Jefferson, Texas--It`s dark deep in the Piney Woods. In the stillness, the silence is suddenly shattered by the dry snap of twigs under the weight of footfalls.----Ponderous steps. Two feet. Big ones.
To most of us, it`s folklore, tall tales best told beneath the stars, amid the flickering glow and swirling firefly embers of a campfire.----But some reasonable people remain believers. Although tabloid fiction makes them vulnerable to teasing and ridicule, they insist (something) is out there. ----What they have seen and reported, they say, isn`t some Halloween prankster wearing a gorilla suit.----It`s a giant unclassified primate, curious and watchful, that walks upright and roams the woodlands and creek bottoms, mostly at night. Viewed for only a second or two, and rarely photograaphed, Bigfoot is a reclusive as Greta Garbo.
Sasquatch, or Skunk Ape, is mostly associated with the Pacific Northwest. However, the creature has been spotted in every state except Hawaii.
Most sightings in Texas occur in the backwoods of East Texas, where folks like the Carlsons live, alone, happily secluded.
Dressed in denim overalls, J.C. Carlson is a mountainous man, almost 7 feet tall, with a mustache and bushy white beard.
His work boots aren`t as large as Bigfoot`s print, but almost. --Carlson, like others, has heard the raspy nocturnal howls. He and his wife are certain that foxes or bobcats didn`t steal the 28 chickens from their homestead on Big Cypress Bayou during three nights this summer.
They found no carcasses, no trace of blood.--(there`s something out here besides us), he said.---Katherine Carlson returned home late one night this spring. --Headlights splashed across the rutted one-lane dirt road that meanders through thick pine-scented woods. She stopped to open the crossing gate.
Usually, her dogs jump out and play. Not this night. Sassy and Wally remained inside the cab.
In the darkness, Carlson encountered an overpowering foul odor. (It`s wasnt a skunk,) She knows the smells of the Woods.
Rancid, J.C. Carlson said of the stench, It`s like gettin behind a gut wagon, in the summer.
Worse, his wife said.
Katherine Carlson didn`t glimpse a Bigfoot but in the eerie moonlight she sensed a lurking presence.
The couple live near the dark waters and moss-draped cypresses of Caddo Lake. Where the B movie (The Creature From Black Lake) (1979) was filmed.
This summer, and alligator living in a slough near the Carlsons place disappeared. J.C. Carlson saw that his cows and goats stopped grazing in the woods at night.
They remained huddled near the house, beneath the glow of a mercury vapor light.
Critters will tell you when somethin isnt right, J.C. Carlson said.---next his wife telephoned Charlie DeVore
The Texas Bigfoot Research Center is a network of about 40 people from all walks of life living in the Lone Star State, who are dedicated to finding Sasquatch.
The group was founded six years ago by Craig Woolheater, the 45-year-old office manager of his family`s plumbing company in Dallas. He claims he saw a grayish-haired Bigfoot walking along a deserted highyway in Louisiana in 1994.
Charlie DeVore joined the group after a mysterious incident five years ago when, in his words, he (had the stink put on me).
Armed with a coon-hunting light, the 65 year-old retiree was walking throught the woods near his home late on night, accompanied by five dogs.--he felt safe unthreatened until the smell engulfed him.---DeVore looked down, his four-legged compankons had fled.
Two years later, he attended a meeting of Bigfoot enthusiasts in Jefferson and met several people who described similar incidents.
DeVore is certain the smell was that of some yet undocumented species of bipedal hominoid afflicted with body odor---a body odor no brand of drugstore roll-on or spray deodorant can eliminate.
After Katheine Coleman telephoned Devore, her neighbor, Charlie and three fellow researchers camped for two nights near the site of the (smelling), They turned on the call blaster.
Bigfoot didn`t appear, but they heard its cry, and detected movement in the woods.----Bigfootologists estimate that at least 2,000 Bigfoot live in the United States.---No Bigfoot remains---bones or bodies---have been discovered.
Hunters have never shot and killed one. (thats known of)--Bigfoot, fortunately, hasn`t wandered onto a road and been struck by a car, like the Sasquatch character Harry in the movie (Harry and the Hendersons).
Another group, North Texas Skeptics, is, well, skeptical.
(Bigfot is a great story, and a wonderful bit of folklore, Nothing more, said John Blanton), a skeptics member, It`s a biological absurdity, Real creatures, unlike the fictional Bigfoot, do not exist alone. They have parents. Their parents have parents and so on. At the very minimum, there has to be a tribe---Where is the Bigfoot tribe?
St. Cloud Times
www.sctimes.com
