50 Fun Facts About Bigfoot

Which region of North America is most associated with Bigfoot?

Washington state alone has more than 2,000 reported sightings in the BFRO database.

The word 'Sasquatch' is an anglicised version of a word meaning what?

J. W. Burns coined it in 1929 from the Halq'emeylem word sasq'ets.

Who coined the term Sasquatch in a 1929 Maclean's magazine article?

He was an Indian agent and teacher who lived with the Sts'ailes Nation in British Columbia.

In which year did 'Bigfoot' spread after loggers found huge footprints in Humboldt County?

Bulldozer operator Jerry Crew appeared on the front page of the Humboldt Times holding a plaster cast.

What did the family of Ray Wallace reveal after his death in 2002?

They said he had secretly made the 1958 tracks that gave Bigfoot its name.

Which reporter for the Humboldt Times introduced the name 'Bigfoot' to the wider press in 1958?

He soon heard from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

How long is the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film?

It runs 59.5 seconds and remains the most analysed piece of Bigfoot footage.

At which Northern California site was the Patterson-Gimlin film shot?

The exact site was lost after foliage regrew following a 1964 flood and was only rediscovered in 2011.

What nickname did the figure in the Patterson-Gimlin film acquire?

Patterson and Gimlin tracked her for a mile or more after the encounter.

The famous look-back at the camera in the Patterson-Gimlin film is at which frame number?

The film has 952 frames in all.

What kind of camera did Roger Patterson use, rented from a Yakima camera shop?

He kept it past the rental period and an arrest warrant was issued for him three days before the filming.

What were Patterson and Gimlin doing in the woods that day, by their own account?

The planned film had cowboys, an old miner and Gimlin in a wig as an Indian tracker.

The 1924 "Ape Canyon" incident, in which prospectors said ape-men attacked their cabin, was near which mountain?

The Forest Service found no evidence, and hoaxer Rant Mullens later claimed his group was responsible.

What did the Ape Canyon prospectors say the creatures threw at their cabin?

Fred Beck claimed he had shot one of them earlier that day.

Which US president recounted a trapper's tale of a foul-smelling bipedal creature in his 1893 The Wilderness Hunter?

He noted that the man, Bauman, seemed genuinely fearful telling it.

Prospector Albert Ostman claimed a Bigfoot family held him captive for how long in 1924?

The New York Times presented his dubious tale in 1974.

Which animal do scientists say is most often mistaken for Bigfoot?

A 2009 ecological study found Bigfoot sightings map almost exactly onto black bear habitat.

Of 30 Bigfoot and Yeti hair samples in a 2014 Oxford study, how many came from an unknown primate?

Most were bear; one was human, and the rest were cow, horse, dog and other familiar animals.

Which extinct giant Asian ape have some proponents suggested Bigfoot might be a surviving relative of?

No fossils of it have ever been found in the Americas, and it is thought to have walked on all fours.

What is Florida's version of Bigfoot called?

Some suggest escaped apes could survive in the humid south-east, which is why the theory gets attached to it.

Which state's Bigfoot is known as the Mogollon Monster?

Missouri has Momo, Ohio the Grassman and Kentucky the Hillbilly Beast.

The 1972 horror film The Legend of Boggy Creek was inspired by sightings in which Arkansas town?

The 1971 report of a creature reaching through a window was later deemed a hoax.

What did the 2008 Georgia 'Bigfoot body' turn out to be when it was thawed?

Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton had collected $50,000 for it before admitting the hoax.

What did Pennsylvania officials say the BFRO's 2007 'juvenile Bigfoot' photos showed?

The photos were taken in the Allegheny National Forest.

Sceptics think the Skookum cast, a body print taken in Washington in 2000, was left by which animal?

Believers say a Bigfoot sat in the mud to eat fruit left out during filming of a TV show.

What did a 1969 Skamania County, Washington, law make killing a Bigfoot?

It was downgraded to a misdemeanour in 1984 when the county declared itself a 'Sasquatch refuge'.

