"WHERE ARE THE BONES HIDDEN?" Ray Crowe
A recent TV "panel-type" show ("Town Hall," Nov. 22nd, KATU,
Portland) concerning Bigfoot, had a critic that asked where the bones
were? The host, Jack Faust, apparently knowing Bigfoot is a myth...
therefore there are no bones, moved on before the question could be
addressed by Bigfoot supporters. Here’s a possible answer to the oft
asked question, "where are the bones?"
Does an animal bury its dead? There are reports of African
elephants burying bones...and even people, .under brush and leaves
("Among The Elephants," 1976, Hamilton), but to deliberately intern a
"companion" seems like it would require a high degree of intelligence,
even if it were only to keep other animals from scavenging the corpse.
Many animals pair for life, and anthropomorphically (given human
qualities) speaking, appear to display sadness if the mate is killed. I
once observed in the Metolius River area of Oregon, a road where
numerous chipmunks had been run over by careless autos, and the
surviving mate stood defiantly next to the remains of its companion. As
often as not, two squished bodies could be seen side by side.
Georges Leroy wrote (in 1762-1781) in his letters: The naturalist
must abandon his scalpel, leave his study, go into the woods to
follow the movements of these sentient beings (animals) to judge the
developments and effects of their faculty of feeling, and see how, by
the repeated action of sensation and the exercise of memory, their
instinct rises to the level of intelligence ("Non-Human Thought," 1967,
Graven). Keeping this in mind, let’s forget the critics-skeptics-experts for awhile...and see what Bigfoot himself has to say about burials.
Bigfoot has had several curious reports concerning its dead members
(three here have not been previously published, appearing first in Track Record #23). One should keep in mind also, that more than one Bigfoot species might be involved, each with its own behavior concerning companions that have died. Some of these Bigfeet types might even pass for human if shaved and dressed in a suit...or might even attend a funeral deep in the forest for one of their own.
John Green writes ("Sasquatch-The Apes Among Us," 1978) of probably
the simplest Bigfoot death rite. It was reported to him that in 1949
two older males and a female Bigfoot were seen to lay out the body of a
dead young female high on a rock at the top of a mountain.
Unfortunately though, John didn’t believe it, and never followed up on the report,but it seems reasonable in light of some of the following reports.The following new report is in response to a recent news article about the Western Bigfoot Society ("This Week," 12/30/92, George Earley). Called in by Ray Nab, an electrical contractor; the secondhand tale went: Near Estacada,OR, a Molalla hunting friend said he had found two years ago, a dead...baby Bigfoot, a brown female, "just a furry little animal," that was left ten feet up in the boughs of a tree, and then was covered with other boughs...an "Indian style burial," he said. (is it possible that it was?) Attention was called to the tree by piles of huge droppings around its base.
One can almost visualize a grieving female Bigfoot staying near the
remains of her dead young, as has been reported with many other primates(snow monkeys and gorillas)...have speculated on disease causing the death of the infant.
Portland State University was contacted, the finder
thinking they would be very interested in a new species of animal. He,
of course, got the old horse laugh...they wouldn't even look, and the
creature reportedly is now in his deep freeze. The college later called
back, apologized, and asked to see the corpse, but the harm had been
done, and he told 'em where to go.
Still, even this tree "interment" is again quite simple, and might
have been done by a creature without any "intelligence," in the human
context...elephant like, if you will. Names and addresses have been
released to Peter Byrne for further investigation. If not a hoax. He
hopes to procure tissue samples for DNA analysis. He also says any information will be shared with the WBS. Peter also comments he has found human Native American tree burials, though in coffins, in B.C., Canada(The witness ultimately disappeared, and contact was not made).
Considerably more advanced in technique, .is another new report from
the Estacada area in the summer of 1992. The investigator wants to sit
on this one until he checks it out personally, but gave me the
essentials. His informant, well educated...teaches philosophy, had an
experience east of Estacada last summer. He was "hiking, 4-5 hours into
the woods, when he heard a, "clink, clink, clink," of rocks.
Curiously approaching the upstream noise, he was less than a hundred yards away from two Bigfeet...he wasn't sure if the larger was a male and the smaller a female, or two females. There were also two smaller red colored young Bigfootlets. All were engaged in burying another dead
Bigfoot under a pile of stones. They had not dug a hole, but were just
covering the body with the stones, causing the "clacking" noise. The
informant said he had an intense feeling of sorrow, and that the Bigfeet were acting "sad." (Realize that I might be somewhat anthropomorphic in reporting that piece of information.) Maybe we'll have some bones from this one this spring? But no, later the investigator found that flooding had completely washed away the stones and he couldn't find the site again.
Peter Byrne quotes of a report from Glenn Thomas ("Bigfoot," 1975,
Guenette, and "Bigfoot: Opposing Viewpoints," 1989, Gaffron,) describing where three adult Bigfeet had dug a deep hole with their hands as tools,and buried a fourth dead Bigfoot. After the hole was filled in they rolled huge boulders, weighing several hundred pounds each, over the site.These "rock" burials are not new, and as more and more reports come in, patterns begin to emerge.
