Where Is Bigfoot?
Where is Bigfoot? Big question, but one simple and sad answer is; in the imagination of some Hollywood hack! They took the idea and possibility of a larger than life ape man and turned it into a vapid video entertainment called ‘Bigfoot and the Hendersons’. They concocted a ‘cutsy’ escapade from episodes just like that of 1958 in Del Norte county California, which in itself was a close encounter of the second kind, by a construction worker. The roots of the film and this encounter lie in the idea of a reclusive tribe of large man-apes better referred to by the name Sasquatch, surviving but nearly extinct in the Pacific north west regions of north America. Sasquatch is derived from the native American word ‘sesquac’ meaning wild man.
Science deals with the, ‘where is Bigfoot’ question in it’s usual ‘prove it to me’ fashion. Cryptozoology and cryptobotany refer to ‘cryptids’ as creatures or plants, whose existence has been postulated but neither proven, nor yet part of a scientific consensus. Therefore the scientists answer to where is Bigfoot, is in the dictionary only, probably under ‘G’ for ‘gigantopithecus’, a prehistoric life form that could be related to Sasquatch.
It is certainly true that the vast majority of sightings of the Sasquatch have been in the American north west and so that is almost surely the geographical answer to the question; where is Bigfoot? The rumors and myths surrounding the Sasquatch were undoubtedly rife in Del Norte California in 1958 before the discovery of enormous footprints by a construction worker, Jess Bemis. A curious local resident named Jerry Crew made the now famous plaster casts of Bigfootprints and has thereby kindled huge interest in the Sasquatch phenomenon.
The giant footprints began to appear each morning in the mud of a construction site. Locals and pressmen alike began to talk of ‘Bigfoot’. Jerry Crew made casts of the huge imprints, forty one centimeters in length, and appeared on TV and in journals of the day showing off his prize. Many people questioned the authenticity of the Bigfoot tracks at the time but there is no doubt that they have entered the Bigfoot hall of fame and Bemis and Crew did give a national and international boost to the, ‘where is Bigfoot scoop’.
Long before the Del Norte county ‘mud larks’ though, Sasquatch was a key element in much folklore. Living in the remotest woods, fleeing when seen, mostly nocturnal, half nomad tribe, half human family group. But always of superman proportions and hirsute appearance, the myth of some sort of man creature will not go extinct. It lives in the human psyche and is passed on and embellished with each generational retelling of the sightings and with each new encounter.
The ‘abominable snowman’ is the Nepal Tibet Himalaya equivalent of Bigfoot. Known to the natives as Yeti. This is the equivalent of Sasquatch. It seems wherever people are, the idea or myth of giant creatures tantalizingly just out of reach, is common in all cultures. So perhaps another important answer to where is Bigfoot is, in the human mind and imagination. It surely cannot be too long before one of the many sightings turns into a close encounter of the third kind, complete with a cell phone video on YouTube.
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