Well! Unfortunately I haven't received an email back from our wonderful tour guide in Marshall, and I think it wouldn't do the tour justice if I did the blog on it anyway. So, instead I'm going to bring you something a little different. We're going to look away from ghosts for a week and instead turn our eyes onto something else entirely.
Yes, I know, this phenomenon has been done to death. But I have never done proper research on it, and it seems only fair that I devote equal attention and brain space to all the supernatural phenomenons out there, not just the ones no one knows about. And, since I've lived in California, Oregon and Michigan (three places where he/she has been spotted and has somewhat of a following), I thought it would be a good idea if I, along with you, became better acquainted with this elusive monster of legend.
So, without further ado, I present you.... Bigfoot.
What goes on here?
If we want to learn anything new about Bigfoot, we have to start with everything old about Bigfoot. This legend has been around for years. And when I say years, I mean Columbus hadn't even stumbled upon North America in a drunken stupor yet, this legend is so old. Nearly every Native American community has a legend similar to Bigfoot, whether they call him "the Big Man," or think of him as something closer to a big brother. He appears in times of great need or distress within a community, and sometimes offers strength to the people to fight through their troubled times. At other times, to other communities like the Hopi, he is just the messenger from the creator sent to show the people how much they are destroying what the creator gave them. Kind of like a warning.
"The existence of Bigfoot is taken for
granted throughout Native North America, and so are his powerful psychic
abilities. I can't count the number of times that I have heard elder
Indian people say that Bigfoot knows when humans are searching for him
and that he chooses when and to whom to make an appearance, and that
his psychic powers account for his ability to elude the white man's
efforts to capture him or hunt him down. In Indian culture, the entire
natural world -- the animals, the plants, the rivers, the stars -- is
seen as a family. And Bigfoot is seen as one of our close relatives,
the "great elder brother" " (http://www.bfro.net/legends/)
But in recent times, Bigfoot has become a new kind of legend. He's the scary story we tell our kids around a campfire, or that mysterious noise just outside our tent. He's the strange, awful smell when we're on the hiking trail, or the movement in the trees. We know him on sight, or on sound, as some big, hairy hominid lurking just out of reach in what's left of America's forests. The last great mystery of the wilderness. There have been countless sightings, photographs and videos. Hell, there's even a Bigfoot Museum in Willow Creek, California (I've been, it's awesome). Bigfoot is part of the American culture, as much as apple pie, or political sex scandals.
But there continues to be sighting after sighting, and more and more people believing in the big guy everyday.
Of course, it all really began back in 1967.
Since the Patterson film was presented to the public, there are have a myriad sightings of Bigfoot (or something like it) in the wild of America. This video is still hotly debated, and a great many people do believe it's completely fake. And who knows? It could be. But what people are seeing out in the woods might not be.Gimlin, Patterson's partner in crime, still claims the film is 100% real, and since the early 2000's has been available to talk about what happened.
The men were on horseback near the Klamath river in California when they spotted a big fallen tree and the furry creature behind it. Patterson got off his horse and started rolling. The thing, presumably Bigfoot, kept on walking from the scene, looking back a few times at the men with nothing resembling emotion. They tracked it for a few miles, but the creature eventually disappeared into the underbrush of the forest. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson-Gimlin_film)
Since then there have been more than a few other videos claiming to capture Bigfoot:
Like this one, of a police car dash cam.
Unfortunately Bigfoot has become such a known entity that finding nearly anything worthy of posting here from Youtube is nearly a waste of time. However!
BFRO, the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, is a group that collects reports of the Big Brother from all over North America, from Florida to Alaska, with Canada in between. And it's not just old hunters with stories from the eighties. According to their website, Bigfoot was spotted this month! Their reports are pretty credible, and they even do follow-ups with the eyewitnesses. They seem like your one-stop-shop for everything Bigfoot. http://www.bfro.net/
Or! If you'd like to look at a whole bunch of photos that might be (but might not be) Bigfoot, there's a great image gallery over at Unexplained Mysteries that has a ton of photos from users all over the world!
Personally, I would love to know much more about Big Brother, watching over the forests of North America. Have you seen one? Or have other evidence for or against the existence of Bigfoot? I would loooove to hear it! Email me, or leave a comment below and tell me what you know!
Until next week, happy hunting!
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