NEWSPAPERS SEARCH TO FIND `HAIRY MAN'

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 2, 1993                   TAG: 9302020127
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANCHORAGE, ALASKA                                LENGTH: Medium
NEWSPAPERS SEARCH TO FIND `HAIRY MAN'
He's as big as Big Foot, not so abominable as the Snowman and elusive as Sasquatch. He's Alaska's "Hairy Man" and a statewide group of newspapers is on his legendary tracks.
"I think there are very few people who've actually sighted Hairy Man, but there are plenty of stories," said Chris Casati, editor of Anchorage-based Alaska Newspapers.
The group operates seven rural weeklies with a combined circulation of 17,000. The papers have started asking readers to send in stories about Hairy Man, a folklorish creature who is said to inhabit the vast tundra around southwest Alaska.
"People here really do believe it and I respect that," said James MacPherson, editor of Bethel's weekly newspaper, the Tundra Drums.
Last month, three schoolteachers raised havoc in remote Quinhagak by tramping around in the snow with foot-shaped pieces of plywood to make fake Hairy Man tracks.
Worried calls poured in to police. One officer called it "a bad joke." The teachers apologized and visited classrooms to show off the wooden feet and assure children there was nothing to be afraid of.
Bethel storyteller John Active, a Yupik Eskimo, says he knows all about Hairy Man.
"He's very tall, taller than a 9- or 10-foot-tall spruce tree. When he was standing, his hands could touch the ground next to his feet. He grew hair to keep warm," Active said.
Hairy Man is more curious than predatory but so horrendous-looking, Active says, that people run off afraid.
Alaska anthropologists say the theme of the big-footed hermit is universal - a regional equivalent of urban tales like the vanishing hitchhiker.
Active says he has never seen Hairy Man. But, "he's just as alive in our legends as if he's standing right in front of me," Active said. "He's out there because we talk about him."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB