Jimmy’s Journal No. 12: Adventures with Finding Bigfoot
Straight From Minneapolis and his Heart …
Jimmy’s Journal No. 12
"Take care of the minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.."
The
third film I produced ‘Jimmy Wilson`s Snowman’ was maybe the most
interesting subject matter I have ever dealt with, maybe the most
interesting subject anyone has ever dealt with, ever.. Yes, I
happened to pick it, I wanted a film that would captivate my
customers’ imaginations number one, and the marketers, and the
promoters, and the public relations people too. Although
when you`re a film maker and you’re dealing with a million little
details all the time, and your film becomes a 24hr. a day project
for 6 months, you want the subject you`re dealing with to be
stimulating. Something that will keep one`s attention for a
long long period of time. Now what subject in the world is
more stimulating than the Bigfoot..
Well I got off to a bad start.. When I produce a film I do
a lot of research before I do anything else. I read books, I
learn about the subject matter to be, and I also get names of
people that are experts in the subject matter that I could
possibly interview to help me tell the story. I could’ve
used more of my intuition when I was starting out on this film,
but I was so excited, as I always am whenever I begin producing a
film, that my eyes got bigger than my stomach.
I think I met every kook in the Bigfoot world! And believe
me, there were many.. I remember thinking, I may not be able
to do this? This just might not work. Because number one, I
wanted to come at this from a different angle than most. I
never went into this film thinking there was a Bigfoot, Sasquatch,
Abominable Snowman, Yeti, or whatever. And I didn`t go into
this film thinking there weren’t any possibilities of the creature
existing. I wanted to do a straight on film, find the real
people that could answer the real questions. The people who were
in the know, who knew if the Bigfoot was fact or fiction, and then
leave it up to everybody once they viewed my film, as to what it
was, or what it wasn`t..
Just about this time when I was ready to throw in the towel, I
decided to take a little break, regroup, and I flew out to
California to visit my folks. I was sitting in my aisle seat
in the airliner reading ‘The Sasquatch Field Guide’ when the
flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder and asked me are you
interested in the Bigfoot? I said yes! I went on to
talk to her about my project and the difficulty for this film
maker, me, and that I just kept meeting every Sasquatch nut in the
world..
She then told me her hobby for years was the Sasquatch, and that
at home she had books and literature I could use! I promised
to return everything to her if she would just let me do the
research I needed to produce the film.
A few weeks later a large box arrived at my door from Susan Boland
the flight attendant! I opened it and read all the material.
It contained everything I needed to do this film!
Legitimate Bigfoot eyewitnesses and researchers. She
was really a Godsend to me, she is listed in the credits of the
film under ‘Archives’.
Ok, here I go, first I interviewed ‘Ngon-Nway-We-Dung’ a Native
American from the Anishinabe tribe here in Minneapolis. He
went on to explain to me the Bigfoot is not a monster, that it is
here to tell us that we are not treating the planet as we should,
and that we are not treating each other the way we should.
That he has heard many stories from the elders in his tribe
that the Bigfoot represents spirits from the past that were here a
long long time ago..
I liked this! I`m liking the trail I`m on now..
Two other people I wanted to meet and do extensive interviews
with, Brian Gosselin a police officer from upstate New York who
was a credible eyewitness, and John A. Bindernagel, the foremost
Sasquatch researcher in the world and author of ‘North America`s
Great Ape, The Sasquatch’. I contacted Mr. Bindernagel and
he agreed to grant me an interview for the film, so I hopped on a
plane and flew out to Courtenay, British Columbia!
I rented a small motel room for a few days there, contacted John,
and went over to his office and asked a few questions and did a
lot of listening.. He was a great guy, friendly,
personable, but professional and treated the subject with the seriousness
of any wildlife biologist that studied this animal, and only this
animal for over 30 years.
The first thing he told me was that the name Sasquatch comes from
an aboriginal word ‘Sasquets’ from the ‘Chehalis’ band. That
in Canada it is usually called Sasquatch and in the US Bigfoot.
He went on to describe the animal in that it had a human shape but
with prominent shoulders, long arms, and a thick short neck. That
at times it looked like it did not have a neck. That it
usually had a heavy dark coat, but it could also have a coat of
light brown as well and sometimes black. That it stood 7-9
feet tall and muscular with large hands and feet. The way it
moved across the ground he described as, "Like it was walking on
air.."
He told me that the animal was very shy, benign, retiring.
That in 95% of the eyewitness reports he`s examined the animal has
walked away or stood and watched people and then disappeared.
But that in 5% of the cases it has stood it`s ground if
bothered and responded accordingly with threat or aggression.
Most Sasquatch sightings are solitary and in the evening he went
on to say, although sometimes two are seen, and at times a family
has been encountered usually in the daytime foraging for food.
