
A short history of Bigfoot sightings and lore - samclemens
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/that-was-no-bear
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swasheck
My dad and my uncle are staunch believers in a wild man sort of creature that
lives out here in the remote San Juan mountains of southern Colorado. The
stories they share are vague, but convincing. They grew up in these mountains,
sleeping alone under the stars there throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s. Over the
last couple of decades they have stories of things that they’d never
experienced in their lives in the mountains. Screams. Destruction. Heart-
pounding sounds and experiences. Now they quest for conclusive evidence and
have yet to turn up any. It’s hard to reconcile the lack of evidence with the
ascribed authority of their cumulative mountaineering experience, much like
what’s described in this article.

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jjtheblunt
random observation : mountain lion calls sound like screaming primates. maybe
they at least sometimes heard that.

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mouse_8b
I like to think that Bigfoot did exist at some point. There is fossil evidence
of large upright walking apes in Asia (gigantopithecus) contemporary with
early homo sapiens. Those creatures could have come to North America the same
way humans did. When Europeans showed up, the indigenous humans were ravaged
by Old World disease. It seems logical that any contact between humans and
Bigfoot would have similar consequences. I could believe that some small
populations survived long enough to inspire stories. If there are any left, I
imagine they would be spread pretty thin. In any case, there are no verified
bodies to study, so we are left with our imaginations.

~~~
lo_fye
Check out “Discovering Bigfoot” On Netflix. It’s actually worth a watch.

~~~
lo_fye
Or listen to 1 of the over 450 episodes of the podcast “Sasquatch Chronicles”,
each of which contains 1 or more eye witness reports.

[http://sasquatchchronicles.com](http://sasquatchchronicles.com)

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giobox
If in the Bay Area, there’s a crazy little big foot museum run by a wildly
eccentric chap who is great fun to talk to in Felton, just 10 minutes outside
of Santa Cruz. It’s just opposite Henry Cowell Redwood Statepark which is also
well worth a visit, it’s a fun afternoon to see both. Admission is free too.
He also tracks supposed big foot sightings in the Santa Cruz mountains.

>
> [https://www.bigfootdiscoveryproject.com/](https://www.bigfootdiscoveryproject.com/)

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0_gravitas
I had a professor last semester who believed that Bigfoot (among other
'supernatural phenomena') is/are actually interdimensional beings 'operating
in a frequency just out of our bandwidth', which was his justification for why
'video evidence' for them was always so poor and low detail/obscure. Of all
things, I'm always surprised at how well bigfoot has captured people's
imagination, for what would just seem to be a glorified gorilla

~~~
nvrspyx
One of my favorite pastimes is listening and reading about paranormal/alien
encounters and theories. I don’t believe a lick of it, but I find it
entertaining to hear theories that make you question reality, if just for a
moment.

My favorite that I’ve heard thus far is that humans are a product of alien
genetic engineering combining alien and primate DNA. This _supposedly_
involved multiple “steps” to get what we know as humans with protohumans (e.g.
Neanderthals) being previous “steps” or attempts. Bigfoot is either one of
those “steps” or attempts. I’ve also heard a theory that Bigfoot was a “happy
accident” and carries out duties for the aliens.

I think the latter has come about as a way to explain some supposed connection
between Bigfoot and the missing 411.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
> One of my favorite pastimes is listening and reading about paranormal/alien
> encounters and theories. I don’t believe a lick of it, but I find it
> entertaining to hear theories that make you question reality, if just for a
> moment.

The thing is, when you think about it, reality is probably much stranger than
you give it credit for. All we know about reality is what we perceive and
infer from those perceptions... among which is quite a bit of knowledge about
how fallible our ability to perceive reality actually is. Most of what you
think you know is inferred from memory, which is notoriously unreliable,
and/or relayed by others, which is at least as unreliable. And the kicker is,
our understanding of what reality is relies on the assumption that reality is
even understandable to us in the first place, which is not a given.

