The Myth Of Bigfoot

Bigfoot, is he real or is he just a myth and hoax. Some call it Bigfoot and others call it Sasquatch, but no matter what you call he is real and not just a hoax. The legend of Bigfoot goes as far back as ancient Indian tribes. There is not a lot of evidence on Bigfoot’s existence how ever the evidence that does exist is enough to convince people that he is real. If you don’t believe in Bigfoot im not going to tell you that you are wrong, I just want to tell the other side and hopefully convince the non believers that Bigfoot is not a hoax. There are certain things that one should hear about Bigfoot before making the conclusion that he is fake. Bigfoot is just a large bipedal ape, who can be traced back to other bipedal apes who existed hundreds of years ago.

The history behind Bigfoot goes back as far to Indigenous populations and ancient Indian tribes. Tribes such as the Hopis, Seeahtik, Spokane, Lokota, and tribes in Canada (just to name a few) all have stories that have been passed down that describe “Hairy man like creatures.” It has the same description that Bigfoot has now in the present time. They did not mistake this creature for another animal like a bear, deer, or a wolf, because they have words and stories about those as well. They also have painting that resemble a large hairy man that looks like an ape. Totem poles older than 500 years with Bigfoot creatures carved into them. The first recorded Bigfoot sighting occurred in British Columbia in 1772 from a Spanish explorer who was exploring parts of Canada. The name Bigfoot became popular in 1958 after a picture appeared in the newspaper of a man named Jerry Crew holding a plastic cast of a footprint. It was a cast of Sasquatch’s foot. Due to the size of the print the media began to refer to the creature that created them as “Bigfoot” and the name has stuck ever since.

There are people who study Bigfoot and other mysterious creatures. This field of study is called Cryptozoology, which means the study of hidden animals. They call the creatures the study “cryptids” These range from animals/creatures that are thought to be extinct or still walk among us. They can be animals, mammals, reptiles, insects, and even dinosaurs. Cryptozoolgy is not thought of a “real” field of scientific study among most of the scientific community.

What is Bigfoot? Bigfoot is described as a large bipedal humanoid. Bipedal apes have existed in the past. Australopithecus is a bipedal ape that existed a few million years ago. The most well known of these is one they call Lucy and most recently Ardi. Bipedal apes have existed before and Bigfoot is a bipedal ape that exists today. Bigfoot stands between 6 and 8 feet tall and weighs between 400 and 900 pounds. Has dark brown, black, and dark reddish fur/hair. It has a pronounced brow line/ridge, large low-set forehead, and the tops of its head has a crest similar to that of a gorillas. Bigfoot is said to have an unpleasant smell. The smell is that of wet dog and skunk, it’s very distinct and strong smelling. Bigfoot’s most famous attribute is of course his big feet. His feet can range anywhere from 12-24 inches long can be up to 8 inches wide. Bigfoot is basically a large monkey or ape that has adapted to walk upright on two feet just like Australopithecus did.

Bigfoot lives almost everywhere in the world. There have been sightings on every continent, except Antarctica. Sighting in every State in the US except Hawaii. A lot of sightings out of the United states mainly occur in British Columbia with 115 reported/documented sightings with the last one in February 2010. Ontario has a lot at 61 last recorded July 2009. Colorado is one of the places in the united states with a lot of sightings at 106 with last sighing in September of 2009. With most sighting in Park and Teller county. Different places around the world call Bigfoot by different names however they are all the same idea. Bigfoot /Sasquatch Is not to be confused with the Yeti, the snow monster who resides in the Himalayan mountain region. He lives in very rural areas of the world. Surrounded by trees and lots of foliage. Typically in the mountains where it is easy to find food and shelter or hide. He is thought to live in caves and structures that occur naturally in mountains and in rock structures. The same type of shelter other animals such as bears would use. He also makes nests or huts. There have been a few Bigfoot nests or huts found, and are specifically designed for a Bigfoot. They are made from branches and sticks and have an entrance that is unusually big for a human but it seemed big enough or a Bigfoot to fit and live in. They have been found in places that have no trace of a human and they way its built suggests that it was built by something larger that a human. No one can confirm what bigfoot eats since no one has had the chance to study it. But it is commonly thought that bigfoot eats what’s around him. Plants, fruits, and maybe small animals like rabbits and squirrels.

