Roger Patterson

The Patterson–Gimlin film (also known as the Patterson film or the PGF) is an American short motion picture of an unidentified subject that the filmmakers have said was a Bigfoot.

The storyline called for Patterson, his Indian guide (Gimlin in a wig), and the cowboys to recall in flashbacks the stories of Fred Beck (of the 1924 Ape Canyon incident) and others as they tracked the beast on horseback.

For actors and cameraman, Patterson used at least nine volunteer acquaintances, including Gimlin and Bob Heironimus, for three days of shooting, perhaps over the Memorial Day weekend.

Patterson would have needed a costume to represent Bigfoot, if the time came to shoot such climactic scenes.

The filmmakers were Roger Patterson (1933–1972) and Robert "Bob" Gimlin (born 1931).

Patterson said he became interested in Bigfoot after reading an article about the creature by Ivan T. Sanderson in True magazine in December 1959.

In 1961 Sanderson published his encyclopedic Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life, a worldwide survey of accounts of Bigfoot-type creatures, including recent track finds, etc. in the Bluff Creek area, which heightened his interest.

Thereafter, Marian Place wrote:

"In 1962 he visited Bluff Creek and talked with a whole host of Bigfoot-believers. In 1964 he returned and met a timber-cruiser named Pat Graves, who drove him to Laird Meadows. There Patterson saw fresh tracks—for him an almost unbearably exciting, spine-chilling experience. What a tremendous feat it would be—what a scientific breakthrough—if he could obtain unshakable evidence that these tracks were not the work of a prankster, but the actual mark of a hitherto unknown creature! If he succeeded, he would be famous! And rich!

Alas, fame and fortune were not gained that year, nor the next, nor the next.

Patterson invested thousands of hours and dollars combing Bigfoot and Sasquatch territory.

He fought constant ridicule and a shortage of funds.

... he founded ... the Northwest Research Foundation.

Through it he solicited funds.

... The response was encouraging and enabled him to lead several expeditions.

For decades, the exact location of the site was lost, primarily because of re-growth of foliage in the streambed after the flood of 1964.

... In 1966 he published a paperback book at his own expense.

... He added the income from its sales and his lectures to the search fund.

As each wilderness jaunt failed to see or capture the monster, one by one the thrill-seekers dropped out.

But Patterson never gave up."

Patterson's book, Do Abominable Snowmen of America Really Exist?, was self-published in 1966.

The book has been characterized as "little more than a collection of newspaper clippings laced together with Patterson's circus-poster style prose".

The book, however, contains 20 pages of previously unpublished interviews and letters, 17 drawings by Patterson of the encounters described in the text, 5 hand-drawn maps (rare in subsequent Bigfoot books), and almost 20 photos and illustrations from others.

The footage was shot in 1967 in Northern California, and has since been subjected to many attempts to authenticate or debunk it.

The footage was filmed alongside Bluff Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River, about 25 mi northwest of Orleans, California, in Del Norte County on the Six Rivers National Forest.

The film site is roughly 38 mi south of Oregon and 18 mi east of the Pacific Ocean.

The date was October 20, 1967, according to the filmmakers, although some critics believe it was shot earlier.

In May/June 1967 Patterson began filming a docudrama or pseudo-documentary about cowboys being led by an old miner and a wise Indian tracker on a hunt for Bigfoot.

Prior to the October 1967 filming, Patterson apparently visited Los Angeles on these occasions:

Merritt soon moved back to Yakima and became Patterson's neighbor, and later his collaborator on his Bigfoot documentary.

Both Patterson and Gimlin had been rodeo riders and amateur boxers—and local champions in their weight classes.

Patterson had played high school football.

Gimlin mostly avoided publicly discussing the subject from at least the early 1970s until about 2005 (except for three appearances), when he began giving interviews and appearing at Bigfoot conferences.

The film is 23.85 ft long (preceded by 76.15 ft of "horseback" footage), has 954 frames, and runs for 59.5 seconds at 16 frames per second.

If the film was shot at 18 fps, as Grover Krantz believed, the event lasted 53 seconds.

Patterson died of cancer in 1972 and "maintained right to the end that the creature on the film was real".

Patterson's friend, Gimlin, has always denied being involved in any part of a hoax with Patterson.

It was first reprinted in 1996 by Chris Murphy, and then again re-issued by Murphy in 2005 under the title The Bigfoot Film Controversy, with 81 pages of additional material by Murphy.

It was rediscovered in 2011.

It is just south of a north-running segment of the creek informally known as "the bowling alley".