Let’s come to terms… What is Bigfoot?
Posted by: Rick Noll on September 30th, 2005
I am going to try and start at the beginning before going into my 30+ year search for the creature I like to call Sasquatch. It’s usually the best place to begin. Sasquatch? Maybe you are more familiar with its media popularized name… Bigfoot. Or maybe not.
So anyway, just what is Bigfoot? Let’s get this defined right up front shall we? I can’t handle anymore late night phone calls from people who think that they have found Bigfoot claw marks 20 feet up on a telephone pole outside of a rural Burger King, or find scuff marks in their horse corral, or believe them to be interdimensial beings or even titanium clad robots. I have a very good idea what Bigfoot is and it may be different from that of some of you. To get on the same page it may take a few entries in this journal but then we can move on to my current search.
Bigfoot is a very robust, mostly tool-less, hair covered, bipedal primate type of animal that has as much standing in legend as it does in science. Sometimes it is the punch line for a joke; in casual conversation, on radio, in print or on TV. They have been pacified, victimized and turned into monsters of the night. They scare up those images of a wilder wilderness when camping in our own backyards, scaring some and allowing others to just breathe a little easier.
In general, they look like very large humanoid mountain gorillas that act more like lowland gorillas or chimpanzees, but get this, they live here, in North America. They seem to be very large and heavy yet move fast and with simple logic dictating that they have a low population density for any given area, probably utilizing a high energy diet in order to cover what must be a very large territory, they have become America’s most famous, and possibly favorite monster.
Much like the gorilla, the indigenous people of the afflicted Bigfoot areas have had legends of these beasts. But unlike them, science hasn’t recognized them as being real animals… yet. Apparently the lack of identifiable bones from these animals is one of the biggest red flags to most serious scientific endeavor.
But I think there is enough circumstantial evidence supporting the theory that Bigfoot is real and most likely a descendant of some kind of form stemming from Gigantopithecus and that these beasts continued their existence past any supposed prehistoric extinction theory. We have had several episodes in the past where the water level of the oceans receded because of ice build up. This produced lush inland, ice free, passageways from upper Asia to North America. Many mega fauna species traveled this route, expanding their range all the way to the tip of South America. Some of these species were even contemporaries of Gigantopithecus.
And with that said, I am going to outline some of the things that I look for in order to say ‘Yes skeptics, there is a Bigfoot. In fact many of them’.
About Rick Noll
Rick Noll has been actively searching for the Sasquatch since 1969 and continues his pursuit with extended field trips into the Pacific Northwest's most remote regions. Rick has worked with Peter Byrne, René Dahinden, Grover Krantz, John Green, Jeff Meldrum and the BFRO during all this. He helped with many documentaries on the subject including Animal X: The Skookum Expedition and Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.
