Scientists have historically discounted the existence of Bigfoot, considering it to be the result of a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than a living animal.[12][13] Folklorists trace the phenomenon of Bigfoot to a combination of factors and sources including indigenous cultures, the European wild man figure, and folk tales.[14] Wishful thinking, a cultural increase in environmental concerns, and overall societal awareness of the subject have been cited as additional factors.[15]
Michael Rugg, owner of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Northern California, claims to have smelled Bigfoot, stating, "Imagine a skunk that had rolled around in dead animals and had hung around the garbage pits".[28]
The enormous footprints for which the creature is named are claimed to be as large as 610 millimetres (24 in) long and 200 millimetres (8 in) wide.[19] Some footprint casts have also contained claw marks, making it likely that they came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws.[29][30]
Many of the indigenous cultures across the North American continent include tales of mysterious hair-covered creatures living in forests,[31] and according to anthropologist David Daegling, these legends existed long before contemporary reports of "Bigfoot." These stories differed in their details regionally and between families in the same community.[32]
On the Tule River Indian Reservation in Central California, petroglyphs created by a tribe of Yokuts at a site called Painted Rock are alleged by some to depict a group of Bigfoot called "the Family".[33] The local tribespeople call the largest of the glyphs "Hairy Man" and they are estimated to be between 500 and 1000 years old.[34] 16th century Spanish explorers and Mexican settlers in California told tales of the los Vigilantes Oscuros, or "Dark Watchers", large creatures alleged to stalk their camps at night.[35] In the region that is now Mississippi, a French Jesuit priest was living with the Natchez in 1721 and reported stories of hairy creatures in the forest known to scream loudly and steal livestock.[36]
Members of the Lummi tell tales about creatures known as Ts'emekwes. The stories are similar to each other in the general descriptions of Ts'emekwes, but details differed among various family accounts concerning the creature's diet and activities.[42] Some regional versions tell of more threatening creatures: the stiyaha or kwi-kwiyai were a nocturnal race and children were warned against saying the names so that the "monsters" would not come and carry them off to be killed.[43] The Iroquois tells of an aggressive, hair covered giant with rock-hard skin known as the Ot ne yar heh or "Stone Giant", more commonly referred to as the Genoskwa.[44] In 1847, Paul Kane reported stories by the natives about skoocooms, a race of cannibalistic wild men living on the peak of Mount St. Helens in southern Washington state. Also related to this area was an alleged incident in 1924 in which a violent encounter between a group of gold prospectors and a group of "ape-men" occurred. These allegations were reported in the July 16, 1924, issue of The Oregonian and have become a popular piece of Bigfoot lore, with the area now being referred to as Ape Canyon.[45] U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, in his 1893 book, The Wilderness Hunter, writes of a story he was told by an elderly mountain man named Bauman in which a foul-smelling, bipedal creature ransacked his beaver trapping camp, stalked him, and later became hostile when it fatally broke his companion's neck in the wilderness near the Idaho-Montana border.[46] Roosevelt notes that Bauman appeared fearful while telling the story, but attributed the trapper's folkloric German ancestry to have potentially influenced him.[47]
In 1958, Jerry Crew, a logging company bulldozer operator in Humboldt County, California, discovered a set of large, 410 millimetres (16 in) human-like footprints sunk deep within the mud in the Six Rivers National Forest.[49] Upon informing his coworkers, many claimed to have seen similar tracks on previous job sites as well as telling of odd incidents such as an oil drum weighing 450 pounds (200 kg) having been moved without explanation. The logging company men soon began utilizing "Bigfoot" to describe the mysterious culprit.[50] Crew, who initially believed someone was playing a prank on them, once again observed more of these numerous, massive footprints and contacted reporter Andrew Genzoli of the Humboldt Times newspaper. Genzoli interviewed lumber workers and wrote articles about the mysterious footprints, introducing the name "Bigfoot" in relation to the tracks and the local tales of large, hairy wild men.[51] A plaster cast was made of the footprints and Crew appeared, holding one of the casts, on the front page of the newspaper on October 6, 1958. The story spread rapidly as Genzoli began to receive correspondence from major media outlets including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.[52] As a result, the term "Bigfoot" became widespread as a reference to an apparently large, unknown creature leaving massive footprints in Northern California.[53]
