sasquatch for more than 50 years.
Photograph by: courtesy, John Green Archives
The sasquatch is shrouded in myth and mystery yet few topics of popularculture or scientific consideration induce such feelings of certainty amongthose who believe the creature exists and comical incredulity among those whodon't.
However, there does exist a middle ground trod upon by some who indeedthink the sasquatch is likely real but for whom its existence is an openquestion based on evidence from all over North America .
Harrison Hot Springs resident John Green falls into this category andhas become a legend in the field of sasquatch--or bigfoot--research since hebegan his quest to find the elusive biped more than 50 years ago.
This past weekend some of the more prominent people in the field ofsasquatch research convened in Harrison Hot Springs
The Sasquatch Summit took place at theHarrison Hot Springs North America and beyond.
In the shadows
But is there really a species of large, bipedal, ape-like creatureroaming the woods around Chilliwack , Agassiz,Harrison Hot Springs and the rest of North America ?
Green thinks so but he hasn't come to that conclusion easily or withoutextensive research and consideration into the matter.
When confronted with the most obvious fact skeptics have for sasquatchsearchers--why has no one come across a single bone of a dead creature?--theretired journalist doesn't shy away from the legitimacy of the question.
"That's very good evidence that there couldn't be any suchcreature," Green told the Times during a recent interview in his home. Buthe added there are two conflicting lines of reasoning "There couldn't be acreature like this without a dead one having surfaced. The alternative is thatsomehow humans are faking all the evidence but after 50 years now for me, theycan't do it."
And for Green, those who reject the existence of bigfoot or sasquatch outof hand, as most people do, need themselves to be more scientific about thetopic.
"In this field things are upside down and backwards," hesaid. "The people who investigate are called 'believers' and the peoplewho believe there can't be any such thing and therefore don't investigate arecalled 'scientists.'"
"As with most human communities, they run the entire gambit fromenthusiastic interest to absolute visceral and irrational rejection,"Meldrum told the Times during a recent telephone interview. "I'm sometimesamazed at the vitriol with which some people take exception to my pursuit ofthis."
A monster centennial
Green's interest in the sasquatch began when was a stringer for the Vancouver
A member of the Village of Harrison Hot Springs
Green did a story on the hunt for the Sun and the story exploded.
"I understand it now--I certainly didn't then--any kind of anofficial organization taking an interest in a monster suddenly becomes a story,a huge story," he said.
News outlets from as far away as Sweden and India
"The provincial people held a press conference to announce whichmember of the royal family was going to honour the province and the reactionwas, 'Ya, ya, but what about the Harrison sasquatch?'" he said.
It was in the context of this hype that Green and his wife went to California
He was met with serious skepticism among locals, so much so that hetold the Times if it hadn't been for the attitude in B.C. the year before theywould have turned around.
But it was at Bluff Creek in northern California
Just a few weeks after visiting Bluff Creek, Green went to see moretracks near a creek in hard sand that were very clear. He said that to test ifthose tracks could have been faked he tried jumping off a log. He found he hadto land on one heel in order to get a small point of his boot in as deep as thetracks he found.
"OK, can humans make them? Deliberately fake them? The plainsimple answer is 'no,'" he said.
Not taken seriously
For decades since first finding sasquatch tracks and making casts,Green has recorded sightings and gathered more and more evidence from all over North America .
Frequently he has garnered media attention, which has always ended indisappointment. News crews from BBC, CNN and Fox News have come to Harrison Hot Springs
Much to his frustration, the media have always given great credence toWallace's claims that he has faked sasquatch tracks all over North America while pooh-poohing claims to the contrary.
"It is all utter idiocy and I spent months trying to get any mediaoutlet whatsoever to pay any media attention to the plain evidence this was allnonsense and I never succeeded in the slightest," Green said.
And while skepticism about the existence of sasquatch may run muchdeeper than belief, there are serious and legitimate scientists who continue tohave open minds, including Jane Goodall and George Schaller.
- See the Friday Chilliwack Times for part two of when we take a closerlook at the scientific evidence as well as the local First Nations perspective.
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