Interview

Lori’s Interview of Me

I was recently asked to do an interview with Lori Simmons for upcoming book.  Knowing Lori and having the respect for her I do, I responded positively at once.  I found  her questions to be interesting, provocative and consuming, so I thought I would share with you here… Thank you Lori for these thoughts…

Thom Cantrall
8-24-14

 

1. What first interested you about Bigfoot?

The answer to this is direct, though not so simple as it sounds… in August of 1958, a catskinner by the name of Jerry Crew returned to his jobsite building road near Bluff Creek, Humboldt County, California. He, and the rest of the crew found very large tracks coming down off the mountain, down a very steep slope and tracing up the road, around his Cat.. and then continuing along the road to finally disappear into the bottom along the creek. Andrew Genzoli of the Humboldt Times Newspaper out of Eureka, CA did several articles on this incident that were picked up on the wire service and published nationwide… it was this that first told me about them. Subsequently, Paleontologist, Dr. Ivan T. Sanderson studied the situation and events, writing articles for both “True” and “Argosy” magazines. This is what lit my fire.. I was 15 years old at the time.

 

2. How did you become a Bigfoot tracker?

I’m not sure what a tracker is… but, after the Jerry Crew incident, I read everything I could find on the subject. I was lucky to have a father that liked to stimulate my curiosity… “What do you think about that?” That sort of thing. From 1961 to 1970 I was in the Navy and spent the last two years of that stationed on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. I was during this time that I began to meet people who had live experience with these beings. After leaving the Navy, I started college and worked in the woods.. I now began seeing them for myself, though not face to face, but peeking around a tree at me.. darting from tree to tree… just THERE, if you understand what I mean. Later, after I was near my degree, I began doing consulting forestry work for timber companies and landowners… this put me into the woods alone for long periods of time… it was at this time that I began seeing them sneaking in on me to watch what I was doing. I would be seated on a downed tree, doing notes or sketching a plan and I’d hear a whistle. I’d watch surreptitiously for a bit then I’d see one watching me… finally, in about 1974, this led to an encounter where I saw what I first thought were two of them feeding on mushrooms at a range of approximately 35 yards… it turned out, as I saw on their departure, that there was also an infant… so I saw a family group that day near Lake Ozette on the Olympic Peninsula.

 

2. Tell me about your Bigfoot organization.

My organization is not all that much of an organization… I needed a name for a conference I hosted back in 2012 in Richland Washington so came up with “International Society for Primal People”… simply because they consider themselves “First”… or primal… All I have learned about them has told me they are a people. They have articulated speech as evidenced by Ron Morehead’s “Sierra Sounds” audios and cryptolinguist Scott Nelson’s discovery of language in those sounds… they have a form or written language as evidenced by the myriad glyphs and art work my own 3 year study has brought to light. Many of these glyphs are purely art. Humans are the only primates capable of articulated speech. No other animal has a written language at all. Add too that the fact that these beings have external lips, a chip, sclera (whites) in their eyes all of which no other primate has and how can one reach any OTHER conclusion? That is my organization… a group of like minded individual dedicated to the preservation of and the knowledge of Sasquatch. We have two rules… we do not disrespect others and we do not share the findings of others without permission.

 

4. What is your method of tracking Bigfoot?

I don’t track Sasquatch. I let him find me. I learned during those years on the Olympic Peninsula that the best way to find them is to simply go about your business quietly and they will come to you if they so desire… that’s exactly what I do. When I go “hunting”, I have some “essential” gear I pack… that consists of my ice chest being filled with fried chicken, boiled eggs, and diet Pepsi. In addition to that, I need my Kindle and my folding chair. When I arrive at the area where I want to “hunt”, I unfold my chair, take out a chicken leg with a couple of hard boiled eggs, open my Kindle to the place I am currently reading and relax until I hear their whistle or see one or more peeking around trees at me… it is virtually fool-proof in both its simplicity and its efficacy…

 

5. Tell me about your most memorable experience while tracking Bigfoot?
   

   Blown Down Timber

I’m not sure I could pick out just one experience… there have been so many over 56 years. One of my very favorite occurred in the early 1970’s near Lake Ozette on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. It was in September and we were in fire shutdown on my logging company so my buddy and I decided to spend the day “grouse hunting”. Grouse hunting in September was a euphemism for getting into the timber when the bull elk were bugling and we had spent much of this day stalking and photographing a sizable herd of the Roosevelt Elk found here. When we finished this exercise, we had become separated so we each started back to the truck on our own, as we so often did. On that hike back, I came on a clearing in the timber and thought I’d probably found a swampy area where the trees could not grow so I slowed down and sneaked in on it hoping to find a fat grouse watering there. What I found instead was about an 8 acre area of blown down timber. Near one edge of that blow-down was what I thought were two bears feeding among the down trees. I eased up very close to the edge of the standing timber and stood behind a large Sitka Spruce tree with the wind directly in my face, peeking around to watch the bears feed at a range of about 35 yards. Soon, one stood up to survey the area, looking for danger as wild things do… and I knew immediately, this was NO BEAR!!!!

What I was looking at, no more than 35 yards from me were two sasquatch. They were feeding on the Oyster Mushrooms that grew there in profusion. First one would stand and look then the other. Like this, alternating, they spent the next several minutes until I felt a vagrant wind on the back of my neck, carrying my scent directly from myself to them. Both heads immediately popped up and I had 4 eyes locked onto me. At this point I simply stepped out from behind that tree and let them see that I was not a threat to them. When I did this, the male stepped back and uttered a vocalism to the female and indicated she should pass by him into the timber. When she started to move, she bent over and picked up a very young individual. I stood in awe as first one, then the other retreated into the timber. Before he left my sight, I said aloud, “Thank you for showing me your family.”

The big fellow stopped and turned back to me and seemed to nod at me before turning back and stepping out of sight into the standing timber. To this day, I have no proof other than my recollection of that incident but I still can see him nod to me exactly as I would do to someone to acknowledge their communication and to show agreement and pleasure in it.

 

6. What would you like to accomplish by tracking Bigfoot?

My goals are simple… I share with those who are sincere in knowing this enigma and who wish him no harm. I will not countenance anyone who would harm one of these beings for any reason whatsoever. My aim is simply education… nothing more, nothing less.

 

7. Once Bigfoot’s existence is proven will you change your ways of tracking Bigfoot?

I pray that this never happens. I’m afraid their proof would mean their demise. Our society has a terrible track record when it comes to dealing with indigenous peoples… it was the great economist, Milton Friedman who said, “If you put our government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a world-wide shortage of SAND! … And make NO MISTAKE, they are a people!

 

8. What is your message you would like to share with the world?

My message is as above… is a species of people… like us in ways, but different from us in so many ways. They have no need of our protection… We are the endangered peoples, not them. They are doing very well on their on.
There message for us is even simpler… RESPECT… simple respect… at present, we have no respect for one another, none for where we live and, most importantly and most sadly, we don’t even respect ourselves. How sad is that?