The late Ken Coon spent 13 years of his life, during the 1960s and 1970s, following every lead on Bigfoot sightings that he could in the U.S., A former Los Angeles County Sheriff's officer, he retired from the force to engage in his search for Sasquatch full time. This book documents the extensive research he compiled but was unable to publish before his death on July 10, 2013.
According to Coon, Bigfoot lurks in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. It defies logic why this creature has never been photographed. Yet people swear to have seen him. People have made plaster casts of his footprints. Some of them swear to have been so near Bigfoot they could smell him.
Even though Mr. Coon never saw Bigfoot, he was convinced that Bigfoot was real. He had interviewed many people who had seen Bigfoot; he had examined hundreds of footprint casts; and had personally seen actual footprints left by the monster. Mr. Coon worked with most of the well-known Bigfoot researchers from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s--the decades when many Bigfoot sightings were made.
Introduction by editor, Pat Edwards:
Whether or not you believe in the existence of Bigfoot, you will find this book fascinating. Ken Coon truly believed in the work that he spent 13 years of his life doing. His research is detailed and compelling and he has certainly earned my respect.
A career law enforcement officer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department until his retirement in 1973, Ken Coon felt that he was qualified to interview those who reported sightings and determine if their stories were hoaxes. In this book, he presents his reasons:
"Are we to believe that all of those loggers, hunters, fishermen, farmers, housewives, students, boy scouts, miners and all the others (who report Bigfoot sightings) are really just publicity-seeking liars? That is a pretty tall order even for a skeptical old cop like me...
"I like to believe that I learned something in a quarter century of law enforcement, and one of those things is the ability to interrogate intelligently. Policemen are lied to nearly every day and so, of necessity, must learn techniques of witness interrogation that aid in determining the f
"As most any good cop might do, immediately after hearing a Bigfoot story, I make it a point to learn what I can about the witness or witnesses. I may have offended some of the witnesses in so doing, but I have always felt it important to learn something of the witness' reputation for honesty, sobriety and stability. The majority of the people in question are residents of rural areas where a reputation as a liar, drunkard or screwball is not likely to be kept secret.
"In the great majority of cases, I have found the alleged witness to be of good reputation. In those few cases where I found otherwise, the story had sounded a little fishy, anyway."
Both Joe and I feel privileged to be able to honor the years of work--the dedication and honest belief--that Ken put into his manuscript.
Whether, upon turning the last page, you accept his hypotheses as facts or even possibilities, or if you prefer to dismiss them as flawed, I am convinced that you, too, will respect the man and his work.
About the Author :
Pat Edwards is the author of two books on the history of her home community of Lorane, Oregon. The first, "Sawdust and Cider; A History of Lorane, Oregon and the Siuslaw Valley," was written with co-authors Nancy O'Hearn and Marna Hing in 1987 to help celebrate the community's centennial. In 2006, Pat wrote a major revision of the book called "From Sawdust and Cider to Wine." She and her husband Jim own the Lorane Family Store and Pat spent 15 years as Administrative Coordinator for the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. Since her retirement from the UO, Pat has taken on the role of owner and managing editor of a small press publishing company, Groundwaters Publishing LLC, which distributed a literary quarterly magazine throughout all of Lane County, Oregon for over 10 years of publication. She and her colleague, Jennifer Chambers, are now publishing it as an annual anthology. In 2014, Pat and her co-author, Jo-Brew, completed over 3 years of joint research and compilation of two volumes on the history of the Pacific Highway/U.S. Highway 99 through Oregon called OREGON'S MAIN STREET: U.S. Highway 99; "The Stories" and "The Folk History." They toured throughout Oregon, giving talks to historical societies, libraries and service clubs on the history of the highway until Jo's death on March 1, 2018. Pat has also begun writing a series of books on early Lane County, Oregon settlers who had connections to Lorane, Oregon. The first is titled "The Baileys of Bailey Hill" (2017), followed by "The Life and Letters of Captain John O'Brien" (2018). She is currently working on the third book of the series which highlights three families who were part of the Lost Wagon Train of 1853. Pat writes a weekly column for two local Lane County weeklies, the Fern Ridge Review of Veneta and the Creswell Chronicle of Creswell, Oregon. To contact Pat Edwards, you can write her at PO Box 50, Lorane, OR 97451 or edwards@groundwaterspublishing.com https: //allthingslorane.com or http: //groundwaterspublishing.com Joe Blakely lives with his wife, Saundra Miles in Eugene, Oregon. He has one son, Justin, and a stepson, Jonathan Baker. Mr. Blakely earned a degree in history from San Diego State College-while in college he excelled in the writing of history term papers. Mr. Blakely retired from the Office of Public Safety at the University of Oregon in 1999. After retirement he decided to write about Oregon history. Mr. Blakely has written eleven books-eight are histories about Oregon. Mr. Blakely says his best work is his biography of Oswald West, Oregon's rascally governor who wrote legislation in 1913 to set aside Oregon's beaches as a highway, thereby providing public access. His two Highway 101 coast books, Lifting Oregon Out of the Mud: Building the Oregon Coast Highway (2006) and Building Oregon's Coast Highway 1936-1966: Straightening Curves and Uncorking Bottlenecks (2014) on building the coast highway, have been most popular. Mr. Blakely is currently working on his fifth Bigfoot novel. To contact Joe Blakely, you can write him at PO Box 51561, Eugene, OR 97405 https: //joeblakelyauthor.wordpress.com/
