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| Archaeologist Digs For Proof Of Sasquatch |
| Part 2 |
| “Pretty cool and funky,” was his distinctly unscientific summation. But this is only a cube in a Bigfoot iceberg, Strain said. Local sightings range from below Knights Ferry (a “hairy giant” seen by horsemen in the late 1890s) to the Emigrant Wilderness, apparently popular summer range for Sasquatch. And, according to Me-Wuk lore collected by Strain, a hulking creature called “Yayali” has roamed these mountains for hundreds of years. WANT TO see one? “I’d try the Pinecrest-Strawberry area,” Strain suggested, adding that it has been an epicenter for sightings over the years. But it’s not like she’s seen any there. In more than 20 years of looking, in fact, Strain hasn’t seen Bigfoot anywhere. She's like an ornithologist who has never seen a bird or an entomologist still looking for her first bug. “Anyone who sees one is incredibly lucky,” she admitted, describing an elusive animal with a remarkable ability to blend in with its surroundings. That said, the Pinecrest area — at least in contrast with other places – fairly teems with Sasquatch. At least it did in January of 1963, when the Union Democrat carried this headline: “Report: 10 Ft. Shrieking Monster.” “There was definitely some creature in the woods,” said Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Huntley, who had responded with partner Elbert Miller to reports of “a 10-foot tall man – the most awful thing I have ever seen” at a gravel pit near the high-country subdivision of Peter Pam. The two officers went to the pit, heard eerie shrieking, saw trees shaking violently, and at one point radioed that “It’s heading right toward the car. Here it comes.” ALAS, IT NEVER came. A few days later, it was dismissed as a bear. And the guy who reported the monster? “You’ll think I’m crazy,” he told deputies, refusing to identify himself. “You’ll put me in a straitjacket.” Which begs a question: Why is Strain, a 38 year-old establishment scientist whose life is otherwise devoid of fringe trappings, willing to take a chance on that Bigfoot straitjacket? Blame “The Legend of Boggy Creek,” a low-budget 1973 documentary on a hary creature roaming the Arkansas backwoods. “I was about 7 years old,” said Strain, who grew up in the Porterville area. “I was fascinated.” By high school, completely hooked, she asked a stunned guidance counselor what college major might qualify her for a career in Bigfoot research. “Anthropology” was the answer. Two Cal State Bakersfield degrees later, Strain found that paying jobs in Sasquatch science were as scarce as the ceature itself and went to work for the Forest Service.      |
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