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Bigfoot

The first accounts of big, strong, hairy people date from at least the 15th century in Caucasus, a mountain region between Asia and Europe. Different cultures have different versions or perhaps relatives of this creature.
In the Himalayas, it's the Yeti. In Australia, it's the Yowie. In Indonesia, it's the EBU Gogo. For America, primarily the Pacific Northwest, it's the Bigfoot or Sasquatch. In fact, Bigfoot sightings have been reported in almost every US state, this corroborates the belief that there is more than one Bigfoot. Then it's not a singular creature but a species.

The hunt for Bigfoot became a global phenomenon and inadvertently turned Willow Creek into arguably the number one destination for squashers and Bigfoot enthusiasts worldwide. There's places like Bigfoot books, the Bigfoot steakhouse, murals, and even a Bigfoot burger.

Most Primatologists do not believe the existence of Bigfoot or Sasquatch is likely.
That being said, let's get into the beginning of the Bigfoot phenomenon in the modern era.

In 1958, Gerald Crew discovered and cast large footprints near his bulldozer in Del Norte County. The Humble Times wrote about the story, an editor wrote the creatures name as it would be known from that moment on: Bigfoot.
However, in 2003, the two sons of a man named Ray L. Wallace, came forward to admit their father had created the footprints, using a pair of carved wooden feet. Their father, Ray Wallace, was reportedly a big prankster. Here's a quote from his son, Micheal:
"This wasn't a well- planned plot or anything. It's weird because it was just a joke, but then it took on such a life of its own that even know, we can't stop it"

Though, with the existence of plenty of other Bigfoot evidence, this does not deter Bigfoot believers.

This is a story told by Peggy Williams, Willow Creek Museum Docent: First encounter or first story that i ever heard was search and Rescue came down from Oregon said they were looking for a little boy that had been lost in the woods, four years old, didn't find him the first night but the second day, they found him sitting alongside the road and when they picked him up, all he talk about was the big hairy man that had picked him up, brought him down and set him down along the road.

Here is a quote from the Skamania County:
" The Sasquatch, Yeti, Bigfoot, or Giant Hairy ape are declared to be endangered species of Skamania County and there is hereby created a Sasquatch refuge"

According to first-person accounts, they put skin color rangers from deep black, charcoal, dark brown, reddish brown, or grey with the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet much lighter. The average height is reportedly 7'10 and the maximum weight is estimated to be 1,000 pounds.
They are also thought to be mostly silent, though they have been credited with howls, grunts, screams and growls.

Other interesting tidbits come from the Bigfoot field researchers organization which claims Bigfoot are orderly and often stacked rocks neatly. They also claim Bigfoot have legendary strength and that they:
" Take pleasure" in using their strength.

Let's go over some of the recent evidence. In 2006, Jeffrey Meldrum, an associate professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University, published a book called Sasquatch legend meets science. Meldrum is also an expert on foot morphology and the movement of monkeys, apes and hominids. In the book, he wrote:
"The evidence that exits fully justifies the investigation and the pursuit of this question"

In the 1990's, Meldrum was shown casts of Bigfoot footprints. There were 14 inches long with some suggesting running motions and others actually showing skin whirls. Meldrum felt the running footsteps in particular would be hard to fake:
" Unless you had some device, some cable-loaded flexible toes"

Dr. Wolf Henner Fahrenbach, a retired zoologists who formerly worked at the Oregon regional primate research center, believes in Bigfoot and has done analysis on over 700 footprints. It's thought that Bigfoot's big toe is aligned with the other toes, similar to human foot alignment. He believes Bigfoot's foot is approximately 15.6 inches long and that the creature weighs up to 2,000 pounds. Dr. Fahrenbach even told in New York Times in 2003:
"I've gotten close enough to smell him"

Bigfoot is believed to smell horrible with some comparing it to the odor of Smegma, a sebaceous secretions in the folds of the skin, especially under a man's foreskin.

One of the more promising developments came in the form of a carcass claimed to be a Bigfoot. In 2008, two researchers from Atlanta purchased a frozen Bigfoot carcass from Georgia Bigfoot tour company owner Rick Dyer and his friend Matthew Whitton but the carcass turned out to be a rubber gorilla suit.
There have also been attempts at DNA analysis for Bigfoot. Retired zoologist, Dr. Fahrenbach, has been unable to identify Bigfoot DNA but as of 2006, there were at least 15 samples that he had been unable to identify as any other animal. In 2012, a veterinarian- researcher claimed to have sequenced Sasquatch DNA, claiming that Sasquatch was descended from Human females who had mated with "unknown hominid" males. In 2014, a team of researchers led by an Oxford professor of human genetics conducted genetic analysis of reported Sasquatch hair samples. Unfortunately, the samples belong to a range of known animals such as dogs, bears and humans.

Here is the last piece of evidence. In 1967, Roger Patterson, an amateur Bigfoot hunter, along with Bob Gimlin filmed a home movie in Six Rivers National Forest, what they captured on camera is the only footage of Bigfoot that has not been completely debunked.

Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, the expert of foot morphology and the movement of monkeys, apes and hominids believes you can see Bigfoot's muscle movements in the film. He believes the ankles in particular are key indicators that this is not a man in a costume. Bob Gimlim regrets shooting the film, believing that Patterson benefited from it more than he did. In fact, it actually tore their friendship apart, they didn't make up until Roger Patterson was on his death bed. Either way, both of them believed what they saw and so do many around the world. This footage became the most famous piece of Cryptozoology evidence of all time.

The existence of Bigfoot still firmly rests in two camps: believers and skeptics. The mindset of skeptics could be summed up by the thoughts of University of Florida anthropologists, David J. Daegling:
"Even if you have a million pieces of evidence, if all the evidence is inconclusive, you can't count it all up to make something conclusive"

Where as the mindset of believers is generally that it's unscientific to discount the plethora of evidence.
Over the years, there have been casts of footprints, possible recorded calls, unidentifiable hairs and first person accounts, but in the end, until there is indisputable evidence, it really comes down to what you believe in. Is Bigfoot real? The answer will remain

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