The Ghost in Conser Lake

It’s no surprise Oregon has its share of Bigfoot encounters; including paranormal Bigfoot events. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the town of MIllersburg, Oregon, (about forty five miles north of Eugene) experienced some very strange events involving a white Bigfoot or “BHM” (Big Hairy Monster) with a lot of high strangeness surrounding the encounters.

The creature was called the “Creature of Conser Lake,” also the “Ghost of Conser Lake” (because of its white color) and the “Monster of Conser Lake,” the lake’s name was Conser at the time, but isn’t called Conser Lake anymore, the name has been changed and is on private property. I’m not revealing the name of the lake out of respect to the owners.

Reported as a bigfoot type creature; about seven feet tall, bipedal, white shaggy fur, the creature mystified Millersburg residents for over a year. The story begins with a story of a UFO or strange light crashing into Conser Lake in either 1959 or 1960. Soon after the strange light crashed into Conser Lake, a Millersburg truck driver was understandably startled to find a white, shaggy furred bigfoot type creature trotting along beside his truck as he was driving down the road. The driver, a mint farmer, was going about 35 miles an hour; the creature was easily keeping pace with the moving vehicle.

The creature was described as being about seven feet tall. The mint farmer described the creature as a “shaggy gorilla.” Local Bruce Hamilton remembers the creature in Conser Lake, and a story about a “young couple driving by the lake; a seven or eight foot creature ran alongside their car.”

As if the truck farmer’s experience wasn’t odd enough, another report of a tall, white furred shaggy Bigfoot type creature running alongside side a truck made its way into the news. This time the creature was seen in Telephone, Oregon, in Eastern Oregon. (I realize the town doesn't seem to show up on maps or Google searches, as I have found, and a recent e-mail alerted me to. However, this is the name cited by several sources. Many small "towns" are not listed, also, it's possible the name has changed, the area incorporated, or simply disappeared over time.) Witness C.A. Cissman saw a bright light approach, hover about 30 minutes, then disappear, shooting upwards and disappearing within seconds. Later, in Prospect, Oregon a logger was shocked to see a white furred, Bigfoot or Bigfoot type being, leisurely jogging alongside his truck on a deserted rural road.

Stories of Bigfoot running alongside cars aren’t new, either. A report from 1926 tells of a Bigfoot creature encounter in Yankton, Oregon: “Bigfoot following alongside a truck looking in. Sheep and children would disappear.” (UFO Casebook) It seems there was a history of bright zipping lights and white Bigfoot -- or white somethings -- following cars and trucks in Oregon.

Other reports of white Bigfoot creatures can be found; for example, Chris O’Brien writes in his Secrets of the Mysterious Valley about a “New Mexico cattle inspector” who told O’Brien:

he watched with binoculars a white bigfoot clamor up a rocky slope . . a witness in Washington “reported seeing a Bigfoot with large pointed ears” (p 231 Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, Christopher O’Brien)

The reference to “pointed ears” is interesting; Flix, our creature in Conser Lake, was also described as having pointed or “cat like” ears. A “ten foot white Bigfoot” was seen on the banks of the Ohio river in the 1960s. In fact, sightings of a white Bigfoot in the area were reported from the 1900s to the 1990s .(The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois, Jay Rath)



Peter Guittilla’s The Bigfoot Files contains stories of white BHM or Bigfoot like creatures that transcend the flesh and blood variety. Guittilla references an account from Fate magazine out of Peter Bottom, Arkansas. In 1966 reports of a “monster” living in the Bottom emerged. The creature was described as being nine feet tall with snow white fur. Aside from giving off a strong smell, the creature “made a sound like a radio signal . . . the signal sounded like ‘beep, beep, beep.” (The Bigfoot Files, p 86)

The synchronicity of the white bigfoots is intriguing, along with the mysterious lights in the sky. As far as the Conser Lake “monster” goes, witnesses reported feelings of disorientation, dizziness, severe headaches, and hearing loud thuds and running footsteps right by them but no source for the sounds. Some insisted they were in telepathic communication with the being, who said his name was “Flix” and was from outer space.

