Rediscovering the famous Bigfoot attack scene at Ape Canyon, the quest to preserve a piece of history

Ape Canyon widens out further down the mountain

During one evening In 1924, a group of miners shot at a mysterious 7-foot-tall apelike creature that was milling around the makeshift cabin they had built in the canyon to assay a nearby claim. That night, as the miners tried to get some shut-eye, their cabin was reportedly pelted with rocks, logs and other forest debris by a band of at least three of the “Big Foot” ape creatures—the miners later measured footprints at up to 19 inches long. In the morning, the story goes, the miners came upon and shot one of the ape creatures, which fell some 400 feet into the canyon, presumably to a certain death, although no remains of any kind were ever recovered. While other alleged Bigfoot sightings have occurred throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond, the events that took place at Ape Canyon in 1924 will forever stand as the beginning of our fascination with the legend.

It was previously understood that the cabin was burnt "to the ground" around 1968. But according to new evidence being gathered by people seeking to preserve the cabin's location, this may not be the case after all.

For the past two years, the Dark Waters Paranormal Group have been collecting important documentary evidence that could lead them to the exact location of the cabin. Based on the evidence the group has gathered, they believe it's possible the cabin could still be around. The area is an alpine forest, and the dangerously rugged terrain makes it very difficult to get to. This may be the main reason why the cabin was presumed "lost".

We recently got in touched with Marc, one of  the members of the group, and ask him a little bit about their background and why they're looking for this historic location.

Here's what Marc said:

The importance of recovering the Vanderwhite Mine/Cabin is on par with preserving say, Mt. Vernon or Ephesus; not only as an important historical resource for the National Volcanic Monument; but perhaps, more importantly, to the body of Paranormal/Sasquatch research. We all know the "legend" of Atlantis, but what if physical evidence could actually be recovered?

I got started on this project, actually, as a "test" of a theory I came across, promulgated by Nick Redfern. I was intigued with the idea that, given an extra-normal event to be researched, if one looks around at the general geographic area, or general time period, that you'd be surprised at the propensity of other, seemingly unrelated, events of "high-strangeness". I purposefully chose two stories to research at first. One was a series of events that, almost, no one knows about in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. The other was extremely well know,Ape Canyon.

I grew up on the story of Ape Canyon as I grew up in the Pacific Northwest . However, the more I delved in to it, I realized that; 1) there was A LOT more documentary evidence that was not covered by previous Sasquatch researchers of the late 1960's/early 1970's; and 2) the story of the 1924 incident was on the verge of being canned into the circular file of "legend" and "tall-tale".

As I began to cover the research bases of the project, I came to strongly believe that the Mine/Cabin could very well have survived the eruptions of 1980&1981. I also found that there was probably a lot of evidence still around in the form of family stories and, perhaps family heirlooms from the decendants of the 5 miners.

So I started searching. I feel the prospects of recovering physical evidence of the Mine/Cabin is quite good.

The location of the cabin was well known to locals, probably through the mid 1950's. The Forest Service noted it as a feature on trail maps, noting that it could be seen from the main forest service trail (the trail is essentially in the same location as prior to the eruption). Harry Reese, who ran a local Boy Scout troupe knew it well (his scout troupe called themselves the St. Helen's Apes & named the nearby lava tube Ape Cave all in recognition of the 1924 incident). However, by the mid 1960's, the knowledge of its location began to fade from local memory.

Fred Beck, one of the miners, remarked in his book, authored with his son, that he understood that the cabin burnt "to the ground" circa 1968. When Peter Byrne visited Ape Canyon, circa 1971, he couldn't find the cabin; but did speak with two hikers who said that they had just come from it.

I believe the reality is that after 86 years and 3 eruptions, the cabin simply became obscured. It is alpine forest after all. Even a larger logistical reality is that one has to travel another hour or more off trail to get to the cabin site (or at least where I think it is), despite the fact that it's less than a quarter/mile off trail. It is quite rugged and dangerous. This is the main reason why I think the cabin has been lost. It's just very, very hard to get to.

Ultimately, I am seeing this project culminating in a film documentary on the search for the cabin; revisiting the sites of the story 1918-1924, interviews with family members, etc. I have a lead on a Klickitat basket weaver who knows the traditional stories of Spirit Lake and the stories of the Man-Monsters that appear on traditional Klickitat huckleberry baskets. That'd be fun, I think.

