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Letter to Editor
ShareJust a little big, hairy idea
Published: October 01, 2008 5:00 AMApparently the world doesn’t care if a watchdog group is slinging arrows at the District, or rental rates may be hiked at community facilities.
But write one dang bigfoot story and all hell breaks loose.
For a short time last month, the Sept. 10 story of a sasquatch sighting on Buck Flat Roads was the most read online story in B.C.
Our parent company, Black Press, keeps tabs on how many different people read any given story and posts it on our houston-today.com website under the Most Read category.
It stayed there until, also believe it or not, a bear walked into a Subway Restaurant in Kitimat. Thing is the Northern Sentinel had actual surveillance photos of the bear perched on the front counter.
Unfortunately we didn’t have a photo, so now Bigfoot is No. 4.
Shortly after the story appeared in Houston Today, the online world preoccupied by the mysterious went crazy downloading the story and featuring it in blogs and internet websites.
What we didn’t expect was to shortly find out the enigmatic hairy monster wasn’t just popping up on Buck Flats Road. Apparently, there have been additional Houston sightings, another near Moricetown and a Terrace man came forward with a cast of what he calls a sasquatch footprint.
The question of whether or not it was actually some hairy missing link inhabiting the forests near Houston is better left to each of our beliefs.
But wouldn’t it be an interesting little marketing idea?
We wouldn’t be the first to be a little eclectic to pique the curiousity of travelling tourists. St. Paul, Alberta has its UFO landing pad, Kelowna has Ogopogo, Stewiacke, Nova Scotia has its mastadon and Glover’s Harbour, Nfld., has its giant killer squid.
While the giant fly rod is of special pride, maybe there might be something to appealing to the curious.
Over the past decade, Houston’s Brian Vike has made quite a name for himself internationally as a UFO researcher.
Again, whether you believe it or not, is a moot point.
As just that little story in our little newspaper proved, there are those out there who do believe.
Who are we to tell them they are wrong? After all, they eat food, sleep in hotels, buy souvenirs, just like the rest of us.
-Todd Hamilton
