Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot

The Patterson-Gimlin film is a movie of a purported Bigfoot taken by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin on October 20, 1967. These two researchers were on a horseback expedition in the Six Rivers National Forest in northern California, USA to find clues for the existence of a bigfoot. This region had been chosen because of Bigfoot sightings and footprints reported there in 1958.

Patterson and Gimlin were riding horses when they saw the creature. His horse was startled by the creature and reared, throwing Patterson. He recovered and ran toward the creature while preparing his 16mm camera.

The resulting film -- about 50 seconds long -- is initially quite shaky until Patterson gets about 30 feet from the creature. Patterson estimated its height at about seven and one-half feet. The film shows a bigfoot or sasquatch -- aparently female due to prominent breasts. It turns and seems to look at Patterson while walking quickly from Patterson into a grove of trees.

The Patterson film has been studied many times, by biologists, anthropologists, photographers and others, both amateur and professional. Some conclude the film depicts a real creature, while others have ruled it a hoax showing person in a suit. However, Doctor Grover Krantz of Washington State University, a noted expert on Sasquatch, said that it would have been a physical impossiblility for a person in a suit to "fake" Patterson's film. Krantz pointed out the tremendous width of the creature's shoulders and said there was no way a person in an ape suit could fake this unless his arm was broken and a new hinge added. Krantz also interviewed Patterson extensively.

Rumors circulated that the creature seen in the Patterson-Gimlin film was a suit designed by special effects legend, John Chambers . Some reports state that film director John Landis started such rumors. Chambers designed the ape costumes seen in many of the original Planet of the Apes films, and was reportedly an acquaintance of Ray Wallace and Bob Gimlin. In an October 26, 1997 interview with Bigfoot researcher Bobbie Short, Chambers denied any knowledge of the Patterson film before its public exposure, and further denied any involvement in a hoax. Chambers stated he was good at his craft, but "not that good" when it came to creating such a purported disguise. (Loren Coleman & Jerome Clark, Cryptozoology A to Z, p 56)

After his death in 2002, the family of Ray Wallace went public with claims that he had started the entire Bigfoot phenomenon and had something to do with the Patterson-Gimlin film. However, Ray was well-known as a hoaxer to those in the Bigfoot community and therefore the claims made by him and his family are not taken seriously by them.

In 2004, Phillip Morris, a costume designer who runs a costumes supplier out of Charlotte, told the Charlotte Observer that he had made the costume for Patterson in 1967. He claimed that he told Patterson to wear wide football-type shoulder pads and hold sticks in his hands within the suit to make his arms appear longer. Bigfoot believers dispute his claim.

External Links

• Parascope: The Patterson Film: [1]
• The Patterson-Gimlin Film: [2]
• Strangemag: Patterson Bigfoot Film on its 30th Anniversary, by Mark Chorvinsky: [3]
• Patterson Film Debunking Demands A Response: [4]
• The Truth Before Our Eyes: [5]
• Wallace Hoax Behind Bigfoot?: [6]