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| “ | Given the scientific evidence that I have examined, I’m convinced there’s a creature out there that is yet to be identified. | ” |
– Jeffry Meldrum | ||
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Bigfoot, also called Sasquatch, is a North American hominid 'cryptid'.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, amount of sightings, and legitimaticy of the main Bigfoot theory, sceptics still argue against its existence.
Eyewitness reports will never be enough to make main stream science recognize the existence of Bigfoot, which is why Bigfoot researchers have made numerous claims that there is physical evidence to support the existence of Bigfoot. However the physical evidence which has been presented is seen minimal interest from the so called mainstream experts and is regarded by them as far from conclusive.
Attributes
Individuals who claim to have seen Bigfoot often give very similar descriptions, a 7 to 9 foot tall, ape or human like bipedal creature with broad shoulders, no visible neck, and pointed head similar to the crest of a male gorilla. Reports also sometimes note large eyes, a pronounced brow, and a large, low set forehead. A pungent odor, similar to feces, sewage or strong body odor, is also associated with most Bigfoot sightings.
Ecologist Robert Pyle describes most Bigfoot tracks as commonly measuring fifteen to eighteen inches or more in length, having five toes, a double muscle ball, and a low arch. Some foot prints that come out of north Louisiana appear to only have 3 toes, some researchers into this phenomenon believe that the local Bigfoot population has been cut off from their major roots of travel and forced to inbreed. It is a known scientific fast that fingers and toes are one of the first things effected by inbreeding.
Sasquatch are bipedal apes that range in height from approximately five to eight feet on average, the males tending to be larger. However, even larger individuals have been supposedly sighted and documented on film. They have broad shoulders and long arms. Females have breasts not unlike those of humans.
Sasquatch typically walk with a compliant gait -- that is, they slouch, their legs remain bent, and they walk flat-footedly. Humans, on the other hand, typically have a prominent heel-strike as they walk.
Sasquatch vary in color. They can be black, brown, blonde, red, or even silver or white. The latter two are possibly indications of older individuals.
Sasquatch are very elusive and intelligent creatures. Their intelligence may rival that of humans. They are nocturnal and even have eyeshine -- traits not typically seen in great apes.
They are most often heard communicating over long distances via howls and screams. However, language has been heard and recorded, further indicating high intelligence.
Sasquatch are not typically aggressive toward humans. However, they may try to intimidate intruders by throwing rocks -- even large boulders -- or uttering threatening noises. It would be very unwise to provoke one, to say the least, as they are several times stronger than an average human.
Sasquatch are omnivorous. Their diets consist on whatever they can find and/or kill -- insects, deer, fruits, moose, elk, and possibly other predators. They are known to steal humans' food. They are very fast and immensely powerful, meaning they can catch almost anything they want.
Sightings
Pre-1800's
Wildmen stories are found among the indigenous population of the Pacific Northwest. The legends existed prior to a single name for the creature. They differed in their details both regionally and between families in the same community. Similar stories of wildmen are found on every continent except Antarctica. Ecologist Robert Michael Pyle argues that most cultures have human-like giants in their folk history: "We have this need for some larger-than-life creature." In reality, this only serves as evidence that the creatures exist; multiple cultures have seen the same things.
Members of the Lummi tell tales about Ts'emekwes, the local version of Bigfoot. The stories are similar to each other in terms of the general descriptions of Ts'emekwes, but details about the creature's diet and activities differed between the stories of different families.
Some regional versions contained more nefarious creatures. The stiyaha or kwi-kwiyai were a nocturnal race that children were told not to say the names of lest the monsters hear and come to carry off a person—sometimes to be killed. In 1847, Paul Kane reported stories by the native people about skoocooms: a race of cannibalistic wild men living on the peak of Mount St. Helens.
Less menacing versions such as the one recorded by Reverend Elkanah Walker exist. In 1840, Walker, a Protestant missionary, recorded stories of giants among the Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians claimed that these giants lived on and around the peaks of nearby mountains and stole salmon from the fishermen's nets.
Various local legends were compiled by J. W. Burns in a series of Canadian newspaper articles in the 1920s. Each language had its own name for the local version. Many names meant something along the lines of "wild man" or "hairy man" although other names described common actions it was said to perform (e.g. eating clams). Burns coined the term Sasquatch, which is from the Halkomelem sásq’ets (IPA: [ˈsæsqʼəts]), and used it in his articles to describe a hypothetical single type of creature reflected in these various stories.
