A search for the Sasquatch, better known in North America as 'Bigfoot,' was held in the Dolly Sods wilds of West Virginia recently.
The group,
Sasquatch Watch launched the
expedition. According to a map posted on their website, West Virgina is a
hot spot for Sasquatch sightings. The group camped in the Dolly Sods area, armed with cameras, recorders and Global Positioning Systems. The group did not
expect to actually see one of the mythical creatures, but rationalized that if one existed and were walking about, it would be bound to leave a footprint or two. And they did find some tracks. Self-described skeptic Bruce Harrington, who belongs to Sasquatch Watch, told the media
"I think one of the biggest arguments that people have against the existence of Bigfoot is there hasn’t been any proof,” Harrington said. “From a logical standpoint, absence of proof is not proof of absence. So just because we don’t have the proof that these creatures exist doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
Using state of the art
technology, and armed with evidence bags, the all-male team was set to capture whatever they could of the yet-to-be-discovered creature. Those who believe in the creature say it lives in remote or wild forested areas of North America. By poking around in the bogs and woods of the Dolly Sods park, the men hoped to find evidence of the existence of Bigfoot. The search only turned up some tracks, which have yet to be analysed.
The group has been conducting an experiment in the Catharpin area of West Virginia this year after receiving a reported sighting of a Sasquatch by building a rock pillar and leaving pennies or tickets with the pillar. They return to the site regularly to monitor the status of the pillar. They say that the rocks have been dismantled every time and the items have been removed. In a post on September 20th, the group said they returned to the site to find a penny had been replaced in the pillar. The posting
says "These experiments so far only prove one thing...either "someone" or "something" is dismantling the rock stack and taking the items left. In addition, for a penny to reappear under the stones, "someone" or "something" with hands."
The group added they would install a camera to monitor who or what has been messing with the pillar.
Described as
"... a little bit of Canada placed a hair too far south,"
the
Dolly Sods wilderness area is located in the Allegheny mountain highlands of West Virginia, and is part of the Monongahela National Park. Parts of the park have live munitions in the soil and on the ground, making hiking and camping slightly more hazardous. Black bear are common.
Last year a Bigfoot
hoax was attempted by two Georgia residents. Media representatives at a press conference were treated to the sight of what appeared to be the frozen remains of a Sasquatch, but within days the supposed corpse was revealed to be a costume. The
perpetrators, Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer, later claimed they were just fooling around. Whitton was a police officer at the time, although off-duty, and he lost his job over the "joke."
Many people claim to have seen the mythical creature, thought to be possibly related to humans, but no-one has ever found the
creature, dead or alive. The most famous "evidence" of a Sasquatch was movie footage taken by Roger
Patterson in 1967.
