Rambles
Review by Alicia Karen Elkins
February 2005
The back cover of Meet the Sasquatch states: Meet the Sasquatch is a milestone in the publication of sasquatch information. Never before have so many resources been researched and consulted on the phenomenon, nor have so many associated photographs been published under one cover. Indeed many photographs are being published for the first time.
This cover blurb is exactly on the money. Meet the Sasquatch is the encyclopedia about the Sasquatch. It is the most information to be found in one volume on the subject and surpasses everything in this market niche for quality. This over-sized volume contains 239 pages packed with photographs, maps, charts, illustrations, reproductions of book covers, newspaper articles, protective ordinances, stamps, and much more. If it is Sasquatch-related, you will find it here.
This entire book is impressive. From the moment you touch it, you are enthralled, even overwhelmed, by the bombardment of glossy photographs and sidebars. It is not a book to be casually scanned. It will force you to delve deeply into the passages and carefully contemplate the information. Once you have completed the first reading, you will likely immediately begin reading it again. Long after you put the book down, your mind will be churning information about Sasquatch. This is the book to create an addiction to Sasquatch in your life.
Christopher Murphy has produced a masterpiece with this book. He lights a fire within your heart and mind for more input about Sasquatch. Then he offers you dozens of ways to acquire more. Perhaps you will fall in love with the artwork of Paul Smith and use the e-mail address to order a copy of the Sasquatch family. Perhaps you will join the International Bigfoot Society or subscribe to The Track Record. Or perhaps you will really get the Sasquatch fever and join the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. He has provided the means for you to become involved on any level that you desire.
Murphy's writing style is conversational to the point that you begin to feel like you know him personally as a close friend. He manages to translate the most advanced scientific terminology into easy to understand language and explains complex procedures in a way that almost anyone can readily comprehend. He juxtaposes the scientific research with sighting anecdotes and slapstick commentary. His sidebar on the Smithsonian folks peeping out of their closet at the bigfoot situation will leave you laughing. Murphy is an author that will win your heart.
If you ever purchase a book about the Sasquatch, make it this one. It will appeal to readers of all ages. However, be warned that once you open this book, you will be hooked right into the bigfoot phenomenon and your life will never be the same. I became addicted to bigfoot as a child when I saw the film made in Bluff Creek. This book will have that same effect on many children and would be an ideal gift for the children on your Christmas list. Order your copies of Meet the Sasquatch today and be sure to add a couple for stocking stuffers. This is the gift for those people that have everything.
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FATE Magazine
August 2004
Chris Murphy’s monumental opus, Meet The Sasquatch, may well go down in
history as one of the best books ever to be published on the subject
matter. Publisher Dave Hancock may have said it better, “Meet The Sasquatch
is a milestone in the publication of sasquatch information. While the last
chapter on sasquatch has yet to be written, here is the full story of wheat
we know about the creature to date.”
Meet The Sasquatch will not disappoint for it is loaded with many never
before seen photographs in addition to twelve partial frames from the both
famous and forever controversial Patterson-Gimlin film. Noteworthy is the
reproduction of those 16-mm film frames comes directly from cibachrome
transparencies taken directly from the original movie. The best
reproductive results are shown on page 55 and the likelihood of the subject
being a costumed person appears extremely far fetched. Equally far fetched
is the idea the filmed subject actually represents a gigantic unknown
primate. With hunters all over the Pacific Northwest, I should clarify, it
is hard to imagine they have missed a target of this immensity.
Author Christopher L. Murphy, retired from the British Columbia Telephone
Company (now Telus) after 36 years, traces his Bigfoot involvement with a
meeting with the late Rene Dahinden in 1993. From there his interested
blossomed and Meet The Sasquatch is a culmination of his years in the
Bigfoot trenches. Noted Mr. Murphy in a recent letter to me, “the idea to
create a book of this nature goes back to my boyhood. At about age 13, I
found a book entitled A Pictorial History of World War II. Because there
were so many photographs and illustrations, I had no trouble understanding
and associating with a very complex subject.” We can only wonder how many
13-year-olds may be further inspired by the Bigfoot mystery with Murphy’s
penning of this excellent volume.
The book’s size, 8.5” X 11” inches, and glossy pages make it an excellent
coffee table work and its organization appears to be logical and easy to
follow. Chapter 1 starts with “First Nations Sasquatch References,” which
is apt but wanting; to refer to them as North American Indians would be
perfectly acceptable and less confusing. However, it has been pointed out
the term “Indian” in Canada is socially unacceptable and considered
derogatory and the preferred terminology is “First Nations.” “Early Written
Records,” (chapter 2) makes it crystal clear, whether there is a Sasquatch
or not, there is a long record, in writing and oral tradition, of manlike
or apelike beings in North America prior to 1900.
