Living Ape-Men

Northwestern North America

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For centuries, the Indians of the north-western United States and western Canada have believed in the reality of wildmen, known by various names, the most familiar of these being Sasquatch. In 1792, the Spanish botanist-naturalist Jose Mariano Mozino, in describing the Indians of Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island, Canada, stated (1970, pp. 27-28): "I do not know what to say about Matlox, inhabitant of the mountainous district, of whom all have an unbelievable terror. They imagine his body as very monstrous, all covered with stiff black bristles; a head similar to a human one, but with much greater, sharper and stronger fangs than those of the bear; extremely long arms; and toes and fingers armed with long curved claws. His shouts alone (they say) force those who hear them to the ground, and any unfortunate body he slaps is broken into a thousand pieces."

In 1784, the London Times printed a report that Indians at Lake of the Woods, Manitoba, had captured a "huge, manlike, hair-covered" creature (Shackley 1983, p. 35).

Describing the Spokane Indians of the Pacific Northwest, Elkanah Walker, a missionary who lived among them for 9 years, wrote in 1840: "They believe in the existence of a race of giants which inhabit a certain mountain, off to the west of us. This mountain is covered with perpetual snow. They inhabit its top. ... They hunt and do all their work in the night. They are men stealers. They come to people's lodges in the night, when the people are asleep and take them and put them under their skins and take them to their place of abode without their even awakening.... They say their track is about a foot and a half long.... They frequently come in the night and steal their salmon from their nets and eat them raw. If the people are awake they always know when they are coming very near by the smell which is most intolerable" (Drury 1976, pp. 122-123).

Indians from the Columbia River region of the north-western United States produced rock carvings that resembled the heads of apes. Anthropologist Grover Krantz (1982, p. 97) showed photographs of the heads to a number of scientists and noted: "Zoologists who did not know their source unanimously declared them to be representative of nonhuman, higher primates; those who knew the source insisted they must be something else!" Whatever the carvings may actually represent, Krantz's findings are significant. Preconceptions seem to determine what scientists are prepared to see, and one thing most scientists are definitely not prepared to see is apelike creatures in the American Northwest.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt included an intriguing wildman report in his book The Wilderness Hunter (1906, pp. 255-261). The incident took place in the Bitterroot Mountains, between Idaho and Montana. Wildman reports still come out of this region.

In the early to middle 1800s, a trapper named Bauman and his partner were exploring a particularly wild and lonely pass, through which ran a stream said to have many beaver. The two trappers set up camp late one afternoon and went out to explore for a couple of hours. Returning at dusk, they found that something had scattered their belongings around and had in "sheer wantonness" destroyed their lean-to. They rebuilt their lean-to, made supper, and then studied the footprints left by the beast. They noticed, quite to their surprise, that the malicious intruder had apparently walked off on two feet (bears usually go on all fours). This was a bit unsettling, but at last they managed to fall asleep under the lean-to.

Around midnight, they were awakened by some noise and saw a huge body standing at the opening of the lean-to. Their nostrils were assailed by a "strong wild- beast odor." Bauman fired a couple of shots at the creature. They figured he did not hit it, because they heard it move away through the woods.

The next day, the creature again ravaged the camp while Bauman and his partner were checking their traps. They found a trail of prints in the soft dirt, and these confirmed once more that their assailant, unlike a bear, had walked off on just two feet. That evening, they set up a roaring fire, which they kept going all night. Around midnight, the creature was heard moving through the woods, and it several times "uttered a harsh grating, long-drawn moan." The following morning, Bauman and his partner decided to leave, but first they wanted to check their traps. As they moved through the forest, they sensed they were being followed. Roosevelt (1906, p. 259) said, "In the high, bright sunlight their fears seemed absurd to the two armed men, accustomed as they were, through long years of lonely wandering in the wilderness, to face every kind of danger from man, brute, or element." Bauman's partner returned to the camp before he did. When Bauman finally arrived, he found his partner dead. Said Roosevelt (1906, p. 260): "The footprints of the unknown beast-creature, printed deep in the soft soil, told the whole story."

Roosevelt had some thoughts about the episode. He wrote of Bauman: "he was of German ancestry, and in childhood had doubtless been saturated with all kinds of ghost and goblin lore, so that many fearsome superstitions were latent in his mind; besides he knew well the stories told by Indian medicine men in their winter camps, of the snow-walkers, and the spectres, and the formless evil beings that haunt the forest depths, and dog and waylay the lonely wanderer who after nightfall passes through the regions where they lurk; and it may be that when overcome by the horror of the fate that befell his friend, and when oppressed by the awful dread of the unknown, he grew to attribute, both at the time and still more in remembrance, weird and elfin traits to what was merely some abnormally wicked and cunning wild beast; but whether this was so or not, no man can say" (Roosevelt 1906, pp. 254-255).

