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Review of America Unearthed S03E11 "Tracking Bigfoot"

1/17/2015

62 Comments

 
The History Channel unexpectedly made tonight’s episode of America Unearthed, S03E11 “Tracking Bigfoot,” available for viewing on its website this morning in advance of its airing on H2 tonight at 9 PM ET. I have therefore taken advantage of the online viewing opportunity to produce an early review of this evening’s episode. 

Background

When America Unearthed debuted, Scott Wolter vowed that he would never become the kind of cable TV researcher who goes on fruitless quests for Bigfoot. Yet as he admitted in a radio interview this week, the producers are in control of the show, and Wolter found himself in the unusual position of questing after a legendary monster he did not believe existed. This puts him in the unfortunate position of having his ridiculous search through the woods for the legendary giant ape compared with Giorgio Tsoukalos’s similar search for the same on In Search of Aliens on the same H2 network a few months ago. To his credit, Wolter remains skeptical of Bigfoot throughout and therefore is one up on Tsoukalos, who more or less decided that Bigfoot flits between dimensions and rides in flying saucers.

Bigfoot is one of those creatures that is so well known that very little background is necessary. But I’ll talk about it anyway. Please note that some of the background information below first appeared in my earlier piece on Wolter’s hunt for Bigfoot.

Stories of wild men and hairy creatures the live in the woods are as old as time, though only rarely do they take the specific form of an ape-like creature, at least not before the modern era. The first wild man in literature is perhaps Enkidu, the hairy wild man from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Roman god Sylvanus influenced medieval myths of the wild man of the woods. Others have a more scientific basis. When Hanno the Carthaginian, for example, encountered actual apes in Africa during his famous journey down the African coast in the sixth century BCE, he had no idea that apes (probably chimpanzees) were a different species and not hairy humans. He wrote that he came across a land “full of savage people, the greater part of whom were women, whose bodies were hairy, and whom our interpreters called Gorillae” (trans. I. P. Cory). Pliny records what seems to be an account of gibbons and calls them wild men of the woods: “These people screech in a frightful manner; their bodies are covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green colour, and their teeth like those of the dog” (Natural History 7.2, trans. Bostock and Riley). Similar stories occur in the Americas, where distant tribes were sometimes described as a giants, hairy, or even cannibals—typical descriptions of found globally to symbolize the distinction between civilization and savagery.

The best known of such legends is probably that of the Yeti, an originally mythical snow god who became more and more humanoid in the telling. In 1832, B. F. Hodgson reported seeing what he considered an orangutan in Nepal, but otherwise the story only starts to really take off in 1899, when L. A. Waddell reports on the legend in his Among the Himalayas:
Some large footprints in the snow led across our track, and away up to the higher peaks. These were alleged to be the trail of the hairy wild men who are believed to live amongst the eternal snows, along with the mythical white lions, whose roar is reputed to be heard during storms. The belief in these creatures is universal among Tibetans. None, however, of the many Tibetans I have interrogated on this subject could ever give me an authentic case. On the most superficial investigation it always resolved itself into something that somebody heard tell of. These so-called hairy wild men are evidently the great yellow snowbear (Ursus isabellinus), which is highly carnivorous, and often kills yaks. Yet, although most of the Tibetans know this bear sufficiently to give it a wide berth, they live in such an atmosphere of superstition that they are always ready to find extraordinary and supernatural explanations of uncommon events.  
Funny how no one goes looking for the mythical white lion. Somehow that story failed to resonate the way an ape-man did in the wake of the Origin of Species and the quest for the Missing Link. When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay spotted some of these same footprints while scaling Mt. Everest in 1953, the Yeti became internationally famous, building on an earlier flap from 1951 in which some distorted and melting footprints photographed by Eric Shipton were taken for those of the Yeti.

The modern history of Bigfoot is scarcely six decades old—the first Bigfoot report was in 1958, the result of reports coming out of California of extra-large footprints. It is likely not to be a coincidence that the earliest Bigfoot claims came on the heels of the Yeti flap and took a very similar form to the growing Yeti story. The more recent history of the creature is so familiar that I doubt anyone needs to be reminded of the various sightings, the strange claims made for the creature, or, after 1976, its increasing ties to UFOs, the Nephilim, and interdimensional travel. Today, there are those who believe that Bigfoot is a “relic hominid” that somehow survived millions of years and crossed the Bering Strait, and others who believe Bigfoot hitches rides on UFOs or could pop in between dimensions.

Bigfoot researchers have reached into the past to tie the modern myth of a giant ape to various precedents from the past. These involve tying the beast to Native American legends of cannibal giants (themselves of somewhat dubious origin) and wild men of the woods, as well as to pretty much any weird thing that ever happened in the forest. That’s how, for example, Theodore Roosevelt became a Bigfoot theorist.

