Stick-swinging Bigfoot Footage from Ohio the Real Deal? Probably Not.

By on August 23, 2012 in News 24

Cryptomundo recently posted the following video depicting a supposed Bigfoot encounter on a trail in Northeast Ohio. While I’m almost one hundred percent that the Sasquatch is a creature of myth, I am intrigued by the way that the video was set up. If you look carefully at the slowed down footage you’ll notice that the “creature” is carrying a large stick. It would seem that if you were to go through all of the trouble to stage a Bigfoot encounter that you wouldn’t throw in an oddball detail like that. Then again, if you were especially clever, you might want to throw in the stick just to make people think just that.

For what it’s worth – and I think it’s worth a lot – the YouTube account the video came from features other incidences of purported Sasquatch sightings. It’s suspicious that one person would have so many encounters with a creature  that both scientists and true believers have had a hard time proving even exists.

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  • http://2012diaries.blogspot.com tristan eldritch

    Pretty poorly done anyway, stick or no.  Kudos to the Paterson/Gimlin film – its the still the state of the art in Bigfoot footage.

    • Matt Staggs

      You’re right. Cool user name, btw. 

  • mahajohn

    Ugh. I wish I had the experience of seeing one of these creatures myself, ’cause then I’d have *something* more reliable (to me!) to go on than weird videos and anecdotes. So, without any proof positive that sasquatch are real, but assuming for a moment that they are, it’s perhaps likely that the Patterson-Gimlin film shows us a real sasquatch female. That individual did not move at all like the individual in this video. The individual in this video looks *exactly* like a human running. If one looks at the PG creature’s leg angles as they move, they are nothing like this video.

    • Matt Staggs

      The Bigfoot phenomena is interesting even from a purely sociological and folkloric context. There’s a lot going on there: 19th century reports of “apes” and “wildmen” encountered in the American wilderness  (http://flahistory.blogspot.com/2011/08/bigfoot-capture-in-19th-century-florida.html) and recent (almost certainly faked) footage found on today’s internet. Bigfoot is an archetypal image of the “wild man” that has been seen in many, many myths, from Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh (
      http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Dr-Fi/Enkidu.html#b ) to Medieval fable (http://genreauthor.blogspot.com/2011/07/medieval-mondays-wild-men-in-medieval.html). People want to believe in this creature for a lot of reasons. I think some of them have to do with regaining a sense of the unknown that religion used to provide and reclaiming the role of the amateur in scientific discovery. Maybe in terms of deep psychology, we see something that we’ve lost in Bigfoot: a sense of integration with the natural world – or maybe he just represents the Shadow self and we seek integration. (http://tekgnostics.blogspot.com/2010/07/bigfoot-klamath-knot.html ) Some people just enjoy Bigfoot as a talisman of the unknown and a recognizable symbol of pop culture (
      http://shirtoid.com/64458/gone-squatchin/ ), and others might just see hunting the creature as good justification to go romping around the woods late at night with friends (
      http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/travel/hunting-bigfoot-in-florida.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.levart ). Maybe seeking him is another example of Legend-tripping (
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_tripping ), but perhaps a latter stage that appeals to (usually) older men. Or maybe Bigfoot really is some kind of unknown hominid lurking in the shadows. (
      http://animal.discovery.com/tv/finding-bigfoot/bigfoot-evidence/ ) Beats me. 

      • Jesus Borg

        I think they could be superior beings that have some type of occult power that humans once had but lost. Kind of like a wild animal with human intelligence combined with animal smarts and the types of psi abilities that Rupert Sheldrake has documented with animals and pets. They can communicate telepathically and sense humans in the area long before they are seen.

        There could be a connection to Shamanism too. They could be Skin walkers. Pants shitting fear is one phemenon that is associated with seeing them. Most people don’t get scared completely shitless when they see a grizzly bear even and dogs bark at Grizzlies, but often Sasquatches strike people and dogs alike with a nearly paralyzing abject terror.

        But then other people don’t experience fear. I don’t carry a gun and have never felt afraid in the woods. But I think they send these scary vibes to armed men. Animals can tell people’s state of mind and if its a threat or not.