They eat roots and tubers, ground squirrels, berries,
leaves, and fish, and shellfish, and meat too. In more than
one instance hunters have taken down a deer or elk during hunting
season and a Sasquatch will appear and take the
Dr. John A. Bindernagel
deer or elk, put it over it`s shoulder and run off.. They have been seen swimming underwater and above water using what one eyewitness described as something like a breast stroke. The most important evidence of the Sasquatch are the tracks and the array of tracks, usually around the size of a 16 or 17 shoe size.. The breaking of saplings 6 to 8 feet above the ground is thought to be left by the Sasquatch as it is moving through an area. He went on to say that when people see a Sasquatch they are just totally flummoxed, because we’ve been conditioned for so long to not believe they exist. So when we see one, we`re almost in shock.
We know very little about it, but he believes it knows a lot about us. He believes they watch us a lot and have a very good sense of our behavior, even if we don`t have a good sense of theirs. He hopes in the near future there will be funded studies of the Sasquatch and it`s behavior at universities throughout the world.
The
last thing he told me, is that he`s still hopeful one day
someone we`ll find Sasquatch bones in a cave or somewhere in the
wilderness to examine.
I left British Columbia and Dr. Bindernagel with the completed
interview, and knew then, this was all interesting enough to make
for a great film!
Now
off to upstate New York and my interview with eyewitness, officer
Brian Gosselin!
I landed in NYC. and rented a car and drove the 3 or 4 hrs. to
upstate New York. I rented another room in even a smaller
motel in the small town. It had a bed, a bathroom, a small
closet, and a small desk with two chairs and a small light.
I brought my digital tape deck and microphone and set it up
on the desk. The interview with the police officer was for
9PM. I remember it was dark outside, I think early Spring or
late Winter. Brian Gosselin shows up and we sit down in this
little motel room with this one little desk light on and he begins
to tell me his eyewitness account. As soon as he spoke
three words the hair on my arms stood straight up..
He told me of his eyewitness encounter on a cool clear crisp
night, that stars were out, no moon.. He was on an evening
break from patrolling, he had parked near a meadow and a hedgerow
on the edge of town, taking five minutes and relaxing before going
back on to patrol his shift again. His patrol car window is
open and he begins to hear a swooshing sound, of something walking
in the meadow out in front of him. A sound as if someone’s
wearing corduroy pants and their legs are rubbing together..
The sound starts to get louder and it`s getting closer. He
told me at this point he was a bit scared, anyone would be..
He got his portable spot light ready, and took the dome
light out of his squad car, so when he opened the door no light
would go on. He then took his service revolver out, opened
the door of the squad car and the sound was still coming and
coming closer! He flipped the spot light on and about 40 to
50 feet straight ahead of him was this creature! He said he
didn`t know if it was Sasquatch, Bigfoot, or whatever. But
he said it wasn`t a man in a monkey suit and it wasn`t a gorilla..
Officer Brian Gosselin
The
creature stood 7 foot or so tall and he estimated it`s
weight at 350 pounds. With the spotlight on the creature, he
could see it bring its hands which he described as huge paws and
try to cover up and protect it`s large eyes from the spotlight.
The officer now had dropped to his knees, and with his gun
in one hand and the spotlight the other, he could of killed the
creature..
All this time it`s running through the officer’s head that it
looks human like, but he knows it`s not a human. He could see the
outline of it`s spinal column as it momentarily turned to the
left, not because the creature was thin, but because it was so
muscular. He noticed in the spotlight how it`s hair grew in
from the sides to the center and that it`s hair was matted down,
like it had been laying in mud or clay. It`s ears did not
protrude from it`s body and hair covered them.
The creature quickly then left from the direction it came, but this time with a loud vocal screech. The officer told me he was not able to kill the creature. He told me if something is out there, no matter what it is, who or what gives him the right to kill it. He felt it would be murder.
As the interview ended I thanked Brian for his time and Sat down and just stared into that little light on that motel room desk. I felt I was witness to an experience not many on this planet have had.. A few minutes later I remembered what another eyewitness told me earlier, an older gentleman from Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania. What he told me was now ringing in my ears.
"Ya`
know hunters go into the woods, thousands of people go into the
woods, and most of em` don`t see nothin`. Most of em` don`t
even see a deer..
These creatures are very intelligent. They know we hunt,
they see us kill wild animals, they see the weapons we use, and
they fear us, they`re afraid of us.."
So Long for now… Jimmy
Jimmy
Wilson Gallery
4304 Upton Ave. So.
Minneapolis
jimmy@jimmypicture.com
Born in Minnesota, photographer, filmmaker, writer, and gallery owner.
Quote by Lord Chesterfield
For more Jimmy Wilson info, please go to www.jimmypicture.com & www.jimmyfilms.com