Forums on Sasquatch, UFOs land in Seattle

Friday, June 03, 2005, Seattle, Washington USA

By Mark Rahner

Seattle Times staff reporter

For devotees of the bizarre, it's the weekend equivalent of the old McDLT sandwich that kept the hot and cold sides separate — but make that the McDET. For its fifth year, the Northwest UFO/Paranormal Conference is adding a Seattle Sasquatch Symposium — scheduling the UFO/paranormal material for Saturday and the Sasquatch stuff for Sunday.

The featured guest is Robert Gimlin, of the widely scrutinized 1967 Patterson-Gimlin footage that some believe shows a Sasquatch strutting in a forest and looking back over its shoulder.

It all takes place from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. both days in the Northwest Rooms of the Seattle Center. The cost: $12 per speaker or $50 a day — with discounts for members of the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries, which is sponsoring the event; $140 buys the whole shebang plus banquet buffets both nights. See www.seattlechatclub.org/2005Con.html for the full details and schedule.

Other guests include:

• AGHOST — Ghost Hunters of Seattle Tacoma.

• Dr. Nick Begich, mind-control expert.

• Peter Davenport, director of the Seattle-based National UFO Reporting Center.

• Budd Hopkins, alien-abduction author.

• Dr. John Bindernagel, a wildlife biologist asking, "The Sasquatch: Is it North America's Great Ape?"

There will also be several other guests from both sides, a theremin demonstration, a Bigfoot panel and more.

And if Sasquatch turns out to be an alien, there might be a reorganization of the event next year.