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| Photoshopped picture of Jeff Meldrum holding a Paul Freeman cast |
Today in 1997 according to the book, Bigfoot Exposed, Dr. Jeff Meldrum stakes much of his academic reputation on the Paul Freeman trackway. This trackway was a series of Bigfoot tracks from the Blue Mountains near Walla Walla, Washington. He wrote his support on a posting to the Internet Virtual Bigfoot Conference, an online (email-based) Bigfoot research community.
This was a pretty big deal since at the time Dr. Jeff Meldrum was member of the Biological Sciences faculty at Idaho State University and Grover Krantz’s professional heir-apparent in the field of anthropology. Currently as of 2013, Meldrum is a full professor. Krantz was the first university professor to publicly support and research the possibility of Bigfoot's existence.
If you have ever heard Dr. Meldrum speak, you may be fortunate enough to hear how he first met paul Freeman and the circumstances of thier meeting. In our previous post, "Dr. Jeff Meldrum Compelled by Freeman Tracks" you can read Dr. meldrum retell the story, below is a short excerpt from that post:
Meldrum began following the tracks, far beyond where Freeman’s boot tracks ended, and found additional sets of footprints coming and going. Whatever had made the tracks had apparently come down the Mill Creek drainage, using the brush along an empty irrigation ditch as cover, possibly to raid the apple and plum orchards further below.The point is, Dr. Meldrum found enough interesting about the trackway himself, that he was compelled independently what he had observed himself. But let’s back up and discuss Paul Freeman a bit.
“At that point it was clear Paul had read the whole circumstance completely backward,” Meldrum says. “So the thought occurred to me: Well, if he’s responsible for this hoax, why would he portray it so incorrectly on the chance I would read it differently?”
Paul freeman is described in an AP article.
Freeman, 45, does not seem the type to spook easily. He is beefy, bearded and, at 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, approaches Sasquatch proportions himself. He's a meat-cutter by trade; an outdoorsman and hunter by nature.Apparently he put down the butchers knife and started to search for bigfoot. Before his death he had claimed to see Bigfoot himself 4 times and has collected more cast, most of them with dermal ridges, more than any other Bigfoot hunter. This brings us back to Meldrum. Meldrum not only staked his good name but also put his money where his mouth is, he ended up buying Freeman’s collection for a sum of nearly $2000 dollars.
Dr. Meldrum was quoted by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, "I’d been given an earful by people about Paul’s reputation, and it was bad. I went into it very skeptical."
You can read Meldrum's initial reaction to the prints at our post, Dr. Jeff Meldrum Compelled by Freeman Tracks. You can get further details at Cliff Barackman's Cast Database.
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Science should ignore personalities or personal history and concentrate only on the facts.
ReplyDeleteGreat statement, Phil :)
DeleteI agree, the data that Freeman has collected is pretty outstanding! Although people claim he's hoaxed tracks, I guess he only made fake tracks to compare to and help verify his allegedly real ones
With a lot of forest,swamps,ocean depths how could scientist say Creatures like Bigfoot are not Real?if they are smart enough to barely be seen and are maybe the missing link between currant Humans and our ape anstrestory,couldn't they be smart enough to Burry there Dead,hide in deep caves,migrate like our cave cousins traveled for food,also bigfoots are probally can use animal instinct to detect when someone is setting traps for them or hunting for them.and it is known they will approch children and women with no fear.almost like a mother or father with kids or a single guy looking for a mate.Just cause there is no dead body found doesn't mean something isn't out there!so keep a open mind to the unknown things that go bump in the night or day.
ReplyDeleteThis line of argument sounds as hypocritical as it does cliched. I'm sure others would be more cruel. The Bigfoot believer needs to practice what he preaches, and keep his mind open to the real truth, no matter what it is. Occam's razor is against Bigfoot: the simplest explanation is not that he is "smart enough" to purposely hide all evidence of its existence from us. What animal does that? You're also implying that this giant, naked ape, who lives in the woods and feeds off carrion, is smarter than we are. Then again, maybe that's not a difficult standard to beat.
Delete"What animal does that?" Do you consider yourself an animal? Maybe Bigfoot isn't either.
ReplyDelete"What animal does that?" How about the coyote? Do you know it has re-established itself in just about every state in the union? I don't know where you live, been when is the last time you saw, or heard, a coyote? There is evidence that cougars are also re-establishing themselves in their former ranges, as far east as Connecticut, and even Maine. Why would an animal that walks on two legs, as these trackways, and many others, indicate, be less intelligent than coyotes and cougars? If it is a primitive humanoid, it is most likely related to humans, however distantly, and is obviously intelligent enough to avoid it's more aggressive relatives.
ReplyDeleteid have to agree with the above comments , I live in Massachusetts and we have have an increase in sightings of bears, and cougars... as well as alot more bigfoot sightings in the region of new england ..primarily in Massachusetts...but yes sightings are increasing all over the places gradually.the more woods we keep tearing down the more likely we are to spot one of these animals ... the sad truth .
ReplyDeleteIf Meldrum thinks that the tracks were headed towards some apple and plum trees has anyone gone to those orchards and looked for more tracks or some half-eaten fruit? And since Freeman choose to look there because they were coming for water, wouldn't they continue to go there for water?
ReplyDelete