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| July 10, 2012, 2:27 pm |
THOUGHTS ON BIGFOOT AND THE STATE OF JEFFERSON Bigfoot is almost impossible to escape in Southern Oregon and Northern California.During my time exploring the region I have driven Bigfoot Scenic Byway, shopped at Bigfoot Outlet Store and met a river guide employed by Bigfoot Rafting.I’ve hiked past a Bigfoot trap near Applegate Reservoir, interviewed members of a research group called “Friends of Sasquatch” and have even watched the big guy himself (in costume) steal a child from his parents’ arms during the Bigfoot Jamboree Parade in Happy Camp, Calif.In the pages of USA Today and The New York Times, I’ve read stories about Bigfoot sightings and have watched way, way too many documentaries with titles such as “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.”Where do most of these stories and documentaries take place? You guessed it: The Land of Jefferson.Clearly there’s something going on here, something with a power greater than the hoax created by Ray L. Wallace. In 1958, Wallace helped launch the modern legend by using a pair of wooden feet to stomp oversized footprints in a Northern California logging camp in 1958.The idea has become more than disputed video shot by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin at Bluff Creek, Calif. in 1967, and more than the testimony of Grants Pass psychologist Matthew Johnson, who says he met Bigfoot near the Oregon Caves National Monument.The truth is that it doesn’t actually matter whether Bigfoot exists at all.The reason he endures in our collective consciousness — the reason he’s embraced by businesses, media outlets and tourist brochures — is that he’s the perfect mascot for the wild side of our region.Southern Oregon and Northern California — the Klamath and Siskiyou Mountains in particular — are home to a swath of raw wilderness and national forest found few places in the Lower 48. There are some honest-to-god primeval forests in our backyard, where a person could head off trail and simply vanish into the wild.At a time when forests are disappearing quicker than any time in history, when urban sprawl is forcing bears into backyards on a regular basis, there’s something appealing about a region wild enough to serve as home base for a large, reclusive, hairy, bipedal humanoid.So while Bigfoot may not exist in reality, the idea that he could be out there works.I enjoy the idea myself. Every time one of my big-city friends contemplates a visit, I’ll usually say something about exploring “Bigfoot's Backyard” or “The Land of Bigfoot” as a way of luring them out.And who knows? On recent hikes in the Red Buttes and Siskiyou Wilderness, I’ve caught myself staring out over a wide and forested valley where no trails run, and where few (if any) people ever explore. Could Bigfoot be hiding somewhere out there? Well ... why not?“There have been more Bigfoot sightings here than anywhere in the world,” Linda Martin, who operates the blog bigfootsightings.org, told me last summer.“(We’re) surrounded by wilderness. It’s one of the only areas left where they can survive.”Indeed, Southern Oregon and Northern California is one of the last places where Bigfoot can call home. He wouldn’t fit in very well in the cities of the East Coast, the farmland of the Midwest or the desert of the Southwest.But in our hidden corner of the Pacific Northwest, home to wild mountains and rivers, and forest that stretches as far as the eye can see?Yes, Bigfoot’s right at home in these parts.o o oPast blogsLOCAL RIVERS AND LOCAL MUSIC COMBINE IN VIDEO PROJECTGUEST OPINION: ENVIRO’S SPOTTED OWL HAS DESTROYED JOBS AND PROSPERITY IN SOUTHERN OREGONFEWER ALGAE PROBLEMS REPORTED AT LOCAL LAKESHIKING TO THE HIDDEN RED BUTTES |
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