I would like to hear your ideas on Bigfoot

[TEB]

Yesterday I met a gentleman a friend of our son in law. Who grew up in south east Oklahoma, and he was telling me that it is quite common to hear people in the area he grew up in to tell of sightings. What started the conversation was he saw a paperback book I picked up at the used book store on cryptozoology. he personally never had an experience , but he told me his father growing up in rural Oklahoma in the 1970 thru 1980 had as well as his aunts.

In the area we live is very rural mountains with two state forest. And we have quite a few orchards and farms, and looking on line we have had quite a few people who have had experiences as well. And I know one gentleman who told me once trail riding their horses in the state forest with his wife a branch was tossed at them, they never saw who tossed it or what. Several years ago in a desolate area I trout fish a man found tracks and took pictures and it was in the local paper.

I have never had an experience of any kind but I am open minded to the possibility that they may exist, theories abound that gigantopithecus survived. Or that perhaps Neanderthals have not gone extinct, I guess what I'm trying to get across is with all the documented sightings all of these people cannot be telling tall tales.

[Throck]

1. Size 14W. He was an Eagle Scout in my troop.

The ultimate camping machine.

[roscoeroscoe]

2. No experience personally

But I would recommend Lloyd Pye's book 'Everything you know is Wrong'

[TEB]

4. Thank you I just ordered this book off amazon

[TEB]

38. I just started

Lloyd pye’s book had a few other books to get through thank you

[democratisphere]

3. Bigfoot exists around the world and I believe many of the stories to be true.

Humans should leave these creatures alone as there are probably very few and they don't need to be made extinct.

[TEB]

5. I agree with you

I read once that perhaps only a few hundred live in America. In one article I read was a doctor Myra shackley who on expedition I think in the altai of ok I'm not sure so I do not want to be wrong. But she has a sighting of three walking together, and her guide was really casual about it. And she interviewed children who said that they played with these children of I think they called them almasty.

[snooper2]

32. ROFLMAO

thanks

[democratisphere]

34. Latest research and DNA analysis indicates that the "Yeti" is a real ancestor

of a polar bear that was thought to be extinct and lived 40,000 years ago.

[Orrex]

6. As silly myths go, Bigfoot is one of the more harmless.

It is unlikely, though not impossible, that they exist.
However, to date there has been absolutely no evidence stronger than "cool story, bro."

[TEB]

7. Maybe I want to believe that it is true

A friend of mine once asked well they have never found any proof , like a body but I thought to myself all times I spent in the woods. Growing up in Appalachia or even around here I've never found say black bear remains. So in reading a lot of people experience on line I wonder some of them seem credible as a retired Air Force officer. A former police officer so in thinking what would their reasoning be to lie.

[Orrex]

11. I didn't grow up in Appalchia, but I have seen black bears stuffed and mounted

I have seen two of them dead on the road, and last year I saw one sitting in a field eating its dinner.

I have seen countless nature documentaries, and you could easily spend the rest of the month watching YouTube clips of black bears. The evidence for their existence is beyond compelling.

You are, in essence, insisting that black bears might not exist because you haven't personally seen them face-to-face, but that's a very egocentric view. Others have seen them, and we have a mountain of proof confirming their existence.

There is no such evidence that Bigfoot or the Yeti exists. None.

So in reading a lot of people experience on line I wonder some of them seem credible as a retired Air Force officer. A former police officer so in thinking what would their reasoning be to lie.

They could be lying, or they could simply be incorrect. Perhaps they also "want to believe that it is true," and so they are willing to allow weak evidence to convince them. I don't know--you'd need to ask them.

[TEB]

13. I was saying

That i have never found remains of black bears. And twice as a kid I seen black bears once squirrel hunting and once walking down the road from the bus stop.

[Orrex]

18. Even so.

The fact remains that no one--no one has found a Bigfoot corpse or a bone or teeth or hair or stool, despite decades of search.

Strictly speaking, we cannot "prove" that it doesn't exist, but there is no convincing evidence that it does exist.

[roscoeroscoe]

40. Well, yes they have

Lloyd Pye's book "Everything you Know is Wrong" relates the experience of Ivan Sanderson, who examined a bigfoot that had been shot and displayed in a circus sideshow back in the day. Terribly sad to read, but stone cold real. Check it out.

[JayhawkSD]

23. Yes, my father was a retired Air Force officer.

He was also an alcoholic, and when he was drunk saw things a lot more strange than bigfoot.

Don't get me wrong. He was a lovely man, was nine years sober when he died very peacefully of lung cancer, and I loved him deeply every day of his life. But I had no illusions about his claims as to what he saw or did while he was drinking.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Beware of confirmation bias. Also, very difficult to prove a negative. But where are the bones?

If there were a kind of people who were that anatomically different we would have found their bones and have DNA.

We do not.

I do not believe Bigfoot or Sasquatch or Yeti exist.

[SHRED]

8. Why haven't remains been found?

[TEB]

10. That I cannot answer

But all times I've spent in nature I've never really came across any remains of say black bear or foxes coyotes, once I remember finding a deer skull but that was as a kid. So I'm not sure yet I was just tossing this out because of the discussion I had with this gentleman yesterday and I find it very interesting. And yes part of me wants to believe and actually have a sighting. After the guy who took pictures of tracks in rural area I fish I started going to the area quite a lot but I never have had any experiences.

