The Times Standard from Eureka, California • Page 13

Eureka, California THE Friday, June 8, 1973 --Page 13 Redwood Country By Andrew Genzoli Const imtroVs reunion A lot of things happened in Humboldt and Del Norte between Pearl Harbor and the time I returned home from my three years and two months out in the Pacific. I was in the Army before I knew it (June 1942)--first at Monterey, and then at Camp Wolters in Texas, and on New Year's Eve, I was sailing out through the Golden Gate. I had heard that the tanker Emidio had been 1 torpedoed off Blunts Reef and Cape Mendocino; that a Navy Section Base was being built at Fair. haven; that the Peninsula on Humboldt Bay had blimp and a seaplane bases; Dows Prairie had an airport. There were Home'Guards, Women's Ambu- lance Corps organizations, air watches, and numerous other things.

Now and then, the home newspaper told about Victory Gardens and something about a thing called- Chicago Bridge Iron Works, where they built floating drydocks. Ferndale had a USD. All of this at home. One thing I neveV heard about, until sometime' after the War, was the Coast Guard's beach patrols. This I heard through a Ferndaler, who stayed to make his home there.

He was Edward Kennedy. Today and tomorrow, members of old Company Twelfth Regiment, U. Si Coast Guard, who served as coast and beach patrolmen, will arrive for their 31st reunion. They are coming from the Midwest, where many originated to begin with, and throughout the West. The original company totaled 80 men.

Friends of the men--those who opened their homes and hearts to them--and those who remembered them, are invited to join in festivities Sunday beginning with a reception at the Fortune Monday Club at 6 p.m. and dinner that evening at An. gelina Inn. On Monday, the visitors at 10 a.m., will gather at Fortuna for a tour to Ferndale and the Center- ville Beach area, and then on to Table Bluff. Some of the Coast Guard veterans are going to get a.real surprise when they see the U.

S. Naval Facility at Centerville--all new since they were here. At 12:30, Monday, they will go to Samoa Cookhouse for lunch; a 2 p.m., they will leave from the Coast Guard Station dock for a bay tour, and then return for a tour of the Station. That evening, 6 o'clock, there be social festivities at the home of Mr. and Mrs.

Lee Coyle, 8163 Elk River Road, Eureka, with dinner later at 8 o'clock at OH Townhouse. The reunion invites any old friends the Coast Guardsmen to attend any or all of the planned for the reunion. If you'd like to an old friendship, you can make reservations by calling Mrs. Eldon Brom at 725-3489, or Mrs. Lee Coyle, 442-4331 or A lonely assignment When the 80 men of Company trained at'Gov- ernment Island at Alameda, they weren't sure where they were going.

Most of them came from Midwest farms and towns, and the sea was something new to a lot of them. They made the trip here by bus, arriving in Eureka on a rainy September night. The first stop was Eureka's famous dining place, "The Splendid Cafe on Street, presided over by Chef Chris Arthunas, 'where they'were served dinner. Old-timers well re' member Chris, and where servicemen were concerned he had the biggst of hearts--no one ever left his place hungry. After they had'been the Coast Guardsmen were taken around Humboldt Bay to Samoa-they'll be surprised to see the new bridge- -and were delivered to the Headquarters which was then the old Hammond Lumber Company cookhouse, adjacent to the present "Samoa Cookhouse.

The unit was commanded by Lt. Lewis M. Perkins. In the weeks that followed the men were sent to stations at Table Bluff in the old hotel--now the J. A.

Mouat home; to Davis Creek on the road to Mattole; to Centerville Beach in quarters adjoining the Mor'anda Ranch; to the Machado-Ranch at McKinleyville and the Christensen Ranch on Arcata Bottom. Right after Pearl Harbor, our beaches and coast were vulnerable to enemy infiltration. It was the job of the Coast Guard patrol to make sure landings did not happen, so they traveled the long, lonely miles, day and night on horse back, in jeeps, on foot with dogs. Sometimes, I'm told, the men would have traded duty for any other place -especially on wild, cold, windy, rainy nights. Duty was at its peak during the early three years of Most of the horses were kept at Fairhaven.

Some of them were sent on overseas duly in the South Pacific, later. Some stayed on Humboldt was fortunate, when a number of the men stayed to marry local girls. Lida Coyle provided Redwood Country with a list of those who remained here to make their homes. They include Russell Allen who married Patricia Giannini of Eureka; Eldon Brom who married Evelyn Biasca of Forluna; James Cook, Hazel Engberg Eureka; Lee Coyle, Lida Mabry of Eureka. Robert Griggs married Adelina Albertini, Ferndale- Edward Kennedy, Ardith Petersen of Ferndale; William McDonald, Eleanore Hill, Arcata; Norman Mudie, Barbara Hutchins of Eureka; Harry R.