Flix was Bigfoot like in many ways, yet there were other characteristics described by witnesses that are strange. Flix was said to have claws and or webbed feet and hands and cat like ears.

There are some similarities with Bigfoot; the height, bipedalism, shaggy fur. As noted, there were other similar beings in Oregon scattered throughout the state. But enough high strangeness episodes take the idea of a strictly flesh and blood creature out its comfortable unknown animal category, and into the truly Fortean or esoteric. All the above noted incidences: UFOs or bright lights, telepathy, sounds with no visible source, feelings of disorientation, and the synchronicty of similar creatures adds up to something beyond a flesh and blood Bigfoot.

Notes
Janet Bord; Colin Bord: Bigfoot Casebook
Peter Guittilla: Bigfoot Files
Regan Lee: The Ghost in Conser Lake
Christopher O’Brien: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley
Jay Rath: The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois
photos by Regan Lee

The Trickster, The Killing Field and Bigfootology

Bigfootology: The Dark Side and the “Killing Field”

There’s the strange side of Bigfoot; as this blog is called: Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasquatch. Strange doesn’t mean bad. Just, strange.

Then there’s the bad side, the dark side, of Bigfoot. Or maybe “Bigfootology” to distinguish it from Bigfoot itself. I’m pretty much joking here. But like those who distinguish UFOs from UFOlogy (the thing/phenomena itself, and the people involved in the thing/phenomena itself) we have the Bigfoot itself, and those that study Bigfoot. It’s not Bigfoot fault (or the UFOs in the case of UFOlogy) that there are humans with grudges, who attack each other, who are out for money above all else, who see nothing immoral or unethical in using the phenomenon for their own greedy agendas, who lie and hoax, who get embroiled in weird, nasty and sometimes very dark things surrounding Bigfoot.

Bigfootology: The Dark Side. Welcome.

Cryptomundo has an item up on the latest darkness. Lots of other Bigfoot blogs and paranormal, Fortean news feeds have all kinds of material related to the following story of M.K. Davis, the “killing field,” supposed murders, censorship, fights, letters to state authorities, and more. It’s like some weird crypto Victorian novel.

M.K. Davis has been running around with the “killing field theory” -- that Bigfoot was killed at Red Bluff all those years ago. WTF?! Not the most professional reaction, but I am aghast at the whole thing, and that’s why I haven’t bothered to comment on this earlier. Some things are too weird -- too ugly -- to bother with. Davis has been “uninvited” to speak at an August Bigfoot conference. Lines have been drawn. People are disgusted. Etc.

(Davis has already been in hot water for being racist, according to some. The man is certainly controversial.)

Bigfootology -- why do some people go so far out there? While many BF researchers are busy arguing with each other over the validity of data that involves orb wielding, psychic Sasquatch emerging from UFOs, crap like this gets its fifteen minutes of fame. Fortunately, not many seem to take the “killing field theory” seriously. But my question is, why would someone -- in this case Davis-- even go there in the first place? That’s as much a mystery as Bigfoot itself. I suppose it’s just human nature. No matter what the field: academia, medicine, politics, science, or the trucking industry, you have drama. Often it’s High Drama bordering on theatrics. When it comes to world of Forteana, it’s all too often theatrical. As many have said, downright circus like. (Actually, I think of the circus as gaudy, sure, but not seedy, as in a carnival way. The carnival is the dark side of the circus world. That's just me and I'm digressing. . .)

It’s helpful to keep in mind that, as disgusting as all this is, it is to be expected. If you believe, as I do, that this kind of stuff is as much a part of the paranormal world as the paranormal world itself (and yes, I’m throwing Bigfoot in there with the paranormal world) it softens things a little. Trickster is alive and doing its thing; nothing can change that.

And while that’s all true; that doesn't’ make it right, or mean things like this should be tolerated. You have to call people on their stuff sometimes and stand up for your own ethics and beliefs, in whatever way is true for you.

