I agree Burnt, the quacks readily discredit the real researchers evidence based on the tendency of the general populous to see all research regarding Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti research as one unified group of people. Unfortunately a quacks story is usually more sensational than the less appealing truth which makes slow progress. The "Bat Boy" story in the National Inquirer sure made me look at the front page twice
The more I look at these kinds of subjects considered to be paranormal, the more I see those involved talking critically about how one individual approaches the thing , or how an organization interprets their data. Much more dialog about how to approach any given thing than energy spent finding it.
It seems as if 95% of our energy is either spent trying to agree on what a correct approach is or trying to determine what it is in the first place. The other 5% is energy spent on the real answers.
A lot of time and effort goes into guesswork. Pardon me, I tend to use stupid examples, but this one fits IMO. If my wife didn't come home or was running late, I might start to wonder what it could be. Since I really don't know, the best I can do is guess.She might have had car trouble,she might have gotten into a car accident,she might have seen a friend and gotten into a conversation,
maybe she got sick and needed to go to the hospital. Like my example,this is where those with questions in any unexplained occurrence spend most of their time and energy, by guessing and rational presumption. Some people out there will come up with some pretty far out explanations in the absence of any clues to the real answer.I am probably sometimes one of those people.
Lon Stricklers book is a good read IMO. Lots of stories from the eastern US. Since he is a Maryland resident and has collected stories from people here. Very large uncategorized birds, some of them dragon like.Bigfoot, wolf men, spirit beings....you name it. Lon himself claims to have had a Bigfoot sighting.