Media Article # 206
Article submitted by Richard Noll

Friday, October 18, 1974

American Yeti Expedition Reports Most Recent Bigfoot Track Find

The Skamania County Pioneer

A meander-line of five toed tracks thought to have been made by the giant, human-like Sasquatch or "Bigfoot" was found on the edge of a logging show near the Skamania-Clark County borders Monday, Oct. 7 by an independent logging contractor and his crew, according to Robert Morgan, leader of the American Yeti Expedition. The Expedition has been searching for Bigfoot in the area since spring.

Morgan was contacted Oct 10, after much soul-searching on the part of the logger who was inclined not to report the incident. At the insistence of his crew, the logger notified Morgan.

Found were 161 actual tracks but further study produced additional imprints for a potential total of 264, Morgan said. The tracks were found along a fire trail bordering a logged area and they traversed some 350 yards.

"We couldn't believe it... we know it can't exist... but there they are so what can I say," the logger said in a discussion with Morgan.

According to Morgan, Dr. Grover Krantz of Washington State University, Pullman, a noted physical anthropologist and comparative anatomist, visited the site Saturday, Oct. 12 and examined and measured the impressions. He and Morgan also made plaster of Paris casts of seven prints.

He told Morgan that, in his opinion, if the tracks were faked the hoaxer would have to know a lot about anatomy.

Morgan pointed out that his research indicates this is the longest series of tracks ever examined by a scientist and from them new knowledge about Sasquatch gaits and movement in flat country may be determined.

Length of each footprint was 18 inches and measurements showed seven inches across the ball of the foot and 5 1/2" across the heel. Average stride was 50 inches.

Morgan pointed out other sightings have been made in the general area this summer. In July a man saw what may have been a Bigfoot several miles from the location of the most recent track findings. In mid-August a large grey creature was sighted by loggers on the upper reaches of the Washougal River.

Helping Morgan piece the puzzle together has been Elizabeth Moorman, a writer and biologist. A native of Texas, she is a graduate in biology from the University of Houston. A part of the expedition this summer, she used a passive approach in an attempt to make contact with a Sasquatch.

This involved camping by herself in remote locations in the Gifford Pinchot and eating only dried fruits and nuts and local berries, she said. She emphasized that vegetarian creatures give off less threatening odors.

Morgan added that on two separate occasions the fire-watch and loggers on the logging site had heard chirping like whistles, "...totally outside their experience."

Two other times the fire-watch had reported that the herd of cattle on the property spooked and crashed through the brush for no apparent reason.

In another incident, a large buck deer came down through the logging operation so exhausted from apparently being pursued, that a man could have easily caught it, the fire-watch said.

Morgan says the property owner has now found it impossible to find a man who will operate as a fire-watch in the valley.

The American Yeti Expedition will finish work in the Pacific Northwest Wednesday, Oct. 23, Morgan said. The expedition will return to Florida to work under the auspices of the American Anthropological Research Foundation in an attempt to find Bigfoot in the Everglades, he said.

Morgan hopes to lead another expedition into the Gifford Pinchot next spring and summer.

Picture included: Plaster of Paris castings of 18-inch Bigfoot tracks found on logging operation near Skamania-Clark County border are shown by American Yeti Expedition leader Robert Morgan and expedition member Elizabeth Moorman, a biologist. Finding was made public this week and revealed 161positive, whole footprints with additional "partials" bringing total to 264.

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