November 19, 2007 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.
Many years
ago I received a call from a man in northern California, a Mr. C. Thomas
Biscardi, who was interested in Yeti or “Big Foot.” He had heard of
Reavis Valley, a landlocked biotic island high above the Sonoran Desert
floor, that supported a dense Ponderosa pine forest. He wanted to know
how to get to Reavis Ranch.
I must admit I have heard everything
now. A story of Big Foot in the Superstition Wilderness Area was
preposterous, if not down right laughable. Then I thought for a moment
about another tale about a strange encounter more than eighty years ago
when two prospectors hiked into the area of Pope Springs to search for
gold.
Late at night something attacked their
camp, killed and hauled off their burro before they could even fire a
shot. Both men got a good look at the towering beast as it dragged their
burro away. The two prospectors stayed up for the rest of the night
scared out of their wits. The only thing they could think of capable of
carrying off a burro was a large Grizzly bear. Their burro weighted
about four hundred and fifty pounds. It would require a mighty large
animal to carry off a four hundred and fifty-pound burro.
The story, as I recall, said the
prospectors described the intruder as a large, smelly, strange animal
with a matted, coarse and tangled hair coat. They said it walked on its
hind legs and towered at least eight to ten feet in height. When the
prospectors told their story, many old timers figured they ran into a
large Grizzly bear.
The prospectors said they could not
identify the beast as an animal or a human, but did say it smelled like
feces and urine and was unusually agile on its hindquarters. They
estimated the animal weighed between 400 – 800 hundred pounds. This
description could easily fit a Grizzly bear. This same story could have
fueled the imagination of noted Big Foot hunter C. Thomas Biscardi.
The Phoenix Gazette on Monday, May 11,
1981, announced, “Explorer Plans Capture of Big Foot.” C. Thomas
Biscardi was making an exploration trip to the Superstition Mountain of
Arizona to search for Big Foot. Biscardi claimed his latest encounter
with Big Foot occurred on Mount Lassen in Northern California. He said
he took photographs of the elusive primate but concedes the front-view
images of a large hairy figure emerging from a clump of trees may not be
enough to convince skeptics.
Biscardi reported there were more than
eight hundred fifty sightings of creatures matching the descriptions of
Big Foot in the Soviet Union, Canada and the United States. Biscardi
planned to prove their existence and said he believed these creatures
could be the possible missing link.
The researcher had two reports of large
human-like creatures in the Superstition Wilderness Area and spent two
weeks in the Reavis Ranch area reporting no sightings. He did report
finding signs of Big Foot in the region. He pointed out Ponderosa pines
with scratch marks thirteen feet above the ground indicating a mighty
tall animal scratched on the tree. Biscardi also stated there was a
sour-sweet smell associated with Big Foot. This smell was reportedly
found in several locations south of the Reavis Ranch in tall timber.
Biscardi’s exploration trip into the
Superstitions may have been a serious attempt to prove the existence of
Big Foot in the Superstition Wilderness Area. However, Big Foot was not
found. Biscardi said his expedition was disappointing and he concluded
in the final analysis that the wilderness area was not large enough to
support a population of these unknown creatures.
There has been another update as of 2007
on Big Foot in the Superstition Wilderness Area. It was recently
reported that a large upright animal spooked a rider and pack horse near
the head waters of Rough Canyon along the northern edge of White
Mountain. This story surfaced about five years ago. Rough Canyon is
almost impossible to hike through. The area is extremely remote and
ignored by many. The rider who reported the large upright animal was
trying to get to the head of Rough Canyon to set up a camp and explore
the area for archaeological sites. He claimed he was studying the
pattern of inhabited areas north of White Mountain and south of Reavis
Mountain. Recent years have produced a lot of interesting characters who
explore the Superstition Wilderness Area trying to explain what exists
there whether it is archaeological, fauna, flora or just plain tall
tales.
The Superstition Wilderness Area has
always been a region that attracted the unusual and unexplained tales
and stories. If Big Foot exists, it still remains to be proven. I must
admit I was riding horseback north of the Reavis Ranch in the fall of
October 2000 when a friend and I spotted a large Black bear. The animal
ran in the opposite direction from us. I could easily see, if a person
had an imaginative mind they could have envisioned Big Foot running
across the old pasture in tall grass. The scratch marks on Ponderosa
pines reported by Biscardi could have easily been caused by Black bears.
Black bears can climb pines like squirrels almost. Often when bears are
playing they will slide down trees using their claws.
If nothing else, the Big Foot story created interest in yet another Superstition Wilderness Area legend or myth.