Losing Bigfoot: Is the discovery of Sasquatch a Pandora's box?

 The Bigfoot  phenomenon is all the rage right now and is the subject of numerous websites, documentaries and even a reality TV series  called Finding Bigfoot featured on the Animal Planet.

I may not have my own investigative reality TV series but what I do have is a wild curiosity for the unknown and a camera. In September of 2012  I traveled to Newton County, Arkansas, after learning my relatives own property in a mountainous area bordering a national park that is known to be a hotspot for Bigfoot. What I found on my solo camping adventure was eye-opening.

Wishing at first to avoid contact with locals I made camp in an isolated hollow with no cell phone service and 10 miles from any paved roads. It was prime squatching territory with a myriad of indicators that nightfall would be interesting. However, after a day of exploring, a storm forced me to move my camp early. My vehicle barely made it up the rocky hill. The rain was making the trail muddy and almost left me stranded. So I continued my search elsewhere for signs of Sasquatch.

Between hikes through the dense forest I explored the nearby community asking questions at opportune moments. Having a connection to the area helped open conversations and I was able to get a handful of witnesses to speak to me about their experiences with Bigfoot. What I uncovered was a surprise. One couple I spoke with has owned real estate in the area for 30 years. They said that on several occasions they saw a 9-foot “person” covered in hair but didn't report it. Several of their guests had also seen the creature. Two gentlemen I met at a local café said they had seen it cross the river last winter. Whenever I asked about reporting these incidents a fascinating theme emerged. They didn’t fail to report out of fear of being ridiculed. Instead they believed that if the authorities were to find out, life would change.

Would recognition by mainstream science of a large primate in North America force unwanted changes on Americans? Once Bigfoot is found, we cannot lose him.  In order to manage and protect Bigfoot’s natural habitat land in many regions where Sasquatch lives could be taken using the Endangered Species Act through eminent domain as has been the case for thousands of Americans in the past. Furthermore, a beast having characteristics so similar to that of humans you might even have some trying to put it on food stamps and section 8 housing.

To make matters more interesting, it was suggested by one witness that spoke with me that enough photo evidence has been suppressed that if revealed it would “make a believer out of anyone.” I have no reason to doubt what I was being told and the attitude of this particular witness seemed pretty indifferent to whether or not I believed the tale or not.

Thus it seems the tendency on the part of some locals to avoid the topic, suppress information or simply not report sightings serves as a bulwark to change. Add to this the commercial interests like the logging industry which might be impacted. The result is a coalition of silence working against official discovery.

On the hunt...

What I have uncovered here isn't news to the Bigfoot research community. But the public needs to know that there are many credible eyewitnesses who don’t come forward because the discovery of a new species where they live isn't a good thing for them. Since I have family who could also be affected by this discovery I understand the complexity somewhat better than some who are unconnected. It may just be a horrible Pandora's box that society can never shut. The fact of the matter is that once we find Bigfoot, we won't lose him again. We will be forced to reckon with a host of implications which will be both costly and controversial. What will it cost the taxpayer? What will be the laws that govern human-Bigfoot interaction?

 The price of finally acknowledging Bigfoot as a species will be high in many regards. That being said  the recognition of Bigfoot is inevitable and some say overdue. In any case it must coincide with protection for the little guys. By little guys of course I mean homo sapiens . The 9-foot super-primate with night vision has the proven ability to protect themselves without government help or food stamps.

Links to other Bigfoot articles:

Size Matters: Why Sasquatches might have made good lovers 15,000 years ago

http://exploretheunexplained.blogspot.com/2012/12/size-matters-why-sasquatches-might-have.html



Some great stuff from Facebook Find Bigfoot!

Mars Mission: Been there done that?

As featured in the February 2013 Edition of the Murfreesboro Pulse

Mission to Mars: Been there done that?

2013 will be a year in which a handful of bold explorers will launch expeditions to some of the most remote places on our planet. Yet no expedition to the heart of the African Congo or even the Antarctic can compare to what will be required to accomplish what the Mars One Project seeks to achieve by establishing a permanent colony on Mars. The project, started by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp in 2011, intends to take space exploration to the next level by putting the first four colonists on Mars in 2023, sending four additional colonists every 2 years.

I have to confess my envy of those selected for this historical undertaking. But will this project really be man’s first endeavor to colonize Mars? The reason that I ask this seemingly ridiculous question is that there are a number of people who claim to have knowledge of a preexisting colony on the red planet and a secret space program unknown to the public. One such individual is the great-granddaughter of America’s 34^th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower who I interviewed in 2010. Laura Magdalena Eisenhower says that an agent working for a mysterious group called The Aviary pressured her to join a secret survival colony on Mars long before any official Mars projects by NASA or private firms. This secret group even threatened to kidnap her if she didn’t cooperate. Not creepy at all right?

Since my interview with Eisenhower, I’ve investigated information surrounding other claims about the existence of a secret colony on Mars and the reality of a secret space program unknown to the American public. Among those who corroborate her story of a cover-up, which has been labeled “Marsgate”, is Andrew Basiago, an attorney from Washington State who is the president of Project Pegasus and the Mars Anomaly Research Society and others who claim they were teleported to the colony during the 1980’s.

Let’s look at more evidence. In what was deemed by the Bush Administration as the “Biggest military computer hack of all time” Gary McKinnon, a hacker from Great Britain, says that he illegally viewed computer files pertaining to a project called “Solar Warden”. He claims to have viewed documents listing “Non-terrestrial officers” and even some detailing a fleet of 8 cigar–shaped mother ships and 43 scout ships operating under US Naval Network and Space Operations Command. In 2002 McKinnon was indicted on 7 counts of computer related crime, each carrying a 10 year prison sentence. However, efforts to extradite the hacker stalled. Some believe he wasn’t extradited because a trial might lead to subpoenas of Pentagon officials and exposure of classified information.

Now if you think the US government isn’t capable of keeping a project of this magnitude a secret, you are mistaken. The Manhattan Project was responsible for developing the first Atomic bomb during WWII, employed nearly 130,000 people at more than 30 sites and cost the equivalent of 25.8 billion dollars.

As we’ve seen with the Manhattan project, it wouldn’t be the first time massive scientific projects have been hidden from the public. It might also explain what appears to be a lack of progress in our manned space explorations and the reason for the reductions in funding for NASA programs by the current administration. If you are still skeptical, do your own research before dismissing any of this. There are literally hundreds of eye- witness testimonies which have been collected over the years by the Disclosure Project and other private efforts investigating alleged cover-ups and secret technologies. It’s my own belief that someday we’ll find out that our space travel capabilities are a lot more advanced than we are made to believe. Given the wholly uninspiring lack of progress that NASA has delivered over the past decade, I think we would all like to believe the American space program is secretly awesome.

As always, I encourage everyone to do their own research and seek the truth no matter what others tell you. Until next time, keep exploring!