Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series concerning an international group’s effort to locate Bigfoot inside West Virginia.



Since the infamous 1967 “Patterson movie” which haphazardly showed a tall, furry, long-limbed, human-like creature quickly looking back toward the camera before lumbering away, millions have been swept into the legend of Sasquatch and the possibility that humanity’s missing link may be free-roaming forested areas across the United States.

So much so, the term Bigfoot today — and the compelling mystery surrounding the 9-foot-tall creature — has uniquely become immersed in Americana and is enjoying new popularity courtesy of the technology age.

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, an Internet-based community of scientists and journalists, has compiled the world’s most extensive database of Bigfoot encounters and evidence which can be quickly accessed with the click of a mouse at www.bfro.net. According to the Web site, the BFRO “seeks to resolve the mystery” and “derive conclusive documentation of the species existence.”

Next month, about 18 BFRO members will take to the woods and search for such evidence in the abundant hills and valleys of West Virginia. The expedition will be led by BFRO investigator Stephen Willis, a retired U.S. Army first sergeant and Webster County native who told The Register-Herald he believes the Appalachian Mountains present a viable environment for the existence of Bigfoot.

“A lot of people have this impression that Sasquatch only exists in the Northwest,” said Willis, who has conducted 15 other searches. “But they are everywhere that you can imagine as long as there is a deer population for food and shelter to protect them from severe winter weather.”

Willis, 56, declined to disclose the exact location of this year’s search — an expedition was held in Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties in 2006 — for fear that curiosity seekers and media could compromise the results. However, he did explain the group’s April 10-13 itinerary and its quest to document the creature.

“So far there are 18 members who have signed up to go and we will be picking out some target areas and locations and basically be doing a lot of listening during the ‘squatching’ hours between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. when they are moving,” explained Willis, who has investigated dozens of sightings across the state. “The ultimate goal of the expedition will be a daylight sighting with a reference mark in the video or photograph to document its size.”

Bigfoot’s movement coincides with the movement of a primary food source — deer — Willis said, and the elusive creatures organize hunts “using some of the same tactics as deer hunters.”

“They will conduct drives and push the deer into the waiting arms of other Sasquatch just like deer hunters do,” Willis said. “A Sasquatch can run in excess of 30 miles per hour and will grab the deer and fold it in the middle and break its back.

“One of our investigators interrupted a Sasquatch deer hunt and the animal threw rocks at him so the hunt would not be interrupted. They will do the same thing if a fisherman gets too close to the area where they are nesting in the daytime.”

Willis said the average creature can weigh up to 800 pounds, be about 4 feet wide at the shoulders, and have arms that are 10 to 15 percent longer than humans’.

“They are considered to be primates, but in my opinion they would be ranked as pre-humans and come from a different link of the evolution chain,” Willis, who reported seeing one in northern California, said. “I wouldn’t say a missing link, but rather a very smart ape.”

Willis said the creature also has “scent sacks” underneath its armpits, just like a gorilla, and activates them when endangered or threatened.

- - -

BFRO researchers estimate up to 6,000 Sasquatches — a Native American term meaning “wild man” — are currently roaming North America, including Canada and southern Alaska.

California lawyer and computer consultant Mathew Moneymaker founded the organization and its popular Web site in 1995.

More than 50 West Virginia sightings alone are documented on the Web site, including a Monroe County encounter last August near Lindside and one in 1994 at Sherwood Lake in Greenbrier County.

Population numbers were derived from “credible reports and track finds since the 1960s,” according to the Web site, which also suggests the animal has a high fear of humans, and is a forager and nocturnal feeding predator with its own language who “tries to avoid leaving tracks where possible.”

“In the daytime, they don’t like to make eye contact and will melt into the woods to avoid everyone,” said Willis, whose wife Kathryn says she saw two adult males in Greenbrier County in 2005. “But at night, the best weapon against a Sasquatch is shining a light in their eyes. Above all else, don’t start shooting at one because they could become wounded.”

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@register-herald.com