Seeking Sasquatch in Teton Valley

With its remote mountain terrain, sparse population and thick forests beyond the Valley floor, Teton County is very “squatchy.” If you’re not familiar with the term, then you probably haven’t seen the hit television show “Finding Bigfoot” on Animal Planet.

As the Bigfoot phenomenon has resurfaced in popularity with shows like “Finding Bigfoot,” and the recent discovery of supposed DNA evidence, Idaho and the Northwest have a long history of believers and tales of sightings. The legend of Yeti has gained momentum locally, too. Some of those tales can be found in a new book “Bigfoot Lives… in Idaho,” by Becky Cook. Grand Targhee will be hosting the “In Search of Bigfoot” nature walk this winter. Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum a professor in the Department of Biological Science at Idaho State University is an expert on foot morphology and locomotion in primates who happens to be somewhat of an authority on the scientific evidence of the existence of Sasquatch. Even Paul Raube at Longhorn Corral in Driggs has used the famed creature’s likeness in an advertisement in this publication.
The ad
“I think human nature just wants to believe there is one,” said Raube about the world’s obsession with tracking down Bigfoot. “You can probably put that toward a lot of different things. We love the underdog. We love the mysterious stuff, the unexplainable incidents.”
Raube said he and his family get a kick out of the television program “Finding Bigfoot.” He also gets a kick out of corny advertisements, so last week he thought it would be fun to play on Bigfoot’s popularity. His ad featured the infamous outline of the creature. Raube is himself a hunter and fisherman. He said he’d like to think Bigfoot exists, but believes what most people think they’ve spotted is likely a bear standing on two feet.
Raube said he’s never seen one and you won’t find one at his store, but hopes customers will come in with their best whoop, howl or scream, a technique used by Bigfoot hunters to hopefully drum up a response from Bigfoot.
 “I think we want to believe in the lore,” said Raube. “People swear up and down that they’ve seen one.”
While the ranch supply store doesn’t specialize in Bigfoot trapping equipment or supplies, you will find livestock or pet feed. And who knows, maybe that will be discovered as Bigfoot bait.
The professor
Dr. Jeff Meldrum grew up in the Pacific Northwest and has long been familiar and intrigued by the existence of Bigfoot. He came face-to-face with a set of tracks in 1996 in Southeast Washington State near the foothills of the Blue Mountains.
“I was in a position to be rather impressed,” he said.
The enigmatic set of about 25 individual prints led him on a quest for answers and has extensively explored the mountain scientific evidence for a reality of the elusive primate. He’s
traveled to China, India, and Siberia to examine footprint evidence.
Meldrum said his work is legitimate research. And according to even skeptics, Meldrum is regarded as a responsible scientist.
In 2006 he published “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.” Meldrum’s argument is science hasn’t proved that we can’t be sure there is an undiscovered species in the remote wilderness. He explained that when gorillas were first discovered it was met with criticism because it was thought all large mammals had been discovered.
“There was no room for its existence,” he said. “This is the same thing.”
This month, Meldrum has turned his efforts skyward. He is trying to raise $300,000 to build a remote-controlled blimp that would fly over the mountain West in search of the nonhumanoide, apelike creature using thermal energy technology.
Meldrum explained this project could find the proof they are looking for. As to why sightings are rare and there is not a lot of hard evidence of its existence; Meldrum said you have to consider what type of creature it is. It’s something that is largely nocturnal, solitary, and intelligent. All those factors make it a difficulty species to find and observe.
Meldrum said the technology would allow them to make observations, once they determined they’ve found a Sasquatch, about movements and behavior in a non-intrusive way.
Meldrum said they hope to get the airship, dubbed the Falcon Project, ready by this spring and begin the initial round of research through the summer and fall of 2013. They’ve launched a kick-starter campaign to solicit online donations.
The project has been approved in principal by the university. Donations can currently be made through the ISU foundation or by contacting Meldrum by email at meldd@isu.edu for more information.
The book
Author Becky Cook chronicles what she calls graphic evidence of Bigfoot in the form of eyewitness stories. The closest encounter to Teton Valley appears in Chapter 7 where Cook tells the story of Rod Bidwell’s experience in the Big Hole Mountains near the Big Burns Creek drainage.
On November 7, 2006, on his way back to his hunting camp, Bidwill said her heard a high-pitched, raspy scream. His horse froze in place and Bidwill said it sounded like an animal that had been startled, but he couldn’t place the animal with the scream. At first he thought it was a mountain lion, but on the other side of him then heard a loud whistle followed by verbal grunts that sounded monkey-like. Eventually Bidwill got to his flashlight and headlamp and pointed them to the middle of the creek where he says a pair of eyes was peering back at him. The hunter said he thought about shooting at the creature but is a firm believer in not shooting what you can’t clearly identify. And besides, he said he never felt threatened. Then, he thought maybe he blinked and suddenly the eyes disappeared.
After the trip, Bidwill talked with ISU professor Meldrum and was convinced that he had actually seen a pair of Bigfoot, but he wanted more proof. He took his son and tried to recreate where he spotted the creatures. They found a footprint and that was all the proof he needed. Cook quotes Bidwill as saying “after learning all I could about these animals for the last few years, I’m 100 percent sure they were Bigfoot. I wouldn’t have traded this experience for the biggest bull elk in Idaho. I will never forget it. If this was some type of cosmic test, I think I passed it that night.”

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