How old is the story of bigfoot

But the saola did not have legions of amateurs hunting it with cameras. With or without hard evidence, many people clearly want to believe in Bigfoot. Which suggests we are dealing more with human imagination than human evolution. As so-called wild men, they hold a crude mirror up to our own species: What might Homo sapiens be like if civilization had not removed it from nature? Can you tell the real animals from the fake ones? Hover over each animal to reveal if it is fact or folklore.

Illustration by Iris Gottlieb. Some people see these cryptohominids as symbols of pure freedom, living by instinct and foiling every effort to pin them down. To search for Bigfoot in the forest is to taste that freedom. On the trail, you become extra-attuned to nature: the smell of scat, the sounds of breaking branches, the curious impressions in the dirt. Beyond The Fray: Bigfoot. Beyond the Fray, LLC amazon. David McNew Getty Images. A still from the famous Patterson—Gimlin film, Bettmann Getty Images.

Kevin Schafer Getty Images. Original cover of Ivan T. Related Story. Grover Krantz with casts of footprints supposedly belonging to Sasquatch, Best Value. Coleman Portable Quad. Best Minimalist. Mountainsmith SlingBack.

Best for Lounging. Kelty Lowdown. Best for Backpacking. Leki Sub 1. Exceptional portability and build quality for when you feel like splurging. The Chinese believe a "Yeren" roams the western Hubei mountains. Australians say a "Yowie" stalks the Outback. By any name, this mythical creature is usually described as a bipedal hominid sporting a shaggy coat of hair covering its 8-tofoot-tall frame although sightings of "juveniles" also occur.

The brute can weigh pounds and leave footprints twice the size of a normal human adult's. Bigfoot believers contend the creature is the proverbial "missing link" between man and his evolutionary forbears. Have there been other hoaxes?

Bigfoot's legend seems fertile terrain for rogues and raconteurs. In , a prospector named Albert Ostman came forward with a tale of having been abducted in by a Sasquatch — and forced to live with its family for six days, until he escaped. In , two Georgia men, one a former policeman, claimed to have recovered a Bigfoot corpse in their native mountains — but after an international media frenzy, it was discovered they had purchased a Bigfoot costume and stuffed it with roadkill and animal entrails.

But the most famous suspected hoax came just nine years after Wallace's prank. In , Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin made a second film showing an ape-like creature walking around near the same Bluff Creek of the original sighting. Years later, costume manufacturer Philip Morris said he sold Patterson the gorilla suit seen in the film, and introduced a large man who said he tromped around in the costume for the camera.

How frequent are sightings? The debate and research continue. Entire organizations exist to study and document Bigfoot and prove its existence and groups regularly search the Northwest woods, looking for that ultimate proof. In one very real sense, however, Bigfoot does exist. Just like the Bigfoot of legend, the sector is rarely seen and rarely heard, but rest assured it continues to observe and — if necessary — serve as a messenger of warning.