Archaeologist digs for proof of Sasquatch

By day she's the Stanislaus National Forest's archaeologist. With a master's degree in anthropology, she makes sure prehistoric Native American sites in the woods are protected. She's also the forest's liaison with the Me-Wuk tribe. But it's what Kathy Strain does in her spare time that separates her from Forest Service colleagues. She's a Bigfooter. A student of Sasquatch. A yearner for Yeti. A true believer. "A strong case can be made that Bigfoot exists," said Strain, whose Jamestown-area home includes a room full of books, videos, cast footprints, notes and reports on the creature. "I've seen things I have no other explanation for." Not only that, but she says Tuolumne County and the forest she works on are among the huge creature's favorite haunts. She has catalogued scores of eyewitness accounts, has discovered a Sasquatch "nest" near Twain Harte and swears she was once close enough to the creature that dirt was still falling from the sides of deep,14-inch footprints it left behind. And get this: Strain is not crazy. In fact, her scientific credentials and employment by a huge, dead-serious and not terribly imaginative federal agency boost her stock as a guest speaker at Bigfoot conferences. But when she walks into the forest's Greenley Road headquarters, Strain leaves Sasquatch at the door. She doesn't demand that wide swaths of timberland be set aside as Bigfoot habitat.

Nor does she hector forest wildlife biologists with evidence or accounts she has collected. "Kathy has been an excellent archaeologist and employee," confirmed her boss, Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn. "And, at least in my four and a half years here, I have had no reports of Yeti conversations in the workplace." For the record, Quinn added, the forest has "no position" on Bigfoot. Which, less restrained Bigfooters might say, is like Australia having no position on kangaroos. NEXT TO THE deep woods near the Oregon border, Strain says, the Stanislaus Forest area is the nation's hottest Bigfoot spot. In the past six years she has documented more than 200 sightings and witness accounts. A few have come from co-workers looking to unburden themselves — after quitting time, of course — of long-held Bigfoot tales. Take the wildlife biologist who never forgot his 1993 trip to Bloomer Lake, above Pinecrest.

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