Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2005 21:39:36 GMT -5
Coverage of bigfoot encourages others to come forward
James Boston
Lakeside Leader
Two photographs of prints in the snow were anonymously delivered to The Lakeside Leader with an explanatory note last week.
The photographer is a hunter with trap lines in the bush around Slave Lake.
The hunter and a friend were riding quads northwest of Swan Hills. The snow was almost melted, but on a remaining patch of white the photographer’s friend spotted several tracks running down a trail. They appeared to be made by a two-legged creature, a very heavy one with long, sliding strides.
The hunter took the photographs as his friend used his hands and feet to demonstrate the size of the prints.
In his note, the hunter says that he has seen grizzly tracks in the snow before, but none with size and weight of these ones. He dismisses the idea that they could have been made as a prank, because the snow, and thus the prints, were only days away from disappearing without a trace.
According to the note, the photographs were taken three years ago, just before the May long weekend.
“Up until this time my friend an I would never have believed in ‘Big Foot’. Here are the pictures, believe what you want,” he writes.
In addition to encouraging people to come forward with their photographs, recent news coverage of the Bigfoot sighting has also encouraged some people to go out searching for the creature.
“I believe,” says one oil patch worker interviewed for this story.
He wishes to remain anonymous because co-workers have ridiculed his efforts.
During his lunch breaks, he often takes walks in the woods looking for evidence of the Bigfoot.
Most recently he found a tuft of grey hair on a tree at about eye level.
“It wasn’t bear hair because it never stunk like a bear,” he says.
The jibes of co-workers, however, persuaded him to throw the hair sample away. Nevertheless, he retains his convictions.
He says he knows the man, anonymously referred to in a Leader article a few weeks ago, who allegedly spotted the Bigfoot.
“He’s one hell of a reliable source that man,” he says.
He theorizes that the Bigfoot has been driven east into Alberta by forest fires in British Columbia.
Other oil workers, particularly near Peerless Lake, have seen strange things, he says.
“Two of them coming in at the same time saying we just seen something that was running on two legs.” he says.
He’s not sure how much he trusts that source, however. Long periods in the bush and alcohol can cloud perceptions, he says.
One thing he is certain of, however, is that local hunters want to capture the creature, dead or alive.
For a hunter, the fame and fortune that would follow are very tempting, he says.
James Boston
Lakeside Leader
Two photographs of prints in the snow were anonymously delivered to The Lakeside Leader with an explanatory note last week.
The photographer is a hunter with trap lines in the bush around Slave Lake.
The hunter and a friend were riding quads northwest of Swan Hills. The snow was almost melted, but on a remaining patch of white the photographer’s friend spotted several tracks running down a trail. They appeared to be made by a two-legged creature, a very heavy one with long, sliding strides.
The hunter took the photographs as his friend used his hands and feet to demonstrate the size of the prints.
In his note, the hunter says that he has seen grizzly tracks in the snow before, but none with size and weight of these ones. He dismisses the idea that they could have been made as a prank, because the snow, and thus the prints, were only days away from disappearing without a trace.
According to the note, the photographs were taken three years ago, just before the May long weekend.
“Up until this time my friend an I would never have believed in ‘Big Foot’. Here are the pictures, believe what you want,” he writes.
In addition to encouraging people to come forward with their photographs, recent news coverage of the Bigfoot sighting has also encouraged some people to go out searching for the creature.
“I believe,” says one oil patch worker interviewed for this story.
He wishes to remain anonymous because co-workers have ridiculed his efforts.
During his lunch breaks, he often takes walks in the woods looking for evidence of the Bigfoot.
Most recently he found a tuft of grey hair on a tree at about eye level.
“It wasn’t bear hair because it never stunk like a bear,” he says.
The jibes of co-workers, however, persuaded him to throw the hair sample away. Nevertheless, he retains his convictions.
He says he knows the man, anonymously referred to in a Leader article a few weeks ago, who allegedly spotted the Bigfoot.
“He’s one hell of a reliable source that man,” he says.
He theorizes that the Bigfoot has been driven east into Alberta by forest fires in British Columbia.
Other oil workers, particularly near Peerless Lake, have seen strange things, he says.
“Two of them coming in at the same time saying we just seen something that was running on two legs.” he says.
He’s not sure how much he trusts that source, however. Long periods in the bush and alcohol can cloud perceptions, he says.
One thing he is certain of, however, is that local hunters want to capture the creature, dead or alive.
For a hunter, the fame and fortune that would follow are very tempting, he says.
Source: www.lakesideleader.com/newsroom/volume34/050727/story8.html
