Two Oregon men on a search for Sasquatch were found dead of probable exposure in a Washington state park, authorities said.
Family members reported the pair missing around 1 a.m. Wednesday after they failed to return home as planned on Christmas Eve, the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday. A “grueling, three-day search over difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions” ensued, involving more than 60 volunteers and including “canine, drone and ground-searching teams,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Searchers first located the men’s vehicle at the southern border of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, where the bodies of the 59- and 37-year-old men were ultimately found in dense woods; their names were not immediately released. The forest comprises more than 1.3 million acres and is about 150 miles northeast of Portland.
“Both deaths appear to be due to exposure, based on weather conditions and ill-preparedness,” the sheriff’s office noted.
The “exceptional volunteers” who left their own Christmas celebrations for the search “fought through freezing temperatures, snow, high water levels, heavy rain, downfall, and heavily wooded terrain,” the sheriff said. “Their exhaustive search efforts resulted in bringing family members home to their loved ones.”
Participating agencies included search and rescue teams from several counties, as well as numerous nonprofit organizations and a U.S. Coast Guard crew who “flew in inclement weather” to deploy infrared technology, the sheriff’s office said, sending “deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the loved ones lost in this tragic incident.”
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The legend of the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, dates back to ancient times. (Getty)
The legend of the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, dates back to ancient times, as Indigenous Peoples had their own legends of a towering, fur-covered, ape-like creature who strode upright through the woods of the Pacific Northwest, according to the environmental organization Oregon Wild.
Though there is no proof of its existence, “there are a lot of people out there who are confident that some sort of ape-man roams through the depths of North America’s most remote forests and devote their lives to finding them,” Oregon Wild’s website notes.
With News Wire Services