Roosevelt's psychological explanation of Bauman's tale is typical of the reasoning presently applied by those who have no desire to add wildmen to the North American faunal list. In this case, because of the vagueness of the account, it is not easy to offer counterarguments. Bauman did not get a clear look at the creature. But one might wonder what known large North America mammal typically prowls about on two feet rather than four? Bears will stand for a short time on two legs, but are not known to move any great distance in bipedal fashion. If the creature really was a bear, Bauman, an experienced backwoodsman, should have been able to identify it as such from the footprints, which he closely inspected. But he did not. What sort of animal could have made the footprints? Roosevelt (1906, p. 261) said that Bauman believed "the creature with which he had to deal was something either half-human or half devil, some great goblin-beast."

Taken on its own, the Bauman story is not very impressive as evidence for the existence of wildmen in North America, but when considered along with the more substantive reports it acquires greater significance.

On July 4, 1884, the Colonist, a newspaper published in Victoria, British Columbia, carried a story titled: "What is it? A strange creature captured above Yale. A British Columbian Gorilla." According to the article, Ned Austin, a railway engineer, spotted a humanlike creature ahead of him on the tracks, blew the whistle, and stopped. The creature darted up the side of a hill, with several railway employees in pursuit. After capturing the animal, described as "half man and half beast" (Shackley 1983, p. 35), the railway employees turned him over to Mr. George Tilbury.

The Colonist reported: "'Jacko', as the creature has been called by his capturers, is something of the gorilla type, standing about four feet seven inches in height and weighing 127 pounds. He has long, black, strong hair and resembles a human being with one exception, his entire body, excepting his hands (or paws) and feet is covered with glossy hair about one inch long. His forearm is much longer than a man's forearm, and he possesses extraordinary strength" (Shackley 1983,p.35).

The paper added (Shackley 1983, p. 36): "Mr. Thos. White and Mr. Gouin, C.E., as well as Mr. Major, who kept a small store about half a mile west of the tunnel during the past two years, have mentioned seeing a curious creature at different points between Camps 13 and 17, but no attention was paid to their remarks as people came to the conclusion that they had seen either a bear or a stray Indian dog. Who can unravel the mystery that surrounds Jacko? Does he belong to a species hitherto unknown in this part of the continent?"

That the creature was not a gorilla seems clear — its weight was too small. Some might suppose that Jacko was a chimpanzee. But this idea was apparently considered and rejected by persons who were familiar with Jacko. Sanderson (1961, p. 27) mentioned "a comment made in another paper shortly after the original story was published, and which asked ... how anybody could suggest that this 'Jacko' could have been a chimpanzee that had escaped from a circus." Was the whole story perhaps a hoax? Myra Shackley thought not. She noted: "The newspaper account of Jacko was subsequently confirmed by an old man, August Castle, who was a child in the town at the time. The fate of the captive is not known, although some said that he (accompanied by Mr. Tilbury) was shipped east by rail in a cage on the way to be exhibited in a side-show, but died in transit" (Shackley 1983, p. 36).

Furthermore, there were additional reports of creatures like Jacko from the same region. Zoologist Ivan Sanderson (1961, p. 29) said about Jacko in one of his collections of wildman evidence: "one of his species had been reported from the same area by Mr. Alexander Caulfield Anderson, a well-known explorer and an executive of the Hudson's Bay Company, who was doing a 'survey' of the newly opened territory and seeking a feasible trade route through it for his company. He reported just such hairy humanoids as having hurled rocks down upon him and his surveying party from more than one slope. That was in 1864." In 1901, Mike King, a well-known lumberman, was working in an isolated region in northern Vancouver Island. He had to work alone. His native American employees refused to accompany him, fearing that the dreaded wildman of the woods lived there. Once, as King came over a ridge, he spotted a large humanlike creature covered with reddish brown fur. On the bank of a creek, the creature was washing some roots and placing them in two orderly piles beside him. The creature then left, running like a human being. King said: "His arms were peculiarly long and used freely in climbing and bush-running." Footprints observed by King were distinctly human, except for the "phenomenally long and spreading toes"(Sanderson 1961,pp. 34-35).

In 1941, several members of the Chapman family encountered a wildman at Ruby Creek, British Columbia. In 1959, Ivan Sanderson interviewed the Chapmans, who were native Americans, about what happened. On a sunny summer afternoon, Mrs. Chapman's oldest son alerted her to the presence of a large animal coming down out of the woods near their home. At first, she thought it was a large bear. But then, much to her horror, she saw that it was a gigantic man covered all over with yellow-brown hair. The hair was about 4 inches long. The creature moved directly towards the house, and Mrs. Chapman rounded up her three children and fled downstream to the village.

She estimated that the creature was about 7.5 feet tall. It had a relatively small head and a short, thick neck — practically no neck at all. Its body was completely human in shape, except the chest was immensely thick and the arms unusually long. Its shoulders were extremely wide. The naked regions of its face and its hands were much darker than the hair and appeared to be nearly black.