[SHRED]

12. I met a girl years ago

In rural Washington.

She was walking here dog by the train tracks when an over powering smell over took her.
Just then she saw a two legged creature cross over the tracks and into the woods.

She was dead serious.

[TEB]

20. When my friend mentioned trail riding with his wife

And out of nowhere this branch comes flying out of nowhere. They never smelled any strong odor , area is like maybe six miles into the state forest. Maybe it was a pot farmer I don't know , but he added they heard no running or any other sounds but they got out of the area ,Awesome story about the woman and her dog.

[JonLP24]

31. All the sightings seem to be in Washington state for some reason

I heard the stories when I was stationed at Fort Lewis.

[zipplewrath]

29. But others have

The real point is that there are people that study these things in detail. There are people that seek out the remains of almost anything. Yet, despite this, no remains of any sort of "big foot" exist. Mind you, these remains wouldn't be in some deserted amazon rain forest or deep woods locations. These are in relatively populated areas where people hunt, camp, and trek all the time. Yet in a 100 years, no remains have ever been found.

Occam's razor.

[snooper2]

33. Because they bury their dead

Sheesh....

EVERYONE knows that

[Loki Liesmith]

9. May have existed

But probably extinct or nearly so if it did.

[digonswine]

14. I would think with the ubiquity of trail cams-

we would have some evidence by now.

[gordianot]

16. After an experience with a large black cat I had in the early 1980's I do not dismiss Bigfoot

In my case the every trained naturalist, conservation agent tells me that large black cats do not exist in North America. I know what I saw from our car for 5 minutes at a distance of as little as 10 feet. The large cat we saw was not well you could see her ribs. Someone sees a large hairy ape based on my experience I will not dismiss it.

[njhoneybadger]

17. Really?

I once saw a Bigfoot riding a unicorn and chasing a werewolf.

[just us]

19. shape shifters

They are the perfect beings. They pick up there dung, living area or camp and return the earth as they found it. No hair or skin ever found.

[Beringia]

41. I think this is likely too

[HockeyMom]

21. Florida's Skunk Ape

So named because of it's stench. I had always thought that Bigfoot lived in high elevations in the woods, but apparently they also might exist in the swamps, like the Everglades. There is a museum in the Everglades dedicated to the Skunk Ape.

Perhaps, they might exist in any desolate area? Certainly enough wildlife in the swamps for them to sustain life.

[safeinOhio]

22. I don't believe in God, even though

I saw him once. Never took that drug again.

[cwydro]

25. Well played.

[LakeArenal]

24. There 's no big foot, no Loch Ness monster, no ghosts or visiting aliens....

However, my husband says he's had experience with a ghost named Francis. That guy says he's had experience with big foot and the other guy says he saw a UFO when he was filming the Loch Ness monster.

Did that help?

[muntrv]

26. This?

[hueymahl]

27. I saw bigfoot once

He was playing poker with Santa and the Tooth fairy. Honest. A friend of a friend told me he played badminton with bigfoot once. This friend is an imminent scientist and NASA researcher. Bigfoot told him that the reason you never find remains is because Bigfoot Nation has an elaborate death ceremony where they chemically reduce the remains to a chemical cocktail they then drink to use to communicate telepathically with aliens.

[Runningdawg]

28. I've lived in NE OK most of my life

Nearly everyone I know has a bigfoot story, except me. I have spend tons of time in the woods and I've seen some might strange things I can't explain, but never a bigfoot.

[JonLP24]

30. There were "sightings" inside Ft Lewis mid 1950s

For me I think we would have found the species by now but I knew someone now dead from a heroin overdose but he believed Big Foot was someone from the bible with a curse put on him "mark of the beast".

[Kablooie]

35. You mean this guy?

He died awhile ago.

[samnsara]

36. Im a bit of a skeptic they encountered one on OK as its a PNW legend...like UFOs

...were first spotted in Wash State...the woods here are deep dark and foreboding. Lots of bodies and plane wrecks that will never be found. DB Coopers stash somewhere on the forest floor. My Anthro prof was Grover Krantz...something of an authority on BF. He was an authority and a believer but he didn't convince me.

[Gabi Hayes]

37. They found him!

[GreenEyedLefty]

39. I tend to think of Bigfoot as spiritual.

This seems to be a fairly common Native American explanation - that Bigfoot is a spiritual guardian of the forest and only appears to people with the ability to see it... perhaps people with gifts like mediums, clairvoyants, etc.

I'm not so quick to dismiss stuff like this - there is so much that we don't know... and as Jane Goodall was quoted in the thread below, we need an element of mystery in our lives. I am okay with not knowing and I don't need proof either way.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

42. Proves the myth that a mans feet can be equated to his appendage...

just sayin.

NOT that I know personally.

[MicaelS]

43. A former co-worker has an original idea.

He stated that they are Native Americans suffering from Hypertrichosis, and living alone in remote areas.

Since they are fully human, no remains out of the ordinary would be found.