For millennium, people across the globe have been interacting with forces
that can't be explained. Things science has yet to fully acknowledge. Creatures
that are not just part of our present, but our past. You will never read their
tales in an academic history book. However, they have always been part of our
cultures.
You are walking through the
forest, heading to your favorite hunting spot when you start to get the uneasy
feeling of being watched. You think you are being paranoid so you try to shake
the feeling, but there is a movement from the brush. You grab a nearby rock and
throw it in an attempt to flush the animal out. Less than a second later an
even bigger rock strikes the tree behind your head.
Full of terror, you take aim with you rifle, demanding for whatever it is to
show itself. Suddenly, a blood curdling scream erupts from the brush, causing
you to drop your rifle as you run for your life. This isn't a scene from the
newest SyFy original movie, this is what was recounted to me by a Kentucky
resident in 2009.
The fear in their eyes as they recounted their tale, led me to be assured
that he honestly believed he had an encounter with the seven to nine foot tall
hairy creature we know as the Bigfoot or Sasquatch. This is one of the
thousands of reported experiences involving this legendary creature, and if
history is any indication many more will be recorded for years to come.
The
Sasquatch isn't a modern invention of the media or juvenile pranksters, it has
been part of Native American lore for generations. The Cheyenne reference hairy
beings that were created along side man by The Great Spirit. These hairy men
wore no clothes and made their home in caves of the hills, because they were
afraid of their human brothers. On the Tule River Basin in California inside a
cave that the tribesmen consider sacred, there is a painting that the elders
says depicts a family of four beings that they call the Hairy Man. Scientist
who have visited the cave date the art to approximately 500 A.D.
In 1840, Rev. Elkanah Walker wrote of stories the Spokane Tribe passed on
about a race of hairy giants who possibly lived on Mt. Rainier. These giants
would sneak into their village at night and steal the fish villagers had caught
that day then throw stones at the houses. When the tribesmen woke in the
morning they would find tracks one and a half feet long. The indigenous people
seemingly have seen something long before Caucasians would come to this
land.
The European settlers of North American, set off into unknown
wilderness in their quest to explore this New World. As they reached never
before seen regions they began to see things the couldn't explain.
David Thompson, an English born surveyor who explored along the
Canadian--American boarder wrote in his journal what many believe is the first
reordered Sasquatch footprint. “January 7th continuing our journey in the
afternoon we came on the track of a large animal, the snow about six inches deep
on the ice; I measured it; four large toes each of four inches in length, to
each a short claw; the ball of the foot sunk three inches lower than the toes.
The hinder part of the foot did not mark well, the length fourteen inches, by
eight inches in breadth, walking from north to south, and having passed about
six hours. We were in no humor to follow him.”
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| Alexander Caulfield Anderson |
The oldest written record that has been discovered is the 1864 story of
Alexander Caulfield Anderson during his exploration of the Harrison Lake area
in Canada. Anderson is said to have seem several “wild giants” during his time
in the area. In one account from him, he and his party had to retreat from the
area because stones were being thrown at them from a nearby hillside.
The August 1,1883 edition of the Newark Daily newspaper printed the story
of two men who traveled to Prettis Island, one hundred miles north of Ottawa in
search of Sasquatch. What they reportedly encountered was an eight foot tall
near human covered with fur. The creature carried a stone tomahawk and a
bludgeon. It chased the men back into their canoe and reportedly fractured one
of the men in the arm with its tomahawk. Sightings like these continued well
into the twentieth century.
In October hunter William Roe spotted what he at first thought was a bear
but ended up being a six foot tall, three hundred pound, dark brown fur covered,
apparently female creature. He was able to witness it eating leaves from a
nearby bush until it took off when it spotted him. After searching the area he
concluded that it was most likely strictly vegetarian and may have been
incapable of using even simple tools.
In July 1992 an off duty law
enforcement officer was driving down Highway 101 in California near Eel River
with his wife and two children. The family reported seeing a seven foot tall
reddish brown creature they identified as a Bigfoot. They witnessed the creature
for fifteen seconds as it left the river and headed into the woods. Even though
they are still seen today, such reports are not considered good enough evidence
for such an elusive creature to exist.
