Notes and Photos from 1st Meeting of Bay Area Bigfoot Research Group
It was a small group - but the old addage "quality not quantity" would apply. Three local "peninsula" gentlemen and a couple from as far away as Chico, California (actually, Orland) traveled to San Mateo, California for our gathering. Jim Duffy made a long trek from the Santa Cruz area and Brandon Kiel Doyle made a special effort to be there as well. Nice group! Here are my photos and notes about our historic first meeting.
In attendance:
Joyce Kearney (San Francisco), Jerry Hein (Belmont), Tom Yamarone (Pleasanton), Kipp and Miriam Morrill (Orland), Richard Bey (Belmont), Jim Duffy (Santa Cruz), Craig Clattenburg (Redwood City), Mike Mason (San Bruno) and Brandon (Kiel) Doyle (San Francisco).
Notes:
Our first monthly meeting began with several attendees arriving early at the Round Table Pizza. We made introductions and were quickly immersed in conversation about our interest in the bigfoot phenomenon. Others showed up and by 4:00 – our scheduled starting time – most were in attendance. We had an informal presentation by Tom Yamarone that outlined his opinions regarding the “best evidence” for the existence of these creatures. He stated that his research – and some in the group – agrees with the scientific approach to evidence and accounts taken by the following researchers and authors: John Green, Dr. Grover Krantz, Dr. John Bindernagel & Dr. Jeff Meldrum. He had copies several books he considered reference material on what is known about the sasquatch. “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science” by Jeff Meldrum, “On the Track of Sasquatch” by John Green, “Meet the Sasquatch” by Christopher L. Murphy, “Sasquatch: North America’s Great Ape” & “The Discovery of the Sasquatch” by John Bindernagel. Tom also shared a binder of material he has collected over the years. Included were the Argosy magazine article about the P-G film, the Jerry Crew newspaper article, a family photograph of Jerry Crew and a copy of a map Jerry made for Bob Titmus. The binder also contained archival newspaper articles – that he considers to be a key piece of evidence from the 1800s and early 1900s – and photographs of several Native American & First Nations mask, totems and carved stone heads.
(Bigfoot footprint casts on disply at the meeting.)
The presentation actually spurred group discussion about the Patterson-Gimlin Film, the footprint cast made by Jerry Crew and the historic details surrounding that event, the Gray’s Harbor footprint cast discovery in 1982 in Washington and the Native American masks, totems and carved stone heads which Tom had photographs of in his binder. Joyce Kearney brought an amazing Kwakiutl First Nations D’sonoqua mask that she acquired 20 years ago. It was quite impressive both in its detail and its size. Everyone enjoyed seeing it and getting to hold and examine the mask. We also had 3 footprint casts on display for attendees to examine.
(the Kwakiutl First Nations D'sonoqua ceremonial mask.)
After a while, pizza arrived and discussion continued throughout dinner. Everyone seemed to enjoy talking bigfoot that night. Brandon Doyle arrived and shared with us a group sighting he had in the Bluff Creek area last summer on a BFRO expedition. He was leading a group hike and they came upon a creature they viewed through thermal imagers that looked like a bigfoot. The observation lasted more than 20 minutes. They speculated the sasquatch thought it was not visible to them. It did turn its head in their direction every now and then but did not run off when they approached or when they left. Everyone enjoyed hearing this account.
(talking bigfoot over dinner at the 1st meeting of the Bay Area Bigfoot Research group.)
With only an hour left in the meeting, we started to view the documentary “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.” Several in the group had not seen this before and enjoyed watching the first 30 minutes. We then took a group photograph and several people departed. We ended the evening talking about getting together again in March. It was a very nice group of people – very interested in the subject – that attended the first meeting of our Bay Area Bigfoot Research group. We considered this a successful start to what we hope is a tradition of meetings on a regular basis to discuss this subject about which we are all very passionate.
