Bigfoot Finder

So I think the first thing and probably most important is to know where I am going. The beginning of my journey had started with building John Green’s map which can be found here. Just to be clear this is only the data for my general neighborhood and does a heck of a job showing hot spots. The trend seems to be south of the Fraser River. But I’m not going to limit myself, except for one important limitation. I will not trespass on private land (without permission that is) and I will not ever go onto Native land without a invite and a host to take me. And to be certain I’m not trespassing on Native Land I’m using this government map that shows Treaty land. As they say this is not complete but it’s all I have to work from currently.

And I have a pretty clever trick up my sleeve when it comes to having a wealth of trackers helping me. You see, the Harrison Lake area is chock full of retirees. And many of those retirees are amazing and dedicated nature photographers. And by dedicated I mean they are out every single day catching the Golden Hour at dawn and dusk in the most beautiful and remote areas of our wilderness. Read exactly what Golden Hour is here. And it just happens that Bigfoot also loves the golden hour to be out and about and even better is that the sunlight casts wonderful shadows across footprints.

So in exchange for possible Bigfoot footprint photos that are geotagged I give them free website and tech support. So far I have a decent hand full of amazing photographers agreeing and we’ll see how it goes…

In May of 2016 my wife and I moved into our new home in the Harrison area with great excitement of learning about this wonderful world of lakes and trees and mountains. I knew nothing of this area save for the Hot Springs but my wife did all the research and assured me this was the place. I was busy packing up the old house and dealing with my career. I trusted her, she was right, it’s amazing here.

On May 28th, John Willison Green died in Chilliwack, at the age of 89. I read a tribute to him in the local paper and was intrigued. He lived a hell of a life. He had been major player out here, owned and operated the local paper and was one of the leading Bigfoot researchers in the world. He contributed sooo much to this area, read the article I linked to for yourself and see. I just missed him but his legacy lasts. But then there was this Bigfoot thing…

My wife suggested I enter a submission to a local art gallery show for the public, at the Harrison Hot Springs Ranger Station Art Gallery to be precise. I decided I wanted to create a piece that reflected the area’s history and have a good back story. I wanted the piece to need research. I love research. And John’s work with Bigfoot was stuck in my mind, and to be honest around here with all the tourist marketing, it’s hard to forget Bigfoot.

So I started with data, I dug around the internets and was able to get a copy of John’s Microsoft Access database of the sightings he recorded.

I also discovered his physical files were on display at the local Kilby Historic Museum that he helped be declared as a historical site by the province, and served as president of the museum society for a decade.

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Then I had to learn how to convert old long lat gps data to new Google map friendly gps. Almost 100 years of data here.

Then I mix that map with government water maps.

Then I cut it into a million little pieces

And then I make Bigfoot feet stickers.

This is my submission to the Harrison Hot Springs Ranger Station Art Gallery. It is called “Green’s Sightings”.

And with this, things started to get serious. Now I was officially hooked. Actually more like infected with Bigfoot Fever. But what really really put me over the edge was sitting in a local bar with my wife and as we are waiting for our cold beer and fish & chips she says “look up!”. And there hanging on the wall above our table is an amazing set of plaster casts. Now it’s official, I have to find those feet!

About six years ago or so I was lucky enough to have a wonderful house up on Vedder Mountain just outside of a small village called Yarrow in British Columbia.

My backyard led straight up the mountain into old growth cedars and there was no sign of civilization until you hit the USA. The smell of the air was amazing. We had families of deer, bears, possums and all sorts of wildlife on our land.

One day my neighbour down the hill in the flats by the railway line comes up to me with his digital camera with a big smile. “I’ve got a picture of Bigfoot but you can’t tell anyone about it or have a copy”. Needless to say I was intrigued. Long story short, the photo was amazing, and a fake. And even more incredible it was taken between my mailbox and my house. Turned out a film production was shooting a Bigfoot movie in our little Yarrow. They used the deli, my barber and the train tracks I mentioned are right next to them in the cast photo above.

The movie was OKish I guess, it was a horror movie. Very cool to recognize so much of our neighbourhood while watching it. I wish I had that photo he had taken, it was amazing. But he had signed an NDA.

This was another step towards my passion and planning for finding Bigfoot.

Feed the Gods DVD from Amazon.com

I was about 9 years old or so and I saw the infamous two part episode of “The Six Million Dollar Man” called “The Secret of Bigfoot” and it blew my mind. I already had read about the episodes coming soon in TV Guide so knew that Bigfoot was to be portrayed by my favorite wrestler André the Giant. But knowing who was in that costume didn’t keep away the nightmares. That ice tunnel terrified me.

As so began a life long fascination with Bigfoot.

The photo above is of Kenneth Johnson the writer/producer of those episodes. He is holding a plaster cast of Andre the Giant’s size 24 foot.