Comments on: SoCal’s Abominable Sandpeople

By: fikuvern

fikuvern — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:38:56 +0000

I grew up in Jamul, CA. We used to hike in the hills above Tecate. We found a short series of footprints on the edge of a remote muddy pond. The prints were human-sized or smaller with strange pin holes in a tight pattern all the way around the foot. We figured it must be from bristly hair all over the foot. Definitely a young inexperienced desert sasquatch. There is a similar report in this area on BFRO for the Boundry Peak area.
I suspect they walk from pond to pond.

By: Gollum

Gollum — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:34:06 +0000

In the July 1964 issue, Victor Stoyanow wrote an article SPECIFICALLY about the “Borrego Sandman”. There are even pictures of the prints they found.

It was a previous article he had written about a lost gold mine that contained no mention of the Sasquatch.

Thanks

By: Gollum

Gollum — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:45:51 +0000

dogu4, I don't know where you live, but you obviously don't know anything about the Anza-Borrego DESERT. There is nowhere within "a few miles" in which one could find any sort of "tree-line, alpine tundra including small lakes and even snow in the summer"??? Sorry. Nothing like that in this area (at least not within a few miles). Every mountain is strictly rock, with some Ocotillo, Smoke Trees, scrub trees, etc. LOTS of Cholla (the most horrible kind of cactus to hikers). Regarding Major Victor Stoyanow (Stoyanov); he was indeed a real person, as Abe Lincoln stated. The reason for his being in the Anza-Borrego Desert, was his obsession of hunting down old lost mine stories. Amazingly, this story ABSOLUTELY coincides with the story he was researching at that time. It was the story of a lost mine in the area of the Fish Creek Mountains and the Carrizo Slot, in the SouthEast of the desert. He even had a story published in Desert Magazine in the July 1964 issue. In his article, there is no mention of anything regarding any Sasquatch-like creature. Best- Mike

By: scrambeledeggman

scrambeledeggman — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 01:02:15 +0000

When I used to live in Julian, right outside of Anza-Borrego, the local talk was about “Marvin the Mine Monster” and I met someone who knew someone that had seen it years before on the Reservation.

There was also a “crazy woman” that lived in the desert at the base of the mountain that claimed that “Marvin” came and thrashed her place all the time. I did not realize that bigfoot reports came from the area, so I did not pay too much attention at the time, but now I wish I had.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 04:30:41 +0000

Dogu4- Good information as usual. It stands to reason that a creature living in such an environment would likely develop more nocturnal tendencies. I myself wasn’t speculating on Southern California’s habitat specifically. I was just generally illustrating that a sasquatch COULD adapt to harsh environments and that it would not be a first for a species to do that. Of course Southern California’s ecosystem is more complex than that, I was using the stereotypical extremely arid desert as an example only. Those baboons I mentioned, for instance, have adapted to live in one of the most arid climates on Earth. I was just expounding on the biological possibility of it.

By: Abe Lincoln

Abe Lincoln — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:40:24 +0000

Congratulations, Loren, on another fascinating and entertaining post. To correct the record, Major Victor Stoyanow (8/14/21 – 10/19/70) was a flesh and blood American hero who retired to Southern California in the early 1960s. Stoyanow earned a Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry in action with the 8th Marines, 1st Battalion in Korea and later served with distinction as the ballation operations officer gathering intelligence while undercover in Lebanon prior to the Marine landing in Tripoli in 1958. Stoyanow is buried in the Fort Rosencranz National Cemetery at Point Loma, San Diego, County. This information can be verified through Google.

Brad Steiger may be right about Warren Smith, but Smith’s reference to Major Stoyanow appears to be the real deal.

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:16:19 +0000

I think there’s a bit of a difference in how people are defining desert, and one should keep in mind that the topography of the west has a lot of variation in it which effects the local climates based on exposure and orientation to prevailing winds, sun, and water features. It would seem that a noturnal creature which preys on elk and other 4 leggeds in a place like Nevada and Southern California, particularly one suited to covering a lot of ground, would take advantage of the fact that within a few miles of almost anywhere in the Basin & Range, provided you’re not squarely standing in the middle of a big lake bed, one can go up in elevation in the surrounding mountains and find forests…and if high enough, as one reaches tree-line, alpine tundra including small lakes and even snow in the summer. One’s view of the desert might want to take into account that the Deserts of the US Southwest are not the endless wastes of Arabia’s empty quarter, even if you can find the occasionals aeolean deposits of sand in some locations. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we found that the deserts in the high country of Centarl Asia were similar and that during the pleistocene, there was a lot more arid grassland in northern Eurasia than one might presume based on the taiga forests that cover it now. I think a number of reasons that might explain why we don’t see them in open country is that the can sense us at greater distance first, they are nocturnal, and there aren’t many people travelling and hiking through these desert landscapes. And if one did see a big black or brown body out there, who’d suspect it of being anything but some beef on the hoof. It is open cattle range in lots of places there still.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:16:00 +0000

Does anyone know why the Superstitions got that name?

Isn’t that where the Lost Dutchman Mine is supposed to be?

That area wasn’t always arid, as the desert grew following the ice age, animals living in the isolated ranges would have been ‘cut off’. Think of the squirrels in the Kaibab and elsewhere.

Any large mammal would surely remember where the permanent water supplies were. That’s just to balance the valid con information previously posted.

By: bill green

bill green — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:55:28 +0000

hey loren very informative article about abominable sand people or sasquatch. thanks bill green

By: Bob K.

Bob K. — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:20:12 +0000

Apparently Edwards AFB in SoCal has been a hot bed of nocturnal Desert Sasquatch activity, dating back to the 70s. These creatures allegedly have been captured on the bases security cameras numerous times, and military personnel are under orders to observe the creatures movements, but not to harm them.