(Drawing by Dale Boswell Director, Creative Services at Bigfoot tracker LLC.)
by Frank Cali Vice President Team Tracker
For many of us interest in Bigfoot came in various methods. In the 1950's
it was mainly the newspaper articles that brought Bigfoot to world wide
attention. The first big story to receive national attention was on August 27,
1958 when a construction site tractor operator named Jerry Crew found huge 16
inch size footprints in the mud. The media began calling the creature "Bigfoot"
and the name has remained.
In 1967 Roger Patterson took the famous 16mm movie film that really became
a media sensation. Bigfoot was back big time in the news. Patterson along with
Bob Gimlin had been out looking for the creature in Bluff Creek, a tributary of the
Klamath River about 25 road miles north-west of Orleans, California. To this day
researchers argue about the authenticity of this film. Was it a
man in a suit or was it the real thing. Several years ago, a gentleman named
Bob Hieronymous claimed it was him in the suit. He claimed that Patterson
offered him $1,000 to do the performance, but never got the money. Hieronymous
took and passed a lie detector test. Patterson went to his grave saying the
footage was real. There have been some heated arguments both pro and con to this
day about the fim taken in 1967.
Fast forward: 10 years ahead in time and we are now we are in the 1970's. Bigfoot once again becomes popular in the media. The Shick/Sun Classics films draws people to the theatres with Bigfoot movies such as "The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Myth, or Man?" These films include eye witness interviews and dramatic recreations. Also that year the TV series "In Search Of" hits the TV screens with "Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy has host. Each week the program spotlights such legendary monsters as "The Loch Ness Monster which was the first show of the series. The 2nd show featured Bigfoot with interviews with Bigfoot researcher Peter Byrne, who originally was in the Himalayas on expeditions looking for The Yeti" and the late Doctor Grover Krantz.
Fast forward again. Now we are in the 1980's and the mega hit TV series
"Unsolved Mysteries" with host Robert Stack brings Bigfoot national attention
once again. Each week they do fantastic reenactments of regular folks who have had
encounters with Bigfoot, The Skunk Ape of Florida, The Yeti and more. The show
ran for years and is still seen in reruns today.
The popular movie "Harry and the Hendersons" showed Bigfoot in a favorable
light and later became a TV series.
(Unsolved Mysteries host Robert Stack)
In the 1990's various shows both radio and TV kept Bigfoot in the
spotlight. Radio shows such as Art Bell kept listeners glued to the radio during
the all night hours. Many TV movies popped up on channels such as the Scifi
Channel (Not called SyFy) and on DVD's, even video games.
Once more we fast forward, now it's 2012, a man by the name of Rick Dyer is
about to make history and put the status of Bigfoot from legendary to fact. On
September 6, 2012 Rick encountered a Bigfoot in San Antonio, Texas where he shot
and killed one.
Now we are in the year 2013 and the world as you and I know it is about to
change when the body of a real Bigfoot will be presented to the entire world.
Rick Dyer and Bigfoot will make the history books and the next Bigfoot media
explosion will happen.
I thank God I am still alive to see this remarkable event
happen.
