Marcie Schellhammer

Era Reporter

It’s true, I went hunting for Bigfoot. Unarmed and in the dark
of night in below freezing temperatures in the middle of the woods
in the Allegheny National Forest.

On Saturday, Nov. 10, a photographer from The Era and I met up
with members of Bigfoot Field Research Organization and two members
of the Jacobs family to go into the woods where Rick Jacobs’ game
camera captured a photo of an unidentified animal in
mid-September.

We went out in the evening hours and stayed until about 1:30
a.m.

Was I scared, people ask. We could hear coyotes; something was
moving in the bushes not far from where we were walking. Was it
Bigfoot? Probably not, unless the creatures – that some estimate to
be eight feet tall and weigh around a ton – don’t break twigs and
branches when stepping on them.

And I think I was trying too hard to keep from laughing at the
absurdity of me being the reporter doing this trip, although I had
volunteered. My daughter compares me to a character named Melman
from the movie “Madagascar” – “Ahhh, nature, get it off me!” Here I
am with five people – three average citizens and two members of the
BFRO who seem pretty normal – traipsing around in the woods at
night.

But let me back up a minute. As we sat around a campfire waiting
for it to get late enough – most Bigfoot reports apparently happen
around 2 or 3 a.m., but I’m not sure if the creatures follow
Daylight Savings Time – the conversation got around to jobs and
hobbies.

Paul Number One from the BFRO said he had looked into being an
ostrich farmer, and even joined a society designed for ostrich
farmers.

Paul Number Two starts to laugh, and asks incredulously, “No
way, do they really have a whole society based around
ostriches?”

Hmm. That is weird. A society based around an animal that is
scientifically documented to exist being mocked by a member of a
Bigfoot society.

I just couldn’t hold it in. I had to say something.

“Are other flightless birds allowed in the society, or are they
ostracized?”

Some laughter ensued, and comments about the play on words. But
at least my laughter no longer seemed out of place.

I must say, although I am not a whole-hearted believer in the
Bigfoot phenomenon, I am not here to judge or mock those who are.
The purpose of my trip into the woods was to see if there were any
signs or proof of anything that we could document for Era
readers.

While there was nothing to be documented, there were some things
proven to me on that freezing cold trip in the woods. First of all,
Pauls number one and two, Mateja and Bogdan, respectively, are
intelligent, kind and as normal as anyone else I’ve met. I’ve been
asked many times if the men are crazy. While I can’t say I am in
any position to judge, they certainly didn’t seem that way to
me.

Second, Tom and Rick Jacobs, the hunters who captured the
now-famous Jacobs Creature on the game camera, and their families
are just normal folks who had a picture they couldn’t identify.
They asked for help.

In my estimation, these are the kind of people who would stop on
a dark, stormy night when your car is broken down along the side of
the road to give you a hand.

And last, but not least, I learned an important lesson – no
matter what the story, there are human beings involved. I’ve heard
a share of ribbing from people with opinions on what the game
camera photos really show, but I know I haven’t been subjected to
even a fraction of what the Jacobs family has.

Or what the members of the BFRO have. These are people who,
right or wrong, believe in what they are doing. In the end, they
are really just trying to find conclusive proof of an animal that
people have been reporting sightings of for decades. Maybe some day
they will succeed in that endeavor and all the doubters will be the
ones ridiculed.

After all, once upon a time, people thought the platypus wasn’t
real.