In 2002, the family of Crew's deceased coworker Ray Wallace stated that their father had been secretly making the large footprints with carved, wooden feet and was responsible for the tracks.[54] Despite the Wallace family's statement, Willow Creek and Humboldt County are considered by some to be the "Bigfoot Capital of the World".[55]
In the 1830s, a Wyandot chief was nicknamed "Big Foot" due to his significant size, strength and large feet.[57] Potawatomi Chief Maumksuck, known as Chief "Big Foot", is today synonymous with the area of Walworth County, Wisconsin and has a state park and school named for him.[58] William A. A. Wallace, a famous 19th century Texas Ranger, was nicknamed "Bigfoot" due to his large feet and today has a town named for him: Bigfoot, Texas.[59] Lakota leader Spotted Elk was also called "Chief Big Foot". In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at least two enormous marauding grizzly bears were widely noted in the press and each nicknamed "Bigfoot." The first grizzly bear called "Bigfoot" was reportedly killed near Fresno, California in 1895 after killing sheep for 15 years; his weight was estimated at 2,000 pounds (900 kg).[56] The second one was active in Idaho in the 1890s and 1900s between the Snake and Salmon rivers, and supernatural powers were attributed to it.[60]
According to Live Science, there have been over 10,000 reported Bigfoot sightings in the continental United States.[61] About one-third of all claims of Bigfoot sightings are located in the Pacific Northwest, with the remaining reports spread throughout the rest of North America.[29][62][63] Most reports are considered mistakes or hoaxes, even by those researchers who claim Bigfoot exists.[64]
Sightings predominantly occur in the northwestern region of Washington, Oregon, Northern California, and British Columbia. Other prominent areas of supposed sightings include the rural areas of the Great Lakes region and the southeastern United States. According to data collected from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization's (BFRO) Bigfoot sightings database in 2019, Washington has over 2,000 reported sightings, California over 1,600, Pennsylvania over 1,300, New York and Oregon over 1,000, and Texas has just over 800.[65] The debate over the legitimacy of Bigfoot sightings reached a peak in the 1970s, and Bigfoot has been regarded as the first widely popularized example of pseudoscience in American culture.[66]
Many regions have differentiating names for the creatures.[67] In Canada, the name Sasquatch is widely used although often interchangeably with the name Bigfoot.[68] The United States uses both of these names but also has numerous names and descriptions of the creatures depending on the region and area in which they are allegedly sighted.[69] These include the Skunk ape in Florida and other southern states,[70] Grassman in Ohio,[71] Fouke Monster in Arkansas,[72] Wood Booger in Virginia,[73] the Monster of Whitehall in Whitehall, New York,[74] Momo in Missouri,[75] Honey Island Swamp Monster in Louisiana,[76] Dewey Lake Monster in Michigan,[77] Mogollon Monster in Arizona,[78] the Big Muddy Monster in southern Illinois,[79] and The Old Men of the Mountain in West Virginia.[80] The term Wood Ape is also used by some as a means to deviate from the perceived mythical connotation surrounding the name "Bigfoot".[81] Other names include Bushman, Treeman, and Wildman.[82]
Some Bigfoot researchers allege that Bigfoot throws rocks as territorial displays and for communication.[83][84][85] Other alleged behaviors include audible blows struck against trees or "wood knocking", further alleged to be communicative.[86][87][88]Skeptics argue that these behaviors are easily hoaxed.[89]Additionally, structures of broken and twisted foliage seemingly placed in specific areas have been attributed by some to Bigfoot behavior.[90] In some reports, lodgepole pine and other small trees have been observed bent, uprooted, or stacked in patterns such as weaved and crisscrossed, leading some to theorize that they are potential territorial markings.[91] Some instances have also included entire deer skeletons being suspended high in trees.[92] Some researchers and enthusiasts believe Bigfoot construct teepee-like structures out of dead trees and foliage.[93] In Washington state, a team of amateur Bigfoot researchers called the Olympic Project claimed to have discovered a collection of nests. The group brought in primatologists to study them, with the conclusion being that they appear to have been created by a primate.[94]
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