Sasquatch & Bigfoot

In the Northern half of the continent of North America there have been reports of a strange and hairy beast that walks like a man, said to be living in the deep forests and wilds of the continent. Called “Sasquatch” in Canada and “Bigfoot” in the United States, descriptions of the monster state that it is humanoid and walks upright, but is completely covered with hair and has an ape-like face with human eyes. The creatures’ size has been reported to range from four to nine feet tall, with an estimated upper end weight of nearly 800 pounds!

Sightings of Sasquatch are claimed to have occurred randomly for hundreds (or thousands) of years; nut direct encounters with them are rare. Most of the modern evidence for their existence are the footprints these creatures leave behind them, often twice as large as a human footprint... hence the name “Bigfoot” used in the United States. Though people who are interested in the existence of hairy humanoids in North America claim evidence goes back into the distant past, real interest in the possibility of Sasquatch or Bigfoot has only existed since July 1924, when a very strange incident was reported in Washington state.

A group of five prospectors who were staying in a windowless cabin in Ape Canyon (named after this incident, by the way) near Spirit Lake on the east side of Mount St. Helens, had occasionally seen large, man-like footprints around their cabin. One day, they saw a large apelike thing watching them from behind a tree... so they shot at it. It ran away, possibly hurt. A little later another prospector spotted a hairy apelike being near the canyon’s edge, and shot it in the back; the creature fell off the cliff and was lost to view. That night, however, the cabin was attacked by at least two creatures (some claim up to thirty!). Large rocks were thrown at the cabin, wood was stripped from between logs on the side of the cabin, and the door was tried several times to no avail. The sound of gunshots did not frighten off these nocturnal invaders. When the sun started to rise, the creatures left... and shortly thereafter, so did the prospectors!

When news of the above attack got out to the rest of the United States, it began the unofficial hunt for Bigfoot and the Sasquatch by enthusiatic seekers that is still happening today.

Other encounters

According to a woodsman named Albert Ostman, in 1924 he looking for gold near the Toba Inlet in British Columbia when, one day, he woke to find his equipment had been moved about and dug through. That night he curled up in his sleeping bag fully clothed and holding his rifle, determined to catch the troublemaker in the act; but he eventually fell asleep while waiting. Ostman woke up as the sleeping bag was picked up and slung over a huge shoulder, with him trapped inside.

Hours later, Ostman was finally put down and able to get out of the sleeping bag... and found he was with what appeared to be a family of four hairy people-like creatures, the tallest of which was eight feet tall. They didn’t hurt Ostman, but they also wouldn’t let him leave; he suspected he’d been selected as a mate for the young female in the group. Six days later, one of the hairy creatures swallowed a can full of snuff and became sick; so Ostman fired his rifle in the air and ran away while the beasts were confused and hiding.

One of the most famous pieces of evidence for the existence of Sasquatch is a movie filmed on October 20, 1967 in Bluff Creek, California, USA, by Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson, two Sasquatch trackers. The film shows what they claim to be a female Sasquatch walking away from them into the woods. While many people have stated that the movie just shows a person in an ape suit, newer studies have shown that ― whatever it is in the film ― it moves in a way that a human cannot imitate, and appears to have a very ape-like face. Castings were made of footprints left behind by this creature; the footprints look very human, but are fourteen inches long. That is one big foot!

But don't think that Bigfoot sightings are a thing of the past! A woman driving in Idaho on the night of March 22, 2017, saw a big hairy humanoid chasing deer near the road... and she was so busy trying to see the odd creature in her mirrors that she hit one of the deer! After she picked up her husband, she drove to the nearest police station to report the strange encounter. Unfortunately by the time the police investigated, they only found evidence of her car hitting the deer; they didn't find anything to prove a giant hairy man-ape had been out on the road. Maybe next time!