(Historic) Western Bigfoot Society meeting report for October 1st, 2011
Meeting at the Home Plate Cafe, Patty Deitz hostess and owner. 8501 North Lombard, Portland, Oregon 97203 XXX-XXX-XXXX Patty has some attractive “Bigfoot Lives” T-shirts on sale at $12.00
Meetings are open to the public and there is no charge; although Patty Deitz appreciates your patronage. It was decided with Vice President Patty Reinhold and others that the meetings will continue throughout the winter season on the first Saturday of the month; although if the weather forecast is for snow or ice, the meetings are automatically cancelled. we do not want anybody hurt driving over frozen roads (check with me or Patty if in doubt). A social hour will commence about 6 PM and a speaker will give a presentation at 7 PM lasting for about an hour.
This was the first WBS meeting at the Home Plate in three years. We had 14 visitors in attendance, not counting two manikins in Halloween costumes that studiously ignored us. I gave Patty Deitz a plaster copy of a Bigfoot track from Texas and some old 45 records of the song The Bigfoot Legend, by Kim Olson and had a T-shirt gifted in return. Ordered a shake and a wrap for dinner, you cannot believe how rich and yummy the shakes are and pretty waitresses provided excellent service.
Our speaker tonight was Richard Grover (425-210-2709) who covered forty years of Sasquatch experience, and included some interesting reports. The presentation was digitally recorded by Vice President Patty Reinhold and should appear on Bigfootology's website.
When Grover was 14 years old and camping near Albany, New York, he and a friend were cooking hotdogs when they heard blood-curdling screams and thought at first that it was a cougar or something. Then something started knocking over trees. Grover had his trusty .22 to scare away the creature that kept approaching them, but the pair were scared off themselves and left the swamp. Grover never told anybody of this first Sasquatch-related experience. We are lucky.
Studying reports and learning about Sasquatch, Grover finally met Roger Patterson (d. 1972) in 1968, and asked him about the famous 1967 Bluff Creek film, to which he replied, “That’s a real film. I didn’t fake anything. I didn’t have the money to do it.”
After a news report of some boys experiencing Sasquatch activity, Grover explored the area around Cub Lake near Monte Cristo, Washington (a famous ghost town from the gold and silver boom of the 1890’s in Snohomish County). He did not find or see anything and went home empty handed. He was approached by the media and interviewed though, and later saw in print an embarrassing, “Sasquatch Hunt Fails.”
His next trip of note was to journey the next winter in his Swedish Volvo to Canada and to meet John Green. John graciously gave him two boxes of books to sell, hoping to increase awareness of the Sasquatch. Grover found he was met with considerable derision on this venture though – they thought he was a nut.
Rene Dahinden came to visit often and they would joke around a lot – he was very funny, as Grover mimicked his voice. Then Grover mentioned he did not think the Sasquatch was any kind of a missing link, to which Rene became angry with him and they separated.
On a visit to the University of Washington he met a Professor that told him a Sasquatch story. He had gone hunting in the Okanogan, Washington, area, and found a set of elk tracks that he was following when he came across a set of Sasquatch tracks. He followed them for two miles then all of a sudden they disappeared. He did not have any explanation for that. Serious mysterious.
This “disappearance into thin air” of tracks has been reported before by Jim Hewkin who followed similar tracks in the mountains near Estacada, OR, where they abruptly ended in the snow. A possible logical explanation comes from a Mary Green report of a Bigfoot where it was seen walking backwards in its own tracks by Janice Carter. Jason Valenti said a Skunk Ape had once jumped thirty feet in his presence. Consider then, a woods-wise Bigfoot aware of a tracker behind him that backtracks, leaps, and finds a spot to observe his pursuer. Or, it could have disappeared into another dimension (as some would believe).
Grover said Dick Hancock saw a Sasquatch jump across a road and hit a road sign near Fife, Washington. It was bent and scratched so Grover went to see the sign and found it gone. Checking at the Highway Department; they had it standing in a corner with the idea of straightening it out again and replacing it. As Grover was interested in Sasquatch, they gave it to him.
