Lost Monster Files produces some abominable research
The Discovery Channel’s new series “Lost Monster Files” (LMF) is promoted as a cryptozoology program that uses a team of experts that consult the archives of “founder of cryptozoology”, Ivan T. Sanderson, in their investigations of modern claims of unclassified animals. See my review of the first episode for more background. The second episode, titled Snow Beast of Ruby Creek, is about the team looking at Sanderson’s files about ABSM or the Abominable Snowmen in British Columbia.
ABSMery
It may be a jolt to viewers fairly new to the subject of cryptids to encounter the term ABSM, which this episode drops early and fails to explain adequate. Sanderson used the term ABSM as shorthand for abominable snowmen – his generic umbrella term for what we now might call “hairy hominins” referring to Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti (and variants), almas, relict hominids, etc. Sanderson wrote the 1961 book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life. It’s a good book, fun to read, and an excellent history of the search for these creatures worldwide. I would recommend this books to anyone who watched this episode, particularly the cast, who show no sign that they even knew it existed. By consulting just this book, you can get a much-expanded version of the historical bits mentioned in this LMF episode.
Portions of the episode that reference Sanderson’s files include the Chapman incident in British Columbia (see more below) and “classified” documents in Russian regarding research into creatures in Asia. They treat the Russian research files as something new and surprising. All reasonably well-read cryptid researchers know that Russia has a long and continued history in seeking out the Yeti and other hominoid varieties. This is neither new nor shocking. But the show says nothing more about it, leaving the viewer more misinformed than when they started.
Source of the files – not “lost”
In the last post, I mentioned that I didn’t know anything about this collection of files by Sanderson stored in Michigan. I have since found out more thanks to input from others who knew about it. The files are held by Michael Swords who received them in 2011 via contacts from Sanderson’s society, SITU. From Swords’ blog:
“There is an internet legend that these archives have been severely depleted by sticky-fingered knowledge-thieves. Again, who knows what all MIGHT have happened in the past, but my eyeballs say that the VAST majority if not all of the famous SITU files [even dating back to Sanderson and the early years; i.e. Sanderson’s own file creation] ARE STILL EXTANT AND RIGHT HERE IN KALAMAZOO.“
They are not hidden or lost. Others have been able to access them on request as Swords welcomed as “keeper” of the collection. The comments to that announcement run for years and include a March 2024 comment by Swords noting, “We are engaged with a documentary team as I write.” This is undoubtedly the LMF team.
Swords is credited in the episodes. Swords picture of Sanderson’s binders. These are the same as what is shown in LMF.
Search for the Canadian ABSM
When introducing Sanderson’s ideas, Charlie describes the ABSM characteristics: 9 feet tall, sharp teeth, white-haired. This is misleading in so many ways. This is the old fashioned idea of the Yeti, a term never used in the show. The Yeti is known from the Himalayas, not North America. The show chooses to use the clunky, outdated term ABSM throughout while clearly talking about a Sasquatch/Bigfoot in British Columbia. I expect this might be confusing to viewers by not mentioning the word Bigfoot but clearly describing it in its well-known locale. The idea of white-hair makes little sense either since even Yetis (and variants) usually were brown- black- or red-haired. Certainly, the ABSM of the Pacific Northwest is rarely described like this.
Has the cast learned cryptozoology from 1964’s
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? The Chapman case from 1941 involves a close up sighting of a not-white-haired wild man creature experienced by a mother and several children at their homestead in Ruby Creek near the Fraser river. A 7.5 ft tall being came out of the forest, entered the house, and removed a barrel of salted fish as the family stayed outside. Sanderson visited the Chapmans and refers to the mystery creature in the 1961 book as a Sasquatch. The LMF crew do an extremely cursory review of the case. They speak to one modern witness, Dave Victor, who describes encountering a rock-throwing creature while fishing in the Fraser River. The viewers are asked to accept the witness story as described, as correct and accurate, and to extrapolate that the creature experienced by both the Chapmans and Victor is the same and is still in the area. Even though no one has collected solid evidence of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch after over 100 years of active searching, this cast of a TV show is convinced they will be the ones to do it in a few days of camping. Sure.
