Bigfoot — if there’s one subject almost everyone has an opinion on, it’s Bigfoot, and those opinions are as varied as their holders, who range from true believers to absolute non-believers, with every imaginable position between the extremes.
The media doesn’t hesitate to cover Bigfoot-related news either. From the estimated 2,500 or so readers of The Creswell Chronicle to the more than four million nightly listeners to nationally syndicated Coast to Coast AM late night radio programs, breaking news about Bigfoot is not ignored.
The Pacific Northwest has been the hotbed of Bigfoot sightings since the late 1950s. In fact, according to the “comprehensive data-base of credible sightings” on the International Bigfoot Society’s website, Oregon has more than three times as many reported Bigfoot sightings as any other state. It should come as no surprise to learn that the only known Bigfoot trap in existence can be found in southern Oregon.
In October 1967, Bigfoot researchers Roger Patterson and Bob GiImin traveled to the Bluff Creek area in northwestern California, an area of many seemingly credible sightings, with hopes of capturing Bigfoot on film. On the afternoon of October 20, they spotted a creature and shot some footage before it disappeared in the forest. Known simply as the “Patterson Film,” it has been dubbed a fake by many researchers and claimed to be genuine by others.
Patterson’s film created a new wave of interest in Bigfoot. The woods of northwest California and southwest Oregon became alive with people searching for the legendary creature, footprints, or other evidence of its existence. After Gilmin withdrew from active research, he was replaced by Ron Olson, who was working in the film industry when the Patterson film hit the market. Olson actively worked with Patterson until Patterson’s 1972 death from cancer.
With the consent of Patterson’s family, Olson moved the non-profit organization to Eugene, Oregon and continued its activities under name of the North American Wildlife Research Association. Proceeds from sales of the Patterson film helped finance the group’s field expeditions and research.
While researching potential Bigfoot habitat, Olson stumbled across an old gold miner who had lived alone in the wilderness of southern Oregon for fifty years. Of course Olson asked the oft-repeated question, “had the man ever seen any big hairy creatures in the forest?” The old man responded that he had; in fact, he often saw a family group in a grassy clearing across a small canyon. The creatures never bothered the miner and the miner never bothered them.
Olson later recalled the location and conversation, but the old man had died by the time Olson returned with a small group intending to hire someone to live in the old man’s cabin and to assume the routine the miner had followed. Olsen’s group then built a boxlike trap, about ten feet square, with a steel-barred gate. They used eight-inch diameter poles sunk three feet in the ground for the framework of the trap, with 2×12 inch boards for the walls.
Strong-smelling bait was hung from the ceiling of the trap in hopes of luring a creature inside to be trapped by the dropped gate. The group hoped to capture a Bigfoot specimen for scientific study before release, but only a couple of small bears were captured.
Although the old miner’s cabin has collapsed and the search area has been abandoned, the intact trap, its steel gate bolted open permanently to prevent injury, is still standing today. To visit the trap, which is located on U.S. Forest Service land, travel to the Grants Pass/Medford area. From either town, travel to Highway 238, which connects the two towns on a route south of Interstate 5. At the small town of Ruch, turn south on Applegate Road and continue until you reach Applegate Lake. Hart-tish Park is located at the north end of the lake. Collings Mountain Trail is directly across from the park entrance. The remains of the miner’s cabin are about 3/4 of a mile along the trail. Past the cabin, the trail forks to the left up a small hill. The Bigfoot trap located at the end of this trail.
A visit to this site may not yield any sightings of big hairy creatures, but it will provide the opportunity to experience some ruggedly beautiful southern Oregon county.
Published 2005
It Happened in Oregon... 