>> Editor's Note:

Mid-April brought some exciting news and I wanted to share it with you. Skye and I have discovered we're having a baby!

At 32, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever have the chance to experience the joy of raising a child. I've had a degree in Early Childhood Education since the age of 18 and have always had a special bond with children, but have had none of my own.

It's early still - I'm only just beginning my sixth week. It's so strange... I've lived vicariously for so long through friends' pregnancies and enjoyed their kids. I can hardly believe that it's happening to ME. :) My estimated due date is January 1, 2007.

I'm looking forward to sharing the wonders of the world with a little one. I can hardly wait to take that small hand in mine and walk together through the woods... stopping to examine the beauty of a wood violet, the fascination of a line of busy ants... maybe even hear the whistle of a Sasquatch on the wind.

Autumn Williams
Oregonbigfoot.com
Your comments are always welcome.

The legend lives.

10 minutes with Vincent Chow: Drive by close encounter with creature

Bigfoot's 20,000-year-old walkabout
We had only bones and simple tools to show that man lived in the Ice Age — until the discovery of a remarkable set of fossilised footprints.

Most Notorious -- A legend or just elusive? Sasquatch keeps the world guessing

Desperately Seeking Sasquatch
The Bigfoot in Texas? exhibit at the University of Texas at San Antonio's Institute of Texan Cultures continues Sunday.

Bigfoot Rendezvous KPVI TV
Dr. Jeff Meldrum, Sasquatch researcher: "I'm not an advocate that there is such an animal, I'm saying that the evidence as such that is certainly justifies it as a legitimate question - 'Is there a biological species that is yet to be identified?'"

Several research organizations, including myself, received an email from a "Mark Nelson", claiming he's captured video of a Sasquatch.

November 17, 2005

Hi,

I think I saw something real exciting last weekend,
and I got some video of it, but I'm new to this whole
Bigfoot thing. Could you give me your expert opinion
on what I've got? Here's the link:

http://www.angelfire.com/realm3/marknelson/

Thanks,
Mark

Here was my reply:

November 29, 2005

Dear Mark,

I'm sorry for not replying sooner. My Mom has been ill. She almost died from
a bout of appendicitis and she's only now getting better. As a result, I've
gotten VERY far behind in replying to emails.

I took a look at the video... and I'm not sure what to say about it. It
seems a bit odd to me that the creature leaves the screen and then runs back
into it? Unfortunately, nothing short of the Patterson film will convince
skeptics. :)

Best,
Autumn

After viewing the video, as you can see, I didn't get terribly excited about it. I responded as I normally do: I was polite and cautious because I never want to outright offend a witness, but the video appeared to be a hoax.

Needless to say, I never received an email response from "Mark Nelson".

The video came to be known as "The Sonoma Video".

Apparently, it came to light that the video was a hoax perpetrated against researchers by comedians Penn and Teller in order to "expose" the gullibility of the research community on their Showtime program.

While myself and several other researchers didn't fall for it, unfortunately, one prominent organization apparently did.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=13453

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=14858

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/51251

A joint collaborative effort by the University of Texas San Antonio's Institute of Texan Cultures and the Texas Bigfoot Research Center. April 7-July 30

Do you believe? There are many documented sightings of Bigfoot right here in
Texas! You are invited to join us as we explore many theories on the existence
of Bigfoot. This exhibit will feature unidentifiable hair as well as foot and body
casts of a being that many believe can only be Bigfoot. Guest speakers will also
lend their expertise to both sides of the debate.

At the end of your visit, we'll ask you to vote: do you believe Bigfoot really exists?

April 8, 2006, (Saturday) lectures from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

* Daryl G. Colyer, field researcher for the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, former
Airborne Cryptologic Russian Linguist for USAF Intelligence.

Daryl G. Colyer will examine the history of Bigfoot research in Texas. Colyer is
a field researcher for the Texas Bigfoot Research Center. He has investigated
hundreds of reports and continues to lead field research efforts in Texas and other states. It is Colyer's assessment, based on hundreds of interviews, that Sasquatches are indeed real and do inhabit parts of Texas.

* Kathy Moskowitz-Strain, forest archaelogist and Heritage Program manager at
Stanislaus National Forest in Sonora, CA, and presenter of paper titled: Mayak datat: An Archaelogical Viewpoint of the Hairy Man Pictograph.