Roosevelt, as Wolter says in a scene cut from this episode but posted online months ago to promote the show, “was the only president to publicly endorse the idea that Bigfoot could be real.” This is false. Bigfoot was not so named in Roosevelt’s time, nor did he ever describe the creature as a large ape-like being. What Roosevelt actually said about “Bigfoot” is too long for met to paste in here, but I’ve added it to my Library for your reading enjoyment. The long and short of it is that in 1890 an old backwoodsman told Roosevelt a tall tale about something that he said had happened to him decades before, which even Roosevelt implies might well have been a bear walking on two legs. There is no mention of Bigfoot, nor is there any indication that the story involved an ape. Roosevelt himself called it a “goblin story” and attributed it to the superstitious belief of the backwoodsman:
He must have believed what he said, for he could hardly repress a shudder at certain points of the tale; but he was of German ancestry, and in childhood had doubtless been saturated with all kinds of ghost and goblin lore. So that many fearsome superstitions were latent in his mind; besides, he knew well the stories told by the Indian medicine men in their winter camps, of the snow-walkers, and the specters, and the formless evil beings that haunt the forest depths, and dog and waylay the lonely wanderer who after nightfall passes through the regions where they lurk. It may be that when overcome by the horror of the fate that befell his friend, and when oppressed by the awful dread of the unknown, he grew to attribute, both at the time and still more in remembrance, weird and elfin traits to what was merely some abnormally wicked and cunning wild beast; but whether this was so or not, no man can say.
But to our purpose, the piece of evidence that drives this episode of America Unearthed is a petroglyph, the “Hairy Man,” a roughly 500- to 1,000-year-old shamanic Native American drawing known since the nineteenth century and often cited as resembling Sasquatch, even though it could equally depict a bear, Swamp Thing, a shaman in fringed suit, or any number of other things. A Victorian drawing of the pictographs differs a bit from the way the image appears today; the “hair” today extends above the shoulders.
Picture
Drawing of the pictographs (courtesy British Library)
What’s interesting is that when the image was published in The Beginning of Writing by Walter James Hoffman in 1895 (and described before that, in 1889), no one pronounced it evidence of a giant man-ape, or even of Roosevelt’s “unknown beast-creature.” Hoffman recognized these pictures for what they were, though he was perhaps over-hasty in attributing to them proto-writing:
The figures are those of human beings, the largest approaching life-size, the remaining ones being relatively smaller. The largest figure, that on the right (a), represents weeping, the arms with hands pendent, being extended as when making the gesture sign for rain, while the lines extending downward from the eyes denote tears, signifying, literally, eye-rain or weeping. It is evident that the recorder intended to convey the idea of sorrow, on account of the suffering expressed in the gestures and attitudes of others of his band shown in connection herewith. The six figures (designated by c) appear to be persons of different degrees of rank or social standing in the tribe, as indicated by the various lengths of the plumes. […] The Indians who now occupy this valley know nothing whatever of the origin of the record, nor the tribe that made it. (emphasis in original)
Hoffman wasn’t just making that up. The Tule River Indians, band of the Yokuts, identify that so-called Hairy Man was a weeping figure from their creation myth—though at a distance of 1,000 years, it’s impossible to determine the original intention of the artist.

It’s fascinating that the image only became associated with Bigfoot after the Bigfoot myth developed in the middle twentieth century. In fact, it was only in 1973 that the identification was made. By rights, were there anything to the Bigfoot myth, we ought to have clear indications much earlier—surely someone would have argued that this picture was a giant ape-man sooner. Bigfoot enthusiasts point to oral traditions that identify Hairy Man with Bigfoot-like behavior, but these stories were collected only after the Bigfoot myth became popular (it calls Bigfoot by name); versions collected before featured a more mythological and godlike character. Some anthropologists feel that the original intention may have been to depict a shamanic bear-man figure, or even a simple depiction of a rearing grizzly.


The Episode

Segment 1
We open with a map of the United States glowing red with the more than 3,300 pulsing locations of Bigfoot sightings and intercut with dramatic reenactments of such sightings. In Lind Lakes, Minnesota, Ed Welch leaves a voicemail for Scott Wolter informing him of his own Bigfoot sighting, and then we cut to the opening credits. After that, Wolter tells us that eyewitnesses are consistent in their description of Bigfoot, but because no remains of the creature has ever been found, so he remains a “hard core skeptic” of the creature. He admits, too, that as a geologist, he has little standing to investigate Bigfoot, except that he hopes to discover whether Native American rock art can help determine whether Bigfoot “is or was real.” To that end, he’s off to Rice Creek Park Reserve in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, to meet Bigfoot eyewitness Ed Welch.

