Bigfoot

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This article is about the cryptozoological creature. For the music festival of the same name, see Sasquatch! Music Festival. For other uses, see Bigfoot (disambiguation).
"Sasquatch" redirects here. For other uses, see Sasquatch (disambiguation).
Bigfoot
GroupingCryptid
Other name(s)Sasquatch
CountryUnited States, Canada
RegionPacific Northwest (Primary)
HabitatForest

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a figure in North American folklore alleged to inhabit remote forests, mainly in the Pacific northwest region of the United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia. In northern Wisconsin, Lakota Indians know the creature by the name Chiye-tanka, a Lakota name for "Big Elder Brother."[1] Bigfoot is sometimes described as a large, hairy bipedal hominoid, and some believe that this animal, or its close relatives, may be found around the world under different regional names, such as the Yeti of Tibet and Nepal, the Yeren of mainland China, and the Yowie of Australia.

Bigfoot is one of the more famous examples of cryptozoology, a subject that the scientific community classifies as pseudoscience because of unreliable eyewitness accounts, lack of scientific and physical evidence, and over-reliance on confirmation rather than refutation. Most scientific experts on the matter consider the Bigfoot legend to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes. Despite that status, Bigfoot is nevertheless a popular symbol, included as "Quatchi," one of the mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and used to name both a provincial park and the annual Sasquatch Daze event in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.

Description

Bigfoot is described as being between 7 and 10 feet (2.1 and 3 meters) tall, and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair. The head seems to sit directly on the shoulders, with no apparent neck. 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.

Proposed creatures

Various types of creature have been described by proponents to explain the sightings. These descriptions have received little support from the scientific community.

Gigantopithecus

Grover Krantz argued that a relict population of Gigantopithecus blacki would best explain Bigfoot reports. Based on his fossil analysis of its jaws, he championed a view that Gigantopithecus was bipedal.

Geoffrey Bourne writes that Gigantopithecus is a plausible candidate for Bigfoot since most Gigantopithecus fossils were found in China, whose extreme eastern Siberian forests are similar to those of north-western North America. Many well-known animals have migrated across the Bering Strait, so Bourne believes is not unreasonable to assume that Gigantopithecus might have as well. "So perhaps," Bourne writes, "Gigantopithecus is the Bigfoot of the American continent and perhaps he is also the Yeti of the Himalayas."[2]

The Gigantopithecus hypothesis is generally considered entirely speculative. Given the mainstream view that Gigantopithecus was quadrupedal, it would seem unlikely to be an ancestor to the biped Bigfoot is said to be. Moreover, it has been argued that G. blacki's enormous mass would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait.[3] An analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin film shows that frames 369, 370, 371, and 372 all show a slender lower mandible, that does not match the massive lower mandible of Gigantopithecus blacki, which, assuming that the Patterson-Gimlin film is legitimate, would eliminate G. blacki as a candidate for Bigfoot. (Bigfoot Coop Newsletter, March 1997, also the documentary Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science).

"That Gigantopithicus is in fact extinct has been questioned by those who believe it survives as the Yeti of the Himalayas and the Sasquatch of the north-west American coast. But the evidence for these creatures is not convincing."[4]

Other extinct apes

A species of Paranthropus, such as Paranthropus robustus, with its crested skull and bipedal gait, was suggested by Napier and anthropologist Gordon Strasenburg as a possible candidate for Bigfoot's identity.

Some Bigfoot reports suggest Homo erectus to be the creature, but H. erectus skeletons have never been found on the North American continent.

There was also a little known genus called, Meganthropus, which reputedly grew to enormous proportions. Again, there have been no remains of this creature anywhere near North America, and none younger than a million years old.

Explanations

Bigfoot is one of the more famous creatures in cryptozoology. Cryptozoologist John Willison Green has postulated that Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon (Green 1978:16).

Indian Native tribes in the Northwest note the appearance of large creatures they call Sasquatch. Such creatures were said to exist on Vancouver Island and near Harrison Lake.

