Saturday

Grants Pass Daily Courier Saturday, July 26, 2008

8B

Matthew
Johnson
stops to
remember
the exact
spot on the
trail above
the Oregon
Caves
National
Monument
where he
says he saw
Bigfoot
eight years
ago. Inset at
far left, a
frame from
the famous
Patterson
film pur-
ports to
show Big-
foot him-
self.
TIMOTHY BULLARD
Daily Courier

BELIEVE IT OR NOT “whoa, whoaa, whoaa” sounds,

Eight years after Bigfoot sighting,
Matthew Johnson is still convinced
— and he has company
dragged them into limestone everything happens for a rea-
By Jeff Duewel
of the Daily Courier and smelled a skunk-like stench. caves. son. He said he had nothing to
While occupied off the trail, “If Bigfoot exist, they are gain from going public with his
Eight years ago this month Johnson got the scare of his life. very rare, they have a long life claim.
Matthew Johnson’s life changed “I saw movement, turned and expectancy, reproduce infre- “I was accused of trying to
for good when, on a walk with saw Bigfoot leap from the pages quently as do other apes, and drum up business,” Johnson
his wife and children, he saw of mythology and legend and die a natural death.” said. “Hello. Is that a good strat-
Bigfoot. into reality,” he What constitutes a viable egy to get clients? I work every
The 6-foot-9, Encounter at the said. Johnson population is not well under- day to deal with the truth.”
300-pound John- rounded up his stood, Meldrum said, rejecting Johnson still takes groups out
son has no doubt Caves online family and high- notions of not enough numbers for camping trips in the area
it was Bigfoot, or Five multimedia presenta- tailed it back to for reproduction. around Oregon Caves, though
sasquatch, the tions for this story are available the Oregon “There are only 400 or 500 not as many as in the years
at-least-8-foot- at www.thedailycourier.com/big- Caves. mountain gorillas,” he said. shortly after his sighting. He
tall, primate- foot. A link also can be found on Derek Ran- Meldrum, who specializes in said he’s found trails, bedding
like, hairy crea- the home page under the head- dles, a Bigfoot primate locomotion, and Krantz areas, tracks and casts of hand
ture legendary in lines “Special Report” and aficionado from both believe the famous Patter- prints. He said the animals
the Pacific “Encounter at the Caves.” Yelm, Wash., son film taken in the late 1960s vocalize at night, sometimes
Northwest and Videos who has investi- along Bluff Creek, a tributary of screaming. At one bait pile left
considered a Part 1: Johnson tells the gated well over the Klamath River, is real. by the group, a Bigfoot actually
myth by most. story of his encounter from the 100 alleged sight- He said footprints at the husked some corn, he said.
The Grants place it happened at the Oregon ings between scene are “biomechanically con- Infrared video at night hasn’t
Pass psycholo- Caves National Monument. 1990 and 2002, sistent with an ape foot modified produced any good images as
gist told his tale Part 2: Johnson’s sighting said he believes for walking on two legs.” the animals seem to detect it,
on television and creates a media storm and Johnson. “My greatest resistance Johnson said.
in the papers spurs him to take research expe- “On a scale of comes from my own col- Johnson said following his
across the coun- ditions into the wilderness. For 1 to 10 I’d give leagues,” Meldrum said. “One of 2000 encounter, he was caught
try, even inter- the first time on any broadcast, him a 10,” said them said to me they cringe off guard by what he called a
nationally. He Johnson’s expedition video is Randles, who whenever they see me on one of mean-spirited, arrogant, even
created the featured. said about half those documentaries; that political approach to Bigfoot
Southern Oregon Expedition extras: Bonus of his investiga- they’re very concerned about research.
Bigfoot Society footage from Johnson’s expedi- tions turned out Idaho State’s reputation. “Some were extremely jeal-
so people could tions. to be obvious “It’s mysterious to me why ous and angry that I’m hiking in
join together to Interview extras: Bonus hoaxes. “He’s animal,” he said. “The reports known as the first academic to supposedly objective, open- the woods and we have our
chase the beast. footage of the interviews for the not your typical are too infrequent, too widely take Bigfoot seriously. minded scientists, would reject encounter, and we go public
Johnson still story. person that sees scattered.” Krantz, and now Meldrum, it so off-handedly with the with our encounter, and all of a
gets emotional sasquatch. If he There are academics who do believe that Bigfoot could be a absence of data. It can’t exist, sudden I’m thrust into the pin-
talking about his Slideshow was lying he was believe, such as Jeff Meldrum, surviving population of gigan- therefore it doesn’t exist.” nacle of Bigfootdom,” he said.
encounter. It features recent shots of doing a really anthropology professor at Idaho tapithicus, a tall, ape-like crea- The doubters are plenty. “A lot of them were angry and
“There it was. Johnson from the caves and good job.” State University in Pocatello, ture from the Pleistocene epoch. Bob Heironimus, a retired backbiting.”
I had no clue others from the months after the John Roth, a although he chooses the wording Meldrum said the fact that Pepsi bottler from Yakima, Johnson, divorced and
what could hap- sighting, including an alleged 20-year ranger “the evidence strongly indicates Bigfoot bones haven’t been Wash., told the Washington Post remarried since the encounter,
pen,” said John- footprint. at Oregon something exists.” found doesn’t mean it doesn’t a few years ago that he was downsized to a close group of
son, tearing up. Caves, went with “Whenever you use the word exist. Johnson himself pointed inside a monkey suit in the Pat- friends in his Bigfoot pursuit,
“I knew it was watching my Johnson to the site the next day ‘believe’ the naysayers use that out that in his 20 years living in terson film, according to the but still hasn’t given up on see-
family. Everything I knew about to investigate, and said, as a pejorative label, that you’ve Alaska he never saw a bear Medford Mail Tribune’s Paul ing another one.
the great outdoors came crash- “There’s no question at all he abandoned scientific objectivi- skeleton or bones. Acidic soils Fattig. Fattig also wrote that “Once you see one, hear
ing down.” did not make this up.” ty,” Meldrum said. and moisture can decompose the father of retired logger Ray them scream at night, follow a
On July 1, 2000, Johnson left But Roth, who equates Big- Meldrum is a protégé of Gor- remains quickly. Wallace of Centralia, Wash., set of tracks a mile through the
his wife and three children foot sightings with mythical don Krantz, the late Washington “Matt was on the right started the whole Bigfoot legend forest you get hooked,” Johnson
briefly on the Big Tree Loop folklore from Native American State University scientist who track,” Meldrum said. “You in 1958 by leaving footprints said. “Some people golf, bowl or
Trail at Oregon Caves National days, doesn’t “believe.” collected hundreds of plaster don’t just find remains. We with 16-inch carved, wooden feet fish. This is my hobby.”
Monument, answering nature’s “The biology doesn’t add up casts of footprints and other evi- wouldn’t know about gigantap- in Humboldt County, Calif. ❏ ❏ ❏
call. He’d previously heard odd for them being a flesh and blood dence such as hair, and was ithicus if porcupines hadn’t Johnson, a Christian, says On the Net: www.bfro.net

Jeff Meldrum, an anthro-

pology professor at Idaho
State University, won’t
call himself a Bigfoot
A photo of a large
believer, but he says, “the
footprint next to a
evidence strongly indi-
size 16 boot, taken
cates something exists.”
near the Oregon
He thinks the animals
Caves several years
could be a surviving pop-
ago.
ulation of gigantapithicus,
a tall, ape-like creature KEVIN LAUNIUS/Daily Courier
from the Pleistocene
epoch.
Paul Hosefros photo