When in 1971 Ron Moorehead and his friends set out for their hunting camp high in the Sierras between Yosemite and Tahoe, none of them could have anticipated how that trip would change their lives or what would come of it. As they camped out they began to hear animal calls that none present could readily identify. As the calls continued it became apparent that here was something new and it began to dawn on them what it might be.

Some seven years after the events of the Patterson/Gimlin film, even without the internet, it is unlikely many people had never seen the famous footage of “Patty” making her way across the river and into the woods to escape intruders into her habitat. What could they think they were hearing? Even as witness to the sounds they heard there must have been some doubt in their minds. When Ron next returned to the camp it was in the company of an investigative reporter named Al Berry, and some recording equipment. There began a life long study and interaction with Bigfoot.

Some of Ron’s results can be found here

Always careful to express that he proposes no answers to these questions, leaving those to the experts, and expressing that his study relates only to those creatures he has interacted with, Ron relates a broad range of interactions and experiences with the species. Believing that the creatures are tribal and possibly divided into sub-species as, if other stories are true, they are separated by oceans and could have evolved along different lines.

Footprints, exchanging gifts (to the extent that the creatures added fresh branches to the roof of their camp shelter,) sightings, and voice recordings. They have no pictures, or at least none were presented at the conference, as Ron echoes the experience of others that Bigfoot are seemingly aware of exceptionally shy around cameras. They have attempted to post trail cams and found them later removed, at times violently, from trees.

People have asked “How can Bigfoot be found?” Ron will tell you they cannot. Like most animals, they are aware of the presence of bumbling noisy humans long before we are aware of them. If Bigfoot want to interact with you they will find you.

How do you know they are there? One of the sounds they make is a “whoop” that is believed to be a simple location signal, used among the creatures for their own purposes. But even this is only if they want you to hear them. Bigfoot have a broad range of vocal capabilities, mimicry being just the tip of the iceberg. As has been noted in a previous article, there is a firmly held belief that Bigfoot use infrasound, sound below 20 Hz, outside the human range of hearing.
Ron relates a story of a night when he and another awoke to the sounds of their camp being destroyed, dreading the scene that would present itself in the morning. When they emerged from their shelter, nothing had been touched.

With the advent of the Internet, Ron began making available the compiled sounds he had recorded and that is where Scott Nelson comes into the picture. A Crypto-linguist for the Navy, Scott has 30 years and thousands of hours experience analyzing and transcribing vocal recordings. It was while helping his son on a school reject he got discovered Ron’s recordings. Scott’s son seemed to feel there was something more to the sounds Ron had recorded, so got his dad involved. Scott, unable to determine from the recordings he was hearing contacted Ron for better quality recordings and soon became a member of the team that travel with some frequency to the Sierra hunting camp.

Years of study later:

I would personally like to thank Mr. Neslon for permission to use the parts of his presentation found her for this article.

For more information on Scott and his work follow this link

Yes, the quality of the sound is not the best. The hotel was seemingly not equipped with the best equipment and anyone providing sound had to simply hold the microphone up to the speakers of their computer. That or no one knew how to set up their computer to get direct sound. Also I was using a basic hand held camcorder with condenser microphone. So please understand that you may not hear everything there was to hear. I did not hear everything there was to hear, as much of it takes many repetitions to discern. That said, much of it was there and I can assure you, more than just a trick of human perception finding or imagining what it is looking for.

This presentation more than made up for the absence of Dr. Ketchum.