Geographical Index > United States > Illinois > Fulton County > Article # 665
Media Article # 665
Article submitted by Stan Courtney
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Sizing up Sasquatch
By Larry Eskridge
Canton Daily Ledger
It goes by many names. CoHoMo. The Farmers City Monster. The Big Muddy Monster. The Dupont Monster.
But most of us know it as Bigfoot.
The question is, of course, is it real?
For Stan Courtney of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, the answer is, emphatically, yes.
Courtney was on hand at VIT High School Friday speaking to a small but enthusiastic audience about the Bigfoot phenomenon as part of the lead-up to VIT’s production of “The Sasq-Watch,” which opened later that evening.
Courtney believes the number of posted sightings is only a fraction of the people who have seen the “hairy man.” However, he noted, most of those Sasquatch witnesses don’t want to make it public for fear of ridicule. They will talk to him, he said, because they want to get it off their chests, but they won’t make it official.
Courtney himself has seen Sasquatch four times, in addition to a number of other encounters.
About 50 percent of reported sightings can be dismissed as jokes, Courtney continued. And of the people who are sincere, many of them have mistaken other animals — coyotes, foxes and especially owls — as the real thing.
Nevertheless, the number of confirmed sightings in Illinois is close to 80, Courtney said. In 2003, there were 15 sightings posted, while today there are over 200, and he expects at least 20 more to be added in the near future.
Some of those sightings have been in the Canton and Havana areas, he said.
Courtney remarked there were sightings of Bigfoot in newspapers as early as 1883, although it was not called Bigfoot until 1958. Newspaper reports tapered off in the years between 1977 and 1988 because such stories were not considered “real news,” leaving the field to the tabloids, but in 1998 legitimate newspapers began to cover the story again.
Courtney acknowledged no concrete evidence of Bigfoot has been offered, but he went on to note the large amount of material which indicates there really is something out there.
Some of that evidence points to the fact that Bigfoot is more than just an animal. Courtney offered slides and testimonies of Bigfoot hunters indicating Bigfoot may build shelters, such as huts or teepee-like structures made of large logs which would take several strong men to erect.
As to the question of why no skeleton of Bigfoot has been found, Courtney remarked bodies lying in open country are quickly disposed of by scavengers, and even offered the possibility that the creatures buried their dead.
Footprints have often been used to support Bigfoot’s existence, but Courtney said good footprints were rare and did not last long.
As to hair from a Bigfoot, Courtney explained it would not come off in clumps as many suggested, but would only be found in strands, much like human hair.
Smell has been one of the recurring elements in stories of Bigfoot encounters, with witnesses saying they smelled something before an actual sighting. This smell was often described as resembling rotting flesh or a locker room, and has been reported to come and go very quickly. Courtney said gorillas had the ability to turn their scent glands on and off and suggested that Bigfoot had the same ability.
Sound was another indicator of Bigfoot activity, the one which Courtney was most interested in. He played a number of tapes purported to be Bigfoot sounds, howls and screams which resembled coyotes, which are often mistaken for Bigfoot calls he said, as well as whistles and yahoo sounds which resembled human speech. He also played a tape of what has been called Samurai chatter, which he suggested was used by groups of Sasquatch to communicate with each other at close range.
Only three videos of Bigfoot sighings have been considered credible said Courtney, including the famous Patterson video of a female Bigfoot taken in California. When asked how he would answer detractors who said people admitted to faking the film with a man in costume, Courtney replied there were always people who wanted notoriety and confessed to things which were not really true.
One characteristic of Bigfoot, according to Courtney, was that he likes to play pranks, apparently because he has a sense of humor. Bigfoot often mimics human sounds and stares into windows, knocks on walls of houses, sleeps in barns and throws rocks at campers, not to hurt them but to let them know who’s boss.
Bigfoot sightings generally seem to occur in wooded areas around rivers, Courtney noted, but added many sightings have been made near urban areas, including golf courses. Some have even been seen going through dumpsters in the middle of small towns, he said.
Bigfoot has also been known to leave “gifts” for people, such as dead squirrels. Courtney himself said he found a skunk tail on his doorstep and rocks in his bird feeder.
And while Courtney doesn’t think Bigfoot is dangerous, he admits he doesn’t go out of his house much after dark. He also refrains from looking for Bigfoot by himself and cautions that anyone trying to shoot a Bigfoot needs to make sure the first shot has the desired effect.However, he also cautions that even if the shot has the desired effect, the person doing the shooting will have to contend with the Bigfoot family members almost assuredly nearby.
“Don’t go out in the woods at night alone,” was his final word.
For more information on Courtney and the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, go to BFRO.net or StanCourtney.com. There is also a page on Facebook, as well as a number of books available.
And don’t go out into the woods alone at night.
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