|
|
This week my latest issue of Transworld Surf magazine arrived. Like most magazines, I tend to flip through the pages being wowed by the photos before reading a few of the articles that catch my attention. As I was walking up to my house from the mailbox, I noticed from the cover that this was the special surf travel issue. Two of my favorite things…surfing and traveling. I just knew the magazine would be full of inspirational content.
 Mike at Crescent City Lighthouse - Northern CA Well, at this point the story gets even better than I imagined it could. Once I got in the house and really started looking at the magazine I discovered one of the main articles was titled, “Muting Bigfoot – Going North of the Comfort Zone in the Pacific Northwest.” Now I’ve been around marketing long enough to know how to target your audience. However, this was beyond simple marketing — it seemed like it was printed just for me. There was surfing, traveling, and Bigfoot all rolled into one thing. What could be better than that?
As many times as I have explored the pacific northwest searching for Bigfoot with Believe It Tour and enjoying the natural beauty of places like the majestic redwood forests, I have to admit I’ve always been somewhat reluctant when it came to bringing my surfboard along to surf north of San Francisco. For those of you that wonder why, the waters and beaches up that way are the most rugged and menacing looking spots I’ve seen. Then you top that off with the large number of great white sharks (or the “big man in the gray suit” as some local surfers in Crescent City, CA told me they call them) patrolling the coast. I can’t say I’m big fan of combining all of those things in a surf spot.
The shear harshness I’ve just described happened to be the theme of the magazine article. The author pointed out how the simple task of getting to the waves and being in the water can quickly turn into a life threatening adventure. To quote the author, “Walking down trails to check spots, we figured we were as likely to spot Bigfoot as we were of stumbling on some great new spot.”
As you might guess the story of the pro surfers talked mainly about the conditions and the local vibe during their trip. It only mentioned Bigfoot as a description about how remote and burly the pacific northwest was rather than the cryptid’s significance to the area. However, for me the article had all the right elements to capture my attention and I hope I was able to share a little of that with you.
Transworld Surf article by: Graham Nash
 Bigfoot in New York Recently, I wrote about the possible Bigfoot sighting in Kentucky that has garnered a good deal of media attention. The coverage started when an image was captured from a motion sensing camera that seemed to indicate something besides a bear was raiding a Fairdale man’s vegetable garden. However, what the creature was is still a mystery.
Now I’m a California native that spent the first part of my life in Northern CA. As most of you know that area is a positive hot bed of Bigfoot sightings and other encounters. Needless to say, the idea of Bigfoot residing in the pristine wilderness of CA seemed very reasonable to me having personally spent a lot of time in the Sierras and always hearing stories about the cryptid’s existence. However, while doing some background research on my recent article I accidentally discovered something rather interesting about the area I now live in.
I have recently relocated to the East coast and never really gave much thought to the West coast Bigfoot perhaps having a New York relative. Well, when I was going through some books and doing an internet search I discovered that New York actually has a fairly large number of reported Bigfoot incidents. According to Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), out the 50 states, New York ranks as the top 9th state in number of sightings with 95 reports. This is a little less than the top two states listed, which were Washington with 467 reported incidents and California with 414.
There was even a book published in 2008 that explores some of the reported sightings in New York. The book entitled “Bigfoot Encounters in New York and New England” by Robert and Paul Bartholomew explores Bigfoot in Native American folklore through modern day encounters and then documents some of the more interesting sightings. The Bartholomew brothers have spent the last 30 years searching for Bigfoot in the area and this book is a culmination of their research.
A few months ago I discovered while watching the national news that I lived in an area that had some fairly extraordinary Black Panther sightings. See my previous blog about the Black Panthers in Rockland County. Now it would seem I find myself in the middle of possible Bigfoot territory. I guess it’s safe to say I live in a prime region for a variety of cryptozoology encounters.
I’ll have to make sure I keep my eyes open and my camera handy just in case I spy the large furry creature known as Bigfoot lurking in my backyard or peeking in my kitchen window.
 Believe It Tour The countdown has begun to the kick-off for the 2009 CA Believe It Tour. We’ve planned an exciting tour of CA with trips to see things like haunted houses, investigate UFO sightings, and search for Bigfoot! Those are only a few of the exciting things we pan to explore on the tour. The group plans to start in San Diego travel through the central valley up to the Redwoods and back down the coast. However, we need your help. Believe It Tour is seeking believers to support the CA tour.
Please help us today by making a donation for the tour at:
BelieveItTour.com
Once on the above page just click on the Believe It Tour “Chip In!” button on the right hand side to make a donation.
Thank you for your support in making this tour a success!
 Sacramento City Cemetery Another ghost hunting adventure led me to Sacramento,CA and the historical Sacramento City Cemetery located at 1000 Broadway on the corner of 10th Street and Broadway.
The cemetery is one of California’s oldest and was established in 1849 with a ten-acre gift to the city from John Sutter. The earliest known burial in the cemetery was of Captain James Homans in 1849. The expansion of the cemetery continued and was finally complete in 1880 with a donation from Margaret Crocker that brought the city land holdings to 60 acres. Currently, the cemetery covers only a portion of that and contains over 25,000 graves of pioneers, immigrants, and many people important in the early days of California’s history.
One poignant spot in the cemetery is a mass grave for almost 1000 people that perished in the 1850 cholera epidemic and then a separate commemorative marker for the 17 doctors that lost their lives caring for the cholera victims. There is also a marker that states over 3,000 pioneers were buried in unmarked graves somewhere within and around the cemetery. The area surrounding the cemetery is all residential and built before careful excavations would have taken place, so it’s quite likely there are many remains under the homes in close proximity to the cemetery.
