The Origin of the Bigfoot Legend
Today I found out the origin of the Bigfoot legend.
Stories of a giant, hairy creature that appears half man and half ape have existed in various parts of the world for many centuries. In fact, the only continent not to have stories of “wild men” is Antarctica. In the Himalayas, it’s the Yeti. In Canada, it’s the Sasquatch. And in the northwest United States, it’s Bigfoot. Bigfoot is described by believers as being between six and eight feet tall with a large forehead and pronounced brow, like a cave man’s, and a rounded, crested head like a gorilla’s. He is covered in brown or red hair and has enormous feet that are his namesake, with the biggest estimation at a whopping two feet long by eight inches wide. Some “witnesses” claim that the five-toed Bigfoot prints they saw on the ground were accompanied by claw marks (not unlike a five-toed, clawed paw print of a bear—but rational explanations aren’t as fun).
Stories of a “wild man” existed among the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest long before white colonists moved in. Versions of Bigfoot ranged from harmless giants who stole fish from fishermen’s nets, to cannibalistic monsters living on mountain peaks. These stories varied from tribe to tribe, and even from family to family, which meant that Bigfoot had a lot of different names. In the 1920s, J.W. Burns compiled the local legends for a series for a Canadian newspaper, coining the term “Sasquatch” in the process.
It wasn’t until 1958 that the Bigfoot legend really started to kick off in the United States. That year, a man named Gerald Crew found a set of large footprints at a construction site where he worked in California. He had his friend make plaster casts of the prints. The story gained a lot of attention after being published in the Humboldt Times, and was picked up by the Associated Press, drawing international attention.
Turns out, the footprints were a hoax (surprise, surprise). After the death of a man named Ray Wallace—the brother of the man in charge of the construction site where the prints were found—his family stepped forward to say that he was responsible for faking the prints. Scoop Beal, the editor of the Humboldt Times, is also said to have been involved. Nevertheless, the 1958 prints find brought the first “Bigfoot Hunters” to the area.
In 1967, the “Patterson-Gimlin film” was captured. The film shows a tall, hairy “Bigfoot” walking through the forest. Believers in Big Foot note the creature’s inhuman way of walking is a major point toward the film being real. Patterson also claimed to have taken the film to a group of people working in the special effects department at Universal Studios who supposedly said,
We could try (faking it), but we would have to create a completely new system of artificial muscles and find an actor who could be trained to walk like that. It might be done, but we would have to say that it would be almost impossible.
However, a number of factors lead to skeptics believing it’s a hoax: people who knew Patterson have described him, frankly, as a liar; Patterson’s version of events—including an estimate of how tall “Bigfoot” was— also changed and escalated over time. More to the point, a man named Bob Heironimus claimed to have worn the Bigfoot costume for the making of the film. Most likely, and not too surprisingly, the film was a hoax.
The most common explanation for Bigfoot sightings is that people are playing pranks. There was even once a thriving market for “Bigfoot feet” to create your own prints to trick your family and friends. People still even dress up in ape costumes and ghillie suits in order to perpetuate the legend.
Some sightings are also simply misidentified animals. In 2007, a photo was snapped in Pennsylvania using an automatically triggered camera hanging from a tree. While believers claimed the blurry photo—showing a large, hairy creature standing on all-fours—was that of a “juvenile sasquatch,” the Pennsylvania Game Commission said the creature was most likely “a bear with an extreme case of mange.” Looking at the picture, it could also just as easily been a human in a suit.
One of the big questions posed to believers in Bigfoot is if there are enough of the creatures to maintain a stable breeding population, and over a reasonably large area given all the supposed sightings—which there must be, unless they have extraordinarily lengthy lives—then why has a body of Bigfoot never been found? In 2008, Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton claimed to have solved this problem after they supposedly found a Bigfoot body, posting a video of it on YouTube. The body was nearly eight feet tall and weighed over 500 pounds. Despite even some Bigfoot experts doubting the young men’s story, the discovery was covered by CNN, ABC, Fox, and BBC News, and the pair received $50,000 from Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. as “a measure of good faith.” However, when the body arrived in a block of ice and was thawed and examined, researchers found that the “body” was made up of rubber feet, fake hair, and a hollow head. Not exactly convincing. Dyer and Whitton later admitted that it was a hoax. (shocker)
While the idea of a real Bigfoot is pretty unconvincing, the stories have caught on and are so prevalent in pop culture that it’s unlikely the idea of Bigfoot will fade away any time soon. As with everything, treat the stories and information you hear or read with a healthy dash of skepticism. Someday real, solid proof of Bigfoot might emerge, but I’m not holding my breath.
