Bigfoot adds to attraction of forest

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published September 30, 2007

Look a little closer at the exhibit and you notice it is just as much about the old-growth forests that Sasquatch — fact or fiction — calls home as it is anything else.

Robert Michael Pyle, noted naturalist, author and resident of Grays River in southwest Washington, sums up the theme behind the exhibit best with these words from his book, "Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide."

"If we manage to hang on to a sizeable chunk of Bigfoot habitat, we will at least have a fragment of the greatest green treasure the temperate world has ever known. If we do not, Bigfoot, real or imagined, will vanish; and with its shadow will flee the others who dwell in that world ..."

Pyle, Meldrum and Peter Byrne of Bigfoot expedition fame will be there Saturday for a free public opening of the exhibit. Also scheduled are hands-on activities for children, a chance to shake hands with the Sonics' Squatch and native storytelling with Harvest Moon of the Quinault Indian Tribe.

Back to Sasquatch. Whether he exists will remain an open question without some hard physical evidence such as a skull or skeletal remains or evidence of an irrefutable encounter. Short of that, I remain firmly in the camp of those open to persuasion, but not yet convinced.

In many ways, I'd just as soon Sasquatch remain an unsolved mystery. I don't need, or want, a scientific explanation for every big, or little, thing.

John Dodge is a senior reporter and Sunday columnist for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444 or jdodge@theolympian.com.