Big Crowd for Bigfoot

Sasquatch has been spotted in Santa Cruz County more times than can be counted.

And Michael Rugg, curator of Felton's Big Foot Museum, has heard most of the stories. The ones he calls hoaxes. The ones he calls misunderstood. And the ones he truly believes occurred. In the six years since his museum opened, locals have flocked to share their stories of spottings.

The spottings run along the coast up to Bonny Doon and in many of the Santa Cruz Mountain towns, including Boulder Creek, Felton and even Scotts Valley.

"Skeptics tell us it's all imaginary; that does happen a lot," said Rugg, who has studied Big Foot since 1951. "But after a while, it's hard to keep ignoring."

On Saturday, Rugg organized the fourth Bigfoot Discover Day.

"This one is the best we've had," he said.

The day began with events at the Felton museum and culminated in an evening of speakers at the Louden Nelson Community Center.

More than 60 people filled Room 3 of Louden Nelson to hear everything from testimony of a 2007 sighting to advances in thermal recording equipment to a song from a Bay Area resident about bigfooting, the hunting of the sasquatch.

Scott McClean, a bigfoot researcher and author, offered up an extensive collection of newspaper articles dating back hundreds of years that all referenced bipedal, hairy creatures with disproportionately long arms.

"These things have been around as long as we have," McClean told the audience. "And these newspaper archives are proof of this."

He flashed a clip about wild men reported in Felton in the 1870s.

"Consistently over time in California," sasquatches have been spotted, he said. "It's not a guy in a suit. They're talking about an 8-foot, hair-covered ape. People have described them in detail. They're out there. They always been out there."

Rugg backed that up with local tribal trivia: The Ohlone tribe, native to the Central Coast, had a name for bigfoot, he said.

Takakuna, he said, was the name the Ohlone gave to a specific bigfoot who lived in the Felton area.

New technologies

Bart Cutino, a bigfoot researcher who spotted the creature in Washington state in 2007, is enamored of modern technology and what it can do to change the field of bigfoot research.

A thermal imaging device helped him in an up-close-and-personal encounter he had in 2007 east of Mt. Rainier, WA.  In pitch dark, he said, a special viewer helped him watch a sasquatch from a distance of about 32 yards.

"Most people don't believe it's real," he told the audience. "And it was right there in front of me. My adrenalin was off the chart."

He described seeing a 500- to 600-pound creature that stood upright.

"It was a life-changing experience for me," said Cutino. "I'm 110 percent sure what we pursue is real."

Many of those in the attendance felt similarly.

Tom Yamarone, a museum member, said he does his own research and on several occasions has heard what he believes is bigfoot yowling.

"It's nice to see good exposure to a new side of research," he said.

Rugg, who takes part in that research full time, made a promise several years ago that he seems to be sticking to: He won't get a haircut until he proves sasquatch is real.

"If I can't find the wild man, I'll become him," he said.