The term “Bigfoot” as we know it seemed to originate in 1958 in the Bluff Creek area of California. In 1957, workers begin clearing a path for a new road in Bluff Creek. The workers there report finding 50 gallon oil drums and 700 pound tires thrown around, and throughout the site extraordinarily large human-like footprints. The Humbolt Times reported on the story and published photos of plaster casts of the first “Bigfoot” prints. That’s the beginning of Bigfoot in popular culture , but stories of the creature goes back much further than that. Native Americans have legends and pictographs of the creature going back hundreds of years.
Loch Ness is the largest fresh water lake in Scotland. It has murky black water going as far down as a thousand feet in places and the debate about whether or not it is home to a population of unknown aquatic creatures has gone on for many years. Many people have seen the famous surgeon’s photograph and when it was later discovered to be a hoax, just a modified childs toy with some dramatic lighting, the debate was over. The loch ness monster is bull. The end. But for those who have seen the creature first hand, no amount of photographic fakery is going to change their mind about it.
I think most people have heard the name thunderbird, but I dont think we really make the connection between the creature that inspired the car (or mail application) and an actual living bird that may still exist in our own back yard. Thunderbirds are common symbol in native american tradition and folklore, so you’d have to ask yourself was this thing a living creature or purely a product of their imagination? If they did in fact see a giant bird flying around, is it possible that some of them still exist today?
Even if you don’t know what the Patterson-Gimlin film is, I think just about everybody has seen some part of it. It’s probably the most iconic image in cryptozoology. I suppose the Patterson film and the hoaxed image of the loch ness monster are tied for first. I’ve been interested in bigfoot, skunk ape, yeti, etc since my parents first told me about it some time in grade school. Since bigfoot was my first entry point into the world of the unknown, it seems fitting that the designs start here too.