(Steve) Stephenson, Lois Scott of Eureka; and Willis (Ty) Tyson, Josephine Keating, Eureka All of these people will be active in reunion activities this weekend. This is the first function for Company to be held in Humboldt County, the scene of their original duly. Most of the reunions have been held elsewhere. Redwood Country welcomes the old-timers back again. We know they'll enjoy seeing what has happened to Humboldt County.

We are sure old friends of the patrol will want to see them again. Story for today A young enthused son said, "Dad, I have first part as an actor. I play the part of a man who's been married 25 years." "That's a good start, son," assured the father "Just keep right at it and one of these days you'l get a speaking part," PGE Spinout I The Bigfoot: Fact, fiction or flim-flam? BURNEY Bigfoot fact.j clion, or flim-flam? This is my big question, after pending the weekend in the lids at the foot of Lassen Peak olcano with an expedition in earch of the legendary giant airy ape man of the Pacific orlhwest. Another newsman and I were romoted along on the ad- enture by fast-talking Tom iscardi, 24-year-old Bigfool im- ressario and partner in B-F nterprieses, a Santa Clara rm formed in February and edicatcd to capturing the lythical monster. Biscardi told us last Friday lat his tracker, lobacco-chew- ng Ivan Marx, was hot on the of the elusive Bigfoot.

Just hours behind," I was told. Capture might be imminent. IIPI reporter Carrick ieavilt and I were shown a e.ries of about 20 alleged igfoot tracks, 15-inch-long uman-resembling right and left oot prints sunk inch-deep in the asesen loam, but Bigfoot was ot to be found. The tracks, nearly six inches road at the toe joints and four nches at the heel, we saw at iree separate locations in a niie-long southeasterly line. The tandard strike was about 66 in- EDITOR'S NOTE: Richard a i Times-Standard reporter, spent the weekend on a special assignment lor the newspaper, going along on what was billed as an expedition for the legendary Bigfoot.

Harris saw the trip as a hit of fact, a hit of fiction and a bit of flim-flam. This is his personal account. hes, but the strides varied. Conveniently, the tracks were 11 within 50 feet, of the gravel ogging roads which honeycomb ne area and within 50 miles of Marx' "Bear Ranch" at Burney two-mill mountain lumbering own 50 miles east of Redding. The tracks looked good to me ut I'm no outdoors expert.

I ould see no signs of print akery and am left wonderin low those big prints were iriven one inch into the ground Marx concluded that the Bigfoot --a 400-plus pound larlially-blind female, lypothesizes returned to the safety of the national park after to on the border, where the tracks. Second "find" this was the second big Bigfoot find by Mar since B-F was formed lasl ''ebruary'by Biscardi and Sun nyvale electronics wizzard Gene Bigfoot legends varied The ancient Indian legends vary in Alaska, Bigfoot is called "Bushman" and is said to jnat on a drum. Canadian In dians call the creature "Sas quatch." Other names include "Oman, 1 'Bukwas" and "Smy-a-Likh. 1 Believers theorize that thi cerature is related to the equally-legendary "Abominable Snowman" of the Himalayas or Russia's "Yeti." In general, the legends are similar a tall, upright, heavy lairy, nocturnal humanoid will remendous, five-toed, flat fee and long long strides. When they came to the 'acific Northwest during the early-mid J9th Century, white nen, too, began to notice racks, and occasionally someone said that he saw the creature.

Bigfoot hunter Ivan Marx who says he has seen thi creature's face, claims he can spot a bogus Bigfoot story b. the description offered by the alleged witness. When a witness reports thi bare, black face of a gorilla Marx says, he knows he has phony. "There's hair all over hi, face," Marx insists. "Old Sas quatch is a cold weather anima and nature wouldn't leave bin- out in the cold with a bar face." Bigfoot has small, red eyes Marx says, an absolutely fla tencd nose, a wire grimmacini mouth and a terrible stench.

In Alaska, where the crcatur beats a Marx says, th Indians, loo, beat drums to sho' "Bushman" that they ai unafraid. One of Marx' mementoes his years of Bigfont hunting is red, seal-skin drum, given hii by nn Alasknn Indian from th upper reaches of the Yuko River. Marx says he has bent Hi drum for Bigfoot in Washingto and California, but so fa without rcsulls. ndley. And both finds have een near Marx's houses.

