This is a global statement that must be challenged.

If you look at the history of long-term witness situations, most serious researchers have NOT avoided them.

The Ostman case for 1924, for example, is a well-known incident of extended contact that has been a foundation account - investigated by John Green, Rene Dahinden, Ivan Sanderson, and dozens of other “researchers.” My book has other examples. Even the Bay Area Group during the 1960s had several, and Archie Buckley and Warren Thompson were very open about having this level of contact and maintaining high investigative standards. The Williams family events and the Powell files are taken seriously by most people.

But a division must be made between those and the true circumstances of the Carter-Coy events, which rightfully can be placed in the “Bigfoot contactee” file. I point to the on-site investigations (over at cryptozoology.com) of my brother, Jerry, for some very telling data.

However, I agree with you, Thom. Researchers gripe and moan about how witnesses are reluctant to come forward with their stories and often put out a call to witnesses to share and “not be afraid”. Yet many witnesses, particularly LTWs, ARE ridiculed when they do share the details of their encounters.

Having worked specifically with LTWs for going on 18 years now, I can tell you that MANY of them have shared details privately with me that they don’t dare share with the general public… and this includes mainstream research.

However, there is more than enough correlation between these stories, many that I gathered BEFORE the days of the internet, before similar stories were even published, to indicate that at least SOME of these witnesses are very likely relating similar events that have basis in fact. And the things that are happening might just teach us a thing or two about the nature of these creatures.

It’s a catch-22. Many of my witnesses refuse to allow me to publish their stories due to the ridicule factor. Many of them have TRIED to share details on public forums and have come away from there with a disdain and mistrust for researchers and their particular brand of “selective open-mindedness”. The cruelty I’ve witnessed on message boards towards these people, under the guise of “skeptical inquiry”, is shameful.

All things equal, who would YOU rather play twenty questions with? Someone who saw a bigfoot cross the road? Or someone who claims more intimate, ongoing encounters? What can you hope to learn from the first witness? What a Sasquatch looks like crossing a road? I think we have a pretty good handle on that by now.

Again, I’ll refrain from commenting on the Jan Coy saga specifically. But bear in mind that not all LTWs are equal, and some of them share information that you really might want to hear… if you give them half a chance.
And finally, kudos to Thom Powell for having the insight to investigate these LTW situations, rather than avoiding them as most researchers have done. Bravo, Thom! You da man!

Thanks, Cryptomundo guys, for allowing me the soapbox for a moment.
Best,

Autumn Williams
Oregonbigfoot.com

The “bigfoot hunters” in Texas are NOT the TBRC. At least not the ones that Dwain Walden claims are seeking to kill a Bigfoot to prove they exist.

The show he is referencing is the new series on the Travel Channel, Legend Hunters. The episode he is talking about is subtitled “Bigfoot Hunters.”

While the director of the series did attend and film interviews at the 2005 Texas Bigfoot Conference, I am not sure if he used any of that footage.

I wasn’t going to go there but since you brought it up, that is the other problem with this particular blog entry: even if one doesn’t care about Janice’s feelings (as I do), there is the distinct possibility that she is correct and they DO understand English and can communicate with us if so inclined.

I use to laugh at such notions but I don’t anymore. I have accumulated much information, however unverifiable, that suggest that communication rarely but truly does occur. I won’t waste time trying to convince readers of this. I do predict that someday this thinking will completely change, though most of us will be dead before it happens. That’s the way change occurs in science. The old ideas die along with the people who hold these views, and the new thinking gradually takes it’s place. Meanwhile, all I can say, is don’t laugh at Jan Coy.

“(S)he who laughs last, laughs best.”

Best to all,
thom p.

Good thing they are not hunting for one in Tennessee. I would guess that a Bigfoot that can speak English and borrow garlic can also return fire.

Well, I laughed when I read this. But the story in itself is so farfetched and weird that it actually appeals to my taste for fortean anomalies.

As a younger man I liked my Bigfoot to be nothing more than an unknown primate, and my flying saucers to be nothimg more but space ships from another planet, but now than I’m older I do not recoil from those high-strangeness cases that tend to dismiss our preconceived theories of what a Sasquatch is or what it could be capable of. Like those stories that mix the sightings of big hairy hominids with the sighting of strange lights and UFOs, and that tend to piss both the mainstream cryptozoological community and the “nuts & bolts” ufologists.

I don’t say I believe them outright, but I find them interesting anwyay. They seem to play with our paradigms of the perception of reality, and we shouldn’t be afraid to do that.

But with caution, of course.

What Thom sees as ridicule I see as humor either deliberate or not. I feel no need to apologize to anyone and the idea of an English speaking BF on the surface is hilarious.

However, remember we don’t know the exact extent of the species intelligence and we suspect and have reason to believe they may have a limited language of their own as several species do.

It’s highly improbable that one or more of them has learned to speak a human language but given the limited knowledge we have of them it can’t be conclusively ruled out.

Some day we may have that answer but in the meantime old Sasquatch is going to continue to provide the public with a host of humorous situations.

I’ll laugh, shake my head and then go on researching as time and money allow. My best,

airforce47

thom p.