Published: Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:38:52 -0800
It's something I'm rather ashamed of, being lumped in with flat earth, faked moon landings, and lizard-people occupied government by the average person. I find it laughable to put it on the same level as those obviously false theories, but I'm sure there are flat earthers who would say the same about me.
The fascination with the subject started from a young age. When I was four or five I would have reoccurring nightmares about being chased down by a 50 foot tall ape, destroying everything in it's path, eventually reaching me, where I would awake in a panic. By the end of elementary school I saw an ad for Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot and almost immediately got hooked on the show, staying up late every Sunday night to watch the new episode as soon as it came out. This time meeting the subject with intrigue instead of fear as I did in early childhood. Of course the apatite of a fanatical prepubescent was unable to be satiated by a low-rate network TV show and I explored anything I could find on the subject during the show's off season, renting out any book at the library about sasquatch and watching all the videos I could during the dawn of online video streaming. Years passed and I found other things to be interested in, slowly letting that passion dwindle. That was until finding a Bob Gymlan video pop up in my recommended feed while I was in high school. I hadn't thought about the subject much during the time in between the fall off in interest before I was 10 and the time I found the video in my mid teens, but after watching it the interest flared up again, albeit slightly less fanatical and with a bit more skepticism towards reports.
From everything I have ingested on the subject over the years, my thesis could be summed up as: There exists a species of large bipedal apes that inhabit forested regions of North America. They share many characteristics with known apes. Their footprints are similar to human prints, though are larger, do not have a notable arch, and appear to have a flexible mid-foot. They walk with an interesting gait where the leg rises to almost a 90 degree angle with each step and have arms that extend past their knees. While growing in popularity within the zeitgeist after the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film, there are descriptions of similar creatures from westerners since their arrival in North America and before that from Native American cultures. Most of the details on foot structure come from the research of Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University and the gait and arm details come from analysis of the PGF and other recorded sightings.
I could make this a whole collection of my favorite pieces of evidence, but that would be long and I'd much rather answer the problem that most non-believers raise as reason for the non-existence of Bigfoot.
If we ignore the parenthetical, I would answer that we do. The previously mentioned Patterson-Gimlin Film (PGF) is probably our best existing video evidence, but other relevant videos would be The Brown Footage, and The Freeman Footage. There are hundreds of plaster casts showing detailed characteristics that could not be replicated with stamping, like dermatoglyphics and evidence of injury as seen in the cripplefoot footprints. There have been hair samples which appear to be very similar to human hair, except thicker and without any signs of every being cut, also notably lacking a medulla so no DNA sampling can be done on it. There are recordings of possible sasquatch vocalizations, The Sierra Sounds. All in all, there is a large amount of evidence, but most of it is not taken seriously by non-believers. Why that is? Who really knows? I lean more on the side of the band-wagon effect over the more conspiratorial theories. Even many "believers" are mostly unaware of the evidence and are just more in it for the eye-witness testimony or worse, vibes.
Now let's not ignore the parenthetical. With every new piece of evidence, it is deemed by the non-believers as unsatisfactory in some manner, or if it is good evidence, the fact it is good proves it is a hoax. A common issue raised is that with the explosion of widely available HD cameras, why is it that we don't get better quality photos. I think the best explanation is that the creatures inhabit areas that make it harder for photography in combination with a misunderstanding of the capabilities of smartphone cameras. They tend to remain in areas with dense tree-cover and in shadows which they can blend into with their dark fur (though lighter color fur has been reported). Secondly the amount of post processing that occurs from trained data models on smartphone photos is why a relatively weak camera can produce stunning images in daily scenarios. With my Iphone 14 Pro I have taken some of the worst photographs known to man due to being outside the operating window of the camera and post-processor capabilities by taking photos durring dimly lit nighttime walks. This is only compounded by rural poverty, in isolated regions where these animals frequent, the people who live there probably don't have the latest and greatest technology. As for hoaxes, they are plentiful and mostly laughable, yet often get the most media coverage such as the 2023 Colorado Bigfoot. The PGF has been "debunked" dozens of times, yet most go by somebody claiming to be the guy in the monkey suit, where the person claiming also has no evidence of that being the case. Bob Heronimus is the only believable one, but parts of his narrative are discrediting such as the suit being made of horse hide, something that would have made the suit 300 pounds, while also lacking an explanation for the elongated upper arms and inability to recreate the gait shown in the video. Most rely purely on ad-hominem attacks on Robert Patterson. While the psychology of the hoaxer escapes me, why put in so much effort when a sub-hundred dollar monkey suit and a shaky cam can get you just as much attention.
I understand that there are definitely some holes in the existing theories of sasquatch existence, something that likely won't be solved until someone manages to down one or a dead body washes up somewhere, but can we not pretend everything is just hogwash.
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