Estately: 11 Best and 5 Worst States for Bigfoot to Live

Does a real estate website know where Bigfoot should live?

In a Q13Fox article titled, "Website claims Bigfoot is a Washingtonian," Mariana Hicks reports how a Real Estate blog names Washington as No. 1 “Best State for Bigfoot to Live in"

Read Mariana's overview below followed by the 11 best and 5 worst states for Sasquatch to live in determined by estately.com.

SEATTLE – Washington was named the No. 1 “Best State for Bigfoot to Live in,” according to Estately.com, with more than 500 reported sightings of the mythical beast.

Estately reported Washington’s heavily forested area gives the big guy lots of places to roam. The state has the fifth most designated wilderness acreage in the country.

Whether or not you believe in Bifgoot, Washingtonians love the monstrous mammal — Skamania County even a law forbidding hunting Bigfoot, there’s a music festival named for him and even a publishing company.

Unfortunately, there is a downside for Bigfoot hiding out in the Evergreen State. There have been two dozen reports of people shooting him but Olympia Beer wants him alive and is offering a $1 million reward for his safe capture.

Estately drew its conclusion based on findings that included wilderness and forest cover, protective laws, likelihood of road kill, Bigfoot enthusiasm and number of sightings.

Trailing Washington, California took second place as a potential home for Bigfoot. Estately took points away for high population density, bounties, laws allowing people to hunt Bigfoot and the number of claims from people who said they had shot him.

SRC: Q13fox.com

Now for the top 11 States and 5 worst states for Sasquatch to live in.

Whether you believe in Bigfoot or not, the furry biped has been spotted in every U.S. state except Hawaii. Rather than debate if it’s a massive hoax or the most incredible game of hide-and-seek ever, we asked, “What are the best U.S. states for Sasquatch to live?”

Points were given for wilderness area and forest cover, protective laws, likelihood of deer roadkill (a favorite food), Bigfoot enthusiasm by locals, and frequency of sightings. Points were taken away for high population density, local bounties, laws allowing hunting of Bigfoot, and the number of reports of locals claiming to have shot one. In the end, Estately determined these 11 states provided the best habitat for Bigfoot to hide out and make occasional appearances in grainy photos and videos.

1. Washington State

According to the Bigfoot Field Reseachers Organization (BFRO), the Evergreen State has far and away the most “credible sightings” of any other state with 537. It really is the best state for Bigfoot to see and be seen. Heavily forested and with the fifth most designated wilderness acreage in the country, Washington State provides exceptional habitat and a Bigfoot-positive culture. The only downside is it also has the most reported Bigfoot shootings with 24, and locally-produced Olympia Beer is offering a $1 million reward for the safe capture of Bigfoot. Despite the threat of murder and kidnapping, Washington is the only state with a law on the books forbidding the hunting of Bigfoot (in Skamania County), and the state is home to the Sasquatch Music Festival, independent publisher Sasquatch Books, and it was the location for the classic Bigfoot film Harry and the Hendersons. It even used the Sasquatch as the mascot for its now vanished NBA team—the Seattle SuperSonics.

2. California

With over 428 sightings, California has the second highest number in the United States. The state has over 15 million acres of designated wilderness, as well as Bigfoot museums in Felton and Willow Creek. There are numerous organized groups searching high and low for them, including North America Bigfoot Search and Southern California Amateur Bigfooters (SCAB). The species is honored in the names of dozens of California businesses, including The Bigfoot Lodge in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Truth be told, California gets the #2 slot because when Bigfoot finally comes out of the woods to reveal its existence, it’s going to want to hire an agent, purchase some laser hair removal, and take its talents to Hollywood.

3. Oregon

Oregon is the unfortunate home to the world’s only Bigfoot trap in the Siskiyou National Forest, but the state still exhibits the many features this hairy being craves. There is plenty of fog and dark forests to hide in, plus there’s over 2 million acres of wilderness and a hippie vibe that’s tolerant of infrequent bathing. The Sasquatch Brewing Company honors the beast with its Hairy Knuckles Stout, and there’s even a festival called the Sasquatch Brew Fest. Also, Bigfoot traditionally takes his water unflouridated [sic], just like Portland, Oregon does.

4. Ohio

Being a bashful Bigfoot makes dating hard, especially for any Bigfoot longing to meet eligible humans. Luckily, Ohio’s residents take an unusually enthusiastic interest in the legend of Sasquatch, who’s been spotted in Ohio 234 times—more than all but three other states. The state hosts the annual Ohio Bigfoot Festival and the Ohio Bigfoot Conference, and there are numerous groups of squatch hunters in the state.

