The Legends of Bigfoot: Truth or Fiction

Dating back to 1958, Aspiring journalist Andrew Genzoil of the Humboldt Times has put the spotlight on an entertaining letter from a reader regarding loggers from northern California who sighted mysteriously large footprints. With that in mind, Genzoil imaged the absurdly large prints had the potential to become a great Sunday story. To his surprise, the article engulfed in major headlines leading to the people wanting more published articles. With all this buzz, Genzoil had stated the name of the unknown creature, “Bigfoot,” and so forth, the legend had become a worldwide phenomenon. Amongst the years, the existence of Bigfoot has had an abundance of sources. From Localized sightings, folk tales, and numerous bits of evidence gathered by cryptozoologists, all give faith to the modern myth of sasquatch.

The Legends of Bigfoot resumes beyond written history and crosses the world. In northern America and notably the northwest region, with stories of folklore tales about a seven-foot-tall hairy behemoth shadowing the woods, infrequently freighting campers, lumberjacks, hikers, plus anyone who travel through their territory. Bigfoot has been the universal name around the world, but it has multiple titles and different variance of upbringing stories. With diverse cultures, the title bigfoot is regularly associated with the mountainous western province of North America. The familiar name Sasquatch comes from the Salish Sasquits Indians, “as the original name is “Sesquac,” which is the Halkomelem language”. 

The Salish Indians initially settled in parts of Fraser Valley and other parts of the American northwest and including regions in Canada. Also, the concept of an ape-like man is common in Native American legends across the entire North American Continent, as well in native populations around the world. Summing it all up, the Native American tribes of the northern region of the United States have more than sixty different names for Sasquatch. On the other hand, the Algonquin from some north-central part of the region refers to “Witiko” or “Wendigo.” Their description of sasquatch differs in original folklore tales as they view the creature to be “a supernatural being that is strongly associated with colder climates in the northern hemisphere”. The Algonquian says the giant has a heart of ice as well; the body’s skeletal structure has a deformed appearance with missing lips and toes. 

Compared to other northern tribes, the Ojibway of the northern plains portrays sasquatch differently with a humanlike appearance at first the creature bones shift around, and animal-like instincts kick in at age 30. The Ojibway described this creature “Rugaru” as it arises in times of danger, and nearby nations acknowledged that the hairy illusion was a messenger of warning, wanting individuals to change their ways. North American pioneers began reporting sightings through the late 1800s and throughout the 1900s with sporadic conclusions of footprints, unpredictable encounters, and including a few low-quality photos and videos continuing the mystery. Moving forward, many believe in bigfoot’s existence or have claimed to sight the mysterious creature. With prickly hairs covering the entire body and ape-like behaviors are not the only astounding thing, sasquatch has a standing height of eight feet and the capability of leaving footprints twice the size of an average human. 

They are generally characterized as nonaggressive animals, where their shyness takes over, and humanlike intelligence makes them elusive, causing an encounter to become impossible. However, some wilderness explorers have claimed to notice a wretched stench or heard their high pitched shouts and whistles. Also, a few physical anthropologists, notably Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University and Grover Krantz of Washington State University, have advocated the biological existence of bigfoot based on their investigation of the “1967 film footage of an implied bigfoot taken in northern California’s Klamath Mountains”. On their group exploration, they have made a worldly discovery of potential footprints of bigfoot. With this discovery, the group has crossed-examine the prints with another sighting dating back to the 1980s, where a U.S. Forest Service employee had stumbled upon a trail of footprints within the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. 

Most anthropologists remained skeptical and deemed this phenomenon dismissed as the product had false results as there were traces of known animals. Over time, stories and discussions about bigfoot have been a welcomed oral tradition and had become common folklore. Bigfoot entered the scene and put its hands on the occupational culture of loggers, manifested as serious stories, jokes, chainsaw sculptures, and fabricated prints as playful pranks. During the 1970s, Peter Byrne, a former Yeti-hunter, had established the Bigfoot Information Center headquarters at The Dalles, bringing in national media attention for his notable documentation of eyewitness testimony and footprints presenting evidence for a new species of primate.

 The hair follicle sample would certainly present evidence about Bigfoot’s existence moreover, Bigfoot within pop culture has grown into a range of sports mascots, children’s entertainments, including cryptozoological reality programs. Furthermore, it has been playfully publicized in state legislation and celebrations. Prominently, politicians in states like Oregon and Washington have offered bills to preserve the creatures from vicious poachers, and the hairy creature should be served as an official state mascot. Bigfoot was born into fruition as Harrison bigfoot for Washington’s Centennial in 1989 including the Seski Sasquatch for the state of Oregon in 2009. 

Various writers have pondered thoughtfully about extending the tradition in literature that examines changing their view of the natural world. The effect of printing fictional and science topics, authors have drawn Bigfoot as a charismatic personality that emerged in the modern environmental imaginary as an image of enchantment and endangerment. Servicing mythological relations amongst humans and the primitive in the region’s compromised but not unredeemable landscapes. The rise of Bigfoot had a wide fanbase, but to maintain this fanbase or continue the myth of Bigfoot, the development of Cryptozoologist occupation has risen to keep this faction alive. Breaking down the new occupation title “Cryptozoologist,” the root word “crypto” is defined as ‘hidden.’ ‘Zo’ means animals. 

‘Ology’ means the study of, and put that all together, you get the study of hidden or unknown animals. While that is simply the beginning, cryptozoologists believe that there remain many “fictional” creatures anticipating to be discovered. The title alone sounds very academic and seems to have a nice ring to it; nevertheless, looking past the title, the realization settles in, and those “hidden animals” include the Yeti (known as the Abominable Snowman), the Loch Ness Monster and the proclaimed fascination Bigfoot. Some speculate that Bigfoot may be an existing Gigantopithecus considered a giant ape that vanished 100,00 years ago. The enormous primate is affirmed to hold a standing elevation of 10 feet plus weighing up to 1,300 pounds while co-existing among humans for beyond a million years. 

Specialists have identified Gigantopithecus blackii following some unexpected findings of remarkable remains of teeth next to clearance in a “Hong Kong drugstore around 80 years ago” Bindernagel, John A. (“The Discovery Ofthe Sasquatch: Reconciling Culture, History, and Science in the Discovery Process ”). With an interesting theory of giant apes have co-existed with humans, this has caused some buzz within the study of primates and scientists around the world, but it still unclear how long ago this beast went extinct. With control considerations regarding the teeth unveiled the primates were herbivores, including bamboo was a fundamental source of food. 

A few scientists believe an appetite was catered towards bamboo combined with a rise in competition from nimble humans lurking nearby, which ultimately led to their extinction of Gigantopithecus. A majority of scientists have agreed that Gigantopithecus died out long ago, some people - Yeti, Sasquatch, Bigfoot supporters, in particular, believe that the tale of the giant apes derives from the Gigantopithecus, roaming the woods. According to exploration in Canada near the Yukon