There is no real hard evidence of Bigfoot like bones or a body, but there are videos, pictures, footprints, hair samples, and countless number of sightings. Bigfoot footprints were the first pieces of evidence to stir up the controversy over Bigfoot. The first footprints to become widely introduced to the public were the Yeti tracks found near Mt. Everest by Eric Shipton. These tracks caused more interest in the Bigfoot tracks in North America. Some of the most famous tracks were found by a man named Jerry Crew. He was a bulldozer operator who made the cast of the footprint at Bluff Creek in 1958. He found it near the construction site at Louse Camp. A lot of these foot prints have been proven to be fake, but more often they have be proven to be unknown species. These footprints have been found all over the world. Most of these footprints can be fake or hoaxed. They are found in very remote parts of the wilderness where people don’t go. It is unlikely that a person planted a fake footprint in the middle of nowhere. They are found by hikers and explorers who just happen to come upon them. It would be hard to place a footprint without making one with your own feet. Especially the Yeti track found in the Himalayas.

Pictures are the most unreliable form of evidence in the Bigfoot mystery. There are tons of Bigfoot photos out there and many of them are fake. The photos can easily be manipulated or edited to resemble or make what people will say is Bigfoot. They are just an unreliable source which is not a good thing when trying to prove that Bigfoot is real. The only pictures that I and most can say are credible are pictures taken from the videos of Bigfoot. The most famous picture is taken from the 1967 video shot by Rodger Paterson. Its frame 352 the famous “look back frame” it shoes Bigfoot walking in front of the camera and looking back. Has not been proven to be fake or a hoax. Pictures can be misleading because a lot of them turn out to be not Bigfoot but other animals or even trees and plants. Some animals most commonly mistaken in pictures are bears and deer. They can be hidden in the background so they can be blurry and possibly resemble a Bigfoot. People often take pictures at strange camera angles which can make things deceiving and turn what is a normal tree or animal into something that looks nothing like it. Sometimes the photographer can catch the animal in some unnatural position which leads to confusion and people saying that is a Bigfoot. Bears are commonly mistaken due to their size, shape, color, smells and the noises that they can make. Hair samples are the least common type of evidence. There have been a few samples found and only a few have been proven unknown DNA and species. Most of the time they turn out to be from another animal in the area or synthetic hair.

Video evidence is the one piece of evidence that is the most controversial and the most widely recognized. There are many videos that capture Bigfoot and there are a few that have become famous around North America. Some of the videos have been proven to be fake but there are a few that have yet to be proven fake. The most famous and well known video of Bigfoot is the Paterson and Gimlin film. After the rise of Bigfoot in North America Paterson and Gimlin began to do their own research and became fascinated by Bigfoot. It was taken October 20, 1967 in Bluff Creek. Same area that the Jerry Crew foot prints had been found. In the early afternoon Paterson and Gimlin spotted what they believed to be a female Bigfoot. Paterson’s horse was alarmed at the sight of the creature and threw him to the ground. Patterson was an experienced horse man so he was able to quickly gain control and grab hi camera a 16mm hand-held Kodak movie camera. Patterson took 24 feet of color film footage. They estimated the creature to be 7 feet 3 ½ inches tall, and weighing about 700 pounds. Left footprints 14 ½ long by 6 inches wide. Had made an agreement not to shoot it unless in self defense, and they also decided not to follow the Bigfoot fearing a confrontation with it and perhaps others of its kind. This film has been studied numerous amount of times and has not been proven fake. There have been attempts to recreate it and to debunk the video but no has successfully done it. Rodger Patterson died January 15, 1972 and he took it to his grave that what he saw was indeed Bigfoot. Bob Gimlin who now live in Yakima also denies that the video was a hoax and is 100% that what they saw that day was Bigfoot.