I think some of this may have to do with a very misguided sense of wanting to protect Bigfoot. Another part of all this madness is that Trickster force again; playing with people’s minds. Get too close, too obsessed, too distracted, and before you know it, you’re being played. In turn, you start to play others, whether you know it or not.

Website: "Bigfoot, Oh Yes They Are Real"

Someone e-mailed today with this link to their site; "Bigfoot Oh Yes They Are Real." There are some interesting photos on the site. The site is of the paranormal Bigfoot variety; invisible Bigfoot and the like.

It's another moment of Fortean synchronicity; for some reason, the past two days, I've been thinking very strongly about dematerializing Bigfoot, and how I would go about putting together some kind of presentation on the topic. Then I find this e-mail.

http://hometown.aol.com/osareal/index.html

Covert Ops and Cryptos: A Fortean Esoteric View

My new Trickster's Realm column is up at Tim Binnall's Binnall of America. This week's article is about "Manchines," -- and more; the very weirder side of weird Bigfoot. You can read it here: Covert Ops and Cryptos: A Fortean Esoteric View.

Somewhere in the South . . .

Another e-mail, with photos, of orbs and Bigfoot, comes my way . . .

I received an e-mail yesterday from someone who shared their photos with me, and gave me permission to post them on my blog. (This is not the same person as here.)

This person wants his/her identity and location kept private.
As far as the location goes, it’s somewhere in the south eastern United States. (Which by the way, is the same part of the country the previous person who contacted me is from, though a different state.)

ORBS
I’ll call this person “Pat” -- this is what “Pat” wrote about the land he/she lives on:

I "found out" this year, that I don't have a "haunted farm" as I had thought.. it is merely Bigfoot living here.... and a lot of orbs, day and night ones.

The orbs often accompany what Pat believes to be a Bigfoot, or even a "family" of Bigfoot:

These come complete with "Bigfoot sounds" as accompaniment, when they are around.
Bigfoot researchers have been out to the property.

Some of the things witnessed by Pat: tree knocking, responding back and forth with knocking, the orbs, footprints, and some telepathic communication, but Pat didn’t share specific details.



BIGFOOT
Like a few others that I’ve known who’ve encountered Sasquatch or Bigfoot or “Big Hairy Monsters,” Pat doesn’t like to call Bigfoot “Bigfoot,” preferring to call them family.

RESEARCHERS
Not surprisingly, many Bigfoot researchers gave Pat a hard time when it came to the orbs and telepathy, etc., though not all have. A few have told Pat they believe there is “something paranormal” happening.

There’s some interesting and disturbing things about Bigfoot research among some investigators that pat has experienced, but unless I get permission from this person I can’t post it. I will say though that it is too bad there are some (like a few well known so-called UFO researchers, that are actually embraced by many in the field) Bigfoot investigators who think not only ignoring, bu mocking, the weirder elements of encounters, throwing their weight around, and tromping through the woods and private property creating nothing but noise -- and sometimes with the intent to shoot -- is not Bigfoot research.

PHOTOS
This first photo looks suspicious to me. Almost fake. I’m not suggesting “Pat” is hoaxing or lying, I’m just sharing my initial response to this photo.

The other photos seem typical of orbs, and the orange orb is particularly interesting. “Pat” asked me if the orange orb is like the one I saw, and I have to say, yes and no. Yes as to color, but no as to size and “structure.” The orb I saw appeared to be a solid craft or machine of some kind, lit from within. And there was no Bigfoot phenomena associated with it. A different “animal” altogether.

Sali Sheppard-Wolford, who wrote of her encounters with a Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest in Valley of the Skookum, mentions orange orbs that appear to have a connection with Bigfoot.

Author Lisa Shiel of course is all about orbs and Bigfoot. (Read her Backyard Bigfoot, and see her blog Backyard Phenomena

THE STRANGER SIDE OF BIGFOOT
So thank you “Pat,” for your comments and photos, and for previous people who’ve contacted me with their stories and images.

