Bigfoot Gone Loco!
Mike Smith
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Traveling west leaving the sagebrush plains of Roswell and Chaves County behind you will find the serene forested towns 
of Lincoln County. Towns where Billy the Kid roamed and shot it out, Peter Hurd did his famous paintings, and Smokey the Bear famously survived a forest fire in Capitan.
One town especially sticks out in Lincoln County though, and that town is Ruidoso, New Mexico, a favorite spot for a quick getaway for many Roswellites. And, like Roswell’s Main Street full of little green men and flying saucers, the main street of Ruidoso is dotted with ornately carved wooden bears giving it a distinctly forest-like feel.
And interestingly, while Chaves County is alien territory, the mountains of Lincoln County and Ruidoso are ironically enough Bigfoot country.
Yes, New Mexico has Bigfoot too.
Bigfoot has various names and interpretations amongst different cultures. In the forests of North America he is sometimes called Sasquatch, in the Russian wilderness he is the Alma, in the frozen mountains of Tibet are the Yeti, and here in the desert Southwest of New Mexico Bigfoot are more terrifyingly known as…los abuelos!
(Or translated into English: “the grandparents” or in the singular “the grandfather.” Maybe not so scary sounding after all).
The abuelo, a figure used in Hispanic folklore to frighten young children into behaving, is described as a half-man half-animal, often times like an upright gorilla, and resembles Sasquatch. This Bigfoot, however, also has the ability to speak to ask children if they have been good or not, and also carries a whip.
While in the Hispanic folklore they have a halfway protective interpretation in that they make small children behave themselves, in New Mexico’s Native American culture Sasquatch have a much more sinister identity. Take the Atahsaia for instance, which literally translates to “cannibal demon” in the language of the Zunis. An old Zuni story tells how Atahsaia lures two young girls to his cave (with plans to eat them) by telling them that he is their grandfather!
Yes, in New Mexico our Bigfoot are just a little bit different (and by different we mean stranger) than ones reported in other states. Why is New Mexico’s Bigfoot so strange though? Perhaps it’s because in a state where UFOs crash at random, half-rabbits/half-cats called cabbits run wild, and gateways to other dimensions supposedly open up in towns like Lordsburg, being Bigfoot just isn’t quite weird enough.
While Northern New Mexico Bigfoot sightings have recently been getting press coverage in the news, we here in Southeastern New Mexico have been having plenty of Bigfoot activity as well.
Back in December of 2004 two wildlife majors from Texas Tech went camping near Ruidoso. While one of the young men was fishing by himself in a lonely creek, he could feel the presence of someone, or something, watching him.
To quote directly from the report the witness submitted to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO):
The strange thing that scared me was that the birds stopped singing and the woods almost went silent. I then scanned the steep canyon boulders and pine forest and saw brush and trees shaking vigorously and immediately thought I was about to see a bear.
I slowly went to the opposite side of the creek and stared in the area trying to make out the creature. Everything stopped moving and I quickly started down river towards camp. About 10 minutes later I heard what sounded like a gutteral moan or cry directly across the river, like the creature was trying to scare me, this combined with the fact that it had parralled me down river really made me panic. I then ran all the way back to camp as quickly as I could, spraining my ankle in the process.
I am an accomplished outdoorsman who has had plenty of experience with bears and the area, but I have never seen a bear parralel a human for as long as this creature did, and the cry was definetly different from any kind of growl or vocalization that I have ever heard out of a bear.
An old Bigfoot sighting that used to be available at the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy site told of another Ruidoso encounter. If memory serves (the site has taken down their section for NM sightings) two men saw Bigfoot from their truck walk across a lonely road in the mountains early in the morning hours.
The town of Mescalero in neighboring Otero County south of Lincoln and Chaves has had nine reports of Bigfoot mischief sent to BFRO so far. They include traditional sightings of tall hairy bipedal creatures scaring passersby’s in their vehicles and the usual mysterious nighttime screams. Bigfoot even trampled an old woman’s flower garden and left his dirty hand-print on her dining room window, disturbed the peace by banging the roof of some travelers’ camper, and also reached his hand into another witness’s home and tried to steal some food.
The all-time strangest Bigfoot sighting in this area of New Mexico though, or perhaps anywhere, belongs to Alamogordo resident John Bohannon. While driving down a road near Three Rivers Campground (North of Alamogordo and slightly west of Ruidoso) Bohannon saw a large ape-like creature walking upright in the same direction as he was driving. He estimated it to be 8 foot tall, said it had reddish/brown fur, a Neanderthal like face, and that its arms hung down past its knees. Nothing strange about that for a Bigfoot sighting except for one thing: it vanished into thin air without a trace leaving Bohannon to wonder if Bigfoot “walked into some kind of portal.”
In Lordsburg, NM, there is an alleged portal into another dimension called the Lordsburg Door. Bohannon also reported seeing a cowboy dressed up in full “1860s garb” that also disappeared into thin air, again evoking shades of a Lordsburg style time rift, in the same area.
Bohannon’s story was discovered several years ago by Sharon Eby who met John Bohannon when she ironically had decided to go to Three Rivers Campground instead of Roswell due to the UFO Festival going on at the time.
Who knows? With stories of Bigfoot vanishing into mysterious portals, carrying a whip to frighten young children into behaving in time for Christmas, or trying to lure them into his cave so that he can try and eat them, maybe its not so implausible that he’ll one day wander over from Lincoln or Otero County to Roswell and get spotted at the crash site…After all, in New Mexico would that really be so strange?
***
Although author John LeMay (it’s fun to talk about yourself in the third person) may have taken a lighter approach to this article than usual let it be known he was in no way trying to belittle the Bigfoot researchers or the witnesses as cryptozoology is one of his favorite subjects. Check back soon for what will be the last new Roswell Edition of the summer!
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Reader Comments (8)
And a Bigfoot-like being was also said to inspire the original, ancient Santa Clause story.
Could our strange New Mexico be the true location of his North Pole hideaway?
Now, that's a pleasant thought to keep in mind this summer, as the thermometers climb. ;-)
http://www.bfro.net/news/roundup/ruidoso.asp
There have been a lot more sitings in New Mexico than most people would believe.
I've got two sides of the story and I just need the third, because he is the one that actually saw something, so I will get back to you soon.
(I'm another big LOBC fan.)
There was a recent sighting down near Silver City, early this summer. The animal reactions were said to be hard to figure out. A dog went "ballistic", but several horses, with greater proximity to the BF, after only a brief, acknowledging glance, were not even impressed enough to stop eating. Wish I knew more.
In the mean time,
Professors Paul's Guide (UK) to Cryptid Primates,
8 AMAZING pages of them, that I have never heard of:
http://www.ppne.co.uk/index.php?m=browse&id=1516
I just found it on line. Nothing there about NM - yet, but I'll keep searching.
"... there was a recent sighting of a "hairy short person" in New Mexico. It was described as "not human"."
The American Gnome, on page 2:
http://www.ppne.co.uk/index.php?m=show&id=21394