What did primatologist Jane Goodall say when asked on NPR in 2002 whether Bigfoot exists?

She added that she was 'a romantic' and had always wanted them to exist, but could not explain the lack of a body.

Which town calls itself the 'Bigfoot Capital of the World' and holds an annual Bigfoot Daze festival?

Jefferson, Texas, settled for 'Bigfoot Capital of Texas' in 2018.

Which Finding Bigfoot cast member opened the North American Bigfoot Center in Boring, Oregon, in 2019?

Moneymaker founded the BFRO, the oldest and largest Bigfoot organisation.

What slang term for hunting Bigfoot was popularised by the Animal Planet series Finding Bigfoot?

Believers are called Squatchers or Bigfooters.

Which 1987 comedy about a Seattle family adopting a Bigfoot won the Oscar for Best Makeup?

Rick Baker designed the creature and Steven Spielberg was an uncredited executive producer.

Who wore the Bigfoot suit as Harry in the 1987 comedy?

He also reprised the role in the TV spin-off until his death in 1991.

Under what title was the 1987 Harry comedy originally released in the UK?

The TV series kept the American title, and UK releases now use it too.

What is a blurry, ambiguous photo supposedly showing Bigfoot jokingly called?

It is usually explained by pareidolia, the tendency to see figures in random shapes.

Roughly how large are the biggest footprints attributed to Bigfoot?

Some casts show claw marks, pointing to bears, which have five toes and claws.

Which stretch of California highway is designated the Bigfoot Scenic Byway?

About 88 miles of it run through Willow Creek and past the Bluff Creek Historic Trail.

Loren Coleman dubbed Peter Byrne, René Dahinden, John Green and Grover Krantz the what?

All four were leading 20th-century Bigfoot researchers.

Which veterinarian's lab claimed in a 2012 press release to have proved Bigfoot DNA?

Geneticists who saw the paper said its analyses came back as human or as unremarkable animals.

Which bipedalism expert keeps more than 300 footprint casts he says could not be faked?

Others point out that hoaxers have been carving wooden feet since the 1930s.

In which decade were the 'Sierra Sounds', analysed by a former Navy linguist as a possible language, recorded?

Mainstream scientists attribute most such recordings to owls, wolves, coyotes and foxes.

The Iroquois 'Stone Giant', a hairy rock-skinned ogre sometimes linked to Bigfoot, is called what?

Tsul 'Kalu is the Cherokee 'slant-eyed giant' of the Appalachians.

Which 2024 film follows a family of Bigfoot behaving as enthusiasts say they do, with no dialogue?

It is a rare example of Bigfoot as protagonist rather than monster-movie villain.

The Bigfoot museum owner who says he has smelled the creature compared it to what?

Michael Rugg runs the Bigfoot Discovery Museum.

Which of these ancient petroglyph sites is claimed to show a Bigfoot family called 'the Family'?

The largest figure is called Hairy Man and the images are estimated to be 1,000 years old.

Sasquatch Provincial Park, named for the creature, is in which Canadian province?

The creature is a symbol of the whole Pacific Northwest, including the Cascadia movement, and its likeness turns up in tourism across the region.

Saxophonist Dean Mitchell performs in a Bigfoot costume under what stage name?

He is one of many entertainers riding a whole subculture of 'Bigfooters' and 'Squatchers'.

Which NBA team's mascot from 1987 to 1989 was a former player in a Bigfoot costume?

Dale Schlueter wore the suit; in 2023 the team introduced a new hipster Bigfoot mascot named Douglas Fur.

Bulldozer operator Jerry Crew found the famous 1958 footprints in which national forest?

The 16-inch tracks in Humboldt County mud were the ones that gave the creature its enduring name.

Roger Patterson said he got interested in Bigfoot after reading a 1959 True magazine article by whom?

Sanderson followed it up in 1961 with Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life, a worldwide survey of wild-man accounts.

How many frames does the Patterson-Gimlin film contain?

At 16 frames per second that runs 59.5 seconds; if shot at 18 fps, as Grover Krantz believed, the encounter lasted only 53 seconds.