forest in Washington state. There, in a muddy wallow near Mt. Adams, the team found an extraordinary piece of evidence that could end all arguments about whether or not the mysterious creature exists. It was here that they located an imprint in the mud of Bigfoot’s hair-covered lower body as it lay on its side, apparently reaching over to get some fruit. Thermal imaging equipment confirmed that the impression made by the massive body was only a few hours old.
The team of Bigfoot hunters who discovered the imprint—Dr. LeRoy Fish, a retired wildlife ecologist with a doctorate in zoology; Derek Randles, a landscape architect; and Richard Noll, a tooling metrologist—next made a plaster cast of what appeared to be impressions of the creature’s left forearm, hip, thigh, and heel. More than 200 pounds of plaster were needed to acquire a complete 3.5 X 5 foot cast of the imprint. Dr. Meldrum stated that the imprint had definitely not been made by a human who had improbably crawled into the mud wallow.
On October 23, Idaho State University issued a press release stating that a team of investigators, including Dr. Meldrum; Dr. Grover Krantz, retired physical anthropologist from Washington State University; Dr. John Bindernagel, Canadian wildlife biologist; John Green, retired Canadian author and long-time Bigfoot hunter; and Dr. Ron Brown, exotic animal handler and health care administrator, had examined the plaster cast obtained from the mud wallow and agreed that it could not be “attributed to any commonly known Northwest animal and may present an unknown primate.”
According to the university press release, after the cast had been cleaned, “extensive impressions of hair on the buttock and thigh surfaces and a fringe of longer hair along the forearm were evident.” In addition, Dr. Meldrum, associate professor of anatomy and anthropology, identified what appeared to be “skin ridge patterns on the heel, comparable to fingerprints, that are characteristic of primates.”
While the cast may not prove without question the existence of a species of North American ape, Dr. Meldrum speculated that it “constitutes significant and compelling new evidence that will hopefully stimulate further serious research and investigation into the presence of these primates in the Northwest mountains and elsewhere.”
My long-time friend and associate Dr. Franklin Ruehl told me that among the most impressive pieces of recent evidence for Bigfoot that he had examined is a three-minute videotape shot on Saturday morning, April 16, 2005, just after dawn, by Bobby Clarke, a bargeman on the Nelson River in northern Manitoba in the Cree Indian community of Norway House. He sighted and videotaped what he described as “a big black figure” on the opposite side of the riverbank approximately 750 feet away.
Dr. Ruehl was willing to dismiss the possibility of a hoax because Clarke waited several days before going public with his film, wanting to avoid publicity. On May 4, 2005, Dr. Ruehl analyzed the video for the TV program, A Current Affair. While the image was blurred to a certain degree, Dr. Ruehl endorsed it as having a high coefficient of credibility. Indeed, if it had been too perfect, one would wonder if it might have been choreographed with someone in a costume.
Dr. Franklin R. Ruehl is a physicist, anomalist, ufologist, author, lecturer, and television host and producer (photo by International Cryptozoology Museum/Loren Coleman/Jessica Meuse).
The very next morning after he had analyzed the film, Dr. Ruehl received a phone call from the show’s producer, Burt Kearns, inviting him fly up to Canada to personally investigate the case.
According to Dr. Franklin Ruehl:
At first, I demurred as I am a stereotypical wimp, not a wilderness hunter! But, at breakfast, my mother encouraged me to give it a go.
Early the next morning, I found myself on a plane headed for Manitoba, along with segment producer Brett Hudson and chainsaw artist Cherie Currie (who was going to carve an image of the creature out of local wood). On the final leg of the flight, as we journeyed from Winnipeg to Norway House, I was most impressed with the dense forestation on all sides, the left, the right, the north, east, south, and west … you could easily have had 100 such creatures concealed within.
Soon after arriving, we met with Clarke, who impressed me with both his sincerity and knowledge of the region. Then, accompanied by two Cree guides, we made our first excursion into the brush in the area where the video was shot. I was struck with the awareness of just how difficult it would be to track and chase one of these creatures down. We were truly in Bigfoot country!
Every step of the way, our path was encumbered with mud holes, bramble bushes with thorns, and branches of all sizes. My immediate conclusion was that it would be very dangerous, very difficult, to pursue a creature if he indeed does exist there, a creature which knows its way around and may have evolved heavy foot and lower-leg padding to easily navigate through such terrain.
While our team did not find Bigfoot, we did uncover a significant amount of secondary evidence. For instance, in what may have been a Bigfoot feasting field, we found bird bones that had their feathers peeled off before being eaten, something a bear or other predator, for example, would not do—but perhaps an intelligent primate, such as a Bigfoot, might take the time to more carefully prepare its food.
The locals continued to bring us sophisticated digital photos of possible Bigfoot footprints. Indeed, one contingent even delivered a large box of dirt with the footprint embedded within.
Moreover, as word spread that we were investigating Bigfoot, I was being inundated by calls from other areas of Manitoba about sightings and footprints. One woman with whom I spoke definitely impressed me with an account of a Bigfoot suddenly materializing near her home, again suggesting that this was the time the entity was awakening from hibernation.
One hair was recovered from the area and subsequently analyzed by a technician with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). His conclusion that it was of indeterminate origin, but he kept open the hope that it was indeed from Bigfoot.
A legitimate question raised by skeptics that needs to be addressed is why no Bigfoot cadavers have yet been recovered.
I point out that while birds, squirrels, and other creatures are dying all the time in the forest, we virtually never see their corpses as a variety of predators tend to feast on such remains, with microscopic scavengers ingurgitating whatever is left behind. And, with Bigfoot, we may well be dealing with an intelligent entity that may carry off its dead, hiding or even burying those remains.
In conclusion, I arrived in Norway House as a believer in Bigfoot, and my belief has been strengthened by what we uncovered in such a short amount of time. I submit that it is just a matter of time before we have absolute confirmation that Bigfoot exists! No doubt about it whatsoever!
Other researchers have pointed out that Mother Nature keeps a clean house. The carcasses of the largest forest creatures are soon eaten by scavengers and the bones are scattered. Zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson suggested that if these beings are members of a subhuman race, they may gather up their dead for burial in special caves. Others remind the skeptical that it is not unusual for certain of the higher animals to hide the bodies of their dead. Accounts of the legendary “elephants’ graveyard” are well-known; and in Ceylon, the phrase “to find a dead monkey” is used to indicate an impossible task.