~~~
0_gravitas
Which is why anecdotal evidence is useless, and study's of very large n's are
the closet we'll get to a truth

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lioeters
I see similarities between Bigfoot and fairy/elf mythology. Aside from the
difference in size, these creatures live "beyond the edge" of human society,
in the wild - which seems to have metaphorical significance, like beings "out
there" in the collective unconscious. Just like in dreams, my view is that
these beings are reflections of humanity, upon which we project latent fears
and desires.

~~~
OnlineCourage
Like the Skunk Ape of Miami area and the Hodag of Wisconsin.

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beenBoutIT
Back in the early 2000s there was a credible rumor circulating about a
reclusive Bigfoot Easter Egg hidden in the outskirts of (Grand Theft Auto)San
Andreas. This was the only time I've ever been excited about Bigfoot and for a
sizeable subset of millennials this is the only credible Bigfoot lore we'll
ever be exposed to. Considering that GTA San Andreas is the bestselling PS2
game ever made, Lapham's not mentioning it at all is lame.

[http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-hunt-for-one-
of-g...](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-hunt-for-one-of-gamings-
most-mythical-creatures)

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woodandsteel
The question I would ask Bigfoot believers is what about the droppings? An
animal this big would eat an awful lot of food (and mostly plants, I would
assume), and so it would leave a lot of droppings, like many pounds a day. And
they would be distinctive, and have Bigfoot dna in them. So where are all the
droppings?

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rozim
Also, for some sightings, it could be a hunter/poacher in a ghillie suit.

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cushychicken
I hate to say it, but I agree with Jane Goodall. Logically, I know Sasquatch
doesn't exist. But I _want_ to believe it does.

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steven2012
I just don't understand how people continue to believe that Bigfoot exists.
The footage from the 1970s, once stabilized, looks embarrassingly like a man
in a gorilla suit. Plus they admitted their faking it. The fact people still
believe this makes me understand exactly how conspiracy theorists and anti-
vaxxers believe what they do.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60mSMmhTZU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60mSMmhTZU)

~~~
lo_fye
Maybe you should do some research before calling bullsh*t. Here’s part 1 of 6
of a 12 hour analysis of that film -
[https://overcast.fm/+DkjFY8nxA](https://overcast.fm/+DkjFY8nxA)

The hosts go into it open minded, and come out believing it is real.

Along the way they speak to the surviving people who were actually there and
involved, AND to a Hollywood film maker and creature FX person who was making
high-end costumes in the 60s. He says the technology to make a costume that
good at that time was not in existence. Furthermore, he says nobody has yet
been able to produce a costume of similar quality.

Also, when you look into the proportions the human body, they don’t match
those of the being in the film.

Also, there are many indications in the film itself that it was an impromptu
shoot.

AND the guy who claimed to have been the man in the monkey suit had a beef
(motive) with the man who shot the film, AND the costume he described wearing
doesn’t match what appears on the film, AND the lengths of his limbs don’t
match those of the creature in the film.

And the other guy who was present when the film was shot is known to be highly
respected and full of integrity. A real straight shooter.

Lastly, check out BFRO.org to see the thousands of sightings that continue to
occur every year across the USA. Sure, some are probably bears... but some are
up close and personal, and involve police, forest rangers, military, etc.

~~~
smohare
Fascinating how we still have yet to find a single carcass of a massive land
mammal that lives close enough to civilization for there to be regular
sightings.

Also strange that the video evidence is so spectacularly subpar that the most
convincing of it requires significant anomaly hunting to persuade anyone.

~~~
rbosinger
The one argument I've heard to that is: how many dead bears or cougars are
often stumbled upon? Turns out not a lot. Animals tend to find hidden placed
to die and then nature can dispose and disperse of them pretty quickly. You
will find dead deer but there are so many of them and they are heavily hunted.
They're also kind of dumb and will die by running into a tree and things like
that. The other thing that gives me pause to believe it's possible they're out
there is that there have been times in recent history where we've apparently
discovered entire large(ish) populations of gorillas when we had believed
their numbers were lower.

I don't know. Not arguing bigfoot exists but I like the idea that even in
modern times there's still stuff we can miss even though it feels like it
would be impossible.

~~~
OnlineCourage
I actually stumbled upon a dead bear in Wisconsin a month ago, invalidating
your thesis. I have pictures.

~~~
rbosinger
I didn't say nobody ever runs into dead bears. It's just not that common, even
amongst folks who spend a lot of time in the bush.