Again Peter Byrne related in a recent telephone conversation, where he had a new report from an elderly gentleman; that 35-40 years ago in northern Washington (still being investigated), the witness had seen three Bigfeet burying a fourth. With the multiple numbers of animals reported in the burial rites (usually three or four), one could almost speculate on a "family funeral service" of intelligent beings. Can they be so much different than ourselves? And so we suspect where the bones might be?
Vic McDaniel (Track Record #3) reported that a relative near
Klamath Agency, OR, while constructing a road, ran his 'dozer through a
curious twenty foot ring of large boulders, with smaller stones in the
center. The next day and on several peculiar occasions afterwards, the
stones had been replaced in their original positions after he had 'dozedthem away.
He eventually built his road around the area. Don't have a
specific Bigfoot in this tale, but speculate that the stones were moved
by something big and strong...perhaps a Bigfoot grave? How long would a
Blgfoot mourn a dead companion? Or perhaps, a Bigfoot was playing some
complicated game with one of those "curious" humans.
Strange piles of rocks, possible burials, in the forest are common
in issues of the Track Record. One in particular (TR #19) tells of gold
miners finding in 1985, a fifty foot clearing in the forest near the
Calapooya River, OR, where the tops of all the trees around the
perimeter were broken off. In the clearing also was an old deer carcass
and two piles of smooth, five-inch cobble rocks, about two and a half
feet high, and separated by twenty feet. The miners had been scared the
previous evening from strange screams and the sound of breaking trees.
Was never able to excavate these particular piles, but am sure others
are out there waiting. Investigator Scott White reported strange gravel
rocks in a clearing with smashed trees (TR #13), and WBS speaker Sue
Sebring reported several unusual cobble piles in the forest near
Starkey, OR (TR #17).
How about dead Bigfeet? The literature is full of reports of them
being shot, ran over by cars, trucks, and even a train (TR #21).
In 1965 the southbound Southern Pacific hit a Bigfoot on route from Bend to Klamath Falls, OR. The body was reported to be an enormous, shaggy, ape-like being which was stone dead. It was never reported because the crew didn't want to be accused of drinking on the job.
Often, reports appear that Bigfoot can't be killed by guns. But
successful shootings seem to keep turning up. Grover Krantz tells of a
hunter killing one in 1970 near Spokane, WA, (The scientist Looks At
Sasquatch, 1977, ed. Sprague and Krantz). A recent report in the
Bigfoot Co-Op, by Director Rich Grumley, tells of hunter burials of
Bigfeet in Georgia and near Sonora, Mexico. Rich says in Georgia, 1943,
close to the S.C. border (recent letter), a Bigfoot was shotgunned
because it was killing sheep and calves by tearing off their legs. It
was bigger than the box of the pickup truck it was hauled to town with,
and the reddish-brown corpse was reported buried under a pile of rocks
on the outskirts of town (The Apes Among Us, 1978, Green, p. 370).
Another report from investigator Datus Perry (TR #5) tells of a hunter near the Green River, WA, seeing a bear grubbing a log. He shot it, and then noticed he had killed a "hairy man," so rolled the log over the body and didn't report it until years later on his deathbed.
John Green reported (1978) that in June of 1971 the Salem, OR,
"Capital Journal" carried a report from near Happy Camp, CA, where two
young girls had found a dead Bigfoot along a forest road. The body was
well rotted away, white ribs showing, face gone, but they did see on the hands...squared off dark finger nails. Mr. Green investigated, and
believed the girls actually found a dead Bigfoot, based on a report from the "Ostman kidnapping," of those Bigfeet also having dark fingernails (only primates have nails).
In Track Record #22, and at the WBS meeting last October, Peter
Byrne told about two fisherman finding a dead Bigfoot along the trail
near Penticton, B.C., Canada. The men first smelled the rotting corpse,
and as they were investigating it, heard something moving in the brush.
Not knowing if it was another of the creatures (watching over its dead
mate?) or a bear attracted by the smell, they left hurriedly. Ten days
later the wildlife people could find nothing but a stain on the trail.
Had a bear eaten the carrion? Or perhaps a grieving companion buried
the remains?
So, where are the bones? Well...technically, Bigfoot doesn't
exist, he’s a myth...so there can’t be any bones. Or can there? A
couple hiking in the interior of British Columbia found a Bigfoot
skeleton washing out of the river bank (misplaced my reference on this
one-think it was Green). The bones were too heavy to carry, but the wife did pack out the huge lower jawbone, against her husband’s wishes. The Univ. of B.C. and B.C. Museum were invited to view the jaw, but...Bigfoot is a myth. The scientists couldn’t waste their valuable time, and eventually years later the cabin burned...and the jawbone.
However, Grover Krantz ("Big Footprints, 1992) says, "I have spent a good deal of time trying to Track down stories of enormous jaws and other bones, only to find that the specimen either was quite normal or else it could not be located."