Field work
The cast splits up with the two trackers, Troy and Justin, following a trail up Hope mountain from the Fraser River. They find tracks that they never show in detail or try to identify (seemingly because they are mundane), but never see any animals. They assume they are tracking a bear. The show pushes the idea that there may be a “grolar” hybrid bear here. A “grolar” or “pizzly” is a rare hybrid grizzly-polar bear. There is no logical reason to propose such a creature here and it’s done simply to make an unexciting episode more dramatic. These hybrids are very rare and are found farther north, closer to the Arctic polar bear range. It’s one of many ridiculous claims made in the show to jazz it up.
The rushed and non-believable climax of their adventure is during the night at the summit where it appears (it’s not clear) that logs are moved or thrown at them, and they experience “infrasound” blasted in their direction. None of this is verified or even decently described. I burst out laughing at the several “What the hell was that?!” exclamations. It’s just like watching Ghost Hunters! They never reveal that “THAT” is anything at all beyond their fear-stoked imagination.
Meanwhile, Brittany and Charlie have hauled a crap-ton of equipment of all sorts into the woods to try to find the creature they are “convinced” exists here. They use laser beams, infrared cameras, and a drone. Equipment display is the most common ploy to be scientifical. The beams and IR cameras do nothing useful here. The drone appears to spot a cave that they investigate but the dots are not connected. All the events feel contrived, even faked.
Brittany sits alone at night waiting for something to happen. She hears scratching and runs out to find a tree ripped up by a bear. We are made to think this just happened. The lasers and cameras saw nothing. This certainly looks like bear scratches, but that the scene feels manufactured to look surprising. Later, she’s in a hunting blind after stringing salmon up as bait. She hears a noise, rushes out and finds a disturbed patch she calls a footprint. They use the scanner to record it, and later make an effort to match a cast in Sanderson’s archive of a Yeti footprint (from Asia, but none of this is mentioned). This is another ridiculous claim. You see nothing but noisy data over which they have drawn toes.
Stinky fish attracted not one hungry critter.
But wait, there is more. Brittany and Charlie investigate a rock cave where they find fish bones. They declare they are fresh (without any justification) and take samples that are sent for DNA testing. They also insist no bear could have done this (but ignore the possibility that a raccoon or other smaller could have). The DNA tests come up inconclusive. That means – you guessed it – it’s a mystery animal because it doesn’t match a known species! (That’s not how it works.)
Conclusion
The premise of this episode is absurd. We are asked to accept that a group of newcomers who helicopter into the woods looking for the abominable snowman will solve the mystery of a sighting from 1941.
Nothing of any interest is found in this episode. They can’t even find normal animals. However, in sifting through the dregs of data, they draw bullseyes and say “SEE! We are awesome.” Outrageously, they conclude that they have ruled out all known species and that this is a new species they were so close to documenting. They suggest they will leave game cameras out and revisit the place in 6 months.
Sanderson’s wheel of classification that the cast uses to exaggerate and misrepresent their poor bits of data and shoddy research.
The quality of the show is not improving after the first episode and I can reasonably guess that it won’t. The writing is dumb, and the cast appear as ignorant and like phony performers to anyone who knows even a little bit of cryptid history.
I realize that I am not the audience for this show. I know too much and can’t shut off critical thinking while watching. Furthermore, I have set expectations too high. This is the incorrect way to consume any TV show, even those portrayed as nonfiction. Television is intended to be passive and entertaining, a distraction from real life. The viewer is not supposed to check facts. It doesn’t matter if the presenters are unqualified. It only matters that it is interesting to watch. The problem arises when the programming tacitly asserts that it depicts legitimate research, that the events are real and happened as shown, and that the “talent” are doing science so the results are solid. That’s what Discovery Channel programming does best – play up pretend research as new, credible knowledge. Thanks to a generally poor understanding of how reliable knowledge is formulated, the audience has been lulled into thinking that what one sees on TV (or on the news station, or said by a person with a platform) is true and should be accepted. Instead of being disposable entertainment, viewers will unfortunately retain the idea that investigations can be meaningfully done by actors doing sciencey things and hyping their baseless claims on a small screen. This is how we all get dumber.
#AbominableSnowmen #ABSM #Bigfoot #cryptid #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #grolarBear #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #paranormalTelevision #RubyCreek #Sasquatch #sciencey #Scientifical #Yeti
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