Locals add their sasquatch stories to presentation

Author and naturalist David George Gordon gave a presentation on the mythical Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, to a crowd at the Grand Coulee Library Thursday night.

The event was attended by about 40 people, some of whom shared their thoughts on Sasquatch and their experiences of hearing or seeing unexplainable things that may, or may not, have been a Sasquatch.

Gordon himself is on the fence about believing in Sasquatch, but would love to find out, encouraging a citizen science approach to the creature, an approach in which people who think they have found evidence of a Sasquatch or have seen one should document their findings in a scientific manner so as to possibly lead to some conclusions about the elusive, possibly non-existent creature.

"If you send people out into the woods who are trained to record things, and take photos, you don't really need all this fancy equipment; you can just go out there with a smartphone," Gordon said.

Local resident Fred Long shared his experiences seeing something unexplainable.

"I was pigeon hunting in the Hood Canal near Brennan," Long said. "I looked down this road and didn't see anything, not even a sparrow. Then I heard some heavy footsteps and looked down to my left, and I thought it was another hunter coming through, making himself known. So I got in a clear area so I could acknowledge his presence and he mine, but what appeared was a 7-foot-tall, black creature that was walking on two legs. Up until that point, I was a hard-headed non-believer; you couldn't have convinced me short of seeing one. So since then, I've read anything I can about a bigfoot."

Long then recounted another story of driving on Stevens Pass in 1953 when he saw a man reach up and grab a guardrail in the dark and the rain.

"I thought there was no evidence of an accident, no broken guardrail; I thought it was a man," Long said, noting that the figure was tan colored, which Long rationalized as mud, but looking back thinks it was a Sasquatch, that it couldn't have been a man climbing up from an accident.

Bill Kemble is another local resident who recounted a story from while he worked surveying roads: "Me and a couple of other guys were up on Gold Mountain, behind Darington and east of Concrete, west of here a ways. We're up on Gold Mountain, and we come to a clearcut landing. It's about sundown, so we decide to watch the sunset, four or five of us watching the sun setting, and a guy notices a deer down there, and about that time this big black stump stood up. And two steps down the hill and was gone."

The stump that stood up was allegedly a Sasquatch.

Kemble recounted another story in which, while eating lunch while surveying roads with some other guys, they heard an animal-grunting noise and then green pine cones were flying towards them, as if a Sasquatch was trying to shoo them away.

Gordon said that's a common type of report among the many he has interviewed for his book.

Following Gordon's presentation, a group of students from Reardan High School presented a mock courtroom scenario to debate the existence of Sasquatch, presenting evidence for and against the creature.

The group will compete at the statewide level in the Agricultural Issues Forum, in which presenters examine an issue from both sides. It's sponsored by the National FFA. They will compete in May at Washington State University.

Gordon sold and signed copies of his book, "The Sasquatch Seeker's Field Manual," and talked with attendees after the presentation. He will be giving more presentations throughout the month of March, ending in Republic.