By Henry May, Based On Information Gleaned from Sasquatch: The
Apes Among Us By John Green, Meet The Sasquatch by Chris Murphy In Association with John Green and Thomas Steenburg and Personal Testimony From Bob Gimlin
Roger Clarence Patterson and Robert Emory Gimlin, two
cowboys/ranchers from Yakima, Washington, were riding through Six Rivers National Forest in Del Norte County, California, 150 miles north of San Francisco, shooting a documentary on Bigfoot. At around 1:20 P.M. Pacific Time on Friday, October 20, 1967, Patterson and Gimlin encountered a tree root system in the dirt, almost like a crow's nest with logs jammed together. They rode around this, and encountered a large, hair-covered creature standing by Bluff Creek. The creature, startled, began to walk away. The horses went absolutely ballistic, and began to buck. The packhorse ran away, as did Patterson's steed, after it either threw Roger off or he jumped off, but not before Patterson grabbed his movie camera out of his saddlebag. Gimlin was able to maintain control over his horse eventually after a mighty struggle. Patterson, on the chase after the creature with the camera, stumbled several times and even fell on the uneven terrain, which caused him to have to switch his camera off a couple of times (those who have watched the film in slow motion have noticed at a couple of junctures blank spots in the film, which indicate the film was stopped because either Patterson's finger slid off the trigger or he was conserving film). Patterson finally steadied himself on a log, and filmed the creature walk across his field of sight. Gimlin had by this time established control over his horse, and crossed the creek on his horse, at which point the creature turned and looked at him, revealing two large, pendulous breasts swinging and undulating (as seen in Frame 352, shown here). The creature gave Patterson a look he described as a look of contempt and scorn, as if, in his words, "You know how it is when the umpire tells you 'One more word and you're out of the game!' That's the way it felt." (He told this to John Green, who quoted Patterson in his chapter on the Patterson/Gimlin Movie in his opus Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us). Gimlin dismounted and removed his rifle from its scabbard, but did not point it at the creature. The creature kept on walking, being filmed by Patterson, until Patterson ran out of film. Gimlin intended to chase the creature down, but Patterson called him back, not wanting to be left alone out there without his horse or rifle in case of attack. Patterson and Gimlin then cast a couple of the creature's tracks, and then reloaded his film camera and filmed the trackway. Patterson and Gimlin remounted their horses, went and retrieved the packhorse and followed the creature's tracks for several miles until losing them among the rocks. Later, Bob Titmus investigated the site and found tracks leading to the hillside above, where it appeared that the creature had sat down and watched Patterson and Gimlin. Patterson and Gimlin then went to Willow Creek and called Al Hodgson, with Patterson excitedly exclaiming "Al, I got a picture of the son-of-a-buck!" They met Al at his general store and went to Hodgson's home to discuss the events of the day. After that, they went to a local airport and had the film flown to Yakima to Patterson's brother-in-law Al DeAtley to be processed in Seattle. Then the pair went back to their camp, but were surprised by a late-night torrential downpour. All of their equipment got wet, but Gimlin remembered the tracks left out on the sandbar and went and covered them with pieces of bark. Patterson and Gimlin, in Gimlin's truck, left the area as quickly as possible, encountering mudslides which threatened to push them off the mountain roads. They reached Yakima on Saturday the 21st, and Gimlin went home to rest as he caught a bit of a cold in the rain. Patterson also went home to rest. The next day, October 22nd, a Sunday, Patterson, along with John Green, Rene Dahinden and DeAtley all studied the film in DeAtley's basement (Gimlin was still at home resting). Many anthropologists and specialists studied the film, and most called it a hoax, but could never figure out how it could have been hoaxed. Lyle Laverty went to the filmsite Saturday the 21st, and took a rather famous photo of a track with what was described later as a mid-tarsal break, and Titmus went there about 9 days later and cast some of the best tracks of the film subject, including the one with mid-tarsal break. 40 years later, it is still the center of debate, whether it is called the Patterson Film, the Patterson Movie, the Patterson footage or (phrases coined by Rene Dahinden) the Patterson/Gimlin Film or Movie. Roger Patterson died of Hodgkins' Disease on January 15th, 1972, going to his grave swearing to the authenticity of this film. Bob Gimlin still lives in Yakima, quiet and private, reticent to give interviews, still attesting to the authenticity of the film. The most prominent current investigators of this film are M.K. Davis, Chris Murphy, Daniel Perez and Roger Knights. We celebrate this amazing footage today and every day. Happy 40th, "Patty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"