Sasquatch - by Derek VonHatten

UPI - Derek VonHatten

   Sasquatch

By Derek VonHatten

When I was young I watched a lot of the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, anything that told stories of the world and animals. I then watched a Documentary on the Patterson Gimlin Film, I was from that day on interested in the stories behind Bigfoot. I was about 8 years old and asked my Mom if she believed he was real, she said he sure could be. I have believed he could exist from that day on, and watched, and read more about him, all I could. That, in turn, turned me to ghost hunting, an interest in UFO’s, and all aspects of the paranormal really. That's another story though, well many more stories any way. I am here to talk about my quest so far to find Bigfoot, and my theories on where they could be, why we haven’t found him, and why there are no dead bodies. I will also venture into a bit of my past and our groups methods.

To start out, some of my past. When I was young I started to read many books, my favorite authors being Loren Coleman, and Jeff Meldrum. Those two authors in my mind have the closest theories to my own. I read these books and began to believe more and more, Bigfoot has to exist! So I watched more documentaries, and researched more histories, learning that the story didn’t begin with the Paterson Gimlin Film, only the name Bigfoot coined by a the reporter that brought the story forward. Sasquatch was an ancient name used by Native American tribes of North America, and that was only one of many names! I came to learn that Sasquatch is not a recent known, but an ancient one, past down for generations in Native American Tribes, all a little different, but all had one similarity, the wild man. Then looking further into this, I found that cultures all over the world had their own version. The most famous being the Abominable Snowman or Yeti, known to inhabit the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet, this version of Bigfoot also received public attention in 1921. After I learned so much I decided to go look for this creature one day, but not after I started my paranormal research group called Untitled Paranormal Investigators or UPI. We began this in 2007, meeting Ron in 2008 and our group ran from there. It wasn’t till after I met Ron that he renewed my interest in Bigfoot, and we began to pursue the subject. To this day we are still searching for great evidence, Ron is our center of Bigfoot research due to his history with other researchers in Utah, and the BFRO. He has successfully collected a few three toed tracks, reports from all over Utah, especially South Eastern Utah, and has seen Bigfoot himself, which I hole heartedly believe. I only hope one day I get to run into this elusive creature, and find the evidence to prove he exists if not only for myself and maybe everyone!

Enough about my past, a little about how UPI goes about this. When we receive a report, we dispatch a member to check it out, usually Ron Johnson. He has the most experience in the field and usually receives the reports. If Ron finds the report to be compelling enough to look into we make a date to go and stay a few nights. Not always so easy as most of us work full time jobs, when we get the date set we head to the area of interest and set up a base camp. We then hike the area for miles searching for evidence and documenting the sighting area’s. We also try and interview the person that had the sighting, also not always easy because many people are afraid to come forward to give a full report. Seeing a Bigfoot is viewed as crazy to the norm, so we like to keep our clients identities safe. We never disclose their name unless given permission to do otherwise. After we conclude our investigation we take all, if any, evidence and the story and put it out there for all to see. If we find any evidence such as tracks or hair we take  it to the proper entities to examine them, and place them out there on the web for all to see as well. The main objective behind our group is to put this evidence out there for the general public to see, we then let them decide what to believe.

My personal theories to answer a lot of questions many always ask are as follows. To answer the question of why hasn't he been caught alive with all the people in the woods, or shot by a hunter? My answer is, there are thousands of square miles of forest, desert, and wild lands in North America alone that is often vacant of humans, and very few Bigfoot in North America. If this creature is highly intelligent, then he could avoid anyone that they hear or see in the woods. Deer, Bear, Cougar, they all succeed in evading humans to a point, and they do not harbor vast intelligence. The Mountain Gorilla of Africa was known by Science to be a myth until its discovery in 1902, only 60 years before the Patterson Gimlin film. So many new species are discovered daily, the day will come soon the find proof of Sasquatch. So if there is so few Bigfoot, and such a massive habitat no wonder why we haven't found him, especially if he hides from view. I also believe they travel in family groups, perhaps up to five in one, and maybe one of these groups per state or two that has a volume of common sightings. Utah has had a flurry of sighting in 2012 to 2013 in South Eastern Utah, our own Ron Johnson including. I believe these Sasquatch could have migrated from the high Uinta’s or Wasatch front, even Colorado in a family group in search of new feeding grounds. If Bigfoot are always on the move, only residing in one area for a short period of time then we only get that window to research them. So my answer in short is, they move in family groups across vast amounts of forbidding terrain to avoid human eyes. We think we have some to research, then they move on.

Another common question I get is where are the dead? Usually being veteran outdoorsman asking me this I answer, how often do you run into a random dead cougar, or bear? They usually say, “never”. So then I answer, I do know they are found, but imagine only one passing on per 1000 square miles in the most remote place you can find. A body decomposes within days in the mountains, bones then spread from hell to high breakfast by predators. Good luck ever finding that dead body unless one is hit by a truck even then there are reports of that happening only to have them disappear. One more thing to add to this, what if they are intelligent enough to bury their dead? Chimpanzees, elephants, and even magpies are know to hold some kind of ritual for their dead. Image a Sasquatch, they must have an intelligence to have been at our side this long and not been caught, and had such a prevalence with Native Americans and other cultures world wide. I believe they are smart enough to at least hide if not bury their own dead. There are even stories of hunters killing a Bigfoot, knowing where the body was only to find it gone the next day. Showing that the other must have come back for it.

Those answers pretty much sum up my theories, I believe Sasquatch travel in family groups within a massive expanse of land. They possibly bury their dead, and are extremely intelligent, enough so to know that human are no good, and to stay out of their reach and prying eyes! So why not, I completely believe in the Sasquatch of Native Americans, Bigfoot of today’s North American west coast, Yeti of the Himalayas, Wendigo of Canada, Yowie of Australia, Skunk Ape of the North American deep south, Orang Pendek of Sumatra, Yeren of China, Mapinguari of South America and all the others out there one day to be recognized by science and protected forever. In my mind there is no way that for thousands of years, these creatures are merely folk lore, legend, and stories, rather I believe they are all real, hidden creatures waiting to be found.

Ron Johnson
Kevin Allridge