Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal
VIDEO Mason woodworker makes 8-foot tall Bigfoot from wood. Does he believe?
MASON - Chris Ketchum doesn't put much faith in tall tales or folk lore.
If he can't see it, he's not likely to believe in it, but the size of the tracks he saw crossing M-36 a few miles east of Dansville in the late 1960s still haunt him.
They were massive, each footprint in the snow at least 15 inches long, maybe bigger. They stretched across the road and led into the woods.
Whatever made them had a stride of at least 6 feet, Ketchum said, and riled up his neighbor's horses.
Ketchum, now 67, had been on his way over to help settle the horses down when he found the footprints in the snow, and knelt down to marvel at them.
"I don't know what it was, but it wasn't a bear like my neighbor thought," he said. "I'd never seen anything like it. He got his horses settled down and I never saw anything again."
© Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal Chris Ketchum and the 8-foot-tall man-made Bigfoot in his backyard on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020. He made the cutout from plywood.Ketchum, who retired after working as a cook for the Michigan State Police, never forgot those tracks, or the the wide, deep imprint they made in the snow more than 50 years ago.
The Bigfoot legend never won him over, he said, but the tracks he saw decades ago inspired his latest woodworking project — an 8-foot-tall plywood cutout of Bigfoot that he painted black and set up in his backyard.
He aims to make more, and sell them, in the hope that there's a market for his Sasquatch creations.
A woodworker's creation
© Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal Chris Ketchum of Mason and, his dog Max, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020 alongside the 8-foot-tall man-made Bigfoot in his backyard that Ketchum made from plywood.
If nothing else, Ketchum said the large, looming shape in the snow behind his house seemingly striding toward the woods nearby has given motorists pause.
In the week since he set it up he's seen several cars suddenly slow down as they pass by. Some turn around just up the road and drive by his house again.
He doesn't blame them, Ketchum said.
"If I drove by and saw something like that I would have to do a double take to see what it really was," he said.
That's the point, Ketchum said.
His Bigfoot creation is a departure from the cabinets, lamps and Michigan-shaped tables and chairs he's been making for years.
Ketchum has been a hobby woodworker since he was a kid.
"My dad taught me," he said. "It's creative. I make everything."
These days Ketchum has more time to devote to it. Even in the winter he'll spend hours inside his barn, kept warm thanks to a wood stove. His dog, Max, usually keeps him company while he works.
"I go out there and do my woodworking and nobody bothers me," Ketchum said.
'Something is out there'
On Wednesday morning, Ketchum stood in the snow next to the tall cutout, peering up at it. He pointed to the small ridges he left along the outline of his Bigfoot's outstretched hand. They're meant to illustrate the texture and shape of fur, he said.
The size of its feet and the length of its stride aren't as grand as what he saw on the ground years ago. Still, it honors the legend he knows many people believe.
Family members are fans of the end result. A few have already asked him to make more.
"It's pretty cool," grandson Chris Diaz, 18, said. "It looks real."
Ketchum's preparing to make more and says people can contact him, by phone at 517-528-6611 and via email at csketch52@gmail.com, to purchase them.
"I just made him for fun but I'd like to sell some," he said. "It doesn't take long to make him."
Ketchum hasn't decided what he'll charge for each cutout, but said it would be "great" if his cutouts prompt a rise in Bigfoot sightings.
"I have no idea what the market is for something like this," he said. "But the intent is to make people stop and take a second look at them, to say, 'What is that?"
Ketchum still asks himself that very question about whatever made those peculiar tracks he saw decades ago.
There was another sighting of similar prints nearby in Dansville shortly after his own discovery, he said, but no one ever confirmed what made them.
"Something is out there," he said. "If it wasn't Bigfoot, I don't want to meet what it was."
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: If this Michigan woodworker has his way, Bigfoot sightings will be more common
If nothing else, Ketchum said the large, looming shape in the snow behind his house seemingly striding toward the woods nearby has given motorists pause.
In the week since he set it up he's seen several cars suddenly slow down as they pass by. Some turn around just up the road and drive by his house again.
He doesn't blame them, Ketchum said.
"If I drove by and saw something like that I would have to do a double take to see what it really was," he said.
That's the point, Ketchum said.
His Bigfoot creation is a departure from the cabinets, lamps and Michigan-shaped tables and chairs he's been making for years.
Ketchum has been a hobby woodworker since he was a kid.
"My dad taught me," he said. "It's creative. I make everything."
These days Ketchum has more time to devote to it. Even in the winter he'll spend hours inside his barn, kept warm thanks to a wood stove. His dog, Max, usually keeps him company while he works.
"I go out there and do my woodworking and nobody bothers me," Ketchum said.
'Something is out there'
On Wednesday morning, Ketchum stood in the snow next to the tall cutout, peering up at it. He pointed to the small ridges he left along the outline of his Bigfoot's outstretched hand. They're meant to illustrate the texture and shape of fur, he said.
The size of its feet and the length of its stride aren't as grand as what he saw on the ground years ago. Still, it honors the legend he knows many people believe.
Family members are fans of the end result. A few have already asked him to make more.
"It's pretty cool," grandson Chris Diaz, 18, said. "It looks real."
Ketchum's preparing to make more and says people can contact him, by phone at 517-528-6611 and via email at csketch52@gmail.com, to purchase them.
"I just made him for fun but I'd like to sell some," he said. "It doesn't take long to make him."
Ketchum hasn't decided what he'll charge for each cutout, but said it would be "great" if his cutouts prompt a rise in Bigfoot sightings.
"I have no idea what the market is for something like this," he said. "But the intent is to make people stop and take a second look at them, to say, 'What is that?"
Ketchum still asks himself that very question about whatever made those peculiar tracks he saw decades ago.
There was another sighting of similar prints nearby in Dansville shortly after his own discovery, he said, but no one ever confirmed what made them.
"Something is out there," he said. "If it wasn't Bigfoot, I don't want to meet what it was."
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: If this Michigan woodworker has his way, Bigfoot sightings will be more common
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