Also in the email response, Marc gave us a link to the Dark Waters Paranormal Group's Facebook page. The link directed us to an analysis of the Ape Canyon evidence they've been collecting for the past 2 years or so:

The search for the Ape Canyon Cabin and Mine has been an exhaustive effort of around 2 years. Nearly every document lead imaginable has been covered. Now we slide in to the field work required for the recovery of this important archeological and historical resource.

A comprehensive review of the documented record is beyond the scope of a Facebook post. So, I’ll try to stick to the references pertinent to this last field trip.

Directly after the reported attack on the night of July 10, 1924, the story spread like locusts across the headlines of numerous West Coast newspapers. While many papers published or republished interviews with the miners from the Longview Daily News, only three newspapers actually sent reporters to the scene: The Portland News, The Seattle Post Intelligencer and The Oregonian. The Portland News and The Oregonian were the only ones who published photographs. The Oregonian was the only paper to publish photographs of the site, itself.

With the published stories from the three papers, we’re also left with clues as to the cabin site left by interviews with Fred Beck and by the mining records of the Vanderwhite claim in Skamania Co, Washington.

SO WHERE THE HELL IS THIS?

Beginning with a 1936 Columbia National Forest Map, the impressive box canyon on the East side of Mt. St. Helens began to be known as Ape Canyon, previously known as Jump Off Canyon. The name of this feature stuck, and it’s still so named on the latest USGS Quad sheets:

There is a slight chance that APE CANYON as we known it today is actually not where the 1924 incident took place. However, there are enough clues that point us to start looking here, at the geographically named Ape Canyon.

SO WHAT ARE WE UP AGAINST?

Holy smokes!!! In 1924, Jack Gregory of the Oregonian described the decent as lying “kind of down a dividing ridge between two glacial chasms”…. “finally it got so steep there was a rope to hang on” … “below that came a sheer cliff”.

This photo is of the East side of Pumice Butte taken from the South side of Ape Canyon. You will note from the USGS Quad sheet above another canyon on the North side of the butte. It is as equally bone chilling as the life-in-your-hands sheerness of Ape Canyon proper.

The mining location notice for the Vanderwhite Mine notes the discovery shaft as “running along the iron dike”. These guys were not professional geologists, so they may not have understood the accurate definition of an iron dike. However, large orange deposits start to show on the North side of the canyon as seen in the lower right of the photo.

UP AND OVER THE EDGE!!!

This initial search of August 30, led us down this yawn in to sure death, across most dry sandy, pumice-y, slip under your feet & grab on to whatever controlled fall. Here’s what we found and why we think it’s important.

Initially, one has to understand that this area was very-little impacted by the eruptions of 1980 and 1981. The aerial photos just prior to the eruption and just after the eruption and today are essentially the same. The areas of no vegetation are identical. The areas of vegetation and trees are identical. This, I theorize, is due to the large box canyons on the North and South sides of the butte acting as HUGE ditches that accepted the mud and rock flows from the eruption, sparing the majority of the East side of the butte (the “leeward” side of the eruption) from the scouring seen around the rest of the area.

Secondly, one has to understand that there is no evidence of the immediate East side of Pumice Butte being logged or developed. The immediate area is remote and dangerous to traverse. Before the advent of truck logging, we took trees by steam donkey and train. There ain’t no way that this could happen here. It’s far too steep and has too few trees to make it worth the while.

The point is that we theorize that the only human visitation to this immediate area would be by the miners themselves in 1922-1924 or by thrill seekers (like us) who wanted to see the famed Ape Canyon site.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

An accidental slip and “oh Christ, tell Kathryn I love her” fall under a 36” diameter Douglas fir landed me right next to a fortuitous find:

A 3-4” dried fir bough, partially sawn through.

Approximately 200 feet away, another.

In the late 1960’s interview with Fred Beck, he described the construction of the cabin roof as pine shakes set across battens, approximately a foot apart as shown in this 1924 photo from the 

Oregonian:

If these are not “left-overs” from the cabin construction, they may have been remnants of fire-wood collection or remnants of other site development of the mining efforts.

Later, I found this piece of, apparently, cut and split wood:

A remote possibility, resembling the log chinking seen in the end view of the cabin in 1924 above.

THE CLIFF:

Compare the contour of the cliff  and the tree location above Dept. Sheriff Dunbar in 1924 with the contour of a cliff photographed in this trip.

This recent photo was taken aways from a better view that could be had but it was 6pm and the sun was directly in view of the camera. Next trip, better photos, hopefully!

WHAT’S NEXT???

The evidence found in this trip warrants one or more trips to the site for more investigation. The evidence is by no means definitive. But it is enticing.

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