Bigfoot Evidence posted an article about Dr. Matthew A. Johnson's Bigfoot encounter and his commentary on the BFRO Facebook site. The question he poses is "does our government know about Bigfoot?"...then Johnson relates his evidence as to why the government DOES know about Bigfoot. A reader happened to ask me the same question this morning...so for their benefit and others pondering the same question, allow me to offer my '2 cents.'
The following are accounts and links that suggest the government has more than a curious interest in Sasquatch:
In Cowlitz County, Washington at one of Ray Crowe's Western Bigfoot Meetings, someone brought up the topic of corpses of Sasquatch after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State. The witness heard of two Sasquatch the Army Corps of Engineers had taken out of the volcanic devastation...two months after the initial blast.
Another attendee heard of a dredging operation of the Cowlitz River and that two bodies were found in the sand (probably same case?). A chopper flew them off.
Joe Beelart offered that the crane doing the dredging was from the Manatowaka Company and that the bodies were found two weeks after the Mt. St. Helen's blast of May 18, 1980. He suggested that somebody might want to track down the company and find out who was working the shift that the bodies had been found on.
During a tour of the devastation by helicopter in 1985, a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot mentioned a similar tale to Bobbie Short saying there were military helicopters that flew out nets full of burned and semi burned elk, deer, bear and something with hairy charred arms hanging out of the drop nets. They were taken to a common pit where the bodies were burned to avoid disease and contamination of the rivers.
NOTE: immediately, you can see that there are several versions to the story. The International Bigfoot Society later issued the following report:
The International Bigfoot Society
IBS Report #3493
Location: Cowlitz County, WA United States
Fred Bradshaw report concerning dead Bigfoot bodies near Mt. St. Helens
My father worked for Weyerhauser Co. at Green Mountain ,WA, east of Vancouver. The site has security on their roads to check on the equipment and check closed areas to keep people out.
My father was working the day Mt. St. Helens blew up. He was at a meeting in Kelso, WA, and as he was a supervisor, when Mt. St. Helens blew it's side out, all heck cut lose.
My father was sent back to Green Mountain right away but like most he wasn't allowed to go very far because of the mud slide coming down the river. He did get to the town of Toutle, WA, on highway 504 off I-5. He and his crew were placed at different spots to watch mud flow and of course help people get out of the blast zone after the major blow up. He was sent to the area of Spirit Lake to keep people out.
When the second major blow up of the mountain came, my father and the other guy with him reported in, and they got out of there.
He was then placed in charge of the helicopter landing zone. It was his job to help keep people out of the landing zone and let aid crews in so they could care for injured.
Later, when all the people were out and bodies out, the National Guard was brought in to clean up. They hauled dead animals out that they placed in piles; deer in one, elk in another and so on. They were covered up with tarps and later burned.
But my father was placed in charge of one pile of dead that were covered and no one was allowed to go near. Armed U.S. National Guard personal were around this pile, and one day when they were going to move this group of bodies, and my father was very close to it and was told to keep his mouth closed. And when the tarps were removed he saw the creatures, some badly burned and some not. They placed them in a net and lifted them into a truck and covered it over. My father asked a guardsmen what will they do with them and he said study them or what ever...he didn't want to know. He said it's like other things you don't ask, and off they went. AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM. My father and the rest were debriefed and sent home.
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Below are several links to interesting accounts of government interest and encounters with Sasquatch:
THE NIGHTSTALKER OF EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE
Sasquatch
and the Edward’s Air Force Base Surveillance
Bigfoot Recovered - Injured in Forest Fire
Bigfoot Researcher Believes US Forest Service Covers-up Bigfoot
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In my article Dulce Base: What Are We Seeing? there is anecdotal evidence that these creatures are being recovered and experimented on in these underground facilities. Many of the livestock attacks in northern New Mexico are, most likely, the result of Bigfoot-type hominids that are regularly seen in this area. I find it hard to believe that the government is not aware of the activity so close to many of their 'research' facilities. Also, State Department documents do seem to suggest that the US Government has intimate knowledge of the Yeti.
Ufologist and Cryptozoologist Nick Redfern recently published an extraordinary anecdote that described a friend's encounter with a supposed Bigfoot creature near Tao, New Mexico. The encounter with the Bigfoot was unusual in itself but the abrupt appearance of a military-style helicopter without lights heightened the strangeness. The helicopter then concentrated a spotlight on the beast. The creature "suddenly took off 'at a real speed,' with the helicopter in hot pursuit. Both disappeared from sight as the helicopter’s light grew fainter and utter darkness returned."