        • Matt Staggs

          Maybe they’re evidence of a glitch in the matrix here and there or, like Keel suggested “ultraterrestrials”. I’m still going with “no such thing”, sadly, and I think with the exception of maybe Joe Rogan, nobody wants these things to be real more than I do. I’m familiar with Sheldrake’s findings, but to say that they’re controversial among mainstream science would be an understatement. I like his stuff, though. Neat ideas.

          • Jesus Borg

             Well, I can get deer and chipmunks and other wild animals to walk up to me when I am out in the woods, by being in a quiet “open” frame of mind. These aren’t tame animals that have been fed either. So for me its not some abstract theory but my experience that animals can sense peoples frame of mind. I also used to be a dog musher, and getting 12 huskies to obey you with voice commands, involves developing a pretty good bond. They are very tapped into the mushers, frame of mind.

            Also just being quiet and out in the woods alone, and after your inner dialogue quiets down, your awareness becomes heightened. I liken it to what anthropologists have described as a “limnal” state of consciousness. So in that state I can sense people coming from a long way off and their respective frame of mind.

            So I just give bigfoot credit for being able to do that enough to remain un detected. I know I’ve spent months at a time “stealth camping” in public parks and I was never detected. So if they are at least as smart as I am they can do it too.

            as far as “no such thing” Clearly there is evidence for Neanderthal, Homo Ergaster, etc. not only in the fossil record but in our own DNA. The only question is when did they become extinct?

            I know from experience that 5 miles into the woods, off of marked trails is a whole other world and one that few humans ever see. Known species of animals display all kinds of behavior you won’t read about in a field guide. they might as well be cryptids.

          • Matt Staggs

            We have a fossil record that indicates that Neanderthal and other hominids existed. Sadly, there’s no fossil record for Bigfoot or even Neanderthal or Homo Ergaster in the Americas, despite plenty of evidence for the existence of early modern humans (which would have been coexisting with the theoretical Bigfoots). I’m not arguing here, nor am I seeking to invalidate your experiences, only to point out the obvious lack of hard evidence for the existence of Sasquatch. I’d very much like it to be otherwise, and as you can probably gather, I’ve been interested in the topic my entire life. I’m no woodsman or musher, so I can’t at all attest to your experiences here. If you do end up with any hard evidence for the existence of this creature, I’d be the first in line to see it. 

            Edit: I agree that animals can sense people’s frames of mind, particularly those animals who spend a lot of time around people, but I think that it’s probably more due to subconscious cues rather than any kind of energy field. Still, your mileage may vary, and I certainly can’t prove you’re wrong.

          • Jesus Borg

             Well I definitely think there is some piece of the puzzle that is missing and a piece that even the pretty serious believers don’t want to adress. Like I said I am about 75% convinced.  There is something weird and supernatural about it. That comes into the discussion and a lot of people just want to say its an ape man, like Gigantopithecus or whatever. They don’t want to adress that part. But I think the reason a lot of people get so scared is because they recieve telepathic communications from the entity, or even just a strong feeling of ill will. Like how people reprt feeling just before they get mugged or assaulted “The Gift of Fear” is a good book on that subject.

            I just think there is a lot of wierd shit in the World and that most people see the world through various constructs that they believe are really solid and they aren’t really solid at all. I saw a “porcupine” the other day, when I was out running that turned out to be a stump. I  heard a noise and looked and there it was I could see its head and its tail and its black fur and its white quills and then as approached, it was a stump. I am assuming my brain filled in all the info from my memory banks. I saw my dog once out of the corner of my eye, 2 days after I had him put to sleep. I don’t think it was a ghost, I think it was my brain. But all these things we have are mental models and not really real. I think Global Warming is like that. I mean how long have humans been thinking Globally? Not long. Who knows what the fuck is really going on?  I mean science is amazing and everything but its all models, often good ones but still models. Google Earth is really just a bunch of photos, even when you talk on the phone you aren’t hearing the persons actual voice, but just a copy of their voice.

            So the category of what is “really out there” and “Just in my or other people’s heads” is kind of blurred to me.

            But still though, if I see an mink in the woods or an Fisher, or an Otter, I know which is which. Many people don’t. This hunting guide would know the difference too.