5. Texas

Everything’s bigger in Texas so Bigfoot should feel right at home in the Lone Star State. Still, the hairy one should be on the lookout for hunters because it’s completely legal to plug a Sasquatch in Texas, provided it’s on private property and with permission of the owner. Also, Texas is home to the dreaded Chupacabra so it’s possible they battle over territory.

While local Bigfoot enthusiasts gather for the Texas Bigfoot Conference, Sasquatch can wander the Sam Houston National Forest and feast on the exotic wildlife stocked at neighboring hunting ranches. It’s nice to add some antelope and ibex to the standard diet of deer and berries.

6. Idaho

With a small human population, plenty of wilderness, and millions of acres of rugged forest, Idaho is the kind of place even Bigfoot could get lost in. The only downside is the state is crawling with skilled hunters who have a keen eye for wildlife. Also, there’s an Idaho State University professor cooking up a plan to utilize drones with thermal imaging equipment to spot Sasquatch from the sky. Hard to find privacy.

7. Tennessee

Tennessee gets the nod over neighboring Kentucky because Bigfoot is still angry over Daniel Boone’s claim that he shot the first Sasquatch in the Bluegrass State. Also, nearly 58% of Tennessee is forested, and there are over 9,000 cozy caves to live in, the most in the country. As a special treat, Tennessee is home to 15 varieties of turtles, a healthy Bigfoot snack that’s both crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle.

8. Michigan

According to BFRO, Michigan has 173 sightings—8th most in the nation. There are various local groups who study the elusive bipeds, including the Michigan Bigfoot Information Center and Michigan Bigfoot. Most importantly, Michigan is a culinary wonderland for ol’ Bigfoot thanks to extensive apple orchards and the fifth highest frequency of roadkill deer. Plus, with nearly 13,000 state parks there are excellent opportunities to steal picnic baskets from campers. Many Bigfoot sightings include witnessing the creature stealing apples, snatching deer carcasses off the road, and raiding campsites. As if that’s not enough food, there’s a local woman who claims to feed blueberry bagels to the numerous Bigfoot who live in the woods behind her house.

9. Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania tends to shoot first and ask questions later when they come in contact with a Bigfoot, but perhaps that’s because the fuzzy rascal is allegedly prone to vandalizing RVs? All the same, the Keystone State is 66% forested habitat, with Bigfoot sightings frequently occurring in the Michaux State Forest. The state also has an enthusiastic fan club in the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. Pennsylvania is also home to the Houdini Museum, and surely Bigfoot is an admirer of the late performer’s skill in escaping.

10. North Carolina

While the rest of the country bad mouths Bigfoot’s horrible stench (like a skunk + rotten cabbage), North Carolina’s hill people speak lovingly of its “beautiful hair.”Besides this welcome praise, the rugged terrain of the Great Smokies and Blue Ridge Mountains provide ideal habitat, and the warmer climate provides ideal weather for mating season, apparently March through April. Many in North Carolina, such as Carolina Bigfoot Field Research, are working diligently to protect these allegedly non-existent creatures.

11. West Virginia

West Virginia is the #1 state for roadkill deer, providing a virtual roadside buffet for the hungry Bigfoot. And to wash it down, moonshiner shacks still dot the hills so Sasquatch can sneak a little swig now and then. In addition, 81% of the mountainous state is forested, it’s sparsely populated, and there are plenty of caves—ideal for a reclusive Bigfoot. However, the West Virginia Bigfoot Research Organization is fast on their over-sized heels, frequently searching the region for the elusive Sasquatch.

The 5 Worst States for Bigfoot to Live
46. New Jersey: Share the woods with the Jersey Devil? No way.
47. North Dakota: Nowhere to hide in a state that’s only 2.6% forested.
48. Louisiana: Humidity wreaks havoc on hair so just imagine if your entire body was covered in it.
49. Hawaii:  It would be awful lonely living in state devoid of any other Bigfoot.
50. Florida: Around these parts, Bigfoot gets called a Skunk Ape, which is unflattering. Also, Florida has the fifth highest recorded incidents of people shooting a Bigfoot. And there’s a Florida-based online store selling fake Bigfoot urine in glass specimen bottles.

SRC: Blog.Estately.com  

June 22nd Falcon Project Fundraiser Kick-off in Portland Oregon

Rendering of the Bigfoot Blimp to be used in the Falcon Project

Experts will present compelling evidences that motivate the most ambitious undertaking to search for the legendary and elusive North American primate from the air, using the latest in aerial surveillance technology.

