BIGFOOT

(Investigator 88, 2003 January)

 

[Bigfoot, according to The Advertiser of December 7, 2002, is dead. As with many rumoured but unproven phenomena a common-sense approach gave the correct conclusion all along. With this in mind the following is reprinted from Investigator No. 8.]


Over 1,000 reported sightings by 1980! In all but four of the states of the USA! Numerous plaster casts of footprints! Photographs of the creature! A motion picture film! Even women claiming to have been hugged by him! Nevertheless he successfully keeps on eluding skeptics, scientists, biologists and sensible people in general!

"Bigfoot", also called "Sasquatch", is North America's equivalent of the mythical Himalayan Yeti. Bigfoot is supposed to be 7 to 9 feet tall, weigh 600 to 1,000 pound, and is hairy and long-armed and walks upright. He's been shot at by hunters at point-blank range (allegedly) but doesn't seem to mind bullets. He and his kind roam the USA from California to New York and from Alaska to Texas.

Even new insect species are hard to find in North America – so thoroughly have biologists done their job. The same biologists can't, however, track down and capture, or even photograph, just one specimen among hundreds of furry giants who roam the land from coast to coast!

The first newspaper report about Bigfoot is from the EXETER WATCHMAN, 1818, September 22:

Sacket's Harbor (N.Y.) Sept. 6
Report says, that in the vicinity of Ellisburgh, was seen on the 30th Ult. by a gentleman of unquestionable veracity, an animal resembling the Wild Man of the Woods. It is stated that he came from the woods and then took his flight in a direction which gave a perfect view of him for some time. He is described as bending forward when running – hairy, and the heel of the foot narrow, spreading at the toes. Hundreds of persons have been in pursuit for several days, but nothing further is heard or seen of him.

The frequent and positive manner in which this story comes, induces us to believe it. We wish not to impeach the veracity of this highly favored gentleman – yet, it is proper that such naturally improbable accounts should be established by the mouth, of at least two direct eyewitnesses to entitle them to credit.
 
 

 The book THE BIGFOOT CASEBOOK (1982) by J & C Bord lists a further forty reported sightings for the 19th century. From 1900 to 1949 fifty sightings are recorded. Approximately another fifty in the 1950s. Then the numbers really exploded. Over 260 in the 1960s including 60 in 1969. About 550 in the 1970s. This increase coincides with the release of Japanese King Kong movies – but maybe that's not significant.

With so many Bigfoots about and so many UFOs whizzing around simultaneously the two sorts were bound to meet up.

THE BIGFOOT CASEBOOK (p. 114) mentions one man who encountered Bigfoot and who also: "had since 1965 had a dozen or so UFO sightings, and on one occasion had exchanged flashed signals with a UFO." And near Greensburg in Pennsylvania in 1973, October 25, two ten-year-old twins and a 22-year-old farmer reported seeing two Bigfoots who came from a landed Flying Saucer.

The motion film of Bigfoot was taken by Roger Patterson in California in 1967, October 20. The gait of the creature suggests a human dressed in a furry costume.

A lot of sensationalist books have been written to convince the reader of Bigfoot's existence. Sensationalistic newspaper accounts also number thousands. This doubtless influences naive people into believing and even into "seeing" something they couldn't have seen.

Some sightings perhaps were genuine – when a hoaxer dressed in a monkey costume tried to scare impressionable neighbours or campers or trespassers.

Promoters of Bigfoot should plug the nonsense by sticking their own foot in their mouth.

(BM)

 

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