I believe in Bigfoot. Or rather, insofar as I think that Bigfoot is an undiscovered ape which still lives in the immensity of North America’s forests, rather than a deity, I think that he exists. I do hope for his own sake, however, that he is never found:
I believe that Bigfoot is just one relict population of several around the world. The North American species is one of a number of very large ape-like humans (or human-like apes) that, at one time, lived in all of the forests and wild places of the northern hemisphere. He has been called by many names…I found quite quickly the alma, the almasti, the menk, the omah, the sasquatch, the yeren, the yeti and the yowie, an inhabitant of the forests of Australia. All of them are very similar creatures, although they have been reported by different people in different isolated places in the world, separated by thousands of miles. One thing for definite is that the people could not possibly have collaborated with each other, particularly before around 1850:
Just try reading the old reports from the 19th century. The oldest I have found so far dates from 1818 in New York State. One of my favourite Bigfoot books carries a large number of similar reports for the whole of North America. They portray many details about Bigfoot which are still witnessed today, such as Bigfoot’s whistling. How could these people have possibly got together so long ago to invent tales which are so similar to each other? The Native Americans often depict Bigfoot as a creature who whistles. That is probably their most frequently encountered evidence of his existence. Look at this totem pole:
In my personal opinion, what has happened is that the people of many different parts of the world have lived calmly and quietly together in small numbers, either hunting or farming their land, for hundreds and hundreds of years. During that time, as fairly harmless inhabitants of a largely virgin landscape, they have come into regular contact with creatures which were very much like the Bigfoot of today. These beings were big, hairy and quite often, smelly. Sometimes they were fierce but usually they did relatively little damage. Here’s a Menk, out in the unexplored woods of the eastern Urals in Russia:
It’s my belief that the literature of the distant past reflects the existence of these denizens of the forest. Hundreds of years have elapsed between these different works of literature and because of that, and the geographical separation between them, they will not all have the same details, but they will have some of them. These details might include the creatures’ enormous size, their hairiness and their fierceness. Being thought fierce goes with the territory, though, when you’re ten feet tall:
Next time we’ll take the Bigfoot trailcams into ancient literature.
John Knifton 
Interesting stuff John. Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster as well?
I think over the years I’ve come to doubt its existence more and more but I do think that in the 19th century at least there were strange creatures in the sea. I wrote about one which was seen by thousands of people. It should be here: https://johnknifton.com/2016/08/02/a-twitch-in-1817/
I wonder if there is anything left undiscovered on our planet?
Well, in a different area, I’ll set the ball rolling with “Why are the politicians I pay to govern England so absolutely useless?”
Now, that would be a very big piece of work and a very long search. At least you have got Anna Soubrey in Nottingham!
In answer to your question about the uselessness of those who claim to govern, I recommend you read ‘The Malign Incompetence of the British Ruling Class’, by Pankaj Mishra in the New York Times, 17/01/19. He is scathing of what he calls the ‘chumocracy’ that runs Britain.
Thanks a lot for that, Chris. It is an excellent article and I would commend it to one and all. I hope that my blogs have proclaimed, where there was reason to, the stupidity of the people in charge, who were given their jobs because of who they were and not what they could do. In my case, it was the unfeeling and uncaring middle management of the RAF that have attracted my contempt, but the same process can be seen with so many politicians….of all parties, incidentally.
I agree that he should never be found, leave him be, if he truly is there. I always felt he might be a human with a severe case of Hypertrichosis or someone born with a recessive gene.
Absolutely. I cannot think of a single group of people in the entire world who have been discovered by “civilised” newcomers and who have lived to tell the tale a hundred years later.
As for Hypertrichosis and recessive genes, well, I’ve taught a lot of teenage boys over the years, and neither condition was by any means an unusual phenomenon.
Just joking.
(chuckling over here!!)