Redfern's friend commented "what was the helicopter doing flying with its lights off in the skies of Northern New Mexico in the dead of night? What was the nature of the strange beast that had apparently set its sights upon him? And what on earth was the connection between the two?"
Was this actually a military helicopter attempting to captured a live Bigfoot or, as Redfern suggests, action initiated by another private group?
On the flip side, legendary Bigfoot researcher John Green has responded to the contention that the government is hiding a carcass of a Sasquatch that was retrieved from the ruins of the eruption of Mt.St.Helens:
"I’m a pretty seasoned researcher, half a century of it, and I have never encountered the slightest evidence suggesting that any level of government knows anything about Sasquatch, let alone having whisked corpses away by helicopter. Nonsense." - John Green
The notion that the U.S. Government would attempt to procure a Sasquatch, living or dead, and not tell anyone doesn't seem too far-fetched to me. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature but I am fairly certain that there is a helluva lot of extraordinary and anomalous information that is withheld from the citizenry.
There is proof that the U.S. Government recognizes that these creatures do exist somewhere at in some capacity.
Newly unearthed State Department documents confirm for the first time U.S. Government's belief that the Yeti roamed the mountains of Nepal in the 1950s, a finding that shocked federal officials including the archivist who discovered the papers.
Long written off as a myth, the documents provided by the National Archives show that officials in the State Department, Foreign Service, and U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, not only believed in "Yeti," but endorsed rules for American expeditions to follow when hunting the creature.
Archivist Mark Murphy said he couldn't believe his eyes when he discovered the long-ignored papers written at the end of the Eisenhower administration. "I thought I was seeing things," he said. "These documents show that finding the Yeti was a big deal in the 1950s. It goes to show the government was taking this seriously."
How seriously?
One foreign service dispatch from the Embassy of New Delhi dated April 16, 1959 describes the many American expeditions involved in mountaineering and monster hunting in Nepal.
"American resources in the last two years have been concentrated on efforts to capture the abominable snowman," the record reads.
In the July 1975, The Washington Star-News "the Army Corps of Engineers has officially recognized Sasquatch, the elusive and supposed legendary creature of the Pacific Northwest mountains. Also known as Big Foot, Sasquatch is described in the just-published Washington Environmental Atlas as being a very large animal of 8 to 10 feet tall, weighing up to 1000 pounds with feet measuring up to 24 inches long. The width of the footprint is up to 10 inches wide, covered with long hair except for face and hands, and having a distinctive human-like form."
In a Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service news release dated December 21, 1977 the following is stated:
What if they really did find the Loch Ness monster or the legendary Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest?
Most scientists doubt that these creatures exist, but thoughts of the discovery of a new species that might be the closest living relative to man, or the possibility of finding a leftover dinosaur, excite the imagination of scientist and nonscientist alike. It also poses another question: Would such a creature be subjected to the same kind of exploitation as the giant movie ape, King Kong?
Scientists generally believe there are still many species of birds and mammals that have not been discovered because they live in remote areas and their populations are limited. After all, the gorilla and giant panda were only legends until the late 19th century when their actual existence was first confirmed by scientists. The komodo dragon, a 10-foot-long lizard, wasn’t known to science until 1912. The coelacanth, a deep-water prehistoric fish, was known only from 65 million-year-old fossils until 1938 when a specimen was caught alive off the Madagascar coast.
Just last year a Navy torpedo recovery vessel dropped a sea anchor into 500 feet of water off Hawaii. But instead of a torpedo, it hauled up a 15-foot representative of a new species of shark. The dead shark, named megamouth after its bathtub-shaped lower jaw, had an enormous, short-snouted head and 484 vestigial teeth.
To be sure, no remains of today’s legendary “monsters” have ever been found. There are no living specimens in zoos or dead ones in museums. Most certainly, many “sightings” of these creatures are exaggerated or misinterpreted reports, and some are downright hoaxes.
But finding a Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot is still a possibility, and the discovery would be one of the most important in modern history. As items of scientific and public interest they would surely command more attention than the moon rocks. Millions of curiosity seekers and thousands of zoologists and anthropologists throughout the world would be eager to “get at” the creatures to examine, protect, capture, or just look at them.
What would the United States Government do?
Keith Schreiner is Associate Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The service is the Government agency with responsibility for protecting endangered and threatened species. Schreiner says “At least, we have the laws and regulations on the books to deal with newly discovered species.”
Schreiner acknowledged, however, that a good deal of international cooperation would be needed if extremely rare species were found abroad. And finding one on U.S. soil would pose serious problems too, Service officials agree.