Have since commented in the Track Record for hikers to be alert for
bones washing out of banks along the volcanic areas of Mt. St. Helens,
along river or creek banks, and other similar areas. Bigfoot, like any
other animal could be killed naturally during an eruption, or have
lightning strike him, or fall into a river and drown, his bones settling in the mud. Myra Shackley ("Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch, and the Neanderthal Enigma," 1983, page 64) has even commented on a drowned Yeti seen in a swollen river in Asia.
An amazing story that Cliff Olson told; was that in the spring 15
years ago Grover Kiggens, diseased, went to see what his dog was playing with, and took a human-like skull away from him. Talked to Mrs. Millie Kiggens, now close to 70 years old, but still recalls the incident. The dog actually brought the skull to her husband, and she described it at the time as still having some old, dried, brownish hair and skin/flesh adhering to it, and belonging to a young creature, perhaps 5-6 years of age. The lower jaw was still partly there.
There had been a lot of "screeching" in the forest on several of the previous nights. Thinking it human, they sent it to the crime lab, and their report...the skull was not human! Next the human-looking skull with no sloping forehead and normal looking teeth, no long canines, went to the Regional primate center, but they wouldn’t talk to her...just returned the skull with a note. They sent it to the University of British Columbia, and finally had to go retrieve it themselves after two years, as UBC drug their feet and wouldn’t return it, they wouldn’t commit themselves as to what it was.
The Regional Primate center was better, but said they couldn’t
identify it. They did comment that the sutures on the skull resembled
those of a giraffe (tho' they knew it wasn’t). Next it went to the
Univ. of Calif., and after a binge of excitement about a possible new
primate, they told her it was from an elk (even they could see it
wasn’t), and has disappeared into the maws of that institution.
There was some correspondence at the time that she'll try to find and send us, maybe we can track something down. I'll look into it if I can, but Jim Hewkin recalls trying years before to track it down unsuccessfully. Millie says she took some photos also...thinks she sent them to John Green, but not sure. Will query him about the Photos.
Follow-up. Mrs. Kiggens sent a document signed by a Dr. Turner of
Berkeley, CA. "...please tell him he can be proud...is ultimately
Responsible for discovery new species and legal protection.
Slow going partly because legal protection requires species known to science, hence named and described based upon physical material. several others and I cautious about going out on limb...process of elimination was very tedious, but skull is 'new.'" Western Union, 11/08/76.
Vic McDaniel also reported (TR #6) that his uncle had found a
Bigfoot skull near Antelope Flat in Lake County, OR. They took it to a
Portland College where it was returned, but only after it had been taken
completely apart into its component pieces. He was indeed miffed, but
both Vic and his friend Roy said they gave uncle a long written report.
The colleges don't seem to have a good reputation when it comes to
keeping track of some of the really interesting items.
Slate and Berry("Bigfoot," 1976) have a long detailed tale about a mule kicking up the top of a skull, the calvarium. It also disappeared at the U Of CA, with denials of their having ever seen it. You can almost picture the "What, me worry?" types examining it.
The B.C. museum is supposed to have a huge jawbone...but no one at the museum knows where it iS, except that it is crated and in storage ("Bigfoot," 1989, Guenette).
Even Ivan Sanderson ("Abominable Snowman," 1972) reported bones that had been shipped to Wrexham Museum, North Wales, England. They must have evaporated, as no trace of them was ever found.
They, once again, had been reported washing out of a riverbank on Shushwap Island, B.C., the teeth of huge size without cavities, and the entire skeleton eight footlong with skull (Alan Landsburg, "In search Of Myths And Monsters," saw in a college museum in Dublin, Ireland, a human skeleton of 8'6").
Another strange disappearance was reported by Dr. Alan L. Bryan, Univ. of Alberta, who took photos of a beetle-browed hominid skull, perhaps Homo erectus, in Brazil. Returning to study further, it had disappeared ("Search For The First Americans," Nat. Geo., Sept. 1979).
Are the bones disappearing on purpose...is there some sinister plan
involved? Mostly I doubt it, assuming our government isn't directly
involved in a disinformation plan, as I don't think that "jealous"
scientists could put together a good enough "plot," and a scientist's
name could be "made" if he could prove the existence of Bigfoot, so
maybe the specimens are in some cabinet waiting to be "re-discovered."
Have speculated about a rich collector offering sizable sums to museum or university people for new additions to their collections. Also, one might wonder if there would be another "spotted owl" crisis if Bigfoot were proved to exist.
And the bones? There appear to be plenty of 'em out there, if they
don't disappear, and we just have to be a bit more careful of who we
turn stuff over to when it's outside the realm of existing "science"...
make sure you have a photograph and get a receipt! Remember that most
scientists outside of their chosen field are amateurs like you and I.
Perhaps this'll be the year that we finally confirm Bigfoot...the
goal of the Western Bigfoot Society...and our hopes of confirmation are
for bones to be found, or a "road k111" to be reported in time for us to study the corpse.