Press release from Dr. Jeff Meldrum:

Date:  6/11/13

Written by: 

Contact: Dr. Jeff Meldrum, 208-282-4379

An all-day symposium event to kick-off fundraising for the THE FALCON PROJECT – The most penetrating search for the legendary sasquatch ever undertaken, will take place June 22, 2013 in Portland OR.  Hosted by Olympia Beer, in the Bossanova Ballroom, the symposium will feature multimedia presentations, panel discussions and exhibits. (http://www.bossanovaballroom.com/event-details/?The-Falcon-Project-72-Portland).

The Falcon Project proposes to conduct an extensive aerial search for an unrecognized North American primate, a.k.a. sasquatch or Bigfoot, by means of an helium-filled airship, upon which a platform supporting thermal-imaging and high resolution wireless videography equipment is mounted. The Aurora Mk II airship offers major advantages over similar applications with helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft platforms, foremost, stealth and maneuverability.

The former permits approach and observation with minimal or no disturbance of the subject’s natural behavior.  The latter is critical for surveying in areas of dense stands of forest where a sustained vertical perspective is essential for locating animals on the forest floor.

The unmanned 45′ dual airship is equipped with a proprietary propulsion system that can carry the airship at speeds of 35-45 mph and maneuver with the degree of precision necessary to track a fast-moving animal. The construction, instrument integration, and flight training is being provided by Remote Aerial Tripods Inc. of Canada, (www.ratsinc.net) with Stephen Barkley as lead designer of the Aurora Mk II. The airship, gyro-stabilized camera mount, and ground operations equipment have been designed specifically for the requirements of this task. The sleek, quiet, never-before-used technology eliminates the noise produced by conventional aircraft and on the ground investigators, allowing stealthy approach to wary reclusive species. The challenge of locating a solitary, nocturnal far-ranging, intelligent primate is demonstrated by the dearth of definitive photographic evidence. The Falcon Project offers a novel approach employing the latest technologies.

The research is to be coordinated through Idaho State University, with Dr. Jeff Meldrum, professor of anatomy & anthropology, acting as principal investigator. Meldrum has been probing the question of sasquatch’s existence for nearly 17 years, ever since examining a line of inexplicable 15-inch bipedal footprints in southeastern Washington. Meldrum is author of one of the most authoritative treatments of the subject, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science. He has published a number of scientific papers examining the footprint evidence.  He now edits an on- line refereed journal, The Relict Hominoid Inquiry (www.isu.edu/rhi) examining the global phenomenon of relict “wildmen.”

This initiative gets underway even as a critical DNA study is being conduct by the Oxford-Luassane Collateral Hominid Project is examining a number of hair samples attributed to sasquatch.  Lead by Professor Bryan Sykes a human geneticist from Oxford University and director of Oxford Ancestors Ltd.  Sykes's books include the New York Times best-selling The Seven Daughters of Eve. “Even if definitive DNA sequence data point to the existence of a novel species,” states Meldrum, “it will not suddenly become easy to study such a rare and elusive primate in the field. That’s where the Falcon Project comes in. Aerial reconnaissance holds the greatest potential for locating and observing the range and the behavior of the sasquatch.”

William Barnes (williamallenbarnes@yahoo.com; 435-230-0351) is the project founder and manager, with over 25 years experience operating his own businesses, including gold dredging and marketing.  Barnes had an encounter with a sasquatch in 1997, and is motivated by the challenge of bringing definitive image evidence before the scientific community for the purpose of finally resolving the mystery of sasquatch. 

The Aurora will be deployed in selected areas of appropriate habitat where reports suggest sasquatch may range. The specifically built gyro-stabilized camera mount will house state of the art equipment that can view and film in infrared, thermal imaging and High Definition.  The camera is the highest resolution (1024 x 768 pixel) uncooled, long wave 7-14 um and 17 micron pixel pitch system in the world today, except for classified U.S. military equipment. Peak emittance from the human body is around 10 um and so this camera will provide the best possible resolution. ICI IR Flash software used with the camera allows image enhancement to 12 Mega Pixels which is better than any uncooled thermal imaging camera in existence today. In other words you will be able to literally print a 12 Mega Pixel image with a Thermal/Infrared Camera by using the proprietary ICI IR Flash Software. This is unheard of in the entire infrared camera manufacturing industry. The FOV (Field Of View) lens used will be a 44 mm x 176 mm optic, f 1.2. To our knowledge no company has used a telephoto lens of this size with an uncooled 1024 x 768 camera for such a project other than possibly the U.S. Defense. Putting an optic on this particular camera will be a first for ICI as it is the newest uncooled IR camera on the market today and not even offered to the public at this time.

Funding and tax deductible donations for ongoing operations of the Falcon Project will be handled through the ISU Foundation, to the attention of Janet Schubert, Development Officer for the College of Science and Engineering. For further information contact Dr. Meldrum (meldd@isu.edu; 208-282-4379).