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
- 12 Historic Scientific Hoaxes
- One of the Great Practical Jokes of All Time- The Berners Street Hoax
- The Origin of the Loch Ness Monster
- The Monkey Artist Hoax
- Brontosauruses Never Existed
Bonus Facts:
- The term “sasquatch” comes from the Halkomelem word “sasq’ets” which is just a name for “wild men”, essentially referring to bigfoot-like creatures. Halkomelem was a language spoken by a small group of Native Americans on the border between British Columbia and Washington.
- While most scientists believe that Bigfoot is a legend, or a combination of hoaxes and misidentification, a few scientists—including Jane Goodall—have shown some amount of belief that such a creature could exist.
- Nearly one third of all Bigfoot sightings are in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, with the rest of the sights spread out across the remainder of the states.
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That has to be the most poorly written, badly researched article I’ve ever read. How long did it take you, ten minutes?
The Patteson film shows the creature is a female with ponderous breasts. All know apes have flat breasts but an upright walking ape would need heavy breasts in the female to counteract the buttock muscles used for bipedal locomotion.
Yeti hair from China has been examined in several laboratories and pronounced to be from an unknown primate. Orang-pendek hair has been examined and pronounced to be from an unknown primate.
A police fingerprint expert has looked at the dermal ridges on sasquatch prints and concluded that they are from an unknown primate.
These creatures have been obsered by reliable witnesses such as the acclaimed Ukrainian biologist Gregory Pnchenko who has observed almasty in Russia.
All you have done here is quote a couple of hoaxes and think you can use that to explain away a global phenomena that dates back thousands of years.
A schoolchild would have done better work.
@Richard Freeman: There aren’t words… 😉
Recently, a famed Oxford geneticist, Brian Sykes, examined hairs claimed to be from bigfoots, yetis etc. Of them all were linked to known animals except 2 samples of “yeti hair”. One from Bhutan and one from an animal shot in India 40 years ago matched up with a Pleistocene polar bear from 40,000 years ago and may represent an unknown bear species.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1789/20140161.full.pdf+html
Richard Freeman why don’t you chill out. If you think it’s so inaccurate why not provide a link to a story or article in reply. Not a bunch of back talk, and insults. Why not look in the mirror before calling someone school child! Although i’m pretty impressed if a kid could write an article like this. If nothing else they show that some thought and research was put into this. You on the other hand need to get a life.
You haven’t seen one so your the liar. They are alive and well , I have seen one, in Campbell River B.C. So you can believe it or not. Dave
bigfoot. well, its like saying you don’t exist Richard Freeman or Daven Hiskey. I’ve seen you around but there’s no proof of your existence. Esau and family headed for the hills and that’s where they have existed for thousands of years and spreading all over the world in the forests and mountains and they’ve been seen but not really believed. 7 foot tall, covered with red fur and a human face, that’s spooky. I wonder if they still talk like humans and stuff? sure would be interesting to find out. there are a lot of monkey suits out there so its hard to find the truth, eye witness descriptions are not very reliable. their very first comments may have some help in them. oh and go barefoot all your life and see what your feet look like. lol I feel in my being they are descended from Esau but that doesn’t prove anything either.. follow the footprints……..
Esau? Brother of Jacob from the Bible? If you read it you’d see his descendants were known as Edomites and later as Idumeans. There is nothing pseudoscientific about them. They are mentioned as neighbors and occasional enemies of Israel and Judah. They were later forcibly converted at the point of the sword by the Jewish state under John Hyrcanus and were a sizeable proportion of Judea. They actually became kings of Judea and King Herod the Great was one of them. Now if he and his family were Sasquatches I think a Roman writer or two might have mentioned it. Today many Jews of the diaspora have Edomite genes in them and I’ve yet t see a Jew who wears a size 18 shoe.
granted you should take everything in the bible with a grain of salt, it couldn’t stay “pure” through the “millions of years” in its existence. I’m no atheist either, I firmly belive that there are Gods and Goddeses out there, just not the bibles god.