Undisputed proof of a Bigfoot might cause an immediate, short-term problem no law could handle. Word of its discovery would be flashed around the world within hours, Hysteria, fear, or panic might accompany the news in the area where the creature was located. The throngs of curiosity seekers, would-be captors, and others wishing to find Bigfoot would not only create a serious threat to the animal itself, but to public safety as well. Some officials doubt whether any State or Federal action short of calling out the National Guard could keep order in the area within the first few hours or days of the creature’s discovery. This could be essential until a team of scientists could do the necessary things to ensure the creature’s survival.
The key law in preservation of a species is the Endangered Species Act, which pledges the United States to conserve species of plants and animals facing extinction. This broad, complex law protects endangered species from killing, harassment, and other forms of exploitation. The Act prohibits the import and export of, and interstate commerce in, endangered species. American citizens cannot engage in commercial traffic in endangered species between nations, even when the United States is not involved. Scientists wishing to study endangered species are required to have a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But before a creature can receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, a number of actions normally must occur which involve recommendations from the public, scientists, and State and foreign governments where the species exists.
The first of these would he the species’ formal description and naming in a recognized scientific publication. In addition, if it were a U.S. species, the Governor of the State where it was found would be contacted, as would the officials of foreign governments if it were found outside the United States. Only after much information was collected could the Service make a formal determination as to whether the species should be afforded endangered or threatened status…
Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is purported to be an 8-foot, 900-pound humanoid that roams the forest and wilderness areas of the Pacific Northwest. One “eyewitness” described an obviously female Sasquatch as a “tall, long-legged, gorilla-like animal covered with dark hair and endowed with a pendulous pair of breasts.” It, too, has been described in publications and given a scientific name. In fact, so many people were stalking Bigfoot with high-powered rifles and cameras that Skamania County, Washington, is prepared to impose a fine of $10,000 and a 5-year jail term on anyone who kills a Bigfoot. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers even lists Bigfoot as one of the native species in its Environmental Atlas for Washington. This year the Florida and Oregon legislatures also considered bills protecting “Bigfoot” type creatures. A Bureau of Indian Affairs policeman has 18-inch plaster cast footprints of the “McLaughlin monster,” a Bigfoot-type creature he saw last month in South Dakota.
Under U.S. Law, the Secretary of the Interior is empowered to list as threatened or endangered a species for 120 days on an emergency basis. For endangered species in the United States, the Secretary can also designate habitat that is critical to their survival. No Federal agency could then authorize, fund, or carry out any activities which would adversely modify that habitat.
So long-term Federal protection of Nessie or Bigfoot would basically be a matter of following the same regulatory mechanisms already used in protecting whooping cranes and tigers.
“Under normal situations,” Schreiner said, “we must know a great deal about a species before we list it. How big is the population? Does it occur anywhere else? Is the population in danger of decline? Is its habitat secure? Is the species being exploited? What is its reproductive rate? Obviously, if a Bigfoot really were found we could use emergency provisions of the Act to protect it immediately...”
The news release details what the U.S. Government would do in the event Bigfoot was proven to exist. The fact that the Loch Ness Monster was added to the statement is somewhat curious but it may have been done in order to give the Bigfoot a 'status' equal to the legendary lake monster at the time. The statement does seem to suggest that provisions to protect Bigfoot, regardless of the hominid's actuality, were already in force.
Nick Redfern's account does add another piece to an already complicated Bigfoot puzzle. Will there ever be proof of its existence that most people can agree on? How did it evolve...are these creatures terrestrial, extraterrestrial or interdimensional? The answers to the questions remain a quandary.
NOTE: After I had posted the following Oh-Mah - The 'Boss of the Woods' in November 2008, I received an email from a man in southern Washington who stated that he had heard anecdotes from Yakima native people in reference Oh-Mah or Sasquatch after the Mt. St. Helen's eruption. The most prominent account was that of a large male Oh-Mah that was badly burned, but still alive, that took refuge in an area east of the devastation near traditional tribal lands. He was told that government agents in military gear captured the Oh-Mah and airlifted it to an undisclosed location. I have no way of knowing if this is a true account but it does seem to suggest that there was an effort made to take advantage of the eruption in order to capture specimans either dead or alive. You may want to read a narrative I wrote for the The 'C' Influence - The Bigfoot Paradox...Lon
Sources:
mysteriousuniverse.com
goia.wa.gov
sasquatch-pg.net
nabigfootsearch.com
bigfootevidence.com
wsdot.wa.gov
bfro.net
ghosttheory.com
phantomsandmonsters.com
There's Something in the Woods
Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown
Bigfoot! : The True Story of Apes in America
Bigfoot Declassified: The Official Government Manual For Co-Existing With The Now Documented Species
