I feel very lucky or should I say blessed with the many experiences that have manifested to me in my lifetime. As both an experiencer and investigator, my life has shared different things ranging from the paranormal to just the plain ordinary. With the help of many friends over the countless years, we’ve investigated a vast number of odd and unexplainable phenomena without any explanation as to what it was. Some could be explained and others not so, and this is what makes it so exciting. With my health on a downward spiral because of my heart, I would like to tell a little about myself and what we did.
Growing up in southern California during the 1950’s and 60’s was an exciting time for me. This was before the influx of mass population when open land was still quite plentiful. While in school, reading in different newspapers about strange creatures being confronted in places like San Diego, Anza Borrego, Riverside, San Bernardino National Forest, Angeles National Forest, Los Padres National Forest, Tehachapi, Victorville and many other locals in southern California area was somewhat common at that time. This fascinated me beyond all leaps and bounds, and I found myself yearning to be a part of this. Call it whatever you like, but for me it was the call of the wild. Names like Bigfoot, the Sandmen of Borrego and the wild man of Riverside captivated me. I wanted to know about them and learn as much as I could. Besides the other strange and odd things happening to me at the time, this is where I took a serious interest in the paranormal and it captivated me.
After moving to Utah with my parents in 1972, I thought that my Bigfoot interest had disappeared for good. I told my friends, Bigfoot in Utah, come on get serious, Bigfoot is most likely not there. It took me many years to get my interest in Bigfoot sparking again and after some time, I found things not as bad as I thought they were where Bigfoot was concerned. My UFO and abduction experiences were becoming more frequent and Bigfoot was there in the background waiting for me to get serious again. Working with Darrell Smith, Derek VonHatten, and others, we searched extensively for Bigfoot evidence throughout Utah. I collected my first foot print casts, one at 12 inches long and the other at 13 inches, at Hoyt Peak with Darrell Smith. Things were starting to look up for me and in May of 2012, we finally hit payday, when my cousin and I actually come across one in the Book Cliffs of Carbon County, Utah. This is the big one, the holy grail of Bigfoot hunting.
I don’t know why, but there seems to be a curse associated with Bigfoot. People seem to die after encountering one. Approximately every five years, someone working with me in Sasquatch research dies and know about five years later, I develop heart disease, and in need of a heart transplant, so I assume it’s my turn next. Was it all worth it? Indeed it was and I would do it again. The long trips searching, the hard work and aggravation makes for a lifetime of experience.
“The time will come when diligence research over long periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden. A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject… And so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long successive ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them… Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effected”.
-Seneca Naturales Quaestiones
Ron Johnson
Utah Bigfoot Hunter