I’ve gone from complete disbelieve in an orb/UFO/telepathic/Bigfoot relationship, to acceptance that these things happen. The witnesses are not to be mocked, and the data needs to included, not discarded.

Beyond that, I can’t say why it is, but my own research proves that there is a relationship with these anomalous events.

Mormon Bigfoot Encounter

Richelle Hawks has a very well written and insightful article on Bigfoot and Mormons:Thus Spake Sasquatch: Notes on that Mormon/Bigfoot Connection on her Medussa's Ladder column for Binnall of America. Among other things, Hawks points out the folklore from non-Mormon culture about Mormon culture. I think a lot of these ideas about Mormons -- the "magic underwear" making the sound bite rounds, for example -- are veiled expressions of a bigotry towards Mormons that go way back. (The reason why the Mormons ended up in Utah in the first place is because of the vilification they experienced; they were literally driven out. I'm not defending or apologizing for Mormons, or any religion including Christianity. I am not a Christian, and not religious. Mormonism has its own issues of the fundamental variety: (the forced polygamy, etc.) and their own history of bigotry towards, say, African Americans, sexism, that, while in the minority, seem to loom large in people's minds. )

Hawks relates a Bigfoot encounter in 1835 with Mormon David W. Patten. A point of contention, Hawks points out, is that the Bigfoot spoke to Patten. Is it possible Patten described it this way, but the communication was telepathic? Another possibility is that this creature was an angel/fairy. Angels in various guises figure in a big way in Mormon tradition. And accounts of telepathic communications -- ongoing, over time as well-- exist.

Peter Guttilla’s Bigfoot Files

A must have book for any true esoteric or Bigfoot researcher.

I just finished this book, and enjoyed it very much. It’s full of accounts of Bigfoot sightings (and a few other weird beings) of the stranger kind. UFOs, orbs, and much more high strangeness encounters in connection with Bigfoot are related in this book.

I’ll share some of the sightings from this book, as well as others, later on; these encounters include the three toed tracks, webbed prints, and creatures with red or orange glowing eyes.

Aside from the juicy collection of really weird things, is Peter Guttilla himself. I love his attitude. These accounts exist, and he has no patience with those researchers who continue to ignore, dismiss, or mock such encounters. Guttilla doesn’t have any patience with the skeptical camp either. Good for him. Enough is enough; now let’s get on with the investigations, and stop debating if there’s anything to investigate. (The same can be said of UFOs.)

Bigfoot Files: Peter Gutilla

I just ordered the book Bigfoot Files, by Peter Gutilla. It should arrive here Tuesday, very excited. Gutilla is very clear and upfront about "paranormal Bigfoot." I'll review the book soon.

Watched: Get Out!

Blogsquatcher has a good item on that weird “I’m being watched” feeling one gets in the woods in the context of Bigfoot being about: The Sense of Being Stared At . . . in the woods!

One theory for this feeling of being watched, according to Blogsquatcher, is the effect of pheromones. And or infrasound. I think the infrasound makes some sense. This is the first I’ve heard about infrasound in connection with Bigfoot and that urgent feeling of “I gotta get out of here! I’m being watched!”

I love the woods. I enjoy being by myself. There are few things I enjoy more than being by myself, walking through the woods, or just sitting by a lake or river, watching the wildlife, and just “being.” (I enjoy the same on the beach.) I am far more uneasy in town, with traffic and people; not a good time.

But I had one weird experience in the woods a few years ago that I can’t figure. I had that “Something isn’t right here!!! And I better get the hell out now!” feeling -- urge -- that made no sense, but I literally could feel it in my gut. A literal “gut feeling” -- I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. The weird thing about this moment was that there wasn’t anything I could see, or smell, or hear. Nothing at all appeared to give me that feeling. And, as always happens in these moments of high strangeness, the pragmatic side of the self kicks in, and you find yourself scolding yourself “What, are you crazy? What do you mean, you “have to get out of here, NOW?! It’s a beautiful day and a beautiful view. You’re not even out in the woods proper yet, you’re on the road. It’s daylight. What’s wrong with you?”

