Much of his audience was obviously skeptical — some even joking about the topic.
But John Callender, a Columbia native who now lives in Seattle, is serious about Bigfoot — what some believe to be of an animal species, probably primate, that exist today in low-population densities.
Bigfoot or sasquatch, another name, is reported to have been seen in North America for generations, but no one has proved or disproved that they exist.
Callender, who makes a living as a pilot for Alaska Airlines, also is a field investigator for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, a group that explores the mystery. It was founded in 1995 by a man named Matthew Moneymaker.
Speaking to the McComb Rotary Club on Wednesday, Callender, who became interested in Bigfoot as a youth in Mississippi, said BFRO’s goal is to prove there is a such a species of animal.
“I have a certain degree of skepticism myself,” Callender said, but he still puts credence in many of the reports of encounters.
“You can’t take me into a court of law to prove it exists,” but “you can’t go into a court of law and prove it doesn’t exist,” he said.
When he asked if there was anyone in the audience who had ever seen something resembling Bigfoot, one Rotarian raised his hand and said he thought he had until it turned out to be his brother-in-law.
Another Rotarian told Callender that while he appreciated that he was a Mississippi native, he wondered if the pilot could provide a schedule as to when he would be flying an airliner.
Callender said Bigfoot sightings have been reported in all the states, except Hawaii, and in Canada.
Only two have been reported in Pike County and three in Amite, and the last reports in this immediate area were in the 1970s, he said.
But he said there have been more reports in the Columbia, Hattiesburg and Laurel areas, with Forrest County leading with 11.