Grover had the darndest time with that sign which he showed us photos of. He took it to the FBI hoping to have the scratches analyzed for blood or something. “We can’t spend taxpayer’s money on that!” He spent his own money for a private investigator to come up with nothing. The report can be seen on YouTube, 1972, Bigfoot, Man or Beast.
Discouraged, that started a long 25 year hiatus where he lost interest in Sasquatch that was not broken until 1995 or 1996, when Grover had a call from Reggie, a rancher, that was “gonna’ shoot a Sasquatch for killing cows.” Grover went up to the cabin by Baker Lake near Mt. Baker, Washington. Asked how Reggie knew it was a Sasquatch; he replied, “There are the tracks – there are the dead cows.” He had lost 17. Authorities had been notified; police, sheriff, FBI, veterinarian. They thought there was a cattle rustling problem. The veterinarian said the cattle had been crushed to death. Every cow had a crushed heart. Finally the depredations stopped, but the rancher said they’re still there, “You can hear them at night.”
Grover mentioned helping Don Monroe in his quest to gain information on the “Hand of Unknown Origin,” by passing around X-rays. it did not help, the animal was unknown. The hand had been given to Don by the Sheriff’s Department in Montana that had recovered it from a landfill. It was not human. The University of Washington X-ray technician could only say, “Wow!” Grover passed copies of the X-rays around for the audience to see. Hairs were sent to Dr. Fahrenbach who confirmed they were not from a bear. The University of California report came back as “Doesn’t match anything we can find.”
Grover met a pretty lady (passed around photo) that met him and said, “I understand you know about Sasquatch.” She had a remarkable history having at that time 49 encounters with a Sasquatch. She did not actually see one, but whenever she went to a certain area near her home there were breaking sticks or vocal noises in the brush, and such. She took Grover along and he also heard the noises, one Sasquatch saying “Hoh” several times. The pretty lady had even nicknamed him Hoh. Something had even at one time laid a hand on her shoulder, but even then she never saw it. She was once singing in an Indian-type language. Queried she said she was singing to them. And when Grover went to the window, he could also hear the creatures jabbering their “song” in the woods.
Grover had an interesting report from Fort Lewis, Washington. At Cat Lake on the military reservation, a tourist spot, visitors found it was shut down as it had become an “ammunition dump.” Actually, according to a retired soldier (so he can talk now as the base commander put a hush order on the incident) a group of soldiers in the area had seen a Bigfoot and fired at it. It and a mate responded by attacking the soldiers, breaking the leg of one and the arm of another. The remaining soldiers responded with, “Gonna’ take ‘em out; boom…boom…boom.” And there were two dead Sasquatch. They were loaded into a truck and carted away and that is the last that was heard of the incident.
Grover had a photo of a curious rock stack where about six stones, smaller towards the bottom were precariously balanced, one on top of another. The curious find was from near Index, WA, on April 19, 2003. There was screaming in the area; same as a mimic noise that Roger Patterson had once made; it had sort of a “bark” at the end of the high pitched scream.
Asked if Grover had seen a Bigfoot in the flesh himself, he replied that while on Blewett Pass, Washington, as he was driving along a creek he saw something big and black in the a water that was sort of skinny. As he was driving at 60 MPH he unconsciously put it off as being a black stump. Then his wife turned to him and said, “Did you see that black man in the creek with the fur coat?”
We mentioned earlier that Grover was going to talk about dead cats, and here is the story he had. In 2007-2008, he was talking to Don Monroe on the phone when Don started screaming into the phone that something was killing his cats on the roof of the house. Don broke the connection and later he called back; he had feral cats that he regularly fed. They were on the snow covered roof of the house and were making a terrific racket. He had gone to investigate and found Bigfoot tracks in the snow leading away from the house, but none approaching. His cats were gone. As an explanation he offered, “Something came up in another dimension and took the cats.”
At this point, Grover opened the floor to questions (I went to the restroom and missed any). We all applauded at the great presentation, and thanked him; and he even got hugs from some of the ladies.
– Ray Crowe
