Bigfoot or Sasquatch is alleged to be an ape-like creature inhabiting remote forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal ape. Believers in its existence contend that such an animal, or close relatives of it, may be found around the world under different regional names, such as the Yeti of Tibet and Nepal, the Yeren of mainland China, the Orang Pendek of Indonesia, and the Yowie of Australia.Bigfoot is one of the more famous examples of cryptozoology. The Bigfoot legend is a combination of folklore, misidentified animals, hoaxes, and honestly reported encounters with animals (or hoaxers) matching the description of Bigfoot, or evidence thereof. Despite its dubious status, Bigfoot has become a popular symbol (see Bigfoot in popular culture), and an object of research by both learned professionals and amateur enthusiasts.
Description and behaviorBigfoot is described in reports as being an ape between 6–15 feet (1.8–4.6 m) tall weighing in excess of 500 pounds (230 kg) and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair.[1][2] Alleged witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla. Bigfoot is commonly reported to have a strong, unpleasant smell by those who have claimed to have encountered it.[3] The enormous footprints for which it is named have been as large as 24 inches (61 cm) long and 8 inches (20 cm) wide.[1] While most casts have five toes—like all known apes—some casts of alleged Bigfoot tracks have had numbers ranging from two to six.[4] Some have also contained claw marks, making it likely that a portion came from known animals such as bears, which have four toes and claws.[5] Proponents have also claimed the creatures to be mainly nocturnal and omnivorous.[6]Sightings of Bigfoot are reported mainly in the Pacific Northwest but there are also reports in every other state in the United States and many other regions of the world.[5][7][8] Cryptozoologist John Willison Green has postulated that Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon.[9]
Before 1958Bigfoot descends, more or less, from wildmen stories of the indigenous population of the Pacific Northwest. Its origins are difficult to discern as the legends existed prior to a single name for the creature.[10] The legends differed in their details both regionally and between families in the same community. Similar stories of wildmen are found on every continent except Antarctica.[10] 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."[11]Most members of the Lummi would be able to tell a tale about Ts'emekwes, the local version of Bigfoot. The stories were 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.[12]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.[13] 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.[5]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 the peaks of nearby mountains and stole salmon from the fishermen's nets.[14]Not all of these creatures were viewed as animals. The skoocooms appear to have been regarded as supernatural, rather than natural.[5]The local legends were combined together by J. W. Burns in a series of Canadian newspaper articles in the 1920s. Each language had its own name for the local version.[15] 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).[16] Burns coined the term Sasquatch, which is from the Halkomelem sésquac meaning "wild man", and used it in his articles to describe a hypothetical single type of creature reflected in these various stories.[5][16][17] Burns's articles popularized both the legend and its new name, making it well known in western Canada before it gained popularity in the United States.[18]After 1958While the idea of Bigfoot had been around for decades (if not centuries) in legend and had been unified by Burns, it was not until the 1950s that Bigfoot truly came to fame. In 1951, Eric Shipton photographed what he described as a Yeti footprint.[18] The footprint was published shortly thereafter and gained wide attention.The notoriety of ape-men grew over the decade, culminating in 1958 when large footprints were found in Humboldt County, California by bulldozer operator Gerold Crew. Sets of large tracks appeared multiple times around a road-construction site in Bluff Creek. After not being taken seriously about what he was seeing, Crew brought in his friend, Bob Titmus, to cast the prints in plaster. The story was published in the Humboldt Times along with a photo of Crew holding one of the casts.[5] The article's author, Andrew Genzoli, titled the piece "Bigfoot", after the 16 inches (41 cm) footprints.[19] Sasquatch received a new name and gained international attention when the story was picked up by the Associated Press.[5][20] Ray Wallace, who was at the site at the time the footprints appeared, was later attributed with making the name-sake footprints by his family shortly after his death.[2]The year 1958 was a watershed not just for the Bigfoot story itself but also for the culture that surrounds it. The first Bigfoot hunters began following the discovery of footprints at Bluff Creek. Tom Slick, who had previously funded searches for Yeti in the Himalayas earlier in the decade, organized searches for Bigfoot in the area around Bluff Creek.[21]
As Bigfoot has become more well known, becoming a phenomenon in popular culture, sightings have spread throughout North America. In addition to the original Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes region and the Southeastern United States both have many reports of Bigfoot sightings.There has been a recent upsurge in televised entertainment concerning Bigfoot. Among these is the Monster Quest series, which has had shows on Bigfoot multiple times, and Destination Truth, which has had shows on both Bigfoot and similar cryptids. A new series about the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) is slated to begin production in the Spring of 2009.
Various types of creatures have been suggested to explain both the sightings and what type of creature Bigfoot would be if it existed. The scientific community attributes non-hoaxed sightings to misidentification of known animals and their tracks. While cryptozoologists explain Bigfoot with an unknown ape, some believers in Bigfoot attribute the phenomenon to even less mundane sources such as UFOs or other paranormal sources.[22] A minority of proponents of a natural explanation have attributed Bigfoot to animals that are not apes such as the giant ground sloth.[23]BearsWhen standing on their hind legs, bears are roughly the same size as Bigfoot is supposed to be. Along with their prevalence in regions said to also be inhabited by Bigfoot, they are a likely candidate to explain some sightings.[24] Similarly, a tale presented in Theodore Roosevelt's 1900 book Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches about two hunters encountering a violent bear, is sometimes used by Bigfoot proponents as historical evidence of the creature's existence. [25]
