Bigfoot true-believers unite

By Alex Breitler

Sasquatch focus of international 3-day gathering

Willow Creek — They'll come from Russia, Belgium and England and from 22 American states.

Zoologists, hominologists, biologists and fingerprint experts will flock to this town of 1,700 — all to study a creature that may not exist.

The three-day International Bigfoot Symposium next weekend will bring together not only experts to talk about the legendary hairy hominid, but also ordinary folks who claim to have had extraordinary Bigfoot experiences.

Oh, and skeptics are more than welcome.

"People, they think it's a hoax," said Al Hodgson, 79, a Bigfoot believer and Willow Creek resident since 1933. "They think it's a big charade. But maybe, just maybe, this might change some of their minds."

Seventeen speakers and special guests will discuss a range of issues as broad as Bigfoot's shoulders. There will be latent examinations of track casts, an analysis of reputed Bigfoot film footage, examinations of mysterious strands of hair and discussion of ancient "hairy man" pictographs.

"We do have people that are very knowledgeable and credible," said Hodgson, one of the event's organizers.

The most well known member of the panel, renowned primate expert Jane Goodall, had to cancel to meet with officials from the Congo on forest preservation issues.

But there will be plenty of others to fill her shoes.

Chief among them is Dmitri Bayanov, an author and hominology investigator since 1964. He works for the State Darwin Museum in Moscow.

Joining him will be a crime scene investigator from Conroe, Texas, and the head of electron microscopy laboratory at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, among others.

One of the men present at nearby Bluff Creek when the most famous Bigfoot video footage was captured in 1967 will attend, too.

Willow Creek, long known as Bigfoot country, lies within 38 miles of Bluff Creek. Yet this is the first time the town will host a symposium.

It's a good place for it, Hodgson said. One look down the main drag through town says why: The town boasts at least six businesses named after the beast, including, appropriately enough, Bigfoot Podiatry.

There's a huge statue of a hulking Sasquatch in the heart of Willow Creek, which the local Chamber of Commerce has dubbed "Gateway to Bigfoot Country."

Hodgson moved here when he was 9. For years he was an unbeliever until a newspaper columnist dragged him out to see some tracks.

Problem is, many of the old-timers who first spotted tracks way back in the 1950s and '60s have died. It's important, Hodgson said, to pass on the information to younger people so the legend isn't forgotten.

"There are a lot of people excited," he said. "There's a lot of people here that have seen them (tracks). But there's a lot of people that haven't."

From: Record Searchlight, 7 September 2003.