Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 22, 1995 TAG: 9510230169
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ This book is less about the reality (or lack thereof) of some mysterious woodland creature called Bigfoot than it is about the woodlands of the Pacific Northwest, the so-called Dark Divide in the vicinity of Mount. St. Helen's in Washington state. Ecologist and writer Robert Michael Pyle recounts his long, lonely trek through this region where Bigfoot or Sasquatch had been reported, and what he writes will be of more interest to naturalists, hikers and perhaps students of human behavior than to believers in Bigfoot.
This is not to say that Pyle did not have his close encounters, both on the odyssey which forms the backbone of the book and at other times, too, as his thoughts flash back to past experiences. On one outing, he heard night noises in an area where Bigfoot had been reported and he could never identify them. He glimpsed and heard things, and even found what could have been the huge footprints of an aptly-named Bigfoot.
But Pyle readily admits all these things could have conventional explanations he simply has not found yet.
Pyle does write of encounters with Bigfoot fans, people who hold meetings to compare their findings, much as UFO abductees might get together to compare notes. There are Bigfoot souvenir stands, towns taking advantage of Bigfoot notoriety, nature researchers who specialize in Bigfoot, and even an amateur film which purports to catch a few seconds of a Bigfoot in flight.
But in the end, the book is about the territory where perhaps an undiscovered species of human-like giants could exist, and a plea to preserve such wilderness areas. Even if they are not home to Bigfoot, they hold other mysteries and treasures that could be lost to us if they are hacked away in the name of civilization.
Also, Pyle delves into what seems to be a human need to believe in something beyond ourselves, and explores such ethical questions as divisions between professional Bigfoot hunters ready to shoot on sight so as to have a carcass to display to the tabloids, and those who argue that such creatures might be closer to human than animal, and killing them would be murder. At least one locality, in fact, has enacted a law specifying penalties for harming a Bigfoot.
What the book is about, mostly, is ourselves.
Paul Dellinger reports on Southwest Virginia from Pulaski.
by CNB