The earliest unambiguous reports of gigantic apelike creatures in the Pacific Northwest date from 1924, after a series of alleged encounters at a location in Washington later dubbed Ape Canyon, as related in The Oregonian.[5] Reports the pro-Bigfoot authors claim are similar appear in the mainstream press dating back at least to the 1860s. The phenomenon attained widespread notoriety in 1958 when enormous footprints were reported in Humboldt County, California by roadworkers; the tracks pictured in the media inspired the familiar name "Bigfoot".

Mainstream scientists generally dismiss the phenomena due to a lack of representative specimens. They attribute the numerous sightings to folklore, mythology, hoaxes, and the misidentification of common animals.

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."[6]

Mainstream skeptical view

Scientists and academics overwhelmingly "discount the existence of Bigfoot because the evidence supporting belief in the survival of a prehistoric, bipedal, apelike creature of such dimensions is scant".[citation needed] In addition to the lack of evidence, they cite the fact that while Bigfoot is alleged to live in regions unusual for a large, nonhuman primate, i.e., temperate latitudes in the northern hemisphere, all other recognized nonhuman apes are found in the tropics, Africa, continental Asia or nearby islands. The great apes have never been found in the fossil record in the Americas, and no Bigfoot bones or bodies have been found.

Many scientists do not give the subject of Bigfoot's existence serious attention, given the history of dubious claims and outright hoaxes. Napier wrote that the mainstream scientific community's indifference stems primarily from "insufficient evidence ... it is hardly surprising that scientists prefer to investigate the probable rather than beat their heads against the wall of the faintly possible" (Napier, 15). Anthropologist David Daegling echoed this idea, citing a "remarkably limited amount of Sasquatch data that are amenable to scientific scrutiny." (Daegling, 2004) He advises that mainstream skeptics take a proactive position "to offer an alternative explanation. We have to explain why we see Bigfoot when there is no such animal" (ibid 20). Indeed, many scientists insist that the breeding population of such an animal would be so large that it would account for many more purported sightings than currently occur, making the existence of such an animal an almost certain impossibility.

On May 24, 2006 Maria Goodavage wrote an article in USA Today titled, "Bigfoot Merely Amuses Most Scientists", in which she quotes Washington State zoologist John Crane, "There is no such thing as Bigfoot. No data other than material that's clearly been fabricated has ever been presented."Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Several other prominent scientists have also expressed at least a guarded interest in Sasquatch reports, including George Schaller, Russell Mittermeier, Daris Swindler and Esteban Sarmiento.[7]

Prominent anthropologist Carleton S. Coon's posthumously published essay Why the Sasquatch Must Exist states, "Even before I read John Green's book Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, first published in 1978, I accepted Sasquatch's existence."[8] Coon examines the question from several angles, stating that he is confident only in ruling out a relict Neanderthal population as a viable candidate for Sasquatch reports.

As previously noted, Napier generally argued against Bigfoot's existence, but added that some "soft evidence" (i.e., eyewitness accounts, footprints, hair and droppings) is compelling enough that he advises against "dismissing its reality out of hand" (Napier, 197).

Krantz and others have argued that a double standard is applied to Sasquatch studies by many academics: whenever there is a claim or evidence of Sasquatch's existence, enormous scrutiny is applied, as well as it should be. Yet when individuals claim to have hoaxed Bigfoot evidence, the claims are frequently accepted without corroborative evidence.

In 2004, Henry Gee, editor of the prestigious magazine Nature, argued that creatures like Bigfoot deserved further study, writing, "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as Yetis are founded on grains of truth ... Now, cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold."[9]

Hoaxes

Bigfoot sightings or footprints are often demonstratively hoaxes. Author Jerome Clark argues that the "Jacko" affair, involving an 1884 newspaper report of an apelike creature captured in British Columbia was a hoax. Citing research by John Green, who found that several contemporary British Columbia newspapers regarded the alleged capture as very dubious, Clark notes that the New Westminster, British Columbia Mainland Guardian wrote, "Absurdity is written on the face of it" (Clark, 195).

