Bigfoot University 2016

​Bigfoot University 2016: Sasquatch Syndicate, Bob Gimlin, and a Weekend of Real Northwest Bigfoot Talk in Bremerton

Team Squatchin' USA's Bigfoot University rolled into the Baymont Inn & Suites in Bremerton, Washington over the weekend of April 22–24, 2016, and Sasquatch Syndicate was on the floor, behind the mic, and at the dinner table — proudly representing one of Washington's premier Bigfoot broadcast shows out of Seattle.

​If you want to know where the heart of Bigfoot research lives in this country, you don't have to look much further than a hotel ballroom on the Kitsap Peninsula in late April. That's where Dr. Matthew Johnson — "Dr. J" to anyone who's spent five minutes around him — and his Team Squatchin' USA crew set up shop for Bigfoot University 2016, a three-day deep-dive into the research, the encounters, the controversy, and the long, patient work of trying to understand the most famous unverified species on the continent.

Sasquatch Syndicate was there from the first cup of coffee on Friday morning to the last handshake on Sunday afternoon. We came down from Seattle with mics, cameras, business cards, and a simple mission — promote the podcast, promote the cause, and meet as many of the men and women doing this work as we possibly could.
We did all three. And then some.

Why Sasquatch Syndicate Showed Up
Sasquatch Syndicate is a Washington State nonprofit and broadcast podcast based in Seattle, hosted by Chuck Geveshausen, dedicated to promoting the research and discovery of Sasquatch with credibility, community, and respect for the witnesses. Bigfoot University is, in many ways, exactly the kind of room we were built for — not a cosplay convention, not a sideshow, but a working gathering of researchers, witnesses, and serious enthusiasts who actually go out into the woods.

"This was a no-brainer for us," said John Ferguson, Business Development Officer for Sasquatch Syndicate. "Dr. Johnson and Team Squatchin' USA put together exactly the kind of weekend our audience cares about. Real researchers. Real witnesses. Bob Gimlin sitting twelve feet from you. We came down from Seattle to shake every hand we could and to remind people that there's a Pacific Northwest broadcast — Sasquatch Syndicate — that takes their stories seriously."

The Host: Team Squatchin' USA and Dr. Matthew Johnson
Anyone who has spent any time inside the Bigfoot research community knows Dr. Matthew Johnson. The Oregon-based clinical psychologist became one of the most discussed figures in the field after his 2000 Oregon Caves encounter, and over the years he's built Team Squatchin' USA into one of the most active habituation and interaction research groups in the country. The Grub, Gulp, and Gab Gathering — his monthly meetup for witnesses and researchers in Western Washington — has become a kind of clearinghouse for fresh reports out of the Olympic Peninsula and beyond.

Bigfoot University was Dr. J's vision of bringing that same energy to a full weekend conference: a friendly, no-attitude, Pacific Northwest setting where people who actually go into the woods could trade notes with people who actually want to hear about it.

The Baymont Inn & Suites in Bremerton turned out to be the right room for it. Easy ferry ride from Seattle. Walking distance to a dozen places to grab a beer and keep the conversation going. And just enough quiet, classic Northwest gloom outside the windows to remind everyone exactly why we care about this subject.

The Speakers and Guests
The lineup was a real reflection of where the field actually lives — long-time researchers, working investigators, witnesses willing to go on record, and one very, very famous gentleman from Yakima.   Dr. Matthew Johnson anchored the weekend, walking the audience through his own ongoing interaction research and the philosophy that Team Squatchin' USA brings to the work — patience, presence, and respect for whatever it is that's looking back through the trees.

Thom Powell — author of The Locals and Edges of Science, longtime Oregon educator, and one of the genuinely thoughtful voices in the field — gave the kind of talk that has people pulling their notebooks out. Thom has been arguing for years that the Sasquatch question lives at the edge of biology, anthropology, and something stranger, and his sessions never fail to give the audience a fresh way to look at the data.

Thom Cantrall, the kind of warm, story-rich researcher every conference needs, brought decades of fieldwork and good humor to his time on stage. (When his planned slides mysteriously refused to cooperate, he did what any good Bigfooter does — pivoted, told the stories, and won the room.)  Barb Shupe of Squatchin' with Barb, joined by her four-legged research partner Gabby, brought one of the friendliest and most accessible talks of the weekend — a reminder that good fieldwork doesn't have to come wrapped in jargon to be valuable.