She has worked extensively at Painted Rock on the Tule River Indian Reservation,
where the only known Bigfoot pictograph in California was discovered. Her primary research involves the traditional Native American stories of "Hairy Man," as well as the application of archaeological methods to the study of Bigfoot. Moskowitz has been researching a project for the Texas Bigfoot Research Center for the last six months, compiling the legends, folklore, and traditions of the Native American tribes of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Her presentation will be based on that research project.

* Peter Byrne, executive director of the International Wildlife Conservation Society
and author of The Search for Bigfoot : Monster, Myth or Man? (Acropolis Books,
1975, 1st ed.). Peter led the Tom Slick Expeditions to the Himalayas in search
of the Yeti. He ran the Bigfoot Research Project in the 1990's.

* Catherine Cooke, former president and CEO of The Mountain Istitute, former
executive director of The Mind Science Foundation, one of Tom Slick's foundations,
for a decade. She is Tom Slick's niece and author of Tom Slick Mystery Hunter
(Paraview Books, 2005).

Book signing by local writer Catherine Nixon Cooke. Cooke, the niece of Tom
Slick, will be signing copies of her recently released book, Tom Slick, Mystery
Hunter. Slick, a local visionary, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, funded expeditions to the Himalayas in search of the Yeti and to the Pacific Northwest in search of Bigfoot in the late 1950s and early 1960s before his untimely death in a plane crash in 1962.

May 6, 2006 (Saturday) lectures from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

* Jeff Meldrum, associate professor of anatomy and adjunct associate professor
of anthropology at Idaho State University, researcher of Sasquatch in the north
Cascades and southern Colorado.

* Jimmy Chilcutt , forensic consultant, retired Conroe police officer with nearly
two decades of fingerprint and crime scene investigation experience, and developer of unique latent fingerprint procedures requested by federal, state and county agencies.

* Rick Noll, long-time research of Bigfoot, principal member of the expedition group that found and collected the Skookum Body Cast in 2000, involvement in about a dozen documentaries on the subject, including Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science and Giganto: The Real King Kong.

June 3, 2006 (Saturday) lectures from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

* Loren Coleman, World-reknowned cryptozoologist and adjunct associate professor of "The Documentary: Its Social, Political and Emotional Impact" at the University of Southern Maine. Author of Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology (Linden Publishing, 2002), Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America (Paraview Pocket Books, 2003) and The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (Anomalist Books, 2006),

* Benjamin Radford, managing editor of The Skeptical Inquirer and Spanish-language Pensar, author of dozens of articles on urban legends, mass hysteria, mysterious creatures and media criticism, and director of publications at the Center for Inquiry-International in Buffalo, NY.

July 8, 2006 (Saturday) lectures from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

* Daryl Colyer, field researcher for the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, former
Airborne Cryptologic Russian Linguist for USAF Intelligence.

Daryl G. Colyer will examine the history of Bigfoot research in Texas. Colyer
is a field researcher for the Texas Bigfoot Research Center. He has investigated
hundreds of reports and continues to lead field research efforts in Texas and
other states. It is Colyer's assessment, based on hundreds of interviews, that
Sasquatches are indeed real and do inhabit parts of Texas.

* Alton Higgins, field biologist for the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, wildlife
biologist and associates art advisor and assistant professor at Mid-America
Christian University, presenter of several papers on Bigfoot-related topics.

* John Kirk, RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), founder of the British
Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, editor and publisher of the organization's
quarterly journal, and founder of Cryptosafari (a field research organization involved
in the exploration and search of unknown animals of West Central Africa)

Craig Woolheater
Texas Bigfoot Research Center
www.texasbigfoot.com

Dear Autumn-

Hi Joseph here from Grover Beach, CA. I'm just beginning to get your montly newsletter and I'm thrilled and enjoying them. I think that your doing a great service to the Bigfoot community. I am a Bigfoot researcher here in CA. I just began starting my own Bigfoot Research Project here. I've been to many sightings locations in the state in parts of Oregon. I loved watching "Mysterious Encounters" and I wish they were still on. Autumn, you're one of my inspirations and I want to let you know that.

