Bigfoot Discussions

Northern Minnesota deer hunters say they caught Bigfoot on camera
The Bemidji Pioneer reported this week that two hunters near there say they captured a Bigfoot in photographs in the woods. Biology experts aren't so sure.

By: Herald Wire Report , Herald Wire Report

The Bemidji Pioneer reported this week that two hunters near there say they captured a Bigfoot in photographs in the woods. Biology experts aren't so sure.

In the story, Tim Kedrowski told Pioneer Editor Molly Miron that he and his sons, Peter and Casey, got a photo of a Bigfoot-like creature on a game trail camera set up on their hunting land north of Remer, Minn.

Kedrowski told Miron that photo frame was clicked at 7:20 p.m. Oct. 24, a rainy night in Remer. They checked with neighbors and other hunters who might have been in the area and they all said the image isn't them, he told Miron. Kedrowski told the Pioneer he considered possibilities from a bear to a bow hunter in a fuzzy suit. But the arm and hand couldn’t be a bear’s, Kedrowksi said. The upright gait doesn't match a bear, either, he said.

The Kedrowskis checked the Minnesota Bigfoot Web site and contacted Don Sherman and Bob Olson, the Northern Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team.

Sherman is the facilities manager for the Cass Lake Indian Health Service Hospital, and Olson is an auto body repairman in Deer River, Minn.

Sherman is known for investigating reports of Bigfoot sighting and says he has made casts of footprints. He said he once caught footage of a Bigfoot on a thermal imaging camera and heard its warbling call.

Kedrowski said when Sherman saw the game camera image from October, he said it appeared to be a Bigfoot. Sherman went with the Kedrowskis to the photo site and measured the height of the creature in comparison to the sapling next to it. His calculations came up with a creature about 7 feet tall, the Pioneer reported.

“I’ve hunted there for 43 years,” Tim said of their property near Shingle Mill Lake. “I’ve seen one bear off my deer stand. I’ve seen three timber wolves.”

Casey Kedrowski said he and his brother had gone out to the family’s hunting shack prior to deer season to bring in firewood and make other preparations. They set up a game trail camera to see what might be wandering around their property.

Casey said he and his brother were the only people who knew where the camera was located. They took the camera down when deer season started, and a couple of weeks later checked on what they had caught.

When they came to the picture of the long-armed creature walking upright, Casey said, “We just looked at each other. Each of us thought we were playing a trick on each other.”

When they determined that neither of them had pulled a prank on the other, they checked to see if anyone had been in the area that night. Tim said the only neighbors were two elderly hunters in their own shack, neither of whom matched the size and appearance of the creature caught on camera.

However, he said, when he asked the men about the night the camera clicked on the mystery, they said they had gone out about 2 a.m. to use the outhouse and had heard strange squealing noises. Ted said he asked them to show him the direction of the sounds. They pointed to the area where the camera had been, although they had no idea of its location.

Sharing photo

Ted Kedrowski told the Pioneer he waited until last weekend to grant permission to publish the photo.

“It was deer season and we wanted to concentrate on deer hunting, and (we) really wanted to talk to people in the area and … make sure they weren’t scamming us,” he said. “We’re not 100 percent sure, obviously. After visiting with (Sherman and Olson) we feel they’ve done a lot more investigation. That’s why we put it in their hands.”

Sherman said the Northern Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team started receiving reports of Bigfoot sightings in 2006 and has had reports every year since, including four reports this year. He said the first reported sighting he investigated was from a man running a road grader near Six Mile Lake south of Lake Winnibigoshish. Sherman said he was able to make casts of the footprints. A more recent sighting report was by a truck driver.

“I’ve talked to this guy – this was last year – he was coming from Crosby (Minn.) with a load of lumber by Washburn Lake,” Sherman told the Pioneer. “It had hands, he said, like baseball mitts. It took three steps to cross the road. He was pretty shook up.”

Doubt expressed

In spite of Sherman's reports, Bemidji biologists remain unconvinced.

“Personally, I don’t buy the fact this thing exists,” said Blane Klemek, assistant wildlife manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Bemidji.

“There are certainly species that are discovered each year – but megafauna – rare is it a big mammal is discovered,” he said.

Klemek noted the controversy over reported sightings and film of the what might be an ivory-billed woodpecker in the Big Woods of Arkansas, a species thought to have been extinct since the 1920s.

He also noted than no one has ever found a Bigfoot carcass.

“All organisms die; they don’t just go away,” Klemek said. “You’d think someone someday would find one.”

Evan Hazard, Bemidji State University retired mammalogist, also expressed doubt about the Bigfoot’s existence.

“I just don’t know,” he said. “My background in mammalogy makes me skeptical, not expert. My inclination is to say we really don’t have good evidence.”

Hazard said proof would be a clear photo matched with footprints at the same site – multiple pieces of overlapping evidence.

Search continues

Sherman said his search would go on. He said he believes the Bigfoot is intelligent and perfectly at home in the woods.

“That’s why they’re so elusive. They know the woods better than any hunter because they live it.”

Kedrowksi said they would never shoot Bigfoot.

“Absolutely not – no way,” said Tim Kedrowksi. “I asked my sons would they shoot it, and they said no. It has every right to live.”

Sherman told the Pioneer, “I’ve talked to people who’ve had them in their sights and their scopes, and they said they couldn’t pull the trigger.”

He urged anyone who wants to report a Bigfoot sighting or evidence of the creature to call him at (218) 308-1451 or Olson at (218) 246-8493.

The Pioneer in Bemidji and the Herald are owned by Forum Communications Co.

This image, taken Oct. 24 by a game trail camera in woods north of Remer, Minn., looks like Bigfoot, say the hunters who set up the camera.

Northern Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team member Don Sherman holds a pair of plaster casts of what they believe are Bigfoot prints. The casts were taken after reported Bigfoot sightings were found near Bena and Walker, Minn.