Bigfoot: Legend or Reality?

I wrote this many years ago about the origins of my beliefs in bigfoot.

Several years ago while on a beach vacation with my family, a severe thunderstorm washed away our plans for the day so we ended up spending it inside the condo on the couch.  Frustrated, I turned on the TV and started flipping through the channels.  “Finding Bigfoot” was on Discovery and for some reason I decided to watch it.  Up until that day I never watched the show but I heard a lot of people make fun of it so I thought it would be entertaining.  It must have been a “Finding Bigfoot” marathon because we watched several episodes of the crew haphazardly trampling through the forests of North America looking for Sasquatch.  The crew never found a bigfoot and I thought their explanations were silly.  However, what did fascinate me were the eyewitness testimonies at the townhall meetings in each episode and the consistency of their stories across the United States.  I began to wonder if there was something to those eyewitness accounts, despite the fact that they were strictly anecdotal evidence.

At the time I was living on a small homestead in a rural area, located just two miles from a national forest.  Many of the eyewitness testimonies from the show resonated with me because they took place in areas exactly like the one I was living in.  I began to question if Sasquatch was really out there and I decided to do my own “armchair research” on the subject.  Initially, my research was in the form of documentaries, books, YouTube videos, podcasts and articles about the mysterious creature.  What I found out was shocking to me and initiated further research; I was overwhelmed by the amount of evidence out there! 

When I first started my research on bigfoot, I thought it was going to be limited to hill people telling stories about their alleged and brief sighting of the hairy humanoid.  And yes, there were many of those.  But what captured my attention was the physical evidence that Sasquatch leaves behind; oftentimes this evidence is discovered and collected just after a sighting, in the exact location where the creature was reported.  This physical evidence seems to corroborate and solidify the witness testimony.  Physical evidence of Sasquatch comes in many forms including massive footprints/castings and trackways, strands of hair left behind on trees or fences, stick or tree structures, and even blood.  Another form of evidence that’s intriguing are the audio recordings, many of which have been analyzed by audio and voice experts.  The sheer amount of physical evidence and recordings that are out there prompted me to go examine it in person.

My investigations began at a sasquatch museum near where I live called Expedition Bigfoot.  It was a small but impressive museum filled with Native American artifacts, castings, photographs, video and audio recordings and even a massive alleged bigfoot poo sample.  Yes, a poo sample!  Go ahead and laugh… One of the most impressive exhibits at the museum were the footprint castings that were in glass cases with a description describing when and where the footprints were collected.  To me, the footprints are one of the most compelling forms of evidence concerning the mystery of Sasquatch.  How do we know that they aren’t just barefoot human tracks?  Well, there are a couple of interesting things about bigfoot tracks.  For one, they are usually massive and much bigger and broader than a human footprint.  However, like human feet, the footprint castings often reveal dermal ridges in the bottom of the Sasquatch foot.  But unlike human feet, the Sasquatch casts reveal a midtarsal break indicating that their feet flex in the middle of the foot instead of at the ball/toe joint.  And speaking of toes, the size and shape of the bigfoot toes are consistent in all five toes; in humans, our toes get smaller from the big toe to the small toe.  Also, the stride of the trackways can be 54 inches or greater (as measured from toe to heel) with minimal or no straddle (the horizontal distance between feet).  When humans walk, we walk with some distance or straddle between our feet but this doesn’t appear to be the case with Sasquatch.  

Another interesting thing about the museum was an exhibit they had about the incident at “Ape Canyon” in which some gold prospectors were allegedly attacked by a group of squatches, forcing them to leave their makeshift mountain cabin.  I had heard about Ape Canyon on several podcasts about Bigfoot but it was interesting to see the exhibit.  One other thing that caught my attention while at the museum was the amount of bigfoot stories and myths that occur in Native American folklore.  In fact, some people consider it to be history instead of folklore.  What’s compelling to me about these Native American stories is their consistency throughout the tribes spanning across North America.  There were some differences, however, in that some tribes reported that they actually bartered and traded with the bigfoots while others claimed that bigfoots were cannibalistic and would eat humans.  Other tribes advised that Sasquatches were a people, not an animal, which seems to line up with some of the bartering stories.  But the most common thread about all of these Native American tribes is that they will tell you that you’re crazy for NOT believing in them.  To the Native Americans, they are as real as a racoon or a dear.  In fact, there are pictograms of Sasquatch in caves and the pictograms are next to pictograms of common animals like deer, rabbits, foxes and buffalo.  