In 1958 bulldozer operator Jerry Crew took to a newspaper office a cast of one of the enormous footprints he and other workers had been seeing at an isolated work site in Bluff Creek, California. The story and photo garnered international attention through being picked up by the Associated Press (Krantz, 5). The crew was overseen by Wilbur L. Wallace, brother of Raymond L. Wallace. Years after the track casts were made, Ray Wallace got involved in Bigfoot "research" and made various outlandish claims. He was poorly regarded by many who took the subject seriously. Napier wrote, "I do not feel impressed with Mr. Wallace's story" regarding having over 15,000 feet of film showing Bigfoot (Napier, 89).

Shortly after Wallace's death, his children called him the "father of Bigfoot". They claimed Ray faked the tracks seen by Jerry Crew in 1958. There were some wooden track makers among Ray's inherited belongings which the family said were used to make the 1958 tracks[citation needed].

Sightings

  • 1840: Protestant missionary Reverend Elkanah Walker recorded myths of hairy giants that were persistent among Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians claimed that these giants steal salmon and had a strong smell.[10]
  • 1870: An account by a California hunter who claimed seeing a sasquatch scattering his campfire remains was printed in the Titusville, Pennsylvania Morning Herald on November 10, 1870.[11] The incident reportedly occurred a year before, in the mountains near Grayson, CA.[dubious – discuss]
  • 1893: An account by Theodore Roosevelt was published in The Wilderness Hunter. Roosevelt related 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.[12][dubious – discuss] (Note: Roosevelt's testimony is the only evidence this encounter ever occurred).
  • 1924: Albert Ostman claimed to have been kidnapped and held captive for several days by a family of sasquatch. The incident occurred during the summer in Toba Inlet, British Columbia.[13][dubious – discuss]
  • 1924: Fred Beck and four other miners claimed to have been attacked by several sasquatches in Ape Canyon in July, 1924. The creatures reportedly hurled large rocks at the miners’ cabin for several hours during the night. This case was publicized in newspaper reports printed in 1924.[14][15][16]
  • 1941: Jeannie Chapman and her children claimed to have escaped their home when a large sasquatch, allegedly 7½ feet tall, approached their residence in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.[17]
  • 1940s onward: People living in Fouke, Arkansas have reported that a Bigfoot-like creature, dubbed the “Fouke Monster”, inhabits the region. A high number of reports have occurred in the Boggy Creek area and are the basis for the 1973 film The Legend of Boggy Creek.[18][19][20][21][22][23]
  • 1955: William Roe claimed to have seen a close-up view of a female sasquatch from concealment near Mica Mountain, British Columbia.[24]
  • 1958: Two construction workers, Leslie Breazale and Ray Kerr, reported seeing a sasquatch about 45 miles northeast of Eureka, California. Sixteen-inch tracks had previously been spotted in the northern California woods.[25]
  • 1967: On October 20 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured a purported sasquatch on film in Bluff Creek, California in what would come to be known as the Patterson-Gimlin film.
  • 1970: A family of bigfoot-like creatures called "zoobies" was observed on multiple occasions by a San Diego psychiatrist named Dr. Baddour and his family near their Alpine, California home, as reported in an interview with San Diego County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Doug Huse, who investigated the sightings.[26]
  • 1995: On August 28 1995, a TV film crew from Waterland Productions pulled off the road into Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and filmed what they claimed to be a sasquatch in their RV's Headlights.[27]
  • 2005: On April 16 2005, A creature resembling a bigfoot was reportedly seen on the bank of the Nelson River in Norway House, Manitoba. Two minutes and forty seconds of footage was taken by ferry operator Bobby Clarke from across the Nelson River.[28] Canadian rock band The Weakerthans later recorded a song about this sighting, "Bigfoot!", on their 2007 album Reunion Tour. [29]
  • 2006: On December 14 2006, Shaylane Beatty, a woman from the Dechambault Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, was driving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan when, she claimed, saw the creature near the side of the highway at Torch River. Several men from the village drove down to the area and found footprints, which they tracked through the snow. They found a tuft of brown hair and took photographs of the tracks.[30][31]
  • 2007: On September 16 2007, hunter Rick Jacobs captured an image of a possible sasquatch using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree.[32] A spokesperson for the Pennsylania Game Commission challenged the Bigfoot explanation, saying that it looked like "a bear with a severe case of mange."[33] The sighting happened near the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania in the Allegheny National Forest, which is about 115 miles north of Pittsburgh.[34][33]