The 52-year-old tracker in arly April took telephoto pic- res of an alleged gray-furred igfoot in the mountains along Washinngton-ldaho bordei 1 ortheast of Spokane. This was )out 100 miles east of Marx' ossburg, cabin and larx forgets the exact date. "Maybe it was April Fool's ay," he muses. Showing a slender, furry, ape- 10 creature descending a rock le, Marx's are the first Bigfoot ctures since a 1967 movie shot Bluff Creek, near Willow reek in Humboldt County. Marx look his picture at 280 ards from across a deep lasm, he says, after being ummoned to the spot by a ashington cattle rancher.

Marx has been a Bigfoot unger since 1960, when his dogs icked one of the creatures ear Willow Creek for Tom ick, the late Texas oilman and igfoot hunter. Marx still cares a lavishly-tooled Swedish- la'de Husqvarna 30:06 rifle v'en him by Slick's son, Tom A well-credentialed big game unler and one-time U.S. game arden in Alaska, Marx has uthored. numerous men's iagazine hunting articles and ays he has guided Alaskan ex- editions for newsman-ad- enturer Lowell Thomas Jr. "I've caught every animal ve every wanted to," Marx lys.

"There isn't an animal in he world I can't catch." And then there's Bigfoot. The creature has so far scaped capture, Marx says, ecause of its alleged nocturnal, omadic habits. "He's always noving, never going anywhere, ut always moving," Marx says unter doesn't claim to how many of the reatures there are. "Maybe 15, maybe 1,500," he says. Obsession Stung by public ridicule and negations of fraud, Marx has recent years, become obsess- with finding the legendary east, to prove himself and his name.

jus? want to tie that thing in my truck and drive it into own and stick it in their faces nd make them recognize that 1 it," he says. Marx thinks that his best hance Bigfoot ma ome later this wher ipecial electronic 'night-time ensing devices are jperfetfei or B-F Enterprises' scheduled ate-July Bigfoot hunt. Leavitt and I were supposed o.get a look al the B-F night cope last weekend, but were that the batteries had gone ead. The scope, an 18-inch red tube with a telephone amera lens screwed on the nd, is said by its inventor to be wice as'powerful as the scopes sed by U.S. Army -snipers in TRACKER Ivan Marx, left, displays a plaster cast he claims was taken from what he says is a Bigfoot footprint.

With him are scientist Gene Findley, center, and promoter Tom Biscardi. 'eter Byrne, an ex-World War II RAF pilot, is reportedly using night scopes and infra-red devices in his Bigfoot hunt centered at The Dalles, in north- central Oregon. Bigfoot hunters are also active at Colville, Medford, and Palmdale, among other places and Marx says there is a mad scramble imong the rivals to be first to nab the mythical monster. "They really want to catch the darned thing," he says. "If hey hear you've got something, here they'll come.

"This thing is worth so damn much money that they'll hijack you," Marx says, "but I'm not to fool with them I've told 'em that if Ihey get near me, I'll shoot their legs off." He was insistent that I not print the exact locations of his track sighting near Ml. Lassen or. his picture-taking northeast of Spokane, for fear that-rivals will-jump his claim. different Bigfoot hunters lo discredit each other's sightings and Marx. haf alienated i i Palmdale and Colville by' pooh- poohing their claims to track sightings.

Movie footage Near The Dalles, Marx says, he took movie footage of a sup posed monster with its arms straight up in the air. The arms shot up, Marx says, after h'e shot the phony film, but says hat he did rftt stage the incident. He can't explain why anybody would be i up and down in a white gorilla suit a California snow storm. What would B-F Enterprises do with Bigfoot if he's really out there and they catch him? "I'd bring him in, let people see him for three days so they'd mow he was real, then I'd let lim go again and I'd be happy," Vlarx says. The hunter is superstitious, ndians, he says, will not kill a Bigfoot for fear of retributions rom the creature's kin and Marx doesn't want to -take any chances.

Biscardi has a different plan. The promoter wants to bring the creature in dead or alive, then, after a brief scientific observation period, auction it off to the highest bidder. "Museum, zoo, traveling circus, I don't he says. And Findley is scientifically fired a bullet over the Bigfoot's head. Marx has more than Developer of the scope is indley, 25, a pipe-smoking microwave shop foreman for Technology a Sunnyvale defense contractor.

He and B.scard,, Fmdley ays, were Sunnyvale high chool comrades and have been nterested in the Bigfool since 967, when Ihe Bluff Creek Bigfoot motion picture footage was taken by Washington rancher Roger Patterson. Spot from air The balding, Findley says he is now making 'inal refinements on an irplane-mounted i a sensor which will be able to spot iigfoot from the air at night- ime on a television screen. But his machine, also, was not demonstrated for me, so can- lot vouch for its effectiveness -or even its existence. While Findley fine-tunes his electronics gadgets and Marx mnts, showman Biscardi beats promotional drum. Brooklyn born and doubleknit- dressed, the stocky Biscardi is a non-stop talker, on subjects anging from the Mafia to fast vomen, to Bigfoot.