In chapter 2 Albert Ostman’s alleged abduction by a Sasquatch in 1924 is
briefly recounted but nowhere is it mentioned one of his principal
investigators, Rene Dahinden, would later have considerable doubt about the
reality of that tale based on the rugged geography Ostman would have
encountered. . Also in this chapter John Walters Burns is mentioned but
briefly, although he was responsible for bringing into wide circulation the
term “Sasquatch,” with his magazine articles on the subject. Burns’ “My
Search For B.C.’s Giant Indians,” from Liberty magazine, 1954, is reprinted
and it should be noted for the record Mr. Burns’ was writing about the
topic in periodicals such as MacLeans as far back as 1929. The late
newspaper reporter, Andrew Genzoli, who more or less broke the “Bigfoot”
story to the world in 1958 is also only briefly cited. Had it not been for
Genzoli, the long saga of “Bigfoot” may have been just some forgotten
legend from the backwoods.
The meat of this book is in the outstanding chapter 5, “The
Patterson/Gimlin Film,” loaded with pictures, diagrams, notes and
measurements made on the historic Bluff Creek, California filmsite. Author
Chris Murphy takes us to another level in discussing details of this famous
filmstrip. In reference to frame #352, the most widely used still frame of
the subject, Murphy writes, “for example, the is very little difference
between frames 351, 352 and 353. Frame 352 was simply judged to be the best
by two people.” The “piece of wood,” (as Rene Dahinden called it)
collected from the P-G filmsite, in which the subject either steps directly
on it or next to it, is discussed in detail and, to the best of my
knowledge this is the first time in a book that the artifact is written
about. That piece of wood was collected by the chief investigator of the
film, Rene Dahinden, and because it was in the same focal plane as the
subject (Bigfoot) it was later determined this piece of wood could be used
to calculate the height of the subject.
Yvon Leclerc, a Canadian illustrator for the book, provides technical
sketches of the facial area of the P-G subject, and this further enhances
this already highly impressive book. I should mention, too, Mr. John Green
and Mr. Thomas Steenburg, cited under the author’s name as “in association
with,” played a tremendous roles in troubleshooting the working manuscript
as it was being developed and had a big say so as to what should be
included and what was to be left on the cutting room floor.
The debunking issue of the P-G film, as described in the recently released,
The Making Of Bigfoot, by Greg Long, is mentioned on page 89 and it would
appear to this reviewer Long’s claim of a man in a costume are baseless and
have little merit.
Bigfoot, the skeptics have long stated, is fine folklore and campfire chat
but chapter 8, “The Physical Evidence And Its Analysis” proves difficult to
ignore as there is a whole gallery of the foot tracks and castings of
Bigfoot. Footprints in the ground, whether real or faked, are facts. In
respect to the foot tracks left behind by the big footed Sasquatch, one can
only ask; could they all be fake over such a long period of time and
covering a massive land mass, North America? When the length of the foot
tracks is graphically plotted, by contributor Dr. Wolf Henner Fahrenbach,
the scientist noted, “the distribution is bell-shaped, meaning that it came
from a biological population rather than being the result of forgery.”
Anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum also noted, “a pronounced flexibility in
the midtarsal joint” of Bigfoot tracks and one might opine it would be
inconceivable that hoaxers would go to such trouble in adding subtle
details to the tracks.
The Skookum Bigfoot body cast, from September 2000, is covered with some
depth and how the discovery came about. Alleged Sasquatch hair, beds and
sounds are also discussed.
Chapter 9 provides some wonderful insight on those, past and present, who
have waded the Sasquatch waters, and found them inviting. Bob Titmus; John
Green: this reviewer; Tom Steenburg; Dr. Grover Krantz; Rene Dahinden;
Richard Noll (Skookum cast); Robert Alley, Matt Moneymaker, Ray Crowe and
Bobbie Short are profiled. A glaring omission to this distinguished group
is Peter Byrne and Loren Coleman, both who have brought enormous publicity
to Bigfooting.
The Russian Snowman and the Himalayan Yeti are in the closing stages of
this book and the author, Chris Murphy, concludes with, “If sasquatch are
‘out there’ what else might there be?”
Two thumbs up for Meet The Sasquatch!. This is a serious and excellent
treatment of a simply fascinating topic.
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Reviewer: Richard Noll (Edmonds, WA USA) - from Amazon.com
Simply put, this book has it all. 99.99% of what anyone would want to know about Bigfoot is in this coffee table sized volume.
Chris has done us all a service and put it between these covers. I cannot over-praise the work he has done and that of all the people contained within it. There are no mental gymnastics one must go through to understand the evidence collected so far by amateur researchers. It is heavily illustrated with many never before published pictures and drawings. It begs the reader to really think about it, visulize it and not just scoff and proclaim no way, those things can't exist.
What is it with those Canadians anyway? How can they consistently produce the best material out there on the subject? This sets the bar quite a bit higher than other work's claiming so called critical thinking or to be skeptically inquiring by being downright serious. It will be at least another 10 years before anything like it can be made with original material.
I also predict that many of you will use this book to collect the autographs of the people Chris wrote about. |