Welch takes Wolter into the woods and recounts his October 2008 sighting of Bigfoot. He says he heard a loud crack, turned, and saw an eight-foot-tall gray creature that made no sound and seemed to float through the trees. Welch says he chased the creature, which seemed to disappear. Welch reports that he immediately suffered a panic attack and spent three days in shock. I’ll give him this: This is at least a more realistic reaction than the people who report encounters with aliens, demons, and monsters as a more or less orgasmic experience.

Wolter likens the Bigfoot to other monsters of world folklore, like the Australian Yowie (last seen on In Search of Aliens) and the South American Mapinguari, which the show illustrates with a drawing of a giant ground sloth. The Yeti, of course, is the most famous of these analogues, and one whose legend predates the 1958 creation of Bigfoot.

Welch sends Wolter to Blaine, Minnesota, to meet with Doug Hajicek, described as a Bigfoot investigator. What the show doesn’t tell you is that Hajicek is the former producer of the History Channel series MonsterQuest as well as Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science for the Discovery Channel. He is the president of Whitewolf Entertainment, and his appearance here continues the incestuous round-robin of History Channel affiliated figures mutually reinforcing each other’s views. Hajicek says he’s been researching Bigfoot for 24 years, but he’s found nothing that would convince a skeptic.

Wolter wonders if Bigfoot is related to Gigantopithecus, the extinct giant ape from Asia that stood around ten feet tall and was the largest primate known to science. Hajicek shows Wolter a model of a Gigantopitecus skull and some casts of alleged Bigfoot footprints. Hajicek speculates that Gigantopithecus crossed the Bering Strait land bridge to enter North America, though it left behind no bones. “Who’s to say it didn’t migrate over to North America with other species?” Wolter asks before saying there is no evidence that they did so and he is unconvinced. As we go to commercial, Hajicek claims that he has “authentic” Bigfoot hair.

Segment 2
After the break, Hajicek gives Wolter some alleged Bigfoot hair he obtained from a man who claims to have seen the beast. The men look at the hair under a microscope, and Hajicek claims that the scaling pattern on the hair is consistent with a primate. Because the hair has never been cut, he says this represents the hair of a wild animal. Wolter and Hajicek agree to have the hair tested for DNA to prove whether it belongs to the legendary ape. Wolter says he remains skeptical of the creature’s existence because there are no bones or bodies. Hajicek says that the response to that is that no one finds skeletons of black bears, but Wolter has! We get some gross video of a deer rotting and being scavenged to show how fast an animal corpse can vanish.

Hajicek directs Wolter to the painted California pictographs I discussed above, as well as to another man who claims to have seen Bigfoot and to have taken video of it.

So Wolter is off to Stanislaus National Forest in Sonora, California, to look at the famous “Hairy Man” petroglyph and evaluate it as evidence of Bigfoot. Wolter meets with archaeologist Kathy Moskowitz Strain, who is a Bigfoot researcher and the author of Giants, Cannibals & Monsters: Bigfoot in Native Culture (2008). She holds an M.A. in Behavioral Science and serves as the Forest Heritage Resource and Tribal Relations Programs Manager for the Stanislaus National Forest. As we cut to commercial, Strain says she’ll show Wolter Bigfoot’s bones.

Segment 3
After the break and the typical on-screen recap, Strain takes Wolter to a pile of rocks that Strain says “symbolize” Bigfoot bones, but the story she tells is one of giants that she seems to be linking to Bigfoot. Strain says that mythic giants are large and hairy and therefore are Bigfoot stories. She shows Wolter an image of the Hairy Man pictograph, and both identify the Hairy Man figure as Bigfoot. Wolter finds the picture and Native American folklore to be “very compelling” evidence of Bigfoot, but neither consider other explanations for the Hairy Man figure beyond Bigfoot, nor place it in any sort of context. The identification of the picture as the Hairy Man, for example, dates to 1900 (reported in 1929) and cannot be assumed to be an accurate translation of the intention of the artist who drew it sometime between 1 CE and 1200 CE. As we saw above, when Hoffman investigated in the 1880s, the Native people of the area denied knowledge of the images.

Wolter flies off to the Himalayas to investigate whether the Yeti is related to Bigfoot and therefore supports the Bering Strait crossing hypothesis.

Segment 4
After a very long travelogue and recap, Wolter is in the Himalayas, in Nepal, at Namche Bazaar. Wolter buys a hat and explains to us who the Sherpa are. He meets with Sona Hishi Sherpa, a retired guide, and asks him about legends of the Yeti. He tells Wolter that in the 1960s the Yeti killed six yaks by squeezing them to death. He says that the Yeti lives only above the timber line and that there are no other animals who live so high and could explain the death of the yaks.

