Collected in Nov 2008. On high bank by river. Only one print in edge of soft ground. About 12-13 inches long.
First some history...
What image comes to mind when you hear...Bigfoot? Most people think of the most well known and most controversial of all the Bigfoot evidence.--the Patterson-Gimlin film. It is the image that has the Bigfoot walking away from the camera with a half turn as she quickly exits the area. Although no one has ever produced a suit or details of how they pulled it off, most people still think its a fake. Bill Munns and MK Davis are still doing amazing things with the original footage due to the technology that now exists. It was filmed in 1967 but that is also where most people think that the Bigfoot sightings began. That couldn't be farther from the truth.
Similar stories from around the world about giant and elusive ape-like humans include the Yeren of China, the Yeti of the Himalaya mountains, the Yowie of Australia and the Mapinguari of South America. The Pacific Northwest of America has it's "Bigfoot" and in Canada it's the "Sasquatch." In northern Wisconsin, Dakota Indians know the creature by the name Chiye-tanka, a Dakota name for "Big Elder Brother". It is said to be a hairy, ape-like that stands 7' 9" and weighs between 600 and 900 lbs.
Life on earth still holds so many secrets. We know so much about the world around us yet new species are being discovered every year. In fact, in 2010 a hunter in Myanmar shot a beast that had been rumored to live in the forest around their town. He even had a photo taken with it. It wasn't available for scientists to examine when they arrived because the family ate it. It was called a hoax until a trail cam captured 4 photos of the elusive animal. Bigfoot? No. It is the Snub-nosed Monkey of Myanmar. It is huge for a monkey. Scientists have classified the animal but very little physical evidence exists besides the 4 photos. How could a primate this big go unseen and undiscovered for so long. We find that the region has spoken about them for hundreds of years but was relegated to myth and legend. Sound familiar?
What we have found...
In fact, the oldest recorded reports of bigfoot/sasquatch came from the viking explorer known as Leif Erikson. He is believed to be the first European to visit the Americas around 1000 years ago. Erik reported seeing huge ape-like creatures that were "horribly ugly, hairy, swarthy and with big black eyes". Also, early explorers that trekked across Canada in order to document the native tribes wrote about an elusive native that was tall and completely covered in hair. In 1840, Reverend Elkanah Walker, a protestant missionary, recorded stories of giants among the Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians claimed that these giants lived on and around the peaks of nearby mountains and stole salmon from the fishermen's nets. Frontiersman Daniel Boone reported having shot and killed "a ten-foot, hairy giant he called a Yahoo." Even President Teddy Roosevelt, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, was intrigued by the bigfoot mystery. He wrote about an encounter with a creature in his book, The Wilderness Hunter, he described as walking on 2 feet and uttering harsh, sinister sounds.