See also

Similar alleged creatures
Similar beings in folklore

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Attitudes Toward Bigfoot in Many North American Cultures". "The Track Record", #18, July, 1992. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
  2. ^ p. 296, Bourne, Geoffrey H. and Maury Cohen, The Gentle Giants: The Gorilla Story, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1975, ISBN 0-399-11528-5.
  3. ^ The method of locomotion for Gigantopithecus is not entirely certain, as no pelvis or leg bone has ever been found; the only remains of Gigantopithecus being discovered is the teeth and mandible. A minority opinion, championed by Grover Krantz, holds that the mandible shape and structure suggests bipedal locomotion. The only fossil evidence of Gigantopithecus — the mandible and teeth— are U-shaped, like the bipedal humans, rather than V-shaped, like the great apes. A complete fossil specimen, with the pelvis and leg bones, would be necessary to conclusively resolve the debate one way or the other, but is absent to date.
  4. ^ p.100, Campbell, Bernard G., Humankind Emerging, Little, Brown and Company, 1979, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 78-78234.
  5. ^ Thomas, Roger. "Bigfoot/Sasquatch FAQ". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Goodavage, Maria (1996-05-24). "Hunt for Bigfoot Attracts True Believers". USA TODAY/bz050. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Stein, Theo, (2003-01-05), 'Bigfoot Believers,' The Denver Post.
  8. ^ p. 46, Markotic, Vladimir and Grover Krantz, editors, The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Primates, Western Publishers, 1984, ISBN 0-919119-10-7
  9. ^ Nature Publishing Group (2004). Flores, God and Cryptozoology (available only with subscription).
  10. ^ Walker, Elkanah. "THE DIARY OF ELKANAH WALKER". Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  11. ^ "Report # 14338 (Class A)". Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  12. ^ Sasquatch Classics: The Bauman Incident
  13. ^ Sasquatch Classics: Albert Osmond
  14. ^ Beck, R. A. "I Fought The Apemen of Mt. St. Helens". Sasquatch Classics. Retrieved 2007-08-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "Bigfoot/Sasquatch FAQ". Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  16. ^ Beck, Ronald A. "I FOUGHT THE APEMEN OF MOUNT ST. HELENS, WA". Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  17. ^ Sasquatch Classics: Ruby Creek
  18. ^ Quirky ArArkansas - Curiosities and Roadside Attractions
  19. ^ http://www.texarkanagazette.com/articles/2001/06/24/export15698.txt
  20. ^ http://www.thefoukemonster.com
  21. ^ http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_Attractions==52
  22. ^ Chapter 8
  23. ^ The Ghosts of Arkansas - The Legend of Boggy Creek
  24. ^ Sasquatch Classics: William Roe
  25. ^ BFRO Media Article 87
  26. ^ Bigfoot: The San Diego "Zoobie" Story (Alpine, California)
  27. ^ The Redwoods Video
  28. ^ Bigfoot: The Manitoba Footage and articles 2005
  29. ^ Cokemachineglow
  30. ^ Claims she saw Bigfoot
  31. ^ Sightings the talk of 'sasquatch-ewan'
  32. ^ http://www.bfro.net/avevid/jacobs/jacobs_photos.asp here].
  33. ^ a b [1][dead link]
  34. ^ http://www.nationalledger.com/ledgerpop/article_272616948.shtml