When Mr. Chapman returned home, a couple of hours after his wife had fled, he saw huge humanlike footprints all around the house. He was greatly alarmed, because, like almost all the native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, he had heard from childhood about the "big wild men of the mountains" (Sanderson 1961,p. 68). For the next week, giant humanlike footprints were found every day.

Moreover, said Sanderson, the Chapmans described the "strange gurgling whistle" emitted by the creature. According to Sanderson, this cry seemed identical to that heard by other persons in connection with similar creatures elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

In October of 1955, Mr. William Roe, who had spent much of his life hunting wild animals and observing their habits, encountered a wildman (Green 1978, pp. 53-56). The incident took place near a little town called Tete Jaune Cache in British Columbia. One day, said Roe in a sworn statement, he climbed up Mica Mountain to an old deserted mine and saw, at a distance of about 75 yards, what he first took to be a bear. When the creature stepped out into a clearing, Roe realized that it was something different: "My first impression was of a huge man, about six feet tall, almost three feet wide, and probably weighing somewhere near three hundred pounds. It was covered from head to foot with dark brown silvertipped hair. But as it came closer I saw by its breasts that it was female. And yet, its torso was not curved like a female's. Its broad frame was straight from shoulder to hip. Its arms were much thicker than a man's arms, and longer, reaching almost to its knees. Its feet were broader proportionately than a man's, about five inches wide at the front and tapering to much thinner heels. When it walked it placed the heel of its foot down first, and I could see the grey-brown skin or hide on the soles of its feet" (Green 1978, pp. 53-55).

"It came to the edge of the bush I was hiding in, within twenty feet of me, and squatted down on its haunches," said Roe. "Reaching out its hands it pulled the branches of bushes toward it and stripped the leaves with its teeth. Its lips curled flexibly around the leaves as it ate. I was close enough to see that its teeth were white and even.... The head was higher at the back than at the front. The nose was broad and flat. The lips and chin protruded farther than its nose. But the hair that covered it, leaving bare only the parts of its face around the mouth, nose and ears, made it resemble an animal as much as a human. None of this hair, even on the back of its head, was longer than an inch, and that on its face was much shorter. Its ears were shaped like a human's ears. But its eyes were small and black like a bear's. And its neck also was unhuman. Thicker and shorter than any man's I had ever seen."

After a few minutes the creature became aware of Roe's presence in the bushes and departed. It was not exactly afraid but was apparently unwilling to have contact with a human being (Green 1978, p. 55).

In 1967, in the Bluff Creek region of Northern California, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin managed to shoot a short color film of a female Sasquatch. They also made casts of her footprints. These prints, which were 14 inches long, were 5.5 inches wide at the ball and 4 inches wide at the heel (Green 1978, p. 118).

Several opinions have been expressed about the film. While some authorities have said it is an outright fake, others have said they think it provides good evidence in favor of the reality of the Sasquatch. Mixed opinions have also been put forward. Dr. D. W. Grieve, an anatomist specializing in human walking, studied the film and had this to say: "My subjective impressions have oscillated between total acceptance of the Sasquatch on the grounds that the film would be difficult to fake, to one of irrational rejection based on an emotional response to the possibility that the Sasquatch actually exists. This seems worth stating because others have reacted similarly to the film. The possibility of a very clever fake cannot be ruled out on the evidence of the film. A man could have sufficient height and suitable proportions to mimic the longitudinal dimensions of the Sasquatch. The shoulder breadth however would be difficult to achieve without giving an unnatural appearance to the arm swing and shoulder contours" (Napier 1973, p. 220).

From his study of the film, Grieve estimated the length of the Sasquatch' s foot to be 13.3 inches, which is consistent with the length of 14 inches reported for the footprints. John R. Napier (1973), however, believed that a 14-inch foot length was not consistent with the estimated body height of 6 feet 5 inches. In his computations, Napier, a respected British anatomist, used the ratio of foot length to body height in modern humans. He did not, however, explain why the physical proportions of the Sasquatch must be the same as those of modern humans.

Anthropologist Myra Shackley of the University of Leicester observed (1983, p. 43) that the majority view seems to be "that the film could be a hoax, but if so an incredibly clever one." Reacting similarly, Napier (1973, p. 95) stated: "Perhaps it was a man dressed up in a monkey-skin; if so it was a brilliantly executed hoax and the unknown perpetrator will take his place with the great hoaxers of the world." But then he added: "Perhaps it was the first film of a new type of hominid, quite unknown to science" (Napier 1973, p. 95). Concerning the charge of incredibly clever hearing, this explanation could be used to dismiss almost any kind of scientific evidence whatsoever. All one has to do is posit a sufficiently expert hoaxer. Therefore the hoax hypothesis should be applied only when there is actual evidence of hoaxing, as at Piltdown, for example. Ideally, one should be able to produce the hoaxer. Furthermore, even a demonstrated case of hearing cannot be used to dismiss entire categories of similar evidence.

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From: Forbidden Archaeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race, Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson (Bhaktivedanta Book Publishing, 1996).