My trip to the museum left me with more questions than answers.  I had gained a lot of knowledge on the subject of bigfoot while I was there, but that knowledge made me even thirstier for additional research.  I read a book by Dr. Jeff Meldrum, who is a professor of anthropology and an expert on Sasquatch footprints, and I listened to the Sierra Sounds recorded by Ron Morehead.  Additionally, I watched a couple of documentaries by David Paulides who is a retired police detective and missing persons/bigfoot researcher.  But reading books, listening to recordings and watching documentaries wasn’t enough- I wanted to meet these people!  I wanted to speak to them face to face.  So I did!

Every year in Gatlinburg, TN there is a bigfoot convention and much to my surprise, many of these bigfoot researchers, authors and TV personalities speak at the convention.  I decided to attend one of them and I’ve since been to two bigfoot conventions.  I know what you are probably thinking- who would attend a Sasquatch seminar?  Well, the first year I attended one there was 3,000 people in attendance!  That may not seem like much but considering the taboo topic I’d say it’s quite a bit.  I got to meet and shake hands with Ron Morehead, Dr. Meldrum, David Paulides and I was impressed by how humble and friendly they were.  Despite the line behind me, they took time to answer my questions and sign books for me.  I also met some of the podcasters I listened to and other researchers in the field that I never heard of.  

At the end of the day I believe that bigfoot exists, or once existed, but I still don’t “know.”  I think in order to truly know I would have to see one for myself, which is possible because I spend a great deal of time out in the wilderness.  A lot of people state that when someone reports seeing a bigfoot that it’s simply a misidentification, as if they saw a bear.  I believe this is flimsy logic.  For one, most experienced woodsmen like myself have observed bears out in the wild and know what they look like and how they behave.  Two, unlike a human, and theoretically a bigfoot, a bear doesn’t have clavicles (collar bones) so it’s shoulders (or lack thereof) droop down when a bear stands up on its hind legs.  In other words, it’s shoulders don’t look distinctly squared-off like that of a human/Sasquatch when it stands.  And when a bear does stand it’s typically not for long periods of time.  

I could probably write a whole book about bigfoot evidence and I believe that if we were to put bigfoot on trial for being real/not real, he would be found guilty of being real because of the overwhelming amount of evidence.  But the point of this article isn’t to convince you that bigfoot is real.  My actual point is to open your mind to the possibility and to open your eyes to the amount of evidence that is out there before you make a decision to believe/not believe.  As with anything, you should do your own research before believing what someone is telling you or before you automatically dismiss what they are saying.  Lastly, I’d like to say thanks to the people that do come forward and report what they have witnessed.  It takes a great deal of courage to come forward and talk about something like bigfoot in our society of skeptics and trolls.  Our society of plastic and polymer has fallen out of touch with nature and perhaps it’s time we start spending more time enjoying our wildlands and all of the creatures living in them.  

Reviews

[Clif]

I agree, there is a lot of evidence supporting the existence of Bigfoot. About Native Americans, there is a good book by Kathy Moskowoitz Strain; entitled "Giants Monsters and Cannibals," which does talk about their legends. And I did like the show Finding Bigfoot.

[DustinA7L]

Yes, there is a lot of evidence. I wrote this many years ago so it's not the most up-to-date essay of mine, but I did read that book by Katy. It was fascinating and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Finding Bigfoot and I occasionally listen to their podcast, From Bigfoot and Beyond.