1840
Protestant missionary Reverend Elkanah Walker records myths of hairy giants persistent among Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians report that said giants steal salmon and have a strong smell.
1893
An account by Theodore Roosevelt is published this year in The Wilderness Hunter. Roosevelt relates a story which was told to him by "a beaten old mountain hunter, named Bauman" living in Idaho. Some have suggested similarities to Bigfoot reports.
1924
The earliest documented reports of a large ape like creature in the Pacific Northwest date back to 1924, after a series of alleged encounters at a gorge on the northeast shoulder of Mount St. Helens in Washington State. This gorge, which runs along the Plains of Abraham, narrows to as close as eight feet in some places and would later be named Ape Canyon due to the number of reports of ape like creatures in the area. Ape Canyon was reportedly the site of a violent encounter in 1924, between a group of minors and a group of Bigfoot. The minors account was published in several July 1924 issues of The Oregonian, a major daily newspaper in Portland Oregon. One of the Minors, Fred Beck, claimed that the minors shot and killed a large ape like creature and that night a group of Bigfoot attacked their cabin and tried to break in.
The director of the Western Speleological Survey, William Halliday, claimed in his 1983 pamphlet “Ape Cave and the Mount Saint Helens’ Apes” that the minor’s assailants where actually local youth. Until the very last summer of Ape Canyon existence in 1979, the canyon was almost completely destroyed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, counselors from the YMCA’s Camp Meehan on nearby Spirit Lake brought hikers to the canyons edge and retold a tradition that the 1924 incident was actually the result of young campers throwing light pumas stones into the canyon, not realizing there where minors at the bottom. Looking up the minors would have only seen dark moonlit figures throwing stones at their camp, the narrow walls of the canyon would have served to distort the voices of the YMCA campers enough to frighten the men below.
However, Halliday's explanation may fail to account for several factors:
• Beck claimed that the "apes" were seen clearly enough to note that they were not human;
• Beck claimed that one of the "apes" was shot and killed, but its unclear if Halliday claims that one of the stone-throwing teenagers was shot and killed in 1924.
• According to a series of 1924 articles in The Oregonian, multiple reporters and other eyewitnesses saw damage to the cabin, and enormous footprints at the scene, and it's difficult to imagine how stone throwing teenagers might have caused these details.
In 1924 Albert Ostman went on vacation to Toba Inlet near Powell River, British Columbia. He was searching for a lost gold mine located around the area. As Ostman lay asleep one evening a Sasquatch purportedly picked him up and carried him off while he was in his sleeping bag. Ostman was carried in his sleeping bag across country for 3 hours by the Sasquatch. The Sasquatch dropped Ostman down on a plateau. Standing around him was a family of 4 of the creatures. Albert was kept captive by the Sasquatch. The captors were 3 adults and a child which held Ostman captive for six days.
One of the Bigfoots was reported as being 8 feet tall. Ostman did not use his gun on them as they had done him no harm. He stayed with the Bigfoot family for a week. Ostman ate “sweet tasting grass” that they gave him. According to Ostman the female Sasquatch washed and stacked leaves. Albert escaped by making the large male Sasquatch groggy by feeding him some snuff/tobacco. He did not tell his story for more than 24 years after it happened for fear of being thought of as crazy. As more Sasquatch stories appeared in the press Albert decided to tell his story to a local newspaper in 1957.
1950
Another strange occurrence associated with the Ape Canyon area happened in 1950. A skier by the name of Jim Carter was with a group of men but went off by himself to film a documentary and was never seen again.
During a massive search of the area to locate Jim one of the search team members said he had a chilling feeling of being watched the entire time. Carter’s ski tracks seemed to indicate that he took off at a very high speed, making tremendous jumps that not even an experienced skier would attempt to make unless frightened beyond reason or being chased.
1958
Two construction workers, Leslie Breazale and Ray Kerr, report seeing a Bigfoot about 45 miles northeast of Eureka, California. 16 inch tracks had previously been spotted in the Northern California woods.
1967
On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin capture a purported Bigfoot on film in Bluff Creek, California.
1995
On August 28, 1995, a TV film crew from Waterland Productions pull off the road into Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and film what they claim to be a sasquatch in their RV's Headlights.
1996
On May 30th 1996, Loni and Owen where on a fishing trip with family and friends at Chopaka Lake in Washington State, when they spotted something in a near by field. The resulting video footage appears to show a bigfoot running full spread across the field.