What is Bigfoot?
Bigfoot is a cryptid said to live in deep forests, such as those along the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada: a large ape-like creature covered in hair, two to three meters tall, that walks on two legs. In Canada it is also known as Sasquatch, a name derived from an Indigenous language. Together with the yeti of the Himalayas, it is the best-known “wild man” cryptid.
Footprints and the Patterson–Gimlin film
The name “Bigfoot” spread in 1958, when newspapers reported that giant human-like footprints had been found at a construction site in a California forest. In 1967, the “Patterson–Gimlin film,” said to show a large hairy creature walking along a creek in a California forest, was released and caused a sensation around the world.
What is Bigfoot really?
In 2002, after the death of a man believed to have started the 1958 footprint sensation, his family revealed that he had made the tracks with large carved wooden feet, making a prank the likely explanation. Some argue that the 1967 film shows a person in a costume. Many other sightings are thought to be bears standing on their hind legs.
