(Historic) Bob Titmus
Bob Titmus began his lifelong inquiry into the bigfoot mystery in late 1958. Through his taxidermy shop in Anderson, California, he had heard the stories of giant manlike tracks occasionally found in remote sections of northern California and other areas of the Pacific Northwest. Titmus was skeptical about these stories until his good friend, Jerry Crew, approached him in August of 1958 asking for advice about preserving some odd animal tracks found around his work site. Crew, a logging road tractor operator, told Titmus how these large tracks were found every so often by construction workers returning to a work site deep in the Six Rivers National Forest. The enormous manlike tracks matched the general description of tracks found in other remote areas -- tracks that local native American tribes attributed to the legendary, shy, hairy giants that were occasionally seen and heard in the steep, misty mountain rainforests of the Six Rivers region.
Titmus gave Crew some plaster and instructions for making casts of the tracks. It wasn't long before Crew returned with an enormous track cast (see photo on left of Jerry Crew holding the first cast), the likes of which had never before been seen by the general public. The press dubbed the animal "Bigfoot." The track cast convinced Titmus to look into the situation himself. In early November 1958, Titmus and friend Ed Patrick from Hoopa, CA, discovered and cast a different set of large manlike tracks in the remote canyon of Bluff Creek, 20 miles northeast of the town of Willow Creek. This event set in motion the modern inquiry that we now call bigfoot research.
In 1959 Titmus led an expedition into the Six Rivers back country financed by San Antonio oilman Tom Slick. With Slick's backing Bob moved the search to British Columbia in the early 1960's where he took up permanent residence. A second expedition in British Columbia was launched by Titmus, John Green and Tom Slick. Titmus frequently returned to northern California to follow up on bigfoot sighting reports and track finds. In 1963 he cast tracks in the area of Hyampom, California. In 1967 he investigated the Bluff Creek site where Roger Patterson obtained his famous footage. Titmus located the Patterson film site soon after the incident and cast ten tracks in the sand bars of the creek bed. The tracks convinced Titmus that the film was genuine. Over the next 20 years Titmus' bigfoot research, hunting and animal tracking ventures took him to some of the most remote corners of the Pacific Northwest. While looking around a small pond on Onion Mountain (a peak overlooking Bluff Creek) in 1982, Titmus noticed a set of tracks in the mud at the edge of the pond, just below the surface of the water. There was also a rare bigfoot handprint. Partially draining the pond allowed Titmus to make casts of these tracks and the hand print.
On July 1, 1997, Bob Titmus passed away near his home in British Columbia. He was 78. His collection of bigfoot research material, including his casts and notes, photos and other material collected over a 40 year span, was donated to the Willow Creek - China Flat Museum.*
Interview with Bob Titmus in February 1992, not sure who by, but if you know, let us know to give credit where credit is due.
