Stick Formations -- Evidence, or Mental Lincoln Logs?

Researchers in the field have been finding interesting stick structures in areas where bigfoot sightings have been reported. Are these structures associated with bigfoot, or is it a case of the mind simply creating something out of nothing?

The truth is there are only a very few reports that include a bigfoot being seen in conjunction with a stick formation in a meaningful way. For that reason, stick formations aren’t really what you would call evidence of the existence of bigfoot. But, because researchers keep finding them, we have developed an interest in them and we become just a little more interested in an area when we see these odd structures. Here are some photographs I’ve taken in the field of some of these:

This one is an X on the ground, using freshly culled branches, found in West Virginia in April of 2005. We found this the day after a walkthrough of the same area, when some of our party had heard something following us along the ridgeline above the road.



Here's a second formation, which didn’t look to have happened accidentally, in the same area as the above fresh X. This formation need not have been made on the same night, but it was pretty big and we didn’t see it the previous day. One very intriguing factor in this formation is that we found the tree that one of the arms of the X broke away from, and it was too far away to have allowed the log to have fallen where it was naturally.



Ordinarily I'm not too impressed with arched saplings because a branch fall can account for them, but this one, which I found near Richmond, VA in July 2005, looks pretty cool. You can't see it, but the 2nd arch is held down by a branch too, and they both look to have been placed there. The cross is about as near to right angles as you could expect them to be too.



Here's a view of what looks to be a strange little stick-fort, which we found in West Virginia in June of 2005. It may have been made by kids, but it sure looked odd, and there was the troublesome detail of not having any kids around that we could find. It was too small inside to have been used by a hunter as a blind, or even as any kind of structure for a bigfoot. There were other sticks arranged near the little fort that looked to be a mirror image of the fort, but only one level of sticks deep. It struck me as strange.



Here's a tripod formation we found in West Virginia in April of 2005. These kinds of stick formations are particularly interesting because they are free standing. It seems very doubtful that nature could produce very many of these, though researchers find them often enough.



And this is from Leesylvania State Park in VA, just south of me a bit, in July of 2005. There was a sighting out there in 2003 or so when some new construction went in, so I went looking for signs a couple of years later to see what I could turn up. I found this structure, obviously old. This is the classic asterisk shape. Researchers have seen quite a few of these. Some folks say they are natural falls, but when you get the asterisk shape like this so often repeated -- is it that likely it would always be a coincidence? I have my doubts.



Here’s a picture I really like. This is from Maryland in 2006. The log is balanced perfectly on the vines and just touching one of the trees it sits between. It could have happened naturally, though it would have been a one-in-a-million shot. Kids could have done it -- lots of kids had access to these woods.



You can find all sorts of things done with sticks and broken branches in the woods near bigfoot activity. If these do spring from the minds of bigfoot, what are they trying to say? And if they are saying anything at all, are they trying to say it to us, or to each other? Or is this just a string of really bizarre coincidences? We have to remember that the human mind is specially geared to finding patterns, so that may be in play also. But I have gone out into the woods near my house, which, being in the suburbs of Washington, DC, would be a place you'd not expect to find bigfoot. And I haven't found any of these strange formations in the trees. Lots of kids, in the woods all the time, but no stick formations. I know that's a small sample size, but it makes me wonder..

Update: Over at There's Something in the Woods, Nick Redfern has a piece about the infamous Goat Man of Lake Worth and how, when he reinvestigated the area two years ago, he found a stick formation there.

Extremely Late Update: I should already have linked over to the post with the awesome twists a friend of mine found, but, better late than never.