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COMPARE AND CONTRAST, AS the professors used to say in my college literature classes: Ruth Steele, who is 73 years old and lives at Dryad, is on the trail of something resembling Bigfoot. She’s convinced she’s spied the elu sive creature at least three times in the past six months — “No question about it, I seen it,” she told The Chronicle — and now wants to prove her claim by taking a photo of Sasquatch. JZ Knight, who is either 50 or 35,000 years old (depending on the day) and lives at Yelm, hasn’t found Bigfoot, but she has long since dis covered a sure way to make money. She, so she says, channels wis dom from Ramtha, an ancient warrior who happened to pop up in Knight's kitchen 20 years ago. And plenty of people pay Knight plenty of money to hear her while she’s in this wondrous state of transforma tion. This past weekend, Knight in vited a select group of scholars to her 40-acre Thurston County estate. There, they discussed whether Knight's channeling is the real deal. The academics (who, by the way, traveled to the Nisqually Val ley at Knight's expense) conclud ed ... well, they didn’t conclude much. After examin ing a year’s worth of test results, they didn’t say for sure that Knight wasn’t channeling Ramtha. On they other hand, nei ther could they prove she was. They did note that Knight's pulse rate sometimes leaps from 90 to 180 beats per minute while she’s possessed by Ramtha, but some might say just about anybody's heart might start going pitty-pat if he or she could take in $1,000 per week from each seminar attendee, as Knight does regularly. Sadly, though, Ramtha did not make an appearance during the weekend, so Knight’s panel of ex perts had no first-hand evidence. Well, I guess I'll take the middle ground on all of this. I don’t know if Bigfoot is for real. I don’t know if Ramtha is for real. But I haven't seen either one, so I imagine I should put myself in the category of skeptic. I do know this, though. Ruth Steele needs to call JZ Knight and find out who her agent is. Just think about it. Right out in Dryad is a woman who says she’s seen a strange crea ture not just once, but three times. She says the critter is 6 or 7 feet tall, has gray, white and sometimes black fur with a pink face, walks upright and wears no clothing. She thinks it may be Bigfoot. Then again, it might just be a defen sive lineman from the Seattle Seahawks trying to find his way home after a team party, but that’s pretty much out of the question, considering that the Seahawks are a bunch of God-fearing, flag-waving straight arrows. So let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that Sasquatch is wan dering around somewhere out there near Dryad. That has a certain appeal, does n't it? The idea of Sasquatch intrigues those of us who live in modern society, in a time when the last of America’s true frontiers have been closed for decades. It fasci nates the part of us that likes to think maybe all the life forms on Earth haven't been discovered, identified and cataloged — that per haps something mysterious is still out there in the woods. All that might, just might, make Ruth Steele at least a semi-celebri ty, if not outright wealthy, one would think. But did Ruth Steele spend the weekend hosting physicists, psy chologists and theologians next to a blue-tiled pool in a chateau-style mansion? Nope. JZ Knight did that, making the most out of her close relationship with a 35,000-year-old character from whom no one but Knight her self has heard in the last 350 centuries. And the money continues to roll in. But now, as I sit here, a vision is coming to me, and it involves a money-making idea for — well, gosh, for myself. Ruth Steele may not be able to capitalize on her furry friends, but why shouldn't I? I'm thinking about channeling Bigfoot. Great idea, right? I would have to wear clothes for this — I don’t have enough body hair to go au naturel without risk ing the chance of an indecent exposure arrest — and I’m not 6 or 7 feet tall, but other than that, I think I’m qualified. I could sit up on stage and ex plain all sorts of things about it. I could explain, for example, how I’ve managed to elude capture for all these years. I could tell why I always seem to turn up in places such as the out skirts of Dryad, not on university campuses or in downtown Seattle. I could go over my disdain for urban life and my love for the wilderness. I could reveal how my fellow Sasquatches and I have managed to erase all evidence of our existence, even taking care to dispose of our dead where their bones won’t turn up, although scientists haven't had any trouble finding dinosaur skele tons from millions of years ago. But it wouldn’t come cheap. I could use a mansion on a 40-acre estate, too — maybe not at Yelm, and maybe not at Dryad, but some where in these parts. I wouldn't want to get too far from Bigfoot's home turf. I wonder if JZ Knight's agent has some extra time. Gordon MacCracken is vire editor of The Chronicle. He can be reached at 736-3311, or by e-mail at GMacCrack en@chronline.com. Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper's management. By Gorpon
Newspaper Details
Centralia Chronicle
Centralia, Washington, US
Wed, Feb 12, 1997
Page 5
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USA 01 Dec 2025
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