The men trek high into the mountains and meet with an old man who claims that he saw a white-fur-covered Yeti when he was fourteen years old. He tells Wolter that the Yeti will only come when everyone is quiet and there are few people around. Sona Hishi Sherpa tells Wolter that there is some tangible proof, a Yeti scalp kept in the Khumjung monastery. Sir Edmund Hillary obtained an alleged Yeti scalp from this same monastery in 1960, and it turned out to be the hair of a serow, a Himalayan antelope. Wolter does not mention this.

Segment 5
After an on-screen recap, Wolter arrives at the monastery where caretaker Tenzig Tashi Sherpa shows him the alleged Yeti scalp, which he claims is 500 years old. Wolter asks the caretaker to let him examine the scalp in order to compare the hair to alleged Bigfoot hair, and he agrees on the condition that Wolter take only pictures and lay no hand on the artifact, which identifies as of special value to the Sherpa people. Wolter’s photo shows that the hair has been cut and therefore is likely to be that of a domestic animal that had been sheared at some point. Logically, this isn’t necessarily true; in theory, a shaggy Yeti could have been trimmed after death to be more presentable for display, but it’s unlikely.

Wolter’s trip to the Himalayas was a huge waste of time, and it produced less interesting evidence that Josh Gates’s similar trek in search of the Yeti on Destination Truth back in 2008. On that show, Gates found alleged Yeti footprints that Bigfoot researcher Jeffrey Meldrum (seen on In Search of Aliens) authenticated before changing his mind. Wolter went all the way to Nepal and didn’t even try to go on a Yeti stakeout.

Segment 6
Back in Minnesota, Wolter recaps the episode and reminds us about the DNA testing he commissioned on the alleged Bigfoot hair. Meeting Hajicek on a road, Wolter informs him that the DNA test completed in May 2014 revealed that the hair was human. “I disagree,” Hajicek said. “Every time I have had a Bigfoot hair tested, they always come back as human.” Hajicek, who seems to be a bit fuzzy on the concepts of DNA and evolution, says that the hair tests as human because Bigfoot is the “missing link” between human beings and the extinct great apes like Gigantopithecus. He believes Bigfoot is humanity’s closest living relative! I think I liked it better when Bigfoot was a time-travelling Nephilim.

Following this, Joe Frascella arrives to tell Wolter about his encounter with Bigfoot in Minnesota. He has an iPad with him and says that he saw on the news that in July 2011 a farmer and his wife recorded an auburn-colored animal using an iPhone, and this video of an encounter just ten miles from where Frascella saw Bigfoot is therefore proof of Bigfoot’s reality. Hajicek tells Wolter that Frascella’s testimony and the iPhone video support one another and prove that each is “legit.” The blurry video, which made the rounds in August 2011, was first posted on YouTube, and the couple who claim to have shot the footage naturally refused to discuss it once investigators began poking around and some began to suspect it was a person wearing a coat. Remember, folks, Hajicek is a TV producer—this is the quality of the “evidence” used for nonfiction TV.

Wolter tells the two men that he won’t abandon his skeptical opinion of Bigfoot without hard evidence such as a body. However, he says that he feels oral history is an important resource and that because so many people believe Bigfoot is real we can’t discount Bigfoot’s existence just because there isn’t any evidence in favor of it. The producers clearly had a hand in making sure Wolter left open the door to the “mystery” of Bigfoot, but his final statement is unintentionally a description of his own quixotic quest for the Holy Bloodline of Jesus. Wolter’s efforts to find any scrap of support for a hypothesis born of fraud and faith mirrors that of the Bigfoot believers, but it’s doubtful that he would ever see the parallels. 
62 Comments
Clete
1/17/2015 03:28:23 am

Everyone has a Big Foot story, so I will relate my experience. In 1969 I was working as a summer employee in Yellowstone National Park. One afternoon, I took my camera and ventured into the woods. I was searching to document that Bears really did shit in the woods. After a couple of hours, have no success in my quest. I was returning to the company dorm where summer employees lived. It was nearly dusk, when I came across, not one, but a group of Bigfoots sitting in a circle around a small fire. One seemed to have a strange stringed instrument. I stopped, unnoticed, about twenty feet away. They were big and hairy and since I was downwind I noticed a strange odor drifting in the wind from them. Then they began to sway and chant, Kum Bi Law, Kum Bi Law. I fled before I was overcome by the strange odor and the otherworldly chant.

This incident returns to me at times during dreams and nightmares.

I have related this experience to others, you always look at me as if I am some kind of nut. If only I had had enought light to take a picture, that would prove my story. Kum Bi Law, Kum Bi Law.

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PaulN. link
1/17/2015 10:01:07 am

Did this strange odor, by any chance, contain the essence of vino from the montagnard rouge mixed with the fumes of cannabis sativa and unwashed bodies.

