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Bigfoot: Man,
myth or monster? - 20081107
By ROBERT BARTHOLOMEW and MICHAEL PLUTA Special
to the Herald
It wasn't until 1803 that a majority
of scientists were forced to accept the existence of meteors.
Until then, stories of stones falling from the sky were widely
ridiculed as tall tales by the ignorant and impressionable.
Could Bigfoot be another example?
A hulking hair-covered figure, initially thought
to have been a prankster in a gorilla suit, is spotted by
scores of people near Bennington. If you think we are referring
to the now famous case of the Bennington "Monster"
in the fall of 2003, you would be mistaken. It's actually
a series of sightings from 1861. That's right, 142 years earlier,
during August, a gorilla-man scare swept through southern
Vermont as hunting parties were formed to track it down. Several
residents reportedly shot at the creature, but it managed
to elude its pursuers as if it had supernatural abilities.
No zoo animals were reported missing and no body was ever
found. Rumors circulated that the beast was a college student
in a suit. If it was, he was taking an enormous risk by continuing
the escapade even after being shot at.
A similar series of sightings occurred near
Glastenbury Mountain in the autumn of 2003, when Ray Dufresne
reported seeing a huge hairy creature lumbering into the woods
while he was driving on Route 7. His first thought was that
it was someone in a gorilla costume. He estimated the weight
at 270 pounds. Other witnesses soon came forward with descriptions
of a similar creature in the area. Again, if it was a man
in a suit, he was taking a big risk. The parallels between
these two cases, separated by nearly a century and a half,
are eerily similar.
Indian lore, early pioneers
Readers may be surprised to learn Vermonters
have a long history of sighting large, hairy human-like monsters.
In his book "The First Vermonters," former University
of Vermont anthropologist William Haviland observes that the
Abenaki recounted stories of "The Forest Wanderer,"
a giant humanoid creature that occasionally left footprints
behind. These accounts parallel Algonquin tales of the windigo
or "giant cannibalistic man." The windigo legend
of hulking, hairy man-beasts can be found throughout New England
in all Algonquian-speaking people. According to one modern-day
Native American description of the windigo, it is "a
giant thing, swift … and covered with hair, and has eyes
like two pools of blood. And there's this smell, like rotting
meat." This description is similar to Bigfoot reports
today.
During the latter 18th and early 19th centuries,
European settlers in what is now northern Vermont heard tales
of "Slippry Skin," an extraordinarily large bear
that always walked on two legs. Tales of this Bigfoot-like
creature figured prominently in many oral and written traditions
of the region, especially Essex and Orleans Counties. As early
as the 1750s, a scout for Roger's Rangers wrote that Native
Americans of the region were known to have described this
legendary creature as "Wet Skin." Also referred
to as "slippryskin" and "Old Slippry Skin,"
his nickname was apparently given on account of its remarkable
ability to elude hunters. In her book, "History of Lemington,"
Vermont historian Marion Daley writes that the creature moved
about in a swift, ghost-like fashion that bordered on the
supernatural. "Before a hunter could lay his gunsights
on him, the old bear would vanish into the woods silent and
swift as a drift of smoke."
The creature was described as an extraordinarily
large bear that always walked on two legs. Slippryskin was
more mischievous than malevolent and routinely teased the
inhabitants of the Essex county towns of Lemington, Victory
and Maidstone, and was credited with ripping up gardens, pulling
down fences, stampeding cattle and trampling cornfields. Its
calling card: a trail of huge prints in the snow and mud.
"Wet Skin" was said to have been especially adept
at throwing hunters off its trail. Historian Paul Rayno recounts
the story of a party of hunters who left the town of Morgan
in Orleans County, with the intention of killing the creature.
As they were walking along a logging road leading to the top
of Elon Mountain, a loud thumping noise could be heard from
above. The men quickly hid in some nearby bushes in expectation
of ambushing Slippryskin. The creature backtracked on his
prints, then rolled a large tree down the mountainside, narrowly
missing the hunters as they were lying in wait. Shaken, the
hunters promptly abandoned the chase — or so the story
goes.
