Bigfoot Hoaxer Sues New Hampshire

Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 9th, 2011

You may remember the story from over a year ago.


Artist, without the Bigfoot costume.

As The Keene Sentinel noted on January 4, 2010, “In early fall [2009], Keene resident Jonathan C. Doyle had a spontaneous idea: Dress as Bigfoot and appear atop the summit of Mount Monadnock. He surprised some 80 hikers, then shot video of interviews with them and posted the clip on YouTube.”

Park rangers were not happy to discover Doyle did it again, but even bigger, according to National Public Radio. The rangers kicked him out of the park, because he didn’t have a permit.

Then, in January 2010, the Associated Press reported that Jonathan Doyle, a Keene, New Hampshire artist and videographer, the man who dressed as Bigfoot in that state park, “says his rights were trampled by big government.”

A complaint filed in a letter to the state parks department, Doyle notes that “a Mount Monadnock park ranger halted his performance art project in the fall [of 2009] because he didn’t have a permit.”

With much publicity, Doyle announced that the December 14, 2009 letter was sent to George Bald, commissioner of New Hampshire’s Department of Resources and Economic Development (which includes the Parks Department), stating that the special permit rule is vague, giving “unchecked discretion” to the park director.

The Washington Post summarized: “Doyle is arguing through the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union Foundation that his free-speech rights were violated when he was expelled from the state park in Jaffrey. He says he and others with him, some also in costume, were on a lesser-used trail and weren’t bothering other park visitors. Doyle says the state hasn’t responded to his letter. The Division of Parks and Recreation says it has been forwarded to the state attorney general’s office.”

In 2009, Doyle “told his business group that he was frustrated with traditional ways of getting people to visit his Web site, but that after this stunt (and a resulting front page article in the Keene Sentinel), his site received an amazing number of hits,” according to e-Network.

Doyle appeared in 2010 to have achieved his goal to get major media attention for his stunt. Now comes stage two. He is suing the state of New Hampshire. As reported by the Associated Press, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Jonathan Doyle is suing the state, arguing that the requirement to pay $100 for a special use permit 30 days in advance and get a $2 million insurance bond violates his free speech rights.

AP ends their article thusly:

Doyle, who grew up in Keene and has attended several art schools but has yet to graduate, has done other stunts to elicit reactions. He created and drove a “Bat-Mobile” around Manhattan. He dressed as an angel and stood stock still in the main aisle of an Episcopal church. He also said he designs websites and murals and loves to paint.

“I don’t want to be locked in a Bigfoot suit forever,” Doyle said. “I’d like to be able to do more.”

Bigfoot is the nickname given to sightings of large, hairy, human-like creatures that have been reported across the United States. Scientists are skeptical, at best, about its existence.AP

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


4 Responses to “Bigfoot Hoaxer Sues New Hampshire”

  1. MrInspector responds:

    Poor Bigfoot. They drag him into anything and everything these days.

  2. Spinach Village responds:

    @MrInspector:

    Exactly. Can we have this debate without involving Bigfoot, please!

  3. DWA responds:

    Bigfoot hunter Peter Byrne once said he’d be pleased (I have to paraphrase here but I’m close) to “put a tranquilizing dart in the ass of any fool dressing up in a Bigfoot suit for my benefit.”

    In these trying economic times, nobody like this deserves to get paid out of the public till. Period. Free speech my, well, ass.

  4. korollocke responds:

    You Need a permit to dress up as bigfoot in the wild? So I guess all the other Bigfoot sightings were people with permits.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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