NOTE: I used three sources for this blog post. Thomas Steenburg; John Green’s database; and John’s book “Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us”. Generally I went with the information supplied by conversations and emails from Thomas Steenburg. The only discrepancy I had problems resolving was the height, which was somewhere between 6-7′ tall — so I went with the database height.
You might consider this question odd, but…
How high is a sasquatch’s standing vertical high jump?
Thanks to famed author and investigator John Green, you are about to discover the answer to that question, just as I did.
On Wednesday April 11, I was invited by author and investigator Thomas Steenburg on a trip to visit the location of a few reported sightings. One of which occurred just 13 miles up the road from my house. It was a very gracious offer, by a famous Canadian researcher that has been on the hunt actively since 1975.
At our last stop of the day, Thomas started telling me a story. And like most stories it starts out, with a dark and stormy night…
On Friday, November 24, 1962 a bus driver by the name of Joe Griggs pulled into the Chilliwack bus depot with three Canadian soldiers on board, that were headed back to their base. It was pouring rain, and the soldiers’ ride to the local base failed to show up at the depot. Griggs shift was over, and the base was not too far out of his way — so he offered the men a lift in his personal vehicle.
After dropping the soldiers off at their base Griggs drove home, headed west along Vedder Mountain Road towards the community of Yarrow, driving at a slow 30 mph — which is a little bit slower than the speed I am driving in this video.
As he rounded a curve in the road, from a distance of about 75 feet away, Griggs saw what he thought was an extremely large man standing at the edge of the road. Griggs slowed to a stop about 20-25 feet away, he saw that it was a creature covered with reddish hair, that glistened a bit in his headlights — possibly due to the rain. Griggs estimated that it was well over 7ft tall and over 400 lbs.
It half walked and half loped across the road and he turned the car to follow it with the headlights. The sasquatch then stopped at the edge of the road, looked at him for a second then jumped without effort up onto a rock, disappearing out of the light given off by the headlights. Griggs noted that the eyes gave off a reddish shine.
Griggs continued watching the creature until it disappeared out of sight, then cautiously opened his door and pushed together a small pile of rocks to mark the spot. He returned the next day to survey the scene in the daylight and measure the rock the sasquatch jumped on top of — an amazing SIX FEET!
My Research
As I was combing through the information regarding this alleged sighting, there is something that jumped out at me.
In John Green’s book “Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us” on pages 398 and 399, John has a portion of the interview transcript.
Q: Were you ever at any time able to see any of his features, any part of his face?
A: Yes, I saw part of his face when I was right close to him…a very ape-like, flat nosed, some of it quite hairy and very thin-lined mouth as far as I could see. The one outstanding feature is, I didn’t notice any ears… the only other thing was the lack of a neck. He had little or no neck at all.
A face that is quite hairy… a thin-lined mouth… no ears… and the lack of a neck…
Now doesn’t that sound exactly like “Patty” — the creature in the Patterson-Gimlin Film?
It does to me — and it probably does to you too.
But here is the kicker…
John Green says that Griggs’s interview was recorded in 1966 — prior to the public release of the PG photos, in the February 1968 edition of Argosy magazine.
On the surface, it adds credence to the possibility that Griggs truly did see a sasquatch that dark and stormy night.
Over 30 years after its publication John Green’s “Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us” still represents one of the most important books written on the mystery and existence of sasquatch. And while the mystery might not be solved in John Green’s lifetime — or mine for that matter — he needs to be recognized and remembered on the day we finally have the answer, that we have all been looking for.
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How good is a sasquatch’s sense of smell?
