Bigfoot is back (Bigfoot never really left)
Stetson Parker and his wife, Shannon, recently took a trip through Colorado to celebrate their 10th anniversary. They boarded the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a vintage train that “provides historic and entertaining” rides, according to its website.
But what the Parkers saw from that train was not advertised online. The couple believe they spotted the most elusive of creatures: Bigfoot.
Yes, you read that correctly: Bigfoot. Also known as a sasquatch or a yeti. The mythical, apelike, giant creature who wanders North America.
The recent spotting, captured in a widely shared video from that train in Colorado, adds to the growing catalog of sightings that have kept the myth alive amid a lack of what some might call verifiable proof. “I’m definitely a believer now,” said Mr Parker, 33.
The video, which was taken by a fellow passenger and posted online by Mr Parker, shows a tall, brownish creature walking and squatting, before it blends into its surroundings.
“It didn’t move like a person,” Mr Parker said. “It looked more like an ape but didn’t walk like an ape so much.” He added that its arms seemed too long to be human, with hands reaching down to its knees.
Other possible explanations emerged as the video drew the attention of media around the world. Maybe it was a bear. Or, the most common one, maybe it was a man wearing a ghillie suit, the camouflage clothing that helps outdoorsmen disappear into their backgrounds. But why, Mr Parker asked, would anyone be in a ghillie suit in the middle of elk hunting season? That is a good way for any hunter to get shot.
Over the decades, researchers, academics and even the FBI have investigated Bigfoot’s existence. Bigfoot experts and enthusiasts often refer to the so-called Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967, which claimed to show one of the creatures strolling through a California streambed.
A major 2014 Oxford University study dealt a blow to Bigfoot believers. Researchers there investigated 30 hair samples and successfully matched all of them to other animals.
But the Bigfoot faithful are undeterred. “I fully believe that they’re there,” said Ryan Willis, 23, who founded the Trent University Sasquatch Society and is the host of “Sasquatch University,” a reality television show that covers sightings in Canada. “But I do leave a bit of room for skepticism.”
Even Bigfoot believers disagree over what the video shared by Mr Parker shows.
Cliff Barackman presented the reality show “Finding Bigfoot” for nine years on Animal Planet, and he opened the North American Bigfoot Center in Oregon in 2019. He does not think it is Bigfoot. “I thought it was a suit,” he said.
But what kind of suit is unclear. Most online viewers suggested it was a ghillie suit. Kevin Erickson, the chief executive of Arcturus, which makes the suits, said the creature was not wearing one: The suit was not baggy enough. “No one makes a ghillie suit like this,” he said.
Skepticism is often warranted, Mr Barackman said, because the internet is full of hoaxes and misinformation. And until Bigfoot’s existence is conclusively proven, he says he will continue to search for the creature. But, he wonders: “After the species is proven to be real, are people still going to dress up as Bigfoot?”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