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EP
1/17/2015 01:53:26 pm

"This incident returns to me at times during dreams and nightmares."

You got anal probed, didn't you? Don't deny it! :P

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PaulN. link
1/17/2015 06:00:16 pm

Probing Proctologist everywhere want to know. O_o

spookyparadigm
1/17/2015 04:42:26 am

There have been several good books on the history, culture, and science of Bigfootery in the last few years. I really appreciated David Daegling's _Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend_ which I suspect is probably the best match for interests on this blog. Daegling outlines the social history of both the legend and those who chase it, but spends more time on the biological problems both generally (that Bigfoot makes no sense ecologically given the plethora of sightings reports and the lack of remains) and specifically (there is substantial ink spilled on the Patterson-Gimlin film and other cases). For me the most interesting is that it was the section on Grover Krantz and his "reconstruction" of a bipdeal Gigantopithecus from tooth and jaw fragments (which is all we have of Gigantopithecus). I use this as an example of what NOT to do when it comes to primate paleontology when I teach intro stuff on hominin evolution.

A couple of other books have more recently come out including probably the volume most in keeping with Jason's interests here, Brian Regal's book on the history of bigfooters and how it ties into changing interests in science. Buhs also wrote a cultural history of the field as did McLeod IIRC (which was mostly about how basic-cable-friendly-in-advance Ivan Sanderson was and how untrustworthy Roger Patterson was, that's at least what I remember from it). Buhs focuses on the theme of masculinity and while I'm never very comfortable with that sort of literary approach to cultural phenomena, the media interest in sending ridiculous men into the backwoods means on at least one level there seems to be something to this.

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EP
1/17/2015 05:13:15 am

I haven't looked at Daegling's book. Would you say that its treatment of Grover Kratz is superior to Regal's?

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spookyparadigm
1/17/2015 05:00:33 pm

I've not completely read Regal, I've taught out of Daegling, so my experience is not identical between then.

Pulling out my copy and going through the Krantz focused section .... the discussion of Krantz in Regal is far more detailed, but it is also primarily social and contextual. Which is what I'd expect of a historian of science. Daegling's book is first off, aimed at a lower level audience (I would not use Regal with an undergrad class, I would Daegling and here I would say feel comfortable saying that). And second, Daegling focuses less on the historical context, and more on the biology/anatomy.

Someone who wants to know what's actually going on with Bigfoot and the belief/evidence should read Daegling. Someone who wants an in-depth reference work/case study on pseudoscience would read want Regal.

Looking at Regal, I didn't realize Krantz was friends with Wolpoff and took many of his cues from Coon. Yeah.

EP
1/18/2015 03:21:19 am

"around 1981 a Chinese anthropology student, working on his English language skills, asked in class the meaning of the word “crazy.” A discussion ensued, with other students giving explanations, often humorous, of the word and how to use it. One student then wrote on the board Grover Krantz’s name and explained how, despite Dr. Krantz being quite sane, some considered his Sasquatch work “crazy.” Wolpoff explained to the class how Dr. Krantz’s work fell well within the bounds of what a scientist was supposed to do - explore the unknown - so that in this case crazy meant more an unorthodox pursuit rather than having a mental condition."

This is particularly funny because Coon, on the other hand, is literally a brick-fell-on-his-head crazy racist.

spookyparadigm
1/18/2015 04:34:19 am

That's the thing, as Regal talks about, Krantz wasn't too far off some of that, with his book on "Climatic Races".

In some senses, it is almost a boon that his Bigfootery has eclipsed his other work. Better to be known to history as an affable eccentric than someone going out of his way to be decades out of step on one of the primary topics of the field's history.

Not for the reason I just mentioned, but the Bigfootery makes a lot more sense now. Krantz seems to have been very good with a narrow set of facts, but in terms of what to do with them or how to integrate them with other facts, he was basically time traveling from the 1930s when some professionals still went hunting for "missing links" based on "native accounts" and openly debated racial science. Even then that Victorian-style science was out of date but you could still find it in elder scholars of the day, and not just one lone guy sifting through hoax movies and hoax footprints to find evidence of a real giant.

EP
1/18/2015 06:17:25 am

In some ways, serious attention paid to bigfoot at so late a date is just a relic (get it? heh) of Lamarckianism's downfall and its replacement by the inconveniently impersonal and non-normative Mendelian paradigm.

By the way, you may find of interest something I have recently discovered - an unintentionally wonderful resource for all things racial (with some bioligistic sexism thrown in for good measure):

http://humanbiologicaldiversity.com/

(It is really worth going through this website thoroughly.)

spookyparadigm
1/18/2015 06:38:37 am

Oh that looks painful. Like this

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/

EP
1/18/2015 07:28:49 am

I'd say the two are quite different in orientation and level of sophistication (Frontiers of Anthropology : Daegling :: HumanBioDiversity : Regal), but yeah, I have to say this is pretty awesome:

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.ca/2012/05/giant-warrior-strain-continues-to.html

(It is interesting and revealing that so many fringe people want to demonstrate that humans are basically just like ants...)

