Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 09 | Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science Debuts

Cover art for Discovery Channel documentary and companion book

2003. It was a Thursday night exactly ten years ago today when a documentary film, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, aired on the Discovery Channel. The program featured scientists from various disciplines analyzing the most compelling evidence. Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science was produced by Doug Hajicek with White Wolf Entertainment, the same people who brought us Monster Quest. It is narrated by the distinctive voice of Stacy Keach.

The documentary can be defined by the analyses of three pieces of Sasquatch footage and 17 categories of evidence.

The three pieces of footage were the Patterson/Gimlin film, the Freeman footage and the Memorial Day footage. The 17 different categories of evidence included: fossil evidence, new species discoveries, dermal ridges, the Sasquatch body, images, step frequency, biomechanics, forensic measurements, Patterson-Gimlin film, behavior parallels, vocalizations, visual misidentification, track morphology, kinesiology, soft tissue pathology, statistics, and DNA.

Also included in the documentary were six experts, described by the official webpage below:

In the documentary, scientists from various disciplines put the most compelling sasquatch evidence to the test. Collectively their conclusions are ground-breaking. There is now scientific proof for the existence of a giant primate species in North America -- a species fitting the descriptions of sasquatches (bigfoots). 

The nation's top primate anatomist, Dr. Daris Swindler of Washington State Univeristy examines the Skookum Cast, along with prominent primatologist Dr. Esteban Sarmiento of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University, give their conclusions about the Skookum cast, and what it points to.

The nation's top bioacoustics analyst, Dr. Robert Benson at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, analyzes sound recordings of purported Sasquatch vocalizations with an advanced computerized system in his laboratory. He explains his conclusions about the recordings.

Primate fingerprint expert, Officer Jimmy Chilcutt, discusses the consistent and distinct dermal ridge patterns found in track casts from the northwest and southeastern United States. He states his conclusions about the level of proof provided the dermal ridge casts evidence.

DNA expert Dr. Craig Newton from BC Research in Canada attempts to extract DNA from hair samples and saliva taken from the Skookum Cast site. He explains the potential and problems with DNA analysis.

Dr. Russel Ciochon shows life-size models of Gigantopithecus, and describes their interactions with early man. Various other scientists fill in other parts of the puzzle.

Anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum also wrote a companion book with the same title, "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science."

According to Wikipedia, the DVD version is slightly different from the broadcast including extra footage.

• The full length of the Patterson footage in digital format, allowing you to zoom in on individual frames with unprecendented clarity
• More of the Freeman footage
• More of the Memorial Day footage
• An FAQ on the Sasquatch mystery
• A gallery of images related to Sasquatch evidence and research

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 08 | Circus Train Wreck Blamed for Wildman Sightings

Recreation of Bigfoot escaping a train wreck

Today in 1905 The Washington Post published an article regarding the sighting of a "wildman".

The "wildman" was described with all the Bigfoot characteristics we have become familiar with.

The story continues to speculate that the wild man may have escaped from a traveling circus during a train wreck. You would be surprised how often "a wild animal escaped from the circus" is used to explain a Bigfoot sighting.  In the book Historical Bigfoot by Chad Arment there are at least 24 counts in as many papers suggesting circus train wrecks as the origin of the escaped "wildman". Here is a quote from the Jan 8th 1905 event.

Several persons give it as their opinion that this creature is a wild animal of some kind that made its escape from the Robinson & Franklin circus that was touring this peninsula a number of years ago. The circus train met with a railroad wreck, and several wild animals were freed from their cages, many of these beasts were captured, and others were shot, and while others were never seen by the circus people again.

The source of all of this can be read online at Google books. The Historical Bigfoot, by Chad Arment, which covers sightings of Wild Men, Gorillas, Yahoos, and What-Is-It's, from the early 1800s to the 1940s. Before the term "Bigfoot" was coined to signify an unknown species of North American primate, sightings of towering bipedal apes were reported throughout the continent, and were called by a variety of names. This book compiles and sorts the most significant sightings, but also provides a look at hoaxes, mis-identifications, and the influential perspective of newspaper editors as they dealt with reports of a strange hairy manlike ape.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 07 | First Documented Mystery Footprint

Postage stamp commemorating David Thompson's Life and reputation as a mapmaker

Today in 1811, marks the first recorded account of an overly large foot print in North America by a non-native person. The honor goes to David Thompson, a British-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, who was known for keeping detailed records. On January 7th, 1811, Mr. Thompson found curious animal tracks in the snow near Jasper, Alberta. He described the tracks as 14 inch long footprints (see T.C. Elliott, "Journal of David Thompson", Oregon Historical Quarterly, 15 March-June 1914) Some years later, a book of Thompson's, David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations of Western America, based on his journal, was published. In it he says:

I now recur to what I have already noticed in the early part of last winter, when proceeding up the Athabasca River to cross the mountains, in company with.... Men and four hunters, on one of the channels of the River we came to the track of a large animal, which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches in breadth by a tape line. As snow was about six inches in depth the track was well defined, and we could see it for a full hundred yards from us, this animal was proceeding from north to south. We did not attempt to follow it, we had not time for it, and the Hunters, eager as they are to follow and shoot every animal, made no attempt to follow this beast, for what could the balls of our fowling guns do against such an animal? Report from old times had made the head branches of this River, and the Mountains in the vicinity the abode of one, or more, very large animals, to which I never appeared to give credence; for these reports appeared to arise from that fondness for the marvelous so common to mankind: but the sight of the track of that large a beast staggered me, and I often thought of it, yet never could bring myself to believe such an animal existed, but thought it might be the track of some Monster Bear.

For all you rational, critical thinkers who took Santa Claus away from us at 6yrs old. Yes, we know snow melt distorts prints and we don't know how long the tracks were laid before they were discovered. We are also aware that 8 inches is rather wide for a 14 inch print. Prints 8 inches wide are usually at least 17-18 inches in length. So even with the obligatory caveats listed in the previous sentences, we still love adopting David Thompson's mystery creature into the Bigfoot lore. After all, we are the same blog that thinks historically, werewolves are potentially misidentified Bigfoots.