Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Monday, March 04, 2013

No...it didn't come from the billabong

This morning I received an email from a reader with this image attached. They wanted to know where the image came from and if it was authentic.

Well...this image has a curious history behind it.

I first heard about it in April 2009 when Doomadgee, Queensland residents were dubbing it as an authentic photo of the “Water Blackfella”.

According to the legendary tale being told around the region, a Doomadgee man was trying to take a photo of a large snake at Drum Yard Station, which is about 50 kilometres outside Doomadgee, when this creature emerged from a billabong.

The quick thinking man supposedly hid behind a tree and took this “photograph” before the monster slinked past him and out of sight.

It was also said that a couple claimed to have taken the photo of the mysterious creature when they spotted it in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

People were asking....is it a bunyip, a gorilla, a water blackfella or just simply a hoax?

So.....according to Loren Coleman, the image is the so-called “Wild Creek Bigfoot” photo. It is one of a series of 14 photos supposedly taken by an off-duty forest patrol officer near Mt. Ranier on July 11, 1995. They were allegedly purchased by Cliff Crook, although some have felt that Crook allegedly created them. The pics are generally thought to have been made using a small model posed in a watery setting, such as a small creek or merely digitally “painted” from computer software onto a real photograph background.

Then in January 2010, Matt Moneymaker of the BFRO wrote:

Long-time hoaxer Cliff Crook of Bothell, Washington, has a unique niche in the bigfoot evidence fabrication business. He's a sculptor.

What does a bigfoot-hoaxer-sculptor do? He mostly sculpts fake tracks, at his home.

At one time he had a whole track duplication factory in his garage and backyard.

Crook has sculpted more than just phony bigfoot tracks though. He has sculpted entire bigfoot statues of various shapes and sizes.

He didn't sell those statues, rather he took photos of them and tried to pass them off as authentic photos.

You can read the history of the hoaxer Cliff Crook at Hoaxer Cliff Crook - BFRO

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