PNO TECH
1/17/2015 05:07:21 am

Considering the scorn, derision, and just plain nastiness SW heaps on skeptics, I find it hilarious that he 'remains a "hard-core skeptic" 'about >anything<. Lol. What's next, the search for Tinkerbell?

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Zach
1/17/2015 06:12:10 am

I wouldn't be surprised if Wolter goes in search for the Loch Ness monster next.

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Nary a Bigfoot in the U.K?
1/19/2015 02:06:53 pm

The" Finding Bigfoot" team split into two groups,
one group went to Sherwood Forest literally and
the rest of the team was on boats on Loch Ness!
S.W has yet to search for the Green Man there.

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CHV
1/17/2015 09:05:52 am

But the real question is is Bigfoot a freemason and where is he currently stashing the Grail?

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Only Me
1/17/2015 11:29:48 am

He keeps the Grail where he keeps the Ark of the Covenant! The key to both involves an Oreo.

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Jackie
1/17/2015 01:01:47 pm

It's because Bigfoot is a Templar lol

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John Dunham
1/19/2015 01:38:51 am

All they had to do was have an "expert" tell SW that the Templars built bigfoot out of Jesus Blood DNA and we would have had an enjoyable show. As it was, I fell asleep on the couch after the "bigfoot" bones stunt. I think that was the best use of my time at that point.

Jackie
1/17/2015 01:09:17 pm

Actually Only me, I think you are absolutely right, it does involve an Oreo, quoting Mr. Wolter: "I need something I really can sink my teeth into"...

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Only Me
1/17/2015 07:31:50 pm

Bring on the Double Stufs!

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CFH
1/17/2015 01:11:48 pm

Hair samples from supposed Yeti were recent found to come from a formerly extinct Polar Bear Species.

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JM
1/17/2015 01:25:54 pm

Sad you need to depend on Scott Wolter and his show for topics to write about.

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Only Me
1/17/2015 01:38:19 pm

Even sadder is that you're unable to look to the right of the page and see the clearly labeled "Categories".

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EP
1/17/2015 01:48:57 pm

Does JM stand for "Jesus & Magdalene", by any chance?

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Jackie
1/17/2015 01:26:07 pm

But he's going to figure this out CFH, hes a "forensic geologist"💩

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Emperor Tercus
1/17/2015 02:18:37 pm

The thing about Scott Wolter and many of the AATs is that they take "oral traditions" way too seriously and literally. Stories change over time whether details are added, removed, or morph into a whole another story. Sure, every culture has its share of oral traditions but who takes all of them literally? Most parents tell their children about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny but who takes any of them literally?

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Rick
1/17/2015 02:32:06 pm

Well I'm watching the episode on DVR and here at the 57 minute mark SW just described himself as a "hard" scientist. He has to work the word "hard" into everything, blog, TV, etc.

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PaulN. link
1/17/2015 06:09:19 pm

Manly men never do things the easy way. If it isn't hard, it isn't manly. -_-

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Pacal
1/18/2015 07:45:16 am

If he is a "hard" man perhaps Wolter can get as job in the porn industry? After all he already has experience doing (Science) porn.

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EP
1/19/2015 03:43:31 pm

He's a total dilf. Don't know if Janet would be happy about it, though...

Shane Sullivan
1/17/2015 02:51:07 pm

"He has an iPad with him and says that he saw on the news that in July 2011 a farmer and his wife recorded an auburn-colored animal using an iPhone, and this video of an encounter just ten miles from where Frascella saw Bigfoot is therefore proof of Bigfoot’s reality."

Just for a moment, I thought you were going to say there was video of bigfoot operating a smart phone.

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terry the censor
1/17/2015 04:07:09 pm

> I thought you were going to say there was video of bigfoot operating a smart phone.

That's what I thought he said.

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Duke of URL
1/19/2015 06:08:25 am

That's exactly how *I* read it, too.

terry the censor
1/17/2015 03:50:59 pm

> after 1976, its increasing ties to UFOs

Jason, have you still not seen the first two Bigfoot episodes of the Six Million Dollar Man?

They were the only good things I remember about the '70s. (And by "good," I mean good in the eyes of a 9-year-old.)

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Jason D.
1/17/2015 04:01:18 pm

Cracked up when Wolter said "for a hard scientist like me". Funny on so many levels. Not least of which is as a follow-up to his ever hardening 'resolve'.