I sure WANT to believe in Bigfoot. But I go back and forth on if it’s reasonable. I agree the folklore is compelling, but the lack of physical evidence is concerning. How could no solid proof (something that could be DNA tested) of such a large creature never be found? Especially since there are hundreds of “hunters” looking for it.
I actually do hope something is found someday; but if he doesn’t exist the mystery will continue through our lifetimes.
I watch every programme about Bigfoot that I can, but it’s very difficult for me, here in England, to know whether the TV audience in the USA take it seriously or think they are all crazy. They have found quite a few hairs which are labelled “unknown primate” and the footprints are looked at by at least one university professor who seems to be happy that they are neither hoaxes nor human. There are also sound recordings called the “samurai chatter” or the “sierra sounds”. They are supposedly non-human but a look at this forum shows you the problem:
The lack of physical remains such as teeth or bones, I agree with you, is a little worrying. With so many people looking, and the USA seemingly awash with expert trackers, you would have expected something to have turned up.
I suppose we all want a little mystery in our lives. Something more exciting than the almost insoluble enigma of “Why are the politicians I pay to govern England so absolutely useless?”
I’m pretty sure we have useless politicians in the US too!
But yeah, the mystery of it is fun. As far as that goes, not knowing is a good thing.
It’s hard for me to say what’s “typical” for Americans. I know people at both extremes; hard core skeptics who don’t believe in anything they can’t touch, to gullible saps who embrace every goofey idea out there. I think most are somewhere in between, but I might just be feeling charitable today!
BTW, the Sierra Sounds discussion is a hoot! Fishy “evidence” can be worse than no evidence.
In Guyana, Amerindian folklore speaks of “Massacurraman” – a river monster that resembles a giant, hairy male that lives in the forests along river banks.
I suppose that that is the crux of my argument. When so many different people thousands of miles apart report the same thing you have to wonder what is going on. There have always been reports of a big hairy man in the woods, both in the Ural mountains, the Himalayas, Alaska, California, Guyana and Brazil. The original inhabitants of these places had no contact with each other so just explaining it away is by no means an easy task.
In some respects there’s no smoke without fire, but the logical part of my brain says individuals cannot possibly survive for such a great length of time. To exist there must be many breeding pairs, in which case surely there would have been many more sightings. Thats said, the idea of such creatures is romantic, rather like having a Father Christmas, and one that should be allowed to be passed down through the generations. Interesting as ever John!
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it, and there’s more to come! They do have quite a few “sightings” of Bigfoot every year but it would be nice to have a few better photographs and a few bones rather than just the footprints, convincing as they may be. The one thing that always gets me is the size of many American states, particularly Alaska which is seven times the size of Texas. I sometimes look at all those forests on TV and think that there could be herds of mammoths in them, let alone Bigfoot.
That is very true John. We don’t know half of what is at the bottom of the ocean, some of these forests and mountain ranges must also be uncharted territory, who knows what’s in them!
I too hope they are never found. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure. I’m afraid that history is littered with so-called “primitive” people who have disappeared as soon as the “murdering white man” appeared on the scene. All those tribes in North America, the Aztecs, the Incas, the aborigines of Tasmania. You are right. Bigfoot is better staying hidden.
We have only recently discovered two new species of Homo, the Denisovans and Homo Floresiensis, so might it be possible that descendants of Homo Neanderthalis, or something similar, did survive? However, for any species to survive there must be, I believe, at least 48 mating pairs to ensure a gene pool of sufficient variety, so there should somewhere, be a group of at least that size. However, only 3 years ago, a previously unknown tribe was discovered in the Amazon basin. And Lord Lucan has yet to be found..
I watched a programme about Lord Lucan recently and what a ghastly man he was. And what ghastly friends who hid him and helped him, many of them now connected with our beloved royal family.
I think that if they can discover the Denisovans in some cave somewhere and those little hobbit people on the Indonesian island of Flores, I can’t see why a Bigfoot type creature couldn’t have survived in forests bigger than Wales or even Texas, where the vegetation is so dense that if you wander thirty yards off the path, you may be lost for ever.