In the field of Cryptozoology,
there is no more important figure than John Green. What he did was assemble the mass of reports
and became the go to guy for such reports before the presence of the internet. He then published a thick book covering these
reports, much the same way Charles Darwin did Origin of the Species.
Thus when I and others were
prepared to sit down and consider the evidence for the Sasquatch, it became
quickly impossible to bypass the sheer weight of evidence. This led me to reconsider the formulation of
scientific method itself and to develop a fresh methodology allowing us to
properly describe such data and to effectively weigh it. It was the founding chapter in my manuscript
‘Paradigms Shift’
Today, the internet is allowing
others to follow the same path in order to assemble the necessary mass of
observations that provide a starting point for any effort to collect a sample
of the described cryptid. You will
observe in this blog many such streams of data associated with such observed
creatures. As the observations are
assembled, the picture becomes clearer and attention to the ecological niche
helps establish its creditability and plausibility.
Seeking sasquatch
Local bigfoot hunter John Green honoured for his 50-year quest to find
elusive biped
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON, THE TIMES APRIL 13, 2011 7:04 AM
John Green of Harrison Hot Springs has been gathering evidence,
including footprint casts, of the sasquatch for more than 50 years.
Photograph by: courtesy, John Green Archives
The sasquatch is shrouded in myth and mystery yet few topics of popular
culture or scientific consideration induce such feelings of certainty among
those who believe the creature exists and comical incredulity among those who
don't.
However, there does exist a middle ground trod upon by some who indeed
think the sasquatch is likely real but for whom its existence is an open
question based on evidence from all over North America .
Harrison Hot Springs resident John Green falls into this category and
has become a legend in the field of sasquatch--or bigfoot--research since he
began his quest to find the elusive biped more than 50 years ago.
This past weekend some of the more prominent people in the field of
sasquatch research convened in Harrison Hot
Springs
The Sasquatch Summit took place at the
Harrison Hot Springs North
America and beyond.
In the shadows
But is there really a species of large, bipedal, ape-like creature
roaming the woods around Chilliwack , Agassiz,
Harrison Hot Springs and the rest of North America ?
Green thinks so but he hasn't come to that conclusion easily or without
extensive research and consideration into the matter.
When confronted with the most obvious fact skeptics have for sasquatch
searchers--why has no one come across a single bone of a dead creature?--the
retired journalist doesn't shy away from the legitimacy of the question.
"That's very good evidence that there couldn't be any such
creature," Green told the Times during a recent interview in his home. But
he added there are two conflicting lines of reasoning "There couldn't be a
creature like this without a dead one having surfaced. The alternative is that
somehow humans are faking all the evidence but after 50 years now for me, they
can't do it."
And for Green, those who reject the existence of bigfoot or sasquatch out
of hand, as most people do, need themselves to be more scientific about the
topic.
"In this field things are upside down and backwards," he
said. "The people who investigate are called 'believers' and the people
who believe there can't be any such thing and therefore don't investigate are
called 'scientists.'"
"As with most human communities, they run the entire gambit from
enthusiastic interest to absolute visceral and irrational rejection,"
Meldrum told the Times during a recent telephone interview. "I'm sometimes
amazed at the vitriol with which some people take exception to my pursuit of
this."
A monster centennial
Green's interest in the sasquatch began when was a stringer for the Vancouver
A member of the Village
of Harrison Hot Springs
Green did a story on the hunt for the Sun and the story exploded.
"I understand it now--I certainly didn't then--any kind of an
official organization taking an interest in a monster suddenly becomes a story,
a huge story," he said.
News outlets from as far away as Sweden
and India
"The provincial people held a press conference to announce which
member of the royal family was going to honour the province and the reaction
was, 'Ya, ya, but what about the Harrison sasquatch?'" he said.
It was in the context of this hype that Green and his wife went to California
He was met with serious skepticism among locals, so much so that he
told the Times if it hadn't been for the attitude in B.C. the year before they
would have turned around.
But it was at Bluff Creek in northern California
Just a few weeks after visiting Bluff Creek, Green went to see more
tracks near a creek in hard sand that were very clear. He said that to test if
those tracks could have been faked he tried jumping off a log. He found he had
to land on one heel in order to get a small point of his boot in as deep as the
tracks he found.
"OK, can humans make them? Deliberately fake them? The plain
simple answer is 'no,'" he said.
Not taken seriously
For decades since first finding sasquatch tracks and making casts,
Green has recorded sightings and gathered more and more evidence from all over North America .
Frequently he has garnered media attention, which has always ended in
disappointment. News crews from BBC, CNN and Fox News have come to Harrison Hot Springs
Much to his frustration, the media have always given great credence to
Wallace's claims that he has faked sasquatch tracks all over North
America while pooh-poohing claims to the contrary.
"It is all utter idiocy and I spent months trying to get any media
outlet whatsoever to pay any media attention to the plain evidence this was all
nonsense and I never succeeded in the slightest," Green said.
And while skepticism about the existence of sasquatch may run much
deeper than belief, there are serious and legitimate scientists who continue to
have open minds, including Jane Goodall and George Schaller.
- See the Friday Chilliwack Times for part two of when we take a closer
look at the scientific evidence as well as the local First Nations perspective.
© Copyright (c) Chilliwack
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