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EP
1/17/2015 04:23:20 pm

Something to "sink our teeth into" ;)

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CFH
1/17/2015 04:46:59 pm

Sense when does a simple BS make one a Scientist. Pathetic if you ask me

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FrankenNewYork
1/17/2015 06:47:10 pm

I'm going to apply Wolter's sliding scale of evidence to my daily life. If I'm skeptical of something I need tangible proof, if i believe something hearsay is unassailable fact. No Big Foot Bones? I remain skeptical. News paper reports of giant bones that are nowhere to be found? What more proof do you need? And while showing a time lapse recording of deer carcass decomposing is kind of cool, it clearly shows there are skeletal remains so it doesn't help the case for fast decomposition being why Big Foot skeletons are not found.

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Kevin
1/18/2015 01:01:05 am

Jason,

Off topic, but you should check out this site: http://www.narragansettbeer.com/beers/lovecraft-honey-ale

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Duke of URL
1/19/2015 06:11:58 am

Narragansett Beer - Argh! In the late 70s, I was stationed on a ship in Newport - the main beer sold at the EM Club was Nastygansett - only because you got a gallon pitcher for only $1. *Horrible* stuff.

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Digger
1/18/2015 01:42:24 am

SW burned an entire episode on looking for Bigfoot and all he found were kooks, scams, and misrepresented evidence.

Wow, imagine that. The hard scientist didn't see that one coming?

This show is becoming a huge waste of time. Had he at least donned a gorilla suit for some reenactments, I could have at least had a laugh.

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Jennygirl00
1/26/2015 11:27:36 pm

It amazes me that this show is still on...with new episodes. Not to be rude but Wolter's ideas are just flat out silly. Maybe if he "unearthed" the world instead of just the U..S.he mite seem slightly and I do mean slightly more credible. Do people actually take this show serious?

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Michael
1/18/2015 01:49:02 am

I'm surprised that Scott didn't talk to the cast and crew of The Boogie Creek Monster. Theses people were terrorized by the creature for 2 hours. Many eyewitnesses are in the show.

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Michael
1/18/2015 01:51:05 am

That should be Boggie Creek Monster.

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Dan
1/18/2015 02:42:16 am

I like Boogy better.Get down!

Kal
1/18/2015 07:57:28 am

Bigfoot is a total fabrication and myth. It however is no coincidence the first official bigfoot stuff came about with the age of mainstream TV and the use of early movie cameras, available to people. By the early 60s you could even make a fairly convincing monster suit and run around at Halloween freaking people out.

Footprints can easily be left by bears and large animals. I have seen bear tracks. They do look pretty interesting, and the big ones can stand on two legs for a little to look bigger and scare off other animals. These are not bigfoot. They are easily identified. Ape footprints are different, but it is not likely escaped zoo gorillas get out often.

Nobody has ever shot one. Some wacky hunter claim stories of having shot one and it ran off, or it died and was hauled off, or it went into a river or down a cliff ravine. The never once caught one after shooting it and brought it back, in all of those stories If they're that good at hunting, how come they never downed one? It's because there wasn't one. Not one. They made up the stories to scare new hunters, or others, into thinking how awesome they are at hunting. Hunting tales and fish tales are just that, tales. You'd think someone would have shot, skinned and eaten one over the course of some 50 years, somewhere. Don't tell me there are n't expert hunters that couldn't have shot it and taken it down.

None have ever been found dead, either shot by a hunter, hit by a car, or of natural causes. Why not? You see deer and skunks and stuff on roadsides. You'd think one of them would die after being struck by a truck somewhere and just lie there dead for anyone or carrion to find.

They never wander into town like in a movie and go through human trash, or get into a shed or garage, or pee all over a barn. Why not? You'd think someone would have caught one in their dumpster eventually, or running off with their garbage cans.

Nobody has ever actually filmed one for real, with or without a cellphone (same for UFO video). You mean in 50 years nobody has ever managed to catch one for real on tape, close up, or on a security camera in front of a Quick Stop store rummaging, or trying to break in to get food.

The Yeti is not supposed to be a bigfoot.

The rain god thing is probably not a bigfoot as the tale predaes the myth by several centuries.

The reason people are freaked out by the woods, but I'm not, is because they're dark and spooky to some. You step on a branch or twig and in the dark that is freaky. You think you see things that are much larger than they are, because you're in the dark and it's hard to tell what it is. An owl hooting might sound like someone nearby. A coyote in the distance could look like a vicious giant under the right lighting.

Bigfoot is a fairly modern myth that has been added to other older ones, and there isn't a shred of real evidence anyone has actually found one.

As for the skunk ape story, there is a rational explanation for that. Several animals in the wild emit strong odors, including skunks. It is likely that the person smelling these things are picking up skunks. Those things make off a horrible stink!

Ironically SW's story says bigfoot is bull but Dan Brown is writing historical fiction. Uhu.