And then, of course, there was Bob Gimlin.

A Few Minutes With Bob Gimlin
There is no name in this field that lands the way Bob Gimlin's does. The man who, alongside Roger Patterson, captured 59.5 seconds of 16mm Kodachrome film at Bluff Creek on October 20, 1967 — film that has been argued over, analyzed, defended, and attacked for nearly six decades — is the closest thing the Bigfoot world has to a living legend, and he carries it with about as much humility as a person can.

Bob worked the conference the way Bob works every conference — quietly, kindly, and with an open chair next to him for anyone who wanted to talk. The Sasquatch Syndicate team was lucky enough to spend real time with him over the weekend.

"Visiting with Bob Gimlin is one of those things you don't take for granted," Ferguson said. "He's gracious. He's funny. He still answers the same questions he's been answering for fifty years like it's the first time he's heard them. To sit with him at Dr. Johnson's event, in our home state, talking about the work — that's a memory that's not going anywhere."

The Vendor Floor and the Real Community
One of the things that made Bigfoot University 2016 different from the bigger circuit conferences was the floor itself. This wasn't a wall of t-shirt printers and novelty booths. The Baymont's vendor area was packed with researchers, authors, plaster casters, audio analysts, regional research groups, and witnesses who had simply driven across the Cascades or down from the Olympics to share what they'd seen.

The Sasquatch Syndicate booth ran nonstop. Chuck Geveshausen, host of Sasquatch Syndicate, recorded interviews, traded contact info with fellow researchers, and welcomed a steady line of attendees who wanted to share their own stories on the record. The podcast picked up new witnesses, new collaborators, and a renewed sense of how big the Pacific Northwest research community actually is when it gets in the same building.

"We came down from Seattle to put a face on the show," Ferguson said. "What we left with was a stack of new contacts, new witness leads, and a real reminder that the Pacific Northwest is the center of gravity for this subject. Sasquatch Syndicate is proud to broadcast out of Seattle, and weekends like this one are why we do it."

Key Takeaways
A few things were unmistakable by the time the lights came up Sunday afternoon.  The Pacific Northwest community is alive and well. Anyone who thinks Bigfoot research is fading hasn't been to Bremerton. The Baymont was full, the talks were packed, and the side conversations in the lobby and the parking lot ran late into the night.

Team Squatchin' USA built the right kind of room. Dr. Matthew Johnson and his crew didn't put on a spectacle — they put on a working conference. Researchers got to be researchers. Witnesses got to be heard. The skeptics in the room got their fair shot too. That's a hard balance, and Bigfoot University pulled it off.

Bob Gimlin is still the heart of this field. Watching him patiently work the room — never above anyone, never tired of the question — is a lesson in how to carry a legacy.

Sasquatch Syndicate found its people. The Bremerton weekend confirmed something we already suspected — that the audience for a serious, respectful, Seattle-based Sasquatch broadcast is bigger than even we knew, and it's hungry for content that treats the subject and the witnesses with respect.

Looking Forward
Sasquatch Syndicate left the Baymont with hoarse voices, full notebooks, and a whole lot of new friends. We thanked Dr. J. We thanked Bob. We thanked every single attendee who stopped by the booth to tell us they listen, or to ask how they can be part of the work.

"This is exactly the room we want to be in," Ferguson said. "Team Squatchin' USA, Dr. Matthew Johnson, Bob Gimlin, Thom Powell, Barb Shupe, Thom Cantrall, and a Pacific Northwest audience that actually cares. Sasquatch Syndicate is going to keep showing up, keep broadcasting out of Seattle, and keep telling these stories the way they deserve to be told. Bigfoot University 2016 wasn't a one-off for us. It was the start of a long conversation."

For Sasquatch Syndicate — Washington's home for serious Sasquatch broadcasting, podcasting from Seattle — Bigfoot University at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Bremerton wasn't just an event we attended. It was a homecoming.

By Chanelle Elaine, Chief Officer Sasquatch Syndicate Inc.