I love to take drives out in the country, and that’s what I was doing that day. Just a nice long drive, out of town, quickly into the rural areas with fewer homes and more woods, until I was out on the road and hadn’t seen any homes or building for a few miles. Up a pretty good hill, fantastic view. Woods behind me. Below, a valley view. Crisp, nice day. All alone, and the air smelled great. Out of nowhere, like a blast, I just felt this huge feeling of fear from something watching me. From behind, and around me, but stronger further up the road, and to my left (the woods.) There was the very strong knowledge that if I went just a few yards further . . . this "thing" was going to be very unhappy. Unhappy with me. As foolish as I felt -- what could be “watching” me, to instill such fear? -- I had to get out of there, and fast.

I am sensitive, and if I had felt there was some animal around, a bear, a cougar, etc. I would have been wary, cautious, and still maybe would have left, but I wouldn't have had that huge, scared, all encompassing feeling. I don’t know how else to explain it, but the feeling was that there was a thing out there, and it was a big thing. In a way, literally, yes, but more than that. I truly got the feeling it was bigger than anything in the woods; it was an entity of some kind. Whether it was Sasquatch, or something else it was not happy with me being there, it did not want me there, and it was going to get ugly about me being there if I didn’t leave.

So I left.

I have never felt that before, and don’t want to again.

Anyway, read Blogsquatcher’s piece on sounds in relation to Bigfoot. As always, he brings a bit of freshness to Bigfoot studies.

"Invisible Bigfoot" thread on skeptic forum

Aside from a fantastically long running thread on Bigfoot on the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation) forum, (for those who don’t know, uber “skeptic” site) there’s another thread about Bigfoot over there. This one’s titled:
Bigfoot,the Invisible Variety.

From the BlogSquatcher: Bigfoot Epistemology

Another good post from the BlogSquatcher, this one on a Bigfoot Epistemology. Blogsquatcher (for I don’t see a name anywhere on the blog) has given us a list and definitions of the types of Bigfoot “beliefs” and researchers. Of the Bigfoot is an ape theory he writes:

Bigfoot is an Ape – These folks follow from the earliest investigators, notably John Green and Grover Krantz. They hold that bigfoot is a real creature somehow related to modern apes. They have almost universally held to scientific materialism in their writing. The difference between them and Extreme Skeptics is their exposure to and openness to evidence. Note that this viewpoint doesn’t spring from physical evidence. This is the crowd that supports the idea of bigfoot descending from Gigantopithecus, without any real physical evidence to support this theory (beyond the size of bigfoot).

I think Lisa Shiel and some others would agree.

BlogSquatcher has parsed the “paranormal bigfoot” theories into distinctive categories. Instead of the sort of catch all “paranormal bigfoot” he’s divided these ideas into Paranormal, Inter-dimensional, UFOs, etc.

It’s clear from this post and others the BlogSquatcher knows his or her stuff.

Bigfoot, Shapeshiting, Etc., etc.

My recent piece: When Entities Collide on UFO Digest, on BF, shapeshifting, faery, etc.

Bigfoot Site: Friends of Sasquatch

Just found this website: Friends of Sasquatch. They're here in Oregon, down south in the Klamath area. Here's a bit from their introduction on their site:

What we’re doing deals with broadening our abilities to contact Sasquatch telepathically. The reason for this is that we live in the center of the Klamath National Forest, an area known for frequent Sasquatch sightings, yet it is hard to get people here to talk about what they’ve seen. Therefore we’ve realized that if we’re going to have a chance of finding Sasquatch in this huge forest, we need a competitive edge.

Developing psychic abilities is a way of making contact, and improving our chances of finding that needle in a haystack known as Sasquatch, in the middle of the Klamath National Forest. So most of our Sasquatch research activities this past year included attempts at perceptive communication, some of which were more successful than others.