Nobody has ever found a body, ever, or even so much as a skull. If they claim they found one, they did not. It is likely a bear, or something else obvious.

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Duke of URL
1/19/2015 06:14:14 am

Tsk. You're in for it now, Kal - Wolter and his acolytes will put you on the nasty-person list for using common sense and facts about things.

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EP
1/19/2015 03:44:06 pm

Sounds naughty ;)

Aaron Rodgers
1/19/2015 01:48:09 pm

Why can't Scott discover a way to stop Seattle from scoring 15 points in 44 seconds?

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EP
1/19/2015 01:57:56 pm

Same reason he can't discover anything else.

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tm
1/20/2015 12:26:38 am

What everyone else sees: Seattle Seahawks.

What Scott Wolter sees: Horus.

I don't even want to think about! ;)

Matt Mc
1/20/2015 12:32:56 am

Wolter says he played minor league football, if he had gone pro I am sure his team would win everything

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EP
1/25/2015 03:57:18 am

Scott Wolter's football is a bit deflated, if you know what I mean...

John
1/24/2015 04:50:20 pm

Get a load of this comment Wolter made on his blogpost for his big foot episode:

"There's another site that can be easily found for debunkers of America Unearthed subject matter. It was popular at first because there were no other outlets to discuss these matters. Now there is this blog and, not coincidentally, the "debunker" discussions are dying because they are unproductive and overly negative. Especially for the casual fan who simply wants to ask a few questions. Who better to ask than me?

Debunkers are welcome here until they cross the line into stifling the conversation with unproductive negativity."


The ego that Wolter has, is mind boggling.

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EP
1/25/2015 03:59:35 am

"Unproductive negativity" is literally the Putin government's favorite excuse for stifling dissent in the Russian media.

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Juan Ruiz
1/26/2015 06:08:46 am

Has anyone noted the appropriateness of Matt Moneymaker's surname?

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M Miller
2/10/2015 11:07:22 pm

I just finished watching Scot Wolter's "Bigfoot" episode during a bout of complete insomnia. I thought nothing could annoy me more than his sketchy, biased research and hints of faked situations in the previous couple of his shows I have seen--but I was wrong. I found his "skepticism" and holier-than-thou sternness hypocritical, in light of his own previous blindness and bias in past shows. In fact, it annoyed me so much I shut the show off in disgust.

I looked up his credentials and wasn't surprised that there is no evidence of the honorary MA he claims to have.

I *was* amused at the "Hairy man" pictograph comments. Re the trio of pictographs: I think I've seen Giorgio use the one with googly eyes as proof that it depicts and alien (but I may have been hallucinating: My chronic insomnia is a terrible thing). And the one that Wolter claims is a "child" looks like an owl to me.

Apparently all these pseudo-scientists have never heard of "imagery" or "symbolism". (Perhaps they should go read some Joseph Campbell before they make any more shows.)

What I would LOVE to see is Giorgio, the "Finding Bigfoot" team and the "Ghost Adventures" team all investigating the same story together at a location. Just think of the different twist each would give. (Mind you, I *like* the "Finding Bigfoot" gang and even "Ghost Adventures" has got a lot more watchable now that Zak has stopped having screaming possessed fits.)

But insomnia is making me digress: My point is, I think I like Scot Wolter better when he's enthusiastically glossing over things, rather than trying to be a hard-nosed reporter.

After all, it's all entertainment.


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JoAnne Ryan
2/13/2015 03:51:32 am

I just read an article published in our local paper. History channel investigated a big foot story in lino lakes Minnesota. Iam from Wyoming Minnesota just 10 miles or so north of lino lakes. My husband walks on the bike path in the area and he said there were footprints in the snow. They were very large bare feet walking north for quite awhile on the path. I finally made him take a picture and will send it if you're interested. He said this happened last year too, but he never thought much of it. I am not looking for any publicity. But I do have a couple strange stories myself I ca . Share when I walk in Carlos Avery game refuge. Please contact me. I hope this doesn't sound silly to you. Iam just curious as to what could be going on. In all sincerity JoAnne Ryan.

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Casey
10/8/2015 12:58:49 am

Teachers that can't, sceptics and druggies. It's entertainment and if you do actually learn something it's a bonus. Check out The Galactic Federation of Light lol

Reply
S.S. link
10/18/2015 09:26:05 pm

Saquatch is alive and well in West Virginia. This pretty creature
was in the family's yard. I believe my Mom, she says to not go into the woods. p.s. It looks like Todd Standing's bigfoot picture.

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        • Lost Cities >
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      • Extreme History >
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        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
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        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
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        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
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        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
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        • Noah's Ark Cables
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        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
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      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
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        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
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      • Orville Wright on UFOs
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    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
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      • Defining a Zombie
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      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
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      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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