Bigfoot’s fans keep close tabs on his annual Northwest tour

By LESLIE MORIARTY

Herald Writer

BOTHELL — Cliff Crook has a room in his house, dedicated to Bigfoot and the findings he has uncovered.

His interest stems from an incident when Bigfoot appeared as he camped in an isolated wooded area near Duvall years ago.

He’s been tracing Bigfoot for 44 years, having spent stints up to 12 days and nights long alone in the wilderness, searching for the legendary hairball.

He calls his work Bigfoot Central.

Meanwhile, Fred Bradshaw of Grays Harbor first encountered Bigfoot as a child camping with his family near the base of Mount St. Helens in the late 1950s. As a retired sheriff’s officer, Bradshaw spends a lot of time verifying sightings and recording them at Bigfoot Research, his company based near Olympia.

Both agree that most sightings are in August and September. There are at least 100 Bigfoots roaming the backwoods in the Pacific Northwest, they say. Sasquatches aren’t vegetarians; they eat rodents, fish and plant life.

Research shows they have a smell, "Like that of rotten meat and eggs mixed together," Bradshaw said. "They have been known to roll in the blood of the animals they kill and to spread their own feces on themselves to keep the unknown away."

Crook thinks the smell warns off others when they feel threatened, "like skunks do."

The experts say that 90 percent of Bigfoot sightings are false. But both think the recent sighting near Granite Falls is genuine. It will be added to the list of sightings recorded at both of their research sites.

Here is a list of recent sightings from Bigfoot Central: