The lore of the sasquatch

Having been born and raised in a province that can boast not one, but two, rather legendry cryptozoological creatures, and in an era when The X-Files were at their zenith (a show which, interestingly - and rather fittingly - enough was filmed right here in British Columbia), it is perhaps not terribly surprising that I've always had a certain fascination with the idea Bigfoot (or sasquatch, as it is often referred to around these Canadian parts).

By my very nature, I'm tend to be a very rational, science-minded person. I may enjoy a good conspiracy story, tall tail, or secondhand account of a bizarre event, but when all is said and done, I'll be the first one out there trying to get to the truth of the matter, even if it means admitting something that I would love to have actually exist, is in fact nothing more than the stuff of old legends and spooky campfire stories.

That said, I believe wholeheartedly in keeping an open mind and not being too quick to rule out the possibility that there could be something as incredible as Bigfoot traversing the vast expanse of forests that cover much of British Columbia. Of course B.C. is by no means the only part of North America (or the world, for that matter) to lay claim to sasquatch, but it has always been Canada's biggest hotbed of activity and eyewitness sightings.

Much as I wish in a way that I could claim to have a personal account relating to Bigfoot, I do not. I've never seen, heard, or found anything in the woods that I couldn't easily explain - but doesn't mean I won't one day.

Objectively, the likelihood that a huge bipedal mammal is prancing around B.C., escaping conclusive documentation well into the twenty-first century is pretty slim, but it's entirely not impossible (though we know about many of the wild creature we share our planet with, previously unknown critters - sometimes even large animals, such as a species called the Bili ape that was found a few years ago in the Congo - continue to be discovered).

Generally speaking, sasquatch is said to be a tall, hefty sized creature with a somewhat ape-like face and general appearance, covered in shaggy (brown or reddish auburn) hair, who tips the scales anywhere from two to five hundred or more pounds, and is frequently said to omit a strong, distinct odour.




{My all-time favourite artistic rendering of a Bigfoot: Sasquatch by Canadian painter Robert Bateman. Image source.}


Though sasquatch is sometimes portrayed as being a gentle giant of sorts (as in 1987's classic Hairy and the Hendersons), I think it's a safe bet to say that even the bravest of us would be rattled to our core if we came face-to-face with this towering, mysterious creature.

For hundreds of years, the First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest have told stories of tall, often hairy wild men or beasts roaming the forests where they too hunted and/or lived, sometimes ascribing supernatural powers to these creatures, other times viewing them more as an animal, on par with say a bear or cougar, that stalked the same forests they called home.

As European settlers began to make their way westward in the 1800s, reports started to surface amongst the non-native population of spectacular, frightening hairy beings being seen amongst the trees, too (one tale even holds that famed frontersman Daniel Boone shot and killed a hairy, ten foot tall beast that he dubbed Yahoo). However, by and large, though there were certainly strange sightings and pockets of interest in the subject before then, prior to the late 1950s, few in the general population paid much attention to these seemingly fanciful accounts of a mythical creature that had somehow managed to elude being discovered by modern science.

In 1958 all that changed though when a bulldozer operator at Bluff Creek in Del Norte County, California came across a series of large, unidentified animal tracks at a site he where was working. These were quickly documented through plaster of Paris casts, with the odd footprints causing locals in the area to come up with the name Bigfoot for the creature who may have left them behind (certain individuals later claimed that they'd been involved with the creation of these prints, which they said were nothing more than a hoax). The story debuted in a local newspaper and was picked up a little while later by the Associated Press. The rest, as they say, is history, and bigfoot has held court in the public eye - and imagination - ever since.

Nearly as quickly as the story hit the international sphere, Bigfoot hunters began to appear in Bluff Creek and the surrounding area. Though, nowadays, thanks to movies, (many) TV shows, books, and scores of articles having been devoted to sasquatch, few even raise an eyebrow when the term Bigfoot hunter is brandished, back in the late 1950s and early 60s, such folks were (by and large) a new breed indeed.

A few years later, in 1967, Bluff Creek was thrust into the public spotlight again when what is arguably the world's most famous piece of Bigfoot film ever was captured. The Patterson-Gimlin tape (shown below), as it quickly became known, is a brief clip captured by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin that purports to document an adult sasquatch walking upright.

Though, over the years, numerous people (including a friend of Mr. Patterson, who claimed he was in the costumed man in the video) have come forward to say that the tape was a deliberate hoax, and much scrutiny has been placed on the footage from a wide range of scientific experts and interested laymen alike, to this day, it's validity remains in question and no one has been able to conclusively prove for sure whether what we're witnessing is indeed a real life Bigfoot or a very well done fake involving a human in a shaggy ape-man costume.

Throughout my life, I've probably seen the Patterson tape fifty or more times, and no matter how objectively I look at it, I still cannot bring myself to conclusively say that it's a hoax. There's something almost haunting about the way the creature we're seeing in the film walks and carries its body, that lingers in your mind long after you've viewed it. If this was indeed a manmade fake, I doff my hat to those behind it, who were clearly leagues ahead of most in the special effects world of the 1960s when they created this legendry spoof.

The Patterson tape is by no means the only piece of footage that purports to show a living sasquatch (here's one round of up ten famous Bigfoot clips from around the world, for example), but it is by far the most well known and widely publicized to date.

Whether you're the first to see it as proof that a species of giant furry beasts really do roam the woods, dismiss it entirely, or (like myself) remain open to the possibility that it could be real, there's no denying that this short clip is a powerful one that folks will likely continue to discuss for generations to come.

Back up the Pacific coast in British Columbia, numerous people claim each year to hear, see, and sometimes even come close enough to touch sasquatch, and this mythical being has found its way into popular culture all across the province (for example, on a lovely tree lined road on the outskirts of Osoyoos, right here in the Okanagan Valley, one finds the following street sign, which I couldn't help but get an iPhone photo of the moment I spotted it this past March).




Unlike with the Ogopogo (a Loch Ness Monster type creature which is said to inhabit Okanagan Lake here in Penticton where I live), I've never spoken firsthand to anyone who claims to have encountered Bigfoot, but I've certainly heard my fair share of "friend of a friend" type of tales over the years, some more credible and likely than others, but all interesting and more then enough to continue to fuel the fires of my fascination with the lore and possibility of sasquatch.

Much like Fox Mulder on the X-Files and his quests in search of answers to the great unknown mysteries of our universe, there is a part of me that passionately wants to believe sasquatch really does live somewhere in the vast expanse of dense forest that makes up my province, even if I realize that, realistically, the odds may be against such being the case.

For surely, when all is said and done, the truth, if not Bigfoot himself, must be out there somewhere...