Bigfoot is the best-known cryptid in North America: a bipedal primate usually described as 7 to 9 feet tall, heavily built, and covered in dark brown, black or reddish hair. Witnesses describe a cone-shaped head, no visible neck, long arms and a smooth, gliding walk.
The name took off in 1958, when a road crew at Bluff Creek, California found giant footprints around their equipment and the Humboldt Times ran the story. In 1967 Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin filmed a large, dark figure walking along the same creek. The Patterson-Gimlin film is still argued over today.
Reports cluster where there is dense forest, water and few people: the Cascades, northern California, the Ozarks, East Texas, Ohio's Appalachian counties and the Pacific coast of British Columbia.
What witnesses report
- Footprints 14 to 18 inches long, often with a mid-foot flex
- Wood knocks and rock clacks at night
- Whoops, howls and "Samurai chatter" vocalizations
- Tree breaks and teepee-style stick structures
- A strong skunk-like or wet-dog smell
- Eyeshine well above the height of a deer
Witness stories
First-hand accounts people have shared publicly, retold in full and credited to them. All witness stories
Reader reports
Encounters sent in by our readers and checked by a moderator.
Famous cases
- 1924Ape Canyon attack
Mount St. Helens, WashingtonIn July 1924 a group of miners said 'ape-men' threw rocks at their cabin on Mount St. Helens all night after one of them shot at a creature. Forest Service rangers who visited found nothing and showed how the footprints could be faked. Decades later, a local man claimed he and friends had pranked the miners.
- 1941Ruby Creek incident
Ruby Creek, British ColumbiaAccording to a Skawahlook First Nation story, Jeannie Chapman and her three children saw a gigantic, hair-covered creature on their property near Ruby Creek and fled. Her husband George came home to find huge human-like footprints and a damaged woodshed. The family said it came back every night for a week, and they moved away for good.
- 1958Bluff Creek footprints
Humboldt County, CaliforniaIn 1958 bulldozer operator Jerry Crew found 16-inch human-like footprints around logging equipment in Humboldt County, California. The Humboldt Times wrote about them and the name 'Bigfoot' spread nationwide. In 2002 the family of Crew's late co-worker Ray Wallace showed carved wooden feet and said Wallace had made the tracks.
- 1967Patterson-Gimlin film
Bluff Creek, CaliforniaOn 20 October 1967 Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin filmed about a minute of footage at Bluff Creek, California, showing a large, dark, hairy figure walking away and glancing back at the camera. It remains the most famous Bigfoot evidence. Skeptics argue it shows a man in an ape suit; neither filmmaker admitted a hoax and it has never been proven either way.
- 2000Skookum cast
Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WashingtonOn 22 September 2000 researchers filming a TV show left fruit in a muddy wallow in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and returned to find a large partial body print, which they cast in plaster. Some Bigfoot researchers say it shows a sitting primate, while scientific analysis says it was most likely made by a resting elk.
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