My own personal sighting of a Bigfoot took place in 2002 in the Lake Tahoe area of CA. Me alone in my aunt's cabin for three days kept hearing screams in the night - they would go on for 3 days. I even kept a tape recording of them. One night on the last night it was 2:25 a.m. and I was on the porch it was pretty cold but no snow. I wasn't armed - only with a flashlight and a camera. The front of my drive way I knew something was lurking around near the trashcans. So I put the light on the cans and I saw this big human-shaped hairy form running across the driveway. I didn't see its face cause it was covered in hair. I went to chase it but it had disappeared through the timber. Never been so scared in my life. Before that night I had some belief but now I do I have proof and I know they're out there. I love the Oregon Bigfoot website... it's great Autumn. Hope you e-mail me back soon.

Joseph Holmes, Director
Project Bigfoot Research Center

Hey Autumn,

Ijust finished watching parts 3 and 4 of littlefoot, LOL. You must be so proud. haha... When littlefoot ran towards the truck with the door open, I shouted at my monitor screen, "Look out! He's gonna carjack ya"!! LOL My favorite part was the ENDING!!! Haha j/k again, seriously though, good work, pretty funny!

-Brian-
(Pittsburgh)

- anonymous

They came running to the house saying there was a bear in the woods -being the older brother I was suppose to take care of the problem. It was just a bear... a little noise should scare it away. So me and a friend of mine decided to chase it away. We went up there with just that in mind. What ever it was, it was no bear. We heard some rustling in the brush, and threw a couple of rocks to scare it away - that's when the woods came alive.

Two alders started shaking like they were pulling up roots. That was enough for us! We went back to the house to hide with the girls. I forgot about this for a time. And then I saw your show about the elk hunters being scared out of the woods, It was like being hit with a stick, it all came back to me. The only difference was no noise, but these were big trees.

I went up there the following day to look for tracks... nothing. There might have been a odor but there were skunks around so I would not have noticed. I have hunted and fished my
whole life and have never seen anything like that.

The place where this happened isn't 10 miles into the sticks, it is 7 miles east of Everett at the south end of Lake Stevens. It was still country back then now there's people everywhere. - W.C.

My name is David R, and I just got out of the military in 2004 after a long 15 months in Baghdad,Iraq. I now work as a contractor in Iraq and have been in country for 21 months now. I recently bought a new house outside of Houston, Texas and have been interested in Bigfoot since I was a little boy.I plan on making some trips into the Sam Houston National Forest in late July or August when I will be stateside again. Several of my co-workers who are from just north of Houston are very interested as well and they have traveled the back woods hiking all their lives in that region so it will be interesting to say the least.

Your website is outstanding and I give you praises for the attention to detail that fills every page. When we get ready to make the trip to Sam Houston National forest I will contact you again and will probably have a lot of questions to ask you but for now just take care and enjoy the summer.

Also the journal that Chanda has is beyond remarkable and she is blessed to be able to enjoy daily activity on the level she has and we all look foward to reading more on her adventures.

Again thank you and god bless.
David R.
Camp Anaconda, Iraq

I want to report sightings of Bigfoot in Marion county, South Carolina

From 1995 thru 2004, Bigfoot would stay around farmland, in the area of highway 41A just 4 miles from highway 501. This huge hairy animal seemed to be living on property near Louise Miles road.

These were unreported sightings, because the owners of the property didn't want a lot of publicity causing crowds of people on their private property. There were huge foot prints and large places made up of leaves and sticks that the thing seemed to be using as a lair.

The people who lived there had seen this thing from a distance glaring back at them from the woods, especally at night, with large red eyes about 8 to 10ft. from the ground looking over and thru trees; and a stink worse than the smell of a skunk. There was banging on the side of their home sometimes during the night. There were pear trees that stood about 12 to 14ft high, and they would get cleaned out of the pears even before the pears were ripe. In the spring it would raid their garden; and stomp the melons.

A quick, easy way to make spending money online!

Bigfoot Haiku (a Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry - 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables respectively):

Wood Knocking, Dark Night.
Red Eyes In Bush Ahead.
Flashlight Weak... Oh, Damn!

(Nothing like havin' one 20 ft. away and the light's goin' out on ya!)
- Shane Matlock
Marshall, TX

Walking through the woods
Pungent odor fills the air
Silently watching

- Jennifer Marley

Loud sreaming last night
Made us all very afraid
Scared us all sh#$less

- Donna Metz-Dunn

Write your own Bigfoot Haiku and send it in! :)

Waiting on my next check... where's yours?