The room was overflowing with people sitting in the aisles as students, professors and community members gathered to listen to Jeff Meldrum discuss the possibilities of Sasquatch being more than a myth. The lecture sponsored by the Humanities department was held Friday, Nov. 11, and received much curiosity on campus.
“There is the traditional legend of Sasquatch, but is there evidence behind the lore?” Meldrum said as he began his presentation. Meldrum is a physical anthropologist and currently teaches at Idaho State University. He dedicated a large portion of his life to studying the history, folklore and evidences surrounding “big foot.” Along with traveling to Russia and parts of China, Meldrum has tracked the Sasquatch figure around the U.S. as well.
Meldrum walked the audience through the history of different interpretations of Sasquatch, or “the wild man,” beginning with Enkidu and Gilgamesh and going into the myth of Grendel and Beowulf. He laughed about the different movies and depictions of the Sasquatch figure.
Meldrum also discussed the ancestry and evolution of monkeys and how that potentially ties in with Sasquatch by showing several different slides.
“There have been several different humanoid species at a time in history,” Meldrum said. “There is evidence that Neanderthals coexisted with the human species, and there have been six different humanoid species in the last 20,000 years.”
With such a varying range of evolved human and ape-like species throughout history, Meldrum made the connection that it is very possible that the Sasquatch figure could be one of these variations coexisting with the human race today. However, Meldrum pointed that through studies, it still remains hard to determine if the Sasquatch is more of an ape or man.
In his argument that the Sasquatch could potentially be considered to have more of a monkey ancestry, Meldrum cited evidences that apes can grin, have breasts, and can walk upright on two legs, just like humans. These are all characteristics that have been linked to the Sasquatch by several eye witness accounts.
“But, people often see what they want to see, so eye witness accounts aren’t always totally reliable,” Meldrum said. People have also taken footage of the Sasquatch walking in the forest, carrying only a crude stick. “Humans often carry and collect objects,” Meldrum said as he continued to weigh the characteristics of human versus monkey traits apparent in Sasquatch.
Meldrum also cited the historical sightings of Sasquatch, beginning with several stories and footprints appearing in several Asian countries. He feels that the “Yeti” monster reported about in the Himalayan mountains may be an ancestor figure to the current day Sasquatch. Meldrum’s main line of expertise involves the footprints and tracking of the Sasquatch. He has studied several different imprints in mud and sand, and he possesses fossilized models to figure out the movement of the massive “big foot.”
Meldrum meets much skepticism with his theories and worldwide research associated with chasing the evidence of Sasquatch.
“When a friend said, ‘Well after all, these are just stories,’ I replied, ‘Yes. Stories that shed hair, leave footprints, and are seen by eyewitnesses.’”
By Faith Heaton – Staff Writer
Photos by Gilbert Cisneros
wait… what evidence? wouldn’t hair that was found have been DNA tested to prove it really came from a Sasquatch and not a bear. wouldn’t that have made HUGE news and rocked the scientific community? why isn’t that happening? Anybody who works in the court system knows personal accounts are sketchy at best, and footprints can and have been faked. This guys needs a lot more evidence than just a few things.
To my understanding there has been hair and fecal matter tested believed to be from the elusive sasquatch, which in return after being DNA tested was known to be from an unknown primate.. The evidence of bigfoot is overwhelming and alone in the United States Of America there are over 400 investigated,researched and documented sightings of bigfoot.. It would be next to impossible to fake the dermal ridged footprint of a sasquatch or to get to the grounds or back in the deep wilderness untraced to get to the location to plant these so called fake footprints.. The abundance of bigfoot-sasquatch evidence is as I said overwhelming and real and just because there is no body or one in captivity says nothing about bigfoot not being real. They bury their dead and wat you cant find alive you sure as hell wont find dead!!
Science has a hard time dealing with hoaxers and misperceptions. But the absence of any flesh and blood critters, dead or alive, and any fossils, and any clear images, after the hundreds of years in this country, should speak volumes.
Meanwhile, PT Barnum….
amazing how elusive nd intelligent these creatures are nd in r world there hve been hundreds of unknown species discovered jst this year, granted they r not as large as the sasquatch might be but hve remained to b unknown 2 the scientific wrld from the beginning of time until now. Patterson film of 67 in bluff creek-Wen asked if they cld reproduce this flm The technicians in the special affects dpartment at the universal studios in hollywood had this to say after reviewing the flm abundantly 2 determine if the flming of the sasquatch in the bluff creek area had any probabilty of being a hoax (these are the same technicians who mnufactred the king kongs and mighty joe youngs nd othere estoric monsters bck in those days.”we could try.But we would have 2 create a new system of artificial muscles nd train actor to walk as such. It mite be dne,but we wld have 2 say it wld b almost impossible
I visit several remote areas in the North Cascades in WA state. I have seen their tracks, glimses of them as they sometimes follow me. I leave food for them. I hear them sometimes by my tent at night and hear their movements. I don’t know what they are but trust me something is there. I am former military and law enforcement so I am very aware of what is around me at all times. If you give me a 60 minute start in this country you will never see any evidence of me therefore you can understand why it is hard to see any trace of them. There are skeptics on eveything just to be skeptics ignoring facts and the truth. Go out and see for yourself. “The truth is out there, trust no one”. There are many “talkers” and few “doers”.