He's going to be caught this year and it's going to be worth $4 million to whoever catches lim," the promoter claims. "Are you an investor?" the answering service girl asked BF 1 callers until newsman Leavitt the issue with Biscardi. The BrF answering service is ilso designed to take calls (at 408-248-4145) reporting Bigfoot sightings throughout the Pac- cific Northwest. "There's money in it for us even if we don'l gel Bigfool." he says, with an eye on motion picture and TV rights, stuck sales and other promotions. If no Bigfoot turns up by Oclobcr, Biscardi says he inlcnds lo find another money-maker.

Before founding B-F in February, Biscardi women's sportswear tor San Jose-based Unique Fashions. "Sell the bridge" "He talks very nice," says Aurclio "Mr. Unique's vice president. "Me could sell the Brooklyn bridge." Biscardi, Findley and Marx are not alone in the quest for the Bigfool. Funded hy an i businessman, Irish advcnlurcr bogus been accused of phonying his sighlings and in a May article iif a nationa lercullure newspaper, Marx was blasted for perpetraling "an incredibly clumsy fake" film account of a supposed Bigfool and down in a California snow storm.

Marx acknowledges that he neutral. "Don't care" he says. "I don't care what they do with it. Ivan's the hunter, it's his problem. I regard it the same as I regard a bear if you kill it, you kill it.

"And besides," he adds with a puff on his pipe, "how can your seriously worry about killing something that doesn't even exist yet?" Bigfoot fact or fiction? B-F Enterprises adventurers or con-men? The questions stick in my mind. "The only way to know what's inside (the monkey suit) is to catch says Marx. And the odds on capturing the maybe-beasl? "I'd say about in hundred," Marx says, with a spit of tobacco juice. A NEWSMAN'S size 9-E in a footprint the expedition leaders claim was made by the Bigfont. Humboldt County a key location for seeing Bigfoot IS IT a Bigfool or sonic guy in molhcatcn, nngRy gorilla suit? Ivnn Marx snys ho took this photo of nn alleged Bigfool in the mountains along the Washington-Idaho border.

He says the photo was taken al 280 yards across a deep chasm nflcr he was summoned (o (he spot hy Washington cuttle rancher. (UPI Telephoto Humboldt County is a key location for Bigfool enthusiasts and is the site of the most famous pictures of the legendary creature, taken at Bluff Creek in October, 1967, by a Washington rancher and Bigfoot hunter. Orleans, Bluff Weitchpec. Pecwan, Klamath and Houpa continuously crop-up in "The Sasquatch File," a 1973 list of reported Bigfoot sightings, compiled by Canadian journalist John Green. The creature is called "Kit- dongwhc" by the Hoopa.

"Apruan' by the Karok and "Umaha" by the Yurok, according to local Indian language experts. All three names are only rough English translations of the Indian sounds and all three refer lo Ihe general "Irdian Devil" phenomenae, which include Ihe large, hairy creature, eerie blue fires, unexplained dog bowlings and other mysterious events. Local Indian people arc reluctant to discuss fiigfoot, because the legend is a purl of Indian religion and because they rion'i want to be bothered by inquiries from Rigfool hunters and olhci curious persons. One Humbflldl County Indian woman, who asked to rcmaii anonymous for the above reasons, related her sighting the creature fit Slarwin, nbo ic town of Klamath, on the (lamalh River, in September, 969. Seen at dusk The sighting was a dusk, vhen the 7-foot-tall hairy reature walked upright around a small outbuilding near the voman's fishing camp.

It was aboul 15 feet away, she "It was very light and quick in its feet for something that big," she says. "It had a heavy, musky odor and a hign surreal whistle." "I stood there a half-hour lefore I could even move It vas very definitely something to remember. "Indian people don't want to discuss il because Ihey don'l wanl anyone killing it. The big things must belong here, or they wouldn't be here. Nobody has ever heard of people being hurt after seeing them or trying to communicate with them." Others tell of an old slory among the Yurok that one of the prominent Hoopa families is party descended from a Bigfoot, because of the particularly family's unusual size.

Fully 57 of the 500-odd reports contained in Green's Sasquntch File arc of Bigfool sightings in umboldl County, most of them in the Klnmalh Kiver area between Hoopa and Pecwan. Il.