Modern-day accounts
Similar accounts of Bigfoot-like creatures
abound in Vermont today. For instance, in 1983, a middle-aged
Vermont couple reported an extraordinary encounter while on
a leisurely drive in rural Tinmouth. The husband noticed a
giant human-like figure walking swiftly along a rocky ridge.
He said, "The man was very nimble. I couldn't believe
how quickly he was moving among the rocks toward the high
point on the ridge … My wife and I were suddenly stunned
when he stopped and turned facing us. His arms were much longer
than a normal man's and he appeared to be much bigger —
especially taller — than any man either of us had ever
seen." The man was so moved by what he saw that he wrote
a letter to the late Castleton State College anthropologist
Warren Cook. He told Cook that at first he tried to rationalize
away what he was seeing as a prankster in a suit, but quickly
ruled it out after what happened next. "Suddenly he raised
his giant arms above his head and waved them several times
… (then) turned and continued along the ridge with the
agility of a gymnast. I was convinced that this was no ordinary
man." The sighting lasted for several minutes before
the figure disappeared over the ridge.
In October 1986, three Castleton State College
students were traveling on Route 4A on their way to West Rutland
when their vehicle nearly struck a huge creature on the roadside.
Everyone saw the figure which stood 6-1/2 to 7 feet tall.
After the driver, Kerry Bilda, swerved to avoid hitting it,
the trio looked back to see the creature still walking west.
By the time they had turned around and went back, it was gone.
A passenger, John Bradt said if his window had been down,
it was close enough to reach out and touch. He said the body
was covered in collie-length hair, but the face itself was
nearly hairless. It had deep-set eyes, high cheekbones and
a white skin tone. The trio also made a curious observation
that is common in Bigfoot reports: The creature seemed oblivious
to them and didn't flinch or attempt to get out of the way
of their car. The encounter happened just 100 yards from an
incident that was reported the previous year, almost to the
day.
A more recent sighting occurred on the evening
of Oct. 8, 2005, when a father was "moose spotting"
with his two daughters near Ludlow. Suddenly, a huge creature
crossed the road 50 feet in front of their vehicle. He said
it was about 8 feet tall, covered with hair, and crossed the
road in only two strides. It had a cone-shaped head, a heavy
build and was "covered in short dark hair." The
arms had a pronounced swing as it moved, and the hand that
was visible was massive.
When it comes to assessing whether Bigfoot
exists, one is faced with the lack of physical evidence: a
body, fossils and bones. Somehow, it always manages to elude
capture. On the other hand, perhaps an even more important
questions is: Are there precedents in nature? There are many
remarkable examples of adaptations enabling creatures to survive.
Chameleons change color to blend with their surroundings and
become seemingly invisible. The peregrine falcon can spot
small animals up to 5 miles away. Most incredible of all is
the sooty tern. This small bird can stay aloft for more than
three years without landing and sleeps while flying. Is it
too far-fetched to think Bigfoot could have evolved unique
mechanisms that allow it to elude humans?
In recent years, over two dozen Bigfoot organizations
have even been formed across the country in hopes of proving
the creature's existence. New England groups include: The
Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and The Northeast Sasquatch
Researchers Association. Bill Brann, the president of the
Northern Sasquatch Research Society based in Hudson Falls,
N.Y., has conducted frequent investigations in Vermont, writes
on his Web site that his goal is to determine "what its
purposes are, how to contact and communicate with it and to
ultimately obtain an indisputable photographic or video record
of its existence."
Whether real or imaginary, Bigfoot is a legitimate
part of Vermont history: a kind of living folklore that continues
to frustrate and fascinate.
As new sightings are recorded, the question
remains: what should they be recorded under — folklore
or zoology?
Time will tell.
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