Sources

  • Bayanov, Dmitri, America's Bigfoot: Fact, Not Fiction, Crypto-Logos, 1997, ISBN 5-900229-22-X
  • Alex Boese (2002). The Museum of Hoaxes: A Collection of Pranks, Stunts, Deceptions, and Other Wonderful Stories Contrived for the Public from the Middle Ages to the New Millennium. Dutton/Penguin Books. ISBN 0-525-94678-0.
  • Bourne, Geoffrey H. and Maury Cohen, The Gentle Giants: The Gorilla Story, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1975, ISBN 0-399-11528-5
  • Bryant, Vaughn M. and Burleigh Trevor-Deutch, "Analysis of Feces and Hair Suspected to be of Sasquatch Origin" (in Halpin and Ames)
  • Byrne, Peter, The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Man or Myth, Acropolis Books, 1975, ISBN 0-87491-159-1
  • Campbell, Bernard G., Humankind Emerging, Little, Brown and Company, 1979, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 78-78234
  • Clark, Jerome, Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences and Puzzling Physical Phenomena, Visible Ink, 1993, ISBN 0-8103-9436-7
  • Coleman, Loren and Jerome Clark, Cryptozoology A to Z, Fireside Books, 1999, ISBN 0-684-85602-6
  • Coleman, Loren and Patrick Huyghe, The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide, Avon Books, 1999, ISBN 0-380-80263-5
  • Coon, Carelton, "Why Sasquatch Must Exist" (in Markotic and Krantz)
  • Daegling, David J, Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend, Altamira Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7591-0539-1
  • Green, John Willison, Sasquatch - The Apes Among Us, Hancock House Publishing, 1978, ISBN 0-88839-123-4
  • Guttilla, Peter, The Bigfoot Files, Timeless Voyager Press, 2003, ISBN 1-892264-15-3
  • Halpin, Marjorie and Michael Ames, editors, Manlike Monsters on Trial: Early Records and Modern Evidence, University of British Columbia Press, 1980, ISBN 0-7748-0119-0
  • Hunter, Don and Rene Dahinden, Sasquach/Bigfoot: The Search for North America's Incredible Creature, Firefly Books, 1993, ISBN 1-895565-28-6
  • Krantz, Grover S., Big Footprints: A Scientific Inquiry into the Reality of Sasquatch, Johnson Books, 1992, ISBN 1-55566-099-1
  • Long, Greg, The making of Bigfoot: the inside story, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2004 ISBN 1-59102-139-1 (Long was able to track down a man who claimed he wore the monkey suit for Roger Patterson's film)
  • Loxton, Daniel, "Bigfoot", Skeptic Magazine, 11(2). 2004. http://www.skeptic.com/index.html
  • Markotic, Vladimir and Grover Krantz, editors, The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Primates, Western Publishers, 1984, ISBN 0-919119-10-7
  • Mozino, Jose Mariano, Noticas de Nutka: An Account of Nootka Sound, Iris Higbe Wilson, editor and traslator, University of Washington Press, 1970, ISBN 0-295-95061-7
  • Napier, John Russell Bigfoot: The Sasquatch and Yeti in Myth and Reality, 1973, E.P. Dutton, ISBN 0-525-06658-6
  • Powell, Thom, The Locals, Hancock House, 2003, ISBN 0-88839-552-3
  • Pyle, Robert Michael, Where Bigfoot Walks, Houghton Mifflin, 1995, ISBN 0-395-44114-5
  • Sanderson, Ivan T., "First Photos of 'Bigfoot', California's Legendary 'Abominable Snowman'", Argosy, February 1968, pg 23-31, 127,128, ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN: a legend come to life.
  • Sjögren, Bengt.Farliga djur och djur som inte finns, Prisma, 1962
  • Shakley, Myra, Wildman: Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma, Thames and Hudson, 1973
  • Sprague, Roderick, "Carved Stone Heads of the Columbia and Sasquatch" (in Halpin and Ames)
  • Sprague, Roderick and Grover Krantz, editors, A Scientist Looks at the Sasquatch II, University Press of Idaho, 1978, ISBN 0-89301-061-8
  • http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/06/30/china.bigfoot/
  • http://www.parascope.com/en/articles/bigfootRussia.htm
  • http://skepdic.com/bigfoot.html
  • http://www.who2.com/bigfoot.html

External links

Bigfoot supporters

Skeptical views

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