            Many people are afraid of the Dark and others are afraid of their own thoughts, when they are alone out in the woods. So you can subtract what you know from what you don’t know by a process of elimination.

            As far as I know nothing throws boulders that’s out there, that you will find listed in a field guide. So some peoples testimony is more legit.

            But its weird the photos are always blurry.

          • Matt Staggs

            Yeah, check out John A. Keel’s stuff about “ultraterrestrials”. You might find some interesting ideas there.

          • TedHeistman

            Bigfoot could be all hocus pocus, ephemeral, like a Ghost or a UFO, though I will say large humanoid tracks are fairly solid evidence, especially the ones that have been examined by anatomists, the ones with dermal ridges that show evidence of flexing.

            I mean a mountain lion track is evidence of a mountain lion. Bigfoot fur is hard to identify because there is no control sample to compare to from a known bigfoot.

            Basically I am just postulating that if they are intelligent enough they could avoided detection for all these years.

            Becauae I myself have experienced intuitive abilities after being in the woods for extended periods of time. In terms of sensing others energy fields and states of mind. People like me, know this to be true by experience. People that practice Qi Gong Reike, etc. Know what energy is. Just like people born with functioning eyes are able to see.

            Its funny that “debunker” type people of acientific materialist worldview, have bl;ocked out these senses and then become infatuated with trying to validate/invalidate them. But for me its like I can see, sometimes what I see and hear doesn’t always match, you know like thunder and Lightening, but I don’t sek to validate everything I see with things I hear first before I believe it.

            Its that obvious to me that everything has an aura and that I am able to read information from them.

            I think possibly if Bigfoot exists they arre very advanced in that type of intuitive ability.

            While many humans are completely atrophied in that regard.  

  • justagirl

    what’s with you and bigfoot hmm?

    • Matt Staggs

      Me and Mr. Bigfoot
      We got a thing going on.
      We both know it’s wrong
      But it’s much too strong, to let it go now…

      • justagirl

        LOL!  hey!

  • Jesus Borg

    Well, I am about 75% certain they live not ten miles from my home here in the Adirondacks. There is a hunting and Fishing guide here that has been seeing them for years. He’s had them in his rifle sites. And they do get aggressive. They reportedly threw boulders at him. He says they look like big upright gorillas.  He thought he had a bear in his sites one day and it stood up and faced him and looked right at him. He put his rifle down, collected himelf, took some deep breaths and brought it up again. It was still there still looking at him. He did that four times. Soon after that experience he became a biig foot researcher.

    Personally, I’ve experienced something throwing huge rocks at trees way out in the woods with not a soul around. No animal will do that. And not many people bush whack ten 20 miles into State land like I do. There is a guy that is a Biologist that lives in Vancouver BC and has worked for the UN,pretty legit guy. He came down and looked at this hunting guide guy’s casts and said they were legit.

    In Human history there have been as many as 5 anthropoids living concurrently. So maybe Homo sapiens sapiens isn’t the only one left after all.

    • Matt Staggs

      I’d love to hear more about that. Any Bigfoot remains? Clear photographs? No snark intended. I like this stuff.

      • Jesus Borg

         Well, There was a boring talk here at the Woodgate Town Hall, by a woman that gives kind of “fun” lectures on topics of local interest. It was basically a list of dates of sightings going back 300 years and no pictures. After everyone was snoring, this Old hunting guide got up and gave a little talk. He was just a straight shooter and not college educated. Just what you would expect a hunting guide to be like.  Not a “woo woo” type guy either. So he just shared his experiences, and everyone was really interested in what he had to say. Some other people gave  accounts of their own experiences. Like one kid heard two creatures calling back and forth to each other across a lake, one night and his dogs got really scared and hid under the bed. The postal clerk saw one cross the road, 7 foot hairy guy. I think 2 different times.

        This is the South Western edge of the Adirondacks, some of the Oldest protected land in the Park and an area where few tourists visit because there aren’t really any mountains here. But if you look at a Map of the Park there is a lot of Green here. Its just North of Utica, about an hour and probably people that come here want to go farther in. I know I wanted to get as far away from Utica and some of these other blighted upstate NY towns as I could when I used to live outside the park.  So its just locals in the woods here mostly.

