Bigfoot is Big Deal for Group of Alabamians, Atlantans
Source: The Atlanta Journal ~ Constitution Sunday, April 9, 2000
Ashville, Ala. -- Don't tell Hawk Spearman there's no such thing as Bigfoot.
The St. Clair County resident, whose organization searches for clues of the creature in north Alabama, said he saw his first Bigfoot in Ohio. Actually, he says, he saw a whole group of them.
''It was 7 to 9 feet high,'' he said. ''One had a stone over his head and he threw it 50 feet. It was by no means a guy in a monkey suit. I saw its muscles flex.''
Bigfoot is also known as Sasquatch, the Yeti and the Wildman. And Spearman, wife Karen and other members of the Alabama Bigfoot Seekers Research Group are looking for him.
''A lot of people are afraid to say, 'I saw Bigfoot,' because they can't explain it,'' said Spearman. ''A lot of people get laughed at and ridiculed.''
The organization's members believe every report of a Bigfoot sighting is true until proven otherwise, Spearman said.
The amateur zoologists use video cameras, tape recorders and the Internet to compile information on the creatures, thought by most people to be little more than a modern myth.
''There's a bunch of questions,'' Spearman, 27, concedes. ''And the answers don't all piece together.''
According to a 1978 book, ''Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us,'' by John Green, Bigfoot sightings were reported in the mid-1970s in the Albertville and Guntersville areas. Other reports have been made in Dothan, Red Bay and Mobile.
''They're humanoid,'' said Spearman, who says he doesn't want to kill any Bigfeet, just capture one to study its diet and maybe the DNA structure.
''They have more cunning senses. They can pick out scents. They're nocturnal. They come out at night and sleep during the day.''
Spearman's group, which meets twice a month and goes on regular outings to search for the elusive creatures, has recently joined with an association in the Atlanta area to form the Southeastern Bigfoot Research Organization.
Spearman argues that as cities and urban areas push out farther into the nation's undeveloped areas, the chances of finding Bigfoot are getting better. But so far, the wily wild one has left only foot tracks and an occasional hair sample, he said.
''One day, Bigfoot will be known to man, and then they'll say, 'By golly, he was right,' '' Spearman said.
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