Bigfoot Island by Roderick O’Grady
Roderick O’Grady has just published a sequel to Bigfoot Mountain, entitled Bigfoot Island and it features the same well-loved characters from Bigfoot Mountain, Minnie and Kaayii. Roderick O’Grady shares his inspiration behind his stories with us today.
A shaky 40 seconds of cine-film shot by a man in 1967, largely regarded as a hoax, has now been deemed, at least to most rational people, in the face of new analysis, to be genuine footage of a clearly female, over seven foot tall, very hairy, bi-pedal hominid walking away up a dry creek bed called Bluff Creek in Northern California.
Thanks to specialist analysis by a professor of anatomy and anthropology, and a computer scientist and special effects expert, who stabilised the existing duplicates of the original footage, details can be seen that rule out a man wearing a monkey suit.
The middle of the foot of the giant being is seen to flex and bend, which is common in apes but not evident in humans. The calf muscle ripples as she walks. There is a possible hernia in the thigh that pops out when the leg is flexed. When turning to look back at the camera the massive neck muscles, or trapezius, bunch naturally, there is no sign of a fur costume folding. Most importantly the skull appears to be shaped more like an extinct human species that lived in Africa three million years ago called Australopithecus.
If fake, the person inside would have to be at least 700 pounds in order to fill the costume. That’s more than an adult male black bear weighs. And why would a faker decide to make the creature so obviously female?
Little did I know when I decided to write a book for children on the subject of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, also known as Sabe (sar-bay) by the indigenous people, that my knowledge on the subject, four and a half years later and two books completed, would become so comprehensive. I tumbled down a rabbit hole!
I’ve read most of the books and watched all of the documentaries. I have read the independently tested DNA results, of over one hundred samples submitted, which confirm that an unknown species, a human-like, upright-walking, hair covered hominid, not an ape, is living in the remote regions of North America. And not just one of course, but likely more to be in the thousands.
I’ve listened to the ‘Sierra Sounds’- recordings made in the forested mountains of Eastern California which have been analysed by military audio experts and deemed to have a range unknown in any human or animal. I’ve seen the dermal ridges (like finger prints) seen on the many twenty inch-plus footprints in mud that have had plaster casts made of them. The ridges are all bigger and deeper than any human’s. So this all leaves me somewhat convinced, and better equipped to write a story with these ‘forest people’ in it. Or does it?
I am staggered by the information available now thanks to the internet, and the availability of platforms on which to share sightings and information. There’s a growing body of folk in North America who believe the public should be able to make fully informed decisions before venturing in to the beautiful vast tracts of wilderness for hunting, hiking, camping, biking and fishing.
Why haven’t they been seen more often? They have. There are thousands of witness reports, many shared on YouTube channels. Why hasn’t a body been found? They have. Many retired military personnel, having been sworn to keep their traps shut, are now offering descriptions of operations to stealthily remove bodies found. After the volcanic explosion at Mount St Helens in 1980 several dead Sasquatches were allegedly removed by ‘Special Ops.’ Why? Bear in mind that the dollar income for mining, logging, hunting, leisure and tourist activities in the National Parks and Wilderness Areas runs to many billions a year. Visitors to the Parks alone contribute $43 billion annually.
For these creatures, if they are out there, to have lived in the wild largely undetected for thousands of years they must be fully in tune with their environment, and must have a heightened awareness of all that happens in their habitat and a fear of contact with humans.
Native Americans have always maintained that the ‘giant hairy forest dwellers’ became even more elusive and cautious after early Pioneers brought smallpox, measles, and flu which helped reduce the native American population from an estimated fifty million to about ten million, over a period of a hundred and fifty years.
My story, Bigfoot Mountain, is a dual narrative switching between a young girl who has found huge footprints, and a young Bigfoot called Kaayii, who has been observing the human family living in the cabins at the base of his mountain. They don’t meet, they don’t become friends but they do help each other.
But how do you write a story with detailed descriptions of their habitations, their diet, hunting methods, communication techniques, and language without encouraging readers to venture in to the woods to look for them? It’s a tantalising subject, especially if you live in or are visiting the temperate rainforests of British Columbia where my story is set, but I hope that Bigfoot Mountain makes it clear that these very human-like beings, if they do indeed exist, are not cute and cuddly. The best thing to do is to give them a very wide berth.
This book is about loss, family, friendship and balance- the balance needed in life and the balance needed in nature.
I believe that the more children know of the natural world the more they’ll want to protect it, to keep it in balance, and Minnie’s adventures in the forest of the Pacific North West will show children some of the natural mysteries that bind us all.
Bigfoot Mountain is available from Firefly Press. Bigfoot Island is to be published in 2023.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.