Media Article # 333

Sunday, May 4, 2003

Bigfoot lives -- despite what we said a few months ago

By Editorial  
Eureka Times-Standard

It was not long after the family of prankster and road builder Ray Wallace
announced that Wallace had faked the original footprints of a giant hominid
at Bluff Creek that the Times-Standard proclaimed that Bigfoot is dead. Ours
wasnt the only paper. Several of Wallace's friends and acquaintances swore
all along that he was behind Bigfoot. Wallace's family produced the carved
feet that made the prints. It all seemed to add up to a big hoax, the first
of many related to the creature.

But if you were a believer, none of it added up. The carved feet couldn't
have made the prints, they say, and they may be right. They can present a
pile of evidence they say proves the beast lives. These folks are no
different than the Bigfoot skeptics, who treat Sasquatch-related information
with the same disdain as believers treat the outright dismissal of the
creatures existence.

But if Bigfoot -- real or imaginary -- is dead you wouldn't know it by
reading newspapers. It seems that Wallace's alleged confession only served
to cast the sasquatch back onto center stage. Now, Jane Goodall is showing
up to be the lead speaker at a Bigfoot conference in Willow Creek in
September. Some pretty hifalutin scientists are showing up to put their two
cents in. Russian hominid experts are flying in too, for goodness sake. Its
proponents hope the conference will serve to drum up support for Bigfoot
research and provide a financial backbone with which to launch a big search.

Willow Creek has become more and more associated with Bigfoot. Stretches of
highway and companies are named after the critter. And Willow Creek is proof
positive that it really doesn't matter whether Bigfoot is really out there.
Skeptics and believers alike still see it as the Bigfoot center of the
universe. This conference is likely only to solidify that notion.

Skeptics cajoled into complacency by Wallace's announcement fail to
recognize the nature of the elusive beast, myth or reality that it may be.
News of his death may be greatly exaggerated. In fact, news of his death
only served to revive the legend.

We stand corrected: Bigfoot lives.

Editorial (which editor not specified).

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