Sean C. Morgan
Over The Edge
They just discovered a previously unknown waterfall in a national park in California, the Whiskytown National Recreation Area.
Before this 400-foot waterfall was became known to the outside world, I had a visitor who claimed to have seen it.
Ol’ Jim Bob wandered into the office one day with a tale he had taken to every newspaper he could. Since we’re so small, he held off coming to see us. He wanted to cash in on the big time, but all the big-time newspapers looked at him incredulously and showed him the door.
Now Ol’ Jim Bob’s story goes way back. He first heard of the falls sometime in the early stretches of the last century from an old Indian that claimed to have lived in the area.
That old Indian’s story was so compelling, Ol’ Jim Bob dedicated the rest of his life to finding this elusive waterfall.
He had reported at least two encounters with the waterfall, but the authorities never believed him. In both encounters, the waterfall seemed to disappear whenever anyone carrying an official badge or identificaton went out for a look.
The authorities called the streambed a hoax, but Ol’ Jim Bob persevered. He knew the truth. He had seen what made the track. He had seen it with his own eyes.
Just so you all know, I’m pretty much a skeptic. I don’t believe in flying saucers and little green men. I don’t believe in Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. I’ve never seen a ghost, nor have I ever watched a poltergeist toss anything across the room.
But Ol’ Jim Bob struck a chord with me, his style was hypnotic and compelling. An now that the Associated Press ran a story last week talking about this waterfall and how it was “discovered,” I figured I’d better give Ol’ Jim Bob some credit for having the courage to stand up for facts even when no one believed him.
That discovery has vindicated Ol’ Jim Bob. Too bad he isn’t getting credit for it. After all, he was telling folks about this waterfall for years.
When he was telling his story to folks and newspapers, they always told him, “We’ve been all over these woods. There’s no way in this day and age a waterfall could hide from our modern technology or even the sheer numbers of humans who travel through the forests of our fair west coast.”
Somehow, all of those people were wrong about this waterfall, and Ol’ Jim Bob was right.
We’ve got this little crew called the International Bigfoot Society camping near Sweet Home every year, and we love having them around. Several members live in Sweet Home.
They’re interesting folks. Like Bigfoot hunter Don McIntire said, few Bigfoot hunters are normal. They’re tough, rugged individualists who often don’t quite fit into society’s box.
Many of them claim to have seen a Bigfoot, but few believe them. For many of us, Bigfoot is an interesting, often amusing topic of discussion. For many others, the idea of a large ape (some even believe an alien) wandering our woods is an absurd impossibility.
The response to these folks is often much like that Ol’ Jim Bob got all those years. Non-believers say it’s impossible. We would have found it by now given, modern technology and the sheer numbers of visitors to our woods each year. They don’t think about the fact that they’ve never seen a wild cougar, a fairly common animal, at all in their entire lives. Many have never even seen a wild bear, perhaps more common and less elusive.
They ask why none have ever been found. Bigfoot hunters who’ve seen it can answer that. It has been. Average folks who report sightings can say the same thing. It has been found. It’s just that few believe them.
Naysayers are not skeptics. They simply declare Bigfoot an impossibility. That declaration is faulty, and the “discovery” of this waterfall shows us why.
A 400-foot waterfall has been in a national park for some 40 years, and as far as most were concerend, it never existed. No one knew about it despite modern technology or the sheer number of humans who travel throughout our forests.
Ol’ Jim Bob is fictional. But this waterfall wasn’t, even though it was nothing more than a rumor before 2005. All this story really does is show just how easy it would be for an agile and elusive creature ? even a large one ? to remain hidden from human eyes.
The only wonder about Bigfoot is that it may not have remained hidden all this time. Many people have lied or hallucinated ? or they’ve seen this creature. Maybe it is not unreasonable in the least to suggest that a large, “undiscovered” animal may indeed wander our woods.