The Harrowing Hunt For Bigfoot

**"The Harrowing Hunt For Bigfoot"** is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on April 14, 2017. It is the second episode of the second season of *BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural*, and the twenty-first episode overall. You can watch it here.

## Background

The first accounts of big, strong, hairy people date from at least the 15th century in Caucasus, a mountain region between Asia and Europe. Different cultures have different versions, or perhaps relatives of this creature. In the Himalayas it's the Yeti, in Australia it's the Yowie, in Indonesia it's the Ebu Gogo, and for America, primarily the Pacific Northwest, it's Bigfoot or Sasquatch. In fact, Bigfoot sightings have been reported in almost every US state. This corroborates the belief that there is more than one Bigfoot, that it's not a singular creature, but a species.

The hunt for Bigfoot became a global phenomenon, and inadvertently turned Willow Creek into arguably the number one destination for Squatchers and Bigfoot enthusiasts worldwide. There's places like Bigfoot Books, the Bigfoot Steakhouse, murals, and even a Bigfoot burger.

It's worth mentioning that most primatologists do not believe the existence of a Bigfoot or Sasquatch is likely. That being said, let's get into the beginning of the Bigfoot phenomenon in the modern era. In 1958, Gerald Crew discovered and casted large footprints near his bulldozer in Bluff Creek, Del Norte County. The Humboldt Times wrote about the story, an editor, Andrew Genzoli wrote the creatures name as it would be known from that moment on, Bigfoot.

However, in 2003, the two sons of a man named Ray L. Wallace came forward to admit that their father had created the footprints using a pair of carved wooden feet. Their father, Ray Wallace, was reportedly a big gangster. Here's a quote from his son Michael: "this wasn't a well-planned plot or anything. It's weird because it was just a joke, but then it took on such a life of its own that even now, we can't stop it." Though, with the existence of plenty of other Bigfoot evidence, this does not deter Bigfoot believers.

As Shane and Ryan attempt to find this legendary creature, they joined the legion of current Bigfoot hunters, which range from average people to major television shows. It's a practice taken very seriously in Skamania County. "The Sasquatch, Yeti, Bigfoot, or giant hairy ape are declared to be endangered species of Skamania County and there's hereby created a Sasquatch refuge."

According to first-person accounts they put skin color ranges from deep black, charcoal, dark brown, reddish brown, or gray with the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet much lighter. The average height is reportedly 7 foot 10, and the maximum weight is estimated to be over 1,000 pounds. They are also thought to be mostly silent, though they have been credited with howls, grunts, screams, and growls.

Other interesting tidbits come from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, which claims Bigfoot are orderly and often stacked rocks neatly. They also claim Bigfoot have legendary strength, and that they "take pleasure in using their strength." The strength of Bigfoot was on full display many years ago on the icy road an area a short drive away from where they are now. When the icy road was being constructed from north of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, crew members would arrive in the morning to find that 500 pound tires had been tossed around, bulldozers were turned over, and giant the footprints were all around the site.

The existence of Bigfoot still firmly rests in two camps: believers and skeptics. The mindset of skeptics could be summed up by the thoughts of University of Florida anthropologist David J Daegling: "even if you have a million pieces of evidence, if all the evidence is inconclusive, you can't count it all up to make something conclusive." Whereas the mindset of believers is generally that it's unscientific to discount the plethora of evidence. Over the years, there have been casts of footprints, possible recorded calls, unidentifiable hairs, and first-person accounts.

### Evidence

In 2006, Jeffrey Meldrum, an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University published a book called *Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science*. Meldrum is also an expert on foot morphology and the movement of monkeys, apes, and hominids. In that book, he wrote: "the evidence that exists fully justifies the investigation and the pursuit of this question." In the 1990s, Meldrum was shown casts of Bigfoot footprints there were 14 inches long, with some suggesting running motion and others actually showing skin whirls. Meldrum felt the running footsteps in particular would be hard to fake, "unless you had some device, some cable loaded flexible toes."

Dr. Wolf Henner Fehrenbach, a retired zoologist who formerly worked at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center believes in Bigfoot and has done analysis on over 700 footprints. It's thought that Bigfoot's big toe is aligned with the other toes, similar to human foot alignment. He believes Bigfoot's foot is approximately 15.6 inches long, and that the creature weighs up to 2,000 pounds. Dr. Fehrenbach even told a New York Times in 2003: "I've gotten close enough to smell him." By the way, Bigfoot is believed to smell horrible, with some comparing it to the odor of smegma, a sebaceous secretions in the folds of the skin, especially under a man's foreskin

One of the more promising developments came in the form of a carcass, claimed to be a Bigfoot. In 2008, two researchers from Atlanta purchased a frozen Bigfoot carcass from Georgia Bigfoot Tour Company owner Rick Dyer and his friend Mattew Whitton, but the carcass turned out to be a rubber gorilla suit.

There have also been attempts at DNA analysis for Bigfoot. Retired zoologist Dr. Wolf Henner Fehrenbach has been unable to identify Bigfoot DNA, but as of 2006, they were at least 15 samples that he had been unable to identify as any other animal. In 2012, a veterinarian researcher claimed to have sequenced Sasquatch DNA, claiming that Sasquatch was descended from human females, who had made it with unknown hominid males. In 2014, a team of researchers led by an Oxford professor of human genetics conducted genetic analysis of reported Sasquatch hair samples. Unfortunately, the samples belong to a range of known animals such as dogs, bears, and humans.

In 1967, Roger Patterson, an amateur Bigfoot hunter along with Bob Gimlin, filmed a home movie in Six Rivers National Forest, the forests Shane and Ryan are currently in. What they captured on camera is the only footage of Bigfoot that has not been completely debunked.

Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, the expert on foot morphology and the movement of monkeys, apes, and hominids believes you can see Bigfoot's muscle movements in the film. He believes the ankles in particular are key indicators that this is not a man in a costume. Bob Gimlin regrets shooting the filmm believing that Patterson benefited from it more than he did. In fact, it actually tore their friendship apart. They didn't make up until Roger Patterson was on his deathbed. Either way, both of them believe what they saw and so do many around the world. This footage will become the most famous piece of cryptozoological evidence of all time.