I would tend to disagree with Emily. I’m pretty sure there were sightings before that time period. However, that is around the time that the name itself (bigfoot) was coined by a news reporter.
Also, I must point out that you didn’t provide any list of references. It would be a good idea to include those next time. As for the research, – well I will give you credit by saying that – there is a lot of junk out there to dig through.
I would enjoy reading more of Emily’s articles if the sarcastic and snarky remarks were left out.
@Jonathan Wilson: References are included at the bottom of every article in the “expand for references” section.
ah, Thank you, Daven
Misinformation.
I feel the need to prefix this with a disclaimer: I’m not a bigfoot believer.
However the most common argument against them (why haven’t we ever found a body) is easily called into question by history. Gorillas were, for a long time, regarded exactly as bigfoot is today. There were a lot of skeptics eating crow when the ‘impossible’ ape men of Africa were finally proven to exist. I’m not saying bigfoot actually exists (I sincerely doubt there’s any such creature), but it’s worth keeping an open mind.
Kris- you might take a look at the hundreds of authentic footprint castings that Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum has in his laboratory. But first, check out his credentials…he is an anthropologist with decades of experience in the study of Bi-Pedal Locomotion. The man can spot a fake very easily!
The thing about the PG Film is that Bob Heironimus is a neighbour of Patterson who he did not like. People today have tried to replicate the film, but none have had such good of a costume or have perfectly replicated the famous walk. And, as someone has already said, pointing out a few misidentifications and hoaxes does not prove a creature to be fake.
Bob Heironimus was out for fame and/or money. The popularity of the Patterson Gimlin film, the attention it received, the money it generated through Bigfoot enthusiasts, was too good of a quick buck for Heironimus to pass up.
The article says Patterson was a known liar by those who knew him, but in several documentaries and specials on the film those close to Patterson and Gimlin have said the Heironimus was known to tell more than a few tall tales, in most cases in search of that quick buck.
these creatures do a pretty darn good job at hiding themselves,probably could learn a thing or two from them.don,t blame em. the question is, are they just playing with us ? probably will be here long after us at the rate were goin
Yeti, Bigfoot or Leshy as we call it in Russia does exist. First of all, I would like to share a little bit of our knowleges. There were many rememberance across the Russian Empire about people who were meeting the such forest creatures. They had met “bigfoots” as often so it’s can be said – usually. It’s like they lived next to each other. Leshy was feared and respected by our ancestors. They considered Leshys were spirits of the forest. Mostly agressive toward people. It’s belived Leshy easly can kill, make stunned or just provoke to loosing orientation.
It’s a little confusing but our ancestors also said about so-called “wild men” (hairy human-like beings living in forest). As I understand they were considered them as cursed people lost in the forest and taken by Leshys to serve them.
Earliest reference to meeting bigfoot that I know is related to the end of the 12th century. Its written in “Slovo o polku Igoreve”. In your language it’s The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.
…the whistling of beasts had risen,
The Div is calling on the top of a tree.
Name Div for sure came from an old Russian word “divo” – something that able to make wondered, a very unusual.
Leshys came to villages mostly in the night to steal food, make the mess, scare animals.
In forest Leshys made different loud noices like claping, whistling, screaming and laughing. Can be invisible, but may be spotted either with side vision or sighting trough the horse’s ear.
Speaking of me, I saw something. That “something” was 2/3 of height of the tree. It’s happened in 2001 so remembrance is blurred and I can be incorrect about the size, but he was a very tall. And he moved on two feet like just a human. He appeared on the top of a hill. We felt no fear and ran to him. He just walked away. That’s all. Interesting detail – we had returned exactly to the place we came into the forest from.
How can you not believe that Bigfoot is real,just because there is no body? Cave paintings go back hundreds of years,what they saw is on those rocks ! Bigfoot is real,only time will tell,d’ont be in a hurry.
Richard F. is more believable then the writer of this article. I’ve seen one so I believe. There have been bodies found and covered up by governments. The military has been known to murder them also. They are alive even if many of you don’t believe.
In the Pacific Northwest, where the biggest of the five Sasquatch nations reside, they can get up to 16′ tall. Also, the Patterson film shows a FEMALE, hence the huge, hairy breasts…lol. And they are people, not animals.