In addition to Meldrum and Barnes, speakers will include Dr. John Bindernagel and Bill Munns.  Special guest will be Bob Gimlin, witness to the famous Patterson-Gimlin film of a Bigfoot in northern California in 1967.  For advance ticket sales ($25 advance / $30 at the door) to the upcoming Portland event go to http://www.bossanovaballroom.com/event-details/?The-Falcon-Project-72-Portland.

For details on the June 23rd follow-up event hosted by Bigfoot Lunch Club please click on the following link. June 23rd HopsSquatch with Dr. Jeff Meldrum.

New 55 Million Yr Old Fossil Signals First Primate with Human Like Heal

The new fossil is classified as a Tarsiiformes, like the modern day tarsier above.

“It represents a common ancestor for two major lineages of primates – one of which is the monkeys, apes and man on one side; and the tarsier.” --Northwestern University professor Marian Dagosto

The most compelling physical evidence we have for Bigfoot are the foot prints. The leading academic in Bigfoot research is Dr. Jeff Meldrum, an anthropologist and specialist in the evolution hominid bipedalism. His interest in the morphology (shape) of the foot makes this discovery interesting to us Bigfooters. 

Not only does this fossil show one of the earliest primates with a human-like heel, it also pushes back the split of apes from monkey another 10 million years. The fossil has been named Archicebus Achilles. The genus, Archi, is Greek for the beginning, and cebus translates to “long-tailed monkey.” Achilles alludes to the anatomy of the fossil’s heel and the mythological Greek warrior

The Archicebus Achilles Fossil 

Here's a couple of excerpts from around the web.

A 55-million-year-old monkey with a human face and feet may show when human beings took their own evolutionary path away from there [sic] primates cousins.

Bloomberg BusinessNews reports that skeletal remains 3 inches in diameter had been unearthed in 2003 by a farmer who’d been prospecting for relics in an abandoned paleontological site, in central China’s Hubei province. The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing have been analyzing the petrified remains for 10 years.   It findings were publicized in a paper issued just days ago.

The monkey was from the tarsiiforme family of primates, which has certain characteristics in common with anthropoids, a group of higher – level primates that include Homo sapiens.  The monkey has the feet and face of a human being. SRC: The Guardian Express

A local husband and wife [Dan Gebo and Marian Dagosto] team of anthropologists have co-authored research regarding the discovery of a tiny monkey fossil that is one of the most complete and oldest fossils ever found.

The Archicebus has a unusual blend of anatomical features never before seen in the same combination, and is radically different from any other living or fossilized primate, researchers said. SRC: CBS Chicago

Chinese paleontologist Ni Xijun and his colleagues publish a study on the 55-million-year-old primate fossil in the prestigious journal Nature on Thursday.

The discovery provides insight into the earliest phases of primate evolution, according to a news release from Nature.

The ancient primate's name, Archicebus achilles, makes a reference to the animal's anthropoidlike heel bone.

"Previous fossil evidence shows anthropoids diverged from other primates around 45 million years ago, but our analysis of the new fossil brings the time forward by 10 million years," Ni of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology said at a news conference. "It means the evolutionary history of human lineage could be much longer than we thought."

The Archicebus achilles fossil, a nearly complete skeleton, was discovered near Jingzhou in Hubei province about 10 years ago. Since then the fossil has been studied by Ni's team, which used morphological comparison and phylogenetic analysis to search ancient relations to apes, humans and other primates.

"Morphological features are not like DNA evidence, which can be sequenced and compared in a short time," Ni explained. "It takes a great effort for scientists to study the most detailed morphological feature of a skeleton and carefully compare it with a variety of animals."

To reveal more secrets hidden in the rock for millions of years, his team used sophisticated synchrotron CT scanning at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility to digitally separate the fossil from the rock burying it.

After 10 years of detailed research, Ni and his colleagues studied 1,186 morphological features and compared 157 extinct and living mammals.

"Archicebus achilles is neither a monkey nor an ape. It's such an odd creature that it is virtually a mixture of monkeys, apes and tarsiers," he said.

Monkeys, apes and humans are collectively known as anthropoids in science, while tarsiers belong to a group called tarsiiforms. The two groups have separate evolutionary lineages.

Archicebus achilles has small eyes, short heels and a foot in the general form of monkeys, but it also has many limbs and tooth features typical for tarsierlike primates.

"When the anthropoid lineage began to separate from other primates 55 million years ago, they were actually not so different from Archicebus achilles," Ni said. "But the difference becomes larger as the anthropoids go along one branch, while the descendants of Archicebus achilles go along another.

"The discovery of Archicebus achilles proves that the divergence began at least 55 million years ago." SRC: China News Service (English Version)