The Memorial Day Bigfoot video was shot May 26, 1996 at Chopaka Lake, Okanogan County Washington. Filmed by Loir Pate while on a fishing trip. Shows Bigfoot running across a hill then disappearing behind a slop the reappearing again before disappearing behind the trees. This video has also been reviewed and studied and has also not been proven to be a hoax. It has been tested to see if a human could match the stride and the speed while running across a hill. Derek Prior a three time All-American sprinter form the University of Washington ran the same route to determine if the running speed of the creature was too fast for a human to duplicate. He was able to run the same path at 17.1 mph and a stride of 6.8 feet. The creature in the film ran about 8.53 mph and had a stride of 4.25 feet. This was calculated by using fixed objects to determine the speed. This did not prove that it was a hoax however it raised more questions about why the creature had such a short stride. One mystery is that at the end of the footage the creature appears to grow taller by 8 inches. Some experts and witness say that it was a young Bigfoot that was put on the shoulders of the larger one, why and how no one really knows why. This could also explain the short strides and slow running speed to the creature.

The Paul Freeman video is one of the other most viewed and studied videos. Paul Freeman was an avid Bigfoot hunter and Cryptozoologist. He had claimed to find Bigfoot tracks with dermal ridges. The casts were convincing enough to be considered critical pieces of evidence. Studied by Grover Krantz and Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University. On June 10, 1982 Freeman spotted a Bigfoot near Walla Walla, Washington being nearly 8 feet tall and covered in reddish brown fur. In 1994 Freeman was in the Blue Mountain regions in Oregon. It shows a Bigfoot walking in the forest through the trees. The footage is considered to be Authentic many Bigfoot enthusiasts and hunters but it is considered too low resolutions to conclusive. The thing that make this video so compelling is that Freeman says that there might be two Big feet walking around and it’s hard to see but you can barely pick out two shapes in the forest. This has not been proven to be two or just something else. Paul Freeman died at the age of 59 from complications of diabetes, and he never once denied that Bigfoot wasn’t real.

Two other popular videos are the Harley Hoffman video and the British Columbia snow walker video. The Harley Hoffman video shows Bigfoot walking almost directly in front of the camera. Not much is known about Harley Hoffman and his video except that no one has proven that its fake and more and more people are considering this video to be the real thing. The British Columbia Snow walking video is also another video with not much information or background connected to it. It depicts a Bigfoot or walking through the snow. Not proven to be fake but is another video where the resolution is too low quality to determine much. The three videos that in my mind are 100% real and not hoaxed are Paterson and Gimlim film, the Memorial Day footage, and the Paul Freeman video. None of these videos have been proven fake. Video is the best evidence there is to back up the statement that bigfoot is real. Foot prints and hair samples are also big pieces of evidence to consider in the mystery of Bigfoot.

All of this evidence can be hoaxed from videos to foot prints, so why do people do this. Some do it just to make a point in saying that you are wrong for believing it. Some think that they can just make a buck off it and want to try to become famous. Many people have a hard time believing in Bigfoot saying that it is impossible for it to survive in the regions it lives in. Some people even take bones that were from Baboons and Gorillas and claim it was form a Bigfoot. People who don’t believe in the theory of evolution have a very hard time believing that there is a bipedal human like ape walking among us.

Do gorillas live in the jungle? Yes they do , so why can’t another ape like creature live in the woods and forests around the world? We know that gorillas exist and we know that chimpanzees can walk on two feet sometimes. To put it in easiest way possible, Bigfoot or Sasquatch is just another species of monkey who can walk on two feet just like Australopithecus and homo-sapiens that lives in the dense wooded areas of our mountains and forests. It is just a species of animal that is hard to study because it is so elusive. There are new species of animal that we have yet to discover and every once in a while a new one turns up and Bigfoot is one of those rare species that no one knows much about. People are afraid of the unknown. Bigfoot or Sasquatch is an ape like creature who is not a myth it is real and