        The guy had a scrap book full of photos of tracks and some plaster casts. One blurry camera trap photo was in the local paper. Which to be honest, doesn’t look like anything. None of it on its own is really impressive. But just taking stock of the guy and listening to him and how he was recieved by the locals seemed legit to me. And I told him of my experiences of huge rocks being thrown when I am way out in the woods. Once was in April just after the snow melt and NOBODY is around then. He shared his experienced with boulders being thrown at him. Also logging camp was destroyed and a 55 gallon drum of deisel fuel was carried a quarter mile away and busted open. Which could be “EARTH FIRST” type activity, but its a conservative area here.

        But This guy is always armed, and I am not so I really feel they don’t see me as a threat. I think my Rock throwing experiences weren’t as hostile as his because of that. He feels like basically he was evicted from where he was fishing.

      • Jesus Borg

         One more thing to add that is related. There are Mountain Lions here also that are “officially extinct” don’t live here. All the Local people have seen them, hunters, local sheriff Deputies, biologists. The local gossip is that they were “unofficially” reintroduced. Because basically you are probably familiar with the wolves in Yellowstone and the outcry from the locals in town hall meeting that were against it. So the theory is they did it quietly and certain officials were in the know and were educated in how to respond to reports of sightings.

        anyway they are reportedly breeding now. The local sherrif says three were hit by cars, while scavenging roadkill.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    NE Ohio? Ahhh…I can understand the confusion. I’m afraid thats no bigfoot. Thats a typical devolved fundamentalist Republican fleeing scrutiny. He was venting about liberals when the stick fell out of his ass for minute. He’s headed into the woods to shove it back in.

  • WTFMFWOMG

    The ONLY book to read on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Sasquatch-Legend-Science-Jeff-Meldrum/dp/0765312166 . Here is a sample of his research. Meldrum holds a Ph.D., is an expert in primate locomotion: http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/fxnlmorph.html . There is nothing /x/ in his book. he only examines physical evidence, no hearsay accounts of sightings. Footprints show a different foot construction, casts sometimes preserve dermal ridge detail. Soil density and stride length reveal height and weight. A hoaxer with fake big feet would have to carry heavy weights, hundreds of pounds, and leap from one step to the next.  

    The reason bigfoot is dismissed as “hoax” or “legend” is that it would require a re-write of what we know about primate evolution on this planet. Years of research would have to be re-evaluated. Human ego frequently trumps science. Sometimes one individual researcher can bring into question the opinions of a majority of other scientists. It might take years/decades/centuries for opinions to change. 

    The reason we don’t find fossils of them is that any animal that dies in a forest is completely consumed.  It is by sheer luck that any animal is fossilized intact. The reason we don’t see them often is because the only ones to survive probably do so by carefully avoiding humans. As their habitats are reduced we might have more reported sightings.

    • David Howe

       ah….the conspiracy defense.  those mean old scientists are so concerned about their egos and about protecting that fragile thing known as modern biology, that they are engaged in a coverup of …uh….blurry photographs.  Still no physical evidence.  It couldn’t be a simpler matter.  Isn’t it convenient that they avoid human contact?

      • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

         I can completely grasp the idea of a bigfoot (and many other creatures) avoiding human contact. That’s actually a believable pattern of behavior for a creatures with even modest or limited brain power.

        But in the end, I agree with you because  its not ego trumping science…its the total absence of hard physical evidence. Decades of searching and not one legitimate corpse. I’m as open minded on the subject as I can be in the absence of hard proof. When a body turns up that wasn’t manufactured by a couple of drunks…I’ll be more than happy to reverse gears and accept the idea of wandering primates in US forests. Until then I will only accept the theoretical possibility.

        • WTFMFWOMG

          Ah, Disinfo’s official debunker speaks. I am convinced I was wrong.

      • WTFMFWOMG

        The only “conspiracy” is in the minds of those who cannot accept the possibility that we don’t know everything. What isn’t “physical” about footprints, casts of them, etc? There are no bodies, because armchair “experts” are incapable of walking more than a few feet off a trail. Yup, no bigfoot body there, so it must be fake. Read Meldrum’s book, if you dare, or maybe an open mind might give you a headache.