While I was in the cemetery I took numerous photos, but never captured anything except some interesting grave markers and monuments. Another person was managing a recorder in the hopes of picking up some EVPs, but we didn’t get anything when we listened later. I personally didn’t experience anything out the ordinary while I was at the cemetery, but one person did feel like something grabbed her and then quickly let go. She wasn’t scared, but she was definitely caught off-guard and stayed in the area for a while to see if she heard or felt anything more. Over the years, I’ve heard stories that people have had many different encounters while visiting the cemetery. While I didn’t experience anything paranormal on the particular day I went I did see some amazing monuments and get a little glimpse into California’s history and some of the people that figured prominently in it. Maybe next time I’ll have a different tale to tell.
 Maydestone Apartment Building Always on the look-out for a new adventure I decided to explore an allegedly haunted location in Sacramento, CA on a recent trip to the area. I was able to squeeze in a quick trip to a historic building known as the Maydestone Apartments. It’s located at 1001 15th Street, on the corner of 15th and J Streets, in Sacramento’s mid-town area.
The building’s history is a little mysterious. It was built in 1912 and continually had tenants until 2003. Over the years tenants frequently complained of sudden cold spots, strange electrical phenomenon, unexplained noises, and an unknown presence that was felt throughout the building. In the late 1980s the Maydestone gradually became a dilapidated haven for drug addicts, prostitutes, and other assorted criminals. Apparently, on Halloween night of 2003 the building suffered a serious fire that resulted in substantial damage to the interior. It was closed for repair work, but never reopened. However, in 2009 Sacramento developer, D&S Development, took over an option to purchase the historic 34 room building.
When I arrived at the building the sun had already set, which gave the building a very oppressive and unsettled feeling. I’m normally never uneasy or prone to being jumpy, but for some reason I was definitely on guard that evening. I decided I would just walk around the building, get a few photos, and then leave. I got my camera out and used a parking meter as my unofficial tripod, so I could quickly snap a few shots. No sooner did I take my first few shots when my fully-charged camera stopped working and I had the overwhelming feeling I shouldn’t be taking any more photos of the building. All of my camera buttons stopped working and my display window kept flashing on and off. Then my camera gave me an error message just before powering down with a “charge battery” message. I was astonished as my fully charged camera would usually work weeks without needing a charge and here in a matter of minutes the battery was drained. At that point, there wasn’t much more I could do, so my friend and I decided to go have dinner instead.
Over dinner we discussed seeing the building and both of realized we had the same uneasy feeling while being there. I also mentioned how odd it was that my camera had such major issues, but I figured something must have happened on my plane flight. Maybe I bumped my camera and had accidentally turned it on. I reached into my bag, retrieved the camera to take a second look at it, and much to my surprise it fired right up complete with a fully charged battery. I was even more surprised to see I had gotten one shot and only one shot of the building. Now keep in mind it was completely dark out and I didn’t use a flash when I took the shot.
Now I can’t explain what happened that night, but I do think there was a reason my camera stopped working and I felt so unsettled being near the building. What do you think?
I’d love to hear any comments or experiences you might have had like this.
 It was a cold, late afternoon day when I embarked on a ghost hunting adventure. I was visiting Sacramento, CA and decided to see a few spots in the city that had some claim to being haunted. One of the stops on the tour was known as the Perrault House that was considered one of America’s most haunted locations in 1964. The house is a small unassuming structure on 14th Avenue near Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood. The house was owned by Hector Perrault and in the 60s Dorothy Lunsford and her teenage son lived in it. The house was filled with activity that ranged from unexplained fires starting on furniture to fuses that always blew out and light bulbs that burst while on to bottles in the kitchen that would explode. Heavy objects would also float or fly through the air and animals refused to go near the house. Apparently, at one point Perrault kept a 24 hour vigil going to ensure the house remained standing and wasn’t destroyed. The history is a little hazy as to why or how the activity stopped, but some time after the Lunsford family left things quieted down.
The house is still standing and another family now lives in it. The house looks warm and inviting even on a cold winter day. I think it’s safe to say that whatever was in the house back in the 60s is gone today.
Now the house next door is an entirely different matter…
 Bigfoot Lodge, Los Angeles There is a new movie coming out with Jim Carrey titled “Yes Man” where a man challenges himself to say “yes” to everything for a year. However, that is not why I bring this up. For the last few months I have been following how this movie relates to our friend – Bigfoot.
Supposedly the characters in the film hang out in a bar, which happens to be one of our old time favorites, The Bigfoot Lodge. Besides the lawsuit this started between dueling Bigfoot Lodges – it may have a larger impact for our friends in California.
For those of you that have been following the Believe It Tour for some time know that our roots started back with Bigfoot Surplus, a company that has been providing Sasquatch related merchandise for over 10 years. So when the Bigfoot Lodge opened up we all enjoyed stopping in to feel like we were back up north, in the woods during an expedition. The dark, cozy, log cabin style lodge was perfect to just sit back and share stories an make new friends.
Will this all change? You know like Mystic Pizza or Cheers. Once the word gets out the people flock and the atmosphere shifts. Sure I am happy for the owners of the Bigfoot Lodge, I am just not sure how all those regulars will take to crowds that make that feeling all go away.
Then again, you never know maybe this will make it so everyone can have their own Bigfoot Lodge to hang out in in their city. What do you think?
|
|
Tags: 
Category: 
